Introduction
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0001
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 3/12/2009 6:00 PM
Not to make any assumptions, but many of you have probably never heard of the Primitive Baptists. We’re a quaint group, simplistic in our services, as our name would suggest. But before you start picturing images of horse-drawn wagons, one-room church houses with wood-burning stoves, outhouses, and women with their heads covered, please try and avoid thinking of the word primitive as meaning “old-fashioned” or “outdated”. Instead, think of primitive as meaning “original”. Primitive Baptists, by the way, are also known as the Old School Baptists, hence the Old School Baptist Network, and sometimes we’re referred to as the Regular Baptists.
Being a Primitive Baptist minister and having grown up in the church my whole life, you would probably assume I would be quite bias towards the church. I am. But it’s not because I drank the Kool-aid when I was young and now defend their doctrines and practices without any free-thinking of my own. I have searched the scriptures fervently to discover what it is I believe the Word of God teaches and I came to embrace the Primitive Baptist church because of what I had learned. Primitive Baptists are not perfect, of course, but I love them dearly. When a friend of mine joined the church a few years ago he said, “I have been searching for the perfect church. Then I realized every church is made up of imperfect people so there can be no perfect church. But what is perfect is the Spirit and I believe the Spirit is here.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
As much as there can be no perfect church here on earth, I do believe there can be good and there can also be better. Let’s say, for instance, I’m searching for a home church. Maybe I attend a Missionary church, then I visit a Methodist church, and then a Baptist church, and a number of others. While they all may share a love for our Lord, there can be dispute about the differences from one to the next in their beliefs and practices. Perhaps I agree more with the Methodists than the others. Or, in my case, I agree most with the Primitive Baptist church. You may agree more with another. My point is this: If two or more people disagree on anything, then at least one of them is wrong. So out of the hundreds of Christian denominations just in the United States, we should be well-aware that they are not all the same and many are wrong. I’m not trying to be critical and I’m not suggesting that Primitive Baptists are one-hundred percent right either. I’m just trying to make the point that everyone has to determine for themselves what they believe is right and the only proper way to do this is by the Word of God.
Unfortunately, our age is not given to serious theological reflection. We live in a day of pop religion where speculation, preconceived notions, and moral relativism governs what we do, what we believe, and where we go to church. We are not a nation of Bereans who search the scriptures daily to prove whether the things we hear are so. Instead, we put stock in the generic Christian statements we find regurgitated over and over again by popular preachers on TV, bumper stickers, and Christian bookstore t-shirts; having never read these things in the Bible. Nothing discourages me more than to hear a self-professed atheist denounce Christianity because even he has found flaws in our beliefs. There are no flaws in the Word of God but all-to-often the beliefs we profess to the world are not accurate to the Word of God.
Even in our utmost sincerity, we are capable of being wrong. Consider the apostle Peter in John chapter thirteen. There was a man so humbled that he did not think it was right for Christ, the King of Kings, to kneel down and wash his feet. Yet, when he refused, Jesus rebuked him sharply and said, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” Peter’s sincerity was not good enough. He wasn’t trying to be rebellious, but he failed to consider that if the Lord wants it done, then that is the right thing to do. No questions asked. This is why we are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding. At times, we must forget those things we think we know and search the scriptures for confirmation. Solomon said, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.”
I find it so incredible how much we can know as God’s people because of the truth and the wisdom He has given us. For instance, I think about the scientists who have spent fortunes and endless amounts of time researching and trying their best to discover the origin of life on this earth. As many people as there are, for as long as they have, been studying this subject, they have not come any closer to finding an answer to their questions. Yet, I can sit at church on any given Sunday with thirty or forty people who do not necessarily have the education of some of these scientists, who have not devoted the kind of time and money others have to understanding the truth behind the origin of life, and I know I’m sitting with a group of people who have a full understanding of where and how life began. To me, that is just incredible.
Folks, the more we gain understanding from God and His Word, the more we understand everything, even ourselves. I don’t need a psychologist on TV to tell me why someone committed a murder. The Bible tells me there is not a just man on earth and our righteousness is as filthy rags. Mankind is born into this world with an evil nature, absolutely capable of, and even prone to do the worst of crimes. It is only by the Spirit of God and through self-discipline that we keep ourselves from doing such things. But I’ll explain that in detail at a later time.
Everything we believe determines what we will do. If a weatherman on TV tells me it’s going to rain and I believe him, I’ll take an umbrella with me when I go out. If I don’t believe him, I wouldn’t even think to carry an umbrella. But how many of us really know what we believe? Or why we believe it? In the past, many people have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured, crucified and killed because of their doctrinal convictions. I have heard it said that most Christians today cannot tell the difference between grass and Astroturf. They allow some of the most important and fundamental questions in life to go completely unanswered. Or, if nothing else, settle for the first answer they hear without any further examination.
I am not talking about trivial matters either. Some of the issues I want to discuss first on this program are the very heart of the gospel. The good news that salvation was brought to sinners is one riddled with much controversy and debate. Some merely speculate about the freedom of man’s will in salvation versus predestination, but to some of the greatest theological minds in the history of the church, the answer to those questions determined whether or not someone even understood the gospel. Only a hundred years ago, whole towns would gather to hear ministers debate the subject of eternal salvation. Today, if I ask someone how a sinner is saved, I hear virtually the same response from every person. So, in turn, I’ll ask a simple question to perhaps incite some critical thinking on their part and I get a dumbfounded look as though they’ve never given their rehearsed answer a second thought.
This seems to be common even in the trivial matters. There is a church not far from here that has a Starbucks in the church. A Starbucks! Don’t get me wrong, I love Starbucks as much as the next guy. I often joke that I am one of the few strict conservatives in the country who shamelessly visits Starbucks on a regular basis. In fact, if you come to my home and want some coffee, I’ll be serving you Starbucks. If you want a little flavor in your coffee, I have some Starbucks vanilla syrup you can squirt right into the cup. I can even serve it to you in a Starbucks mug with the green mermaid logo right on the side. But I wouldn’t allow a Starbucks to open up in my church. How does the subject of putting a Starbucks coffee bar in the church not raise concern from at least one member, especially the pastor? If I had a Starbucks in my church, I would be anticipating the day when Jesus would storm into the place with a whip in His hand, tip over the whole counter, throw the cash register across the room, and drive the baristas right out of the building. Did not one member bring John chapter four to the attention of the church?
Perhaps someone did, but no one cared. Perhaps someone else made the argument, “But wouldn’t it be great to have wonderful Christian fellowship while sipping on lattes?” Who could argue with that airtight logic? Maybe Jesus.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t need to go to church to be a good Christian?” I have…more than once. My response to that statement is: Uh, yes, you do. In fact, that’s where the term Christian came from. In Acts chapter 11 we read, “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” Who called them Christians and why? I don’t believe they were divinely called Christians. I don’t even believe that was a self-appointed label. I believe the folks in Antioch were seeing this strange activity where a group of people were getting together once a week or more , singing, praying, preaching, dipping each other in water, and started calling them Christians because they followed one they called Christ. So when a visiting relative would come in from out of town and ask, “Who are those people?” They could say, “Oh, we just call them Christians.”
How about the fact that the majority of the New Testament was written to churches? How about Hebrews chapter ten which tells us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together? You do, in fact, need to go to church in order to a quote unquote good Christian. I believe Christ referred to them as disciples. If you listen to my teachings and follow them, you can be my disciple. Yet, Oprah and so many others would rather not believe there is an absolute truth. Why not? Because that absolute truth contained in the Bible is not always what we want to hear. Christ said, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” He also said, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” The love we have for our own personal desires must be laid aside in order to be His disciple.
Do you remember the movie, Karate Kid, where young Daniel asks Mister Miagi to teach him karate? Miagi agrees under one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction and never question his methods. Daniel shows up the next day eager to learn. Mister Miagi has him paint a fence. Miagi demonstrates the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down. Next, Miagi has him scrub the deck using a prescribed stroke. I’m sure Daniel wondering, “What in the word does this have to do with karate?” but he doesn’t say anything. Next, Miagi tells Daniel to wash and wax his cars and again prescribes the motion. Finally, Daniel reaches his limit: “I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is have me do your unwanted chores!” Daniel has broke Miagi’s one condition, and, of course, Mister Miagi gets angry. “I have been teaching you karate! Defend yourself!” Miagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself with an arm motion exactly like that used in one of his chores. Miagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow with a motion used in his chores. After Daniel successfully defends himself from several more blows, Miagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to realize what the master had known all along.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Paul said, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” Doctrine is not a box that man has created in order to contain God, but doctrine is the teachings of God Himself to be followed by His people. Forgive me if I offend you by saying this, but if you have ever bought into the idea that God’s absolute truth can be added to, taken away from, or altered for even the slightest betterment of it, then you have obviously never conducted much serious study of the Bible. If you believe you can improve upon the teachings and examples of the Bible, you are gravely mistaken.
Perhaps now you can understand why I am such a strong proponent for consistent, personal, and in-depth Bible study. Former President Ronald Reagan declared 1983 the Year of the Bible. I dare to suggest every year should be the year of the Bible. 2009…Year of the Bible. 2010…Year of the Bible. Bible doctrine and church beliefs are not trivial matters that can be set aside even in the interest of unity. Some of the issues I will come to discuss on this program may very well go against what you have always heard and known, but they lie at the very core of the gospel message. Not only would I love for all of God’s people to come to embrace His truth as truth, but I would love to see all of God’s people unified. But I refuse to sacrifice truth on the alter of wishful thinking. Unity, unless it based on agreement regarding the content of the gospel, would not be worth the price. So even if you oppose what I say, I encourage you, please, open your Bibles and let’s study these subjects together in love.
Do you ever read the comic strip, Peanuts? I cannot say that I do, at least not on a regular basis, but I came across one that is worth reading to you. In this comic, Lucy and Linus are staring out the window and the rain is just pouring down. Lucy says, “Boy, look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?” Linus replies, “It will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” Lucy has this relieved smile on her face and she says, “You’ve taken a great load off my mind.” Then Linus says, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
How true that is. It’s especially true when you’re talking about the doctrine of eternal salvation; how the sinner is saved to glory. Depending on how you believe a person can be eternally saved very much determines whether there can be any real peace of mind. Have you ever participated in a discussion or debate over this subject? Especially if it was a debate with two or more sides disagreeing with one another. If you have, then you probably concluded the subject was either too complex or possibly even irrelevant. And that’s even if you already knew what you believed on the matter. Martin Luther once said, speaking of eternal salvation, “If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatever of Christian matters.” While I would not use such strong language, I do, however, share some of this same sentiment.
We all might be tempted to ignore this great subject for the sake of a number of things: time, brain-power, controversy, fear, whatever it might be. But how can we? As I said earlier, this subject is the very heart of the gospel. It’s like a loose thread in a sock which has the potential to unravel every other part of it. If we are off in our beliefs on eternal salvation, our entire foundation is offset and the structure on it may not be safe. Not only that, but how can the Christian person go through life without asking some serious questions about this? Without engaging in some serious theological reflection like they have in the past? Without doing some serious Bible study on the matter?
