Calvinism Abases Man — L.R. Shelton

This is the Voice of Truth, the Voice of God's inerrant, absolute, eternal, unbroken, verbally inspired Word. The Voice of Truth is coming to you from the Metropolitan Tabernacle of the First Baptist Church of Algiers.

We're located 501 Opelousas Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana. This is Pastor Alvin Pindarvis speaking, inviting you to stay tuned to hear God's message by our late Pastor L .R. Shelton, Sr. on the subject, Calvinism Abases Man, and this is number 157 in this series.

Calvinism and the Sovereignty of God

Calvinism in this present day is almost like waving a scarecrow. Folks begin to tremble and run from it about the only way they can get around the teachings of God's Word is to condemn the man who's preaching the truths of God's Word and throw every dispersion upon his name to discredit his testimony.

Now that's exactly what has been done and is being done to your speaker. One of the greatest doctrines of Calvinism, which is a doctrine of God's Word, is the sovereignty of God and the teaching that God's purposes can never be defeated by any force, whether in earth's exalt man and say that man controls the destiny of his own soul, not realizing that God's purposes can never be defeated.

Now my friends, you can't defeat God's purpose. I know the average religionist today in the pulpit or the pew. Faiths of God are on the sidelines watching humanity go by with a pity that he can't save them.

They won't turn and they worship a defeated God. That's right. Now you listen. Isaiah 46 .10 says, My counsel shall stand and I with pleasure also bring it to pass, also do it. Now brother, that's God's Word.

Isaiah 40 .16. Now listen to Psalms 115 .3, which sets forth this same great truth. Listen. But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. My friend, when you honestly face God's Word, you run up against this great rock of Gibraltar that God daringly leases and no man can stay his hand or change his will.

Why? Because God is absolute sovereign. The fruit of Arminianism is God may be sovereign, but man is also sovereign. One of our religious leaders made that statement in print the other day. Unsaved religionists govern to God and gnash their teeth at the doctrines of election and approbation.

They will readily tell you that Satan will never have a chance to be saved, that fallen angels are doomed forever in an endless hell. But when you tell them that God's Word teaches that God has elected some to salvation and some to damnation, they rise up with all the fury of hell and say, I'll not have it.

Now, my friend, that's a sign of utter rebellion against the Word of God and against the sovereignty of God. And it shows that they have never been saved and never will be saved until their rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ.

To them, this is one of the greatest evils of Calvinism. And to justify this rejecting heart, they will brand the individual who preaches such doctrine as a hyper-Calvinist because they do not know the difference between Calvinism, hyper-Calvinism, and Arminianism.

Now, brother, that might be some stiff preaching, but it's right down the line where religionists of today live. Now, my friend, I'm not pulling my punches because of your ignorance or because of your stupidity of the Word of God.

Total Depravity and the Humbling of Man

Now, let's discuss one of the great evils of Calvinism as viewed by the unsaved religionists, and that is Calvinism abases man. In this day, when modernism is in the ascendancy, which exalts man and deifies man and humanizes the Lord Jesus Christ, when you talk about man's condition as God's Word describes him, you are teaching a great evil in the eyes of the wicked world and the unsaved religionists.

Now, my friends, as I said last Sunday, someone said to me, I hate that expression, unsaved religionists, and I want you to know, brother Sheldon, I'm not an unsaved religionist. Well, if you're not saved, you are.

The teachings of God's Word on the total depravity of the natural man are the most hated, most despised doctrines of the Bible, as well as Calvinism among unsaved religionists that you'll find in this present day religious circles.

Now, that's so. Brother, before God saves a man, train him. Before God saves a man, he's got to be deflated. There are Calvinists I'm speaking to right now on the road to hell. You don't know anything about the humbling work of the Holy Spirit.

You don't know anything about being broken down. You've been converted to the doctrine of Calvinism without Christ, and that's one of the surest routes you hold a ticket to hell. Now, you listen, will you?

A man came to my office one day and said, You're disgraced to the present day ministry because you preach Bible repentance. And since he made that statement, I'm corresponding with him now. Now, he's changing his tune.

If a man were not totally depraved, he'd never have to repent. Never. So, Arminianism has boiled salvation down to a mere mental asset to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and done away with total depravity and heartfelt Bible repentance.

Now, that's exactly what Arminianism has done, and many of you Calvinists have done it. Why? Because they hate the total depravity. There's many of you Calvinists that hates the doctrine of total depravity.

Now, that's so. There were two young preachers in my office the other day. They were Calvinists. They knew nothing about the Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing they could talk about was doctrine, doctrine, doctrine.

Now, my friend, you let that soak in. Do you know doctrine, or do you know Christ? They exalt man and say that man is good, and the only thing we preachers have to do is to bring out the good that is in man.

My, what a job we have, if that's so. It's not so. Man is totally depraved. Calvinism takes away every straw that man can lean on and sets forth thousands of scriptures which always prophesy evil for the man who doesn't know Christ.

