Wrong Views On The Sovereignty Of God

Our Father in heaven, we're thankful this morning for the Lord Jesus Christ, for the truth of the gospel. Lord, let us focus on that, on these truths, these encouragements, these great truths that we have that so many do not have.

We live in a world that is filled with contending ways of being happy and surviving and coping with life. But Father, by your grace, you have granted us the key truths that we need to know, not only to survive, but to really ultimately thrive spiritually.

Keep us focused on forgiveness of sins, on the perfect life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray in his name, amen. So today I took this from an article I read by Sam Waldron, Dr. Sam Waldron, who's a professor of theology at some seminary that escapes my mind somewhere in the Midwest here at the moment.

But I thought this is interesting because, you know, for those of you maybe not familiar with the term Calvinist, you know, what are some of the caricatures that you hear about Calvinism? First of all, what's a caricature?

Okay, an exaggeration for humor's sake, not necessarily for humor's sake always, but, you know, often true. Like you go to a fair or you go to an amusement park and there's an artist, right? And he says, well, I can draw you Charlie.

And he gets done and it sort of looks like Charlie, but it basically doesn't really look like Charlie. It's got glasses, right? You can tell he's male, which is remarkable. Well, not saying anything about Charlie, but, you know, just in this day and age, you know, that...

Yeah, the artist is obviously a biologist. But a caricature is like in an artist's rendering. I like saying artist's rendering. But an artist's rendering is something that's supposed to represent you, but it doesn't really, and it exaggerates, you know, maybe like Charlie winds up with a nose that's three times too big or whatever.

That's a caricature. And a caricature of a theological position is, you know, somebody who says, well, Calvinists believe that only, you know, five people are going to heaven or whatever they say, right?

You know, so, but some of the more common caricatures of Calvinism are, in other words, these are distortions of Calvinism. Yes, Mary Ellen. They don't have to evangelize because God's gonna save everybody.

But he's gonna save anyway. So what's the point? Other caricatures? John, they're overly serious. Well, you know, I fail on both those counts. I can't grow a beard and I can't be overly serious. It's just not in my DNA.

Sorry. I mean, I'm serious, but you know, not overly serious. But yeah, those are, you know, they're very studious and they stroke their beards a lot, which is a real disadvantage for me. But any other caricatures?

Fatalism, which is on the quiz as well. Fatalism, which is the idea that, you know, to paraphrase the great theologian, Freddie Mercury, nothing really matters. Anyone can see nothing really matters to me.

Easy come, easy go. Nothing really matters. Fatalism, in other words, can't win, don't try. God's so sovereign that none of our efforts matter, I guess is probably shorthand for that. Okay, with that, here we have misunderstandings or, you know, if I were him, I would have named it more provocatively, caricatures about the doctrines of grace.

You know, what are the doctrines of grace? T for total depravity or totally not woken up yet, or, okay, total depravity. U for unconditional grace. L for limited atonement. I for irresistible grace. And P for perseverance or preservation of the saints.

Now, that's commonly tulip. That's what it's called, tulip. And, you know, those doctrines do not exist in a vacuum and we'll develop that more in the weeks to come, I think. Eventually, I want to do a series on the Trinity, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

So we'll see how long that takes to get going on. But misunderstandings about the doctrines of grace. And by the way, I'm going to give you a tip on today's quiz. Every one of these questions is false.

So there's your tip for it. Just a, it's a little hint. True or false, Calvinists do not believe in free will. It's false, okay? Here's the problem with that question, first of all. What do you have to do to answer that question properly?

Define free will, okay? In fact, I think you could even shorten that up. Define free, right? Because we understand what will is. What does it mean to have a free will? Uninfluenced by external forces.

Uninfluenced by external forces. I mean, yeah, or internal forces. Now, I mean, that's kind of an incredible thought because even, let's say, who, you know, who's the most powerful person on the earth?

And I would argue it's still the President of the United States. Is he influenced, is President Biden influenced by outside pressure? Yes, and if you don't believe that, you know, then you're not paying attention, right?

