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As we finished talking last week, we were working on the subject of man. We briefly discussed the fact that man is a created being, that he is finite, he's dependent, that he must receive revelation from God to have true knowledge.
We discussed a little bit how important this is for a proper system of apologetics in a Christian worldview. And as we finished, I mentioned that we would be moving on to, very briefly, the subject of man and the image of God.
What is the image of God? We will mention this fairly quickly and move on from here because we have some very large and difficult topics to address over the next two weeks. What does it mean when we say that man is created in the image of God?
Well, first of all, without going into a very lengthy discussion, because there is certainly a great deal of literature that has been written on the subject of the image of God and what it means, I see the image of God primarily referring to two or three things.
First of all, I think the image of God refers to the personality of man, to the personhood of man. I believe that man, unlike the brute beast or the animal in the field, is created in the image of God in such a way that we can have communion with God, that we can recognize God's being, that we can worship God.
Now, you may recall that in Genesis, when the image of God is presented to us, the writer of Genesis gives it to us in such a way that man is distinguished from all other creation as having the image of God.
So, whatever the image of God is, animals don't have it. Now, some would say, well, the image of God is some sort of physical thing. For example, Mormons would tell us that the image of God means that since we have hands and feet and legs and eyes and hair and things like that, that means God does too, that God has a body of flesh and bones just as we do.
But obviously, the image of God is not simply having a physical form. For there are many apes who have physical form and hands and fingers and toes and things like this, but certainly that ape is not created in the image of God.
And so the image, whatever it is, differs from animals. It includes personality, it includes intellect, the ability to perceive thoughts, to think of oneself in a specific way. This is somewhat similar to what we referred to when we talked about what it is to be a person.
And we contrasted that with a cat or a dog that cannot work for the good of cat kind or dog kind, because they're not created in the image of God. Man is created in the image of God. Man as a created being, therefore, is precious in the sight of God and has meaning.
Life is special. Human life is even more special than animal life because of the fact that man is created in the image of God. That's just one of the reasons. Obviously, the coming of Jesus Christ to be the sacrifice of sins clearly shows us that man is very special in the sight of God, that man's life, therefore, is very special as well.
And I say this just in passing to point out the fact that I think in our nation we have gotten away very much from the concept of the sanctity of life based upon the fact that we view ourselves as created beings in the image of God.
When man begins to look at himself as simply an animal, as simply the chance result of the impersonal plus great periods of time, when man looks at himself in that way, the value of human life begins to slide.
And we can see this in our world today. We can see this in the attitudes toward the elderly or toward the unborn. We can see this in the attitudes toward people themselves, that there is no longer in many people's thinking an intrinsic worth to human life because you are not in many people's thinking any longer, the special creation of God.
But the Christian says, no, man is created by God, man is created in the image of God, and therefore man is very special. Now, when man was created in the image of God, we know that that situation, that original creation, has been altered.
And we know how. We know that the scripture speaks to us of the fall. It speaks to us of the entrance into the existence of man of sin. Now, some obviously then ask the question, well, can we still speak of man being created in the image of God?
Some have gone so far as to say, well, when Adam sinned, when man falls into sin, then the image of God is wiped out. But I don't believe so. The image of God is distorted. Surely we would not say that man as he exists now, man in his depravity and his evilness, is a very good representation of the image of God.
But at the same time, I think we go too far if we say that the image of God is wiped out. It is blurred, it is distorted, but it is not wiped out. Now, there certainly is not a less popular topic of discussion, unfortunately, even amongst believers, than the subject of sin itself.
In our culture, when a sitcom is dying, all you have to do is mention something about sin, and you're sure to get lots of giggles and laughs because, oh, the idea of sin, that's old-fashioned. And, of course, if you are ever silly enough to get into the public venue and actually come out and say something like, that is sin, you're looked at like a person who just arrived from the Oakeys or from another planet or something like that.
The idea that you can actually say that is sin is very foreign to our culture that no longer has standards of right and wrong and certainly looks at you as being rather self-righteous if you would dare to say that someone else has done sin.
But when we as Christians avoid talking about sin, there's obviously something wrong. Now, there are personal reasons. We all know sin very well, don't we? It's not something we can think of about somebody else without, first of all, thinking about ourselves.
We are all very personally acquainted with the subject of sin. And yet, there is something in man called pride that I think very, very much affects how far we are willing to go in recognizing the awesome and terrible power and effect of sin in our lives.
So we must have a revelation from God in His Word to truly see us as we are. For we will never truly admit the extent of our own depravity and sinfulness unless the pure Word of God as a mirror is held up to us and we can truly see ourselves as we are.
And so I ask you to listen to what the Word of God says in regards to what sin has done to man. For if there is anything that I can say with great confidence this evening in regards to the Church in America, it is this.
We have allowed the humanistic emphasis of our culture to so infiltrate the Church and infiltrate our doctrine and infiltrate our thinking that we are rarely, even in good solid churches, willing to truly proclaim what the Word of God says about man as a sinner.
That's not saying that we are not willing to say that is sin and that is sin, but when it comes to saying man has become enslaved to sin as the Word of God teaches, that is where there is much falling short.
Let us look at it. Let us look, for example, at Ezekiel 18 .4. In Ezekiel 18 .4 we have that classic passage from the Old Testament that teaches to us some of the consequence of sin. In Ezekiel 18 .4, behold, God says, all souls are mine, the soul of the Father is well, the soul of the Son is mine, the soul who sins will die.
We all know Paul's statement that the wages, the payment of sin is death. And we know that in the Garden, God said to our forefather Adam and to our mother Eve, He said, if you partake of the tree, surely in that day you shall die.
And some would look at the text and say, but they didn't die the day they partook of the tree. Oh yes, they did. They did in a very special way. They were separated from God. They entered into rebellion from Him.
And since God is the source of life, then there was, in effect, death when man rebelled against God. Spiritual death, spiritual separation from God. Sin brings death. God is the one who has laid down what is and what is not sin.
And since He is the one who has created us, He is the one who sustains us every second, He has the perfect right to do that. Many in our world are so arrogant as to actually question God's right to say what is and what is not sin.
But such individuals certainly do not recognize that they, themselves, are created by God or everything they are to God and are utterly dependent upon Him. In James chapter 2, you recall the passage in speaking of the law.
The writer tells us something about the nature of sin. When he says, let's go back to verse 9, If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
What is the writer saying? Though we recognize that there is certain degrees of seriousness to sin in the sense that murder, of course, we consider to be a grave, grave sin, from God's perspective, it is all a rebellion against Him.
If you break any one of the commandments, we say, well, coveting is not as bad as committing adultery or murder, and so I'm a little better off if I've only coveted. No, the scriptures say, you don't understand.
From our perspective, we can reason in that way, but we're dealing with the thrice-holy God. We're dealing with the God in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning, in whom we have complete and total holiness.
And so it's easy for us to rank sins, and of course our sins normally rank down near the bottom, right? Even though when we see the same sin in someone else, well, it's terrible in them, but in me, well, it's not quite so bad because they're mitigating circumstances in my life.
It's easy for us to do that. We all know the process, don't we? And yet, the reason that we must look to God to truly understand sin is because only then can we see it in the full light of His revelation.
Only then can we see the pitch blackness of all sin when we see the light of His holiness. And that's what Scripture does for us. One of the reasons that the unregenerate man hates Scripture so much. But the greatest passage of Scripture on the subject of sin, if you were to go to one place, where would you go if you were thinking about...
Sorry? Romans chapter 1. Indeed. Let us turn there. We're going to spend a little time on this. Romans chapter 1. When Paul begins this incredible book where he's going to lay out how it is that man in sin who is not right with God can be placed into a situation where he is right with God.
And he's going to argue this point by point. He starts with sin. He starts with the condition of man. He must. Any gospel presentation does not tell man where he is, what he needs to be saved from, is missing something.
And certainly here, in the most thought out, prepared presentation of the gospel that we have in Scripture, this is where the inspired apostle begins. He begins in verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, and for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen. Now what does Paul tell us here? First of all, he tells us that man, though he has fallen, still lives within the realm of revelation. That is, God has still revealed himself. He says that they know.
That which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
So he says, even though man has fallen, fallen man finds himself in a situation where he lives within the revelation of God. Whenever fallen man looks around him, when he looks at his own hand, when he looks at someone else, when he looks at a building or a mountain or the sky itself, he lives in the revelation that God exists.
No man will be able to stand before God someday and say, well, I didn't know. God's going to say, no, you did, but you closed your eyes. You stuffed your ears. I shouldn't say this, but my mother tells me that when I was about the age of my son, about three years old, I decided that I was going to run down the middle of County Road 15 outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is a highway.
And I started running down the road. My wife, my mother starts yelling at me, come back here. So you know what I did? I stuck my fingers in my ears and kept running, figuring that's a good excuse. Now she can't say that I heard her yelling at me.
You know, that's what man in the lost state that he's in does. He closes his eyes. He stops up his ears. But he lives within God's revelation. And God says, you're without excuse. You're without excuse.
Now notice he does not say that one could come to know everything there is to know about God by looking around. He says his eternal power, his divine nature, his invisible attributes. But he doesn't talk about the gospel.
He doesn't talk about who Jesus Christ is, being able to be seen from what's around us. There is a limit to what the revelation around us can tell us. But man lives within the revelation of God. That's the first thing.
But secondly, notice what he says. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Whatever happened in the fall affects all of man, including man's mind, including man's will and decisions.
Their futile heart became darkened. The seat of the intellect itself becomes darkened and man begins to enter into futile speculations. He's turned away from God and so when you turn away from God, everything else you're going to speculate on is going to end up being futile.
Down in verse 25 he says, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. These men who are described in verse 18 as suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. You can't suppress something you don't have.
These men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, they involve themselves in a twisting. And so they're going to take the truth of God and they're going to twist it and instead they're going to accept a lie.
And what is the result of this? Fallen man worships the creation or the creature rather than the creator. Here is a key to what sin is. Here is a key to what sin does to the natural man, to all of us.
Man does not want to have to deal with a holy God. If fallen man recognizes and admits that there is a holy God to whom he is in debt, then he obviously recognizes that he's going to have to do something about that situation and he owes something to that God.
And so to hold on to this rebellion that's his, he twists things. He puts himself in the seat of the creator. I'm going to worship the creation. Now, in pagan cultures, we go, well, you know, I mean, they made, they worshiped trees and rocks and idols and silly things like that.
We're far beyond that. I'd say that there are probably, what, how many? 250, 300 million idols sitting in people's front rooms these days that have a little on-off button and color screen and little rabbit ears on top, you know.
There's a whole lot of idols running around in white coats in science labs and universities that people just bow before. Oh, professor, whatever you say is true. We worship ourselves. We worship our minds.
We worship all sorts of things. We do worship the creation rather than the creator. But it's this twisting, this taking God off the throne, and he's no longer the creator, we are, and now we can judge God.
This rebellion, this twisting, you will find it at the heart of every sin. When you kill, you're denying God is creator. Why? Because he gave that other person that life and you have no right to take it away.
When you commit adultery, you're denying that God is the creator because God has designed you to function in certain ways and that's not the way he designed you to work. But you're saying you have the right to change that.
When you covet, you're denying God is creator. God has placed you in the position that you are in, and if you are willing to covet someone else's possessions in such a way or someone else's wife, you're questioning the very wisdom of God in placing you where you are.
This twisting of the creator-creation relationship you will find to be extremely important to Paul's doctrine and therefore the Scripture's doctrine of what sin is. So man in sin becomes self-oriented.
