Reformed Theology Pt 16 | Calvinism from a Covenantal Framework

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Passage of Scripture today All things in your hand

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And that Lord we would not be Able to call upon your name If you would have not chosen us before the foundation of the world

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Help us to not be despaired by this wonderful doctrine, but to Glorify how wonderful you are

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This doctrine that you have revealed to us We love and praise you in the name of your beloved son

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All right, so we are in part 16 of our sermon series dealing with reformed theology and as much as I love reformed theology

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Look if you have had a conversation with me, you know that I love reformed theology. I cannot wait to get back to the exposition

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I cannot wait to get back to the exposition. Having some clear study material in front of me to work through is great having to bounce around like I'm having to do now

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So today we will be looking at the topic That I believe everyone is familiar with so we're not going to spend a lot of time here

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We're going to do one message and walk away from it and that is the topic of Calvinism doctrines of grace.

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By Calvinism we're not saying that we hold to everything that John Calvin held to, only dealing with soteriology.

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But where Calvin is right along with any other person in church history is right we want to agree with them, right?

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If they're right about something we want to be on the right side of what they're talking about.

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So look with me at our text, Psalm chapter 3 verse 8. We're going to read the context.

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So there's eight verses in Psalm chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 1. O Lord, how many are my foes?

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Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.

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But you, O Lord, are a shield about my glory and my lifter of my head.

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I cry loud to the Lord and he answered me from his holy hill.

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I lay down and sleep. I woke again for the Lord sustained me.

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I will not be afraid of the thousands who have set themselves against me all around.

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Arise, O Lord, save me. O my God, for you strike all my enemies on their cheek.

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You break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the

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Lord. Your blessings be upon your people.

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Today we are going to examine Calvinism from a covenantal framework. Since we are leaving covenant theology we want to examine

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Calvinism from that framework and here in our text we see that David is looking to God for his salvation and for God's blessing to be upon his people.

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So in our outline we're dealing with the five points of Calvinism and there's an acronym that's people -friendly.

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T -U -L -I -P. There's five points.

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The first point is total depravity. The second point is unconditional election.

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The third point is limited atonement. The fourth point is irresistible grace and the fifth point is the perseverance of the

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Saints and as we transition our text is focused on an earthly salvation while today we will be looking for a spiritual salvation.

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Yes I know in verse 2 it says many are saying of my soul there is no salvation for him and God.

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David's speaking of two things here a physical and a spiritual and as you walk through it it leans more on the physical sense of salvation.

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Remember I told you that salvation means to be rescued. I've given this analogy several times.

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If a kid's out in the middle of the road, a car's bellowing at them and I run and knock them out of the way.

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In that instance I became their salvation. I rescued them. So when you look at right here so verse 3 kind of hints towards a spiritual salvation, verse 2 excuse me, a spiritual salvation right here in verses 7 and 8 it says arise oh

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Lord save me oh my God you strike all my enemies on the cheek you break their the teeth of the wicked salvation belongs to the

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Lord your blessing be upon your people. It's speaking of a physical rescue a salvation and today we will be looking past that to a spiritual rescue a spiritual salvation in our first point total depravity.

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Total depravity states that a man by his own free volition is unable to come to God that we spoke about this in Sunday school that you do not wake up one day and decide to be a

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Christian. Faith comes by hearing, hearing of the word of God. If the gospel is not preached ye will not come to Christ.

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The same dirt that the same sun that hardens dirt melts ice. The same gospel that will open your heart to receive the message like God did

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Lydia and harden your heart to ball your fist up tighter all the more cursing the name of the

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Lord. Now let's turn in our Bibles to a passage that you probably are not familiar with on this topic.

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That's 1st Timothy chapter 6.

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1st Timothy chapter 6. We're going to look at verses 12 through 16.

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As we walk through it we'll see in verse 13 we have the word God, Theo.

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Theo kind of emphasized in Trinity. Verse 13 and 14 we have

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Jesus Christ. Verse 15 we'll see the only sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords.

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In verse 16 we have who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable life, who no one has ever seen or can see.

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Now let's have that in mind as we walk through it. I'll kind of reveal what it's talking about.

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So let's begin in verse 12. Verse 12 says fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were, listen, called and about which you were made, you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

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Verse 13 I charge you in the presence of God. Greek word Thea. So it's not actually pointing to us which person of the

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Godhead that it's speaking about. This is the generic word Thea. When I come to a text and if the context doesn't tell me who it's speaking about I just interpret this as God as in Trinity.

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All three persons of Godhead who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus.

