Jesus the Great Evangelist

Jesus the Great Evangelist

Pastor, our preacher for the evening, Andy Smith. Andy was born and raised in West Virginia and descends from three generations of Baptist ministers, making him one of many brothers and cousins who are also pastors in the fourth generation of Smiths.

He was saved and baptized at age four at the same church that two of his great-grandfathers had pastored years before. He has been the pastor at First Baptist Church of Grey Gables in Callahan, Florida for three years.

This is the fourth church he has pastored, two being in West Virginia and one in Kentucky. He has known since the age of eight that he would preach the gospel and started preaching in the church as a teenager.

He graduated from Clearwater Christian College with a B .A. in Bible, where he also lettered in collegiate soccer. He then attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity from the theology school.

He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree at Ligonier Academy while studying under Dr. R .C. Sproul. He loves to read and also enjoys running competitively when he is not injured. He has been married to Corey for ten years and together they have four children.

Greeting the Church and Framing the Topic of Sovereignty and Evangelism

So brother, I'm going to move this down and invite you up to come and bring the Word. Well, it is certainly a blessing to be here with everyone and what a joyful time we had last night, amen? What a privilege and blessing that was to hear the Word of God from the Gospel of Matthew by Brother Jesse Pickett.

My heart was tremendously encouraged by that and I just want to thank Brother Keith for having me come and to also thank this church for inviting me into your family. This is a blessed church, I can tell already, and we get along really good.

You have a really, really good pastor. I know you're thankful for him and I want to encourage you to continue to pray for him and to love him. It's just wonderful for Christians to gather together, Christians of other denominations who love the Gospel and want to talk about God's sovereignty and evangelism.

And so I count it a privilege to be here. Now, the question of how God's sovereignty and human responsibility go together has surfaced in a number of different ways throughout history. And I suppose that every speaker at this conference in some form or fashion is going to address God's sovereignty and salvation and human responsibility.

Charles Spurgeon was asked once how he could reconcile the seeming contradiction between divine sovereignty and human responsibility and salvation. And he simply said this, I never had to reconcile friends.

And then he went on to say divine sovereignty and human responsibility have never had a falling out with each other. I do not need to reconcile what God has joined together. You know, thankfully, tonight it is not my task to philosophically explain to you how divine sovereignty and human responsibility go together.

I'm very thankful for that. My task, however, is to preach to you tonight on Jesus Christ, the great evangelist. I want us tonight to look at the Lord Jesus Christ as the greatest of all examples of the greatest evangelist and preacher and witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ that has ever lived.

First Timothy 1 .15 says, it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That was the reason Jesus came into the world. He said in Luke 19 .10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

He is the greatest evangelist, the greatest preacher to have ever lived. And I want to encourage you to mimic him in your witnessing tonight. You know, the apostle Paul gives a good little principle in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1.

Paul says, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ. I want us to look at Christ and I want us to imitate him in our evangelism and in our witnessing. My oldest boy just started playing soccer. This is his first year of soccer and he's excited because he's scored several goals this year.

But last weekend, he had his first game where he scored more than one goal. And he was excited and I told him, son, just keep practicing, keep working in the yard. And then I gave him another piece of advice.

I said, the other thing you need to do is you need to sit with dad in the recliner and you need to watch professional soccer players on TV. I said, that'll make you even better. So he started to do that and then he'll go out into the yard and he begins to mimic and imitate these soccer players out in the yard.

That's what we want to do. We want to go to the professional. We want to go to the greatest evangelist who ever lived, which was Christ. And we want to look at how he evangelized. Those two concepts of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, how did Jesus view them?

And then what was Jesus' response to how he viewed them in terms of how he gave the gospel? Last night, Jesse spoke from Matthew 22 on the parable of the wedding banquet and he gave to us some wonderful theological principles on both of these concepts of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

And I thought tonight what I would do is show you how Jesus did that by looking at one of his sermons. So if you have your Bibles tonight, I want you to take them and be turning to Matthew chapter 11.

And when you find your place there, I want you to pick up with me in verse 20 and I'm going to read down through verse 30 and I'm going to ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's Word tonight.

Matthew 11, beginning in verse 20, Matthew writes this,. Then he, speaking of Jesus, began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin!

Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? No, you will descend to Hades. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you, that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.

And at that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was pleasing in your sight.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Let's end the reading of God's Word. You may be seated.

