2. Claude Ramsey | Why Calvinism Matters | Open Air Theology Conference 2024

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, as we come before your throne this morning,

Lord, I come with a grateful heart, a grateful mind, aware,

God, of who you are. And Lord, it is with fear and with awe, with wonder, that I come before you this morning.

Lord, I come taking hold of the promise and the truth of your word, trusting and having believed savingly in your finished work on the cross.

I come, O God, boldly into your throne of grace.

And Lord, this won't be the last time that I ask this. God, I'll ask it for every time that these men stand throughout the remainder of this conference.

Lord, I pray, God, today that your name would be lifted high, that you would be exalted, that you would be magnified.

Lord, that the saints of God would be encouraged.

And dear God, that the lost would hear the gospel and be saved.

O God, help us, everyone, not to just take for granted nor to assume that just because we're at a conference like this that everybody's saved.

But God, help us. Help us. As we look to you and we seek you in the word, dear

God, and as you are lifted up and magnified, dear God, our prayer is this, that all men would be drawn unto you.

The lost would be drawn unto you savingly and that the saved would be drawn unto you lovingly solely because of what you have done and what you have accomplished.

We give you honor, glory, and praise, God, for all things that are done in this place for it is in Jesus' name

I pray. Amen. We will be looking at several passages of scripture.

I am and I'll go ahead and start the timer too, Jeff, so I don't go over.

I am a weak man. I'm not able to speak and to teach, nor do

I have the knowledge that these men have. Andrew, I'm so thankful for your knowledge and your ability to articulate like you do.

And these other men, it's such a blessing just to be counted as friends with these men.

But I echo the words of the Apostle Paul, for unto me who am the least, less than least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the

Gentiles, that I should preach among men, women, boys, and girls the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

And that is our aim and that is our goal today. I am by nature inclined to expository preaching, however at conferences

I understand and know that there are topics, so there will be much scripture that we will be reading and much scripture that we will be quoting.

We will begin this morning in Psalm 78. Scripture says this, this is, by the way, the word of the living

God. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching.

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old, things that we have heard and things that we have known that our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, but tell them to the coming generation.

This is what we will tell the glorious deeds of the Lord and His might and wonders that He has done.

For He has established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which

He commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them that her children yet unborn and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and so that they should not forget the works of God but keep

His commandments and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and a rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

I've been assigned the topic to speak on why Calvinism matters.

This particular passage 1, being one of many today that we're going to be just quoting and you're hearing and reading and I encourage you to study out these passages, to meditate on these passages of Scripture because what we see in this text is why what

God has said is important. It is important for us to teach God who

God is, the power, the might, the majesty, the honor and the glory of God. It is important for us not only to teach this to one another, but to teach this to our children and for our children to teach our children's children.

Calvinism as we call it is not to be as it has already been mentioned and boy

Andrew could not have been more correct, going first, you're right folks get to steal a lot of what you say, but Calvinism as we call it is not attributed to Calvin the man nor by consequence to Augustine from which

Calvin learned but rather today our aim, our focus our worship and our praise should go solely to the triune

God of glory. Oh sovereign God, oh matchless king, the saints adore the angels sing and fall before the throne of grace for to you belongs the highest praise praise the

Father, praise the Son praise the Spirit three in one, clothed in power and in grace, the name above all other names.

Our hope today is to lay before you a compelling a compelling case that demonstrates both and I hope that we get this, both intellectually and experientially that God above all deserves worship, honor and glory.

So to briefly speak on our topic title, Why Calvinism Matters, I'd like to begin by reading from the

Christian History Institute article number 307, these are the words we read there probably no book in the history of the

Protestant churches has been more influential than Calvin's institutes it is a systematic explanation of the whole of the

Christian faith as Calvin understood it and an attempt to unpack everything

God has revealed to us about himself and about ourselves in the scriptures the institutes are divided into four books book one covers what we know of God our creator through his creation and through the

Bible, so we have natural revelation and special revelation, book two covers what we know of Christ our redeemer and of our sin and of our salvation, book three covers our receipt of that salvation through justification by faith and predestination book four covers the outward vehicles of that salvation, the church and its sacraments that being said, even though it should go without having to be said,

