For Whom Did Christ Die? - [John 10]

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Several years ago, and I've probably told this story before, because it is the one thing at Grace Community Church where I have been immortalized, and so it's a rather unique thing for me.
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In fact, I can go on the internet and I can actually find my words in the midst of a message by John MacArthur.
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That's just frightening. I could actually order the CD and hear my voice if I wanted to.
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Grace Community Church. Wow, that's pretty cool. Anyway, here's what happened.
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I wanted to teach a class called Fundamentals of the Faith. And to do that, what you had to do was you had to go and you had to sit in somebody else's class and listen to them and how they did things and, you know, that whole deal, kind of on -the -job training.
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So I'm sitting in this class, and by the way, when I first got saved, this was the
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Fundamentals of the Faith teacher that I had. And it gets to the end of the class and this young woman raises her hand and she says, excuse me, she says,
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I have a question. She says, as I studied the Bible, it really seems to me that Jesus died for the elect.
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And the teacher says, oh no. You know, everybody else, have a nice evening.
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I'm going to talk to her, you know, and Steve, help me out. And I said, well, I agree with her.
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So then it was like, well, have a nice evening, Miss, you know, and Steve, let's talk. And he says, you know, you have a position opposite of John MacArthur.
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And I said, well, who's the pastor of the church I used to attend? And I said, well,
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I don't think so. And he goes, well, I've got it on tape. And I said, I've got a newer tape. So, you know, in typical laid back
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Steve Cooley style, we were having a Q &A like a Sunday after that, and I just stormed to the front of the line so I could, you know, knocking people out of the way.
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Well, actually, people are usually, it's funny how those things are because they have three microphones set up because it's a big, it's a little bit bigger than this.
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I mean, it holds 3 ,500 people. And they have three microphones set up, and you just kind of queue up.
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But everybody is so Christian -like in the beginning. You know, it's just kind of like, you know, they look, and nobody wants to rush to the microphone.
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I said, forget that, and I just went straight to the mic. So the first guy asked his question, and I won't even embarrass him again by saying what it is.
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But I had thought very seriously about what my question would be and how I could formulate it in such a way that he would give exactly the answer
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I wanted. So I asked this question. For whom did
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Jesus die, and will they all be saved? It's on tape.
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That's my shining moment. And John MacArthur said,
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I don't have his quote here, but he said, basically, that Christ died for the elect. He said that there are benefits that accrue to other people, but his purpose for dying was for the elect.
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And yes, all the elect will be saved. And I kind of, I didn't really get into it this morning in 1
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Peter, but it's right there. When you have the Father electing, the
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Holy Spirit sanctifying, and the Son redeeming, it just boggles the mind that God the
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Father would elect some, God the Holy Spirit would sanctify some, and God the
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Son would redeem every single person, not those that the Father elected, not just those that the
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Holy Spirit sanctifies, but every single person. And to me,
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I just didn't think that made any sense. So we never did resolve that with that other teacher.
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I just don't think he was happy with that. But I don't understand why this is a controversial doctrine.
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Honestly, I don't even get it. Even among those who believe and teach in the doctrine of election, there are those who maintain that Christ's death was intended for the entire world.
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And tonight, I want to look at whether that doctrine, what some refer to as universal atonement, what else could we call it, indefinite atonement, whether that holds up or not.
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Now, I don't mean universal in the sense that everyone will go to heaven. Do we have any universalists here?
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If so, I know of a... I was going to say a great little church, but that would be a lie. Universal Unitarians for unity church.
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I drive by it all the time. The best things in life aren't things. Anyway, foolishness.
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But I don't mean universal in the sense that everyone will go to heaven. But if one insists that Christ died for the sins of the entire world, then there's a question that we have to answer.
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And that would be, why isn't everyone going to heaven? If Jesus died for the sins of every single person who ever was born, every sin that they ever committed, then why isn't every single one of those going to heaven?
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And I've heard various explanations, but basically it boils down to this, because those people don't choose to receive the gift of salvation that God offers to every single person.
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And so what I would say just as a preface is, is that really a view of a sovereign
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God in election? If Jesus died to make salvation available for everyone, but some just don't choose to receive that gift, what does that mean?
