Sermon on Calvinism: God is Sovereign (Part 1)

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Inside the Mind of Manson: Part 2

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open your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. As we're doing a series on particular doctrine and truths and not an exposition of Scripture, it's difficult to decide where do you even begin when you're talking about what the

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Bible says about grace, what the Bible says about the atonement, what the Bible says about our condition, what the

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Bible says about God's sovereignty. It's hard to decide like where do I start.

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And in particular when you're talking about the grace of God and salvation, our condition and the sovereignty of God and the power of God to save, it's a difficult decision.

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I mean do you, it's entire passages, it's not a verse here or there.

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It's not just pot shots, just picking out little ones here or there. It's entire discourses on this subject, whole chapters on this subject.

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When it comes to the sovereignty of God over everything and the sovereignty of God in salvation, when it comes to the condition of every human being, every son or daughter of Adam, when it comes to our abilities, when it comes to the atonement of Jesus Christ, when it comes to God's promise to keep us and to guard us because of that salvation he's granted to us, the

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Bible is abundantly clear. Are there things in Scripture that are mysteries?

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Yes. It is highly arrogant to pretend to fully know the mind of God.

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Are there things that are incomprehensible? Absolutely. God is incomprehensible and we're going to be trying to discover all of his beauty and complexities for all eternity and we'll never ever end it, forever.

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We're creatures, he's God. The Bible says the secret things belong to the

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Lord our God and we think that's lovely and wonderful and amazing but it says what he has revealed belongs to us and to our children.

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We can have certainty, certainty about the Bible teaches about who

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God is, about salvation, about his word, what he's revealed belongs to us and it belongs to our children.

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And so when we're talking about this subject of the grace of God in salvation, God's sovereignty, the atonement of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, God's effectual grace, the salvation that he's given to us, my challenge to us is this.

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Let's go to the Word of God and ask the question, what does God's Word teach us about these truths?

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Be willing to be challenged. I am. Are you willing to have your traditions challenged?

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Are you willing to have your very cherished beliefs challenged? I remember many years ago, we'll get into the text here in a moment, but just to sort of illustrate the challenge, many years ago

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I was listening to the radio debate between our pastor and Dave Hunt. Pastor James was challenging

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Dave Hunt, who's with the Lord now, on his position and brought up the issue of traditions.

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And Dave Hunt said, I don't have any traditions, James. Like, I believe the

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Bible, I believe God's Word, I don't have any traditions. And one thing that stuck with me ever since that conversation that Pastor James has said many, many times is the people who have, who say that they have no traditions, are the ones that are plagued with the most of them.

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Because it means you're not willing to examine them. It means you're not looking for them and testing them.

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We as believers have to always be willing to be corrected by God's Word, no matter how cherished the belief is, no matter how long we've held it, we have to be willing to be challenged.

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What does God's Word say? And so with that, I've chosen

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Romans 9 to begin this study on the doctrines of grace. We could have gone a number of different places, John 6,

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John 10, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2. I mean, we could have gone to many, many places.

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I've chosen Romans 9 for a reason, because I also want to involve a challenge in the midst of Romans 9.

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And so we're there in Romans 9, but I want to challenge you with this.

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As you go through this series, be willing to be corrected by God's Word. Be willing to hear

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His Word and let it set and transform and challenge and convict. Hear all the perspectives and to stand on God's Word.

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So we're getting into Romans 9. Romans chapter 9, this is from the

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Apostle Paul in his systematic explanation of the gospel. The Apostle Paul has spent time in the book of Romans unpacking man's condition, what is the gospel, what has

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God accomplished, how are we justified before God. And God gets, and then the

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Apostle Paul gets into Romans chapter 9 after this very, very detailed explanation of salvation, justification, our condition,

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God's plan and purpose in salvation. And in Romans 9, he gets into the discussion of God's sovereignty over salvation.

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It's a challenging section of Scripture, but very, very clear. So Romans chapter 9, verse 1.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying.

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My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

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For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

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They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

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To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race according to the flesh is the

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Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the

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Word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

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This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

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For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.

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And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather

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Isaac, though they were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue.

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Not because of works, but because of him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger as it is written,

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Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. What shall we say then?

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Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

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I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

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For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called not from the

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Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed he also, he says in Hosea, those who were not my people

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I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living

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God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.

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For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the

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Lord of hosts had not left us offspring we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.

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What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that it is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.

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Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

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They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, behold I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame.

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As far as the reading of God's Holy Word, let's pray. Father please bless this entire series.

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We seek to honor you, your word, your truth. We seek to give you the glory for salvation.

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You are to be glorified and praised for the salvation that you've accomplished.

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We seek to defend your word against those who would seek to rob you of your glory.

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We seek to teach the truth from your word. What do you say about your sovereignty, about your grace, about the work,

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Father, of your Son? Challenge us, teach us. We humbly ask that you would,

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Lord, get the teachers out of the way and that you by your Spirit would challenge your church here and globally with your word, all leading to your praise and glorifying your name.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So I have to confess,

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I'm gonna open up the series today. I'm gonna talk a bit about the doctrines of grace. We're gonna talk about TULIP.

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We're gonna talk a little bit about the history, but I have to confess this particular sermon might be kind of boring for some people in terms of,

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I have no slides, I have no quirky interesting stories about the pastor. I'm going to lay out text after text after text after text of God's Word.

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That has to be the foundation when you ask the question about God's grace and salvation, when you ask the question about God's sovereignty.

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What I want to demonstrate today in the question of God's sovereignty, I want to demonstrate that Scripture is consistent from Genesis to Revelation about the one and only true and living

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God and His complete and total sovereignty over every single molecule in the universe and in history.

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God in Scripture is not kind of sovereign, mostly sovereign. The God of the

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Bible cannot be thwarted by anything in creation. He cannot be thwarted by any creature.

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He is in the heavens and He does all that He pleases in heaven and on earth.

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We are a part of the on earth parts and He does what He pleases. My hope is to fill you with the

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Word of God. The difficult, the challenge in a series like this on the doctrines of grace is this, where do you start and where do you end?

