Calvinism: Its Essence

Introduction: Genesis of the Retreat Theme and Sermon Outline

0:04 I would first of all like to just take a minute or two by way of introduction to give some idea, first of all, of the genesis of the theme for this retreat and also something of what I hope to cover in the three sessions that I will be privileged to share with you. As some of you men know, I was scheduled to come for a series of eight lectures sponsored by the Student Association for eight evenings last year, and due to a number of circumstances, it seemed the part of wisdom to cancel them. The theme of those lectures was to be around the general theme of the Reformed faith and its application to life and ministry.

0:49 When I was asked to come and share in this retreat, a specific request was made that I try to condense what would have been extended over a series of eight lectures. I have not chosen this theme, if I had been left free to choose something, I would have chosen something that perhaps I had done some previous work on and not have had to have invested three solid days of pastoral labors in preparation for them, but it's been a very enriching experience to my own mind. Thank you. Thank you.

1:29 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:30 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:30 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:32 And that God will be pleased to use them in each of our lives. So much, then, for the genesis of the theme, the Reformed faith and its application to life and ministry. Now, what will I attempt to do? Some of the theologians have already chuckled, I'm sure.

1:49 What in the world do you think he's going to do with three lectures to cover such a broad theme? Well, what I want to attempt to do is to give a broad overview of the essence of the Reformed faith. Thank you. Thank you.

2:00 Thank you. reformed or Calvinistic thinking, and I will use those terms interchangeably, and having given this broad overview, then try to show some of the practical implications of reformed or Calvinistic faith to the life of an individual as he walks with his God and to the Christian ministry. So much then for introduction, let us pause to ask the help of God as we consider these very important matters together.

3:30 In these few hours that we spend together, we may be conscious that thou art opening the windows of heaven and pouring out blessing, exceeding that which we could have asked or even thought. And acknowledge that unless he opens thy words to us, we shall consider them in vain.

3:57 Of the reformed or Calvinistic faith and its implications and application to life and ministry,

4:38 I will first of all give you an idea of the broad outline. I hope to cover. First of all, I want to consider with you the biblical framework of Calvinism, and then secondly, a brief description or definition of Calvinism, and then the third main area, the practical application of Calvinism in two areas, one's personal life, and secondly, one's ministerial experience. First of all, then, the biblical framework of Calvinism.

The Biblical Framework of Calvinism: Romans 11:36

5:14 I would ask you. I would ask you to consider with me the last few verses of the 11th chapter of Romans, particularly verse 36. Ask me what is the essence of reformed thinking or Calvinistic thinking. I find great liberty in turning them to Romans 11, 36, and declaring that this is the essence of it.

5:53 And if one understands the meaning of the apostle's mind in verse 36 and its implications, then he has to be able to understand the meaning of the apostle's mind in verse 36. He has to grasp upon the core of reformed or Calvinistic thinking. Of him, and through him, and to him, to whom be glory forever, is the immediate context of this statement of the apostle Paul. He has been dealing with the subject of God's disposition with the nations, both in grace and in judgment.

6:36 His cutting off of the nation of Israel, extending mercy to the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, and his cutting off of the Gentiles, without discrimination. And in the immediate context, the theme of grace and judgment and blessing being dispensed to men in saving mercy, even at the expense of cursing, this mysterious interweaving of blessing and cursing, of judgment and grace, has been the immediate context. And in that context, he cries out for of him, and through him, and to him, the whole thing. Now, of course, the remote...

7:15 Of course, the remote context, and certainly this text, as it were, flashes back over the entire eleven chapters of Romans. There's been this unfolding in a systematic way of the whole message of God's mercy to sinners, beginning in those first few chapters with the pronouncement of judgment upon every segment of humanity, and then the unfolding of God's way of acceptance with himself through the sacrifice of his...

7:44 Then the doctrine of... Then the sanctification, and then God's dealings, of course, with the nations, and over that whole unfolding, this display of human sin and divine grace, the apostle can write, of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things.

8:08 So much, then, for the immediate and the remote context. Now, look at the verse itself. What does he say in this text? Simple, one-syllable words.

8:20 Him. That is? In terms of his decree and his plan. Everything that is unfolded before our eyes in time is of him, in terms of his plan and decree in eternity.