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Here it singles out Christ who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

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Verse 14 to keep the commandments unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's where it gets interesting. Verse 15 which he,

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Jesus Christ, will display at the proper time he, Christ, who is the blessed and only sovereign.

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Now that should raise questions. Is Jesus out of the

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Godhead? Is he the only one that's sovereign? Well, no, right? That can't be right.

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But the context says right here verse 15 which he, the nearest and the seated, is the

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Lord Jesus Christ will display at the proper time when he, Jesus Christ, who is the blessed and only sovereign,

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King of kings and Lord of lords. This is speaking about Jesus but we know, right, as Trinitarian, people who study theology, who studied the doctrine of God, Theology 101, that this is not just speaking about Jesus.

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It's speaking about Theo, God in Trinity. But right here it outlines Christ and then in verse 16 still speaking about him says who alone has immortality.

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Well that should tell us this can't just be singled out Christ who dwells in unapproachable light.

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Right here Jesus is the only sovereign, King of kings, Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light.

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You cannot, listen, approach him. And right here, there's another like mind tease, a brain tease.

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What's going on here? Who no one has ever seen nor can see.

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When you go to 1st John, excuse me, the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 18 says this.

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No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the right, who's at the

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Father's side has made him known. We know that Jesus being the

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Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God, that this Word became flesh. Verse 14 tells us that the

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Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That Jesus came to exegete to explain to us the

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Father. So right here where it says who no one has ever seen, it's speaking about the

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Father. So I want to go to, again, let's go to John and try to flesh this out.

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So John chapter 14. If you're able to turn there, turn there so you can see it.

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If not, no worries. But Jesus speaking to his disciples says this.

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Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me. You can't get to the

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Father by circumcisions. You can't get to the Father by the sacrificial system.

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The only way to get to the Father is through Jesus Christ. You do not have the

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Son. You do not have the Father, stated in 1 John chapter 2. All right, now let's go to chapter 6, 44.

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Chapter 6, 44 says this. No one can come to me,

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Jesus speaking, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, right here you should be thinking the covenant of redemption.

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When you hear the word sent me, that's the covenant of redemption. No one can come to me,

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Jesus speaking, unless the Father who sent me draws him. So God dwells in unapproachable light.

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You cannot approach God. No one can come to the

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Father unless they come to Jesus and no one can come to Jesus unless they're drawn by the

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Father. Now ask yourself, how then do we get to Jesus?

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Right? Like something's going on here. So in the transition the question is why is this?

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And the answer is because of the fall. Because in Adam we have all died in Adam and dead people cannot just make themselves live again.

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How shall these dead bones live? We cannot come to God.

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We cannot approach God. He dwells in unapproachable light. We cannot get to Jesus unless we're drawn by the

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Father. We cannot get to the Father unless we go through Jesus. Because we're in Adam.

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We are dead in Adam. Unconditional election, point number two. Unconditional election is speaking of what takes place before the fall.

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This I believe it's referring to the purpose of the Father in the covenant of redemption. What's funny is whenever you truly understand covenant theology and you hold to the doctrines of grace you can actually see the covenant of redemption in the

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TULIP. It's in the U -L -I. Unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace is the covenant of redemption.

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The purpose of the Father was to save a people. Why? Because we can't get to him.

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He dwells in unapproachable light. No one can come to the Son unless we're drawn by the Father. No one can go to the

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Father unless we go through the Son. If he does not respond to us we cannot respond to him.

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Because we're dead in Adam. So even before Adam takes his fall,

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God in eternity past makes a covenant with God himself. An eternal covenant between the

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Godhead. So the purpose of the Father was to save a people, the elect, in and through his

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Son. Look with me at John 637.

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Now this text shows the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

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So if you're ever looking for a text that shows both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, it's

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John 637. Now we'll only read a piece of it.

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John 637. Listen. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

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Let's read that again. Jesus speaking. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

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If you are given by the Father, even though in your own free volition you cannot come to Christ, you will come to Christ.

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And some of you have probably heard me give this analogy the same way that a door relies upon the hinges to open and shut, you and I are coming to Christ relies upon our being given to the

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Son by the Father. So imagine a door opening and shutting.

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That door, you remember those hinges? That door doesn't do anything. You lean it up against the wall, you try to open it, it's gonna fall.

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The only way it operates correctly is because of the hinges. The only way anyone can come to Christ is if they're given to him by the

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Father. That's where verse 44 comes in. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.

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The straw is being given to him. Point number three, limited atonement.

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In limited atonement we see Christ accomplish the purpose.

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What was the purpose? The Father was going to save the people in Christ. So in limited atonement we see

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Christ accomplish the purpose of the Father and that is to save the people.

