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Father in heaven, we do thank you now that you're a great God, and we would say with the
hymn writer, how great that you are, that your greatness is
unsearchable, cannot be measured.
And when we apply the word greatness to other people, to what degree could it be
ramped up to then be applied to you?
You're just the great creator who created the world and the universes with the word,
that you have recreated us, regenerated us with your word,
and that you would have an eternal love set upon us.
We're very thankful for that tonight.
And Father, we are thankful that we have what the world seems to be looking for, and that is fulfillment and
satisfaction.
And as the Jews would talk about, shalom, just a peace and a wholeness.
So, we thank you for that.
So, I pray for these dear people tonight, that you'd bless them, encourage them, that you'd comfort and exhort,
and that you would help us to learn more about you and your word, so that we could worship you in spirit and
in truth.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Does it matter if people that you evangelize think that they can get saved
anytime that they would like?
In other words, many people today think that salvation is held in the hands of
the recipient or the person, when we know that's not true.
But my question to you tonight is, to start, question one, does it make a difference when you
evangelize, if you're talking to someone who thinks that they can be saved anytime they like,
versus salvation is in the hands of God?
Comments, questions, what do you think?
Did I phrase the question clearly enough so you'll understand?
Ezra?
No.
I do not.
Okay, next question.
Next.
But thank you, though, for that.
I can't even find the notes I'm looking for.
All right.
Yes, Russell.
Okay, and certainly, we believe in the urgency of repentance, yes?
When we preach the gospel, today is the day of salvation, Acts 4 makes it clear.
When you hear the general call of God, the commanded response is believe,
repent, trust, follow.
There's an urgency, and you'll see that in Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, begging for reconciliation.
There certainly is an urgency when you listen to gospel preachers, whether they're Whitefield or Luther or
Edwards or Calvin or Paul or John the Baptist or Peter.
There's an urgency, but our society today is more Arminian, thinking that the Lord
will save them once they allow the Lord to save when they exercise saving faith, that they're
forgetting that they're depraved and that they can't believe on their own, they can't repent on their own, that
salvation is a gift, including faith.
All right, next comment as we put together our answer.
Yes, first, Brian, then Eric.
Okay, good.
Let's turn to John 1, and I'll hear from Eric in just a second.
John 1, I want to remind you as a congregation that salvation is from the Lord.
Jonah 2 is true, that salvation is a gift and it is something accomplished by
God.
Yes, we do receive it by faith, but even there, faith is a non -meritorious
instrument.
Faith is not credited to us.
Faith is not something that we do in and of ourselves because we would be depraved.
In John 1, Pastor Steve was just preaching this not that long ago.
It says in verse 12, people love 12, but they forget 13 all too often.
John 1, 12, but to all who did receive him, and of course, people have a responsibility to
receive him.
God doesn't receive himself for you.
You must receive him.
Who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.
And if you'd like to translate it, but of God's will, God's will is what saves.
Who's on first?
God is the first cause.
God is the primary mover and we are the responders to his gospel call.
So Eric, comment?
Okay, excellent points.
When I was growing up, I thought salvation was unlocked by me allowing God to
save me.
And so I've got a little bit more sinning to do before I want to be saved.
And since salvation is in my hands, I'll wait till a little bit later.
And then when something really bad is about to happen, like I'm going to die, then in the foxhole, I'll believe.
Then on the way down from the crashing, careening elevator, when it hits the bottom almost, I'll believe
then.
It is a perilous thing to think that salvation's power lies within the person.
That's what people think today because they hear it from pulpits, they hear it from the radio, that you're the one that needs to do God a favor.
And if you allow God to save you, he can.
And they forget about depravity.
They forget about the fall.
They forget about original sin.
My favorite theologians is a man named Robert Dabney.
Anybody here read Dabney at all?
I like Robert Dabney.
His Systematic Theology is maybe one of my favorite books.
I believe he was the chaplain for Stonewall Jackson.
You probably know his name.
Dabney described this issue that we're talking about
this way.
He described a man whose house was on fire and he had a lot of valuable things.