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Because Scripture is so abundantly clear about God as the sovereign, it is so abundantly clear about the condition of fallen men and women, it is so abundantly clear about God's grace as truly gracious and as truly effective, it's difficult to know where do

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I start and where do I end. So I just want to forewarn you, in this series you will get a lot of the dump of Scripture.

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And I want to just challenge you to be taking notes, to record, to challenge yourself, to go into the text itself.

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I'll give you a book recommendation, you'll probably get a few through this series, but I want to challenge you to get a book, it's called the

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Reform Doctrine of Predestination by Lorraine Bettner. The Reform Doctrine of Predestination by Lorraine Bettner.

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And again, as I said to you guys at the beginning of service today, if you got that book just for the references themselves, it would be well worth the purchase.

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So get that book, the Reform Doctrine of Predestination. I'm sure you're gonna have lots more before we're done.

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And start working through that, it'll challenge you. So the purpose of this study is to bring glory to God.

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We want to defend the biblical view of grace. We want to defend the biblical view of grace.

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Here's the challenge, when you talk to Christians today, are you saved by grace? Let's say you're saved by grace through faith in Jesus, apart from works of law, salvation is the grace of God.

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But the challenge here is to go a bit deeper. How gracious is grace?

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Is grace something that is offered and God desires to save and he tries so hard, but the creatures resist his will?

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The creatures can thwart the plan and the purpose of Almighty God and the atonement? How gracious is

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God's grace? The purpose of this study is to defend the biblical view of grace. It is this view of grace.

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In Ephesians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul says this in verse 1, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, dead, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and listen to this, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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But God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

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For the inspired apostle, the grace of God in saving us is like this, you were dead, not sick, not wounded, not limping along.

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One of the things interesting lately, Augustine, he's strong.

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Goodness gracious, he's strong. He has some big strong hands and legs, man. When he kicks me at night when I'm sleeping, it hurts, like really physically hurts.

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He's really strong, but he hasn't quite figured out yet how to get on his knees and like walk on the knees.

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So he gets on his knees, he does a lot of planking all day, he's like doing pull -ups, and he's like, but he can't quite figure out how to crawl like on his knees.

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And so like, you know, we're cheering him on, and like he's dragging his body. So he gets on his knees, he plops down, and then he drags his body, right?

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And so all day long in the urban household, Augustine is slithering around the floor everywhere.

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He's just, his legs are dangling behind him, and he's just pulling himself, right? Just with the legs. We're not in that kind of condition.

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Spiritually speaking, just sort of like, sort of limping along, dragging ourself along, kind of helpless.

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The Bible's definition of our condition, it's the inspired apostle, this is it. We've not just been wounded by our sin and our condition before God, we're not spiritually sick, we're dead.

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Dead, spiritually. Alienated from God, and here's the thing we don't want to hear today, and it is not preached today like it ought to be, with force, because it is the very thing that can lead people to salvation.

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What God uses to expose our sin is we are, outside of Jesus, by nature children of wrath.

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We don't want to talk about that today, but this is vitally important for us to get. If we're going to understand

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God's grace and salvation, and how glorious this gospel truly is, and how majestic God is and powerfully is in salvation, we have to understand this biblical definition of grace, and this is it.

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You are dead, but God made you alive together with him. By grace, you've been saved.

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So we know from our experience as believers, I was just walking along, somebody gave me the gospel, whatever the context was,

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I heard the gospel, I was challenged, all of a sudden, Jesus was lovely to me, I felt the need for my savior,

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I trusted in Jesus. That's my perspective. That's what I experienced. But the truth is, behind that story for each of us is this story.

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Dead, child of wrath, God made you alive. By grace, you've been saved.

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So the purpose of this study is to defend that, the biblical view of grace. The purpose of this study is to defend the biblical perspective of man's problem.

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I've already sort of illustrated it there. I hope you're catching it already. What's our condition? Spiritually sick?

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Wounded? No. What's our condition? Dead. We are dead spiritually, and by nature, children of wrath.

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We don't like to think about people like that. We don't want to walk around and be arrogant about that.

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Well, you're just dead, right? We know that's a condition of all of us. You're either an Adam or you're in Jesus, Romans 5.

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That's Paul's view of...that's his anthropology. You're an Adam, you're dead, condemnation, or you're in Jesus.

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Gift of eternal life and righteousness in Jesus. So if you're outside of Jesus, you're not made alive, you're dead spiritually, and the condition needs to be explained.

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We need to defend the biblical perspective of man's problem, problem like Romans 3.

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There is none righteous, no, not one, none who does good, none who...here

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it is...seeks for God. Here's the problem. A lot of times as Christians in history and today in the

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West, evangelicals will say, I believe that. Romans 3, I preach that when I tell someone the gospel. No one righteous, no, not one, no one does good, and no one seeks for God.

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That's why you really need God's grace and Jesus alone, and it can't be law that saves you. But have you thought about what that means?

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Our condition is like this, not righteous, not good, so we're condemned. And it says, there is none who seeks for God.

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None who seeks for God, that's the condition. Well, brothers and sisters, if God's word says that, there is none who seeks for God, then what, pray tell, are you doing here?

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Why are you here? Why are you in this room seeking for God? Why are you in this room believing in Jesus?

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Did you do it? Is it better parents? Did you just figure it out? Are you more wise, maybe more spiritually sensitive than your neighbor?

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Maybe you're the kind of person that digs deeper than others. You're concerned with spiritual things, right? Maybe that's our interpretation of the circumstances.

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I believed in Jesus because I just thought deeper thoughts, or I was more concerned with mortality and thought about the future.

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No. The Bible says there is none who seeks for God, and yet here we have a room full of God -seekers, people who seek for God, who love

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Jesus. So the question is, how'd you get here? Why are you in this state? Why are you trusting in Jesus?

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Is it something where you cooperated with God in some way? He was trying really hard, but limited in his capabilities, and somehow he worked together with the will of the creature who is seeking him.

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No. The Bible says there is none who seeks for God. You're dead in your sins and trespasses.

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By nature, children of wrath. Romans 1, enemies of God. That's the condition. The purpose of this study is to defend the biblical perspective of man's sin problem.

