Calvinism: Its Implications to the Individual

Introduction: The Experiential Nature of Doctrine

0:05 since this is a captive audience, I will not need to spend much time in reviewing, as I am wont to do continually in a church situation. If you are here this morning, as one who perhaps came in earlier this morning and you were not present last night, I would urge you to try to secure one of the tapes of last night's consideration and listen to it at your leisure today. But I will say, simply by way of introduction of our consideration of God's truth this morning, that we tried, made some, I hope less than feeble attempt last night, to bring into focus the basic thinking of Scripture, which has been dubbed with the nickname Calvinism or Reformed Theology. Having sought to clear away some of the common caricatures, we focus upon the essence of Calvinism in terms of the words of B.B. Warfield, it is that sight of the majesty of God that pervades all of life and all of experience. And in particular,

1:23 as it relates to the doctrine of salvation, its glad confession is summarized in those three words in all of their pregnancy, God saves sinners. Now, whenever we are confronted with great doctrinal statements in Holy Scripture, God does not leave us merely with the statement of doctrine, the end of God's truth set before the minds of God's people, is that understanding it, they might experience its effect in their own personal experience. So the grand doctrinal themes of Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 are quickly followed by the very close...

2:07 ... and practical application of those doctrines to life and experience in Ephesians 4, 5, and 6. And I think we need to continually remind ourselves, particularly in the seminary situation, that the end for which God gave his truth was not the instruction of our minds, but the transformation of our lives. Now, you can't come directly to the life and experience. You must come immediately ...

2:39 ... through the mind, and so God's truth is addressed to the understanding. And the Spirit of God operates as the spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge. But I submit to you that he does not illuminate the mind simply that the mind might have more mental furnishings, and that the file drawers of the mental study may be crammed full of information. The end for which God instructs the mind is that he might...

3:09 ... shitty, nonsensical, un Macedonian energy, black-walling, un parceurized goods, whoever owns the business of the lifestyle spectrum but does not accept it.

3:35 However, Jesus himself built the world, not human. Our minds are like returnable,ANEGELIC light and light, of an unrighteous nature. This image isreuph policy. Or Im JULI こолько My left-hand writing 자 My right-hand writing soi ministry, please put into that not merely the pastoral ministry, but the ministry of a wife and a mother and whatever other function you may have as ladies and young women.

3:52 Now, this morning, we want to consider the personal implications of Calvinistic thought and truth in the life of the individual. Now, what do I mean by the personal implications? Well, I mean this, the implications on your own relationship to God without any conscious reference to the ministry. Now, these things cannot be separated in an absolute sense, for as one has well said, the life of a minister is the life of his ministry. So you cannot separate what you are from what you do. You cannot separate the effect of truth upon your

4:36 through you ministerially. But for the sake of focusing the principles, I am separating them, but in no way do I want to give the impression that these two are in hard, fast categories. Well then, what are the implications of Calvinistic thought, this vision of the majesty of God, and then the saving truth of Scripture as it relates to you and to me as individuals? Well, let's first look at the impact of truth on you ministerially.

5:07 Let's first look at the impact of truth on you ministerially. Well, let's first look at Now, let's go back to that general principle which B.B. Warfield calls the formative principle of Calvinism. I want to re-read one of the paragraphs that I read last night, emphasizing certain words, quoting now from Warfield. It lies then, that is, the foundation of Calvinistic thinking, it lies then, let me repeat, in a profound apprehension, underscore the word apprehension, a profound apprehension of God in his majesty, with the poignant realization which inevitably accompanies this apprehension of the relation sustained to God by the creature as such, and particularly by the sinful creature.

5:57 The Calvinist is 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 the other hand with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling, and willing, in the entire compass of his life activity, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, throughout all his individual, social, and religious relations, is by 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. Now I want you to notice that when B.B. Warfield defined Calvinism and who is a Calvinist, he was not a Calvinist. He was a Calvinist who was a Calvinist who was

7:06 a Calvinist. He used words of a strongly experimental nature. These words, apprehension and realization, deal primarily with the understanding, though they go beyond that. But when we come to words like this, seeing God, filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness, adoring wonder, thinking, feeling, willing, these are words of experience. In other words, Mr. Warfield is saying, no person is a Calvinist. No person is truly biblical in his thinking of God, as God, in the purest expression of theism. No man is truly religious in the true expression of religion. No man is truly evangelical in the truest sense of evangelicalism, until

7:59 these concepts with which we dealt last night have been burnt upon the nerve fibers of his experience. In other words, Mr. Warfield would say, an academic Calvinist is a misnomer. As much as to speak of a living corpse is a misnomer. When the soul and the body are severed, death has taken place. And Warfield would teach us that when the soul of Calvinistic thought is dead or never present, the mere carcass of theological structure is not a Calvinist, it's a stinking theological carcass.

8:40 Thank you.

8:44 And so often a stench in the church when found in a minister. Very well, then, for this couching of experimental concept, which is not neo-Puritanism. I'm a bit disturbed by that term that has been resurrected. This is neo-Warfieldism. For no true historic Calvinist ever viewed truth as an end in itself, divorced from its experimental implications.

9:22 And so I quote, Mr. Warfield, though I could have quoted other men who some might have rejected because they were known to be identified with one particular stamp or another, but certainly Warfield's orthodoxy is impeccable and its stature as the same theologian beyond any, perhaps any in our own day and certainly of a past generation. Well, then, with that sort of background as to the personal implications, I want you to turn with me this morning to two passages of scripture, to begin with, in which we have a historical account of how God makes a Calvinist.