And it so happened his upstairs room was a room that had a fire escape
so that when the fire was discovered, he went up to his room to gather together his valuables.
And he pictures the man going slowly around the room, gathering his valuables because he knows
the fire escape is out there.
And therefore, he can at the last minute, if necessary, go down the fire escape and escape from the fire.
So he takes his time because he knows that he can go just any time he wants to.
See where this is going?
The account of Dabney goes on to say he's illustrating the fact that if you believe you can be saved any time you want to,
apart from the time when the Holy Spirit works, contrary to what people think, you will be the
one who will not exercise yourself toward divine truth.
Dabney pictures the man going around really slowly in the room.
He happens to go over and look out and discovers that the fire escape is now on fire.
And then he says, what do you think he will do then?
Well, he'll do this.
He'll go over to the window and he'll throw up the window and he'll shout, help me, save
me or I'll perish.
And then Dabney says that's exactly what the man does when he discovers that salvation is not of himself.
He doesn't look within anymore.
He looks outside of himself to the Lord God and realizes the desperate peril in which he
is in.
And then he cries out to the Lord God who promised to save men who call out to him.
Jesus said in John chapter 3, the wind blows wherever it wishes.
So one of the things we need to do when we call people to salvation is to make sure we understand and they understand
sin and depravity and then their response because salvation doesn't lie in the hands of
people.
God is the author of salvation.
Okay, comments on that before I go on?
Ezra, if the question is easy enough for me to answer, I'm going to answer.
When we get these doctors in the congregation and all that, then it's big trouble.
So you ask the question, but I might not answer it.
Okay, so it does two things.
It should increase the urgency in the person hearing the good news and it should give
peace to the one giving the good news because we know we don't have to try to force someone in to believe even though we would love to
because maybe it's a loved one or a friend or a family member.
We know that our responsibility is to proclaim the good news and call them to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus and the result
is the Lord's.
Number two, what do you think of the whole issue this week in the news with Louis
Giglio and him being asked to pray for the president's inauguration and then having
that retracted by the White House?
Okay, January 8th, Louis Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church
in Atlanta was asked to pray and deliver the benediction of President Obama's inauguration on
January 21st.
Somebody found an old sermon that was 15 to 20 years old where he said homosexuality was
sin and then he was asked not to give the inaugural benediction.
Some people have made him out to be a martyr.
I think it was wrong for the whole thing to happen but I'm going to read you his
response which I think is worse than what happened originally but now you know what I'm going to say so
any other comments before I...
Yes,
well, I know the White House and his staff decided together to no longer
do that and I'll read part of the letter today.
Thank you.
okay.
And I'm going to get to that.
I hope it doesn't take 15 years of searching to find someone to find one of my sermons or one of the
other pastor's sermons that we stand against the forgivable sin of any sexual sin let alone
homosexuality or adultery or anything else, okay?
Well, part of my message tonight is just to make sure if there's ever a newspaper reporter they don't have to go too far and dig too deep.
They'll understand where we...
You can but we're too insignificant and so no one would care.
it was someone I think I actually have his name here and again some of these...
I'm not trying to get out of this.
To me some of the details are irrelevant.
It's almost the response of the church that's the most relevant.
Wayne Beeson, founder of Truth Wins Out, told the New York Times yesterday, it is imperative that
Giglio clarify his remarks and explain whether he has evolved on gay rights like so many other
faith and political leaders.
It would be a shame to select a preacher with backward views on LBGT, and of course these
days you have to add Q, people at the moment when the nation is rapidly moving forward on our
issues.
I think it was this man who found out, Q being queer.
They're adding that.
So let me read you his response and so here's the issue, friends.
This is an issue, homosexuality, gay marriage.
And so I don't think we want to respond in this way.
I think there's a better way to respond and then we'll talk about it.
Dear Passion City Church, this is Pastor Giglio's response to his congregation.
Though I was invited by the President of the United States to pray at his upcoming inauguration, after conversations between
our team and the White House, I am no longer serving in that role.
I sent the following statement to the White House today.
