Understanding God's Sovereignty in Election (Part 8)

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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March 31, 2011

00:00: All right, we're going to begin with a word of prayer.
00:10: Our Father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity to again be in your house.
00:18: We thank you, Lord, that we were able to walk in the building tonight, not even with a drop of rain hitting our heads, that you have held back the weather.
00:26: And Lord God, that we've been able to come into your house to worship you, to lift your name up.
00:32: And Lord God, we just praise you, praise you for this opportunity.
00:37: We praise you for putting it within our hearts to desire to even do so.
00:42: For according to our sinfulness, we would have no such desire.
00:46: And Lord God, as we examine tonight some of the most difficult texts in regards to those who would stand opposed to reform theology and particularly the doctrine of sovereignty.
01:01: I just pray that you would encourage me as the leader of the group and the mouthpiece that you would keep me from error as I am a fallible man and have the capacity for error.
01:13: And Lord God, I pray also that you would open up the hearts of this congregation to understand and receive the word and that through it you would receive all glory and honor.
01:27: In Jesus name we pray and for his sake.
01:31: Amen.
01:33: All right.
01:34: Now, tonight is part two of a two part lesson.
01:41: Part one last week was dealing with the subject of the word all.
01:51: And the reason why we are focusing on the word all is because this is actually part of an overarching study of the book of Romans.
02:02: Romans chapter eight is one of the most precious chapters in all of Scripture, particularly Romans chapter eight, verses 28 and following, for they deal with the believers security.
02:17: Romans chapter eight, verse 28, if you guys want to turn there, we can look at that passage again.
02:27: We've been through executing the passage now for a few weeks and really the last what we've been doing since we since we broke it down is going over the objections to it and things that we might hear given as objections.
02:43: But the passage simply says in verse 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
03:00: And then it goes on to say, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers and those whom he predestined.
03:13: He also called those whom he called.
03:16: He also justified those whom he justified.
03:20: He also glorified.
03:22: And then from verse thirty one down to verse thirty nine, we have that great passage of assurance wherein the author asked the question, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how would he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ.
03:52: Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
03:59: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
04:14: We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
04:18: No, all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
04:26: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
04:51: And may God add his blessings to the reading and to the hearing of his word.
04:57: When we look at that text, it provides for us, again, one of the most beautiful passages in regard to our security in Christ.
05:05: It says that if we are in Christ, though the world may be against us because Christ is for us, we are assured of victory.
05:15: We are assured of the victory in the life to come, an eternal victory of being with the Lord, because the battle has already been won.
05:24: He has already saved us.
05:27: And we now are the beneficiaries of his saving work.
05:32: Now, over the last six weeks or so, we've having examined that text.
05:37: We've been talking about the subject of predestination.
05:40: I know I said earlier, reform theology is not only about predestination.
05:45: You just happen to come on the right night because this is this happens to be the subject that we're dealing with now.
05:52: I went from Romans one all the way to Romans seven, and I did not exegete or deal with the topic of predestination because it wasn't in the text.
06:01: Now, there were certain portions that I said this relates to this, but I didn't go over this particular topic.
06:07: And that's what happens when you preach verse by verse of the Bible is you're forced to deal with every verse of the Bible, because if you come in and preach verse one and two and the next week you start verse 15, people are going to know you skipped a few.
06:21: People are going to know you're overlooking some things.
06:24: So when you preach verse by verse, it holds you to a standard that you've got to deal with every passage.
06:29: And when you come to a passage that says whom he foreknew, he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his son and whom he predestined, he called and whom he called, he justified, whom he justified, he glorified.
06:39: You've got to deal with that word predestination.
06:42: Because as much as it is a difficult thing for so many people to accept, the word predestination is in the Bible and the teaching of God's electing grace is in the Bible.
06:56: And because it is there, we have one of two options.
07:01: We can either ignore it and deny it or we can face it and believe what it says and deal with it.
07:10: And so what we've been doing is we've been dealing with those questions that come about as a result of teaching the doctrine of predestination.
07:18: One of the questions was, if God predestines, why then do we evangelize? The easiest answer to that is simple.
07:25: We evangelize because Christ commanded us to.
07:28: That's the reason why.
07:31: And then the next logical question may be, well, why does he command us to evangelize? And the answer to that is very simple, because God does not only ordain the end, but he also ordains the means to the end.
07:41: He ordains not only the birth of the child, but the means by which that child will be born.
