Conclusion
Tom Shrader wraps up a seven-week expository series on salvation by reviewing four core summary statements: natural man cannot understand spiritual truth, God determined to intervene and save His people, Christ's substitutionary death satisfied God's wrath against the elect, and the Holy Spirit regenerates and seals the believer. He then addresses practical implications, arguing that these doctrines magnify God, humble man, secure the believer, and free Christians to share the gospel without pressure to manipulate a response. He closes by warning against common misunderstandings such as double predestination and false arrogance, urging the congregation toward gratitude, worship, and confident evangelism.
“Religion is always the story of a sinful man reaching to a holy God. Biblical Christianity is the story of a holy God reaching to a sinful man.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: God's Plan for Salvation (2004)
Recorded: 2004 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 58 min
Themes: salvation, grace, evangelism, humility, worship, gratitude, predestination, assurance, new believer, struggling with doubt, afraid to share faith, questioning salvation, feeling spiritually proud, longtime churchgoer, curious about reformed theology, seeking assurance of salvation
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 1, Romans 3:10-12, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:12, Ephesians 2:1, 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, 1 John 4:10, Titus 2:14, Titus 3:5, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 1:13, Philippians 1:6, Romans 10:13-15, Matthew 11:28
Theological Themes: soteriology, substitutionary atonement, regeneration, election, total depravity, propitiation, sealing of the spirit, unconditional election
Full Transcript
Opening Prayer and Announcements
Father, thank You for the gift You gave us when You sent Your Son Jesus into this world so that we would have eternal life. As we think about that, the appropriate response is for us to present our heart, our body, our whole life to You. God, we thank You that You have opened our eyes to see the truth that You have for us, and we pray that our life and the way that we live would bring honor and glory to You. We pray that in the precious name of Jesus, amen.
Good afternoon. It was very warm in here at 8:30 this morning, and so we have tried to make some changes throughout the day to cool things down. I understand it may be a little chilly now, and I suggest that you layer yourself when you come here. I apologize for those of you for whom the temperature is a real extreme, and we will try to get on it.
Please grab the bulletin. The response tab easily detaches, and it is the vehicle you use to communicate with us. If you happen to be here for the very first time, would you take a second and complete the registration part of the card in its entirety?
Out in the lobby you will find Christmas book packs — there are probably a dozen or a few more left. It is a great package this year. The anchor book is the MacArthur Topical Bible, about 1,600 pages with over 100,000 Bible passages, a terrific tool you would use very similarly to a concordance. The pack also includes a book by John Piper, a book by Ray Stedman on the book of Romans, a book by John, and a book by Jerry Bridges — about $100 worth of books for $50, already boxed so all you have to do is wrap them. I would guess that by tonight or the middle of the week they will be gone.
There is also a lot of discussion again about the Da Vinci Code, now that Tom Hanks has been secured to play the lead role in the movie. We are planning a one-hour seminar — either at 10:30 or the six o'clock hour next week — to get you ready for the film. Gentlemen, you can now register online for every event here on campus, including the men's conference. In a couple of weeks, United Blood Services will also be here, and you can hold your appointment online and pick up a couple of Suns tickets as a result.
Christmas Eve Invitations
Out in the foyer and around campus you will find small red cards — invitations to the Christmas Eve service. We are doing something very different this year. In the past we used tickets to block spots and distribute people throughout the day, but this year we are going back to something we used to do years ago: printed invitations for you to grab and carry with you. We probably printed somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 of them. As you are talking to people over the next couple of weeks, you can hand them out as a personal invitation to the Christmas Eve service.
The card includes service times, the website, the address, the phone number, and a blank on the back where you can write a name, give your number, and make contact — perhaps even arrange to meet someone here. For those five services on Christmas Eve we will also be videoing into the conference center. Josh Cass has been working hard over the last month and a half to prepare a brand new video venue, and I think you are going to be very impressed with it. We tested it the last couple of weeks and will test it again next week, with the full launch on the 19th. If you are bringing friends and want to be in the main room, we are going to ask the balance of you to consider the conference center as a great alternative.
A Personal Update
I have had a whole bunch of you ask how Susan is doing, and I appreciate that. I do not want to turn every Sunday into a Susan report, but this one is significant because she had her first treatment on Thursday and she is doing really well. She was in fact in church this morning, which surprised me, and she has not been sick. She is hanging in there, and it has been amazing.