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It's much worse than we think. It's much worse than we preach. It's much worse than we tell people about.

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It's the kind of problem that Jesus illustrates in John 6, where he says, no man can come to me unless the

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Father who sent me draws him. Now, I want you to think about that for a moment in terms of condition. This is from the mouth of the

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Lord Jesus, the incarnate God -man. He says, no man is able to come to me.

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No man can come to me. No man has the ability to come to me unless the

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Father who sent me, what? Draws him. Now, here's the problem.

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Please hear me on this. Many Christians and modern evangelicals will give the passing tilt of the hat, right?

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They'll give the nod to, oh, right, we need God's grace. We need God's grace to empower us to believe in Jesus.

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Yes, I acknowledge that. We're all sinners. God has to move. God has to act. But that wasn't

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Jesus' perspective, was it? He said, no man is able to come to me. There is no ability to come to God.

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We're not limping. We're dead. We have no ability, and it says, what? Unless the

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Father who sent me draws him. And here it is, from the mouth of the Lord Jesus, and I will raise him up.

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I will raise up the one the Father draws, the one who was unable to come.

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No ability unless the Father draws, and Jesus raises up everyone the Father draws for salvation.

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If your view of God's grace is not consistent with Jesus, then it needs to be challenged, because those are the words of the

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Lord Jesus. His grace is effective. When God draws, God saves. So our purpose is to defend the biblical perspective of man's problem.

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Our purpose in this study is to defend the power of God in salvation, and therefore empower missions.

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I want you to hear that for a moment, just two passages, two discourses, John 6 and John 10.

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Go read them later. Bury yourself in those texts. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus.

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In John 6, Jesus says this, I've come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who has sent me.

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And he says this, and this is the will of him who has sent me. This is the will of the Father for me.

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This is my mission. This is why I came. He says, of all that he has given to me, I should lose nothing.

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So there were people given to Jesus by the Father. And Jesus says,

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I've come down from heaven to do his will with respect to them, and it's this that I should lose none of them, but raise them up on the last day.

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Jesus says in John 10 that he's the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep.

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Other sheep, he says, I have, which are not of this fold, Gentiles, them I must also bring, and they'll become what?

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One flock with one shepherd, and he says, they're in my hands, and nothing can snatch them from my hand.

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That's the portrait of God's grace and power in salvation. And I want to challenge you with this.

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I believe with all of my heart that Calvinism, the doctrines of grace, these truths are what empower missions.

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As a matter of fact, in history, you can do your research on this yourself, and you'll see just in the last couple of hundred years, some of the greatest missions, efforts, and missionary societies of the last couple of hundred years, some of the greatest moments we've had in the

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West in terms of the great awakenings and all the rest, those were done by Calvinists. So you're welcome. Why is that?

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Well, here's the reason. Because when we go out into a hostile world full of spiritually dead people, we know that none of those spiritually dead people can thwart our almighty

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God. When God wants to save rebel sinners, he saves rebel sinners, and it's all according to his mercy.

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What do all the rebel sinners deserve? Judgment, condemnation, the fact that any one person is saved is the mystery.

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Why would you ever do such a thing? What everyone deserves is justice. That's a biblical view of God's holiness, justice, and our sin.

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None of us deserve salvation. People say, well, why doesn't he just save everybody?

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Wrong question. Why did he save one? When we go out there into a hostile world of rebel sinners, we know that no one is able to come to God unless the father who sent

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Jesus draws him, and he will raise them up, which means when I go preach the gospel, I'm going to cast out seed, gospel seeds, knowing that if God has prepared the ground, it's getting in the ground, and it's going to bear fruit.

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I know that God saves rebel sinners because I know my story personally, and I know the stories of our heroes.

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The man who wrote these texts, the apostle Paul, was breathing murderous threats against the church.

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He was so zealous against destroying the church, he says that he persecuted the church, tried to destroy it in Galatians 1, and what did

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Jesus do with that rebel? He appeared to him, and he opened his eyes, and he saved him, and there wasn't anything that could have stopped that power of God.

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He is the almighty, sovereign, powerful God who saves, and so I know when I go preach the gospel, it's the power of God for salvation, and all these dead people out there, when they hear the gospel, and God chooses to give them life, he can raise the dead, and I want to challenge you with this.

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When Jesus was going in his ministry, and he's raising people from the dead, little girl's dead, he says, little girl, arise, and she comes to life again.

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When he goes to Lazarus' tomb, and he says, Lazarus, come forth, all those were literal, real, historical, physical resurrections.

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They all were, but don't forget, they died again, which is a really weird thought, right? They all died again, and so I want to say the miracles of resurrection in Jesus' life and ministry were not merely feats to say, oh, wow, what a miracle worker.

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It was testimony to his ability to raise the dead. Now, spiritually, and at the end of time, physically, in the final resurrection of the just and the unjust,

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Jesus can speak to dead people and raise them to life, and that's why we should be fearless and bold when we go out there to preach the gospel.

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Now, I want to talk just a bit about this tulip. T -U -L -I -P.

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I'm going to tell you in a minute, we actually should talk about it in a different way, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time in the history of tulip and Calvinism versus Arminianism in terms of giving a historical survey and all the rest.

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I think we need to keep it fairly simple and stick to the text and the truths themselves because I think that's what matters when we talk about this doctrine.

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The history of the church, we've had some amazing fights, some good fights. We need to praise God for the fights and the heretics that have come into the church that we've had to deal with in history.

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In the second century of the church, you're dealing with particular heresies of the time. You're dealing with heresies of people saying we should detach the

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Old Testament from the New Testament. Sounds similar to some things today. Marcionites, you're dealing with in the second century of people who are denying the

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Trinity, and you've got Tertullian and others in a fairly rudimentary way dealing with those issues of defending the

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Trinity itself. And as time goes by, you get into other issues where heretics like Pelagius comes into play.

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You've got Augustine and other believers who are fighting against people who are distorting the nature of man, how fallen is he, those sorts of things.

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You've got Augustine with the reformers in terms of grace and what God's power is in salvation.

