Adventures With Calvinistman - Episode 4 - The Unsaved Love Darkness, The Saved Love The Light

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Welcome to Adventures with Calvinist Man. He's faster than a speeding
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Arminian, more powerful than man -centered synergism, and able to leap tall strawmen in a single bound.
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Look, up in the sky, it's a bird. It's a tulip. No, it's Calvinist Man.
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Hello, and welcome back to Adventures with Calvinist Man. That's right.
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I am your theological superhero designed to take you through Reformed theology and dispel all of those evil villains, the anti -Reformed off.
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People that are not Calvinistic or Reformed that are in opposition or would disagree with us, they're not our enemies.
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They're our brothers and sisters in Christ. And yes, this is an area where good Christians can disagree, and that's okay.
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But your superhero Calvinist Man, and this superhero that I've created in order to dispel some of the things that are said about Reformed soteriology, or Calvinism as it's called, to make sure you understand there is no conspiracy.
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We're not out here teaching some type of theological determinism. We just wanna understand what scripture rightly says about our salvation and the election of God.
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And the way we do that is through the, like we do everything else around here in God -centered theology, through a
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God -centered perspective, but through the consistent exegesis and teaching of God's word.
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And so we've been going through the third chapter of John, which is the place we've decided to start.
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And so we're gonna pick back up. We stopped at verse 16 last time and talked about that the elect, the ones that are called, the ones that are the believing ones, are the ones that are saved and born again.
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We asked the question, who are those that are born again? It's the believing ones, the ones that have eternal life.
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And so now he picks up and says in verse 17, for God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
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Now, one of the things you see is a mistake and people will say, see, you know, he's saying he came in not to judge the world, but that the world through him will be saved.
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And they take this word world and apply it to mean every single living human being that ever lived.
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Well, John uses the word cosmos here, meaning the created order. He's not talking about literally every single human being.
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He sets the context in verse 16 when he says he loved the world, the cosmos, the created order.
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He loves his creation. And because of his creation, he gives his son, the unique one and son, that the believing ones will have the eternal life and don't have a dwell dot perish.
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And he, this is verse 17 here is just a follow -up and an amplification and a sort of a further clarification of 16 here.
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He says the purpose of the son coming into the world is not to judge the world, not to judge the created order.
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And in a lot of ways, in some sense, it's already been judged when Adam fell and sin enters the world.
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And now we are either sons of Adam or sons of Christ, sons and daughters of Christ.
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You're either unsaved or saved. You're either of Satan or if you're of Christ and there will come a day where he will come and judge all of sin in the world and created order.
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So there's no reason, especially since he doesn't change words here, there's no reason to think that because he's talking about the created order in 16, that all of a sudden in 17,
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John would change context and go from talking about the general purpose and understanding of Jesus coming into the world to now it's every single human being.
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Because if that's the case, the only way to be consistent with that is to be a universalist.
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So when it says, God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. If you're gonna say that the word world is referring to every single human being, you can only be consistent by saying, well, then
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Jesus came into the world to save literally everybody. Because it says the world might be saved through him.
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And yes, it is true in the sense of saying that the world is saved through Christ because the world, not only will the elect be saved, and as Christ's kingdom grows, there will come a day where he will judge and deal with sin and it'll be dealt with, and the eternal state is ushered in and you have paradise lost to paradise restored.
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And in that sense, yes, the entire world is saved through Christ. So it's not untrue to say that yes, the entire world is saved through Christ, but you cannot say that this text is teaching that every single human being is gonna be saved.
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God could have saved all, which is what the universalists believed, but if he saves all, he demonstrates his grace and mercy and love, but he doesn't demonstrate righteousness and holiness and justice.
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If he doesn't save anybody, well, he demonstrates a whole lot of justice and holiness and all those things, but there's no grace, mercy, and love.
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It's only in saving some that God displays all of his attributes in his creation.
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He demonstrates all of his attributes in salvation. And so really the question just comes down to, because everybody wants to say, well, you know, those
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Calvinists are evil. Blair's God, do, do, do, do, do, do. And then, you know, you have some Calvinists say, everybody else is wrong and evil and dead, you know, we're always fighting and this, that, and the other.
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There's not really a, I mean, yes, there's a lot to talk about and there's a lot that could be discussed, but when you really boil it down, as Dr.
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White has taught us from Alphabetical Ministries, he said this many times, you can have a conversation about atonement, you can have a conversation about this, that, and the other, perseverance of the saints, whatever it is.
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It really comes down to unconditional election. Either you're gonna believe that's what scripture teaches or you don't. That's really what it comes down to.
