Is Reformed Theology a Silent Killer?

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Alright, we are tonight going to be responding to a lesson which was given by a local pastor here in our area.
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As we have defined ourselves as a reformed church, a church that teaches reformed theology, this lesson which was given by a local pastor has called reformed theology a false teaching, false doctrine, has called it, as you see on your sheet, the silent killer.
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I was given this sheet by a friend of a friend of a member of that church.
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So this sheet came to me second hand and I've read it over and I've decided that because I know some of you may know folks who go to this church and may have people challenge you on what you are taught and what you believe, this is an opportunity for you to hear from your pastor a response to the arguments which have been made in this lesson.
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I want to begin, however, by doing as we always do, praying that God would lead us in our time together.
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So let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to be about the business of studying your word.
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Your word tells us, Lord, that we are to stand for the truth, that we are to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, but to do so with gentleness and reverence.
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So I pray tonight that we would do that, that we would take this challenge to our faith and use it as an opportunity to grow deeper.
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I do pray that the lesson that I will give will be clear and understandable.
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And Lord God, primarily that it would be biblical and that you would keep me from error.
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I pray that as we examine Scripture tonight, we would always keep in mind that we have to look to the whole of Scripture and not just individual sections or parts which have been ripped out of their context, but to look at the whole of Scripture to see what exactly it is that the Bible teaches.
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We pray, O Lord, and thank you for all that you have given us.
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And we just ask that you bless this time of study together.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Well, what we're going to do is we're going to read this sheet.
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It shouldn't take us too long to read all the way through.
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And then we are going to go back and respond to the individual assertions which have been made.
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We're going to respond from Scripture.
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The title of this lesson was Calvinism Slash Reformed Theology, The Silent Killer.
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And this is how the lesson begins.
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Calvinism is a system of false doctrine that is taught in most evangelical denominations.
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There are five major points of Calvinism.
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These five points are known by the acronym TULIP.
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None of the five points are taught in the Bible.
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All five points must be accepted or rejected as a unit.
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Refute any one element and the whole system falls.
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And then in parentheses it says domino theology.
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So that's the opening paragraph of the lesson.
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Then we come to number one, total depravity or total inability.
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Calvin taught that men are totally depraved, which is biblical in the sense that all men are vile sinners.
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Romans 3, 10, 19 through 23.
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However, Calvin meant much more, teaching that men cannot come to God of their own free will for salvation.
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That is totally unscriptural.
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The Bible is abundantly clear that whosoever may come to Christ for salvation.
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Romans 10, 13, Revelation 22 and 17.
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Alright, so that is his first assertion, his response to total depravity.
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Number two, unconditional election.
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Calvin taught that God chooses who gets saved and that person has no choice in the matter.
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This is ridiculous.
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The Bible again teaches the free will of man.
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Acts 17, 30 commands all men everywhere to repent.
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Why would the Bible command all men to repent if God only chooses some to be saved? Number three, limited atonement.
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Calvin taught that Jesus only died for those who would be saved.
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This is damnable heresy not taught in the Bible.
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Repeatedly we are told that God loved the world and that Christ died for all men.
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2 Peter 2, 1 tells us that Jesus died for false prophets, even denying the Lord that bought them.
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Alright, number four, irresistible grace.
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Calvin taught that if God chooses a person to be saved, then God forces himself upon that person doing what it takes to make them comply with his will.
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Again, this violates the free will of humanity which God has given to each individual.
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Salvation is offered, not shoved down anyone's throat.
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If you want to reject God's gift of eternal life, as many do, then God will let you go to the lake of fire forever.
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It is your choice alone to make! 2 Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9 pronounces judgment on them who disobey the gospel, i.e.
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reject the good news of Christ crucified, buried and risen.
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If you trust upon Jesus Christ to forgive your sins, believing that he went to the cross for you to pay for your sins, was buried and has risen, then you are saved.
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Eternal life is a free gift which is received, not achieved.
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It is not what we are doing that gets us to heaven.
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It is where we are looking.
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There again, it should be apostrophe, look to Jesus.
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Sorry, that's my grammar teacher coming out of me, finding those little grammatical errors.
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5 The Perseverance of the Saints Calvin unscripturally taught that those who are saved will persevere in holy living until the end.
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The Bible teaches the preservation of the saints, not the perseverance of the saints.
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Salvation is of the Lord, not man.
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Man has no part of God's salvation.
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I think that should be of, it says if.
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Man has no part of God's salvation.
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We are saved by imputed righteousness of Christ.
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2 Corinthians 5.21, Romans 4, 5 and 6.
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Charismatics and lordship salvationists have adopted Calvin's heresy on perseverance, teaching that salvation can either be lost by committing sin or else that a person cannot be saved unless they are willing to stop committing sin.
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Calvin's teachings, all of them, negate the free gift of God.
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Now, it's apparent here, Richard, that he also denies lordship salvation.
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Wow.
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OK, that's a deeper step than I would have thought.
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But we'll see as we go that this is all incorrect.
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But we'll get back to that.
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All right.
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I have just shared a handful of powerful scriptures with you.
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God never chooses anyone for salvation.
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Scriptures such as Acts 1730 make this abundantly clear.
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But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
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Why would God command all men to repent if only certain men have been chosen for salvation? There really is no debate concerning Arminianism, Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism if you simply take the word of God at face value.
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They're all messed up! The Bible is so clear on all these matters.
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There are problems with all three views.
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Arminianism is wrong to teach that a person can lose salvation.
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Romans 5.15 declares that eternal life is a free gift.
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A gift cannot be taken back if it is freely given.
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Salvation is God's gift to man, paid for by the blood of Jesus.
