Grace (includes “Common Caricatures”)

Introduction to the Sovereignty of God and Scope of Study

0:00 messages on the subject and we'll be carrying through for probably somewhere in the area of maybe 10 to 15 messages we'll just see how far we go each night our theme is the bible teaching concerning the sovereignty of god whereas this truth is found in the warp and woof of the scriptures and in any honest exposition of the word of god one will continually touch upon this theme and i have not been fearful to do so wherever it's been found in the text that i've been seeking to expound i felt that it would be to our prophet to bring together a number of passages and principles from the word of god which focus upon this specific truth of the word that having this concentrated study we might come to a clearer understanding of this truth and then i'm sure that in our own reading of the scriptures we will see it in places that perhaps hitherto we have not seen before not seen it now what is the scope of our subject when we speak of the sovereignty of god what do we mean and i have found no better summary of what is meant by that phrase than that given by one of god's servants in a little book that's been helpful to me in which he says when we speak of the sovereignty of god we're speaking of quote everything that comes into the picture of god as lord and king in his world

1:27 the one who works all things after the counsel of his will directing every process and ordering every event for the fulfilling of his own eternal plan when we say that god is sovereign when the scripture asserts this truth we are stating that everything that comes under the picture of god as the king and lord of his universe ordering all things to the fulfillment of his own plan that is what we mean by the sovereignty of god now the bible also teaches that man is a responsible creature but this is not the focus of our study but in focusing upon this we are not denying what the bible teaches on the responsibility of man but when you're learning english you don't get greek lessons now when you're in an english class and the teachers only teaching your english english verb structures english prepositions she is not inferring that there's no other language in the world and anyone of reasonable intelligence would never make that inference but it's strange how that when people will come to hear the exposition of the word of god and someone happens to be preaching on uh... a given subject people will go out and say that's all we talk about see as though there's nothing else in the bible no that's not true and i trust that we'll have maturity of uh... mind and spirit sufficient to realize

2:51 that in focusing upon this truth we are not seeking to negate nor to deny any other truth in the word of god but we do want to embrace this truth as it is revealed through the scriptures now the method we are following is the proof text method we are going to specific scriptures not to twist them out of context and make them say something that's contrary to the whole breadth of biblical teaching but we're looking at those specific texts which in a wonderful way bring into sharp focus in a summarized form that which the entire breadth of divine revelation teaches thus far in our study we have seen that god is absolutely sovereign in two realms the realm of creation and we've looked at a number of passages that indicated that god made the world as he made it because it pleased him to make it that way the key text is revelation four eleven for by thy pleasure these things were and were created according to the pleasure of god then we saw the sovereignty of god in the realm of providence that god rules in all places over all persons and all things and all events and one of the key texts clearly indicating this is ephesians one eleven

4:13 where it speaks of god as the one who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will and even the wicked designs of men in crucifying jesus christ According to Acts 2.23 and Acts chapter 4, these things came to pass, according to the scriptures, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God ordered it, in no way being involved in the guilt of man's sin, but God is sovereign in the realm of providence. As the catechism says, what is providence? It is God's most holy, wise, powerful, preserving, and governing all his creatures and all their actions. All his creatures and all of their actions. Now we come tonight to the third great area in which the sovereignty of God is asserted and is clearly taught in the Bible.

Outline of the Doctrine of God's Sovereignty in Grace

5:10 We have seen that God is sovereign in the realm of, first of all, creation.

5:18 Sovereignty. Sovereignty in creation. Secondly, sovereign in the realm of providence. And now tonight, sovereign in the realm of grace.

5:31 Now as we think our way through, let me tell you where we're going so that you won't get lost in the woods. And this may take us two, three, four, five weeks. I don't know. We'll see as we go along.

5:41 I know I'm not going to get through it tonight. But we want to, first of all, state in a summary way what is the doctrine of the Bible, which asserts, that God is sovereign in grace. What does the Bible mean when it teaches that God is sovereign in grace? We want to get an overall perspective of what the Bible means.

6:00 Then we want to take something of the history of the unfolding of this doctrine. I believe this will be of great help to us, that when we, if we can view this biblical doctrine in its unfolding from the scriptures and in the history of the church, then we're going to look, and I trust we'll get to this tonight, at the perversions. I'm going to read the first part of this doctrine. You see, the young woman who knows nothing of marriage but what she saw in her own home with a father who came home perhaps drunk and beat his wife and beat his children, she's never going to get married until she gets out of her mind that that's all marriage is.

6:36 Before she can enter marriage with a good conscience and a restful spirit, this terrible caricature of what married life is like must be removed from her mind. And I'm convinced that before God's people will embrace the Bible, and the Bible's teaching on the sovereignty of God in grace, we've got to get all these caricatures, these misrepresentations cleared out of the way. For many people are rejecting not the Bible doctrine of God's sovereignty, but they're rejecting a caricature. You know what a caricature is?

7:06 It's taking a person and taking his outstanding feature and bringing it all out of proportion. So it's really not that person. It's a grotesque, a grotesque exaggeration of one aspect of his physical being, usually, his face. And so we want to clear away the perversions of the doctrine.

7:24 Then we want to look at the scriptural basis of this doctrine, in which we'll look into specific words and specific passages. Then we want to consider the problems connected with this doctrine. And then last of all, the practical results that flow from this doctrine. Now that's a weighty assignment, and as I said, it'll take us perhaps many weeks.