07:45: Likewise, the rebirth.
07:47: There is a means and God has ordained it all.
07:50: And we are participating in his plan as we go about evangelizing the world.
07:55: As Charles Spurgeon said, we don't go around pulling up people's shirt tails to see if there's an E imprinted on their backside.
08:01: We just go around and look or preach the gospel and look for people to respond.
08:06: And we know that people will respond.
08:09: People from every tribe, tongue and nation who hear the gospel will respond to the gospel because God has promised that his elect people are in every tribe, tongue and nation that he has chosen people throughout the world.
08:22: So we can feel confident to send missionaries to Croatia, where Walter is now preaching and teaching ministers who go out and teach other people the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
08:34: That's our confidence.
08:36: The doctrine of election should not cause us to despair over evangelism.
08:40: It should cause us to have great confidence in our evangelism, knowing that we are planting the seed, we are watering the seed, but it will ultimately be God who brings the increase.
08:51: We've also answered other questions about how God chooses.
08:56: We dealt with the question of if God chooses not according to our works, but according to his will, does that make him whimsical or capricious? One whole evening we dealt with God's electing according to the counsel of his will.
09:10: That's what Ephesians one said.
09:11: It says he makes the choice according to the counsel of his will.
09:14: And my argument in that evening was this, I said, if God takes counsel in of himself, then that's not a capricious choice.
09:23: Neither is it whimsical.
09:25: When you think of capricious or whimsical behavior, that's not anything that would take counsel for the very fact that God has taken counsel in his decision.
09:33: Now, it wasn't counsel with us.
09:34: He didn't come and ask us for our opinion or our advice, but that still doesn't make it.
09:40: Now, the hard question that many people deal with is the one we started last week.
09:45: And that's the question.
09:48: Well, wait a minute.
09:49: I thought the Bible said God's will is to save all people.
09:56: So tonight we're going to follow up what we started last week.
10:01: But I got to tell you, if you weren't here last week, I've got to do some introduction to tonight or I'll just you won't be able to understand unless you've done this before.
10:11: I'm not saying you won't be able to understand, but you won't know where I'm coming from because last week was very important.
10:16: What I noted last week is that the word of my voice has been going out recently.
10:29: I don't know what's happening.
10:31: One of the things that we talked about last week is that in the Bible, the word all has various meanings and the word all must be understood always within its contextual placement.
10:47: For instance, since those of you who weren't here, I just want to point these out to you because I think they are very important.
10:57: If you'll look with me very quickly, I'm pulling my notes out from last week just to look at these passages very quickly.
11:03: Look at Mark one five and I'll put these up on the board.
11:12: OK, Mark one five.
11:19: We said there are different ways the word all can be used.
11:22: And here's one where here's a time where the word all is used not to speak of everyone individually or everyone without exception, but to speak of all without distinction.
11:34: Mark one five says this and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him.
11:43: The hymn in this context is John the Baptist.
11:46: We're going out to him and we're being baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.
11:53: Now, I would ask very quickly, the word all there, is that a universal all it could not possibly be a universal all the way the word all is being used.
12:03: There is much the same way that it's used on the nightly news.
12:07: When you hear someone say on the news, the president, this woman, let me use somebody else, a big rock star visited and all Jacksonville turned out to see him.
12:19: OK, now you may say, wait a minute.
12:21: Does the Bible use that type of language very much? Yes, it does.
12:24: And we see the word all used that way twice here.
12:27: We know that there were many scribes and Pharisees who refused John's baptism.
12:32: We know there were invalids who could not go out and be baptized by John.
12:36: Yet at the same time, the word all is used here.
12:40: This is a non-universal all.
12:47: That's and I talked about more last week what that means, non-universal all, because there are universal all's in the Bible.
12:53: But we have to also understand there are non-universal all's.
12:57: OK, that's important.
12:59: Let's look at another one very quickly.
13:01: This one will help if you have a King James, but it's OK if you don't.
13:06: First Timothy 610.
13:08: First Timothy 610.
13:16: If you have an NAS, NIV, ESV, you're not going to see the power of this one as much because the translators noted this in the translation.
13:32: Because in the King James Bible, this is what it says.
13:35: For the love of money is the root of all evil.
13:42: However, in your Bibles, it says what? All kinds.
13:47: However, there is only one Greek word.
13:51: It's not as if the King James translators left out a word.