I am going to go ahead and say this so that there are no misconceptions today we do not hold

Calvin to be a super saint nor do we hold his systematic to be superior to all others, let's be straight today,

Calvin was a man just like you and I, a man who was wrought with faults and failures, he himself was a sinner, saved by the amazing grace of God, certainly, yes he was brilliant, yes he was well spoken and yes he knew his theological stuff and based on what

Andrews told us, yes he did not speak English but we are here this weekend not to worship

Calvin nor his system of theology, we are here today as men and women and children, men women and children who have been redeemed by the blood of the

Lamb of God, who hopefully, hopefully we are able to be mature and sober minded enough to understand that Calvinism is a beneficial theological systematic and that it is able to aid us as believers just the same as other biblically sound and theologically accurate resources from throughout church history, so two reasons why

Calvinism matters today, Calvinism matters because one, it is through this systematic that we are pointed to the scriptures and by being pointed to the scriptures in them we learn and we understand the high, holy and the exalted state of almighty

God, reason number two Calvinism matters because it is through this systematic that we are pointed to the scriptures, you say do you realize you just repeated yourself, absolutely, there is no other place that we should look to see who

God is or how we can know who God is outside of the inspired word of the living

God and so we are pointed through this systematic not only to understand who

God is but we are pointed to the scriptures so that we learn the serious and the heinous nature of sin and the lowly condition of us as mankind,

I can sum up Calvinism in a simple phrase today and it is this, up, up up with God and down, down down with man, salvation,

Spurgeon said this, salvation is of the Lord Jonah 2 .9

actually states that, Spurgeon said this in his biography, he said this is just an epitome of Calvinism, it is the sum and the substance of it, if anyone should ask me what

I mean by Calvinist I should reply this, Spurgeon said he is one who says salvation is of the

Lord I cannot find in scripture any other doctrine I cannot find in scripture any other doctrine than this, it is the essence of the

Bible the psalmist said he only, speaking of God he only is my rock and he only is my salvation, tell me anything contrary to this truth and it will be a heresy, tell me a heresy and I shall find its essence here that it has departed from this great, from this fundamental this rock truth that God is our rock and that God is our salvation now

Spurgeon as many Calvinists do had his own opinions and had his own thoughts, he said this

I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified unless we preach what nowadays is called

Calvinism, we are talking about the 1800's when this was said it is a nickname,

Spurgeon said it is a nickname to call it Calvinism, Calvinism is the gospel and nothing else,

I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works,

I do not believe that we preach the gospel if we preach anything other than the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace, nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal immutable, conquering love of Jehovah nor do

I think, Spurgeon said, nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and the particular redemption of his elect and his chosen people which

Christ wrought out himself upon the cross nor can I, Spurgeon closed his statement and said this, nor can

I comprehend the gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus, Spurgeon said, such a gospel

I abhor and my response to Spurgeon there, if I would have been in the audience would have been, hey man, right there as we heard from Dr.

Frost and Jeremiah Nortier last night we should be on guard for any group that attempts to downplay and to minimize the foundational doctrines of the faith, when

I say we we, I'm talking about we the blood bought church of the living

God being acutely and keenly aware of any friends or foes who would try to speak against the doctrines of grace the doctrines of grace begin with the doctrine of God for we must start our theology with God the doctrines of grace begin with the doctrine of God and the doctrines of grace not only begin with the doctrine of God which is what we'll be examining as best we can in our allotted time this morning but the doctrine of total depravity, the doctrine of total depravity is an essential doctrine of the faith it is being denied and it is being rejected by some in the church world which is a slippery slope that leads to the damnable view that says that man isn't born in sin but that he basically grows into sin, some may say certainly this is not overtly taught but I would say with my own ears two days ago

I heard this very downgrade being put in and posted up on the interwebs, the church split podcast overtly and quite proudly denied and rejected the doctrine of original sin, next the doctrine of unconditional election stands clear and it stands plain the doctrine of limited atonement can be easily simplified and understood if folks would just listen, the irresistible call is yet another of the doctrines that when examined by the text is demonstrably sound and last of all the perseverance of the saints it simply sets forth the plain truth of Romans 8, in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 we read and we know that for those who love

God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, why?

in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined these he also called and these whom he called these he justified and those whom he justified he also glorified and the apostle

Paul retorts what shall we say then to these things? if God be for us who can be against us?

