The Most Divisive Issues In Evangelicalism

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Alright, why don't you grab your Bibles, and tonight I'd like to talk about truths that should unite, yet they divide.
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Divisive truths that have divided evangelicals from one another. I don't really think they should,
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I think they should unite us. And these things I'm going to talk about tonight, if we disagree with other people, they should not cause us to separate, but we can still have distinctions.
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So the Chalcedonian creed back in the day was distinction without separation.
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And so if you have a friend, R .C. Sproul, and he's a Presbyterian, we can have some distinctions between the two, and yet not separate fellowship.
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Similarly, with these truths tonight, I have ten divisive truths. You probably know some evangelicals who believe the opposite of what
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I'm going to teach tonight. Maybe even you teach or believe some of the opposite, but it will be good for us to go through these.
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There's a common theme pretty much, and the theme is in every one of these that seems to divide evangelicalism.
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God is great, and we are really small. And the larger we see ourselves in our own eyes, the more prideful we become, the more
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Arminian we become, the more tension there is.
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Truth does divide, error from truth. Truth is something that divides, and I just think that's not bad.
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James 3 says, wisdom from above is first what? Before it's peaceable, what is it?
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It's pure, and so truth does divide. It's not that big a deal, and I just thought, let's go through these ten.
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A little bit of expository preaching in a topical, textual way. Divisive truths in evangelicalism.
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I'm not saying these are divisive truths in the liberal church, or in the dead Anglican church, or in the
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Methodist church. I mean in evangelical churches. And so, let's just do it a typical
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Sunday night style. What would be some divisive doctrines? I have my own ten. What would be a doctrine that would be divisive today, that Christians really don't seem to agree upon?
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Erickson? The end times, okay, that's a good one. Infant baptism, good.
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Lordship of Christ, Lordship Salvation, Jonathan. Tongues, okay, good.
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What else, Bruce? Pardon me? Church in Israel, okay, that's true. See, some of these
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I didn't have, but I'm gonna quick make some changes. Anybody else?
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Things that divide. How about if I just ask you this? Your evangelical friends that don't attend Bethlehem Bible Church, what do they believe differently?
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I think you'd probably think a few right away. Okay. The role of women.
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See, we were stumped until I said, what do your friends believe who don't go here? The role of women. Free will versus a bound will, or free grace, yes?
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Soteriology, just salvation in general, okay, good. See, now the juices are starting to flow.
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Congregational rule, a polity. Is it elder rule? Is it bishop rule? Is it congregational rule,
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Presbyterian, Synods? Okay, good, yes? Limited atonement versus general atonement, or particular redemption compared to an unlimited atonement, good.
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Now, by the way, just stop for a second. And if you were me, and you were the pastor, wouldn't you be thrilled, if you were the pastor, to have the congregation know all these things?
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Now, if you learn things just to learn them, it's wrong. But if you learn things because you want to know who
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God is, and to know his mind, and then have your affections increase towards Christ Jesus, then it's a good thing, right?
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You're to learn with your mind so your affections increase. So your religious affections burn hotter for Christ Jesus.
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And so, we can't just say, I'd like to love Jesus more. I'd like to give him more honor and adoration.
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But I don't want to learn anything. You've got to learn. The error of learning is, I learn to learn.
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And I just want to know more than other people. That's wrong. But you have to learn about the scriptures and grow in the grace and knowledge of the
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Lord so that your affections can grow hotter. If you say, I feel like I'm not loving the
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Lord with all my heart like I used to. The answer is not just love harder. The answer is to revisit what you know and who you know.
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And so, as a pastor, I just think how great it is to have the congregation just raise their hand and you can identify what's going on in evangelicalism.
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Just like this morning with the men in the discipleship group. 18 guys sitting around talking about the downgrade controversy with Spurgeon in terms of Arminianism and Calvinism.
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People are like, what is that? And so, I'm very, very pleased. Any others before I give you my three tonight?
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Bruce? Charismatic gifts. Charismatic gifts? Good, and we're getting there in 1 Corinthians. 1
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Corinthians chapter 12, 13, and 14 are going to be hot. They're going to be sizzling.
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You're going to want to reserve a seat here for your charismatic friends. Yes, Anitra? Whether to pay pastors or how much?
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Okay, well, that is a very big issue where that pastors are not to be paid. It is clerical heresy to pay the clerics.
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That is heresy. And so, you take clerical and you take the word heresy and you put it together and you get the word what?