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But we've had some great fights, and I thank God for those fights. The Trinity, that Pelagian heresy is rampant even today.

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Plenty of people hold to it today, even pretending like they don't. And you've got issues in history where we had to fight these great fights.

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These have led to the sanctification of God's church. Please hear me on this. The whole scope and history of the

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Christian church is amazing. It truly is. It's amazing, and it's glorious what

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God has done to protect His church and to cause her to persevere. But I want you to hear this. God has allowed fights to happen in history so that the church gets around the

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Word of God, knows what God's Word says about that thing, and can defend the truth better.

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You've heard me say many times that if you gave me a choice in history of who

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I would want next to me defending the Trinity against error, would I want to go, say, with a second -century

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Christian, somebody who is closer even to the time of the apostles, maybe even a disciple of one of the apostles?

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My answer would be no. I'll take one of the 21st century Christians who has actually had the entire history of the church and error behind us, where the church has gotten together around the scriptures to precisely define and to precisely communicate what

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God's Word says about that thing. I would rather stand next to Dr. James White, Dr.

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Brown defending the Trinity. By the way, did you see that debate? If you haven't seen it, make sure you go see it. I saw it live. Dr. Brown, Dr.

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White, colorful men. You didn't even prepare for that,

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James. You didn't even prepare for that debate, did you guys? You guys just sort of like sat down and you went at it. It was amazing.

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But if you watch that debate, you'll see the benefit of 2 ,000 years of church history behind you. These fights added the ability to clearly see and to get to all the texts that are relevant to precisely defend and define.

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And in the particular instance of the fight here between Arminianism and Calvinism, I think it was a banner moment for the church in terms of you have now a history behind us of how fallen is man?

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How gracious is God's grace? What exactly happened with the atonement? And what happened was with the fight at the

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Synod of Dort was you had people who were essentially followers of, disciples of, impacted by the teachings of a man named

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Jacob Arminius. And they protested the church at large at the time. They protested.

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They say, we're not sure we agree with all that everybody's saying formally in this confession.

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So we'd like to argue with that. And here's some points we'd like to argue about in terms of man's condition.

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How fallen is he? Is he really completely unable to cooperate? Is he really completely unable to come to God?

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What exactly did Jesus accomplish with the atonement? Was it an atonement that made people save a bull?

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Or did it actually accomplish salvation? Was it a real atonement that actually accomplished salvation?

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Can you lose your salvation? Well, maybe. We think possibly. Let's take a look at these texts.

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So Christians got together in a lot of gatherings and a lot of meetings.

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Theologians, scholars, missionaries, pastors got together to formally respond to the remonstrance, the protest.

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And when they responded, it's known historically in history as TULIP, T -U -L -I -P.

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And this particular TULIP stands for T, Total Depravity.

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And I'm going to argue this, because when you hear that, you think people are totally depraved.

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Completely and absolutely, like the image of God is erased. That's kind of what it sounds like there.

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But what they were referring to was total inability. They are absolutely unable to come to God on their own.

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They're dead. Next was the U, Unconditional Election. Does God, in choosing people, because it's all over the

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Bible, when he predestines, when he elects, on what basis does he elect and predestine?

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Is it on the basis of foreseen faith? Like he looks through the corridors of time and he sees who will choose him.

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So on that basis, he chooses them. Is that why God elects or how

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God elects? Or is election, predestination, a sovereign act of God's grace upon undeserving and unwilling people?

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Unconditional Election. The L in this is Limited Atonement. Now I wanted to say ahead of time, we should really get at what they were specifying.

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What they meant was definite redemption. That when Jesus died on the cross, it was a once for all sacrifice.

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It saves perfectly those who draw near to God through him. The sacrifice was an actual atonement, a real atonement that accomplishes atonement.

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Here's the deal. Somebody will say, Limited Atonement. I like all the doctrines of grace.

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I'm like a four pointer. People say, I'm a four pointer. I just can't hang with Limited Atonement.

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I don't believe God limits the atonement. But just let's be real for a second here, okay? If you believe Jesus died and rose again and he had an atonement, everybody limits the atonement.

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Did you get that? Every Christian limits the atonement. Every Christian limits the atonement.

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If you hold to the perspective that Jesus accomplishes an atonement that makes people save a bull, it is limited in its ability to save anyone because of them as the creature having to essentially appropriate it or make it effective on their behalf.

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So it's limited there in its power to do anything. Or you limit the atonement in terms of saying the number of people that it perfectly saves is limited.

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Every Christian who believes in the atonement believes that it's limited in some way. And if you're a post -millennial like me, you get to say that most of humanity will be saved.

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So take that. That's a little eschatology joke. Some of you guys aren't eschatology nerds, apparently.

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Okay, some of you got it. Okay, next is Irresistible Grace. What they meant was effectual grace.

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Is God's grace able to accomplish salvation or can it be resisted?

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Here's the deal. Here's the question. Can the sovereign God really, really, really want to save and he tries so desperately and so hard, but he's thwarted by the creature?

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There is a perspective that says, yes, God can want desperately to save, have

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Jesus die for sinners, can try to apply that salvation and can be thwarted by the creature. It can be resisted.

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This grace can be resisted. Or is God's grace effectual or effective?

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Next was the final one. The P was Perseverance of the Saints. When God saves and saves perfectly, does

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Jesus ever lose any of his sheep? That's the question. We can go to many texts to defend that and we will, but I would just point you at this point, read

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John 10. So we can't really start this study, and I appreciate how

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Pastor James has explained this over the years. And I believe what

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I believe because the word of God, but I've been so thoroughly equipped and challenged in many ways over the years through Pastor James' ministry.

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And if I get anything wrong, you can blame him. But over the years, he said, really, you need to start this discussion with the study of the sovereignty of God in Scripture.

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So if you're going to put it together, it shouldn't just be TULIP, and plus how we have to define it in terms of total inability, definite redemption rather than limited atonement, and effectual grace.

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You really need to start with this sovereignty of God. So I have STUDIP, STUDIP, sovereignty of God, total inability, unconditional election, definite atonement, effectual grace, and perseverance of the saints.