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?

for who? who shall bring anything, any charge against God's elect? for it is

God who justifies, who is he to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that hallelujah for what we heard last night it is he who was raised and he who was at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or persecution or distress or famine or nakedness or danger peril or sword for as it is written for your sake we are being killed all day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered but no

Paul says no but in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am sure

I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth and in case

I forgot anything nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of our

God who is in Christ Jesus I am thankful today church and I say church lovingly

I am thankful today that God is so sovereign

I am thankful today that God is so sovereign and that his gospel is still so efficacious and able to save the lost that despite the asinine behavior of many

Calvinists of many provisionists and of many Armenians that he is still able to save the lost it does not matter there will be no thwarting the power of the word of God for the word of God is not bound and so our aim this morning is simply this we hope to preach to you in such a way today that you are broken by the hammer of the word of God we hope to preach to you in such a way today that you are pierced through by the sword of the spirit and alas in the end our expectation today is this simply that if you are lost you would be saved today by understanding by knowing by hearing of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ which is simple it is this that Christ died for our sins and yes we are everyone sinners through and through but Christ died for our sins he was buried and according to the scriptures on the third day he arose from the dead so our hope is that the word of God today would so penetrate your heart and your mind that you are regenerated that you are born again that you might leave having gone to the why

Calvinism conference all jacked up on why Calvin's right and everybody else is wrong you might be able to leave this place and say

I went to hear about Calvin but I heard Jesus Christ and I will not be the same may today be that day of salvation for you may today be that day where you are born again where you have not been asked to let

John Calvin come into your heart and by the way Jesus doesn't ask to come into your heart brothers and sisters our hope is that the lost would be saved and that you as saved folks today that you would be set on fire for God and that you would be compelled to burn for Christ today for our

God the scriptures tell us this our God is a consuming fire he is a consuming fire a close friend of mine made this statement sometime back and I have so cherish this actually one of the deacons at our church but he made this statement is so stuck with me he said we will never be closer to heaven on earth and by the way let me put a parenthetical in here we will never be closer to heaven on earth of course it's understood this to mean this side of the eternal state but will never be closer to heaven on earth than when we are gathered together with the saints to worship our

Lord never will we be closer to heaven on earth the book of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 states this but you have come to mount

Zion to the city of the living God to the heavenly

Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven and you've come to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and you have come to Jesus who by the way is the mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel see that you do not refuse him who is speaking today for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven for at that time the scripture states his voice shook the earth but now but now yet once more he has said once more

I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens and this phrase signifying this phrase being stated this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken that is things that have been made in order that so that in order that these things the things that cannot be shaken may remain therefore let us let us be grateful let us be grateful for what for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken that is what the word of God therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus as a result of this let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and with all for our

God as we stated is a consuming fire brothers and sisters today we have met to worship the

Lord our God Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 and if you would turn there as well

Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 and as you're turning there I'll share another quote by Spurgeon but it is

God upon the throne that we love to preach which is why we chose this as our primary text today it is

God upon the throne that we love to preach it is God upon his throne in whom we trust it is

God upon his throne of whom we have been singing this morning and it is God upon his throne of whom we shall speak today

Isaiah chapter 6 this is the word of the living God in the year that King Uzziah died

I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple and above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called to another and said holy, holy, holy is the

Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the scripture states and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said woe is me for I am undone,

I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips why?

he said because my eyes have seen the King the

Lord of hosts the King Yahweh of hosts then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and he said behold this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for, it is important that we understand the context for a passage if we're going to look at it and read it and preach on it,

Uzziah, King Uzziah had reigned for 52 years, during the greater part of that reign his people had been brilliantly prosperous they had been victorious in war he was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry the later years of his life however were clouded but on the whole the reign had been a great time of well being, his son and his successor was a man of 25 years old and when he came to the throne ominous war clouds were gathering in the north and threatenings to drift to Judah, this is what happened when his son comes to power but it's no wonder, it is no wonder here that the prophet

