Summary & Conclusion
Tom Shrader concludes his comprehensive series on the doctrines of grace by summarizing four key truths: natural man cannot understand spiritual things, God intervenes to save His people, Jesus' death satisfied God's wrath against the elect, and the Holy Spirit regenerates and guarantees believers' salvation. He emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work—believers are saved in spite of themselves, not because of anything they did—which should lead to humility, gratitude, and worship rather than pride.
“He saved you in spite of you, not because of you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: God's Plan for Salvation (2006)
Recorded: 2006
Duration: 46 min
Themes: grace, salvation, humility, gratitude, worship, pride, sovereignty, redemption, new believer, struggling with pride, questioning salvation, seminary student, pastor, bible study leader, feeling unworthy, seeking assurance
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 2:1, Romans 3:10-12, Ephesians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, Matthew 1:21, 1 John 4:10, Titus 2:14, Titus 3:5, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 1:13, Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:29-39, Romans 9, Romans 10, Isaiah 6
Theological Themes: doctrines of grace, calvinism, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of saints, biblical authority
Full Transcript
If you're with us for the first time or maybe you're visiting from out of town and your plane arrangements got mixed up so you had to come yesterday instead of today, which means since you're here you had to go to church so you're kind of stuck, or you're with us and you haven't been around much lately, you're coming in at the end of a series. At the end of a really important series.
I don't think there's more than once every two years maybe that I do a series, and this is really important stuff. Pretty heady stuff, and for those who are a little unfamiliar with some of these terms, a little tough sled maybe, but it's worth it and it's something you can handle. So if you parachuted in today and you've missed the previous six messages or you caught two of the six, you may have some trouble. I can only do so much, I'll try to help as much as I can, but you need to go back, go on the website and work your way through these six messages. It's really, really important.
God's Plan for Salvation
God's plan for salvation - here's what we're talking about. We're not talking about whether you're a Christian or not. We're talking about if you are a Christian, how'd you end up that way? What happened there from God's perspective?
Though we've talked about Calvinism and we've quoted Luther and all the others, we are not followers of Calvin or Luther - we're followers of Christ. Calvin, Luther, Augustine, if we fast forward to present day, Sproul, Boyce, Packer, MacArthur - these guys did not invent this teaching. This flows from the scripture. That's why the Bible's our final authority in all of this.
Three Questions We Must Ask
Here's what we encourage you to do. When you go and listen to somebody speak, or here's what I do when I go and hear somebody speak, I want three things I want to know. Number one, what did he say? I want to be able to understand what this guy said. I want to be able to get it down to three, four, five sentences and we're communicating.
Number two, is it true? Just because he says it doesn't make it true. So what did he say and is it true? And then the third thing which is really important to me is so what? So he says something, here's what he said, I understand what he said and it's true, so what?
So today we want to talk about what have we said for six weeks, and is it true, and give you the so what of it all. That's what we're going to do.
The Central Truth: God Saves Sinners
The buzz sentence is a real simple sentence that defines the whole series: God saves sinners. Very familiar to you by now. That God, the triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - does everything from beginning to end to bring fallen man who's helpless and powerless yet guilty before God to bring him into a right relationship with God. All of that is done by God because man is on his own incapable of doing such a thing. God saves sinners.
Then we unpack it just a little bit more. We said God, the Father, elects those that will be saved. God, the Son, Jesus redeems them. He dies for that group of people. And the Holy Spirit regenerates them or causes them to be born again. There's a harmony of the Trinity in this salvation. It's a beautiful picture of a preordained, collaborated, orchestrated, predetermined plan by which God brings us as sinners into His presence and allows us to be designated now as saints and changes our ultimate destination from hell to heaven.
So what do you say, is it true, so what? Here's what we said, and I put together four sentences which is incredible, really, if you take six weeks and boil it down to four sentences.
Natural Man's Condition
Natural man - we need to stop. We got two words in it, we have to stop. Natural man, fallen man, sinful man. You or me, every boy, every girl.
