2nd Generation Reformer John Calvin & THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM

We're in lesson number 10 of forerunners of the faith lesson number 10

This will be a part 3 and we're on section 5, which is John Calvin and the glory of God So we've been talking about the

Protestant Reformation We focused mainly on Martin Luther who is the one who you might say started the

Reformation? but now we're looking at the man the next generation of Reformation leadership and this is probably the most

Hated man in church history. I mean not by everyone. Obviously, there's many Christians who love and Revere John Calvin, but he is a very polarizing figure.

So John Calvin and the glory of God section number five you found it.

Yes, okay Says Calvin was born in France in 1509

He was 25 years younger than Luther as such Calvin represents the second generation of Protestant Reformers Calvin was converted in the early 1530s like Luther he had been studying to be a lawyer before God changed the course of his life when persecution against Protestants erupted in France Calvin fled to Switzerland in Basel he penned his first edition of the

Institutes of the Christian religion. It was published in 1536 now who has read

I'm not gonna ask who's read Calvin's Institutes because it's very rare to find someone who's read the whole thing

Who has read at least a little bit you you've read some Okay, who has at least heard of Calvin's Institutes raise your hand.

How many have no idea what this is? It's almost half and half

So yeah, I Martin Luther is the name most everybody knows But Calvin he yeah, he's the second generation and he's known for his

Institutes and then something that has endured that just about every modern

Christian has at least heard of the five points of Calvinism which we may or May not get into this morning depending on how fast we go

So the Institutes were published in 1536 later that same year he was planning to travel to Strasbourg and his journey took him through Geneva where another reformer named

William Farrell which he lived from 1489 to 1565

He convinced Calvin to stay and help lead the

Protestant Church in Geneva in 1538 Farrell and Calvin came into conflict with the

City Council and were forced to leave Geneva Calvin traveled to Strasbourg where he got married and published his first Commentary on the book of Romans in his second edition of the

Institutes this is a pretty well known fact

Excuse me Calvin wrote I believe he wrote books and commentaries on every book of the

New Testament except for one Who knows? What was the one book? He did not write a commentary for Revelation, right?

Yeah, we talked about this on Wednesday night going through the book of Revelation how it's a book that you know

Some churches just ignore it There's a lot of churches. They've never preached a sermon

They're never gonna go through Revelation chapter by chapter in part of that is because they're taking the lead of Calvin Calvin kind of left revelation alone

So they're picking up on that and say well if he if he couldn't figure it out Well, we'll just leave it alone as well

But you know, we we have a different viewpoint of revelation than most reformed churches

But yes Marcus John MacArthur doesn't ignore revelation. Does he that's true

John MacArthur is considered a Calvinist, but he he's also dispensational so MacArthur often has gone through revelation.

So yes Aaron Okay, yeah Dispensationalism really wasn't

I don't want to say it wasn't a thing but that viewpoint was a tiny tiny minority compared to Calvin John Calvin started out like Martin Luther.

He was Roman Catholic That's how he grew up and a lot of the Reformers.

I would say one problem with some of the Reformers is they held on to a lot of the

Catholic doctrine like infant baptism and that Roman Catholic view of the end times

So yeah Calvin is considered reformed So the reformed churches follow

Calvin Dispensational churches more the Baptist churches. That's more in the line.

We're in Yeah Yeah Calvinist churches would be reformed and or Presbyterian but you're gonna find that there will be

Baptists and all sorts of churches that hold on to what are the called the five points, which again will will probably five points of Calvinism Yeah, the tulip right and I know

I'm using some of these terms and I I can't assume that everybody knows what they mean so if you want to ask clarification hopefully it'll all come out and I'll explain it all as we go, but Did you have another?

Question. Oh, if you have a question or comment raise your hand, okay corrupt. Yes. Thank you

Like I do yes It's true. Yeah in the summer of 1541

Calvin returned to Geneva and he would minister there for the rest of his life during his time in Geneva He preached over 2 ,000 sermons

So, I don't know if that sounds like a lot to you, but that is a lot of sermons by 1546

Calvin began to face opposition From some of the citizens of Geneva this opposition group known as the

Libertines Resisted Calvin in the rules that were enacted by the church in Geneva It was not until nearly 10 years later in the mid 1550s that the opposition against Calvin finally began to wane beginning in 1555

Calvin welcome. Let me just stop there the the Libertines and it doesn't the book doesn't explain

What the Libertines, you know what their issue was? There's a little hint here.

