Arminian Heresy

THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD VERSE IN THE BIBLE

2012-01-13T15:36:00.000Z

"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."
(John 3:16)

This is perhaps the most oft-quoted, and least understood verse in the Bible.

This verse is used by many to teach that God loves all men the same, has provided salvation for all men the same, and it is up to man to do something with it.

This verse teaches no such thing!

The emphasis in this verse is not the quantity of God's love, but the quality!

Whether the whosoever refers to one man, or one billion men, it has no bearing on the meaning.

If only one person was converted by this Gospel, it would not be any less glorious than if one billion people were converted by it.

The point of wonder is "God so loved the world.....that He gave.....His only Begotten Son.....that whosoever.....believeth in Him.....should not perish."

By Henry Mahan

TO DENY AN EFFECTUAL AND PARTICULAR REDEMPTION IS TO DENY THE GOSPEL

2011-12-06T11:18:00.001Z

A pastor once declared to a friend, "I want you to know that I no longer believe in particular redemption."

When I heard this, I was shocked, but I was not surprised. I am always shocked when a man turns from the Gospel of grace to something else, especially when that person has studied the Scriptures, the character of God, the nature of sinners, and the covenant mercies of God in Christ.

To deny effectual and particular redemption is to deny the very sum and substance of the Gospel — SUBSTITUTION.

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness are my beauty and my glorious dress.

I am not surprised when certain preachers decide they will no longer preach particular redemption, for it is without question the most hated truth in Scripture.

Universal love and universal atonement are universally accepted by all of Adam's sons except those who, by the grace of God, have seen the Lord Jesus Christ as Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him.

The preacher who denies particular redemption will have little opposition, for he has taken the offense from the cross.

All cults, sects, denominations, and religious promoters have this in common — they believe there is a sense in which God loves all men and Christ died for the sins of all men.

If Christ died for all the sins of all men, then all men will be saved.

If Christ died for some of the sins of all men, no one will be saved.

However, if Christ died (as the Scripture teaches) for all the sins of His elect, then His elect will be saved.

By Henry Mahan

"CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE UPON US"

2011-12-02T21:31:00.001Z

The apostles and early believers were despised by the religious Jews because of the gospel which they preached. It was not because they were covetous or proud men. They were persecuted because the gospel of God's grace, which they preached, was offensive to humans pride.

They preached (as I trust we do, also) that salvation, even for the most moral person on earth, is only possible because of the grace and mercy of God, given to us in Christ Jesus. These people of God knew nothing of free-will, decisionism, and giving God a chance. They knew only one way of salvation, that of God's being gracious and showing sovereign mercy to sinners in Christ.

The gospel of grace and glory does not appear OCCASIONALY in their preaching and writings, nor was it a deeper truth or doctrine which they discussed PRIVATELY; it reigns, shines, and dominated all that they said, wrote, and did.

It is the ONLY THING that they preached!

To them, any word of human worthiness, works, or rights was totally wrong, and counted for nothing in the matter of acceptance before God. They addressed all men (even themselves) as guilty, condemned, and perishing justly unless God is pleased to come in mercy and lift the beggar from his dunghill, sanctify and justify him through Christ Jesus, and accept him in the Beloved.

"God be merciful to us, and bless us; and cause Thy face to shine upon us" (Psalms 67:1).

By Henry Mahan

INTENDED ATONEMENT

2011-11-29T17:09:00.000Z

What was the Lord’s intention in His death?

Was His intention to save all of Adam’s race?

If it was, He failed miserably.

Was His intent to make salvation available if we do our part?

That would not help us at all!

We cannot do our part!

His intent was to save the elect!

“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.”
(John 6:39)

We can be assured of this…whatever the Son of God intended to do, that is precisely what He did. He came with the intention of saving His people from their sins.

“Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”
(Matthew 1:21)

And that is precisely what He did!

When He said, “It is finished,” what He intended to do was done!

IS IT GOD'S WILL THAT MANY REMAIN SPIRITUALLY DEAF AND BLIND?

2011-11-11T13:29:00.001Z

The subject matter that we want to look at in this study is this:

Is it God’s will that many people remain spiritually deaf and blind?

Is it God’s will that many people remain ignorant of the true Gospel of salvation?

Is it God’s will that many people remain in the sinful state in which they were born?

We want to investigate this question, because most people believe that God loves everybody in the whole world, and that God desires all men to be saved. And for that reason they claim that God offers to all mankind salvation to all who will only believe the Gospel and accept the salvation that is offered to them.

But this requires that mankind would not turn a deaf ear to God’s so-called well meant offer, and that mankind would not be spiritually blind to the good news of the Gospel that is laid out on the pages of the Bible.

That is why the title of this study is, “Is It God’s Will That Many Remain Spiritually Deaf And Blind?”

And for the sake of keeping it simple, and for the sake of remaining focused on this one subject matter, I will restrict myself to just two passages in the Gospel according to Matthew in chapters 12 and 13.

Now you may, in disgust, immediately stop reading, or you may already have your answer fixed in your mind and stop reading on that basis. But we must read the Bible to see what God says about this question. If we prfess to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Chris then we are obligated to believe everything that we read in the Bible, for God says in Proverbs 28:9, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination”. In that verse “the law” means the whole Word of God, from cover to cover. And so, it is a grievous thing if we do not want to listen to the Word of God, for God’s curse will rest upon us if we do not want to listen to what God has to say.

Matthew 13 is a chapter that is filled with many parables.

These are doctrines of the Kingdom disguised as parables.

Why Parables? (Proverbs 28:9, Matthew 13:10-17)

This thirteenth chapter of Matthew occupies both physically and spiritually a central position in the Gospel of salvation. It is located physically in the center of the Gospel according to Matthew, and it also reflects the center of God’s plan of salvation. Therefore, this is a very important chapter to study, and it is crucial to our understanding of God’s plan of salvation.

Matthew 13:10
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

Matthew 13:11
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Matthew 13:12
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Matthew 13:13
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Matthew 13:14
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

Matthew 13:15
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Matthew 13:16
But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Matthew 13:17
For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13:9, Mathew 13:11)

In the previous verses the Lord Jesus told the multitude the Parable of the Sower, but He did not explain the parable. Then at the end of the parable He said in verse 9, “He who hath ears to hear, let him hear”.

Now, that is a curious way to end this parable. Paraphrased, the Lord is saying, “He who has spiritual ears to hear, let him understand this parable”. Jesus did not explain this parable to the multitude. And the disciples were confused. Like the multitude they did not understand this parable. And so they said, “Lord, why speakest thou unto them in parables?”

Why do You make it impossible for them to hear and understand You?

What was Jesus’ answer?

He said in verse 11, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given”.

First of all, what are “mysteries”?

A mystery is not something mysterious, or spooky, or something that cannot be known. According to Webster’s Dictionary the first meaning of a mystery is, “a religious truth that man can know through revelation alone and cannot fully understand”. A mystery is a divine truth that was hidden in the Word of God, but is now revealed in the Gospel. And thus, a mystery is not something that remains unknown, but it is something that can be known by God revealing to us what that mystery is.

And thus, what are the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven?

These are the doctrines of the way to the Kingdom of Heaven; these are the doctrines of the Gospel of salvation. And the Lord Jesus tells us here in verse 11 that these “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” will be revealed to the disciples, but they will not be revealed to the multitude.

What an astounding statement!

The Lord tells us here that the band of disciples around Him, the group that He has chosen to follow Him, this group receives special privileges which are not given to the multitude that came together to hear Him. But these are not incidental privileges. These are privileges to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

These are privileges to know the way to Heaven, to know the way of salvation, to know the Gospel of eternal life in Jesus Christ. And to the multitude these privileges are not given.

What an astounding statement!

We may intuitively want to protest against this kind of teaching, but who are we to object against God’s Word?

“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?” (Romans 9:20)

Instead, we should tremble before the Word of God.

Is it possible that we too may be counted among those whom Jesus chose to be His disciples?

Or are we in the same boat as the unsaved multitude who heard the words of our Lord, but failed to understand the meaning of His words?

Let these words of verse 11 ring in your ears: “But to them it is not given”. The Lord will give to His chosen ones spiritual ears to hear, and spiritual eyes to see the Kingdom of Heaven, but to the multitude out there the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven remain an unsolved mystery. Their spiritual ears and spiritual eyes remain closed. They will hear with their carnal ears the words spoken, and see with their carnal eyes the words spoken by God as recorded in the Bible, but to them these words remain mysterious parables, with many contradictions that they cannot reconcile.

What have yoou been taught about parables?

Perhaps you were taught that Jesus spoke in parables to make spiritual truths easier to understand. That teaching did not come out of the Bible. The Lord Jesus tells us here that the reason He spoke in parables was so that the truth might be hidden to those whom God does not want to save.

The Lord Jesus was instructing His disciples about the sovereignty of God. He is teaching them, and teaching us, about election and predestination. He did not say “Well, these are doctrines that are too difficult for you to understand, since you are still beginners in the faith, and thus we shall postpone these doctrines until later”. Quite the contrary. This was an event in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and He did not hesitate to teach His disciples right away of the doctrines of election and predestination. We must do the same.

And why did He do that?

He did this so that we understand clearly who our God is, and what His character is, and what His attributes are. We must get to know God, for knowing God is equivalent to salvation. That is why in this church we will speak freely about the difficult doctrines as well as the easy ones, without distinction. We do not want to hold back anything, for we are commanded to bring the whole counsel of God.

And so, are parables given to enhance the truth, or to conceal the truth?

Is God using parables to clarify the true Gospel, or to hide the true Gospel?

Clearly, the Lord Jesus said in verse 11 that He spoke in parables to hide the true Gospel from those who are to remain unsaved.

Is it God’s will that many remain spiritually deaf and blind?

From the words of verse 11 it appears that this is really true!

And let it be perfectly clear that no one can hear and understand the true Gospel unless God the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual ears and opens our spiritual eyes. Let us see what the following verses teach us.

Seeing They See Not; and Hearing They Hear Not (Matthew 13:13-14, Isaiah 6:9, Ezekiel 12:2, Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10, John 12:40, Acts 28:26, Romans 11:8, 2 Corinthians 3:14, Isaiah 29:10, Revelation 22:18)

The Lord Jesus said in verses 13-14, “Because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive”.

This is a very favorable verse in the eyes of God. God repeated these words many times over in the Bible. Let us look at nine other places where these words are repeated:

Isaiah 6:9
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Ezekiel 12:2
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Mark 4:12
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

Luke 8:10
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

John 12:40
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Acts 28:26
Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

Romans 11:8
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

2 Corinthians 3:14
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

Isaiah 29:10
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

Why would God repeat this truth so many times?

If God repeats this truth in ten places in the Bible, and God backs this up with many other places in the Bible which support these concepts of election and predestination, then we can be sure that God wants this truth to be one of the fundamental truths of the Gospel of salvation. God in His kindness, gives to those of us who believe, an understanding of who He is and what He does.

Who has blinded their spiritual eyes and who has stopped their spiritual ears so that they do not understand?

John 12:40, and Romans 11:8, and Isaiah 29:10 clearly say that God has done it.

Some people want to avoid this answer. They say Satan has done this. But Satan is not found in all these ten places where God says that their ears are stopped and their eyes are blinded. It is true that Satan also takes part in the action, but Satan is not an independent god. Satan can only do those things that God allows him to do, and thus God takes all the responsibility for blinding their eyes and stopping their ears.

It is an integral part of the Gospel message that we worship a God who is absolutely sovereign. It is an integral part of the Gospel message that God gives faith and understanding to those whom He wants to save, but others, whom God does not intend to save, He blinds their spiritual eyes and He hardens their heart so that they do not understand the true Gospel.

Instead they will pick and choose out of the Bible and make themselves another gospel, and another god whom they worship.

This is what a hardened heart does. It is just as much idolatry as the heathen who fall down before wood and stone idols that they have made.

It is utter wickedness not to listen to what God says in the Bible.

It is utter wickedness to create another gospel which closely resembles the true Gospel, but which God has not commanded.

And thus we come to recognize that the many “free-will gospels” that are out there are utter abominations to God and those who follow them are still dead in trespasses and sins and, if they die in this state, they will perish in Hell.

It is then also understandable why so many churches these days are falling away into a charismatic gospel. Those who have been saved by Christ are forever saved, and they will not be enticed by the charismatic gospel, even if it is presented as very close to the true Gospel. But those who are unsaved will fall for it. For many years God has prepared the stage for His wrath on the end time church by allowing preachers of “free-will” gospels to infiltrate churches all over the world, so that the preachers as well as the congregations they gather are not saved. And thus they are open targets for the deception of Satan in the Last Days that God is still bringing divine messages in dreams, and visions, and angel visitations and tongues. It does not trouble them that these are all violations of Revelation 22:18, since they only pick and choose from the Bible. It is a natural tendency for those whose gospel is in error to fall from one error into another that is even worse. And so we see that Matthew 13:13-14 again convey the answer to the question:

Is it God’s will that many remain spiritually deaf and blind?

The answer is absolutely Yes!

Lest They Understand With Their Heart, and Be Healed (Matthew 13:15, Ephesians 2:8, Isaiah 6:10, Acts 28:27, Mark 4:12, Romans 9:18)

Matthew 13:15
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Now let us not go overboard in thinking that our knowledge and our understanding are a sure sign of our salvation.

That is not so!

We are not saved by our knowledge, and we are not saved by our understanding. We are saved by Christ, and we are saved by grace. And God conveyed this salvation to us through the medium of faith. God gave us that faith.

But what is it we believe wherein we have to put our faith?

Now this is where our understanding enters into the picture. We believe what we understand the Gospel to be. And when we listen to the Bible and have understood the words of the true Gospel message, then we know what we must believe. And thus the work of God the Holy Spirit is to soften our heart so that we understand and are willing to believe the Gospel of salvation, through the cross of Christ, and that this salvation comes to us absolutely free. Our willingness to believe has been given to us as a free gift of God. That is why we read in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”.

And so, the meaning of Matthew 13:15 is that the unsaved multitude has been spiritually blinded by God, and their spiritual ears have been made dull of hearing by God, and their hearts have been hardened by God. Now again, these words of Matthew 13:15 have been very favorable in the eyes of God. God repeated these words in several other places in the Bible. Let me read to you three other places:

Isaiah 6:10
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Acts 28:27
For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Mark 4:12
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

This is the condition of the natural man. This is the state how we came into the world as enemies of God. And if God would not have turned our hearts around we would still be like that, sluggish ears, and closed eyes, and a hardened heart, unable to understand the Gospel, for only by the Holy Spirit could we understand the true Gospel.

But what do these four verses say about the actions and intentions of God?

God does not plan to save them. God is not willing to give them an understanding of the Gospel. Therefore God is not willing to save them, because they do not belong to the elect of God. They have not been chosen from before the foundation of the world to be saved, or else God would have saved them. Our God is sovereign. He will save only whom He will, and whom He does not want to save He hardens. God says in Romans 9:18, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth”.

This is a hard saying, but who are we to reply against God?

In His wisdom God decided to arrange it this way, and since God is infinitely wise we must believe that this is the wisest plan that God in His counsel has chosen. There is no better plan. We must believe what God has said.

And so, what do we conclude from Matthew 13:15?

Is it God’s will that many remain spiritually deaf and blind?

The answer is absolutely Yes!

We have seen this now three times.

First from Matthew 13:11 we have come to the conclusion that, It is God’s will that many remain spiritually deaf and blind.

Secondly, from verses 13 and 14 we have come to this same conclusion.

And thirdly we have come to this same conclusion from verse 15.

All three times we find that God pours His favors on those whom He intends to save by giving us understanding and faith, and God deliberately withholds understanding and faith from those whom He does not want to save. Our God is infinitely righteous in all that He does, and we must believe that it was absolutely necessary that God would take this action, for there is no wiser plan anyone could have designed for this world and the people of this world.

The next logical question then is this:

If there are many who are not chosen unto salvation, and they remain in the sinful body in which they were born, would they be responsible for the sinful life in which they lived, or are they responsible for their sins?

The answer the Bible gives is this:

All Men Sin Voluntarily (Matthew 12:33-37, Ezekiel 12:2)

We need to understand one basic principle of the nature of mankind: Mankind is not a collection of individuals. Mankind is an organism with a federal head, which is Adam. God created Adam very good, and in the image of God. When Adam sinned all man-kind sinned. And thus when we came into the world we have already on our account two things:

1) We were initially created good and in the image of God, and 2) we have already sinned and are accountable for our sins, for every sin is an insult to the image of God.

Since God made us come out of Adam, and since Adam was accountable to God we too are accountable to God for our sins. As we can see, Adam sinned voluntarily, and thus we too sin voluntarily. All men sin voluntarily, and that is why God can hold men accountable for their sins and can send them to Hell for this. And thus, those who are spiritually deaf and blind are still accountable for their sins, for they sin voluntarily.

The Lord Jesus speaks about this depraved nature of man here in Matthew 12:33-37, where we read:

Matthew 12:33
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

Matthew 12:34
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Matthew 12:35
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Matthew 12:36
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Matthew 12:37
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

First the Lord Jesus establishes the groundwork: A man is compared to a tree, and thus the heart of a man is known by the fruit the man bears.

Secondly, the Lord addresses the people around Him as a generation of vipers, and He said, “how can ye, being evil, speak good things?”

Since they are evil they can only bear bad fruit. They are not able to speak good things.

But are they accountable for the bad things that they speak?

Thirdly, the Lord Jesus said: Even the smallest sin, like uttering an idle word, shall be held accountable in the Day of Judgment. They are not able to speak good things, and yet they are held accountable for neglecting to speak good things. And thus, coming back to Matthew 13:11-15, the non-elect do not understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, they do not understand the parables Jesus told, their spiritual eyes are blinded, their spiritual ears are very slow to hear anything worthwhile, their heart is hardened and unable to understand the wisdom of the Gospel, but yet they are accountable to God for this behavior, for God says in Ezekiel 12:2,

Ezekiel 12:2
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

You see the reason why they are not seeing and hearing the Gospel is that they do not want to see or hear what God has said, for they are a rebellious house. It is true that God the Holy Spirit has not enlightened them, but over and above this fact they are by nature in so much rebellion against God that they refuse to hear His words, for there is no fear of God before their eyes.

And is that not what we see all around us?

When we witness for Christ, and present Him to people around us as a sovereign God, the response we get most of the time is ridicule, and scorn, and unfounded, slanderus accusations.

We can point them to the words of Scripture, and even when they have the Bible in their hands and are present in our Bible studies, and even when we show them the Scriptures which clearly state the character of God, and state God’s magnificent plan of salvation through election and reprobation, they will not believe.

And why not?

It is plain rebellion against God and against His Word. No matter what the Word of God says, they have fixed in their minds what they want to believe, and no Bible verse shall sway them one way or another. This is plain rebellion. Therefore, let us now continue in Matthew 13:16, where we read:

Blessed Are Your Eyes, For they see (Mathewt 13:16, Matthew 25:21, Philippians 2:13)

Matthew 13:16
But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Yes, the Lord Jesus is addressing those of us who have eyes to see and ears to hear. God's people delight in hearing and seeing the words of Scripture, and we delight in knowing that we are still faithful to all the things God said. We admonish each other if we are going astray, and are not entirely straight according to the Bible. We love these corrections, since our fellow believers help us to remain faithful. And we also help each other in Bible study and in interpreting Scriptures. Because God has done a work of grace in our hearts, we patiently listen to God’s Word. We have come to hear and understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. To us, by the grace of God, it is given to hear them. Praise the Lord for that, and give Him thanks every day for this great gift.

But now let us also apply what we have heard, and let us have compassion on those who still need to hear the truth, even if they have initially rejected the truth. Let us ask the Lord that He will open many doors to us, so that we can let our light so shine before men that they may come to glorify our Father which is in Heaven. To Him be all the honor and all the glory if He saves someone. Our words of wisdom are of no consequence when someone is saved. It is 100% God’s doing. We are only instruments in His hand. But what a great honor and pleasure it is to serve Him in this capacity.

It brings such joy to work for such a wonderful God. All our words, whether they lead to salvation or to condemnation of the one we are witnessing to, all our words and works are 100% in the plan of God, and we receive the commendation of our Lord, “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

And think of it, this all came as a free gift.

First salvation came as a free gift. But then our desire to serve Him as His ambassador also came as a free gift, for God says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”.

Let us praise and thank God for having done such a wonderful work in us, and for making us see and hear the message of the Gospel, and for giving us faith, and for continuing to work in us those things that are pleasing in His sight, and for opening doors to us that were closed before.

Let us remember that the Lord Jesus Christ had to endure the equivalent of an eternity in Hell to make all this come to pass.

AMEN.

By Alfred.J. Chompff

DIVINE FOREORDINATION

2011-10-22T13:27:00.001+01:00

When the solemn and blessed subject of Divine foreordination is expounded, when God’s eternal choice of certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son is set forth, the Enemy sends along some man to argue that election is based upon the foreknowledge of God, and this “foreknowledge” is interpreted to mean that God foresaw certain ones would be more pliable than others, that they would respond more readily to the strivings of the Spirit, and that because God knew they would believe, He, accordingly, predestinated them unto salvation.

But such a statement is radically wrong.

It repudiates the truth of total depravity, for it argues that there is something good in some men.

It takes away the independency of God, for it makes His decrees rest upon what He discovers in the creature.

It completely turns things upside down, for in saying God foresaw certain sinners would believe in Christ, and that because of this, He predestinated them unto salvation, is the very reverse of the truth.

Scripture affirms that God, in His high sovereignty, singled out certain ones to be recipients of His distinguishing favours (Acts 13:48), and therefore He determined to bestow upon them the gift of faith.