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We believe in STUDIP. That's what we're doing. Now here,

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I'm going to just start this to answer one objection. You've heard me say, and some people get really offended by this, and when they're offended,

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I'm thinking I should probably make sure they understand before they get offended or before I offend them.

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You've heard me say that Paul was a Calvinist, that Jesus was a Calvinist, and some people take real offense to that.

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How can you say that the Lord of Glory was a Calvinist following a man named

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John Calvin? And it shows a misunderstanding of this entire discussion. I'm going to just go on the record here and say this.

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I have purposefully never read John Calvin. There's been times where I've been tempted to say, hey, you're willing to read this.

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He did a good job here, and I've said not going to do it. Why? Because when I defend these truths, I want people to know they're from the

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Bible. They've got nothing to do with a man named John Calvin. And when we label this controversy

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Arminian versus Calvin or Calvinism, Arminianism versus Calvinism, what we're really doing is just putting a title over the discussion.

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Where are you at on these particular points of doctrine? In history, if you were over here, you were, well, you're in the

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Arminian camp. And if you're over here, you're in the Calvinist camp. And it has to do with reference to what you believe about these particular truths.

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Is man dead in his sin? Why does God save? How does he save? What was accomplished in the atonement?

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And so when we talk about Calvinism versus Arminianism, please know this. It's got ultimately nothing to do with a man named

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John Calvin and nothing to do ultimately with a man named Jacob Arminius. Has to do with these particular truths.

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For example, I say that Jesus was Trinitarian, but the word Trinity wasn't a part of his context.

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It's a word later that was coined to define what Christians believe, what the Bible teaches about these truths.

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I say that in some aspects of Jesus' teaching, he was Augustinian. Well, how can you say that,

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Pastor Jeff? Augustine wasn't even alive yet. Well, because when Augustine fought these battles, this is what he said.

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And so Jesus was Augustinian. And so when I say Jesus was a Calvinist, what

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I'm referring to is read John 6, read John 10. That's the doctrines of grace through and through, explained by Jesus.

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And I'll say it again. John 6 and John 10 is 110 proof

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Calvinism, baby. Some people don't like that I've said that. So here's one challenge

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I want to give you before we get into the text. I told you today might be seen by some as boring, but I want to give you the text from Scripture on all these issues.

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I want to give you this challenge as your brother and a pastor. When we talk about this subject,

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I started with Romans 9 today. I think Paul was arguably the expert on this discussion of the sovereignty of God and salvation.

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Would you agree? Would you agree he's the expert? He's the inspired apostle? So he'd be the guy you want to go ask.

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Pastor James would want to sit at his feet and say, tell me, explain to me, help me to understand, right?

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As much as he's defended this view around the world and written books and all the rest, I think we'd all agree that the apostle

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Paul is the expert on these issues. He's the inspired apostle. That's where we've learned so much.

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But I want to point you to what the apostle Paul says in light of his gospel of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works of law,

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God's perfect strength and salvation, all that stuff here. And in Romans 9 of God mercies whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills.

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And there is no injustice with God. No, there isn't. Here's what he says. I am speaking the truth in Christ.

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I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

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I mean, this entire book is about the sovereignty of God and his grace and salvation.

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I mean, he's illustrating every detail of it. He's the inspired apostle. He's the one saying, here God mercies whom he wills, he hardens whom he wills.

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He makes one vessel for honorable use and one for dishonorable use. He accomplishes salvation perfectly.

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And here with all of that, he says, and I wish that I could be damned to hell.

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If it meant their salvation. Now, I'd be willing to say this.

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There's not one person in this room, including me, who's ever prayed that prayer. God damned me to hell forever if it means their salvation.

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Take me and damn me if it means they'll be saved. He has unceasing anguish in his heart for the lost.

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And yet he knows that God is the one who mercies. And God is the one who hardens.

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And he's still in his heart, he's so passionate about the lost that he even wishes to be accursed for their sake.

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So I'm going to challenge you as Calvinists and reformed folks who fully embrace the sovereignty of God and salvation to allow your heart to be changed to that.

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To be so passionate about the lost that you see yourself as less than them and their needs.

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It's a challenging thought, it's challenging for me because I can be honest and say that I've never thought like that.

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I'm so in love with Jesus, I can't imagine an eternity without him. And yet Paul says, let me be damned.

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For them, if it could be possible. So I want to challenge you with that thought.

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Here we go, sovereignty of God. I said to you before, it's hard to know where to start and where to stop.

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So what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to encourage you and whet your appetite from Lorraine Bettner's book.

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All right, I'm going to give you the scripture dump right now. You can go back and reference them later or go buy the book.

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But let's go through scripture here. And this is a little older book. And so a lot of these are from the authorized version.

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Still a good book. Pastor James loves King James Version. I want to make that very clear for the record.

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He loves it, so do I. Okay, Judas White and Jeff Durbin love it. What's that?

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Dirtbin, that's what I said. Yeah, just said about Dirtbin, yes. If you listen to the dividing line, if you've listened to Radio Free Geneva, you've heard the new intro.

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I play it just to listen to that, to be honest, Pastor James. Um, listen to this.

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Number one point that Bettner makes is this. For ordination is explicitly stated in scripture.

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Acts 4, 27, 28. For of a truth in this city against the holy servant

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Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass.

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What's that say? The murder of Jesus? All these different groups. God foreordained the murder of Jesus.

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And yet they were guilty. It's what they wanted to do. Ephesians 1, 5. Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

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Ephesians 1, 11. In whom also we were made a heritage and inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him, who works all things after the counsel of his will.

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Romans 8, 29 and 30. For whom he foreknew, he also predestines to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, and also whom he predestined, them he also called.

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And those whom he called, he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified.

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1 Corinthians 2, 7. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which

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God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory. Acts 2, 23.

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Him, Jesus, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the hands of lawless men, did crucify and slay.

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Acts 13, 48. And as the Gentiles heard this, the gospel, they were glad and glorified the word of God, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.

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As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Ephesians 2, 10.

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God aforeprepared that we should walk in them. So that's foreordination.

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It's explicitly taught and stated in scripture. This point, Bender makes the point,

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God's plan is eternal. 2 Timothy 1, 9.