God Saves Sinners: A Summary of Six Weeks
Today is a summary of God's plan for salvation. It is week seven of this seven-week series, looking at salvation not from our perspective, but from God's perspective. Not our view of what happened in your salvation, but God's view. We know your testimony. We know that there was a point in time where you believed the gospel. The question we have is: why? Why then? Why did you believe? What took place? Why did that happen? That is what we are trying to do — look at the biblical explanation for that.
The ground rules we have laid out — and we have done this series three or four times — are these: the Bible is our final authority, we are going to proceed in a logical way, and you have questions that are oftentimes answered if you will just be patient. I have met so many people who said they had questions that were cleared up the following week. Those are still legitimate questions and they deserve legitimate answers, and we will give you a place to get those answered. Some of you have had a real struggle with your background and what you have been taught in the past, and I understand that. Some of you are still fighting through it, and some of you have said you now see this and believe it but you do not like it. Well, that is not quite enough yet. We need to see it, believe it, and fall in love with it — and maybe tonight we can give you some even more substantial reasons for that.
Here is what we have always said: when you hear somebody speak, there are essentially three questions we ask. What did they say? Is it true? So what? We are going to follow that pattern tonight as we do this summary of these last six weeks.
The Core Sentence: What We Have Said
We have said to you: God saves sinners. You are very familiar with this simple sentence, and we have broken it apart and defined it for you. The God — the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — works together to save. That is, They do everything from beginning to end to bring a sinner, a hopeless and helpless person, to an understanding of who God is and to a response to the gospel. Last week we gave you yet another slide that emphasized the idea of the triune God: the Father elects, the Son redeems, the Spirit regenerates. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in this preordained, predetermined plan in a harmonious way.
The Father chooses those who will be saved — He does that before the foundations of the earth. The Son comes and dies on the cross for that specific group of people. The Holy Spirit, at the appointed time, causes them to be born again. So remember the framework: what did He say, is it true, so what?
Here is the "what did He say" — four sentences that summarize these six weeks. First, natural man does not understand any spiritual thing, including the gospel. Second, God determined, according to His good pleasure, to intervene and save His people from their sin. Third, Jesus' substitutionary, atoning death satisfied the wrath of God against the elect. Fourth, the Holy Spirit regenerates, washes, guarantees the believer's salvation and glorification. That is my four-sentence summary of what we have said to you over these six weeks.
Natural man — you and I in the spiritual condition in which we come into this world — has no grasp of real spiritual truth. We are separated from God, and God could have saved all of us, or none of us, or some of us, and been justified in any of those decisions. He chose not to save everyone; we are not universalists. And we know that He saved some, because there are people in this building who would say they are saved. So God decided He would save some, and He intervened in their lives.
He sent Jesus Christ — this is the whole Christmas story. Jesus Christ appears in the flesh, God in the flesh, to save His people from their sin. The Holy Spirit is then the One who causes us to be born again. We are dead in our sins and trespasses, and the Holy Spirit causes us to be born again, begins this work in our lives, and continues it until the day we die, when we are glorified in heaven.
Is It True? Natural Man Cannot Understand Spiritual Things
Let us look at each one of these sentences, beginning with the first, and asking the question: is it true? Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing, including the gospel. When we use the term "natural man," we may also say "fallen man." We are speaking of you and me in the condition in which we came into this world spiritually. Naturally, we cannot understand any spiritual thing.
Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 2:14: "But natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him." That word "accept" means to receive favorably, to give an ear to, to embrace, to make one's own, to approve — not to reject. So what Paul is saying is that natural man does not receive favorably, does not give an ear to, does not embrace, does not make his own, and does not approve the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.
Paul said a little earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter one that to those who are perishing — those apart from Christ, those who are spiritually dead — the cross is foolishness. It is silly. It does not make any sense at all. It is foolish.
The Condition of Natural Man
Paul seems to up the ante in the second part of the verse. He says it is deeper than that — they cannot understand spiritual things. Why? Because they are spiritually understood. They are dead in their sins and trespasses. They are spiritually dead, not alive to the things of God, and it is not possible for them to begin to understand them, because they are understood through the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. They do not have the Spirit of God in them, so they cannot possibly understand these things.