False theology makes God’s foreknowledge of our believing the cause of His election to salvation; whereas, God’s election is the cause, and our believing in Christ is the effect.

By Arthur W. Pink

THE HOPE OF ARMINIANISM

2011-10-02T16:14:00.001+01:00

The hope of Arminianism seems to me to differ much from the hope of the gospel, because it allows that Christ died for all men. But Christ declares that the gates which lead to destruction receive the greatest number, (Matthew 7:13).

Therefore, if the former be true, some are in hell for whom Christ died; in which case there must have been a deficiency in the price the Surety paid, or else it reflects on his wisdom, and supposes him outwitted by the serpent, who, through his subtlety, has got legions in his possession, which were the Saviour's own by purchase. It does not reflect on his wisdom only, but on his power also, who could not hold them that were committed unto him; because the gates of hell have prevailed, and many are plucked out of his hand, (John, 10:28).

It seems likewise to reflect cruelly on the justice of God, who drew his sword, and sheathed it in the great Shepherd, (Zechariah 8:7); and spared him not in the least, nor abated one mite of the debt, (Romans 8:32).

And it is plain that Justice promised, by the blood of his covenant, to send "forth the prisoners out of the pit in which there was no water," (Zechariah. 9:11); and further, to be "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9).

But alas! this is all overthrown if Arminianism be true.

If Arminian hope be fixed on a surety that hath not paid, or cannot pay the debt; or, if it be fixed on a mutable Saviour, having no laws to encourage it but such as demand a debt twice; first of the surety, and then of the debtor; first sending them out of the prison of sin on the surety's account, or, in their own words, making them sons of God by grace to-day, and after all this letting them fall away, and locking them up in hell to all eternity, until they can pay the utmost mite of what was paid long ago; what establishment is there for hope?

I answer, a hope founded on such doctrines is just as stable as a feather in a whirlwind.

By William Huntington

NO UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION IN THE WORD OF GOD

2011-09-21T15:49:00.001+01:00

Redemption work belongeth to our anointed Priest, and He only could effect it.

The priests under the law required the redemption price to be brought to them by the people, but our Priest, in the similitude of Melchisedec, brings the price to them, and pays it for them; hence the apostle was commissioned to say to the elect of God, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Now, as the word redemption in our day is so grossly perverted, and as the Papist sentiment of universal redemption has poisoned the great mass of professing Protestants, I shall detain you a few moments to take a view of the redemption which is by Christ Jesus, labeled as it is with three prominent words, purchase, pardon, and perfection.

The first of these labels is given us by the mouth of Paul: "Feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)

No universal redemption here; it is the Church of God which He hath purchased, and it would be an impeachment of the wisdom and faithfulness of God our Saviour to suppose that He had purchased what He never meant to possess.

The Church is His property; and though she had gone into captivity to sin and Satan, it was His prerogative to buy back (as the word redeemed signifies) that which was His own from everlasting, and must be possessed by Him forever, yea, and to perfect His work in every redeemed soul to meeten it for glory.

Moreover, the redemption which the word of God publishes includes the full and free pardon of all the redeemed, as it is written, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Ephesians 1:7)

How foolishly then do men talk about all the world being redeemed, while the large majority of Adam's race remain unpardoned, unregenerate, and under condemnation until they perish eternally.

What mockery and falsehood to tell men they are redeemed, while they continue in slavery, wearing their chains, and fond of them. Would to God that such heresy was confined to Rome, for it is quite in keeping with the rest of the dogmas of Antichrist.

Again, the redemption which honors our High Priest is and must be perfect; hence the apostle is directed to inform us that our Redeemer "entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12). So also He is said to have "perfected for ever them that are sanctified," (Hebrews 10:14) or set apart as His redeemed. And His own declaration is, "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me" (John 6:37).

Surely then, the most trembling doubting soul who has come to Christ for pardon and salvation may take courage to believe that His very coming to Christ proves that he is redeemed with precious blood, and that he shall assuredly be saved, because the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is a perfect work.

By Joseph Irons

"SEEING THEY SEE NOT; AND HEARING THEY HEAR NOT."

2011-06-16T16:14:00.000+01:00

The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 13:13-14:

Matthew 13:13
Because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Matthew 13:14
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

This is a very favorable verse in the eyes of God. God repeated these words many times over in the Bible. Let us now look at nine other places where these words are repeated:

Isaiah 6:9
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Ezekiel 12:2
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Mark 4:12
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

Luke 8:10
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

John 12:40
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Acts 28:26
Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

Romans 11:8
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

2 Corinthians 3:14
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

Isaiah 29:10
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

Why would God repeat this truth so many times?

If God repeats this truth in ten places in the Bible, and God backs this up with many other places in the Bible which support these concepts of election and predestination, then we can be sure that God wants this truth to be one of the fundamental truths of the Gospel of salvation. God wants us to understand who He is and what He does.

Who has blinded their spiritual eyes and who has stopped their spiritual ears so that they do not understand?

John 12:40, and Romans 11:8, and Isaiah 29:10 clearly say that God has done it. Some people want to avoid this answer. They say Satan has done this. But Satan is not found in all these ten places where God says that their ears are stopped and their eyes are blinded. It is true that Satan also takes part in the action, but Satan is not an independent god. Satan can only do those things that God allows him to do, and thus God takes all the responsibility for blinding their eyes and stopping their ears.

It is an integral part of the Gospel message that we worship a God who is absolutely sovereign. It is an integral part of the Gospel message that God gives faith and understanding to those whom He wants to save, but others, whom God does not intend to save, He blinds their spiritual eyes and He hardens their heart so that they do not understand the true Gospel. Instead they will pick and choose out of the Bible and make themselves another gospel, and another god whom they worship. This is what a hardened heart does.

It is just as much idolatry as the heathen who fall down before wood and stone idols that they have made. It is utter wickedness not to listen to what God says in the Bible. It is utter wickedness to create another gospel which closely resembles the true Gospel, but which God has not commanded. And thus we come to recognize that the many “free-will gospels” that are out there are utter abominations to God and those who follow them are still unsaved and are on the way to Hell. It is then also understandable why so many churches these days are falling away into a charismatic gospel. Those who have been saved by Christ are forever saved, and they will not be enticed by the charismatic gospel, even if it is presented as very close to the true Gospel.

But those who are unsaved will fall for it. For many years God has prepared the stage for His wrath on the end time church by allowing preachers of “free-will” gospels to infiltrate churches all over the world, so that the preachers as well as the congregations they gather are not saved. And thus they are open targets for the deception of Satan in the Last Days that God is still bringing divine messages in dreams, and visions, and angel visitations and tongues. It does not trouble them that these are all violations of Revelation 22:18, since they only pick and choose from the Bible. It is a natural tendency for those whose gospel is in error to fall from one error into another that is even worse. And so we see that Matthew 13:13-14 again convey the answer to the question:

Is it God’s will that many remain spiritually deaf and blind?

The answer is absolutely Yes!

By Alfred J. Chompff

DOES GOD LOVE ALL MANKIND?

2011-06-12T15:13:00.001+01:00

Well, if He does love all mankind, then we must certainly doubt the truth of the Bible, for nowhere in the Bible do we read that God loves all mankind.

Instead God says in Romans 9:11-13, that before the children were born, in fact before the foundation of the world, before they could have done any good or evil, God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” and God said this in order that the purpose of God according to election may be made clear.

Further-more God says in Psalm 5:5, and in Psalm 7:11, and in Psalm 11:5 that He loves the righteous (all the Jacobs - meaning the elect of God) and He hates all the wicked (all the Esau’s - the reprobate).

Psalm 5:5
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

Psalm 7:11
God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

Psalm 11:5
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

And so, when we read the Bible carefully we find that God only loves His elect people, but He hates all those who shall die unsaved.

By Alfred J. Chompff

"Neither Having Done Any Good or Evil"

2010-11-27T16:43:00.001Z

“For the children 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; It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
- Romans 9:11-13

We trust that God will enable us to rightly divide the word of truth, and also to write in the spirit of love. We wish the reader to keep this expression in mind: “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth.”

We believe Election is taught in the text. God loved Jacob and hated Esau before either was born. (Of course, this love and hatred dates back before the foundation of the world, or even before time was in existence.)

If God “decided” to love Jacob and hate Esau after they were born, then this would be according to their looks, or to some of their actions or deeds. That being true, then the purpose of God according to election would not stand. But the Scripture teaches that God chose a people in Him from before the foundation of the world. Therefore, God chose His people before they were in existence. The actions of the creature did not influence God in choosing them to be conformed to the image of His Son. Also, God did not choose His people because He foreknew they would be better than the rest. There is not any guess work in the matter. God called His people out of nature’s darkness and left the rest where they were. Therefore, by nature, God’s people are not any better than the rest.

In the sixth verse of this chapter, we note that Paul said, “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Meaning, just because one is a natural Israelite does not mean that he is a Spiritual Israelite. Notice the 7th verse, “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall Thy seed be called.”

Just because one is of the natural offspring of Abraham does not mean that gives him a right to heaven. Natural Israel is a type of Spiritual Israel.

“In Isaac shall Thy seed be called.” This does not mean the natural offspring of Isaac — Esau was a son of Isaac. In this instance, we see Isaac as a type of Jesus Christ.

Also, notice there is sharp difference between being of the seed of Abraham and being the children of Abraham. One may be of the children of Abraham and not be of the seed of Abraham, which include Gentiles.

We wish to call your attention to John 8:12-44. As Jesus was talking to the unbelieving Jews, they remarked that they were Abraham’s seed. Jesus answered, “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because My word hath no place IN you. I speak that which I have seen with My Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham’s children, we would do the works of Abraham.”

Jesus plainly told these Jews that even though they were of the seed of Abraham, this did not mean they were the children of Abraham. They proved what they were by their works. They did not do the works of Abraham. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17)

All of natural Israel are of the seed of Abraham, but all are not of the spiritual seed of Jesus Christ...

"Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.”
(Romans 9:27)

The promise that was given to Abraham had a deep spiritual meaning, “For the promise, that he should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: (no eternal life promised under the law — just natural blessings). Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.” (Romans 4:13-16)

The meaning in a nutshell is this: The promise is sure to all the Spiritual seed—both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews are of the law, and the faith of Abraham also reaches to the Gentiles.

“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” These were the twin sons of Isaac, so both were of the seed of Abraham. The Lord said unto Isaac’s wife: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23)

As we think of the two nations, we think of sheep and the goats, or of the elect and the wicked.

The natural man would like to twist the Scriptures around and try to make it mean something other than what is written. We make no apologies for the truth, and it does not need any of our weak support. We know it is our lot to speak the truth in love, and we further believe it is our duty to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, and not to “whitewash the truth”.

“Jacob have I loved.” Remember the Scripture: “Two nations are in thy womb.” Therefore, Jacob represents the nation of God’s people. “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 32:9)

This Scripture gives solid proof that Jacob represents the people of God whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. (See Psalm 33:12)

“The Lord’s portion.”

This means a part or fraction, doesn’t it?

This is in harmony with the Scripture that says, “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Romans 11:5)

Also we read, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus did not say “big flock”, but rather little flock. This also shows that God’s people are few in number compared to all of mankind.

“Mine heritage is unto Me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her...”
(Jeremiah 12:9)

This Scripture also shows that God’s people are few in number.

How?

The Scripture says “as a speckled bird” in the singular, and not in the plural. Yet, the birds round about her are mentioned in the plural. This Scripture shows that there is a difference between God’s people and the world. God’s people are spoken of as “Children of Light.” The world is in darkness and hates the light. Therefore, God’s people are hated by the world.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
(John 15:19)

Let us go back to Jacob.

“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.”
(Deuteronomy 32:10)

I believe this Scripture shows where God finds all of His people. This not only applies to Jacob himself, but it also applies to all of God’s people.

We ask you dear reader, have you been there?

Do you know what it is to be in a barren condition?

Have you been in a place where there is not any rest?

Have you become so helpless (in a spiritual sense) that you could not lead yourself, and that you could not travel on your own strength and you desired guidance, and prayed as one did: “...lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (Psalm 61:2)

God found Jacob in a desert land. We believe this means it was the time when God first made Himself known to Jacob. So, when God first made Himself known to you, you were not in a pleasant condition. God showed what you were by nature, and that you were a lost and ruined sinner. “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” (Ezekiel 16:2) It is necessary for one to be taught that he is a sinner before he will have any need of mercy. When one realizes that he is a sinner, he cannot help but cry out for mercy. He cries because he feels the need of mercy. This prayer is not mechanical, but one cries for deliverance because he wants relief.

The love of God is everlasting. We believe that God has loved His people from all eternity. As God has chosen His people in Him from before the foundation of the world, we believe that God has loved this same people from before the foundation of the world. “I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) We believe the comfort of this Scripture shows that God is not changeable, and that He will continue to love His people, and that He will never forsake them even though in their feelings they may feel that God has forgotten them, or forsaken them.

“But Esau have I hated.” The love of God is perfect, and the hatred of God is perfect. Love and hate are two opposites, just as light and darkness. We think of the love of God as the positive side, and the hatred of God as the negative. We believe the hatred of Esau is in a negative sense, meaning that God surely determined from all eternity not to have mercy upon all of Adam’s race. On the positive side, as God determined to save a few, He also determined in a negative sense to not save the rest of mankind, but rather to leave them where they are and let them perish in their sins. We believe this is what is meant in the sense that God hated Esau. Meaning, that God has hated the wicked from all eternity, or that God has determined beforehand to not have mercy upon the wicked, or not save the wicked from their sins, or just let them perish in their sins, in which they love and delight.

We quote from Zanchius:

“When hatred is ascribe to God, it implies (1) a negation of benevolence, or a resolution not to have mercy on such and such men, nor to endue them with any of those graces which stand connected with eternal life. So, ‘Esau have I hated’ (Rom. 9), i.e., “I did, from all eternity, determine within Myself not to have mercy on him.’”
(Absolute Predestination, page 58, by Jerome Zanchius.)

The wicked do not know anything about the wisdom of God. This wisdom is hidden. (See I Corinthians 2:7) Also, consider these Scriptures: “But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (II Corinthians 4:34)

“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
(II Thessalonians 2:10-12)

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
(Matthew 7:23)

Someone might say, “Wait just a minute. I thought you said God knows everything. Well, you just quoted a Scripture that God never knew the workers of iniquity. So, here is something that God Himself acknowledged that He did not know.”

In answer to that, we believe this means that God never knew the workers of iniquity or the wicked as His people.

As God never knew the workers of iniquity as His people, He certainly knew that they were workers of iniquity, and were not His people, didn’t He?

And, since God knew they were not His people, He certainly knew they were workers of iniquity, didn’t He?

If not, then how did He know they were?

This is a hard doctrine. The world cannot stand it, and they hate it.

“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.”
(I Corinthians 2:14)

Paul knew there would be opposition brought forth. The world says, “How cruel it would be not to give everybody a chance to be saved.” If it were left up to us to save ourselves, or to perform certain conditions in order to merit our salvation, we would all be lost and doomed to everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, because we know that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.

Oh, how we do need the grace of God!

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 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.”
(Romans 9:14-15)

Who are we to question God?

He was not obligated to save any.

Who are we to question as to why He does not save more, or why does He not save all?

If our souls were cast into hell, would we have any reason to blame God or charge Him with injustice?

But, rather, would not we say as the poet,

“If my soul were cast in hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well.”

“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” This is God’s business, and He did not ask our advice.

Who is man to try to attend to God’s business?

When God created the world and everything therein He did not consult man about the matter. This was all done and accomplished before God formed man of the dust of the earth.

“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?”
(Romans 9:20)

It would do well that we take heed to that Scripture, and be reconciled to the will of God. God is the potter and we are the clay.

Let us remember that the wicked are not in trouble as other men, and they do not know anything about the soul afflictions of God’s people. (Psalm 73:5) “The wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand.” (Daniel 12:10)

The wicked will not come unto Jesus, and they will not cry for mercy, because they will never feel the need for mercy. The wicked love sin, and live in it, and have pleasure in unrighteousness. Some of the wicked may appear to be righteous or religious in the sight of men, but it is for some selfish motive to promote their own business, interest, or seeking the praise of men.

A sinner who comes to Jesus seeking mercy will not be turned back. Yet, one cannot come to Jesus unless he is drawn by the Father. “No man can come unto Me, except My Father which sent Me draw him.” (John 6:44)

We believe that God draws His people by His love. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
(John 6:37)

This is a positive expression, and it means that God’s people will not fail to come to Jesus. Again, none of the wicked will be included in that number that will come to Jesus. Only those that were given to Jesus for His bride will come to Him; and all of them SHALL come.

Now, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, all of God’s people are sinners, and they will come to Jesus seeking mercy and none of them shall be cast out.

Therefore, dear one, if you feel the need for mercy, and find that you do not have the ability to do anything to merit your salvation, this is some sweet evidence that you are included in that blessed number. If you have ceased from your own works, and you do not have any tools with which to work, it is some sweet evidence that you are a fit subject to enter into that rest.

“For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.”
(Hebrews 4:10)

— By Woodrow W. Hudson

Christ's Propitiation For The Sins of His People

2010-06-21T13:20:00.001+01:00

“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful (propitious) to me a sinner.”
(Luke 18:13)

The word propitiation means to appease divine wrath, and render satisfaction. To be propitious, or to be merciful. Our dear Lord, two thousand years ago, actually did appease the frowning Justice of God, and render satisfaction for His elect. He died the death of the transgressor to fulfill its just demands. Blessed be His name, He did it for His people because there was no way they could do it for themselves. Again, He did this gracious work two thousand years ago. Our believing it does not establish it. It is already done, and our believing (and faith is God’s own gift to us) it is God’s way of comforting us and causing us to magnify His own grace by the manifestation of this sweet and gracious work.

We know the text the worldly religionists will go to:

“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
(I John 2:2)

Immediately they jump onto the words “also for the sins of the whole world,” because they do not know what a propitiation is!

One thing is for certain, that if Christ is the propitiation for everyone on earth, then He has already satisfied the just demands of the law, and appeased the wrath of God against everyone on earth, and therefore everyone on earth is saved and safe!

The phrase “the whole world” is certainly no universally all inclusive phrase. Read this passage written by this same apostle:

“And WE know that WE ARE OF GOD, and the WHOLE WORLD lieth in wickedness”
(I John 5:19)

Need we point out that the “WE” are a different group of people than the “whole world” in this text?

Christ Jesus is our Advocate with the Father, and as such He alone stands as the Propitiation of our sins. All that He did while on earth was to this very end. His standing before the Father for us is the crowning glory of our salvation. John wrote:

“Herein IS LOVE, not that we loved God (for we didn’t, and can’t in the flesh), but that HE LOVED US, and sent HIS SON to be the PROPITIATION FOR OUR sins.”
(I John 4:10)

If only we could always believe and rest in this!

How comfortable would our souls be!

But in those times when God grants us to recall it, believe it, and rest in it, it is the Gospel to our burdened souls.

How gracious is our Lord not to lay this task upon our fickled, feeble faith, repentance, or works!

He made this doctrine a stable finished one - two thousand years ago!

“It is finished!”
(John 19::30)

This is referred to as “the accomplishment of Christ on the cross.”

By Stanley C. Phillips

Idolatry

2010-02-10T15:42:00.003Z

"He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand?"
(Isaiah 44:20)

In our "enlightened" age we might look with amusement on those who would hew out an idol of stone or wood and then fall down and worship it. Yet the reality of "idol worship" is actually as much with us today as it was in more primitive times. While it would seem odd in our society, to see someone prostrate themselves before some statue or totem pole, idolatry is still very prevalent, perhaps even more so than in ancient times. The real error of idolatry is not found in the fashioning of a piece of wood, stone, or metal but in the mind which believes it can shape and fashion GOD according to its own design and in giving misplaced devotion to objects(or ideas) which the flesh delights in.

The natural man is a religious creature and is not opposed to having a god as long as he maintains control over that god. However an unregenerate man will not seek out the true GOD and even worse cannot discern that the gods that he chooses are no gods at all, ("he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand"). Men will go to great lengths of service and devotion to those gods which they fashion and will defend them even unto death (see Isaiah 44:9-19; I Kings 18:28).

Men are most comfortable with a god who can be defined and understood. As long as there are limitations and definable parameters which encompass his actions, then he poses no real threat to their happiness. It is amazing that the god of most men and women somehow always seems to think like they do. The things that they want are the very things god seems to want them to have. As astounding as it may seem, god even adopts their value system. There are prevailing notions about the nature of god that are seemingly universal among most of mankind.

The idol gods will value the good deeds that men have done and will weigh them in a balance against any sins they may have committed, in essence overlooking their sin. How often have we heard someone say, with great satisfaction, "well I just try to do the best I can."? Speaking of the true GOD,Job said, "If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity." (Job 10:14) Of the same ONE, David said, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity." (Psalms 5:5)

The idol gods will allow men to make "sacrifices", or do "penance", or extend extra devotion to religious things to pay for their bad deeds, the equivalent of "make up work" after a missed assignment.

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
(1 Samuel 15:22)

David, referring to the LORD said, "For THOU desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: THOU delightest not in burnt offering."(Psalms 51:16)

The idol gods will always be where their followers want them to be and will be at the beck and call of those worshippers. Job tells us of the true and living GOD when he said "Behold, I go forward, but HE is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive HIM: On the left hand, where HE doth work, but I cannot behold HIM: HE hideth HIMSELF on the right hand, that I cannot see HIM: But HE knoweth the way that I take " (Job 23:8-10).