Human Responsibility and the Woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum

Matthew gives to us a parenthetical reference here. A statement in verse 20 that says, Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done in because they did not repent. Jesus had come in Matthew chapter 4, and He had preached one message, and that was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And He had done this mostly in the province of Galilee. Our Lord's earthly ministry lasted about three years, and do you realize that two out of those three years, nearly two out of those three years, were spent in Galilee?

In these cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. In fact, Jesus' headquarters were in Capernaum. That is where He lived in the Apostle Peter's house. And it probably is not an overstatement to say, that out of all the people who lived during the days of Christ, the citizens of Capernaum saw more miracles and heard more sermons from the Son of God than anyone on the face of the planet.

And yet, we read in Scripture, nowhere were they persecuted Jesus, or chased Jesus out of the city. Of course, that occurred in Nazareth, His own hometown. When He preached in the synagogue, they chased Him out of the synagogue, to the brow of the cliff, and would have thrown Him over if He had not supernaturally escaped.

But we read none of that about the citizens of Chorazin, and Bethsaida, and Capernaum. No, their sin was not one of violent rejection. Their sin was one of indifference and apathy to the Gospel. You know, as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no sin more distasteful to me than apathy to the truth of God's Word.

And in particular, apathy and indifference to the Gospel. You can be a nice person, but you will burn in hell for all of eternity, if you reject the message of God's Word. God takes His truth seriously.

Oh, there was not maybe the sins in the lives of these citizens, like the Pharisees who were religious zealots and were hypocrites, but they had a sin of indifference. And Jesus has a Word that He wants to speak to them.

And what we find here is a message, a sermon that Jesus preaches in verses 21 -30. And I want us to look at Jesus the great evangelist. Because in this passage, we find three ways that you and I can be bold and effective witnesses for the Gospel, just by virtue of looking at the example of Jesus, the greatest evangelist to ever live.

First of all, we see in verses 20 -24 that we can be an effective, bold witness for the Gospel by boldly preaching human responsibility for any who reject the Gospel. Secondly, we see in verses 25 -27 that we can mimic Christ in being a bold and effective witness by firmly holding to God's sovereignty for any who receive the Gospel.

And then third, we can mimic Him in our evangelism by urgently inviting to Christ all sinners who believe in the Gospel. Notice with me, number one, you can mimic Christ in your evangelism and witnessing by boldly preaching human responsibility for any who reject the Gospel.

Notice verse 21, Jesus says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Jesus uses a word here that is translated as woe. This is a word of God's anger and God's condemnation. It is a word that the prophets used often. They would pronounce woes on God's people. Those were judgments.

They would pronounce blessings on God's people. Both God's justice and His love, His justice through His woes, His love through His blessings were pronounced. Jesus, the greatest and last prophet, speaks a woe of judgment.

For Jesus had been up and down the streets of Galilee. He had been in Chorazin which was a little city located in the hill country above the Sea of Galilee. He had been in the valley in Bethsaida, a little fishing village where brothers Peter and Andrew were from and also the apostle Philip.

Jesus had preached in the highways and in the byways. Jesus had performed miracle after miracle after miracle and yet exposed to so much gospel, exposed to so much preaching, exposed to so many miracles, and yet they were indifferent and rejected the gospel.

Now, they used Him for His physical miracles, but they rejected the spiritual miracle of the new birth. And so Jesus says if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, those were Old Testament cities, Jesus says if those miracles would have occurred there, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and in ashes.

Tyre and Sidon were poster children for wickedness in the Old Testament. Amos and Jeremiah both pronounced woes on them. And now Jesus is saying that the citizens of Chorazin and Bethsaida are more wicked than Tyre and Sidon.

For Jesus could go back in time, and if He could preach the gospel in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. Long ago. It says in sackcloth. That is a rough fabric made from camel's hair worn close to the body that was an irritant to the skin.

They would have put ashes on their head, which was a symbol of grief when someone died and also when folks were repenting from their sin. But these people didn't do it. And you realize that His miracles were really sermons in and of themselves.

They were object lessons of the gospel. Because every time Jesus healed a blind person, He was saying that only the gospel can make you recover your sight. Whenever He healed someone who was deaf, He was showing that only the Spirit of God could open someone's ears to receive gospel truth.

Whenever He raised someone from the dead, He was pointing to yours and my resurrection life through His death upon the cross and His resurrection. In fact, if you look back at chapter 11, at the beginning part there, John the Baptist sent some messengers to Jesus in verse 3 to ask Him, Are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else?

And Jesus answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to them.

That is a quotation from Isaiah 35. Jesus' miracles, everyone should have known it if they knew their Old Testament well, served as Jesus' heavenly credentials that He was the Messiah and He came with an authoritative message from God Himself.