After the first service, with the order being changed, I got out a little early and I knew that my grandson was in the nursery and I tested the workers. In fact, they violated principle and did give me the kid without a card. But they made an exception, they said, which was good. I apologized a thousand ways, because they put him in an awful position, but they know who I am, so they gave him to me.
He and I had about 20 minutes to walk around the campus and to look at the construction that's out there and to look at the lights and to just get it together. He just said "ooh, ooh." I said, "Look at the lights, man," and he said "ooh, ooh." I took him into my office, I said, "Hey, this could be yours someday if you play your cards right." And he said, "No, no." So he's got it all figured out.
I really am a little amazed at what this grandfathering thing is like. We have another one here due any day, really. But I still have to come to grips with that he's a sinner and that he's separated from God. Now the stakes get really high here, because it moves from just words on a page into reality. If God doesn't move in this kid's life, he's never going to figure it out on his own, he's never going to come to Christ, and he'll spend eternity, justifiably so, being punished for his sin. That's a big deal. But that's what we're
That's natural man. Braden isn't the exception, there aren't any exceptions. All sin and fall short of the glory of God. Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing including the gospel. God has 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.
So let me do a flyover of that, and then we'll break it apart. We come into the world sinners, we're sinners by nature, and then we're sinners by action for the rest of our life. So we come into the world sinners by nature, and then we just confirm that day after day. Consequently, we cannot get spiritual things. And the gospel's a spiritual thing. So natural man's never going to grasp the gospel.
God intervenes, and He could have justifiably saved no one at all, sent everyone to hell, punished everyone. Or He could have saved everybody, but He's chosen to save some. That, by the way, is not on the basis of anything in them, anything good that's in them, or anything that they've done. This is really important, and we'll hammer this all day. He saved you in spite of you, not because of you. He saved you in spite of who you are, not because of who you are. He did not look at you and say, "This is somebody really good. I know there's a little sin in there, but if we got some edges, we'll round these edges off, and they'll be a real trophy for me." No, He saved you in spite of you, not because of you.
Christ died to satisfy God's wrath. The word's propitiation—really important word. It means to satisfy the wrath of God. So when we say God is angry, and God will judge sin, indeed He will. For those of us who are Christians, that sin is already judged in Christ on the cross. For the rest of the world, they will pay for those sins for all eternity, and never have them paid in full.
And then the Holy Spirit begins the application of that work to our life, and the Holy Spirit then comes into our life and seals us, or guarantees us, so that we know that if we are followers of Christ today, we will be for all eternity, as certain of heaven as the saints that are already there.
Breaking Down the Core Truths
So let's break those four sentences down. Here's what we're going to do: break those four sentences down, make sure you understand what I say, and we're going to ask if it's true, then we'll look at the so what.
Here's the first sentence: Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing, including the gospel. Natural man, fallen man, everybody as they come into the world, does not understand spiritual things, and that includes the gospel.
Natural Man Cannot Accept Spiritual Things
Now, the minute you hear that, it should be an immediate reflex. The minute you're talking about natural man and spiritual things, your brain should go right to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. It should be an automatic response. So when somebody's out there saying, "I don't buy what you guys teach over at East Valley Bible Church. I believe that everybody is presented the gospel, and then they'll choose on their own," well, I guess there's a certain level of truth to that, but natural man on his own is never going to respond to the gospel.
1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. It could not be more clear: natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. That word "accept" means to receive favorably, to give an ear to, to embrace, to make one's own, to approve, not to reject. Natural man does not favorably accept or make their own or embrace or approve of the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him.
So if you're sitting here today, and like I said, maybe you just got trapped because you're in from out of town and this is what they're doing so you came with them, or maybe somehow you're here because your parents made you come, or you're here because your spouse believes this and you don't but you decided to come, or you're dating—we get a lot of guys, especially guys—you think it's like, "I'll go to church, that gets all the guard down, I'll get her later." So you're here and you go, "This is stupid, this is stupid, obviously it's stupid." That's exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The cross, salvation, is foolishness to you because you're perishing. You can only think it's stupid. That's what this verse says: foolish. I did too for 30 years, thinking it was stupid.
