Defending Calvinism: Unconditional Election

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When the Scribes and Pharisees asked our Lord about the greatest commandment, He replied, You shall love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

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So, why do we hear some of today's most prominent pastors saying things like this? It had everything to do with how we talk about the

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Bible, and specifically, or along with that, what we point to as the foundation of faith, which for most

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Christians, unfortunately, is the Bible. We need to do better.

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We need to love God with all our hearts, and stand unashamedly on the rock of His Word. We need to love the

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Lord with all of our souls, and respond to the worldview issues of our day with the wisdom and discernment that comes only from Him.

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We need to love the Lord with our minds, and understand the calling of God's people in every area of life in God's world.

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We need to love the Lord our God with all our strength, and face the work of building a life -giving, God -honouring culture.

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Join us for 10 days at the Runner Academy for Cultural Leadership, as we consider how the gospel influences all of life and culture, and the role that we have to play in applying foundational

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Christian thinking to every area of life. I would say if the authorities didn't want us involved in the public square, they ought not to have crucified

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Jesus in the public square. Use humanistic principles. It's the same idea. I would say that. I would say what's the problem with stardust bumping into stardust?

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In the, in the cosmic picture? No, there's no problem. In the cosmic picture, it won't matter. No, Mr.

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President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom. You are authorizing the destruction of freedom for one million little human beings every year.

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I'm sorry, my friends, but I am tired of seeing Jesus presented as a weak beggar.

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He is a powerful Saviour, and the gospel is not a suggestion.

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It is a command. Reverend Haller, don't you sympathize with that?

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I sympathize with every single human heart wishing to know the one true and living God, but I believe there's only one way that that can happen through Jesus Christ, and the gospel is about repenting of sin, not celebrating it.

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An amazing adventure.

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We will explore the spiritual abyss. You have not experienced this before.

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You're gonna love it. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying it was necessary that the

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Word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

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Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the

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Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the

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Word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

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What's up, everybody? That was Acts chapter 13. Welcome back to another episode, another year of Apologia Radio.

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Yeah, just gave it all away. Map. So we're working on that right now guys. Hey, I wanted to thank you all for another year to serve the

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Lord. We are of course in ourselves we realize unworthy to be a part of something so profoundly impactful and great as this ministry and so we're grateful to God for his work in all of us and in working through this ministry to bring the gospel to so many people.

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People have come out of the cults to Christ. People have fallen more in love with Jesus and been taught and equipped.

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People have learned to defend their faith through this ministry. And so I'm humbled by it constantly, grateful, feel completely unworthy to be a part of this.

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But praise the Lord for another year to serve him. I wanted to, as you guys are getting on here, this particular radio program is a continuation of a series that we've done it sort of piecemeal parts and pieces over the last couple of months defending

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Calvinism. We're going through the doctrines of grace, talking about the, we're really asking the question, how gracious is

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God's grace according to Scripture? How much of a gift is it? Is God fully sovereign over salvation or partially sovereign over salvation?

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God's election and choice. What does it depend on? Is it dependent upon the creature? Is it dependent upon my will?

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Is it dependent upon my works? Is it dependent upon my faith in Jesus when

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God chooses to save? On what basis does he do it? And why does he do it? And so we are going to talk about the atonement.

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Was it an actual atonement, a real atonement that actually accomplished redemption? Or was it potential?

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We're going to go into the Scripture. So we've done one now on the sovereignty of God. And then we did on total inability, total depravity.

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And so today's unconditional election. But before we get to it, as you guys are all getting in here right now, I wanted to fill you in on a couple things really, really important.

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I want to say a big thank you to everybody who's been a part of End Abortion Now with us. God has tremendously blessed this ministry.

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So many thousands of children are alive today as a result of this ministry. We've raised up about close to a thousand churches globally.

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We have equipped them to go out and to preach the gospel and to save lives at their local mills.

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And at this point, it is impossible for us to calculate how many have been saved and continue to be saved.

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We just had to save this morning locally. We just had to save. So praise the Lord for that. And I know

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I say this a lot. You guys have probably heard me say this enough. You know what I'm going to say. It's so easy for us to get jaded to miracles, to the supernatural, to the glory of God, because we're creatures and we're fallible and we blow it.

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And it's easy to get jaded even to that statement I just made. That through this ministry,

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God has saved thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children from death. It's easy to get jaded to that and just sort of just, you know, lose sight of just how amazing that is.

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But I don't ever want to lose sight of it. You heard me say that. We've said that regularly. We don't want to lose sight of it. We don't want to diminish the glory of all these lives that have been saved.

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And so I want to thank you for being a part of that ministry with us. Many of you guys know we've been able to get bills of equal protection and abolition into states across the union.

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We've been able to support brothers and sisters, pastors and churches and organizations that have gotten their own bills into particular states.

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We've been a backup to them and a support to them. That's all been through your giving and you being a part of this ministry with us.

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But this next session, we're in January now, and so many of these sessions have already begun. We have prospectively 18 states with commitments for bills of equal protection.

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That's a very big deal. That's huge. Years ago we were just begging God for one, and now we have first session of the year.

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We've got 18 potential. We're talking Georgia, we're talking Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, Colorado.

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It really is Kentucky. It's happening across the country. And again, many of these are bills that we have been able to talk to legislators to get into place.

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Some of them are bills that we're supporting and we're backing other guys up who got them in, but it's happening. And so I just wanted you guys to know

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God is saving lives. This fight really in many ways is only just beginning in a sense because because rows going away and where the lines are being drawn,

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Ohio ballot measure, putting it into the Constitution. The fight is on. It's not over.

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We haven't won. Justice isn't established. And I need to say that clearly because there's so many Christians. Unfortunately, I think because row went away, that means that this whole thing is we're basically summed up.

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We're wrapped up. No, we are really just starting this thing. And now that we have this major obstacle out of the way, and so we need you for this year.

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I look forward, you've heard me say this again too a thousand times, and they will attest to this. We all say this.

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We look forward to the day where we never ask for another penny for this issue. We don't want to.

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We don't want to send an industry. We want this to go away. We want to wash our hands of it and walk away from it. But in the meantime, we need you to stand with us and please give.

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At inabortionnow .com, go to the donate tab, give. We have a substantial budget for this year because of all the work the

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Lord has before us. We need you to participate with us. If you can give, please give there because we definitely need it to do what we're doing.

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It is a tremendous cost to get these bills in and to train the legislators and to get those pastors in that state mobilized.

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It is a tremendous cost. And so please stand with us and help us to raise up more churches, help us to save more lives.

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And so before we get into the show, I wanted to play something because some of you guys, you've seen this a lot. And some people are like, what is that?

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A tobacco patch or a nicotine patch or something? Nicotine patch? Um Not nicotine, it's straight tobacco.

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I got almost a tobacco patch. I just, I just take the leaves and put them right under there. In the reform world,

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I could see someone making that. Yeah. Yeah. So you guys have seen this a lot. This is the ion layer patch. It's an

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NAD patch and some of you guys have, you know, you've gotten on it as well and you've talked about how it's really blessed your life.

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You've heard me talking about how when my wife started this, she got over her long COVID symptoms, which were with her for about two years.

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You've heard me talking about the clarity of thought that I've had since I've been using this, the recovery, just feeling strong and youthful.

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NAD is a necessary part of your body's chemistry. If you went without it for 30 seconds, you would die.

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The nickname of NAD is the fountain of youth because it's what your body has in an abundance when you're young that basically causes your system to work like it's supposed to work and then as you get older you lose so much of it.

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And so this is a way to get it now. I wanted to, because I've told you about it before and why it took me so long to actually do it.

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And so I'm going to play this clip. This is my friend Ben Greenfield and he's on Joe Rogan talking about NAD and I figured it'd be good to just play just a clip, a small clip of this so you get a better understanding of like why this is actually a very big deal to have it in a patch that doesn't hurt.

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Here is Ben. Now this NAD, you can get these injections or IVs now and it is something that enhances your own stem cell proliferation but it is one of the most potent anti -aging molecules you can put into your body in terms of decreasing the rate at which your telomeres shorten.

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So you've probably heard a lot of these sirtuin rich foods like blueberries and cacao and chocolate and resveratrol and a lot of them work, but the most powerful of any of these is

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NAD and your NAD to NADH ratio is highly reflective of your telomere health.

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And these are the most horribly painful and uncomfortable injections or IVs you would ever get in your life.

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You can do it orally. There's a capsule. There's companies like Elysium and Niagen that sell

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NR. I take that stuff. Nicotinamide riboside. It's a precursor to NAD but it doesn't hold a candle to just mainlining it into your bloodstream.