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It is God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to works, to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.

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Psalm 33, 11. The counsel of Jehovah standeth fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

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Isaiah 37, 26. Hast thou not heard how

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I have done it long ago and formed it of ancient times? Isaiah 46, 9 and 10.

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I am God and there was none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done.

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2 Thessalonians 2, 13. God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

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Listen to this one. Matthew 25, 34. The Lord Jesus. Powerful, this section here.

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Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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And we could keep going. But next point, God's plan is unchangeable.

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James 1, 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

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Coming down from the father of lights with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.

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Here's a powerful one. Isaiah 14, 24. Jehovah of hosts hath sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass.

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And as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Isaiah 46, 10 and 11.

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My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Yea, I have spoken and I will also bring it to pass.

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I have purposed, I will also do it. Numbers 23, 19.

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God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?

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Malachi 3, 6. I Jehovah change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

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So what's powerful here is just this thought. Come with me for a second here. This is powerful. One of the things that you've heard us talk about often that separates the biblical

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God from man -made gods and religion is just this issue of divine sovereignty.

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Please hear me on this. The issue of divine sovereignty is what separates man -made gods and religions from the true and living

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God. And in this section, I've already read a couple of verses from the battle between the true

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God and the false gods in Isaiah. And this is critical. Don't lose this.

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It's a glorious thing. It'll give you hope. It's not just the debate between the Arminians and the Calvinists.

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This is the thing that gives the Christian hope. It gives you hope when you've lost a loved one. It gives you hope when you're dying of disease in the hospital.

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It gives you hope when you look at the circumstances around you with community collapse, difficulty, evil, and all the rest.

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God challenges the false gods in Isaiah. Read Isaiah 40 through 46. Read that section.

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And one of the things that God does is he challenges the false gods of the world to tell the future.

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Now remember, as we've said many times before, false gods have a hard time telling the future because they're deaf, dumb, and blind.

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They don't speak. They can't speak. And God even mocks the idol makers.

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He talks about basically, he gives a picture like, what do you know, basically you take money, you go pay a craftsman, he builds the idol out of stuff that I made.

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And then he builds it with his own hands and you put it up there on the shelf and it doesn't move. And there it sits.

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And he's like, and you worship it. It's ridiculous. It's illogical.

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It's irrational. It's foolish. And God says, have your gods tell you the future.

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They can't. And one of the tests that God has in his word in Deuteronomy 18, 18 through 20 is the way to know a false prophet from a true prophet is if a false prophet tells you the future in the name of the

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Lord and gets it wrong one time, that's how you know because a sovereign God can tell you future events before they happen because what?

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He is the sovereign over all of it. He decrees the end from the beginning.

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He's in control. And then the hope. He challenges false gods to tell the past.

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And why? Why did it happen? You see, here's the deal. All of us can read a history book and say, here's what happens, right?

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We can read a history book and say, I can tell you the events of history. I can tell you what happens. But no one has the ability to say why.

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And only the sovereign God can tell you why. You see, here's a powerful thing.

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I don't know what this is going to look like. These are the incomprehensible things, the mysteries of God. I don't know what conversations with God in heaven are going to be exactly like, but I'm really looking forward to them.

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And you know, one of the powerful things that all of us have as children of God is that we can ask God, why?

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Why? You ever had that question sitting at the edge of a hospital bed with someone you love who's dying, standing over a casket, right?

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Or watching something on the news that's evil. And you've asked that question, why?

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Why? Or maybe something tragic has happened to you or you're experiencing some awful thing and you're saying, why?

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Why, God? Why are you letting this happen? The beautiful thing about this sovereign God, the true

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God is because he's sovereign, he can answer that question. Because there is no purposeless and meaningless evil in our lives as God's children in this world.

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God has a purpose for everything that has happened in the world. And you might be tempted to say, even the evil things.

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And all I would do is point you to what I already illustrated there from Acts. The murder of Jesus was without question the most evil act committed by the hands of men in the history of mankind.

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Because Jesus is the one who was truly righteous and truly innocent. And it says in the text, gathered against your holy servant

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Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel and Gentiles to do what? Whatever your hand had predestined to occur.

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God predestined the murder of Jesus, the murder of the son of God on a tree. Those people who did it all had different reasons for it.

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They all wanted to do it. God didn't make them do it, but he predestined that they would murder

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Jesus. Even that evil event, God has full control over for the good of his people and for his glory, amen?

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So the good, beautiful news of the sovereignty of God isn't something to be feared. It's something to be delighted in and rejoiced in.

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Next, the divine plan includes the future acts of men.

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Daniel 2 .28, but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets and he hath made known to the

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King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. John 6 .64,

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for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who it was that should betray him.

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Matthew 20, 18 and 19, behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him unto the

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Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify and the third day he shall be raised up.

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Another thing to point out here and Bettner does it is a powerful thought is it's my favorite thing to talk about.

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I wish it was the only thing we had to talk about because it is truly my favorite. All of the

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Old Testament is about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Did you catch that? Talking about is

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God truly sovereign? Think about all the crazy events that had to happen for Jesus to come into existence at that point in time and all that had to happen to be delivered over all those things.

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God, what was he wielding? One decision changes everything.

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One. Think about this. This is a crazy thought. It's trippy. It's a trippy thought.

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I was supposed to go be a pastor in South Carolina my house was boxed up literally eating off paper plates even our silverware was boxed up.

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I was in a year -long search process. The search committee unanimously decided you're the guy. You're the pastor.

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I went to South Carolina for like a week at a time. We're moving to South Carolina. I'm on my way out.

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I'm leaving and next thing you know I get a weird phone call. Hey, there's this hospital, drug addicts.

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Will you come preach the gospel tonight? Because we lost our pastor. I was like, wait, what?

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It's a room full of people that can't leave. I could tell about Jesus. I'm in. I'll be there. Seven o 'clock. All right.

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So I come preach the gospel. I see a room full of people that were like me. Preach the gospel. People come to Jesus. Next thing you know,

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I end up staying in Arizona. No plans to plant Apologia Church. Never in my mind was

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I like, I'm a church planter. I'm gonna plant a church. I resisted planting this church so hard.