And then Paul ups the ante. He said natural man cannot understand them. Why? They're spiritually appraised. And Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1: you're dead in your sins and trespasses.
The Insurmountable Gap
So here are the things of God flying at this altitude, here are you—and we'll reverse them. Let's reverse them so you feel better about yourself. Here are the things of God flying at this altitude, here are you flying at this altitude. They're on parallel lines, they're never going to intersect. You're never going to get it. You can't get it. You can study, and study, and read, and read, and read, and you should. But unless something happens to you, you're never going to understand this. Natural man doesn't understand spiritual things.
Why? Romans chapter 3 verse 10: there's none righteous, not even one. Look at those words, by the way. Those are powerful. When you look at them, there's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seek for God. All have turned aside. So they become useless. And then the catch-all: there is none who does good, not even one.
Natural man does not have the ability to come to Christ. For sure permission, but not the ability. That's God's assessment of man. That there's none who is righteous. That there's none...
who seeks for God. This is really important. And I feel like I say this to you every week, and I probably do, but it's because it's so important.
Here's what you have. Over here we have biblical Christianity. Over here is everything else. Put any name you want on it—it doesn't matter—it's everything else. All of this is man's effort to not have to deal with that. All of this, whatever it is—secularism, humanism, and then you start adding religious names to it, whatever those are—these are all things that mean I don't have to deal with the one true God. That's why God says no one seeks after Him.
What we do in religion is create our own system by which we as sinful people can somehow find acceptance before the holy God. That's what religion is—that's all religion is. Biblical Christianity is exactly the opposite. Biblical Christianity is a holy God, righteous God, reaching down to a sinful man, declaring them righteous because of Christ's payment on the cross, and now this God enters into a relationship with this regenerated person, and God did it all. Religion is man doing it. He may have God in there, he may say Jesus died, but I still have to do something.
The Total Depravity of Man
So there's none who is righteous. None who seeks after God. Together they have become useless; they've turned aside. In Greek literature, it speaks of a soldier running in the wrong direction. They lean the wrong way. That's man.
Here's what we said: Natural man does not understand any spiritual thing, including the gospel. Is that true? Yes. It cannot be more clear. I don't know how we can't get that, and I think you do.
God's Sovereign Choice
There's a second thing, huge point that we made: God has determined according to His good pleasure to intervene and to save His people from their sin. Is that true? Well, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4: "just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." He chose us.
In one of the footnotes dealing with this verse, the author says this: the form of the Greek verb behind "choose" indicates that God not only chose by Himself, but for Himself to the praise of His own glory. And that's exactly what it says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 12: "In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined to His purpose, who works all things after His counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first in Christ should be the praise of His glory." They become display cases for His righteousness.
Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica, same idea. First Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 4 and 5: "knowing brethren beloved by God, His choice of you"—He chose you, when? Before the foundations of the earth. You were elected. He initiates this. You participate or respond to that, but He is the one who does this work.
The Gospel's Power and Our Response
And listen to the end of this verse, and I'm going to hang on this because it sets up the next three weeks: "For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, with full conviction"—here's a phrase—"just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake." In other words, our character, our life as messengers did not in any way discredit the message.
Here's the phrase that popped up during this series: We're saved by God, from God, for God. Now what we've done historically, as we've worked our way through this, is work on the "I'm saved by God, from God," and then when it's all over we kind of say that was great and we go on to the next series.
I'm going to take the next couple weeks, maybe three. Chris Mueller's going to teach next week. This is our goodbye celebration with Chris and Gene Mueller. Very important for you to be here. So often when people leave, there's a whole sense of loss, and there's certainly that, but there's an overriding sense of joy to think that we are being allowed by God to participate in kingdom work. And I've said a lot lately, I think you're going to see more and more people leaving here—hopefully not in frustration, but leaving here to be used by God around the kingdom, in the state, outside the state, in the country, and maybe around the world. So it's really important for you to be here next week.