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You either believe that God is, cannot save unless a person chooses him, that somehow
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God is reactionary or beholden to the choices of his creatures, that he cannot save anyone that would not freely choose him first.
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Or you believe that no one would choose God unless he regenerates them and raises their spirit to life first.
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And that's what I believe. I believe a person's spirit, a person must be born again, born from above, born of the spirit, they must be raised to life, that they have a body that's alive, they have a soul, they exist, but their spirit is dead and trespasses in sin, and that spirit must be raised to life.
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And one of the consequences of having a spirit that's alive in Christ is you worship in spirit and truth, you have faith, which pleases
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God, and you're able to be one of these believing ones of verse 16. And God is glorified in the raising of some spiritually and in the passing over of others.
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A lot of times people will say, well, you know, he's creating these people just to send them to hell, he's cruel.
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No, yes, he creates people knowing that they will be passed over and that they will go to hell, but it's also true that it's only their sin that sends them there.
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No one will be in hell that didn't love their sin, choose their sin, and want their sin. And what happens is people wanna be able to rationalize and reconcile all this in their finite minds.
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You see, we have finite minds, God is infinite. He knows how all this works together. We can, if we allow it to, would see a contradiction in terms that somehow it doesn't make sense to say that God doesn't send anybody to hell, their sin does, but at the same time, he didn't elect them, so he must have.
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Well, that's the wrong way of looking at it. The right way to look at it is he didn't come into the world to judge the world, but the world might be saved through him and it's the believing ones that have eternal life.
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So in order for someone to go to hell, God doesn't have to do anything. He just has to let them sin, love their sin, choose their sin, and die in their sin.
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But to save someone, to save an elect person, it costs
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God everything. He had to give up glory, he had to give up his spot in heaven, he had to come down and take on flesh and tabernacle among us in his weak, frail human flesh that's subject to decay and pain and suffering.
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He does all that and took all the pain of the cross to save some, to demonstrate the full range of his attributes and to have the most possible glory out of it.
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And so that's ultimately the main disagreement. And that's why Calvinist man, your superhero here, is here to help you understand these things, to walk you through them and help you understand that's what we're talking about.
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That's the ultimate disagreement there. And here's the thing, whether you believe you have to be regenerated first or you're regenerated during your salvation or after your salvation or something, whether it's monogenistic, meaning it's all of God, or synergistic, where it's
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God and man working together, we still both camps believe you're saved by grace and mercy of God, that you must repent and believe all the things about the gospel we agree on.
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That's why it pains me when I see someone that's either Calvinistic or Arminian or whatever you are, and they're talking about the other side and they go past the point of saying, well, we disagree on unconditional election.
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No, they'll say, it's not just that we disagree on that, but you don't even believe the gospel. Like, pump the brakes a little bit.
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Let's not do that to our brothers and sisters. Yes, I've done it before. I ain't gonna be a hypocrite here. I've had to repent of it and work towards not doing that.
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I've done it. You've done it. We all have done it. Let's just stop doing it. Be forthright about your understanding of the text, which is what your superhero
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Calvinist man here wants to do. And yes, be forthright about where you think someone may be incorrect in their understanding.
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But we've got to start treating each other better. And we've gotta start being more loving in our disagreements.
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And the thing is, and Dr. White has taught me this more than anybody else, the person that ultimately suffers when you have two people publicly debating a text or whatever, the person that suffers if you go up there and do that whole emotional garbage and taking shots and jabs and all this stuff, is the audience.
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The audience loses because the audience needs to hear two opposing sides vigorously debated saying,
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I believe this and I believe you're wrong because I believe your understanding of the text is wrong. But you're my brother, you're my sister.
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I affirm you as one. And let's go have some Taco Bell after this or something like that. You know, we agree on so much more.
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And you know, the audience loses because they get lost up in all that extracurricular stuff and the text isn't what's at the forefront of everything.
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And so leave that to the political arena. Let them do all that stuff. Let's focus on the text.
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And look, I used to be synergistic and Arminian and I had my mind changed.
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You know what? It wasn't changed. Calvinist man did not come to be because someone went up there and took a bunch of jabs at the kid, you mean old kid, or something like, oh, they must be right.
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No, I changed my mind because someone calmly and correctly and forthrightly and lovingly walked through the text and I saw it in the text.
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And there'll be people that say they came to the same conclusions about provisionism or Arminianism.
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They left Calvinism because of the text. And that's fine. Yes, I would think they're wrong in their position but I don't have any ill will towards them.
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They're not evil people. They're not, you know, oh my God, because you were wrong on this. I can't listen.