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What people? The people that the Father chose, the elect, the church.

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Now the question, how does he do this? The answer is simple.

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It's through the incarnation, God becoming a man, the person of Jesus Christ, God taken on flesh,

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Jesus Christ living a sinless and perfect life, fully obeying the

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Father, Christ dying a substitutionary atoning death for the sins of those who have violated the covenant, who have died in Adam and by his resurrection.

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Now for a second I want to take just a moment to talk about why this doctrine of limited atonement is so important.

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Now I know a lot of people who claim Calvinism would say that they're a three -point or four -point.

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We would just say no that's Southern Baptist. We're not a Calvinist, right? If you don't hold to the five points just X the word.

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Like don't even put it in your vocabulary. This right here is the most important doctrine dealing with the superiority because if Christ only died for our sins that only leaves us neutral with God.

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You know what that does for us? It puts us back in the garden. Now keep these commandments and live.

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If he only dies for our sins, we're neutral with God.

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Limited atonement has to do with more than him dying for our sins. If that's all it is, if Christ all he's done is died for our sins, then we are neutral.

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Our sins are forgiven. Now keep the law and live. So let's just play with that for a second.

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Let's flesh that out. The Armenians would say that Christ died for the sins of everyone.

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Means that they're neutral with God. Now they have to keep the law to live. This is why covenant theology is so important.

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If you remove the fact that Christ lived the life that we could not live, your theology is work's base because you're removing the fact that he lived the life that you could not live and then when you believe in him not only is his death accounted to yours but the life that he lived is counted to you which makes you justified before God.

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This is why dispensational Calvinism doesn't make any sense to me because they don't hold to covenant theology.

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That he lived the life that we could not live and then by faith in him not only is his death counted to us but the life that he lived is counted to us.

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So that when you and I, we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we have his active obedience and his passive obedience accounted to us and that is why we are saved, forgiven of our sins but also are justified before him because of what

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Christ has done. Ladies and gentlemen, so we need a three -point or four -point

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Calvinist who denies limited atonement. That's what they're denying. When I said

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Christ died for everybody, all he did was make us neutral with God. He puts back in the garden. Now we have to keep the covenant.

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I don't want that. I can't do it. Can you keep the covenant?

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Can you walk before God blameless? That's what it takes. Without the righteousness of Christ, without his life, without the life that he lived applied to us, that's what you get.

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Now is covenant theology important? Absolutely, it is. Now as a transition, we'll read two passages kind of going back to Christ dying.

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Matthew chapter 1 verse 21 says this, the angel speaking to Mary, by the birth of Christ she will bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus for he will save everyone from their sins.

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No, his people from their sins. I wonder who his people are.

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Let's look at it. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25.

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Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, don't miss this, and gave himself up for her.

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Christ loved the church and he gave himself up for her. Jesus died for the church.

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We looked at our Sunday school, who was the church? The elect of God, past, present, future.

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I love it when lessons that I haven't studied kind of go with my message, right? It gives me some meat, right?

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I love that. Point number four, irresistible grace. Irresistible grace is the

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Holy Spirit applying the purpose. Those whom the father purposed are the ones whom the son dies a substitutionary atoning death for and through the preaching of the gospel, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the father irresistibly draws them and gives them the

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Holy Spirit. He draws them to the preaching of the gospel. When you and I, we preach the gospel, if they are the elect, the father draws them to Jesus, gives them to Christ, and gives them the

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Holy Spirit. Let's go back to John chapter 6.

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Again, verse 44, no one can come to me, Jesus said, unless the father who sent me draws them.

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Now to our fifth point, the perseverance of the saints, which is also called the preservation of the saints.

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The perseverance of the saints. Now when

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I say the perseverance of the saints, I do not mean what most people mean when they say it.

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You probably heard this doctrine taught by Calvinists, but that are not covenantal.

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So a covenantal Calvinist would mean something different than a dispensational Calvinist when it comes to the perseverance of the saints.

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Most people will take the understanding that the perseverance of the saints is that the saint perseveres through their obedience in following Jesus.

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So we persevere through our obedience in following Jesus. My understanding from the confession and from scripture is that not only is justification monergistic, meaning

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God is the one who is doing the work, but that sanctification is monergistic, meaning that in our life, as we're living our life, the

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Holy Spirit is in us, it's God that's doing the work. As in justification, we believe and we repent.

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In sanctification, we continue to believe and repent. But we do so because faith is the gift and repentance is granted even in sanctification.