Some say you can only be saved by God’s grace and God’s grace alone. The Bible does say, “By grace ye are saved.” Others say you are required to do some particular good work like be baptized or say the sinner’s prayer. The Bible does say, “He that is baptized shall be saved.” Some will say you must first believe or profess the name of Christ or ask Jesus into your heart or something of that nature in order to be saved. The Bible does say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Doesn’t that make you curious? If so, you’re in luck. Beginning right now, I want to take a good, hard look at what the Bible teaches concerning our eternal salvation. I should clarify though. My effort here is not an attempt to change your mind if you disagree. My only prayer is that the Lord would bless us all to grow in the knowledge of His truth. I don’t know about you, but I want to be ready always to give a reason for the hope that is in me.
Adam’s Creation and Fall
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0001
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 3/12/2009 6:00 PM
In order to answer the question, How is man eternally saved?, I believe we have to begin by answering the question, Why does man need to be saved in the first place? For that, I want to go back to Genesis and look at the creation of the very first man, Adam, how he was created, what he was created for, and what really happened after he had first sinned.
In Genesis chapter two and verse fifteen, we read, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” What do you suppose the world was like when man was created and placed into it? Fortunately, we don’t have to speculate. After God created the world and all that is in it, including man, He declared it was all very good and that’s based on His standard. God’s standard demands no less than perfection. He does not grade on a curve. This is evident by James chapter two where we read, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Jesus went as far as to say, “Whosoever looketh to lust hath committed adultery.” Sometimes when a teacher gives the class a test, if no one scores a perfect score, he’ll grade on a curve. That essentially means he is lowering his standards for the sake of the students. But God demands perfection. He does not look at a single one of us and say, “Oh, well, you haven’t been that bad.” He didn’t look at Adam after he ate of the forbidden fruit and say, “Oh, well, you only took a bite. I can let that slide. At least you didn’t eat the whole fruit.” No, absolutely not. He requires perfection which is exactly why He required the perfect sacrifice of His Son in our place. So, when God declared His creation good, that means His creation was perfect.
Understanding this absolutely perfect world that the first man, Adam, was created into, will help you to understand my next point. I believe that Adam was created for the purpose of living on this earth forever. Forever? How can that be? Man is supposed to live for awhile, eventually die, and then go on to heaven, right? Yes, but only after sin entered the world. It’s that second step, the death part, which does not fit in with the life of man prior to sin.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The wages of sin is death. Without sin there is no death. Without death there is what? Life. In Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God declares His curse upon the earth and upon man. In that He says, “Because hast eaten of the tree…cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” You know what Adam? You have sinned against me even after I have given to you freely all that you could ever want. Now, you’ll have to work for it. If you want food, it’ll only come by the sweat of your brow. Not only that, but one day, you will return to the dust from which I created you from. You will die.
You see, it was not purposed in the beginning for man to ever die. Had he not sinned, he would have lived on this earth forever. Another significant indication of that fact is the tree of life that they had access to in the midst of the garden. I have no idea what life would have been like for them had they not sinned. I do know they were told in Genesis chapter one to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Apparently, they would have raised a family. There would have been others on the earth. There would have probably been more marriages since they were given the great rule of marriage in Genesis chapter two where a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves unto his wife. Adam and Eve had no mother or father so that wasn’t exactly applicable to them. Maybe they would have been able to leave the garden, maybe not. I don’t know. I will say that I believe they would have always had access to the garden and, in particular, the tree of life. All we can really do is speculate.
Maybe you believe that man, before sin of course, was not going to die but was not going to remain on the earth forever either. Perhaps Adam would have been translated to heaven in the way that Enoch or Elijah was without ever seeing death. I suppose that’s a possibility. But why would they be? Remember, we are talking about earth at that time being a perfect place. No sweat on the brow. No hunger. No thirst. The tree of life was there. They were able to walk with the voice of God in the cool of the day. It was surreal. It was a paradise. I believe that if man was created for the purpose of living in heaven, then man would have been created and put in heaven just as the angels were. No, God created this world, He created man, and He put that man into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.
This is part of that thread, remember, that the whole sock relies on. So if you’re wondering what this has to do with the entire scheme of eternal salvation, I pray you’ll see that as time goes on. I believe that what man was created for plays a vital role in understanding how man was created, which plays a role in the next part and so on. So, let’s look at how man was created.
In Genesis chapter two and verse seven we read, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Some believe here that man was given a spirit, such as God’s people are given today, but I disagree. Keep in mind the point that I’ve been making about Adam being created for the earth and not for heaven. Here we see that God formed Adam of the dust of the ground. This was his flesh and bones, his body. But the body was lifeless. Then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In other words, God administered CPR on Adam. This body that God formed was not alive until he was given the breath of life. We read throughout scripture that the air we breathe and the blood that pumps through our bodies is the essence of life. Without it, our bodies return to the dust, being useless. This verse is not really suggesting anything more than God gave Adam natural life. Not spiritual life, but natural life.
I know, I know. It says that Adam became a living soul. But consider First Corinthians chapter fifteen. In verse 45, Paul says, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Wait a minute. Notice the contrast made here. Adam was made a living soul, which we just read. But that is different than what is described here as a quickening spirit. It seems there is such a thing as a person who can live in a natural body without ever having spiritual life as well. Paul continues, “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” I know the language is confusing there and it’s even hard to read sometimes, but Paul is elaborating on the previous point. He basically says, “You have your natural life and then you have your spiritual life. They are two different things. You get the spiritual life after the natural life.” He then says, “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” There are multiple lessons contained in these verse, but I believe Paul is also confirming the point that Adam was created a natural being, not a spiritual one. Remember, he didn’t need to be created a spiritual being because his purpose was to live in this natural earth forever. I promise this will make more sense as we continue.
Now that we have talked about the creation of Adam, I want to spend the remainder of the time talking about his fall. Let’s go back to Genesis chapter two. In this chapter, we read the first, great commandment given to man while he was in the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter two and verse sixteen says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” This was the sole commandment given to man. There is one tree in this garden, you are not to touch. That is your only rule in this paradise I have created for you.
Also in this verse, we read the consequence of breaking that commandment. God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Well, that makes sense in light of what we’ve established so far. The wages of sin is death. Adam, you are going to return to the ground, for out of it was thou taken. You are not going to live forever on this earth if you eat of this fruit. Thou shalt surely die. That is your punishment if you eat that fruit.
But, wait. Something doesn’t add up here. Did you notice in Genesis 2:17 that the consequence of sinning would be immediate? God said, “In the day that thou eastest…thou shalt surely die.” God said, “Adam, in that same day that your body is digesting the forbidden fruit, the consequence of death will be upon you.” But Adam didn’t die that day. He walked out of the garden alive, lived for years and years, and even had children after that. Genesis 5:4 says, “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years.” So if he didn’t physical die that day, what happened?
Most would describe what occurred that day as being a spiritual death. But I want us to be careful about using that term. We’ve already established that Adam was not given spiritual life. He was given natural life. Plus, throughout my study, I can find no indication that anyone given spiritual life can ever lose that life. In fact, the Lord often stresses this can never be the case. In John chapter ten and verse twenty-seven, Christ said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Spiritual life is eternal life. It wouldn’t make much sense to say that a person who receives eternal life could lose it. It wouldn’t be very eternal then, would it? No, Adam didn’t die a quote/unquote spiritual death. So what happened?
Ephesians chapter two and verse one says, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” That’s our answer, folks. Adam died in trespasses and sins. I know this is the hardest part for us to wrap our minds around so I’ll try and explain this the best I can. Adam was created a natural being that was good. He was perfect. Even as nothing more than flesh and bones he had a perfect standing with God. That’s hard for us to imagine because we’ve never known life without sin. But in the beginning, there was no sin between natural man, flesh and bones, and God. Adam, even without a spiritual existence, so to speak, was able to communicate with God, have close fellowship and sweet communion with Him, and even walk with the voice of God in the garden. It was sin that changed all of that. We know now that man, in order to commune with God in this life, requires being born again or given that spiritual essence. That’s why Ephesians says, “And you hath he quickened.” Which is to say, we have been made alive spiritually. What changed for Adam after he sinned was that his good moral standing with God had been destroyed. God could not look at the natural man He had created and call Him good any longer. Hence, the need for that spiritual quickening. Hence, the need for being made born again. The natural man God had created good had been corrupted.
Adam did not die spiritually, but he now had need for spiritual life. The earth was cursed. Man was cursed. Man was dead in trespasses and sins. He was now unable to commune with God. So, the only way for Adam to ever regain that communion with God, or ever escape this corrupted world, would be if God gave him spiritual life so that he could one day go to heaven after he died naturally. Does that make sense?
Obviously, Adam directly suffered the consequences of his sin. So what does that mean for us? We weren’t there. We didn’t eat the fruit. What does it matter to us what Adam did? Well, the consequence of his sin is something we all suffer. Romans chapter five and verse twelve says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” It’s the “little leaven” concept Paul presented to the Corinthian church. He asked in First Corinthians chapter five, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” Think of it this way. Let’s say you’re drinking a cup of coffee and someone comes along and squirts just a tiny drop of poison into your cup. Would you drink it? I wouldn’t. That poison may only be a small amount in comparison to the coffee it was dropped into, but I’m not going to take my chances. That tiny dose of poison could very well affect me if I drink that coffee. Even a little leaven can contaminate the entire lump. Think of those microscopic blood clots which can very well bring down the entire function of the human body.
That’s not fair. Why should I have to suffer for what Adam did? Well, putting aside the arrogance of a question like that, which means you assume you would not have done the same as Adam, it makes perfect sense that we should all suffer. I know we like to think of ourselves as unique individuals and we are. But at the same time, we are collectively a lump called mankind. God did not just create one man when he created Adam. He created mankind. Then, God saw His creation, mankind, sin against Him. When the apostle Paul was preaching to the men of Athens in Acts chapter seventeen, he said, “God that made the world and all things therein…hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” All men, one blood. Consider us all as being within one body in the sight of God. When Adam sinned, that was the blood clot that killed us all.
I know when we generally think of Adam’s sin passing through all men, we think of it as being a sort of genetic disease which passes through the bloodstream. We read verses like Genesis 5:3 that says, “Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image.” So we think of it as passing from one generation to the next. But to help us understand why the consequences of Adam’s sin applies to all men, it might be better to see mankind as a whole that was affected all at once. Remember, we’re dealing with a timeless God who knew all people that would one day live on this earth even before the foundation of the world. Again, God saw his creation sin, mankind collectively, and was not bound to see only Adam and Eve in that moment.
This is a side note, but have you ever wondered why it was Adam’s sin that affected us and not Eve’s? Well, First Timothy chapter 2 and verse thirteen says, “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” I always pictured the serpent tricking Eve into eating the fruit and then Adam coming along after the fact and doesn’t realize what Eve is getting him into. But according to Genesis chapter three and verse six, Adam was there with her when she got deceived. So, I believe Adam was not deceived, or tricked into eating the fruit. It was something he thought out with his rational mind and decided, “Hey. I’m curious enough. I’ll take a bite and see what happens.” It appears to me that God had given Adam His commandment before Eve was even created. So, Adam was being directly, willingly disobedient to God. Perhaps the woman was only being disobedient to her husband. I can’t prove that God never gave never her the commandment also, but it would make sense that He didn’t when you read her part of punishment in the ordeal. God said to her, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” It’s a fitting punishment if her great sin was not listening to Adam. Now, the woman is commanded to let the husband have rule over her. Like I said, that’s just a side note.