Solomon, speaking as the church , said, "I opened to my BELOVED; but my BELOVED had withdrawn HIMSELF, and was gone: my soul failed when HE spake: I sought HIM, but I could not find HIM; I called HIM, but HE gave me no answer." (Song of Solomon 5:6)

The idol gods will always be limited by the "freewill" of man. Unless men "allow" them to work they will not be able to do anything. David said, "THY people shall be willing in the day of THY power " (Psalms 110:3) and "Our GOD is in the heavens: HE hath done whatsoever HE hath pleased" (Psalms 115:3)

We must bow down before the true and living GOD who is not fashioned in any way by the hands or ideas of men. HE has no limitations. HE answers to no one. HE sets all things in motion. HE needs no advice and asks none. HE will only be worshipped according to the dictates that HE sets down. HE will determine the severity of punishment to be meted out for sin. HE will set the bounds of our habitation. HE has no obligation to show any form of mercy to any of HIS creation. HE will dictate the provision and terms of any means of redemption for men. HE will determine the revelation of truth that HE gives to men. (see II Corinthians 4:6)

"For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; GOD himself that formed the earth and made it; HE hath established it, HE created it not in vain, HE formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no GOD else beside me; a just GOD and a SAVIOR; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am GOD, and there is none else."
(Isaiah 45:18-22)

Praise HIS name forever!

By M. McInnis

Total Depravity

2009-12-17T17:59:00.001Z

Today we consider the biblical truth of total depravity. We will do so from our Lord’s words found in John 15:5, “For without me ye can do nothing.”

We see from the last verse of John 14 that our Lord Jesus and His disciples have now left the upper room where they had gathered to eat the last Passover and they had begun a midnight walk across the city of Jerusalem, up to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus will be betrayed to the Jews. We read in John 14:31 Jesus saying to them, “Arise, let us go hence.”

That is, Jesus was interrupting the discourse or sermon that He had begun in chapter 13, a sermon spoken to His disciples. He interrupts this sermon and leads them out of the upper room towards Gethsemane.

No doubt, as they walked, they passed by many orchards and vineyards along the way. And, as was the Lord’s custom, He uses what He sees in the creation as an object lesson to teach His disciples and us a vital truth that we must know as He is about to leave His disciples.

He says in John 15: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

He goes on to say, “Ye are the branches. Abide in Me. As the branch canno bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in Me.”

The Lord begins to speak to His disciples of the indispensible and urgent need of true faith, of a living, vital connection to Him. He, in the way of the cross, in the way of His resurrection and ascension, is about to return in glory to His heavenly Father. We will on the earth be subject to sin, temptation, death, sorrow, real grief and turmoil. The Lord says, “You must abide in Me and I in you. As the branch abides in the vine and draws its sap and life from the vine and thus is able to bear fruit, so also must you abide in Me.”

He speaks, in this figure, of the gift of true and living faith, of the true, heavenly-wrought, spiritual union between you and Christ—the gift of faith, faith that is not a formal, purely intellectual attachment to Jesus Christ. It is not like two boards nailed together. But faith is a living union to Jesus Christ, worked by God in our hearts so that we say with the apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ.” And, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

And then the Lord, in the words of our text, emphasizes the need that we have to abide by faith in Him. For He says that “without me ye can do nothing.” As a branch, severed from the vine, dries and is gathered up to be burned, so we, without Jesus Christ, can do nothing. In words that are clear, simple, and pointed, Jesus teaches us the truth of our total depravity.

Without Jesus, we can do nothing.

You could not save yourself, you could not will to accept Him, any sooner than a dead branch can will to pick itself up and insert itself into the vine. “You cannot receive Me unless I work My grace first in you. You cannot be saved, nor can you persevere (keep yourself within the state of salvation) without Me. Without Me ye can do nothing.”

These words, then, underscore the words of the Lord Jesus: “Abide in me, stay close to Me, seek all of your strength in Me.” As sinners, we are depraved, and we are saved by grace. And, as children of God in the midst of this world of temptation and woe, we have one great desperate need every day: Abide in Christ, a living, true faith in Jesus Christ.

For without Jesus, we can do nothing.

These words, first of all, then, are very humbling: "Without Me ye can do nothing."

They are words that point first to our total depravity as a sinner, and our need of a completely gracious salvation. Jesus here speaks of all men as they are without Him. He speaks of every man, woman, and child as they are without Him. “Without Me, you can do nothing.” He is not talking just about drug-addicts or those who are on death-row. He is not talking only about predators or abusers of mankind. But He is talking of all mankind—of professors, scientists, teachers—men as they stand apart from Christ—you, considered of yourself. You, apart from Jesus, can do nothing. He means nothing good. That is His point. Nothing pleasing to God, nothing good in the sight of God. You can do many things, but you cannot do anything pleasing to God.

Note that Jesus (in the first four verses of John 15) has been talking about bringing forth much fruit to God. He has been talking about a life of good works pleasing to God. He has been talking about love for God, sorrow for sin, humility, meekness—those things that please God. He has been talking about the fact that the failure to bring forth such fruit means that a branch is dead, withered up, and is to be gathered up to be burned in the lake of fire. Jesus, therefore, was talking about every man, every woman, every child—whether they are in poverty or whether they are in wealth, whether they live in a third-world country or in a country of great prosperity, it makes no difference. They cannot do anygood in the sight of God. Apart from Jesus Christ we are dead in sin, fallen in Adam, incapable of any saving good.

The fault is not simply in the totality of our makeup, so that there are spots of sin in every part of our makeup, of our will, words, and emotions, but we are totally depraved, shot through completely with sin, sold in sin, leprous in sin.

Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins….”

Romans 3:12, “…there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Romans 8:7, “…the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

You can do nothing apart from Me.

The Lord is speaking there of ability. Apart from Jesus Christ no one has the ability to do good in the sight of God. We cannot of ourselves will to accept Jesus Christ. It is not we who can do a little. It is not we who decide for Christ and then, depending upon our decision, Christ will respond and come into us. No. Ye can do nothing. As a branch severed from the vine, withered, we are dead in our sins. Salvation is not the acceptance of Jesus by the human will. Salvation is the resurrection of a dead sinner. When we have the testimony within us of the burden of sin, when we feel sorrow for sin, when we covet God’s grace to lead a new, Christian life, all of this is His work in us. It did not proceed from us. It was not me, O Savior true, but it was Thou who didst love me and raise me from the dead.

But Jesus’ words are humbling also in this sense, that they mean that as a renewed, saved-by-grace child of God, without Him, I can do nothing. As renewed by the Holy Spirit, by grace, we are called to live a life of sanctification, that is, to delight in serving God. We are called to live to the service of God in everything that we do. We are to bear our cross, we are to fight a good fight of faith. But we can do nothing apart from Jesus Christ. He must daily by grace infuse His strength into us. Your strength, says Jesus, your fortitude, your personal determination, your guts, your stubbornness, your stick-to-itiveness—all of this is nothing. Ye can do nothing in the Christian life without Me, without Jesus. That is, apart from a conscious, heartfelt faith-dependence upon Christ, we can do nothing.

You cannot white-knuckle and overcome that addiction that has cast you down time after time and of which you have said, “I’ll beat it, I can stop, I’m man enough, I’ll preserve my reputation. It’s not going to go any further.” Jesus says, “Without me, ye can do nothing.”

You cannot escape that temptation, the net and the pit laid for you by Satan, the lust, the desire to live for the approval of friends. Believe in this word. “Without Me,” says Jesus, “ye can do nothing.”

You cannot endure that trial, that loneliness, that sorrow that is swallowing you up, pushing you down of yourself. Getting away, a change of scenery is not going to do it. Without Me, ye can do nothing.

A great evil, but performed against you, an abuse, a horrible abuse that haunts you and pursues you and fills you with fear—without Me, ye can do nothing, says Jesus.

A great sin is in your past. You confess this sin, but yet its memory gives you no rest. You try to keep yourself busy. You try to keep in front of it. Without Me, says Jesus, you can do nothing.

Always our sinful nature, that is, our pride, looks to our self. We try to build our own citadel. We try to use our treasured resources and strength. And God, in His wisdom and justice, so often says, “Go ahead. Exhaust your treasured strength—until grace brings you to know that you can’t.”

It is by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. The way of God’s grace leads us to this point that we give up on our own strength, our own way, our own will. And we cry, “Oh, I to the fountain fly, cleanse me, Jesus, or I die.” For without Jesus I can do nothing.

But as humbling as that is, it is also exalting. It is exalting to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is making the most amazing and astounding claim. Think about it. “Without Me, ye can do nothing.” That means that Jesus is saying, “I am the source of all good, all spiritual strength. I am the source of good and spiritual strength. You have no good, no strength, no merit; I and I alone am the source of all good and strength. As you are devoid, utterly devoid in yourself, and cannot find any strength of yourself, you will have all strength and all merit in Me.” So it always is. If you lift up man in your faith or religion, you debase Jesus Christ. If you give credit to yourself or to man, you discredit Jesus Christ. If you walk in pride, any pride, you will think little of Jesus Christ.

But when our emptiness is shown, when our weakness is made plain, when our depravity is exposed to us, it is then that Christ is exalted for who He is. Christ is the source, the only source, of good in all the world. Christ is the source, the only source, of strength in all the world.

Christ, therefore, is exalted in salvation. Total depravity is the gate or the door to the gospel. You must go in through that door. The teaching of free will, that notion that salvation is owed to a decision of the dead sinner, who must first accept Christ before Christ can save him—this heresy of free will debases Jesus Christ. Free will glories in itself. I accepted Christ. He could not enter in unless I allowed Him into my heart, unless I first invited Him. He stood there knocking, unable to do anything until I gave Him the permission. The glory is free will.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I say, away with that false doctrine.

in I Corinthians 1 we read: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

For of God are ye in Christ Jesus, says the Scripture. Of God, not of free will. Of God, God’s work, are you in Christ Jesus. We cry out with the hymn: “Nothing in my hands I bring.”

It is Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, who opens our heart that is closed, shut up, and sealed, as in a coffin of sin. We read in Acts 16:14 of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. It is Jesus Christ who regenerates, that is, by Him we are born again. He implants His life in us. “If ye then be risen with Christ,” says the apostle in Colossians 3:1. It is Christ who converts. It is Christ who regenerates. It is Christ who saves. It is Christ who illumines our minds. It is Christ who softens our will and enters into the inmost recesses of our soul. It is Thy grace, O Lord, that saved me, not myself. All hail the power of Jesus’ name. Not free will. Not your name. Not man’s name. Not this man saved me, or this person. But Jesus Christ saved me.

So also it is that Jesus Christ is exalted in our life of sanctification, that is, in our Christian living. It is Christ who infuses His strength into us through faith. It is Christ in me. It is Christ in me in every trial and every way of darkness, in every burden and in every temptation. Christ Jesus is our strength.

But you might say, “I know that and I believe that. I believe that without Christ I can do nothing. But why are there yet times in my life that it seems that I cannot find Him or when He is absent from me, when the peace of His grace eludes me?”

The disciples of Jesus Christ at this point were about to go through that in that very night. At the moment of trial, they will all run away from Jesus. Apparently the strength of Jesus Christ was gone and their hearts were filled only with fear.

Why, then, are we led down ways of darkness?

“Lord,” we say, “I believe this. Why must I be led in such dark and difficult ways?” And the answer is: Because our need of Jesus Christ must be burned, must be branded, into our heart, because His grace and His strength are not cheap, because it pleases the Father to work this truth into our deepest heart. Through every way of trial and through every way of woe, Jesus Christ wills that we confess: without Jesus, I can do nothing.

But, you see, this is assuring, it is humbling, it is exalting of Christ and it is assuring to us. This is not a false assurance. This is not a sales pitch. This is not a soap bubble to pop on the first sharp point of life. Jesus Christ is our good and our strength. His perfect work on the cross is our righteousness. His grace is our strength. He is the solid rock. Everything else is sinking sand. Believe in Him, rely solely upon Him.

The assurance is, first of all, that when we feel the burden of sin, when we feel within us the desire to obey and serve Him, then this is due to His work in me. It did not arise out of me. I did not create that. But it came from Him.

Do you know yourself as the sinner in God’s sight?

Do you know your sorrow and the depth of your sin?

All of this is worked in your heart by Jesus Christ and by His wonderful grace.

And, still more. There is the assurance that Jesus Christ will also strengthen us unto every good work. He will give us His grace. He will dwell within us. It is Christ who will strengthen us.

So, hear the call of the gospel. He speaks. He calls in the gospel: “Abide in me.” That is your need. Always stay closer to Jesus Christ. That is your one, and your great, and your desperate need. Stay close to Him in the word. Stay close to Him in the church. Stay close to Him in prayer. Stay close to Him in your daily walk of life. Abide in Jesus. For without Jesus, you can do nothing. But "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

By Carl Haak

Limited Atonement

2009-12-15T18:06:00.001Z

Salvation from sin through Jesus Christ is entirely of God’s grace. This is something that Jonah learned when he was in the belly of a whale. We read in Jonah 2:9, Jonah’s confession: “Salvation is of the Lord.”

Salvation in its plan, that is, in its eternal election; in its accomplishment, in the actual payment for sin upon the cross; in its application, the giving of this salvation into the human heart; in its consummation, when at last one is taken before the presence of God — all of it is of God. "Salvation is of the Lord."

This is especially true of the doctrine of the Bible called “Limited (Particular) Atonement.” The truth is that Jesus Christ, in His atonement, saved by grace all those given to Him of the Father. And they shall never perish, because Jesus died for them upon the cross.

Limited or definite atonement of Jesus Christ upon the cross is the heart of the precious gospel of Jesus Christ. Here we sinners will see our Savior in all of His beauty. Through all eternity we will know Jesus as the Lamb who was slain and has redeemed us unto God. Throughout all eternity we will see Him as the One by whose stripes we are healed. We will rejoice in Him as the crucified one. And this is how we know Him today. In every trial, in every heartache, in every moment, in joy or in death, old and young, those who have walked with Him all their life, and those who have learned His secrets only recently in their new conversion — all of us will know Jesus as the One who died for us, who laid down His life for us.

In John 10:15, Jesus says: “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

In John 10 Jesus was contrasting Himself with the false leaders and teachers of His day, whom He calls intruders, hirelings among God’s people. They did not love the sheep. They fleeced the sheep. They used the sheep for themselves. They were hirelings who would run at the first sign of danger.

In contrast to that, Jesus says, in John 10:14: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” He calls Himself the Good Shepherd because He knows His sheep and will keep those sheep. And He calls Himself the Good Shepherd because He lays down His life for them. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” In those words Jesus Christ taught the truth of a limited, particular atonement.

We consider that today.

The question is: For whom did Jesus Christ die?

And the answer of the Bible is: Jesus Christ died for the elect, for all those throughout all ages and races, chosen eternally and loved graciously by God. The atonement was limited. That means that Jesus Christ died on the cross for a definite, particular number of persons. Revelation 7 refers to this as a multitude that no man can number. A great number known and chosen of the Father.

His death was an atonement.
That is a biblical word that refers to a payment or a covering for the sins of men and women.

It was redemption.
That is another word that is used in the Bible: redemption from sin. It was the purchase of men and women out of the guilt and bondage of their sin to the state of pardon and adoption as the sons and daughters of God.

This atonement or redemption was limited. Not in the sense of what He suffered, that what He suffered was limited. No. He suffered the full and the eternal wrath of God against our sins. But it was limited in the sense of for whom He suffered. He was definite or particular. He did not die for all human beings, but only for some, for those given to Him of the Father. His death on the cross was for a definite, particular group of men and women, each one of whom He knew personally, in divine, particular, gracious, saving love.

Now it is this truth, this truth of a limited or particular atonement, this truth of all the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace, that becomes so offensive to many. The response is that it is hated.

“What,” people will say, “did not Jesus die for all? Does not Jesus love all? How can we possibly do mission work?”

This truth will be assaulted and hated, and those who confess it will be accused of denying the gospel, and of denying the love of Jesus for sinners. It will be assaulted with a host of Bible verses: I Timothy 2:4, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” John 3:16, “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.”

But what seldom happens is that men and women listen to the biblical exposition of this truth. Listen to Jesus, who taught this truth.

Jesus Himself will answer the question: For whom would He die upon the cross?

In John 10 He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).

When He says, “I lay down My life,” He is talking about the cross. He is not simply talking about a sacrificial desire that He has to serve other people. But He is referring to the cross of Calvary. John 13:1, Jesus knew that His hour was come, and in the Scriptures we go on to read that at that night He said, “The cup that My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Jesus knew that He had to go the way that the Father had willed. True, the Son of man goeth as it was determined of Him (Luke 22:22), but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And He says that that death, that predetermined death on the cross that He had come to suffer, had a definite intention or purpose. On the cross He would lay down His life, He would die for a definite number of persons. “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

He does not lay down His life for all humans, but for the “sheep.”

In John 10, He makes that very plain when in verse 26 of the chapter He refers to some (the unbelieving Pharisees) as not being of His sheep. “But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep,” He says to them. “I will not lay down My life for you.” Sheep does not include all men. But sheep includes all those whom the Father had given to Him.

Jesus goes on to say that in John 10 as well, verses 27-29: “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. My Father, which gave them me….”

My Father gave the sheep to Me. He is “greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” Jesus teaches that He lays down His life for everyone whom the Father, out of mere grace, out of free election, gave to Him.

The ones for whom He dies are the ones He knows in that gracious, unbreakable bond of love.

John 10:14-15
“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father.”

He is referring there to a knowledge of gracious, personal, intimate love. He says, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father.”

He brings us there to the point of intimacy beyond our ability to comprehend—the tender, the personal, the intimate love of the triune God. The Father loves the Son, knows the Son; and the Son knows the Father. Jesus says, “In like manner, even so I know My own and My own know Me. I know them intimately. I know them personally. I know them exhaustively. There is nothing in these people that will startle Me.”

There is nothing that can suddenly come up and He would say, “But I didn’t know that about them.”

“I love them graciously and unchangeably. I know who My own are. I know the sheep given to Me of the Father. They will hear My voice and they will come to Me. And I will die on the cross, for the ones chosen from before the foundations of the world, whom I have loved with an everlasting love and whom I will draw to Myself.”

The death on the cross of Jesus Christ extends to all the elect. God’s gracious and eternal election determines who Christ died for on Calvary’s cruel cross.

The question, of course, is: “Who determines the extent of Christ’s death? Who determines who it will be for whom Jesus will die?”

The answer is: Not man! Not yourself!

John 10:26
“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”

Jesus did not say, “You are not of My sheep because ye believed not.”

He did not say, “Your unbelief has excluded you from the sheep.”

But Jesus said, “You ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep.” The cause of their unbelief was that they were not His sheep.

God did not elect them.

God did not give them faith.

So also those who believe do not make themselves sheep by their faith. You are not one of the sheep because you believe. No. You believe because you were made one of His sheep. God determines the sheep in the decree of election. “My Father gave them Me” (John 6:39). And the fruit of that election is faith. For these elect of God, to whom God gives faith as a result of His election, for these Jesus dies.

The atonement of the cross is in harmony with divine election.

We read Jesus’ words in John 6:38-39)
“I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 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.”

Again, in John 17:2, in His prayer on the night before He went to the cross: “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.”

But there is an even more important question.

It is this: What was Jesus death?

We must see that the question, For whom did Jesus die? is related to this other crucial question: What was His death?

The difference between the truth of saving, sovereign grace and the teaching of free will is not that sovereign grace has Jesus dying for a few, and free will has Jesus dying for many. Or, to put it bluntly, the difference between free and sovereign grace and Arminianism works religion is not that the one (sovereign elective grace) is stingy and the other (Arminianism) generous and more loving.

But the difference between them is this: A Christ who dies for some (the elect) and a Christ who dies for all.

The difference is, what is the nature of Jesus’ death?

The Christ who dies for all those given to Him of the Father saves them so that they shall never perish.

A Christ who dies for all saves no one.

Did Jesus, then, intend or want to save all?

Does God’s love mean that He wants all to be saved?

Then, of course, there is a question to be put to that: All, clearly, are not saved—unless one wishes to throw out the Bible, for the Bible does not teach a universal salvation. It does not teach that all are saved. Jesus Himself spoke repeatedly of hell. He said, “Fear Him who is able to cast the body and soul into hell.”

There is a hell.

Not all are saved.

Well, if Jesus died for all, did Jesus fail?

And the answer that is given by those who believe in the free will, or the Arminian heresy, is that, “No, He didn’t fail. You see, on the cross, what Jesus did was to make it possible for everybody to be saved if we add something to that, namely, our decision for our faith. He cannot (even though He died on the cross—supposedly for sin) He cannot save unless we help. We save, then, ourselves—with Jesus’ help.”

But this does not exalt the cross.

This cheapens the cross.

This limits its power.

Then the cross does not save any.

It is a Christ who does not save unless He is helped.

It is a love that cannot keep anyone from hell unless he helps God.

And then sinners are flattered.

Sinners are assured that it is in their power to repent and to believe.

To make the cross of Jesus Christ actually effectual depends upon them.

God cannot save them, even though His Son suffered on the cross.

They can keep God at bay.

And the gospel is trivialized.

This is not the gospel.

This is not the biblical, wonderful truth of the gospel.

The gospel proclaims that the cross truly saves.

It saves everyone for whom Jesus laid down His life.

The cross does not fail.

By His death, Jesus has made certain that all for whom He died shall go to glory.

There is power in the cross.

Look upon the cross. It is flanked on the one hand by the total depravity of the sinner. The sinner cannot save himself. On the other had it is flanked by unconditional and free grace of election. Jesus Christ died to save a certain number of helpless sinners upon whom God set His free and electing love. Christ’s death insured not only that they would all be saved, but that, because Jesus died for their sins, they would also be called. And the Holy Spirit would work faith in their hearts. The cross saves. And the cross saves because Jesus laid down His life for you, for everyone given to Him of His Father.