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And how do you get it? Where do you get it from? So one way to do it is in a medical clinic you can get a six to eight hour

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IV. You bring your laptop in, you work away and some people do this on a monthly basis. Just six to eight hours of NAD.

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It's a long drip. Some of the guys down on it do it and they'll have a nurse come in and push it a little bit more quickly.

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That's like an hour long IV. Is it just beneficial to do it short like that?

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It's way more uncomfortable. The shorter you get the more uncomfortable it gets because you're pushing this stuff into your bloodstream more quickly and it feels like your whole body is on fire.

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I mean you have to box breathe and close your eyes and meditate. Is it painful? It's like have you ever done

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DMT? It's like DMT, but you're on fire and getting punched in the gut at the same time and you feel like your heart's going to explode.

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So that's why I took so long to do it. So I heard about it for a long time, researched it.

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It is fantastic. The benefit it has to your body. But my friends told me about it that did it and like it really just revolutionized their healing process from surgery.

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And that was why I was like, I'm just like not ready for this because I know that it's like an elephant on your chest.

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But when you're done you feel like Iron Man. You can break down a wall. Anyway, so when

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I learned about Ion Layer great Christian dudes, love the Lord, solid, solid dudes.

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When I heard about Ion Layer that it's a medical patch that goes through your gets into your system through your skin over like 10 to 14 hours and there's no pain.

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I was like sign me up for that and so started it months ago and I've truly when

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I have it on it's like man, I can feel the difference. It's incredible. So Ion Layer, great company.

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We love these guys. I'm doing it and that's why we're talking about it. So they have a special thing for you guys right now.

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Ion Layer patches. It's a promotion for all of our ministry partners. It's a promo code

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IONAPOLOGIA, I -O -N -A -P -O -L -O -G -I -A. And here is what it is.

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It's $100 off your first three Ion Layer kits. So like you get a kit a month and you get $100 off every one.

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Now mind you, can I say this real fast? I don't want to belabor this too much, but those NAD drips that Ben was talking about, the really painful ones, those can be like $700, $850 drips.

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I mean, they're expensive. They are well, well worth it, but they're very expensive, painful and expensive.

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With this kit, you get a number of NAD treatments and you get it like so cheap in comparison to that.

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So from now until January 10th, if you wanted to try the NAD treatment and do Ion Layer, $100 off your first three

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Ion Layer kits and your promo code is IONAPOLOGIA. It is fantastic.

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$100 off your first three months of NAD kits with any membership with IONAPOLOGIA, that code.

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Cancel any time and it's a 30 -day 100 % money back guarantee. Love those guys.

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I love this. This is the kind of thing I truly can get behind because I love when human beings work to improve the quality of human life or the preservation of human life.

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And this is one of those things. And so that's why I really, really love this. I legitimately really was doing this anyways and will continue to do this anyways.

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And so this is something I think blesses people's lives. And so there you go, Luke. We got one more and then we're getting into the show.

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Yeah, so fun fact, which welcome back, by the way, it's been a minute since we had the whole crew back together.

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Yeah. Did you guys know that most of the investigations done by CPS were of innocent parents?

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Over 83 % of these children were determined not to be victims of child abuse or neglect.

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83%. I would believe that in a minute. So that's why if you're a homeschooling family, you should be signed up with Heritage Defense.

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What does it do? Tell everyone what it does. It protects you. What'd it do? So what'd it do, baby boo? So if any,

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I mean CPS specifically or DCS as it's now called in Arizona, they come to your door and they want to investigate.

19:12

They want to talk to you. You just dial the number when you're a member of Heritage Defense. Dial up the number and say, here, talk to my lawyer.

19:18

There's a lawyer on call. Half the time, it's our good friend Bradley Pierce who's been on the show quite a few times.

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And you let them talk to him and you got some legal protection. If you're homeschooling, you need

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Heritage Defense for sure. As a matter of fact, I would just say generally the way things are going in our culture,

19:37

Heritage Defense is going to be very important for Christians to have. We have beliefs that go against the status quo and as the government gets more tyrannical, it'd be nice to have a lawyer on speed dial.

19:49

So if someone shows up at your door because of what you're saying publicly or posting on your social media, you're able to protect your family.

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We are telling you about things that we genuinely believe in, get behind, and we do ourselves. These are important things and these are people who really support us as a ministry.

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And so how does it get? So you go to heritagedefense .com and you can in the coupon code put in apologia and get

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I believe it's the first month free. It's honestly not that expensive at all. It's really reasonable.

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So if you're a homeschool family, you have to have it and it's just a it's you don't have to pay per kid or anything. It's just a one fee.

20:24

So do it. Do it. All right. Welcome back. And again, hello, everybody.

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I've been gone for a while. So the guys held things down in a wonderful way here while I was gone.

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I had to go back and forth to a different state over a two -month time period to visit

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NICU. Two different hospitals, two different NICUs with two different babies, born premature, twins.

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And one had a massive, a massive go at some difficult things.

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I'll tell you that when the adoption decree is official, I will tell you the whole story and tell you a lot actually.

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But for now, big praise to God. The girls, the twins are at home. The adoption placement has been is on us.

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And so we're just waiting right now for the time period that's necessary for the official court's decree. So we have two babies in my house right now, which is it's interesting.

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So if over the next few months you see me looking like I'm without any sleep, you are correct.

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As in last night, no sleep. Just assume it. Just assume that I'm it's as bad as I look.

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Yeah. So big praise to God, though, that they're alive and well and at home with us and doing well.

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So we're back now. New year. Like what should we talk about this week?

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Why don't we talk about the gospel? Why don't we talk about the glory of God? Why don't we talk about the grace of God and salvation?

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Now, it's really important. I know we have a lot of listeners and supporters that are supporters of this ministry that you're not professing to be reformed or Calvinistic in your soteriology.

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You don't necessarily hold to all the points of Calvinism, the five points in TULIP. And we love you, and the

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Lord loves you, and we can serve the Lord together holding around the essential gospel. But what is important to us in terms of like, well, why are you reformed?

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And why do you hold to the doctrines of grace? I would say, well, I'm reformed primarily because of a fundamental principle in reformational theology, and that is that the scriptures are the sole and fallible rule of faith.

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And so with that, if we go to the Bible and say, what does the Bible say about the grace of God and salvation?

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What does the Bible say about the sovereignty of God? I believe that drives you to a necessary conclusion in terms of a systematic way of looking at this, and that is the doctrines of grace in salvation.

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And so why do this? Why talk about this if it's an area of controversy? My position on it is

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I believe this is important because the Bible talks so much about this. That's why I think it's important.

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If God spends entire discourses explaining his grace and salvation and his sovereignty and predestination and election and the gifts of repentance and gifts of faith, if God spends so much time talking about it,

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I believe in the perspicuity of Scripture. I believe in the clarity of Scripture. The Scripture is clear. And I believe that if God speaks about it, so should we.

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And it doesn't mean that all of us are perfectly together in all of our theological commitments and that all of us don't have gaps or maybe some inconsistencies here or there.

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It's... addressing this issue is an issue of defending the grace and glory of God in salvation.

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That's where our heart is in this discussion. It's not just this theological discussion up here.

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It's not to create division. It's not to be haughty or prideful in theology.

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It's not to be part of a club. So, by the way, you remember when we first started Apology Radio, there was this huge movement towards Calvinism.

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The Young Restless Reformed. Proud card -carrying member. That's right.

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Which kind of is a contradiction. Huge movement towards Calvinism and Reformed theology.

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And that the challenge, I think, with it was is that at the time Calvinism was cool. Right? It was cool.

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You had guys with with beards and you had guys with cigars and it's kind of like a, you know, that's a cool little click to be a part of.

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And I was fearful then, and we talked about it early on, there are so many people that were becoming Calvinists or Reformed who didn't really even understand why they were.

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Like when I was officially becoming Reformed and Calvinistic, I had spent just so much time just digging into the scriptures and fighting and like, what does the text say?

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It wasn't challenging my traditions. And at the time it wasn't cool to be Calvinist, especially in the circles that I was in.

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I was like around Calvary Chapel guys and all that stuff. So it wasn't cool for me to like become

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Reformed and to believe the doctrines of grace. I was fearful early on as we started

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Apology Radio, as you saw this movement of people becoming Reformed and Calvinistic that they don't even know why they're doing it.

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They don't even know why they're believing it. It's like they're just joining a click. They're clicking up. This is my crew.