I want to answer one more question this evening. So we have Adam’s sinful, depraved nature now. That is where mankind stands since sin entered the world. What does that mean? I think it is common to de-emphasize the depth of our sinfulness and depravity. We call it the flu, but the Bible calls it death. We often describe man’s nature as though we’re slightly inclined to sin. The Bible paints a much different picture. In fact, the Bible goes as far as to say we have absolutely no good in us by nature. None. The truth of God is foolishness to us. We have no desire for it. We are essentially a people in desperate need of salvation but don’t even have the capability to know that or care. This has never been an issue of will, it’s an issue of nature. Think of an infant or a young child. You don’t have to teach a child to misbehave. If you’re a parent, you know full well that it takes a whole lot of effort and patience to teach and discipline a child to a point where they willingly behave themselves. But there are a lot of folks that don’t believe that.
The Depth of Man’s Depravity
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0002
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 3/19/2009 6:00 PM
I tried to establish last week that Adam’s sin and his new nature, if you want to call it that, is the same nature we all have now. When you are first brought into this world, just as Seth was in Genesis chapter five, we are in Adam’s likeness, after his image. His image, of course, was no longer perfect as it was in the beginning. Once he disobeyed God and ate that forbidden fruit, not only was he going to die naturally one day, but that same day he died in trespasses and in sin. So what exactly does it mean to be dead in trespasses and sin?
I can tell you this, it is a far more serious condition than what many contemporary Christians believe it to be. The depravity of man is a doctrine rarely preached anymore. One, it’s not something we want to hear. Who wants to be told they’re a depraved, no-good, sinful, wicked, evil mess? No one that I know. Plus, we generally do not feel as wicked as the Bible says we are. It’s for the same reason a fish doesn’t feel wet…because it is immersed. Albert Einstein, in 1948, spoke of the nature of man in relation to the world as he addressed concerns about his atomic bomb. He said, “The true problem lies in the hearts of and thoughts of men. What terrifies us is not the explosive force of the atomic bomb, but the power of the wickedness of the human heart.”
As I said last week, it is all too common to de-emphasize the depth of our sinfulness. We call it the flu, but the Bible calls it death. D-E-A-T-H. Death! That’s not my interpretation. That’s what the Bible says. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. The Bible paints a clear enough picture as to what that means. But this is one of those occasions where we really have to rightly divide the word of truth. That doesn’t mean that we separate the false statements of the Bible from the true statements of the Bible. There are no false statements in the Bible. What that means is we have to rightly divide what we read, pay attention to its context, and place each part into its appropriate category.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. First Peter 3:20 tells us, “Eight souls were saved by water.” That’s speaking of Noah and his family during the flood. In Ephesians chapter two we read, “Even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.” I doubt there are any of us who confuse these two verses and believe them to be talking about the same kind of salvation. Obviously, Noah and his family were not raised to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus because of water. One is speaking of eternal salvation while the other is talking about the saving of lives, particularly of the wickedness that was in the world at that time before the flood. See the difference? Do you see what it means to rightly divide the word of truth?
That’s exactly what we have to do in the case of man’s nature. We certainly read of some commendable good works done by man throughout the scripture, but that should be considered in light of what the Bible says about man’s sinful nature and being born again. Think about those two expressions. Sinful nature and born again. The phrase born again seems to suggest there is a passing from no life to life. Considering, as I’ve already pointed out, the Bible describes us as dead, it makes sense that we’d have to be born again or quickened, which means to bring to life. But I’ll talk more about that later.
What about the phrase sinful nature? That’s probably not a foreign expression to any of us. But what does it mean to have a sinful nature? Does it merely suggest that we have the capacity to do evil? Does it simply mean we’re inclined to do evil? Or does it mean we are totally, completely, utterly sinful and there is no good in us at all? I believe the latter.
As we’ve read, the Bible describes man as being dead. So, let’s establish exactly what that means. In John chapter six and verse forty-four, Jesus himself says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” The old theologian, Jacob Arminius, taught that although human nature was seriously affected by the sin of Adam, man was not left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. Man’s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters and his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. But that’s not what is being taught here at all. According to this verse, no man can come to Christ unless God the Father draws him. Isn’t the objective in salvation that we go to Christ? After all, he is the way, the truth, and the life. That is absolutely correct, but Christ himself said it’s not going to happen. You’re not coming to me on your own. Only if my Father in heaven draws you first, will you come unto me. That sounds like spiritual helplessness to me.
The word draw in this verse is a key word. Let me read a couple of verses which also use this word. Acts 16:19 says, “And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers.” Then James 2:6 says, “Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?” That word, draw, essentially means to drag someone or something, forcefully if need be, possibly against their will. In either case, the one being drawn is not doing the work. From the moment man first sinned, we fell into the dark well of sin without any hope of ever climbing out on our own. That’s what Jesus is talking about here. It is God who had to reach down that well and pull us, or draw us, out.
Do you remember the story of the flood back in Genesis? Genesis chapter six and verse five tells us, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Notice how man’s condition is described here as an issue of his heart. The evil is being derived from his inner-most being. Whether this means they were depraved to the extent that I’ve said or that the utterly sinful condition can automatically applied to everyone throughout history, cannot really be determined in this verse alone. But it does provide some incite into the true nature of man. Now read Genesis chapter eight and verse twenty-one. It says, speaking of after the flood and after man has been almost altogether wiped off the face of the earth, “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.” God points out that man’s evil works were not simply the result of their maturity. They didn’t grow older and say, “You know what? I’m going to choose to sin.” No, God says he will not curse the ground any more because man’s heart is evil from his youth. It is his nature. Whatever terrible sins they committed in that day to the extent it repented the Lord that he had made them, they were not just evil acts they learned along the way. They were fulfilling their innermost desires.
Job chapter twenty-five says, “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse twenty says, “There is not a just man on earth.” Why not? We have the ability to use our functioning brains. Why can’t we see there is a God and his anger is kindled by our sin? Why can smart men and women read the Bible and yet not embrace the truth? It is because we are not all capable.
First Corinthians chapter one and verse eighteen says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” Please pay attention to the structure of this sentence. Paul is not suggesting that for those who believe will receive salvation because they believe or vice versa. He is talking about the already saved and the already perishing. He says, “to them that perish,” and “unto us which are saved.” For the already saved, the preaching of the gospel magnifies the power of God. But to those who perish, it’s nothing more than foolishness. In chapter two and verse fourteen, Paul says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” In order to gain anything from such spiritual teachings as the Bible presents, it requires a spiritual understanding. Remember what I said last week about Adam being made a natural man and not a spiritual man? Well, keep in mind, we are in his likeness and image. We are also born as a natural people. Not spiritual. So how could we comprehend spiritual things? We can’t. Paul says they require spiritual discernment which we lack. Notice he’s describing the condition of the natural man. He says the natural man cannot receive or even know the things of God. It’s like there’s another dimension or universe out there which natural man has no awareness of. We don’t see it. We don’t get it.
Can you understand now why we are described as dead in trespasses and sin? If not, let’s read some more. Go to Romans chapter eight and verse five. Paul says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Perhaps you say, “Well, what does that prove? He’s only talking about our good works versus our evil works.” That’s true, in part, but something much more is said here. First of all, pay close attention to the context of these verses. Paul has just finished establishing the point that the law and good works of men could never accomplish anything in the scheme of eternal salvation. Hence, the need for Christ. Okay, so what does he mean here by flesh? I believe he’s simply referring to our human flesh. And as we’ve already stated more than once, our flesh is corrupted. So much so that our flesh is eventually going to give out and return to the dust after a life of sweat, blood, broken bones, and other ailments. But he also goes as far as to say here the mind after the flesh, or to be carnally minded, is enmity against God. By the way, the word “enmity” means a “condition of hostility or hatred.” So the mind and innermost desires of man and our flesh, by nature, is evil. It hates and despises God. It goes without saying but if you hate God, you’ll hate all things related to God and His religion. Notice also how Paul makes that contrast between the carnal minded and the Spirit-minded. It seems to me Paul is teaching that without the Spirit, there’s nothing but evil or enmity against God in us.
He goes on and says, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Now, we’re getting somewhere. Paul says, “Brethren, you’re not in the flesh. You’re in the Spirit. But there is a condition. If you are in the Spirit then that means the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Are you getting a better sense of the lifeless sinners we are? Can you see yet how man’s evil heart and flesh will always be evil apart from God drawing us out of the dark well of sin and the Spirit of God doing a work in us? I hope so, but if not let’s keep reading.
Turn back to Romans chapter three. In verse ten, Paul says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” What a discouraging picture painted of mankind here. He says no one understands, no one seeks after God, we are all unprofitable, there is absolutely none that are doing good. Do you think he was exaggerating? I don’t. In fact, he said in verse nine, “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.” Of all the verses we read in the Bible, there should be no question that this carnal, sinful, utterly depraved condition is universally applied to every person of every generation.
Psalm fifty-one and verse five says, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm fifty-eight and verse three says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born.” Job chapter fourteen and verse four asked the question, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” Job chapter fifteen and verse fourteen through sixteen says, “What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” Isaiah chapter sixty-four verse six says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Filthy rags?! By the way, Isaiah was not talking about dish rags or the rags you might use to wipe grease off your hands after working in the shop. He’s talking about medical rags. The kind that were used to wipe pus and open sores on people with skin diseases. That is the picture the Bible paints of man.
I got to tell you, folks. This is not supposed to be a pleasant subject. What could be pleasant about hearing how truly horrific we are by nature? There’s nothing pleasant in this subject. But, thank the Lord, this is not where the story ends. Perhaps you say, “But you just said there no good in us, there’s no capacity to discern what is good, there is no way we can even see what is good, and no capability of ever achieving good?” That’s right. But that’s only by nature, in and of ourselves. That’s really the point. Without God first drawing us, without the Spirit first dwelling in us, we have no hope. We have no chance. We are left with nothing but the works of our flesh.
Galatians chapter five and verses nineteen through twenty-one provides us a list of those works: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Which we would not if we were left to these works alone. But he goes on to describe the fruits of the Spirit. Once the Spirit dwells in us, we then have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, and temperance. Before the Spirit, it is not possible to have those things. So how do we get the Spirit?
This is a subject I will address in detail next week, but I do want to point out a few things that are said in John chapter three about this. In that chapter, Jesus is having a conversation with a Pharisee, Nicodemus. Nicodemus approaches Jesus because he believes there’s something to this man from Nazareth. He secretly goes in the cover of night to see him and says, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus responds very strangely and says, “Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Here is some confirmation, straight from the mouth of Christ, that no one can be a partaker of that spiritual life and spiritual world that is the kingdom of God without first being born again, or born of the Spirit. Nicodemus is confused by the concept and asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Aha! Nicodemus has answered his own question. Have you ever noticed how the new birth is always related to some natural occurrence that cannot happen apart from a miracle? Can a person be born a second time? No. Can a person be brought back from the dead? No. But those are both examples of what the spiritual new birth is liken to in the Bible. By the way, the reason it’s called the new birth, or being born again, is because you’ve already been born once. You didn’t have much control over that either. And you don’t have any control over the spiritual birth.