How God Makes a Calvinist: The Vision of Isaiah

10:05 The first is Isaiah chapter 6.

10:10 How does God make a Calvinist? His Calvinism at its core is this profound sense of the majesty of God with the poignant realization of my own unworthiness and, on the other hand, of adoring wonder that he should love even me. And that concept worked out into all of my thinking and feeling and willing. How, then, does God make a Calvinist?

10:36 Or, better stated, how does God make a true Bible Christian?

10:43 In Isaiah chapter 6, we have the record of how God does it. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, and notice the first aspect of this vision, sitting upon a throne. Isaiah, who was very conversant with the court, who knew King Uzziah well, had seen him upon his throne, says that in the year that that king died, I saw the true king. He mentions that again at the end of verse 5.

11:19 For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And he saw him essentially as an enthroned king. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high. And lifted up.

11:35 And his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face.

11:45 And with twain he covered his feet. And with twain did he fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

12:02 And the post of the door moved at the voice of him. That cried. And the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.

12:19 And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from my hand. off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, the sensitive tissues of the lip, a cold so hot a seraphim couldn't handle it barehanded, but had to take it with tongs, and it sears the lips of the prophet, and no doubt a cry of pain and a curl of smoke in this vision,

12:56 and then the word of God in comfort, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, and understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy.

13:34 Then shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. And then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitants, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. Here is the record of how God makes a teller.

14:09 How God makes a teller. God brought a man to a vision of the majesty of God that so affected him that his life was never the same again. And we'll see as we look at another text in a few moments how this vision of God became the all-pervasive influence in the life of the prophet and in the ministry of the prophet Isaiah. The first thing that struck him in his vision was this sight of God as the high and the lofty one, seated upon the throne of the Lord, and the throne so that whatever else is introduced into the vision of the holiness of God, of the grace of God, of the forgiveness of God, or any other attribute of God that shines forth in this vision, it is the shining form of God from a position of enthronement. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. So we may say rightly that it was sovereign. Sovereign grace as well as a gracious sovereignty. And this display of God as the king brought

15:26 with it four or five distinct results in the life of the prophet. In the first place, it brought a deep experimental acquaintance with his own sinfulness. The first response of the prophet is he is jarred by this vision of God. He is jarred by this vision of God.

15:41 The vision of the enthroned sovereign in his holiness and power is this. Woe is me. I'm undying. I've been shattered. I've gone to pieces. I've fallen apart. Now, who was he?

15:56 Was he some hippie yanked off the streets of Chicago who'd been holding up little four-letter words to those who didn't like his interest in peace? Was he some kind of a bum? Was he some kind of a licentiate who'd been running around under the guise of the...

16:14 The so-called insights of new morality giving vent to his animal passions? No, this was Isaiah, from all indication in the record of Scripture, a holy man, a man of God, what we would say a dedicated Christian. But he had yet to have a sight and vision of God that shattered him and shook him and exposed the inherent corruption of his own heart and life. And I submit that God never makes Calvinists in displaying to them his glory. God never makes Calvinists in displaying to them his glory and his majesty without bringing with it this commensurate exposure of sin in the light of his sovereignty and his holiness. It brought with it also a deep insight to the state of his own generation. For notice in his confession, he not only says, I am a man of unclean lips, but I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And when you read the record of the people as found in chapters like 58, they were very, very religious.

17:19 They came daily to the temple and offered sacrifices. You read Isaiah 1. And they were so busy bringing their sacrifices and keeping their feast days that God says, I am sick and tired of the whole thing. Bring no more vain oblations. He said, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. And if you and I were standing on the outside looking in, we'd say the state of religion in Israel was at a pretty good level. But when this man had a sight and sense of the majesty of God, it brought with it not only his glory, but also an insight and exposure to his own sinfulness. But it brought a perceptive insight to the state of his own generation. And then it brought an experimental acquaintance with grace and forgiveness. In this sense of uncleanness, undone-ness, in the presence of this God, God takes the initiative under this figure of the seraphim who takes that live coal from off the altar.

18:20 It was identified with the altar of sacrifice, a coal that was identified with the symbol of the basis upon which God forgives sinners. And that coal is brought and touches the lips of the prophet. And though there is the inner pain, there is that wonderful word of grace, thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. You see, the man who's been brought to the sight of his own sin, the man who's been brought to the sight of his own sin, in such a way that he wonders, how can it be that one like me can dwell in the presence of a God like this? It's that person to whom the word of forgiveness is a humbling, overpowering, captivating word.

19:10 His grace is so little appreciated in our days that the transcendent majesty and sovereignty and holiness of God are so little appreciated. And really, we don't see much but a half a step between God in us and our sin. But Isaiah saw, as it were, an infinite chasm. And when God sovereignly extended mercy across that chasm and touched him, it was a man who then evidenced the fruit of grace, which first of all, in Isaiah's life, came to light in this intimate acquaintance with the voice of God. Having been purged, what is the first thing that happens? I heard also the voice of the Lord. I heard the voice of the Lord. Having been purged, I heard the voice of the Lord speak. As it were, he eavesdropped on some of the counsels of the triune God. I

20:09 heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And there was the reflex action of Isaiah. Having seen God in his sovereignty and holiness, and himself in his uncleanness, and having heard the word of grace and forgiveness, what can a man do when this God speaks and he hears his voice, but say, Hear not! There is nothing here.