Isaiah like other thoughtful patriots was asking himself what was to come in these anxious days when the helm was in new hands which perhaps,

Alexander McLaren put it this way which perhaps were not strong enough to hold the helm and like a wise man,

Isaiah he took his thoughts into the sanctuary of God and it was there in the sanctuary of God that he began to see clearly and it was there that he began to understand, oh we have this same example very quickly if you turn back to Psalm 73

Psalm 73, we hear we read these words, a

Psalm of Asaph truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart but he says, but as for me my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped for I was envious of the arrogant when

I saw the prosperity of the wicked for they had no pains until death, their bodies are fat and sleek they are not in trouble as others are and they are not stricken like the rest of mankind, therefore pride is their necklace, violence covers them as a garment, their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow with follies they scoff and speak with malice loftily they threaten opposition or oppression they set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth, therefore his people turn back to find them and find no fault in them and they say, how can

God know remember today we are talking about a

God who is sovereign, a God who is omniscient a

God who is omnipresent, a God who is omnipotent and they have the audacity to say how can

God know and is their knowledge in the most high, behold the psalmist makes this declaration, behold these are the wicked, they are always at ease, they increase in riches all in vain he said, have

I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence, so he begins to feel sorry for himself and he says, this was all a waste of time for all the day long

I've been stricken and I've been rebuked every morning and he said, if I had said thus,

I will speak thus, then I would have betrayed the generation of your children, but when

I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, and my friends it will wear you out don't get me wrong,

I'm not saying we shouldn't strive to know God better in his word but it will wear you out and it will drive you insane if you think you can figure

God out, going on he said this, but when

I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God he went into the sanctuary of God, this is where Isaiah goes into the sanctuary of God, but the psalmist said there in Psalm 73, when

I went into the sanctuary of God then I discerned therein, then I understood for he said truly, truly

God, his response and his praise to God is this, truly you set them in slippery places, truly you make them fall to ruin, and how they are destroyed in a moment utterly swept away by terrors, and like a dream when one awakes, oh

Lord, you rouse yourself you despise them as phantoms, and when my soul was embittered when my heart was pricked,

I was brutish, and I was ignorant I was like a beast toward you, nevertheless and here he comes to the great realization, nevertheless

I am continually with you for you, oh

God, hold me by my right hand you guide me with your counsel and afterward, you will receive me to glory, whom have

I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you, for my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and God is the portion of my heart forever, so we see this realized by the psalmist, and here we see this vision that we have left for us here in the word of God and I think, oh my goodness gracious, how wonderful it is to know that there have been those saints who have reasonably, and by normal course of events and circumstances begin to wonder is

God real, is God the way, is Jesus the way the truth and the life, and instead of trying to deconstruct their faith, they just go to the place where they get before the throne of God, and God by his

Holy Spirit is able with those groanings which cannot be uttered to demonstrate to them the reality of his salvation in their hearts and in their minds, to let them understand and to know that he is real, there's a song we sing in the country church, living below in this old sinful world, hardly a comfort can afford, striving alone to face temptation sore where could

I go but to the Lord, and Isaiah knew no other place that he could go but to go to the

Lord Alexander McLaren in his commentary said this, it was in the year that King Uzziah died, it's a great deal more than simply a time indicator for us it's more than a date for chronological purposes, but what this does, what this passage teaches us, what this passage tells us is this, it tells us not only when the prophet went into the temple but the why that he saw, the vision that he saw, for the earthly king,

King Uzziah, the earthly king had been laid in the grave, but what the prophet saw what the prophet saw was that the true king of Israel was not dead nor as Uzziah, nor as young Jotham, but he saw the king the

Lord of hosts, and the king, the Lord of hosts was seated upon his throne if the throne had been empty, he would not have seen the throne

God in the heavens, because he would have continued to look to the man, he would have continued to look to the successor, but my friend there is one

Lord and there is one king above all lords and above all kings there is one whom we as the church of Jesus Christ look to and that is the

Lord Jesus Christ for he sits enthroned today we tend to think about passages like this,