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Romans 6.23, Colossians 1.14.
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Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism teach limited atonement and selective salvation, which are both satanic lies.
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It gets a little bit more forceful there, doesn't it? Satanic lies.
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1 John 2.2 couldn't be any clearer.
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And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Calvinism is unbiblical heresy! Exclamation point! And then he ends the five points of TULIP.
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Our total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.
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Well now, my beloved friends, you have all read it.
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You have all read the arguments.
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You have all read what has to be said.
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And I know one thing.
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By me responding to this, the folks who really do study in this area are going to pick on me.
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Because I'm picking on this guy.
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Because in the reality of it, this guy is low-hanging fruit.
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This is not hard stuff.
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The level of shallowness that this one sheet has achieved is beyond measure.
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This is shallow thinking.
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This is shallow teaching.
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And to be quite honest with you, to even respond to it is to give it more respect than it deserves.
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But why are we responding to it? Because again, this is being taught locally.
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This is being taught to some of your friends.
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You need to know how to respond to it.
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And just because it's shallow doesn't mean it doesn't deserve an answer.
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It does.
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And I'm not trying to be ugly, I'm just telling you the truth.
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Having listened to many great men on this subject, these things that have been said here demonstrate an utter just lack of investigation into these things.
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That's what we see here.
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An absolute lack of investigation.
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So what we're going to do tonight, we're limited on time.
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We're limited on time.
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So I am going to simply read it through, give you answers to these things as best as I can in the short amount of time that we have.
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Feel free to write as I go.
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I'll try to go briskly because I need to get done by our time, but also investigate these things as thoroughly as necessary.
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First of all, it says Calvinism, Reformed Theology, The Silent Killer.
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That's the title.
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That automatically equates Calvinism with Reformed Theology.
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There is something that needs to be understood, that Calvin was one individual in the Reformation.
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When we talk about Reformed Theology, a lot of people compare that with Calvinism and a lot of people use those as a synonym.
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So I'm not going to charge him with false teaching at this point, because ultimately there are a lot of people who call Calvinism and Reformed Theology the same thing.
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But in actuality, they're not exactly the same thing.
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When we talk about Reformed Theology, we're talking about the theology of the Reformers.
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We're talking about Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and all of the Reformers which brought about the Protestant Reformation.
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So to simply say Calvinism, because if you notice, everything that comes after this is Calvin taught this, Calvin taught that, Calvin said this, Calvin said that.
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So really it seems like the person who wrote this, whoever it may be, and I have an idea, it might not even be the pastor who taught it.
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He might have gotten this from another person.
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Because the person who wrote this apparently has an issue with Calvin himself.
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But the funny thing is, Calvin did not write the five points of Calvinism.
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The five points of Calvinism came as a result of the Synod of Dort, which was held after Calvin died.
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It was a result of the teachings of Jacobus Arminius, who also was dead when the Synod of Dort was held.
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So neither Calvin nor Arminius ever saw the five points of Calvinism.
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So to even call them that, and to say Calvin taught this and Calvin said that, is really, in a sense, to mislead people.
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Because it does not accurately represent the history.
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The reason why there are five points, the reason why there is a tulip, the reason why that exists, is because the students of Arminius produced five doctrines which opposed the teaching of the Reformers.
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And these students were teaching these doctrines, and in response to those doctrines, the Synod of Dort produced the five teachings that responded to that.
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And those teachings were total infallibility, unconditional selection, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the perseverance of the saints, which later became known as the five points of Calvinism.
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But again, to simply say Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, as he has in this note, is just historically inaccurate and demonstrates right away a lack of real integrity in the lesson.
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Because there is an attempt to explain what Calvin actually taught and how his teachings were used after his death.
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So let's continue on.
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Calvinism is a system of false doctrine that is taught in most evangelical denominations.
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False, that's not true.
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It is not taught in most evangelical denominations.
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Calvinism in its purest form is found in the Presbyterian denomination.
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That is where we see it most.
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Luther absolutely was who founded Lutheranism.
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That's where the name comes from.
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Presbyterians are more Calvinistic.
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Lutherans are more Lutheran.
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And then you have, of course, the Anglican Church, which was the Episcopal Church of America, is the American Anglican Church.
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So that, you know, the idea that it's taught in most Protestant denominations is is false, especially in this form.
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It says there are five major points of Calvinism.
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Yes, that's true.
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There are five points known by the acronym TULIP.
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That's true.
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None of the five points are in the Bible.
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That is false.
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And I'll demonstrate that all five points must be accepted or rejected as a unit.
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Refute any one element and the whole system fails.
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Well, the whole system falls.
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That's true as far as it goes in one sense.
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The five points do build on one another and they do have an internal reliance on one another.
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But there are people who call themselves four point Calvinists, people who do not believe in limited atonement, but hold to the other four points.
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I don't agree that they're correct.
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Obviously, I hold to all five points.
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I believe all five points are biblical.
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But to say that a person can't hold to just four without the fifth one.
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Well, there are people who do.
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And I think they would have issue with what he said here.
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And you notice he doesn't in any way attempt to address them.
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He just simply says can't be done and doesn't address it at all.
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Calling it domino theology, that's well, that's just it's sort of at that point.
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Just name calling is all it is, just trying to make trying to make fun, you know, trying to poke fun at it.
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So let's get to the to the nuts and bolts, shall we? Let's actually deal with what's being said here.
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Total depravity.
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Calvin taught that all men are totally depraved.
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And he says, which is biblical in the sense that all men are vile sinners.
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And he quotes Romans 3, 10, 19 through 23.
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However, Calvin meant much more teaching that men cannot come to God of their own free will for salvation.
