Irresistable Grace & Preservation of the Saints
Tom Shrader concludes his series on God's plan of salvation by examining the final two points of Calvinism: irresistible grace and preservation of the saints. He explains that when God extends saving grace to the elect, they will inevitably believe, and once saved, nothing can break that eternal relationship. Using Romans 8:30's 'golden chain of salvation,' he demonstrates that all whom God predestines are called, justified, and will be glorified without exception.
“God saves sinners - by that, we mean that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does everything that relates to salvation.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: God's Plan for Salvation (EVBC) (2002)
Recorded: July 21, 2002
Duration: 1 hr 19 min
Themes: salvation, grace, election, perseverance, assurance, sovereignty, redemption, security, doubting salvation, new believer, questioning faith, seeking assurance, struggling with theology, pastor, bible study leader, seminary student
Scripture: Romans 8:30, John 3:3-4, Romans 1:7, 2 Timothy 1:8-9, Matthew 20:16, Acts 13, John 10, John 3:16, John 3:36, John 5:24, John 6:47, Ephesians 2:1-9, Titus 3:3-5, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:31-39
Theological Themes: soteriology, irresistible grace, preservation of saints, predestination, calvinism, eternal security, effectual calling, golden chain
Full Transcript
We continue today in our study that we've titled God's Plan for Salvation. The ground rules that we laid out the first week are that the Bible is the final authority, and we're moving in a logical sequential fashion. We had the luxury, because of your patience, of starting at the beginning and moving to the middle, and now we begin to close the topic.
If ever there was a discussion that lent itself to rabbit trails, it's certainly this one, and you have been so understanding and patient for us to get this information to you. One of the warnings we gave the very first week was that this may rock some of the things that you've been taught through the years. Indeed, a warning doesn't have much appropriateness to us, it seems, until we get in that circumstance.
Well, you were warned, and some of you are now experiencing it. Some of you are saying, "I've been in church decades, and I never heard these things before." And it's not that you're running away. You kind of go into the Scripture and say, "There it is. It says that God did this, and God did that, and God's done this. How come we didn't hear Him before?" One of the great side benefits of this is now you are plunging into God's Word for your own study. So we are glad about that.
God's Plan Revealed Through Five Points
As we talk about God's plan for salvation, we're running through the grid of the five points of Calvinism. We personally at East Valley Bible Church believe these five points, not because Calvin taught them, or Luther taught them, or Edwards taught them, or Augustine taught them, or virtually every one of the great theologians of the church taught them. That's not why we embrace them. We embrace them because they flow from God's Word, because God taught them to us.
If you go back—and we can't do it this morning, but we encourage you to do it—go back onto the website or order the tape so that you can start at the very beginning, that week of introduction, and we'll set the whole table for our discussion, give you a little bit of the history of Calvinism. But what we're doing now is looking at these five points.
The singular point that we come back to again and again is that simple three-word sentence: God saves sinners. By that, we mean that the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—does everything that relates to salvation. He saves people who are guilty, who deserve His wrath, who are helpless, who are powerless, who, unless God intervenes, will inevitably spend eternity separated from Him in a place called hell. They are unable to do God's will, and they have no desire to do God's will. God saves sinners.
The Triune Work of Salvation
Now, that's really a sentence that's pretty familiar to most people, but now what we're trying to do is to take that skeleton and put some muscle and flesh and meat around that. So we say when we look at this idea of God saving sinners, what we're saying is that God the Father elects—that is, chooses those who will be saved. Frankly, it seems to me it's indisputable. The Scripture is so clear. God chooses people before the foundations of the earth.
The Son dies on the cross and redeems His people. Remember what Joseph was told? "You shall name Him Jesus, and He will save His people from their sins." Titus 2:14—Jesus gave Himself for us and redeemed us from all our iniquity. 2 Corinthians 5:18—Christ reconciled us to Himself. Romans 5:8—God showed us His love for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The Father chooses those before the foundations of the earth that will be saved. The Son goes to the cross, and when He cries out, "It is finished," He's saying, "I have satisfied the wrath of God. I am the"—remember last week's word—"the propitiation for sin." And now the Holy Spirit begins to work. With the Father's work completed, the Son continuing that work, now the Holy Spirit begins to work.
Today's Focus: The Final Two Points
We look today at the last two points of these five points: irresistible grace and the preservation of the saints. Irresistible grace—by that we mean this: that saving faith that God extends to people, each and every person to whom that saving grace is extended, will believe. None will be lost. All will come to Christ in repentance and faith. And once they come to Christ, none of them who are truly saved will break that relationship. All will endure until the point of justification.