I am honored to be invited by the President to give the benediction at the upcoming inaugural on January 21st.
I would be.
Though the President and I do not agree on every issue, we have fashioned a friendship around common goals and ideals,
most notably ending slavery in all its forms.
Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15 to 20 years ago, it is likely that my participation and
the prayer I would offer will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration.
Clearly, speaking on this issue, has not been in the range of my priorities in the past 15 years.
Did you hear that?
Clearly, speaking on this issue, homosexuality and sin and its forgivability, has not
been in the range of my priorities in the past 15 years.
Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.
Would we like to make much of Jesus Christ?
Yes, but the gospel has nothing to do with ultimate significance.
Neither I nor our team feel it best serves the core message and goals we are seeking to accomplish to be in a
fight on an issue not of our choosing.
And I'll say it in a minute, but when the fight comes to you, don't you stand up for righteousness?
I respectfully withdraw my acceptance of the President's invitation.
I will continue to pray regularly for the President and urge the nation to do so.
I will certainly pray for him on inauguration day.
Our nation is deeply divided and hurting, and more than ever, we need God's grace and mercy in our time of need.
And we need the truth of God.
The issue of homosexuality, which a particular message of mine some 20 years ago addressed, is one of the most difficult our
nation will navigate.
However, individual rights on freedom and collective right to hold differing views on any subject is a critical balance we
as a people must recover and preserve.
As a pastor, my mission is to love people and lead them well while lifting up the name of Jesus above
anything else.
I'm confident that anyone who knows me or has listened to the multitude of messages I have given in the last decade would most
likely conclude that I'm not easily characterized as being opposed to people, any people.
I hope you'd be opposed to sin.
Rather, I'm constantly seeking to understand where all people are coming from and how to best serve them as I point them to
Jesus.
And there you have to point Jesus to them after you've showed them their need of a savior by telling
them they're sinful.
In all things, the most helpful thing I can do is to invite each of us to wrestle with scripture and its implication for
our lives.
God's word trumps all opinions, including mine, and in the end, I believe God's words lead to life.
My greatest desire is that we be not distracted from the things we're focused on, seeing people in our city come to
know Jesus and speaking up for the last and the least of these throughout the world.
Honored to be your pastor, Louis.
I still think it's horrible that this thing was presented and then taken away.
And I don't think Louis should preach against gay, homosexuality, LGBT stuff
every single week.
But friends, good news is not good news until bad news is talked about and the society is pushing the issue of gay marriage.
And where is the truth?
Where are those in the church to say, this is what the Bible teaches?
I'll go for what Tozer says instead.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents to establish goodwill
between Christ and the world.
We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press,
or the world of sports, or modern entertainment, or the White House for that matter.
We are not diplomats, but prophets.
And our message is not a compromise, but an ultimatum.
That's what should have happened.
Now, I would love to get an offer from the White House to go and pray there, although I'm sure I never will.
And now if you say you're against homosexuality as righteousness and you don't celebrate it,
you're ostracized.
But we are to tell people the truth and not hide behind this Rick Warren -esque kind of making
much of Jesus.
How do you make much of Jesus unless you address sin?
This is a worthy battle to fight, and if you aren't willing to fight it, it's going to come to you anyway.
The country needs truth.
And how do you love people and lead them well if you don't preach on sin and righteousness and the judgment to come?
Paul said, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by His appearing and His kingdom,
preach the Word.
Al Mohler is wise and he said, a fair -minded reading of Giglio's statement indicates that the
pastor has strategically avoided any confrontation with the issue of homosexuality for the
last 15 years.
The issue has not been in the range of my priorities, he said, given the Bible's insistence that sexual
morality is inseparable from our ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus.
Mohler said, this must have been a difficult strategy.
It is also a strategy that is very attractive to those who want to avoid being castigated as
intolerant or homophobic.
And this controversy makes abundantly clear it is a failed strategy.
Lou Giglio was cast out of the circle of the acceptable simply because a liberal watchdog group found one
sermon he preached almost 20 years ago.
