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Calvinist logs start a 2022. Yes, it is 2022 can you believe it? What's the best way to start your new Bible study program for this year? Why don't Calvinist believe in free will all this and more is coming to you today.
So get ready. Conversations with a Calvinist is about to begin. Welcome back to conversations with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist today we're going to be beginning with a question from our social media page and then we're going to be going into our Calvinist topic of the day and you may have not noticed or you may have noticed.
But I've got a new friend on the show. My new cat just walked by. I don't know if she just showed up in the program or not, but you may see her from time to time. Actually, we have two we have a new Black and white cat named Oreo and we have a new speckled cat named Simba.
So you may see them on the show from time to time. So today we're going to be talking about two specific issues. The first one we're going to be dealing with a listener question. And then we're going to be going into our Calvinistic topic.
So and I said on the last program I said I wanted to start engaging some more Calvinistic questions dealing with some more specifically Calvinistic issues and so that's what we're going to be doing today, but let's start out with the Listener question and This is the first part of the program and what we're going to be dealing with is the question of what is the best way to begin a Bible study if you are a brand new Christian or if you're a relatively new Christian or if you've never really done a Bible study before what is the best way to begin a Bible study if this is for you a fresh start a first thing and I do have some notes here that I'm going to be Looking at as we go through the program.
So if you see me looking down, that's what I'm looking at. I want to make sure that I keep up with my thoughts here and I have a lot of thoughts on this topic. And and honestly, it's I don't always give the same exact answer because it really depends sometimes on the person.
It depends on you know Time and and and what you're really looking to get out of the study things like that. There's there's there's a lot of things that I can say if somebody says what's the best way to start a Bible study?
Well, my question might be well, what is it that you're what is it that you're trying to do, you know. If you're trying to learn the overall story of the Bible. Then doing a very in-depth study of one book Might be helpful, but it might not be exactly what you're looking for you may you may want to do an overview of all of the books because you're trying to get the whole story and.
Or if you're trying to learn how to do in an expository study where you do get down into the deep Nitty-gritty of a particular book that that's that's just something different. So there's there's different ways to do these studies.
And so so Here here are three thoughts for you. If you're new to Bible study and you want to know how to get started here. Here are the three thoughts that I that I have for you today number one I do recommend that you try to familiarize yourself with the whole Bible's story.
That that includes the four parts of creation fall redemption and Restoration slash consummation the end of all things. So so that's that's the Bible story in in in four parts and looking at the whole right and you might say well that leaves Out a lot.
Well, it doesn't leave out a lot, but it does condense the whole because creation is Is is obviously how we got here the fall is how we got into the condition that we are in rest. Redemption is is is how a person comes out of there the natural Fallen state and arrives in a state of being saved or being Redeemed and then and then we look forward to the time where we get to experience restoration and the consummation of all things and and so being able to to look at the Bible as a whole in those sort of four categories and understanding where you are in the story and understanding how the story unfolds is a big part of starting a Good Bible study.
I Would say maybe something that you should do in in regard to this first thing familiarizing yourself with the whole Bible story. It's commit to learning all of the books of the Bible. Who wrote them when they were written and Sort of put that in your mind is that's a goal, right?
If you're looking at 2022, I want to be a better Bible student. What will set some specific goals? Learn the 66 books of the Bible. Learn the approximate date of when they were written. Learn who wrote them.
Learn what the what the purpose of each book. You know the basic theme of each book is now I'm gonna plug one of my courses for you. And and the reason why I'm doing this is because this is actually this is right in line with number one.
But this is also coming up. So here here's my plug. Here's my recommendation. There is coming up at Sovereign Grace Family Church beginning in two weeks, January 16th, not even a whole two weeks we are starting a New course and the course is called Survey of the Old Testament and that is is an eight-week course and basically what the first question I asked when we begin this class is How many of you can give me a one-sentence synopsis of every book of the Bible?
Just just what the basic theme of each book is and very few people raise their hand very few people are confident enough to say Yes, I know that. Okay. So there you go. There's something you can think about right?