When we use this picture, it is as though we are operating on parallel lines — here are the things of God, here is natural man, and those lines are never going to intersect. By definition they are parallel. They can go on and on in either direction, and no matter how far we extend them, it will not matter — they are parallel, they will never meet. Natural man is never going to understand this, and the condition of natural man is grave.
Paul said this in Romans 3: "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside." That phrase "turned aside" means literally to lean in the wrong direction. In Greek literature it was used to describe a soldier who was running away from the battle, who was deserting. Natural man — none of them are righteous, none understand, none seek for God. They are all running away from God, not toward Him. There is none who does good, not even one person.
Now you may be sitting here saying, wait a minute, that does not match my experience. You have a neighbor who does not care about the Bible, does not care about Jesus, does not care about church — but he is a great guy. You went on vacation last year and did not even make arrangements. While you were gone, he cut the grass a couple of times, cleaned the pool, and when you were sick, he brought over some meatloaf. He did all these things, and you are saying he is not righteous?
Here is the problem. You and I are limited to looking at his actions. God looks at his heart. God understands the motive. This man may be doing things that appear good in our eyes, but God is saying that if you understood why he was doing them, you would see that he could not be doing it from a pure heart. His sin is the motive — maybe it is his pride, maybe he wants you to think more highly of him. There is none who are righteous in the eyes of God, not even one. Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing. I believe that is true, as we see in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 2:1, and Romans 3:10.
God's Intervention According to His Good Pleasure
Here is the second truth: God determined according to His good pleasure to intervene and save His people from their sin. Ephesians 1:4 says, "Just as He chose us in Christ" — when? — "before the foundations of the world, that we would be holy and blameless." Ephesians 1:12 adds, "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His good purpose, who works all things after His counsel, to the end that we who were first to hope in Christ should be the praise of His glory." He saved us for His glory.
Paul says it again in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5: "Knowing, brethren, beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction." Paul said, when we came to you, we knew that you were chosen by God. We brought the Word to you in power and conviction by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to the heart of man, and now life transformation takes place.
The Character of the Messenger
Paul adds a phrase I want to spend some time on, even though it is not directly part of what we are studying: "Just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." John MacArthur, writing on that phrase, says this: "The quality of the message was confirmed by the character of the lives of the preachers. Paul's exemplary life served as an open book for all men to read, establishing the credibility of the power and grace of God essential to making the message of redemption believable to sinners."
Here is what Paul said: the message came in power, the Holy Spirit applied it, and our lives were not in the way. You know what we were like. You know what kind of person we were. To use a phrase we might recognize — their walk, their lifestyle, matched their talk, what they said.
Now I want to offer a word of caution here, because I am speaking to many of you who are genuinely reaching out to friends and neighbors. You have been given another tool — a natural time of year when people are thinking about church, talking about Christmas Eve services. It is natural for you to take this tool and share it within your sphere of influence. You may go into the office and put it up on the bulletin board: Christmas Eve, December 24th, service times at 12, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, and 6:00, East Valley Bible Church, www.evvc.org. And just to make sure, you might write on it, "Questions — see Bob, extension 555."
Let me tell you something, Bob. When you put that up and you write "see Bob" on it, they are going to take a real hard look at you.
she was depicted as a prostitute. That's the kind of city Corinth was. And Paul's writing to a church in this city. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter six, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says, and such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
The Holy Spirit's Work of Regeneration
That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He regenerates. He washes. He sanctifies. He justifies. And He guarantees the believer's salvation. This is not a work of the flesh. This is not something you and I accomplish on our own. It is entirely the work of the Spirit of God applied to the life of the believer.
Titus 3:5 makes it plain: He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing, the cleansing, the regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. He saved us not because of us, but in spite of us.
Reviewing the Four Statements
So let us gather together the four statements we have been working through. The first is that God, before the foundation of the world, chose a people for Himself. The second is that God determined according to His good pleasure to intervene and save His people from their sin. The third is that Jesus' substitutionary atoning death satisfied the wrath of God against the elect. And the fourth is that the Holy Spirit regenerates, washes, and guarantees the believer's salvation.
These are not isolated doctrines. They form a single, unified picture of how God saves. The Father chooses. The Son atones. The Spirit regenerates. And in all of it, the initiative belongs entirely to God.