If a preacher has ever taken a stand on biblical conviction, he risked being exposed decades after
the fact.
Anyone who teaches at any time, Mohler said, to any degree that homosexual behavior
is a sin is now to be cast out.
Well, let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6 because I want to arm you with the truth and I want to make sure
that if anybody ever knows, wants to know where we stand, you can find out quickly.
1 Corinthians 6.
Friends, we are sinful people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and we aren't better than anyone and we don't
want to look down on people, but we want to make sure we don't call righteousness, unrighteousness and
unrighteousness righteousness.
And we can't call evil good and good evil.
These sins are forgivable and we want to preach the grace of Christ Jesus.
We can't back down now.
Paul is warning believers about the consequences of immorality.
Sin eternally kills and it's bad for you.
And he says in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians 9, you know the verses, or do you not
know?
Remember the Corinthians, they thought they knew everything.
Oh, we know, we know, we know, we know.
But don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Do not be deceived.
Why does he write, do not be deceived?
Because it's what?
Easy to be deceived.
Our family has friends who are homosexual.
They do kind things.
They do nice things.
I've officiated homosexual funerals, a funeral of a homosexual man.
He was nice in society.
He was kind.
Don't be deceived.
The world is telling you it's okay.
The world is saying people are born this way.
And frankly, you know my viewpoint on this.
You're either born an adulterer, born a fornicator, born a homosexual.
And all those fall short of God's standard.
It doesn't matter how you were born.
You were affected by the fallen Adam's sin.
And then he says, do not be deceived.
Neither the sexually immoral, the whole swath of heterosexual sexual
sin, that is sex outside of marriage, all of it, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.
And then ESV really just does some...
It's tragic what they do here.
There's two words for homosexuality in the NAS and in the Greek, but ESV just combines them into one.
Nor men who practice homosexuality.
It's not as bad as the NIV because the NIV says male prostitutes and homosexual
offenders.
It's okay to be a homosexual.
You just don't offend and you don't do it for money.
As long as you love each other, NIV would seemingly be fine with that.
So here it says, men who practice homosexuality.
Who has NAS?
What's it say, Brian?
Nor effeminate nor homosexuals.
And so those are the two words.
Effeminate.
Malachoi just means soft.
And if you use this word of a cloth, it would be kind of a nice velvety cloth,
some nice material, soft material.
And then it got to be used for soft or effeminate are the one who is misused in
a homosexual relationship.
The passive one.
The submissive one.
And then the other word here, homosexual, is the one who's the initiator.
You can read this word in 1 Timothy 1, verse 10.
You can also read this in the Old Testament Greek, Septuagint.
You shall not sleep with male as a woman, for it is an abomination.
Paul was writing in a day where homosexuality was celebrated.
Just like today.
Plato's Symposium on Love glorified homosexuality.
Nero, who was reigning right about this time, he had a wife.
He had a boy, sadly.
And what Paul does here is he says, whether they're passive or whether they're submissive
or the aggressive one in a homosexual relationship, it doesn't matter.
Fall short of the glory of God.
He gives other words as well.
It says in the text, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
And then, of course, here's the good news.
This is what we've got to tell people.
And such were some of you.
But you are washed.
And look at these words.
They're all the same.
They're passive words.
Grace passives.
They're done to you.
The first one's done to you.
The second one's done to you.
And the third one's done to you all by God.
Saving sinners.
Washed, sanctified, justified.
That word washed is washed thoroughly and completely on the inside.
You've got dirty sex sins in your life or in your mind and in your past.
Washed, clean, complete.
That's where we get the word regeneration too.
We're regenerated.
There's another word here.
Sanctified.
What used to be corrupt and dirty and corrosive and filthy, now is pure and clean.
Set apart.
This is not growing as a Christian.
This is God takes you out of the dung heap, and then He places you over here for
His own use.
He changes you and says, now I'm going to use you for my good.
And the last one you know is justified.
Accepted as righteous based on the work of Christ Jesus.
So, I don't know about you.
I'm sure if I'm in front of the press and in front of the White House and in front of all these big shot
people, I might not make the best decisions.