They have polling for a reason. Why? It's to figure out what the public wants so that at the very least, the President can attenuate his message to what the public wants, right? So there's pressure on him.

Now, in the Bible, if we looked at what does free will mean, free will means freedom to sin, okay? Maybe, partly. What else would free will mean besides the freedom to sin? Okay, whether you come up with, is your will self-generated again?

Is it unaffected by anything else? And the reason that's important is this. We believe in the doctrine of original sin, right? And original sin being what? The fall of Adam and Eve, right? In the garden, they partook of the fruit.

When they sinned, the entire human race is plunged into sin so that we all have internal, external compulsions toward sin. We have a draw toward sin. Our wills are not free. We're not unfettered. We're subjected to pressure.

I like to say, and everybody should know this by now, who are the three people in the Bible who have free wills? People, not, you know, I mean, obviously God has a free will, right? Who are the three people in the Bible who have free wills?

Adam and Eve before the fall, and Jesus. And I'm not gonna go into a long explanation of that. If you wanna know better, we can talk about it later. But Waldner says this, he says, it is certainly true that Calvinists do not believe in what most people, usually with a great deal of confusion, call free will.

Sometimes I've heard respectable Calvinists say they believe in free agency rather than free will. You know, you get an agent and you negotiate for a bet. No, that's not right. As for myself and many other Calvinists, we prefer to say that we believe in free will properly defined.

Properly defined, and free will properly defined, he goes on to say, comes from the 1689 Baptist Confession, says God hath endued or given the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice that is neither forced nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.

Here, free will is defined as the power of acting upon choice. This is the nature of liberty of the human. Such a view of free will is suggested by a number of texts. We're gonna look at some biblical texts here.

In other words, that people are able to make choices. Is that true, that people choose? Yes, it's absolutely true. But I think we're going to see that that's not necessarily the full definition of free will.

But let's look at some of these. Matthew 17, 12. Matthew 17, 12. And then if somebody would look up James 1, 14. James 1, 14. And Deuteronomy 30, 19. Deuteronomy 30, 19. I'll read Matthew 17, 12, and then we'll see if we can get a couple of volunteers for the other texts.

Again, that was James 1, 14. Deuteronomy 30, 19. Matthew 17, 12. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the son of man will suffer at their hands.

Now, when Matthew, when the Lord says, they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. That word, that verb pleased is the Greek verb to will or to wish. In other words, whatever they wanted to do, that's what they did to Elijah.

And the son of man will certainly suffer at their hands. What he's saying is the people who judged Elijah, who dealt with Elijah, had the freedom to do that. They chose to do that. Now, James 1, 14. Would somebody read that please?

Okay. Okay. Each person is tempted when he's carried away with his own lust, his own desires, right? His own wants. He chooses, she chooses, we all choose. You know, you can't say the devil made me do it.

That's kind of the idea. Deuteronomy 30, 19. Okay, clearly in the context here, choices are made, right? You can choose life or death. You can choose to obey or disobey. It's the idea. Real choices are made.

Waldron goes on to say, as I implied above, mankind still possesses this natural liberty or free will. This is implied by an analysis of the outline of the confession in chapter nine. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We make choices. That's not an issue. The question is, how do we make those choices? Are those choices unfettered and free? Mankind is not in the state of sin, which is how we come into this world, right?

By virtue of original sin, we all have sin natures. We do not possess the spiritual or moral liberty to use free will to choose what is right. So here's, let me just kind of explain this. What he's saying and what the Bible teaches is that we choose according to our nature.

In other words, can the leopard change his spots? Can the, you know, all the indications we have of restrictions on free will. Can we, let me just get right down to it. A sinful person can choose to obey God, true or false?

You almost need more information, don't you? What's that? Okay, they can choose not to murder. Can they? Yeah, is that obedience or is that avoidance? Mao, a sinful person can choose to obey God. Mao says, no.