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I did not want to plant this church. I'm glad I did, but I did not have this plan.

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I didn't want to do it. I was resistant. I resisted hard and long. I really did.

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Now think about this. Those decisions that were out of my control, something God foisted upon us and completely altered the course.

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I want you to consider this. I'm looking at faces right now of couples that are married now because Jeff Durbin didn't go to South Carolina.

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I know people in this church that have children now because Jeff Durbin didn't go to South Carolina.

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I'm not taking credit for your children, but you get my point. It's a decision, right?

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You came here. You met your spouse here and your children were born here because of that spouse. And they're a unique person that only exists because it's the two of you together genetically that made this unique, amazing, special creation.

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But if one person's decision had changed, you wouldn't have met here at this church and had those children that are unique in their own way.

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They wouldn't have. You see what I'm saying? It's a trippy thought and it's one person's decision.

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It's one person's events that alter the course of the rest of human history.

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And Jesus is prophesied in the Old Testament down to so many specific details to when he's coming, how he's going to die, who he is, where he's going to be born.

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All the details, they are spectacular. And God upheld all that and controlled that.

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And Jesus says to them, if you believed Moses, you'd believe in me because he wrote about me.

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And he challenges the disciples on the road to Amascus about what? Not believing all of the scriptures foretold.

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That's a sovereign God. And think about the details. Pastor White was mentioning recently on the dividing line, the butterfly effect.

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Like one little flap of the wings that alters everything.

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Can we stop and just think about it a little bit more in terms of God's sovereignty? I don't want to make this personal, but I mean, this is so important.

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This isn't just Arminianism versus Calvinism and Tulip and limited atonement. And this is my team and your team.

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I mean, this is vital. It is so vital. Think about all the children who are alive today because this specific church exists.

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Because this specific church was called by God to save children's lives. Because this specific church, not me, but this specific church worked together to raise up other believers, other churches to encourage them to save lives.

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How many children are going to live next week because of the work of this church?

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Because this church is laboring in this way. Think about the effects. One decision, one move, one life, one person.

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That's a sovereign God. That's a sovereign God. And we can't even begin to imagine the complexities of this beautiful doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

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But I'll keep going. Some events are recorded as fixed or inevitably certain.

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Luke 22, 22, For the Son of Man indeed goeth as it hath been determined, but woe unto that man through whom he is betrayed.

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John 8, 20, These words spake he in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no man took him because his hour was not yet come.

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I love that. I love it. I seriously love that. Where in Jesus' ministry, like they pick up stones to kill them, right?

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They're going to kill them. And then all of a sudden, they don't kill them. He slips out of the crowd, right? And it's only when he says, all right,

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I'm going to Jerusalem. They're going to betray me. They'll kill me. In three days, I'll rise again. It was only when

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God had sovereignly appointed it and nobody was allowed by God to kill Jesus until God says, okay, now.

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Okay, now you'll be evil. So God is restraining the wicked people in Israel and the others.

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He's holding back their hatred of Jesus. He's holding back their desire to murder. He holds back the events that could lead to the murder of Jesus until God's appointed time.

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He says, okay, now. Now I'll let you have what you want. It was only when

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God had determined to allow it, which is why I love what Whitfield said. We put it in the soul food last week.

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Was it last week? Every Christian is immortal. Every Christian is immortal until God's appointed day of their death.

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That's something like that, right? You think about that, it gives you some courage to go. Don't be stupid, okay? But it gives you some courage in terms of God's sovereignty.

01:02:30

Like I'm immortal until my work is done. Until God's purpose and plan for my life is done.

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I'm immortal. It's a powerful thought in terms of thinking about God's sovereignty over our lives and the future and the events of the future.

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Luke, no, sorry. Matthew 24, 36. But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son, but the father only, the appointed day.

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But the father only. Genesis 41, 32. And for that the dream was doubled unto

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Pharaoh. It is because the thing is established of God and he will shortly bring it to pass.

01:03:14

Habakkuk 2, 3. For the vision is yet for the appointed time and it hasteneth toward the end and shall not lie.

01:03:22

Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not delay.

01:03:28

So scripture teaches those truths. Daniel 4, 35. About God and his will.

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He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what have you done?

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That's a powerful text. It's a powerful text. Nobody can stay

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God's hand or say unto him, what have you done? Jeremiah 32, 17.

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Ah, Lord Jehovah, behold thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.

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Ephesians 1, 22. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.

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Ephesians 1, 11. In whom we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.

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Pause. It's one of those things where like, we'll see glorious truths in scripture but not think about the impact or think about the implications.

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When we see a text like that, God works all things, all things after the counsel of his will.

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Do you believe that? All things? That all things he works up to the counsel of his will.

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All things means what? All things. I think a lot of times as Christians, we like to say, well, I don't wanna make

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God look bad. So I wanna protect God from his own sovereignty.

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So when there's bad things to happen in the world, that's the devil. And when there's good things to happen in the world, that's

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Jesus, right? And there's bad things to happen in the world and God can't do anything about that because well, you got people and they're sinful and evil and they got this thing called free will and God doesn't have anything to do with that.

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But when there's good things to happen in the world, that's because Jesus. Because that's really, that's

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God moving. That's not what the Bible says, brothers and sisters. He declares the end from the beginning and nobody can stay his hand toward his purposes.

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God's the one that determines every detail of history and he works all things after the counsel of his will.

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All things means all things, which includes all things, meaning death, decay, disease, sickness, pain, sorrow, suffering.

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And don't you know, that's your hope. That's your hope when evil happens in the world or I fall into tragedy or evil.

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That's my hope. God works all things after the counsel of his will. I'm the called according to his purpose.

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This will be for my good and God's glory. Nothing is getting at me apart from my father's will and purpose.

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God has a good and perfect purpose in all that happens in this fallen and sinful world.

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Nobody thwarts his purposes. More, we can go for days here, but I know it's getting hot and I'm gonna wrap up here.

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But just in terms of more on this particular point, listen to this. Isaiah 46, nine, 10, 11.

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Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

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Yeah, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will also do it.