Coming to this class at the end of this eight weeks. You will be able to at least give a basic synopsis of all of the 39 books of the Old Testament Understanding who wrote them when they were written.
Basically what they were written about and and and that's a very that's it. That's a lofty goal, but it's it's not too it's not so vast that that that it's beyond anyone if Anybody can do this and so I would encourage you one familiarize yourself with the whole Bible story number two if you do want to begin to go deeper in a study, I would say choose a book and Focus on that book for a season whether that season be six weeks eight weeks three months, whatever but spend some time in that book learning the how the book flows be reading it every day and a Thought that you could that you could consider with this is a story I heard and I may have told the story in the program before I don't remember but there was a Man who went to his pastor and he said it pastor I'm just not getting much out of my personal Bible study and the pastor said I want you to go and read 2nd Peter every day for 30 days and he said at the end of the first week the guy was like wow I'm noticing stuff.
I've never seen before. And this is 2nd Peter right three little chapters. After two weeks the guy was talking about 2nd Peter every time he saw the pastor pastor. There's this is an amazing book. I didn't realize how amazing it was at the end of the month.
He said 2nd Peter changed my life and it's just these three little chapters, but he had invested it every day Reading this book. Sometimes he read more than one time a day, but he invested in the reading of 2nd Peter.
And so I would encourage you you know choose a book a lot of people would say choose John because John is Tells us about Jesus it talks about believing in Jesus. In fact, John gives us his reason for writing these things I've written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
So all of these things are Important and if you can read the the Gospel of John and make that a committed Thing that you do I say go for it. That would be awesome. But you may want to do a smaller book first John as many chapters you you could you could start with right now.
I'm doing a series on Wednesday night Called the little letters. I'm doing second third John Jude and Philemon which are the the one chapter books that are in the New Testament and and part of the reason I'm doing this is I'm trying to show the value of the smaller books because a lot of people overlook them.
Or they read through them quickly but I'm also trying to show that this is a great way to get started with a study and I Sort of based this on Dave Ramsey's debt snowball Approach and if you're not familiar with Dave Ramsey, obviously he is a he's a he's a Financial person who helps people get over their finance Financial problems and one of the things he has is called the debt snowball and the debt snowball is he says let's say you have ten credit cards of Various levels of debt you got one that you owe two hundred dollars one that you owe five hundred dollars.
Maybe one or two that you owe a thousand dollars and then you have one that's like five thousand dollars. He said he said if you try to if you try to pay off the five thousand dollar one first. You'll get discouraged.
He said so See what you have start with the smallest and then go to the next one and and as you get those little victories, you'll get more and more confident for the next one and and It's brilliant and I know people that's been successful for it was actually successful for my wife and I because we had a Time when we had some debt we had to figure out how to how to pay it off and we did just that we took A couple of years went through paid off the smaller ones first and it gave us confidence to pay off the larger ones and before We knew it.
We had gotten through that debt and we no longer had it. So Sort of using that same approach think about the Bible think about how you approach your own Approach getting through the Bible and studying through a book if you start with, you know Isaiah, which is 66 chapters or or the Psalms at 150 chapters you may find yourself discouraged but if you started with 2nd Peter or you started with Jude or Philemon or you started with something else?
That was not as Not as long you might find yourself more confident to move on to something a little bit longer. Okay, I mentioned my cat earlier. My cat is literally moving my light right now. This is this is funny.
Hey, hey, hey Oreo. Don't do that. Okay. Sorry. So sorry. Sorry this again very professional podcast. We are we are now dealing with Animal interruptions don't do that Oreo. Okay. All right. So so that's number two, right choose a book to begin reading daily.
You know make make that book your focus for however long of time I would say reading at least for a month read it every day for a month. And then after that you might move on to you might move on to to something else.
Okay, the third thing that I would recommend is that you focus on Observation first again if you're new to Bible study. There are three parts to the hermeneutics that I would teach if you come to my hermeneutics class.