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I like this. It's a cool little culture. And I was fearful then that, you know, you don't know why you're really doing this and the commitments aren't really there.

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I think there's a draw to some of the aspects of it. There was like, this is almost like a faux masculinity too.

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There's beards, there's pipes, there's men wearing flannel, you know, they're smoking cigars, all these things.

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And so there was the allure of that aspect too, of the young men were hungry for community -rich masculinity.

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Yeah, right. Like I want to be a part of that. And a concern for the scriptures and theology.

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Yeah, that's a big point. The aesthetic wasn't the main thing, but that was definitely a big point of it.

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The culture was a big point. Sorry. Excuse me. So, not

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COVID. Don't worry. No, those are the warm people. Don't worry, it's not COVID. Don't make that noise in here. But I think when you have seen so many people who, you know, truly became reformed and understood why this is important and they still are today, that's great.

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But you see so many people that eventually just sort of fell off and said, no, I don't really buy that anymore. I don't believe it anymore. Or they just started off very intensely wielding it as a battle axe to chop other

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Christians down. Yeah, to hurt other people. It's the cage stage, right? Exactly. But you see so many people that have said, well, I was a Calvinist, you know, 10 years ago.

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No, I'm not. And you see them even arguing against it today. You're like, you're arguing against a straw man.

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Like, reformed folks don't believe that. And like, how did you not know the answer to that? That's been written about and spoken about so many times.

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How'd you miss it? You know, it's like, well, they didn't really have the grounding of the scriptures underneath them in the first place to say, this is why

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I believe what I believe. So all that to say, we are doing this series, and I'm not sure how long it'll take us, but we're doing this series -

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As long as it needs. Because we want to defend the grace of God in salvation. Now, this is vitally important to get.

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Everyone needs to understand this. If you are a professing Christian, you can't get away from the word grace.

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Sure. You can't get away from believing it. You can't get away from preaching it.

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You can't get away from teaching it. You can't get away from professing a trust in the grace of God. And it's important because what

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Reformed theology, and specifically the doctrines of grace, really do is they explain the grace of God in salvation and just how much of a gift that it actually is.

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Saying things like, the grace is not merely necessary, but it is sufficient.

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That it is powerful. God's grace is a powerful grace. It is a grace that works for God's purposes.

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When God gives the gift of grace, it is a powerful grace. It is a sufficient grace.

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Now, I want to say this. Roman Catholicism, it's interesting. You talk to some

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Christians who are maybe just ignorant, and I don't mean in a bad way, but just ignorant. They just don't know of the real issues of divide between Rome and Christianity or the gospel itself.

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When they get in a conversation with a Roman Catholic, the Catholic would say, we believe absolutely the salvations of grace.

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It's all of God's grace. It's grace. God has to give grace. He has to give this grace. And a

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Christian goes, oh, I'm kind of dumbfounded now. I thought that you guys were just a workspace salvation thing. It's like, no, we believe grace is absolutely necessary.

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We're only saved by the grace of God. But as you dig into the system, you realize that it's not a grace that's sufficient.

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It's a grace that sort of is moving to start, but then there has to be this synergistic cooperation.

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It's a partnering grace. That's a good way to put that. There's this synergism that has to happen between the rebel sinner and God.

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God moves with some grace. You've got to cooperate a bit with that grace and keep cooperating in Rome with that grace through the sacraments and all the different things, and make sure that you have enough righteousness in yourself.

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So that's going to determine a lot of things, purgatory, how much time in purgatory, all that stuff. But acknowledge this, that Mormonism talks about grace.

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The Watchtower talks about grace. Roman Catholicism talks about grace. Arminians talk about grace. Leighton Flowers talks about grace.

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But the question is, is how gracious is God's grace according to the scriptures? And that's the issue.

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And so we have done the sovereignty of God. We talked about, and we got this from Pastor James, Tulip is the acrostic, however you use it,

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T -U -L -I -P, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the

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Saints. James has said it really should be stulip, you know, an S, because the

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S is the guiding thing there, the sovereignty of God, the rule of God, the control of God over all things.

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So we did that, we did Total Depravity, and Total Depravity is sometimes often, it's called?

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Total Inability. Total Inability. And it really speaks to the ability of a fallen person in Adam.

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What are their abilities? How dead are they? Are they spiritually sick? Are they able to seek for God?

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Are they able to believe? These are the questions that are asked. What really separates the

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Reformed from really all other religions is a consistent perspective in terms of what the

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Bible says about the condition of a sinner in this world. What are their spiritual abilities?

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Do they seek for God? Is there anyone good? Are they able to come to Jesus?

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Apart from the drawing of the Father, can they do what is pleasing in God's sight while they are in the flesh and not regenerate?

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Is that even possible? And so we did Total Inability. If you haven't seen that, look it up on the channel, look through the live feed and you'll see the

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Total Inability one that we did. Today is Unconditional Election. Whatever does that mean?

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Well, in the acrostic, Tulip, you have Total Inability, Unconditional Election.

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What's that mean? That was aiming, that is aiming at the question of when

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God chooses to save, on what basis does he do it? How gracious is his grace in election?

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So you can't get away from like grace, faith, death of Christ, resurrection of Christ.

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These are things you can't move away from in scripture, but you also can't get away from things like predestined, election, called.

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These are all biblical terms, concepts that run throughout the record of redemptive history from Genesis to Revelation.

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You can't get away from this. And so you have to answer it. And the question is, will you answer the question about God's sovereign grace?

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Will you answer the question about God's choosing and election and predestining and calling? Will you answer it based upon some a priori system and understanding and presuppositions that you pour into that, or will you allow the text of God's word and his revelation just to tell you this is what it's like?

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Here's how God does it. Will you allow the text to tell you, rather than coming in with your preconceived ideas of what is just, what is fair, how

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God should do this, will you go and let the text speak, or will you go to it and say, well,

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I don't like this concept of election and predestination and God's choosing, and so I'm going to try to recover

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God's reputation for him, because I don't like a God who just chooses by his sovereign grace and his own sovereign will.

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I don't like a God who does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done?

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I don't like a God who declares the end from the beginning. I don't like a God who says, you did not choose me, but I chose you.

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I don't like that, and so I want it to look a certain way, so I'm going to pour into those texts something else. What do we want to say as Reformed folks?

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What's the Bible say? What's the Bible say? Look, there are things in the Bible that make me uncomfortable. They make me uncomfortable.

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There's a lot of violence in the Bible. Killing a thousand dudes with the jawbone of an ass is violent, right?

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That's violence. Like, what Lot's daughters do with him is uncomfortable, right?

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It's an uncomfortable thing to talk about. There's a lot of things in the Bible that are uncomfortable, but we don't have the right to go to the revelation of God and distort it because it goes against my own cultural beliefs or my own traditions or my own theological commitments.

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What does the Bible say? What do the Scriptures say? And so that's where this is coming from in terms of unconditional election.

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When God looks, when God saves, and I'll kick it over to you guys here. When God saves and choose, well,

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I should say better. When God chooses to save, does he do so based upon learning something about history and seeing who would believe in him?

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Like, does God look through time and say, I know that person will believe in me, so on the basis that they've chosen me,

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I'll choose them. Or that they will choose me, I'll choose them. Or on the basis of the fact that they will come to me,

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I will then choose them and elect them. Or the basis that they'll believe in me. Or whatever the case may be, like their will will be amenable to my grace, and so I'll choose them on that basis.

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Or do we take the biblical standard? There is none righteous. No, not one. None who seeks for God.

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None who does good. Do we take that perspective and say, okay, let's just say that God did look through time or his knowledge of time was such that he could look at sinners and see what they would do.

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Well, what would that mean for humanity? It would mean that no one's seeking for God. No one's coming to God.

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No one has the ability to come to God, John 6, 44. No one is able to come to me. So on what basis does

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God choose? Foreseen faith? The fact that he knows that they're going to be a certain way? That's why total inability was so important to get right.

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If you establish the condition of man, what he's actually capable of, you understand the necessity of God's free, electing, sovereign grace, right?

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Does God look down through history for choice meat? Right? And decide, well, that's a choice meat, so I'll choose on that basis, or whatever excuses people come up with.

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Or do we take the testimony of Scripture? That the wicked go astray from the womb, that we are dead in our sins and trespasses by nature, children of wrath, that we are non -God seekers, we don't do good, and we're unable to come to Jesus.

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No one is able to come to me, unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up.

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The one the father draws, Jesus raises up. On what basis? Is it something in the creature?