Instead of last week when we drew up on the board God being in the center and everything else radiating out from around him, we change that and we put us there. And we think that God has to bow before us and we can judge him and we can judge God's word and we can judge God's law and we can...
We're in the center. I have all these rights myself because I'm not dependent upon anyone. This is what he tells us. So we have the twisting of the creator-creation relationship. What else do we have?
Turn to Romans chapter 3. In Romans chapter 3, Paul wraps together a number of passages from the Old Testament to give us just a short, and if you listen closely and think about how much of this applies to each one of us, a far too long description of what sin is like in human experience.
Beginning in verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written. There is none righteous. Not even one. There is none who understands.
There is none who seeks for God. Not one. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving.
The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths. And the path of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. Do you hear what he says? A modern humanist just screeches at such things. Oh, you have such a horrible view of man. Man is such a noble creature. Yes, as created in the image of God he is, but man is in sin.
And there are certain effects to sin. I will point out to you that in verse 11 we are told there is none who understands. There is none who understands. And then the next phrase, if you take off the first word in the Greek language, what you have is there is one who seeks God.
If you take off the first word. There is a God seeker. But in the Greek language you put this strong negative particle right at the front. There is no God seeker. Man who is enslaved to sin does not seek after God.
You say, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. I have known people. I have known people and they were seeking after God and they came to me and I shared with them and they are Christians. They were seeking after God.
One of two things. Either A, God was already working in that person's life and had given to them that desire to seek after Him because that is the only place it can come from because the scripture says there is none who seeks after God.
Or B, if you have encountered a person who you think is seeking after truth, I would submit to you that there are many people that are seeking after the benefits of God without dealing with God. There is a lot of benefits to a God figure.
Oh, I can pray to God. I can ask God to protect my things. It gives me nice warm feelings inside. But does that person truly wish to deal with their sin? Does that person truly wish to repent? We will think more about this this evening.
But I press upon you this point. First of all, on the basis of just the passages we looked at already, we see that man is affected by sin not just simply in being alienated from God and then just left in his original condition.
But here we are told that man's behavior, man's thinking, man's mind, man's heart, all is affected by sin. That's what the doctrine of total depravity is about. It does not say that man is as evil as he could be because he isn't.
I think the only reason that man isn't as evil as he could be is because God is actively intervening in the world to curb evil. God rarely gets thanked for that because we never see it. He could be curbing 99 of evil in this world and what does he get blamed for?
He gets blamed for the 1%. He gets blamed for the little 4-year-old boy that's murdered in our valley. He gets blamed for that but he doesn't ever get thanked for the 999 little children that are alive today because God withheld evil from occurring to them.
I must emphasize there is not one who seeks God. Those are not my words. Those are not my words. You can search. You can dig. You can look at the text. There's no textual variation there. You can do anything you want.
You can't get rid of it. It's there. We must deal with it. You know, someone who really had, from God, an incredible insight into the human heart was Jeremiah. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 13. Jeremiah 13, verse 23.
Jeremiah asked the rhetorical question, Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? The answer? No. Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. In other words, if they can, the day that that happens, then you who are accustomed to doing evil, fine, you'll be able to do good all of yourself.
But till the day that happens, my friend, you who are accustomed to doing evil will not all of a sudden change in the morning and start doing good. The ability to do that, my friends, comes from God and God alone.
The very grace of God, as we will see as we continue working. Turn over to chapter 17 in the same book. Jeremiah 17, 9. Is the heart affected by sin? Listen to this prophet. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.
Who can understand? The heart is desperately deceitful. It's sick. It's wicked. And that's where we live. That's where the center of our being is. You wonder why people have warped views of who they are?
It's like looking through a warped glass. You're going to see the world in strange ways if you do it. Now, one of the favorite passages, one of the favorite descriptions of scripture of the effect of sin upon man is introduced to us, for example, in Ephesians chapter 2.
I hope you've got your fingers warmed up because we're going to be moving through a lot of these pages tonight. Ephesians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince, the power of the air, of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formed to live in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. You were dead. You were dead.
Now, how we are eventually going to understand many important aspects of the doctrine of salvation will be dependent upon one of two things. Actually, two things together. First of all, what we spoke about earlier in regards to the nature of God.
Is God changeable? Or is God eternally the same? Does God experience a progression of time? Or does He not? That'll be the first thing. God's sovereignty. The second thing will be the sin of man. What is the effect of the sin of man?
Do we seriously accept? And do we take to the length that Scripture takes it, the statement that man is dead in sin? What does it mean when we say man is dead in sin? Stay in the epistles of Apostle Paul and turn to Colossians, chapter 2, verses 13 through 14.
And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us.
And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. But first He says, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. First of all, saying that we are dead in sin means that we no longer have the image of God.
Well, I've already said that I don't think that's what it means. What it does mean is that the entire being of mind, the entire being of man, including the mind and knowledge, is affected. It also means, as we will see from Scripture, that man is in bondage to sin.
Man is in bondage to sin. The will of man is a part of man. And if man is in bondage to sin, then the will becomes enslaved to sin. Now, what is the will? What do we mean when we talk about the will of man?
Well, large volumes have been written on this one too. Most of those who loudly tout the subject of free will have not, in my experience, done a whole lot of serious thinking as to exactly what it is they're speaking of.
At least that's been my experience. Oh yes, man has a free will. Well, what do you mean by free will? Do you mean an autonomous will? That is, that man's will is totally separate from the will of God, is totally free of the will of God?
Well, certainly we know that's ridiculous. I may will to fly home this evening, but I won't. I will drive home this evening, Lord willing that the car gets that far, right? So my will, as far as that goes, is obviously, first of all, limited by what I am.
My will is limited by the fact that I'm created by God to be man. And God has placed certain limitations on what it is to be man. I can't fly. I can't stay underwater without artificial sources of oxygen for a lengthy period of time before doing great damage to my body.
There's lots of things that I cannot will to do. I might want to live with the fish, but I'm not going to live down there very long. So my will is obviously not simply free in the sense of being unlimited and unfettered.
But what is the will? Well, you say it's the ability to make decisions. Hmm. Well, I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure about that. I will simply present to you briefly the concept as it has been developed by the great theologian from New England, Jonathan Edwards, in his book on the will of man, on the free will of man, in fact.
He goes along these lines. The will can only make decisions and act upon desires that are presented to it. So that means that, really, the set of desires that are placed before us will determine the outcome of the will.
If, for example, R .C. Sproul uses it as an example in his book, Chosen by God, which is an excellent work if you have ever read it. R .C. Sproul uses the example of his love of ice cream. None of you, I'm sure, share his weakness in that area.
Right, Henry? No, not at all. And he indicates that about, oh, about 30 or 20 or 30, I wouldn't want him to hear this and exaggerate the figure, but about 20 or 30 pounds of his body weight he directly attributes to a certain kind of ice cream.
That's how it got there. Now, he would like to have a fit and trim body. He'd like to look like Calvin or Rick up here, but he doesn't look that way. So, after enough jibes from your wife, which is normally how I end up going on some exercising binge, oh, dear, you look like you're expecting, something like that, I go on some exercise program and I start resisting the donuts in the other room or the ice cream or the Hershey bars or something like that.
But then, as you walk through one of the malls around here, you encounter 31 Flavors or Baskin Robbins or something like that. And right up front, they have your favorite ice cream. Now, your will is now faced with two conflicting desires.
And what you do is going to be dependent upon which of those two desires is stronger. Now, if your wife, as you went out that morning, had made another comment about your bulging waistline, your desire for a thin, trim body may be stronger than your desire for that ice cream, in which case, you will bravely continue on patting yourself on the back but still wishing you could have that ice cream.
If you feel like you've accomplished a little something and you're starting to feel like you're looking pretty good, then that desire for the thin, trim body isn't quite as strong because, well, I've sort of accomplished something.
And so, if the desire for that ice cream is stronger than your desire for that thin, trim body, then you'll look like Melvin. You'll eat the ice cream, won't you? But your will chooses on the basis of the desires that are presented to it.
You say, now, wait a minute. I can think of some situations where that's not true. What if a guy walks into my office and he's got a gun and he holds my head and he says, give me your money or I'm going to blow your brains out.
You say, now, what does that do to your whole thing? Well, you're still faced with two sets of desires. Now, your first set of desires is, I don't want to have my brains blown out. I'd like to live a little while longer.
But there is a second set of desires. You do not voluntarily wish to contribute to this man's financial future. And if your desire not to do so is strong enough, you're going to say, go ahead. Most of us aren't going to do that, but you still have two sets of desires from which you're choosing.
Now, what is the point of all this? The point is this. Do we not, as Christians, I have never met a person, even one who just denies the whole concept of the depravity of man or the necessity of the regenerating grace of God.
Even a person who says, no, it is man's decision, it's man's work. All the way. I have never yet met a person who is unwilling to pray, Lord, place a desire in my heart to serve you. But think about what you just prayed.
If you pray such a prayer, you are recognizing the fact that God not only can, but needs, by His grace, to place into your heart the desire to serve Him. You are tacitly recognizing the fact that desires such as that, holy, righteous desires, only come by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And you're really saying, God, change my will. Control my will. Now, if man is spiritually dead, as we have seen from the scriptures already, from what source then would come any godly or good desire?
Oh, well, the natural man can do that. That's not what Jeremiah said, did it? What did he say about the heart? What did Paul say in Romans 3 .11 about man? There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God.
Why? Why can Paul make that statement? Why can the scripture, without exception, without explanation, say there is no such of this kind of person? Because of the fact that man is dead in sin. And therefore, as Edwards would explain in regards to the nature of the will, there is no way for those proper, holy, and just, and righteous desires to even be presented to the will.
So therefore, the will becomes enslaved to what? To the only thing it has available to it. Its own nature. Evil. Evil. What this results in then, is it makes man morally unable to choose the right. You say, no, wait a minute, no, wait a minute, no, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I know people who are in no way Christians, and yet they do good things and they do right things and they do honest things. So what are you talking about? Well, so do I. So do I. I know people like that too.
But why do they do those things? In the ultimate final analysis, why do they do those things? What purpose? Are they truly glorifying God in what they're doing? Is that the purpose of their actions? And when we get down to the real discussion that we're moving toward this evening in regards to salvation itself, do not the scriptures teach us these very things?
Turn with me to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Tremendous passage. Well worth a few weeks in and of itself. Let us begin at verse 43. Jesus answered and said to them. Let's get a little context. Jesus has said some tremendous things about himself already.
The Jews are grumbling. What is this guy talking about? The bread that came down from heaven, etc., etc., etc. They aren't willing to accept him for who he reveals himself to be. And Jesus answered and said to them, Do not grumble among yourselves.
No one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Do you hear what our Lord says? These are not my words. These are not the words of some theologian.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus. And he says to the Jewish people, No one is able to come to me. No one. Unless what? What is the condition of a person's coming to Christ? Unless the Father who sent me draws him.
Now, that very same Greek word is used over in John chapter 21. Do you know what it is referred to? Peter drags a net of fish up onto the shore. Now, he wasn't going, Come on little fishies, come up on shore.
He was dragging them up onto the shore. Fish do not naturally wish to come up on shore. He drags them up onto the shore. And listen, no one can come to me. That is, no one has the ability to come to Christ in and of themselves outside of the drawing of the Father.
But notice something. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. I may make a point now that will become important later on. If the individual is drawn, the individual is raised up.