Defining God's Sovereignty in Grace: Salvation is of the Lord

7:44 But if the Lord is pleased to spare us and bring us together again, I trust the study will be successful. The study will be profitable. All right, then, backing up from where we started, God is sovereign in the realm of grace. A, what do we mean by this doctrine?

8:01 What do we mean when we assert that God is sovereign in the realm of grace? Well, all we are saying is that Jonah 2.10 is true. Where we read, quoting the words of the prophet, salvation is of the Lord, period.

8:19 No comma. No waiting for something else. No dash leading to something else. No semicolon dependent upon something else.

8:31 Salvation is of the Lord, period. Now let me emphasize another word. Salvation is of the Lord. And everything that's involved in that salvation, everything that's involved in bringing a fallen son of Adam, an heir of hell.

8:51 Salvation is of the Lord. A potential faggot for the fire of the pit of eternal burning. Everything that takes him out of that state of nature in which he's found, that state of being lost in Adam and bound by sin, and ultimately brings him into the presence of Jesus Christ, fully and eternally confirmed in holiness and righteousness, an heir of the countenance of God through eternity. Everything.

9:20 That's salvation. And everything that's involved in that whole process from here to there is of the Lord. Every bit of it. Every bit of it.

9:29 And when we state and assert that God is sovereign in grace, this is what we are asserting that salvation is of the Lord. The objects of mercy are of the Lord. God is sovereign in terms of who he saves. He says in Romans chapter 9, I will have mercy upon whom I will save.

9:52 I will have mercy. And there's no one to say, well, God, you ought not to have mercy upon this fellow. And you've got to have mercy upon this one. God says, no, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

10:06 Romans 9, I believe, verse 15. And so when we state that God is sovereign in the realm of grace and of salvation, we are simply stating the biblical truth that he's sovereign concerning the objects of mercy. And also he is sovereign concerning the means. The means.

10:22 By which mercy will come to men. Second Thessalonians 2.13, the apostle says, God be thanked that he hath chosen you from the beginning to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. God not only saves whom he will save, but he saves them in the way that he determined to save them.

10:43 At the time he determines to save them. Paul said in Galatians 1.16, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. He separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me.

10:57 He said, when it pleased God to reveal his son in me. Paul, when did you get saved? He said, I got saved when it was the good pleasure of God to save me. When it pleased God.

11:10 My salvation was not due to the whims and fancies of others, for John 1.13 says, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. But of God. But of God.

11:23 And so this is all we're asserting. To change the figure, when we state that God is sovereign in the realm of grace, we mean that when we trace our salvation back as far as the Bible lets us trace it, we ultimately end up with this tremendous staggering truth that the thing that makes a saved man who is an heir of grace differ from the man who dies in sin. The reason is this. The reason is not found in himself, but it's found in God.

11:56 For the scripture declares in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 7, who maketh thee to differ the one from the other? For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received? You see, if we stand here today by the grace of God, saved, born of the Spirit, we say now, here I am at this state of grace.

12:20 And here's Joe Soane. And here's Joseph. And here's Ansel. Here's Joseph.

12:23 And here's St. Thomas. And here's Joseph, in a state of nature. And perhaps he dies in that state.

12:30 And I ask the question, Lord, how come I stand in this state of grace? And I go back. I say, well, because the gospel, because I was converted in 19 such and so. All right?

12:43 Now, why were you converted? Well, because back two years before, God put a Christian in my path, and that Christian witnessed to me. All right. back back till you ultimately come to this wall where you can't penetrate anymore the bible won't let you penetrate anymore and the question is asked why am i an object of grace and this man is permitted to die in his sin and you'll find that the answer is not found in either of you two men nor is it found in any of these factors but the reason ultimately lies in the inscrutable mystery of a god who said i will have mercy upon whom i will have mercy so when we assert that god is sovereign in grace we are simply stating this clear truth of the bible that it's god who makes us to differ one from the other god is sovereign in the purpose of grace now we're going to study this later on but i want to give you a little introduction tonight you see the words election predestination and foreknowledge were not squeezed into the bible by a man named john calvin they were there a long time before he ever came on the scene you

The Triune God's Work in Sovereign Grace

13:55 god the holy ghost put these words in the bible election now whatever they mean forget that for a minute god put them there predestination is a bible word as much as we might run from it and say that's the word the devil invented to get christians mad at one another that isn't true god put the word in the bible now if you love god and christ is your prophet don't you question his wisdom for putting that word there he put it there he put the words chosen elect election predestination foreknowledge those are all bible words they're not terms invented by theologians who want to cause splits in denominations no those words state that god is sovereign in the purposes of his grace then god is not only sovereign in the purposes of his grace but god is sovereign in the provision of his grace the lord jesus said i lay down my life for my shame sheep. Ephesians 5 said he gave himself for the church, and this brings in the whole concept of the work of Jesus Christ, which is not isolated from the purpose of the Father. What Jesus Christ did upon the cross for men was in perfect agreement with the purpose of the Father. And the purpose of the Father is

15:20 found in those words, election, chosen, foreordained, predestinated, and God is sovereign in the provisions of His grace. He sends His Son to bear the sin of many, to actually not just make salvation possible, but to secure redemption for a great multitude whom no man can number. And so when we state that God is sovereign in the realm of grace, He's sovereign in the purposes of His grace, He's sovereign in the provisions of His grace, and He is sovereign in the application of His grace. Or did not our Lord Jesus say in John 6, 37, All that the Father giveth me, what?