And the Bible says, no. Why? Right, anything not done in faith is sin, which is exactly what Janet was saying. You know, John says, well, what about murder? Somebody chooses not to murder. What did Jesus say about murder?

Yeah, you get angry and you murder in your heart. I dare say that if we looked, if we did a full study of depravity, we would find out that what? People are murderers at hearts. They get angry. Why? I don't know, drive out on the roads of Massachusetts.

Why do we get angry with other people? They thwart our will. They make ridiculous turns in front of us like this person I saw yesterday coming here last night. You know, I was amazed because they were waiting to make a left-hand turn.

They were at a stop sign on 30. They were looking to turn onto 31. There was a car coming this way. It was not me coming this way, but I was behind that car. And I'm watching in horror as this person causes not one, but both cars to break so that they could make their left-hand turn.

And I thought that was really well done. And actually what I was thinking is, Janet, get ready to make a radio car stop. We're lights and siren. We're going to pull that person over. No, I wasn't really thinking that.

But that's what they do. They thwart our will. This person thwarted the will of other drivers, right? So do you suppose the other drivers said, hey, good to see you neighbor. Dacky. Free will. Jesus in Matthew 7, 17 and 18 says this.

So every good tree bears what? Good fruits. And the bad tree bears. A good tree cannot produce bad fruits. And a bad tree cannot produce good fruits. An unregenerate person is dead in their sins and trespasses.

They cannot produce good fruit. They cannot obey. Why? Because obedience has to come from the heart and they have a heart of stone. They don't love the Lord Jesus Christ. They in fact hate him. Walter says, all this means that I agree with Walt Chantry that man's will is free, listen, yet bound.

It's bound to his nature. He can only choose with regard to his nature. He goes on to say, so it is not true to say that Calvinists do not believe in free will. We believe in free will. It's just, we have to properly define it.

Okay, number two, true or false? Calvinists do not believe in human responsibility. I mean, how many times do we say that? God is sovereign, but man is responsible. You say, well, how do you reconcile those two things?

We don't. Like Spurgeon says, we don't reconcile friends. Walter says, this assertion is also a slander on authentic Calvinism. Calvinists not only believe that men have a natural liberty, but they also agree that men are responsible for their own actions because of that natural liberty.

He says, the reason Arminians claim, by the way, I think I probably have to define Arminians. What do Arminians believe? I think you have to start with a T and say that they believe that we are not totally depraved.

We are somewhat depraved. We're moderately depraved. We're, you know, we're not dead in our sins and trespasses. We are gravely wounded, right? So we have the capacity to pull the arrow out and as my wife would say, buck up and keep pressing forward, right?

Unconditional election, they would say, it's conditional election that God sees something in us. Limited atonement, unlimited atonement. It's now, we would agree that is sufficient for all, right? Here's something, here's a little trick question.

The atonement is sufficient for all, but is efficient only for the elect, true or false? True, but I wanna asterisk that, why? What's wrong with that statement? What's deficient about it? Is there anything deficient about it?

The atonement is sufficient for all, meaning that Christ's death could redeem every single person of all time forever, but it's efficient, it only actually saves those who believe. Okay, that there's an excess of potential.

In other words, that Jesus went to the cross and died for everybody, but it's not all going to be redeemed. It's kind of like me with those bottles and cans. I can't be bothered to redeem them, so they just get recycled.

Well, I didn't say I threw them away, I just said, they get recycled. But the idea that Jesus, Jesus went to the cross, thinking about everybody who ever lived, dying for their sins. And then the father says, well, thank you, Jesus, but I'm not going to redeem all that you paid for, I'm only going to redeem those that I really like.

I mean, I could go through the gospel of John and we would find that really a deficient idea of the atonement. So the problem with sufficient for all, efficient only for the elect, only for believers, only for those that God chose, the problem with that is, is it misses the purpose.

It misses the design. Why did Jesus come? Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to redeem his people. Who are his people? The ones that the father gave him from eternity past, right?

So there's no possibility that the father somehow didn't choose from the same group of people that Jesus is dying for. They work in perfect harmony. There aren't two wills in the Trinity as we will see at some point, you know?