20:35 I heard the missionary telling tear-jerking stories about human sin and human need, trying to somehow wrench young people from their seat of complacency and rebellion to the revealed will of God to get them to cry out, I hear my. This was just the reflex action of a man who had seen God and heard the voice of God. And he says, Hear my, Lord. Send me. And then, as it were, God tests the depths of that confession. And we see in the latter part, in the second part of this account that I have read, another one of the results of this vision of God, an utter resignation to the will and ways of God, no matter how strange they seem. For God immediately makes clear to the prophet that he is to have a ministry primarily of judgment. Isaiah, verse 9, Go and tell this people here and understand not.

21:30 See, perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat. Isaiah, I am commissioning you to do the same thing. I am commissioning you to do the same thing. Now, what does the prophet do? Does he recall and say, But, O God, that is unfair. O God, it shouldn't be that way. No, no. What does he do? He simply says, How long? In other words, Lord, that's your perfect right to send me on a ministry that will be primarily a ministry of hardening and judgment. You're God. You're on a throne. I am the creature before the throne. You are holy. I am sinful.

22:05 What can I do? But be held captive by the expression of your will, no matter what you do. You are God. You are God. You are God. You are God. You are God. You are God. You are God. You are not your own will, no matter what the implication may be. I submit to you that this is how God makes Calvinists in one way or another, he gives them such a sight of his own majesty and sovereignty and holiness as the high and the lofty one that brings with it this deep experimental acquaintance with human sinfulness personally and in terms of our own generation, this experimental acquaintance with the grace of God, this interdependence attributes and our life. intimate acquaintance with the voice of God, this utter resignation to the will and the

22:50 ways of God. May I say by way of application, don't talk about being a Calvinist simply because your itch for logical consistency has been relieved by a theological system. Have you seen God? That's the issue. I remind you of the words of B.B. Warfield, a Calvinist is a man who has seen God. Have you seen God? A proud Calvinist? It's a misnomer. It's a misnomer. If a Calvinist is a man who's seen God as he is, high and lifted up, enthroned, then he's a man who's been brought to brokenness before that throne as was Isaac. A carnal Calvinist? Another misnomer. For the enthroned one is the holy one, and he dwells in conscious

23:48 community. A communion with those who are rightly related to him as the enthroned one and as the holy one. And those two things are brought together beautifully in Isaiah 57 and verse 15, where the prophet says, Thus saith the high and the lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. What is contrition? It is the reaction of a sinner in the presence of a holy God. And what is humility? It's the reaction of a subject in the presence of a sovereign. And Isaiah never forgot this vision. And he says, This great God dwells in that high and holy place with him also that is of the humble and the contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart.

How God Makes a Calvinist: The Revelation to Job

24:50 This is the vision of the contrite one. If your understanding of Calvinistic thinking has led you to the place where you can, as it were, boast in your liberty and use it as an occasion for license, then you have never become a biblical Calvinist. God makes Calvinists today the same way he made them in Isaiah. And then turn to Job 42, if you will. It's another account of how God made a Calvinist out of Job. Now, don't be offended with the term. As I said last night, if I were preaching on these things in a church situation I wouldn't use them. But I've been asked to try to bring into focus what is Calvinism. And I'm using it not because I'm worshiping a name, but because it's a convenient handle to describe what we're trying to convey here. Job 42. You remember the setting of this chapter?

25:56 . . . .

25:58 of this chapter, Job's, quote, friend, sought to counsel him as to why he may be in the particular dilemma in which he finds himself. And then this younger man, Elihu, has spoken, perhaps with more insight and wisdom. And in Job 42, we have the words of Job himself after all this has transpired. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and as the American standard renders it, and that no purpose of thine can be restrained. Who is he that hideth counsels without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will speak, I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But now, mine eye, seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

27:12 It seems that the key is found in verse 2, where Job is brought to the recognition of the absolute sovereignty of God. I know thou canst do everything, and that no purpose of thine can be withholden from thee. In the latter part of verse 3, John says, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no purpose of thine can be withholden uttered that I understood not. Job is brought into a very pressing situation, and he seeks by his own wisdom to understand that situation. He doesn't understand what God is doing, as it were, behind the curtain and veil of what he can see and experience. And he is brought to this fresh revelation of the nature and character of God as a sovereign who is not obligated to explain his ways to his preachers. And when he comes to that recognition, he confesses, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. I abhor myself. Who am I that I should have sought to question the ways of my God, or

28:14 even to understand some of his mysterious dealings? And he repents in dust and in ashes.

28:25 I submit that this is how God is. God makes Calvinist. He takes the pride that is so inherent to human nature that makes us assume that God is obligated to explain his ways to us, and to reconcile his ways to the itch for logical consistency with which all of us are born and which develops as we grow and our mental powers stretch and expand, that when a man or woman is brought to the place where all of that is sunk into this, as it were, ocean of the world, God is obligated to explain his ways to us. And he takes the pride that is so inherent to human nature, the mystery of the ways of God, that he says, God is God, what a fool I am to ever think that I could question his ways. Then there is this response of repentance and true self-abhorrence.

29:14 And so I submit to you that we have no right to speak of being a Calvinist because we can parrot phrases given to us in the great heritage of Reformed literature, but must ask ourselves the following question. Has the Holy Spirit brought us to this profound sense of God that has worked into us, at least in some measure, the grace of humility? Has God endowed me with gifts and abilities? Well, when I've had this sight of God, I realize, what have I that I did not receive? Who makes me to differ? That if God has endowed me with gifts or abilities, whether they be intellectual abilities or any other kind of ability, I acknowledge that God has endowed me with gifts and abilities. And if God has endowed me with gifts and abilities, I acknowledge that I have those because a sovereign upon a throne was pleased to dispense them to me. And the only difference between me and that poor, retarded child that moved the pity of my heart is that he was pleased to make me differ. Who makes you differ? So there can be the full employment of all the gifts and

30:27 abilities that God has given, a sober recognition of them, not of false humility, not of false kind of Uriah Heep, a self-effacement. The man or woman who stands in the presence of a God upon a throne and who's had this sight and sense of the majesty of God recognizes all that I have has been given. And humility is not diffidence. Humility is not folded hands in the dropped hair. Humility is that disposition of honest recognition. He is God.