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Clerisy. It's true. You think I'm making that up, Bruce? It's true. Whether to pay pastors.
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Yes. Okay, this is a big one, isn't it?
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Music. Bill even alluded to it. Contemporary worship. Psalms.
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Music accompaniment with instruments. Very, very big issue. There's lots of things that divide. As a matter of fact, there are so many things that divide that the
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Roman Catholics try to say, see, Protestants are wrong because they have all these denominations and we are the one mother ship.
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And so, the divisions that happen in evangelicalism prove that Roman Catholics are true and right and the only church.
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They even try to use that against us. I saw a hand back here and then we, yes? Bible translations.
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Yes. John MacArthur has just put his, there's going to be the NIV 2011.
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MacArthur Study Bible. That was just announced a couple days ago and it's a horrible translation.
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The new NIV, yet you'll have MacArthur Study Notes. So, is that good? Is that not good? I know
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John and John's answer will be, I'd rather have somebody who's going to read the NIV, read my notes than not read my notes.
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And so, all these things stir it up. And so, here's what we want to do. Any other questions or any other comments before we get into the passage?
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Here's what I'd like you to do. I want you to be a good Berean. That's what I want.
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I want you to study. And that's why you're here and you have your Bibles open and you could be doing anything else.
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I've told you many times that one of the reasons I know I'm a Christian is because I love what
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I used to hate. And I love Bible preaching. I actually love convicting Bible preaching.
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I want to be convicted. I want to say, God, show me where I don't measure up so that I can repent and then I can look to Christ and see who he is.
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And so, tonight, we're going to look at these divisive truths. And we want to make sure that as we learn them, we're not just saying, we know more.
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Whatever Mike says, I believe. I want you to learn it for yourself. And even from the first one, if you disagree with me, it's okay.
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You'll be out farther in the kingdom than I am closer to the throne room in heaven, but it'll be fine.
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I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Number one, limited atonement. Limited atonement.
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I have no order. This is just the first one that popped in my mind. Did Jesus die for the elect or did he die for every person who was ever born?
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Now, there are good people on both sides, but our culture today in evangelicalism is that Jesus died for every person who was ever born.
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That's the culture in which we live. If you would transport yourself back to New England in the 1700s, the evangelical churches, and I'm not talking about the
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Unitarian Universalist churches for unity, I think Todd Friedel says any church that has a UNI in it is really bad.
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Maybe you're a university Bible church though, so then what would you do? But in 1750s, the churches, almost all the churches would believe that Jesus died for the elect only.
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And so things change. Time changes things. And these days, if I were to say to you, Jesus only died for the elect, some of you even here may have a conniption fit.
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You've been around enough, you'd say, okay, I know what the church believes, etc. So let's look at this issue of limited atonement.
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Did Jesus bear our sins as a substitute or did Jesus die to make salvation possible?
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Did he die for everyone's sins, making it possible for them to believe, or did he die, in fact, only for the elect's sins?
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I could phrase it this way. Did Jesus die for the sins of certain men or did
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Jesus die to remove the obstacles of salvation from all men? Whose punishment did
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Christ bear? You have three options if you're taking notes. One, he died to save all men without distinction.
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Your first option is Jesus died for everybody would be universalism, basically. Secondly, whose punishment did
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Christ bear? Christ died to save no one in particular, but just to make salvation possible, our potential.
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And this would be what we would call the Arminian view, that Christ died for no one in particular, but just to make salvation possible.
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So we've got universalism, Arminianism, and now number three, Christ died to save a certain number of people that the
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Father had given him. In other words, it was an effectual salvation, and that is called, you could call it
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Calvinism, you could call it other things. For the sake of argument, we'll call it shorthand Calvinism. Listen to what
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William Seton said, did God intend to save all men or did he not? If he did not intend to save all men without exception, but only the elect, then the work of Christ on the cross is a glorious success.
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If on the other hand, if it was God's intention to save the entire world, then the atonement of Christ has been a great failure for vast numbers of mankind have not been saved.
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Let's look up a few vices. We could easily do that too. I'm tired enough, let's look up a few vices.
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Galatians chapter five, Revelation 21, 1 Corinthians chapter six, there are vice lists in the
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Bible. Let's look up a few verses. And I'm not going to try to give you seminary answers with every verse covered.
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This is just general tonight, and you can always study this more or ask me for my notes. Let's look up John chapter ten, because I think many scriptures talk about the limitation of Christ's death.
