WWUTT 1430 Q&A Limited Atonement, Sharing the Gospel, Same Sex Attraction

Limited Atonement and How to Preach the Gospel

What is the doctrine of limited atonement? How do we share the gospel with others if we believe in this doctrine? And can you be same-sex attracted and still be a Christian? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of God, that we may humble ourselves before the Lord and cast all of our cares upon him because he cares for us. Tell your friends about our website, www .utt .com.

Yeah, here, here, here once, here.

Here once again is faster again. Thanks, Becky. You're welcome. Why'd you just stop right there? Because I thought I said web, web, web type.

You did, yeah, you, no, you went, well, website. Oh, okay, I messed up on it. But we put so many Ws in anything anyway.

Yeah, we do, it's like, well, what? Well, what? Well, what, web, website.

Well, what, what website do I go to, www .utt .com.

But that's why I stopped, because I thought I flubbed.

Well, you did, but we're going with it. We're going to go with it. That's right. All right, good. It is Friday, and we take questions from the listeners, which you can send in via email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

That's just when we understand the text, not when we understand the text. It happens. The wokeness in the gospel conference is coming up. Oh, no. Nobody's going to want to listen to us just laugh the whole time.

So come on, babe, you got to collect yourself. June 11th and 12th at Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas. Yes.

We have a booth. We do, super exciting.

Yeah, so we'll see everybody there where they have like the vendors and everybody, vendors, booths, whatever, whatever it's called. I don't know what they're called.

Yeah. But we, I'm putting that in quotations. You can't see my air quotes.

Because I'm questionable. Yeah, Becky doesn't know for sure, but I've got two tickets for us anyway. I'm pretty small, so. That's right, that little one gets in free. So. Yes, he does. You're fine. So yeah, we're coming along here with a baby due in September.

Becky's kind of iffy for any trips and things like that. We know for sure she's not going with us to the SBC annual meeting. Right. I think you're still up in the air on G3.

Still up in the air. It depends on how everything goes with labor and baby and personality. The baby has, you know, all that important stuff of traveling. Though we've had several people already get in touch with us and say,.

Hey, I'm going to be there with my baby. So Becky needs to be there with her baby too, yeah. So G3 is coming up. I think the first day of it is September 30th. Yes, it's still in September. It's at the very end.

September 30th through October 2nd. And you can find out more details about that by going to G3, the number three, conference .com or .org. I don't remember. One of those will get you there. Get registered.

In the meantime, we're just pushing the Wokeness in the Gospel Conference. So that's June 11th and 12th, Denton, Texas. We hope to see you there. Great speakers like Daryl Harrison, Dr. Owen Strand, Tom Buck, Tommy Nelson, another pastor from that church whose name escapes me, Rodney Brown.

I think that's everybody. I think that covers everyone. It's going to be a great conference. So we hope to see you there. All right, let's get to our questions here. I will say the second question that we have today is a little more on the adult side of things.

So we'll cover the first one. And then the second one is, you know, you may want to screen it first before your kids listen to it, something like that. So this one comes from Corbin in Georgia, the state, not the country.

Ah, okay. Hey, Pastor Gabe, love the podcast and your teaching. I listen to every episode every day while I'm working. It is a blessing to receive sound biblical teaching from your daily podcast. My question is, how do we as Calvinists evangelize to unbelievers when at the same time we hold to our beliefs in limited atonement?

How can we express that Christ died for their sins when we don't know if they're elect or not? Would it be deceiving to tell them such a thing when it's certainly possible that they were predestined to be reprobate?

Well, thank you for your question, Corbin. First of all, let's define this doctrine as limited atonement. Now I'm with R .C. Sproul that I don't really like the name limited atonement. So he said, I would rather speak of it as definite redemption or definite atonement, which communicates that God the Father designed the work of redemption specifically with a view to providing salvation for the elect and that Christ died for his sheep and laid down his life for those the Father had given to him.

So there's our understanding of limited atonement. I mean, we find it in places like Ephesians 1, verses four through six. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

So you have in that statement, not only limited atonement, but irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. And that we're not only chosen to be justified, but also chosen to be sanctified. Going on in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

As Jesus spoke in John chapter six, verse 44, he says, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. And in John chapter one, verse 12 and 13, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

In Revelation 13, eight, it says that all who dwell on earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain.

So you see that those whom God has predestined for salvation were written in his book from before the foundation of the world. And those who are not predestined for salvation are not written in that book.