Then the following week, I want to pick up on the being saved for God. What does that look like? We'll talk about evangelism and some other things.
Living Out the Gospel
But here's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, our lifestyle, the quality of our life, confirms this message. It doesn't make it true—it is true—but you see it. In other words, there's a connection between how I behave and what I say. Can't separate those.
It's a classic story of Kierkegaard. Somebody evangelizing him, sharing their faith with him, and Kierkegaard's response was, "If you want me to believe in your redeemer, you must look a little more redeemed." And there's a connection.
You go walking in tomorrow, you go walking in the office tomorrow, or wherever you go, you know, you got your friends around or whatever, you go, "What'd you do over the weekend?" "Well, I was in God's Word on Saturday and Sunday I was in church and spent a great portion of my time and energy, effort, money about the things of God and I served." I wouldn't say it exactly that way, but if you're going to play that, if you're going to do that, you better understand that the minute they see this, they're going to start to judge you by this. They're all watching. And they're going to judge you, in my experience, by probably a standard that's even higher than the standard you have for your life.
That's what Paul's saying. You look at us, you look at what we said, you look at what we taught, and our lives were evidence of that transformation. So it was a second statement: God determined according to His good pleasure to intervene and save His people from their sin. Is that true? Yes, it's true. It shows us before the foundations of
Jesus' substitutionary atoning death satisfied the wrath of God against the elect. We know that the angel appeared to Joseph and said to Joseph, Mary is going to have a son. You'll name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sin. Matthew chapter 1 verse 21. But in 1 John chapter 4 verse 10, John writes this: in this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In other words, to satisfy the wrath of God rightly, justly, correctly directed toward us as a result of our sin.
Every sin that's ever been committed by every person that's ever lived will be paid for in one of two ways. It was either paid for by Jesus on the cross - that would have been His group of people that were redeemed - or it will be paid for by the person who committed that sin for eternity in hell, and never paid in full. So when Jesus said it is finished, He has satisfied God's wrath. God is angry, justifiably so, about sin. And God judges sinners.
But those of us who are followers of Christ - Jesus has died and He is our propitiation. He satisfied God's wrath against us. God is not angry at you if you're a follower of Christ. He's not angry at you anymore. He's not wrathful toward you anymore. He will discipline you if you sin, He will discipline that sin, He must discipline that sin. Why? Because even an earthly father loves his kid enough to discipline him. But God's wrath has been satisfied.
Jesus' Substitutionary Atonement
Jesus' substitutionary atoning death - Jesus died in your place. Titus chapter 2 verse 14: Jesus who gave Himself for us. When Jesus said it is finished, what He meant was He had accomplished the reason He came - to save His people from their sins. Jesus died in the place of His people. And the Scripture says, and when we say is it true, again this is only based on what the Scripture says, not what I say or Calvin, Luther, any of those. The Scripture says that He's the propitiation for us. He came to save His people from their sin and He satisfied it.
Here is the last of the four statements that we made, kind of summary statements. The Holy Spirit regenerates us. When we said man must be born again, Holy Spirit causes us to be born again, washes us and guarantees the believer's salvation. Titus chapter 3 verse 5: He saved us - what a wonderful phrase this is - not on the basis of deeds which we've done. He saved you in spite of you, not because of you. He did not save you, He did not deliver you from sin. I am not headed to heaven because of anything that I did. He saved me in spite of that. There was nothing that I could do.
If you missed the beginning of this, but God is now working in your mind a little bit and you're intrigued, then you need to go back and look at lesson 2 and lesson 3 to get a real good clear understanding of the condition of man.