The New Birth and God’s Irresistible Grace
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0003
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 3/26/2009 6:00 PM
So last week I left off as I was talking about the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John chapter three. Allow me to read a portion of the chapter to you: “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
I have tried my best to present over the last two weeks, man’s nature, or flesh as Christ calls it here, as being one of sin and corruption. It is one without spiritual life and one that even lacks spiritual awareness. Remember, Paul wrote, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” It is not a matter of will, but of nature. We all come into this world as a natural person after Adam’s likeness and image that is only capable of minding the things of the flesh, which is enmity or hostility or hated against God and spiritual things, so in turn, it is absolutely impossible for us to please God.
Jesus says plainly in John chapter three, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” That makes perfect sense to me. If you had a dog that was about to deliver a litter of puppies, would expect anything to pop out other than puppies? How about some kittens? Would it be bizarre if your dog had a litter of kittens? Of course it would. So is it strange to think that we are nothing more than fleshly beings, entirely natural, until we have been born of the Spirit and given spiritual life? I don’t think it is. That makes just as much sense to me as a dog giving birth to more dogs. Think of it this way. We all come into this world as a natural person. We are walking, talking, breathing, thinking human beings. But there is a spiritual world all around us all the while. We can’t see it. We don’t know it’s there. We hear people talking about it but what they’re saying is nothing more than foolishness in our minds. We’ve never had any kind of spiritual experience to give credence to what they’re saying. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Maybe you say, “But wait a minute. I know I’ve had spiritual experiences in my life.” And I’m sure you have because Jesus said that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. At some point after your natural existence begins, whether it be in your mother’s womb, as an infant, at the age of thirteen, or when you’re eighty, if you are born of the Spirit of God, you are made able to see the spiritual world that is around us that you could not see before. In Second Kings chapter six we read about the prophet Elisha who was telling the secrets of the Syrians’ plan to attack Israel to the king of Israel as they were given to him by the Lord. As soon as the king of Syria found out, he sent a great army of soldiers to get Elisha and we’re told they compassed the city about. The next morning, Elisha’s servant went out and saw the army and ran to tell Elisha. Elisha says, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” The servant had no idea what he was talking about. He’s doing the math and thinking, Well, there’s two of us and a multitude of them. So Elisha prayed that his eyes would be open to see the mountain tops full of angels with horses and chariots of fire. And his eyes were opened. That servant’s flesh could see the flesh; he could see the Syrian army. But he lacked a spiritual awareness; a spiritual sight. So he could not see the army of angels because they are spiritual. I might add that Elisha could not give him that sight. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord opened his eyes to see that spiritual world around him.
Going back to John chapter three, Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus tries to think this through and asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Nicodemus, born of the flesh, cannot seem to comprehend a spiritual birth so he’s trying to figure out how a person can be born a second time. Little does he know, Jesus is talking about a different kind of birth. Jesus then says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” By the way, the water being talked about here is not material water or the waters of baptism. Jesus says in the next chapter, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” I love what John Gill wrote about this living water of Christ. He said, “This well of water denotes the plenty of it; for the grace of God is exceeding abundant, it super abounds all the aboundings of sin; it comes in large flows into the hearts of regenerate persons, and flows out of them, as rivers of living water. It is a seed which remains, an immortal and never dying principle; it is inseparably connected with eternal life; it is the beginning of it, and it issues in it; whoever has grace, shall have glory; and whoever are called, sanctified, justified, and pardoned, shall be glorified: such is the nature, influence, and use of this living water.”
You see, being made born again is more than just being given an awareness or insight into the spiritual world around us. You are also given spiritual life itself. When you are born into this world by your mother, you then have natural life. When you are born of the Spirit, you then have spiritual life. The only reason we’re given spiritual life, of course, is for the purpose of one day dwelling in heaven. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need spiritual life. We wouldn’t need a spiritual existence if we’re never going to dwell in a spiritual place. And just as you cannot have spiritual life without first being born of the Spirit, it is impossible to be born of the Spirit and not have spiritual life.
Next, Jesus said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again.” What’s to marvel at? First of all, if Nicodemus or anyone reading this lesson on the new birth has not been born again, he lacks the ability to comprehend such a spiritual teaching. Secondly, this might leave even the born again person to marvel because you might be thinking, “Well, if I’m not born again, and if I’m incapable of getting myself born again because I can’t even see the kingdom of God to know it’s there, then how in the world do I get born again?” Jesus went on to say, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Jesus says the Spirit of God is just like the wind. You cannot beckon the wind. You cannot control the wind. You cannot predict the wind. The best meteorologists in the world only have the capacity to predict it’s going to be a windy day. But if you’re standing outside on that day, they can’t tell you when a gust of wind will hit you. The Spirit, much like the wind, cannot be seen as it’s moving. But as it’s passing, you can see the effects it has on the things it touches. The Spirit and the new birth it performs in God’s people is not under our control. We have absolutely no influence over it.
The old theologian, Jacob Arminius, and so many of today’s Christians teach that the Spirit calls inwardly all of those who are called outwardly by the gospel invitation. In other words, whenever someone hears the truth presented to them naturally, the Spirit immediately stands to attention and moves upon the one hearing the truth. But wouldn’t that mean we have the capability to beckon the wind? Now if the Bible actually said such a thing, I would sure believe it. But it doesn’t. The Bible says, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The Arminian belief goes on to say, “The Spirit cannot regenerate the sinner until he believes; faith (which is man’s contribution) proceeds and makes possible the new birth.” Now if this is what you have believe, I do not want to come across as critical of you. You’ve likely never been taught anything else. You’ve likely never heard anything else. But that teaching is not based on the Bible. I only pray that you can see what the Bible truly presents on the matter, that the Lord will give you understanding, and that you will not be, as Peter described, willingly ignorant.
During the break, I was trying to find an article somewhere on the Web that would explain possibly the greatest misconception about the new birth that is taught today. I found one that illustrates it quite well. Let me read some of the points the author, Paul Levin, makes in this. He says, “One evangelist was asked why he preached so often on ‘Ye must be born again.’ He answered, ‘Because ye must be born again.’ Have YOU been born again? Without it, you have no hope of escaping the terrors of hell or enjoying the glories of heaven.” He goes on to say the new birth is a mystery you cannot explain and it is a work of God alone. He says the reason why you must be born again is because you have a sinful nature and you cannot save yourself. He also explains how a person can be born again. He states it is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God alone. To all of that I say, Amen! But then he concludes the article by saying, “You do not receive Christ by taking communion, or by being baptized, or by joining a church, or by any other human effort. You receive Christ by faith and trust alone in His finished work on the cross.” Do you have any idea how many wonderful sermons I have heard over the years which presented the precious truth of God’s saving grace and then right at the end of the sermon, the preacher throws in that dreaded one liner which nullifies every point he has made thus far? This writer here stresses more than once that the new birth is only accomplished by God alone. He says it can never be accomplished by any human effort. But then at the very end he says you must receive Christ and trust in His finished work of redemption in order to be born again and saved.
Beyond just what the Bible teaches, do you see the holes in this logic? The new birth, and therefore salvation itself, is by the finished work of our Lord. It is by the Lord alone without any need whatsoever of human effort. It is not by blood, it is not by our works, it is not even by our will. Yet, some the very ones who teach that and believe that will then turn around and tell you that if you don’t believe or trust in the Lord you will not be born again and you will not be eternally saved. How can we possibly reconcile that notion with John chapter one which says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” You could not have come to Him, to believe in Him, or to trust in Him without Him first giving you the power to do so. While we should stress that “ye must born again”, we should also stress that you cannot see or enter that spiritual kingdom of God without first being born again. It can never be the other way around. So it makes no sense to say we must first believe, etc. in order to be born again.
Now, I apologize if I begin to sound redundant. You see, I had four questions I wanted to answer tonight. One, why do we need to be born again? Two, what happens when we are born again? Three, how do we get born again? And four, does the new birth automatically mean eternal salvation for the person? I believe just by looking at John chapter three which I’ve done and in light of what I’ve presented the last two weeks on this program, I’ve answered all of those questions. But I do not want to leave a single stone unturned. I do not want to be accused of picking and choosing my verses in order to make my case. So, I want to continue and really establish some of the same points I’ve already made and show you how firmly grounded the doctrine of irresistible grace truly is in the Bible. It’s everywhere. It is all throughout the Word of God. In fact, I have more than two pages of Bible verses here that I’ve jotted down over the last week or so that very clearly present what I’ve been saying. And as I said earlier in the program, though I believe in the doctrine of irresistible grace, I am not Calvinist. Let me read to you a line I pulled from a brief explanation of this doctrine according to a Calvinist website. It says, “The internal call made by the Holy Spirit in the new birth cannot be rejected and it always results in conversion.” Do you know what conversion is? In context of what we’re talking about, conversion would be that point when a person comes to believe, repent, profess the name of the Lord, starting going to church every Sunday, and things like that. The Calvinist believes the Spirit’s work of regeneration is always going to be synonymous with the conversion of the person. So, if you’re born again, you will, in fact, believe in the Lord. I don’t believe that.
I believe the regeneration by the Spirit is a work on the heart, so to speak. In Ezekiel thirty-six we read, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Conversion, on the other hand, is that point when your mind finally catches up to what your heart has already known. Have you ever wondered about those cultures which have never been touched by modern civilization, have never had religion taught to them, yet they already have some inkling of the spiritual world around them. I remember the story of these airmen that used some remote island in the South Pacific to drop off supplies during World War II, I think. They would take supplies for the war to this island, leave them there, and then return to get them when they were needed. I’m not sure if they were aware of this or not at the time, but there were people living on the island. They were a people that had never been in contact whatsoever with the modern world around them. So for them to see this giant machine fall out of the sky, drop off what they believed to be gifts to them, and then fly away, in their minds, it was nothing short of a miracle. As the story goes, they actually set up an alter to this airplane which they believed to be a god. The airmen who they saw getting in and out of the plane were angels. They also believed that one day this god would return to finally carry them away to the glorious world beyond. What do you suppose gave them that idea? Romans 2:14 says, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts.” It is not necessary for the gospel to be preached or believed in order for God to work upon a man’s heart. Now, these islanders did not have all of the facts straight. God is not an airplane, for instance. But they did have a sense of the spiritual world around them. Eventually some Christian missionaries heard about these folks and went there to share the gospel of Christ with them. They went as far as to tell the missionaries they believed man must have some kind of soul in order to ever board the plane when it finally comes for them. What in the world could have given them that idea? These people had absolutely no religion at all in their culture before World War II. What made them think they should build an alter to pray at? They were not taught these things. But something gave them those ideas. Perhaps they were born of the Spirit. As Paul said, perhaps they were doing by nature the things contained in the law. Not by the nature of man, but the nature of the Spirit moving in man.