He has decided whom he will save and from whom he will withhold salvation and they will go to their destruction because of their sin. How then do we present the gospel? Here's the question that Corbin is presenting.

How do we preach the gospel to somebody if we don't know if they're elect or not?

Right, I think wording has a lot to do with it. Like not using phrases of the world, how they...

Anyway, can you think of one? Yeah, no, the common things too about like God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. There's nothing in the Bible that says that. And that's what heaven is.

Don't you wanna go to heaven? I think we've just been plagued with so much American evangelicalism that we get this idea of here's how the gospel needs to be presented. You need to say God loves you and he's died for you.

But how do you know if he's really died for you? You don't have to say that exactly to a person. You model your presentation of the gospel after what the prophets said, or prophets, what the apostles said.

Apostles, yeah. In their presentations of the gospel, just consider this one from Peter in Acts chapter 10. So in verse 34, he's preaching to the Gentiles at Cornelius's house. Peter opened his mouth and said, "'Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, "'but in every nation, anyone who fears him "'and does what is right is acceptable to him.

"'As for the word that he sent to Israel, "'preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, "'he is Lord of all. "'You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, "'beginning from Galilee, "'after the baptism that John proclaimed, "'how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth "'with the Holy Spirit and with power.

"'He went about doing good "'and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, "'for God was with him. "'And we are witnesses of all that he did, "'both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. "'They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, "'but God raised him on the third day "'and made him to appear, not to all the people, "'but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, "'who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

"'And he commanded us to preach to the people "'and to testify that he is the one appointed by God "'to be judge of the living and the dead. "'To him, all the prophets bear witness "'that everyone who believes in him "'receives forgiveness of sins through his name.'".

There you go. That's the gospel. And while Peter was saying these things, going on in verse 44, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speak in tongues and extolling God.

And Peter declared, "'Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people "'who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?'. "'And he commanded them to be baptized "'in the name of Jesus Christ. "'Then they asked him to remain for some days.

"'He did not say to this group of people, "'Jesus died for you. "'He died for your sins. "'So repent of your sin and believe in him.'". That's not the way that Peter presented the gospel. He testified according to the scriptures, according to what he had witnessed, that Christ has died and whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

That's, I mean, John 3 .16 as well. "'For God so loved the world that he gave his only son "'and whoever believes in him will not perish, "'but will have everlasting life.'". There is no presentation in the gospel or no presentation in the Bible of the gospel that sounds like what we commonly hear from

Yeah, Christianese. Yeah, from our evangelist, our American evangelist, right? There's no come down front, repeat this prayer and now you're saved. There's nothing. In fact, you don't even see anybody praying a prayer here in Acts 10.

As they're listening to Peter, their hearts are, the old language that we used to do, their hearts were quickened. Oh, yeah. To believe in the message that they heard and they were convicted of sin and they praised God because the Holy Spirit transformed them to believe, not because they did something ritualistic that then saved them.

Right. They weren't like a good person and then were saved.

Right, yeah, let's go out and do some things and then we'll be saved.

We did enough. We checked off enough things on the list.

Yeah, I got just that last box and now I'm elect. Wasn't something like that. And even baptism, they had the Holy Spirit before they were baptized.

Right, they were baptized in order to say.

That they had received. Yeah, they show, right, they show something externally about the transformation that had happened in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. Now, of course, they were already showing that by speaking in tongues, but we're not commanded to speak in tongues.

Right. We're commanded to be baptized. And so it is by that act of obedience. Speaking in tongues is not an act of obedience. Speaking in tongues was an apostolic miracle. Right. To affirm that the gospel that was proclaimed was truly from God.

But the act of baptism is a command that we're given that we obey. And so these Gentiles who now became believers obeyed what was said to them, the commandment of God that was given to them through the apostle to be baptized.

Right. That they would show we've been buried with Christ in our sins and we've been risen again to new life. That's right. And it was everybody. Everybody there. Everybody who heard Peter and believed.

It's whoever believes. Those who believe show that they were elect. Those who endure to the end will be saved, as Jesus said, Matthew 10. I can't remember the reference there exactly, but anyway. So it's more than just I said a prayer or I did this thing or I got baptized.

I walked the aisle and now I'm a Christian. I wrote down the date. Signed a card. Yeah. Became a member of a church. Wrote down the date in my Bible. These things don't save you. Right. It is faith in Christ.

And if you are truly transformed by the Holy Spirit of God, he will keep you to the very end. Jesus saying in John 10, the father gives them to me and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father is greater than all.