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That is totally unscriptural.
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The Bible is abundantly clear that whoever whosoever may come to Christ for salvation.
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Romans 10, 13, Revelation 22, 17.
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Well, let's do this very quickly.
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Turn in your Bible to the passage that he won't touch, which is John 6.
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Please turn in your Bible to John 6.
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Go to verse 65.
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By the way, just so I be honest about what he has written here, his verses.
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Romans 10, 13, for who for everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved.
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And then Revelation 22, 17.
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I'm just reading these to you to say that we did look at them because I'll address them in a minute.
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But Revelation 22, 17 says the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears come and let the one who is thirsty come.
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Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
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That's 22, 17.
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Now, let's address what he has said.
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He has said that teaching that men cannot come to God of their own free will for salvation is totally unscriptural.
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John 6, 65 says, and this is Jesus speaking.
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And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father.
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I'm writing on the board just the most important parts in regard to our study.
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And he said, no one can come to me unless the father in heaven granted it to him or grants it to him.
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So let's address this.
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Let's just let's just walk through this.
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We're told in this that it is false to say that a man cannot come to Christ by his own free will.
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This verse tells us no one can come unless it is granted to him by the father.
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Yes, 44.
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That's in that's in Romans.
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OK, oh, good point.
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Very good point.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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And I will get back to that.
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That's a good point.
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Yeah, but she was she was just pointing out the fact that in Romans three, which he had quoted, he had put Romans 310 prior to Romans three or right at that point.
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It says that no one seeks for God, that it actually says no one seeks for God.
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And that's an absolute absolutely good point.
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But looking at Jesus, his words here in John, 65, no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my father.
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Jesus says no one can.
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And I've explained this before.
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But just because there's going to be new people listening to this, I want to make sure they understand something.
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When the Bible, when Jesus uses the word can, he is speaking in terms of ability, not in right.
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I know all of us have had this happen before.
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You were a kid in a school class, maybe at home, and you said to your teacher, teacher, can I go to the restroom? And the teacher responded by saying, I'm sure you can.
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But that's not the question.
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May I go to the restroom? That's because may speaks of our rights, can speaks of our ability.
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Understand? In this verse, it is speaking of ability.
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No one is able to come to Christ unless the father in heaven grants it to him.
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And just in case we think, well, it's only said one time, maybe Jesus was misquoted, maybe we're misunderstanding.
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Go in the same chapter up to verse 44.
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In the same chapter, in verse 44, it says, no one can come to me.
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All right.
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No one can.
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Also used in 644.
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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Beloved, consider this.
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Jesus has said it twice in almost the exact same way.
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In John 644, he says, no one can come to me unless the father in heaven draws him to me and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Later on, he says, as I said before, no one can come to me unless the father in heaven grants it to him.
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So in Jesus' language, the drawing of the father and the granting of it by the father are synonymous.
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That's important.
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Drawing and granting are synonymous in Jesus' language because he's using them in the same way.
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He's saying when the father is drawing us, he's granting it to us.
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He's granting that he would bring us to Christ.
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Now, here's where that becomes super important.
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Go back up to verse 37.
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Remember, we're in the same chapter, same context.
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Jesus is teaching at the synagogue at Capernaum.
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Go up to verse 37.
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And what does he say in verse 37? All that the father gives me will come to me.
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And whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
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So, what does Jesus say there? All the father gives me, all that are drawn, all that are granted, will come.
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And no one can come unless they're drawn, unless they're granted.
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So he speaks there of an inability within man to come apart from the grace of God drawing and granting it to him.
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The very thing that this paper says is false was taught from the mouth of Christ.
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That no one can unless God does the action first.
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This is why in verse 37, all the Father gives me will come to me.
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It doesn't say some the Father gives me will come.
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It doesn't say all the Father gives me may come.
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It says all the Father gives me will come to me.
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There will not be one who the Father grants, there will not be one who the Father draws who doesn't come.
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All the Father comes will give me and the one who comes, I will in no way cast out.
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Now, I do want to share with you a common response to what I'm teaching.
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In verse 44, Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father in heaven draws him.
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A lot of people say, Wait, wait, wait a minute, Pastor.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down.
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If you go to John 12, Jesus said, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.
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So you just negated your argument.
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Jesus said, I draw all men unto myself.
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Oh, maybe I'm wrong.
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Maybe I've never looked at that verse.
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OK, now I'm being sarcastic.
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I don't mean to be.
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In John chapter 12, the context is very specific.
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There have been Greek people brought to Jesus.
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The question is, is this appropriate or not? And Jesus said, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.
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The all in John 12 is not all men specifically individually.
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It's all types of men.
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He says, When I am raised up on the cross, I'll draw all types of men to myself.
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In fact, if what Jesus meant was by being lifted up on the cross, he would draw all men to himself.
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Then he is actually negating what was taught by the Apostle Paul, because the Apostle Paul taught something very specific.
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The Apostle Paul taught that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
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In fact, that the cross is an offense to the Jews and it's foolishness to the Greeks.
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Jesus being on the cross does not draw naturally to himself.
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There is a supernatural drawing of the father which causes anyone to have their blinders removed and see the Christ on the cross as being worthy of their affection and their faith.
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The natural response to the cross is not being drawn to it.
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The natural response to the cross is being offended by foolishness.
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To the Jews are stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, that's what the cross is.
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But Jesus said, When I'm lifted up, all types of men, all kinds of men will be drawn unto me, Jews and Gentiles alike.
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You see, the word all is often misunderstood.
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By those who teach this type of theology, because they believe all means every individual in the world in every circumstance, but I can prove to you that that is not what it means.