Did Jesus, well, there's kind of the trick question. Maybe one that I shouldn't even ask, but I will anyway, because that's just how I am. When did Jesus submit to the father? Did the father choose a group of people, you know, to save in eternity past?

And Jesus said, I will submit to your will in eternity past and go forward and take on human will and redeem those people. Is that what happened?

Jonathan, that's a very good answer.

Is there one will of God or three wills of God? There's one, right? There was no, like, there wasn't a vote. The council of heaven wasn't a vote, right? It wasn't two to one, you know, or anything of the sort or one to one to one.

It was one, one, zero. One will of God and nothing else. There's never been disagreement in the Trinity. Okay, the reason why Arminians claim that Calvinists deny human responsibility is that they've adopted what amounts to a Pelagian premise in their theology.

They believe that responsibility assumes ability. So there's a couple of things we have to explain here. First of all, what's Pelagian? Well, the easy answer is, and I'll give this to you and this will bless your soul.

Pelagian means derived from Pelagius. Thank you. Pelagius, I like that answer. John says, Pelagius was kind of a super Arminian. Pelagius was a theologian, kind of a, he was the anti-Augustan, I guess you could say.

And here was his position, that when Adam sinned, listen to this, when Adam and Eve sinned, it affected no one else. Now, what's the result of that? Adam and Eve sin, it affects no one else. It means that we could actually be perfect.

It means that we're not born with a sin nature. It means that genetically speaking, nothing gets passed on to us. Now, are there problems with that? I mean, if problems were alcohol, you could get pass out drunk on the problems with that.

Let's just start with this. The Bible teaches that, in fact, in Romans 5, we do all receive a sin nature from Adam, right? We all sinned in Adam. He was our representative head. When he took a nosedive, we all took a nosedive.

We all went down with him. We all went down in flames with him. That's only one problem, though. There's a bigger problem. What's the bigger problem? Okay, John's really on the right track here. If you don't believe that somebody else could be your federal representative, if you don't believe that we all died in Adam, if you don't believe that we're all stuck with a sin nature because of Adam and Eve, then why does Jesus get to be our federal representative?

Why would that be true? But there's something else. I mean, that's kind of the corollary of where I'm going. If everybody's born with a free will, if everybody's born without a sin nature, then what becomes of the virgin birth?

What makes that special? Why did Jesus need the virgin birth? We understand it this way. He had to be born of a virgin. Why? So that he wasn't born with a sin nature, right? Well, if nobody has a sin nature, then what's the big deal?

I think that's a really big problem. And one that I'm not really sure that Pelagius successfully wrestled with. Are there Pelagians today? Well, there are semi-Pelagians. Are there Pelagians today? Of course there are.

Of course there are. Some of my favorite people are Pelagians. They're Mormons. Mormons teach that all mankind is responsible for their own transgressions, not for Adam and Eve's. It's one of their articles of faith.

Pelagius said that, you know, Adam and Eve meant nothing essentially to us. So when he says, the reason why Arminius claims that Calvinists deny human responsibility is that they've adopted what amounts to a Pelagian promise into their theology.

They believe that responsibility assumes ability. And so this is what he's saying here. Pelagius taught that Adam and Eve had no effect on us. And what he's claiming here is that Arminians look at commands in scripture, and they say, God would not give a command if he didn't give you the capacity to obey that command.

That wouldn't be just, that wouldn't be right. God could not ask you to do something that you were not capable of doing. Problems. Are there any problems? Okay, well, he could command you something to do something that you didn't have the capacity to do if he wanted you to rely on him instead of yourself.

If the gospel was all about self-improvement, self-reliance, kind of the American way, cinch up your belt, get it done. Well, then this kind of Pelagian thinking might be right. Okay, are there commands in scripture that we cannot obey?

Charlie says, yes. What are those commands? That's a pretty tough one. It's not, you know, if only the Bible said, get better. Right, but there'd be a problem with that, right? Can you imagine? Get better, even as your father in heaven is getting better.