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Again, I get back to this. If God the Father elected some, the Holy Spirit sanctifies some, draws them to the truth, then why would
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Jesus have died for everyone? And I think we're going to see tonight that that is not the scriptural case, certainly not the best scriptural case.
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And I'd like to invite you to open up your Bibles to John 10. And I have some remarks from there.
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By the way, if you have any questions tonight, as long as it's on the topic and in the passage that we're currently looking at, and we're going to look at many of them, but I'm going to start in John 10, then
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I would invite you to just raise your hand, and I'll do my best to answer. I'm going to, after we walk through John 10 a bit,
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I'm going to be drawing heavily on a book by Steele Thomas and Lance Quinn, who was, by the way, the teacher of my first Bible Institute class at Grace Community Church.
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They have the Bible Institute and then the seminary, but the Bible Institute is like ours. Anybody can go. I did, and who knew he was going to be famous?
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Anyway, that book is called The Five Points of Calvinism. What is it?
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Defined and Defended and the Expanded Version of that. And you know,
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I think it's amazing, and I've talked about this before, Calvinism has really gotten a bad name, and I don't quite understand that from this standpoint.
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Somebody emailed the church here recently, and they said, are you Calvinistic? And that was it, just are you
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Calvinistic? And I thought, well, that's just too broad of a question. So I wrote back, and I said, well, if you'll tell me what you mean by that,
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I'll be happy to answer that. And here's my point. My point is, if I say I'm Calvinistic, well, it could mean
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I'm Calvinistic in my soteriology, meaning I believe in the sovereignty of God in salvation, or it could mean that I want to baptize babies because Luther did that.
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It could mean I want to, you know, or I'm going to allow the burning of heretics. I don't know what, you know, what that means.
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So please tell me what your question is, and I'll be happy. I didn't, I was nicer than that. John 10, verses 7 through 18.
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So Jesus said to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
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All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
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I am the door. And if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
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I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
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He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. Verse 14.
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I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and my own know me, even as the father knows me, and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
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I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
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For this reason the father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again.
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No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
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This commandment I received from my father. Now note in verse 11.
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Now I have a question here. What does Jesus mean when he says he, the good shepherd, lays down his life for the sheep?
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What does that mean? Could it be that he is talking about dying for every single person, man, woman, and child who has ever lived?
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Is that what he means? Are those the sheep? Look at verse 8.
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All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Well, apparently there are some sheep that didn't listen to those thieves and robbers.
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Maybe there are some that did. But in any event, we'd know those thieves and robbers aren't the sheep.
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That's pretty clear. So when he says he laid down his life for the sheep, that doesn't include the thieves and robbers.
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Look at verse 14. I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, even as the
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Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Who are the sheep?
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My own. Those who know me. Those who have the same relationship, the same sort of intimate knowing relationship that the son has with the father.
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That's who he laid down his life for. MacArthur says this.
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In the sense in which this is meant, it cannot apply to an ordinary sheep herder, no matter how good he may be.
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Such a shepherd may indeed risk his life in the defense of his sheep, but he does not really lay down his life.
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In other words, he does not yield his life as a voluntary sacrifice. Also, in ordinary life, the death of the herder, think about this picture that he's painting,
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Jesus as the shepherd of a flock of sheep. In ordinary life, if the shepherd lays down his life, what happens to the sheep?
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They're defenseless. One of the great things about sheep, when we talk about them, and why they make such a great illustration, not only are there many of them in that part of the world, but they're dumb.
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You leave a shepherd or you leave sheep unattended, and what do they do? They're going to eventually die.
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They are dumb. They would make lousy pets, let's put it this way, roll over, play dead.
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They're not going to do any of that stuff. It's just not sheep. But in this case, the death of the shepherd means what for the sheep?
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Life. It brings life to them. The good shepherd pours out his soul unto death.
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He gives himself. And the idea is not that this shepherd merely gives his natural life.
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The Greek word would give us the idea of him giving his self, his person, his whole being to the sheep.
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So this good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And the preposition there where it says for the sheep is a word that has a root meaning of over.
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And this good shepherd lays down his life for the benefit of the sheep. But the only way in which he can benefit the sheep, saving them from everlasting destruction and imparting everlasting life to them, is by dying in their place.
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It is for the sheep, only for the sheep, that the good shepherd lays down his life.