16:04 Shall come to me. Isn't that what He said? I think it's dishonest for everybody to quote the last part of that verse and never quote the first part. We all know the last part. Him that comes to me all in no wise cast out. But that is the consequence of two other things. All that the Father giveth me, that's God's eternal purpose. All those that are given to the Son, back in eternity as we'll see in that beautiful, mysterious covenant of grace in the triune Godhead when the Father chose the people and gave them to the Son.

16:41 And the Son came to earth with those people upon His heart to die for them. And now the Holy Spirit in power is applying what the Son purchased in keeping with the eternal purpose of the Father. And you see the beautiful, harmonious workings of the triune God. So in the application, what do we have? All that the Father giveth me, that's God's purpose to save certain people, shall come to me. That's the powerful application of that salvation by the Holy Spirit. What the theologians call, and I think rightfully so, the effectual call of God. Peter says, hath called us out of darkness into marvelous light. This is

Heart-Belief in Sovereign Grace: Thanksgiving and Prayer

17:27 what we're asserting by stating the biblical truth that God is sovereign in grace. In the purpose, in the provision, and in the application of salvation. Now whether you know it or not, if you're a Christian, you already believe this. And I don't need to convince you of this, as Mr. Packer so masterfully brings out in his little book. You know how I know if you're a Christian you believe that God is sovereign in grace? You know how I know it? Because of two things.

17:54 Number one, if you're a Christian, you give God thanks for how much of your salvation? Much of it? Now you really mean that? All of it? Alright, now see what you've done.

18:07 You say, if you're saved, you give God thanks for all of your salvation. You're not going to leave one little bitty bit out here saying, well that was my part out there, no? You say, every bit was of God. Alright? In what sense?

18:20 Well, you say the provision was all of God. I could not be saved without the merits of Christ. True. Let me ask you another question.

18:30 Are we simply saved by the merits of Christ? Are all men, automatically partakers of the merits of Christ? No. Part of that salvation is getting us to embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. And what are those two things by which we embrace it? Repentance and faith. Now, are they part of your salvation? Yes or no?

18:50 Well, sure they are. Repentance and faith are part of your salvation. Understanding the gospel. Could you embrace it until you understood it? Yes or no?

18:57 No, you couldn't. So if you thank God for your salvation and you thank God for all of it, you're thanking Him not only for the objective provisions of your salvation, but you're thanking Him for the powerful application of your salvation. Your repentance and faith. You thank God for them.

19:15 In other words, you acknowledge Lord, you're absolutely sovereign in grace. The only reason I've embraced your Son is because you convicted me of sin. You opened my eyes to see my lostness. You opened my spiritual ears to hear the call of the Spirit. You enabled me to turn from the very things that I loved and turn to the very things I hate by nature. Lord, this is all of grace. Did you ever hear a true Christian on his knees praying like this? Oh God, how I thank you for sending your Son, Jesus to die. And I thank you that without His grace and merit I would not be saved. And then open his eyes and say, now I want to thank myself for being smart enough to repent and believe.

19:57 That's ridiculous. You never heard anybody pray like that. He's not a Christian. He's a Pharisee. I thank thee, I am not like other men. I do this, I do this. And yet isn't it amazing that though people would never pray that way, that's what they'll say on their feet. They'll say, oh yes, we need the merits of Christ to save us and only His merits can save us. In that sense, salvation's all of God, but the repentance and the faith by which we laid hold of that, that's mine. See? You see, what happens is the heart is deceitful and it plays tricks on us. A man's real heart consciousness comes out when he's on his knees. And I've met people who in their heads, on their feet, might get quite angry even hearing someone preach as much as I've preached tonight. But oh, if they know God, I love to pray with them. And maybe a little bit of my own flesh enters in because when I hear them praying, I say, ha ha.

20:58 See? See? Because in their praying, in their praying, they acknowledge that God is absolutely sovereign. Why did the gospel come to you? Why did you march up to the throne of God in some pre-human existence and say, God, I think I'd like to be born in a land where I'll be showered with gospel privileges? Did you? Did you march up to the throne of God and say, God, I'd like to be brought in a situation where I'll hear the gospel and where somebody will pray? No. In your sober moments on your knees, you acknowledge that every single factor that has led to your salvation is 100% the working of God. Every single factor, not only the objective provisions, but the application in every part of it, the gospel message that came and how it came and the prayers of God's people, all of this was part of a beautiful plan of God to bring you to his Son. Do you deny that? And you're not a Christian, my friend.

21:58 No, if you're saved, you acknowledge that. And the second reason I know you believe this in your heart, that God is sovereign and salvation is, you pray for the salvation of others. Now, when you pray for others, what do you pray? Do you pray, oh, God, help that unsaved relative of mine.

22:14 Lord, help them to use their free will to choose you. Lord, help them to use their power to repent rightly. No, you don't pray that. I never heard anybody pray that.

22:24 I'll tell you how I hear people pray, oh, God, break down that stubborn, rebellious will of my loved one. Open the blinded eyes of that dear loved one. Lord, by your Spirit, break their hearts. What are you praying?