Living as Ambassadors Before a Watching World
Now, returning to where we began — Paul's point to the Thessalonians was that when they heard the message and saw his life, they knew what kind of people he and his companions were. The life matched the message. And the same standard applies to us as we take this message into the community.
This is not meant to discourage you from reaching out. It is meant to encourage you, but with eyes open. Understand that people are watching. The moment you invite someone to a Bible study — whether you are at Mesquite High School, Dobson, or anywhere else — every person you speak to is evaluating you. You are an ambassador for Christ.
There is a sense, and this does not justify the behavior on the other person's part, but there is a sense in which every person you come into contact with is judging your heavenly Father by your behavior. So as we carry this message into the marketplace, we need to be prepared. People watch.
There is a classic story about the philosopher Kierkegaard. A Christian was witnessing to him one day, and Kierkegaard's reply was this: "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you must look a little more redeemed." That does not relieve Kierkegaard of his own responsibility, but it drives home the point. The life must match the message.
Propitiation: The Satisfaction of God's Wrath
The third statement deserves careful attention. Jesus' substitutionary — meaning in your place — atoning death satisfied the wrath of God against the elect. When Christ died on the cross, He redeemed His people and He satisfied the wrath of God. The word for that satisfaction is propitiation.
1 John 4:10 puts it this way: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He is the propitiation. He is the satisfaction. God's wrath is no longer extended toward the people for whom Christ died. He died in their place.
There was that moment on the cross when He said, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" It was at that moment, in this sacred transaction, that we exchanged our guilt for Jesus' righteousness. It was at that moment that the Father treated the Son as though He were guilty of the sin of every person for whom He died. And He punished Him at that moment. Jesus made the perfect substitutionary sacrifice.
Every sin ever committed by every person on this earth must be paid for — either by the person who committed that sin themselves, which ultimately means eternal punishment in hell, since no one can ever pay it in full, or by Christ on the cross. His death did not merely make salvation theoretically possible. He actually secured the salvation of a specific group of people through His death.
Titus 2:14 confirms it: Jesus "gave Himself for us." And 1 John 4:10 says He "sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He loved us first. Why do you love God today? Because He first loved you.
Love That Acts
If I say I love you, you should have every expectation that I will act accordingly. In marriage counseling, I will frequently sit with a couple and one will say, "I don't care anymore." I'll ask the husband, "Do you love her?" He'll say, "I love her." I'll turn to the wife and say, "He says he loves you." And she will say, "He says he loves me, but he doesn't show it." Because where there is genuine love, there will be action.
"For God so loved" — He gave His Son. How do we know God loved us? He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is love expressed in action. And it is that action — the cross — that secured not a theoretical possibility, but the actual salvation of His people.
Corinth was known as a vile place, essentially functioning as a prostitute of a city. Paul came to Corinth, God moved, people were saved, and they gathered together into a church. That church, in a sense, became representative of the city itself — a congregation full of ex-sinners carrying a great deal of baggage. In fact, when Paul writes to this church in 1 Corinthians, it already has a serious problem with sin. There is a man sleeping with his stepmother, and the church is doing nothing about it. Paul says they must deal with that sin.
As Paul writes to that group of saved sinners, he writes this in 1 Corinthians 6:9: "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God." And then 1 Corinthians 6:11: "And such were" — past tense — "some of you, but you were washed, sanctified, you were justified."
That's you and me. I was saved by the Lord when I was 30, and those first 30 years I spent trying to please one person, and it was me. I would use any person, place, thing, circumstance, substance, or event — anything I could — to try to provide myself some sense of joy, satisfaction, or happiness. Looking back, it was ugly, filled with broken relationships and heartaches. But I don't spend much time thinking about it, because Paul said: that was you, not anymore. You've been washed.
That is the story of many of you in this room. For those of us who are Christians, it is the story of all of us — though some of our sin is more glaring than others. That is what we were, what we used to be. But we are no longer held captive by it.
A New Creation and the Seal of the Holy Spirit
We did start over. If I am in Christ, I am a new creature, and all the old things are passed away. That is nothing we could accomplish on our own — it was entirely, utterly, completely a work of God. The Holy Spirit regenerates us, washes us, cleanses us, and guarantees our salvation. Ephesians 1:13 tells us we are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.