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So the word all cannot mean all individuals in every circumstance.
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If you look at the teaching of John the Baptist, when he was baptizing.
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I believe it's in the Gospel of Mark, it says all Judea went out to him and were baptized.
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Well, I got news for you.
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It was not every single individual in Judea who went out and baptized.
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Most of the Pharisees and Sadducees were not baptized by God.
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In fact, I would say probably a good bit of people were not baptized by God.
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But the way that all is being used there is all without distinction, meaning that all types of people went out or were baptized by God, not all without exception, because all without exception would have meant even Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the rest who were in Judea would have been baptized by him.
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And that's utter foolishness.
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So understand this, the word all and you can look, this is up in the Strong's Concordance, says all rarely means all without exception.
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It generally means all without distinction.
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All without distinction, meaning all types, give you another example, we all know that Bible verse that says the love of money is the root of what the love of money, the root of all evil is the love of money, the root of rape.
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Oh, no, it's the love of money, the root of child abuse, not always.
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So why does the Bible say the love of money is the root of all evil? Well, because the word all there means all kinds.
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The word past there means all kinds, and that's why the newer translations actually translate it.
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The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, but it doesn't have an extra word in the Greek.
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It's just past all, but it means all kinds, all without distinction, not all without exception.
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And to understand that is to point out a very important flaw in this theology, because every time they see the word all they get giddy, sir.
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Yeah, let me if you don't mind, would you read it? From every tribe.
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Absolutely.
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It is the context of all means people from every tribe, every tongue and every nation.
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That is what all means.
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It means all without distinction, not all without exception.
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Understanding that will take you miles above where most people go in their learning.
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I heard one guy say all means all and that's all all means that that is that is pure shallowness, pure shallowness.
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It's not looking investigatively at the text, all means all and that's all all means is pure shallowness.
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Everyone would be saved.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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It leads to a universalism if you take it in that context.
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All right.
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So we've looked at their argument for total depravity, which is to say that men cannot come to God in their own free will for salvation is false.
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I will tell you this based on what Jesus said, based on many other texts of Scripture, but based just on what Jesus said, no one can come unless the father grants it to him and all the father grants will come.
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All the father gives will come based on just those two passages alone.
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His first argument is no.
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Because he has not addressed those most important things.
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All right, so let's move on.
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Unconditional election, Calvin taught that God chooses who gets saved and that person has no choice in the matter.
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This is ridiculous.
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Well, let me just stop there and say this is ridiculous.
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This is probably the most ridiculous way I've ever heard it explained.
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But we'll continue.
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Calvin taught that God chooses who gets saved and that that person has no choice in the matter.
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This is ridiculous.
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The Bible again teaches the free will of man at 1730 commands all men everywhere to repent.
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Why would the Bible command all men to repent if God only chooses some to be saved? Well, the simple answer to that question, I'm glad it comes in the form of a question because I can answer it.
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Why does God command all men everywhere to repent? Because that is his holy standard.
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That is what he has commanded all men to do.
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God has commanded all men to repent.
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But guess what? Apart from his grace, no one will repent.
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Does it negate that? And somebody might say, well, is it unfair for God to command us to do something we can't do? He says, be perfect for your father in heaven who is perfect.
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God has given God commanded ten things.
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Have no other God before the Lord.
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Do not commit.
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Do not have any.
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I'm sorry.
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Let me start again.
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Do not have any gods before the Lord.
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Do not take the Lord's name in vain.
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Honor your father and mother, not commit murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not lie, not covet.
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He's given us ten commandments.
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Let me ask you a question.
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Has anybody in here fully kept the ten commandments? Has anybody in here kept one of them perfectly? And I'd say, well, I've never committed adultery.
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Jesus says, if you've ever looked with lust in your heart, then you've committed adultery in your heart.
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You're a breaker of all ten commandments.
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Guess what? It doesn't negate the fact that God commanded them.
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So to say that God can't command something just because you can't do it.
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That's false.
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
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Anybody perfect of doing that command? No.
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Does it stop God from commanding it just because you can't do it? No.
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And to say so is utter ridiculousness.
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To say that God can't command something just because we can't do it is a falsehood.
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The Bible says in Romans 8 that we are unable to keep the law of God apart from his grace.
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Go to Romans 8.
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I'll show you something very important.
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Romans 8, because again, this argument is based on one thing.
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God won't command something that you can't do.
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Well, let's see.
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All right.
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Romans chapter eight.
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Go to verse six.
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Oh, I'm sorry.
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Verse five.
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For those who live according to the flesh, set their mind on the things of the flesh.
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But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit.
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For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
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For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
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Indeed, it cannot.
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Beloved, what is God's law? Well, it's a whole list of his commands.
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It's a whole list of things he said you must do.
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And yet, what does it say right here? It says right here that the person who is in the flesh, newsflash, that's everybody who's not in the spirit and everybody's not in the spirit before they get saved.
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Everybody who is in the flesh cannot keep the law of God, cannot do the law of God.
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And it says right here, even though the command is given, we can't do it.
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So to make the argument.
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To make the argument that God is bound to only give us commands which we might be able to achieve in the flesh is foolish, is absolute utter foolishness.
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And that's the argument that's being made.
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And to say the Bible teaches the free will of man at 1730, because God calls all men to everywhere to repent.
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That's that's false, because that is the command of God that all men will repent.
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All men have rejected his command, every single one of them.
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You rejected his command at some point before God opened your heart and changed your heart and you came to him as a result of his grace.
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You rejected his command.
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Amen.
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Did you reject his command? Absolutely.
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We all did.
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I like Acts 13, 48, if you want to just look at another passage in the same book to respond to what's being said, Acts 13, 48 is very important.
