Soteriology - Common Grace

Thank you brother Andy I've missed our times of teaching together and I want to simply say that You and I never Discuss what we're going to talk about beforehand.

I trust whatever the Lord lays on your heart You trust that the Lord lays on my heart But what he just said in every way shape and form is about to dovetail And a way into this lesson that you will you will be amazed at how well this is going to go together based on what he just said, so I guess what I'm saying is don't forget the last 20 minutes because everything that he just said is going to come into play because what we are going to study tonight in our Continuing study in the doctrine of salvation Soteriology tonight we are studying the doctrine of common grace and special grace and we're going to talk about the Distinction which he really just I could just say amen and we could leave because he really just outlined it But I'm gonna I'm gonna break it down a little bit further But everything he just said goes along with what we are about to look at so we are in part four I'm sorry for that.

We don't do handouts right now again, we're staying with everybody who's here is separated and we're staying within the guidelines of the of the Social distancing, but if you want the handout send me an email I'll send you PDF you print out yourself because I do think tonight would be one of those nights where the handout would be helpful I'm going to try to outline on the board What I have for you if you want to take notes, you're welcome to and again, of course It's recorded and you go back and read it or look at it later if you need to I want to begin with a story Having lived through a rather unfortunate and troubled childhood his mother having passed away when he was just six years old John Newton spent years fighting against authority Going so far as trying to desert the Royal Navy in his 20s and later He abandoned was abandoned by his crew in West Africa and he was forced to be a servant to a slave trader But he was eventually rescued on the return voyage to England a Violent storm hit and almost sank the ship prompting Newton to begin his spiritual Conversion as he cried out to God to save him from the storm upon his return however Newton became a slave ship master a profession in which he served for several years Bringing slaves from Africa to England over multiple trips He admitted to sometimes treating the say it's treating the slaves abhorrently in 1754 after becoming violently ill on a sea voyage Newton abandoned his life as a sea trader As a slave trader the slave trade the seafaring altogether He wholeheartedly abandoned them and devoted his life to the service of God He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1764 he became quite popular as both a preacher and a hymn writer.

He wrote over 280 hymns and His most notable hymn, of course Was amazing grace which would go on to become one of the most if not the most recognizable song in the English-speaking world When we consider the great depths from sin Depths of sin from which Newton was saved it adds fresh perspective to the part of the song where he said Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me Newton understood That when he was writing that he wasn't writing that for other people who were wretches.

He was writing that for himself He saw himself as the wretch that the song talked about His salvation was not to be ascribed to any good that he had done His salvation was not to be ascribed to any work He had done even as a minister of the gospel Even as a writer of hymns his salvation was not to be ascribed to anything that he had done But only to the goodness of God's amazing Grace Tonight we are going to talk about the subject of Grace so far in our lesson.

We have looked at the doctrines of salvation.

We've looked at the atonement Two weeks ago.

We we weren't able to meet here.

And so I gave the lesson online on Limited atonement if you didn't get a chance to listen to that, I would encourage you to it's a very important subject But tonight we're going to talk about the subject that gives my heart great joy and one that I have looked forward to and One that I hope goes out To many many not just those who are here and those who are listening But I hope that this message will go out to many more Because there is there are few things if anything more precious to the believer than the gift of God's amazing grace So the first part of the lesson I want to give some definitions We're going to look at three words We're going to look at the words justice mercy and Grace as I said brother Andy has sort of alluded to these earlier, but I want to break them down a little bit for the sake of the lesson if You want to open your Bibles I want you to see in Ephesians chapter 2 Where we see this word grace Come up Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 now, of course the word grace comes up in many other places But in Ephesians 2 8 and 9 it says hmm for by grace You have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast in that passage we see the word grace come into play and To truly understand what the word grace is.

We have to juxtaposition the word grace with the word Justice So that is why I put justice mercy and grace on the board the word justice literally means that which is right being applied that which is just being applied or simply that which we deserve that which we deserve justice is What you deserve if you go before a judge and you have committed a crime and The judge gives you a sentence that fits your crime He has not done you wrong He has not done you evil.

He has not done anything to you.

That is bad to you He has only done to you what is right? He has given you what you deserve The next word is the word mercy and mercy is The best word I could think of to define mercy would be the word pardon mercy is When we do not get what we? deserve You see justice is getting what you deserve and mercy is not Getting what you deserve in Fact in categories of justice mercy would be non justice not injustice But non justice in that justice has been held back that which was deserved has been Mitigated or pardoned and therefore justice has not had its full effect So you have justice is getting what you deserve Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

Therefore mercy is not in the category of justice It is in the category of non justice not injustice and You say well, what's the difference? Well, it's different and I'll have to explain this a little bit more later But God gave our justice to Christ so that he could give us mercy and be just and the justifier at the same time That's what we see in Romans 3 therefore.