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And by the way, if you are turning to John ten,
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I try to nuance this a little bit when I'm preaching. So I'll say Christ died for all those who believe.
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Is that a true statement? Is it equal to Christ died for the elect? It is, but if I'm not talking about the subject, instead of blowing people out of the water and them saying, what do you mean
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Jesus just died for the elect, he didn't die for the whole world? I'll say something like Jesus died for all those who would believe.
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And the unwitting Arminian would say, yeah, that's true, that's right. Because I don't really need to blow them out of the water until later.
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And so here, you didn't get that. I was just trying to jump to the next section.
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There are some verses that say explicitly that Christ died for the sheep and not for the goats. John chapter ten, let's look at 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
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Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jump down to verse 26, please.
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But you do not believe me because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them.
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See, there are some people who aren't the sheep, and there are some people who are, and he lays down his life for those who are.
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And I give, verse 28, 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 my
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Father's hand. Why don't we turn to Titus chapter two, verse 14? I wanna show you another verse where it explicitly shows that Jesus died for the saints, that he died for us.
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Now, you might be thinking already, what about John 3 .16, for God so loved the world, what about all the all passages?
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Just cheer me out, and then we'll get to those passages. I know they exist. Jesus dying for us,
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Titus chapter two, verse 14, great passage for substitutionary atonement, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.
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The first reason I believe limited atonement is taught in the Bible is because there are many scriptures where it talks about how
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Jesus died for his people, for us, for his sheep, for his own possession, for his children, for the people of God, for his friends.
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Secondly, why don't you turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five and think about this theologically.
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Turn to Ephesians chapter five. When the sun dies for you, will the sun guarantee that you are sanctified?
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In other words, we can talk about the Godhead. If the sun dies for you, will he sanctify you?
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Okay, that's what we're gonna learn from Ephesians chapter five. But the unlimited atonement view, the view that Jesus died for each and every person, says that Jesus died for that person, but he never sanctifies them, because you know the unbelievers aren't sanctified.
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So take a look at this, Ephesians 5, 25, we heard Scott read this this morning. I thought he did a great job of reading.
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Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her,
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Ephesians 5, 25. And there's a purpose. Why here in context does the son give himself for the church?
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For a reason, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory.
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Having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
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So I ask you the question, if Jesus died for each and every person who has ever lived, why aren't the ungodly people being sanctified?
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If he dies for you, you will be sanctified. Number three, the third reason why
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I believe in limited atonement is because the Bible never says that people are made savable.
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It says that God saves them, true or false. Redemption, let's not do true or false yet.
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The Bible doesn't say you are made redeemable, it says God redeemed you. The Bible doesn't say
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God made propitiation possible, it says he made propitiation. The Bible doesn't say
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God made reconciliation potential, it says God made reconciliation. So the third reason
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I believe in limited atonement to be the biblical view is, the language is definite language.
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Let's look up a few of these bits of language here. Let's look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 13.
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By the way, if you're studying limited atonement and unlimited atonement, and you forget that the
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God of the universe would send his son to die for you, you're missing the point. We don't wanna look at, missed the forest through the trees, and because of the trees, is that the right way to say it,
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Steve? I always mess this up. Can't see the forest through the trees, that's right.
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If a tree in a forest falls and no one's there, does it make a sound? Of course, by the way, how great is it that there are places in the universe that no human being is either seen, anything there, or seen anything right now, but it just all exists perfectly for the glory of God.
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And God just sees it and is pleased with the flora and the fauna and the animals,
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I just think that is great. What does that have to do with limited atonement? Nothing, but I'm saying if you believe in limited atonement, and you just think, yeah, cuz that's right, he died for the elect only, and what do these other people know?
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But you're forgetting, Jesus died for me, I know me, I wouldn't die for me.
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Jesus Christ died for me, in the eternal plan of God, that the son of God gave himself for me, we don't wanna lose that.
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In Galatians chapter 3, let me give you an example, that if you believe that Christ died for everyone, there should be language like, we were rendered redeemable.
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But there's never language redeemable, potential, it's all done.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
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I believe that the Bible teaches everywhere that redemption is not made possible, but redemption has been accomplished and then applied.
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And actually, we can talk about this another time, I don't think you can really believe in a true substitutionary atonement, unless you believe in limited atonement, all right, let me ask you another question.