What does the Bible teach about the nature of Jesus’ cross?

It says that this cross was, first of all, a precious death. The One who died upon Calvary was God’s Son in the flesh. He was the Holy Son of God without spot or blemish. His blood is the blood of God in the flesh. The value and the power of that blood is mighty.

Still more. It was a willing death: “I lay down My life.” His death was not an accident. His death was not a misunderstanding or tragedy. He was not forced to this cross against His will. It was a deliberate and intentional action. It was a willing sacrifice. He laid it down.

And His death was substitutionary. “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

“For,” that is, “in the place of, instead of, as a substitute for.”

We were guilty before God in the judgment. We deserve to be bound over to the torments of hell. But Christ, by grace, was sent of the Father, and upon the cross He said, “Father, I have been sent to stand in their stead that they might not be condemned. Let the condemnation that they deserve fall upon Me. That they might never be forsaken or cast out, forsake and cast Me out.”

He died for sins.

For whose sins?

Not His own sins, but for the sheep. He was wounded, Isaiah says in chapter 53, “for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.”

What you deserved was given over unto Him.

Romans 5:6
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Therefore, the death of Jesus Christ accomplished something. It availed. It redeemed everyone for whom He died.

Ephesians 1:7
“In whom we have redemption through his blood.”

Revelation 12:10
“Who has redeemed us to God by his own blood.”

Colossians 2:13-14
“..having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."

Our Lord’s crossword: “It is finished.”

All for whom He died—their debt is paid. He has obtained eternal salvation for the sheep. He obtained their faith. Faith is not the key in your pocket to open salvation. Faith is a gift that Jesus earned on the cross. It is the power of the cross. The power of the cross does not wait for the dead sinner, but it breathes into the dead sinner new life.

To teach that Jesus died for all is to deny His cross.

It is to present the cross as a failure.

It fails to save those whom it intends to save.

Indeed, it cannot save them at all unless they first help.

It did not pay any debt.

It did not obtain righteousness.

It has no worth.

It has no power.

It has no comfort.

But the truth of sovereign, saving grace is this: Jesus is no failure. Jesus, on the cross, conquered. Jesus paid for the sins of all His sheep.

Did Jesus then die for me?

This question must be answered in our souls. We cannot leave this unanswered. If Jesus died for you, then you will never die, you will never be condemned by God, you will never be forsaken. And if Jesus did not die for you, if you live impenitently and without faith, in your sins, if there is no fruit of sorrow for your sin, no desire after Christ, you are going to stand accountable to God for your sin.

How do I know that Jesus died for me?

Everyone for whom He died, in them, by the power of His cross, He sends forth the Holy Spirit. By this Holy Spirit, He gives you to know that you are in Christ. He gives you to know your sin, your unworthiness, your deep pain of heart of having offended God.

Still more, He gives you to see yourself, to see Jesus as your Savior, your hope, your good. You marvel at the love of God, that He would give for you, a sinner, His own Son. He gives you to believe on Him, to trust Him, to desire to obey and follow Him. You feel His grace working in you. Jesus works spiritual life in everyone for whom He died. By the power of the cross, He works in them a sorrow for sin, a repentance, a trust in Him, a hiding in His blood, and a deep personal love for Jesus. Then I know that something happened on Calvary long ago, on the hill outside Jerusalem — something happened that cannot be undone.

Jesus died for me.

He paid for all my sins.

He obtained the right to God’s presence.

Why did He do that?

Because He loved me purely, graciously. God so loved me, that He gave His only Begotten Son for me. Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. I will not perish.

This is the Jesus we preach.

This is the Jesus we love.

This is the Jesus we obey.

And all who put their trust in Him, by God’s grace, shall never be ashamed.

And we say, “This alone my plea shall be: Jesus Christ who died for me.”

By Carl Haak

The Remnant According To The Election Of Grace

2009-11-18T10:07:00.001Z

Romans 11:5
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Before we begin our study on the remnant, I would like to define a few terms in our text:

1) "remnant": means a small group within a group. As we study this doctrine we will see it's meaning in the scriptures. The scriptures teach that at any given time in history: there are very few people elect in comparison to the mass multitudes who are reprobate and will face eternal damnation.

2) "election of grace": is the doctrine that God has a people He chose in Christ before creation (Ephesians 1:4), and Jesus came and died for their sins establishing righteousness for them only (Isaiah 53:11), and the Holy Spirit will come to each one of these elect with the true gospel and they will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ALONE for ALL their salvation (John 6:37). It's God's election, and it's all by His grace.

So our text Romans 11:5, "Even so at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace": is teaching that at any time in history, there are few people saved, and the majority of mankind are unbelievers and under the wrath of God; and that this salvation is all of God's grace in Christ.

The Lord was asked: "Lord, are there few that be saved?" (Luke 13:23). The Biblical answer is yes. It is true that the Bible teaches that the elect in heaven will be a number that no man can number:

Revelation 7:9
"After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb (Christ), clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Revelation 7:10
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."

Praise God it is a great number; but in comparison to all who have lived in history, it is a remnant (a small group within the whole group). This is what we will now look at through scriptural history - because over a billion people on earth profess to be Christians; yet the Biblical teaching is that there is only a remnant of mankind that at any time in history is Christian.

We will begin with Noah's time in history.

As Noah existed on the earth, the Bible teaches that the earth was full of people. Read for yourself in Genesis chapter 5 the generations of Adam. We read also in Genesis 6:1.

Genesis 6:1
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.

When God brought Noah unto the earth it was populated with people. Noah was called: "a preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5).

Noah preached the gospel to an earth full of sinners.

How many were elect?

Only 8 people were, inclucing Noah (I Peter 3:20). God saved only 8 in the ark out of mankind; the ark being a type of Christ.

Next we look at the time of Elijah the prophet: the time of the Kings: Elijah speaks:

Romans 11:3
Lord, they (Israel - the professing people of God in Elijah's day) have killed thy prophets, and digging down thy altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

Romans 11:4
But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

In Elijah's day the earth was full of people, yet how many were elect?

7,000 people. (The historical account of this is in I Kings 19;9-18).

Next: in the prophet Isaiah's day. Read Isaiah chapter one. Here God is addressing those who professed the true religion - Israel of the Old Testament. God reveals in the first chapter of Isaiah that their worship of Him was false. Yet God had a remnant:

Isaiah 1:9
Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Now remember, during this time, God allowed all other nations of the earth to be without even the preaching of the gospel; it was confined to Israel. And in Israel there was only a "very small remnant".

Israel was the center of the worship of God; yet even among them there was only a remnant:

"Esaias (Isaiah) also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved".
(Romans 9:27; with the historical passage being Isaiah 10:20-23).

Go to the seashore, or see the seashore in your mind, and all the grains of sand on the beach; then hear God say only a remnant of them are my people. Now remember that God here is speaking of the religious Jews here - not the whole world. The rest of the world was left out of even the eternal preaching of the gospel.

We now will look at the time when Christ walked the earth. Christ said that among Christendom (those that profess Christ) there will be very few saved:

Matthew 7:13
Enter ye in at the strait gate (salvation conditioned on Christ alone): for wide is the gate, and broad is the way (false religion within professing Christendom and all unbelievers), that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Matthew 7:14
Because stait is the gate (salvation conditioned on Christ ALONE), and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Within professing Christendom, many are lost and few are saved.

Many (compared to the remnant) who profess Christ will be damned.

The Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 7:22
Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Matthew 7:23
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity.

Many who profess Christ on the day of judgement will be damned.

Why?

Because they will plead their works as their righteousness before God, even giving God the credit ("in thy name").

God tells us in the passage what the remnant will do: verse 21: "he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven".

What is the Father's will here?

Jesus said:

John 6:29
"..This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him (Christ) whom He hath sent."

The remnant will come to believe in Christ ALONE for ALL of salvation, apart from their works.

The Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.

Many hear the true gospel, but out of that group, few (remnant) are chosen by God to believe it. Now Christ here is speaking of those who have heard the true gospel: salvation conditioned on Christ ALONE. He is not speaking of the rest of mankind, and the false gospels of so called Christendom.

Now we come to our day. The true gospel being preached in congregations is rare. There are few (remnant) gospel congregations. The majority of Christendom (those who profess Christ) do not even have the gospel. They believe in a gospel of works.

Roman Catholicism is not ashamed to openly teach salvation by Christ + works.

Arminianism is the prominent teaching in Christendom today: that Christ died for everyone, saving no one; and your salvation is actually based on your decision, an altar call, being baptized, "I let Jesus into my heart"; or whatever man dreams up. But this is all works of the sinner and not the gospel.

In our day, just like in every day in history, our text is true:

Romans 11:5
Even at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

All of the remnant will hear the true gospel, and repent (totally change their thinking and turn from their false god), and believe on Christ ALONE for ALL their salvation.

But there is only a remnant.

But God's remnant will rejoice to hear the Savior say:

Luke 12:32
Fear not, little flock (the remnant elect): for it is the Father's good pleasure to give (in the election of grace) you the kingdom (salvation)

Amen!

By Craig Miklosik

Two Religions

2009-11-01T12:42:00.001Z

The religion of men

With only one exception, every religion that has ever existed in this world maintains that the way to salvation is through good works. Their view of what constitutes salvation may differ (some may see it as a right relationship with God; or attaining to ones "higher self;" or a positive relationship with the universe; or access to heaven and bliss); however, the underlying way in which they all aim to obtain salvation is always the same – through their own dead works.

These religions all maintain that the exercise of the will; the performance of good works; the abstention from evil deeds; the improvement of character, thought and conduct; and/or the performance of certain religious rituals, observances, and other duties are all necessary factors in initiating their salvation, and often, in preserving their salvation.

The specific works at issue will vary from religion to religion, as will their opinions on what constitutes necessary moral reform, religious observance and duty, etc. However, if you strip away the specifics of these things, the core foundation is always the will and work of man. Likewise, the books they deem holy will vary; as will the names of their religious "holy men;" and even the names of their god or gods. Nonetheless, the works they have in view; their "holy" books and men; and their false gods will always point them back to self – and what they must think, say, or do to get right with the divine.

As a result, we see:

Talmudists (modern-day followers of the Jewish religion) attempting to keep the Old Testament law and otherwise working and exercising their fallen will in an attempt to get saved;

Arminians, Romanists, and all other so-called "free-will christians" going about "making a decision for Christ;" "accepting Jesus into their heart," "saying the sinners prayer," and otherwise working and exercising their fallen will in an attempt to get saved;

Muslims keeping the Islamic/Sharia law, performing the Hajj, praying towards Mecca, and otherwise working and exercising their fallen will in an attempt to get saved;

Hindus/Buddhist/Taoist etc., performing various rituals, observances, acts of self-denial, acts of obedience to their moral codes, and the exercising of their fallen will to reach their desired religious ends; and

Every other religionist likewise implementing their own rules, belief systems, acts of obedience, and manifestations of will-worship, that they deem necessary to reach their desired religious end.

The Religion of God

As stated above, there is one exception and that exception is Christianity. True, biblical, Christianity is the only religion that states that your best efforts at moral reform and religious observance, if aimed at forming the basis of your salvation, serves only to further distance you from God. God's word declares that exercises of the will and moral and religious activity (collectively known as works of the law) only serve to bring you closer to the pit of hell if you believe that these things can do anything to initiate, preserve, or improve upon salvation. The true Gospel (as opposed to the free-will counterfeits that abound in our day) declares that the Lord Jesus Christ completed all that was necessary for the salvation of His people. He performed all the work required to satisfy the divine law, justice, and wrath of God. He left nothing undone, no aspect of a sinner's salvation depends on something that they must do (as if to make up for something that the Lord Jesus Christ could not, would not, or otherwise did not do to obtain full pardon for His people).

True Christianity is not an "Ivory Soap" religion; it isn't 99.44% God's work, and 0.56% percent our own. Salvation is either all of God, as in one-hundred percent, or it is a damnable lie that cannot save anyone. Thus, any attempt to add ones own works into God's plan of salvation (whether the works be mental, verbal, or physical), is tantamount to attempting to steal the glory due to Christ and Him alone. It is tantamount to declaring Christ's blood common, impotent, and insufficient for the cause. Finally, it is tantamount to declaring the Lord Jesus Christ a liar, and declaring that the work wasn't really finished when Jesus declared "It is Finished."

By Curt Wildy

Refuting Charges of Neo-Gnosticism - Part 1

2009-10-31T13:10:00.002Z

I Corinthians 15:1
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

I Corinthians 15:2
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

I Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The Gospel Outline

The passage above is one of the most common passages given to define the Gospel. However, when we look at it carefully, we see that this passage is not a strict definition of the Gospel, but rather, an outline/summary of it.

Why an outline, and not the actual definition?

When we consider the use of the phrase "according to the scriptures," we see that we must look beyond this passage alone to determine its true definition. We must consider all of the relevant biblical passages to come to a proper understanding of, and definition for, the Gospel. It only serves as a Gospel definition for those who already have a knowledge and understanding of the scriptural context that gives fulness and meaning to this passage.

Moreover, when we consider the passage carefully, we see that whatever the true Gospel is, it must address the following questions (and do so in a manner that is harmonious with the Scripture):

Who and what is meant by "Christ"in verse 3?

Why did Christ come to this Earth and why did he have to die?

Who are the "our" in "....our sins" in verse 3?

What is the significance of Christ's burial? - v4;

What does it mean that Christ rose again? - v4;

and what was accomplished by His death, burial, and resurrection?

Righteousness Revealed

Another way to determine whether I Corinthians 15:1-4 is the full Gospel message, or an outline or summary of it, is to apply this simple test:

Imagine saying to someone: "the Gospel is the good news that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day;" and then imagine proceeding to ask them to explain to you, based on this one sentence, "what is the righteousness of God that is revealed in this Gospel" (Romans 1:16-17).

If they have never been exposed to Christianity or to the pseudo-Christian religions of christendom, they will probably look at you like a deer caught in headlights (not having any idea how to properly answer this question). They may say something to the effect that "God is a righteous God; He doesn't do anything wrong; God is good;" however, they will have no idea (from that one sentence) about the righteousness that The Lord Jesus Christ established for His people. They will not understand that Christ is the end of the law for them (i.e., law-keeping as a supposed means of being accepted before God), and that when His righteousness is imputed to them, all aspects of their salvation were guaranteed and sealed.

The Spirit of Compromise

Christians (as opposed to Arminians, Arians, Sacramentalists, those within the reformed community that embrace them, etc.) are often accused of making the Gospel "too complicated" or too "doctrinally inclusive."

They lodge the false charge that "unless someone has studied calvinism for some time (we say) they can't be saved." This is foolishness.

This has nothing to do with "studying Calvinism."

It has to do with the fact that our accusers want a "simpler" gospel (supposing the True to be too complicated); they want a watered-down gospel, one that has nothing to do with election, predestination, righteousness imputed, or perhaps any of the other vital precepts that make up the Doctrine of Christ. Although these doctrines are associated with Calvin's teachings, they stem not from Calvin, but from God as revealed in the Bible. These doctrines are all very much biblical, and they are intimately tied-into the Gospel and God's plan of salvation.

Now, there are many amongst these false accusers who claim to support the doctrines of free and sovereign grace. In "fairness" to them, many of them do indeed speak often and eloquently on such vital precepts as election, predestination, effectual atonement, sola scriptura, and other key doctrines (including righteousness imputed). However, they absolutely do not believe (in a spiritual, saving sense) the things that they say. They are not submitted to these Gospel truths because they willingly embrace not only those who deny these truths, but those who do so openly and teach others to do the same. By doing so, by openly embracing those who embrace heresy, they set these vital truths at naught before their congregations, and before all people. These compromisers make the precepts to appear as nothing more than interesting truths, enlightening truths, accurate and beneficial truths, but not truths that are essential components of the Gospel Truth. These false accusers simply do not see certain vital truths as being vital; they see them as optional (thinking that one can be saved though they are in clear rebellion against them).

Thus, such accusers (who account for a large, and growing, number of those who identify as Reformed, Calvinistic, Predestinarian) want a gospel that allows them to embrace nearly anyone as "Christian." You see it's so much easier, so much more comfortable, palatable, and "loving," to take on an ecumenical mindset, even if it means compromising the Gospel. It is so much less painful to the flesh to avoid the reviling, persecutions, and tribulations that arise out of making accurate and needful judgments based upon what the Bible declares. Believers, think about how many more friends you would have; how many more church members; how many more council/association affiliations and "guest speaker" requests you would have if you (and your church) would simply abstain from clearly defining the Gospel and distinguishing it from all counterfeits. You could gain the world, and lose your own soul (thus evidencing that you were never true believers). However, God's people find such notions repugnant; choosing Christ (by God's grace) and the tribulations associated with following after Him, rather than selling-out to the wicked of this world.

These false accusers compromise in various degrees. Some will speak out against the ills of Popery (Romanism), but will openly embrace Arminians. Some will speak boldly about the truths embodied in the acronym "TULIP" but will argue that God saved them and allowed them to remain "Jehovah Witnesses" and Pentecostals for months or years on end. These compromisers come in many different (spiritual) shapes and sizes; however, one thing is always true, they will embrace the heretic of their choosing if it suits there ungodly purposes.

The Charge of Neo-Gnosticism

Since these false accusers believe that they are saved, they must distinguish themselves from those who are truly saved. They most often do so by employing inaccurate arguments, outright lies, and corrupt appeals to human logic and emotion. One tactic in their arsenal is to accuse Christians of being Neo-Gnostic in doctrine. If such an accuser can mislead others, and convince them that those who preach the True gospel are really just making "deep doctrinal knowledge" a requirement (and/or a prerequisite, or precondition) for salvation, they can deflect the fault from themselves and make it appear that the error lies elsewhere.

The Gnostics of old misused the scriptures, and "spiritualized" it in ways that not only were not in harmony with the entirety of the Bible, but utterly undermined it. They brought in many pagan (mystery cult) beliefs and practices and rejected many of the core beliefs of Christianity (the virgin birth, the deity and/or humanity of Christ, the Trinity, etc.). As a result, heresy after heresy arose from those who claimed they had this "higher knowledge (gnosis)" of Scripture. They believed that only those initiated and immersed in their ways could truly understand the Bible. Such thinking by no means describes the true believer; and when the Neo-Gnostic charge is lobbied against God's people, it only serves to reveal the depths of wickedness, ignorance, and spiritual blindness of those making the accusation.

You see, true believers do not make doctrinal knowledge a prerequisite for initiating, maintaining, "improving upon," or sealing their salvation. Christ is the Author and Finisher of our Salvation; He that began a good work in us is faithful to complete it until the end. The Holy Spirit is our Seal and Earnest. The elect are maintained due to the divine, free, and sovereign will of the Father, as it was made possible solely by the Finished work of Christ, and made effectual in the elect sinner's life by the Holy Spirit. Our man-mustered, knowledge, faith, understanding, repentance, etc, has no bearing on getting a man saved or keeping him saved.

However, there are things that accompany salvation; a belief in the true Gospel is one of those things. When God regenerates and converts a person, He does teach them. We read that when the Spirit comes, and works that work in a person, He reproves them of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. He leads them into all truth pertaining to the essentials of the Gospel and the knowledge of God. God does not save a person, and then allow them to proclaim a false Gospel for days, weeks, months, or years. He doesn't save them so that they can still the glory from God for a season, and give that glory to man, or man's fallen will. God saves His people for His Name and Glory's sake, and He sends them out to be ambassadors of the Truth (not of lies, half-truths, and other falsehoods).

We read that Paul was "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)

These compromisers are ashamed of, and in rebllion against, the Gospel. Though they may speak great, swelling words, they are ultimately ignorant (in a spiritual sense) of that righteousness revealed in the Gospel; especially as it relates to the value and necessity of it.

By Curt Wildy

Refuting Charges of Neo-Gnosticism - Part 2

2009-10-31T12:44:00.003Z

What is the True gospel?

The Gospel is a declared message; it is not an offer or an invitation. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for sin-sick souls; it is the good news and glad tidings of God, His kingdom, and His glorious plan of salvation (the complete salvation of elect sinners conditioned upon the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Christ alone, without any contribution from the sinner as it pertains to their becoming saved, staying saved, or improving upon their salvation). It is a message that is full of vital truths; and the Holy Spirit gives His people faith to belief and to understand those vital truths when He quickens them.

My goal is to show that when the True Gospel is declared, the questions listed in the first section are answered and the Kingdom, Grace, and Righteousness of God are clearly revealed (Romans 1:16-17; Ephesians 2:8-9; and Matthew 24:14). My goal is to show that when these things are not revealed in supposed "gospel preaching," it isn't because the speaker is refraining from adding extraneous material from their message; instead, it is because they are preaching a diminished gospel, a watered-down gospel, an inaccurate gospel, or better put, a false gospel. There is only one Gospel, either it is preached faithfully, or it is despised and replaced with counterfeits.

At this point, let us consider I Corinthians 15 again (considering it prayerfully, systematically, and Lord willing, harmoniously with the Scripture). Let us also verify again whether the charges of Neo-Gnosticism are at all accurate.

Christ!

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ....

Who is Christ?

You cannot properly understand this verse without first understanding who and what Christ is. When we search the Scriptures, comparing all relevant passages, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son, co-equal with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Triune Godhead. We see that He is the God-Man mediator who kept the law perfectly on behalf of His people, atoned for them, and who alone makes their salvation possible (having reconciled them to God).