The Holy Spirit's Cleansing Work
The Holy Spirit causes us to be born again and He washes us. Now when I think of washing, I think of cleansing. When we studied 1 and 2 Corinthians, we began each study by looking and understanding the city of Corinth. If you remember, there was Greece to the north and south and then there's this little area of land that connects northern and southern Greece. In there is Corinth and the seas were filled with pirates and danger and bad weather and so typically what companies would do or merchants would do is to sail into one of these harbors, take everything out of the ship, including the ship, move it across land, 3, 4, 5 miles, and then put in on the other side into the water and away they'd go. It was a much safer way to do it.
In that little strip of land is Corinth. So Corinth is a sailor city, transient population. In Greek theater, if a man from Corinth was depicted, he'd be depicted as a drunkard. A woman from Corinth would be depicted as a prostitute. That's the kind of town it was.
When Paul writes to the church at Corinth, here's what he says. First Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9: Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminates nor homosexuals nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Now here's the great verse, 1 Corinthians 6:11: Such were, past tense, some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. In other words, that church at Corinth was representative of the city, so my assumption is that in this church at Corinth were idolaters, fornicators, adulterers, effeminates, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, and a whole bunch of people like that. But that's what they used to be.
Personal Testimony of God's Transforming Grace
God saved me when I was 30. For the previous 30 years, age 1 to 30, my life was fully committed to pleasing me. To doing whatever I thought would bring me happiness or joy. And I didn't care about any other person. I didn't care if we were blood kin, I didn't care if we were roommates, I didn't care if we were friends or co-workers. I didn't care.
Ultimately, in our relationship, it was going to be determined on what I was going to get out of it, because if I wasn't going to get anything out of it, I didn't have any time for you. And when I look back at those first 30 years, they're filled with absolute emptiness, brokenness. I tried everything I could think of that would make me happy. And though I found momentary pleasure, it was fleeting. And at the end of the day, I was miserable.
And those 30 years produced nothing but anguish and broken relationships and heartache and pain and strife. Then God saved me. And I stand on this side and I look back at that and I absolutely am fully responsible for those. I accept the consequence of that, but there's rarely a time that
I feel guilty about that because I am forgiven. It makes me sick when I think of those things. I'm not as sick, frankly, as some of the sins that I do now as a follower of Christ because then I was stupid and didn't know any better. Now I know better and I still sin and that really makes me sick. But I'm a new creature. Not because of anything I've done. It's in spite of me, not because of me, that He washed me and cleansed me.
We said this also: He guarantees the believer's salvation. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 says you were sealed in Him in the promise of the Holy Spirit. In that day and age they'd take a letter or a contract or a document and either on the document itself or maybe if they're transporting it they'd wrap it, they'd take a piece of hot wax and they'd take a signet ring and they'd punch that in there and they'd make an imprint. That would guarantee authenticity and ownership, authority and security of that document. This is the real deal. The Holy Spirit is your seal.
You and I who are in this room today who are genuinely followers of Christ are as certain as those who are already in heaven. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6: I am confident of this very thing that He, God, who began the good work in me will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. Is that true? Yeah, because of what the scripture says.
The Four Foundational Truths
So we take the four sentences, let me read them together and I will submit them to you and stipulate that they're a true document. 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. Is that true? Absolutely that's true based on God's word.
It's funny if I could just put a parenthesis in here. When I was getting ready to teach this series I had some people, even from the church that had been around for a while and said, you know what, I've heard this a couple of times and I don't know that I really need to hear this now. This might be a good time to take a break from church and I understand that somebody could say that. That blows me away. I can't imagine taking a sabbatical from church but that being the case, I will tell you this. I think, and however many times you've heard it, I've heard it four to five to six more times than you have because I do it four times a day, every one of them. This has had more impact on me this time through than any time I've been through it.
It absolutely overwhelms me that these things are true. That on my own I can do nothing to please a holy righteous God and while He was absolutely justified in sending me to hell, for whatever reason, His good pleasure, in spite of me, He saved me and He entered into this relationship with me that cannot be destroyed. My union with Him can never be broken. My sin can affect the vibrancy of that union, the communion of it, but the union cannot be destroyed, not because I persevere and I'm so strong, but because of His strength persevering me.