31:02 I am the creature. All that I have comes from him and must be rendered to him in praise and in honor. It will bring with it the submission that we see both in the experience of Isaiah and of Job. He sits upon a throne. I have no rights to assert the privilege of knowing and doing his will. Wasn't that the reflex action of Isaiah? He's upon the throne. I'm the creature. What else can I do but say, kill him off?

31:32 And know the unspeakable delight of knowing and doing the will of God. It brings not only humility, submission, but true contrition. For I see then that all sin has been basically a violent, anarchist spirit exerted against the throne rights of God. Have I failed to love him with the whole heart? Then this has been anarchy. He demands and is worthy of my undivided affection. Have I failed to love my neighbor as myself? Expressed in a disrespect for parents, a disrespect for the rights and life of others, the purity and sanctity of others, the reputation of others. The right down through the Ten Commandments and any breach of them is at its core violent anarchy against the throne rights of God. All pride, what is it but an attempt to share

32:31 the glory that surrounds the throne and is directed only to the God upon that throne. And saying in reality, God, will you please just move over a little bit and let me sneak into the picture and get a little bit? Isn't that pride? A wicked attempt to share the praise of the enthroned God. And so this sight of God cannot help but produce humility, submission, contrition. And on the brighter side, it cannot help but produce gratitude that in the exercise of his sovereign rights, I should be blessed with God with sanity, with soundness of body, clearness of mind, and above all, that I should be blessed with grace, confidence. That God is on his throne and nothing past, present, or future has ever made that throne twitter one thousandth of an inch. Jehovah reigneth. Let the earth confidence,

33:34 unshakable confidence, joy, regardless of what transpires in the sphere that I can see, all is well where he is. I submit to you, that's how God makes Calvin, by giving to them on the basis of Holy Scripture and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a sight and sense of the sovereignty and majesty of the enthroned God that has its commensurate reaction in the life of the child of God, as seen in Isaiah 6 and in Job 42. Has God made you a Calvinist? No.

34:15 I'm not asking you to be a Calvinist. I'm asking you to be a Calvinist. I'm not asking you if you read Lorraine Bettner's book and in a weekend become a Calvinist. I'm not asking you if you've read a book by Kuyper or Warfield and become a Calvinist. I'm asking you, has God given you a vision of himself that has shattered you and brought you to that place by his grace of humility, submission, contrition, gratitude, confidence, and joy?

Calvinism and Scriptural Self-Examination

34:41 Now, moving from the general description of Calvinism and its practical effects upon the life, let's come into the area now of the specific soteriological definition of Calvinism. What are commonly called the doctrines of grace? Well, you remember last night that I said the saving aspects of biblical truth, commonly called Calvinism, will be the focus of our attention. This confession that God saves sinners, what effect should that have upon the life of an individual? Is Calvinism essentially, in the realm of soteriology, a declaration of the saving mercy of God? Exercised sovereignly and powerfully upon elect sinners? If so, then at the very core of Calvinistic biblical thinking regarding salvation is this monergism that God has taken the initiative and that God has done something, that God is present and doing something. Quoting from another section in Warfield's Little Cranford, he says, There is nothing, therefore, against the law.

35:55 There is nothing against which Calvinism sets its face with more firmness than every form and degree of auto-soterism, every form of self-salvation. Above everything else, it is determined to recognize God in his Son, Jesus Christ, acting through the Holy Spirit whom he has sent as our veritable Savior. To Calvinism, sinful man stands in need not of inducements or assistance. To Calvinism, sinful man stands in need not of arduous assistance to save himself, but precisely of saving.

36:28 As Jesus Christ has come, not to advise, urge, or woo or help him save himself, but to save him, to save him through the prevalent working on him of the Holy Spirit. This is the root of the Calvinistic soteriology. Now, if that is so, that the root of Calvinistic soteriology is that confession that is not so evident in the books of the Bible, then that is not the result of that confession. The conclusion is that Calvinism can be found between the two. If you find that the conclusion dog-saved sinners and the refusal to bleed any of the full meaning out of any one of those words, then what should that lead to in your life as an individual? May I suggest it should lead, in a very practical way, to two things. One, it should lead to honest scriptural self-examination. Now, I did not say unscriptural or neurotic introspection, and I fear that our fear of neurotic introspection has kept many of us in reformed circles from

37:39 honest scriptural self-examination. What do I mean by scriptural self-examination? I mean a simple obedience to passages from the Bible. It's like 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves. Prove yourselves whether ye be in the faith, know ye not your own selves, how that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate. I mean obedience to the exhortation of 2 Peter 1, 10. Make your calling and election sure, and it's preceded by these two words, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Make your calling and election sure, and it's preceded by these two words, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. When I speak of honest scriptural self-examination,

38:26 I am speaking of obedience to those words, to words like these that are found throughout the New Testament. Let no man deceive himself. Let no man deceive you. Be not deceived. I am speaking of that scriptural duty. Now, how does this fit in as an implication of the Calvinistic concept of salvation? Well, I trust it's obvious. Since scripture declares that all who are truly saved are the workmanship of God, Ephesians 2, 10, we are His workmanship, then the question I must ask is, have I been the object of the workmanship of God? You