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made....
(John 1:1-3)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:14)

But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
(John 5:17-18)

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form (external appearance) of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
(Philippians 2:5-8)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9:6)

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
(John 20:27-28)

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. Psalm 45:6 -- But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. Hebrews 1:8

We know from numerous other passages that these precepts are true, and that they perfectly accord with the Scriptures. So, any gospel that denies the full humanity, and the full and co-equality of deity of Christ, is a false gospel. Such a "gospel" reveals a false Christ; one that is utterly unable to save. Such a false Christ is preached in many a pulpit today.

Died!

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died... according to the scriptures.

Why did He die, how did He die?

You cannot properly understand this verse without first understanding how and why the Lord Jesus Christ had to die. When we search the Scripture we see that Christ was made a curse for His people (cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree - Galatians 3:13), so that they would be free from the curse of the law and free to enjoy eternal communion with God in Heaven. The Bible declares that He "was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5).

Again, by searching the Bible, we know that these precepts are true. So, any gospel that denies the death of Christ, the Atonement, the doctrine of imputation, or any other related vital doctrine is a false gospel. Such a "gospel" reveals a false Christ, one that can save no one. Again, such a false Christ is preached in many a pulpit today.

Romans 5:1
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Romans 5:2
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God....

Romans 5:6
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:7
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Romans 5:10
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

For our sins!

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

For whom did Christ die?

You cannot properly understand this passage without first understanding *who* is in view when the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to declare "for our sins." Who are the "our," is it only those in the Church of Corinth? Surely not, or else this would have no application to believers in our day.

Is it the entire world?

Many teach this; however, despite its popularity, it is a repugnantly inaccurate doctrine as we shall see below.

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,
(Ephesians 1:3-5)

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: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 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.
(Ephesians 2:4-9)

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 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.
(John 6:37-39)

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. My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand. I and [my] Father are one.
(John 10:27-30)

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.....I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
(John 17:6-10)

But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(II Thessalonians 2:13)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
(I Peter 1:1-2)

There are many more passages that refer to the fact that the "our sins" refers to the sins of God's elect, and only His elect. It does not refer to the sins of every person that has ever lived, or ever will live. God's atonement is effectual for all those for whom He died. Simply put, Christ died to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) by paying the penalty they deserved. In so doing, He did all that was necessary to establish a righteousness for them that guarantees all aspects of their salvation. Christ came to save His sheep, and all of them will hear His voice and believe the Gospel unto salvation (by the grace, mercy, and effectual working of God).

So we see that any gospel that denies that "our sins" refers to God's elect, all of His elect, and only His elect, is a false gospel. Such a false gospel reveals a false Christ that cannot save. Such a false gospel often takes the form of Arminianism/Semi-Pelagianism/Sacramentalism and declares the abominable lie that Jesus' blood was shed commonly for all and that He died to atone for all (even though He knew the majority of them would end up in Hell); what utter, and blasphemous, foolishness. The Lord Jesus Christ is no fool, no failure, and He is by no means guilty of double jeopardy; He is both a Just God and a Saviour, both Just and Justifier.

By Curt Wildy

Refuting Charges of Neo-Gnosticism - Part 3

2009-10-31T12:21:00.002Z

Buried!

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

I Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

What is the importance of His burial?

In Isaiah 53:8-9 we read of Jesus

Isaiah 53:8
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Isaiah 53:9
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet 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.

We see that the Lord Jesus Christ was buried, evidencing the fact that He was truly dead. Many a heretic of old, and even in our day, denied the actual Crucifixion, death, and burial of Christ (supposing that He was spared death just in the nick of time).

Though Christ, in His deity, could not die - His fleshly body (His humanity) did. He died in the stead of His people, as a guilty sinner. Not guilty in Himself, for He was perfectly pure, spotless, and free from sin. Nonetheless, He was guilty in the eyes of God, having the sins of His people imputed to Him (so that the righteousness He established for them would be imputed back to them).

As such, He made His grave with the wicked, having died as a guilty man (in that He willingly accepted the guilt and unspeakable punishment due His people, paying for every last one of their sins).

However, consider also the following passages:

Romans 6:1
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Romans 6:2
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Romans 6:3
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:5
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Romans 6:6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Romans 6:7
For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 6:8
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Colossians 2:9
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Colossians 2:10
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Colossians 2:11
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Colossians 2:12
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is directly tied into the precept that we were buried with Him; the very image of the ordinance of water baptism typifies His death, burial, and resurrection and ours in Him. We will address the resurrection aspect shortly. But in the meantime, let us boldly declare that if any gospel denies the death and burial of Christ (and the precepts associated with it), it is a false gospel. If any gospel denies the relationship between his death and burial, and the elect being buried with Him (indicating that our sins, embodied in the old man, were legally done away with forever in this life; and completely done away with in the life to come), it is a false gospel. Such a false gospel manifests in our day as true antinomianism (as opposed the groundless charge often laid against God's people), and is a root of such false doctrines as purgatory, and the notion that a true believer can lose their salvation.

Resurrection!

I Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

I Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

What is the significance of Christ's resurrection?

You cannot properly understand the importance of the resurrection without understanding that the Lord Jesus Christ evidenced that He completed all that was necessary to guarantee the salvation of His people by being first raised Himself. His resurrection, and His subsequent return to Heaven as our Prophet, Priest, and King, proves and guarantees (beyond all shadow of doubt) that all of His elect people will likewise be raised and will reign with Him for all eternity.

Romans 4:23
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

Romans 4:24
But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

Romans 4:25
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

I Corinthians 6:14
And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

I Corinthians 15:15
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

I Corinthians 15:16
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

I Corinthians 15:17
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

I Corinthians 15:18
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

I Corinthians 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

I Corinthians 15:20
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

I Corinthians 15:21
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

I Corinthians 15:22
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

II Corinthians 4:14
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

Ephesians 2:4
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Ephesians 2:5
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Ephesians 2:6
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

I Thessalonians 4:14
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

I Thessalonians 4:15
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

I Thessalonians 4:16
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

I Thessalonians 4:17
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I Thessalonians 4:18
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Thus, if any gospel denies the literal resurrection of Christ, or if any gospel denies that that resurrection of Christ evidences the fact that His people were raised in Him and are guaranteed all aspects of salvation (from regeneration to final glorification in Heaven) due to His finished work alone, it is a false gospel.

By Curt Wildy

Refuting Charges of Neo-Gnosticism - Part 4

2009-10-31T11:33:00.002Z

I Corinthians 15 revisited

Based upon what has been written in the previous parts, we can see that the Gospel is not simply the "Death, Burial, and resurrection of Christ;" as if these words existed in some vacuum.

Rather, the Gospel is the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ "according to the scriptures." Thus through the scriptures, the Gospel reveals:

Who (and what) Christ is;

He is God the Son (co-equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in the Triune Godhead)

He is the promised Saviour and Messiah who came to actually seek AND save that which was lost (God's elect);

He is the God-Man mediator that makes communion between God and His elect possible.

Why He became incarnate and why He had to die;

To keep the law of God perfectly as a man;

Though being spotless and without sin, to suffer the wrath of God (equivalent to eternal damnation for all of the sins of His people), so that He would atone for them, and establish for them a righteousness that guarantees their salvation.

All those for whom He died;

Every single one of God's elect (none one more and not one less).

The significance of His burial;

Setting for that He truly died for His people, and that His people are buried with Him being dead to the law, having the old man crucified, and being free from the dominion of sin.

The significance of His resurrection; and

Irrefutable proof that His work was finished; that atonement had been made for His people; that His people would be raised again with Him; and that He was our King victorious (conquering Satan, Death, and Hell and reigning over Heaven and Earth).

What was accomplished by His finished work?

Our blessed Prophet, Priest, and King, the Lord Jesus Christ, saved His people to the utmost by His atoning blood and imputed righteousness. His faithfulness to the Father in atoning for the elect glorified God in the highest. He reigns supreme, and His bride (the elect church) will be with Him forevermore. No one, and no thing, has ever, nor can ever frustrate His divine will, purpose, kingdom, honour, and glory.

Romans 1:16-17 and the Gospel revisited

We also see that the righteousness of God (established and imputed to all of God's elect) will be revealed when the true Gospel is declared. When a faithful preacher, teacher, or witness in general proclaims the Gospel, you can guarantee that the truths of free and sovereign grace and righteousness imputed will be affirmed.

When false prophets and false brethren bring their counterfeits, these doctrines will either be rejected, maligned, ignored, or water-down to make them of no real effect (in the hearts and minds of carnal men and women).

Too complicated?

Too extraneous?

The assertion that believers proclaim a Gospel that is too in-depth and confusing for the young believer is nonsense. To claim that the true Gospel is "Gnostic teaching" is bewildering at best. This argument could be plausible perhaps, if a man-mustered faith and a carnally-obtained understanding were prerequisites for salvation. However, for the true saint, drawn of the Father and regenerated and taught by the Holy Spirit, there is nothing complicated or extraneous about this Gospel. It is all very clear, especially when worked out in the heart, mind, and experience of the saved sinner.

The reality is that the essence of the Gospel can be laid out in a very short period of time (not that we are rushing, or that the time is at all relevant, but since our accusers pretend that our Gospel is too difficult, excessive, complicated, and time-consuming to be the true, it is worth pointing out). True believers know that there is no need to artificially "shorten" the Gospel, water it down, or make it more palatable (by leaving key elements out). Those who feel the need to do such things do not know the truth, they are those who have "made lies [their] refuge, and under falsehood have hid [them]selves" (Isaiah 28:15).

A sample message

But let's test it, let's see how complicated the Gospel really is.

Consider the following:

All of us are sinners by nature, guilty of the wrath of God. We all fell in Adam and we all commit an innumerable number of sins, the very first of which was enough to send us to Hell for all eternity. Nonetheless, despite our wretched state by nature, God sovereignly purposed to save a people for Himself. Through the Gospel, God declares to us the good news of His promise to save His people from their sins based upon the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

From before the foundation of the world, out of the mass of fallen humanity, God the Father elected a people for Himself; in multitude, they are a number that no man can count (though they are a remnant compared to the whole of mankind). In the divine covenant, the Father purposed to give His people to His son, that they would be His bride (His church or body of believers). Jesus likewise covenanted with the Father to save the elect, knowing that this would mean (a) humbling Himself, (b) becoming Incarnate, (c) keeping the law perfectly on their behalf; (d) dying in their stead (suffering both physically and spiritually under the wrath of God though He, himself, was pure and innocent); and (e) being raised again (evidencing that God's law and wrath were fully satisfied, Christ reigns victorious, and that His people are guaranteed all aspects of salvation - from regeneration to glorification in Heaven). Thus when Christ, in willing obedience to the Father, became incarnate, kept the law, died on the cross (declaring "it is finished"); and was raised again, we can rest assured that He completed all that was necessary and that all who truly believe in the Gospel are saved, and will persevere until the end.

However the Bible makes clear that a person believes only because they have been given the gift of faith and repentance to believe. They believe due to the fact that, as part of the salvation covenant, the Holy Spirit purposed to save all of the elect of the father, all for whom Christ atoned. At God's appointed time, the Gospel is brought to the elect sinner, and He is regenerated by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit converts that individual, and reproves him of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He convicts them of their sins, and points them to that blessed remedy (the Lord Jesus Christ). From the declared gospel, He reveals to them both doctrinally and experientially (experimentally) that their only hope for salvation is in the finished work (atoning blood and imputed righteousness) of Christ and that nothing they say, do, think, abstain from doing, etc. plays any part in getting them saved or keeping them saved. The Holy Spirit causes them to throw all of their hopes on Christ, and on Him alone (causing them to reject will-worship and any notion that salvation is conditioned in any way upon them).

God saves a person so that they will go out and testify of the great things the Lord has done for them. That saved sinner is commissioned to go forth and witness to others both in word and in deed. Since no one can determine whether a person is elect by outward appearance, the believer is to witness to all mankind as God gives opportunity. Our focus isn't on determining who is elect or not, but on prayerfully and faithfully declaring the word of God (knowing that if the hearer is of God, the Holy Spirit will quicken and convert them). As each elect sinner becomes saved, we see the advancement of the promise of the Kingdom (i.e. the good news and glad tidings of Christ and his coming Kingdom). God reigns in Heaven and in Earth and His people reign with him as they seek to do His will (knowing that it is god who worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure). Come judgment day, the Kingdom will be visibly manifest in all of it's glory and splendor as God's people are raised to be with Him in Heaven and the reprobate (those whom God never planned to save) are judged and cast into hell for all eternity.

What I have written above is what I often say when I witness to others. Words change here and there, as with order; and surely questions are asked and objections raised. Nonetheless, the truth is summarised in what I believe to be a clear, succinct, and accurate way. From there, I can then go on to address whatever questions or concerns the hearer may have. But nothing above is "too complicated" for them; or too lengthy and time-consuming. Nothing in the above is extraneous, unnecessary, or unimportant as it pertains to the salvation of souls.

So, does the charge still stand?

Is the charge of Neo-Gnosticism accurate when it comes to those who proclaim the true Gospel?

In light of the above (and the previous parts) are Christians really guilty of making human knowledge and understanding a requirement, precondition, or prerequisite for initiating salvation?

I think the clear answer is "no." We are simply guilty of affirming and proclaiming the God-ordained Gospel in a way that does not allow for corruption or compromise.

So let the false accusers tell you what they think about the matter of true Gospel preaching; let them tell you how they feel you are going beyond what the Bible declares the Gospel to be. Let them tell you how unloving you are, unkind, and how you hold to too strict a definition. Let them lament how you refuse to fellowship spiritually with those who deny the true Gospel (or compromise it by speaking spiritual peace to those who deny it).

As they do so, notice how these accusers rarely (a) use biblical means in an attempt to refute the arguments and proof-texts set forth herein; and how they (b) are rarely able to set-forth the scriptural proof-texts necessary to systematically support their own arguments.

You will find that, far more often than not, their biblical exegesis and hermeneutic is based primarily upon biblical misquotation and misinterpretation, carnal feelings/emotions, and their ties to their own groundless opinions and "insights" on the matter (or those opinions and "insights" of other men whom they respect).

All of this leads to one last question...

From whence did these errors derive?

When the "Reformed," "Calvinistic," and "Predestinarian" compromisers water-down the Gospel to embrace heresy, where did they get their arguments to justify such things?

When the Arminians (Semi-Pelagians), Romanists (Sacramentalists), Arians (false-Jehovah Witnesses), and other heretics bring forth their polluted gospels (which are no gospels at all), from where do their arguments originate?

The answer should be simple given that such error did not stem from God; His prophets and apostles; or from any of His faithful witnesses.

So where did this working of error stem?

From Satan, himself, and from the bellies and lusts of corrupt men and women who want to give themselves (and others) the glory in the working-out of their supposed salvation. Trace it back; those who proclaim such heresies can no doubt trace them back (if records survive and they are diligent) to those who "went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." (1 John 2:19).

By Curt Wildy

What Name Have You Called On?

2009-10-18T11:48:00.000+01:00

The Scriptures make it quite clear that every sinner elected by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace, is justified freely by Christ's substitutionary work of redemption at Calvary, and will call on the name of the Lord.

"And because YE ARE sons, (an event that has already occurred in spiritual adoption) God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
(Galatians 4:6)

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
(Romans 10:13)

The Scriptures declare boldly that "Because ye are sons", you will in time evidence your sonship by calling on God as YOUR FATHER.

Here is an important question:

‘If almost everyone we know (including ourselves) has at some point called on the name "Jesus," and asked Him to save them, can we assume they are indeed God's children?'

Before answering, HEAR GOD'S WORD:

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
(Matthew 7:21)

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."
(James 2:19)

Now that simple verse, "For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved," doesn't seem so simple.

Dear friend, this is a life or death matter, and we must be certain of the name we have called on as the God of our salvation.

You might be asking yourself: What NAME must I call on?

First of all, you need to realize that your calling on God (faith) isn't the ground, cause, or hope of your salvation.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
(Titus 3:5-7)

Secondly, you need to understand that God's name is uniquely revealed to each of His children, AND THEY ALL KNOW HIS NAME.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, (know in an intimate relationship as Adam KNEW Eve, and she conceived) THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
(John 17:3)

God revealed His NAME to Moses and that name was directly related to His glory.

"And He (God) said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." (Exodus 33:19)

His NAME is what reveals how He can be just and justify ungodly sinners.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS (JEHOVAH WHO SAVES): for he shall (not might) save his people from their sins."
(Matthew 1:21)

If YOU ARE A SON, then you either are calling on (in true worship) or will yet be brought to call on JESUS as "the Lord your righteousness," the ONLY HOPE OF SALVATION.

If the ‘jesus' you call on only made your salvation possible, you are still in a state of lostness. I pray you have called and are calling on "THE NAME OF THE LORD," worshipping Him in spirit and truth, wholly forgiven and justified by His blood and righteousness alone, Philippians 3:3.

By Richard Warmack

A Caveat Againts Unsound Doctrines

2009-10-17T11:57:00.001+01:00

Ask almost any man, "Whether he hopes to be saved eternally?"

He will answer in the affirmative.

But enquire again, "On what foundation he rests his hope?"

Here too many are sadly divided.

The Pelagian hopes to get to heaven by a moral life and a good use of his natural powers.

The Arminian by a jumble of grace and free-will, human works, and the merits of Christ.

The Deist by an interested observance of the social virtues.

Thus merit-mongers, of every denomination, agree in making any thing the basis of their hope, rather than that foundation which God's own hand hath laid in Zion.

But what saith Scripture?

It avers, again and again, that Jesus alone is our hope: to the exclusion of all others, and to the utter annihilation of human deservings.

Beware, therefore, of resting your dependence partly on Christ, and partly on some other basis. As surely as you bottom your reliance partly on the rock, and partly on the sand; so certainly, unless God give you an immediate repentance to your acknowledgment of the truth, will your supposed house of defence fall and bury you in its ruins, no less than if you had raised it on the sand alone.

Christ is the hope of glory.

By Augustus Montague Toplady - Apri1 29, 1770

Vain Glory

2009-10-16T14:26:00.002+01:00

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
(Philippians 2:3)

In Philippians 2, Paul addresses his comments directly to the justified, regenerated sinners at Philippi who find consolation and comfort in Christ, and fellowship of the indwelling Spirit (vs. 1) as He points sinners to Christ and His obedience unto death (and that alone) for such assurance (vss. 8-11).

But consider that most who read these verses are among the "many" who remain on the broad road leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13), though they may sincerely presume to have an interest in Christ. These to whom God has not granted the gift of faith and repentance (the fruit and effect of Christ's obedience unto death) may profess and imagine that they have an interest in Christ, yet in imagining that their salvation is conditioned in some way, to some degree upon something done by, in, or through them (the sinner), they unwittingly manifest the height of religious pride and self-righteousness and anything but "lowliness of mind."

As if reading someone else's mail, they may apply this exhortation meant for believers to themselves as they strive to obey God's command to be humble and lowly of mind.

But in clinging to the religion of works (salvation conditioned on the sinner) they demonstrate the reality that they in fact esteem themselves far better than others - for they imagine that some distinction produced by or in them (but not produced by others) makes them accepted and blessed by God.

To remain so deceived is to cling to a false gospel which strikes directly at the glory of God by attempting to rival that which Christ alone accomplished in establishing a perfect righteousness for the elect whose sins He bore. One may strive for humility and lowliness of mind in many areas, but apart from God-given faith and repentance that looks to Christ and His finished work alone for all of salvation, God is not glorified in that sinner's heart.

Rather, when any comfort or assurance is derived from the natural, self-righteous notion that salvation is ultimately conditioned on what I do (my belief, my profession, a righteousness nature put within me, etc.), it is mere presumption and vain glory indeed! "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,..." (Galatians 6:14).

By Randy Wages

Your God - Dead Or Alive?

2009-10-16T13:52:00.001+01:00

In Deuteronomy 4:28, God through Moses described the idols Israel would worship once they were scattered among the nations saying, “And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.”

In scripture, God often distinguishes Himself as “the living God” in contrast to such idols constructed in the imagination of our own evil hearts (Jeremiah 18:12; Jeremiah 23:16-17).

When we consider that none knowingly worship a god that they perceived to be false or dead, then we better understand the necessity to heed God’s command for all to repent (Acts 17:30).

For as sinners born in spiritual darkness, we all initially worship an idol of our own imagination, imagining that our god indeed does see, hear, eat, and smell – that He is the one true and living God and not just a mere “likeness.” (Deuteronomy 4:16-18, 23, and 25).

In casting down such imaginations (2 Corinthians 10:5), it is instructive to discern from scripture whether your God truly sees, hears, eats, and smells by considering whether or not what your God sees, hears, eats, and smells is consistent with the revelation of God’s Word.

(1) What does your God see? Did He see of the travail of His soul and find total and complete satisfaction there in His finished work for His seed – for all those given unto Christ by the Father and for whom He lived and died? (Isaiah 53:10-11)

(2) What does your God hear? Does He hear the sinner’s plea for unadulterated mercy (propitiation / favor unmerited by the sinner but by way satisfaction to His holy justice) and that to the exclusion of all else – a plea from one who desires to be found in Christ based solely upon the just satisfaction Christ made at the cross as the elect sinner’s Substitute and accounted to that sinner by God’s free imputation? (Luke 18:9-15)

(3) What does your God eat? Did the God-man fully consume the wrath of God that was poured out on Him at the cross so that all whose sins He bore must be declared righteous in Him? (Hebrews 2:9; Matthew 26:39; Matthew 26:42; Romans 5:9)

(4) What does your God smell? Does your God smell the “…sweetsmelling savour…” of the sacrifice Christ made at the cross that demands life for all those whose sins He bore? (Ephesians 5:2)

Do these passages which distinguish what the true and living God sees, hears, eats, and smells, align with your own persuasion as to how God feely justifies sinners?

Does your God justify sinners based upon the Person and finished work of Christ alone?