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Is it according to their will, or the flesh, or their own believing? And then God says, okay, I'll choose you on that basis that you really chose me, like that you will choose me.

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When God elects, how does this all work out? Yeah, well,

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I was going to say, I'm glad you brought up that point. I'm just going to quickly say that what's important to understand if you're new to this conversation is that each one of these points is all connected to one another.

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And the reason it's laid out a certain way is because they build upon one another. So you can't just cherry pick these points and have them stand alone.

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I mean, it doesn't make them untrue, but they all are connected to one another, and they all rise together, fall together.

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It's important to understand that. Well, a way I would express that is you're exactly right,

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Pastor Luke, that it is a coherent biblical system. It's a coherent biblical system.

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And that's why they're all connected, because I believe the Bible is clear on this. And that's why they all work together so well, because it's a view towards, well, what's the condition of man?

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How does the grace of God affect that? How does God choose to elect? On what basis? And then what did the death of Christ actually accomplish?

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And what is the Holy Spirit able to do in salvation? Can he be thwarted by the will of man?

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And then in terms of when God saves, does the Holy Spirit cause that person to persevere?

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Does God finish what he has started? Is he able to bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ, as Paul says?

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And so these are all the things that swirl around this whole discussion. But in terms of this discussion of unconditional election, unless you have something you want to throw in.

37:55

Oh, we're already 30 minutes in. Oh, yeah, go. We're actually arrived. I'm going to get you guys set here now.

38:01

We're going to run through a lot of scripture today. I mean, that's really the key issue, right? That's what we're asking. What does the Bible teach?

38:07

Let's run through scripture together and let's do it that way. Man, that smells good. Does it? Through the bag.

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You can go to shop .apologyastudios .com and get your own pre -sip coffee. Man, that smells good.

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It's so yummy. It's the smell of covenant, right? We also... I've been... Yes, it threw me off.

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so you can go there and get that. I just put up right before Christmas, I did a Five Solids collection, which

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I'm very excited about as well. So yeah, wanted to make sure you guys go get that.

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Go to Apologyastore at Apologyastudios .com. And then as we've been talking about our friend

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Bill Rapier and Amtek Blades, just want to show you guys again because this thing is so amazing.

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Man, we get to hang out with him in a month. I know. Bill Rapier, Dev Gru, SEAL Team 6. He's going to be leading our man camp.

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I don't think the men in our church understand how awesome this is. I don't think they understand. No, because I'm like, if you Google him, you're not going to find anything.

39:19

So they don't get it. I should tell you everything you need to know. Bill Rapier, SEAL Team 6, Dev Gru. He doesn't exist.

39:26

Yeah. He's a legend. Legendary Navy SEAL and loves the Lord and is an elder. And that's all true.

39:33

One thing I just was looking at some of the talking points here I didn't realize before. Well, I did know there's a ferro router here.

39:40

So if you're ever stranded, you can just chip that off and start a fire. But there's this Velcro patch pocket thing on the back and you can actually hide or store some little tender and stuff in there.

39:52

That's sweet. I'll say, too, it's a perfect size self -defense weapon as well.

40:01

Not too big. And this hooks into your belt really well, gentlemen, where it's very difficult to get off.

40:08

You have to work to get it off. I can. It's hard to get on. Yeah, which is great. That's what you want. Something that's not going to fall around.

40:15

And it's the best hook that I've seen on a knife ever, ever.

40:22

And I love knives and knife fighting. This is really a fantastic size blade for self -defense.

40:30

The handle is excellent. It's great for your grip and where this closes in.

40:35

So your hand's not going to slide off. Believe it or not, if you have to use it for self -defense, it's going to get really wet and hard to handle.

40:42

And so the way the grip is, I know I got really violent. This is like HSN, but for men.

40:48

So the grip is excellent in terms of substances getting in and making it hard to hold.

40:55

This at the bottom here is really important because it gets really slippery when you're using it in self -defense situations.

41:00

So it holds into your hand really well. And it's not too long. And man,

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I will tell you this, sharp. I can tell from here. It is really sharp.

41:14

This is a razor blade. Let me tell you something. Who needs the jawbone of an ass when you have a

41:19

Northman X? Our weapons have become more sophisticated. So you can go to amtechblades .com.

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And when you go to checkout, put an apology in the coupon code. You wonder how awesome Bill is. Not only are we doing a partnership with him and Apologia Studios.

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So he's going to give some money back to us if you go and buy one of these.

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41:46

And a portion of that is going to help save some babies. Save some lives. Take some lives.

41:54

It's all context. It's all categories. All categories. Someone's going to cut that out.

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It's a necessary category in a fallen world. All right. I'm going to give you guys a resource.

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There's so many of these out here. But just as a resource for you to just go to a place and just start to dive in.

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It was the text of God's word that ultimately convinced me. That's where I was. I had held to traditions that were contrary to what

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I believe now. But it was the text that did me in. And so there's so many. Here's one.

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Thecalvinist .net has a good section on verses for unconditional election.

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I'm going to run through some of these with you so you can go back to them later. And again, there's so many resources like this online. This is just one

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I just grabbed. And there are some general verses here regarding unconditional election.

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And so I'm going to read through some of these. We'll unpack some of them.

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But let's think through them together and talk about implications and those sorts of things. Matthew 11, 25 through 30.

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It says, at that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

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Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. Jesus calls that the gracious will of the

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Father, that he's hidden it from some and given it to others. Jesus is the incarnate

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God. He says that's the gracious will of God. To hide it from some and then give it to others.

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All things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows the son except the father.

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And no one knows the father except the son. And anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

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It's a good springboard point. I think one of the most helpful ways to think about this too is whose will is ultimately decisive for salvation?

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Yeah. Is it God's or is it the creature's? Right. Whose will is the decisive element of determining whether someone is saved or not?

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And for those who would say the Bible is clear in terms of this point, we would say it's

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God's will that is ultimately the free will. Right. The ultimately sovereign will in that he saves on the basis of his own good pleasure.

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Yes. In the same way that he does what he pleases in all of creation, right?

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Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. That principle is just taken and applied to the destiny of his creatures in this regard.

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Yes. And so the simple statement of unconditional election is that God himself demands certain conditions, but he himself satisfies the conditions by grace.

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Yeah. Grace is the means by which he satisfies those conditions. And he elects according to an action in eternity past, right?

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So this is of an ancient times before creation. Ephesians one says before the foundations of the earth were laid, right?

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God did this. He elected you unto eternal life. He chose you in him, in Christ.

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This was an action that God undertook in the past according to his own divine decree, which is another word that comes up a lot in reform circles.

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God has a decree. There is a infinitely wise and holy council that God maintains for himself.

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Sovereign determination. And he doesn't take into account our counsel to determine what he will or won't do.

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And that's what really bothers the creature is that God isn't waiting for your input.

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This is an action he's already decided upon before the foundations of the earth were laid. And the actions that he takes are that he bestows grace to whom he pleases.

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And he withholds it as he pleases. Right. And this is really important. That's a perfect point. He withholds it from whom he pleases.

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And he gives it to whom he pleases. Well, the text here says, I thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to little children.

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For such was your gracious will. And someone goes, that doesn't sound gracious to me. You've got these people over here that he hides it from them.

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That's not fair. And he gives it to the little children over here. That's not really fair. And when you say that's not fair, what you're not understanding is that actually

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Jesus is God incarnate in the flesh, stepping into history to bring about redemption for his people.

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And he's referring to people that are in the same camp. The wise and understanding and the little children all are one lump, all sinners.

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They're not morally neutral. Now, if these wise and understanding people that Jesus refers to were somehow in themselves righteous, right?

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Or they were just clamoring and trying to crawl to God, and God's like, nope, no thanks.

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Well, yeah, if they're morally neutral or something like that, it's like, well, yeah, that does seem kind of inconsistent and unfair.

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The problem is that the wise and understanding and the little children are all part of this massive humanity. They're all fallen rebels, sinners, haters of God.

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And so when Jesus is saying, and God's chosen to reveal it to these little children, and that's his gracious will, that's his gracious will, his choosing,

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I will give you grace. All sinful, wise and understanding, little children, all sinful, but I'm giving it to you, such as the father's gracious will.

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That's because all of them deserve the same thing. Hell, all of them are on the same level ground, all rebellious.

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That's the point is it's not on the basis of dessert, right? And I don't mean dessert like what you eat. Yeah, we get donuts.

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I'm talking about what you have coming to you. The Bible is clear about what you have coming to you. The wages of sin is death.