39:11 see, the question is not the sincerity of my decision or my resolve or my whatever I want to call it. The question is not what have I done. The question is not what have I done with reference to Christ and His salvation. That's not the essential question. The essential question is this. Has God done something in me? The question is not have I, quote, accepted Christ, but has Christ accepted me? The issue is not have I found the Lord, but has He found me? Old masters in Israel used to ask the question of those who aspired to be admitted to the table of the Lord or to church membership two questions. Question number one would be this. What has Christ done for you? He wanted to see if they understood the objective basis upon which God received sinners. He wanted to see if they understood that men are accepted

40:11 before God on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ plus nothing. And if they gave a good answer on that question, what has Christ done for you, so that they didn't think in any way that they were accepted by virtue of their own repentance or their own tears or their own works, but solely upon the merits of Christ, then he would ask them a second question. In most of our churches today, if they answer straight in the first room, they're ready to open the doors and welcome them. Not so this old master in Israel. He asked a second question, and it's this. What has Christ wrought in you? Now, you know what He's done for you. Now my question is, what has He wrought in you? Now, why did he ask

41:02 that question? Because he understood the biblical concept of salvation.

41:07 And the terrible possibility of being able to have an intellectual grasp upon what Christ has done for sinners and yet be another stranger to his mighty work in sinners. So I want to press some questions home to your conscience this morning. Question one is this. Have you been brought to see your own corruption and sin in such a measure that the first two Beatitudes are true of you? Who are the blessed people? The only people in the world that are blessed are those who have been so wrought upon by the Spirit that they are not strangers to these two things. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they should be comforted. How does God make men truly blessed, truly happy? First of all, He makes them very sad. At the sight and sense of their

42:07 own impoverishment in a state of sin. What is poverty of spirit? Is it something that I can do? Is it some kind of pseudo-pietistic attempt to convince myself that I'm a miserable worm and a wretch? Because that's the way the old devotional writers talked and they seem to be spiritual and I want a paragon? Poverty of spirit is just getting a sight of what you really are and see that you are nothing and have nothing and can do nothing but contend, commend yourself to the grace and saving favor of God. That He be perfectly just to make you an eternal monument. Have you been brought to some experimental acquaintance with that? If not, I submit to

42:59 you, I doubt whether you can claim that Christ is your Savior, for He said He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. Those who've been made consciously aware of their depravity and sin. It's perfectly possible to hold the doctrine of total depravity, as a theological concept, and be as utterly proud and self-righteous as the devil. Have you known an inner stripping that's brought you to poverty of spirit? To holy mourning?

The Goal of God's Saving Work: Holiness

43:35 Recognition that your sin has been against the sovereign? Have you been brought to a place where you hate your sin enough to forsake it and cling only to Christ? One old writer has beautifully said, when the Holy Ghost begins the cord of grace in the life of a man, he always orients that cord of grace to the life of a man. He always orients that cord of grace to the life of a man. He always orients that cord to the life of a man. He always orients that cord of grace to the life of a man, but he never orients that cord of grace to the life of a man. He never orients that cord of grace to the life of a man's soul. This is strictly seer. This is an check.

44:03 That's only played with it. You're mostly paid. It's already clear that I'm submitting to an inner hat-azi. In that very momentin Rer LIVE,today the worship 사�ient ,so if you accept us as your preparation for our episode that is brought to you today as blessings andness, I believe this is undeniable.

44:34 I believe that I am a destroyer that settles forces and almost failed Jesus. By the Restorative Spirit, ratt shirts,imize all us and committed to actually receive that batact. And if you save our salvation to none other than Christ, I promise scripture. It's biblical holiness. For if you will take the five, so-called five points of Calvinism, which, as Mr. Packer brings out so beautifully, and if you haven't read that introduction to the death of death by Owen, please do, that they are cast in the negative form and can in many ways be misleading, but nonetheless, we can't change the course of history, and so the five points have come down to us, and though some of us don't like a lot of things that have come down to us, we have to learn to live with them, and so we must learn to live with the five points, but will you take the last four points? Unconditional election, particular redemption, Christ died to save specific people, the efficacious call of God and the preserving work of God in all whom he has called and joined to his Son.

45:27 What is the focal point in all of those? Well, the ultimate focal point, of course, is the display of the glory of his grace, as we read in Ephesians 1, but the ultimate focal point is the display of the glory of his grace, as we read in Ephesians 1, but the ultimate focal point, his glory is displayed, how? By what means? By taking totally depraved creatures and making them holy men and women in whom the very likeness of his Son can be seen. For what is the goal of election? Ephesians 1, 4 tells us, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should glory in our election. No, that we should be holy and without blemish before him. Election, come to holiness. What is the goal of the atoning work of Christ? Listen to the testimony of Titus 2, 14, who

46:26 gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people as his distinct possessions, zealous of good works. He gave himself for us that we should die to have a people zealous of good works, who, gladly confessing that their works cannot save them, are nonetheless out of gratitude to the Savior, zealous to perform such works. Ephesians 5, who gave himself for the church that he might sanctify that church and present it to himself a glorious church. Whether we look at election unto holiness, the end of the atoning work of Christ, we see that we should be a purified people. What about the efficacious call of God? 1 Corinthians 1, 9, God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, called into a life of sharing, vital, realized communion with Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4, 8, for God hath called us not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. What about the preservation

47:42 and perseverance of the church? What about the preservation and perseverance of the church? What about the perseverance of the saints? It's a perseverance in the ways of holiness and obedience, for Scripture says, follow after the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So wherever we touch the whole structure of Calvinistic soteriology, we touch a living fiber of God's purpose to have a holy people. God, who was born in the world, predestinated to what end? Whom he foreknew, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. If so, then I must ask the question of myself.