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This is my fourth reason why I believe in limited atonement. Now, I won't ask a question,
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I'll just make a statement. You can tell when I'm tired, how can I phrase the question? Let me give you the statement.
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Christ's sacrificial work cannot be separated from his prayer, his intercessory work.
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In other words, when Jesus dies for you, he will pray for you. And if Jesus has died for you, he will pray for you, if that is true.
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And we're gonna see in John 17 that it's true. Why is it that Jesus doesn't pray for everybody?
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He doesn't pray for everybody because he didn't die for everyone. He prays for everybody he's died for.
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Let's look at John chapter 17. Why would Jesus only pray for some if he died for everyone?
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The priestly work of Christ has to be harmonious with his sacrificial work.
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John chapter 17 verse 9, you'll see these joined together. This is just the same argument but a little bit different.
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If he died for you, he'll sanctify you. If he died for you, he'll pray for you. And if you're an unbeliever, the non -elect, he's not praying for you.
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And if he was, he didn't get it answered, and then that can't be either. John 17 verse 9, I ask on their behalf.
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I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine.
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In other words, the Father gives me, in the eternal covenant of redemption, he gives me the elect,
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I die for them, and then I intercede for them. All things that are mine are thine, verse 10, and thine are mine, and I have been glorified in them.
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If you look down at verse 20, the language has a refrain to it in his prayer. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but also those also who believe in me through their word.
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I believe that Jesus Christ died for the elect only, number five, because of the trinity, because of the trinity.
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All right, let's think about this for a second. The Father chooses some and not all. Would you believe that statement?
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That he chooses some, not all. In time, the Holy Spirit applies the benefit of Christ to those same some and not all.
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Would you believe that? In other words, the Father chooses some, the Spirit of God makes alive only those some.
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So what do you think the role of the second person of the trinity would be? To die for those same some or to die for more than the
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Father has chosen and more than the Holy Spirit will regenerate? You say, well, that's some kind of logic.
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Well, logic isn't bad if it's biblical logic, and thinking isn't bad if it's biblical thinking.
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The Spirit of God, the Son of God, and the Father are one God, three persons.
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The Father's not the Son and the Spirit's not the Son and the Spirit's not the Father, but yet all are
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God, so we have one God, three persons, and they do everything perfectly together. Do they ever disagree?
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Do they ever have different missions? Sometimes the Scripture shows us, well, the
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Spirit of God is dwelling in the hearts of people and that's His special function or who does creation.
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Jesus tends to be more emphasized as the Creator in Scriptures. But the Father chooses some, not all.
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The Spirit saves some and not all, and the Son dies for those same some and not all.
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I don't think Christ one -upped the other members of the Trinity. And without trying to be blasphemous,
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I don't think Jesus said, well, God, I'm going to die for more than you gave me. I don't think that's possible.
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If God planned for everyone to be saved, then Christ would die for all and the Spirit would be sent to all.
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Number six, let me give you number six. This is a big one. All right, this is the sixth reason why
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I believe in limited atonement. Did Jesus die for people who are already in hell?
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So on the cross, did Jesus die for Goliath? On the cross, did Jesus die for the people of the
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Tower of Babel? Nimrod? Did Jesus die for Judas?
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I don't think he did. At the time of the Lord's death on the cross, Roger Nicole said, the eternal destiny of many reprobates had already been sealed in death and hell.
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Sinners before the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah. Can we suppose that our Lord died with the intent of burying the sins of those who were then and there in hell?
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If not, he did not die for all. Seventh reason
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I believe in limited atonement. We got to go a little faster. This is going to turn into a 10 -part series. Sometimes Steve and I are doing the no -compromise shows and nobody else is around, but we're just laughing.
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Just sitting in the office laughing. I was laughing a lot this week until I found out the last six shows that Steve and I taped, or I taped myself, were not recorded.
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And if you were a good congregant, you'd say, we feel really bad, but God's sovereign. And if you really wanted to encourage me, you'll say, when you redo them, they'll even be better.
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Be better the second time. Have you ever lost your wallet? It's just that sinking feeling.
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Oh, these lost shows. It could be some kind of special discovery show, discovery channel.
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Lost no -compromise shows. You know, if I was charismatic, here's what I'd say. Satan was messing with those knobs.
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Somebody, Satan had some kid come in and push the button on that knob. Ooh. God does not demand double payment.