In ancient times, a document, letter, or contract would be rolled up, sealed with a piece of hot wax, and stamped with a person's signet ring. That seal declared authenticity, provided security, and established ownership and authority over the document. We are sealed in that same way. For those of us who are Christians, we are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there. Philippians 1:6 says, "For he who began a good work in you will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus." He began this work, and He will continue it. We have an unbreakable union with God — a union that cannot be broken by height, nor depth, nor any created thing.
So What? — The Practical Difference These Doctrines Make
So we have been asking the question: what did He say, and is it true? Here is the summary. Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing, including the gospel. God determined, according to His good pleasure, to intervene and save His people from their sin. Jesus' substitutionary atoning death satisfied the wrath of God against the elect. The Holy Spirit regenerates, washes, and guarantees the believer's salvation and glorification. That is what we have said — and I believe it is true, based on those scriptures.
But the question that is just as important to me is: so what? Who cares? If this is merely an academic pursuit — if it falls into the genre of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin — then I have no interest in it. If it is simply to sit down, debate, and argue, I want no part of that either. If it makes no difference in my life, then I don't care.
I deal with people all the time who say, "I know those doctrines of grace are really important to you at East Valley Bible Church, but I don't see what difference it makes. I know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I wouldn't identify myself as a Calvinist — I might call myself an Arminian — and I'm going to heaven. I don't see that it matters." I think it makes a huge difference. Let me give you some practical ways.
God Is Magnified
Number one: when I understand God's plan for salvation, God is magnified. He gets bigger and bigger — not beyond who He really is, but pushing outward toward who He really is. All of a sudden I understand that God is in control of everything, including salvation. He has total authority and control over all human affairs. He is the potter; we are the clay.
In his classic work *The Sovereignty of God*, A.W. Pink writes this: "They" — speaking of the Scriptures — "affirm again and again that God is on the throne of the universe, that the scepter is in His hands, and that He is directing all things after the counsel of His own will. The Scriptures affirm not only that God created all things, but also that God is ruling and reigning over all the work of His hands. They affirm that God is the Almighty, that His will is irreversible, that He is the absolute sovereign in every realm of all His vast dominions. And surely it must be so. Only two alternatives are possible: God must either rule or be ruled, sway or be swayed, accomplish His will or be thwarted by His creatures. Accepting the fact that He is the Most High, vested with perfect wisdom and illimitable" — unlimited — "power, the conclusion is irresistible that He must be God in fact as well as in name."
What we are saying, then, is simply this: God is either God, or He isn't.
like 95% of those who made a profession of faith at those Crusades were not in church 12 months later. 95%. And we're putting our arm around each other, and we're saying, great Crusade, great Crusade. And I'm saying, was it? And I'm not trying to be mean-spirited about this, and I'm not trying to be critical unnecessarily. But your theology drives your methodology, and your methodology drives your results.
God's Sovereignty and the Problem of Suffering
A while back I received a book — not written by a Christian, though the jacket cover carried endorsements from some fairly significant Christian personalities, certainly not theologians. The title was *Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?* Many people told me they had read it, that it was a great book, that it had provided them great comfort and made them feel good. I thought I had better read it since everyone was reading it. I could see how someone might derive great comfort from it, but there is one overarching problem with the book: it is filled with heresy. It is filled with bad teaching, filled with non-biblical teaching.
There is one chapter — and I am working a little from memory here, so bear with me — I believe it is chapter seven, and its title is "God Can't Do Everything, But He Can Do Some Very Important Things." If God cannot do everything, then He is not God. This was written by a man who lost a son, and he is hurting, and I certainly understand that. There are things that come into life where you want explanations, you are trying to get your arms around them, and you do not want to hurt God's reputation. I do not blame him for that.
But God is comfortable with His own reputation, isn't He? God says, "I am not worried about my reputation. Who made the deaf? Who made the dumb? Who made the blind? I did," said the Lord. He is not worried about His reputation. When we go out and start explaining these things away, we inevitably violate one of two alternatives — all of a sudden He does not rule anymore, He is ruled; He does not sway anymore, He is swayed; He does not accomplish His will.
Everything that comes into your life and mine — everything, without exception — is either caused by or allowed by God. If that is not true, then He is not God. I know there is a lot that comes into your life that you would not necessarily choose. There are things that come into life where, all things considered, we would not choose them. But God brought them to us for a reason. God allows everything in your life, my life, and our life collectively to take place for a reason, for a purpose. There is no maverick molecule out there in the universe that could thwart God's plan. God rules, and He reigns, and He controls, and He is the absolute authority. He is sovereign. If He is not, He is not God.