But when you hear that turn term Libertines What do you think that was

Yeah, I think of terms like hyper grace Libertine yeah

Liberty you hear the word Liberty. So freedom. We don't like all these rules you know, John Calvin and the church in Geneva has all these rules and I Think of Libertines today like if you go to a church and the pastor is preaching

Let's say from the book of 1st Corinthians and it's in the text like fornication like in these preaching against fornication

Okay. Well the Bible speaks against that But someone who is of a

Libertine mindset all they hear is, you know Thou shalt not there's a rule and you know, we're free in Christ and maybe that's not the best thing to do

They might have to admit that. Okay. The Bible does say this is wrong and this is wrong But stop weighing me down with law and commandments and rules.

Yeah, so Libertines tend to be We're free in Christ and don't tell me that what

I'm doing is wrong They they kind of bristle against Bible preaching

Because they want to live their life their way and they don't want anyone telling them what to do

Well, I mean I think they were from God's Word But they're there, you know, there's always those things in churches that maybe are more along the lines of tradition, so I'm sure it was both but people that are of that mindset

They they do from my experience. They do end up opposing things that are just straight up from the

Bible. But yeah, Larry Wanting Or not wanting to be held to the rules or to the commandments.

And so You know, I was like, oh I'm saved By grace, so I'm free to do what

I want And I would listen to Christian radio All the time and I'd listen to John MacArthur and I would say because his

Name of his radio program is grace to you And so I would always

I would listen and he's just really driving home the point You know of scripture alone and just really hammering

How we need to be obedient, you know, like that didn't sound like grace to me.

Yeah But looking back on it. I was using

God's grace as a license for me to sit right and Thinking.

Oh, all I got to do is First down one night. I'll confess and so I did every night

I would confess but there was never any repentance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the

Libertines It takes different forms Throughout the ages, but that's the general idea

Free in Christ, which we are free in Christ. Well, what does that how do you define that? That's the kind of the sticking point.

Did you have something here? Yeah, I'm sure they were probably called that Right Yeah, I was listening to a radio

Program where they the pastor was talking about Jimmy swaggered back in what was that the 70s 80s, you know, he got caught

With a prostitute I believe and he had that tearful apology on TV and I think a lot of people wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was sorry and They forgave him and he did end up continuing in ministry later on which you know, you can argue that was good or not good but apparently

It happened again, or there was another Affair or something and when he was asked the second time or the third time he got caught his response was well

That's none of your business so I mean There's two types of churches out there.

There'll be the type of church that says don't judge and we're not even gonna talk about it He's he's under grace just Okay, it's not good, but we're not gonna really preach against that and then there's other churches that that's wrong

And we need to have standards and we're gonna preach what the Bible says and that's a serious and he needs to step down so most churches are gonna fall on one side or the other the the libertine side or What I would just call the the biblical side

Yeah Myself and say

How am I using Grace or how you know, so I have to come

I can't compare myself to him Yeah, I have to compare myself to Christ which

I'll never match right, but He's the only he's our example, right?

Yeah, and you know in the libertines will call the other side Pharisees or whatever and you can become

Pharisaical when yes, you point out the errors in others But you totally ignore all of your own faults and you're condemning others when you're doing the same thing

I mean that that's the problem obviously and there are churches that are maybe too harsh and don't show grace, but Romans 2 2 right there.

What does it say Romans 2 2? Well, I'm right here so I might as well

Might as well read it Romans 2 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things

So anyway, this is what John Calvin was dealing with in Geneva. So it says here beginning in 1555

Calvin welcomed English Protestant refugees who are fleeing from the Rome Roman Catholic Queen Mary the first To Geneva among them was the

Scottish preacher John Knox John Knox ended up being kind of the father of the

Presbyterians in 1558 Calvin became ill and worked quickly to finish up the final edition of his

Institutes the final version published in 1559 expanded to 80 chapters from the original six chapters in the first edition

Calvin died on May 27th 1564 the aim of his life had been the glory of God Though his legacy is often reduced to a few key points related to God's sovereignty and salvation

Calvin's ministry focused on the sovereign glory of God in everything so they made reference here to his ministry is often reduced to what a

Few a few points Let's see reduced to a few key points.