No one will snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. So if we belong to Christ, there's perseverance of the saints right there. If we belong to Christ, we will always belong to Christ.

A person who walks away from Christ, who renounces faith, demonstrates. They weren't of them. That they weren't of them in the first place. Right. That's 1 John 1 .19. They went out from us so that it might become plain that they were not really of us.

And it's the point of the whole first parable that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 13. Yeah.

And it's, I mean, it's heartbreaking whenever you feel like they're your brother or sister in Christ and they walk away. Yeah. And have nothing to do. I mean, they're a completely different person when they walk away and it's like, you don't even recognize them anymore.

Right. And it's just, it's really, really sad and heartbreaking, but you have to have faith that the Lord knows what he's doing. Well, on top of that,.

I mean, as I've commonly said, if a person has breath in their lungs, they need to hear the gospel. Ah, very true. I think there's a point where, as you're sharing with somebody, you do need to know where the cutoff is.

Like, and this is gonna be different for every person in every situation. But like, as it says in Matthew chapter seven, I wanna say it's verse six, do not cast your pearl before swine. Don't take the gospel and continue to give it to a person who's very clearly not gonna receive it.

Their heart's just gonna become harder and harder to receiving it.

Right, and it could be part of your pride about not saving them. So just be careful that you're doing it for the right reasons of persistence. You know, if you keep feeling the need to go to them and share the gospel over and over, and they keep rejecting,.

Make sure your heart's in the right place. Yeah, yeah, it's not a thing where like, I can do this. Right. I can save them. It's not up to us to save them. It's not. As Votie Bauckham has said, I'm just in communications.

My daddy is the one who's in sales. Yes. But all this to say that, you know, we don't know who the elect are. So we know the doctrine of the elect because of what scripture says to us. We know like the doctrine of definite atonement and things like that.

We know because of what the Bible says, but Paul did not withhold sharing the gospel from anybody. Right. He said at the beginning of Titus in Titus 1 .1, he says that he's an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect.

So he's gonna preach the gospel to everybody and those whom God has chosen are gonna turn from sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when it comes to the way that we present that gospel, we need to do it with the kind of language that we get from the Bible.

Right. Not making up the words that we think would be the most persuasive or the most inclusive or that we think would draw people in. We need to stick with what the word of God says. Right. So other places to read include, go to Ephesians 2, go to John 3, go to Titus 3, go to Paul sharing at the Areopagus even in Acts 17.

And something similar that he says there to what Peter said when he preached to the Gentiles. Peter said that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. Paul concluded his sermon at the Areopagus the same way in Acts 17.

And it was once he said about the resurrection of the dead, God has shown by whom he will judge the world by raising him from the dead. And as soon as he said that, everybody was like, oh, come on, resurrection of the dead.

Yeah. But there's still something that you can follow there in understanding how to present the gospel. There's the Roman's road method. I probably use that one more than any other method. The one that gets referred to as the way of the master.

I think it was Ray Comfort that named that the way that you present the law and you convict a person of their sin because they recognize that they've disobeyed the law. And then once a person realizes that, then you give them the gospel.

Jesus has died to forgive sins. So if you believe in him, you will be forgiven and you will have everlasting life. You can put it in that tense, right? You can say, if you believe you will be forgiven.

Right. Because that's absolutely true. You can't say to a person that God loves you and wants to save you because you don't know that. Like what Corbin is saying in his email.

And God is God. If he wants to save you, he will. There's no yearning for it. He just, you know what I mean?

Yeah, and somebody could argue like, well, but wait, doesn't God love everybody? Because we read in John 3 .16, God so loved the world. Well, the way that you know that a person is in God's love and not under his wrath, John 3 .36, is that they turn from their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. So even before we came. Yeah, amen. Even before we came to salvation, we're children of wrath like the rest of mankind, as it says in Ephesians 2. Yes. So again, you're using biblical language here to share the gospel with somebody else.

Repentance, Lust, and the Question of Rebaptism

All right, here's our second question here. And as I said, this one is gonna be a little more adult in content. So maybe parents, you'll wanna screen this first before your kids listen to it. This is from Mike.

And he says, hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I hope you are both doing well. Thank you so much for your wonderful ministry. I have a question regarding baptism, as I've been coming under very heavy conviction about this for some time now.

I came out of a homosexual lifestyle and was baptized several years ago. I bought into the terrible, destructive lie that same-sex attraction is just a neutral thing that was a part of who I am and can never change.