God is not unjust But he holds back our justice because he gave it to Christ Right, so that's then category wise mercy is a category of non justice Okay, not injustice, but non justice in this in this schema The third thing that we see here is the word grace for by grace You have been saved now if you look at Ephesians 2 8 you will notice that there is a corresponding word in The sentence it says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it That is grace is the gift of God and therefore the best way to define grace is the word gift and if we want to say Using the word we have used Justice is what we deserve Mercy is not getting what we deserve Grace is getting what we? Do not deserve what we do not deserve or that which is undeserved let's let's use this as a maybe as a illustration from my home if my child is Poor in their behavior, and I have to enact a disciplinary measure upon my child They are receiving justice If they are poor in their behavior And I choose for whatever reason not to enact the punishment that they deserve or to limit that punishment Maybe not give them the full weight of the punishment that they deserve that would be mercy But the act of doing something Outside of that realm such as giving my child a new gift Let's say I go to the store This is independent of the other things let's say I go to the store, and I get my child a new toy Not because it's his birthday not because it's Christmas, but simply because I like to be able to at times Do something special for one of my children or all of my children and when you have five you almost have to do it for All of them because that's justice But you you bring home the the gift and you say here's the gift you didn't earn it You didn't work for it You didn't I'm just not owed to you.

I'm giving it to you out of the sheer gracious heart That loves you My heart loves you and therefore I want to give you a good gift the Bible even says this it says a good father Knows how to give good gifts to his children Why does a father a good father know how to give good gifts to his children because in doing so we are actually Mirroring our father who gives good gifts to us Every time we do good to our children.

We're we're in that sense imaging God We're called to bear God's image and and when we do good to our children.

That's a picture of him doing good to us and So grace is not just holding back punishment That's mercy Grace is giving the undeserved gift.

The sometimes defined as undeserved favor and So when we talk about grace tonight Understand that everything we're going to talk about either common grace or saving special grace either way.

It is all Undeserved Dr.

RC Sproul says this it is critical that we understand This because we are prone to thinking that God owes us something We often believe that if God were really good He would give us a better life in some way But if we think that God owes us something we're actually thinking about justice because grace is never owed God is not obligated to give grace to anyone The classic definition of grace is unmerited favor when God behaves in a favorable manner toward us Even though we have no claim to it by our merit.

That is always grace Anything good that you have ever received is a grace of God It's all unmerited We don't deserve anything From God except for his punishment We do deserve that and the fact that he withholds that is mercy and the fact that he would give us anything good Is grace So that was an introduction.

I want to now move to the distinction between Common grace.

I'm gonna switch my board The distinction between common grace and what we might define as Special grace and some people use different terminology here So I'm not I'm not I don't I'm not married to the term special grace if you would prefer to call it saving grace or salvific grace I'm not going to hold you to Language on that but I think common and special are two easy ways for me to remember it and therefore That's why I'm using that language.

So Let's talk first about common grace the phrase common grace in the sense that God's genuine kindness Has been poured out upon all Persons regardless of who they are Regardless of what they have done.

That is what we mean by common grace.

It means that there is kindness from God that is seen and experienced by Everyone it is common because its benefits are experienced By the whole human race it is grace because it's undeserved You understand why we're using that language some people take great issue with this some people say there is no such thing as common grace Common grace is not something that's biblical.

I disagree.

Obviously, I wouldn't be teaching this lesson But those who they would say that God is not kind To unbelievers because anything good that they have is simply compounding their judgment Here is where I would disagree.

I Disagree based upon the scriptural language Which we find in certain passages such as Psalm 145 Verse 9 which says the Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made Now, I know the word all can be translated differently and understood differently But in this sense in Psalm 149 or 145 9 I believe the expansion here is all that he has made because he specifically says all that he has made God's kindness is seen in all that is made You've already alluded to Matthew 5 45 brother.

You said it in your teaching earlier God causes the Sun to rise on the evil and the good that's the words of Jesus He said God causes the Sun to rise on the evil and the good he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous What is Jesus's point if not to say God is good to all? He has demonstrated his grace to all men In fact Romans 2 4 says it's that very goodness of God that should draw men to repentance But Romans 2 5 goes on to say that it actually doesn't it some of them are still storing up wrath for themselves So even though God is good to all men not all men receive his goodness.

Not all men appreciate his goodness What is Romans 1 tell us the reason why we are are so desperately sinful is because we do not praise God for his goodness Our hearts beat within our chest and we don't thank him for it.

So Is there such a thing as common grace? I would say yes But I would also say this Do not let the word common make you think that it is some way unspecial When we use the word common usually we think it's something that's not very special but common grace is Extraordinary because God is demonstrating a love and kindness and goodness to a people that absolutely Do not deserve it.