Sovereignty in Salvation
In salvation — in what we have been looking at — we see His supreme control. He chooses those He would save, He sends His Son to die for that specific group of people, and the Holy Spirit regenerates them. Do you see how God gets bigger and bigger?
Tell me: which makes God bigger? What I just described, or the view that says God did a great deal but now it is up to you — now you play the role, now you decide, now you determine? If you are sitting here saying to me, "I believe I chose God," I am saying to you: I do not care how much you love Him, how much you care for Him, or how deep your passion is for Him. It is not what it could be if you understood how He really saved you. God gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
God Magnified, Man Minified
Here is the second "so what": God is magnified, and man is minified. Several of you sent me emails the first time I used that word and said that "minified" is not a word. If you had taken the time to go to the dictionary rather than write me, you would have discovered that it is indeed a word — it means "to make smaller." What happens is that God is magnified; He gets bigger and bigger, and as He gets larger, I get smaller. It is the secret to what John the Baptist said: "He must increase, and I must decrease." How can I get myself smaller and out of the way? The same way Isaiah did — he saw the Lord and said, "Woe to me, for I am undone."
George Barna — many of you know that name. He does a great deal of research, polling, and data gathering, often within the Christian community. A couple of years ago he wrote this paragraph in one of his books: "Consider how we have repositioned spirituality. Faith used to revolve around God and His ordinances and principles. The faith that arrests our attention these days is that which revolves around us. We have demystified God, befriended Jesus, abandoned the Holy Spirit. Few Americans possess a sense of awe, fear, or trembling related to God."
I think you can trace that directly back to this issue. We have two distinctly different views of salvation. One says it is utterly a work of God. The other says it is a work of God in conjunction with man — God voted yes as it relates to your salvation, Satan voted no, and you decide. And because your theology drives your methodology, what happens is that we demystify God and take much of the mystery even out of evangelism.
Theology Drives Methodology
So we develop something like four spiritual laws: do this, then this, then this, then this, and close the deal with this — "Would you like to pray with me?" "Sure." And away you go. I went to the website of an organization that conducts a large number of crusades. This was a few years ago, and it started as a fairly harmless exercise. I simply took the data — the number of people who attended and the number who made professions of faith — and worked through six or seven years of records.
I do not remember the exact numbers now, but essentially something like 95% of those who made a profession of faith at those crusades were not in church twelve months later. Ninety-five percent. And we were putting our arms around each other saying, "Great crusade, great crusade." I am asking: was it? I am not trying to be mean-spirited, and I am not trying to be unnecessarily critical. But your theology drives your methodology, and your methodology drives your results.
Security in the Believer
The believer now finds security in this doctrine, and it is not a license to sin. We hammer away at East Valley Bible Church that those of us who know Christ are sealed for that day of redemption, that He who began a good work in you will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus. We say that to you not so you can say, "Let me make sure I understand — I can sin and sin and sin and God has to forgive me, because you said I'm sealed." No. The point is that you can now find comfort and rest, and that when you do sin, you know that you are forgiven, your heart is broken over it, and you know that He who began that good work will continue it.
There is a matter of security and encouragement here. As life has its ups and downs, as you go through those deep, dark moments that seem inevitable — whether from circumstances or from your own spiritual condition, those times when you feel so dead, so dry, so apart from the Lord — you can know that He who began the good work will continue it. You know that those He predestined He called, and those He called He justified. Jesus says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of My hand." We are secure in that, and there is comfort and joy in the midst of it.
Bad Theology Produces Bad Methodology
Between 4.7 and 6.3 percent of people responded in each of these crusades — never less, never more — about the same response you would get on a good direct mail project. It is stunning that God never breaks out of the mold and saves 10 percent of the people one night, or that there is never a night when nobody responds at all. That sounds mechanical, with not a lot of awe and fear and trembling in it. Not questioning motives at all, but the point is this: bad theology produces bad methodology. As Barta says, our faith used to revolve around God, and now it revolves around us, and at the core of that is a theology that says God did a great deal, but you still have to choose.