So I did not repent of my same-sex attraction, merely the acting it out with others. This kind of teaching is found in ministries such as Living Out with Sam Alberry and Ed Shaw, and many others foolishly teach it, labeling oneself as a gay Christian or same-sex attracted Christian.

You might see the letters SSA used. Is of no value, Mike says, but is actually damaging to the process of putting one's sins to death. Keeping oneself chained to this identity actually makes it easier to fall into the sin, in my experience.

I went for a long time without repenting of my attraction and lustful thinking, and now realize they are one and the same thing. So we need to consider the words before I continue on here with Mike's email.

Let me just kind of jump in for a moment and consider the words that we read in Colossians 3, beginning in verse five. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And what you see about those sins that are named there is that most of them deal with the desire of the heart. The first one is sexual immorality. That's any kind of sex outside of marriage.

But then after that, every one of those sins that's mentioned goes straight to a heart matter. So it's not something that you do with your body. It's something that you lust for from your heart. Impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

And on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. God's wrath is coming against even the desire of it, not just the doing it. Right. As Mike was talking about there. So you can't, you cannot. Definitely a heart issue.

Right, it starts there. You cannot desire what God does not desire for you. If you desire what God does not desire, you're sinning, just in desiring it. You desire something that is not of God. And it used to be my thought of,.

God wants me to be happy. So whatever I want to make me happy is okay.

Right, I hear that all the time as a pastor. Somebody saying, doesn't God want me to be happy?

Right, not that way. That's not how you be happy. That's how you make yourself miserable and under God's wrath.

Yeah, I think there's something to that. I mean, you're gonna have pleasure in it for just a little while, and then it won't be enough. And then you're even miserable in it. But more than wanting you to be happy, God wants you to be holy.

Right. There's nothing in scripture about God desires your happiness. You are to have joy in Christ, which is not dependent upon emotions. Right.

And I found that I'm actually happier whenever I follow God's rules and suggest, not suggestions, the biblically.

Precepts, commands.

Yes, commands. But I mean, like, through proverbs. Regulations, was that? Through proverbs of how to be a homemaker and how to take care of the family and things like that. And the more that I put away the earthly desires and stuff, that it makes me happier.

Yeah, certainly. Just things fall into place better. I don't know how to explain it.

If you do what God desires for you. Because that's how he made us. Yeah, you have joy in Christ. Right. Absolutely. So anyway, I'm gonna continue here with Mike's email. To my shame, since being baptized, over time I became very lustful in my thoughts toward other guys.

And even fell into using homosexual pornography. I would tell myself and God each time after falling that I would never do it again. And would try reading the Bible more and reading more books. But since I relied on my own strength and I was self-reliant, not relying on the power of prayer and constant fellowship with believers, but only the reading of the word, listening to sermons and reading Christian books on how to fight sin, the habit became worse and worse and I became more hopeless and depressed.

So really, as Mike is pointing out here, he's relying on his own strength, his own ability to overcome this, instead of relying on Christ. And somebody has permitted him to have the desires that he has.

Yeah, encouraged him for that.

To have ungodly desires. It's okay for you to have ungodly desires. Well, of course he's never gonna overcome his desire for that sin. He's being told that it's completely natural to desire that sin. I hoped that listening to fiery biblical preaching about the evils of sin would shock me out of it.

The more I fought with my own schemes and strength, the harder and deeper I fell. I had no power to resist temptation. I now wonder if I was ever really saved from anything, given that I fell into such vile and deep bondage.

I keep thinking that there is no hope for me and that I have sinned against light and knowledge, sinned away the day of grace or making shipwreck of my faith and that my present victory is just a sham.

I struggle so much with assurance at this point. And some days not knowing my standing before Christ. Mercifully, there has been a major change. As I have experienced much victory over the past year and have not viewed pornography for a year.

I am daily striving to take a lustful thoughts captive and I am praying more regularly, whereas before I wasn't and there was no power in my fight. I may be wrong about this, but I think God was teaching me to not rely on my own strength and useless efforts to fight sin apart from his supernatural power.

To others, I seemed very strong in the faith. Sounded my theology, always able to quote Bible verses and the Puritans or other solid preachers. It was a long, depressing, agonizing time of darkness and hypocrisy where I was left to my own futile self-religion.

I cringe whenever I think back on it, but now something is very different. I am more full of hatred against my sin and against evil and I feel more empowered to fight against it. But I don't know if I was truly saved before my baptism or afterwards.