And yet, they rejected those miracles. Those miracles were not miracles just as an end in and of themselves. They were meant to preach the gospel in object lesson form. John tells us in John 20, verse 30, many signs Jesus performed, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

All the signs, all the miracles were meant to prove Jesus was the Son of God. But now notice verse 22. Jesus says, Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

Why? Because they saw the Son of Man preaching and performing miracles and yet they still rejected the salvation He offered. He pins the blame squarely on them and no one else. And then verse 23, He says,.

And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades. That is hell. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.

Jesus points to this city, Capernaum, and Jesus is mocking them. He's mocking Capernaum. And He's saying to Capernaum, in essence, Oh, you think you're going to go to heaven? Let me tell you something.

You're going to go to hell. Because you have rejected all My miracles. You've rejected all My preaching. And in fact, you are more wicked than even Sodom. Can you imagine that? We even have a word in our society that classifies the most perverted crimes committed and it's known as sodomy.

And Jesus tells these indifferent people who are indifferent to the Gospel that they are more wicked than the citizens of Sodom. And then He says again in verse 24, this principle that judgment will be worse for those who hear and are exposed to more Gospel.

He says, Nevertheless, I say to you, that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment than for you. You know, the Bible teaches human responsibility for rejecting the Gospel.

Understand me very clearly tonight, folks. The Bible never, ever, ever presents eternal judgment as the fault of a sovereign God. The Bible never presents eternal judgment as the fault of our lack of witnessing.

No, the Bible and Jesus the great evangelist places the blame on the person who rejects the Gospel. And in fact, we heard that last night. Many are called, but few are chosen. And the ones who are called will be held accountable.

There is coming a day of judgment. Jesus told the religious leaders in John 8 .24,. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

We learn from these verses that the level of judgment in eternity will be based on the level of one's exposure to the Gospel truth. Hebrews 10 verses 26 and 27 teach this, that if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

We must boldly preach human responsibility for any who reject the Gospel. And we must believe that. Here's why we must believe it. Because it will free your conscience, and it will free my conscience from ever thinking that the blood of any person in hell was upon our hands.

Those who die and perish in an eternity of hell are culpable for their own rejection of the Gospel. Paul says in Romans 14 that each man will give an account of himself to God. Secondly, we must boldly preach human responsibility for those who reject the Gospel.

Because do you realize we live in a context which is highly Christianized? I understand. I'm under no illusion that we still live in a Christian nation. I don't believe that. But our country was founded on Christian values and there are vestiges of Christianity, trappings of religious Christianity all around.

There are Baptist churches on every corner. Churches of all kinds on every corner. And what this passage teaches us is that hell will be hotter for those who are exposed to more Gospel. My greatest fear as a pastor is to read Matthew 7.

It sends chills down my spine. Jesus said in verse 21, not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles and then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. You know, Paul told Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. That work of evangelism today doesn't just take place outside of the church. Listen folks, it takes place within the church.

It is perhaps true that the church today is largely unregenerate, largely unsaved. And my greatest fear as a minister of the Gospel is that someone who is a member of the First Baptist Church of Gray Gables will stand before God on the day of judgment just like those in Matthew 7 and Christ will look at them and say, depart from Me, I never knew you.

The reality that human responsibility lies with those that reject the Gospel compels me to preach the doctrine of hell no matter how unpopular it might be. The Bible never blames God's sovereignty. The Bible never blames a lack of witnessing.

The Bible presents the Gospel as something that must be obeyed. And when people don't obey it, they are held responsible. Acts 17 .30, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

My dear friends, we must boldly, boldly preach human responsibility for any who reject the Gospel. We must preach the doctrine of hell. We must hold people accountable. That's the first way in which we can mimic Jesus the great evangelist.

God's Sovereignty in Salvation and the Praise of the Father

But there is a second way in which we can mimic Christ the great evangelist and it's found in verses 25 -27 and that is by firmly holding to God's sovereignty for any who receive the Gospel. First, we must boldly preach human responsibility for anyone who reject the Gospel.

But secondly, if we want to mimic Christ, we must firmly hold to God's sovereignty for any who receive the Gospel. These verses, verses 25 -27, teach us that God is meticulously sovereign over any soul who will ever be saved.

And you know what I think is interesting about these verses? For the first time, and perhaps the only time that I'm aware of in all of Scripture, Jesus Christ stops His sermon, stops preaching to the people who are under God's judgment unless they repent, and He turns His eyes to heaven and He prays publicly out loud to the Father.