That's why I'm going to run everything through Pastor Steve's grid so he can make sure I do the right thing.
What do you think about this?
I hope you have people like that in your life.
Like an elder board.
I'm thinking about doing this.
What do you guys think?
Stop.
I know there's pressure.
We want to be liked.
Nobody wants to be homophobic.
But there's a battle, and the battle is for the Word of God and for the truth of God.
And if this issue isn't on your theological radar for the last 15 years, I think you're pretty cowardly,
Steve.
Well, that's like a Bible teaching church in Salt Lake City, and you never address Mormonism.
Again, we're not better.
We don't have to go around with signs and picket and all those kind of things.
I hope, congregation, you show kind, Christ -like love to your homosexual friends and people that you
work with.
I want you to really be kind to them.
But that doesn't mean when they say, would you please come to my wedding, that you say, sure.
What you do is you say, you know what?
I'd love to support you and love you, but this is what the Bible teaches, and I hope it doesn't wreck our
relationship, but I just cannot.
I mean, the Bible's pretty clear about persecution and how they persecuted Jesus and how they're going to
persecute us.
I think it's clear.
Yes.
Well, I think it starts, and you know me, I'm an equal opportunity basher of schools, so just do what you think
is best.
And if it's public, private, or home, or a mixture of all three, I think the church too often divides on these
But I do think that public schools especially start from a young age to indoctrinate the children that this is acceptable behavior.
But here's the thing.
I think pastors should know better.
Pastors out of anyone should know better.
And what does Jesus say in John 15?
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it has hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but you are not of the world.
But I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, then they will also persecute.
You, if they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who
sent me.
If I did not come and spoke to them, if I have not come and spoke to them, they would not have been guilty of
sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Whoever hates me, hates my father also.
We're not going to stand up and preach against homosexuality every single week here, but when it's in the text or in the news
or it's an issue, then we need to stand against that.
Okay, I think that's a good question.
And for the sake of everyone else, I'll just kind of summarize it and then talk about it.
What if he was still allowed to go?
Do you think he should have gone?
Or would you want me to go if that was the case for me?
Because it would cause some problems because of some of the gay and lesbian groups that would be there.
This is a very important question.
And so here's what we do.
And here's what you pray for your leaders to do.
When I used to officiate weddings, the old forms before it said, man, woman, man, woman
on them in Massachusetts.
It had a little box up there and it said, mom, rabbi, priest, or it said
something really neat.
It said, our minister of the gospel.
Do you don't know how much I loved writing down minister of the gospel?
I think minister, don't call me minister.
Don't call Steve reverend for sure.
Once in a while, you call me reverend.
No, only God is to be revered.
Don't call me father unless you're one of my kids.
Pastor's wonderful.
Preacher's good.
But minister of the gospel, I'd accept that.
I have good news for you.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.
He cloaked Himself with humanity.
He lived a perfect life underneath the law.
And then He was raised from the dead after He was bearing the sins of the elect on the cross.
And God vindicated Him by raising from the dead.
And do you know what?
If you put your faith in Him, save from your sins.
I love that.
And so I'd always write down in big letters, minister of the gospel.
Well, then in the West Boylston baccalaureate, people would say, please come.
And we'd like you to talk and to pray and to chant.
I don't know what they wanted me to do, but no talk about Jesus.
And I would say to them, do you know what?
But I'm a minister of the gospel.
And so gospel is good news in Christ Jesus.
And so, sorry, I can't come.
And then I didn't get any more invitations.
When people say to me, a good friend who used to live by us, could you please come and officiate my
mother's funeral?
But we really don't want any of that Jesus born again stuff.
I said, you know, thank you so much for the invitation.
I'd really love your family.
And I miss your mom too.
But I am a minister of the gospel of good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners.
And that's what I have to talk about.
When the homosexual man asked my mother, would you please ask Mike if he would do the
funeral of my lover?
Because Mike seems like a kind man.
And he has a kind voice.
And obviously, he didn't know me very well.