Do you hear what I'm saying? If the individual is drawn, the individual is raised up. And you read through the Gospel of John and when it talks about, I will raise him up, that is a synonym, it is a parallel to, I will give to him eternal life.
And he shall never perish. Okay? That is the parallel. So, all those that are drawn by the Father, we will see in John chapter 10, he refers these individuals, all those who are drawn by the Father are raised up by Christ.
They are given eternal life. This is salvation. And this is the work of God. But the point here is, Jesus says, no one, in and of himself, naturally has the ability to come to me unless my Father acts.
Unless. Look down at verse 65, the same chapter. John 6, 65. And he was saying, and there seems to be an indication in the text anyways by the usage of the imperfect tense that this was something he was repeating.
For this reason, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. No one can come to me unless it has been granted to him of the Father. Now, what does this mean?
Now, before we immediately dive into what is obviously here being alluded to, the sovereignty of God and salvation, election, etc., etc. Before we do that, let's not get the cart before the horse. Let's not run past things just to get to those particular subjects.
First of all, I'll point out to you that the condition of man being dead in sin makes any kind of works salvation scheme an absolute impossibility. An absolute impossibility. First of all, we are told by the fact that man is dead in sin the very way that we recognize that we are in sin is by the fact that we are unable to keep God's law.
Paul talks about this. Here is the law. The law is just and righteous and holy. What does it show us? Does it show us how good we are because we keep the law? No. It shows us our sin. We are unable to keep the law outside of the power of God working.
You know, faith in Jesus is good. That's important. But we've got these sets of laws that you need to also keep. And if you don't, then you're not quite going to make it. Don't recognize what sin is. In fact, my experience is in dealing with pseudo-Christian religions, it's this.
Those people who teach some kind of work salvation system, every single group of them have a very weak doctrine of sin. You know what the Mormons say about sin? Adam fell that men might be and men are they might have joy.
Adam fell that men might be. Their leaders will not accuse Adam of sin. He didn't sin. He just transgressed. But you see, it was decided before he came here he was going to do that so that men could come into existence.
Very weak doctrine of sin. Certainly no concept of total depravity. Certainly no concept of deadness and sin. None at all. Okay? So there are many passages that we could look at that teach this very thing.
In Romans chapter 3, verses 27 through 28, we are told that, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Where is boasting then is excluded. What kind of law?
A law of works? No, by a law of faith. By a law of faith. In Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 8, if you're ever talking to a person who has the concept that it is necessary for them to do certain acts, legalistic acts, certain ceremonies to gain righteousness in God's sight, Romans chapter 4 is probably the best single place you can go.
For in Romans chapter 4, Paul presents to us Abraham. And he keys on that passage out of Genesis 15, 6, where Abraham believed God and his faith, that faith that he has in God, is reckoned to him as righteousness.
In Romans 4, 4 through 5, he says, now to him who works, and I would suggest to you if you're talking to somebody who's really into a work-salvation type system, you're talking to a Mormon, you're talking to a JW or something like that, man, use the hands and act it out.
Or explain what's going on here. But in Romans chapter 4, verse 4, now to him that works, the reward or the payment is not reckoned as a gift, is not considered a gift, but is what is due. If you walk into work and you get paid, let's say, every Friday, and your boss walks up to you on Friday and says, here's your paycheck, here's a gift for you.
You say, I ain't no gift. I worked for that. I worked for that. You can't call that a gift because you worked for it. That's what Paul's saying. Now to him who works, the reward is not reckoned as a gift or as grace, but is what is owed.
But to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted righteousness. See the two ways? Working, no. Faith in the one who justifies the ungodly, that is what results in righteousness.
And that's what he says in Galatians 3 .10 -11 as well. But as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for as written, cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things written in the book of the law for it to do them.
But that no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God by the law, it is evident. The just shall live by faith. There is this concept of, if you try to do it by works, by legalism, all it's going to result in is, what?
A curse. Why? Because you can't do them all. You can't keep them all. But if you have faith, your faith results in righteousness. Got a question? Yes. Right. I understand that. We will be talking about the nature of faith in hopefully a few minutes.
We'll get to that. We will definitely discuss the origin and nature of faith here in a few minutes. There are a number of passages, let me just throw them out to you very quickly, that are frequently presented to those of us who proclaim salvation by grace through faith alone.
But the scriptures say otherwise. The passage that I think I have met more LDS people who had memorized this passage than any other passage in the Bible, I mean, way ahead of John 3 .16 or anything else, is James 2 .20.
James 2 .20. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead, but you are still saved by faith alone. Faith alone saves, but a saving faith is never alone. You hear me? Faith alone saves, but a saving faith is never alone.
Now, we are going to talk about the nature of faith here in a few minutes. But I think the point that James is making, and if you want a better explanation than what I will provide to you, I admit my...
I did not know this for many years. I had used this explanation in an innumerable number of witnessing opportunities and only recently discovered where it came from. It came from a certain French scholar who lived in Geneva most of his life back in the 1500s by the name of John Calvin.
But he explained it, and I think it is exactly what the Scriptures are teaching. What is James saying? Is James contradictory to Paul? There are many scholars today who will tell you, oh yes, please. In James 2 .24, James says, so we see that a man is not justified by faith alone but by works also.
I mean, it is obviously James and Paul. They disagreed on this subject. Really? No. If you look at James chapter 2, the audience and the context are totally different. He is talking to people who have already been justified in God's sight.
He is talking about their living the Christian life. And when he gives us an example, he shows us this. And if we knew the Old Testament well enough, we would see this. What is the example given between James 2 .20 and 2 .24 in regards to Abraham?
It is his offering of Isaac upon the altar. See, was not Abraham, our father, justified, made perfect by his works when he offered Isaac upon the altar? Let me ask you something. Is that when Abraham is made righteous before God?
When is Abraham made righteous before God? When he believed. What is the passage? Genesis 15 .6. If you look chronologically, Genesis 15 .6 takes place at least 20 years, at least 20 years, maybe even more, before Isaac and before the offering of Isaac.
So you see, Abraham is already righteous in God's sight at that point. So what is the passage referring to? What is this justification? What is it a justification of? The point being made, I believe, is just as I said.
Faith without works is dead. Faith alone saves, but a saving faith is never alone. The faith that saves, the real faith, the faith that we will soon discover is a gift of God, it has results. It has results.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2 it is by grace we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves is a gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. And we always stop there, and we shouldn't, because verse 10 says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, what?
By good works? Unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So the justification spoken of in James 2 is not justification before God. It is the justification of that faith.
It is the justification of you say you've got faith, I'll show you my faith by my works. See, God can look into your heart and know if there's faith there, but I can't. I can look at you forever and a day and I don't know if there's true faith in there.
So the only way that you can demonstrate that faith in there, the only way you can justify your claim is by what you do, is by what you do. Yes, sir? Oh, well, my thought of that was what it was. It was like if I said I'm a football player, if I don't play no football, I'm not a football player.
You know what I mean? That's how I show a football player you've got that one in you. That's right. It's not just showing you faith, it's all the same thing if you change your claim. That's right. Whatever I say that I am.
If I don't do that, then I'm not that. That's right. And that's the nature of the justification being spoken of there. I think many people have struggled with saying, well, justification has to mean the same thing every single place it's used.
That's not how James is using it. Okay? It's one of the main passages that's thrown out to you. Some others that are thrown out are like Philippians 2, verse 12, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Just read the next verse and it becomes very self-explanatory for the scripture then says, for it is God who is at work within you both to will and to do according to his own good pleasure. And passages like Matthew 7, 22 that talks about those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven, those are the ones who get into heaven and people take that to mean, well, what that means is by doing, X, Y, and Z is how you gain God's favor.
It's always been interesting to me, you know, if I want to know something about my car out there, I get out the owner's manual and I look up in the index where it talks about that. Now, if I want to know about the lights, I'm going to look up lights and I'm going to go to that passage in the owner's manual that talks about the lights.
Now, I may learn something incidentally about the lights by reading the section on the tires. That's probably not where I should go first. And yet, that's how so many people do biblical exegesis. They'll find a passage that they think in some way is relevant to the doctrine of salvation.
Build an entire doctrine upon that and forget that the book of Romans exists. I've never understood that. But that's how many people do it instead of being taught by the scriptures. Indeed, very much so.
Now, another of the things that derive from the fact that man is dead in sin is that man then becomes utterly and completely dependent upon the grace of God. Utterly and completely dependent upon the grace of God.
Grace is not just unmerited favor. We've heard it described as unmerited favor, have we not? And that's not, I'm not saying that's bad. But it's not just unmerited favor. In this situation, it is THE merited favor.
Do you hear what I'm saying? It's not just simply that there is absolutely nothing in man that can draw or demand the grace of God. For then it wouldn't even be grace anyways. But there is actually that which would repel God and repel any favor that he would have toward us.
We are rebels against him. And so he's not just simply giving to us who are undeserving. He's giving to us who deserve something utterly different. Grace, by the very meaning of the word and the language, cannot ever be wedded with any concept of merit.
Do you hear what I'm saying? You cannot have 99 grace but 1 me. That's not God's grace. Paul says in Romans 11 .6, remember the passage? If it is on the basis of grace, then it is not on the basis of works.
Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Now what does that mean? He recognizes that if you attempt to meld those two terms together, if you attempt to add merit to the concept of work to grace, you've destroyed grace.
It's no longer a meaningful term. And so salvation must be utterly dependent upon the grace of God. It is by grace, he says. The concept of God's grace runs throughout the New Testament and I would assert to you throughout the Old Testament as well.
There are many passages that we could look at, just almost too many to even begin that meld the fact that it is God's grace and then this concept of faith in opposition to works that bring salvation to man.
If you want to just write some of them down, we already looked at Ephesians chapter 2, you've got Galatians chapter 2, verses 16 and in verse 21 Paul says something that's just so startlingly strong. He says, if righteousness, if a right standing before God comes through law, then Christ died needlessly.
He says, I do not frustrate, I do not nullify, I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes by law the death of Christ is a sham, useless, vain, empty. And yet, there are so many who attempt to wed God's grace with human works.
2 Timothy 1 .9. Titus chapter 2 verses 11. Titus chapter 3 verses 5 through 7 that classic passage. Let's look at it very quickly. You probably already have it memorized or are very familiar with it. Titus 3, 5 through 7.
2 .11. Yes, sir. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Verse 2 .11. We'll look at that in another context. Verses 5 through 7 He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
What could be more clear? Being justified by His grace. Being made righteous. Being put into the proper relationship in His sight by His grace. Not by our works. Not even by our works of righteousness that He clearly points out.
Two more things. The fact that man is dead in sin also emphasizes the sovereignty of God and man's need. The sovereignty of God and man's need. God is able to meet that need. Salvation if it is going to be at all must then be of the Lord.
It must come from the Lord. It must be by Him that we are in Christ Jesus as Paul says in 1 Corinthians. And what you think and what you believe about the deadness of man in sin will then be extremely important whether you hold to one of two different kinds of salvation.
Hypothetically anyways. One is a monergistic salvation. What does that mean? Mono and ergon. Ergon means work. It would refer to one source. One power involved in salvation. The power of God. Or a synergistic salvation.
It is a melding a working together of the power of God and the power of man together. Separate and distinct from one another working toward a common goal. Not the power of God at the basis of all things and man working based upon the power of God as a Christian.
When Paul for example says the Lord worked mightily in me. But two separate forces working together to achieve a common goal. Neither one of which alone is capable of accomplishing the goal. You hear what I'm saying?