If not, then as Paul described the elect at Thessalonica, I pray God will be pleased to grant you faith and repentance so that you too might be identified with all the saints of God who have “…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

By Randy Wages

The One And Only Mediator

2009-10-05T12:24:00.001+01:00

2 Chronicles 26:16
But when he King Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

2 Chronicles 26:17
And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men:

2 Chronicles 26:18
And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.

Under the Old Covenant Law, God gave specific instructions that only the sons of Aaron, as His appointed priests, were to enter into the sanctuary as a mediator for the people to burn incense. As 2 Chronicles 26 continues, we read of the consequence of Uzziah's actions, how God immediately brought leprosy upon the king, resulting in his being outcast as a leper for the remainder of his days. The seriousness of King Uzziah's sinful, prideful action can be found in the fact that the priestly office he dared to fulfill was a foreshadowing of that which only the eternal high priest (the promised Messiah, the God-man) was appointed to fulfill.

Accordingly, anyone who would inject themselves into fulfilling the role that Christ alone was appointed to fulfill, the role that Christ alone was able to fulfill, and that Christ alone did fulfill in His finished work as the "one mediator between God and men" (I Timothy 2:5), is in effect thinking and acting in concert with King Uzziah "when his heart was lifted up to his destruction." As sinners born in darkness, we are unaware of our complicity with Uzziah unless and until God exposes this to us by the light of His Gospel.

Sadly, many persist in imagining that the pivotal issue in their salvation hinges upon that which they do so as to appropriate God's blessing, not solely upon the work of Christ, the one and only Mediator.

Even many who profess to be of the Christian faith make no pretense in boldly asserting that Christ's work of mediation (which would more accurately be depicted as a mere attempt at mediation) is ultimately ineffective for most for whom He lived and died.

In fact, it is only deemed to be effective for those who rise to the occasion and do something to appropriate that blessing unto themselves (whether it be by the exercise of their faith or something else done by or through them). And in so thinking, men and women manifest King Uzziah's same sinful pride as they presume that the essential work whereby they are reconciled unto God is accomplished by their act of faith, a work performed outside that of God's appointed eternal priest and mediator.

Only the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ as the one mediator appointed by God could and did do the priestly work of mediation, the work of reconciling lost sinners unto a holy God by offering up the sacrifice of His own humanity in satisfaction to God's law and justice. That is the incense which is a sweet (satisfying) fragrance in the nostrils of God (Ephesians 5:1).

By Randy Wages

THORN - BLOSSOM

2009-08-10T20:48:00.000+01:00

How mysterious that the thorn, which is the emblem of the fall of man, should be laden with beauty, teeming with fragrance, abounding with endless profusion of scents and hues, embellishing as it were the whole clime of even uncultivated nature in the month of May! Rich and blooming, the hedge-rows, thorn-bushes, and lanes seem strewed as it were then in that month with flowered walls, clumps, and pictured lines of beauty with what we call "May", thorn-blossom, in pink, lilied, and variegated sweetness and almost enchanting charms! And yet, it is all thorn-blossom still! And the thorn is the emblem, mark, and badge of the curse of God on the whole visible creation wherein we live. "Cursed is the ground", says God; "thorns shall it bring forth". And yet that the badge of God's curse should thus be decorated in the youth of spring and summer with the unnumbered sweet-distilling and balmy beauties I have described, is a mystery. From which I shall draw the following conclusions and inferences.

Thorn-blossom, in the first place, reminds me of the whole body of Arminianism, blooming on the stock of universal redemption, creature-merit, free-will, and the cursed mass of opposition to God's decrees. God says, "His elect are a garden enclosed, a vineyard, a spring shut up; and a fountain sealed". (Songs 4:12). "No", says Arminianism, "all men are equally beloved in God's sight". Thus Arminianism blooms and blossoms nearly on every corner of the world. And why? Because it is pretty, fragrant, and charming to the greatest mass of mankind. For many are in the broad road that leadeth unto destruction, whereunto also they were appointed; (Matt. 7:13; I Peter 2:8); and few are in the narrow way that leadeth unto life. (Matt. 7:14) I say, the thorn-blossom of Arminianism endeavors to bloom out its scents, and says that all men are equally gilded with acceptableness before God. Says Arminianism, Cain might have offered an acceptable offering before God as well as Abel did. It was Cain's own fault, says Arminianism. Thus as Cain tilled the ground which brings forth thorns emblematic of God's curse, so Arminianism thus tills free-will and chance-work, and insists upon it that there is no difference between a thorn and an apple tree. "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons". (Songs 2:3)

That apple tree is the emblemed figure and name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the remainder of the verse quoted most clearly imports: "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste". And as the fowls of the air pick "hips and haws and bramble-berries", the fruits of the rough, prickly, and disesteemed brier and thorn and such like; so Arminians are under the express and predestinated tuition of the prince of the power of the air; and as all the non-elected part of mankind weather and build their nests from necessity of the thorn-tree of God's rejection and non-election; so, on the contrary, do the whole elect race from among men set down under the Lord Jesus Christ's shadow and the great delight of electing love, particular and special redemption through the quickening love of God's most Holy Spirit.

Further, as the thorn-bush in May bends as it were with the load of blossom, and attracts the gaze of many a spectator; and as many a tongue might say of it, "See there!" in reference to its beauties; so the Arminian's holiness is the thorn-like, painted, daring, and bold front of creature-holiness, self-righteousness, and Satanical perfection of the flesh. They deny every truth of elect religion. They blaspheme, first, predestination; second, imputed righteousness; third, the final perseverance of the saints. They extol the power of the creature: "Up and be doing!" They say any one may have grace if he will. They say God wishes all to go to heaven, but the goats will not! Wesley and his associates thus deny the doctrine of reprobation; whereas Scripture says expressly, "God hardeneth whom he will". Moreover, Wesley denied the doctrine of unconditional election; thereby making the elect their own electors! Moreover, saying growth in grace is in our power, and his blasphemy against particular redemption and in favour of fleshly sanctification, perfection in the flesh, and what not; all these and various other aggravated marks stamp Wesley in my soul as the greatest enemy of God and of man that has appeared in these latter days. His denial of the cardinal doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness, if he died in that state, stamps him as a damned man in my soul's thorough judgment; and it is to be feared that he died in all his errors. And, as Huntington says, "If a man dies in his errors he must be damned, if God be true". (Vide his sermon, entitled "The Funeral of Arminianism"). To which judgment I say, Amen.

Christ was made of a woman, and made under the law in behalf and in place of the elect; and he paid their penal debts which were owing, by his blood. And as the law also said, "Do this and live", as well as that "The soul that sinneth shall die": so Christ not only rubbed out with His blood the sentence of death recorded against the elect by the law; but he, also, as a man, kept the law as regards its mandate, "Do this and live". Thus, Christ brought in a divine, perfect, and law-fulfilled righteousness. Thus, His blood wiped out the black catalogue of the transgressions of the elect, the elect thereby being pronounced innocent, through blood, death, and destruction being fully wrung from the illustrious scape-goat as their Surety, Bondsman, and lawcurst Redeemer. The law thus exacted its full penalties. But over and above penalties, death, and the pains of eternal damnation which Christ endured for his spouse the church, he fulfilled, magnified, and made the law honour-able by perfect obedience to its eternal mandate which proclaims the path to win endless life: "Do this and live!" Christ did so do it: guile was not found in his mouth. This obedience, then, of His, is the imputed righteousness of the elect. This is their wedding garment of dazzling, bright, and transcendent beauty. This is what fits them to be the guests of God. This is what makes them god-like in his Infinite presence. This is what law and justice delight and smile to see. Did the law say, "Do this and live"? So the divinity of Immanuel clothed itself in the virgin's womb and linked to Him a human body, with a created human soul, in all respects like unto his brethren the elect seed; sin only excepted: and He not only washed them in his blood, but He brought in for them an everlasting righteousness also. This imputed righteousness then, I aver, asseverate, and am as certain in my soul as that breath is in my body, that every man who has it not, is an eternally damned soul. "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 22:11).

This imputed righteousness then is the bloom, blossom, and fruitbearing richness, grandeur, and ineffable brilliancy of the Tree of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ, unto all the elect seed. This the blossom of life, perfection, immortality, and neverceasing joy to my ransomed soul. This is the dress which I shall sit in as in wrought gold at the wedding supper of the Lamb. "For thy Maker is thy husband". (Isa. 54:5) This is the fine needle-work, (Ps. 45:14) as it were, which the virgin throng of the ransomed race attend Immanuel the King of Glory in. This imputed righteousness, I say, which the Arminians fight against like tigers; this righteousness is the robe, the diadem of beauty, the ornaments, jewels, rich embroidery, gilded vest, sunny tabernacle, gorgeous grandeur, and laded blossom of paradise that my obedience-crowned, blood-bought soul shall bask in, with the trophies of free grace, without money and without price, for ever and for ever, in that celestial country, which so far must and will eclipse the glories of this terrestial scene, as much as the thorn-blossom of creature-holiness is eclipsed, bedimmed, and out-shown by the infinite, divine, and ineffable righteousness of Immanuel imputed to the elect alone. O heavenly excellencies, hid treasures, and never-ceasing bloom of the Tree of Life, as above described! How different to the painted, patched-up, and rude garb of creature-righteousness! A crab, a thorn, a brier, a nettle, or a thistle, is the God-curat adornment of a true Arminian in the sight of God! "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away."

If it is asked why I take on myself to judge the Arminian crew, it is, I answer, because I know by divine and heaven-sent experience the hollow, shadowy, cob-web, and cockatrice-wreathed fabric of their everlasting cursed religion, Popery and Arminianism are one and the same. I wanted to be a Wesleyan, but the wrath of God tore off the spiders' webs, which their religion was stanching my sin-wounded soul with.

But universal redemption and the denial of Christ's imputed righteousness are villanies one as great as the other. For I know that if Christ's righteousness is for all men than there is no hell! for the wedding garment, like a ship at full sail with a prosperous wind and unerring pilot on a safe sea, will waft every one whom it is for into the joyous harbour of eternal victory over sin, self, death, and hell. But, according to the damnable doctrine of universal redemption, the nullity and non-necessity of Christ's righteousness are hideously set forth; for one might suppose many wedding garments were laid by, as it were, useless in heaven, if Christ wrought out the brilliant vests for those in hell! O, shocking! Christ's blood and imputed righteousness are equally commensurate; and were shed and wrought out alone for the sheep and not for the goats! No goatish back ever was made or created to wear the mantle of Christ's imputed righteousness. No, never! "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." (Jer. 6:30)

This is the reason then for the profusion of the thorn-blossom. Many being in the broad way and few in the narrow, we thus see the need, the call, and necessity for thorn-blossom. For we all, alas, by nature, are the children of wrath. But the Holy Ghost regenerates and testifies of Jesus in His blood and righteousness in due time to the elect. Thus the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy to them. After they know Christ's imputed righteousness and blood through the Spirit's revelation thereof to their souls inwardly, in the inward kingdom of God in their souls; lo! they begin each then as kings to say like David, "Come near, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul." This exasperates the devil to the highest pitch. Then the devil sends forth such men as Wesley, to poison the whole atmosphere of the world with false doctrine. Thus the Wesleyans call the unconditional election of the chosen race the horrible decree! Thus they designate election (the grand charter of all the sheep) as the devil's lie. O horrible! I say again, that Wesleyan Methodism is flat high treason against my electing, redeeming, and regenerating God! Of Arminians may be said:

Vain man, forbear! no thorny bloom
Of creature goodness reaches heaven!
Thorn-blossom fails! The Arminian's doom
Is hell, swollen with all such leaven.
They who are dressed in that bright vest,
Imputed Righteousness most pure!
When hell, when death on all else rest,
As Christ's theirs then this dress seals sure!
O brilliant Vest! surpassing far
The richest notions words can paint!
Hid under thee, no saint shall faint,
Though stung with sin's still rankling scar!

For unconditional election, imputed righteousness, particular redemption, God's sovereign election or rejection of men (all which things Wesley denied) go hand in hand, or stand or fall together. The thorn-blossom of creature-merit and human holiness is therefore called in. As the bloom of the Tree of Life is for the elect alone; as the elect are, as it were, a garden walled around, wherin alone the savoury fruit and illustriously glorious buds and blossoms grow that will break forth into the full, unspeakable, and eternal fruition of God; lo! what must the non-elect do but spread forth the gala too, not only of profane pleasure, but also of self-righteousness, free-will, and false religion! All which things then, and the swarms of counterfeits from Satan, imitative of the sublime glories which God has laid up for the elect alone; non-elect religion, and non-elect people, and their efforts, and the painted deceit of Satan toward them, all, all the magic string whereby Satan leads captive the goats at his will; all the spiritual inebriety, varnished cheats, and magic enchantments, and sorceries, and witchcrafts which the prince of the power of the air has, by the permission of God, poured out abroad over this whole fallen world wherein we live, are typified to my eye by "thornblossom". "Thorns shall it bring forth, which are near unto cursing". And if thorns are near unto cursing, so is the blossom thereof too, fair though it be! "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood". (Jer. 48:10)

Having endeavoured to shoot an arrow, not at the upright in heart, but at the skinny phantom called "Arminianism"; I will, the Lord alone being my helper, endeavour at some future time to knock a bough or two off the bramble-bush called "Bastard Calvinism". So be it. For the longer I live and the more that I feel concerning the ever-blessed Almighty, the more am I brought feelingly, sensibly, and in submissive hearkening to rest my everlasting salvation on unconditional eternal election and particular redemption, on the one hand; and on the Spirit's work in me, on the other hand, manifestive of my own election and redemption, who am the unworthiest of men. All which things Arminianism and Calvinism equally fight and war against.

Abington; I.K. (John Kay)
The Gospel Standard
January 1838

"DRAW ME, WE WILL RUN AFTER THEE"

2009-08-09T15:29:00.000+01:00

"Draw me, we will run after thee"
(Song of Solomon 1:4)

"Come to Jesus. Come just as you are! Jesus is waiting! You must, indeed, you can come this very night," purred the "evangelist."

Jesus therefore answered and said: "No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of My Father " (John 6:65).

"Jesus said that "he that cometh to me," replied the evangelist, "I will in no wise cast out."

Jesus answers: "All that the FATHER GIVETH ME, SHALL COME to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

"Don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t come to Jesus. He wants you to come right now!" said the evangelist.

"Jesus therefore answered and said, . . . 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" (John 6:44).

What a shocking discourse the above is to the ears of an unconverted, or inexperienced man!

Someone once said that John Calvin thought the doctrine of reprobation was a "horrible decree." Of course, Calvin believed it to be true because it is clearly taught in the Bible. "No man can come" to Christ unless the Father draws him; or "except it were given to him" of the Father. Regardless of what preachers say, Christ’s own answer is the truth. The preachers say that the sinner can come anytime he pleases; and the Lord says, "Oh, no! He cannot come unless My Father determined that he does." It is not left up to man; but is left up to the Father. The Father will "have mercy on him whom He will have mercy, and have compassion on whom He will have compassion. And whom He will, He hardeneth" (Romans 9:11-19.)

Natural man’s sensitivities toward their fellow man draws forth a violent reaction to the truth Jesus taught in the above passages. "Do you mean to say that God will prevent one from believing and being saved?"

Such a conclusion is invariably necessary, for it is certain that God does not save all. He does not call all to repentance. He did not choose all to salvation. It is not given to all to come to Christ. Indeed, it is not given to all that hear to believe. The reason is clearly given by our Lord: "He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, BECAUSE ye are NOT OF God" (John 8:47).

"But", says one, "such cannot be the correct meaning of the text. Surely if they understood Christ, they could come."

"Why do ye NOT understand My speech? Even because ye cannot hear My word," said our Lord. (John 8:43).

"It is just too difficult to draw such a conclusion in light of the love of God. Didn’t He come to give everyone a chance to be saved?"

"For judgment I am come into this world, that THEY WHICH SEE NOT MIGHT SEE; AND THAT THEY WHICH SEE MIGHT BE MADE BLIND," said the Lord Jesus. (John 9:39).

The above presents a side of the truth of free grace that is absolutely shocking the first time it engages one’s attention. There is no doubt that most individuals find it very negative; and for this reason they will not entertain it in their minds very long. It does not fit the "evangelical Christian" theory of universal offers of salvation.

While at first glance the above scriptures appear negative, yet they are rather positive. It is the positive aspects of them that are of greatest interest in this article. It seems appropriate, however, to highlight the negative first as a background for the positive. We will prove the doctrine and then move on to the beauty and sweetness it affords a child of free grace.

The Bible proves conclusively that the evangelical theory of universal offers of salvation is false. The theory is only a figment of the imagination of ministers bent on gaining church members at any price.

In the best-known text the "free offer" men advance, the context disputes their interpretation roundly. In the John 12:32, Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

The evangelical ministers will say: "See, God does draw everyone to Jesus!"

However, in verses 40 & 41, John writes: "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they should NOT see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him."

It is not reasonable to believe that God would do this to them if, in fact, He willed their salvation. He would have done the exact opposite instead! Again, in the famous "Lord’s Prayer," we hear the Lord praying to His Father saying: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as THOU HAST GIVEN HIM . . . .I pray for THEM: I pray NOT FOR THE WORLD, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine." (John 17: 2, 9). It surely would appear that if it were His will that all be drawn to Him and saved by Him, that His intercessory prayer would have included all of them.

But obviously, it did not!

To make the negative aspect of this doctrine brief, we will cite only one more passage (out of many) to prove this point. The apostle foretelling of the coming of that "wicked one," writes: "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; BECAUSE they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for THIS CAUSE God shall send them STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe a lie: (That God loves every body and wants to save every body) that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thessalonians 2:10-12).

Now that is what some might consider being a negative aspect of the truth. Notice, however, the next verse. It sets forth the most positive and sweet part of the subject: "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION through sanctification of the Spirit and BELIEF OF THE TRUTH: whereunto He called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (verse 13,14).

That, dear friend is very positive!

God chose those His Father gave Him to salvation. As He said:

"Ye have not CHOSEN Me, but I have chosen you."
(John 15:16)

The Positive: Except the Father Draw Him

"No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me DRAW HIM: and I will raise him up at the last day."

"Therefore said I unto you, that NO MAN CAN COME UNTO Me, except it were GIVEN UNTO HIM OF My father."

The texts above shows clearly that while no one can come to Christ except God draws him, those that the Father draws will be in the resurrection of the just. In other words, it is imperative that God draw one to Christ if that one is ever to be saved experimentally and everlastingly. This places salvation squarely in the hands of God. It denies any initiation of salvation to be by the efforts of the creature.

It is a very positive declaration. To Jeremiah the prophet, God said:

"Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to CAUSE him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with LOVINGKINDNESS HAVE I DRAWN THEE."
(Jeremiah 31:2-3)

What a mercy is this!

"I have drawn thee." Jesus had said, "No man can come unto Me except," and this exception is this gracious drawing by the lovingkindness of God.

"Yea," said He, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love."

We cannot escape the conclusion that one who is drawn to Christ has been loved of God "from the beginning," and therefore has been loved of God from the foundation of the world, or ever the world was. The apostle said even the same, when he wrote:

"according as He 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"
(Ephesians 1:4-6.)

"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee." That is as to say, "not with violence," but "in love and gentleness." It surely is with "lovingkindness" when God draws one to Himself.

"And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, LIVE"
(Ezekiel 16:6)

In such a helpless and polluted condition!

Why should God have mercy on such ungodly sinners as this?

Yet, Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That call is an appointed call. "Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the TIME OF LOVE; and I spread My skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou BECAMEST MINE" (verse 8.)

The drawing of one to Christ can be by many different ways. The covenant promise of the everlasting Father to His beloved Son was that "Thy people shall be willing in the day of THY POWER, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth" (Psalm 110:3.)

It is a powerful drawing to Christ Jesus when He in His power makes them willing. If He shows them their sinfulness; their inability to attain an adequate righteousness of their own; that all their religious devotions and legal efforts cannot justify them; then they will flee to Him for His righteousness and consequent justification.

They will, in His own time and way, cause them to finally exclaim, "The Lord our Righteousness" and salvation!

God will teach all His people that they are the chiefest of sinners. He will make them to see what they are by nature in the carnality of Adam’s flesh!

And, He will cause them to come to Him for rest. In fact, Paul declared this to be "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;" of whom he was chief; and that in him, "first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting" (I Timothy 1:15-16.)

The doctrines of God our Savior will draw a believer to Christ often. In our day, the doctrinal downgrade has been highly successful. Modern-day "Christians" have thrown the doctrine of Christ away.

They never knew how important doctrine is!

Without them, they cannot know Christ. His doctrine describes Him. It tells who and what manner of person He is. This Biblical description of Him draws the believer to Him. To wit: "Jesus is a hateful, mean, ugly subhuman creature with horns and a forked tail and cannot save anyone unless they let him."

Is this the Christ we worship?

Of course not!

His doctrine declares Him to be Love.

He is merciful.

He is sovereign.

He does His own will as He pleases.

He has already saved all His people by the sacrifice of Himself.

He effectually call sinners to Himself, and He teaches them all things that they need as they need them.

Without the doctrine of Christ, one cannot know Him. But it is with His doctrine that His people are drawn to Him. His people need a god that is indeed a GOD!

And this He certainly is!

They do not need a helper in salvation; they need a SAVIOR!

And this He certainly is also!

All the great and glorious attributes of God are taught only by the doctrine of Christ. These are all instruments in the hand of God to draw a trembling sinner to the loving arms of a loving and adorable Savior.