And if I made a false profession of faith and should be rebaptized, I don't want to become legalistic about it and think that being baptized again is making me more acceptable before God. I am no longer at that church and haven't been for several years.

The new church I've been attending for several months is much more solid and would not allow a woman to preach like that old church did. Hmm, interesting. So when the roles that God has assigned for men and women don't matter, then it doesn't matter who you desire to be with either.

A lot of sins fall from just one sin, like domino effect. Yeah, right.

People don't want to acknowledge this, but egalitarianism is a doorway to accepting LGBTQ. Mm-hmm. It does go there. It does. Because when the roles that God has assigned for men and women don't matter, then the roles in marriage don't matter, right.

So Mike closes this way. I am still just getting to know the pastor better. I greatly value any wisdom that you can offer in this difficult matter. Thank you, Mike. Well, Mike, I'm gonna tell you this.

I'm not gonna tell you yes or no answer to your question. I'm gonna tell you what a great opportunity right now for you and the pastor to get to know each other better. Amen. That you take exactly what you shared with me to him and you ask him.

Definitely. When it comes to assurance of salvation, I would encourage you to read through 1 John. Just read through the scriptures, fill your heart up with that word. Understanding in this matter whether you should be rebaptized, whether you were truly saved at the time that you were going through all this, or now you're truly saved and you should be rebaptized.

Talk with your pastor about that. Because ultimately you're gonna have to anyway. Right.

But I mean, as you grow as a Christian, just my two cents, I'm not saying you don't apply to this or you do apply. I have no idea. But as a Christian, you are constantly growing where you should be. And you should be able to constantly look back and be like, who was that person?

Was I really saved? Like, look at where I am now. I don't even recognize that person behind me. So it's a constant thing. And just know that part, that even if this time you need to get rebaptized or baptized for the first time, if you will, as a Christian, then don't keep thinking that you need to keep getting rebaptized every time you look behind you and don't recognize that person.

Yeah, right, yeah. Because there is gonna be a difference between who you are now and who you were when you were first baptized. Right. That's sanctification. Yeah, right. That's growing in holiness and in Christ likeness.

Yes. So we should look at Christ and we are repulsed by our sinfulness. Yes. And the more we become like Christ, the more our eyes are open to just the reality of his mercy and his grace toward us, of just how far from God we really were.

Yes. And though we were sinners, God demonstrated his love for us by giving his son to die for us, Romans 5, 8. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you're gonna grow in that knowledge and that understanding anyway. Praise the Lord.

But in this present time, as you're evaluating whether you should really be baptized, then I would say talk with your pastor about that. That's more of a conversation. Yep.

Yeah. Because I mean, we could advise until we're blue in the face, but we still wouldn't know the ins and outs. Because I'm not gonna baptize you. Right. So go talk to your pastor.

Yes. Have that conversation with him. But I so enjoyed reading your testimony, Mike, and praise God for the transformation that's happened in your heart. As the apostle Especially over COVID, that's awesome.

Yeah, right. Especially over the whole COVID thing going on. That's wonderful. Probably couldn't go to church in a lot of places. But as the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6, when he goes through the sins that will keep a person from the kingdom of God, he says, and such were some of you, but you've been washed.

Right. You've been justified. You've been sanctified. Yes. In the Holy Spirit. And so you once were this, but now you've been washed. Right. And praise God for that. Amen. Let's finish with prayer. Yes, let's.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for Mike's email, and I pray that you would continue to work in his heart and in the life of his church that he grows with these believers, that he comes to a deeper knowledge of God than he's ever had before.

And he knows himself as somebody who's been born again. He's dead to his sin. He's been brought to life in Jesus Christ. And that he would know this according to what your word says and continue to live it out faithfully in his life.

Keep his mind, his heart fixed upon Christ, hating even the garment stained by the flesh and give his pastor wisdom that he would know how to guide this young man. And that this body of believers, Mike and his pastor, and everybody that he goes to church with, they're all growing together in Christ as we sit under the teaching of the word.

I pray also for Corbin, whose email that we read earlier, asking about how we evangelize to others, that you give him wisdom and evangelism and courage and boldness to wanna step out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That we would all have this desire to lead others to saving faith in Jesus by the gospel that was declared to us. Help us to know how to proclaim it according to the example that is set forth in your word.

Always looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. It's in his precious name we pray, amen. Amen.