8:38 He has come over that very inner sanctuary in Romans 9 of the divine decrees and how the divine will interacts and governs the outworking of the human will. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, cursing upon the nation of Israel that blessing might come. And in the midst of all that, he says, for of him, in terms of decree and purpose and plan. And then he says, through him, in subsistence and disposal, in power to execute and direct all events and circumstances.

9:16 Not only are all things of him. All things are...

9:22 Do the Jews turn in unbelief and crucify their Messiah? Then as the apostle Peter declared...

9:30 And again, the... disciples in Acts 4, they simply did whatsoever God's decree had foreordained should come to pass. Through him, in terms of his power to execute and direct, and unto him, that

9:46 is for his purple display of all his glorious attributes of grace and divine power, as Hodges said, the highest end for which all things can exist, to be ordered, is to display the character of God. The highest end for which all things can exist and be ordered is to display the character, and so over all of these themes which the apostle has dealt

10:24 with, human sin, all that is guilty before God, brought up under judgment, God's divine selectivity, some while others are hardened, his dealings with entire nations, and all of this, the whole end of all of this, the apostle declared, might be glorified. And these prepositions are very forceful in indicating that God is the source of all things, the working cause of all things, and the end of all things. And what is Calvinism

11:05 or reformed thinking? It is that recognition coupled with the attitude of the apostle in the last part of the verse. Be glory forever and ever. Calvinism is not a grudging acquiescence of these facts that of him.

11:28 God is the author, sustainer, and end of all things. Now, you see, the genius of Calvinism and reformed thinking is that it faces honestly the statement that of him and to him are all things, and then with a glad face in its head, it is not a grudging acquiescence of all things.

12:09 one of God any other way. Yes, it sounds things, but it doesn't sound fair. The logic of it is inescapable, and so I'll have to admit it. It's killing me. Calvinism, this is it.

12:41 Brought him in decree and perk. Threw him in subsistence and disposal. Brought unto him for the display. Then to that dog, the globalism is nothing less than a simple and honest attempt to capture the raw materials of biblical data according to this framework

13:20 constructed by scripture. Calvinism is simply an honest attempt to capture all the raw material data according to this framework constructed from him all things with the result that his glory may be revealed to men and praise and honor be rendered to such a dog. In fact, for his glory. In fact, for his glory.

14:01 As said in commenting on this very thought, Calvinism is a whole worldview stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world's. Calvinism is the consistent endeavor to acknowledge the creation of God, working all things after the counsel of his will. Calvinism is the theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God's own word. Calvinism, in other words, is the way of thinking about all life.

14:36 Calvinism is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible, the God-centered outlook which sees the Creator as the source and means and end of everything that is, both in nature and in grace. End of quote. So in a very real sense, the biblical framework of Calvinism is established with the very first verse of the Bible. In the beginning, God and his sin and his redemption of his good or his evil must ever be developed in such a way in our

15:19 thinking that it clouds the solace and the sovereignty and glory of this God who is set before us in the very first verse of Scripture. In the beginning, God. And nothing that follows from Genesis 1-2 onward to the last verse in Revelation is rightly understood. It's ever hung together in such a way that we lose that pivotal perspective. In the beginning,

15:49 age in which you will be born again. In the beginning, you will be born again. In the beginning, you and I live and most of us being products of the public school system in which we received 13 years of very consistent brainwashing in humanism. We begin to think in these terms about a Copernican revolution in our whole lives. The scientific world finally faced the fact that this little old Earth

16:17 wasn't the center of everything and that that sun out there was the center of our solar system. Everything in the whole scientific realm that had to do with astronomy had to undergo a complete overhaul. It lost their point of reference. Our spiritual and mental experience, who have been brainwashed by the man-centered humanistic thinking of our own day, begin to learn that the Earth is not the center

16:51 of this solar system. The happiness, the titillating of our itches. This is not the end of all existence, but that God himself is the end of it all. I submit this will be a traumatic but blessed expression of the mind of Scripture.

Calvinism is Not a Rigid System of Logic

17:17 So much then for a brief definition of the biblical framework of Calvinism or Reformed thinking. Now I want to focus with you for the rest of the time tonight on the basic definition or description of Calvinism. And to do this, I'd like to start with what it is not. I want to clear away some of the caricatures. This is an election year and all those who

17:45 have any gift of caricature. ...are let out of the woods and they fill our newspapers with their art history. And

17:55 I need not tell you what caricature is, what its general intent is. And Calvinism has been caricatured in a great degree. I would like to suggest that most of the caricatures which I have encountered could come under three general headings. And so as we try to understand in a more, what we might call a more theoretical sense, with this scriptural framework behind us, we can understand that Calvinism is not a caricature. Calvinism is not a caricature.