You must be born again. That's very simple. Jesus said it to Nicodemus: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And Nicodemus didn't get it at first blush.
Nicodemus says this, John 3:4: "How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus is speaking of a spiritual truth. You must be born again spiritually. And Nicodemus heard physical truth. Nicodemus is saying, "Listen, I don't get it. I'm an old man. How can I climb back into my mother's womb? It's not attractive to me, and she's not all that jacked about this thing either. Nobody's excited by this. It doesn't make sense."
And Jesus says, "No, Nicodemus, the flesh begets the flesh. You must be born of the Spirit of God." That's the Holy Spirit of God's work in your life.
The Great Chain of Salvation
As we bring to a close this discussion of what God does in salvation, we look at the work of the Holy Spirit, who brings us into the family of God and who keeps us there. Romans chapter 8, verse 30. It's a passage that we refer to as the chain or the great chain of salvation. We use the picture of a chain, links together, inseparable. You can't pull them apart.
Paul says this: "Whom God predestined, these He called, and whom He called, these He justified. And whom He justified, these also are glorified." None are lost along the way. That verse does not say, "God predestined everybody, and then some didn't make it, others were called, and then some of those were justified and some were glorified."
It's not that some make it, or most make it, or many make it. All who were predestined were called. What does the word "called" mean? We'll look at it in a minute. But all of those that were predestined were called. And all of those that were called, all of them without exception, were justified. And all of those that were justified will be glorified.
They're linked together. In a sense, if you're a Christian today, that's your family tree. That's your history. You were predestined by the Father before the foundations of the earth, you were called, you were placed into the family of God, and you will stay there. Really, the operative word in the discussion on irresistible grace is the word "called."
The Meaning of "Called"
It's used in a couple of different ways in Scripture, but let's look at two of them here. Romans chapter 1 verse 7, and 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Both are introductory comments by the Apostle Paul, one to the believers at Rome, the other to Timothy. But Paul uses this same word here.
Here's what he says in Romans 1:7: "to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints." As he writes to Timothy: "Therefore do not be ashamed of our testimony, or of me, His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who saves us and called us." Called us with a holy calling.
I want to make this point, although I think we've made it three dozen times already: this calling was not based on our works. Do you see it? He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and His own grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
John MacArthur comments in his study Bible on 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 about this word "called." He said: "This calling is not a general invitation to sinners to believe the gospel and be saved, like we would use the word in Matthew 20 verse 16, but refers to God's effectual calling to the elect for salvation."
Universal Call vs. Effectual Call
There's a universal call, and we are all about that universal call. There is a call that goes out. You preach the gospel to every person, every place, all over. There's a universal call, but there is an effectual call. When the apostle speaks about those who are called, he's not talking about the word that's gone out in some general sense. He's talking about the effectual call. That is that moment, that action, that turns sinner into saint.
Let me say it again, because one of the criticisms I hear is that if we really believe this, and God determines who He's going to save, and God's done all this, why would we evangelize? Well, we'll give you two reasons. Number one, and this is pretty overwhelming and powerful: because He told you to. There's a pretty good reason right there, because He told you to evangelize. Secondly, because just as He's ordained who would be saved, He's ordained the means, and most often it is through the declaration of His word.
You are to be all about that individually, and we're to be about it corporately. And He's calling people from all races, all nations. If I be lifted up, I will draw all peoples to me. God has people all over this world. That becomes a driving force for missions. God has people all over this world, and we not only want to reach out to those brothers and sisters who know Christ as Lord and Savior, but if we can, we want to be part of issuing that universal call so that God might use that. That drives missions. That drives what you do.
Our Responsibility to Evangelize
I assume this is just part of your life. I assume that in the natural course of your living, you are sharing your faith on a regular basis with men and women, with students, with people at work, neighbors, people at the gym, whoever. I assume that's what is expected of you. We have no intention here of saying this is true, and now it's just for us. No! Because it's true, and we understand how God works, and we understand that all who are predestined will be called, that effectual calling flows out of that universal call.
Someone, I assume, sat and shared their faith with you. It might have been in a group setting, it might have been one-on-one. That's evangelism, and we're all about that. But here's the deal: we've got no idea who God is going to save, do we? Not a clue. And we're not very good at figuring it out. He continues to baffle me at some of the people He brings into the kingdom. They aren't the people I would have picked, and they don't even look like they're ripe. In fact, they looked like they could not care less.