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Whatever number that is, no double jeopardy. A penalty cannot be legally demanded twice and still have
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God be holy and just. So God doesn't say, my son paid for your sins, to those who think
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Jesus died for everyone. My son paid for your sins, and you now have to pay for your sins.
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That would be a false balance. And the Bible says a just weight is his delight.
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I know Bruce likes this top lady song. Complete atonement thou has made, and to the utmost farthing paid.
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Whatever thy people owed. How then can wrath on me take place? If sheltered in thy righteousness and sprinkled with thy blood.
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God is not going to demand double payment. All right, let me give you a couple more. And I think these are really interesting.
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I bet you haven't thought of these. I believe in limited atonement because even the Old Testament sacrificial system was only for a specific group of people,
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Israel. Were the sacrificial lambs killed on either
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Passover, Yom Kippur, or any other time designated for the Hittites, the
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Jebusites, or anyone else? The answer is no. This is not a new concept.
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The sacrificial system in the Old Testament was for Israel alone and those who had attached themselves to Israel by faith in this monotheistic
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God. It's a great picture, a pre -picture of Christ's sacrifice. The sacrifice in the
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Old Testament was not for the Canaanites. Matter of fact, I could push it a little bit, and this is my last number here, and then we'll talk about the alls and the worlds.
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I believe in limited atonement. Therefore, we restrict the Lord's Supper to believers only because if Jesus died for each and every person, then we ought to offer the
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Lord's Supper to each and every person. Now, there are some objections.
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One is, people say, what about the word world? For God so loved the world.
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And so here's what I want you to do sometime. Just study on your own, read through the Gospel of John, and 1 and 2 and 3
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John, and just underline every time you see the word world, and here's what you'll see right away. You'll see that not every word world is true.
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Every time you see the word world, it's not all translated. Excuse me. It doesn't mean the same thing every time it shows up.
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Sometimes the world could be the cosmos. Sometimes it could be the actual world. Sometimes it could be the evil world system.
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Sometimes it could be one of eight different things. I found a list of eight different ways the word world could be translated.
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And so you need to ask yourself the question, does it necessitate a meaning of every person who was ever born?
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And I don't think you'll find that to be the case. For instance, John, remember the woman at the well?
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I just reread that the other day, and I just thought there's nobody like Jesus who goes to this woman, talks to her.
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And remember, she goes back, the Samaritan woman, and she goes back to the men, and she says, he's indeed the savior of the what?
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World. What was she saying? He's the savior of each and every person who's ever been born?
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No, he's the savior of not just Jews, but of Samaritans as well.
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Last time I counted, 112 times the word world is used in the writings of John.
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How many books did John write really quickly? One, two, three, four, five, 112 times, eight different uses.
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So for God so loved the world, what does that mean? Then the word all, all can either mean all without distinction or all without exception.
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It can mean relative all or inclusive all. It can mean all manner of, all kinds of, or all.
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Mark 1, and all the country of Judea was going out to him. Does that mean each and every person?
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John Owen said it this way, the father imposed his wrath due unto, and the son underwent punishment for either one, all the sins of all men, two, all the sins of some men, or three, some of the sins of all men.
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That if the last be true, all men still have some sins to answer for, and none are saved. If the second be true, then
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Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect of the whole world, and this is the truth.
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But if the first is the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due to their own sins?
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You answer, because of unbelief. I ask, is this unbelief a sin, or is it not?
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If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or he did not.
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If he did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died?
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If he did not, he did not die for all their sins. One last comment, and I'll make it from Charles Spurgeon.
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We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ because we say that Christ has not made satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved.
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Now, our reply to this is that. On the other hand, our opponents limit it. We do not.
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Now, listen, will you limit the atonement, Spurgeon, because you think he only died for the elect? And Spurgeon says, no, no, you limit the atonement.
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By the way, even if I was right, I would hate to argue with Spurgeon. Some people are like that.
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I've met people like that where I think, you know what, I know I'm right, but I can't win the argument because they're just too good.
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They're just too good in debating. I don't think
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I've ever won an argument with my wife. That's what I was thinking. I just give up.
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You win. I'm a loser. Please forgive me. You win. It's getting hot in here.
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So men, don't argue with your wives. Just love your wives. They're not always right, but they like to feel like they're right.
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No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just kidding. Reminds me of a story.
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I'm just kidding. Have you ever heard such, you know, banter?
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People write in all the time and say, we don't like to listen to Mike and Steve bantering. The Armenians say
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Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men?