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The Gentiles have been preached the gospel.
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And this is what it says in Acts 13, 48.
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And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
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And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
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Hear that again.
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It says that when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
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And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
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It doesn't say as many who believe were appointed to eternal life.
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That's what they wanted to say.
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But that is not what it says.
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It says instead that the ones who were appointed to eternal life believed the result of God's appointment was faith.
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It wasn't faith which caused the appointment.
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The appointment had already been made.
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Have I lost everybody? Are you still with me? OK, because I know we're treading into deep territory.
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But this again, this lights my fire.
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You know, I spent many years teaching the other way.
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I really did.
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I thought I spent many years probably looking at documents just like these thinking, well, this is this must be true, because this is what all the guys are saying.
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Before spending some time in the word of God and realizing that much of what I had said was false.
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I remember sitting in front of my computer with my brother one day.
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I'm reading it to something on my computer and I'm telling I said, this is just wrong.
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He said, who wrote it? I said, I did.
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Did he say that? I didn't know.
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I wrote this and I look at it.
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I say I couldn't teach that now because God has opened my eyes to this.
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And I'm not mad.
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I'm not mad at this person for this.
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I'm not upset and saying, oh, well, you know, because I'm not that would be ill humble of me to be that way.
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I'm not mad or angry.
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I'm upset only in this sense.
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I feel like when someone says this is false, this is untrue, this is ugly, you know, this is death to a church without serious investigation.
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Then that does a disservice to the body as a whole.
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So my response is simply to do a service to you and to whoever hears this to say this and this is not deep enough.
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There have been great men who have disagreed on this.
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I mean, you have John Wesley and George Whitfield, two great men who were on different sides of this issue, but they still loved each other.
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They still respected each other, wrote back and forth, lived together for a while.
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And so, you know, I have good friends that I know believe this way.
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But I but I tell you what, this this type of calling it a killer and it kills churches, this type of thing is, you know, some of the biggest churches in America teach this theology.
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John MacArthur teaches a reformed theology, has a huge church.
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R.C.
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Sproul has a great church down in Lake Mary, teaches reformed theology, and people come hungering for the word of God.
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So don't tell me it kills churches.
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That's just that's just foolishness.
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All right, number three, limited atonement.
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Calvin taught that Jesus only died for those who would be saved.
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This is damnable heresy not taught in the Bible.
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Repeatedly, we are taught that God loved the world and that Christ died for all men.
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Second Peter 2 1 tells us that Jesus died for false prophets, even denying the Lord that bought them.
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Second Peter 2 1 there is the verse that they use.
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Second Peter 2 1, if you want to look at it with me, is interesting enough.
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Go back to second Peter here.
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Before we get into it, let me explain exactly what limited atonement teaches.
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Limited atonement teaches this.
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When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he died on the cross specifically for those who would believe in him, otherwise known as the elect.
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He did not die for everyone indiscriminately, but that he died specifically for those who would believe on him.
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Now, right away, I want you to think of this logically, because I believe it's taught biblically.
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But I want you to think of it just logically, because this is the one that often lights their fire.
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I remember standing inside of a bookstore next to a preacher.
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I was holding a book on reformed theology.
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He looked at the book, looked at me.
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I don't think he thought I was a preacher.
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I normally don't dress like one, except on Sundays and rarely on Wednesdays.
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But he was he looked at me.
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He says, were you studying that Calvinism stuff, reformed theology? I said, I said, yeah.
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And he said, he said, well, you know, I don't believe in all that.
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And I said, OK, you know, I said, well, at that time I was in seminary.
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I don't want to argue.
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I said, that's fine.
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I said, I'm just studying it for school.
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And I kind of went back to looking at my book, trying to get him not to talk to me.
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He missed the point because he kept talking to me.
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And he said, and he said, he said, you know what I don't like about it? And I just sort of know what you're going to tell me.
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I don't like that limited atonement stuff.
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I said, well, you believe in hell, don't you? And he said, well, yeah, I believe in hell.
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I said, well, then you believe in some way that the atonement of Christ is limited because the people in hell are suffering for their sin.
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So that his atonement didn't apply to them, right? I mean, you have to agree with that.
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Well, I believe everyone has a chance.
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I said, then your problem isn't with limited atonement.
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Your problem is with unconditional election.
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You need to learn the TULIP.
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Ain't like that.
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He said, well, whatever, and he walked away.
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But the point is, most people don't have a problem with limited atonement unless they hear it explained from a way which is like this in an appropriate way.
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Limited atonement simply is this, that Christ died for his people, that his people received the benefit of his blood and his atonement.
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Those people who are not his people, those people who die in unbelief and without faith do not receive the benefit of his atonement.
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And as such, will go to hell for their sins, one of which being the rejection of his atonement, the rejection of faith.
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That's a simple way of saying it.
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Here's what they don't like, though.
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They'll say, now, wait a minute, Pastor, wait a minute.
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They'll say, if that's the truth, then I can't walk up to somebody on the street and say, hey, Jesus died for you, Jesus, because I don't know if Jesus died for him or not.
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I can't go out and say, hey, Jesus died for you.
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I said, where in the Bible do you find one of the apostles using that as an evangelical method? Where do you find St.
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Peter walking up to somebody and saying, hey, Jesus died for you? That is a modern evangelical method that we have produced to create an emotional response, because any time you hear somebody died for you, that makes you feel kind of good towards them.
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It's a modern evangelical method based on Arminian theology, which has no root in Scripture.
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The root of Scripture for evangelism is repent and trust the Savior.
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Not Jesus died for you and has a good plan for your life.