So that will get into this subject here This is gonna take me a second to figure

Figure out here. So, okay five points of Calvinism. This is how most people

Remember John Calvin where they think or hear the name John Calvin. This is what they what they think of before we get into this, let me just read a few quotes because Yeah, the the section is called

John Calvin and the glory of God Here's a few things that he said the Holy Spirit has consecrated us as temples of God We therefore must let the glory of God shine through us and we must not pollute ourselves with sin until men recognize that they owe everything to God that they are nourished by his fatherly care and That he is the author of every good work that they should seek nothing beyond him

They will never yield him willing service nay unless they establish their complete happiness in him

They will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him so John Calvin He focused on the glory of God and also the sovereignty of God who's familiar with the five points here

Okay. Now the way I'm going to present this as a teacher.

This is Sunday school So I'm gonna present it from a teaching viewpoint So I'm going to remain

Neutral, I'm not gonna be because I know there's a lot of people who agree with this There's a lot of people who don't so I'm gonna take the neutral view and give you both sides

But the five points yet T stands for total depravity you unconditional election

L limited atonement, that's the one people tend to have an issue with I irresistible grace and L or a

TVP. Sorry Perseverance of the Saints So in just in full disclosure the

Morris Corner Church doctrinal statement we do have The T in total depravity in our church's doctrinal statement

The rest are not addressed in our church's statement What do you know when you when you read this when you hear about this?

What's your first impression any impressions? positive negative somewhere in between What do you think?

Aaron Okay Marcus no will contend ray

Okay, I don't speak Spanish. So I think I know what you're saying, but So T total depravity this is often misunderstood

Sometimes it's called total inability This is the idea that mankind does not have the ability within himself

To submit himself to God a person is dead and trespasses and sins

That's what Ephesians 2 1 says and because you are dead You are unable

To produce spiritual life in yourself. You have to be born again by the

Spirit of God. So total depravity says You cannot come to God on your own.

You need God's grace and his regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit That's opposed to people who believe that mankind. Yes, we're sinful

But we still have some goodness within us to be able to choose Christ But the

Calvinist or at least the person who believes in total depravity says, you know You'd you have no goodness and you are dead and trespasses and so you cannot believe without God Intervening.

I mean, that's the idea Any verses for total depravity I may

I think of Jeremiah was at 17 9 the heart The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it

So some people say, you know, just follow your heart. Well, that's not good advice

Some people don't it depends on your heart if your heart If you're born again, and you love

God Following your heart and following Jesus might line up but natural man not not so So anyways, that's total depravity and you know

Some people would say that even John Calvin didn't believe in this stuff. Well, I think he probably did but Calvin himself did not come up with this.

This came this was sort of a summarization of his teachings Next unconditional election.

Let's turn to a few verses here Ephesians chapter 1 I remember growing up I I never heard of the doctrine of election the whole concept of election was completely foreign to me.

I was probably 26 years old I was listening to WL PV Christian radio and This guy

I'd never heard of RC Sproul came on the air and he was talking about the doctrine of election

And I'm like, what is this? I've been going to church more or less my whole life.

I've never heard about this and it was yeah, it was a real eye -opener, but if you actually

If you actually look the Bible does talk about God Choosing because elect means what?

If if something is elect it's chosen Right, we haven't we have elections in this country.