18:19 Calvinism is not a caricature. Calvinism is not a caricature. Calvinism is not a caricature. But in order to understand what is communicative when we see what is помогating us, and surrounding us, what Calvinism is, let's clear away the caricatures.

18:26 In the first place, Calvinism is NOT a rigid system of logic imposed on the simple testimony of scripture! There are many who regard Calvinism as a logical and philosophical speculation, which adulterates the simple testimony of scripture. And the idea is—simple-minded Christians, why they come up with Arminian thinking, and it's only those who getgi....

18:49 because not everyone knows it, unless you know or read that text! And it's simply not biblical either! get spoiled by that thing that you read about in Colossians, you know, vain philosophy. They end up, perhaps no accusation is heard more often than this.

19:03 I would submit that this is not true from a number of standpoints. First of all, it was a return to the testimony of Scripture in the Reformation, which brought a return to the doctrines that have been historically labeled as Calvinistic, and where Luther and Zwingli and other of the Reformers differed on many points. On this basic perspective, they were all united, shaking conviction, because they were eminently, regardless of what else they were, they were exegetes of Holy Scripture.

19:48 It was the painstaking exegetical work of these men which brought them to this position, which now has the nickname Calvinism, and which made them the instruments under God which shaped and molded almost the entire Protestant Church with the strength of this precious doctrinal pursuit. Whether we think of Luther, Zwingli, and some of the earlier Reformers, or on to Calvin, and on into the age of the Puritans, what are they known for? Their painstaking, careful, exegetical work.

20:29 To add to this, it is Calvinism, or the Reformed position, which holds tenuously. To recognize the fact that there is a Quranic guidance or the Quranic abilities and principles of the Quranic Governance, and not just the Vedic interpretations, which are suprarational. The concept of Calvinism and Arminianism that take the itch for rational consistency and drive it to the place where they are willing to twist Scriptures up and down. Has those of you who love and hold to these truths been asked, Well, how can you reconcile thus and thus?

21:03 And I answer in a very simplistic way, God never called me to be a reconciler, except in seeking to reconcile men to him, but he called me to be a proclaimer of his truth, NOT a reconciler. of it, just a proclaimer. So when we come into the mystery of the human will as responsibly acting, and in that sense free, and the divine will, sovereignly exerted even over human will, we see of man as a clear propositional truth. It also states the absolute sovereignty

21:45 of God and that the disposal of man for eternity is in the hand of God. Why hold something that jars upon our astrological consistency? Because Scripture drives us to it. And so when anyone says that Calvinism is a rigid system of logic imposed on the simple testimony of Scripture, such a caricature will not stand before the true faith. And may I say by way

22:11 of personal testimony that if anything makes me ready to debate and fight, it's that caricature. I saw the inherent logic of Calvinism as a system of logic imposed on the simple testimony of Scripture. I saw the inherent logic of Calvinism as a system of logic imposed on the simple testimony of Scripture. I saw it as the system ten years before I ever embraced it as the teaching of the Bible. There's a simple reason that I have tremendous problems exegetically with

22:34 passages of Scripture, and I submit that every tenet of that which is nicknamed Calvinism will stand or fall on the basis of it's own independent, scriptural testimony. The reason I stand espousing that view today is because Scripture has driven me to the testimony that Scripture should not support. that the moon, the sun, and this earth all exist. They have their own properties, and their existence and their properties can be demonstrated independent of each other.

23:19 Now, once you've demonstrated the existence and the constituent elements of the sun, the moon, and the stars, then if you find there's some interrelationship between them, that doesn't negate the independent testimony of the matter of the earth, of the sun, and the moon, simply because they are found to have some physical relationship. Commenting on this very thought, Charles Spurgeon said, To affirm of any human production that it contained many great and instructive truths, it would be impossible to systematize without weakening each separate truth and frustrating the design of the whole

24:03 would be a serious reflection upon the author's wisdom and skill. How much more to affirm this of the word of God, systematic theology is to the Bible what science is to nature. To suppose that all the other works of God are orderly and systematic, and the greater the work, the more perfect the system, and then that the greatest of all his works, in which all his perfections are transcendently displayed, should have no plan or system, is altogether absurd. If faith in the scriptures is to be positive, if consistent, if consistent with itself, if operative, if abiding,

24:47 it must have a fixed and well-defined creed. No one can say that the Bible is his creed unless he can express it in words of his own. End of quote. So much for the first caricature.