The Danger of Double Predestination
There are dangers to this doctrine, and it is worth touching on a couple of them. One is called the danger of double predestination — the idea that God has predestined some to salvation and is also predestining others to destruction. When we talk about God predestining us to salvation, what we are saying is that natural man is dead and separated from God, and that God must intervene, change his heart and mind, and ultimately his direction. We were sinners; now we are saints. We were headed for hell; now we are headed for heaven.
The flip side of that, however, is not true. God is not actively working in the heart of natural man to make sure he stays in that condition. All He has to do with natural man is let him act naturally — just do his own thing — because natural man is spiritually dead. He does not understand spiritual things and will never respond on his own. So the idea that some are condemned because God did not choose them, and that they really desired to come to Christ but could not because God did not choose them, is a falsehood. Natural man does not desire to come to Christ. The only reason anyone would have a desire to come to Christ is if God worked in his life.
A related objection is this: how do you hold man responsible? If he is not responsible, then he is not guilty, and then he cannot be punished. God says, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." You and I are absolutely responsible for each and every one of our actions. God holds us accountable, and that accountability is real.
No One Comes Kicking and Screaming
There is a danger in thinking that people come to Christ kicking and screaming — that one group wants to come to Christ but God will not let them, or that another group truly wants to go to hell and deny Him, but God grabs them and pulls them in anyway. Neither of those groups exists. The moment God opens a person's eyes and they see this truth, they want nothing more than Christ — more than anything else on this earth.
That is what happened to each of us. When God finally opened your eyes, there was nothing you wanted more than Jesus — as much of Jesus as you could have, as much of this Word as you could get. You wanted to grow and grow and grow in Him. None of them come kicking and screaming.
Predestination Does Not Eliminate Evangelism
This doctrine does not eliminate the need for evangelism. You might ask, "If God has already decided whom He is going to save, why should I go out and share the gospel?" J. I. Packer writes: "It is God who brings men and women under the sound of the gospel, and it is God who brings them into faith in Christ. Our evangelistic work is the instrument that He uses for the purpose. But the power that saves is not the instrument — it is not you and me. It is the hand of the one who uses the instrument."
Paul in Romans 10, verse 13, makes this statement: "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." He then asks a series of questions: How shall they call upon Him if they have not believed? And how will they believe if they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? God has people set aside all around the world. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me" — better translated, "I will draw all peoples to Me." That becomes a driving force in missions. And we can apply Paul's beautiful logic: if they call upon the name of the Lord, they must hear, and if they must hear, someone must go and preach.
The Freedom of Faithful Witness
"How shall they call upon Him if they don't believe Him? And how shall they believe Him if they haven't heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Your privilege and mine is to go and share this truth. This does not eliminate the need for evangelism — I think it frees us up in evangelism. It allows us to simply deliver the gospel truthfully and honestly.
When I understand that I am responsible for sharing the gospel, not for the response to it, it allows me to share the truth in love — the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I am not trying to coerce or manipulate the conversation. I am trying, gently and lovingly, to communicate in a relevant way. When Paul is with the Greeks, he is not quoting the Old Testament. I am out there trying to relate, trying to communicate clearly. But I understand that the responsibility to respond — and the response itself — cannot be generated by me.
Let me give you a picture of what this looks like. Say we are done here tonight and you are a couple on your way to the car, and you decide to grab something to eat. At the restaurant you run into another couple you haven't seen in a while — you know they are not Christians, you are — and you invite them to join you. The man talks with the man, the woman talks with the woman, and each of you shares the gospel. The unbelieving man says, "I know that's what you believe, and that works great for you, but I'm just not interested. No thank you." The unbelieving woman says, "I've never heard this before. Tell me more. Tell me more." And finally she says, "This is what I want. I want to believe this. What do I need to do?" She calls upon the name of the Lord and is saved.
Now here is the question: is God happier with the man who shared the gospel but whose friend did not respond, or with the woman who shared the gospel and whose friend did respond? You know the answer. It is neither — it is both. He is happy with both. Why? Because our responsibility is to share the gospel and proclaim the truth.
You Cannot Lead Anyone to the Lord
I was listening to a man not long ago — he does not attend here, so there is no need to try to figure out who he is — and he said, "I just led so-and-so to the Lord, and last week I led another guy to the Lord, and a month ago on a plane I led a guy to the Lord. I love to lead people to the Lord." The truth is, you cannot lead anybody to the Lord. We do not even want the ones you have led to the Lord — there are only going to be problems down the road. We want the ones that the Lord led to the Lord. We want the ones the Father elected, the Son redeemed, and the Spirit regenerates.