Isaiah passage and we arrogantly think that we certainly certainly, we've drained the last drop of rejoicing out of the bucket of salvation some men may have been intimidated when these singers quoted the first passage they read was

Isaiah 6 some preachers might have felt bad, some preachers might have been concerned well they're stealing our thunder friend, it's not our thunder to steal and it's good for us to hear the word of God over and over and over, we should not assume that the bucket of salvation has been drained dry but what

I would remind you today of saints is this that the well is deep and that the water is everlasting and so it is why with joy today we draw water from the wells of salvation, are you weak and heavy laden?

come to Jesus, are you tired? are you troubled? are you weary?

are you worn? cast your care upon the Lord today for he cares, by the way not only does he care but he is able to care for you, he provides for you so moving on, what does the prophet say or what does the prophet say?

simple answer, God who is this God that he sees?

it is not the gods of the nations it is not the gods of the lands, it is not the gods of the pagans, it is

Yahweh, the eternal self -existent God now how do we as men describe

God? to which I would ask another question, how does the finite describe the infinite?

all that we have is the word of God to be able to describe God, John Owen put it like this, if we maintain then the glory of God let us speak in his own language or be forever silent, that is glorious in him which he ascribes unto himself,

Owen said our inventions though never so splendid in our own eyes are unto him but an abomination, they are striving to pull him down from his eternal excellency to make him all together like unto us for God would never allow that the will of the creature be the measure of his honor, why should you love

God? why should you honor God? why should you respect God? not because myself or any of these other men of God who will stand before you because we speak highly of God but you should honor and glorify and worship

God because he is worthy on his own merit without any commendations going on, it's important that we know

George Swinnick said this, George Swinnick wrote this concerning the person of God, Swinnick said

God's being is an independent being, he is by himself as well as from and for himself, none ever in heaven or earth contributed the least to the maintenance or contributed to the continuance of his being, neither the creature's goodness nor their goods do him the least bit of good why?

because God is eternal, God as we have it in the text is holy, holy, holy

God is good, God is faithful God is just,

God is loving God is merciful, God is immutable

God himself is almighty, John Norton, another of the old dead guys said this, what are we to conceive by this, he asked this question, what are we to conceive by this that God is almighty, in other words what are we to think, his answer was this we must think this, that God is almighty, because God is almighty we are to conceive that God needs nothing he doesn't need anything, that he can do everything which is neither wicked nor unequal that he does whatsoever he pleases and is one of whom, by whom and for whom are all things, so concerning God's own testimony of himself, in Isaiah chapter 45 verses 5 through 7, the prophet

Isaiah gives us a transcript, by the way context there for Isaiah God is speaking to and of concerning King Cyrus who by the way was not a good king, he was not a godly king but did

God use Cyrus for his glory and for his honor absolutely he did, and this is the word of the

Lord in Isaiah chapter 45, I am the Lord and there is no other, beside me there is no

God, I equip you, he's speaking to Cyrus, I equip you though you do not know me that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west and that there is none beside me why, he said because I am the

Lord and there is no other, I form light and create darkness,

I make well being and I create calamity, I am the

Lord who does all these things in Daniel chapter 7 verses 9 through 10, the scripture states this, as I looked thrones were placed, again

I know it was quoted last night, read alluded to all of these things, but as I looked, the prophet

Daniel said as I looked thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat, his clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head was pure like wool, his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire a stream of fire issued the scripture says and came from out before him, a thousand thousands served him and 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 stood before him, the court sat in judgment and the books were opened, we read in Psalm chapter 47, clap your hands oh you people, shout to God with loud songs of joy, for the

Lord the most high is to be feared, for he is a great king above all the earth, he subdued people under us and nations under our feet, he chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves, say lie, pause, think for God has gone up with a shout, the

Lord with the sound of a trumpet, sing praises to God sing praises, sing praises to our king, sing praises, for God is the king of all the earth, sing praises with a psalm, why?

God reigns over the nations God sits on his holy throne the princes of the people gather together as the people of God to Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God, why?