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The design of the atonement is definitely restricted. That was
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Hendrickson said that. The design of the atonement, in other words, what was the purpose?
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Why did Jesus come to the earth? Did he come to make salvation possible or did he come to actually secure the salvation of believers?
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Could the sheep in verses 14 and 15 be unbelievers? I'm the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me, even as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the unbelievers.
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We'll get, yeah, we'll get there. Yeah. The picture is of a shepherd calling his sheep and his sheep responding.
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And sheep, I mean, they're not really bright, but they do know one thing. They know the voice of their shepherd and they know the individual.
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I mean, you have to, when you take over a flock, you have to be trained on exactly how to sound so that they'll recognize you instead of the old guy.
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It takes, it takes some work and they don't just follow anyone. They won't do it. And this is what makes the example so powerful.
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My own are the ones referred to here. They are his sheep. Look at verses two to five of John 10, but he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep to him.
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The doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
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This is the picture again of you have this pen set up against a hillside and it's got one little way in and that's how you take the sheep in.
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That's how you put them out every single day. And when he calls them, they come. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them.
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The shepherd does. And the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Mark verse five here, a stranger.
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They simply will not follow, but we'll flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
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Now, doesn't this give us the intent of the death of Jesus? Verse 18.
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Again, he says, no one has taken it, meaning his life from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.
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I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father.
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What commandment did he get from his father? What does his father tell him? He doesn't quote the father here, but what does he say?
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I have authority to lay it down his life and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment
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I received from my father, lay down your life, take it up again. It's a commandment.
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He had been given a commandment by the father to lay down his life. And he tells us it is for the sheep, for those who hear his voice and not for those who do not.
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John 10 verses 24 to 29. The Jews then gathered around him and were saying to him, how long will you keep us in suspense?
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If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name.
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These testify of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
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My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give eternal life to everyone.
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And I give eternal life to them. And they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.
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Jesus didn't know the sheep, again just to emphasize this, in the sense of I know a guy.
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Or my barber's second cousin twice removed. Knows a disc jockey kind of thing.
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It wasn't like that. This is an intimate knowing. Like I said earlier.
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He compares it to how the relationship he has with the father in that same way his sheep know him.
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It's not the same perfect relationship but it's a reflection of that relationship. So let's revisit my question.
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For whom did Jesus die? And will they all be saved? And this is where you really have to pay attention because I may have missed something here.
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Here are the possibilities I came up with for answering this question. For whom did Jesus die? And will they all be saved?
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Possibility number one. Jesus died for all and all will be saved.
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How do we like that one? It's universalism. That's what I have in parentheses. We don't like that one.
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Second, Jesus died for all and some will be saved. As I said before,
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I think that's a possibility. But my question to that is if so, if Jesus died for everyone and only some will be saved, on what is their salvation dependent?
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What do they have to do? And how do they do it? Third possibility.
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Jesus died for all and none will be saved. That's pretty pointless.
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And it's unbiblical to boot so that's a bad one. Number four. Jesus died for some and every one of them will be saved.
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Definite redemption. God had a purpose in electing.
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God had a purpose in drawing. God had a purpose in convicting of sin. And God had a purpose for sending his son to the cross to redeem the elect.
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Fifth possibility. Jesus died for some and some of them will be saved.
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I've never heard that one. It's kind of goofy, but I suppose it's theoretically possible.
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Now, did I miss any? Are there any other possibilities out? Daniel? And others?
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Okay. Okay, so then we could say that one.
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Jesus died for some and it's possible that more will. Okay.
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Bruce? I'm sure it will. Okay. Okay.
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I think that's unbiblical and we'll get to that. Charlie?
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Okay. Jesus didn't die with any specific group of people in mind.
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It's just a, yeah, and I think Dr. Barak called this an amorphous blob of, you know, potential redemption.
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Okay. Okay. So again, the issue at hand really is what was the design or the purpose of the atonement?
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And since we're not universalists, meaning not everyone is going to go to heaven, there is a necessity, some sort of limitation on the death of Christ.
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In other words, if we don't believe that everybody's going to heaven, then there is inherently some kind of limitation on it.