22:39 You're praying that God himself will invade that life and against the will and plan and purpose of that individual so worked by the Spirit that they'll want Christ and want holiness and want eternal life. Now, what are you acknowledging? Well, you're acknowledging that God is sovereign in grace, that when he saves people, he does all the saving, that the conviction, the repentance, the faith is all his duty. Isn't that what you acknowledge when you pray? Of course it is. So all God's children believe that God is sovereign in grace in their hearts. The problem is, because we've got an itch for logical consistency, we see problems of contesting this with our lips on our feet. Oh, there are problems connected with this, but I'm not going to let the problems keep me from declaring the whole counsel of God or believing it.

Historical Unfolding of the Doctrine of Sovereign Grace

23:29 In fact, the problems are a hidden blessing because they make me to realize afresh that I am but a little finite creature and God is the infinite God whose ways are past tracing up for who hath known the mind of the Lord. All right, so much then by what we mean when we say that God is sovereign in the realm of grace. I haven't given you much scripture purposely because I want to give you a big overview and then we'll have passage after passage when we come to the scriptural foundation of this doctrine. All right, considering now, having considered the meaning what we're heading for, let's look for just a few minutes at the history of the unfolding of this doctrine.

24:13 I've contended many times that much of what Bible schools have to do, they have to do because the church, the church has failed in its teaching ministry and I would like to think that we're doing at least a little something here at this church to counteract that tendency to give you a church, a little bit of church history where necessary for that simply the ongoing, the continual unfolding of God's mighty works in building his church. Now, where did this doctrine ever get started that God is sovereign in grace? Well, of course, the history of the doctrine traces back first of all to the word of God itself. You can't read the Old Testament without coming up to this conclusion that God is absolutely sovereign in grace.

24:57 For all his dealings in the Old Testament were primarily focused upon what people? Israel. Now, how'd that all start? Was Abraham sitting on a log down there in Ur of the Chaldees one day and he said, you know, I just got a nice idea.

25:13 I think I'd like to be the father of a nation.

25:17 And besides, I think I'd like to make that nation to be the people of the true God. No, no. Why, that's ridiculous. The very thought makes you snicker.

25:27 No, God came in sovereign grace to Abraham and said, Abraham, get. I want you to get out to a land that I'm going to show you and I will make of thee a great nation. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And then the unfolding God again and again would come to his people and say, only you have I known of all the nations of the earth, not because you were wise or big or strong, but because I loved you. Why?

25:54 Because God chose to love them. That's all. It couldn't be that he foresaw that they would be a faithful nation. The Bible says they were a stiff-necked people.

26:04 And the whole idea that God chooses because he foresees some virtue is utterly disproved by the nation of Israel. If anything, what God foresaw they would be would cause them to say, I'll forget that crowd and I'll choose a different nation.

26:20 And so the doctrine has its roots right in the whole unfolding of the redemptive purpose and then as you come into the New Testament you find so clearly taught that our Lord says things like this. Matthew 11 verse 27. No man knoweth the Father save the Son. No man knoweth the Son save the Father and he, I reversed it, no man knoweth the Son save the Father. No man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. You mean nobody will know God savingly unless the Son is pleased, is willing, willeth to reveal him? Precisely, precisely. And you find our Lord saying to his own, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. You find the Lord Jesus

27:14 praying in John 17, Father I thank thee you gave me authority over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. I pray not for the world but for those whom thou hast given me and for those that will yet believe through their word. You find a particularism, a sovereign purpose to save the people given to the Lord Jesus. You find the words used very freely in the New Testament writers, the words election, predestination. They're not embarrassed at them. Paul is writing a wonderful, wonderful letter introducing the great provisions of Christians and in that praise he says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, Ephesians 1 3, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. You see he doesn't say now this is a nasty doctrine and this is no, he's just so caught up in the wonder that his salvation is all of God that he just lifts his heart up and prays. You find John, in 2nd and 3rd John, he says to the elect lady and to the elect brother. They use the term

28:34 very freely. Our Lord said that in those last days in the time of the great tribulation there would be such deception that even the elect if possible should be deceived. Now where did this doctrine begin dear? When it begins in the word of God. May I give a little personal word of testimony here? The only reason I believe this doctrine is because I believe my Bible. And the only reason I believe it is because the Bible teaches it. And the only thing that overcame my indisposition to believe it was that I just got sick and tired of being embarrassed every time I came to the words elect, chosen, foreordained. I just got tired of being embarrassed. And I said Lord, you know I think I got a sneaking suspicion that maybe you mean what you say. That if I'm saved, I'm saved because you purposed to save. And why you did Lord I don't know and I'm going to stop asking and I'm going to start worshipping.

29:30 This doctrine has its origin in the word God. But like all doctrines all revealed doctrines they are unfolded and brought into clear expression in the history of the church as those doctrines are attacked. Now I want to give you a little church history here tonight. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Church History: From Heart-Belief to Articulated Doctrine

29:48 We did this I believe back several years ago with another doctrine. In the hearts of all of God's people, let that represent the common heart consciousness of all Christians. In the heart of all true Christians this doctrine that God is sovereign and grace resides. I've demonstrated it to you because you thank God for your whole salvation, even your repentance and faith. And you pray that God will give repentance and faith to others knowing that unless he does, they'll never repent and believe. So this doctrine is there in the heart of every Christian. Just like the doctrine that Jesus Christ is God. The deity of Christ is a common heart doctrine of all Christians. Here it is.