Those missionaries went on to try and convert the islanders to Christianity but it was rejected. I guess they preferred their version of religion. But maybe you’d rather have a biblical example of this. I would too. Ever heard of King Agrippa? In Acts chapter twenty-six, Paul is speaking to this man as another man, Festus, accuses him of being crazy. Paul says, I’m only speaking the truth. Now, King Agrippa was there as a sort of judge on the matter. Paul says in verse twenty-six, “For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.” King Agrippa considers what Paul has said and responds, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” But the Apostle Paul just said that he knew Agrippa believed. You see, the apostles had quite a bit of authority and even some special abilities given to them by God on certain occasions. For instance, in Acts chapter five, Ananias and his wife had been greedy in their giving to the church. Yet, Peter, without any human knowledge of their greed, said to him, “Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” How did he know that’s what Ananias did? How did Nathan know about the hidden sins of David? Because God gave them that information to use for His purpose. The Apostle Paul wasn’t guessing about the internal happenings of Agrippa’s heart. It wasn’t merely wishful thinking. I believe Paul pointed out the fact that Agrippa had been born of the Spirit, even though Agrippa himself was not convinced enough in mind to convert to the lifestyle of Christianity. There is a difference between regeneration or the new birth and conversion or discipleship. You can be born again and never become a disciple. But you can never become a disciple without being born again. Discipleship requires faith and faith is not possible without the new birth.
Let’s go now to Hebrews chapter eleven. Now, I am not denying the role that faith plays in salvation. But there are some vitally important things to understand about faith. Hebrews chapter eleven is best known for being that great faith chapter of the Bible where we read about a number of people who displayed wonderful works of faith in their lives. Hebrews chapter eleven and verse one says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” If you ask anyone to define faith for you, they will inevitably quote this verse. Now, if you make the mistake of defining faith as being the good works we do in service to the Lord, this verse makes very little sense. Yet, I’ve heard several say that. In fact, they’ll point to this chapter of the Bible and say, “Look. The men and women are described here as being so faithful because of the works they did.” What does “substance” mean? It literally means a “setting under”. Faith is the very support and essence of our hope. What is our hope? Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We often talk about hope as though it’s wishful thinking of an uncertain possibility. But that’s not biblical hope. Our hope in Christ of His second coming and our entry into heaven is the glad and thankful anticipation of something that is sure to come. It is reserved in heaven for you and kept by the power of God. And I believe if the Lord says he’ll keep it, it’s not going anywhere. Our hope is entirely in Christ. But if faith is nothing more than our good works, even if it is in service to the Lord, how can that be the very essence of our hope? Am I supposed to put all of my trust, all of my hope, in what I can accomplish? Lord, help me if that was the case.
The verse goes on to say, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” What things cannot be seen? Spiritual things. I described the new birth already as being an awakening to the spiritual world around us. Now picture this. Remember in Ezekiel, God takes out that heart of stone and puts in its place a heart of flesh. Imagine the inside of the natural man as being dark and corrupted as the Bible describes it to be. Then, the Spirit comes and places in the midst of that darkness within us, a beautiful ball of glowing light. Now that light is completely spiritual. It is of divine origin. According to Galatians chapter five, what comes wrapped in that ball of light is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, and temperance. That light influences us. We still have the darkness and the sinful nature, but now we have something else. When we follow that guiding light within us, we make manifest those unseen things. Our works do not produce faith. It is faith that produces our works. In Galatians five, those things I just mentioned are described as fruits of the Spirit. What comes first? The fruit or the tree that bears that fruit?
After the writer of Hebrews describes to us a few examples of those who truly exercised the faith God had given them, we read in verse six, “But without faith it is impossible to please him.” So faith is absolutely mandatory in order to please God, but whose faith is it? Who can take credit for it? Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet, but everything the Bible tells us, everything that is truth, always gives God the glory. While the faithful things we do please God and are commendable, ultimately, God gets the glory for those things because it’s only by him we are able to do those things. Before you accuse me of depriving man of his free-will, let me say this. The doctrine of free-will as it is often preached to the extent it is, is born out of pure arrogance. I believe whole-heartedly that man has free-will. But only within the bounds of his capabilities. For instance, I don’t believe men can flap their arms and fly. Am I denying man’s free-will by saying that? Of course not. In the same way, man cannot be faithful until he has been given faith. He cannot get faith until he is born of the Spirit. He cannot be born of the Spirit until God chooses to do so. Is that a heresy? Is that blasphemy? Does that make the participant of a cult? If I am guilty of anything here, it is that I’ve given too much glory to God. But can there be such a thing?
Election and Predestination
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0004
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 4/9/2009 6:00 PM
So two weeks ago on the program, our subject was the new birth. I made the points, as you may have heard at the start of today’s show, that the new birth is impossible to incite through human will or human effort. Jesus said you cannot enter or even see the kingdom of God and that spiritual world without first being born of the Spirit. That implies we cannot begin to seek out the spiritual world around us or even spiritual life itself without the Spirit first quickening us, or bringing us into that life. Ephesians chapter two says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship.” Colossians chapter two says, “Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God.” Romans chapter five says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” First John chapter four says, “We love him, because he first loved us.” Romans chapter twelve says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Matthew chapter eleven says, “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” First Corinthians chapter two says, “Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Philippians chapter one says, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ…to believe on him.” Galatians chapter two says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Acts 2:39 says, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” First Timothy chapter one says, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Why do we need to be born again? Because we cannot enter the kingdom of God unless we are. What happens when we’re born again? We become enlightened to spiritual things and are given the capacity to please God. How do we get born again? Only by the work of the Spirit of God which moves where it wants and when it wants. Does the new birth automatically mean eternal salvation for the person? Yes, it does, though it is not the new birth itself which accomplishes salvation. But those whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. The new birth is our entrance into eternal life and eternal life is just that, eternal.
Now, let us march on to the doctrine of election and predestination. You can almost hear the multitudes gasp in unison at the mention of predestination as though that word is a bad word. How dare he suggest there is such a thing as predestination?! He’s a blasphemer and a liar! That is, unless, predestination is a biblical teaching. Ephesians chapter one says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
There should be absolutely no debate as to whether predestination is taught in the Bible. What can be debated, however, is what predestination means. Some say God chose a people for eternal salvation based his prior knowledge of those who would come to believe in Him at some point in their life. Some say God predestinated and orchestrated every human event in history, both of a timely nature and eternal nature. I heard one theory this week for the first time ever. I’ve been surfing some Bible forums on the Internet and one gentleman suggested that God chose for eternal salvation all Gentile people and a few select Jews, leaving the majority of the Jews to their own hell-bound fate. Some pretend the subject doesn’t exist, like the Bible says nothing about it at all. Others say God elected a people to receive eternal salvation based solely on His own purpose and will, regardless of how His chosen people conduct themselves during their lifetimes. I happen to fall into the latter group and I’ll explain why.
There is a reason I did not begin the subject of eternal salvation on this program with the doctrine of predestination. I believe that is a mistake made by many true believers of God’s sovereign grace. We hear someone suggest that the new birth and, in turn, eternal salvation itself is somehow accomplished through, at least in part, human will or effort, so we immediately correct them by saying a person can only be saved if God chose them before the foundation of the world. Human nature dictates that most people are going to immediately reject such a suggestion. To hear God predestinated those who would be finally saved and nothing we can do will change any of His decisions violates man’s pride in a big way and creates in us a sense of helplessness. When you first approach someone with the teaching of predestination, you can see the fear and sometimes resentment fill up in their eyes as they imagine this tyrannical god, sitting on his high and lofty throne, choosing some to save and damning the rest. They start to wonder, “What if I’m not saved? What if God didn’t choose me?” Of course, they know full well they’ve had a very personal, real relationship with God and the notion they are not saved is just foolishness. Plus, our human understanding of love requires equality. If God did not provide a chance for redemption to all, well, that’s unfair and contradicts our seemingly logical conclusions about God’s love.
Most of the people I have to spoken to about predestination do not struggle with seeing the biblical teaching of it. What the Bible says about predestination is actually very simply stated and quite obvious. To be honest, it’s almost too simple for some folks to wrap their minds around. No, they struggle most with their perception of it. Perhaps they do not yet understand the depth of man’s depravity and our dead state in trespasses and sins, so they don’t understand our absolute need for God to draw us out of that condition and irresistibly impose eternal life and salvation. So they try to rationalize the concept of predestination in their minds. But the problem with that is, like I said, our own nature is going to get in the way. Jeremiah forty-nine tells us, “Thy terribleness and the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.” If we are not willing to discard human emotions, preconceived ideas, and allow the Bible to teach us exactly what we ought to believe, we might as well not even attempt to study out the Word of God. We have to find a balance between being leery of strange doctrines and being willing to notice our own errors in what we believe. I pray I can present to you well the doctrine of predestination and show you its firm roots in the Bible. I also pray you will be able to see it, not through the vain perceptions of man or human logic, but through the loving, merciful grace of our God in heaven. I should tell you, if this is your first time listening, you may want to go back and listen to the previous three episodes of this show first in order to fully understand what I intend to say now.
Let’s go to Ephesians chapter one which I read earlier. Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” All four of those verses make up a single sentence. In one sentence, the Bible clarifies for us exactly what predestination means. Let’s look at this.
The first verse I read, which is verse three, we see three different uses of the word bless or some form of it: blessed, blessed, and blessings. If you were to look up these three words in a Greek dictionary, Greek being the language they were translated from, you’ll notice that each of these three words are different. They are not translated from the same word. The first literally means “worthy of being adored or praised”. The second refers to a certain prosperity given to a favored individual or group. The third means “benefits”. So let’s take those definitions, insert them into this verse, and reread it using those words. We would read, “Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath favored us with all spiritual benefits in heavenly places in Christ.”
Notice how Paul begins this concise, yet exhaustive, lesson on predestination by directing our praise to God. In other words, what is about to be taught to us here is something God should be adored and praised for. This is God’s work of grace. This is God’s work of redemption. When it comes to our faith, our love, our eternal salvation, the Bible directs all of the praise, honor, and glory to God. It is pointed out to us in Ephesians chapter two that none of this plan of salvation incorporates man’s ability or effort. Paul wrote, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” All of the praise should go to God. Keep that in mind.
Next, we are told God hath blessed us, which is to say He has given us a blessing based on favoritism. If you are troubled by the thought that God would show favoritism, then I suggest you pay close attention to the Bible as you read. You’ll find that His favoritism is clearly evident throughout the scripture. Romans chapter nine says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” Regardless of why you might believe God showed favoritism towards Jacob over Esau, the point remains, God does show favoritism. He blesses some and not others. That’s the very definition of favoritism. You cannot favor anyone without neglecting to favor another. For instance, do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream? Well, you really cannot have a favorite without there being at least two options to choose from. If vanilla is your only option, then how can you favor vanilla? To favor something or someone demands there be another that is unfavored. It hardly matters what you believe concerning how man is eternally saved, because ultimately we all believe that God favors some in the end and not others. Unless, of course, you believe that every person that lives will go to heaven, which is obviously not true according to the Bible.