The Implications: When God Is Truly Magnified
So here you go, the so what of it. I came up with four or five things here and there could be way more, but I just wanted to hit these. Number one, when I understand God's plan for salvation, God is truly magnified. God's enlarged. Not beyond what He's due, but certainly beyond what most people would identify Him as being.
This, I think it was in August, there were the inductions into the NFL Hall of Fame. Reggie White was being inducted. It's the first time a guy on the first ballot has been inducted who has died. His son gave the speech. His son, and Reggie was known as a Christian, a minister of defense, and his son said, I want to thank God. Yay, yay, God. Give me a G, give me an O, give me a D. Yay, God. Then he said this, now I'd like to tell you which God. There ain't no clapping now. The clapping done be over.
Because here's what he's done. It's what we said. As long as you go out, you go busting out of here and you talk about God, everybody's for God. I mean, there's a few. I heard somebody on the radio this morning on the God Show who's an atheist. But I mean, there's a few atheists around, but kind of everybody believes in God, supreme being, he, she, it, power, whatever it might be. So as long as you say God, you're kind of safe. But once you define who that God is, now you start to lose some friends along the way. And I love that. Define who that God is.
The God of Scripture vs. False Gods
He is. It's like this. I became a Christian in March of 1980, and I believe that this is the word of God. But it was the word of God way before March of 1980. My believing this did not make this the word of God. It is God's word, whether I believe it or not. God is. Whatever you believe He is, that's fine. And you may have your own view of who He is, but until you run into the God of the Bible, you haven't met the one true God.
You're worshiping a false God. You're worshiping an idol. If you're trying to find satisfaction and identity and joy and meaning and purpose and salvation in anything but this God, you're worshiping an idol, whatever He looks like. Well, when I get into this and I understand, whoa, because I thought I chose Him. That makes all the sense in the world. I prayed a prayer. Now I get into this and go, He chose me in spite of me, not because of me, and He's entered into this relationship with me that cannot be broken. God's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
In his classic work, The Sovereignty of God, A.W. Pink writes this: the scriptures affirm again and again that God is on the throne of the universe, that the scepter is in His hand, that He is directing all things after the counsel of His will. The scriptures affirm not only that God created all things, but also He is ruling
God's Absolute Sovereignty
God reigns over all the work of His hands. They affirm that God is the Almighty, that His will is irreversible, that He is absolute sovereign in every realm of all His vast dominions, and surely this 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 unlimited power, the conclusion is irresistible that He must be God in fact as well as in name, that He is the one true all-powerful God. I can see that with the universe, and I can even lose myself in the Psalms and start talking about the Almighty God and even talk about the fact that He's not a maverick molecule and He's sovereign.
But when I bring it down, when I get it out of the universe into me and go, "In my spiritual life it would not exist if God had not sovereignly ordained and saved me," at that point I'm going whoa, because He's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. The byproduct of that naturally should be what? I get smaller and smaller and smaller.
The Danger of Man-Centered Thinking
If I'm thinking, "There was that day in 1980 and I asked Jesus into my heart, I prayed for whatever that is, I chose Him," if I'm strolling through life and I'm clinging to the fact that I had but a mustard seed but I created the mustard seed, there is in me something that is idol in the sense that I am claiming something that only God can do. God did that. I can't do that. I can't respond that way.
When I understand these doctrines of grace, God is magnified and man is minified. George Barnett, a Christian George Gallup who studies the landscape of the country but also of the church, in one of his books writes this paragraph: "Consider how we have repositioned spirituality. Faith used to revolve around God, His ordinances and principles. The faith that arrests our attention these days revolves around us. We have demystified God, befriended Jesus, abandoned the Holy Spirit. Few Americans possess a sense of awe, fear, and trembling related to God."