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They say, no, certainly not. We ask them the next question. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular?
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They say, no. They are obliged to admit this if they are consistent. They say, no,
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Christ has not died so that any man may be saved. So Christ died so that any man may be saved if, and then follow certain conditions of salvation.
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We say then, we will just go back to the old statement. Christ did not die so as beyond a doubt to secure the salvation of anybody, did he?
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You must say, no. You are obliged to say so, for you believe that even after a man has been pardoned, he may yet fall from grace and perish.
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Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why you? We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number.
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Who through Christ's death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of anything but be saved.
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You are welcome to your atonement. You may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it. If I'm right, if you believe limited atonement, you're right.
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You have to make sure when you talk to other people, this isn't the only issue. I will say this behind the scenes.
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When we interview new elders -to -be, I ask them all kinds of questions. The other elders get to ask them all kinds of questions.
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I ask questions like this. Are you a mason? By the way, when I got here, there were masons galore.
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Rings masons, tie things masons, there were all kinds of masons. And I'm not talking about, you know, masons in the union putting, you know, brick masons or whatever.
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What are they called? Brick masons? Yeah. I ask them, what do you think about speaking in tongues?
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What do you think about paying pastors? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
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And then I ask them, what are your views on the atonement? And tell me why you believe it. And the answer is not because if they say unlimited, they can't be an elder, because they could be.
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Because I've been trained by some good men at Master's Seminary who believe in unlimited atonement. But I just want them to know and to be able to articulate and to be able to go through the issues.
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So if you think I'm this crazy five -pointer and if you're not a limited atonement guy, you're nothing.
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It's not that at all. I don't like the word limited atonement because it sounds like it's negative. I believe in definite atonement.
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If Jesus died for you, you're going. I believe in particular redemption. He redeemed a particular group of people.
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And by the way, at the end of the day, I think everybody believes in a particular redemption because there's a hell and people are in hell.
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And I don't think anyone with a straight face could say Jesus died for some of those people in hell. Now, what you would say is, because I've been on the other fence, well, let's look at some exegetical passages and let's look at 2
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Peter 2, verse 1, and let's look at 1 Timothy 2, verse 4, verse 8, etc. But at least the four elders that you have now, we believe that Jesus died for the elect because of the triune nature of God, the
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Father, Son, and the Spirit working in perfect harmony to save those that God, the
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Father, gave to the Son before time began. And so that's what we believe here at Bethlehem Biola Church.
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All right. Well, I think we have a little more time. Should we do one more? Why am I asking you? Let's do one more.
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What do you think I'm going to pick next? Election, that was number three.
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End times? I don't think end times made it on the list. And it's not because I think everything will just kind of pan out.
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Let's talk about free will versus bound will. Free will.
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What is free will? What is a bound will? I asked some questions.
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Here's a question. Why are some men saved? Well, you could either say because God alone saved them or you could say because man made it possible by willingly opening their hearts.
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I ask you another question. Who gets the praise for your salvation? If God alone saved you, he gets the praise.
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If you believe you opened your heart to allow him to save you, then I think maybe you get some praise.
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Do you ever pray like an Arminian? Spurgeon says, this is the prayer of the Arminian. Lord, I thank thee that I'm not like those poor presumptuous
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Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free will. I was born with power by which
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I can turn to thee of myself. I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that I have, they might have been saved as well.
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Lord, I know that you do not make us willing unless we are willing ourselves. You give grace to everybody, but some do not improve it, but I do.
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There are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was. They had as much of the
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Holy Ghost given to them. They had a good chance and were as much blessed as I am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ.
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I know it was a great deal. Still, I turned the point. I made use of what was given me and others did not.
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That's the difference between me and them. Doesn't that sound crazy? Spurgeon said, that is the prayer of the devil, for nobody else would offer such a prayer as that.
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I could ask another question. Congregation, how many of you in this congregation came to Christ without the
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Holy Spirit's work? See, nobody would say because you're smart.
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Could you say of my own free will, I have come? No influence of the Holy Spirit. There are two systems.
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One system is a salvation by God's grace alone because our will is bound, and the other system is we have free will.
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George Whitefield said, man is nothing. He hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven till God works in him to will and to do thy good pleasure.
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Free will comes out like this. God votes for your salvation, unbeliever. Satan votes against your salvation, unbeliever.
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And you cast the deciding vote. Like the old basketball things, you make the call.