Scripture has a great example of one of them. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He's not searching for God. He's not out seeking after God. He's convinced he's wearing God's jersey, that he's on God's team, and that he's captain of that team, and he's walking down that road trying to kill Christians and imprison Christians. He's not seeking after God, but God was seeking after Him, and opened His arms.
We Cannot Predict God's Choices
Why do we pray, and why do we evangelize to everybody? Because we have no idea who God is going to save. You're not very good at figuring it out, either, are you? I use an illustration, and it's generally from women. Here's what they'll do. They fall in love. They're Christians, and they know that this guy's not a Christian, but when they come back in after two or three years, and now they're trying to figure out how to fix this, here's what they'll say when you say, "Well, why'd you marry him?" Here's what they'll say: "Well, he was that close. He was that close to being saved, and I was convinced that if he lived with me, he'd see what Christ was really like, and that would close the deal."
I said, "Isn't it interesting? He lives with you. He was that close. Now he's this far away. Living with you must not be the picnic we thought it was going to be all the way along, was it?" No, we don't say that. That would be hurtful. But isn't that true? We think...
Oh, he's that close. If just the right word, if they just listen to this tape, or just go to this message, or just read this book, that's just the thing that'll push them over the edge. You have no idea.
That's why we call. They asked Spurgeon one time, "Why, if you believe God only saves the elect, why do you preach to everybody?" And he said, "If God painted a black stripe down everyone's back that was chosen, I'd walk down the street, lift up their shirt, and pray only to the elect. But I don't know who they are."
The Effectual Call and Its Results
We do know this. There's a call. It's an effectual call. Here's what he says. This calling results in holiness, and justification, and sanctification, and glorification. Because all who are predestined are called, and all who are called are justified, and all who are justified are glorified, and none will be lost in the process.
Let's look at a couple of passages of Scripture over these next 20 minutes or so. Ephesians chapter 2, and we see this idea of God's working in our life, that calling that awakens us, and then the grace and mercy that saves us.
Our Condition Before God's Grace
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your trespasses in sin." That's the condition of natural man. That's man's basic problem. Man is dead in their sin and trespasses. And in the midst of that, I mean read to you verse 2 and 3: "You formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, too, all formally live with lust of the flesh." That was you before.
Here's a key word: But. But God. You're dead, but God. "But God, being rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. By His grace and by His mercy, you were saved by grace." There was nothing you could do. You were dead.
Now here's the problem. Some spiritually dead people look very much alive. They're 98.6, tall, dark, handsome, healthy, running marathons. They're alive physically, but dead spiritually. And God comes along in His mercy and His grace, even when they're dead, and He causes them to be born again.
Saved by Grace Through Faith
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9: "For by grace you've been saved." If you ask most Christians, "Why are you saved?" they'll say, "Faith." You're not saved by faith, you're saved by grace, unmerited favor, His mercy, His love. If I say I love you, that word love is a verb. God demonstrates His love, and then while we were yet sinners, Christ comes and dies for us. I'm saved by grace.
I don't tend to think this way, but we get a lot of questions this way, so I need to make sure I communicate it, because we get the question all the time: "Well, how do I know I'm saved?" Or, excuse me, "How do I know I'm chosen? How do I know I'm one of the elect?" Well, if you have faith and you believe Jesus is who He said He was, you're one of the chosen.
See, I'm saved by grace, and the vehicle that moves that grace into me becomes manifested through faith. But that's not faith that we conjure up on our own. It's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. What's a gift of God? Well, obviously grace is a gift of God. What He's talking about here is faith. The faith to believe is a gift of God, and He says it as clear as He possibly can. It's the second time already today: not a result of works. It's nothing that you did do, are doing, or will do.
Unmerited Favor
You are saved by grace, unmerited favor. The question is obvious: What can you do to merit unmerited favor? And the answer is nothing. You were lost. This is, by the way, all of us who are Christians, this is our story. It may have different circumstances around it, and most certainly does, but this is our story. We were lost. Some of us were visibly lost, and everybody knew it. Others of us, we covered it up pretty well. But we were lost, and now we're saved, not because of anything we did do, are doing, or could do. We are saved by grace through faith.