30:27 Now as the church as church history unfolds

30:32 here's the head of the Christian. Here on his head. Now what he has in his heart he may not clearly understand in his head. Or he may not clearly be able to express in his head. Well what happens?

30:48 He goes along enjoying this truth in his heart. When he feels the power of it, he doesn't care to define it and defend it. I don't go around trying to define and defend my love for my wife and my children. Man, I just revel in it and enjoy it. Now if somebody challenged it and said, what do you mean you love your wife? Now I might have to begin to say, now this is what I mean. I don't mean this. I do mean this.

31:10 But as long as nobody challenged it, I just enjoy it. I'm not going to defend it. I'm not going to define it. Why bother? Just enjoy it.

31:16 Now this is what the church did. But along in the 3rd century and into the 4th century, there came a man named Arius. He was a heretic. He was a very impressive man. A very learned man. And this man began to teach Jesus Christ is not God. And he attacked a doctrine that was within the hearts of God's true people. Then what happened? Well, the church had to call a council. And they called the council 325 A.D. The Council of Nicaea. At which time the Christians drew up out of their hearts, based upon the word of God, that truth that Jesus Christ is both God and man, and the truth of the deity of Christ and its relationship to the teaching of the Trinity, was clearly stated from the mind now in 325 A.D. Now does that mean the church never believed it until 325 A.D.? That's what

32:18 the Jehovah's Witness will tell you. He'll come to you and he'll say, look at this now. See, right here it says that in 325 A.D. the Council of Nicaea pronounced that Jesus Christ is God. Now you see, the early Christians didn't believe it. Why, all the way up until this time, and they, no, no, no. Don't fall prey to that kind of foolishness.

32:37 All the church did was pronounce with clarity in the light of its head understanding what was its heart's belief. Follow me?

32:48 Now, a little bit later, the church, which obviously when you read the New Testament, they use the terms foreordained, predestined, elect, they use the terms freely. Freely, no embarrassment whatsoever. But a little bit later in the history of the church, in the fourth and fifth, in the fifth century, there came a man, a monk, his name was Pelagius. He was a British monk, and Pelagius declared, man is not inherently depraved and sinful. He is not born in sin in the sense that his will is moving in the direction of evil, that his nature is corrupt. He taught that every man is virtually his own atom. We're sort of born neutral and we can choose evil or choose good. Well, of course, this was cutting right at the very heart of the teaching of the church and its consciousness, for every true Christian recognizes that not only have I done some bad things because I had some bad examples, but like David, we acknowledge that we were conceived in sin, that we are sinful at the very roots of our nature.

33:54 And so God raised up a man to lead a pronouncement of the scriptural truth, just like back here. He raised up subsequent, and at this time, he raised up Athanasius. So God raised up a man by the name of Augustine, or Augustine, whichever way you want to call it, and Augustine thoroughly refuted the heresy and fallacies of Pelagius, and in so doing, he brought to the surface the common conviction of all Christians that salvation is holy of the Lord, that by nature it left to ourselves we would do nothing but sin and destroy ourselves, and if any of the fallen sons of Adam are ever raised to life, it's because God in his sovereign grace and power has done it. And this was then clearly pronounced in the writings of Augustine. Now, during the dark ages, in this long period when salvation was thought to be in penances and pilgrimages, it's obvious that this truth would not be recognized. If you think salvation is in a little trinket or in one of Peter's toenails,

35:01 this is what people thought. If salvation is in Peter's toenail or in a splinter of the cross or something else, and you buy a relic and you do some penance and you purchase indulgences, you're not going to have any understanding that unless God is pleased to lay hold of me and subdue my heart, I'll never be his. And so these doctrines, this doctrine was well and I swallowed up as was all the other major teaching of the word of God during those dark ages, but in that glorious visitation of God in the Reformation, beginning perhaps with the previous lights of the Reformation in 1400 and then of course coming up through that wonderful movement of God in the 1600s and giving birth to all the great Protestant denomination, the Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church and then later on some of our American churches. When the Reformation came, two great truths were brought to the surface. One of them is that we are justified by faith alone on the basis of the righteousness of God and Christ, but a second truth also came to the surface and the average Christian sitting in the pew who is a benefactor of the Reformation, though he may know this, is generally ignorant of this. And this is the second great truth that not only is salvation by grace through faith based upon the righteousness of God alone, but the faith and

36:30 repentance by which I am led to embrace that righteousness is fully and solely the work of God. Luther, Calvin, Calvin, and the other great reformers differed on many things. Let me read the statement of one whose scholarship gives him the right to make this kind of a statement whose study of history is more thorough than my own.

36:56 All the leading Protestant theologians of the first epoch of the Reformation stood on precisely the same ground here. On other points they had their differences, but in asserting the helplessness of man in sin and the sovereignty of God in grace, they were entirely at one. To all of them, these doctrines were the very life blood of the Christian faith. To the reformers, the question was not simply whether God justifies believers without the works of the law. That's the first truth.