I teach out of Howard Hendricks his book, which is called living by the book and I do recommend that book and It talks about three parts of hermeneutics. The first part is observation. The second part is interpretation.
The third part is application and he spends a lot of time in the book expressing the importance of observation observation being like a detective as you go through the the book as you are reading through.
Making notes asking questions drawing lines connecting the dots that type of observational work that that type of Excavation that mining work is what begins to familiarize you with what the word is saying.
I I I may throw a picture up here there. I when I do a study of A passage when I'm doing a study to preach on or if I'm just doing it for my own personal study. When I'm done with it, it looks like one of those crazy conspiracy maps that people see with drawings and lines and things because I literally sit down and I use my iPad so I Take the I take the text.
I copy it. I put it into a note that I can write on. And I and I and my little iPad pencil. I'm able to change color. I'm able to highlight with different colors. I'm able to draw lines. I circle the the the people involved and all of the pronouns pointing the pronouns back to the Antecedent the the noun that it's connected to.
I I look at the verbs I go through highlight the verbs who's who's you know? Who's doing the action? What's what's the action here? You know separating the the indicatives from the imperatives all of these things are are part of a good study and and that's how you do the observation and.
Lastly, I would say this do not neglect prayer when you are studying your Bible don't neglect talking to the author. Okay the Holy Spirit authored the Bible ultimately the Bible says that it was given to us by the Inspiration of God and the Bible says it was it was it was written by holy men who were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So so God gave us the word through the Spirit. The Spirit is available to the believer. He lives within us. Therefore we have the ability to reach out and talk to the author and ask him to give us the wisdom.
To be able to understand it. So so that's my four things if you are Beginning the Bible study familiarize yourself with the whole Bible story. Choose a book to begin to read daily. Focus on observation before you get to interpretation application focus focus on observation asking questions drawing your connections and.
Finally always begin with prayer. Alright, so that is my recommendation for how to do and how to begin a good Bible study. Okay now on to our conversation about Calvinism, so what I'm going to talk about today is the question of free will and this is a question that often comes up and It's not always the first question and and I did I sort of debated with myself whether I should start with this or whether I should go right into.
Questions about tulip and total depravity and things like that. But this this is sort of this is at least one of the things that comes up on a pretty regular basis. And I think there's a lot of confusion that surrounds it.
I think there's a lot of things that people get wrong when they have this conversation. Calvinist and non-Calvinist alike have a lot of have a lot of things that they just miss on this. Because the question revolves around two important realities number one man is not a robot or a puppet.
Man makes choices that are legitimate choices and the choices do affect his life his his. In a sense his choices do affect what what is going to happen in his life and and Calvinist don't deny that men make legitimate choices man is not a robot or a puppet and.
That that's that's affirmed by Calvinist that man is not a puppet. However, if you talk to non-Calvinist when they're talking about Calvinism a lot of times they say well Calvinist believe men are Puppets on a string or they are robots.
They're just doing what they have been programmed to do. That's one of the words that sometimes is used. And and the reason that they make that claim is because the second truth the first truth man is not a puppet that is true.
But the second truth is also true and that is that God is sovereign over everything including the free acts of men. Okay. That means he is ultimately in control of everything that happens and He has decreed from eternity past.
Whatsoever will come to pass that is what we confess as Calvinists. That is part of our Confessions of faith whether they be the Westminster the London Baptist Confession. But you know, we typically would all confess that God has from eternity past Decreed whatsoever will come to pass Including the free acts of men and so you say, okay, how can something be free and yet?
Decreed and. That's a good question. And that's what I want to talk about today when people say I believe in free will or I don't believe in free will. Even that word is is some it's got so much baggage Attached to it that it's it's hard to say that if somebody says I believe in free will or I don't believe in free.
Well, what do you even mean? What is the definition that you're using? Because in a sense I could say as a Calvinist. I still do believe in a free will but not a Autonomous free will or a what some might refer to as a libertarian Free will not libertarianism as the as the political system.