Calvinism is Not a Lopsided Preoccupation with Dreary Determinism

25:04 I have no doubt that some of you have had this caricature embedded in your own thinking, and perhaps even as you've come to seminary, you've got your heels in because you say, I maintain my simple Christian faith, and I'm not going to let this bulldozer of logic run me over. We've said enough to make you realize that's not a bulldozer, and to run you over. Second caricature is that Calvinism is a lopsided preoccupation with a dreary determinism. It's the picture of blind faith.

25:43 You know, you heard about the fellow that fell down the stairs, the Calvinist, and he supposedly looked up the flight of stairs and said, Well, I'm glad that's over. You see, that's the caricature. That fall down the stairs was determined in a fixed and eternal decree, and now that he had the bump on his britches, he was glad it was all over with. And then there's also the picture, the caricature under this general heading of this idea that it's a lopsided preoccupation with a dreary determinism, a picture of a foolish dog who wrings his hands and says, Now, let me see.

26:26 Who shall I damn, and who shall I save? And arbitrarily, you see, in a heartless, cold way, is dealing with the eternal destinies of men. Or it may be under this heading, the picture of the cold-hearted parson droning on about the decrees and infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism while sinners in his congregation. I fear that sometimes maybe that's not all caricature.

26:57 Such as it is, the concept of a God who rules and reigns, both in the realm of nature and of grace, is a positive and glorious and warm truth. That's why the great preachers who shone like lights in the history of the church and men who gladly confessed that the very fire of their preaching passion and missionary passion was lit by these doctrines, whether it's Whitefield or Spurgeon or Edwards or Knox or the Tinker Bunyan, whether it's the missionaries, Brainerd, Carey, Henry Martin,

27:41 again I quote from the words of Charles Spurgeon who said, in the light of this objection so often made, the greatest missionaries that have ever lived have believed in God's choice of them. And instead of this doctrine leading to inaction, it has ever been an irresistible motive, motive power, and so will it be again. It was the secret energy of the Reformation. It is because free grace has been put into the background that we have seen so little done in many places.

28:13 It is in God's hand the great force which can stir the church of God to its utmost. How can men say that the doctrine of distinguishing grace makes men careless about souls? Did they never hear of the evangelical band which was called the Clapham sect? Was Whitefield a man who cared nothing for the salvation of people?

28:37 He who flew like a seraph throughout England and America, unceasingly proclaiming the grace of God, was he selfish? Yet he was distinctly a free grace preacher. Did Jonathan Edwards have no concern for the souls of others? Oh, how he wept and cried and warned them of the wrath to come.

28:58 Time would fail me to tell of the lovers of men who have been lovers. No, this is a caricature for the very full point of the decrees of God in terms of the Calvinistic system. It is their soteriological point or their saving focal point. This purposed two caricatures, the rigid system of logic imposed on Scripture, the lopsided preoccupation with determinism, the third caricature that Calvinism is not.

Calvinism is Not an Irresponsible Flight into Speculation

29:39 Some would say it is an irresponsible flight into the stratosphere of speculation with no practical relevance to life. And this, perhaps, is one of the strongest caricatures because we Americans are pragmatists. You go anywhere else out of the States and you realize how enslaved we are to the philosophy what works is good and if it works it must be good. This has reached over into the realm of our religious life.

30:13 A few months ago I talked with two leaders in a Christian movement that is known for its, quote, success. And as we sought to isolate the issues of the message and methods used in proclaiming their gospel, and to evaluate them in the light of Scripture, the answer that was thrown back in my teeth again and again was this. What we've got works. What have you got that works better?