So what kind of blessing did God give to those He favored? Paul wrote, “Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Those God favored were given spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. As I said, that word blessing refers to a benefit. In this case, a spiritual benefit. I was listening to another religious program here on BlogTalkRadio this week called “Be Encouraged Radio” and the host was talking about the doom and gloom of our current financial mess in this country and the role the church plays in all of it. I actually called in to speak with him and we talked briefly about the prosperity doctrine that is popular in some circles today, where preachers actually suggest that if you give yourself to the Lord, the Lord will give back to you, not only spiritual blessings, but also financial prosperity. That is an insult to poor Christians everywhere and utterly false. The Bible goes as far as to say it’s actually dangerous to be rich. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. No, the benefit given to the people spoken of here in Ephesians one is of a spiritual nature. They are spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
That phrase, in heavenly places in Christ, ultimately points us in the right direction as to what these spiritual blessings are. First, they are spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Obviously, heavenly places would be in contrast to earthly or worldly places. So we might conclude these blessings are of a timely nature. For instance, the spiritual blessings we receive during our lifetime, when we pray, when we are at church, and so on. As I talked about last week, through the new birth, we receive those precious fruits of the Spirit of God; love, joy, peace, and others. Those are certainly spiritual blessings, but the blessings or benefits being described in Ephesians go even further. Notice verse twenty which says, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” Where does Christ sit at the hand of God? In heaven itself. Now read Ephesians chapter two and verse four, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 1:3 tells us that everyone whom God has favored has been given all spiritual blessings, both timely and eternal, which includes a home in glory, a mansion in heaven. He also stresses that it is all in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. As I intend to talk about next week, it is not enough for God to favor us or to accomplish the new birth within us, Christ must also justify us. But I suppose we already knew all of that. Now comes the harder part for some. Paul is not finished writing. He goes on to describe what that favoritism of God was based on.
He writes in the next verse, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” That word, according, which this verse begins with is to say, “because of” or “based upon”. In other words, what we’ve read already is based upon what we are about to read. If we are to understand who those spiritual blessings were given to or, more specifically, why they were given them, we have to understand what Paul is about to write. He says, “According as he hath chosen us.” The “us” in that phrase would be those God favored. So, God chose who He would favor with spiritual blessings. This already points to a sovereign choice made by God, but really does not prove anything yet. He does describe though when the choice was made. He says, “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” In God’s infinite knowledge of past, present, and future, He knew all men and women that would one day walk this earth before the foundation of the world, making Him fully capable of choosing His people before the world was even created. Then Paul writes, “That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Now we’re really getting into it. This doesn’t tell us what His choice was based on, but it does tell us why He had to make a choice in the first place. Notice how the Apostle Paul is slowly building his case to the church at Ephesus.
Election and Predestination (part 2)
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0005
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 4/16/2009 6:00 PM
I have a story I want to tell you. Listen to this. There was a man who gave his personal testimony one night at church. He told how God had sought him and found him. How God had loved him, called him, saved him, delivered him, cleansed him, and healed him. It was a tremendous testimony to the glory of God. After the meeting, one rather legalistic brother took him aside and said, “You know, I really appreciate all that you said about what God did for you, but you didn’t really mention anything about your part in all it. Salvation is really a relationship between us and God. You should have mentioned something about your part.” The man said, “Oh. I apologize. I’m sorry. I really did mean to mention that. You see, while God was seeking me, loving me, calling me, saving me, and cleansing me, I was running away, hating Him, ignoring His call, committing sin, and getting dirtier by the day.”
I like that. That man understood our relationship with God perfectly. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility. As I said before on this show, we cannot and will not truly allow ourselves to understand how we are saved unless we remove the pride in order to see our full dependence upon the Lord. We are the sinners. He is the savior. He gave us love, joy, peace, goodness, faith, understanding, the ability to repent, redemption, and eternal life. What did we do? What, name one thing, did we contribute to salvation? We did nothing but create a people in need of saving. We are the sinners. He is the savior. That’s not something we should ever forget.
Let’s continue on in Ephesians chapter one. What does it mean to be holy and without blame? It has already been established that our subject in this text is concerning eternal life. We are talking about how the sinner can be saved. I feel pretty safe in assuming that we all understand how we have all come short of the glory of God. There is none that is perfect or sinless. If we are to one day go to heaven, each one of us has a need for a savior. That savior, of course, being the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and by doing so, He satisfied the wrath of God and paid the penalty for every one of our shortcomings. We will never meet perfection or become holy and without blame. But through the blood of Christ, we are holy and without blame. That is a necessity for eternal salvation. All of this goes back to what I have presented during the first three episodes of this show. Unless God first draws us, we cannot come one step closer to being holy and without blame. If our spiritual life, even it’s very beginning, is solely dependent on God choosing to draw us, then Paul is establishing here, again, why that choice had to be made by God. We were not going to make it. We could not make it. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. So, in order for anyone to be holy and blameless, God had to make a choice as to who would receive these spiritual blessings.
Perhaps you say, “Well, sure. But God gave this opportunity to everyone.” I want you to notice that what is being described here is not instructions for us to become holy and without blame, but it describes the outcome of God’s choice. He says, “ That we should be holy and without blame.” That word, should, does not denote a possibility. It expresses an absolute. That’s generally the case when you read that word in scripture. For instance, that word is used in John chapter nine. I just preached on this chapter last night actually. Jesus and His disciples pass by a blind man and the disciples want to know what caused this guy to be blind. They think that maybe he or his parents committed some sin which caused it. Jesus responds, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Do you think Jesus was hoping to see the works of God manifested in him? Do you think Jesus merely thought there was a good chance of it happening? Or do you think Jesus knew full-well it was going to happen? In verse six we read, “When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” When God says something should happen, that means it will happen. If God chose someone before the foundation of the world and gave to them all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, they will have eternal life. It is all, as Paul writes, in love.
Ephesians one and verse five says, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” Paul is not telling us anything we haven’t already heard. He’s basically repeating himself, but at the same time, clarifying his point. He says this choice of God is, in fact, predestination. So what does it mean for God to predestinate someone? This really is not a difficult concept at all. Predestinated is a compound word. We have pre which means to come beforehand. Destinated means to appoint, decree, to mark out, or to bound. Remember, God is making the choice to grant certain ones he favors with spiritual blessings. He is predestinating, or decreeing, before the foundation of the world who would be given the new birth, spiritual life, the redemption brought by Christ, and a home in heaven itself. The Bible, however, does not say that God decrees or predestinates every event or action in human history. As I said three weeks ago, just because he gives a person spiritual life does not mean that person will become a disciple nor will God force him to do so.
I should also point out that God is not predestinating anyone other than those who are ultimately saved. God does not predestinate people to hell. No, he mercifully, lovingly draws people out of that fate. He adopts them into His family. He takes certain ones away from the hell-bound family of Adam, adopting them in His own through Jesus Christ, who satisfied all of the legal requirements of this adoption. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. I know folks generally argue, “But if God predestinates some to heaven, then he is consequently predestinating the rest to hell.” That’s a reasonable, logical human argument, but that’s not one the Bible makes. Lean not unto thine own understanding. The Bible says God predestinates those to heaven, but not others to hell. We can make all the seemingly sound conclusions we want, but the Bible defines the ultimate fate of hell-bound sinners as being our fault. Not His.
Finally, Paul tells us what this choice was truly based on. He says at the end of verse five, “According to the good pleasure of his will.” Whose will? Not ours, but His. Turn with me to Romans chapter nine. We’ll come back to Ephesians. It stands to reason that if we cannot come to God until He first comes to us in the new birth, and if the new birth is also the start of spiritual or eternal life itself, as I addressed three weeks ago, then it only makes sense that God’s choice would have to be a sovereign one. It cannot be based on our will or our works. The Apostle Paul confirms that in writing to the Romans. In chapter nine, he’s talking about the twin brothers whose birth we read about in Genesis chapter twenty-five, Jacob and Esau, and he says, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Now, I have to confession to make. When I am doing show prep the week before a broadcast, I will scour the Internet looking for opposing views to what I believe. I do this so I can be sure to answer all objections people might have to what I present. If folks have questions, I’d rather not leave them unanswered. So, as I was searching the Web this week, I found an old sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Romans 9:15. Let me read to you a portion of this:
“It is a terrible text, and I will be honest with it if I can. One man says the word “hate” does not mean hate; it means “love less:”—”Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I loved less.” It may be so: but I don’t believe it is. At any rate, it says “hate” here; and until you give me another version of the Bible, I shall keep to this one. The fact is, God loved Jacob, and he did not love Esau; he did choose Jacob, but he did not choose Esau; he did bless Jacob, but he never blessed Esau; his mercy followed Jacob all the way of his life, even to the last, but his mercy never followed Esau; he permitted him still to go on in his sins, and to prove that dreadful truth, “Esau have I hated.” Others, in order to get rid of this ugly text, say, it does not mean Esau and Jacob; it means the nation; it means Jacob’s children and Esau’s children; it means the children of Israel and Edom. I should like to know where the difference lies. Is the difficulty removed by extending it? Some of the Wesleyan brethren say, that there is a national election; God has chosen one nation and not another. They turn round and tell us it is unjust in God to choose one man and not another. Now, we ask them by everything reasonable, is it not equally unjust of God to choose one nation and leave another?”
That was part of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon in 1859. To be honest, most folks I have spoken to that hold to an Arminian or Wesleyan profession, if they are at all knowledge of the Bible, they do not reject the doctrine of predestination altogether. Where they struggle is in the merit for God’s choosing. Why did God love Jacob and not Esau? If we are going to answer that, we must first lay aside our objections to the notion that God would hate anyone. He obviously does according to this text. Have you ever heard the story of King Charles and the philosophers? King Charles asked them, “What is the reason why, if you had a pail of water, and weighed it, and then put a fish into it, that the weight would be the same?” Well, they debated the question and discussed it for hours and gave many elaborate reasons for why that is. Finally, one of them asked, “Is that even true?” So, they took a bucket of water, weighed it, dropped in a fish, and weighed it again. It turned out, the bucket, surprisingly enough, actually weighed more with the fish in it. So when we are talking about Bible doctrine, we can make reasonable arguments for anything, but we cannot deny what is so plainly written. We cannot ignore or overlook the facts. By now, I would hope the idea that God would choose one over another is obviously truth to you.
Why did God choose to love Jacob and not Esau? Paul writes in verse eleven, “For the children, speaking of Jacob and Esau, being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” Is there any question as to what this verse is stressing to its readers? Many claim that Jacob was chosen based on his works. Putting aside for a moment that this verse in Romans tells us it was not based on works, but the pure election of God, what exactly did Jacob do? In Genesis twenty-eight, we read about Jacob’s famous dream. It was an incredible dream where God opened the doors of heaven to him, so he could see God sitting at the top of the ladder, and the angels ascending and descending upon it. As soon as he woke up he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” And he was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” If Jacob had such a great faith then you would think he would not have been afraid, but would have rejoiced that God had given him such a wonderful experience. Then we read about Jacob’s bargain. God had simply said to him, “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” He did not say anything about what Jacob was to do: God only said, I’ll do it. Then, if you read carefully, Jacob makes a sort of bargain with God. He says, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father’s house in peace, then, then shall, the Lord be my God.” What audacity! Only if God does all of this for him, will he then live up to his end of the bargain. And that’s only the beginning. The whole way through there are several reasons to be ashamed of Jacob. Even his name suggests his true character which Jacob literally means “heel catcher”. He was a schemer. But none of that really matters. If we are going to do good works like those who are presented in the hall-of-fame faith chapter of the Bible, Hebrews eleven, it is only because we have first been born of the Spirit. John Gill said, “The purpose of God according to election might stand, means the decree of God, which is entirely free, and depends upon his own will and choice. It stands firm and immutable, and is not to be disannulled by earth or hell, for it stands not on the precarious foot of works.”