Now, we're gonna take a brief break. When we come back we will talk about repentance, regeneration, faith, then we'll start the atonement. Okay? Five minute break. Now we turn our attention to the subject of man as redeemed by Christ.
We first look at how we enter into the state of salvation. Now, I do not by my order of presentation attempt to communicate anything in particular. It's difficult to divide things up into specific categories that do not at any time overlap with one another.
But I begin first with the subject of regeneration. We will move on to the atonement later on this evening and into next week. But first I wish to discuss regeneration because we've been talking about faith and things like this.
Regeneration, the giving of spiritual life. We've talked about man being dead in sin. He who is regenerated, however, obviously is no longer dead in sin but has spiritual life. Now, if you come from a background as I did, then regeneration, the idea we might use to term that Jesus uses in John chapter 3 of being born again, normally comes into our mind like this.
You repent, you believe, you're born again. Right? You receive regeneration. I'm using those terms synonymously for our purposes right now. Some might argue with that but for our purposes right now. Isn't that not what we normally hear?
Let's look at John chapter 3 for a moment and ask some questions of that. What we're basically saying is, if this is the position we take, a man sees the kingdom of God, he recognizes that he has a desire to enter into it, therefore, he repents of his sins, he believes in Jesus Christ, and therefore enters into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of heaven.
But is this what Jesus says? Look at John 3 .3. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?
He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, one cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Hmm. Now Jesus says, unless one is born again, one cannot even see the kingdom of God. One cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless one is born again.
Now, if what we've said up to this point has any validity whatsoever, as certainly the scriptures have borne it out, if there is not even one who seeks after God, not one who understands, then how can regeneration be the result of a process of faith and repentance that originates in man?
How can that be? Is not regeneration God's sovereign work whereby the Holy Spirit brings spiritual life and along with that spiritual life, understanding? And as we're about to discover, I would assert to you, brings to us the gifts of God that are identified as faith and repentance.
Is that not God's action? Or is God's action of regeneration dependent upon and held at bay by the decision of man? I'm not going to answer all those questions right now because I want us to be thinking about these things.
Let's just keep the on the front burner, not on the back burner. Let's keep all these things together because we're not really moving on to another subject when we say, what is repentance? What is repentance?
The Greek term metanoia refers to a changing of the mind. It's not just simply a changing of the mind sort of like a tipping of the hat toward God. It's a radical change. We've talked about the fact that the mind of man, the heart of man, is set on that.
Remember that twisting we talked about in Romans 1? The denial of the creator-creation relationship? When we talk about repentance, we're talking about that part of man. A change there is a truly incredible thing.
A changing of the mind. Let's look at Romans 2 .4. Let's just look at some passages of Scripture. I like letting the Scripture sort of speak for itself. It doesn't mean that people will get any less upset with me about these things, but at least they can blame the Scriptures instead of me.
Hold on. Let's look at some Scriptures. We've got to read some Scriptures here. Get a basis. Romans 2 .4. Paul says, Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
It is the kindness of God that leads one to repentance. Hmm. Same writer, 2 Timothy 2 .24. 2 Timothy 2 .24 -26. And the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if, perhaps, God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth.
What does the word here say concerning repentance? It is granted by whom? Hmm. Sounds to me like that's not, then, a natural ability of the natural man, if it needs to be granted by God. Hmm. Let's turn over to Acts 5 .31.
Acts 5 .31. Let's go back to verse 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Hmm. Now, there are two things that are granted to Israel here. Now, obviously, it does not mean every single Israelite in this instance, as it does in many areas. Not all who are of Abraham are of Israel.
But two things are granted to Israel. What are they? Repentance and forgiveness of sins. Now, is there anyone, is there anyone who would not say it, that forgiveness of sins is the gift of God? I mean, surely.
God is the only one who can forgive sins, right? And if God forgives sins, that must be an action and a gift of God. But if forgiveness of sins is originating in God and coming from God, then where does repentance come from?
Same place. Same place. Repentance is a gift of God? Well, let me ask you this, if you struggle with that. When a person repents, is that pleasing to God? Don't worry, it's not a trick question. Is repentance pleasing to God?
I mean, God calls men to repent, doesn't he? So, when one repents, that's undoubtedly pleasing to God, right? Do you think the natural man can do that which is pleasing to God? Be careful. Whoa, and some of you, some of you are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You want to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah. But you're afraid to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, because you know I'd say, whoa, whoa, whoa. Ask that question. I had a close friend of mine, a professor of mine for many years, who only a few weeks ago said, well, surely we all recognize that faith and repentance are abilities of the natural man.
But that does not require a special work of God. And I said, no. Well, whatever your position on it might be right now, let's go to Romans chapter 8 and see if we can come to some sort of understanding.
Agreement, maybe? Well, who knows. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 5. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is what? Hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God.
For it is what? Not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, let me ask the question again. If repentance, a spiritual act surely, is it not? And one that is surely pleasing to God.
If repentance is pleasing to God, then on the basis of this passage, I would assert to you that it cannot be the action of one who is still, as Paul would describe it, in the flesh. But one whom is what?
Spiritually alive. Who has been, as we would say, regenerated. Therefore, even those things that people would call conditions of salvation, faith and repentance, which everyone will immediately say, oh, those aren't works, those aren't works, but they come from man.
The scripture says, are the gifts of God. Now, they must be the gifts of God. Why? Because of the state of the natural man. The one who is in the flesh is an enemy of God, is hostile toward God. And Paul says here in Romans chapter 8, that mind, that one that is according to the flesh, is not able to subject itself to the law of God.
Is it the law of God that you repent of your sin? You better believe it. The natural mind, the one who is according to the flesh, Paul says is not able to do it. Therefore, clearly, regeneration must precede and bring about and be the grounds of faith and repentance that also comes from God.
And if regeneration, then, is the sovereign act of God, then we can understand why Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, it is of God that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom and holiness and love.
So that he who boasts, what? Let him boast more. Let him boast more. You say, wait a minute, you only talked about repentance and you just said, faith is a gift. Let's talk a little bit about faith. Faith is obviously, in many passages in Scripture, spoken of as being, let's use the term, the ground of salvation in the sense that it is by grace we are saved through faith, the instrumentality.
Is that a good term to describe what Paul says there in Ephesians 2? Passages like Romans chapter 10, verses 8 through 13, in John 1, 12,. But as many as received him, them gave you the power to become the children of God, even them that believed on his name.
In John 1, 12, Acts 16, 31,. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 5, 24,. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my words and believes on him who sent me, believes on him who sent me, has eternal life.
We see these passages over and over again in Scripture about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, let me say something that is a little bit off of the track we obviously are following here.
Just a little bit on what faith is. Faith, brethren, is not irrational. There is this concept in the church today that faith is the acceptance of the contradictory. Faith is the acceptance of the irrational.
Faith is the acceptance of that which goes against reality. That's not what faith is. When it says in Genesis 15, 6 that Abraham believed God, the Hebrew term is aman, which is just transliterated directly over into English as, I'm sorry, into Greek as amen.
When Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, what he's saying is, amen, amen, lego soy. Truly, truly, I'm saying to you. And it is very closely connected in the Hebrew language with the Hebrew term emeth, which means truth.
Truth. Faith and truth cannot be extricated from one another. Biblical faith always has an object. People say, oh, have faith. In what? You can't say have faith without defining the object of the faith.
I mean, there are actually, you know there are actually teachers today. I heard one on the radio coming in tonight. You do? Oh, it's sort of hard to miss them, isn't it? Who actually teach that God created the world by faith?
That's a good question. For them, faith is actually a substance that can be cut up into pieces and given to people. It is the substance out of which the world is created. God has faith. But that's not biblical faith.
Biblical faith always has an object. We believe in the promises of God. We believe in what God has told us. We believe in what God has revealed to us. We accept the validity of God's promises. And we say when we believe them, they are true.
They are true. So there are many people who would like to say, oh, faith, faith, wonderful thing. God gives me X amount of faith. And if he'll just give me X more amount of faith, I'll be able to get this kind of car and this kind of house.
I've been on radio programs where people have called in and said, well, the Bible says that God gives to man faith, a certain portion of faith. And God gave me enough faith and I went to a car dealership.
And every day for seven days I walked around this car and I claimed it in Jesus' name and I'm driving it now. That's how they did it. They called in a servant of the belief. Oh, yeah. Word faith, what you speak.
See, God created the world out of faith. And so he spoke and faith responded by creating what he said. So they actually teach you what you speak, faith then will make that reality. Sure it is. Lessons in contemporary Gnosticism.
That's what it is. And that's Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps, I'll name them, I'm not afraid to. And their heretics. That's just all there is to it. Oh, you ain't telling me. Yeah, but they're making more money than anybody else did.
And they're making more inroads than a lot of people ever else have. The ecumenical spirit in our land today is allowing those people to get into churches who should know better. Who should know better.
So, that was sort of an aside just to address the nature of faith. Atheists think that we have faith so we don't have to deal with reality. That's not what faith is. Faith and truth. The first place that it's used in Scripture back there in Genesis helps us to understand the parameters of what the term means.
Now, what we are pursuing this evening primarily is in regards to the doctrine of salvation. And I have asserted that I believe that faith is the gift of God. The true saving faith. The faith that James speaks of.
The faith that Paul speaks of. The saving faith that truly lays hold of Jesus Christ. That is an abiding faith. It is a persevering faith. It is a faith that results in all those things we speak of when we speak of salvation.
That that kind of faith does not have its origin in man. But it's the gift of God. And why do I believe that? Well, we saw in Ephesians chapter 2 I'm sorry. We saw in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are told it is by grace we are saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
Now, this has been a proof text for a long time of faith being a gift of God. And I believe that it is what it's saying but we must admit the fact that the word that in the Greek language is not perfectly suited to meaning that faith is the gift of God.
What it's actually referring to, I believe is to everything that preceded it being the gift of God. That is grace and faith and salvation the whole thing is a gift of God. But let's move on to some other passages.
This is 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 14. 1 Timothy 1 verse 14 which reads. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Now, is the grace of the Lord, is that a gift?
For us to truly and properly love God does that love have to be brought into our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God? And what about faith? That's the only one left. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
That's what Paul says. Paul certainly doesn't attribute the faith and the love that he has as coming from himself. They are exercised by him. Certainly. But where did they come from? They came from God.
In Acts 13 .48 we are told that all who were appointed for eternal life believed. All who were appointed for eternal life believed. Now what came first? Their believing or their being appointed to eternal life?
Their being appointed. So their believing then was dependent upon the previous action of God in appointing them. Therefore, their belief came from God. In 1 John 5 .1 we are told that whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
Think about what that's saying. A friend of mine pointed this out to me only recently. And I tried to take the opposite position of him on the basis of the text. And I struggled with it. And the more and more I struggled with it the more clear it became.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. What comes first? Think about it. Believing in the Greek text is present tense. The one who is believing that Jesus is the Christ and guess what?
Born of God is. It ain't present. Has been born of God. So what does that mean? You're right. The being born of God forms the ground and the basis of the believing. Not the other way around. The one who is right now believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
1 John 5 .1. And finally, remember that passage in Galatians chapter 5 that talks about the fruit of the Spirit? What is the fruit of the Spirit? What was that last one? In Galatians 5 .22? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and the Greek term is pistis, faith.
Now it can be translated as an adjective faithfulness. The Greek term is just simply faith. Well if that has to come from the Spirit, can the man who is devoid of the Spirit who is hostile to God do this?