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If you don't have Christ and you're not in him from before the foundation of the world, then you're gonna get your paycheck down to the last penny.

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That's the message of scripture is this is your natural estate. And it takes the grace of God to rescue you from that estate.

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And obviously that happens in time, but divine election, sovereign election is a choice that God undertakes.

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Apart from our input, it's not drawn by some, you know, foreseen reaction, response, or activity of the elect.

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Like you pointed out, God's not looking down the quarters of time to see who will and won't believe in him or trust in him.

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Or, you know, did this guy have a really good smile? And was this woman intelligent? It's not on the basis of a deserving aspect whatsoever.

48:34

I think which also militates against our present apostate age tremendously, because everyone has such a sense of entitlement, right?

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I'm owed this, I deserve this. And you have to come to a point where you acknowledge something.

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If God deals with us on the basis of mercy, that means that he owes me nothing. Everything that I have is a result of his free and gracious condescension.

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He does not owe me one gospel sermon to believe. That's right. Not one. And yet he did it.

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And we praise him for that and we marvel. That's why it's to the praise of his glorious grace. But it's not on the basis, the cry of our heart should never be,

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Lord, give me what I've earned. It's give me what Christ has earned. Right. That's exactly the point.

49:20

Well, I was just gonna say, I think this just goes back to the garden. The whole pushback against this goes back to the garden.

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Like, that's not fair. I can't eat from that tree. Like, that's not fair. You know, the point is that everyone wants their little slice of autonomy, right?

49:35

And that's what this is about. That's the inherent problem of humanity. It goes back right to the garden. And so that's the ultimate issue here is everyone wants, they want to have their part in salvation.

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And those, again, that are pushing back against this position, it's like, well, no, I said the prayer.

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You know, I accepted Jesus into my heart. I did something. And that's what we're saying is, uh -uh. This is all

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God. Yeah, there's no partnership here. If you believe in Jesus, it's only because he opened your eyes so you could. You wouldn't have been seeking him any other way.

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So it's just more in terms of we can unpack all these in context, but let's just run through strings of verses and then have some explanation in terms of God choosing to save and how gracious is his grace.

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Matthew 22, 14, for many are called, but few are chosen. John 6, 37, all that the

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Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. I have said for years that if you want to see the doctrines of grace in a discourse from Jesus, read

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John 6, read John 10. If you want the doctrines of grace enunciated or explained by Jesus.

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Now, I know people are like, well, doctrines of grace were, you know, formulated later and explained later. That's not the point I'm making. The teaching and the principles and all that we're saying in the doctrines of grace are taught by the

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Lord Jesus. For example, in John 6, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Now, this is really important.

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Jesus teaches in John 6. Oh, and by the way, by the way, by the way, I just asked Pastor James, Dr.

51:09

White. Dr. White is debating this text against Leighton Flowers.

51:16

You guys may remember the Leighton Flowers debate with James White from years ago.

51:21

If you haven't seen it yet, you should see it. It's in Romans 9. You just need to see it.

51:27

Dr. White, just who's being consistent? Who's actually exegeting the text? And so,

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I was surprised, actually, that Leighton wanted to do this, so I'm glad he is.

51:39

John 6 is the topic, and it's at First Lutheran Church in Houston, March 7th.

51:47

James White versus Leighton Flowers. I'm so excited for that. I am too. So, John 6, Jesus says,

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I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who has sent me.

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He says, and this is the will of him who has sent me, that if all that he has given to me,

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I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. So, what do you get there from Jesus?

52:12

He says, this is my mission. This is what the Father has given to me to do and accomplish, and that is that he has given to me a people, and I will lose not one of them, and I will raise them up on the last day.

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That is guaranteed salvation. He knows his own. He knows who he's coming to save.

52:32

He knows their name, John 10. He knows his sheep by name, and they hear his voice, and they follow him. He says to the unbelievers that were there, he says, the reason you don't believe is because you can't hear me is because you're not of my sheep.

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That's exactly right. So, he says, the reason you don't hear me is because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they will follow me.

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But in John 6, Jesus says there's a people given to him by the Father, and he will raise them up on the last day, but he doesn't just say that.

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He says in John 6, 44, he says, no man, no one can come to me.

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Okay, so that's ability. No one has the ability to come to me. So, how do we ever get the idea that God somehow is, however you want to express it, like looking through time or knowing all of time and knowing the actions of people that, okay,

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I'll choose them on the basis of their faith in me. They are willing to be humble. They are willing to come to me.

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They are willing to seek me, and therefore, I'll choose them because I know in my perfect knowledge that they're willing to believe in me.

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That's not what Jesus said when he talks about the election of the Father, and he talks about these people given to him by the

53:35

Father. He doesn't say it like that. He doesn't believe that. Jesus doesn't believe that the Father looks through time somehow or knows all of time and knows all potentialities, or however you want to work this out.

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Jesus doesn't say that the Father goes, oh, and they were able to come, and so he draws them. Jesus says the opposite.

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He says, no one is able to come to me. No one is able. That sounds like Jesus in John 8.

53:57

It does, right? Jesus in John 8 says whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

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Slaves aren't free. Unless the Son sets you free, you should be free indeed.

54:09

So Jesus says no one's able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Now, every synergist can't get away from what

54:16

Jesus says there, and so what they'll do is they'll say, well, yeah, you know, the Father has to draw. I mean,

54:21

I get it. Yeah, we're all sinners. The Father has to draw. Follow Jesus to the end of the sentence.

54:28

He says no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up.

54:33

Jesus raises up the one the Father draws. Now, unless you like universalism, you're going to have to deal with the fact that Jesus says there are people given to him by the

54:41

Father. He is not going to fail in saving them. He will raise them up, and none of them were able to come to him unless the

54:48

Father drew them. So again, if you think the Father is drawing everybody by his grace for salvation, if you think that the

54:57

Father's drawing everybody by his grace for salvation, then that means that everybody will be saved because Jesus says that he raises up the one the

55:04

Father draws. You see the problem is there's no way out of this, and we could just go on for days with these verses, but I see you wanted to say something.

55:11

No, it's a hard pill, I think, to swallow initially because it's like, well, God wants everyone. You know, he desires everybody, but again, you have to deal with that text that you just laid out there.

55:21

There is a people given to the Son by the Father. There's no way out, and those same people,

55:26

Ephesians chapter 1 tells us, are chosen in him, that's in Christ, before the foundation of the world, and they're predestined for adoption to himself, that's

55:37

God the Father, as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace.

55:43

So God's grace is the manifold centerpiece. In the middle of all of this, the creature is out here as a recipient of this loving kindness, and then at the center, you have

55:55

God's free gift, which is the highlight. It's the thing in the middle that is inducing the praise.

56:03

And then connecting to that, jumping ahead a few verses, in verse 11, in him, Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

56:18

So there's the will of God according to the divine counsel, and you and I, if you're in Christ, have been predestined unto this glory according to the counsel of God's will.

56:33

So all of those things together, God's grace, his glory, his counsel, his will, he's at the center.

56:40

And we're merely at the bottom of the waterfall with this stream pouring down on our heads. That's where we are.

56:46

Right. We're the recipients, right? We're not the center character of the story here. It's God, and we're just merely receiving this.

56:54

And then, of course, the question becomes, well, on what basis do you receive and someone else rejects?

57:03

What's the determinate cause of that, right? Well, it would have to be God's unstoppable ability to overcome our resistance against him through his saving power.

57:15

Which he owes nobody. Yeah. No one's entitled to that. No one has a claim.

57:20

I think that might be a good way to phrase it is no one has a demand upon God. No one has a claim upon his grace.

57:26

No one can say, I deserve that, or I'm owed that. And if you say that you don't deserve that, then you must conclude that God extends this according to his good pleasure, again, which is the centerpiece of all of this.

57:39

And so when you're talking about the elect of God, I know we're moving through verses here. Yeah, yeah. But the golden chain, golden chain of redemption.

57:47

I mean, that's it right there. We know that all things work together for the good of those that love God. Do you love

57:53

God? Well, Paul's just been taking several chapters to tell us that nobody loves God.

57:59

Nobody seeks after God. So now when the audience is in view here as to these are the recipients, and it's for those that love

58:06

God. Well, do you love God? What are you doing loving God? Well, for those that love God, all things work together for the good of those that love

58:14

God and are the called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew.

58:20

Now, again, not speaking to God being constrained by the decisions of his creatures, having to look down into the corridors of time or into the future to see what man's going to do, who's going to respond, who's not going to respond.