30:38 And when I tried to say, let's bring it to the touchstone of Scripture, the answer came back, it works, it works, it works. And so in that kind of a thinking, men are predisposed to reject Calvinism for they say, no, this has nothing to do with the activities of my hands and the direction of my feet, it's an irresponsible plight up here into the realm of speculation. What can God's eternal degrees have to do with me right here and now in the flesh and blood experience in which I find myself? ...is made up in evangelizing,

31:17 church activity, comforting the saints, exhorting, counseling, directing. May I suggest to you that these doctrines will mold and shape your whole ministry for your ministry, whether it's that of a mother, a Sunday school teacher, I don't care what it is, your ministry in its message and in its method and in its motive is simply the extension into life and practice of your theology. When you sit that precious little three-year-old child on your knee, what you tell him about God and Jesus

32:00 will be determined by whether or not you see that all things are of him and unto him or whether you have something else to say. What that ministry is is simply an extension into life and practice. And so I submit that this is not an irresponsible flight into speculation. Well, having, I trust, disposed of some of the caricatures, now to positively consider the subject, what is Calvinism or Reformed thinking when we try to get the boiled-down essence.

The Essence of Calvinism: A Profound Apprehension of God's Majesty

32:44 And at this point, may I say, I am greatly indebted to a very kind providence of God in putting into my hands just a week and a half ago this little booklet by B.B. Warfield, Calvin as a Theologian and Calvinism Today. The night before my wife and I left England to fly back home a week ago Monday, I spent the evening in the home of a young preacher whom I had met on a previous trip to England and going through his library looking for some materials that might help me in the preparation of these lectures, I found Calvinism. And I didn't have it

33:20 in my library. He said, well, I've got two other things that may help you. And he gave me Meter's book and then this little booklet. And this has been a great source of help and instruction to me.

33:30 And I will be quoting some directly from it and then seeking to give you the gist of the thinking of B.B. Warfield who, as recorded in this book, was asked to deliver lectures at three different places on the essence of Calvinism on the 400th anniversary of either Calvin's birth or death. I forgot what it was.

33:53 He was asked to speak on what was the genius of the great reformer. And so Warfield, with his great breadth of biblical knowledge and theological sensitivity, focused those great mental powers and that spiritual sensitivity upon this subject until he brought it into focus and this is what he describes as the essence of Calvinism or reformed thinking. First of all, generally, and then more specifically as it relates to the doctrine of salvation. Generally, this is Mr. Warfield's comment

34:29 on the essence of Calvinism. I quote now from his lecture. Calvinism withdraws the eye from the soul and its destiny and fixes it on God and His glory. It has zeal, no doubt, for salvation but its highest zeal is for the honor of God. And it is

34:53 this that quickens its emotions and vitalizes its efforts. It begins, it centers, and it ends with the vision of God in His glory and sets itself before all things to render to God His rights in every sphere of life activity. The formative principle of Calvinism is not to be identified with the points of difference which has developed with its sister type of Protestantism, Lutheranism, unless can it be identified with those heads of doctrine, summarily or in which are generally known

35:37 as the five points of Calvinism. Then he goes on to say, sure, this is a valid point that Calvinism sets forth a doctrine of salvation in which God and His glory is central. But he says this is not the whole. Then he goes on, and now I quote again verbatim, clearly at the root of the stalk which bears these branches that is the five points of Calvinism are the branches, at the root of that stalk must lie a most profound sense of God and an equally profound sense of the relation in which the creature stands to God, whether conceived merely as creature or specifically as

36:22 sinful creature. It is the vision of God and His Majesty in a word which lies at the foundation of the entirety of Calvinistic thinking. The exact formulation of the formative principle of Calvinism, as I have said, has taxed the acumen of a long line of distinguished thinkers. Many modes of stating it have been proposed.

36:50 Perhaps after all, however, its simplest statement is the best. It lies then, let me repeat, still quoting, in a profound apprehension of God in His Majesty with the poignant realization which inevitably accompanies this apprehension of the relation sustained by God to the creature as such, and particularly by the sinful creature. The man who has seen God and who having seen God in His glory is filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's sight as a creature and much more as a sinner, and on

37:35 the other hand with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reservation and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling, willing, in the entire compass of his life activities, intellectual, moral, and volitional, is by the force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought and life by the very necessity of the case a Calvinist. As Warfield seeks to boil the whole thing down to its simplest expression

38:19 he says, it is the vision of God and His Majesty which is the foundation of the entirety of Calvinistic thinking. And then he breaks that down and shows how that in three areas Calvinism is, number one, to its right. Now what is theism? Is it not the belief in one God who is creator and ruler of his universe, a God who is known by revelation?