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That's not the way we do evangelism.
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We call on men to repent, knowing that God knows who will and who will not.
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But we don't.
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People don't have a big E tattooed to their backside so we can't go around and lift up their shirt tail and see who's elected, who's not.
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We have to give the gospel to everyone and God's work will be done.
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Why we can evangelize, by the way, is because we don't know who is elected and who's not.
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Now, based on that, we go to 2 Peter 2.1, which a lot of people use to deny limited atonement, because it says the false prophets also arose among them, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
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Now, the word master there is the word despotation.
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The Greek is never used to describe Christ that I'm aware of.
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I could be corrected on that one.
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In essence, what is being said here is not that Christ's blood purchased them, but that they were claiming to be God's prophets.
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Again, this is one that a lot of people say, well, this is Jesus has died for them and purchased them.
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We don't see this word used to describe Jesus in the New Testament.
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This is not this is one that requires more study.
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I will grant this is a little bit more difficult one to look at, but it is one that I can be quite honest with you and say this is one that there is a deeper understanding, but it takes longer than we have tonight to go through it.
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It says denying the master who bought them.
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In essence, when we read the text, we understand at first and foremost that even if it is referring to Christ, if it says denying Jesus who bought them, you have to ask the question, is it referring to the purchase of redemption? Is it referring to their claiming of having received this redemption? Because all false prophets claim to have received this.
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It's sort of like the same situation we have in Hebrews six.
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In Hebrews six, we come across the situation where the person has tasted of the Holy Spirit or tasted of the heavenly gift, has been made partakers of the fellowship, but yet they leave.
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And why do they leave? It's demonstrated that they were never really part of the fellowship.
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First John tells us that they went out from among us, but they were never of us.
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By going out, they demonstrated that they were never of us.
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That was the whole thing.
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By leaving, they demonstrated that they were not truly of us.
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Again, limited atonement should be the least of the issues that is argued about, but however, it becomes the highest issue that they argue about.
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All right, let's go to number four, because we're really out of time here.
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Irresistible grace.
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Calvin taught that if God chooses a person to be saved and God forces himself upon that person doing what it takes to make them comply with his will.
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This, again, is, I think, very shallow in the way it's explaining it, but it goes on to say again, this violates the free will of humanity, which God has given to each individual.
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That word free will keeps coming up.
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By the way, in a few weeks, I'm going to be preaching a sermon on the subject of free will, because I think so many people misunderstand it.
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This is one of them.
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If you want to reject God's gift of eternal life, as many do, then God will let you go to the lake of fire.
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It is your choice alone to make.
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Second Thessalonians 1, 8, 9 pronounces judgment on them who disobey the gospel.
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I reject the good news of Christ crucified, buried and risen.
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If you trust upon Jesus Christ to forgive your sins, believing that he went to the cross for you to pay for your sins, was buried and has risen, then you are saved.
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Eternal life is a free gift which is received, not achieved.
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It is not what we're doing that gets us to heaven.
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It's what we're looking, it's where we're looking, look to Jesus.
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All right.
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Very simply.
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He said in the first line, Calvin taught, if God chooses a person to be saved and God forces himself upon that person doing what it takes to make them comply with his will very quickly, not that I'm going to spend all my night in John six, but go back to John six very quickly and then we're going to go to Romans 8, John 6, 37, says all the father gives me what will come to me.
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There's irresistible grace.
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That's what we mean when we say irresistible grace.
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We say that Jesus said, all the father gives me will come to me.
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That's without a doubt that when God gives you to Christ as a gift, by the way, if you come to Christ, guess what you are.
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Some people never thought of it this way, but you are a gift from the father to the son.
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In ancient times, a bride was sought out by the father for the son.
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The father would go out, find the bride, would pay the family a bride price or a dowry.
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That bride would then be given to the son as a gift.
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Beloved, that's the picture of salvation that we have in the Bible.
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God has sought us out.
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He has given us to the son as a gift.
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All the father gives me will come to me, Jesus says.
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That's irresistible grace.
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But there's even further in Romans 8, turn to Romans 8 with me.
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Romans 8, most of us know Romans 8, 28.
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In fact, most good self-respecting Baptists can quote Romans 8, 28, at least they can quote part of it because they'll say this, they'll say, all things work together for good.
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That's what they'll that's the quote that you usually hear.
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All things work together for good.
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What it actually says, at least in the ESV, is this.
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
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And then it goes on to say, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers.
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So right there it says something.
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It says God foreknew individuals and based on his foreknowing them, he predestined them to be conformed to the image of his son.
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Now, here is where you'll hear this used by the other side.
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They'll say this, they'll say, now, wait a minute, what that means when it says he foreknew them was that means that he looked down the corridors of time, he saw who was going to believe.
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And as a result of him seeing who was going to believe, he decided at that point to predestine them.
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Two issues I have with that.
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Number one, we've already seen that God's the one who draws, God's the one who grants, God's the one who gives to the son.
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So God had to see himself doing all that prior to him seeing them receive it.
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And number one, he saw himself do all that first.
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Number two issue I have with the assumption here is that prior to his looking at what you did, God didn't know.
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That assumes that God learned something that assumes that God does not have perfect knowledge of all things that assumes that God himself is not immutable because the act of learning is an act of change.
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And that says God can change.
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And that is an absolute rebuttal to basic Christian theology that God changes not its foolishness.
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But let me add a third caveat, because it's here in the text and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
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By the way, it says called there.
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That's important because later it says for those who before knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined, he also called and those whom he called.
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He justified and those whom he justified, he glorified beloved.
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It says right there, the first thing that happened was he predestined.
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Then he called.
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Then he justified.