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Man is dead spiritually, so we need help. Let's look up a few verses, and I have four statements in your outline if you'd like to have them, and then we're going to have to wrap this up.
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Four influences on the will of man so that you don't believe in free will. If you mean free will is you choose what you desire at the moment, then that's fine.
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But if you mean free will is an unbeliever being able to do anything to save himself, then
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I don't believe in that will. You ought to read The Bondage of the Will by Luther.
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Number one, I'm going to form these in questions. Is the will of the unbeliever free from sin and the flesh?
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Let's go to Romans chapter 6, please. Is the will free from sin and the flesh?
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And if it's not, then you don't really have free will. You say, well, that makes you a robot. No, that makes you a slave to sin.
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Number one, is your will free from sin and flesh if you're an unbeliever? I'm not talking about believers now.
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This is the unbeliever, and I'm not talking about can I choose liver and onions or steak and eggs.
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I'm talking about can I choose to worship Christ Jesus in and of myself? Question one, is your will, if you're an unbeliever, free from sin and the flesh?
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Romans chapter 6, verse 16. Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slave for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
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But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.
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And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So, obviously there,
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I know who I'm talking to tonight, the congregation, you understand that unbelievers are slaves to sin.
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Question number two, are unbelievers free from the world's influence? Let's turn our
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Bibles to Ephesians 2. Are we influenced by the world?
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Matter of fact, as you're turning there and I'm thinking about the world's influence, this doesn't really count, but I do want to read a short statement by Robert Raymond about how things influence us generally.
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He said, the weather, at least sometimes unknown to us, affects how we feel.
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For instance, which in turn influences our choices. Diseases present in our body of which we are unaware, for example, brain tumors, can cause us while we presume all the while our sanity to make irrational decisions.
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And I found this interesting. Parents long dead through their teaching and example in our formative years, often now without our being aware of it, still wield a powerful determining influence upon us in our adult years.
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In other words, we are influenced by external factors as well as internal. And if you look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2, not just are we slaves as unbelievers to sin,
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Romans 6, we're slaves to the world system. Ephesians 2, 1, of course, dead and trespassed sins, verse 2, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedient.
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So sin is enslaving. How free is that? The world influences how free is that?
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Furthermore, number three, is an unbeliever free from Satan's will? The answer is no.
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Let's turn to 2 Timothy 2. You know, this is one of my favorite places. For those that boast freedom, I see slavery.
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For those that boast freedom, I see chains. It's like Rousseau who said, man was born free and everywhere he's in chains.
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And so here, everywhere we see this, it's the will that's bound. That's, by the way, the issue of the Reformation.
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Is the will bound or free? Erasmus, the Roman Catholic, free. Luther, the
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Protestant, bound. 2 Timothy 2, verse 25 and 26. If anybody ever thinks that the unbeliever has total free will, that they are autonomous, that they have the island of righteousness, their own will, and nothing can influence them, then
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I take them to this verse, these verses. With gentleness, Paul says to Timothy, pastoring a pastor, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps
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God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.
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And now look what the devil is doing to these poor pawns, these poor people who think they're free.
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Your friends who are unbelievers, they think they're free, yet they are having been held captive by him to do his will.
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His refers to what? To whom? To Satan. Unbelievers think they're doing whatever they want, and Satan is controlling them.
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You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. Who said that?
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Jesus, John 8. And number four, why do I think there's no such thing as free will for the unbeliever?
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Is because the unbeliever is not outside God's will. The unbeliever is not outside the will and control of God.
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Listen to some of these verses. Because I want to get this into your brain, because it's very, very important.
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I believe that the God of the universe can, at His good pleasure, intervene into your will anytime
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He wants. And if you're an unbeliever, that should be a really good thing. That when God intervenes into your will,
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He can do it without somehow turning you into a puppet or a robot. As our
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English friends say, a robot. No, God can intervene in the human will.
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And there are people who think that the human will is the veritable holy of holies that can't be touched. I'll just read you the verses.
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Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.
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Revelation 17, for God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beasts.
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Proverbs 20, man's steps are ordained by the Lord. Proverbs 16, the mind of a man plans his way, but the
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Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 21, the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the
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Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. Our will is the faculty of choice.
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What is the will? The faculty of choice. What I desire most. And the question is, is it free from external and internal influences?
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The answer is no. You will choose your greatest desire at every moment.
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Now, let's think about an unbeliever. Is the unbeliever's desire to worship Christ Jesus? And does he get that desire on his own?