Whatever you come out on that issue and I think it's fairly obvious where I come out on that issue. I do not hide anything on my subject. Whatever you think about faith, I can tell you some of the results of true faith.
Because you know in John there is a kind of faith that is spoken of there. People who believe in Jesus and yet later they just walk away. It's fascinating to me and I believe it's in John 8. You have these people that believe in Jesus.
And then Jesus tells them about the fact that they are utterly dependent upon Him. If you continue my word, then I need my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
And as soon as He tells them that I'm the only way you can be set free, they go, hey whoa, we've never been enslaved to anybody. Back off man. As soon as the claims of Christ are pressed upon them, this kind of faith evaporates.
It's gone. It's gone. But true saving faith, the faith that we're talking about is focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. It accepts Him for who He is. Total Sovereign, Supreme Lord. It is given to those I will assert and provide the foundation for probably next week at the rate we're going to those who are eternally joined to Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1 .4.
True faith acknowledges the Lordship of Christ. True faith results in a willingness to take up the cross and follow Christ as Jesus taught in His parables. True faith brings about a changed life, renunciation of sin and brings about the only real promise of eternal security.
Eternal security is an empty phrase if it is not referring to eternal security of those who have true faith. And we'll get to that as we move along as well. Okay? Now, I know that I've left a lot of things for you to think about about repentance, faith and where they come from.
And you see the direction in which I am going. I make no bones about it. The first night that we talked I told you where I was coming from. But hopefully you can see a little more clearly why I believe what I believe about a number of these things.
Underlying everything that we have said so far, if you have seen it, if you can step back and see it, is this simple thing. Salvation is utterly and completely of the Lord. That's what we're talking about.
I do not believe that a salvation that is incomplete without the addition of human merit, human activity or human works is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that everything that we do, everything that we are, our obedience to God, our desire to work in the kingdom, all of that finds its origin and source completely and totally in God.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying in any way that we all just sit back and relax and do nothing for the kingdom of God. But what I am saying is that when Paul talks about what he has done for the kingdom, he always immediately says it is God who is at work with it.
He is the origin and the source. Always. And if he is the origin and the source in the Christian life itself, how can he not be the origin and the source at the beginning? Surely he is. Surely he is. Now we will take up the whole discussion of this in regards to the sovereignty of God in election and in pre-destination at another point next week.
But I want to point those things out to you, ask you to think about them this week and then begin right now in the next fifteen minutes that we have together to discuss, alright, we have talked about regeneration, we have talked about how God brings us into the state of salvation, but there is something we haven't talked about.
How is it that God can take an unrighteous man who is under the condemnation of death because of sin and without in any way detracting from his holiness bring that person into a position of righteousness in his sight?
That is, here, briefly, obviously, we will address the work of Christ, that is, the atonement. The atonement. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 18. Having spoken of the newness that is in Christ Jesus, he says, Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God were entreating through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Last together, we had begun discussing the subject of the doctrine of salvation. We were working last time with some of the subjects such as faith being the gift of God, repentance being the gift of God, the capabilities or lack thereof, the natural man.
And as we closed, we had begun looking at the atonement of Christ. We looked at some of the terms such as the term propitiation, what propitiation means. We looked at the intention of Christ coming into the world, that the intention of the work of Christ was to save sinners.
And then as we closed, I mentioned to you that we were going to pick up with a discussion of the ministry of Christ, the work of Christ, as intercessor, Christ's work as priest. What I meant by that was that sometimes in a discussion of the atonement of Christ, the work of Christ as intercessor, the fact that he is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, that the scriptures tell us, for example, in Hebrews chapter 7, if you could turn there with me, beginning in verse 24, the scriptures tell us he's entered into this position, that he is representing us before the Father.
Sometimes it is alleged that this work of intercession is somehow separate from Christ's work as priest, and hence in some way separate from the death of Christ, that Christ could intercede for individuals that he could not intercede for, certain individuals that he actually died for.
I think what we need to see is that the intercessory work of Christ, the work of Christ whereby he, before the Father, pleads our case on the basis of his shed blood, can in no way be segregated out from the work of Christ.
Whoever Christ died for, he intercedes for. There is an equation here. The intercessory work of Christ as priest, the atoning work of Christ as priest, are part and parcel of the same office. You can see the importance of understanding that.
Let's look at Hebrews chapter 7, beginning at verse 24. But he on the other hand, because he abides forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Hence also he is able to save forever, or to the uttermost, those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
So notice what is here said. You have the priesthood of Christ, which is his inviolably, permanently. No one else can step into his priesthood. I just say this in passing because there are those groups that claim to hold what is called the Melchizedek priesthood.
Mormonism claims to hold it. The Roman priesthood frequently likens itself to the Melchizedek priesthood. But here in Hebrews 7, 24, we're told that the priesthood of Jesus Christ is his permanently. And the term carries with it the concept of without being passed on to a successor.
And so to claim to hold that priesthood is in reality a claim to hold the same priesthood that the Son of God represents. Hence also, because of his priesthood, he is able to save, the New American Standard says, forever.
The King James says what, to the uttermost? Those who come unto God by him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. So notice that the intercessory work of Christ results in what? The saving of those who come unto God through Jesus Christ.
And this is all connected with the priesthood of Christ. When Christ is before the Father and he intercedes on someone's behalf, the grounds of his intercession is what? His work on Calvary. His ground of intercession is the fact that he has made propitiation for sins as we saw last week.
And so, we must ask ourselves a question. Could someone for whom the Son intercedes, for whom the Son has died, for whom the Son has become a propitiation, and for whom the Son then intercedes, could such a person be lost?
Could the Father not hear the Son? Or could the Father not listen to the Son's pleadings? And could the Father not find the work of Christ acceptable in his sight, so that the person for whom Christ intercedes could be lost?
The Christian heart cries out with a loud no, for if such is the possibility, then none of us have any assurance of salvation at all. The very grounds of the way in which a man is made is right before God.
The work of Christ is cut out from underneath us. Instead, the writer of Hebrews says, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
His intercessory work is accomplished. What Christ intends to do in his intercession, why does Christ intercede for anyone? So that they might be made righteous, that the Father would be pleased in his sacrifice in their stead.
Now, if it's his intent that that person for whom he intercedes be saved, will Christ fail in his intention? Can Christ ever fail in what he intends to do? I think that's very important. Secondly, Christ as priest offers himself.
For example, in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 2, and I apologize again for the scratchy throat, but as long as you don't mind it, it certainly isn't bothering me. Ephesians 5, 2. Beginning in 5, 1,. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Here we again see the function of Christ in his role as priest. He offers himself as a sacrifice. This is what the priest did. So the priest, to be a priest, had to be able to offer a sacrifice for the people that would bring about the forgiveness of those people's sins.
Well, here Christ does this in the ultimate way. He loves us, and he gives himself up for us as an offering, a sacrifice to God. The same thing is said in 1 John 2, verse 1, where we saw last week that the author John describes Jesus Christ saying, My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
So just as Jesus Christ has delivered himself up, an offering to God, a sacrifice to God, for us, so too he is our advocate in the presence of the Father. You will not find in scripture a way to separate the scope of the atonement, the atoning work of Christ, from the scope of the intercessory work of Christ, for they are both part of the priesthood of Christ, his work as our High Priest.
And so many will say, yes, Christ intercedes only for who? The elect. And it's certainly understandable why someone would say this, because it's very difficult for someone to say, well actually Christ intercedes for all people, but his intercession for a large portion of people is ineffective, doesn't work.
He intercedes for them, but the Father doesn't see fit to save them. And yet, those same people will attempt to divide the intercessory work of Christ off from the atoning work of Christ so that we can maintain the concept that Christ atoned for the sins of all people.
And I'm just simply submitting to you that since Christ is one in the same person, his work of atonement and his work as a priest come together. So we come to the big question that we've all been waiting for.
For whom, then, is the atonement made? Who are these sinners who are saved in Christ Jesus? Turn with me, please, to Matthew chapter 20, verse 28. Matthew 20, 28. Jesus is speaking, and he says, Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
To give his life a ransom for many. Now, it will be admitted immediately that you have two different kinds of expressions in scripture in regards to the extent of the atonement. One is a statement such as this, a ransom for many.
Now, many is not exactly a specific term. But you will also have other expressions we're about to look at that are limited in their scope. That are limited in their scope. That will define a particular group of people for whom Christ dies.
But then you have other statements that seemingly are in reference to, because of the indistinctness of the phrase, could be made to a large group of people or to all people. What I wish to point out is that we must be careful and not extrapolate from an indefinite phrase out to either direction.
We must let scripture answer those questions. Here, many does not tell us the exact number. We cannot come up with a number here. We know that he gives his life a ransom for many. He does not say a ransom for all here.
But what if he did say all? Do we extrapolate from all out to every single individual? There are so many passages in scripture where that would end up teaching something that we know is wrong, that we know we can't do that.
But if we have both statements that would seem to indicate all and those that clearly indicate a limited number, it would seem logical that if you have that situation, that the limitation of the extent should be carried over into these expressions and not the other way around.
It's not logical if you want to indicate all people to indicate specific groups. But if you're addressing a specific group, like I could say, we are all in this building. Now, we know that I'm limiting the word all to a specific group of people.
It would be wrong for me to say that all of mankind is in this building. We might be able to say that the cream of the crop of mankind is in this building and we might agree on that. No. But the point being, there's a clear limitation on my comments.
So as we look at these, we need to find out does the scripture limit the extent of the Atonement as to its specific work? And if that's the case, if that's the case, then we need to recognize that if you have a limitation, a specific limitation, then that is the more specific statement.
And those statements that are not made in a specific way that could be interpreted in either direction need to be interpreted in light of the ones where you do have a specific statement. That's a long way around of saying here we just have the statement, he gives his life as a ransom for many.
Now, in John chapter 10, he identifies this many and there are many to this group. We don't know how many, but there are many. In John chapter 10, beginning at verse 11. John chapter 10, verse 11. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
So the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 15. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. So Jesus clearly says that he's going to lay down his life in behalf of the sheep.
But the same passage indicates to us that the sheep is not a universal group. It does not include every single man. Look at verse 26. He speaks to the Jews and says, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
So he says to the Jews, you're not of my sheep, but I lay down my life for the sheep. We will look at John chapter 8 and John chapter 6 in regards to who it is that determines who a sheep is and who a sheep isn't.
Sheep don't really have a whole lot of choice as to whether they're sheep or not. They're sort of born that way. And in the same way, I think we could apply that here as well. But we're not done. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 5, where we just were a few moments ago.
Ephesians chapter 5, beginning at verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Notice this is the same passage, the same chapter that we read earlier over in verse 2, where it says that he loved you and gave himself up for us.
That same term is used there, in behalf of, who pair, in the place of, substitutionarily. He says he loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless.
And so the statement here is that by giving himself up for the church, the Lord Jesus, in so doing, makes the church spotless and blameless, makes the church sanctified. It is the work of Christ that accomplishes this.
Certainly we understand that in sanctification the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, but in what he's saying here, he says, notice in verse 26, that he might sanctify her, set her apart, make her holy.
The work of Christ accomplishes this. The work of Christ accomplishes this. So we've seen so far that he gives his life a ransom for many, that he gives his life for his sheep, and here that he gives his life for the church.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 32, this incredible passage, I'm going to back up to 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Now there's an all that is clearly limited to the us that's being addressed. How will he not also with him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against who? God's elect. This is the us all of the previous verse, is God's elect. He has given his son up for us all, in our place, and how will he then not also with him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather he who was raised. Who is the right hand of God, who also what?