By Stanley C. Phillips

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

2009-08-09T13:48:00.002+01:00

"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."
(Acts 17:6)

These words were spoken of Paul and Silas after having preached three sabbath days in the synagogue at Thessalonica. Paul's preaching was exceeding troublesome. Acts 16:20. The doctrine of Christ when proclaimed by his chosen ministers is always offensive to the world and its different sects of carnal worshipers. It turns Arminianism upside down. As long as a man's preaching leaves the world right side up, we know that he has not preached the gospel of Christ. A gospel without a stumbling-block is a gospel without Christ. Those whose preaching does not turn the world upside down, have never been turned upside down themselves; and those who have not been turned upside down, have never been called by grace; for a call by grace always turns a man upside down. It had this effect on Paul.

The religion of Jesus Christ is contrary to nature. Christ was put to death on a cross. Arminianism teaches that God is the Father of all mankind, and as such deals with all men as his children. They even came face to face with the Lord Jesus with this pernicious doctrine, saying, "We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." John 8:41. But the Saviour silenced their presumptuous blasphemy with the cutting rebuke, "If God were your father, ye would love me." "Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John 8:44.

This same generation of Satan are in the world today, under a cloak of carnal religion, denying that they are born of fornication, and claiming one father, even God. And nothing is more tormenting to them than to point to their true parentage, as did the Saviour. These same teachers of the world hold forth a Saviour who has left the shining courts of his Father's glory, and came to this low ground of sin and sorrow, suffered and died the ignominious death of the cross, to do men's wills; for they say he will save them if they will. But the word of eternal truth turns this upside down, and hurls it back into the bottomless pit of human lies, and declares that he came down from heaven, not even to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. John 6:38. Our Saviour was no Arminian; for he came not to do his own will. Neither are his brethren Arminians. For in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.

These same soothsayers teach that Christ, as an offering for sin, is made to man, and man is moved and coaxed by the Spirit and bride to accept him. They call themselves the bride, and exhort their hearers not to resist the Spirit, for fear it may take its everlasting flight. But the inspired record turns this upside down, and discovers Satan under it, the father of lies, and lets us know that Jesus through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, and by that one offering hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Offerings for sin are made to God, and to God alone. Christ as an offering for sin is not made to us. They also teach that Christ is held forth in what they call "the general tender of the gospel," and that we must believe in him in order to be saved, and that we believe according to our own free will. But the inspired Scripture, that fatal touchstone of the world's religion, meets this doctrine of infidelity, and turns it upside down; declaring that we "believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead." Eph.1:19,20.

When men came to Christ wanting to work the works of God, he told them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." John 6:28,29. They say, We believe according to our own free will. Christ says, We believe according to the workings of the mighty power of God. They say, It is man's work to believe. Christ says, It is the work of God. Which is right? These same "towerbuilders" teach that all men can come to Christ; but the Saviour said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 7:44. Here they give the Saviour the lie, and yet pretend to love and obey him. They further teach that it is God's will to have all men come to Christ and be saved, and that it is God's purpose and pleasure to save them if they will but come; "If they will only fall in with the overtures of mercy, and be saved upon the easy and equitable terms of the gospel, before it is finally and everlastingly too late." But the Saviour turns this upside down, and reveals their refuge of lies, and tells us that all that the Father giveth him shall come to him. Never can one that God has given to Christ stay away. God will make them come. Christ says, "Ye will not come unto me;" and, "No man can come." Men will not come, cannot come. And "will not" and "cannot" is a double not, which nothing but the finger of God can untie. With men these things are impossible; but with God all things are possible.

These same "waymakers" teach a broad and easy way which all men can find, because they claim to clearly point it out; and that all men can and may walk therein. They would like to prove that our Saviour lied when he said, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it." I do not dispute their claim to the "broad way," but only deny that it leads to life. For, "broad is the way that leads to death, and many there be that go in thereat." These same "encompassers" of sea and land must have a universal religion. Their prayer is that the world may be converted to Christ. They are of the world, and pray for the world. But the Saviour was not of the world, and declared that he prayed not for the world. John 17:9. Their prayers are not modeled after Christ's, but after "vain repetitions of the heathen," which Christ commands his disciples not to use. How long have their joint petitions gone up for "every house to become a house of prayer, and every heart a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?" Has this prayer ever been answered? If it should be, could the Scriptures be fulfilled? The fact that this is not answered is evidence that it was never promised, and the asking is proved to be amiss.

Again, these learned Rabbis of modern theology teach that "men are not the sheep of Christ because they believe not." But Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, whose own the sheep are, turns this upside down, and exposes their learned ignorance of the true God and his grace, and says, "Ye believe not because ye are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." John 10:26. Men believe because they are the sheep of Christ; not to make them sheep. In the same way which they call "proclaiming life and salvation," they teach that as many as believe, are ordained to eternal life. But the eternal record destroys this refuge of lies, and reveals the glorious truth of God's predestinating grace, and says, "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Acts 13:48. If you wish to arrive at the truth, always reverse Arminianism. Again, these will-worshiping idolaters claim that by their teaching, accompanied by the persuasive influence of the Spirit, men are brought to a knowledge of the truth, and then can be saved by laying hold of offered mercy. But the Scriptures turn this upside down, and tell us that God will have men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. I Tim.2:4. The Scriptures teach, first, saved, and then a knowledge of the truth. Men teach, first, a knowledge of the truth, and then a probable salvation. They have Sunday Schools, Tract Societies, money systems, and a hundred other inventions unauthorized by the word of God, to forward this work of teaching what they call the religion of Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures turn this upside down, and show it to be the commandments and traditions of men. "They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." Heb.8:11. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." John 6:45. This is the teaching that brings men to Christ. It brings all who are taught. Christ says, "Every one that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." There is no failure here. When a poor sinner is taught of the Lord; when Christ, the true light, is revealed in him, he denies himself, and learns to touch not, taste not, handle not, the commandments and traditions of men, because with him they all perish with the using.

Again, these "Doctors of Divinity" teach that all men are called by the gospel and the Spirit, and can be saved if they will only yield to the influence of the Spirit, and obey what they call the gospel, and keep the commandments. But our Saviour has stopped their mouths again; for he declares that the world cannot receive the Spirit, which he sends to comfort his children. John 14:17. The apostle says, "Who hath saved us, and called us." II Tim.1:9. Hence we are saved before we are called. If not, why does the word say so? "Sanctified by God the Father, preserved {or saved} in Jesus Christ, and called." Jude 1. But the salvation that men preach is after the call. Then it is plain that their call and salvation are not the call and salvation of our God. Their call is not only before their salvation, but it is immensely broader; for they say that all men are called, and but few saved. But the call of our God is not so. The promise is to all that are called. "For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off; even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts 2:39. This promise is to "as many," not to all. Again, "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." I Cor.1:26. Somebody is left out of this call. But why do we reason? For hath not the apostle said, "Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate;" "and whom he did predestinate, them he also called?" Rom.7:29,30. Here we see that the call of our God is limited by his predestination, coupled with his eternal foreknowledge.

Thus we see that their doctrine of infidelity is turned upside down by God's own words, and the foundation thereof discovered to be human ingenuity and craftiness, speculation being the chief corner-stone. These same atheistic teachers preach that God begins the work in all men, but carries it on in but few, and that thousands who are awakened and moved by the Spirit, die in their sins, and sink into the torment of an ever burning hell. This is mighty poor grace, and a very unsuccessful and sadly disappointed Spirit; but we feel sure that it is neither the grace nor the Spirit of our God; for we are assured in his word that his grace "reigns through righteousness unto everlasting life." Rom.5:21. It reigns through righteousness; does not fail through weakness. And when our God begins a good work in a creature, he "performs it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil.1:6. And what our God doeth shall stand forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. Eccl.3:14. Thus, through the inspired Scriptures every phase of the doctrines of men is turned upside down, and their falsehoods brought to light.

These same master builders of the high places of Molech preach a faith that is the fruit of the creature, and man must exercise it. But Paul preached a faith that God is the author and finisher of; a faith that exercises the creature; that works by love and purifies the heart; a faith that is the gift of God; a faith that moved Noah to prepare an ark; a faith that threw down the walls of Jericho; a faith which translated Enoch; a faith which subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, works righteousness, and overcomes the world. This is not a faith that is the fruit of the creature, and exercised by man; but it is that faith by which we understand the world was framed; the faith of the Son of God.

These same evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, {II Tim.3:13,} and preach a birth of a spirit which can be produced or prevented by man; a birth without a begetting, without a travail, and brings forth something that can be annihilated, or cease to exist, by the disobedience of the creature, and regain the condition occupied before birth. They call this "being born of God." Now, this is not only contradicted by the word of truth, but there is not a syllable of common sense or reason in it. There are laws of birth, and without these a birth is impossible. First, the existence of life or seed in the parent; second, a begetting; and third, travail, or bringing to light and manifestation the being whose life had its existence in the parent. And this being can never pass back into that state again. The Scriptures inform us that we are born of God. How can this be, except our life was in God, and of the same nature as God? Before this birth of the Spirit, there must be a begetting; and James informs us that God of his own will begat us. James 1:18. And if begotten of the Spirit, we are bound to be born. For God says, "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?" Isa.66:9.

These same gainsayers of Korah preach that in infancy we are all the children of God; but when we cross the line of accountability, if we do good God will still love us; and if we disobey, he will hate us, and we will cease to be his children, and become the children of the wicked one. This line of accountability, of which they preach so much, I can never understand, as there is no such thing intimated in the Scriptures of divine truth. But the word of God turns this upside down, and discloses ignorance, superstition and human imagination, as its foundation. These words of eternal truth forever settle the question with all lovers of the truth. "The children 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; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Rom.9:11-13. If this Scripture read in this way, The children being both born, and having crossed the line of accountability, one did good and another evil, that salvation by works might stand, it was said unto her, Jacob I love, but Esau I hate; then the Scriptures would not have to be revised to meet the demands of the present age; neither would the Arminian clergy have to dodge the word, as they do. But our God does not have to wait for the birth of the creature, to fix his choice; but his sovereign, electing love fixes on the object before its birth, before it does good or evil, even before it is in a capacity for doing good or evil. The eternal choice of our God was made not only before the birth of the objects embraced therein, but was made in Christ before the foundation of the world, and sealed by his immutable decree of predestination; and the foundation thereof standeth sure, having this seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are his."

Dear kindred in Christ, it is in much weakness that I have tried to notice a few of the most prominent points in which the doctrine of our Saviour turns the world upside down. If all the points of difference were noticed and compared, I suppose the world itself would not contain the books that should be written. I am young and ignorant, but I hope that the grace which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto me, and through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus my Saviour, I hope to stand accepted in the Beloved, with all the redeemed family.

By H.M. CURRY

From Signs of the Times - Jan 15, 1884

“TASTED DEATH FOR EVERY MAN”

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To believe that Jesus Christ died, or tasted death, for the entire race of Adam is very natural to the Universalists, or Arminians.

In fact such a theory is in all men’s nature; for I often find myself trying to ride the “do better horse,” but he invariably throws me. If I possess a new nature, the Lord created it in me in 1883; and since, if I have one vestige of Arminianism respecting the Saviour’s death and atonement in the renewed mind, I have not discovered it.

To taste death, or to die, for any other than His elect, inspiration has failed to record it. Most assuredly if there had been one Scripture that said that He died for all the race of Adam, it would have been repeated so often from certain pulpits and press that all who read the Scripture would know of it. Now that it is only a vain supposition, such Scriptures as “tasted death for every man,” is boosted.

Luke says, “The law and the prophets were unto John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”

Who is there that thinks that this means the entire race of men?

The natural man who cannot discern spiritual things, and cannot rightly divide the word of truth may think “every man” means all mankind.

Now, that Saul of Tarsus was an educated man, and converted from law-error to Gospel
truth, he could speak comfortingly and understandingly to the Hebrews, who had been made to believe in Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners. Thus he addressed them:
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9)

The proportional faith couched in the context is a chain of divine truth, including every line of salvation purchased by Christ’s death and atonement. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” - for His tasting the death of His Son for His chosen ones, not by His obedience, resurrection, life, or intercession, but by His death. This tasting of death was not in order to give any rain and sunshine, bread and meat, or any temporal blessings. But for thus suffering, tasting death, the Father rewarded Him for thus redeeming the
purchased possession. (Philippians 2:8-9)

Hence, all for whom He tasted death are reconciled to God by His Son’s death and atonement; and thereby all, “every man,” that Jesus by the grace of God should taste death, shall be saved from all their sins; “for it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare My name unto My brethren; in the midst of the church I will sing praises unto Thee.”
(Hebrews 2:10-12)

And again, “Behold, I, and the children which God hath given Me.”

With the faith of Paul and of those to whom He spake, evidently must have believed the “every man,” the “many sons,” “they who are sanctified,” “My brethren,” and “the children which God hath given Me,” embraced those who were chosen in the Son before the world out of the fallen race of Adam, just that many, no more or less. If “every man” should mean all of Adam’s posterity, so would each of those in the context.

If all would read the word of truth for instruction, they would see that only those who are called with a holy calling of Jews and Gentiles will be saved; and only those who are ordained to eternal life will ever believe in Jesus Christ. (Acts 13:48)

Even from the mouths of babes and sucklings God has ordained praise and strength. (Matt. 21:16)

It is often said by unbelievers that the Lord cannot save unless the subject will let Him.
Such have never been under the hand of God or had the sentence of death in themselves, else they would believe He doeth His will in heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand. It is by grace they are saved. Who is there that cannot see how Paul triumphantly gathers those expressions in the context, as sentinels, to prove that every one that Jesus Christ tasted death for shall be saved. As all His people are taught of the Lord, it seems strange that any should believe that some that He saved are not saved, and will never be raised to eternal glory, unless it is one who has been led to deny the gods of this world.

By M.L. Gilbert, 1938

THE TEST OF HOUSEHOLD FAITH

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The spirit of liberty, gospel freedom, sweet peace in the conscience, pardon and redemption is all in Christ, my friends. And if we are blessed with these spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are safe and secure to all eternity. The soul that has a saving interest in Christ, the great Redeemer, is as sure of heaven as if he were there already.

It is not as some free-willers wickedly tell their hearers – "There are thousands in hell for whom Christ shed His blood."

O no, this can never be the case; for the Father has declared of the Son, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."

He could never be satisfied if the purchase of His blood, the ransom of His life, were to be lifting up their eyes in hell. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

It is in Christ, my friends. The Lord keep you and me looking by precious faith to the Person of the great Redeemer, to His blood shedding and justifying righteousness, for peace and salvation. It is the test of the household of faith.

By John Kershaw

The End Of Two-Thousand Arminians

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“The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.”
Matthew 8:32

Once the devils entered the swine it would be impossible to distinguish them from the swine. The reason being, and the truth of the matter is, the swine and the devils are now one. The will and desire of the swine, the Lord now giving them leave to act upon the same, (they supposed their will now to be free), was to flee from the presence of Christ and feast upon the mountain of their own self-righteousness.

However, being blind and violent in their own pursuits, having no sense of direction, they ended up perishing in the waters of condemnation which is the just desert for all who are not found in Christ Jesus and who trust in their own righteousness. The truth is, their will was not free at all but rather bound by their own foolish nature and desires.

Oh how natural man loves and adores his “free-will!”

Oh how natural man hates and is violent against the Lord Jesus Christ and His sovereign grace!

Free-willers put their fingers in their ears and scream “we will not have this man rule over us!”

They call those whom the Lord has clothed and given life, heretics.

These representatives of self-righteous, free-will religionists (the devil possessed swine) would rather die therein than be in the presence of Christ and be clothed with His righteousness, (freewillism and self-righteousness are one and the same).

This is how we all are from birth until death, unless the Lord in sovereign grace and mercy comes where we are to clothe us with His righteousness and dwell in us giving us Spiritual life and sanity.

Arminianism is insanity and certain death to all who embrace it. All those who cling to their will and righteousness will not come to Christ that they might have life - “And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).

The whole herd of free - will preachers and all their disciples will come to the same end as portrayed by the swine. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10)

By T. Robbins

Atonement And Redemption

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Dear Sir: - There are some who say that the atonement is general and that redemption is particular, and others who say that both the atonement and the redemption are general. If you will give your views, through the SIGNS, on this subject, you will very much oblige, and I hope instruct me. What I want to know is, can the two be separated? If the one is general is not the other? I hope you will give your views at some length, and oblige,
A LOVER OF THE TRUTH.

Ulster County, N. Y., April 28, 1858.

___________________________________________________

The simple word atonement, or at-one-ment, signifies reconciliation, agreement, or restoration to favor, and when applied in a gospel sense, has reference to the meditorial sacrifice of the Son of God, by which his people are reconciled unto God. That mediatorial work or sacrifice involved his suffering for them the penalty of the law which they had transgressed, bearing the curse which was due to their transgressions, putting away their sins by sacrifice of himself; being delivered up for their offences, and raised again from the dead for their justification.

Redemption signifies the buying back of that which has become legally involved and is held by another in captivity. For instance, a flock of sheep which has gone astray from the premises of their owner, and committed trespass on another, may be legally held by him who has sustained the injury, until the owner of the sheep shall come forward, prove property, pay the legal charges, and take them away. This is called redemption, or buying back the flock or property which belonged to him who redeems, before the trespass was committed. In this the payment of the damages is the atonement or reconciliation, for it satisfies the party who held the legal claim upon the flock, and the price paid for the satisfaction, or reconciliation, redeems or buys them back. So that the atonement and the redemption of the sheep are one and the same thing; they cannot be separated. None but the owner of the sheep has the right to redeem them. If he fails to redeem them, and they are sold to some other person for the damages they have done, they are not redeemed at all, because they are not bought back, or restored to the former owner, but pass into the possession of a new owner. The redemption of the people of God is thus described, Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him [Christ] the iniquity of us all."

That is, the whole demand of the law and justice of God, was demanded of that Shepherd whose own the sheep were, and who says, "I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." - John 10:11-12.

If Christ had not been the owner of the flock before they strayed, or went into captivity, justice could not have demanded satisfaction at his hands, the Lord would not have laid their iniquity upon him, nor commanded, saying, "Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones." - Zechariah 13:7.

Nor could Christ have claimed the right to redeem them on any other ground. He was the Shepherd whose own the sheep were, and he plead and sustained his prior claim to, and right of property in them, saying, "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me."

"I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them." And this glory he says he had with the Father before the world was. (John 17:5, 7, 10.)

Therefore he could in coming into the world to redeem them, confidently refer to the records of eternity: "Lo! I come, in the volume of thy book [the book in which all his members are written, Psalm 139:16,] it is written of me; to do thy will, O God." - Hebrews 10:7.

"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he had given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." - John 6:39.

These Scriptures define very clearly the extent of redemption by Jesus Christ, and the principle of relationship and proprietorship on which that redemption is based. In this redemption he asked not or prayed not, for the world, but for them which his Father had given him out of the world. And this was the full extent of the will of the Father, according to which God worketh all things, that Jesus should redeem and save his people from their sins, and raise up again at the last day all that the Father gave him before the world was, and therefore it was that the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. That is all of us who like sheep have gone astray. And he has accordingly "surely borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."

"He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement our peace [or atonement] was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." - Isaiah 53:4-5.

And because "It pleased the Lord to bruise" and to "put him to grief." "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 he] justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." - Isaiah 53:10-11.

And we know precisely what will satisfy him; for he has graciously told us. "I pray not for the world, but I pray for them which thou has given me" out of the world. "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory." - John 17:9, 24.

This is his will, and the Father has pledged his veracity that he shall be satisfied. Nor is this any less the will of the Father than it is the will of the Son, for, "This is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."

Thus we are instructed in regard to the nature and extent of the atonement and redemption which is in Christ Jesus. That it extends to all that the Father gave him, and to no others. That it embraces all that seed which Jesus should see when his soul was made an offering for sin, and which seed shall serve him, and be accounted to him for a generation, according to Psalm 22:30. But it extends to no other seed or people but that chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people which shall show forth his praises. (1 Peter 2:9.)

The atonement or reconciliation is just as extensive as the redemption, and the eternal salvation from sin, death and hell, is just as extensive in its application and its saving benefits as the atonement and redemption, and it can extend no further. All the murmuring, fault-finding and blasphemies of the children of men cannot extend it any further, nor remove one of Zion's stakes, nor break one of her cords.

After all the opposition manifested by the world to the definite extent of the atonement, there is not an individual on earth that really desires to be embraced in it but those who are made willing in the day of our Redeemer's power. All others prefer to rely on their own fancied free will, free agency and use of means, and to rely upon a chance system, which would give a chance to everybody, but in reality save nobody. God's redeemed people themselves were all of them opposed to his method of salvation until they were brought to an experimental knowledge of their guilty, lost and helpless condition, then they found it to be exactly suited to their case. And then being taught of God, they could not be satisfied with any uncertain, indefinite or chance system. Knowing their own total helplessness, they bless and adore God for that covenant which is well ordered and sure, for it is all their hope, and all their salvation.

Such a system of redemption as the Arminians contend for, if they could have it, would do them no good, for it would save nobody, and they are therefore just as well off in their present delusion on the subject, as they would be with a chance redemption, offered grace, and conditional salvation, while they are totally depraved, and dead in trespasses and sins. They are at war with God's plan of salvation, and it is impossible for them to be saved in any other. There we must leave them to perish forever in their delusion, unless they, by a divine power, over which they nor we have any control, shall be brought to know their need of a whole Savior, a sure redemption, and to rejoice in a perfect atonement and reconciliation to God, and to his way of saving poor, lost and helpless sinners.

By Elder Gilbert Beebe

Middletown, N. Y.
June 1, 1858.

UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION

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WHO THE US-WARD ARE

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We will inquire who the "us-ward" are to whom the Lord is said to be long-suffering. They are undoubtedly the persons to whom Peter writes his epistles, including himself. Let us turn, then, to the first epistle, and see to whom he wrote: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia;" and he then gives them the honored appellation of "Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father."