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And this is key right here. Listen, if this is not true, if what

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I just said right then is not true, then there is no hope for anyone.

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If you are expected to grow yourself in holiness and the sanctification by obedience in your following Christ, there is no hope for you.

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To quote John MacArthur, who was a dispensational Calvinist, but he says it best, this is where I'm glad that they are inconsistent in their theology, if you can lose your salvation, you will.

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If you can lose your salvation, you will. Because you cannot keep yourself saved.

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You cannot make it, you cannot get yourself saved, and you cannot keep yourself saved.

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Again, let's look at John chapter 6, we'll go back to verse 37, and let's read to verse 40.

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All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. Check that in the

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Greek, that's what it says, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, thank covenant of redemption.

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And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the

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Son of Man and believes in him should have eternal life.

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And I will raise him up on the last day. So the question is, who is

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Jesus raising up on the last day? And the answer is, it's those that look to him in faith.

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Those that look to him in faith. Now when I say faith, I'm not, I don't know if y 'all heard my podcast here recently, but I'm not talking about, you know, like driving down the road, and I'm coming to a red light, and there's cars in front of me, and I'm hitting my brakes.

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There's faith that takes place when I'm pressing in on my brakes, trusting that as I'm pressing in on my brakes, it's going to stop.

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Or that when I sit down in a chair, that the chair's not going to break, that it's going to help me.

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There's a certain amount of faith given there, right? There's a certain amount of faith.

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When I'm talking about faith when it comes to this, is I'm talking about faith in something that we cannot see.

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It would be like, Jeff, there's a chair right here. I know you can't see it, but I need you to sit in it. And he'd say, oh yeah, okay.

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You know, without any hesitation, sitting in it. We're telling people that a man,

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Jesus of Nazareth, who proclaimed himself to be God, died, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose on the third day.

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This is something that you can't explain scientifically. People do not die, be put into a ground, and three days later, come out the grave glorified.

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Like that does not happen. And yet, the faith that I'm speaking about, it's not sitting in a chair, it's not hitting your brakes as you're driving down the street, it's believing in something that is scientifically impossible, something that you don't see take place.

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Like those who look to him in faith, who believe that Jesus Christ has been risen from the dead, that God has risen this

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Jesus Christ from the dead. Like this is not something that's inherent in us, like we cannot draw this from ourselves.

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It's something that has to be given to us. Now, I'm going to go back for a second to that point that I made about limited atonement.

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If Christ only died for our sins, that makes us neutral with God.

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We have to keep the covenant, and guess what? You can lose your salvation. If Christ only died for your sins, of course you can lose your salvation because it puts you at ground zero, you're neutral.

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But if in fact, he lived the life that we could not live, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot lose your salvation.

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If you've been truly given faith, you cannot lose your salvation because the life that you live, that's not counted to you.

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It's the life that Christ has lived that's counted to you. He lived the life that you could not live.

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As goes the king, so goes the kingdom. When I stand before God, I'm not going to be clothed in dust.

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I'm going to be clothed in Christ, and I'm not going to be judged on my past, present, or future sins, and I pray that God kills all those sins in me.

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I'm going to be judged by the righteousness of Christ, not because of what

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I have done, but because of what he has done. In the London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 14, paragraph two, paragraph two, section nine says this, but the principal acts of saving faith focus directly on Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace, by virtue of what

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Jesus Christ has done. This is the blood of my covenant.

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Remember the Lord suffered. This is my body, which is broken for you. This is my blood, which is poured out for you.

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Obedience is accepting, receiving, and resting upon him for our justification, sanctification, and eternal life.

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Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reformed position. So those out there that say that they're reformed, if this isn't your position, then you're not reformed.

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Loving neighbor and good works flow out of these things. They are not the spout.

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Loving neighbor, you loving your neighbor, and you doing good works, they flow from these things.

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They are not the spout. Your good works do not save you, nor do they keep you safe.

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Now here's another controversy. One particular verse Christians love to use, even the reformed

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Christians, is found in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24, verse 13, says this, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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As I say right there, in order to be saved, you have to endure to the end.

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But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Ladies and gentlemen, the context has nothing to do with salvation salvifically.

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It has to do with surviving the coming judgment that was coming upon Jerusalem. Those who listened to the words of the

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Lord, who endured persecution and survived the judgment, were saved.

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They were saved. Look at the same chapter, verse 15.

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Jesus warns them, right after this verse, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by the prophet

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Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.

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Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. He's telling them what to look for and what to do when you see it.

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Flee to the mountains. Let those who are in a housetop do not go down to take what is in the house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.