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Lance Quinn puts it this way. One must limit its design either in an extent, meaning it was not intended for all, it was never going into the process, it was never designed to save every single person, or in its effectiveness, either the way
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Charlie said it, where it really wasn't, it had no purpose directly to save anybody, or God just kind of provides it and he's going to be kind of surprised or happy at people who choose to do it, however you want to look at it.
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But the idea there would be that it didn't actually, Jesus' death on the cross did not actually bring salvation for anyone.
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And that would be the idea. I like the way Spurgeon said it, and I'll have to paraphrase this since I didn't type it up or cut and paste it from the internet, but he said basically, he says everybody limits the atonement.
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He says, I will take our viewpoint, which is that Christ's death actually saved some people, rather than the opposing viewpoint, which it didn't really actually necessarily save anyone.
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The scriptures state that Christ came not to enable men to save themselves, but to save sinners.
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And we're going to go through a lot of verses now, and again, if you have questions along the way, you want to talk about something in the context, that's fine.
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Matthew 121, She will bear a son, talking about Mary, and you shall call his name
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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now, some can argue that this refers to Jews, and even
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Jews at some future point. There are variations of interpretations here, but one thing is clear.
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He's not going to save everyone from this passage. He is going to save his people from their sins.
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And that's why he's coming. Luke 19, verse 10.
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And so many of these are amazingly clear.
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Luke 19, 10. For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.
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We understand that, but look at that. We would say that all the time, but do we notice that he didn't come to seek, and to make salvation possible.
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He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
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Not to offer salvation, but to actually save. Galatians 1, 3 and 4.
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And I'm keeping my eye out for questions. You might have to throw up a flare or something. Galatians 1, verses 3 and 4.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our
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God and Father. He gave himself for our sins, and he's talking to believers there, not some amorphous group, not some no -name group, but actual believers.
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1 Timothy 1, 15. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, because it just epitomizes the humility of Paul, but it does something else too.
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1 Timothy 1, 15. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom
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I am foremost of all. Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
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Imagine the God of the universe coming, taking on flesh, living a perfect life, going to the cross, and never knowing whether anyone was going to be saved or not.
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Titus 2, 14. Who gave himself for us, to redeem us from every lawless deed, to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.
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Again, notice. Gave himself for us, to redeem us from every lawless deed.
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You read all these passages, and you either, if you want to be consistent, you either turn into a universalist, thinking every time you see us, that must mean every single person alive, or you realize the context demands that you say these are believers that he's talking about.
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1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the
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Spirit. So who does he bring to God? Does he bring every single person? Quinn writes, the
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Scriptures declare that as the result of what Christ did and suffered, his people are reconciled to God, justified and given the
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Holy Spirit, who regenerates and sanctifies them. All these blessings were secured by Christ himself for his people.
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Several points here. First, Christ actually secured reconciliation with God for believers.
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We say, what is reconciliation? What is reconciliation? You ever been estranged, had any strain in a relationship or anything like that?
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I mean, I could tell you some stories about things I've done to reconcile myself to people, but they probably wouldn't help you, like arm wrestling, stuff like that.
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Have you ever had some kind of strain put on a relationship, and then you reconciled? What does that mean?
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What's that? To make it right. You know, if a relationship is properly reconciled, it's like there was never a break in the relationship at all.
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And yet the Bible says that we are the enemies of God before salvation. So how do we get reconciled?
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Romans 5 .10 says, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his
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Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Again, Jesus Christ didn't make reconciliation possible.
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He didn't sit down and mediate at a table and negotiate. He actually accomplished reconciliation for believers.
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2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 and 19, Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
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Now some people see Christ reconciling the world to himself and go, Aha! There it is.
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He's reconciling everybody. MacArthur says, God initiates the change in the sinner's status in that he brings him from a position of alienation, a person being at war with God, enmity, enemies of God, to a state of forgiveness and right relationship with himself.
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This, again, is the essence of the gospel. The word world should not be interpreted in any universalistic sense, which would say that every single person will be saved or even potentially reconciled.
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World, rather, refers to the entire sphere of mankind or humanity, the category of beings to whom
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God offers reconciliation, people from every ethnic group without distinction. The merit of Christ's reconciling death is infinite.
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In other words, there is no limit to the value of Christ's death. If God had intended it to redeem every single person that had ever been born, it could have done that.