No comments. Okay, but We have elections where people choose whatever the governor the president

Ephesians 1 We'll just start in verse 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God To the

Saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you and peace from God our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with ever

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and Without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will so in verse 4 you see that he

God has chose us and Paul's writing to Believers, and he says

God has chosen you from when The foundation of the world so this

Right, you're right before from before the foundation of the world so this is called the doctrine of election what the

Bible teaches about God choosing and You can see it in the name God's choice according to these five points

God's choice is unconditional Meaning he didn't make that choice based on anything to do with you

If you look at this it says in verse 5 After God chose he predestined and it was all according to Yeah, it wasn't according to he saw something wonderful in you

No, it says it was all according to the good pleasure of of his will so this is the idea that God's Choosing is based on God not

Not you Okay, what's the argument against that I mean

Yeah Some people would say that the

Yes, God does choose. It's in the Bible You can't really get around that but they would say that no it is conditional

So the other side would say God's choosing is conditional based on His foreknowledge which in Romans chapter, let's go to Romans 8

They would say it's based on his foreknowledge Basically God looks down the corridor of time and he sees in advance

He sees that this person and this person will believe in Christ and based on that foreknowledge

Knowing that this person will place their faith in Jesus God elects them or chooses them based on Knowing that they'll believe

Speaking of RC Sproul He commented on that and he said that is according to him who he is a

Calvinist. He said that's not an Explanation of election. He said that's a fundamental denial of election.

But again, that's that's the disagreement that people have Romans chapter 8

I told you to turn to let's look at verses 28 through 30

Verse 28 all things work together for good. Amen It's my favorite verse

I think in all of the Bible. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead and quote for us To them that love

God see we put them on the spot and I'll just read it and we know that all things work together for good to those who love

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

He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren

So the idea is that God foreknew his people and because he knew you would believe in Christ.

That's why he chose you so anyways, that's the difference between Unconditional election

God chooses based on his will nothing to do with you or God chooses you based on what he

Knows about you So you can be a good Christian on both sides, you know,

I think here's where I Take issue when people start throwing the term

Heresy around for this subject I don't think that's called for you can be a

Calvinist or a non Calvinist And this is one of those things we can agree to disagree on denying the resurrection of Jesus that's heresy

Denying, you know that people have to believe in Jesus. Everyone's going to heaven. No matter what you don't even need to believe in Jesus That's heresy

Calvinism is not heresy if you disagree with that. Hey fine, or if you accept it fine

But it's one of those things that Christians we can still get along and Have a different viewpoint

Larry Doesn't it if God Down the corridor time and see what

I was gonna do and chose because of that doesn't it still that's about me So it's about my work

I mean That's one of the arguments Yeah, I don't

I don't personally think it really helps explain it makes sense in some ways, but then it creates other

Questions. Yeah. Yes Okay, what is the difference between False teaching and heresy or I Mean heresy you well,

I'm starting to answer the question. You understand makes it easier for me I'm trying to phrase the question correctly

There's heresy is that a does that stand in a category of its own other than well obviously other than Differences of opinion.

I think it stands in a category Is all the same as false teaching it can be you the two can be used as synonyms

Okay, but not always there are some people that I might feel comfortable calling them false teachers

But I would not want to call the heretic is like that's like the final that's the end of the road.

That's like So heresy the best way to define heresy is it's a teaching that fundamentally denies or corrupts

Something to do with the person and work of Christ or the person of God the nature of God so denying the resurrection is

Heresy Some of these woke pastors that are preaching critical race theory and they're saying that there is one guy former president of the

Southern Baptist Convention his his church His church was too white.

He wanted to get the the numbers up and he's praised preaching all this racial stuff and we got to get 25 % of the people in our churches to be minorities and I mean if this was swapped around it would be considered racism, right?

So anyways, if you're preaching critical race theory, I would say that's false teaching

I think that pastor engages in false teaching with that stuff the woke stuff

I'm really I'm reluctant to call it heresy though. I mean, maybe it is but Heresy is like the worst and it's clearly

Denying the gospel if someone's a heretic, they're not saved The false person engaging in false teaching they might be saved

But I mean they just need to be rebuked. So I think there is a difference. Yeah So I can remember when it's my turn to speak the word is deconstruction, yeah

My question is please comment briefly then on deconstruction deconstruction

What it is what it sounds like if you're deconstructing something, let's say you have your faith

You believe in Jesus. He died on the cross for my sins. He rose again. I'm a Christian You have your faith and then you're starting to deconstruct it.