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Then he glorified.
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Yeah, he's the one doing all the action.
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You have done nothing.
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But let me say this.
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The ones who say, well, God looked down the quarter of time, saw you respond to the call, and then he predestined.
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Guess what? That doesn't fit.
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Because the call in the Bible comes after he's already made the predestination.
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He only calls the predestined.
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Oh, now there's a hurtful thought.
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But that's what it says, those whom he predestined, he called and those whom he called, he justified.
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Thus, the ones who are justified are called.
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The ones who are called are predestined.
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Doesn't matter how we look at the word for new at that point, the word, the calling doesn't come until after he's already determined who he's going to call, who he's predestined, by the way, for new does not mean simply looking down the quarter of time, the word for new.
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And I have this many Bible dictionaries will back this up.
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It means to set an affection upon someone beforehand.
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The word no there when the Bible talks about God knowing someone, it doesn't talk about simply passive taking in of knowledge.
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Think of it when God said in Amos 3 to Israel, I have known of all the nations of the earth.
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Israel, I've known.
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What does it mean? He just knew them and all the other nations.
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He didn't mean he loved them.
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Knowing is a word of affection.
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When Jesus said he said on that day, many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, and yet I will say to them what depart from me.
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I never knew you.
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The word no doesn't just mean knowledge.
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It's an affection.
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It's a relationship.
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Adam knew Eve and they conceived and bore Cain.
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I don't think that just means he gave her a high five.
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The word no is perfection.
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It's relationship.
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It's more than just passive taking in of knowledge.
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Irresistible grace, as it is understood by us, is simply this.
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Prior to God opening up our heart, we will not believe because it is against our nature to do so.
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We do not have a natural desire to follow after Christ.
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Instead, we have a natural desire to rebel when God sets his affection upon us, predestines us and calls us at the moment in time which that calling is made real to us.
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Our heart is open to the gospel and we believe it and receive it as a result of his grace.
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That's all we call it, an irresistible grace, he opens our heart to believe it and receive it.
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It's not as if he's forcing himself on us.
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He's releasing us from the bounds of our sin so that we may embrace him.
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We are bound by sin.
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We cannot embrace him, but he releases our chains so that we can understand.
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OK, so just only a couple of minutes left or getting to the end perseverance of the saints.
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I want to add a caveat real quick.
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The Baptists, the Southern Baptists, teach eternal security, the eternal security as it has been explained by some Southern Baptists is this, that whenever you say, I believe in Jesus or exercise faith in whatever way they believe you have to raise your hand, come forward, get baptized, whatever, that from that point you have eternally gotten your ticket punched.
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That's it, that's you are eternally secure.
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So from that point, if you become a Jesus hating, atheistic, drug dealing, car stealing, whatever, no matter what marks your life after that moment, as long as you said, I believe in Jesus or whatever it is they say you have to do to ticket your punch or ticket that you are safe.
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Beloved, such a thing is that is heresy and it has become one of the one of the worst things that's happened to the church because it's so widely believed that people are willing to live lives of total abstinence from holiness, total abstinence from righteousness, to live totally sinful lives and say, hey, you know what? When I was seven years old, I went forward and old brother Larry baptized me.
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Well, I know I love Jesus.
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Such a thing is repugnant in the nostrils of God, such a smell is abominable, but it's what it's taught, what the reformed teaching is and has always been.
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And I don't think it's well articulated here, so I will tell you what it is and has always been.
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It's taken from Romans 8, 28.
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For whom he predestined, he called and Romans 8, 29, 30, for whom he predestined, he called, whom he called, he justified and whom he justified, he glorified.
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It doesn't say some who he justified got glorified.
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It said the person who was justified is glorified.
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That means in the mind of God, when we come to salvation, our salvation is secure.
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Now, how is our belief different than theirs? How is our belief different than what the Baptists are teaching? I will tell you, theirs comes from ours.
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Because historic Southern Baptist theology, and I will argue this one to the bone, historic Southern Baptist theology was reformed, we can make that point good, can't we, Richard? Who is it? Basil Manley and Broadman brought us, brought us and Manley to reformed teachers.
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That's where the term Broadman Press comes from.
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And if you don't get there, they're right.
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Absolutely.
58:54
Broadman Press is the is the Baptist press.
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And it's in Broadus and Manley are the ones that that name comes from.
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But they have changed it because this is what the historic perseverance of the Saints is, that once God opens our hearts and we believe the process of sanctification will begin and we will begin to be conformed to the image of Christ, because that's what we were predestined to.
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We were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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That process begins salvation and it will continue until we die.
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Now, does that mean we can't have times of great failure? No, we can have times of great failure because think about it.
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Simon Peter had a time of great failure.
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He rejected Christ three times.
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But Christ gave him that opportunity to get back on the narrow path.
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You know, he had fallen away.
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He not lost his salvation, but he had gone pretty far away from where he was.
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And Jesus gave him that opportunity to come back.
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Beloved, it's very simple.
01:00:00
The perseverance of the Saints is this, that when God changes the heart, the heart actually changes, the wants change, the desires change.
01:00:06
We actually desire to follow after Christ.
01:00:08
And when we don't follow after Christ, we have conviction upon our hearts in the form of discipline, because the Bible says in Hebrews 12, you receive discipline from the Father.
01:00:18
And if you don't, you're not his.
01:00:25
When it says here, Charismatics and Lordship Salvationists have adopted Calvin's heresy on perseverance.
01:00:32
First of all, you should never put the two in the same camp.
01:00:36
Charismatic and Lordship Salvationists, that's two totally different.
01:00:39
And to say that they're even close demonstrates an ignorance that is very, very deep.