Dr.

Barnhouse says this You're not a believer in Christ and yet you're still out of hell.

He's talking to the subject of common grace He's speaking to unbelievers here.

He says you're not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell That is the grace of God You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity That is the common grace of God the vast majority of those who read these words are living in comfortable homes or apartments That is common grace.

You're not fleeing as refugees along highways of a Country deserted by war desolated by war that's common grace You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and good spirits That is common grace You're able to put your hand in your pocket and give your child a quarter or a half a dollar for an allowance That is common grace You go into your house and sit down to a good meal That is common grace on the day that you read these words There are more than a billion and a half members of the human race who will go to sleep without Enough to satisfy their hunger and the fact that you have enough is common grace You do not deserve it And if you think that you do deserve anything at all from God beyond the wrath with which you have so rich You have so richly earned you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles I love that it's a long quote, but I love it because he said this is grace This is great.

This is God.

This is what it is This is what we mean when we say it This is what James meant when he said in James 1 17, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights in Which there is no Shadow due to change he says every good thing is from God Whether you're a believer or non-believer every good thing Is a gift of grace and it should be leading you to repentance if you're a non-believer All of these good things should point you to the one who's giving them and say look every thing good we possess Is a grace of God whether we be a believer or an unbeliever Louis Burkhoff said this common grace curbs the destructive power of sin Maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe thus making an orderly life possible distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men promotes the development of science and art and showers untold blessings upon the children of men we see The gifts of God in his grace All around us in 1924 the Christian Reformed Church Adopted the doctrine of common grace at the Synod of Kalamazoo, Michigan Did you know there was a Synod of Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1924? I didn't Not an undelighted was doing a study of this subject and they adopted this Simply to ensure that their churches understood that this is a biblical doctrine Which should be supported you say what did people not believe it before 1924? No, no.

No, this has been understood Since the time the scripture was written But there are times where we must make statements and the Synod made a statement we hold to the doctrine of common grace and They actually had three heads of doctrine They said there was threefold points of doctrine Regarding the subject of common grace that would that would affirm this doctrine from the scripture now I've actually added a fourth thought so I'm going to give you four reasons biblically for the doctrine of common grace I'm gonna I don't know if I'm gonna write the whole thing down, but I'll say it and I'll write I'll write out a bit the first reason is God's providential care in creation So God's providential care in creation That would be the first way that we see common grace God sustains his creation Through something we call providence and that providence is a gracious act Demonstrated to all the Bible says for instance that God through the Sun upholds the universe by the words of his power That is or by the word of his power.

That's Hebrews 1 2 and 3 God's gracious provision of for his creatures is seen in the giving of seasons seed time and harvest It is of this provincial providential common grace that Jesus Reminds his hearers that God makes the Sun rise on the evil and on the just At a foundational level God has ordained the family unit even pagan families Typically know that they should nurture their children and raise them to become responsible adults All of this is seen as an act of God's common grace.

So providential care in creation is the first Example that we would use from Scripture to to say there is such a thing as common grace number two And I'm not going to write the word providential again But at the same word the providential restraint of sin the providential restraint of sin The Bible says that the civil authorities have been instituted by God.

Why? Why is the government instituted by God? What's that Yeah to actually what it says is to bring wrath on the evildoer Right because if all we had was laws and no way to enforce the laws Then we would have people who would simply smile and laugh at the law as they continue to be evil But the law is put in place and a government is put in place to enforce those laws now can governments be bad Yeah, have we seen at times governments begin to overreach their authority? Yes.

Have we seen ungodliness in the government? Yes, but does that mean that all government is wrong? No, because the opposite of government is anarchy and the danger of anarchy is that every man becomes his own Authority and The Bible says when that happens It's only evil continuously We see that at times in history and scripture where there was no governing authority men did what was right in their own eyes And they did only evil continuously So the providential restraint of sin happens first with the government restraining with laws and order and those things but also it happens in the conscience and That's the third thing Is that God restrains men's conscience so we see the providential restraint of sin? externally through law and order but we also see the providential restraint of the conscience The Apostle Paul says this in Romans chapter 2 The Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires Excuse me when the Gentiles who do not have the law do what the law requires There are a law to themselves and they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts That was Romans 2 14 and 15 the law of God written on the hearts of all men is an act of grace Because God uses that law written on the heart to restrain the evil thoughts and intentions of men Before you were a believer Think back to whenever that was for some of you.

It may not be that long ago, but before you were a believer Did you still have a conscience? before you were a Possessor of the Holy Spirit, which I pray you are tonight You still had a conscience And this is why the unbelieving world That doesn't have the Holy Spirit and doesn't desire or want the Holy Spirit.

What do they always say? Let be your guide Let your conscience be your guide Because there's an understanding among even the most reprobate of men that there's something inherently Understanding of good and evil in the heart now.