Would that be good news or bad news? And can I just tell you that that is exactly, that's Mormonism. That's also kind of process theology. This idea that God is improving. And that's so depressing when you think about it.

Because if God is changing, if God is getting better, then what does that mean? I mean, there's a dopey song. I mean, there were a bunch of dopey songs when I first got saved. I mean, I guess there've always been dopey songs, but this was a song that was popular and it came about at a time where I was getting, where I was saved and I would listen to the song and I just thought, this offends me.

Every time it came on the radio, I would, it wasn't a Christian song. It was, you know, what if God was one of us? What's the answer to that? If God is like us, then what? What's that? We're sunk. We have no hope, right?

I mean, it's awful. What an awful idea. God's just stumbling, fumbling, bumbling, just like us. I mean, you know, instead of God is a rock and I know of no other, then maybe we should say, you know, God is like a sponge and he's just like, you know, one of us, just kind of learning and growing.

He just does it better than us. What an awful idea. If we can't rely upon the steadfastness, the unchangeability, the immutability of God, then what do we have? And the answer is not a whole lot. The notion that responsibility for doing something assumes ability to do something is not true if you're talking about moral ability.

Let's look at John chapter six for a moment. John chapter six, verses 64 and 65. Jesus speaking and he says, but there are some of you, and there was quite a crowd still at this point, he says, but there are some of you who do not believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And who was it who was going to betray him? Obviously Judas, right? And he knew who were not believers.

Look at verse 65, and he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me. No one has the ability to come to me unless it is granted him by the father. Everyone is commanded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but Jesus says, you can't do it.

I mean, what did he say to Nicodemus in John chapter three? You must be born again. And that born again status is granted by whom? The Holy Spirit. The point is this, dead in our sins and trespasses defined as non-elect, Jesus there says, Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.

In other words, the people who did not believe, the betrayer, he knew them. And only those whom God chose to, the father chose to grant salvation to, those are the only ones. I mean, is the call to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is that universal?

Do all men have to believe in Jesus Christ? Is there another way to heaven? No, there's not. But it only comes about by supernatural means. Human responsibility assumes natural ability, but it does not assume moral ability.

I like what he says here. God does not tell us to run one minute miles. That idea just makes me tired. He does not tell us to do things which we are given, which he has given us the natural ability to do.

We have no command in scripture to breathe. We do have a command in scripture to number our days, to consider life a vapor, right? That's a command, but breathing is not a command. We have a natural ability to do that.

We are able to love, to trust, to be sorry. We have the natural ability to do such things, but we do not have the moral ability to love and trust and be sorry about the right things. Thus, God tells us to do things that because of sin, we do not have the moral ability to do.

And he gives the example here of John 5, verse 40, where John or where the Lord rebukes the Jews precisely for not coming to Christ for salvation. He says, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

So Calvinists do believe in human responsibility. That's number two. Number three, true or false, total depravity means that men are as bad as they can be. When we hear that word total, what do we think?

Utter depravity. Absolutely, you know, 100%. Does that mean though that you are as bad as you can be? No. No, we're not all Hitler. We're not all Charles Manson. We're not all Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer. While it is true that men can do no spiritual or saving good, the reformed tradition has recognized that unconverted, unsaved men can and do perform what is often called acts of civil righteousness.

Gives an example there. But ultimately, even if people do good, category good things, these are not acts of righteousness as we've mentioned. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. He says, thus I agree with Edwin H. Palmer, who in his book on the five points of Calvinism said that while men are not as bad as they can be, they're as bad off as they can be.

In other words, they're helpless. And that's the point of total depravity. They reject God. They have no desire for God. And they will not have that desire. They will not believe unless they are caused to be born again.

Number four, true or false, total inability. Means that even though men want to be saved, they cannot be saved or come to Christ. We know it's false. Why is it false? Mal. Yes. Okay, about the prior one.

Yeah, I think that's true. Could somebody have the capacity to be that bad? The ability, right? And the mentality to be that bad, but just not the circumstances, the followers, the political situation necessary for them to come to power.