Well, I don't believe Jesus. I Don't believe this anymore. I don't believe what Jesus said here

I don't believe this and you're just sort of dismantling your faith until you have nothing left So deconstruction is when the person falls away from the faith sometimes they will then call themselves themselves an atheist

Sometimes they still say well, I'm still a Christian. I just don't believe That stuff and it's like what

Christianity like But that's what it's another word for apostasy Aaron A lot of people in the church believe in Christ as young children and they just want a really good thing

It's when you look at it to say, okay. Well what parts that I were taught from the

Bible are wrong? That's what really it's very deceptive and that's the danger of the lie

You know this word deconstruction sounds like such a good idea Yeah, well, it doesn't sound good to me

Yeah, if that's how you're phrasing it if that's how you're defining it

Yeah, yeah Right, yeah

Obviously if you are brought up Being taught things that are wrong. You would want to examine those things and leave it behind but the deconstruction

Marcus is talking about that we've been dealing with recently is Is different?

I mean, they're just dropping the fundamentals of the faith is what they're yeah. Yeah. Thanks.

Okay, so We covered T total depravity sometimes called and this is a misleading term because it makes it sound like people are as Bad as they can possibly be that's not what total depravity means.

It means people are as bad off as they can be Totally unable to remedy their lost conditions.

So a better term would be radical corruption because of sin

Unconditional election sometimes it's called sovereign election, but it's the difference people have between God choosing for his own purposes or based on what he sees

From man the we'll just skip limited atonement and come back to that. Okay the argument would be logically if you believe this then you should believe this and If you believe this and this then you would logically have to believe it is a system

That is the strength of it is its logic. So if you accept the first point logically, you

Would have to accept the rest But again, not everyone agrees with that Irresistible grace that is

Another misnomer because it sounds like people cannot resist the grace of God in reality

People are resisting God's grace all the time everywhere Matter -of -fact, I think Stephen before he was stoned preaching to the

Jewish leaders. He said you always resist The Holy Spirit.

I mean you're resisting the grace of God. So basically a Better term for that would be the effectual call

Irresistible grace is the idea that if God wants to save somebody He can save them

So if God chooses someone from the foundation of the world at a point in time the

Holy Spirit will regenerate their dead spirit and they will come to faith because God can save whoever he wants and this is the main difference between Calvinism and non

Calvinist This is this is it all boils down to this. Why are you saved?

Why are you saved? Are you saved because? Jesus saved you

God reached out he saved you or are you saved because You believed

Which is it? Are you saved because you believed or are you saved because God saved you which is it?

People say well, it's not either or it's both. It's a cool. It's a cooperative effort God did his part and I did my part

That's the free we're talking about free will right that but that's the free will position God did his part

I did my part It's like you're you're drowning in the sea and God throws the life preserver and you grabbed on to it

And that's how you are saved the Calvinist position is God Dives in the water and drags you onto the boat and saves your life.

So Again two different viewpoints Marcus you like RC scroll you like John Calvin.

Do you like John MacArthur? John Calvin Be honest with I've never honestly

I've I have read very little of John Calvin So, oh, okay.

Do you like Irwin Lipser? Yeah, he has an excellent book that doesn't necessarily and Larry can

I think he's more familiar with the book than I am It's one of those that I want to read called doctrines that divide.

Well, this is one of them Yeah, but that but that's why

I say you can take either side You can be a member in good standing of Morris Corner Church and be a

Calvinist You can be a member in good standing and not be a Calvinist What we don't want to do is start, you know fighting and be at each other's throat over it

That's that's what we don't want. Yeah comment now I've noticed it and I'm glad that you have you you used to you say it was

Calvinism versus Arminianism and of course, Arminianism has things

I disagree with and And so I'm I like well

Non Calvinist Well, I guess I'm a non Calvinist and a non Arminianist.

Okay Yeah, let's turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, but that would be the other side

Right. There's Calvinism stressing the sovereignty of God God does all the work in salvation named after John Calvin The other side is more free will

That's named after Jacob Arminius So man does his part in believing and you believe because you have the ability to believe so these are two opposite systems and You know a lot again logically

I would think people would fit into one of the other but there's a lot of people say hey Don't don't I don't want this label.