But a libertarian will in the sense of a a will that is completely Able to to decide without influence that it's that it's completely free in the sense that it's Uninfluenced and that is not what the Bible teaches about our will.
Autonomous will is is a person who's free to do What it wants how it wants when it wants and the way it wants and it's not bound by anything. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does teach that we have a certain degree of freedom, but it is not Autonomous or completely free and and here's here are the four things.
I want to this is my case. If I'm making a case based on four basic principles number one Mankind is sinful by nature. We're gonna look at a few passages for that. But just so you know, that is the key to understanding this if mankind is sinful by nature Then he's not absolutely free because ultimately just just think about this if a person has a perfect free will.
Then can he? Cease to be a sinner now. Some people believe that he can man has the power to not be a sinner. But the Bible does not give that as an option. Man, just choosing to not be a sinner is not an option.
Because man is a sinner by nature. So number one man is a sinner by nature and therefore he's not completely free. The Bible says he who sends is a slave to sin. Therefore a man is by nature a slave not free and that's the that's the distinction when you say I believe in absolute free will.
But it's not free. It's bound. That's the opposite of freedom. Number two God restrains the sinful nature of men. Number three God hardened some men and number four God opens the hearts of other men and so.
That's the four four prong thesis of my argument against free will and this would be true. Even if I weren't a Calvinist, I even if I weren't a Calvinist I still could not affirm absolute free will. Because of those four things and all four of those things while they do they do support my Calvinism.
They would have to be affirmed even in my opinion by someone who's not a Calvinist so If somebody says well, I just believe in absolute free will I would say number one let's go through these one at a time mankind is sinful by nature and Therefore he's not absolutely free because he is bound by his nature.
In fact here. Here's a passage Jeremiah 1323 this is a question that the Prophet Jeremiah asks and it's an important question. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also, can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil?
Well, what's what's Jeremiah saying? What is the Prophet saying? He's saying he's saying as much as the Ethiopian can't change the color of his skin and The leopard can't change the shape or or pattern of his spots.
Neither can the person who is who is accustomed to doing evil simply stop being evil and start being good. We don't change ourselves. Now you talk about people who go through some, you know moral Cleansing or some kind of like 12-step program where they go through some kind of some kind of Moral breakthrough where they do better.
That's that's that's great. But it's not. It's not a change of nature. They still have the sinful nature. Even if a person who was a drunkard stops being a drunkard or even if a person who's an addict stops being an addict they're still a sinner and That's the point that you can't and won't ever stop being a sinner because you're bound by that nature.
It takes an act of God to change your heart. To to to take you from from the category and we do we do change categories when we can say we go from the category of Sinner to the category of Saint doesn't mean we don't battle sin anymore.
We still battle sin, but we do change categories, but that category change doesn't come from us. We don't do it. God does it? It's not something we exercise from the inside. It's something God exercises from the outside in and he changes us.
So that's one another one that's an important passage is Ephesians chapter 2. This again tells us you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that is not work of the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind and Were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind again.
My argument man is sinful by nature the argument of the Apostle Paul man is sinful by nature. In fact, I remember saying this in a sermon one night. This was probably 28 years old. There was a lady there.
She she was Already unhappy with my preaching. She didn't like she actually told me she didn't like having being told she was a sinner every week. And I was like, well you need to be you we all need to be Reminded that Christ saved us because we're sinners not because we're good people.
And she didn't like that. But one night we're talking and I said we are sinners by nature and she goes no we are not. She wanted to argue with me. It was a it was more of a Bible study than a sermon. So what she wasn't being Particularly pugnacious it was just it was it was an open floor to ask questions and and she I don't believe people are sinful by nature.
And I said, but what does it say right here? It says you were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind that doesn't leave anyone out there's no one good by nature and it says By nature children of wrath.
So right here this to me is proof that we are we are sinful by nature. I Like to pull in Psalm 51 it reminds us David wrote behold I was brought forth in inequity and in sin did my mother conceive me?