38:54 Then only when one sees the world and all things as the orderly expression of the plan of God do you have true theism. When the will of God is considered as the ultimate cause of all things is the one who confesses that there is but one God of whom are all things and to whom will out of any part of this universe or any segment of eternity and theism will eventually come. Calvinism, a vision of God and His Majesty in its general

39:38 principles. Specifically it is theism, the doctrine of God as creator and ruler of his world come to its rights. Then Mr. Warfield goes on to say that subjectively in Calvinism the religious relationship. What is

39:57 sense of relationship? Warfield defines it as a sense of absolute dependence on a supreme being is the core of conscious religious relationship. That this attitude most clearly seen when a man prays in the life of a true Calvinist is sustained in all the activities of life, intellectual, emotional and executive. Lose a grasp on this and Calvinism cannot be maintained and neither can pure religion.

40:31 Subjectively theism come to its viewing God as the one who works all things in his own world after the counsel of his own wisdom. Religion, the sense of the dependence of the creature upon the creator and when that sense of dependence pervades every area you have Calvinism. And then the third area Evangelicalism and in Calvinism Evangelicalism comes to its purest and noblest expression. Now what do we mean by Evangelicalism? What did Mr. Warfield

41:12 mean when he used the term? When we say and now I quote Evangelicalism we say sin and salvation. Evangelicalism is the soteriological conception. It implies sin and salvation from sin. There may be religion

41:29 without Evangelicalism in that sense the angels are purely religious. They acknowledge their utter dependence upon God. They live to the glory of God. They live in the sphere of the will of God.

41:41 There is pure religion but there is not Evangelicalism for they are not tainted with sin. There may be religion without Evangelicalism. We may go further. Religion might conceivably exist at the height of its conception and Evangelicalism be lacking but not in sinners. Evangelicalism

42:02 is religion at the height of its conception as it forms itself in the heart of sin. It means utter dependence on God for salvation. It implies therefore need of salvation and a profound sense of this need along with an equally profound sense of helplessness in the presence of this need and utter dependence upon God for its satisfaction. Its type is found in the public in whose smote is breast and pride God be merciful to me.

42:42 He is— He is the God of the day. God was yesterday saving himself, or of helping God to save him or of opening the way to God to save him. No question of anything, but I am a sinner, all my hope is in once more something like Calvinism or an approach to Calvinism but just Calvinism in its vital

43:23 mind, and heart has fallen away from, in however small a measure, there Calvinism has become impossible. So much, then, for the broad overview of what is Calvinism. Now, I want to apply this thinking specifically to the realm of soteriology or evangelicalism, the matters of sin and salvation. I am fully aware that this general perspective can be expanded to show how it forms the basis of a world and life view, a relationship and thinking regarding history, culture, education,

Calvinism in Soteriology: God Saves Sinners

44:05 etc. This has been done by others. There are some in our own day sweating through the implications of this view of God and His Majesty as it relates to all the widening circles of human existence. But since the focal point of Scripture is soteriological, dealing with the problem of sin, and since the focal point of the ministry of you men here, and indirectly you women as well, is going to be in the area of sin and salvation, I want us to focus upon the essence of Calvinism

44:45 as it comes to light in the doctrine of salvation. I trust I have a somewhat budding, adequate world world. I am not retreating into pietism. I get a little irked in some circles when young theologues begin to learn that there is such a thing as a reformed world and life view, and when anyone touches the matter of the heart, they yell pietism. I get rather disgusted with

45:11 that immature, many times cover-up for their own spiritual deadness under an academic cloak from such made-up deliverance. But if and when God puts you in a pastoral situation, a missionary, a mother with a child of Christ, I am not going to be in that situation. I think the great God who gave me the blessing of having my wife and children and my own family is a great God who is going to keep me alive and keep me strong. And I hope that I shall

45:47 be in his position. And I hope when God is not going to tell me that my care is damaged, I am not going to be hurt. I am going to be much better. I am going to be a great good person. I am going to be a great blessed person. I am going to be a better person. And I am going

46:13 will be of most practical relevance for each one of you or for the most of you here. Now when we focus more particularly now upon the saving aspect of God's work with sinners and we try to understand what is the essence of Calvinism in this area, what is it? Well, I think there is no more profound and yet easy to grasp statement of this than is found in the introduction to John Owen's Death of Death by James Packer in which he summarizes the whole confession of Calvinism in the realm of soteriology by these three words.