And I think, well, sure. You know, did you ever, have you ever, and I think the answer is gonna be yes, but have you ever read, and I don't mean just Mal, but you read of a circumstance either in a newspaper, as quaint as that may seem, or on the internet, and you just think, I can't even imagine doing such a thing.

You know, you read about some crimes and you just think, how does anybody do that? And yes, anyone in here is capable of the most atrocious evil ever performed. And I think, you know, it kind of gets back to that James One idea, right?

You just sort of feed this lust that you have, this desire that you have, and you just keep, you know, building. I mean, it's like going to the gym, right? Weightlifting for wickedness, I guess. You just kind of grow in that sort of ability.

And then, you know, one day it's unleashed and it would shock anybody who's not been preparing themselves for that moment. Jonathan. Yeah, I think that's right. There are certain restraints. And before I get to Charlie here for a moment, I'm just, I just want to say this.

I've known about circumstances, not in this church, but outside of this church, we're just looking at it in my cynicism and, you know, I, whatever, just even in my humanity, I'm like, I don't understand that because it's so far beyond what we would think of as naturally possible.

Or, you know, we want to believe that there's some kind of limits to our conscience that would not allow us to do such things. But, you know, let me just say this before I'll get to you in a second. You know, there are actually societies in this world that still practice cannibalism.

I mean, there are all sorts of things that, and we just think, well, how could anybody, it exists, right? Not just as a one-off like Dahmer, but there are actually people groups in the world that still practice such things.

And we think, how can that be? Well, because we're human beings, Charlie. There's no part of us that is not afflicted or tainted by the power of sin, right? It just, it doesn't exist. Even after regeneration, we still have, you know, what's called, you know, like a sin hangover.

It's still there. It's still the flesh. We're still fighting against it. And ultimately we'll be delivered from that in heaven. But while we're here, we still have to deal with these things. Let me finish number four and then we'll close.

Do men want to be saved? No, they don't. No, they don't. And to say that, you know, inability means that even though men want to be saved, they cannot be saved or come to Christ. It's a misunderstanding of total depravity.

The confession says this, 1689 says this, this man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sin, listen, is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself there unto.

In other words, he has no desire for salvation. He might be miserable in his current state, but he doesn't want Christ. Total inability absolutely does not mean that men want to be saved, but they just cannot be because they are totally depraved.

Again, the cannots of John six are a way of describing the will not of John five. And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have eternal life. They cannot do it apart from a work of God. Total inability means that nobody really wants to be saved apart from the grace of God working in their hearts.

So with that sure you note, well, let me end on a cheery note. What is the cheery note? The cheery note is this, that God is able, right? Just as he saved you, he's able. And one day you hear the gospel or you're reading the Bible and you come to a verse and God removes the scales from your eyes and you finally see not only the glories of Christ, but you also see yourself as you truly are.

You recognize your own depravity. You're no longer thinking that you're a good person wanting to get better. You see that you are a wicked person and your sin is what separates you from a holy God. And when you see the Lord Jesus Christ and his perfections, what he's done, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, you don't go crawling.

You're not dragged to the cross. You know, there's this idea and we'll talk about it. There's this idea that somehow God forces you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I put it this way. If you want to define force as God reveals to you who you are and who Jesus is, and then he says, what would you like to do?

That's kind of, you know, would you like to wallow? Once you understand your plight, really understand it and understand who Jesus is and that he's available to you, you don't go, well, I don't know if I want to or not.

You run to the cross. Why? Because he's giving you that desire. You didn't have that desire before. Does God so, you know, overpower your will? He changes it. Totally changes it. When you're born again, your affections change, your desires change.

So anyway, let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for that truth. We thank you that the Holy Spirit convicts, regenerates, causes us to be born again. We thank you that you draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we thank you most of all, that he would come to earth and take on a human form and live the perfect life, die a substitutionary death and be raised victoriously for our justification. Father, we thank you and praise you in Jesus name.

Amen.