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I read that before. I'm reading it again. So you can see in terms of testimony of scripture, God says that he is the one who is the sovereign over the future and the past.

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Is anything too hard for Jehovah? Genesis 18, 14. Is anything too hard for God?

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Answer the question. No, including the salvation of dead sinners. Amen. Welcome to Calvinism.

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Job, I said Job 42, two. It's like when

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Dr. Clark was like, have you read Malachi two? Okay, have you read

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Job? Job 42, two. I know that thou can't do all things and that no purpose of thine can be restrained.

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Psalm 115, three. That's what we did today. Our God is in the heavens.

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He had done whatsoever he pleased. Psalm 135, six. Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that he had done in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and in all deeps.

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Isaiah 55, 11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which

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I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

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We could go on talking about God's sovereignty over the details of history down to animal creation, the nations themselves, or the nature of the physical world, but brothers and sisters, we'd be here for weeks of sermons talking about all those details.

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I want to challenge you all to get that book, The Reformed Doctrine and Predestination by Lorraine Bettner. If you can't afford it, we'll buy it for you.

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And again, if you got the book simply for the references to scripture, it would be well worth it.

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My, let me just put it this way. The thing,

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I started reading scripture, wasn't raised in a Christian home, started reading the gospel according to John.

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That's where I started. My first couple of months in the Bible, it was just John. Over and over and over and over again.

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After that, it was Romans. Over and over and over again. I believed these things long before I ever heard of something called

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Calvinism or Arminianism. When I got into a particular church tradition, went to Bible college,

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I was taught an opposing tradition and I started to adopt some of those things.

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Yeah, I guess free will's a thing. And I guess, you know, God can try to save and not. But I thought that doesn't really make sense with John 6.

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And so I really struggled. I had such a hard time because I knew what I saw in John. I knew what

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I saw in Romans. I knew what I saw elsewhere. But now I had sort of a tradition and some conflicting beliefs that were causing problems.

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And I was in angst over it, struggling. And there was a particular point in time where I finally determined,

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I am just gonna go to the texts. I am just gonna see, what do the texts say?

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What do the texts say? And I buried myself in the text themselves saying, what does the text say? Not what is everyone else saying?

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Not what the debate is. What's the Bible say? What are all these verses saying about God's sovereignty and our condition and all?

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What's the Bible say? And I remember at one day after just working through verse, after verse, after verse, after verse,

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I came bursting out of my bedroom and Candy's in the living room. And I was like, babe, I'm a

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Calvinist. And she was like, oh no. And now she's

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Calvinist now, by the way, okay. But I wanna just express to you, the important aspect is not this.

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Please hear this. It's not about a camp. It's not, it's not about a camp. It's not like, you know, you gotta pick a camp and be in a camp.

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These truths not only protect what the Bible says about God's grace and what the

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Bible says about the atonement and the gospel itself. These truths don't just protect those things. They're not just biblical truths that you need to stand on and they protect these things.

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I want to encourage you with this. These truths changed my life. They gave me the courage to trust

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God when he was asking me for hard things. They gave me courage to face a hostile world with the gospel.

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I just want you to hear that from me on a very personal level. Going out and doing the hard ministry, like going to the

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Mormon temple, going out to do public debates with atheists, going out to abortion clinics where they're throwing things at you, pulling guns out, trying to run you down with their cars.

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The courage to do those things is not just you're a really special person. You're a really strong person.

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The courage to do those things comes from theology. Theology matters.

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It'll change how you actually face difficult things in your life. It'll change your perspective of tragedy and difficulty in the world.

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It'll change how you actually answer when God calls you to do a very hard thing.

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These truths are not just biblical. These truths are transforming.

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And that's why we're doing this study. It's not because we're firming up our commitments to our reformed clique.

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Sometimes I don't even like the reformed clique. These truths are the truths of God and they transform

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God's people. They protect the gospel. I will say this as a challenge. Do you need to be a

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Calvinist to be saved? No. No. It's faith in Jesus that saves us.

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It's faith in Christ that saves us. Some of my favorite Christians are not Calvinists.

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However, I will say this, that this debate between Calvinism and Arminianism is ultimately a debate that protects the heart of the gospel.

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When you get these issues wrong, it begins to muddy or obfuscate the gospel and it could end up destroying it.

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Please hear me on that. Do you need to be a Calvinist to be saved? Absolutely not. But when you lose these truths and lose the biblical foundations under these truths, it leads to things like Pelagianism, Universalism, and other heresies.

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So how important are these truths? I think they're worth dying over, but they are not worth dividing with a true believer over.

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We can have these debates in -house, especially at a time we're living right now when we've got to surround the essentials of the faith and we've got to fight against a hostile culture.

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We need each other. We need each other. But we definitely need to make sure that these truths are guarded and upheld and you should be passionate about them.

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Just don't be a punk. Be passionate. Don't be a punk.

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Don't be pompous. Don't be arrogant. Some people say, reformed folks are very arrogant sometimes.

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And I would say, you know what? That's true. There are people who are reformed that are very arrogant. I actually experienced the other side of that.

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I believe these truths about God's sovereignty, our condition and His grace and salvation humble you.

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They are the truths that humble you and bring you low. They show you that you weren't deserving of any of this and there's nothing special in you that caused any of this to happen.

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I think these truths actually bring about the most humility before God and others.

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Because when I go out there to preach the gospel to a hostile world, I know that the only difference between me and the person

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I'm talking to is grace. It's not me. It's nothing in me.

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It's grace. I should be on the other side of the conversation. I don't know why

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I'm over on this side. And that's a powerful thought. This study will protect and defend the gospel of God's grace.

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And that's why we should dedicate our lives to it. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would bless this study as we prepare it for this body and for those who hear it.

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Help us as pastors, as elders, as teachers to clearly communicate your truth. I pray that you would,

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Lord, bring preservation of your truth through this study. Protect the gospel. I pray that you'd bless all the pastors who are going to be speaking through this series.

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Even begin preparing Pastor James now as he gets ready for two weeks from now. I pray that you would use this series to humble us as a church and to embolden us in your mission to bring this world under your feet.