That's not saying that his mother was particularly sinful in her conception of him. But rather that he came forth from the womb as a sinner. Now maybe one day we can deal with the subject of you know, the age of accountability.
That was actually a conversation. I was having tonight with a friend at church. Stephen hope you're listening. I Know you're you like to program and I appreciate you listening. And we were having that question or conversation about the age of accountability.
Maybe we'll maybe I'll talk about that in a future program. But this this is one of those passage that David says I was brought forth in Iniquity it was the way that I was Was conceived. You know, and so I was a sinner from birth, you know, we sin because we're sinners we sin because that is our nature and There are other passages.
Romans chapter 5 specifically refers to Adams nature being Affecting us and what we call federal headship. That's it. That's a topic for another show, but ultimately. What my first point? Because we were sinners by nature.
We are not absolutely free that has to be understood because we were sinners by nature we are not absolutely free that's number one number two. God by his grace restrains the sinful nature of men. Now understand this this is one of the greatest blessings that we have.
We have a sinful nature, but we are not allowed to express it to its fullest. Because God is actively Through the what I would call common grace. Some people don't like to term common grace, but it is.
It's it's affirmed in the Reformed Confession. So I feel like comfortable I can use that but but even if you say it's not common grace. It's just some form of mercy or universal mercy or whatever God does restrain us from being as evil as we could be and I'll give you a couple of passages I actually preached on this recently.
It was Genesis chapter 20 when Abraham went Into Gerar and he was there with Abimelech and he told the people that Sarah was a sister and so Abimelech took her into his into his house and God visited Abimelech in a dream and said hey, you've taken another man's wife and Abimelech Says well, I didn't touch her and and and this is what it says.
I Want to read it to you? The beginning of verse 4 now Abimelech had not approached her so he said Lord will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me? She is my sister and she herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.
I've done this then God said to him in the dream. Yes I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart and it was I Who kept you from sinning against me? Therefore I did not let you touch her.
Just think about that. People who want to argue for free will God just told Abimelech I Stopped you I Restrained you and that doesn't mean God like was holding his arms back. God restrained him in his heart.
I Get I get excited about this when I think about it because when somebody says I'm absolutely free. No, God is actively restraining your sinful nature. You're not absolutely free if you were free and God wasn't restraining you.
You would be worse. You would be so much worse. In fact, I can prove that because in Romans 1 it tells us when God gives someone over to a debased mind They do what ought not to be done. If God lifted his hand of restraint on our evil hearts, they would be so much worse.
So if somebody says I am absolutely free to do what I want. No, praise God. You're not Praise God that you're not. All right. The next one I this is a passage often overlooked. This is Exodus 34 21 to 24 this is this is talking about when the the men of Israel would go away to worship God and.
And just listen what it says. It says Six days you shall work but on the seventh day you shall rest and plowing time and in harvest you shall rest you shall observe the Feast of Weeks the first fruits of We sweet harvest and the Feast of in gathering at the year's end three times in the year.
Shall all of your mails appear before the Lord God the God of Israel for I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
Notice what that passage says. The people who covet their land won't covet their land while they go up to worship. So when they're away and unable to protect the land God is going to restrain the hearts of their enemies to not desire the land.
That's proof that man is not absolutely free because if if man were free that would mean God is not Actively restraining him but in this passage he is restraining them three times a year. So if God restrains the sinful heart of man, then it's not absolutely free.
Number number three number three God hardens the hearts of some men now. We will discuss hardening later in a more in-depth look later this year as we go through the program I do want to talk about the difference between The natural inability of man the the lack of desire we have for godly things versus what we might refer to as judicial hardening.
I talked about that about a year ago in the program, but it's something I want to I want to go into again just to bring up and the Bible speaks about God hardening men and. And we see this In several places, obviously probably the most famous would be Romans chapter 9.
It Says in Romans 9 15 for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion so that it depends not on human will or exertion. But on God who chose mercy for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
So he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens Whomever he wills and so the text says God hardens the hearts of some men in this case Pharaoh but there's other times where That's done. I referenced Joshua 11 20 for it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle.