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However, actual atonement was made only for those who believe.
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Reconcile. Biblically, Freyberg says it is restoring a relationship between individuals or between God and man.
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So here's my question. If God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, if we understand world to mean every single person on the face of the earth, is the relationship between God and unbelievers restored?
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I don't think so. Are they continuing to sin? Here's something. I used to say this all the time, and I used to believe it,
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I think, but we hear all the time, and I don't mean that we should run around judging people or telling people that they're going to hell or anything like that.
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I think that's a good part of the gospel, to warn people away from hell. We want to do that. But Psalm 5, typically we always, or we want to say, love the sinner but hate the sin.
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I think I pointed this out before, but this is a fascinating passage in Psalm 5. I think
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Lewis read this this morning, right? Psalm 5, verse 5, very easy to remember.
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The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. And notice what it says next. You hate all sin.
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No, it says, you hate, talking about God, you hate all who do iniquity.
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People who are in the practice of sinning, in other words, unbelievers, those who've never had their relationship between God and themselves restored, reconciled,
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God hates them. Now we urge, we have, as Paul said, we have the ministry of reconciliation.
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We urge people, we plead with them to be reconciled to God, but that's
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God's responsibility, not ours. Thanks, Charlie. Well, the second one
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I'm not going to touch. The first one, though, I mean, how could
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I reconcile that one? That would be, somebody asked me a question this morning after the sermon, and I'm going, well, let me look in the white spaces of my
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Bible, and I'll just make up an answer for you. I think very much, as we have also referred to 1
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Timothy 1 .15, Paul has a deep sense that he is completely unworthy of any blessing that he's ever gotten.
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And, you know, when we think of his Damascus Road experience, I mean, this is a guy who was bent on destroying the church and persecuting the church and killing every man, woman, and child who called themselves
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Christian. So I think it has a special power for him when he says that he was an enemy of God in Romans 5.
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But I don't think the Roman church that he was addressing was any less the enemies of God before they were saved.
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So I certainly think it applies. When he was writing that, I just think, man,
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I was so bad. I think so. But it's the same for us.
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It's just a matter of degree. So good question, though. I think that is very,
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I mean, when you think about some of the things, even Peter, you think about some of the things he wrote, and even as I mentioned this morning, all the times he fumbled and stumbled and bumbled, and you think you've got to be pretty humble.
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Even though you've got this lofty position, you've got to be pretty humbled by your own experiences. Good question.
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Okay, so moving right along. In fact, I'm going to skip some because we'll never get to the end, and I want to allow a few more questions.
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Second point. Christ secured the righteousness and pardon needed by his people for their justification.
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Romans 3, verses 24 and 25. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom
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God publicly displayed as a propitiation in his blood through faith.
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This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.
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Again, look at the things actually accomplished for us. Redemption, propitiation, that is the wrath of God satisfied, turned away from sinners.
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Why? Because of the blood of Christ, and when you see the blood, you've probably heard this a million times, but it's not talking about if Jesus could have just bled and that would have been enough, then he could have just come down and cut himself and bled for a little while.
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His blood is a euphemism for his death. He had to die.
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He had to be sacrificed. He was our lamb, the sacrifice for our sins.
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But look at that. We have redemption, propitiation, righteousness. Why? Because it was actually secured for us by Christ.
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Romans 5, 8 and 9. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. Much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.
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Justified and saved from the wrath of God because of the work of Christ. 1
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Corinthians 1 .30. But by his doing, God's doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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Again, the list just goes on and on and on of the things that Christ actually accomplished, didn't make possible, but actually accomplished by dying on our behalf.
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Galatians 3 .13 talks about how Christ became a curse for us. Colossians 1 .13
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and 14 talks about how he rescued us, how he transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son.
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And it's in him we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9 .12
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talks about we have obtained eternal redemption because of the work of Christ.
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1 Peter 2 .24 says, And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you were healed.
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Now again, if he bore the sins of unbelievers, then we have to wonder why those unbelievers would go to hell.
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And then there is the one argument that's made is they die because of the sin of unbelief.