46:56 Calvinist confession is God in the following way. The Calvinist confesses gladly, not a whispered grudging acquiescence, but a glad uninhibited confession,

47:19 save sinners, that is, all three persons of the triune Godhead, working in harmonious power, wisdom, and love to save a people, choosing, election, the distinguishing work of the Father, the Son of God coming in time to purchase and redeem, the peculiar work of the incarnate Son. He dies for His church that He might redeem it. And now the glorified Son. The Son in heaven sending forth the Spirit, who is here to do what?

47:58 To renew in life and impart life to those who purchased in keeping with the eternal purpose.

48:10 And so you have this harmonious relationship and working in power and wisdom and love of the entire Godhead. The confession of a Calvinist. He doesn't have the Father, as it were, ignorant of whom He, wishes to save. And the Son dying, really, for nobody in particular, to secure nothing for sure.

48:35 And the Spirit, as it is, as it were, willy-nilly, hoping to accomplish something somehow for somebody that may have been in the mind of Christ when He did something on the cross, for nobody in particular, in keeping with that view of salvation. Seek to obvious meaning of the very word elect, and make election nothing but, but a ratification on God's part.

49:17 The election of Himself, as it were, held His hands over His eyes until we voted for Jesus in the mind of God. And then He looked upon our vote and said, Oh, I'll ratify it. I'll subscribe to that. It's not election, it's ratification.

49:34 Election, the very meaning of the word, when used in even a natural sense, is present with the concept of a selectivity bound up in the will of the selector. Septuagint, when it speaks of ...

49:53 ... five stones out of the brook.

49:55 ... not of David standing there with arms folded, saying, now, of all those stones lying there for hundreds of years in the brook, you've all experienced the same crossing and washing of the babbling brook, and it would be the height of impudence for me to exercise any kind of favoritism.

50:20 I would like five stones. Will you please wiggle up onto the shore, and I will use you in my conquest of Goliath, ...

50:36 ... ...

50:38 David says that all might he Heh destui Christ and by laughts up in his own said I came down from Heaven, not to do my old will, but the will of Him that sent me. ...

51:12 Well, Lord, what is that Will He tells us in John 6? This is the Will of Him that sent me! ...

51:23 ... Thereupon He ascended to the cross, and with all that seed given to Him, He was together with every man.

51:28 ... given to him by the Father.

51:30 The process in which a man in a state of condemnation and sin is awakened to his plight. He sees himself as God knows him to be. He's brought to see that his only answer is in the Son of God. He is quickened with life so that he is enabled to embrace the Lord Jesus.

52:15 In repentance, he is brought along the process of sanctification. He is ultimately glorified until he stands with his elder brother who will say, Father, here am I and the children who doubt this gift.

52:32 Now, who does that? God saves them. He doesn't simply awaken them, point their eyes in the direction of the Gospel, and then stand back with his arms folded and lead the issue to them. No, he saves them.

52:46 And the work of awakening and convicting and illuminating and regenerating and pardoning faith and carrying on the process until glorification, God saves. That's the confession of Calvinism in the realm of soteriology. And it refuses to weaken it and say, well, God saves salvation, but man in reality cooperates to save himself. No, God saves.

God Saves Depraved Sinners

53:15 The Son of Man came to seek and to save.

53:22 And then the confession of Calvinism underlines the third word. God saves sinners depraved in trespass and sins. Binded by the God of this world. Wrapped in the chains of satanic bondage.

53:46 Whosoever committeth sins, the bond-slave of sin. Only impotent when we were without strength. Christ. And God saves just such people.

53:59 And the confession of Calvinism is that that's the kind of people God saves. And total depravation. He is bandied and snickered at. Just very weakly describes what you are.

54:19 And it doesn't become a theological term to be bandied about. It becomes a source of being humbled before God. The number of our souls. By my love, how much I owe.

54:52 Oh, for the fact that the God who awakened me is the God who is the Savior's and will one day bring me. Listen again, Warfield, at this point. For Calvinism in this soteriological aspect of it is just the perception and expression and dependence of the utter dependence of the soul on the free grace of God for salvation. All its so-called hard work, the doctrine of original sin.

55:31 Yes, speak it right out. It's doctrine of total depravity and the entire inability of the sinful will to do good. It's doctrine of election. Put it in the words everywhere spoken against.

55:44 It's doctrine of predestination and preterition or reprobation itself. Mean just this and nothing more. Calvinism will not play fast and loose with the free grace of God. It is set upon giving to God.

55:59 And to God alone the glory and all the glory of salvation. There are others than Calvinists, no doubt, who would fain make the same great confession. But they make it with reserve. They painfully justify the making of it by some tenuous theory which confuses nature and grace.