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The answer is no. The will of man,
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Hep said, is free only for evil. And he does it freely and with pleasure.
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Kurt Daniel said, free will is a perverse kind of freedom. It can sin all it wants to. In fact, it does.
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I have a question for you. This is actually a question. True or false? No man is saved against his will.
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Does God save you against your will? You're an unbeliever. You love sin. You don't like righteousness.
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And so does God take you like the veritable... What's the caveman?
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Caveman. Dragging his wife in Neanderthal. Is that right? I don't think we say that in Texas.
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Taking the hair and dragging. Is that what God does? I used to think of God's saving like this.
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In Los Angeles, we had a lot of crack, cocaine dealers, and they would barricade themselves in houses.
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And I'm sure Steve Cooley rammed down a few of those houses. They had a special kind of a tank that Daryl Gates, the police chief, had put together.
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What was that called, Steve? It was called The Rammer. I mean, it was called The Rammer. And who wrote that song in 1974?
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And so these crooks would put themselves in these strong houses and they couldn't get in.
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You can't bash the door down like you see on cops. And so they'd have this little, it was some kind of armored vehicle,
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Steve, a small deal. And it would just basically mow the house down and they would go in and arrest them. And I thought, you know what?
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That's what God does. God says, you know what? You won't follow my son, but you're chosen.
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And I just bust the door down of the house and then make you believe kicking and screaming.
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But that's not the right way to view it. What does God do? How does God save an unbeliever who is with his fist saying, or she's saying, you know what?
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I won't worship you. What does God do? Through the preaching of the word of God, God regenerates the person and gives them a new nature.
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So here's how you think about it. Nature and will are tied together. Don't, what
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God has joined us under. What God has joined together. You don't pull us under.
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So nature, will. If you've got a nature of an unbeliever that hates God, hates
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Jesus, his choices will be in line with that. But if God gives you a new willer, he gives you a new nature, your will is changed.
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So for instance, if you said, you know what? How do I get a lion to eat
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Ben and Jerry's ice cream? How could you do it? By the way, that's every Sunday night. I drive home, go to Hannaford and it's
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Ben and Jerry's. I can just taste it right now. And you're saying, well, if you'd wrap up this long sermon, I could go home at 7 .32.
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All right, I'll wrap it up. How do I get them to do it? I can't get them to do it. But if I change their nature to a pastor that's worked all day and has his set ways, he'd probably go there and buy a half a dozen
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Ben and Jerry chubby hubbies. So the nature must be changed. So how does
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God save someone that doesn't want to be saved? He gives them a new nature. And that new nature says, I used to love that.
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Now I hate it. I used to hate that. I used to love it. And so God makes alive. Why do you think the Bible says he made alive
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Colossians two? He caused us to be born again. First Peter chapter one, because God does the work and then we respond.
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He's not dragging us, kicking and screaming. Nobody got saved kicking and screaming into the kingdom. You know what happens?
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There's the Damascus road. And Jesus says to Saul, I own you. I change you.
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And then he says, Lord, okay, I'll do whatever you want. So when you go back to your salvation, it could be just like Lydia's in Acts chapter 16.
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God opened her heart and she responded to the things of the Lord. It wasn't he opened her heart and she went kicking and screaming.
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I hate it that I'm saved now. And you know, all this stuff I can't do and can't drink and can't smoke and can't do all this stuff.
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No, God changed her heart. And now she's a Christian and now she's made to be exactly what she wants to do.
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And now she makes choices out of with her own will. They're not forced upon her. She gladly does it.
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So what's the point? Well, here's the point. If you want any of your loved ones saved, they're gonna need the will of God to be involved because they can't save themselves.
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And that's exactly, by the way, the reason you pray, God saved them. God opened their hearts because we don't pray like Arminians.
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We pray like people who believe the Bible. God saved them and grant them new life.
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God's sovereign grace doesn't annihilate man's will. It just overcomes his unwillingness, as one scholar said.
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Okay, it is late. Wow, 7 .35. Well, I only got to two. We'll do more next time.
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And we'll talk about election and other things. Don't leave tonight without thinking, Jesus died for me and He overcame my desires that were selfish and lustful and hedonistic.
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And He overcame those and God gets all the credit for my salvation. Don't forget that. I don't want you just to say,
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I believe in limited atonement and I believe in the bondage of the will. That's not gonna do us much good. It's how we respond.