And what He says is amazing because He reveals to us His full conviction regarding the Father's sovereignty in salvation. And notice first, He praises the Father. The praise for God's sovereignty in salvation.

Verse 25, it says, at that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father. Let me just stop right there. Notice, He just says Father. He does not say our Father. He says that in the model prayer. But here, this is just Him talking to His Father.

He's got a unique relationship with the Father as the Son of God. And if anybody knows whether election and predestination are realities, it ought to be the Son of God who has intimate fellowship with the Father.

And He affirms both those doctrines. He says, Lord of heaven and earth. In the context, that is a way of telling God He's sovereign over all things and in particular, salvation. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

And He owns the cattle on a thousand and one hills. God sits in the heavens, the psalmist says, in Psalm 115, verse 3, and does whatever He pleases. And guess what, folks? In the context, He is Lord of heaven and earth when it comes to who enters the kingdom of God.

And He prays this to the Father. Notice what He says. He says, I praise you, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things. What things? The message of the kingdom. Salvation. Because earlier in verses 11 and 12, He said of John the Baptist, Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. The whole context of Matthew 11 is the kingdom of heaven and the preaching of John the Baptist and the preaching of Jesus.

Jesus says here to the Father, I praise you for keeping the good news of the kingdom from what He calls the wise and intelligent. He says you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent. Now let me just stop right here.

Jesus is not speaking about smart people. This is not teaching that all Christians are dumb. No. Jesus is the king of sarcasm. And He is mocking the citizens of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. You think you're so smart?

You think you have it all figured out? You think you can reject salvation from the very Son of Man? You think you're smarter than God? Were you here when He created the world? That's the wise. That's the intelligent.

Jesus had said earlier in chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 that the gate was small to get into the kingdom. He was that gate. And the road was narrow that led to eternal life. Many are called. Few are chosen.

These are indifferent. They are on the broad road. Either the broad road of indifference or the broad road of opposition as Jesse said last night, the sin of apathy or the sin of animosity towards the gospel.

But either way, both of those roads are wide and both of those roads lead to hell. Neither road leads to heaven. But it's been hidden from them. And then He says this, And, Father, You have revealed them to infants.

This is not talking about physical babies. This is talking about spiritual babies. This describes the elect. This describes those who humble themselves like a little baby and cry out to God for mercy and salvation.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18, He called a child to Himself, set Him before them, and He said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Listen folks, the only way into the kingdom is to humble ourselves, to acknowledge our sin, to acknowledge we need the grace and the mercy of God, or there is no hope. Those who are prideful reveal that they are smart in their own way, that they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Those like children will enter. Those who are prideful reveal that they are not elect. You know, all humanity is left in a natural state of pride. Romans 3 says, No one seeks God. Everyone is turned aside.

Psalm 14, Isaiah 53,. All of us like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every man to his own way. That's spiritual blindness. But do you realize that these verses are teaching God's sovereign double blindness of that heart that willfully rejects the Gospel?

The non-elect willfully reject the Gospel, but when they willfully reject the Gospel, the Bible says that God makes their blindness a double blindness. Jesus said in John 12, in verse 37, it says,. Though He had performed so many signs, yet they were not believing.

And this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke, which says, Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, He has hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.

This is God's sovereignty at work. What does it teach us? The only way to be born again is by a sovereign work of God revealing His Gospel truth to us. A supernatural work of the Spirit of God. And when the Spirit of God does that, listen, it is 100 successful.

The sinner responds like a humble baby depending upon God. The sinner who gets into the kingdom is one like the tax collector who beat his breast and said, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Not like the prideful Pharisee.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

He reveals His Gospel truth to little babies who wouldn't be able to understand unless He sovereignly revealed it to them so they could believe. And then I love this, verse 26. This is my favorite verse.

Jesus says, Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. The reason I love this verse is because it's almost as if Jesus stops for a moment in the middle of His prayer and meditates upon the statement He just made about God's sovereignty in salvation.

And He thinks about it for a moment and He says, Yes. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. You know, this ought to be the response of us. What should our response to the doctrines of election and predestination be?

Two words. Pure worship. Let God be God. God is sovereign, so every man must let Him be sovereign. Spurgeon said, If God wills it, so must it be, and so ought it be. And you know, the Apostle Paul knew that we would have questions about this.

In his ninth letter to the Romans, Paul asked a series of questions that were on the hearts of every reader after he said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Paul says, What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?

May it never be. So then He has mercy on whom He desires. He hardens whom He desires. He continues, You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault with a sinner who doesn't respond to the Gospel?