Titus 3, same idea: "For we also once were foolish." This is your resume, by the way. This is what you are like, naturally. Foolish, it means we lacked understanding. And we were disobedient, we were deceived, we were enslaved to lust and to pleasure. Lust was sinful desires, the pleasure was trying to satisfy those. Spending our life in malice and envy and hateful and hating one another, that's natural man. Dead in our sins and our transgression, that's natural man.
The Deception of Religious Appearance
It's a little bit deceiving because natural man can be spiritual. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3, and he says, "In the last days men will be lovers of self and lovers of money," and he describes all of these attributes. Unloving, unholy, disrespectful, all these things. But Paul had something interesting in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 5: "But they will hold to a form of godliness, but they deny its power." In other words, they'll be pious and they'll be religious, but they deny the power. The power is the person of Christ.
So here you are, you're dead in your sins and trespasses, that's what you're like. Look at verse 4, there it is again: But while you're in that condition, God, His kindness becomes manifest, His love appears, and He saves us. Here's the phrase again: He saves us, not on the basis of deeds which we've done in righteousness, not in anything we did do, or are doing, or will do. He saved us according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Christ saved us. He died on the cross, and now the Holy Spirit comes and applies that to our life, and now we're born again. Now we're new creatures in Christ.
The Miracle of New Life
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17: "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature." We're called with a holy calling. Our life is to be different. Our life is to be unique. There should be a visible manifestation of this presence of Christ in our life. The miracle that takes place. We talk about miracles all the time. When I was a young man, we talked
The Nature of True Miracles
Let me tell you about the miracle of television. You plug this thing in, and somehow there's a picture. I don't get it. Susan and I just spent a couple of days down in Tucson. We're driving down, and God was so good to allow us to go there to remind us how great Phoenix is.
We're driving along, and I'm hitting the skip button on the radio. It is amazing to me that I can hit that seek button, and this thing will stop and get that signal. It is amazing to me. You could go, "Wow, that's a miracle." It's not a miracle. It's understandable. There are just laws that explain it all, and that's how you get it.
A miracle is something that is unexplainable and cannot be understood, because it violates those laws—like something that's dead coming to life. So in that sense, I can show you a miracle. I'm a miracle. I was dead, and now I'm alive. Many of you are miracles. You were dead, and now you're alive. The mistake would be to think that you did something to cause that life. You were dead, but His kindness and His love appears, and He causes you to be born again.
Understanding God's Calling
Here's the question I'm getting from some: "Well, wait a minute. Do you mean that there are people who come kicking and screaming because they're the elect?" Absolutely not. They're chosen by God, and when God causes them to be born again, they come racing to Christ. What they want more than anything else is an intimate, personal relationship with the Creator God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
A Critical Test Question
We've got 13 minutes or so left. I want to give you a test. It's really a one-question test. You must get a hundred on this test. Here's the deal. I'm going to make a little arrangement here. Do not answer out loud. It will embarrass you and discourage me.
Having said that, your answer to these questions is very, very important. Does faith precede regeneration, or does regeneration precede faith? I'll say it another way. Do I have faith that Jesus is who He said He was, and now I'm born again, or am I born again, and now I have faith? Get an answer to that question in your mind.
If we talk to Christians today, the majority of them would say, "Well, faith precedes regeneration. There was that moment in time when I believed Jesus is who He said He was, and consequently, I was born again." I'm not surprised by that, because most people teach that. The problem is, I don't think it's biblical. I don't think that's what the Scripture teaches. The Scripture teaches we are born again, and now we have faith.
The Reality of Spiritual Death
Get with it here, guys. We're dead. We're dead in our sins and trespasses. You've got to come to life before you're going to believe. If I take you over here to Faulkner Funeral Home, and I call ahead and say, "Get a corpse ready for me," and I get somebody, and I say, "We're going to do some evangelistic work," and I take you over there to Faulkner, and there's this guy, and he's all laid out, and I say, "All right, guys, go ahead and share your faith," you're going to say, "Are you nuts? He's dead. He can't hear. He doesn't get it. He's dead."
That's my point, guys. They look alive, but they're dead. You can't believe and then be born again. Let me help you out. You're dead. A dead man can't believe. You must be born again. It's a work of God, beginning to end. The Holy Spirit causes you to be born again, and now you believe.
The Key Question: Why Do You Believe?
As I have these discussions with people, I keep trying to go—because we all want to talk about, "Well, I heard this, then I believe this"—here's the question: Why do you believe? That's the question we want to get down to. Why do you believe?