37:27 It was the broader question whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional, invincible grace, not only justifying them for Christ's sake when they come to faith, but also raising them from the death of sin by his quickening spirit in order to bring them to faith. Isn't that the teaching of the Bible? And you hath he made alive who were what? Dead in trespasses and sins. And I am grieved that being a son of the Reformation, I was robbed of my Reformation heritage for years. I went through Bible school, two years in a Christian college, and all the rest. And all that I was ever told was this. As the birthright of the Reformation, and I saw this second thing in the Bible, but I said, well, boy, if it's so important as it seems to be, why don't others tell me about it?

38:21 And so I kind of pushed it in the background until I had to be honest with myself. And now I've come to understand that this is the second great birthright of the Reformation. Not only that I'm justified by grace, but that the enablement to lay hold of that grace is also grace, and salvation is fully of God and utterly undercuts all self-effort. And so as a result of this, after the Reformation, what came out of the Reformation? Well, a little study of church history reveals that out of the Reformation flowed these great Protestant denominations. Lutheranism, the great Reformed churches of Europe, then Presbyterianism, and even, though it's not in this mainstream, the Church of England with its 39 articles, though they differed in many things, on this they were all agreed at the inception that salvation is by the sovereign grace of God. Then, out of this came a great movement in the area of Baptist churches who held to the doctrine of the Reformers, but who could not see infant baptism taught in the Bible, the London Confession of Faith, then the Philadelphia Confession of Faith,

Legacy of Sovereign Grace: Missions and Preaching

39:37 the early American Baptists here in this country all subscribed to it. What do they have in common with this? They may differ on how much water, on whom, but on this they're agreed that God is sovereign in the realm of grace. Now, this is not something that you can argue. These are the facts of church history in a very broad sweeping way. Then came the great modern missionary movement. Who's considered the father of modern missions? You students? Who?

40:07 William who? William Carey. Do you know that William Carey stood 100% in the conviction that the only people who ever get saved are those that God purposes to save? William Carey, father of modern missions.

40:27 The great early missionaries in this country, David Brainerd, stood right here. The great preachers. We've all been taught to respect names like Edwards, the early American Puritan, George Whitfield,

40:44 Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

40:48 All of these great preachers, we've been taught to respect them. Robert Murray McShane, John Knox, who shook Scotland, of whom? That heathen queen said, I fear the prayers of Knox more than all the armies. What did these men believe?

41:06 Well, they believed a lot of things, but on one thing, they were all united. That salvation is all of God. All united. So, why am I telling you this? Because I want us to see that this is no strange doctrine. It's strange to the hearing in our day, when we have deified man and we have shoved God off to some little nook and cranny and we come to him when we want what we think we need from him. A day that knows nothing of falling down before a sovereign God, of whom and through whom and unto whom are all things in line, prostrated his feet, recognizing that my eternal destiny is held in his hands and pleading that he have mercy upon me. We don't live in a day that's conducive to that kind of thinking.

41:51 But I believe God in his mercy is going to let the church see a brighter day. I see some hopeful signs that people are just about getting sick and tired of a Christianity that rests upon the puny shoulders of men. And they long for a Christianity that rests upon the broad shoulders of a sovereign God. And if you said amen, you wouldn't be my enemy.

42:20 No strange doctrine. It's no killing doctrine. It produced God under Whitfield. The great missionary penetration of a carry.

42:33 The great sacrificial labors of a David Brainerd. Those who say, oh, if you believe that doctrine, it'll kill all kinds of missionary and evangelistic passion. They don't know what they're talking about. It's not true. History proves it wrong. I'll tell you what kills true evangelism. The idea that fallen man can repent and believe of himself. So men go around thinking I've got repentance and faith in my pocket. And when I get good and ready, I'll just pull it out and wave it in God's face. Oh, beloved, it's when we begin. To realize that we're helpless and hang on the mercy of a sovereign God. We'll begin to see what Whitfield saw, what Jonathan Edwards saw. They didn't need to squeeze decisions out of people and plead with them to come down aisles and kneel at altars. This is all the product of a God denying evangelism. These men preached and exalted sovereign God until men see them on his throne and seeing that salvation was held in his hands. They literally, literally, fell and began to cry for mercy.

43:40 Godless historians say that the British Isles were saved from a revolution such as split France and crippled it to this day. Not because men were told that God came and sort of asked a little help from them in procuring their salvation. No, because they were told that almighty God who could damn the human race and be bloodless in doing it has in his infinite condescension sent a savior. That savior died to purchase salvation for an innumerable company of sinners out of every tribe and tongue and nation.

44:17 Now he lives to make that salvation vital and real in the hearts of all who come unto God by him. And they summon men not to a cheap decision for Christ, but they called men to repent. They called men to bow to this sovereign. They called men to break off from their sins.

44:35 Knowing that where and when God by the effectual call found his own, he would bring them to himself on his terms.

44:47 Terms that man cannot meet of himself. How can the sinner who loves his sins turn from his sin? It can't be done unless God does something in his turn.

44:59 What's happened in our day? Where we've denied that God will save his own and save them on his terms, we've had to drag the terms down to where man can meet them. How's the supernatural work of God? So we've got all this talk about have you decided for Christ? Where do you find that in the Bible? And all these unscriptural methods of aisle walking and hand raising. Where do you find it? And don't be angry with me. Come to me with chapter and verse. I plead with you, come with chapter and verse.