48:25 Is his electing purpose being realized in me? He chose me in Christ, that being purchased in time and called in time, I might begin to be holy in time and have that work effective in eternity. And the only assurance I have that I was purchased to be holy and will be perfected in holiness is that I am pursuing holiness here and now. Holiness is essentially to the revealed will of God in thought, word, and deed, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through union with Jesus Christ. Holiness, practical godliness, this is the evidence that his electing purpose has come to light in me. What about his purchasing love? Well, it must find expression in obedience and holiness.

49:31 That's why John can say in 1 John 2, 5, But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. It has found its designed end in the one who keeps the word of God.

49:47 Is there not valid evidence that I am experiencing vital communion with Jesus Christ? For he's called me unto salvation. I have fellowship with him, and if I have been effectually called, then I am no stranger to experimental acquaintance with Jesus Christ. Do I confess that I am being preserved by God's keeping power?

50:10 Then his preserving must be coming to light in my persevering. The only proof I have that he preserves me is that I am by his grace enabled to persevere. This is the practical implication of Calvinistic soteriology. It makes me ask questions like these, which bring me into the whole context of honest, scriptural self-examination.

The Danger of Talkative Calvinism

50:38 For I submit to you that John Bunyan was right on target when he wrote that section in his Immortal Pilgrim's Progress when Christian and faithful come into contact with a man named Talkative.

50:54 Talkative begins to talk to faithful, and this is what he says, I like you wonderfully well. Your saying is full of conviction. I will add, what thing is so pleasant and what so profitable as to talk of the things of God? What thing so pleasant, that is, if a man hath any delight in things that are wonderful?

51:14 For instance, if a man doth delight to talk of the history or the mystery of things, or if a man doth love to talk of miracles, wonders, or signs, where shall he find things recorded so delightful or so sweetly penned as in Holy Scripture? Faithful. Oh, that's true. But to be profited by such things in our talk should be that which we desire, Talkative.

51:37 Oh, that is what I said. For to talk of such things is most profitable. For by so doing, a man may get knowledge of many things. Now listen, the vanity of earthly things, the benefit of things above, thus in general, but more particularly, by this, that is, talking, a man may learn the necessity of the new birth, the insufficiency of our works, the need of Christ, righteousness.

52:03 Besides, by this, a man may learn what it is to repent, to believe, to pray, to suffer in the light. By this also, a man may learn what are the great promises and consolations of the gospel to his own comfort. Further, by this, a man may learn to refute false opinions, to vindicate the truth, and to instruct the ignorant. Now, all of that, an Arminian could have said.

52:26 But now notice the next interchange. Faithful. All this is true. And I am glad to hear these.

52:32 And I am glad to hear these things from you. Talkative. Alas, the want of this is the cause that so few understand the need of faith and the necessity of a work of grace in their soul in order to eternal life, but ignorantly live in the works of the law by which no man can by any means attain the kingdom of heaven. Faithful.

52:49 Ah, but by your leave, heavenly knowledge of these things is the gift of God. No man attaineth to them by human industry or only by the talk of them. Now, talkative, gives a tremendous Calvinistic confession. Listen.

53:02 Talkative. All that I know very well. For a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. All is of grace, not of works.

53:14 I could give you a hundred scriptures for the confirmation of this.

53:20 Tremendous confession, is it not? Now, talkative goes back to Christian, tremendously impressed with this fellow and says, Man, we really meant the real thing. Let's include him in. And he notices a funny look in Christian's face and sort of a sarcastic, uh, enigmatic smile on the corner of his lips and he says to Christian, Now, what's the matter?

53:39 You don't seem so enthused. And Christian said, I know this fellow. Faithful, you're young in the faith and you don't quite understand that not everything that talks well, lives well. Now, go back and enter into conversation with him on this particular subject.

53:58 Here it is. Talk to him of the power of things. Talkative prayer. Repentance of faith in the new birth.

54:12 But he knows only to talk of them. I have been in his family and I've observed him both at home and abroad and I know what I say of him is the truth. His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg of savor. There's neither prayer nor sign of repentance for sin.

54:28 And then he goes on to enlarge upon this. And then when he goes back and he says this, that the soul of religion is the practical part. It isn't long before talking about the power of faith. The power of things that Talkative says to his companion Faithful, I bid you adieu, goodbye.

54:51 You see, Mr. Bunyan recognized that there's such a thing as having some measure of an intellectual grasp upon Calvinistic soteriology. That only God can save sinners and that salvation is a work in which God saves sinners. But the issue is this.

55:13 Has there been? Has there been? Has there been an experimental application of that truth with power to my own heart and to my own life? I quote from the letter of a student, a letter which I received last year.

55:26 This individual wrote to me, I had never met this person, and listened to this confession. After hearing these and through a number of other instances, that is from tapes which this person had, which God brought into my life, I came to know the true meaning of salvation. I had been raised in a Christian home. All my life and had come to embrace the doctrines of the reformed faith several years ago.

55:51 Never however, had I really learned the meaning of the power of the gospel. The old heresy of the carnal Christian had been the motivating deception in my life. And he goes on to say how God saved him just a few months prior to the writing of this letter. He had been a Calvinist three years before he had been a Christian.

56:11 You see he wasn't rightly interpreting his experience of the power of the gospel. He had been a Calvinist for many years. He had been a Christian for many years, he had been a Christian for many years. Now you say he wasn't widely interpreting his experience.