Biblical Examples of God's Appointment
Two examples. The Word of God is being preached in Acts chapter 13, and the Gentiles heard this, and they began to rejoice and glorify the Word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed—we could also translate that word ordained or predestined—as many had been appointed to eternal life, they believed. It's not that they believed, and because they believed, they inherited eternal life. It was appointed to them. They were chosen for that moment in time. At that moment in time, the Holy Spirit opens their eyes.
Here's a person, an actual person: Lydia, a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabric. She was a worshiper of God. That is, she believed the God of Israel. But now she's hearing some new information. She's listening. Paul's speaking, and the Lord opened her heart, and now she responds. See, she was born again, and because she was born again, now she could believe. Irresistible grace.
The Preservation of the Saints
Now, the preservation of the saints. The question is this: If I'm a Christian, can I lose that salvation? Is there anything I can do to break that relationship? And the answer to that is no.
I chose a word here that's not the word that's classically used. Typically, you would see the word "the perseverance of the saints." I don't like that word, because it connotes perseverance. It has the idea of me persevering and holding on to God. It's not that. It's preservation. It's not me holding on to God. It's God holding on to me.
That's what Paul says in Philippians 1:6: "I'm confident of this thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue it." God started the work, and He'll finish it. So you see that? Very important distinction. It's not you hanging on to God and saying, "Here I am, God." Because see, I'm going to hang, and my arms are going to shake, and I'm going to tremble, and there's always that possibility I'll begin to let go. No, it's not me persevering and hanging in there. It's Him preserving me. God's got a hold of me, not me having a hold of God.
Now, it doesn't always feel that way, because here's what God does. He loves to do this. God's got a hold of you, and He loves to go like—
God's got you, and He loves to go, whoo. Here's a good one. And see, He preserves you. He began it. He'll continue it. He'll complete it, because all who were predestined were called, and all who were called are justified, and all who are justified are glorified. That's the way it is. He started the work.
Jesus Teaches Eternal Security
Jesus teaches us this throughout His Word. Look at what He says. You know John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him won't perish, have eternal life." John 3:36: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life." John 5:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, that he who hears My words and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life." John 6:47: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."
Now, when Jesus talks about believes, what He's talking about is not just mental ascent, not believing that Jesus existed, or even that He was crucified, or even that He died and was buried again, or raised again. The idea there is that He was crucified for my sin and raised again. Believing that, if I believe that, I have eternal life.
Now, let me ask you a question. When does eternal life end? Seems to me the words give us the definition, and the idea is eternal life never ends, does it? So if I believe, if I'm here today and I believe, if Jesus is my Lord and Savior and I believe, then I have eternal life. It is unending, and nothing will break it.
My Sheep Hear My Voice
Two passages of Scripture, and then I'll let you go. John 10: "My sheep hear My voice." Jesus is speaking. "My sheep hear My voice." Apparently, not everybody hears His voice. And that would explain a kind of an odd comment that Jesus makes. Several times when He's teaching, He says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." I always thought, that is an odd thing to say. You got a bunch of people that don't have any place to put their glasses, or what's the deal there? What do you mean, ears to hear?
He's not talking about audibly hearing the words, He's talking about hearing them and understanding them. Remember Titus 3? Formally you were foolish, you lacked understanding, but my sheep will hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one's going to snatch them out of My hand.
Let me go back to the chain of salvation. All that He predestined, He called. All that He called, He justified. All that He justified, He glorified. Paul's teaching that, and as if to say, I don't want you to miss this. I want you to understand the comfort and the joy that comes with this. I want you to understand this is a permanent relationship.
What Should We Say to These Things?
Paul continues. Verse 31, Paul writes these words: "What should we say to these things?" In other words, if I'm predestined and called and justified and glorified, what should we say to these things? What are we going to comment about them? "If God's for us, who can be against us? If God delivered Jesus up for us, who can possibly," verse 33, "bring a charge against God's elect?" Nobody can. No charge that's going to stick. God's for us. He predestined us. He called us. He justified us. He glorified us.
Verse 35, so He says this: "Who can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Who can separate us from that? Tribulation?" The idea there is literally being squeezed under pressure, hard times, distress, the idea of being hemmed in on all sides, persecution, famine, nakedness. The idea there is not just a body that has no clothing. It's a body, a person, who can't even support themselves to the point where they can even clothe themselves. Is that going to discourage us? Is that going to separate us? Peril or sword?