When you use that vocabulary — when you think you are leading them to the Lord — you are on a tremendous ego trip. You are going to start messing around with what you say. You are going to start manipulating people, and you are going to think you are really something special because of how many people you have led to the Lord. If God is using you as you present the gospel to be the vehicle He selects to open a person's eyes, that is entirely of Him. Your mission and mine is to share the truth. Whether somebody responds or not is irrelevant to our responsibility.
Sovereignty Produces Humility, Not Arrogance
There is one last danger I want to address, and I will admit I do not fully understand it. I have heard the accusation that if I believe God has saved me and chose me, I will become arrogant. I do not know how anyone could sit through these last seven weeks and come away arrogant over this. We have driven this home again and again: God chose you in spite of you, not because of you. God did not choose you because of something you have done, are doing, or will do. He chose you in spite of that.
God did not choose you because He looked down the corridor of time and saw that you would choose Him. It seems to me that the teaching which would actually produce arrogance is the opposite view — the idea that God did the work, but I had to come along and close the deal. That God looked down the corridor of time, saw that I was going to choose Him, and made a preemptive strike. That somehow there was something intrinsically in me that was appealing to God. There is nothing in a proper understanding of this doctrine that should produce one shred of arrogance or pride.
The choice God made in you, and the work God did in you, was not based on anything in you at all. Rather than producing any sense of arrogance, it should produce in you a spirit of gratitude and humility that overflows into thanksgiving and worship.
Religion Versus Biblical Christianity
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you rest." The word *weary* carries the idea of working to the point of utter exhaustion. *Heavy-laden* speaks of an external burden that has been dumped upon you. Together they paint a picture of religion. Religion is this: a sinful man trying to reach up to a holy God. It comes in many different varieties and many different packages, but it is all one group. Religion is always the story of a sinful man reaching to a holy God.
Biblical Christianity is the story of a holy God reaching to a sinful man. It may be — and we will close here — that you are here tonight weary, tired, and exhausted from trying to measure up to some artificial standard that you believe God will find appealing, that He will approve.
Responding to the Gospel
If you find yourself saying there is nothing you can do and that He has done it all, perhaps that is exactly what you desire tonight. Maybe at this very moment you are saying, "This is new to me," or "I have been hearing this again and again — what do I do? How do I respond?" I want you to talk to the people who will be at the front of the worship center after the service. They would love to talk with you about how you respond to this.
You believe that Jesus is who He said He was, that He will do what He said He would do, and you respond accordingly. All of a sudden that load is lifted. It is not you trying to please a holy God, but God doing that work in your life. Salvation — deliverance from our sin, the bondage of sin, and the consequence of our sin — is entirely a work of God. And that produces in us a whole new depth of worship, praise, and gratitude. God becomes bigger and bigger, and we become smaller and smaller.
A Perfect Time to Join Us
I have run into a lot of people over the last few weeks who are saying they are new to the church. Every time I hear that, I think about being new to the church in the middle of this series — and then I realize what a perfect time it is to join us. Because sooner or later you are going to have to deal with this anyway. You might as well deal with it right at the very beginning.
The Doctrines of Grace as a Distinctive
When you talk about the distinctives of East Valley Bible Church, I think one of them is that we cling to the doctrines of grace. And it is not something we tuck into the background and say, "Yes, we really believe it, but it is too deep to talk about in general sessions — we save it for those who are really on the inside and want to go deep." No. This is the doctrine that takes me deep, because I begin to understand who God is and who I am.
Closing Prayer
My prayer at the beginning of this series, and now as we close, is that God uses these seven weeks in your life, in mine, and in ours as a church — to remind us of who God is and the great privilege we have of communicating that message to a lost and dying world.
Father, thank you for this truth. Thank you for the Father who chose us before the foundations of the earth, the Son who redeems us, and the Spirit who regenerates us. Father, thank you for a salvation that is entirely from You. We were saved by You, through You, and for You. We pray that our lives — all we live, all we do, all we say — bring honor and glory to You. As we leave this place, may we go into this world with a message of hope and love found in this truth, in this gospel. Father, use us for Your honor and glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.