13:54: How what it is is that the newer translators have translated it in accord with what the word actually means.
14:00: The word pas in the Greek means all kinds.
14:07: OK, now that can be universal or it can be non-universal, but it means all kinds.
14:14: So in First Timothy, this is, again, a non-universal all.
14:19: All right.
14:22: Now, the last one we looked at.
14:25: Probably the most quoted verse, one of the most quoted verses in the New Testament, Philippians 413.
14:33: Philippians 413.
14:37: Anybody know that one without looking it up? I can do all things through Christ.
14:45: Very good.
14:46: Very good, Alex.
14:47: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength or who strengthens me.
14:52: Now, looking at the word all there and I made a little I wasn't being flippant, but last week I made a point.
14:58: I said that does not mean that I can fly or breathe underwater because I believe in Jesus Christ.
15:05: In context, the all there is an expression of the commands that Christ gives me.
15:11: All that Christ commands me to do, I can do because he gives me strength to fulfill all that he commands me to do.
15:18: So the word all there has a limited scope, even though it's a word that we normally associate with universality.
15:25: The word all is usually associated with universality.
15:28: But again, the word all must always be in its context.
15:32: Here again, this is a non universal all one of the things I like to tell.
15:38: I've heard people say this.
15:40: They say when you see the word all in the Bible, all means all.
15:44: And that's all all means.
15:48: And what they're trying to say is that when it says that Jesus died for all or when it says that God's desire is to save all, then that always means all people universally.
15:59: It cannot mean the elect or it cannot mean those whom God has chosen.
16:04: It must have a universal designation.
16:08: All means all.
16:09: And that's all all means.
16:11: However, these three verses very clearly show us that sometimes all means all kinds or all types.
16:19: The Strong's Concordance, one of the most popular concordances, makes the note that the word all sometimes means all without exception and sometimes means all without distinction.
16:42: Sometimes it means all without exception.
16:44: Sometimes it means all without distinction.
16:47: So if I said if I talked about all people are human beings, that would be all without exception.
16:57: All people are human beings.
17:00: But if I talked about all people, all without distinction would be all people have heard the gospel.
17:15: You might say, well, not every individual heard the gospel.
17:17: No, but people of every tribe, tongue and nation have heard the gospel.
17:19: That's an expression of the word all.
17:21: It's using all without distinction rather than all without exception.
17:26: And the word past is important because it is used both ways.
17:31: It can be used universally.
17:33: It can be used in a non-universal way.
17:37: However, there are other Greek words that are used for all in the Bible.
17:42: And we went over these last week.
17:43: I'm not going to do this again.
17:45: But there's hapos, pas, halos, halos and halotelos.
17:49: And all of those different words can be used for all.
17:51: But only one of them, and that is hapos, is absolute without all without exception.
17:58: Every time it's used, the others can be used to mean all kinds or all sorts.
18:04: All right.
18:05: That being said, now we are going to move on to some of those passages where we're going to look at two of the passages in the Bible that people use to say that predestination is not true.
18:24: They say predestination cannot be true because the Bible teaches that God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
18:34: I don't know if you've ever had somebody make that argument to you, but certainly I can think off the top of my head, at least a handful of people that have stated that verse to me.
18:43: And normally that's the way they quoted it.
18:46: But God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
18:52: And in saying that, here is how most people respond who are from the reformed camp.
18:57: Most people that are reformed, they'll say, well, you have to understand God has a desire, but it's not in accordance with his own will.
19:05: And I think that confuses the issue.
19:07: I've heard people from the reformed camp say, well, that's talking about God's.
19:10: That's God's prescriptive will, not as permissive will or not as not as his sovereign will.
19:16: And they try to divide God's will up into this sort of this this this maze.
19:21: And it confuses people.
19:23: I think if you allow the text to speak for itself and look at it in its context, it's very clear.
19:31: So let's do that.
19:33: Go in your Bible with me to second Peter three, nine to Peter three, nine.
19:50: The first thing that I would point out is that the verse is rarely, if ever quoted in its entirety.
20:03: Most people quote it by saying God is not willing that any should perish, but all this would all succumb to repentance.
20:08: They rarely start with the word.
20:10: The Lord is not slow, but that's how the verse begins.
20:15: Verse nine says the Lord is not slow.
20:18: Some Bibles use the word slack.
20:20: The Lord is not slack or slow in fulfilling his promise or to fulfill his promise.