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Also, in Luke chapter 21, it kind of tells you, it gives you an understanding of what the abomination of desolation is.

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It says, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, Luke 21, 20, but when you see

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.

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He tells them that when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, leave.

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Get out of there. Those who endured to the end this persecution that's about to come upon Jerusalem, you will be saved.

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A lot of so -called problem passages can easily be worked out by just understanding the context of the day.

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So in our main text today, Psalm 3 .8,

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when David wrote Psalm 3 .8, he was speaking about a salvation belonging to the

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Lord. He was speaking about it in the sense of rescuing his hide, his backside.

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Why? Because Psalm chapter 3 is a Psalm of David when David was fleeing from Absalom, his son.

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Absalom, his son, raised an army up, came after David. Because Absalom was the son of David, David did not want to strike down Absalom.

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This is still in the time of the earthly kingdom. The new covenant had not yet been inaugurated. The new covenant, the heavenly kingdom, the spiritual kingdom, or we can just call it what the

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Bible does, the kingdom of heaven. A lot of things that's going on in the church today, whether it's the dispensational versus the covenant, those that are in the covenant, even those who hoax in the covenant have a fight between themselves, between the

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Presbyterians and the Baptists, but then all those that are outside of the faith who claim to be in church, it all boils down to understanding the earthly covenant versus the spiritual covenant.

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The earthly people versus the spiritual people. That God says things to the earthly people that he does not say or expect from the spiritual people.

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That there is an earthly kingdom, which was Judea, Jerusalem, the Jews. Then there's the spiritual kingdom, which is the church, the eschatological

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Israel. Earthly kingdom promised earthly blessings and curses.

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Spiritual kingdom promises spiritual blessings and curses. If you believe in Christ, you have eternal life.

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If you do not believe, you will have eternal death. These are things that are said in the Old Testament, right?

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Old Testament, if you circumcise and keep the commandments, you live in the land. If you don't, you're removed from the land.

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You're removed from the people. Earthly blessings, earthly curses, spiritual blessings, spiritual curses.

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We are looking at things today in light of the new covenant, the kingdom of heaven, spiritual blessings and spiritual curses.

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I know a lot of that's confusing. I hope that after going through covenant theology, you can now see

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Calvinism and better understand it in a covenant framework. Again, this is not how our dispensational lordship, salvation,

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Calvinistic friends understand Calvinism. Next week, we're dealing with the law and the gospel.

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We'll touch base on lordship, salvation, and how that's not reformed.

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Charles Spurgeon made the comment that Calvinism is shorthand for the gospel, meaning a right understanding of Calvinism is a right understanding of God and Trinity, what

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God and Trinity has done to redeem a people, and that's the covenant of redemption. Before in the beginning,

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God chose to save the people. In doing so, he sent his son to accomplish that purpose through his life, death, and resurrection, and that the

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Holy Spirit comes. He's sent by the son and the father, and through this message that we proclaim about what

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Christ has done, that spirit is applied and that the church is built on earth, the spiritual kingdom.

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So what is the call of repentance and faith? It's found in Acts chapter 17,

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Acts 17, beginning in verse 30. This is

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Paul writing. He's speaking to some Greeks, some Greek philosophers.

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He says this, the time of ignorance, God overlooked.

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The times of ignorance, God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

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So not just the Jews, all people everywhere to do what? Repent, turn from self -righteousness, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

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And of this man, he has given assurance to us all by raising him from the dead.

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The call of repentance and faith is this, is that God is going to judge this world, and he's not going to judge the world in love, and he's not going to judge the world in mercy.

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He's going to judge the world in his justice. And you do not want justice.

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You want mercy, and mercy can only be found in Jesus Christ.

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God has called all men to repent. Listen, but only the elect through the grace of God will be able to turn to God in Christ.

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So what must we do to be saved? We must look to Christ. Listen to me, we must look to Christ, and that's for you, that's for me, and that's for our children.

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That's for you, that's for me, and that's for our children. We must repent, turn from ourselves, and look to Christ.

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I'm available if anyone wants to talk. Pastor Carol, Josh, we are available to you.

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Let's pray. Father, thank you. We love you. We ask that your blessings should remain upon us,

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Lord, as we continue to worship you, as we fellowship with one another and over the table, and the

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Lord's little supper. We pray that you bless these elements, Lord, the body that was broken for us, and the blood that was shed for us,

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Lord, that you will use these times and grow us in holiness. We also just pray,

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Lord, that our fellowship around the table as we eat our meals together, Lord, that you bless us, and help us to grow closer to one another,

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Lord, help us to be the church, the family that you've called us to be.