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And I think Pastor Mike said on many occasions, and I would certainly say for myself,
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I had the sin of unbelief for 32, 33 years. If Christ didn't die for that sin as well, then
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I can't be redeemed. Ultimately, to say that someone has to do something to appropriate the work of the cross is to promote,
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I believe, an unbiblical view, a demotion of the sovereignty of God. Now, think about all that Christ secured for believers.
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Is that merely available for anyone who wants it? Do we give people a list of all the things that Jesus Christ accomplished and say, would you like this?
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Over and over again, these actions and blessings are portrayed as having occurred, not being made possible.
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Third, Christ secured the gift of the Spirit, which includes regeneration and sanctification and all that is involved in them.
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Ephesians 1, 3, and 4, you know well. Philippians 1, 29, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.
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Granted to you to believe in him. Titus 2, 13 and 14.
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Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possessions, zealous for good deeds.
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We read that, but these things, like I said, they've already been done for us. We have the Spirit because of what he has done for us.
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He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the
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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
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Fourth, Jesus fulfills the terms of the covenant he entered into with the
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Father before the foundations of the world. Jesus was sent into the world by the Father to save the people whom the
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Father had given to him. Those given to him by the Father come to him, see and believe in him, invest themselves fully in him, and none of them shall be lost.
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Please turn to John 6. John 6 as we walk through verses 35 to 40.
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Yes, good question.
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And Jesus answered that question since we're in the book of John anyway. Just turn over to John 3. What is the purpose of repenting?
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What's your question again? What's the purpose of repenting and becoming born again if you're already chosen?
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Well, first of all, election is something you don't know until you're saved.
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So, I mean, that would be my practical answer, but the scriptural question or the scriptural answer comes in John 3.
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I'll just start in verse 1 and we'll go on. Jesus talking to Nicodemus. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named
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Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus said to him, How could a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?
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Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of flesh of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not understand or do not know where it comes from and where it is going.
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So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be?
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Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
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Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
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If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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And his point was this, the Holy Spirit is sovereign in salvation. See there in verse 8,
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The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.
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So is everyone who is born of the spirit. The Holy Spirit causes us to be born again. We cannot choose that, but it must happen to us in order for us to enter into the kingdom of God.
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So how do we then, well let me put it to you, let's phrase it in a slightly different way.
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If God is sovereign in salvation, if God the Father has elected, the
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Holy Spirit convicts the elect and draws the elect and reveals their need for a savior to them and unstops their ears, removes the scales from their eyes so that they can see
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Christ, then why do we preach the gospel? Because it is the gospel that saves.
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We would know that from Romans 10. It is only the gospel, hearing the gospel that will bring anybody to salvation.
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So one of the charges thrown up against the doctrine of election or the doctrine of sovereignty of God is it removes human responsibility, to which
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I can only say no. What it does is it encourages us to go out and indiscriminately preach the gospel.
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Why? Because we don't know who the elect are. We long to see anybody come to faith. And so when we preach the word and we know that it's the gospel that God uses to save people, he convicts them of sin, he draws them, and the more we preach the gospel, the more we are going to see people come to Christ.
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Does that answer your question? Okay. Fourth, Jesus fulfills the covenant.
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We're in John 6. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.
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Well, now that sounds like maybe anybody who wants to, but let's keep reading. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe, which is what
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I say to agnostics. These people saw the miracles that he did. They walked and they talked with Jesus.
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They interacted with him. Agnostics, a lot of times, will say, you know what? If I could just see God, I would believe.
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And the answer is no, you wouldn't. Right here in verse 36. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
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Verse 37. All that the Father gives me may come to me of their own volition.
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Verse 37 again. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me
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I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, not to do the will of Jesus Christ, but the will of Him who sent me, the
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Father. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that of all He has given me, every single person
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He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
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For this is the will of my Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and I myself will raise
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Him up on the last day. Every single person that the
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Father gives to the Son will be raised up on the last day. As we saw in John 10, the
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Father gives to the Son and the Son says no one can snatch them out of the
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Father's hand. And here He promises it Himself. He says, I myself will raise Him up on the last day.
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Who is He going to raise up? The ones the Father has given Him. He says He will lose none of them. Nothing.
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Questions about that? Fifth, Jesus in His high priestly prayer in John 17, and that's where we're going to be going next.
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Jesus in His high priestly prayer prays not for the world, but for those given to Him by the Father.