Intercedes for us. Here again, you have both the death of Christ, and the intercession of Christ, in perfect harmony, and both having the same group of people in view. The objects of the death of Christ, and the objects of the intercession of Christ, both identified as the same group here in Romans 8, verses 32 -34.
In John 15, 13, I like to let the scriptures speak on issues like this. In John 15, 13, we read, Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. And who are his friends in this passage?
The disciples, the believers. He says, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. And so he lays down his life for his friends. The confession of the church can be heard, for example, in Paul's letter to Titus.
Keep your fingers nimble, because we're going to move around a little bit. Titus 2, 14. Speaking of Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Is the unregenerate man who dies and goes to hell zealous for good deeds? Is the unregenerate man a purified people for God's own possession? Is the unregenerate man redeemed? No, and yet, here we are told he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed.
Now here is the purpose of his dying. His purpose is the same as the intention that we saw before. He dies to save his people from their sins. Here he dies that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession.
So the question has to be asked. Does his death accomplish that which he intends it to or not? In Matthew 1, 21, when the angel appears and announces the birth of Christ, what does he say? He says he will save his people from their sins.
We mentioned last time we were together when the priest, on the Day of Atonement, offered the offering in the Holy of Holies. It was for the people. This was the function of a priest. But for what people was it?
Was it for all the people? Or was it specifically for the people who are in a covenant relationship with God, the nation of Israel? We know the answer to that question. And so when the angel says he shall save his people from their sins, was the angel simply hoping that this would take place?
Maybe this is the way it will happen? Or was he making a prophecy that in actuality would take place? He would save his people from their sins. And finally in Galatians 2, 20, that fantastic passage. Many of us have it memorized.
I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by law, then Christ died needlessly. And so here is the personal confession of the Christian believer. I have been crucified with Christ. But can you hear those words from the mouth of an unbeliever?
Does an unbeliever say I have been crucified with Christ? What eventually really, what first really struck me in regards to the issue of the atonement was when Edwin Palmer, some of you may have read Edwin Palmer's, some of Edwin Palmer's writings.
When Edwin Palmer, in addressing the issue of the atonement, put it very bluntly, he said many people speak much of a substitutionary atonement of Christ. Unfortunately, those of us that do are in the vast minority anymore, but those of us in this room, I would assume all of us, believe in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.
That he died in our place. That he bore the wrath of God. That his death is sufficient to bring about the forgiveness of our sins. It was not just simply a representation. It was not just simply a grand deed that we are supposed to somehow emulate in our lives and thereby find salvation.
It was a necessary act. God had to deal with sin. And he did. In reality, deal with sin in Jesus Christ. So Mr. Palmer said, okay, you believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Well, answer me a question.
Did Christ atone for sin or didn't he? Is it a real atonement or only a potential atonement? Does it bring about forgiveness of sin or does it not? If you say, well, what it does is it makes possible the forgiveness of sins and if we, whatever list you'd like to create here, then what you are in reality saying is that the death of Christ alone, alone, is insufficient to save.
Think about that. Now, obviously you can see from my perspective saying, well, it makes the way clear and then when we believe, we go on from there. But from my perspective, I've already said, I think the scriptures teach that faith is a gift of God.
So can you imagine this now? Christ has died in behalf of all to save everyone. And yet, since the gift of faith is what makes that applied to a person, it's the determining factor now. And yet, faith is a gift of God.
Excuse me. Can you imagine God not giving the gift of faith to all those for whom Christ has died? You have a schism in God. You have the Son dying to save everybody but the Father not giving the gift of faith to everybody.
That doesn't make any sense. The Godhead is united in the work of salvation, is it not? Is the Father trying to save us in a different way than the Son? Of course not. Of course not. So, I had to answer the question.
Am I willing to say that the death of Christ in and of itself is not sufficient to save? And I wasn't willing to say that. Now, let's keep something clear. Let's keep something really clear. The other position that says, no, no, you need to understand.
Jesus died for all men, irrespective of whether God intends to save them or not. The Arminian position is God doesn't really intend to save anybody. So the death of Christ was not intended to save anybody.
It's just simply to make it available. That is just as much a limitation on the atonement, is what I'm talking about. That's just as much of a limitation. It's just a different kind. That is a qualitative limitation on the atonement.
That's limiting the atonement in what the atonement can do. I'm not limiting the atonement on what the atonement can do. I'm limiting the atonement as to whom it was made for. It was, I know, I know that Spurgeon mentioned it and Bettner probably stole it from him.
But the illustration is this. A universal atonement made for everybody indistinguishably is sort of like a big, wide bridge that goes halfway across the Mississippi. Big, wide. Lots of people can get on it.
Everybody can get on it. But then you've got to jump off the end and swim the rest of the way. It doesn't make it all the way. Whereas what I'm talking about is a much narrower, thinner bridge that goes all the way across to the other side.
It accomplishes that for which it was intended. Now you say, well, you know, it sounds like we're splitting theological hairs. Yet Paul says in Colossians chapter 2 verses 13 through 14, we read this earlier, that when we were dead and our trespasses and sins, God took those decrees that were contrary to us, those commandments that condemned us, the sin that was ours, and he nailed it to the tree, forgiving us of how many of our trespasses?
All of them. All of them. This is what Christ's work does. This is what Christ's work does. All of them. Not some of them. Not, well, potentially it forgives all of them, but your sins were nailed to the cross of Calvary.
But there's no place where it is more clearly presented in the book of Hebrews. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 9, beginning at verse 11. Hebrews 9, 11. But when Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and cows, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all.
And what's the rest of the verse say? Having obtained eternal redemption. Now you say, now wait a minute, wait a minute, but that would mean it was completed, it was finished. Yeah, you're right. Not hoping that maybe he's going to accomplish eternal redemption, eventually, hopefully.
Recently, a minister in our town, in talking about the work of Christ on the cross, said, when Jesus went to the cross, he was taking a big gamble. He was taking a big gamble. You really think so? You really think there's a real possibility that Jesus Christ could have died on the cross all in vain and no person ever be saved?
Tell you what, if it's up to man, then that would be a real possibility. In fact, that would be the only possibility if it was simply up to man, because there is none that seeks after God. But that's not why Jesus came.
Jesus didn't come to gamble his life. Jesus came to give his life, a ransom for me, to save his people, to lay down his life for his sheep, to give his life for his church, and here we are told that he obtained eternal redemption.
When he enters into the presence of the Father to intercede for us, and here again, the work of Christ on the cross and his intercession, they're joined together. They're part and parcel of the same thing.
The one forms the ground of the other. He does so, not to continue his work of the sacrifice, but simply to present the finished work of his sacrifice to the Father on behalf of his people. It's not done over and over again.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10. We're told in the first few verses that this continually offering of a sacrifice over and over again under the old law, what did it do? It kept reminding people of their sin.
Look at verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin year by year. When the people would come to the door of the tabernacle in the wilderness, on Yom Kippur, and the priest would offer the sacrifice, there was a reminder in that of the sin that was theirs.
But since the sacrifice had to keep being repeated over and over again, the writer of Hebrews says this proves the sacrifice was, in and of itself, not perfect, not complete. It had to be pointing to something more.
And just as we're passing by, in many of the churches that dot the land, when a Roman Catholic priest stands up there and he takes the wafer, he says, Hocus corpus meum, this is my body. And the faithful believe this has now been transubstantiated in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
And the sacrifice of Christ, he presented a perpetuatory sacrifice, right there, in an unbloody fashion, on the altar of the Roman Church. They're right back where the Hebrews were. A reminder of sin, every time it happens.
If you have to keep doing it over and over again, then the sacrifice itself is not able to save utterly. And that's the whole point of Christ's sacrifice. It doesn't have to be repeated over and over again.
Why? Because it can save to the uttermost. It is perfect. It is complete. Look down in verse 10. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. If Jesus Christ is offered in your behalf, then you have been sanctified.
That is the effect of the death of Christ. Those for whom the sacrifice is made are sanctified. Verse 14. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Perfected. Completed.
No human actions involved in that. The writer could not say that if there were other human actions that had to be added to the work of Christ to make it effective. That is the atonement. That is the message we have.
The message that we have for the people around us is not a possibility. It is an indicative statement. Jesus Christ has died to save sinners. And he can save sinners. He did save sinners in his death.
His death does not have to have anything added to it. It is complete. It is finished. Some of you may have read the introductory essay to John Owen's classical work The Death of Death and the Death of Christ by J .I. Packer.
The introduction is by J .I. Packer. He speaks of the prevalent attitude in our nation in regards to preaching the gospel in such a way as to not be offensive to people. We don't want to offend anybody when we preach the gospel, right?
Well, he speaks of this new interest that has come into the church of not offending people and making the gospel palatable to people. I want to briefly read you some of his remarks. From this change of interest has sprung a change of content for the new gospel has, in effect, reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interest of helpfulness.
Accordingly, the themes of man's natural inability to believe, of God's free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for his sheep are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not helpful.
They would drive sinners to despair by suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. The possibility that such despair might be salutary is not considered. It is taken for granted.
It cannot be because it is so shattering to our self-esteem. However, this may be, and we shall say more about it later, the result of these omissions is that part of the biblical gospel is now preached as if it were the whole of that gospel, and a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.
Thus we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time. We speak of his redeeming work as if he had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing.
We speak of God's love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust. And we depict the Father and the Son not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence at the door of our hearts for us to let them in.
But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. He will not say, speaking of the preacher, that God's saving purpose in the death of his Son was a mere ineffectual wish, depending for its fulfillment on man's willingness to believe, so that for all God could do, Christ might have died and none been saved at all.
He insists that the Bible sees the cross as revealing God's power to save, not his impotence. Christ did not win a hypothetical salvation for hypothetical believers, a mere possibility of salvation for any who might possibly believe, but a real salvation for his own chosen people.
End quote. I suggest the entire essay to you as an excellent exercise. Charles Spurgeon said, we are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved.
Now, our reply to this is that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it, we do not. There are many who say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men?
They say, no, certainly not. We ask them the next question, did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer, no. They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent.
They say, no, Christ has died so that any man may be saved, if and only under certain conditions of salvation. We say then, we will just go back to the old statement, Christ did not die so as, beyond a doubt, to secure the salvation of anybody, did he?
You must say, no. You are obliged to say, no, for you believe that, even after a man has been pardoned, he may yet fall from grace and perish. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why you. You say that Christ did not die so as to infallibly secure the salvation of anybody.
We beg your pardon when you say we limit Christ's death. We say, no, my dear sir, it is you that do it. We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.
You are welcome to your atonement, you may keep it, we will never renounce ours for the sake of it. No one can ever say that he did not speak his mind. But what he says is true. What he says is true. And what we are talking about here is not simply a theological splitting of hairs.
If we are fuzzy concerning the atonement of Christ, how much more central can we get? Now you say, well, you know, in regards to that, I see three possibilities. We can say that Christ died for all, all men indiscriminately, and as the Arminians say, say that he actually didn't die to save anyone, to sort of make it possible, sort of a nebulous type idea, just sort of taking away legal bars.
Or we may say as I'm saying, as a Calvinist would say, Christ died for his people, and by so dying for them, he secured their eternal salvation, having made eternal redemption for them. There is one other position.
Christ died for all men, and all men are thereby saved. Universalism. I would submit to you that only two of those positions are consistent within themselves. Obviously, I believe mine is. And the universalist position is consistent on this point.