56:17 his experience. Who are you to argue with the Holy Ghost and with the Scriptures? God convinced this young man through the testimony of Holy Scripture that he was a stranger to the power of things. We better not dabble with the witness of the Spirit through the word of God, but the heart of one whom God has savingly touched.

56:40 The last time I read through Whitfield's journals, I indexed seven or eight very powerful and searching quotations relative to the terrible possibility and prevalent actuality of unconverted Calvinistic ministers. I'll only quote several of them. Page 416 and 417. Preached twice in the field and once in the meeting house and was agreeably refreshed in the evening with one Mr. Davenport whom God lately honored by making use of his ministry for the conversion of many on the east end of Long Island. He's looked upon as an enthusiast and a madman. By many of his reverend pharisaical brethren. And as far as I can find, there is as great an enmity against the work of God in the hearts of most, even of the dissenters, though they preach the doctrines of grace as there is in our clergy who for the generality entirely disown them. You see what he was saying? When Mr. Davenport insisted, even amongst his Calvinistic

57:44 brethren, that it was not enough to merely hold the floor. When men uttered formless, sound words without their application to the life and power, they were strangers to grace. He was exposed as much by his Calvinistic brethren as Whitefield was opposed by his Arminian churchmen back in England. Again, quoting from Whitefield's journal.

58:07 After dinner I prayed with one old minister who was so deeply convicted that calling Mr. Noble and me out with great difficulty because of his weeping, he desired our prayers, for, said he, I have been a scholar, a clairvoyant, a scholar of the gospel. Here in the Church scholar and have preached the doctrines of grace for a long time, but I believe I have never felt the power of them in my own soul. Those are just two or three of the eight quotations that can be found in Whitefield's journal. Back about a year ago, a young man, a graduate of Westminster, came to me to talk about some matters that were disturbing him about my own ministry, and then he asked me this question, and I'm quoting almost verbatim. He said, Mr. Martin, I want to ask you a simple question. Do you believe that you're calling to go around the country and get people upset? Do you know what my answer was? And I say this in all

59:10 sobriety in the presence of God. Listen. My calling is not to go around the country and get people upset, but I'm called to declare the whole counsel of God, one aspect of which focuses upon this principle, that it's possible to hold the form of some words and to be lost and undone and a stranger to grace. But the Scripture says the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. Paul said our gospel came not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And as long as Matthew 7, 21 to 23 stand in Holy Scripture, and as long as I have a voice, I shall cry out to ministers and potential ministers and professing Christians that many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, to whom he will say, depart from me. I never know you. I would never want to be an unwitting instrument of the devil, that accuser of the brethren, to unsettle the faith of a true child of God who may be like Bunyan's Mr. Ready to Halt and Mr. Fearing, Mr. Feeble-minded. Bunyan had them in there, men who were on

60:20 their way to the celestial city, but who had problems with assurance and were doubting and failing. And I would never be a cooperator with the accuser of the brethren to destroy or hurt the faith of the truth. I am a Christian, but neither would I be a dumb dog. I'll end on the issue that it's not only possible, but highly probable that under this roof this morning, there are young men and some young women who have never felt the power of faith.

The Pursuit of Practical Godliness: Watchfulness, Prayerfulness, Dependence

60:48 If God would be pleased to use this weekend to awaken you to the realization that it's not enough that you've inherited a form of doctrine, whether it be Calvinistic or Arminian, the issue is this. If salvation is of the Lord, has he become a work? So I submit that these doctrines applied to the hearts will lead to honest scriptural self-examination, and in the second place, they will lead to sane, biblical pursuit of practical godliness. Now what's involved in a sane, biblical pursuit of practical godliness?

61:27 May I suggest briefly three things? One, a holy watchfulness and distrust of myself. Do I really believe? That by nature I am so undone that God must initiate the work? And that the remains of corruption in me, even after I've been regenerated and joined to Jesus Christ, that those remains are such that if God took his hand off me for a moment, they would lead me back into every form of wickedness possible by a human being? If I believe that, what will it produce in me? It'll produce a holy watchfulness and a wholesome distrust of myself. I will recognize that the remaining corruption within me is like a dry tinderbox, and that every temptation is like a live coal or spark. And I'll not flirt with sin. I'll not come

62:23 out of perhaps a narrow fundamentalistic background with its checklist morality, and then discover the glorious truth of liberty in Christ, and then use my liberty as an occasion to license. I will recognize that though I am free in Jesus Christ, I am yet one who has this terrible potential for wickedness within, and I will watch as well as pray. In the second place, it will produce a consistent prayerfulness. Is salvation his work from beginning to end?

63:00 Then he must help, and his help is given to those who cry out to him. He must work in me to will and to do of his good pleasure. I must ask him to do it. And you find that beautiful fusion of those two things. God's covenant promise to do something sovereignly and powerfully, joined with his command to his people to ask him for the very thing he's pledged to do. In Ezekiel 36, that expanded statement of the blessings of the new covenant, God declares, beginning in verse 25 of Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water upon you. Verse 26, a new heart also will I give you. Verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Verse 29, I will

63:55 save you. Verse 30, I will multiply. All of these tremendous promises. God says, I will do it. I will do it. I will do it. And yet he comes down to verse 37 and says, God saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will do it. I will be inquired. In the economy of grace, all the blessings which God dispenses sovereignly and powerfully, he awakens in the hearts of those to whom he would dispense them the desire for those very blessings. Matthew Henry in his simple, homely, quaint way said, When God deigns to bless his people, he sets them a prey for the blessing he desires to give them. And so if I believe the confession God saves sinners, not only regenerates them, bringing them to repentance and faith, but that his keeping power and ultimately his work of landing me safe in his presence, if that's his work, then it will produce a consistent prayerfulness, not only a holy watchfulness and destructive prayerfulness, but a consistent application to myself, but a constant application to him that he would perform in me that which