I don't want this label. I don't fall into either camp I think I tend to think people do but that's just my opinion.

I'm not gonna fight about it Yeah, obviously peace some people don't like labels and I think we need to respect people and if they don't want to be called by a certain label, that's

That's fine. But I like Christian Christian is good That's why I get angry at heretics that say oh,

I'm just here because I want Christian fellowship Well, you can't be a heretic and have fellowship any more than light and darkness

That's true, that's true, okay, so irresistible grace we talked about that now P perseverance of the

Saints Where is this taught in the Bible? I'm just gonna say

I've been on record. I'll I'll sink or swim on this

I believe in total depravity and I've preached on that and I believe in perseverance of the

Saints and I've preached on that In between, you know, I Intentionally for for reasons that I keep to myself.

I I tend to want to just Remain more neutral on these although I do have an opinion again

I'm trying to present this in a neutral way, but I I do believe in the perseverance of the

Saints. I Strongly believe in that so why? Corinthians 5 17

Yep, that's a good one, but we're gonna read 1st Corinthians 15 starting in verse 1 moreover brethren.

I Declare to you the gospel which I preached to you which also you received and in which you stand

By which also you are saved if you hold fast that word, which

I preached to you Unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you First of all that which

I also received that Christ died for our sins According to the Scriptures and that he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the

Scripture So this is the clearest definition of the gospel anywhere in the Bible The gospel is

Jesus died and rose again according to the Word of God But you notice that a person is saved

Paul says verse 2 if You hold fast that word which

I preached to you So there's an idea out there once saved always saved which

I think is true. The statement is true But some people have the idea if yeah once saved always saved

So as long as I say a sinner's prayer, I'm saved and if I end up an atheist when

I'm 60 years old I'm still saved Now if you're an atheist you're not say if you fall away from the faith, you're not saved this is the idea that a true believer will keep the faith a true believer in Christ will persevere now the the word persevere

Makes it sound like you're the one who's doing it because of your determination because of your strength

It's not really because of you though, right John chapter 10 Jesus He he holds us

God holds us in his hand, right? So it's better to call it.

I think the preservation of the Saints that God preserves us But it's basically the idea of eternal security

That a true believer will never lose their salvation But the mark of the true believer is they keep the faith

So yes, if someone ends up denying Christ at the end of their life, it's just evidence. They were never truly

Regenerate to begin with And that's the point In Arminian ism that I believe is false.

Yes that you can lose your salvation. That's right. That's why I Again, whether you're a

Calvinist or not, whether you find that helpful or not Arminianism, I believe is absolutely wrong because they believe you can lose your salvation

I don't believe that for one second and we could go back to Romans chapter 8 where Paul Stresses the end of the chapter nothing in all of creation can separate

You from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Oh Except if you do this or you commit this in there's no

Yes, once the person to save they they will always be saved Okay, so that's the five point then limited atonement.

Oh man rats. We're out of time You know, no this I won't do that to you. This is the idea that Jesus came to die for the elect

Jesus didn't die for everybody because if Jesus died, let's say Jesus died for the sins.

Well, what's it called limited? atonement Did Jesus atone for Adolf Hitler sins?

The Idea is that Jesus atone for the sins of every human being on earth and guess what?

Every human being on earth is saved. Yes or no is Calvinist or non -Calvinist. Yes or no? some people prefer

Definite atonement when Jesus died that atonement was for the covenant people

It's like when the Passover lamb was slain. It wasn't for the Egyptians It was for everybody in the

Covenant or excuse me the Day of Atonement in in Israel when the high priest would sacrifice the lamb the

Day of Atonement. It wasn't for the Hittites It was for God's covenant people. So when Jesus died it wasn't for The heathen it was for the elect and then the other the other side says all these verses that well

He died not for our sins only first John to to but for the sins of the whole world

It's unlimited and then the Calvinists would say yes, but world means You know humanity in general, you know, and then the back -and -forth starts, but we're out of time

So if anyone has anything else on that, I'm sorry. You just Cosmos yes.