What about God’s foreknowledge? Doesn’t Romans chapter eight say, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate?” Doesn’t that prove that God’s choice was based on His foreknowledge of works or will or the belief of people? No, it does not. That word, know, k-n-o-w, does not refer to God’s infinite knowledge of human activities. The word, know, throughout the New Testament has been translated from at least nine different Greek words. While they all might have similar meanings, they are different words. That’s something we have to pay attention to. I recommend to any student of the Bible to go out and purchase a Strong’s Hebrew/Greek dictionary or download e-Sword from e dash sword dot net. Let me read to you some of the other places in the New Testament where the same word used in Romans eight is used elsewhere. We’re talking about the word know, foreknow. In Matthew chapter one, Joseph discovers that his soon-to-be wife is carrying a child, Jesus. He has it in mind to put her away thinking that she surely has been with another man until an angel appears unto him in a dream. Then, he takes her to be his wife. In verses twenty-four and twenty-five we read, “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” He knew her not until she had given birth to her first child. Don’t you think he knew who Mary was? If there was any part of her life or character he thought maybe he didn’t know about, the angel filled him in. He knew her, yet the Bible says he knew her not until after she gave birth to Jesus. What do you suppose is meant by that? Well, you can know someone and you can really know someone. The Bible is confirming here that Joseph and Mary were never together in that way. They were never close enough, personal enough, intimate enough to conceive a child together. In a spiritual way, not a physical way, that is how God foreknew His people. It was a very personal and intimate love He had for His people even before the foundation of the world. We love him, because he first loved us. There’s no doubt that His love would have to be great for a people in order for Him to give His only begotten son to die for them. That’s what it means when it says, “For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestinate.” As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Paul goes in Romans chapter nine and begins to address the obvious objections we might have to this doctrine of election and predestination. He says, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” If you think this is unfair, Paul says it’s not. He says, “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Paul says neither by will, nor by works can anyone obtain, achieve, or maintain this eternal life that is freely given to him through the mercy of our Lord. Why would we object to such a thing anyway? Why would we be troubled at the thought of a God with such a great mercy that He would be willing to draw a sinful people, even if only one, out of our fallen, hell-bound state? If there are three people in the world, one a rich man and two who are poor, and the rich man shares his wealth with one of the poor men, would we consider that evil? Wouldn’t it be a merciful, charitable act for the rich man to do such a thing even if he does not share it with both poor men?
What would be our next objection to this? Would we say, “Well, certainly the Lord gives salvation freely but we still have the power to reject it?” Next Paul says, “For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” Why do we question the sovereignty of God? It is a lesson taught to us over and over again in the Bible. Back in Jeremiah chapter eighteen, Jeremiah is sent on a strange mission to find a potter. He writes, “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” This marred, this imperfect vessel made of clay was being reworked and remade into something better. Why? Not because the clay desired it, but because it seemed good to the potter to do so. “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” But again, why would we object that the Lord has saved us? None of us deserve it. Yet, the Lord decided before the foundation of the world that he would not only save some, but a great, innumerable people from every kindred, tribe, tongue and nation. If you are one of those who fears that you may not be of the chosen fold, fear not and let not your heart be troubled. That sense of fear that you have is every indication you are one of His. The man still living by nature, that does not have the Spirit of God, thinks of all of this as nothing more than foolishness. If you know you have been given those fruits of the Spirit in your life, then praise the Lord He decided within Himself to save you. Paul ends that sentence about predestination in Ephesians chapter one by saying, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Amen.
As you go throughout the scriptures, you will not find one place where anyone but the Lord is given the slightest bit of credit for eternal salvation. This is a comforting message, folks. To know we are in the Father’s hand and that no man, including ourselves, can ever pluck us out of that hand. While you might see tyranny in this, I see liberty. The liberty to live, enjoying the pleasures of spiritual life, knowing I will sin, but cannot lose what I have gained through God’s sovereign grace. In fact, it’s downright foolish, no offense to anyone, to think that Christ has paid for all of our sins with the exception of a few which bounds us again for eternal hell. Where’s the liberty if we can lose what Christ has given? That’s no different than being burdened by a law we cannot keep. How is eternal salvation not by the will or works of man if that salvation can be gained and/or lost by something man does?
The Finished Work of Christ
Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0006
Jeremy Sarber, host
Original Air Date: 4/23/2009 6:00 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, either the death of Christ was intended for all people or some people. If Christ died for all people and ultimately not all people are saved, then how can we dare suggest that Christ paid the price for our sins? Either His work on the cross was a finished work which secured salvation for those He died for or it was a work left unfinished, intended to be completed by us somehow. If the latter be true, then how are we better after Christ than before Christ? Would we not still be bound to an obligation of the law? Perhaps you say, “Well, not the whole law. But certainly we must believe in order to be saved.” Are you telling me the blood of Christ was able to cleanse a man from the sin of murder but not a lack of belief? If we know that salvation is not by works nor by the will of man, what category does belief fall into? It must be one or the other. Even if you could muster a clever answer to that question, then how do we fit this obligation of belief into the theme of liberty presented to us in the New Testament? Paul wrote, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” If Christ made us free, how then can we still be under the bondage of any obligation? What about those that have not been given the opportunity to comply with these conditions? Does it seem fair to believe that Christ died for all people yet failed to provide for them the opportunity to complete the work of salvation? Where is the absolute victory of Christ if some He died for will not be saved? Isaiah said, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” Jeremiah wrote, “The Lord said unto me, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Are we to suggest God’s love is not everlasting? If salvation is conditional, that’s exactly what we’re saying. Because while God might love a person enough to send His Son to die for them, they may not comply with His conditions, so, He’ll be forced to revoke His Son’s ransom for them, thereby, revoking His love. Romans 5:8 says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” If the benefits of Christ’s death can be taken from us, that also means God’s love for us would be removed. But how can that be if God’s love for a person is everlasting? Needless to say, I find a lot of inconsistencies with Arminian or conditional salvation theology.
As you can probably conclude from the questions I’ve asked, I do not believe that eternal salvation is conditional. For all of the reasons that I’ve presented on this show already, plus the ones I’ll present today, that is not a possibility according to the Bible. Let me just review what I’ve confirmed in scripture so far. First of all, man has a sinful nature that is described as being dead in sins. We are dead and lacking all spiritual ability which would include belief. But God in His infinite mercy looked down at the sinful state of man even before the world began and said, “I know they don’t deserve it. But even so, I will spare a great a multitude of them from their hell-bound fate. I will choose those people now and I will love them with an everlasting love; both people from the Old Testament and the New. Sometime after they have been born naturally, I will make them born of Spirit. I will introduce them into my kingdom and provide for them the necessities for knowing me, loving me, and following me. Finally, I will send my perfect son to die for them. Through Him, I will satisfy my wrath against them, I will see justice served, and they will ultimately be redeemed. They may continue in their sins. They may take for granted their liberty, their everlasting life, the blessings I give them, but the price for their sins will still have been paid and my love for them will remain forever. Justice will have been served, my purpose according to election will stand, and while they may continue in their foolish rebellion and disbelief, their hearts will be circumcised by my Spirit all the same. They will no longer be a member of the family of Adam. I will see to it that they are adopted into my family. They will become my children.”
So far, I have discussed with you all of these things with the exception of the legal requirements necessary for this adoption. That is my subject this evening. I want to talk about the atoning work of Christ. To be honest, this is the most difficult part of this subject. This is the part when many become turned off to the doctrines of grace. It is certainly the most controversial of all the parts. I will just tell you what exactly I believe concerning this in simple terms and then I’ll explain in detail. I believe the Bible teaches that the redeeming work of Christ was intended to save the elect and only the elect. His work of redemption entirely secured salvation for them. His death was substitutionary. He paid the penalty of sin in the place of a predetermined people. In addition to putting away the sins of His people, His redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation. The scriptures teach that Christ came to accomplish definite salvation for a definite number of people and that He was victorious in this mission.
The first thing we need to consider is the Lord’s purpose. What was Christ here to do? Jesus said in John chapter six, “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” Christ came to do the Father’s will. What was the Father’s will? As Jesus says here and as I presented last week, the Father chose a people for salvation before the foundation of the world and their debt had to be paid. Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” The Father wants His chosen people saved and Christ was here to get it done. He was here to make us holy and without blame. He provided for us what God has promised to His elect which was those spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Paul went on to write, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” In Christ Jesus. Only by Christ Jesus.
On the very first program I talked about God’s perfect standard. Let me read to you a portion what I said:
“What do you suppose the world was like when man was created and placed into it? Fortunately, we don’t have to speculate. After God created the world and all that is in it, including man, He declared it was all very good and that’s based on His standard. God’s standard demands no less than perfection. He does not grade on a curve. This is evident by James chapter two where we read, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Jesus went as far as to say, “Whosoever looketh to lust hath committed adultery.” Sometimes when a teacher gives the class a test, if no one scores a perfect score, he’ll grade on a curve. That essentially means he is lowering his standards for the sake of the students. But God demands perfection. He does not look at a single one of us and say, “Oh, well, you haven’t been that bad.” He didn’t look at Adam after he ate of the forbidden fruit and say, “Oh, well, you only took a bite. I can let that slide. At least you didn’t eat the whole fruit.” No, absolutely not. He requires perfection which is exactly why He required the perfect sacrifice of His Son in our place. So, when God declared His creation good, that means His creation was perfect.”
I read that because I think we need to understand this perfect standard that God demands. There is no such thing as “mostly good”. There is no such thing as “almost”. Either you meet God’s standard or you don’t. I can tell everyone listening today, without ever having met you, that you do not meet God’s standard. Paul wrote, “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” That’s not to say you’ve literally broken every commandment there is. But James said if you break one, you’ve broken them all. If do not meet God’s standard of perfection, then you’ll be cast out. You’ll be unsuitable for heaven and everlasting life. Your wage will be death. Ah, but if God draws you out of that condition and provides a perfect sacrifice, then justice would be served. You could go free so long as that one, the Christ, the only man to walk this earth which did meet God’s perfect standard, would pay the ransom for you. One way or the other someone is going to pay for each of our sins. In this particular case, we would either pay for our own sins through eternal damnation or God would allow a perfect sacrifice to absorb His wrath against us instead.