20:26: As some count slowness, but is patient toward you.
20:33: I just want to stop right there.
20:36: Is there an audience just considering the context? Is is Peter speaking to someone? He's speaking to the beloved.
20:47: I'm getting I'm just the point is he says you.
20:50: I know you're a little ahead on this one.
20:52: We've talked about this before, but the word you there indicates he's just he's speaking specifically to an audience.
20:59: He says the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you.
21:09: Now, before we even get to the second half of the verse, it is important for us to identify who is being addressed.
21:16: So in second Peter three, nine, if you look at verse eight right above it, it says this.
21:25: But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
21:41: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you.
21:47: All right.
21:47: Now, right there we see the word beloved.
21:51: The context of the entire conversation is.
21:55: That there are people who are suffering.
21:58: They're going through great tribulation, as the early church did, Peter is giving them encouragement and he's saying to them, look to the Lord, a year or days is a thousand years.
22:09: But God is not slow in fulfilling his promise to you.
22:13: Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
22:16: Now, the word any and the word all are immediately following the context of you.
22:25: And the word you there defines for us who the any and who the all are.
22:31: It's any of you or all of you.
22:34: For instance, if I were to say this, getting in my car, if I said, I want you to be safe to put on your seatbelts, if we get into an accident, I want to get hurt, but I want all to be kept safe.
22:48: Now, I may not say it just that way, but in that sense, in saying it just that way, the any and the all are limited to the scope of the group to which I'm speaking.
23:00: Now, obviously, there's a passive part of me that doesn't want anyone in the world to get an accident.
23:05: And there's a passive part of me that doesn't want anyone in the world to not be safe.
23:10: But specifically in context of my conversation, who is in view my beloved children, who is in view in this passage, God's beloved and us and us, at least for a moment, we must concede that to take the any and the all and to make them universal, any at all, when we've already seen that the word all in the word any can easily be a non universal law, but can be specific to the context to which the person is speaking and that this person, Peter, does have a group to which he is speaking.
23:49: It's easy, then, to say that what we hear is not a contradiction, what we hear does not deny reform theology, but simply defines what we have been saying the whole time, that God's people will in no way perish.
24:02: God's people, though they may suffer and though they may suffer for a time, God is not slow in fulfilling his promise to us.
24:11: He's not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us will come to repentance and as such, we can be confident that this versus does in no way steal from what we believe.
24:23: So that's one passage and there are actually, if you read the book, The Potter's Freedom by Dr.
24:33: James White, he has what he calls the big three passages, and it's the three passages that are often quoted if people are attacking reform theology or attacking predestination specifically.
24:48: This one is the first one.
24:50: This is the one that can be rattled off quickly by most people who have ever come to the conclusion that they have denied predestination.
24:58: This one is the one they spit out.
25:00: And I can be honest with you, I've shown people this, I've walked into the text and they say, no, no, I still don't think that that's what it says.
25:06: I still don't see it.
25:07: I still think the any is a universal and the all is a universal all.
25:11: I say, well, you know what? At this point, though, you're saying that the text is somewhat ambiguous.
25:17: You're saying that it could be any or it could be all.
25:21: Because I've demonstrated to you that it doesn't have to be.
25:25: It can be a non-universal law and as such.
25:30: Now, we have to have a conversation about how we interpret passages, do we allow the context to define the passage or do we come behind it with our tradition and allow our tradition to force itself into the text? All right.
25:44: Now, the next one is First Timothy, chapter two and verse four.
26:04: By the way, I do want to read to you some notes very quickly before as you're turning, just listen to what I'm saying.
26:10: The New English translation is one of my favorite translations that I never used to teach from.
26:15: It's one of my favorite study Bibles.
26:17: The reason why it's my favorite study Bible is it's a textual critical edition of the Bible.
26:21: It uses it specifically written for for textual critical issues.
26:27: And if that's not your thing, it's not going to be the right Bible for you, but it's something I love to study.
26:31: So it's my favorite study Bible.
26:33: That being said, I looked up the notes for this passage.
26:37: Here's what it said.
26:40: It says the any in this context means and remember, this is a Greek textual translation.
26:47: That's what this is for.
26:48: It's helping to understand what the Greek is saying.
26:51: The any in this context means any of you.
26:55: This can be seen by the dependent participle, which gives the reason why the Lord is patient toward you.