I said to him on the phone, he said, well, I don't really want a whole lot of Jesus talk at the funeral.
And I said, well, you know, it's your funeral.
And I won't talk a lot.
But if I come, I'm a minister of the gospel.
And I have to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and how He is reigning over sin and has been
raised from the dead.
And he said, okay, that'd be fine.
So we're ministers of the gospel.
And if He would go, if I would be asked, I would be glad to go.
And I would say ahead of time, but I'm a minister of the gospel.
And that means I pray in Jesus' name.
And I'm not praying to the God of the Buddhists and the Hindus and the Muslims and everyone else.
There's one God and one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus.
And I'll probably preach pray a little bit.
And they'll probably say then, no, I would not do what Ravi Zacharias did several years ago on the National
Day of Prayer.
And he was too ashamed to say the name Jesus.
So I would say the name Jesus.
And they would say, no, then you can't come.
And then I would sleep well, because I've been bought with a price.
And I'm an ambassador of Jesus.
You know, it's one thing to say God in this society.
It's another thing to say Lord.
It's not the same.
When you start saying the Lord Jesus Christ, there's an anger that people
have.
It's a visceral thing.
They don't like it.
And we can't expect them to like it.
And if it wasn't for the grace of God, he wouldn't like it either.
It's like that time on Sunset Boulevard going to church.
I wasn't a believer.
And that guy looked over at me because I said I was a Christian.
He goes, you, a Christian?
Wanted to throttle the guy.
I wanted to throttle, but I didn't.
And so we are gospel people.
That's who we are.
Now, I just have a question.
And here's how I think I'll end this section, but we need to move on.
If Paul the Apostle was asked to go pray at Nero's inauguration,
I don't think his response, if he was asked not to come later, would be anything like
this at all.
This is on a different planet from the Apostle Paul and Jesus and the others.
Friends, I know with the radio show, I don't want to compromise, but I do.
But I don't like it when I do.
That's why we follow the one who never compromised, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's easy to slip in this.
It's easy to say, I could be praying at the president's inauguration if I only cut these corners.
Now, maybe it didn't start off that way, but that's how it's ended.
Does that mean the whole ministry that he has is bad?
I didn't say anything about that.
I'm just saying, if you're in the public view, you're held public in terms of scrutiny.
Okay.
Did that answer the question?
Yes, you know what?
I'm not looking for controversy, just where can I get the greatest controversy, but I'm looking for any platform for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And if you say, come and pray, and I say, by the way, I'm going to say Jesus and then smile, they say, no, you can't.
Yes, I can.
And then one of the few times, just like on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the birthdays that you preach, pray.
Right.
And you just say, dear Lord, we're thankful that you created us and off you go.
Thankful that Jesus is the only way of salvation.
But sadly, these kinds of prayers, I'm sure now are scripted down to the word and have to be passed through the White House, or you
can't say anything.
So the thing is, I don't want to be the world's pastor.
The world doesn't want me to be their pastor.
Only you hardcore New Englanders can take it.
I always wondered, you know, why am I in New England?
Because they kick me out of every California church or Georgia church, because I'm too hardcore.
I'm just too, well, it's not hardcore.
It's just too ornery is the word.
One last comment.
We need to move on.
I have thoughts in my mind, but we're going to just keep moving.
But I agree with you.
As they say in Hebrew, amen.
Let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter one, just for a quick moment.
As you're turning there, I'm just going to read Luke chapter 12.
Jesus said, I came to cast fire on the earth and would it be already kindled.
I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it's accomplished.
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?
No, I tell you rather division.
But now moving to this issue, Ephesians chapter one, I just want to make a couple of comments about election.
Not political election, but sovereign grace.
And how God in eternity past has chosen some just like he's chosen angels and he's chosen.
Israel and he's passed over other nations and passed over the non -elect angels.
And of course, he's chosen Christians too.
Do you see how Paul just burst out into this praise?
Blessed be the God and father Ephesians one, three of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Even as he chose us in him, here's Paul's just refrain.
It's trumpet language of just how great Christ is.