"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth," and as if he's left anything out, he adds this, "nor any other created thing is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
An Unbreakable Relationship
He said, listen, there's nothing that can break this relationship. He's speaking here not of our love for God, but God's love for us. He began the good work. He predestined us. He called us. He justified us. He glorified us. And Paul says, what's going to separate us? And he lists all these things, and he said it's not going to be any of them, death or life or angels, no created thing, no angel, no demon, no Satan. Nothing's going to break this.
In fact, you could even write your name in there. You can't even break this relationship. It's unbreakable. That's what Jesus was saying in John 10: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life, and they'll never perish, and no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father's giving them to Me is greater than all. Nobody's able to take it away." Nothing can sever this relationship.
Have you ever had that experience where you see an adult, and they take a dime or something, and they put it in their hand, and they hold it out, and you say to the kid, listen, if you get the hand open, you can add the dime. And have you ever watched the futility of that as they pull one finger and get it loose, and the minute they let go of that, that closes, and unless that adult open, they're never going to get that dime. Nobody's going to snatch it out of their hand. That's the picture here. Nothing's going to break that relationship.
The Magnificent Truth
Why? Because God initiates it. God saves sinners. The Father elects those who be saved before the foundations of the earth. The Son redeems them, and the Holy Spirit comes along and applies that truth to every life. If you are a Christian today, and this is a magnificent truth, if you are a Christian today, you are as certain of heaven as the saints that are already there. Nothing's going to break this relationship.
There are certainly going to be times where the communion can be damaged by our sinfulness and disobedience.
But the union is never broken. The vitality, the freshness of it, some of you have experienced that. I was talking to a guy the other day, and he used a phrase something like, "spiritually, I'm in the desert." He described all this, and I just want to make sure we understood. I said, "You understand why you're there, don't you? You chose to be there."
I don't have to live in a spiritual desert. By that, I mean separated from Him, not that vitality that I can so easily experience, because through Him, great things begin to happen in my life. What do I do? I submit to Him. If I abide in Him, what's that mean? Hang in there with Him, submit to Him, be in right relationship with Him. He'll do great things in my life.
Three Essential Questions
If you've been around East Valley Bible Church for a while, you know that when someone speaks, we have three questions. What do you say? Is it true? So what?
So the Father elects, and the Son redeems, and so what? Isn't it just for a bunch of scholars? Isn't this kind of academic, how many angels dancing on the head of a pin? Who cares? What difference does it make?
I'm with you. If it doesn't make any difference, then I don't want to waste any time on it, but I will tell you this. I think this truth, perhaps more than any other in your spiritual walk, will revolutionize your relationship with the Lord, will take your praise and worship to a depth you never thought possible.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
Here's what we're going to do next week. Next week, we summarize these six, seven weeks. So we'll talk about, what did I say? Is it true? And I'll take you to the Scripture, and I think the Scripture will argue that it's true. But here's what we're going to spend the rest of that time next week on. So what? So what that it's true? What difference does it make in our life?
We're so glad that you are here. God has you here for a reason, and I know that many of you, this has been a really tough six, seven weeks. But almost to a person, I've heard how valuable it's been, even if the conclusion has been that you disagree with us and you think we're full of hooey. Because at least it's forced you to go into the Word.
The Good News of God's Sovereign Salvation
I will tell you this, we aren't, and it's true. If you're a Christian today, it's because God predestined you, and He called you, and He's justified you, and one day, not long from now, we'll be glorified with Him forever. That's good news, and that should be a source of comfort and encouragement and joy.
And one last thing, humility. You, of all people, you, me, well there shouldn't be a lot of pride in us. We've got this figured out. We didn't do anything. He called us. He justified us. He glorified us, and all because He predestined us, not according to any work that we could do, any work that we did do, any work that we're doing, or anything in the future. God saves sinners.
We'll do the summary next week. Let me remind you, tomorrow night we'll be up in room 200 for our last open forum as it relates to this session, and if you'd like to come and talk to us, we look forward to dialoguing with you. We start at 7 and end at 8:30, and again, we'll be up there tomorrow night.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this truth. Thank You for this word. God, as we go on from this place, let us be men and women whose hearts are set on fire by this truth and who desire to proclaim it to the world, not because we can save anybody, not because we can lead anyone to Christ. That is totally a work that You do.
God, thank You for the truth that all that You predestine, You call, and all that You call, You justify, and all that You justify, You'll one day glorify. God, thank You for that truth. We praise You and we worship You. In Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.
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