He is exalted so where, where does

Isaiah see God? He sees him seated on his throne, a bit of history three dates

I want to give you, the year 1066 the year 1377 through 1399 and the year 1625 through 1649 and you may be thinking to yourself, those seem like random dates and I would be honest in telling you they are random but they are intentional, in the year 1066,

Harold II the last of the Anglo -Saxon kings reigned for less than a year and he spent it fighting to retain power against the coordinated double invasion by Vikings in the north and Normans in the south he was victorious at Stamford Bridge and Yorkshire, Harold was defeated and killed at the battle of Hastings, Richard II in 1377 through 1399 like Edward II, Richard II was bored by government responsibility and he was addicted to pleasure and extravagance, overthrown in a military revolt led by Henry Bolingbroke, he became

Henry IV, he was deposed and then secretly murdered in Pontefract Castle, King Charles I 1625 through 1649 he was driven from London by revolution in 1642 and defeated in two successive civil wars

Charles was put on trial by the radical leaders of the New Model Army and their supporters in a purged rump parliament he was beheaded in a public execution in Whitehall after condemnation as a traitor to the

English people now you might be asking yourself right now, what's the point of the history lesson preacher, to which

I would respond rhetorically of course I'm glad that you asked, the point is this quite simply, the point is that the kings of the earth have all had their day, and their day has come and their day has gone, their kingdoms and their dominions have passed away and have long been forgotten by most because most of you had no idea who these people were, their kingdoms, their dominions passed away they've been long forgotten but today, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ today, the kingdom of God is alive and well there is no fading away, there is no passing away, the psalmist again declared in Psalm 99 the

Lord reigns, let the people tremble he sits enthroned upon the cherubim, let the earth quake, why, the

Lord is great in Zion, he is exalted over all the peoples, let them praise your great and your awesome name, holy is he, the king in his might loves justice you have established equity and you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob and then verse 5 says exalt the

Lord our God, worship at his footstool, holy is he, and so lastly today, lastly

I direct your thoughts and I direct your attention to this single fact this infinite, this matchless this marvelous, this glorious God who made the heavens and the earth, it is this

God who needs nothing nor anyone this

God, this same God, who in eternity passed, chose in and of himself to set his love and affection on a chosen people, despite the fact that we were fallen and that we were sinful, despite the fact

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life, now

I leave you with this quote, if God should promise salvation simply, it is a great matter, but it is a far greater matter when he promises the same salvation amidst manifold dungeons of death, he says even while all things shall be out of order and the fear of destruction shall possess all things, only call upon me and you shall be saved therefore, however man may be swallowed up in the gulf of miseries, yet there is set before him a way to escape we must also note this universal word in the text,

John 3, 16, right, for God whosoever, for God admits all men to himself without exception and by this means he does invite them to salvation, just as Paul gathers in the tenth chapter of the book of Romans, whosoever shall call upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved, and as the prophet set it down in Psalm 65 when he said,

O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come, therefore, please hear this therefore, since no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is flung open to all men neither is there any other thing which keeps us back from entering in, except our own unbelief

I speak of all to whom God makes himself manifest by the gospel, you know who said that?

John Calvin, please hear me today what we read in books are snapshots in time of these great men of God's lives, we see what is recorded we see what's copied and pasted we see what one side wants us to see and the other side doesn't want us to see, but friends, unless you've lived and you've walked with a man, don't assume to know that man completely test everything by the word of God don't stop with just the stuff that you like but dig till you get to the stuff that you don't like because until you know that, you won't know which way to go today, today, you can have settled assurance of salvation and today you can have peace of mind because of what

God has done alone in sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die an atoning death for your sin, it's quite easy to see this, that God is holy and man is not and some of you really detailed focused people, if we haven't lost you during this hour, you might be thinking,

I thought you said you were going to preach about the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man the holiness of God is all you need right now, because if you see anything less than the holiness of God, there you go you have come short,

I have come short, but it is clear in the scriptures to see that although we are sinners, even here and now that God is gracious and that God is merciful and not only is he gracious and merciful, but he's gracious and merciful to a world of sinners, that Christ died for us, so today, the gospel call is this, turn from your sin look unto

Christ and be saved all the ends of the earth today.