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In fulfillment of the Father's charge, Jesus had accomplished the work the Father sent Him to do.
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I'm going to read this and make a few brief comments and then
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I'll open up to questions if we have any. John 17, verses 1 -11, Jesus spoke these things.
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And lifting His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that the
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Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom
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You have given Him He may give eternal life. Again, notice, the Father gives them to the
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Son and who does He give eternal life to? Those the Father has given Him. Verse 3,
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This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
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You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given
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Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which
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I had with You before the world was. Before the world existed, Jesus Christ existed in perfect glory and harmony with His Father.
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The Father sent Him with a specific mission. That mission was to redeem a people the
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Father gave Him. Verse 6, I have manifested Your name to the men whom
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You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept
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Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You.
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For the words which You gave Me, I have given to them. And they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You.
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And they believe that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom
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You have given Me. For they are Yours, and all things that are
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Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I have been glorified in them.
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I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father.
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Keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as we are.
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Verse 20 of John 17, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in Me through their word.
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In other words, the disciples, the apostles, were going to write, and they were going to speak, and they were going to have an impact,
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He says there, but for those who believe in Me through their word. Verse 24 through 26 in John 17,
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Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see
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My glory, which You have given Me. For You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous
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Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You, and these have known that You sent
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Me, and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which
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You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. This is a very clear picture of, and this is a sermon
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I'm longing to preach, obviously, but it's John 17, the picture is, and I hate to steal anything from Rick Warren, but this is the ultimate passage that says it's not about you.
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It's not about me. It's not about the elect. We are, as it were, the gift that the
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Father gives to the Son, the Son nourishes and cherishes and lays down His life for, and then returns to the
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Father. It's not about us. We just happen to be the objects of love, of the two of them.
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Now, I have a lot of other verses, but for the sake of time, we'll pass through those.
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Are there any questions about anything here in John 17 or anything else? Any other objections?
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I mean, basically, I'll cover those objections real quickly. There are plenty of, or there are some verses that use words like all, and the
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Baptist way of thinking sometimes is all means all, and that's all all means.
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Well, okay, but I think you have to look at every single verse in context and decide whether all means every single person who's ever been born, or whether it refers to God wanting to make clear through the apostles and through the
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Holy Spirit that salvation wasn't just for Israel. It wasn't just for some small group, but that it would be indeed from every kindred tribe and tongue on the face of the planet.
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Any questions? Yes, John. Well, I think in that particular case, it would be fair to say the disciples, but then again, like I said later on, he says, where is that?
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Verse 20, that he was also praying for those who would come to faith because of the work of the disciples.
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So, other questions? Yeah, Mark.
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That's right.
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Yep, John 3 .16 is a great verse and I love it too. That's right.
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And salvation, I certainly would never limit. And I don't want to limit any part of it.
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I think the unfortunate thing about John 3 .16
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is the King James Version was the one that introduced the word whosoever or whoever in there.
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And it really, there's a perfectly good Greek word for whoever, and it's not there. The Greek word is actually, it's based on the verb believe and it is basically, it should be, it's a participle and it should be the believing ones.
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So, everyone who believes, whoever believes, but it describes, it is an ongoing state of belief and what it doesn't do, and my only point in making a comment on this, what it does not do is imply somehow that, and I know this isn't what you're trying to imply, but it doesn't imply somehow an ability that every single person has.
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But absolutely, I mean, God, the love of God is broad enough, even in the work of His Son, to save every single person.
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But it's only those who are quickened, who are, as I said earlier, who are allowed to see
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Christ for who He is, allowed to understand what Christ has done, those people flee to the cross. Not out of some kind of compulsion or, gee,
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I'm elect, I guess I have to believe. But listen, you know, how long were you alive before you believed the gospel?
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And yet, when you heard it, that one time, it was like you'd never heard it before. What happened?
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Did you get smarter? No. The Holy Spirit finally, you know, said, hey, you're a sinner, and you're going to hell unless you repent and believe.
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And this is who Jesus Christ is. You don't go, you know what, I'm not really sure if I want that deal or not.
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You can't believe that God would save you. You know yourself, not as well as God knows you, but you know yourself, and you're just going,
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I can't believe that God would save me. So, the end result of this is, what?
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You know, rejoicing. It is kind of an unbelievable thought that God would save me.