27:01: The argument there is that the dependent participle is basing its argument on the any and the all, and the argument is that God is patient towards you.
27:10: Why? Because he's not willing that any of you should perish, but that all of you should come to repentance.
27:18: That's in reference to 2 Peter, I'm sorry.
27:20: Yeah, I told you I was still reading.
27:22: I looked down and I realized I missed that part of my notes.
27:24: So I was catching you on the fly.
27:26: I do apologize.
27:27: All right.
27:27: Now, for the first Timothy passage, this one is a little bit a little bit different, but it's there are some similarities that you will see again, context rules and biblical interpretation.
27:44: First Timothy, chapter two, verse three, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
28:00: All right.
28:00: So here we have the word all we have to ask the question, is this a universal or a non-universal use of the word all? We've seen it both ways, we have to ask ourselves the question, this is the one most people have difficulty with and they tend to fall towards the desire argument.
28:26: Well, what this is saying is what God desires, not necessarily what God wills, which again, I have difficulty separating the will of God from the desires of God.
28:35: Logically, I think that there's a difficulty that I know some have done it, some have written on it.
28:39: And I'm not the smartest guy in the world, obviously.
28:42: There's there are many people smarter than me that hold to that view.
28:44: So I'm willing to concede I could potentially be wrong about that, but I don't think I'm wrong in the interpretation of this text.
28:50: I think it misses the point to go that direction in interpreting this text, because if you interpret this text, you will see, starting in verse one of First Timothy, Chapter two, that there is an immediate context.
29:09: It says, first of all, then I urge who is talking here, who wrote First Timothy to actually the apostle Paul.
29:20: That's right.
29:21: It says the apostle or the apostle Paul's writing to Timothy.
29:24: You're right.
29:25: He's the recipient of the letter.
29:26: First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.
29:37: OK, so we have an immediate all coming into the first part of the sentence and the word all there is immediately followed with a qualifier.
29:48: Look at it, it says, I urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
30:05: Why is it that Paul is making a distinct point to say, I want you to pray for kings and people in high positions? Because the all here is specific to all kinds of people, because at that time, in the early church, who were the ones who were persecuting the church kings and people in high positions? These were the ones who were bringing persecution.
30:33: So Paul says to them, look, you've got a responsibility for supplication, for intercession, for prayer, for all kinds of people, even the people that are bringing you the most difficulty, kings and people in authority, because God desires all kinds of people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
30:58: Again, do you see how the context leads the use of the word all how very easily I could take the same way first, the same way the translators of First Timothy six added the word all kinds into the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
31:12: You can also use the same thing to describe here in First Timothy, all kinds of people God desires, all kinds of God has not chosen to say for people only.
31:22: God has not chosen to say rich people only.
31:24: There was a time where people believed that in the health and wealth movement is trying to bring that back, that God only saves those people who are who have a lot of faith.
31:32: And because of that lot of faith, you're going to get a lot of money.
31:34: And if you're poor, it's a sign of God's disfavor on you.
31:36: I don't know if you've heard that to turn TV on, leave it for five minutes and you'll hear that some in some form or fashion, that if you're poor, it's because God has disfavored you.
31:45: You know, but you see, the truth of the gospel is that God's desires to save all kinds of people.
31:53: And when we get to heaven, we're going to be in heaven with people who on earth were princes and some who were paupers.
31:59: We're going to be in heaven with CEOs and we're going to be in heaven with people who built the office for the CEO.
32:05: And we're going to have people who cleaned out the trash for the CPA, the CPA, CPO, CEO said the guy who was in charge, because God's got in his grace the ability to save anyone.
32:22: And we know God can save anyone.
32:25: But the question is, who has he chosen to say he has chosen to save all kinds of people? And in this passage, I think it is quite clear that in relation to the word all the word all is speaking of all kinds of people.
32:42: Revelation, chapter five and verse nine, if you just want to if you just want to write that down, you don't have to go there.
32:48: I'll read it to you.
32:50: But I want you to remember this passage, Revelation five, nine, because this passage to me really answers a lot of the questions talking about in heaven, it says, and they sang a new song.
33:03: Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, talking about Jesus, it says, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
33:23: Beloved, when we see the word all it's talking about that it's talking about the fact that when Christ died, he died for people from all stripes, from all colors, from all nationalities, all languages.
33:38: Christ died in that sense for all.
33:44: And when we see the word all in Scripture, remember, it must always be in accord with its context.