45:34 My heart is pained as I move about the different parts of the country. And I see the blight and the curse of the teaching that salvation's part in the hands of God and part in the hands of man. This has brought the death, not the teaching that God is sovereign in grace. It has always brought life to the church when it's been held in proper proportion with other truths of the word of God.

Caricatures of Sovereign Grace: Neutral Man

46:03 Now may I in closing tonight just hurriedly touch on some perversions of the doctrine. I hope this won't worry you. It'll take just a couple of minutes in closing to do this.

46:14 I hope this will be helpful to you. What are some of the perversions of this doctrine? Well, I'm supposed to preach my chalk right off the pulpit.

46:27 Well, forget it. All right.

46:31 What are some of the perversions of this doctrine? Just like that young lady who's fearful to say yes to the young man who asked her hand in marriage because she's got this caricature. She thinks of marriage and a home. All she can think of is that man with bleary eyes and the wild look coming through the door and picking up a chair and crashing it and picking up a broom and hitting the children. You see, she's got a wrong view of marriage and so the very word marriage is distasteful until she gets that idea out of her mind. And I'm convinced again that many of God's people who believe this truth in their hearts are afraid to pronounce it with their heads because they've got some caricatures. What are they? Here's the first caricature. The caricature of what I'd call caricature of a neutral man. Now let me explain what I mean by that. And I want to have my chalk for that. It'll make it so much more plain. They have the

47:21 caricature that man is neutral. Now what I mean by that, is this. Thank you, Clint. You're going to go get a piece of chalk for me?

47:29 Good. That'll be helpful. They've got the idea that God looks down from heaven and he sees all men standing on sort of a level plateau and then off either end of the plateau going downward, that's a path that leads to hell and then at the other end of the plateau going upward, like we'll show you in a minute. Thank you.

47:54 That's downward to hell. This is upward to heaven. Now here's the picture they have of the doctrine of God's sovereignty in Greece. The truth that God chooses men to eternal life. They have the picture that God looks down and he sees all men and these will be representative a man and a woman, representative of all men and women, and he says arbitrarily to people who are neither of themselves fit for heaven nor really deserving of hell, he says, alright, I'll choose to send you to heaven and I'll choose to send you to hell. People say that's not fair. Well that's right, that isn't fair.

48:34 That would be capricious. That would be an arbitrary selection. That's a caricature of the doctrine of election. God does not see the human race standing on a neutral plane, neither deserving of nor fit for hell nor deserving of or fit for heaven and he makes a choice as to which it will be. That's not the truth.

48:54 Let's never forget, dear ones, and we've been emphasizing this Sunday mornings in our catechetical instructions, as God looks down upon the human race, what does he see? Here's what he sees. He sees the whole carload of humanity going at breakneck speed into the pit of eternal burnings as just that they should burn. God would be perfectly righteous if he let the whole human race feel the consequences of its rejection of God. What is hell?

49:35 Hell is God allowing men to feel the natural consequences of rejecting him. God says, all right, you want to live without me? All right, you'll die and spend an eternity without me. I'll let you feel the weight of your choice. And when man fell in the garden and the human race is now a fallen, condemned, doomed race, God could have let the whole human race perish and not one soul in hell could ever raise up a fist and say, God, this was not just. Let me ask you a question. How many of you believe that the angels that fell with Lucifer will end up in hell? How many of you believe that? All right.

50:18 Did God ever provide salvation for them or offer it to him? Yes or no?

50:23 No. Is he unjust because he didn't? Yes or no? No. Not at all.

50:32 There is no condemned angel spirit who can condemn God and say, well, God, I rebelled against you and I cast you off, but it's not right that I should suffer. No, no. No. God in his sovereignty allowed the angels to experience what he could allow us to experience.

50:50 The just end of our rejection of him. Now the truth of God's sovereignty and grace is that in that mass of carload of sinners who are justly plunging downward and who will plunge and ultimately perish unless God does something for their own nature to pull them downward. They're under the wrath of God. The devil as it were cooperates in pushing the car downward. The scripture says they are helpless. They are dead in trespasses and sins. God in his infinite grace and mercy for the praise of his own sovereign grace has chosen for his own glory out of that carload he has determined to take this one and this one and this one and make them heirs of heaven. Now who can say God is unjust when he could have allowed all to perish?

51:45 But for the glory of his name he's going to save the company which no man can number out of every tribe and tongue and nation to the praise of his grace. So the first caricature I trust if you had it, it's dead now, that God deals with a neutral man in election and in his choice. No he doesn't. God is dealing with men who are under condemnation who deserve death, who should perish in all justice.

Caricatures of Sovereign Grace: Reluctant God and God Without Means

52:13 Now the second caricature is the caricature of a reluctant God. This is the picture I've heard some people paint. Here a poor sinner comes to God conscious that he's lost and undone. He knows that he's going to perish. And he says, oh God have mercy upon me. And God takes out his book and says, now let me see. Is your name written in here from the foundation of the world? Let me see, what's that name again? Jones?

52:39 No, I'm sorry sinner. You're not one of my elect. You'll have to go to hell.

52:45 Now but I'm not trying to be funny, but that's the caricature I've heard people paint of election. The caricature of a God who would say to seeking sinners, no, sorry you're not one of my elect. You'll have to perish.

53:00 I've heard people ask me, you mean to tell me you believe that if a sinner wanted salvation with all his heart and he wasn't the elect, God wouldn't save him? I said, you put two things together that are never together.