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I know certainly I wouldn't have saved me if I was God, and I'm glad that I'm not. But God saves sinners.
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He delights in saving sinners. He doesn't save good people. You know, and let me be clear, the elect are not good.
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The elect are not somehow, you know, in any way, shape, or form, kind of earning
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God's favor, because then it wouldn't be God's favor. It wouldn't be grace. This is all of grace, and the fact that no one can choose on his or her own is proof that it's grace.
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We don't add, we cannot add anything to salvation. We can't bring anything to the table but the sin that makes
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Christ's death necessary. Any other questions? Bruce? Right.
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Right, and see the flip side is, you know, somebody will say, well you have to receive that gift, and you know what, if we go to Ephesians 2, and I don't want to do this, but if we go to Ephesians 2, and we look at it in context, yes, faith is a gift.
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The question though is, in context, a few verses earlier, Paul has described this as dead in sins and trespasses before salvation.
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So the question is, how would we reach up to take that gift? And the answer is, we couldn't have, unless God made us alive, which he did.
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Daniel. That's right.
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And your point is, basically, if every single person restating for the tape, if every single person had the ability to reject the gift of Christ, then it is possible that no one would be saved because of his work.
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And again, you know, you go, well what does election mean? When it says that God the Father, and all these verses tonight, where God the
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Father gives them to the Son, and Jesus says, I'm going to bring them back. Well, what does that mean? You know, was
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Jesus wrong? Was he mistaken? Lying? I mean, those scriptures cannot be any more plain.
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God the Father gave some to the Son, and the Son will return those to the Father. You know, really, the issue for us isn't to run around and try to find the elect.
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Again, the issue is to preach the gospel. We will find out who the elect are by those who come to faith.
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And, you know, I don't want to have any kind of secret or special elect club.
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That would be pointless. I mean, you know, if anybody ever formed the elect club, my nickname for it would be the loser club because we're all losers.
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God doesn't save great people. Jesus came to seek and save and save those who knew they didn't need a
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Savior. No, those who were lost. He came to heal those who were sick.
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That's why He came. Any other questions? Steve? Yeah, that's right.
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Yeah, the double jeopardy. For the purposes of the tape, Steve said that if we could reject the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, then what that would mean is that Christ died unnecessarily.
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He suffered unnecessarily. And, in the future, then those sinners are going to be held accountable for sins that Christ already paid for.
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yeah, double jeopardy. Sound man.
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Yeah, semi -Pelagian and Arminian, for those of you not in seminary. Yeah, those are the same position.
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Is that your question? Okay, let me just kind of briefly give you the non -seminary translation of that.
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Arminian theology is basically the opposite of Calvinism, and it says that yes, the fall affected people.
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God chooses on the basis of knowing ahead of time who's going to believe. That the atonement is available for everyone.
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That grace is resistible. True Arminianism says that you can lose your salvation, but nowadays nobody likes that one, so they restrict free will in that once you're saved, you're always saved.
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And of course, God is obligated to keep you no matter how you behave after that. Once saved, always saved.
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And semi -Pelagianism is again the idea of free will, limited free will.
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You are not completely free from the sin of Adam, but you do have the ability to choose or reject the gospel, which, you know what, as far as that goes,
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I would agree, everybody has the ability to choose or reject the gospel. The problem is that an unsaved person left to himself will never choose the gospel.
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So his choices are not repent or not repent. You know, reject the gospel or reject the gospel, and he's going to choose or reject the gospel.
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All right. No other burning questions? If so, you can see me later. Let's close in prayer.
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Lord, what a blessing it is to be able to look at these things, to discuss them. Father, to know that you are sovereign, that you have sovereignly revealed to us exactly what you would have us know about yourself, about what transpired before we were, not only before we were born, but before the world was created.
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Father, we praise you for your plan of salvation. We praise you for the work of your Son on the cross, for actually securing salvation, for providing redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, all these other blessings that we've talked about tonight.
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What a joy it is. And Father, let us not merely get bogged down in theological terms, but let us look at the joy which we ought to have knowing what you have accomplished on our behalf.
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Father, would you make us a people who love you even more knowing that the only thing we brought to our salvation was the sin that would have doomed us to hell had you not intervened.