My father is a Primitive Baptist minister who used to tell this story. There was a man who worked at a railroad drawbridge. His job was to raise and lower the bridge depending on if a train or a boat was coming. He had an eight-year old son which he was very close to. His only child. During the summers when his son was out of school, he would beg his dad to take him to work with him. So, one day his dad let him go along. Of course, there’s not much for an eight-year old boy to do in the control booth of a drawbridge, so his son spent quite a bit of time outside playing. The father had work to do so throughout the day he would lose track of what his son was doing or where he was playing. There were no worries in his mind though. This place was virtually in the middle of nowhere. There was not a lot of trouble for his son to get into, he thought. That afternoon, as he continued working and his son was out playing, the alarm bell sounded. A train was coming and it was time to lower the bridge. This bridge was constructed in two parts. They would both lower simultaneously and the ends would meet over the river. He began the typical procedure for lowering the bridge. He pushed this button and that one. Finally, he put his hand on the lever to close the bridge. Just then, he looked up to notice that his son had climbed to the top of one side of that bridge. Not only had his son climbed to the top, but appeared to be dangling from the end. He had fallen and his shirt was caught on the end of the bridge. Panic-stricken, he frantically searched his mind for a way to relieve his son from danger before needing to drop the bridge, knowing it would surely crush him. He opened a window to the booth and screamed, “Son! Untangle yourself! Drop to the river!” Either his son could not hear him or could not get himself free. The man looked into the distance and could see the train barreling towards the open bridge. There was no time to save his son. Within mere seconds, he would have to make a choice. If he left the bridge up, surely hundreds upon this passenger train would die. If he closed the bridge, his son would surely be crushed to death. Tears streamed down his face and his hand shook as he held it over the lever. He could make out the faint cries of his son, screaming in horror. The train whistle was becoming louder and louder where finally he could no longer hear his son. How do you make a choice, he thought, between a group of strangers or your own son? Finally, in the last second, he pulled the lever and watch his son be destroyed under the force of the bridge closing. Just as the bridge halves clanged together as they shut, he could see one of his son’s shoes fall into the river. The train passed by. The passenger cars were full of people, not a single one of them knowing what had just taken place. Not a single one of them knowing the great price that had been paid for their salvation. They may have arrived safely home and heard it about it on the evening news. But as it happened, they were unaware. They were unable to ask for it or even prevent it. That is a sweet picture of atonement.
In the covenant of grace, the Father chose a people, Christ promised to die for them, and the Spirit pledged to apply salvation to their hearts in the new birth. Isaiah fifty-three says, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Christ foresaw the suffering and the agony that He would have to endure, and yet, He was content with it. He realized that by His death, everyone for whom He died would be redeemed from sin. But if Christ died for all men, and some would end up in hell anyway, then Christ could not have foreseen the suffering and agony of His soul and been satisfied. He would have been disappointed because His efforts would not have been sufficient to save everyone for whom He died. As we read about the victory of Christ, the only sound conclusion we can make is that the atonement Christ made for the sins of His people was limited in purpose; not in its value, but in its purpose. It was designed only for the elect of God. It was sure in securing their salvation and not merely a possibility of it.
When Christ was just about to be born into this world, Matthew 1:21 says, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” That was His mission. That is what He came to accomplish. Never once does the Bible describe His mission as conditional or in any way dependent upon how we react to it. He came for a purpose and that purpose was to save His people. Then, in the final moments of His life, just before He gives up the ghost, He declares, “It is finished.” What was finished? His purpose on this earth was finished. He came to save His people and in that moment His people had been saved. As firmly stated as the sure atonement is throughout scripture, there are still many who claim He saved no one. He merely made salvation possible to all. If you are of that mind, then you tell me what sins He atoned for and which He failed to. You tell me why the Bible says He saved His people with such an absolute declaration. You tell me why God demanded such a price be paid for our sins and promised Christ would atone if, in fact, some of our sins will not be covered in the end. Why?
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. This verse does not say that He would save the whole world, nor does it say that He should try to save His people. It says He would save His people from their sins. Surely we understand that what was determined by the Father was fulfilled by His faithful Son. Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” If that was His purpose, how could we conclude anything but that He accomplished that very thing? If you pay close attention, the Bible does teach that Christ came to accomplish definite salvation for a definite number of people. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Let me stress a phrase in this verse. Christ said, “All that the Father giveth me.” That cannot be everyone according the doctrine of predestination that I talked about last week. John 17:1 says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” To who? To as many as thou hast given him.
Have you ever noticed that the election of God, the new birth, and the atoning work of Christ all are virtually synonymous with one another? God chose those who would sit in heavenly places in Christ. Christ gave eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. To be born of the Spirit is to be born of a water that shall be in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. None of these things can come without the others. You cannot be born again and not be chosen. You cannot be chosen and not be saved by Christ. You cannot be saved by Christ and not born again. Furthermore, all of these things are only accomplished by the sovereign will of God. Not by human will, works, or effort. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” If God has given a person any of these things, He has given all of these things. Either you have been given everlasting life or not. If you have been given everlasting life, then the Lord has accomplished all things necessary for it.
Christ died for His sheep and because of this none can be lost. In John chapter ten Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” In verse twenty-eight He continues, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” I cannot help but notice how many times these spiritual blessings are given to us, not offered. Jesus died for the sheep and He gives eternal life to everyone for whom He died. Christ did not come to attempt to save men; He came to redeem His people. He purged their sins and then sat down on the right hand of God. This is not a hard lesson. This is not difficult to understand. But I know full well that many verses of the Bible give us trouble. We read them and they appear to suggest an idea of universal atonement. For instance, we read, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I’ll not get into the subject of belief being a qualification for eternal salvation today, so let’s just focus on that word, world. For God so loved the world.
Actually, before we study that out, I want to show you how inconsistent it is to claim that God loved the whole world, meaning every single person. I know that when I say that some will get a little hot under the collar and scream, “That unfair!” Let me make the point again that God is not under any obligation to save anyone. The fact He saved even one of us makes Him truly merciful. But to say He loves everyone is just inconsistent with the scriptures on several points. First of all, His grace is not extended in equal degrees so why do we expect His love to be given equally? In Matthew eleven, Jesus said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Here, God deemed it good in His sight to hide certain truths and understanding from the wise and prudent. What about the Egyptians when the angel of death was sent through the land? God made a way for the children of Israel to save themselves from the terror of that angel but did not offer the Egyptians the same. So when the angel of death passed through, he took the lives of every firstborn son in Egypt with the exception of the Israelites. Was that fair? God’s grace and love is not distributed based on our merit either. In Matthew chapter twenty we read the parable of the laborers where several men are hired to work in a man’s vineyard. Some of them get hired in the morning and work all day. Others get hired later in the day so they don’t work as many hours. When the householder goes around to pay them all at the end of the day, he gives them all the same amount. Of course, the ones who worked all day think they should get more. The householder answered, “Friend, I did thee no wrong. Take this and go on. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” Let’s not forget the example of Jacob and Esau. Those twin brothers had everything in common yet God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Why? He said, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand.” It may seem unfair in our sight, but the Bible clearly establishes that God’s grace, and therefore, His love is given in various degrees to different ones. Let’s keep in mind also that the death of Christ was an expression of that love. Romans five says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
That’s only the first inconsistency. The Bible teaches that God chastises everyone He loves but it also teaches that He does not chastise everyone. Hebrews twelve says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Two verses down he says, “But if ye be without chastisement, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” There’s a whole sermon in that, but I imagine you understand the point.
How about a third inconsistency? God’s love is presented as being an assurance of salvation, but what kind of assurance would it be if some receiving His love would ultimately be lost? Romans 8:38 says, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This verse is not talking about our love toward God either because there are lots of things that can turn us from that. But the love of God towards us is everlasting as Jeremiah said. There is nothing in this natural world, there is nothing in the spiritual world that can bring an end to that love. So if God loves someone, He will save them. If that love that saved them can never be broken, then how could that person ever be lost? Do you see the inconsistencies in believing God loves everyone?
Now let’s return to the subject of the world which is presented in John 3:16. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Do you suppose the term, world, here refers to every human being that has ever lived without exception? Despite that being inconsistent, as I’ve just shown, let’s consider that word elsewhere in scripture. In John chapter twelve, we read about the Pharisees being awfully upset about so many people following Christ. They said in verse nineteen, “Behold, the world is gone after him.” Really? The whole world? Every human being that has ever lived is following Christ? Perhaps that term, world, is only an expression. Maybe it’s not meant to be taken so literally. In John chapter seventeen, Jesus makes a strange statement. He says, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world.” If world means everybody, then Jesus just contradicted himself. One, he excludes at least some people from those he calls “the world”. Two, he says he’ll not be praying for them. So, Jesus loves the world yet refuses to pray for them? How do we make sense of this? What if I said, The whole world hates me? Would you take that to mean that every person living hates me? I doubt it. You would assume I’m talking about a very specific group of people; those that hate me, to be exact. Perhaps you would assume I know a lot of people who hate me. So why do we take Christ to mean anything different? Jesus told the apostles they would be hated by all men. All men? Obviously, not every man hated them. This is just how the English language works. This is also why we cannot take a single verse and let it dictate our entire theological beliefs without studying context and the rest of scripture.
Read Romans chapter eight and verse thirty-four which says, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” How could anyone for whom Christ died be condemned? The law has been fulfilled, justice has been satisfied, sin has been paid for; and so, the Apostle Paul argues that condemnation is impossible. And since condemnation is excluded by His death, then none for whom He died can be condemned. All for whom Christ died, died in Him; thus the law could not again demand their death.
Let me read to you a portion of a sermon preached by Charles Spurgeon:
“Now, some people love the doctrine of ‘universal atonement’ because they say it is so beautiful. It is a lovely idea that ‘Christ should have died for all men’; it commends itself, they say, to the instincts of humanity; there is something in it full of joy and beauty. I admit there is; but beauty may be often associated with falsehood. There is much which I might well admire in the theory of ‘universal redemption’ but let me just tell you what this supposition necessarily involves. If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were damned before He died; because if this doctrine (that He died for all men) is true, He died for some that were in hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were myriads there that had been cast away. Once again, if it were Christ’s intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed! For we have His own evidence that there is a lake that burns with fire and brimstone, and into that pit must be cast some of the very people, who according to that theory, were bought with His blood! To think that my Savior died for men in hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to imagine. That He was the substitute for the sons of men, and that God having first punished the substitute, punished these same men again, seems to me to conflict with any idea of justice. That Christ should offer an atonement and satisfaction for the sins of all men, and that afterwards, some of those very men should be punished for the same sins which Christ had already atoned for, seems to me, to be the most marvelous monstrosity that ever could have been imputed to Saturn, to Janus, aye, to the god of the Thugs, or the most diabolical heathen demons! God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just and wise.”
I’ll second that. The death of Christ is the foundation of the Christian’s hope. But those believing in a general redemption cannot possibly fully enjoy that blessed hope in Christ. They claim to believe in a redeemer who is not completely successful in redeeming the lost; an atonement that falls short of achieving its purpose; thus believing that the death of Christ must be joined with freewill in order to save. Fortunately, Jesus is a Redeemer who does deliver His people from sin; not just tries to deliver His people with the possibility of losing some of them. Does this doctrine strike you with fear? Friend, let not your heart be troubled. This is a comforting message. The most comforting of all. We have been given salvation freely and nothing can rob us of it. We, ourselves, cannot stumble away from it. The Lord’s people are said to be predestined to glorification, but a predestined event is irreversible by definition. No man shall pluck us out of the Father’s hand. Man can be condemned to hell only after a valid charge has been made against him. This can never be the case for God’s children since they are sanctified once and for all and are forever perfected.
Long post, but was very well worth reading.
I’m glad to hear it. Perhaps you see now what I meant about God’s grace. What makes His grace so comforting is in knowing it is free and nothing can separate us from it.