58:34

God has a decree already. But for those whom he set his saving love upon in eternity past, right?

58:40

This is the definition of foreknew. It's an intimate word, right? It's Adam knew Eve and she conceived, right?

58:46

There's an intimacy there going on between God and his people. To Israel, you only have I known from all the nations of the earth.

58:52

Right. Yes, this is intimacy. This is covenant language. It's a bridegroom and the bride.

58:58

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined for what? For confirmation to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

59:08

And then, of course, the golden chain. Those whom he predestined, he also called, right? So the action in eternity past, coupled together with the calling, right?

59:16

The drawing, the effectual drawing of those people. And those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified.

59:23

So all the way through there from beginning to end, salvation is completely a process of God. It's completely a work of God from its initiation, its application to its preservation, all the way unto glorification.

59:35

Sounds like the doctors of grace. Right. And Paul goes on to say, his last thing I'll say about this verse, that's the basis of your standing, right?

59:43

There's a distinction between election and justification, but what does he say? What shall we say to these things if God is for us, who can be against us?

59:51

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

59:57

Who's going to bring any charge against God's elect? What's at the bottom of our assurance and security that God will not reject us, that he will not condemn us, that no one will bring a charge in heaven or on earth against us and our spotless record.

01:00:11

God is the one who justifies. It's God's justification, but at the foundation of that even is

01:00:16

God's election of his people, right? His gracious choice of them. That's exactly right. Yeah.

01:00:22

I was just going to say real quickly, I'm going to say this respectfully, I'm getting caught up in the comments here and some dialogue.

01:00:29

Never read the comments, no. Well, I mean, there's been some good questions in there, but what frustrates me, and again,

01:00:34

I say this respectfully from people that want to argue against this position is like, there's a guy in here specifically that's not even listening to what we're saying.

01:00:44

And immediately the reaction is, well, what about those? What about those that God didn't choose?

01:00:49

How can you sit there and say that God chose some to go to hell and God didn't have fear? And it's just like, you're not listening to what we're saying.

01:00:56

Well, we're about to be on Romans 9, so stay tuned. Yeah, yeah, stay tuned. And this guy in here is saying, well, apology will never answer that.

01:01:02

And I was like, dude, we've answered this time and time again. The simple answer is that God's perfect and pleasing will.

01:01:10

That's the simple answer. That's his, he's the creator, it's his decision to make. And who are we, oh, clay pots to complain against that?

01:01:19

Exactly, exactly. Really important. And so like, that's the bottom issue. And so it's either God is completely sovereign or he's not sovereign at all.

01:01:26

And, but what just frustrates me is instead of listening to what we're saying, instead of actually looking at what the text says, it's immediately, well, it's not fair.

01:01:34

It's firm up your commitments to your tradition. Now, here's the thing. If I ever find myself not paying attention to the text of God's word and just going back to my tradition,

01:01:45

I'm having a problem. I'm having a theological problem I need to be willing to acknowledge.

01:01:51

If you can hear this string of texts, all in context, all exegeted properly, all handled faithfully, if you can hear it and your first response is to just firm up your commitments to your tradition, then you're not faithfully reading the word of God and handling the scriptures the way that we ought to handle them.

01:02:10

If you're just holding to your tradition when you hear these things. But someone says, so you're saying that God chose to save some and not others.

01:02:18

That's not fair. Again, justice is not what you want from God. You do not want fairness from God because fairness from God, justice from God would be all of us going to hell.

01:02:26

So unbiblical presuppositions there in terms of fairness and justice and all the rest.

01:02:31

What you're looking at in the doctrine of election is a exploration of God's justice and his grace.

01:02:40

That's what you're looking at. Let me ask you this question. If someone says, well, he chooses to save some and not others, do you believe you deserve salvation?

01:02:48

Do you believe anybody deserves salvation? What do you believe every human being does deserve from God?

01:02:54

And if you answer that in the biblical response saying, none of us deserve heaven, all of us deserve hell, then you shouldn't have any problem with God extending his grace to a and then determining to give justice to the others.

01:03:13

So when God sends people to hell and he decrees that he will allow this person to have their sin, to love their sin, to revel in their sin and to end in their sin, he is giving them what they want.

01:03:28

God isn't making anybody in scripture or in his testimony in history. He's not making anybody sin against their will.

01:03:35

They are doing what they want to do. And actually, if God did not restrain them, they'd be much worse than they are.

01:03:44

I mean, one illustration I use is even in the ministry of Jesus where the—how many times in the ministry of Jesus do you see the

01:03:52

Jewish leadership, scribes, Pharisees or others, wanting Jesus dead, picking up stones to kill him, and Jesus somehow slips out of their eyesight or Jesus gets out of it and they don't have any ability to actually kill him while they're being restrained from God.

01:04:07

Jesus says, you don't have any power over me except that which is given to you by God. They can't take the life of Jesus until Jesus says, now's the time.

01:04:15

Now the Father will let you do to me what he has determined that you will do to me.

01:04:21

Now, if someone says, really? God determined that they would murder Jesus? Yeah, that's what Acts 4 says.

01:04:27

That gathered in this city against your holy servant Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Herod, the Gentiles, the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand predestined to occur.

01:04:36

Now, wait, Jesus said before they couldn't do it until it was his time. And then it actually says, oh yeah, they all gathered against Jesus to do what

01:04:43

God had determined they would do. But wait a minute, they wanted to kill Jesus, right? Many times.

01:04:48

And they were thwarted by God. But when God allows them to have what they want, they kill Jesus. And when people go to hell for their sin, they're not going to hell for their sin because God's like—they're really wanting

01:04:59

God and God's like, no. Right? Like, I so want salvation and God's like, no, not you, them.

01:05:06

That's not what the Bible teaches. No sinner is going, I really want Jesus. I really want to know

01:05:13

God. I really love God. It says we're actually, by nature, children of wrath. We are rebels. We're hostile to God. We're haters of God.

01:05:18

We're non -God -seeking. We're not good. We're not righteous. That's our condition. We're not able to come to God, apart from the drawing of God. So there is nobody in this portrait that actually wants

01:05:26

Jesus. And the Father's saying, no. No, actually, they're worse than God's allowing them to be in their heart of hearts.

01:05:34

They would be worse. But God determines to give some justice, which is what they want, is their sin and not

01:05:41

God. He gives them what they want. They're going to hell because of what they want. Their sin, their wants, their desires, their will.

01:05:47

And there are others where God gives grace to and He provides redemption for.

01:05:52

And the Holy Spirit of God regenerates and gives them eyes to see and gives them the ability to believe in Jesus, which they would not have done before.

01:05:59

There is the grace of God, the mercy of God, and the justice of God on full display in election.

01:06:05

Right. And to sum that up, nobody in that explanation gets injustice.

01:06:12

Right. Right. So nobody gets what they didn't deserve. Right. It's either justice or God's free grace.

01:06:20

And interestingly, justice is satisfied by God with both camps.

01:06:28

Yes. Either on the cross or on sinners in hell. That's critical.

01:06:33

When people try to address this in some way saying, well, that just shows God's showing partiality. No, God's showing no partiality in judgment.

01:06:40

He's showing mercy and grace, but He is not ignoring the sin and the justice that is due.

01:06:47

Yeah. What do you think Jesus was doing on the cross? When people misrepresent Calvinists and they're like, well, that's just God showing partiality.

01:06:53

He's just saying to you, I'll save you and not you. That's just partiality. Nope. God is a category of mercy and grace and justice over here, but it's not partiality.

01:07:03

Why? Because God is actually executing His justice and wrath on behalf of both camps.

01:07:11

Those who God has determined He will give justice to when they go to hell, what are they going to hell for?

01:07:18

Their sin. Exactly. Their sin. And they are paying the penalty, the eternal penalty of their sin because of the justice of God for all eternity, that they wanted their sin.

01:07:30

But for the redeemed, God hasn't ignored His justice. He's showing no partiality. He actually says,

01:07:36

I'm choosing to give you grace, and in doing that, it is my son that will receive the justice that was due to you.

01:07:44

Justice isn't being ignored on anybody's account. It's either in Jesus or it's on your head.

01:07:51

I think one thing even sincere believers struggle with is they hear that, and the accusations of partiality or God showing some type of favoritism, we struggle to reason through it because it's like, well, why did

01:08:01

God choose this person but not this person? If you're telling me it's not on the basis of anything they've done, either good or bad, which is what

01:08:06

Romans 9 that we'll get to is saying, upon what basis? Well, I mean, God has a morally sufficient reason within His own counsel.