We know that men suppress that we know that in their unbelief they hate Righteousness and they love their sin and there and we understand these things but at the same time we see examples of What we would call It's it's not not righteousness in the sense of Biblical righteousness or godly righteousness, but we do see examples of what we we might call societal righteousness even in unbelievers Pirates don't steal from one another when they're on the same ship All right, because they're living and they have to live with one another and so they demonstrate goodness to one another and So we see I mean we see unbelieving men throw themselves in front of Bullets for other men we see unbelieving men throw themselves on top of hand grenades to save other men and and we're grateful for that We're grateful that even in unbelief even in depravity that they would have such a such a heart that would say I'll give myself in death It's an amazing thing to think about what what grace of God must that be? And so we see that in the restraining of the consciences or the retaining of the consciousness the conscience is of men and then finally the fourth one is what I would simply just say are Providential blessings Providential blessings you say well, what what kind of providential blessings? How about this? How about in the last hundred years the advent of things like antibiotics? Was that not a gracious gift of God that has saved countless lives that would have died otherwise How about? other type of technology that has allowed for human flourishing air-conditioned praise the Lord Amen, we can stop right there and just pray air conditioning.

Thank you I I don't know I don't remember the guy's name, but I saw a thing come up on my newsfeed It said today is the birthday of this man, and he's the man who invented the air conditioner Let us all stop and have a moment of silence and thank God for this man.

Absolutely Yeah, yeah, so ultimately Common grace is God's providential care over his creation his restraining of Human society from becoming altogether intolerable and ungovernable His making it possible for mankind to live together in a generally orderly and cooperative manner and maintaining man's consciences and his sense of basic right and wrong that is all an act of the grace of God and so That would be an example of what we would say is common grace now How many of you have ever heard the term? prevenient grace Okay.

All right.

Well, then I need to for a moment Make a quick aside and I'm not sure that I'm going to get to special grace tonight Because I don't even know how long I've been going But I have a lot more to say and I may wait for next week for special grace Grace is so good.

I just definitely could use two weeks, but um So, let me let me do this then let me just begin to draw to a close on provenient grace Because I want you to understand that common grace And prevenient, I'm gonna write it up here.

By the way, don't get these confused prevenient grace is not the same as common grace and You say well what why even bring it up? Well because it's often confused Prevenient grace prevenient grace is the doctrine that is held by Armenian theologians and you know, we would teach Calvinistic teaching that Armenian or Armenian rather theologians are the opposite they believe that God gives all men a form of saving grace that gives them the ability to be saved and They call that prevenient grace or grace that comes before that's what the word prevenient means It means that which comes before So ultimately what they would say is that God gives saving grace to everyone as A Calvinist I would disagree that God gives saving grace to everyone and I'm going to explain why next week That's what we're going to talk about when we talk about special and saving grace I believe that special and saving grace is given to the elect and I will demonstrate that next week in several passages of Scripture We'll look at Romans 9 Romans 8 Ephesians 1 and several other passages when we look at the subject of special grace but prevenient grace is the argument that God gives saving grace to all and It is up to you whether you receive the Prevenient grace or whether you reject the prevenient grace and so that is not common grace That is not the same thing that we mean by common grace Here's the thing that you need to understand reform theology Calvinism whatever you want to call it Rejects the doctrine of prevenient grace because it is not in the Bible We do not believe that God Or excuse me.

We do believe that God is gracious to all mankind in general But we do not believe that it is God's intention or purpose to save all men Because the scripture says that it is not if God's purpose was to save all men then all men would be saved and So, how do we understand the difference? Well, we're going to see the difference more when we come together next week But understand this There is a necessary step Between someone who is an unbeliever and a believer and that step is not taken by them That step is taken by God We do not get saved because we take a step towards God We get saved because God comes to us in the person of the Holy Spirit He opens our heart to believe and through that we are brought to regeneration We are born again and as a result we believe Now later in this series of soteriology, we're going to talk about regeneration.

We're going to talk about faith We're going to talk about all of those things.

So all of this will come together more and more as we go along but just understand tonight common grace is God's goodness to all men and Demonstrating his loving kindness to all but that is not the same as saying it is God's intention to save all men Because even though God can be good and is good to all men He is not and does not have the intention to save all for if that were his will all would be saved So I hope that that has been somewhat helpful for you next week We will look at the subject of special grace and we will examine what it means to be a recipient of God's Saving special salvific elective, whatever you want to call it.

That's the grace.

We're going to look at next week Let's pray father.

I thank you for your word.

I pray that you would help us tonight to Better understand what your word has to say and I pray that in the weeks ahead That you'll begin to bring us back to a place where we can gather safely and that we can Understand the value of what we have missed by not being together Lord.