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I've listened and sat under Arminian preaching before. You know what? I didn't burst into flames.
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It's okay. We just need to calm down. And so that's what
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I believe is being said here. He came in here to save the world, yes. But look, verse 18, he who believes in him is not judged.
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The eternal life that we have, these believing ones, the ones that believe on Christ, they will not be judged for their sins because their standing in Christ is secure.
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Romans 5 talks about how we're justified in Christ. I will stay before God righteously.
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This will be sermon for another day but the reason we still have the ongoing confessing and repenting of sin is because I still remain in sinful humanness, the frailty of flesh.
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And this flesh is gonna cause me to sin at times. That doesn't mean I get to blame my flesh. It's still me, but it's gonna cause me to have desires to sin and I will act on those at times.
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The Spirit of God, we see from Galatians 5, the spirit and flesh being at war with one another. My spirit that's been raised to life is wanting to do righteousness.
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My flesh is wanting to sin. So learning to overcome that and sin less and less and less, not to sinless perfectionism in this life, but as close as you can get to it because of the power of God.
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Excuse me. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already.
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And that's the point. This whole accusation of the double predestination that God utilizes the same energy, the same attention, the same desires and everything that he puts in the elect, he puts in the unelect.
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That's not the case. He doesn't, like we've already said, and Dr. White talks about this,
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I reference him a lot because I've learned so much from him, the error of equal ultimacy, that somehow God uses the same amount of energy to save someone that he does not save someone.
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The person that isn't saved and is not gonna be saved, God doesn't have to do anything to assure that.
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He simply has to just stand back and let them do what they do. So that's why it says, the one who does not believe has been judged already.
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You are born in Adam. You are born under your sin, under the condemnation of sin, which is why
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Romans 8 talks about, therefore we're now not under condemnation because we're in Jesus Christ. We're born under the condemnation of sin.
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We are born under the judgment of sin, which is why we have to be raised to life. We have to be forgiven.
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We have to have that condemnation removed. And that is what's being said here. In John, he's saying here,
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Jesus Christ comes not to judge the world because he doesn't have to. Your sin makes you guilty.
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Judgment is pronounced on sin when Adam fell. He pronounced judgment on sin.
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In Genesis, he talks about, you have the preaching of the gospel and the coming Messiah and how it will be restored, but you have the pronouncement and judgment on sin.
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And because of that, we're all in Adam. We all sin and we're all under the judgment of our own sin and condemnation of sin.
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So he comes into the world not to do the judging because the judgment isn't necessary. He comes and save it.
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Save it from itself. Save certain ones from their sin. They've been judged already if they don't believe.
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You don't have to make somebody a sinner. You don't have to cause somebody to go to hell.
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People will just simply go to hell because they exist, because they sin and love their sin.
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Notice he says, because he, the one who has not believed, has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
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This is ultimately the evidence of someone that is under judgment.
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They will not believe in Christ. They hate Christ. They hate God. And notice here, he gives a reason, and this is why it's important to use the text to explain things, because the text explains itself.
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In verses 19, 20, and 21, the author here, John, gives an explanation of why you have the difference between those that are born again and why they operate the way they do, and the way you see the ones that are unsaved operate the way they do.
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So he says, he who, this is the judgment, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil.
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Notice here, light, who am, this is a sidebar understanding of interpretation here.
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We interpret scripture just like we would any other piece of literature, and so you have to see and learn of how an author uses certain terms.
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You use context to understand who they're attributing a certain term to. So we already know from looking at John 1 and he sets the stage, he makes it clear that when he refers to the light, he is speaking of Jesus Christ, the unique one and only son of God.
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So when he says light has come into the world, there's a double meaning here. It's not just saying literally in the sense that light,
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Jesus Christ has come into the world, which is true, but he's also using the contrast of light and darkness.
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So the world being dark and light coming in to illuminate the world, so there's that double use going on here.
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Light, Jesus Christ, coming to the world, men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
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Notice here, this understanding that somehow, if you just nudge somebody the right way, or they just had this, or if we just preach the gospel one more time to them, or we have to walk down the aisle, one, two, three, repeat after me.
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No, man's natural state, his depravity, total depravity, total depravity does not mean that every single human being is as sinful as they possibly can be, but it does mean that every human being is equally as affected by the fall of Adam.
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So every human being that is born has their spirit equally as dead in sin and trespasses.
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There's not some people that are born that maybe their spirit's just a little dead, so they need just a little nudging in the right area and they'll believe.
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No, every single human being is equally dead in sin and trespasses, meaning their spirit is dead in sin.
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It has to be raised to life. It has to be born again or born from above. And so notice here, it says, it just simply states, men love the darkness rather than the light.