56:19 They leave logical pitfalls on this side or that. And the difference between logical pitfalls and other pitfalls is that the wayfarer may fall into the others, but the plain man just because he is a simple mind must fall into those. Calvinism will leave no logical pitfalls and will make no reserves. It will have nothing to do with theories whose function it is to explain away facts.

56:45 It confesses with a heart full of adoring gratitude that to God and to God alone belongs salvation and the whole of salvation. That he it is in he alone who works salvation in its whole reach. Any falling away in the slightest measure from this great confession is to fall away from Calvinism. Any intrusion of any human merit or act or disposition or power as ground or cause or occasion into the process of divine salvation, whether in the way of power to resist or of ability to improve grace, or the opening of the soul to the reception of grace, or of the employment of grace already received, is a breach.

57:30 Calvinism is the casting of the soul wholly on the free grace of God alone to whom belongs salvation. And such being the nature of Calvinism, it seems hardly necessary to inquire why its fortunes appear from time to time and now again in our own time to suffer some depression. You and I have been spawned by a generation of evangelical Christianity that for the most part doesn't believe, that simple confession that God, Father, Son and Spirit, saves everything in the whole process, cingers just as God finds them, in order to preserve

58:15 what we had felt were the rights of man, and not to offend any thought that he might have as a first principle that he is utterly free, the most, as it were, for his salvation, when and where he chooses. And we have been willing to jettison the God of glory set before us in Holy Scripture who brings out the most, most display of all that is attributes of wisdom, love, and power and sovereignty when he exercises them towards the salvation of a people of men, into thinking, well, they've done a few bad things, but they aren't really dead, bound, blind, impotent, helpless. That would offend their sensibilities.

59:00 We're speaking to a cultured, educated, self-sufficient generation that tell the college professor who sits there with his academic garb that he's dead, he's blind, and he might offend the sophisticated, middle-class tutor to New York that he's nothing but a serf of the devil in a day that mocks at the very existence of the devil. Heaven wanted to offend you, see. Oh, I say to you young men upon whom the call of God has come, don't rest until you've wrestled through these issues of biblical truth and they have been so burned.

Conclusion: Embrace the Biblical God

59:41 It's in your heart by the Holy Ghost that you'll stand to this generation and say, God saves.

59:54 You ought to see a little bit of what your own heart is. One thing of that infinite calvary is this, between God and his holiness and justice and you and your sin, you will not be past others. The marvel will be that he chose you who would not know this.

60:34 I've used the word Calvinism tonight more in one hour than I've used it in six years in preaching from the pulpit in the church. I don't use the term there, but the church is Calvinism. Calvinistic faith. Why?

60:49 Because I've just sought to expound the scripture. I've used that term not as a handle to scare you, but being a student audience, I trust there's sufficient academic freedom and maturity that you will understand. I conclude now by trying to draw all of this together in a very practical way and then the Lord willing in our first lecture tomorrow morning and then the second lecture we'll work out the implications of this tomorrow morning in the personal life. And then tomorrow afternoon in the ministerial life.

61:23 But I'd like to ask you as we close tonight a very simple question or two. Some of you who've come from backgrounds where there's been no instruction in this biblical approach to itself, do you think God is the author, sustainer and end of all that comes to pass? Has that thought ever caused you to sit down and just soberly reflect upon it for just a few minutes? Or have you been like the scientific world before?

62:01 Man-centered in a society and, sad to say, in a church for the most part, man-centered while you just accept it as a principle, an axiomatic principle. Sure, man is the center. I have news for you tonight, he isn't. For of him, and unto him, God made you a biblical Calvinist.

62:32 Has that confession been inwrought upon the tables of your heart by the work of the Spirit through the Word that God? What is Calvinism? Is it some system of logic imposed on Scripture? Just taking at face value the statement that all that the Father has given must have given him.

63:02 I will come to thee. That means the coins come. And when they come, they'll never be cast. God will use these few hours together to let you realize that this is a live option that you ought to see.

63:35 The Bible teaches us, gives us the theory, and then it says, therefore, Ephesians 1-3 followed by Ephesians 4. Galatians 1-3. Galatians 1-3. Galatians 1-4.

63:47 Galatians 1-4. Followed by Galatians 5. Well, we'll get to there for tomorrow. The Lord be with you.

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