That's that Isaiah 6 awe. That's how it must be. That's exactly what happens in Isaiah. God gets bigger and bigger and bigger. The minute He sees that, He goes, "Woe to me for I am undone." What's going to happen? What's going to take place? He indeed is repented and forgiven, and now God says, "I got a job to do, who should I send?" And now, because I'm redeemed, I understand who I am and who God is. Now I'm in a position to go, "Here I am, send me."
True Service Flows from Understanding
Some of you could even be in the midst of Christian service but you don't really understand who God is, who you are. You can be out there working, working, working but you're getting pooped and you're getting tired and this is getting old. Kind of cool for like a week or two or three but now it's kind of a drag. Here's why. You have yet to understand who God is and to see that this is nothing but just a thankful response to Him. You're energized by Him, filled with His Spirit and awe of God and what He's done.
A Thanksgiving Perspective
So here's Thanksgiving. A couple of days. So you're sitting around and you're going, "Okay, somebody pray. Well, you pray. Thank you for the food before us and the games that are on today. We can all be here, family, friends, the house, job, our health. Thank you for the weather." Okay, here you go. Try this.
You were lost, helpless and hopeless. The Creator God of the universe, in spite of you, not because of you, reached down, jerked out your heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh. Now you're His kids. Doesn't that kind of beat the weather? Get ahead of the food? Climbing up that tent? Wouldn't it be something like this? God, I don't know. This all starts here. That's why in just a minute we're going to let you respond to communion and respond with worship. Well, as He's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and just fill in this room, all of a sudden the most natural response is a humble, grateful heart.
The Problem with Unlimited Atonement
I was talking to somebody about limited atonement this week, meaning Jesus only died for the elect. And there's somebody struggling with it and it's a huge struggle for him. And I said, "This is a perfect example of how God gets shrunk."
If I say Jesus died for the whole world, meaning Jesus died for everybody and every place, you only have those one or two possibilities. If Jesus died for everybody, this is what you're saying you believe to me. Jesus died for everybody. Well, then I've got to stop and say, whoa. Because if Jesus is the propitiation, if Jesus satisfied the wrath of God against every person that ever lived, then what's that mean? Then everybody's going to heaven.
Well, we don't believe that, we're not universalists. So if you're saying Jesus died for everybody in the whole world, satisfied the wrath of God against everybody in the whole world, then you have made a serious accusation against God because you've declared God unjust, unrighteous, and a liar because He's now sending people to hell for whom Christ died.
"Nah, then I don't mean that." I bet you don't. So what is it you do mean? Here's the only thing you can mean, is that Jesus simply made salvation possible and didn't save anybody. That's all you could possibly mean by that. That He died for everybody in the whole world, but now you have to do something.
Do you see how God goes, "God did a whole bunch, but I still got my role, baby. I still came through in the clutch. Give me the ball with the clock running down. You can count on me, I'll make that shot. You couldn't slide a nickel under those feet when it went up, but it was up there. The form was good." But you see that? See what that is? And so that's the one that everybody wants to argue about, unlimited atonement.
If you're saying Jesus died, if you're not saying Jesus died for the elect, then you're saying He died for everybody. You're either saying that God is unjust because He sent people to hell for whom Christ died, or He simply made the atonement a potential. Now you're tinkering with the atonement itself. You don't see how you're shrinking God?
The Security and Encouragement of Election
I mentioned a couple other things, just practical outgrowths of this, and they're so obvious. We're encouraged by this. We find security in this. For all whom He predestined, those He called, and all that He called He justified, and all that He justified He glorified. What shall we say of these things? If God's for us, who's against us?
Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword—shall they separate us? 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 heights, nor depths, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus because it's all about Him. He began the work and He'll continue it.
This is a wonderful truth. That's not a license to sin. It's like when your mom or dad says to you, "I really love you," and you say, "Oh boy, now I can do whatever I want because they really love me." He'll discipline me, but everything that comes in my life passes through Him and everything that comes into my life He works together for good.