For who can resist His will? And Paul says to the questioners of God's secret providence, On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me this way?

Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? Paul says, At the end of the day, the reason we are to believe in the doctrines of election and predestination are for the glory of God.

It is well pleasing to God, as Jesus says here, that He would choose some and not choose others. That He would reveal Gospel truth to some and not reveal it to others. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 1.

He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

And in love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will. And here it is, To the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why. And who are we to answer back to God?

Oh, I know there are people who say, Divine sovereignty may be in Scripture, but why preach the Gospel if there's an elect anyway that God's going to bring in? Here's an answer that is very profound that I learned in seminary.

And you can only go to seminary to learn this answer. Because Jesus preached the Gospel. That's why we preach it. We preach the Gospel because Jesus preached the message of salvation and He knew who the elect were going to be.

And He still preached it. Jesus praises God for His sovereignty. We must firmly hold to God's sovereignty for any who receive the Gospel. This must be the thing that makes our heart beat and the thing that motivates us to evangelize.

But notice we move from the praise to the plan. The plan in God's sovereignty. Verse 27, Jesus continues in His prayer and He says, All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

I agree with John Calvin in his commentary. He says that what Jesus is saying here when He says, all things have been handed over to Me, is He's speaking about His authority. His authority to die on the cross to secure the sins of all the elect.

That's what's been handed over to Him by His Father. It was the Father who sent Him. Jesus said in John 10, verse 18, I have authority to lay My life down. I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I receive from My Father.

Jesus says, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son. This is not denying the basic knowledge of God that Paul speaks about in Romans 1 .20 that since the creation of the world as invisible attributes, eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

What it is saying, however, is the only way to truly know the Father is through the blood of the Son. We sing it tonight. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I cling. Sinners only know the Father through the Son.

Sinners only know the Father when the Son wills to reveal Him. John 1 .12 -13. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Salvation is a sovereign work of God Almighty. Faith is the divine means. Christ is the divine object. And I know those who criticize the doctrines of grace. I know them well. And sometimes they offer up the critique, well, I can believe in divine sovereignty and salvation, but I know Scripture preaches it.

I know Scripture teaches it. But I'm afraid that if I teach it, and someone hears that there's an elect people, it may discourage them from coming to the Gospel. Let me just share something with you. John Calvin, in his commentary on Matthew 11, says these words, and I quote,.

Many persons, as soon as they learn that none are heirs of eternal life, but those whom God chose before the foundation of the world, begin to inquire anxiously how they may be assured of God's secret purpose and thus plunge into a labyrinth from which they will find escape.

Christ enjoins them to come direct to Himself in order to obtain certainty of salvation. The meaning, therefore, is that life is exhibited to us in Christ Himself and that no man will partake of it who does not enter by the gate of faith.

We now see that He connects faith with the eternal predestination of God. Two things which men foolishly and wickedly hold to be inconsistent with each other, but though our salvation was always hidden with God, yet Christ is the channel through which it flows to us, and we receive it by faith that it may be secure and ratified in our hearts.

We are not at liberty to turn away from Christ unless we choose to reject the salvation which He offers us.". What Calvin is saying is simply this, and this is John Calvin, you are not saved through election.

You are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in His Son, and God chose you before the foundation of the world and chose that you would do that, but faith is the divine means by which you will do that.

It's the blood of Christ that saves. And by the way, why are we so worried about what people think? Jesus doesn't appear to be. Did you forget the context? He is preaching a sermon to unbelievers, and He stops in the middle of it and prays to the Father and worships the Father for His sovereignty in salvation.

Audibly. Before all. Why did He do that? Because of what He said in John 6 .37, All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. He wasn't going to wring His hands.

Firmly holding to God's sovereignty for any who receive the Gospel is important if for no other reason than that this doctrine serves as fuel to motivate evangelism. I get so sick of hearing folks who hate the doctrines of grace say that if you become a Calvinist, you will lose your zeal for the lost.

Hogwash. The exact opposite takes place. For we understand there are a true people of God that He has chosen to redeem before the foundation of the world. And all we do is preach the Gospel and we can't go wrong.

We're faithful with the message He gives us and we can't go wrong. It's not the Calvinists who will lose zeal first. It's the Arminians. Because what do they have to bank on? What sovereign God can they trust in?

They don't have the doctrine of election. They don't have the doctrine of predestination. It's all on them. That produces pride. Not humility. You know, there's a beautiful example of this in Acts chapter 18.

Paul is in the city of Corinth. And the Lord comes to him in a vision. And He said to Paul, a night by a vision, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you.