01:08:14

He's the ultimately wise one, not you, not me. And we know from His word, if we're going to take that as our testimony, that it's not because you were better, you were smarter, you were better looking.

01:08:25

Your choice meet. It's not on any of those external qualities that He shows favor.

01:08:32

What does Deuteronomy chapter 7 tell us about Israel? Right, I didn't set my love on you because you were more numerous than the other nations.

01:08:37

I set my love on you because I love you. That's the basis of my electing grace is this free love that I lavish upon you, which is what

01:08:46

Ephesians says. He lavishes it upon us in all wisdom and insight. He's the one that knows best, not you.

01:08:54

Yeah, I love that word lavish. Yeah, lavish. Get your lavish bicycle out. I just think about being submerged or just covered.

01:09:02

Now, I can't hear that word anymore without, let's say we're hearing that one guy that does the animal videos. Tony Baker. Tony Baker and he's like, lavish.

01:09:11

Do you have more verses? Yeah. Can we do just 10 more minutes? I wanna actually... You gotta get to Romans 9.

01:09:16

Can you start that? Sorry, I'm gonna take a bathroom break while these two guys handle this.

01:09:22

Yeah, no worries. All right, so Romans 9. Obviously, it's the big one that is in discussion and debate when these things come up.

01:09:30

And when you hear this text gone through from beginning to end and exegeted properly,

01:09:35

I haven't heard a non -reformed defense of this text that doesn't completely end up mangling it and mishandling it.

01:09:43

It's a lot of eisegesis going on. Making it about nations and Israel and all of this stuff.

01:09:49

And even though you hear those tones represented in the text when we're talking about Esau and Jacob, God is using the example here of two individuals, right?

01:10:00

There's two individuals. There's Esau and there's Jacob. And starting in verse 11, here's what it says.

01:10:06

Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works, but because of him who calls, right?

01:10:22

So what is the basis of God's election here? Not because of works, but because of the calling of God that his purpose in election might continue.

01:10:33

You have two figures presented here. You have Esau and you have Jacob. And before they were in the womb, or before they were born, before they had committed any action, right?

01:10:44

They hadn't committed any good or bad yet so that God's purpose of election might continue.

01:10:50

God's purpose. Right. Verse 12, she was told the older will serve the younger.

01:10:55

And in that culture, that was flipped on its head by God, right?

01:11:00

Because it was the older that received the inheritance. It was the older that had that favor. She was told the older will serve the younger.

01:11:08

As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. That's not fair. And the amazing thing about that is what shouldn't strike us in the text as mind -blowing is

01:11:20

Esau I hated, but Jacob I loved. That should be the one that's shocking.

01:11:27

It should be the love of God given what sinners deserve in ourselves for what we've done.

01:11:33

The sins that we've committed in a high -handed fashion against a holy God, the baseline of this is what we deserve and that's

01:11:43

God's condemnation. What should be remarkable to us is the love of God that he shows. Even if it was just one sin, if we live their entire lives and sin one time against God, it's worthy of eternal death.

01:11:55

But most of us don't understand that because we think very highly of ourselves and we have a low view of the holiness of God.

01:12:03

Exactly right. Verse 14, what shall we say then? And I love how Paul's, if you work through Romans 9, you'll see that he's answering objections.

01:12:12

He's been doing that throughout the course of the epistle already, but he's actually hearing these things and he's ready because what's the accusation that comes forward?

01:12:21

It's what you just said, that's not fair. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

01:12:27

Is God unjust? By no means, for he says to Moses, verse 15, I will have mercy on whom

01:12:34

I have mercy, right? Literally the text reads, I will mercy whom I will mercy. And I will have compassion on whom

01:12:42

I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will, right? So not the will of the creature or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

01:12:52

Same idea reflected in John's gospel, right? It's not the children of man, they're not born of the will of the flesh or born of the will of the creature or their actions, but born of God is what they are, right?

01:13:05

It's God who actually does this. 17, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose,

01:13:10

I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

01:13:16

So God, according to the next couple of verses here, we'll just read them. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

01:13:24

You will say to me then, here's the next objection. Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?

01:13:30

This is God we're talking about. Who can resist God's will? But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?

01:13:36

Well, what 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?

01:13:47

What if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power 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 has prepared beforehand for glory?

01:14:02

Stopping there, we have vessels prepared for glory and vessels by God prepared for destruction.

01:14:10

And again, that's something that rubs against our sensitivities that God actually creates with this intention between vessels of destruction and vessels of glory, right?

01:14:23

That God is destining, people talk about single predestination and double predestination.

01:14:29

You have to concede in a sense that when God elects a people, by definition, he is not electing these people unto eternal life.

01:14:36

Or you're just bad at math, you know? But in that though, in him choosing to exert power, divine power, and to bring about redemption on behalf of a particular people, giving them grace, it is not the same thing when he chooses to leave people in their sin.

01:14:53

As with Pharaoh. Yeah, it's - Hardening. He's, yeah, you're giving the person what they want versus over here, you're actually transforming the heart of the person to actually give them new desires to love

01:15:04

God. And so when people - He lets the clay harden. What does clay do? If you let clay be clay, what will it do?

01:15:12

It gets hard, exactly. And also, I love the fact that as Paul is bringing us this amazing picture of the sovereignty of God and his grace and salvation in Romans 9, he's talking about the same lump.

01:15:26

What is that lump? It's all sinful humanity, right? Which is consistent with the theme of the letter, all of humanity.

01:15:34

Jew and Gentile, all together, one lump. And God is the sovereign who can determine to give grace and mercy if he wills and pleases it.

01:15:43

He owes that lump of clay nothing, but he chooses to give mercy.

01:15:48

That's the astonishing thing in election, is the fact that his choice of saving people, people that have,

01:15:55

I think, unbiblical traditions, all want to sort of like overemphasize. Yeah, but again, there's people over here that are going to hell.

01:16:01

It's like, yeah, they all should have. You should be reveling in and delighting in and just astonished by is that he saved even one.

01:16:10

Jacob I loved, not Esau I hated. Exactly, that shouldn't shock you that Esau I hated. Of course, you're at war with God.

01:16:17

You're an enemy of God. That makes sense. Jacob I've loved is a shocking part of the discourse. Well, and I love the wordplay here with the vessels of clay.

01:16:25

Like, obviously, vessels referring to a human being, but a vessel of clay of honorable use is probably like a pot for wine.

01:16:34

Nice, something made for good purpose. A clay vessel for dishonorable use is what? It's a toilet.

01:16:40

Yeah, or trash can. Yeah, like it's used for refuse. And how?

01:16:46

That's not fair that God would make a toilet in a nice wine vessel.

01:16:51

It's for wine, you can't get away from it. I think Paul there too, I mean, he's riffing on Isaiah, the prophet, where it says, woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots.

01:17:03

Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Right. Or your work has no handles. Right, does the vessel formed have the right to speak back to its master and say, why did you make me like this?

01:17:16

Yeah. And that, you hear that on the streets. You know, you're evangelizing out there and it's like, well, you're telling me to repent, but you

01:17:24

Calvinists believe that I can't do that. So why, you know, God hasn't given me the ability to repent yet.

01:17:30

You're morally obligated to repent. Listen, you're using an excuse that is never given to you in scripture. Right.

01:17:36

I promise you that. Yeah. And as an image bearer of God, you're accountable to God and morally obligated to repent, to love God. You were created for God's purposes.

01:17:43

You were created to glorify God, to enjoy him forever. You were created for God's glory, for God's light in the world.

01:17:49

You hate God. You refuse God. Your duty, your vocation before God is to kneel before him and to worship him.

01:17:55

So why do you call anyone to repent? Because they're image bearers of God. Yeah. Because they're made in the image of God. They're made to glorify

01:18:00

God and to worship God and to obey God. And they're not doing it. So the command goes out to the lump.

01:18:07

Yeah. Repent and believe the gospel. But in our natural state, we hate God and we're not even able to do so.

01:18:14

And so it takes a merciful act of God, a powerful act of God by his spirit to come into the heart and the mind and the person and to actually transform them so they could see

01:18:24

Jesus and believe in him. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. It's amazing that you hear the unbeliever's voice and you think about this text right here.

01:18:31

But God hasn't made me with the ability to repent, right? Woe to him who strives with him who formed him.

01:18:38

You're just mad. Like you're upset and you're trying to short circuit the demand of God upon your whole being to pay him homage as Lord.