Common Misconceptions About Election
In your outlines, I wrote "dangers," but probably a better word is misconceptions. You'll hear this term every once in a while: double predestination. In other words, we've clearly understood that God intervenes in our life to change our destination from hell to heaven. He has to intervene. God does not intervene in people's lives and elect them or choose them to hell. That's where natural man is because of his sin. God simply stands back. God doesn't intervene.
Because I'll get this: "Wait a minute, if God elects, what about all those people—you all are really smart now, you're going to be able to handle this—what about all those people that want to come to Christ, but they're not chosen? What about all those people who want to come to Christ, but they just aren't chosen? They want to be there, but they're not chosen. They're predestined to hell. What about those people?"
They don't exist. There's nobody who wants to come to Christ who isn't chosen. By the way, nor do people come to Christ kicking and screaming. I remember when I finally understood the gospel, all I wanted was Jesus, Jesus, and more Jesus. I didn't come kicking and screaming. There's nobody going to hell saying, "I really want to go to heaven, but I wasn't chosen." These are so important to begin to deal with.
Addressing the "Want to Come" Objection
We're going to talk about this in three weeks. I'll get all sorts of emails. I have one in particular that I think I want to talk about. They're never scripture. So somebody says to you, "What about all those people that want to come to Christ, but they're going to hell?" First of all, there's no chapter and verse. You see that?
When we study it, we go, "Well, wait a minute, that'd be natural man." Because can natural man want to come to Christ? Unicorn. Just think this every time they say it: unicorn, doesn't exist. Why do you keep bringing me this stuff? It doesn't exist.
Election and Evangelism
Nor does this kill or stifle evangelism. "Well, if I believe all this is true, why would I evangelize?" Two reasons. One, because God told you to. Two, because He's ordained the method.
In Romans chapter nine, Paul could not be more clear: "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated." There's the sovereignty of God. Romans chapter ten, he writes this: "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe if they haven't heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they're sent?"
This doesn't kill evangelism at all. All it does with evangelism is make it easier, smoother, and allow you to be more honest and truthful, because you understand this doesn't depend upon you somehow contorting the message to click with the person on the other end. This doesn't kill evangelism. It frees me up for evangelism.
The Humility of Election
Here's the last thing that I want to comment on. I've heard this: "I think this election Calvinism stuff creates arrogance in a believer." I don't even have a file for that one. Let me be really, really, really clear. There's nothing you have done, nothing you are doing, nothing you would ever do that would justify your being chosen. Why would you be arrogant about this? I don't understand this. How could you be arrogant?
The minute I hear this, it doesn't drive me to boast, it drives me to my knees. It doesn't push me to pride, it pushes me to humility. What could make me a little proud is if I thought I chose Him—I could see how that could generate some arrogance or some pride. But if you're proud about this, you simply haven't understood this. You don't get it.
This should generate in your life and mine a sense of humility and gratitude, praising God from whom all blessings flow. That's my response to it. It should be ours. I think that's the appropriate response when I really understand these things.
One of the ways that we respond at East Valley Bible Church every week is through praise, through music, and through communion. Now is that time where we want to take communion together. Those of you who are here...
Who understand these truths, who understand Jesus is your Lord and your Savior, your Master, that when He died on the cross, He died for you, and the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to see that truth and understand that truth. We want to invite you to join with us in this time, this moment of communion.
Now maybe you're here and you would say, I don't have a clue what you just said, or I understand it but I reject it. If that's you, then what we would ask you to do is pass the elements by when they come to you. Our desire and our hope and our prayer is that God would touch your heart, God would touch your heart and open your eyes and this would be a day of salvation. And you would either talk to the people who, or person who invited you today, or talk to us here at the church about what it means to be truly converted.
Today the servants are going to come and present the elements to you. Will you take them and hold them and we will celebrate communion together today. So they're going to come and present those elements to you now.