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It doesn't say that after they had a gospel call or went to the revival service or were met with this, that, or the other and rejected it, then, now they're darkness.
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No, men in their natural state love darkness rather than light.
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Before light came into the world and after, it's just light coming into the world revealed this in a more prominent way.
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If you think about if you're in a room full of darkness, there's something in the middle of the room you can trip over, you're gonna know it's there if you move around whether there's light or not.
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But putting a little bit of light into the room, you're not only gonna know it's there, you're gonna see it. It's gonna be illumined for you.
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And so we find out that men's deeds are evil, that they're sinful, and that they love darkness rather than light because light comes into the world and contrasts with it.
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For everyone who does evil hates the light. Why do they hate the light? Why do they hate
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Jesus Christ? It says they do not come to the light lest their deeds be exposed.
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Why do you think the connotation with sin and evil and criminal activity is always associated with darkness and that dark alleyway that we're hiding is because those in darkness and evil don't wanna come to the light because their deeds are exposed.
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If you have the light of truth on your sin, it gets exposed. Why do you think people go to such great lengths to hide their sin, to cover up themselves, to cover up their sin, to cover up their deeds, make sure nobody finds out?
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Because they don't want light of truth shining on what they have done. And this is man's natural state.
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He does not come to the light because he does not want his deeds exposed. But notice the contrast.
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He who practices the truth comes to the light. Now notice when it uses this verb, it's the ongoing action of continually practicing the truth.
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Notice in these verses, there's nothing in here about I believed and now therefore
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I'm able to practice truth or God couldn't, the light didn't produce or the light shining on me and now
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I do this or something along the natures. No, these verses are speaking to the natural state and inclinations and operations of one that has had their spirit raised to life and one that is not.
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The contrast of those that are in darkness and with those who are in the light.
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If you think about it, it talks about Jesus being the light of the world. Ephesians 5 talks about how we were formerly darkness but now we're light.
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There's no shade here. You're either in darkness or you're in light. And notice the contrast.
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Those that are in darkness do not come to the light because their deeds will be exposed for what they are.
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Those that are in the light come to the light. Why? He who practices the truth.
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So he who practices truth, he who is walking in righteousness, he who is saved, he who is demonstrating that they have been saved, they will come to the light that their deeds may be manifested, not as coming from them but as having been done by God.
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The text here is plain. The one who comes to the light is the one who practices the truth.
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You cannot practice the truth unless you've been born again. Those that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.
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The truth of his word combined with the spirit of God residing in us. Without that present, we cannot practice the truth.
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Those that practice the truth show that they've been saved by God. The natural man hates the light.
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He loves the darkness. He doesn't want his deeds exposed. So those that practice the truth, they come to the light.
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They come to Jesus naturally. They want the word. It's a public thing here. It's a public revealing.
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Baptism's a great picture of this, a public revealing of what God has already done in your heart.
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They want their deeds to be shown because they want them to be shown that they have manifested or came about by God.
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So when someone says, I've been saved, they don't say, I've been saved by my good works or I've been saved by a decision
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I made because I walked an aisle and I got on my knees and cried for 30 minutes. No, when
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I say I've been saved, we say I've been saved by the grace and mercy and power of God unto salvation.
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So really what it comes down to is those that are not reformed in their understanding of soteriological texts, it's just that they lack some consistency.
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And that's really the thing that changed my mind and helped me to come to understand and become your superhero cavernous man is
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I realized that to be consistent in all aspects of salvation, when you say things like I've been saved by God, I am now able to practice truth because I've been saved.
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To be consistent, you have to understand that it's because God saves you and he regenerates you that you are able to have faith.
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It is a spirit that's raised to life that practices truth. And that's this contrast here.
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We are light and darkness. Darkness hates the light, does not come to the light.
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Those that practice truth, that are God's people, they come to the light because they want not just themselves and others, but the world to see that their deeds and what they do when they practice truth does not originate from them, but it originates from God who has saved them and set them on the path of righteousness.
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Amen? Well, that takes us through the section of John 3 that I wanted to cover.
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When we come back next time on Adventures with Calvinist Man, we are gonna start into the book of Romans.
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We're gonna start in chapter one and go through the entire thing. Are there things in there that don't necessarily deal with soteriology?
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Yes. But we are gonna go through and teach the entire book because I believe it's the best way to get a comprehensive understanding of Paul's theology in regards to soteriology, and yes, some other things as well.
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So thank you for joining me on this episode of Adventures with Calvinist Man. And remember, I am your superhero that leads you into a greater understanding of Reformed theology.