25 years after the Damascus road.
He just says the father's great, the son's great.
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy, not that we were, but that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.
He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.
According to the purpose of his will.
And when this happens, what's the response to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he has blessed us in the
beloved.
Now, Kurt Daniels has a great theology section that I have, by the way, I have it on word
document.
If you'd like, it's called the history and theology of Calvinism.
I believe if you want that, I'll send it to you on soft copy.
If I can be a sales rep for a second, you got to have it.
You got to have this.
I think it's 40 bucks to get regularly and I have the soft copy.
You've got to have it.
How do you sell programs at Fenway?
Here's a program.
Get your program.
No, how do you sell programs at Fenway?
You've got to have a program.
So anyway, this is from Kurt Daniels and it's entitled cheap objections to predestination.
Because people have all kinds of cheap objections to predestination.
So I'm going to give you the cheap objection.
Then you tell me what your response would be.
It's not democratic.
Daniels, who says it has to be God as a king, not a president.
It's kind of neat, isn't it?
But my church doesn't teach predestination.
Are South Afrikaners, people from South Africa rather, are they more blunt than New Englanders?
They're big and tough, they are.
But my church doesn't teach predestination, Kurt Daniels.
Then your church needs to.
Can you imagine even in Ephesians?
This is not something that Paul says, okay, church at Ephesus, we're just going to talk to you about
sin and redemption, and later we'll give you the good stuff like predestination.
It might split a church.
And so you get that on Wednesday night study.
Don't ever talk about it on Sunday morning.
I mean, once you talk about election and see it in the scripture, it's everywhere, isn't it?
You can't run from sovereign grace.
Number three, all the best preachers I know don't believe in predestination.
Daniel's response, then they are not the best preachers for a good preacher will preach the Bible.
What about predestination?
Chief objection four, it won't preach.
If it's in the Bible, then it can and must be preached.
Remember Acts chapter 20, Paul said, I didn't shrink from declaring to you what?
The whole counsel of God.
All right, here's a good one.
It's not practical enough.
It's not practical to talk about election.
I think it's very practical.
Let me tell you what Daniel says.
First, the question should be rather, is it true?
Not is it practical?
If it's true and therefore has enormous practical implications, then it's practical.
Just how practical is doctrine?
I think election is very practical.
By the way, if you'd like more joy in your life, then you need to think about God in eternity past choosing you.
How do you know if you're chosen?
Well, if you believe you have shown that you have the fruit of salvation, that
God has chosen you and the chosen ones come to faith.
How do you settle your election?
Come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and then you'll know you're elect.
It's one of those things.
And I know we have some visitors tonight, but I'll speak about this anyway.
To me, it's the second blessing.
Some people want to get slain in the spirit, zapped, some kind of dead fly stuff at the front of the
church, laying there.
This is it right here to realize that God chose me.
I've told you many times, that day that I asked Kim Duncan in 1989,
May 5th, will you marry me?
By the way, just a few years ago, we took the kids to the spot where I asked Kim to marry me.
And it was in Los Angeles and we were down there.
Let's go, we want to show you.
And I hadn't seen it for years.
Kim hadn't either right there on Kiowa Avenue and Brentwood.
We drove there.
This is the spot and here's where we were.
And the kids are like, where's Disneyland again?
They could so care less.
And when I asked her, will you marry me?
And she said, yes.
I had to be cool and not show it on the outside.
But I was doing like triple karaoke cartwheels on the inside, just thinking I can't believe
she said yes.
So stunned I had to repeat it.
I just want to ask one more time.
So I get this straight.
Will you marry me?
And she said, yes, again.
The thing about it was for two years, I pretty much tried to show Kim my good side.
Right, I didn't want to have her see the wicked side, sinful side, selfish
side.
I wasn't acting, but I certainly wasn't promoting all my nastiness before her because
she has refined sensibilities after all.
Well, can you imagine God knows everything about you?
All your sin and still said, I'm going to choose to love you.
Now, is that practical?
I think so.
All right, just a few more of these.