33:51: My wife asked a great question after last week's lesson.
33:54: I thought it was tremendous.
33:56: She said, wait a minute, how did how do we then interpret Romans three, twenty three? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
34:10: Is the word all there, a universal or non-universal, if we're conceding the fact that costs can be non-universal, does that mean that some possibly have not sinned? Here's the answer.
34:23: Romans three, same chapter, same context.
34:27: Verse one, I'm sorry, verse nine, as it is written, there is none righteous.
34:35: No, not one.
34:38: You see, rarely is all a universal positive, but none.
34:45: No, not one is what we call a universal negative.
34:53: And to ensure that his readers were not being misunderstood or were not misunderstanding what he was saying, Paul went to the link of using the universal negative to say there is none good.
35:08: No, not one.
35:12: That way, later in the same context, when he says for all have sinned, it's an unambiguous use.
35:21: All right.
35:22: Now, we've looked at that.
35:25: I want to move on to because I really think I'd get done with that that quickly.
35:31: I want to move on to another word that is very important in scripture and that is used oftentimes by people who want to dispel the idea that God has chosen the word.
35:44: All obviously is the first and foremost word that is used by people.
35:47: But there is another word.
35:48: And does anybody need any of this before I erase one day? I'm going to buy a bigger board.
35:54: Nobody good.
35:55: OK, well, no, I just write big, you know.
36:01: One day I'm going to have boards while I'm preaching.
36:04: I don't think people would like that.
36:05: I would love it.
36:07: I love the boards.
36:11: What? Oh, wouldn't I be cool? Huh? And here's a guy.
36:19: OK.
36:21: John Madden preaching the sermon.
36:23: OK.
36:24: This.
36:28: All right.
36:31: The other word, we said the word all the word pass in the Greek pass upon us possibly different words, but they're often the root.
36:39: Another word is the word world, the word world.
36:49: I said world now, world world is when the word world.
36:58: The word world, does anyone know the Greek word for world cosmos? It is the word cosmos where we get the word cosmos and another word cosmetic.
37:20: So we think about the world as being this beautiful thing to beautify something.
37:24: The word cosmetic also comes from the same root word.
37:28: All right.
37:29: Here's something that you will often hear.
37:32: In fact, I had a lady in my office one time sort of chasing me for teaching on the subject of predestination.
37:39: She didn't go to this church.
37:41: She was here for some event and she had heard that I teach predestination and she came in to kind of kind of let me let me know that I was incorrect.
37:50: And she said she says, but the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
38:01: And I said, OK, this is the most famous Bible verse ever.
38:06: I mean, this is the one with the guy with the rainbow afro with the sign, you know, we know John 316, right? Everybody knows John 316, but they really don't.
38:17: Most people can quote John 316, few people know what it says.
38:23: They know what it says, few people know really what it means.
38:25: The first thing that people often mistake in John 316 and we go over real quick is this.
38:31: They say, well, is that more for good for God? So love the world.
38:41: All right.
38:42: Let's just look at that part real quick.
38:44: For God so loved.
38:46: Absolutely bad way of saying what this is trying to say, because the focus often comes to the word so and what they say is that the word so indicates level.
39:00: They say it means level for God so loved the world, indicating that it's a grand amount that this was how much he loved.
39:09: This is not to speak of level or amount.
39:12: That's what they'll say.
39:13: The word so means level or amount.
39:15: That's wrong.
39:18: In this way, God loved the world.
39:20: That's the way this should be translated in this way for God.
39:25: So the word so means in this way, God loved the world in this way.
39:32: God loved the world that he gave his only son.
39:35: OK, so the word so here does not speak of level or amount it speaks.
39:39: Now somebody says, well, that doesn't prove anything.
39:41: It doesn't prove anything, but it does make one point very clear.
39:46: One famous Baptist preacher who I will not name, for he is with the Lord and I do believe he's with the Lord and he was a very good man, was was, I believe, wrong on this issue.
39:57: But but I still think a very godly man.
39:59: And he made the point to stress the word.
40:01: So he did an entire portion of his message on the word.
40:05: So and how it was so much totally misses the point of how this entire sentence is struck for God's solo in this way.
40:16: God loved the world that he gave his what? OK, well, it depends on how you translate it.
40:29: The word is monogamous.
40:31: OK, and it means what? Only begotten.
40:36: We could translate it only begotten.
40:38: The word begotten, however, is sort of an I don't really care for the word begotten.