They follow it all the way through. Christ died for all men, the death of Christ will accomplish the end for which it's intended, therefore, all men are saved. And there are many who take that exact perspective.
Many who take that exact perspective. You say, well, you know, a lot of what you're talking about here is tied directly to the whole concept of election and predestination. And it is. It is. I admit that.
Because I'm talking about God knowing that there's a certain people that he's going to redeem and therefore effectually redeeming them in Jesus Christ. And so behind this stands the concept of the elective choice of God.
So what I want to do is I want to, again, go through some passages of Scripture, make some comments, and then we can take some questions. But I simply want you to listen to what the Scripture says. First of all, as we transition to this subject, I wish to make, not really a transition, it's sort of finishing out this subject by providing a part of the foundation.
Point number one. The Scriptures present God as sovereign over human affairs. The Scriptures present God as being sovereign over human affairs. Genesis chapter 20, verse 6. Most of these, I will not even have to make a comment on.
The passage is clear enough in and of itself. Genesis chapter 20, verse 6. The context. Abram is in Egypt. I'm sorry, not in Egypt. He's with King Abimelech. Remember what happens with Sarah. Say, she's my sister, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Abimelech is now scared to death because the Lord has threatened to wipe out his nation. He says, hey, I didn't know that she was married. And in verse 6, then God said to him in the dream, and yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart, you have done this.
And I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. God says to Abimelech, I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Remember the topic.
God as sovereign over human affairs. Exodus 34, 24. Exodus 34, 24. The Lord again is speaking. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders. And no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.
This is one of the most fascinating ones to me. Here you have the promise made to the children of Israel. That when the men leave to go up to the festivals, the pagan men... 34, 24. 34, 24. The pagans around the Israelites, their enemies, would not so much as covet their land.
All you got left are the women and the kids. You're right on the border with sworn enemies of Israel. And the promise of God is, when your men go up to appear before me to worship, that enemy next door will not so much as even covet your land.
How can that be? Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 30. Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 30. But Sihon, king of Heshbon, was not willing for us to pass through his land. For the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your hand as he is today.
The Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate for a purpose. Joshua chapter 11, verses 19 and 20. There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon.
They took them all in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
There was a purpose. God wished to have these people destroyed. Why? Well, we could speculate on a lot of different reasons. The sin of the people of the land had come up to God. Their iniquity had been fulfilled, as the scriptures say.
And God chose to have them destroyed in this way. The point is, he hardened their hearts so that they would meet Israel in battle and they would be defeated. If you're taking notes, you might want to note Ezra 1, verses 1 -2 and 7 -27.
In passing, these scriptures teach that God placed it into the heart of the king to set the people of Israel go, to let them free, let them go. And I just mention those two as we go by Isaiah 10. Isaiah 10, verses 5 -7.
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hands is my indignation! I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of my fury to capture booty and to seize plunder and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
Yet it does not so intend, nor does it plan so in its heart, but rather it is its purpose to destroy and to cut off many nations. So here God is saying, I'm bringing Assyria against the nation of Israel, against a godless people.
I am doing this, this is my work and yet the Assyrians, that's not their intention. It's not their intention to be my rod of wrath against the people of Israel. No, their intention is just to destroy and to plunder and in fact they will be judged for that because that's their intention, that's the intention of their heart.
They just want to destroy and plunder. But God says he's using these men and the Assyrians were terrible. The Assyrians were... They were bad, let's put it that way. What they did to people, what they did to nations they conquered is legend, evil myth.
And yet God says they, I am bringing against Israel, myself, to punish Israel, even though that's not their intention. God is sovereign over human affairs. Turn back to Proverbs. Oh my, there's so many.
Proverbs 16 .33. Proverbs 16 .33. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Chance? Random action? No. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 19 .21. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord it will stand. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, that's what's going to stand. Look across the page at Proverbs 20 .24.
Proverbs 20 .24. Man's steps are ordained by the Lord. How then can man understand his way? Man's steps are ordained by the Lord. And it may still be even on your same page. Proverbs 21 .1. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord.
He turns it wherever he wishes. How many more we could list? We could sit here the rest of the evening. But we'll close with Psalm 135 .6, on this section anyway. Psalm 135 .6. For this truly sums up the Scripture's teaching in regards to the sovereignty of God over human affairs.
Psalm 135 .6. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps, in all the depths. We could list so many more. The testimony of Scripture is incontrovertible. God is sovereign over human affairs.
Now there is a direct rebellion in the heart of man against this. Even amongst the redeemed. For we still have a sinful nature within us. And there is still something in man that says, with Frank Sinatra, I did it my way.
We all want to get to the end of our life and sing, I did it my way. No you didn't. Remember what that went back to? Remember Romans 1 last week? I'm the creator. I worship and serve the creation more than the creator.
That's what sin is. But the very heart of sin, I'm independent of God. God and I, if you want to sit down, we could bring in an arbitrator, a mediator, we could have some talks, have some discussions.
That'd be okay. God doesn't sit down at the mediation table with you like that. Because He's not your equal. God is sovereign over human affairs. And we don't like that because if we own His sovereignty, if we accept His sovereignty, we have to give up our own.
For a lot of people, it's too much to give up. It's too much to give up. It's painful. It's painful. Now, I point out to you that, for example, in Acts chapter 4 verse 28, let me just, in passing, I want to introduce this to you for your thinking.
Because it is my prayer that when we part this evening for the last time in this format, that you will not stop. I am not really, it's not up to me. It's not, it's not within my ability to make you agree with me on this.
That's fine. But like we said at the end last week, remember what we said at the end last week? It's what this book says. Now, these passages I just read, I didn't put them in there. They're there. You got to deal with them.
I leave you to the Word of God. You may not appreciate that, but I leave you to the Word of God. That's the most important thing that we can say. But one thing I want to introduce you to, that I want you to think about is this.
When I say that God is sovereign over all human affairs, I mean every single thing, and that includes sin. And I simply present to you the greatest single example of this in all of Scripture that I have never heard any person overthrow, or even get close to attempting to overthrow.
Acts 4 .28. Acts 4 .28. Let's start with 27 so we get the context. For truly in this city there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur.
The heinous crime of the crucifixion of the Son of God, the Church says, by common confession, was what the hand and purpose of God had predestined to occur. Even the sinful acts of man, God can take that and bring out of it the greatest good.
Look what happened at the cross. Was it sinful for men to do what they did to the Lord Jesus? Was it sinful to place a crown of thorns upon His brow? To drive nails through His hands and His feet? To scourge Him?
To spit at Him? To beat Him? To mock Him? Certainly it was. And yet out of that comes redemption of God's people. The Scriptures clearly say they did what they did because God had predestined it to occur.
Now, you say, well, that's just a general idea of God's sovereignty. You're right. Right. I have a short list, six verses, six verses, in regards to the election of God of His specific people. We will read them.
I'll read you one short quote. And then we'll take a break. And I want to wrap this up enough to where we can have some questions at the end. It means I'm going to have to cut out some of my outline, but I want to do that, OK?
Because we need to have some questions. Where else would you go if you're going to discuss the election of God's people in Ephesians chapter 1? I once saw, well, I didn't see it, it was described to me, a newsletter that had been sent out from R .C. Sproul's ministry.
If any of you have this, I'd like to see it personally, but... It had a picture of a Bible like this, and it was open, and the first chapter of Ephesians was all blacked out, and the title was, Is Your Bible Missing Something?
And the topic of the whole discussion was the subject of election and how it doesn't seem to come up very often in the modern church. Let's read Ephesians 1, 3 through 12 together. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention, which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
In Him also we have attained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Wow, there is so much that could be said about this passage. Let's begin with verse 4. I call this the question method of exegesis. It sort of closes the door on some of the ways I've seen out of this passage.
Beginning with verse 4. Let's start with verse 3. Who has blessed us? God the Father. What has He blessed us with? Every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly places. In whom? In Christ. Verse 4.
What did God do? He chose. Who did He choose? He chose us. In whom did He choose us? In union with Christ Jesus. When did He choose us? Before the foundation of the world. Why did He choose us? That we should be holy and blameless before Him.
How did He choose us? How did He predestine us? Going to verse 5. In love. He did what? He predestined. He predestined who? Us. What did He predestine us to? Adoptions as sons. How? Through Jesus Christ.
To whom? To Himself. By what purpose? According to the kind intention of His will. What's the result of this? The praise of the glory of His grace. How do we receive this grace? He freely bestows it upon us.
How? In Christ Jesus. In the Beloved. You see, people have said, well, really Ephesians 1 says that God has predestined to save somebody. He's predestined a plan. Not a people, but a plan. But you don't predestine a plan to be adopted as sons.
The passage just simply won't allow it. Before the foundation of the world. Chosen in Christ Jesus. It's right there. It's right there. Let's keep going. In whom do we have redemption? In Him. How? Through His blood.
Isn't that what we were just talking about? What does this redemption through His blood mean? It's the forgiveness of our trespasses. How is this given to us? According to the riches of His grace. Have we received this?
Yes. Which He lavished upon us. How do we know about this? In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will. What's the mystery of His will? That He's going to sum up all things, all the way down through verse 10, in Jesus Christ.
Things in heaven and things upon the earth. In Him, also, we have what? Obtained an inheritance. Why did we obtain an inheritance? Because we were predestined. According to what? According to our actions?
No. According to His purpose. According to whose purpose? The one who works all things after the counsel of His will. I don't know how much clearer it can be. It's not like it's the only place, though.
Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Paul says to the Thessalonians that we should always give thanks to God for you. Why should we always give thanks to God for you? Should we always give thanks to God for you?
Because you guys are such, you're such good people that you chose God and you decided to follow Him and you repented of your sins. But we should always give thanks to God for you. Brethren, be loved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
God chose you from the beginning. That's why we thank God. We thank God He saved you. We don't thank God that you were special people who out of all of mankind, despite my teaching, according to Paul, that no one seeks after God, you were the good people that broke the rule.
You were the exception and you accepted God. They did accept God, but only because they had been regenerated and given the gifts of faith and repentance. They had been freed from the bonds of sin by the work of God.
Remember a passage we talked about briefly when we went through the deity of Christ in Matthew chapter 11 verse 27? Remember what we read in Matthew 11 verse 27? We talked about the interchange between the Father and the Son.
No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and who? Those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. You say, but wait a minute, now the question could be asked. Is it not the Son's will to reveal the Father to all people?
Well, look at two passages. One I'll just mention to you. When Jesus prays His high priestly prayer in John 17, who does He pray for? Who does He pray for first? His disciples. Then who does He pray for?
Those who will believe on my name through their word. But remember that specific passage where He specifically says, I do not pray for the whole world. I pray for those who will believe on me through their word.
That's one, but the other is John 6. Let's go back to John 6. We briefly discussed it last week. We didn't read all of John 6 last week. Did you notice that? What we specifically read was verse 44. But I want to back up a little bit.
Oh, to about verse 35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
Verse 37. Does everybody have all there? Nobody has some? It says all. All that the Father gives me shall come to me. Does that sound familiar? Remember verse 44? No man is able to come unto me unless what?
The Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up the last day. Here he says, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. Now, this passage is utterly un-understandable if we don't recognize that God is the sovereign creator.
Has the right to take men and give them to the Son simply because he's the creator and he can do so. The Father, as sovereign creator, gives to the Son. All that the Father gives me shall come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.
We're going to try to get to the subject of eternal security tonight. You know what eternal security is? It's the result of the sovereignty of God and salvation. Flip side. God accomplishes that which he intends to do.