I think I have like five more pages of these things, but we've got to close.
Although you're the hardcore people, right?
Now, I won't say it.
See, every year I get a raise and the young man, Wesley, will
come to me, won't mention his name, Blackstone.
And he'll come to me and he'll say, Mike, you got a 6 % raise this year.
And so I expect your sermons to be 6 % longer.
How does that work?
It's too irrelevant.
Daniel said, then you need to reorder your priorities according to the Bible rather than a trivial issue.
It is a major one.
It's too dour and serious.
Daniel's quite the opposite.
Without predestination, we have no hope.
Without hope, no joy.
Predestination alone can bring true joy.
Lastly, well, nobody really knows the truth of these things.
We can only guess.
No, for the Bible is God's word.
God knows the truth and has told it to us.
Okay, I think we're going to wrap it up.
So I just have one last question.
Here's my last question.
Does anyone have free will?
It's a trick question.
Yes, Robert.
Excellent answer.
Anyone else?
Yes, Brian.
Okay, your choices are tied to your nature.
Okay, good, Robert.
Okay, Laurita, does your daddy brush his teeth?
How many times a day?
Okay, a couple more, yes?
Find out, okay?
It's like when we first got here, everybody wanted to give our kids rides.
Yeah, let's have Haley and Luke ride with us.
Yeah, tell me really about your dad and about your mom.
What do they really like behind the scenes?
I couldn't believe it.
Everybody's trying to give our kids rides all the time.
First time we got here, I think it was within first two weeks, Haley was in the back at nursery and Nancy was
the teacher at the time.
And so she said, would you like to do some prayer request at Bethlehem Baptist Church at the time?
And do you have any?
Haley raised her hand and she gave the prayer request.
She was five at the time.
So Nancy, after the service, came up to me and said, I just want to talk to you for a minute.
I said, sure.
She said, well, Haley said in her prayer request that you were on drugs and that just
wanted to let you know.
And Nancy had asked the question, pray for anybody?
Yeah, please pray for my dad.
Well, why should we pray?
And she could have said he has bronchitis, but she just skipped that part.
My dad's on drugs.
They happen to be antibiotics, but he's on drugs nonetheless.
Ezra.
Okay, there was the one I was after.
Does anyone have free free will?
God and God alone.
Just let me read you these verses and it will remind you of God's total free will, the only one in the
universe free from all external influences at all.
And he does anything he wants just because he wants to do it.
Isn't that amazing thing, our God?
There's no reason outside of himself why he does anything.
The mere pleasure of God.
Pink said God does as he pleases, only as he pleases, always as he pleases.
And listen to these verses.
Psalm 135.
I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and earth, in the seas and in all the
depths.
Psalm 135, five and six.
Ephesians 1 .11, who works all things after the counsel of his own will.
Daniel 4 .35, he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth.
Psalm 115, our God is in the heavens.
He does whatever he pleases.
And lastly, Isaiah 46, my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all
my good pleasure.
Next time somebody asks you about free will, instead of getting in the big debate about depravity and the nature and the mind choosing and
all these other things and corruption, why don't you just talk about, I absolutely believe in free will.
God and God alone has free will.
Do you think God has free will too?
That's a good way to start it and end it.
Daniel said, God does not allow chance at chance.
William Palmer said, nothing comes to pass by chance for what is chance with man is
choice with God.
Just think about your lot in life right now.
Job, no job, good health, not so good of health, not so good health.
God is a great God who not only is sovereign, but he has a personal love for his people.
Okay, let's pray and we'll sing one final song.
Father in heaven, we are thankful tonight where we can just gather together and think of you.
I personally, Father, haven't thought about my finances and issues in my life for the last hour.
Just been good to think about your son.
And just think about election just for a minute to think how long you have set your love on us.
Going way, way back.
Some here have loved their spouses for 10 years, 20, 50, 70.
But to think your love is just from eternity past.
Like John Flavel says, what an ancient friend we have.
What an ancient friend we have.
Thank you for what you've done in Christ Jesus.
Bless these dear people in Jesus name, amen.