40:42: Monogamous speaks of the uniqueness of the sun.
40:46: This is one place I really like the NIV.
40:50: I know.
40:51: Don't get mad because I know it's nearly inspired version and all that.
40:55: But it says his unique son and the word monogamous speaks of the uniqueness of the sun.
41:03: So I like that word.
41:04: But you can say, well, just say only begotten.
41:08: But if you think about what only begotten is saying, what is it saying? He's the only one.
41:14: He's the unique one.
41:15: There's none other one like him.
41:17: Even the word only begotten speaks of the uniqueness, the monogamous.
41:21: He's one mono means what? One monotheism, you know, monolith, those things.
41:28: And what is ganache of a kind? You know, we talk about our genes.
41:32: That's what we get from our parents.
41:33: That's a kind.
41:33: So monogamous mono genes.
41:35: He's one kind.
41:36: He's unique.
41:38: OK, so only begotten that he gave his only begotten what? Son.
41:44: OK, so that whosoever, whosoever.
41:58: OK, this one I'm going to write in Greek for you because I don't like the word whosoever, not because I'm a dirty reformed guy who doesn't like the word whosoever.
42:06: It's because it does.
42:08: It's just like this word.
42:09: It's been so misused to mistake its meaning.
42:13: The word in the Greek is pass.
42:17: Ha.
42:18: Pissed on.
42:21: And it means all the believing ones pass.
42:25: Ha.
42:25: And this is how it would be.
42:30: It I'm thinking how to spell it in Greek.
42:32: It would just be one letter because there's no H.
42:35: The H sound is built into the letter, the Omicron here.
42:39: So we pass to him and it means so that all the believing ones, that is what that phrase means.
42:51: It doesn't say whosoever will believe.
42:54: That's how it's often translated.
42:56: That's how it's often used.
42:57: But that is not what the word pass means.
43:00: It means all the believing ones.
43:02: OK, and again, I know I'm destroying it because it's such a beautiful verse.
43:06: Somebody loves it.
43:07: Everybody quotes it the same way.
43:08: Everybody quotes the King James because that's how we learned it.
43:11: And I'm not trying to say that's wrong.
43:12: I'm just saying there's anything you know so well that you don't have to think about it.
43:17: You need to think about because you forget its importance for God to love the world, for God to love the world in this way that he gave his only begotten son, his unique son, so that all the believing ones will not perish.
43:36: What is God's will? People not to perish.
43:42: What was God's will in 2nd Peter 3, 9, that the beloved that all should be with none to perish, all should come to repentance.
43:52: Right.
43:52: Remember what we said.
43:53: So here, what is this verse do but agree with 2nd Peter 3, 9, because it says the believing ones will not perish.
44:00: Then it goes on to say, but have everlasting life.
44:07: All right.
44:09: This verse agrees with 2nd Peter 3, 9, in saying that God's focus is on the believing ones, the beloved.
44:18: Here's where people get confused.
44:20: I'll switch colors.
44:22: People get confused by focusing on the word world.
44:26: They say God loved the world in this way.
44:29: And they say the word world means everybody.
44:33: Let's just take, for instance, and say that it does.
44:38: I don't concede that it does in any way, but let's say that it did, because I might not want to have the argument if somebody is trying to challenge me on this, I might not want to argue with them about this, the universality versus non-universality, the word cosmos.
44:53: I might just want to say, OK, if this does mean world, it still makes the point that the whole world is not going to be saved.
45:01: Even in John 3, 16, there is particularity and it begins where, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that hop, hop is to all will not perish.
45:11: All the believing ones.
45:14: It's particular.
45:16: Hey, there's that word particular redemption, some called limited atonement.
45:19: Don't say that out loud.
45:20: I'll get you in trouble.
45:22: Limited atonement.
45:34: Yeah, absolutely.
45:34: That whoever believes.
45:36: Yeah, yeah.
45:37: I don't believe absolutely.
45:40: But their argument is that the word world is universal and God's love is universal.
45:48: And because God's love is universal, then his desire for all to be saved must be universal.
45:57: Well, well, well, you and I and I don't disagree with that, but that's where their argument would come from.
46:06: They would say because they're looking at a universal use of the word world and because of the universal use of the word world, they're making the case that this produces for us a way of not having to believe in God's predestinating grace because he loves the whole world and whosoever will.