He intends to save an individual. He will be effective in so doing. Let's keep going. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.
I want you to think with me here for a second. Listen to our Lord. Listen to what he said. The Son does the will of the Father. Can anything be more self-evident than that? Can you ever think of the Son not doing the will of the Father?
Will Jesus ever fail to do the will of the Father? Will he? No. Clearly, Jesus will always do the will of the Father. Will he not? Yes. Okay. Then listen to what he says. This is the will of him who sent me.
Do you want to know what the will of the Father is? That of all that he has given me I lose nothing. If the Father gives to the Son if the Father's will to the Son lose none of those that are given to him.
Therefore, if we say one of two things A. that Christ is unable to save all that the Father gives to him for whatever reason their own quote-unquote free will their own choice whatever it might be then the Son is unable to do the will of the Father or B. if he does save them and then somehow they're lost he simply doesn't do the will of the Father.
This is the will of him who sent me that of all that he gives to me I lose nothing but what? Raise up on the last day. Where did we hear that before? Four verses later. 644. No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
Those that are raised up on the last day are those that are given to the Son by the Father and are drawn by the Father to the Son. Verse 44. Some have said, election, predestination, it's all Paul. No.
That's Jesus. That's Jesus speaking. All that the Father gives me shall come to me. John 6 .37. These are the ones who are raised up to eternal life. Two more passages. 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. Verses 8 -9.
Paul writing to Timothy says,. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us, where?
In Christ Jesus. When? From all eternity, before the foundation of the world. Now, I've got one section of verses left. Can anyone guess where they might be? Romans 8 -9. Couldn't let those slide by. Excuse me.
Romans 8 -28. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, and to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. The golden chain of redemption. There are only two consistent ways to understand this.
Either the universalistic, or the particularistic, or the Calvinistic. You say, why? Well, let's try the Arminian shoe on here. Say you're an Arminian, and you believe that there is punishment for those who reject God, that there is a hell.
There will be people who are not redeemed. So you agree with me, if we go to the end of that chain. Glorified? These he glorified? Did he glorify everyone? Will everyone be glorified? Not unless you're a universalist.
So that's a limited group, isn't it? Those that are glorified? Okay. Well, let's back one up. Justified. Is everyone justified? Well, if everyone's justified, then everyone's going to be glorified. So obviously, if you don't believe everyone's going to be glorified, then that's a limited group.
And so those that are justified, that's a limited group too, right? What's the next one up the road there? Called. Whoa, wait a minute. We just jumped track. But everybody's called. No, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. We've got a limited group that's glorified, and a limited group that's justified, but a universal group that's called? And then is it a universal group that's predestined? No, we've got to go back to the limited on that.
Isn't the same group all the way through? Did you notice something about the verbs here? Predestined, called, justified, and glorified. They're all past tense. They're all completed actions. Past tense.
Completed actions. Say, well, maybe it's that word foreknew back there in verse 29. Maybe that's what it is. You see, God just simply looked down the corridors of time, and he saw who was going to believe in him, and so on the basis of their action, then he chose them.
Talk about a popular way around it, isn't it? If you know anything about it, that's the way that it normally gets sort of put underneath the rug a little bit. Did anyone get a chance to read the article in the journal on foreknowledge?
You did? Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I think Pastor Fry did. Didn't you? He'd be afraid to say no, so... Well, if you get a chance to, I'd suggest it to you, if you can make your way through it.
But you'll notice in the journal that we passed out at the beginning of the class here, and if you didn't get one, this is what it looks like, so grab one. There's an article on foreknowledge, okay? When we look at Scripture at what the word knowing means, when we look at the New Testament as to what the word knowing means, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, because it is in the article.
We recognize, first of all, that the term as it's used in the New Testament occurs in this context four times, and each time, the word foreknowledge never refers to the actions of people, but to people themselves.
Never refers to the actions of people, but to the people themselves. And when we look at the term know in the Old Testament, we find that in Amos 3 .2, God says to the people of Israel, You of all the nations on earth only have I known.
What? God didn't know about the Egyptians? Didn't know about the Babylonians, the Assyrians? Well, of course, he knew about them. In an intellectual way, he knew the facts about them, but he did not enter into personal relationship with them.
When Adam knew Eve, the result was a child. That does not happen from having intellectual knowledge of a woman. Oh, I know who she is. You don't get pregnant from that. It's a personal relationship. This is the background to the term foreknowledge in the New Testament.
God has chosen to enter into personal relationship. God isn't simply looking into the future and seeing actions. God doesn't do things because men do them. God is not the great reactor in the sky. He's not staying up there going, Well, I wonder what man's going to do now.
Well, I'll try to make the best out of this. That shouldn't happen, but I'll try to make the best out of it. No, he's not sitting up there attempting to react to everything we're doing. He's not the servant of man.
Man's the servant of God. And we saw, we looked at the nature of God, how all of this dovetails together. If God's up there just reacting to man, then God's growing, He's progressing, He's evolving. He's not perfect.
We already read, beginning of verse 31 through 37, that talks about God's elect. But then we have Romans 9. Romans chapter 9, beginning of verse 10. Not only this, but there was Rebecca also. When she conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac, for though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said to her, The older will serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
A few passages of scripture more clearly teach that God isn't sitting up there reacting to what men do. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
So then, He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, why does He still find fault? For who resists His will? Before I read on, we would like to have a five or six book treatise following this question, giving us all the answers, wouldn't we?
Wouldn't we? I want to know the answer to this question now. I'd like to know the inner workings of exactly how it is that God does this. If you haven't read on, I hate to disappoint you, that's not what you're going to get.
Paul's answer is this, On the contrary, Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like this, will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory even us whom He also called.
His answer goes back to something we've already talked about. His answer is based upon, first of all, the fact that God doesn't have to answer your question. Can you imagine if every time you turned the wheel of your car, your car said, Excuse me, but I didn't want to go that direction.
Could you explain to me, please, Mr. Driver, why you turned this direction and didn't keep going straight? I like that road. This road's bumpy. At least I used a car as an example. He used a lump of clay.
Oh, and man doesn't like this. A lump of clay? How bruising to my self-esteem. Yeah, a lump of clay. Will a thing that is molded save the one who made it? You don't have the right to make me like this.
Remold me. Maybe in Walt Disney films that happens, but it doesn't happen in reality. You see, the answer that Paul gives goes back to the fact that God's the creator. He's in the center. He is sovereign.
He has the right to do with man as he wills. And we go, Oh, no. I have had people, honest to goodness, I have had people who've been members of Baptist churches for 20 years get up and storm out of a class that I was teaching simply because I read that passage.
Didn't even make any comments on it. I just read it. How dare you read that? I have. And you know something? I understand why. I understand why because if you're going to be honest with what the scripture says here, it's going to hurt.
You think I enjoy reading that passage? You think it's fun? No? I hope it never gets to be fun because if it ever does, I'm not dealing with the passage anymore. I'm not seeing myself in that lump of clay.
And I'm not seeing the fact that I could have just as easily been one of those vessels prepared for destruction. So it never gets easier. I had another friend, he came up to me and he said, You know, I had read Romans 9 before.
I said, I read it? And I said, That sounds like predestination, but I know we don't believe in that, so it must not be. And went on from there. He had read it before but didn't deal with it. Didn't deal with what was there.
But I leave you with the word of God. You've got to deal with what's there. Oh, I've seen every squirm and twist and everything else out of this passage and out of all the others. I've seen them. Done by the best of them.
The passage keeps standing. It keeps saying the same thing. And really, ask yourself a question. Do you see the objections Paul brings up here in Romans 9? You will say to me then. I've pointed this out to people when we've been discussing this subject.
You're in agreement with the objector. You're on the side of the guy who's objecting to the Apostle Paul. Has it ever happened to you when you've, if you've talked about the sovereignty of God and salvation, people say, Well, that ain't fair.
God ain't fair. And I say, You know something? Somebody else said that once. Paul never named who it was, but somebody else said that once. And you know, you're disagreeing with what Paul said. Just like somebody else did way back then.
Oh, I don't, I don't happen to like his answer. Who are you, old man, who answers back to God? Well, that's God's answer. And when it gets down to this point, it really becomes a matter of, is a person really willing to accept that answer?
What does it mean if you're not? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preaching in 1882, said this. He was preaching from John chapter 6. Quotes the scriptures. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Defection in this case was on account of doctrine. The truth was too hard for them. It was not to be borne with. It's a hard saying. Who can hear it? A true disciple sits at the feet of his master and believes what he is told, even when he cannot quite comprehend the meaning or see the reasons for what his master utters.
But these men had not the essential spirit of a disciple. And consequently, when their instructor began to unfold the innermost parts of the role of truth, they would not listen to his reading of it. They would believe as far as they could understand, but when they could not comprehend, they turned on their heel and left the school of the great teacher.
Besides, Lord Jesus Christ had taught the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the need of the spirit of God that men should be led to him, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. Here our Lord uttered a bit of old-fashioned free grace doctrine such as people nowadays do not like.
They call it Calvinism and put it aside among the old exploded tenants, which this enlightened age knows nothing of. What right they have to ascribe to the Genevan reformer a doctrine as old as the hills, I do not know.
But our Lord Jesus never hesitated to fling that truth in the face of his enemies. He told them, Ye believe not, because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me.
Draw him. Here he tells them plain that they could not come unto him unless the Father gave them the grace to come. This humbling doctrine they could not receive and so they went aside. A great preacher also said, I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism.
It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works, nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God and his dispensation of grace, nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah.
Nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of his elect and chosen people which Christ brought upon the cross. I happen to agree with the man.
It is not an easy road to that point. It is not an easy thing. But I happen to agree with him. Now, we've been on so long that taking a break right now would be somewhat silly. Let me read into your hearing some passages for those of you taking notes in regards to the eternal security of the believer.
Very quickly, I will not expand upon them, I will just make some brief comments on them. And then we will attempt to have some dialogue together. Some specific passages. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 through 14 which should sound familiar since they're the ones that continue where we just were.
Ephesians 2 .5. Ephesians 2 .5 is a is the passage where we have that great phrase it is by grace you have been saved through faith. That being saved by grace I would normally take the time to expand on that and discuss the Greek form there that it emphasizes the completed action the abiding results.
Philippians 1 .6. Paul says to Philippians being confident in this very thing that he who hath begun a good work in you shall continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. His confidence is not in the Philippians.
Philippians 1 .6. His confidence is in the God who is at work in the Philippians and who has begun this work. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 7 through 9 and 30 through 31. It is by his doing that you are in Christ Jesus who has become to us wisdom and righteousness.
So that him who boasts boasts in the Lord. Those passages are fantastic. In verses in the first section God is faithful through whom you have been called in the fellowship with his Son. John chapter 6 verse 37.
We saw it before. All the Father gives to me shall come to me and he who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Eris subjunctive of strong denial the strongest form of negative statement in the Greek language.
I will not cast them out. In John chapter 10 verses 25 through 29 that classic passage. A comparison text John chapter 10 verse 14 where Jesus says he knows his sheep. In comparison with Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 7 verses 22 through 23 where when he cast the godless away from him when he cast the workers of iniquity away from him what does he say to them?
I never knew you. If it was possible for you once to have been one of Christ's sheep Christ says he knows his sheep. And then if somehow you stop being his sheep however you come up with that then Christ can no longer say to you.
I never knew you. Well, I knew you once but I forgot. No, that's not what he says. I never knew you. My favorite verse in the Bible.
I do actually have a favorite. Colossians 3 .3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.