Isaiah 63 17. Oh Lord. Why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? So so here here's some passages specifically that it says God is active in hardening the hearts of some people so so This is it's important to recognize to hardening.
The heart does not mean God is making this person more evil. In fact I always say the hardening of the heart is is like the removing of moisture from a lump of clay as a lump of clay dries and the moisture is removed it becomes harder and harder and our hearts have that common grace or common mercy that that keeps us from being as as as Sinful as we might want to be but as God is God chooses to read to to lift his restraint.
To give us over to the debased mind. That heart hardens like clay without water and that's what I believe is actually in view when it talks about God hardening. So it's not introducing fresh evil it's exposing Evil that exists by removing Grace and mercy by removing restraint from the heart so I would say that's.
That's that that that's how we are to understand that and and Ultimately again, if God hardens the hearts of some men, then that those people aren't free. You say well they harden their own heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
Yes. But the Bible uses both it says some men harden their heart and some men. God hardens their heart and some men like in the case of Pharaoh it says both. So it's important to recognize that God is doing something and God is choosing to do something by his own will.
So again looking at this from just the first three the Bible says we are sinners by nature if that's the case. We're not absolutely free. The Bible says God restrains sin in our hearts. Therefore we're not free to do everything we want because we would be worse and the Bible says God hardens some men's hearts and That leads us to number four.
Number four is that God also Opens the hearts of some in God softens the hearts of some people. I'll point you to specifically acts 1614 it says When Paul was preaching the gospel, it says one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira a seller of purple goods.
Who was a worshiper of God the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to? What was said by Paul notice that it is the Lord who opened her heart that is so important because it doesn't say she opened her own heart and.
And here's the amazing thing and and it's something we have to recognize when we talk about Calvinism versus Arminianism. Oftentimes I get a little chuckle when I hear Arminians praying for their unsaved loved ones.
Because they often pray like Calvinists. They'll say God open the heart of my aunt or uncle open the heart of my sister or brother open their heart make them Willing to believe and I say wait a minute.
That's a Calvinist thing. Because if the Arminian gospel is is is if there are many an understanding of salvation is true. Then God is in heaven going. I'm doing the best I can. It's up to them. But nobody prays that way.
We all we all pray the same way. We say God open little Jimmy's heart. God open uncle uncle. Who Johnny's heart? We say that because we know it's God who opens the heart. It's God who gives the ability to believe.
No one can come to him to Christ unless God Does something first he opens the heart for them to believe. John 644. John 6 65 are some passages we'll look at at a later time. So again, the four things that that helped me to believe that man is not completely free is number one.
He's a sinner by nature. Therefore. He's not absolutely free. Number two he God restrains sin. Therefore man is not free to be as sinful as he chooses or wants to be. Number three God hardens the hearts of some men and number four God opens the hearts of other men or people.
And so when we look at those four things only. Whether you're Calvinist or maybe you're still holding out and you're an Arminian and I haven't convinced you yet. That's fine. But still you should not be holding to the idea of a autonomous free will.
But you should understand that our wills are not free. Our wills are as Martin Luther coined it in Bondage until God sees fit to set us free and. So that's my first hopefully encouraging subject in in this conversation on Calvinism and Here's my encouragement to you.
If you like what I did today and you want more of this if you want me to go deeper or you want me to ask A specific question about a specific issue. Please send it to me at Calvinist podcast at gmail .com.
It's helpful to me. It helps me to know what you need and what you want. And this program is all about helping you to know the word better and to be able to deal with these these difficult topics. Thank you for listening today to conversations with a Calvinist.
My name is Keith.
Thank you for listening to conversations with a Calvinist. If you enjoyed the program Please take a moment to subscribe and if you have a question, you would like us to discuss on our future program. Please email us at Calvinist podcast at gmail .com as you go about your day.
Remember this Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior. He is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him.
May God be with you.