65:20 he has promised. For what is prayer when we boil it all down? Isn't it this? Consciously spreading out my helplessness before God. Isn't that what prayer is? Consciously spreading out my helplessness before God. You see, in the true Calvinist is the man who confesses with his lips that grace must not only awaken me, regenerate me, but grace must not only awaken me, but grace must preserve me, and he amens his confession by his prayer when on his knees he cries out, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. I can't even get my bread for this day, Lord, unless you sustain my life and bless the labors of my hands. Give me this day my daily bread. I submit to you that the doctrinal confession

66:13 God saves sinners will produce in the heart of a true Christian. The main biblical pursuit of godliness, a holy watchfulness, a consistent prayerfulness, and in the third place, a trusting dependence on God to fulfill all he has purposed. When I sin, am I disenfranchised? No. The promise of God is, though the righteous fall, seven times the Lord will pick him up. And so I come, acknowledging that my obedience is neither the basis of my sin, nor the basis of my faith. I am not a sinner. I am a believer. I am a believer. I am not a sinner. I am not a sinner. I am a believer. I am not a believer. I am not a sinner. I am not a sinner. I am a sinner. I am a believer. I am not a sinner. I am a

67:02 believer. In that passage that Mr. Gaffin read this morning, you'll notice that Peter puts in the present tense, to whom coming, not to whom you came. So often in our day we hear the phrase, somebody came, the Christ, a Christian is a man who's ever coming, ever coming. But he's ever coming. He's ever coming. He's ever coming. He's ever coming. He's ever coming. We read in Hebrews 12, the order of this day, and the stay of this day, and the miracle that God has done you all throughout which you have been. Fear not theornybeyest kinds Ye are not come, and then he describes some of the physical surroundings of the giving of the Old Covenant, but he says ye are come to, and he mentions all the blessings of the New Covenant, and in one of them is this, ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant. If any man sin, we have, present tense, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

67:43 You see, this is why a true Christian does not cringe at the exposure of his sin. For every exposure of sin in the life of a true believer drives him afresh to his Savior, and everything that drives him afresh to his Savior makes his Savior more precious, doesn't it? When is your life more fragrant than when the kiss of forgiveness is most fresh upon you? People who don't like probing preaching profess to be Christians.

68:18 I'm suspicious, terribly suspicious, because exposure of sin in the life of a man who knows God saves sinners from beginning to end drives him afresh. To that mediator of the New Covenant, who knew all about those failures when he called you, and who in his grace and mercy as a succoring high priest ever pleads the merits of his blood before the Father. And so there's a trusting dependence on God to fulfill all his purpose. When I'm weak, I need to remember he prays for me.

68:53 As he said to Peter, Satan hath desired thee to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith... that thy faith fail not.

69:01 I didn't pray that your courage fail not, or it wouldn't have failed. Your fail, your courage will fail, Peter, but I pray that your faith fail not. And even in that denial of his Lord, there was not a casting off of his faith.

69:16 A debtor to mercy alone, covenant to mercy I say. This is the cry of a child of God who can then say, more safe, but not more secure, the glorified Spirit in heaven. Why? For the work which is good.

69:32 When Jesus began, the work of his grace will complete.

69:36 He'll carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ. Claim to be a Calvinist, confessing this soteriological decree that God saves sinners. Without this holy watchfulness, some measure of consistent prayerfulness, and this trusting dependence upon God in Christ to fulfill all that he in grace has promised, is a contradiction of term. One of the great cries that is raised, and some of it has justification,

70:14 is that people, especially young men, who get hold of Calvinism, seem to view it as an unanswerable, unassailable philosophical system, and they become proud, because they can go back now to their secular schools and in ten minutes shoot holes in their philosophy profs, and see right through the shredded humanism that looked like such a formidable, sublime structure, and now they see it to be nothing but a web of flimsy material that they could tear with one sweep of a reformed hand. And they become proud, cocky. That's caricature. That's not real, physical Calvinism. What's the personal, practical effect of this confession in the life of a man?

71:12 If he sees God, it'll break him. And if he understands that God saves sinners, it will make him a trusty, prayerful, watchful, pursuant. Is that what these doctrines are doing for you, right where you sit this morning? And some of you, perhaps, to whom these things are new, and you feared them because you said, oh, that stuff will just lead to spiritual barrenness and dryness?

71:43 It's not true. It's not true. For if these are the truths of his word, and I'm convinced they are, it is truth which is according to what? To godliness.

Conclusion and Prayer

71:54 This is the truth that sanctifies us in answer to the prayer of our great high priest. May God grant that the truth will do that. In you and in me. Let us pray.

72:06 We approach thee this morning in the name of thy dear Son, through him who is the mediator of the new covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ, who even now shows his wounds and spreads his hand. We thank thee for him. Oh, we bless thee for one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmity, who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore we dare to come boldly, and yet we come, oh Lord, to a throne of grace, so we would not come unbent, we would not come in pride or in stubbornness or rebellion, but by thy grace we would take our place as subjects before a sovereign, not only under the canopy of grace, but under the discipline of thy scepter. Oh Lord, may the practical effect of these glorious truths of thy holy word be inwrought in all of us by the power and might of the Holy Spirit.

73:30 Hear us, oh God, in our plea and answer for the praise and honor of him who loved us and gave himself for us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.