01:18:47

Because really what's going on is you're in sin. Your heart is hardened and you don't want to submit to the true God. They say, well, he hasn't even made me to want to repent and go, oh, do you want to repent?

01:18:56

No. Right. Right. So you hate God. So he doesn't owe you that.

01:19:02

You hate God, you don't want God, and that's where you're at. And God is right to leave you and me in that state.

01:19:09

Just a couple more in terms of, again, I could give you a lot of resources. If you want to study this and really get into it,

01:19:16

I'd say take a look at The Potter's Freedom by James White as a response to Norm Geisler's Chosen But Free.

01:19:22

That was a real mess, and Pastor James did a really pastoral and, I think, brotherly thing by doing the work that he did with that book.

01:19:30

It's The Potter's Freedom. I think it'll really bless you. It goes into some of the chestnut verses that oppose

01:19:35

Reformed theology and the Doctrines of Grace. I would definitely get

01:19:41

Lorraine Bettner's Doctrine of Predestination. I would get

01:19:47

The Five Points of Calvinism by Steele and Thomas, I think it is. It's a good one with a lot of just tons and tons of scripture and verses.

01:19:55

Again, thecalvinist .net, just one of the random sites. I can't give a thumbs up to everything on the site because it's just one of the many sites that just gives pages and pages of scripture on this point.

01:20:06

But just a couple more to whet your appetite and to look into this some more. John 13, 18, in terms of a sovereign choice of God, God choosing,

01:20:16

God's will being the primary thing. Jesus says, I'm not speaking of all of you, I know whom I have chosen, but the bread has lifted its heel against me.

01:20:26

John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the

01:20:34

Father in my name, he will give it to you. Acts 2, 39, for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the

01:20:43

Lord our God calls to himself. Acts 2, 47, praising

01:20:49

God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.

01:20:57

We already did at the beginning, Acts 13, 46 -48, but I think we should look at the last point there again in verse 48.

01:21:05

It says, and when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

01:21:13

They were appointed to eternal life, and they believed. That's how that all took place. We can go on for days here.

01:21:20

Encourage you, if you want to really get into this, take a look at some of those works. We're probably going to talk more and more about this as we work through the

01:21:25

Doctrines of Grace. Take a look at these pages and pages and pages of Scripture. Dive in.

01:21:31

Look at them in context. Read them in context. Make sure that they're being given faithfully.

01:21:37

But the real issue here for us, as we said at the beginning episode, is how gracious is

01:21:43

God's grace? That's why we're doing this particular radio series, is we really want to say, how gracious is

01:21:48

God's grace? Is God's grace necessary for salvation, or is it actually sufficient for salvation?

01:21:56

We would argue it is sufficient. It's a powerful grace. It's a sufficient grace. It accomplishes

01:22:01

God's purposes. And so that's what the point is, and you know, can

01:22:06

I just talk about one last thing? You can. You may. Is it still on this point, or are we shifting?

01:22:12

It's on this point, and it has to do with, if all this is true, God chooses,

01:22:19

God saves, it's God's power, it's His might, it's Him predestining, then why do evangelism?

01:22:26

Yeah. Someone said that in the comments. I would say very strongly, and I think

01:22:32

I could demonstrate it, not just with those Scriptures, but if God isn't fully sovereign over salvation, if the

01:22:38

Father's trying to save, Jesus died for the sins of every single person, bore the wrath of God in their place for every single sin they've ever committed, including their unbelief, if the

01:22:46

Holy Spirit of God can try to save and draw people and just fail, my question to you is this, why are you doing evangelism?

01:22:54

God's already put forth His best effort. He can be thwarted by the creature. Why do you even pray for God to intervene in someone's life in terms of evangelism and salvation?

01:23:05

Because God's done everything He can. Jesus died for all their sins, paid for them in full, and the Holy Spirit of God can try and fail to apply that salvation.

01:23:14

So actually, I would argue it is only with this biblical perspective that you can have full confidence as you go out and preach the gospel that every single time you go out to preach the gospel,

01:23:25

God's purposes are standing. His purposes are completely standing. God is not thwarted by anybody, and you can go out with full confidence that I know

01:23:33

God has elect out there. I don't know who they are. I don't know who the rebel they are. It's not our job to. Yeah. Contrary to even some mischaracterizations and just outright just ignorance of someone like even like Leighton Flowers in terms of Christians and the reprobates, like abandon.

01:23:50

He said in one of his last videos I've seen on something about Christians abandoning the reprobate. God doesn't call us to do that.

01:23:56

I'm like, who are the reprobate? I didn't know that we go out and look at a crowd of people and go, no,

01:24:01

I'm sorry, bro. You're a reprobate. You're not getting the gospel from me. And if you are, Paul says something about that. Yeah. Actually, I look at humanity, image bearers of God, and I proclaim the gospel, and I call people to repent, and I know that it is

01:24:15

God who can take the hardest heart in this crowd and change it, make it soft, and they can turn to Jesus.

01:24:22

I know that there's no one in this crowd that's going to thwart Almighty God. If God chooses to save, they're coming.

01:24:28

He will add them to the number being saved. So when I go out to preach the gospel,

01:24:34

I go out with 100 % success rate. 100 % success rate. Sometimes I preach the gospel, and I call people to repent of the faith, and that's judgment from God on them.

01:24:43

God is using that to actually give light to ultimately condemn them, that even when light comes in, they love the darkness rather than the light.

01:24:51

And sometimes I go out and preach the gospel, and in the craziest turn of events, a

01:24:56

Mormon missionary in uniform turns to Jesus on the sidewalk, and the very next day is out preaching the gospel with me.

01:25:05

The hardest heart, the most committed opposed to Jesus comes to Jesus.

01:25:10

Sometimes that happens, and so we trust the Lord. So actually, it's with the sovereignty of God that at Apologia Church, we go out with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of confidence.

01:25:21

This is God's message of salvation. He's sovereign. He's going to perform His perfect will. It's very freeing.

01:25:26

I mean, when I came to the understanding, I had already been doing public evangelism, and it was like, it was like a burden was lifted off my shoulders because I didn't have to worry about trying to be perfect in every word that I said.

01:25:39

It was like, I'm just going to be myself and preach the gospel and let the Spirit do what the Spirit's going to do. I'll give the word.

01:25:45

I would just end by saying, you know, I think Christians, even Reformed Christians, tend to speak very softly and quietly about this doctrine.

01:25:54

When we should be shouting about it, because sometimes we might be subconsciously embarrassed to proclaim it.

01:26:02

But we ought to be shouting about it because our first reaction when we hear it, you know, in our circles, it's debate it, debate it, debate it.

01:26:10

Like, reduce this concept of who God is and what He does in His saving work to this debate. But according to Ephesians and the rest of Scripture, our first reaction ought to be worship.

01:26:21

When we know and we understand we perceive God's truth, the first response should be praise.

01:26:28

It should be worship. And so I would just say, meditate upon that grace by which

01:26:34

God saved you and understand that if He can save you, He can save me, then He can save anybody.

01:26:40

Like, He can do the same work in their heart that He did in your heart. And according to election, that is a certainty.

01:26:48

He will accomplish it with His people. So if you stand on that, have confidence, and you're motivated by worship of who

01:26:54

God is, your evangelism will come to life even more because it's flowing from the grace of God that's flowing to you.

01:27:02

Amen. Thank you all. Happy New Year. Welcome back, everybody.

01:27:08

Please pray for us. And if you would, go to endabortionnow .com.

01:27:13

Go there and sign up with your church. We give you all the free training and free resources you need. We want nothing from your church.

01:27:19

We want you just to go out and save lives with the truth. Free 99. We'll help you with that. We'll be here as a resource for you.

01:27:27

And please give. Please give. If you know people who are passionate about this, and they can give, tell them to please give.

01:27:34

Help us to meet our goal. We want to establish justice. We've got bills we're working on across the country this session.

01:27:39

This is going to be a crazy first six months for us as a ministry. It's going to be very, very busy.

01:27:46

Zach is leaving next week to Georgia. At any moment, we can have to leave and go somewhere to testify on behalf of a bill.

01:27:53

And it's going to be interesting. It's always fun. It's always an interesting first six months. It's an honor to be a part of it.

01:27:58

But we need you to join with us to do it. So, endabortionnow .com. Go there to give. And we thank you all for being with us for so long in this ministry.

01:28:07

Praise the Lord for His goodness to this ministry and for His salvation. We will catch you next week right here on Apologia Radio.

01:28:14

Same time -ish, same place. That's Luke DeBear. Peace out. That's Zach Conover, Director of Communications for EAN.