Now, there is where your blood boils, where mine used to before God saved me. Every time you turn to the Bible, you find condemnation, condemnation, condemnation. And that's all you will find until you repent.

But when you repent, you will find promises that will lead you to Christ. Calvinism leaves a poor, all-wicked sinner without one straw to lean upon. I'm talking about real Calvinism. And his only hope is the crucified, buried, risen, exalted, living Christ.

Have you been converted to a doctrine, or have you been converted to a living Christ? My friend, do you hold a core doctrine? Is that all you have? Or have you been converted to a living Christ? Calvinism says that Christ is Lord of all, and there is none else beside Him.

Christ will not take the second place to any other god, Isaiah 42a. This truth is clearly stated in 2 Chronicles 18, 7, when the king of Israel, talking to Jehoshaphat, he said, I hate that man of God, for he never prophesied good to me, but always evil.

I remember a holy meeting in a certain place. I came to the church building a little ahead of time, and a deacon came in. He said, I guess you want to tell us again tonight that we are totally depraved.

I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir, I'm going to tell you that same thing again tonight. He said, is that all you can preach on? I said, man's got to be deflated, destroyed, and brought down to the dust of repentance, or he'll never know Christ as salvation.

He said, if that's got to be done, then I'll go to hell. I said, my friend, that's where you will go, and that's where you'll land. You have a one-way ticket to hell now. He turned and walked out of the building.

Now you listen. How many have said this about the preacher? He said, I just hate Sheldon, because he's always prophesying evil to me. There is nothing else that I can prophesy to you but evil if you're out of Christ, because according to Romans 8, 7, 8, the carnal mind is in myth against God.

It's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So Calvinism puts man down where he belongs, as a totally depraved, hell-born, hell-bent, hell-deserving, ill-deserving, undeserving sinner, because he's evil by nature and is a child of wrath.

The Scripture says in Ephesians 2, 3, children of wrath by nature. It also says in Ephesians 2, 1, we are dead in trespasses and sins. Having the understanding darkened Ephesians 4, 18 and Romans 1, 21.

Listen. Also our minds are blinded and our hearts are darkened by the God of this world. And the natural man is more stupid than an ox or an ass. That's God's word. Read the first chapter of Isaiah. And that is what Calvinism teaches.

Coincides with God's eternal, verbally inspired word. Now, that puts a sinner in a place of hopelessness, apart from the power and grace of a sovereign God, who does as he pleases. That makes an old sinner gnash his teeth.

That makes unsaved religionists in the pulpit and the few form at the mouth. They think they are free to choose as they will, not knowing that man in his natural state is free only to choose sin and that no man in his natural state can voluntarily choose good.

Human Will, Bondage, and Divine Grace

Now, my friends, that's so. That's so. Oh, let me tell you something, friend. For you to be accepted, never. You, as a lost sinner, stand before God to be accepted in Christ or rejected forever. Now, you let that soak in.

Or you may make a mental ascent to some things, but your will has never been bent in that direction toward God in Christ. The will of the natural man is controlled by his depraved nature. A man said to me one day, Preacher, my will is free.

I can choose any time and anywhere. I want to be saved. Well, he's crazy and he's blinded. Your will is controlled by your own natural, depraved, unbelieving heart. How many of you sinners sitting there listening to me, under conviction, have been brought to the place where you'd give a million worlds if you had them, if you could choose Christ at this moment and say you're saved?

You would. But God gives Christ to whom he wills and to whom he pleases. And when a sinner gets saved, he knows one thing, that he was saved by the sovereign, free grace of an eternal, omnipotent God.

Old David Brainerd said, and I recommend the book to you, The Life of David Brainerd. When he came to that place, he was walking in a pine sapling thinking. He said he gnashed his teeth and cried out, at the disposal of a sovereign God that I can't choose as I will, and I can't choose Christ.

When he came to face to face with that fact and found that his will was shackled and controlled by a totally depraved nature, and that God was eternal and sovereign, he said, I never realized that I was in such rebellion against God until then.

And I began to cry for God to break my rebellion and free my will that I could choose Christ and choose him alone. Now, that's a doctrine that is not preached today, and a doctrine that is hated worse than I hate a rattlesnake.

Listen to God's word. Listen to God's word, will you? And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

All right, listen. Christ said in John 5 .40,. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Listen again. Man left in his natural state, apart from the convicting power and influence of the Holy Spirit, cannot and never will choose Christ and that which is good of his own will.

Now, here's where the rub comes in. Man does not like to be told he cannot do anything he wills. The very moment you cross man's will, he'll fly back at you. I don't care who he is, whether he's a deacon in the pulpit, a deacon in the pew, a woman in the classroom, or a drunkard on the street.

Let me say again, man does not like to be told he cannot do anything he wills. But Romans 3 .11 says,. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Now you let that soak in.