01:00:45
Because the Charismatics believe this.
01:00:48
The Charismatics believe that you can be saved and then lost and then saved and then lost and then saved and then lost.
01:00:54
You can be saved on Sunday, lost on Wednesday if you've committed some kind of sin.
01:01:00
Beloved, that is not what Lordship Salvation teaches.
01:01:03
Lordship Salvation is what we teach, and it's very simple.
01:01:05
It's what I've been saying.
01:01:07
When God changes your heart, your heart will be changed and you will live a different life.
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Your life will change.
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And I will tell you this, if you think you've come to Christ and your life hasn't changed, then you haven't come to Christ.
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That's simple enough, but that's what the Bible teaches.
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Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
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You actually do what I commanded you to do.
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You'll actually follow me.
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Jesus said we need to count the cost before we pick up the cross.
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But people don't because they're not told to.
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They're not told they have to.
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They're not told they have to consider those things.
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Beloved, I could preach on this all night, but let me just finish by saying this.
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By saying that Lordship Salvationists and Charismatics are on par with one another is false because Charismatics believe you can lose your salvation, you can get it, you can lose it, you can get it.
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We believe that once you are saved, you are saved eternally.
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But this is the truth that many people believe they've been saved and haven't.
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And that's why when they fall away, it demonstrates something very, very important.
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It demonstrates that they were never there to begin with.
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Somebody falls away completely and utterly and rejects Jesus Christ as Lord, but once had him as their Lord.
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Beloved, I could tell you that person was never a follower of Jesus Christ.
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That's just important.
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The Bible is very clear.
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They went out from from us, but they were never of us, for if they had been with us, they would have they would have stayed with us.
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But they went out from us to demonstrate that they were not of us.
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All right.
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He says here, I've just shared a handful of powerful scriptures with you.
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Beloved, he gave no exegesis of those texts.
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He gave no attempt to apply them to the arguments.
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He just quoted them.
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And oh, you have to understand it because I'm quoting the Bible.
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No, you're not.
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You're just writing texts.
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God never chooses anyone for salvation.
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Well, let me look at Romans.
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Go back to Romans.
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Actually, you know what? There's all kinds of places we could go.
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How about how about where Jesus said my sheep know my voice? He said my sheep know my voice.
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And what did he say to the Pharisees? Yeah, he said, you don't believe because you're not my sheep.
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He didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe.
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He said you don't believe because you're not my sheep.
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That's an important difference.
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He didn't say you don't believe because you're not my sheep.
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No, that's what he did say.
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He didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe.
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He said the other way.
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Now, very quickly, Romans nine.
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Romans nine, because he says here, he says, God never chooses anyone for salvation.
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Well, did he ever choose anyone for damnation? Did he? Well, Romans chapter nine, they don't like Romans nine because they'll say, well, Romans nine doesn't have anything to do with individuals.
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Romans nine has everything to do with nations.
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That is false.
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I can demonstrate it from the text that that is false.
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And anybody who makes that argument is teaching a falsehood because it says in Romans nine, beginning at verse six, but it is not as though the word of God has failed.
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For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all who are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.
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But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
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For this is what the promise said about this time next year.
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I will return and Sarah will have a son.
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And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad.
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In order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.
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She was told the older will serve the younger as it is written.
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Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated.
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Right there we see individuals, not nations, and that's a wait a minute.
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Isaac was a nation and Esau was a nation.
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Or Jacob was a nation, Esau was a nation.
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We'll go back.
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Abraham was chosen as an individual.
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From Abraham's seed, Isaac was chosen as an individual from Isaac's seed.
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Jacob was chosen as an individual.
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You might say, well, his whole nation was chosen.
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I say to you, no, I say to you, there are many who were the sons of Jacob who went to hell.
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Think of the sons of Korah who the earth opened up and swallowed them.
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They were all sons of Jacob.
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Don't tell me this is national election.
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It goes on to say, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Why does Paul ask that? Because we're interpreting it correctly, because if we interpret it the way they do, there would be no question about injustice.
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Only if you interpret this properly, does Paul's next question make sense.
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He says, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means.
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For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
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God says it right there.
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I choose who to give mercy to.
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I choose who to give my compassion to.
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It's my choice.
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So then it depends not on human will or exertion.
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He's been talking about free will this whole time.
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It says it's not human will.
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It's not exertion, but on God who has mercy.
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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, here's the one he chose not to give his grace to.
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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you.
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And that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth so that he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.
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God chooses to give mercy and God chooses to harden.
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And it's his choice.
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I can't say it any clearer.
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You will say to me, then, why does God still find fault for who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, the thing that is molded, say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make his power known, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? In order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory.
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Even us, whom he has called.
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Oh, by the way, remember earlier when they said it was nations, nation of Israel and the Gentiles? Right here it says, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
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Proves that it's individuals and not nations.
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Right there in verse 24.
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I am firmly committed to my position, as you can imagine.
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I don't know if the debate will ever happen.
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Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
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But when I was handed this tonight, I was convinced it needed to be responded to.
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I pray that this has been encouraging to you.
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The rest of what he talks about here is about a gift and salvation limited to him.
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I think we've addressed everything.
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If you have other questions, write them down.
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I'll talk to you about him privately or I'd be happy to preach another message if you're if you're so inclined to stay an extra half hour.
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But let's finish up with a word of prayer.
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Father, thank you for this time we've had together to study.
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Thank you for the word of God, which gives us all that we need for life and breath and the ability to understand you and who you are.
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I do pray, Lord, that I've been honest with the word of God tonight, been truthful with it and that you'll use this time of study for us to move us in a direction closer to you.
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In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen.