How Our Church Became Reformed (Pt 2)

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August 11, 2020

This is the daily Podcast produced by Pastor Keith Foskey of Sovereign Grace Family Church located in Jacksonville, Florida.

How Our Church Became Reformed (Pt 3)

00:02: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:04: This program is dedicated to helping you better understand the Word of God and the doctrines of grace.
00:10: The Bible tells us, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
00:18: Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to study along.
00:22: Here's your host with today's lesson, Pastor Keith Foskey.
00:27: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:29: My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:33: Today we are going to be continuing our discussion from yesterday.
00:38: If you remember, if you were with us yesterday, we are going to be continuing how Sovereign Grace Family Church became a Reformed Church.
00:46: Today is August the 11th, 2020.
00:50: And if you're following along with our daily Bible reading, we are going today to be reading from Acts chapter 14.
00:58: So along with this program, I would encourage you to take out your Bible, read Acts chapter 14, take notes, observe, interpret, and apply the text.
01:08: That is how we study the Bible.
01:10: So I would encourage you to do that in Acts chapter 14.
01:14: So let's continue the story.
01:15: Yesterday we talked about how I became the pastor and that God had already confirmed in my heart the doctrines of grace.
01:26: But now I was the pastor of a church that was not a Reformed Church.
01:30: But it was also a church that did not have a solid theological history because we were part of a denomination, which was a very liberal, theologically liberal denomination.
01:45: And we had people that had several different beliefs in the church.
01:49: And in 2006, when I began to preach and teach, I also had my Sunday school class.
01:57: And in my Sunday school class, I was teaching through the book of Romans.
02:02: And anybody who knows anything about Reformed theology knows that if you're preaching through Romans, you're not going to make it too far before you begin to run into subjects which are particularly Reformed in nature, such as the doctrine of total depravity, which is very clear in chapters one through three, the doctrine of sola fide, which is taught in chapters four and five, the doctrine of original sin, chapters five, and doctrine of sanctification, chapter six and seven.
02:39: And then, of course, you get to chapter eight, and you run into that big word, predestination.
02:47: And that is a very big and important subject.
02:52: And so as I'm teaching through Romans, and our lessons are being put online there, and yeah, even in 2008, or 2006, before Facebook, because Facebook didn't come along until 2008.
03:10: Even then, there were places that you could post things online.
03:14: And so we had the opportunity, we posted our sermons online, had, whenever YouTube became a thing, we had a YouTube channel, and I taught lessons on YouTube.
03:24: And so we began to reach people in the community through that medium.
03:30: And a few new folks began to come to the church because they were picking up on what I was putting down.
03:38: I was teaching the Bible verse by verse, and the things that were coming out of me were Reformed because that's not only what I was convinced of, but it was what the Bible is teaching.
03:51: That's the thing you need to understand.
03:53: I'm a Calvinist, not because of John Calvin.
03:55: And I'm a Calvinist not because of R.C.
03:57: Sproul, or James White, or John MacArthur.
04:00: I'm a Calvinist because of what the Bible teaches.
04:02: And so as I'm preaching through the Gospel of Luke, I'm hitting on major important subjects that you can't get around when it comes to the subject of the sovereignty of God, and God's choice, and election, and those things.
04:18: You can't get past that in the words of Christ.
04:21: But especially in the writings of Paul in Romans, it's just so clear.
04:27: Romans 8 and 9, as I mentioned last week, absolutely just the nail, the final nail, the straw that breaks the camel's back.
04:38: So I'm teaching, and there were those in the church who began to pick up on the fact that the things that I was saying were Reformed in nature, Calvinistic in nature.
04:53: I would refer to God's people as the elect.
04:57: I would refer to God's sovereign will and His sovereign grace.
05:05: And so one person in particular, and as I said, this is in no way intended to malign anyone, I'm not going to mention any names or anything, but there was a person who tried to bring discord in the church because of what I was teaching.
05:21: And about this time, it was about two years in, so this is around 2008 when all of this began to happen.
05:27: And at that point, some people had come into the church who were themselves Reformed, and they were coming because of the preaching, they were coming because of the teaching.
05:38: And we were headed in a direction of becoming a Reformed church, but there were those who were not happy with that, and there was an attempt to try to extinguish the fire that God had begun.
05:53: And I do believe it was a revival fire that God had kindled within the church, and there were people who were being moved by it, and there were people who were being encouraged by it.
06:00: But as there is always any time a fire, there are those who are ready, standing ready to throw cold water on it and to try to put it out.
06:12: And so I had an opportunity to meet with one of the elders at the time, and I asked him, you know, hey, what's going on? He kind of told me what was going on, that there were some folks that were unhappy with what I was preaching.
06:25: And so I had to make a choice.
06:28: Do I leave because there are people who are unhappy, or do I stay and take a stand? And I would like to say that I had the utmost confidence to stay and take a stand, and I never thought about leaving.
06:46: But I want to tell you, I was so concerned, I did not want to split the church.
06:53: I did not want the church to split, and I didn't want the church to be embattled.
07:05: And so I wrote my resignation letter, and I still have it to this day.
07:11: But in that resignation letter, I wrote an outline of what I believe the Bible teaches about the doctrines of grace.
07:23: Because I wasn't just going to leave without saying anything.
07:26: I was going to leave by saying, this is why I'm leaving.
07:29: I believe this is true, and I believe that those of you who don't want to hear it don't want to hear the truth.
07:34: I was going to be firm on that.
07:38: And I asked for a Sunday off.
07:43: I asked, at the time I had an associate pastor who was also encouraging, and he believed in the doctrines of grace as well.
07:55: And I said, hey, I need to take a Sunday off to pray, I want to be with my family, I want to talk to my wife, and just sort of make some decisions.
08:09: And the associate pastor said, okay, I'll preach for you, no problem.
08:15: And so I went and began to pray.
08:21: And in the midst of all this, I contacted a man that I met from the Founders Ministries, a man by the name of Tom Askell.
08:34: And Tom will never know exactly how much he helped me, because I've seen him since, I've told him some of how God used him, but I still don't think it really has registered just how much of an important impact he had on me.
08:53: Because I was ready to resign.
08:54: I had written my resignation.
08:56: I was ready to leave and try to find a Reformed church, because I did not want to be the stumbling block at this church.
09:06: I did not want to be the divider.
09:11: So I called Tom, I knew he was the head of Founders, I had met him at a conference.
09:15: He was very wise.
09:18: He was older than me.
09:19: I saw in him not only wisdom, but love for God's people.
09:24: So I called Tom and I said, Tom, I'm in a church.
09:30: Many people here are opposed to what I'm preaching.
09:34: They don't want to hear the doctrines of grace.
09:35: They don't want to hear what I consider to be biblical truth.
09:41: What do I do? And Tom said, take a stand.
09:53: Don't let them make you quit.
09:57: Don't let them make you walk away.
10:04: Take a stand.
10:06: He said if you take a stand, and as a church they choose to get rid of you, that's one thing.
10:12: But if you walk away now, you're letting them win and you're not taking a stand.
10:19: And again, I'm paraphrasing what he said, I don't remember exactly the words.
10:22: I just remember the phrase, take a stand.
10:26: And I was afraid.
10:31: Because, quite honestly, I didn't want to take a stand.
10:34: I was afraid.
10:34: I was scared.
10:35: I was 27 years old.
10:37: 28, I guess, maybe at that time.
10:41: And I was very intimidated by all that was going on.
10:47: And so when Tom told me to take a stand, it was confirming in my heart that I needed to take a stand.
10:58: And I listened to him and it was almost as if the Holy Spirit used him to tell me what I didn't want to hear, but what I needed to hear.
11:06: And the Sunday rolls around when I'm not supposed to be at church, and I get a call right after Sunday school.
11:17: I get a call that says, hey, we've had a blow up at church.
11:23: There's been some people upset.
11:25: One person left and he was shouting at people when he left.
11:31: And I said, okay, I'm going to come in.
11:34: So I got up and got dressed.
11:35: I wasn't supposed to be at church that morning.
11:37: I had planned to take the day off to spend with my family in prayer.
11:42: And I took my letter of resignation and I went to the church.
11:46: And when I got to the church, I came into the back.
11:53: At that point, the associate pastor was preaching.
11:55: So I sat in the back and waited for his sermon to be over.
12:01: And I walked forward.
12:05: And there was quiet in the church because people didn't expect to see me.
12:14: There was whispering, what's he doing here? And he was supposed to be taking today off.
12:20: Some people knew what was going on.
12:23: Some people didn't.
12:26: But I walked up to the pulpit and some of them were expecting my resignation.
12:33: But I walked up to the pulpit and I said to the church, I said, I need your attention for just a few more minutes.
12:42: I know you've just sat through a whole worship service.
12:45: You've just sat through a sermon.
12:46: So I won't take up a lot of your time, but you need to hear what I have to say.
12:53: And I said to them, God has shown me in his word that the doctrines of grace are true.
13:02: And if I'm going to preach the word of God right, I'm going to preach this.
13:08: You as a church have the option of keeping me as your pastor or firing me.
13:20: But as long as I am your pastor, this is what I will preach.
13:26: As long as I'm here, this is what we will preach because this is what the word of God teaches.
13:36: I fully expected to be shouted down.
13:43: I fully expected to be released from duty.
13:47: I fully expected that that would be the end of my time at Forest Christian Church.
13:56: Instead, the congregation stood and applauded and almost everyone came forward and prayed for me and my wife.
14:20: A few people were angry and a few people did leave.
14:26: But the majority of people were thankful that I had taken a stand.
14:35: They had not been influenced by those who had tried to bring negativity in and who had tried to call into question what was being taught.
14:47: And by God's grace, that was the impetus for the next change, the next step in the revival.
15:04: Because again, we were still Forest Christian Church and now we were a church where the lead pastor had just announced, we are going in the direction of Reformation if I stay the pastor.
15:16: And they were saying they wanted me to stay as pastor.
15:19: So now what? Now we've taken a stand.
15:26: What do we do? What do we do now? Well, tomorrow, I'm going to talk about the next step because it wasn't all easy.
15:37: There were still a lot of questions.
15:39: There were still people who were confused.
15:40: Some people didn't know why a stand even need to be took.
15:46: So tomorrow, we're going to talk about introducing Calvinism to the people who weren't familiar with the terms.
15:53: We're going to talk about questions that people had, and there were a lot of questions.
15:59: And we're going to talk about how we got from there to where we are now.
16:06: So I do hope that you listen in the days to come.
16:09: And I hope, again, this story is an encouragement to you, especially if you're a pastor out there and you're in a church that is making things hard on you because you're preaching the truth.
16:18: Brother, let me tell you, whoever you are, if you are listening, the words of Tom Askell reverberate in my mind.
16:24: We have to take a stand for the truth and trust God.
16:29: Take a stand for the truth and trust God.
16:33: God stood with me that day, and I'm confident that if you're preaching the truth, he will stand with you.
16:40: It doesn't always mean there won't be battles to fight.
16:42: There will be battles to fight, but we fight them under the power of God, not in our own power and our own wisdom.
16:51: So and again, I'm no hero.
16:53: This is not about me winning some battle.
16:57: This is God fighting the battle for me.
16:59: There's no reason why I shouldn't have just been released, why the church shouldn't have just—again, I was ready to hand in my resignation.
17:05: If it hadn't been for Tom, God speaking through Tom Askell and encouraging me to stay, I probably would have just walked in and handed in my resignation because I thought the whole church was against me.
17:18: Come to find out, it wasn't the whole church.
17:21: It was just a couple people that were being really, really loud and made themselves seem like they were more in number than they were.
17:31: So by God's grace, I'm here, and by God's grace, I didn't leave.
17:38: So again, it's not about me.
17:40: It's about what God has done and how grateful I am for what he has done.
17:46: If you're a member of Sovereign Grace, again, this is going through our history.
17:49: If you're not a member, I hope this has been an encouragement to you either way.
17:53: Thank you again for listening to Coffee with a Calvinist.
17:56: My name is Keith Vosky, and I've been your Calvinist.
18:00: May God bless you.
18:03: Thank you for joining in for today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.
18:08: Keep in mind, we have a new lesson available every weekday morning at 6.30 a.m.
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18:23: On behalf of Pastor Vosky, thank you for listening.
18:27: May God bless you.