Now you hold that truth. I know the unsaved religionist hates it, and I know you hate it, if you have never been convicted. John 5 .40 again says,. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Ye will not to come, because your will is controlled by your own depraved, damnable, wicked, sinful nature.

John 6 .44 says, No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. No individual has ever, does now, or ever will come to the Lord Jesus Christ unless he's drawn by the Holy Spirit.

Brother, no sinner would ever get saved if he could have it. And no sinner. One of the most helpless situations I find myself in is to try to draw a convicted sinner to Christ. I can't. As long as you can lead a sinner to a decision for Christ, he is not under Holy Spirit conviction for salvation.

I'm going to repeat that statement. As long as you can lead a sinner to a decision for Christ, he is not under Holy Spirit conviction for salvation. I can break the rope, but I can't budge a sinner's hair's breadth toward Christ.

Christ's Call and Man's Refusal

In Matthew 23 .37 we find these words, Christ sitting on Mount Olivet, weeping over Jerusalem said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sin unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, and ye would not.

Do you hear that? Why don't everyone of you come to Christ right now? Because you don't want to come, ye will not to come, and your mind is set that you will not have Christ because you don't want Him to rule over you.

You like your religion, you like your church membership, you like your self-will, you like your being strutted. That's right. You have a will to choose against Christ and to choose evil and choose sin.

But you don't have a will to choose Christ or you would. Now, that is why the unsaved religionist hates the doctrine of Calvinism because Calvinism with God's Word puts natural man in his rightful place at the feet of a sovereign, eternal, omnipotent God as a helpless, hopeless, unrepentant, ill-deserving sinner.

The natural man likes to think that all men are good and that they are seeking God and will someday get saved. They know not that the breath of every man is in the hands of a sovereign God and that God does with every man whatsoever He wills.

Yet at the same time, God holds man responsible for every act He commits because God is not responsible for man being in the condition that he is in. Now, that's right. Don't you blame God. You can't blame the devil with it either.

It's because of your old, depraved nature. If there was no devil, brother, you'd sin right on because your old, sinful nature is there. And listen, your will is held in bondage by your old, depraved nature and your will is controlled by that hellish, rebellious, that sinful, wicked nature that you have.

And your will is held in prison by that heart of unbelief that will not believe Christ and will not come to Christ for salvation. Now, that's your condition, sinner. And the reason you don't know it is you've never known Holy Spirit conviction.

Holy Spirit conviction to you is an ancient mystery. Now, just because you hold the doctrine of Calvinism is no sign you're saved. Not a bit. I've known many a man converted from Arminianism to Calvinism without Christ.

I met some the other day. I meet them all the while. I have many like me. They've been converted to Calvinism. Or you might have grown up in Calvinism. I was converted from Arminianism to Calvinism when God saved me.

Personal Conversion and Sovereign Grace

When God saved me, I saw that God was sovereign, that I was totally depraved. Now, those two things stand out. God's sovereign. I was totally depraved. God gave Christ to down the cross for just a hell-deserving sinner like me.

He sent the Holy Spirit, opened my heart, let me see that I was totally depraved, who I was by nature, what I was by nature, and the judgment I was under. He showed me that Christ died for such a sinner.

And there I was. I couldn't believe Him. I couldn't turn to Him. Of my own free will, I knew that I was in bondage to Satan. I was a prisoner of hell. And then I cried unto God to break my infernal sack wheel and break me down into dust of repentance.

He had to give me that cry. I didn't do it among card. He put that cry in my heart. And one day brought me down into dust of repentance. And there He broke the shackles of Satan, broke the shackles of sin.

There He brought the new nature into prominence. And there He revealed Christ to my heart as my Lord and my Savior, brought the power of sin, made a new creature out of me in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

And Christ became my Lord and my Savior. He's mine experimentally. And as I came to Him, and as I, poor sinner, saved by His grace, that His grace is sovereign, God is sovereign, I'm a poor, depraved sinner, lost and doomed without Christ, but with Christ as my Lord and Savior, I'm a child of the heavenly King.

Now, my friend, every individual who ever gets saved has to admit in his own heart that he's helpless, hopeless, doomed and damned, and that God can do with him as He pleases. Now, this is a great teaching of Calvinism, that unsaved religion is cause of evil and hate with undying vengeance.

Now, I've been hammering on one of the great truths of Calvinism, one of the great truths of God's Word. Do you know it experimentally? Do you know you're depraved? Has God ever debased you, abased you?

Has God ever discredited you? Has God ever deflated you? Have you ever come to lie in the dust or repentance at the feet of Christ? Is it fair for God, for Him to save you or damn you? Have you?

This brings to the close another broadcast of The Voice of Truth. We want to thank you for your letters and gifts. Keep these messages going out over The Voice of Truth program each week. Again, the title of the message was Calvinism Abases Man, which is number 157.

This is Pastor Albert Pendervis. May the Lord's richest blessings rest upon you. This is The Voice of Truth broadcast.