46:22: And they go back to the whosoever will and make the claim that that means anybody can.
46:27: You see, that's where the you see, they connect this with that and produce a doctrine.
46:34: And this is not even what they say this is, I'm sorry, Nathan, I know you've been sitting here.
46:39: Oh, you got one better for me.
46:41: Oh, wait a minute.
46:42: I'm out.
46:42: Are you asking me to execute another verse? No, I'm just kind of.
46:45: OK, OK, OK.
46:56: Absolutely.
46:56: Absolutely.
46:57: That's that's where I was going with this is to demonstrate and I don't have the verses written down.
47:02: I'm glad you pointed that one out in a second.
47:03: I want to get I want everybody to be able to write that down again with no time left.
47:09: I do want to make one point.
47:12: The word all we said has a universal and a non-universal meaning.
47:16: The word world has eleven different uses in the New Testament.
47:24: You think universal, non-universal is more than it's got eleven different uses.
47:31: And I'll have to get them for you if you'd like to know what they are, but eleven different ways the word world is used.
47:39: I can give you one like he just said.
47:43: Read it again and please tell him the verse.
47:51: OK, right there.
47:52: All the world in that context is all of the civilized world, i.e.
47:56: the Roman world that did not encompass the Far Eastern nations.
48:02: China's been around for a long time.
48:05: You know, they've got five thousand years of history.
48:08: Absolutely.
48:10: So when they say all the world, they're talking about all of the Western world.
48:14: So there's one instance where it's used when Jesus says, I do not pray for these or I'm sorry, I do not pray for the world, but I pray for these whom you have given me out of the world.
48:26: And his high priestly prayer, John 17, when he's praying for his disciples, he said, I do not pray for the world, but I pray for these whom you, speaking to his heavenly father, have given me out of the world.
48:39: The world there is talking in two ways.
48:42: It talks about the word world as in unbelieving world, and he's talking about the world system.
48:50: You've given me these out of that unbelieving world system.
48:55: What does the Bible say? Do not be friends with the world.
48:58: Do not love the world, neither the things therein.
49:01: That's another.
49:01: That's the world system.
49:04: Don't be surprised when the world hates you.
49:06: The unbelieving world.
49:11: Absolutely.
49:11: So right there, I gave you what, three, four or five just in that short span of time, I would take time to show all 11.
49:18: But the point of the matter is the word world, like the word all has to be interpreted according to its context, because the key to biblical interpretation are three things.
49:29: Context, context and context.
49:31: Everything must be interpreted according to its context.
49:33: And the word world is not exempt from that rule.
49:37: People say, I know what world means.
49:39: Well, then tell me what Jesus meant when he says, I do not pray for the world.
49:43: I get that all the time.
49:44: People say this says God love the world.
49:46: I say, well, why didn't Jesus pay for it? Oh, that's a different use of the word world.
49:52: So you're conceding the fact that there's different use of the word world.
49:55: See, that's where people begin to concede themselves that what we're saying is actually correct.
50:04: It's not hard.
50:05: It's only hard because it butts up against people's traditions.
50:11: Yes, sir.
50:14: Yeah, absolutely.
50:16: If you love the world, you hate God.
50:18: There it is.
50:19: It's so clear.
50:21: The word world has many nuances of meaning, just like the word all.
50:24: And those people who try to use those words to say reformed theology or predestination or any of it is untrue.
50:31: I can demonstrate for you where they have gone astray in their exegesis, where they're just misusing the text to support their tradition.
50:42: All right, so we did a lot tonight.
50:44: We went through quite a few dips and turns and stuff, but I appreciate all of your attentiveness.
50:52: I didn't keep you, but a couple of minutes past our time.
50:54: Hopefully we will not walk into a rainstorm when we leave.
50:57: So let's bow our heads and go to the Lord and pray.
51:01: Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to be together to study your word and to enjoy fellowship around the teaching of your scripture.
51:11: We pray that as we go home tonight that you'll keep us safe.
51:14: I pray, Lord, for the church this weekend.
51:16: I'm, Lord, encouraged by having so many godly men to work with who are going to be here in my absence.
51:24: And I just pray that you be with Richard as he teaches Sunday school, be with Jack as he leads communion and particularly be with Byron, O Lord, as he brings the word and be with our musicians who are going to be here leading the service.
51:36: And God, just minister to them and anoint them for your service and all these things we ask in Jesus name and for his sake.
51:43: Amen.