53:12 Oh dear ones, listen, if any sinner's in that condition on his knees crying to God for mercy, he has the promise of God. You'll seek me and find me in the search for you with all your heart. Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. But now the issue is this, when he has come and he's found the grace and salvation of God and he asks the question, oh God, how did I come when all my brethren and friends and neighbors go on in their sin unconcerned, indifferent and die in that state?

53:41 Why was I ever wakened up to be concerned about heaven? Why was I ever brought to the place where I longed for salvation? He says, Lord, as Robert Murray McShane says, chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee. This was your work Lord, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified. Oh, get this caricature out of your mind that election is a teaching that God is a reluctant God and he won't say seeking sinners, no. Glorious Bible truth of election is the only man who ever becomes a true seeking sinner is the one who becomes that by the grace of God. Then there's the third caricature that I call the caricature of the God who works without means. People say, oh well, you believe God is going to save people? Then sit

54:35 back, I'll be saved, do what I can, I'll be damned, do what I will. No, no, because you see, God has not only chosen the end, but he's chosen the means. How many of you believe that God gives you your daily bread? How many of you really believe that? Do you really believe that?

54:51 How many of you believe that God didn't give you your daily bread? You'd starve.

54:56 You believe that? God is sovereign in giving you bread? How many of you put in your eight hours a day, those of you who are able to do so? You work. How many of you work to earn your wage?

55:05 Oh, wait a minute. If you believe God gives you your bread, he'll give it to you, do what you will. If he's not going to give it to you, you can't get it, do what you can. No, you wouldn't apply that to your daily bread. You've got more sense than that. Just more plain, old, common horse sense. Excuse the analogy. Sure you do. You say, no, God gives me that bread, but he gives it to me by way of means, and the means, my work, my labor, but it's his giving. Now, if this is true in something like physical bread, how much more true in the heavenly bread? The God who ordains to give his son to man has ordained the means by which they come to his son, the preaching of the gospel, the prayers of his people, and whatever God's secret purposes may be, his commands are plain. God commands me to repent.

55:53 God commands me to flee to Christ. God commands me to pray. God commands me to witness. And his secret, eternal purposes, which are sure, are not the rule of my life.

56:03 They're the source of my rejoicing, but the rule of my life are his commands. And so, with a heart rejoicing that his purposes are sure, I shod my feet with the equipment of obedience to his written word, knowing that as I walk in obedience, I'll have the joy of knowing that God will be true to his word. So, if you have any of these caricatures, of man who's neutral, or of a God who's reluctant, or of a God who works without means, you just mark it down as a caricature. It's not the truth of the word of God. Well, I think we've gone far enough tonight. The Lord willing, next Sunday night, we'll take up the scriptural basis for this doctrine, and may I urge you to seriously read and pray over two key passages in the scripture, the 17th chapter of John, three key passages, John 17, Ephesians 1, 1 to 11, and Romans chapter 9. Please study these passages carefully and prayerfully. Ephesians 1, 1 to 11, John 17, and Romans chapter 9, and then the Lord willing, we shall look at the scriptural basis for the doctrine of God's sovereignty and grace, and then, if we have time, begin to deal with some of the problems connected

Concluding Exhortations: Study, Don't Fight, Worship

57:25 with this doctrine. Oh, I trust, dear ones, that none of us will ever argue or dispute the doctrine of God's sovereignty and grace. If you don't have faith to believe it and to embrace it, let me urge you, don't fight it. Even when I didn't believe it, I had sense enough not to fight it from the pulpit, like some men do, because I knew there was just too much in the Bible that talked about it, and too many of the godliest men who ever lived who believed it, I didn't want to have to go back everywhere and undo some foolish, rash statements. Now, if you don't understand it, and don't have faith to believe it, don't fight it. Second thing, don't reject it without examining the Scripture. Now, that's reasonable to ask, isn't it? Isn't that reasonable to ask?

58:12 Be like the Bereans. Receive the Word with readiness of mind, but search the Scriptures. As I told you about one of the men in this church who had some problems, he said, Pastor, I've got problems. I said, I'm not even going to talk about it with you.

58:23 He said, I want you to just pray and study the Word. If God can't teach you, I can't. And God taught him. I didn't teach him. And then those of you to whom God has been pleased to make this truth a precious truth, don't argue about it with others. I refuse to argue about this precious truth. Any more than I'd argue with someone that I love my wife. If you don't want to believe me, that's too bad. I'm not going to talk about it with her. That's too precious a thing to argue about. Don't argue with the doctrine. See, when you argue with it, you're denying what you say you believe.

58:51 If you really believe that only God can give us understanding of truth, then don't argue. Just pray that God will open that person's eyes to His truth. And then those of us to whom God has been pleased to make this truth real, oh, that our worship will reveal that we really believe it. It will take that place of absolute brokenness.

59:12 This to me has been perhaps the most humbling truth that God has taught me in the past three years.

59:18 The only reason I'm not in hell is not only because Christ died, because back before the world began, God set His love on the likes of me.

59:32 I don't understand that. Why? Why did He choose me? Because it pleased Him. Why did it please Him? I don't know.

59:42 Thank God I can worship where I can understand. May the Lord find us prostrate on our faces in worship and in praise.