In the second chapter of this epistle, he calls them "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light."

It is worthy of remark, that the pronouns us and we, so often used by the apostles, in their epistles, are no other than the Lord's chosen people, to whom the precious truths contained in those epistles belong. As a confirmation of this fact, let me refer you to the following texts, in which these two terms, us and we, are often used: "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."
(Ephesians 1:3-5)

"But let us who are of the day be sober, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
(1 Thessalonians 5:8-9)

"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."
(2 Timothy 1:9)

You see, my friends, from these passages, and many more that might be produced, that the "us-ward" in our text are the objects of God's everlasting, electing love; and that their election is not founded upon any foreseen worth or worthiness in the creature, as the procuring cause of it, will be seen from the characters unto whom the Lord has been long-suffering.

By John Kershaw

THE HOPE OF ARMINIANISM

2008-12-22T12:50:00.002Z

The hope of Arminianism seems to me to differ much from the hope of the gospel, because it allows that Christ died for all men. But Christ declares that the gates which lead to destruction receive the greatest number, (Matthew 7:13). Therefore, if the former be true, some are in hell for whom Christ died; in which case there must have been a deficiency in the price the Surety paid, or else it reflects on his wisdom, and supposes him outwitted by the serpent, who, through his subtlety, has got legions in his possession, which were the Savior's own by purchase. It does not reflect on his wisdom only, but on his power also, who could not hold them that were committed unto him; because the gates of hell have prevailed, and many are plucked out of his hand, (John, 10:28).

It seems likewise to reflect cruelly on the justice of God, who drew his sword, and sheathed it in the great Shepherd, (Zechariah 8:7); and spared him not in the least, nor abated one mite of the debt, (Romans 8:32). And it is plain that Justice promised, by the blood of his covenant, to send "forth the prisoners out of the pit in which there was no water," (Zechariah. 9:11); and further, to be "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9).

But alas! this is all overthrown if Arminianism be true.

If Arminian hope be fixed on a surety that hath not paid, or cannot pay the debt; or, if it be fixed on a mutable Savior, having no laws to encourage it but such as demand a debt twice; first of the surety, and then of the debtor; first sending them out of the prison of sin on the surety's account, or, in their own words, making them sons of God by grace to-day, and after all this letting them fall away, and locking them up in hell to all eternity, until they can pay the utmost mite of what was paid long ago; what establishment is there for hope?

I answer, a hope founded on such doctrines is just as stable as a feather in a whirlwind.

By William Huntington

"NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH"

2008-11-29T14:56:00.002Z

By William Gadsby

Preached in Manchester, England

February 9th, 1840

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"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
(2 Peter 3:9)

To add to, or diminish from, the Word of God is a crime, though much employed in the frivolities of the world; and the office of a minister is a very responsible one. He is God's steward, and he must one day give up his stewardship; and if he seeks to please men, he is not a true servant of God; nay, it is insulting God. Some say God is not willing that any creature should perish, but every one should come to repentance; but in our text we are told it is this "us-ward" for whom he is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. "Then," say you, "if it is only to this us-ward, why preach the gospel?"

Because God has ordained the preaching of the gospel for the gathering in of his people.

If it were to all men, would he not send his Word into all men?

When God designs to save his people, he sends his gospel into them; as he did into the Philippian jailor. He sent ministers unto him in the prison. Zaccheus, who must climb a tree; and God brought him down and abode with him.

And where were some of you when God met with you?

You had no inclination to hear his Word, but he brought you forth out of nature's darkness into his marvellous light.

And what is the sense of the text?

God's long-suffering with, and promise to, his people, the us-ward, not willing that any of his people should perish, but that all should come to repentance. In the last days scoffers shall come, and shall say, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming, without sin in the world? One generation passeth away, and another, and there is no appearance of his coming; how is it?"

It is his long-suffering to us-ward; therefore, beloved, account his long-suffering salvation.

When he shall fold up the skies as in a scroll, and wind up the business, all his people shall be brought in; and I would ask if God is not willing that any man should perish, is he not able to give him repentance?

For repentance is the gift of God; and is he incapacitated to do what he wished

Or will his designs be frustrated by such frail creatures as you and I?

He says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens together, and ye would not." (Matthew 23:37)

Here we find that Christ refers to the Scribes, and Pharisees, and heads of the people, the Sanhedrim. He worked many miracles before them, but they did not believe on him; he would have gathered thy children, "but ye would not;" not "they would not." And again: "When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall die," "but if the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall live." (Ezekiel 18:26-27) This is according to the Jewish nation; not the preaching of the gospel, but the law.

For what saith the law?

Do and live; leave undone and die. Therefore there is no salvation by the law, "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." (Romans 3:19)

That it might be by grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Salvation is entirely of free, unmerited, discriminating grace. But this it could not be if it depended on any thing the creature does.

What is intended by the promise, "The Lord is not slack?" etc.

And why this apparent delay and long-suffering?

God declared in the beginning concerning the temple, that it should be destroyed, and that one stone should not be left upon another. But the Jews laughed it to scorn; they could not believe it; but it came to pass at last. His long-suffering bore with their manners until its accomplishment, and the execution thereof was awful in the extreme. Never was known such an appalling devastation. There was a great famine; and so great was their distress that men butchered each other for food to support their dying frames, and women tore their own children from their bosoms for the same purpose. Never was known in the history of time such a day of misery. And what made the scene more appalling, the destruction happened on a festival day, wherein all that were met together in the temple perished; but all the children of God escaped, out of the way; not one of them perished.

What an awful sight to them; that the departed spirits should in a moment's warning quit this world and enter hell, and then in agonizing torments behold the just God whom they had despised and mocked. May God enable you to confide in his promise, and trust him for his grace, that when the time comes for its accomplishment you may be found ready. We have the promise of Christ's second coming. The apostle Paul had a blessed view of this, as recorded in Hebrews 9:27-28: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin; and Hebrews 7:26: "he will be holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." At his first coming, his visage was marred, and there was neither form nor comeliness in him, that we should desire him; but he bore the sins of many; (Isaiah 53:2,12) he hath appeared once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26) God hath laid upon him the iniquity of his us-ward.

If God had not done it, we never should; for our sins are so numerous we should have forgotten many; and there are many that we should not have thought were sins; they are so amiable and pleasant to our nature that we should not look upon them as sins; and from our first breath in infancy, to our last, though it be to old age, there is not a moment of our existence that we live without sin, except when we are bathing in the blood of the Lamb.

"Thy garden is the place,
Where pride cannot intrude;
For should it dare to enter there
'Twould soon be drown'd in blood."

Yes, Gethsemane is the place where our sins were put away; our sins of omission and sins of commission were all gathered together and put upon Christ. He bore them, and hath nailed them to his cross.

He finished the work which his Father gave him to do; (John 17:4) "he ascended to his God and our God;" "to his Father and our Father, (John 20:17) and ever liveth to make intercession for us." (Hebrews 7:25)

He is not slack concerning his promise, but will come at the appointed time. Before him shall be gathered all nations, and every man shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body.

His apparent delays do not prove that he is slack concerning his promise, but rather his long-suffering; for if it were not for his long-suffering, would you not all be damned?

For unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish; (Luke 13:3) and, therefore, is it not of his long-suffering that he brings us to repent, and cleanseth us from dead works, by washing us in the washing of regeneration, that we may have pardon through his blood?

Did not God promise Abraham that he should possess the land of Canaan, and that in his seed should all the nations be blessed? (Genesis 12:3)

And was not the promise apparently delayed?

But it was his long-suffering.
And though Abraham and Sarah his wife became old, yet did not God perform his promise at the appointed time?

And though Abraham took a bond-woman to his bosom, yet it did not in any wise further the execution of God's promise, but rather was the very means of causing discord in the family. And so with us; for anything that we may do will not hasten the promise of God. "And Abraham, by faith, sojourned in the land of promise, not knowing whither he went."

"But the Lord was not slack concerning his promise; but is long-suffering to us-ward."

Did he not promise that Joseph should be above his brethren?

And though he experienced many changes on his way for this purpose to bring him, yet all things work together for its accomplishment. The Lord was not slack concerning his promise; but his long suffering bore with their matters.

He bore with the manners of the children of Israel forty years; but at length brought them to the land of promise. All things shall work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his eternal purpose. honours crown his brow!
"He is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness," but will perform his promises in his own time and in his own way.

May the Lord bless you and me with patience to wait his time; for his mercy's sake.
Amen.

FREE-GRACE FROM A FREE-WILL PULPIT

2008-11-23T12:49:00.002Z

By John Kershaw

On one occasion I was invited to preach at Keighley during the holidays in Whit-week. A friend was to meet me with a horse, on the road between Keighley and Halifax. One of my friends lending me a horse for two days, the man had the pleasure of riding back on the horse he brought for me. Before I left my bedroom in the morning, according to my usual practice, I kneeled down to thank the Lord for his manifold mercies, and beseeching him that his presence and blessing might be with me through the day. I told him that he knew that I was going to a place I had never been to before, and besought him to give me a text to speak from, that he would make a blessing to the people whom he in his providence might bring together; when the Lord laid upon my mind Romans 8:30: "Whom he did predestinate," etc. From the power and savor that attended the words, I felt this was to be my text, and thanked the Lord for it, beseeching him to be with me in preaching, and bless it to the souls of the people. As the man and I were riding together, he said, "You will have to preach this afternoon at three o' clock in a large Wesleyan chapel, and you will have many people to hear you,--Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. They are coming for miles round." On hearing this I at once thought of my predestinarian text and the Wesleyan chapel. Flesh and blood, carnal reason, and the devil began to work powerfully on my mind. As we rode along I labored to get another text, that I could preach the truth from, without coming so decidedly against the system of free-will. But no text could I get. O how wretched and miserable did I feel, until the Lord brought to my mind what had passed between him and me in the morning, when I told him that he knew where I had to preach, and who I should have to hear, and that he gave me the text in answer to prayer. I was ashamed of myself that I should endeavor to give way. Many portions of the word of God flowed into my mind, such as: "If I seek to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ," (Galatians 1:10) with more of the same import. Before we entered the town, my mind was delivered from these fleshly feelings and the fear of man, and a valor sprang up in my soul "the truth of God upon the face of the earth." (Jeremiah 9:3)

When the time came, there was a great gathering of people. Before reading my text, I addressed them as follows: "It is the practice of some men, when called to preach where they have never been before, to inquire what the sentiments of the people are, and labor to accommodate their sermon to the palates and views of the people. This is not obeying the command of the Lord in separating between the precious and the vile, the chaff and the wheat, faithfully dispensing the word of the Lord, fearing no frowns and courting no smiles. When I look around me at this congregation, it strikes my mind that were I disposed to act the above part, I should fail in attempting to please all, for I have no doubt I have persons before me of various opinions; so that while I was seeking to please some, I should offend others. My desire is to seek to please the Lord, and preach the preaching he has bidden me. I therefore call your attention to Romans 8:30: '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.' This precious portion of God's word the old Puritan divines called the golden chain. Speaking of the first link, predestination, the second link effectual calling, the third justification, and the fourth glorification. When I came to the last link, vindicating the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints unto eternal glory, proving it from many portions of the word of the Lord which are the joy and rejoicing of my soul, the last two verses of Toplady's hymn, which begins:

"A debtor to mercy alone,"
came with power to my mind, and I repeated them with great pleasure:

"The work which his goodness began,
The arm of his strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Not all things below nor above,
Can make him his purpose forego,
Or sever my soul from his love."

"My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven."

While so doing, I observed a gentleman in black, who sat in the gallery, hastily take his hat and go away. The impression of my mind was that he could not endure sound doctrine, and would hear no more of it; but to my surprise he came up the aisle to the foot of the pulpit stairs, and there he stood till I had finished my sermon; and then I gave out that blessed hymn of Dr. Watt's:

"Firm as the earth thy gospel stands."

When they began to sing, the gentleman came into the pulpit and sat down, putting his hand on my knee, and saying, "Sir, I hope you will have no objection against me rising to vindicate our own doctrine." I replied, "Sir, you are full of wrath and irritation. Be cool, and think what you are about." He said, "How can I forbear being irritated, hearing a man in our own chapel laboring to pull down what we are constantly establishing. I must, and will, when they have done singing, rise and defend our principles, in opposition to the doctrine you have been advancing." As he was thus speaking, I was listening to the precious hymn they were singing, which was a confirmation of the doctrine I had been preaching. As soon as I heard them begin the following words:

"In the dear bosom of his love
They must for ever rest,"

I took my standing in the pulpit to be ready to conclude with prayer. After which I addressed the people as follows: "A gentleman, who is now in the pulpit with me, from what he has been saying to me whilst you have been singing, is determined to rise and oppose the doctrines of free and sovereign grace which you have been hearing, and vindicate the doctrine of man's free will; but as I have already more of that in my fleshly carnal nature than I like, I shall not stop to hear him, and I would advise all you who are sick of self, and love a free-grace salvation, to go home with what you have got, and let the free-will man and his friends have it to themselves." As soon as I left the pulpit, he rose in a rage to pour contempt upon what I had said, and vindicate his own principles. I have seen many congregations disperse, but never saw such confusion as I did on this occasion.

As I had several miles to ride over a large common, I got some refreshment and left. As I rode past the chapel, there were crowds engaged in disputation, and the events of that day are not yet forgotten, as will appear from the following: More than twenty years after, I met with three men from Keighley, who had come to hear me at Bradford. One of them asked me if I had forgotten preaching at Keighley, when the Wesleyan minister stood up to oppose me. I told him I had not. He said, "I well remember both your sermon and the remarks you made;" and to my surprise he repeated, almost verbatim, what I have recorded, saying it was so impressed upon his mind, and so appropriate to the circumstances, that he had often related it to his friends.

MEN'S OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS - THEIR GRAND IDOL

2008-11-13T17:06:00.001Z

"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God."
(Romans 10:3)

Provident and well-wishing pilots, observing the rocks on which many ignorant and heedless passengers have split and sunk, and where they themselves have escaped but narrowly, use to set up sea-marks as cautions or warnings to such as shall come after, that by other men's harms they may learn to be wary. It is the apostle's very practice in this place; in the former part of this epistle; and especially in chap. 9, he mightily contends for the free grace of God unto peace, life, and salvation, without works: "The children being yet unborn, having done neither good nor evil, but that the purpose of God might stand according to election, not of works, but of grace; it was said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated: he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens:" I say, this is the main doctrine that he preacheth, from the beginning of the epistle, to the closure of chap 9.

Then he comes upon the Jews with an argument to their reproach: "The Gentiles that followed not after righteousness, have attained unto righteousness, when they themselves that did follow after righteousness could not attain it:" (Rom. 9:30,31) and he gives the reason why they that pressed so hard after it could not attain it; "Because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law." Why, what hurt was there in that, will some say? The apostle answereth, that hereby "they stumbled at that stumblingblock, as it is written; I lay in Sion a stumblingstone, and a rock of offence:" (Rom. 9:33) This it seems was the rock of offence; they would have their righteousness set up to do them good, and this they sought as it were by the works of the law.

But some men might think that the apostle had a bitterness of spirit, or some malice against his own brethren, and that this was but the fruit of it; therefore in the beginning of this chapter, he clears himself from any such base ends in his ministry: for his part he wishes with all his heart, it may be well with them, My heart's desire, and prayer for Israel is, that they may be saved nay, so far as he may speak well of them, and the most he can say, he will; and he will not conceal any thing: in verse 2, he confesses, nay he bears witness to it, that "they had a zeal of God;" but yet he must not dissemble, he must deal friendly, though ever so plainly; though they had a zeal of God, "Yet it was not according to knowledge."

And because he had taxed them with ignorance, here in the text; he discovers what this ignorance of theirs was; and what the fearful and desperate fruits of it were; that whereof they were ignorant, was "God's righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness of God;" the fruit of it is twofold, both very bitter, the one immediately issuing from the other.

First, This ignorance of God's righteousness put them upon a fearful mistake: "They go about, (upon this,) to establish their own righteousness."

Secondly, And that mistake put them upon another as bad as that, if not worse; therefore they submitted not to the righteousness of God.

The proposition the words afford us, is briefly this, (for we will sum up the whole verse into one head) namely; "That ignorance of God's righteousness puts men upon these two dangerous mischiefs, an establishing of their own righteousness, and submitting themselves to the righteousness of God."

Men will establish their own righteousness; they will not submit to the righteousness of God, while they are ignorant of it. Beloved, they were not so easily misled, as we are apt to follow them, having gone before us; we are like sheep leaping without looking, if any leap before us; it hath been the rock of offence, a stumblingstone from the beginning to this day, and will be to the end of the world; there will be an establishing of our own righteousness, without submitting to the righteousness of God, while there is an ignorance of this righteousness.

Now, that we may take warning, and so escape the danger that they have felt the smart of already, it will be requisite we take into consideration.

First, What this righteousness of theirs and ours is, that they did, and we are apt to go about to establish.

Secondly, What it is to go about to establish this our righteousness.

Thirdly, What this righteousness of God is that they did not submit unto.

Fourthly, What it is, not to submit unto this righteousness of God.

Fifthly, What this ignorance is, from whence both these fearful evils issue, the establishing of our own righteousness, and not submitting to the righteousness of God.

And, Lastly, What the issue in the end will prove. of these, or as many of these as the time will permit in their order.

To begin with the first, What is that righteousness of theirs and ours, that the apostle complains of, that being established, is a rock of offence?

I am not ignorant, that the eyes of stone persons are only, or most, upon a righteousness of man's own devising and contriving; such a righteousness as never came into God's thoughts; a righteousness according to the precepts and traditions of men; such a righteousness as our Saviour, in Matt. 15:9, taxeth the Pharisees withal, who "Taught for doctrines the traditions of men;" and by their own traditions, as much as in them lay, made void the commandments of God: this kind of righteousness in our time proceeds from the presumption of men, that dare put any thing of their own, without warrant and commission from God, into the worship and service of God; charging things upon men as duties of religion, that God binds not men unto: for my own part, I am dear of the mind, that this kind of righteousness is far from the righteousness of God, the apostle here speaks of; and that it is the highest presumption that a man can possibly take upon himself, to set himself so in the place of God, as not only, not to command from him, but also to command without and against him: law-givers hole themselves then most disparaged and contemned, when any inferior will take upon him to make laws without them, or against them. It will lie heavy when it shall once come to an account, not only upon the actors, but also upon those that may be the redressers, if this kind of righteousness established by some be not brought down, and laid in the dust.

But, under favour, I conceive that the apostle aims at a more sublime righteousness, than the righteousness in the precepts of men; he speaks of such a righteousness, which some it may be are too forward to establish, who yet abhor to establish the other, we have now spoken of: the righteousness the apostle complains of being established, is not the righteousness of man's making, but of God's own making, a righteousness according to his own will; I mean a righteousness consisting in obedience to the things that God himself hath commanded unto men; a righteousness which is a walking in all the commandments of God, though it be in a way of blamelessness; this very righteousness, I say, is that, which being established, proves a stumbling-stone, and rock of offence to all that shall establish it.

This may seem harsh, beloved, at first, but I shall make it clear to you from the apostle's own interpretation of himself, who best knew his own mind: that this is the righteousness he here speaks of, mark but the words immediately following the text, chap. 10:4, "For, (saith he,) Christ; is the end of the law righteousness to every one that believeth;" to what purpose doth he bring this passage, that Christ is the end of the law; but that by these words he might confute their vanity, who think to establish their own righteousness in the fulfilling of the law? As if he should say, you think by your keeping the law, by your righteousness you perform,you can attain to the end of it, that so you may obtain the grace and goodness of the Lord; but it is in vain, it is not you that can reach the end of the law; neither doth God aim at it that you should reach it, but he hath constituted and ordained Christ to be the end of it. Therefore the righteousness of God must be the righteousness of Christ; the righteousness that God aims at is perfect, a righteousness that reaches to the very end of the law; your righteousness can never reach to the end of it; it is Christ's alone that doth it.

And yet again, in verse 5, the apostle clears more fully what be, means by our righteousness, for there he begins to make the distinction between our righteousness, and the righteousness of God, explaining what they both are: Moses, saith he, describing the righteousness of the law, saith thus, (that which he calls our own righteousness, in verse 4, from Moses, he calls the righteousness of the law, in verse 5,) "He that doth those things shall even live in them:" and if you will look into Levit. xviii. 5, you shall there see what the righteousness of the law is, which the apostle speaks of in this place: and if you observe but the margin of your bible, you shall find this very text, in verse 5, is wisely referred to that of Leviticus, "You shall keep my statutes, and do my judgments; which if a man do, he shall even live in them." See, the apostle makes use of the very phrase, "he that doth them shall live through them, and in them." It is the righteousness of the law, saith he; it is the keeping of God's statutes, and doing of God's judgments, saith Moses. By this, you may see what righteousness it is, that the Lord by the apostle speaks of; a righteousness that consists in doing the statutes and judgments of the Lord.

And if you will but consider Luke 18:11,12, the condition of the pharisee, Christ speaks of, who went up into the temple to pray as the publican did; in him you shall see, I say, and easily perceive, what the righteousness was, that they went about to establish; for there the pharisee justifies himself in respect of many particular branches of the law: "I thank thee, (saith he) I am not as other men are, an extortioner, unjust, an adulterer, nor as this publican: I fast twice in the week, I pay tithes of all that I possess. Mark it well, I pray, see what it is that he pleads for, as that which must prevail with God for good to him; it is his own righteousness; and what is that? It is a righteousness according to the law; it is a righteousness of piety, of justice; "I fast twice in the week, I am no extortioner, nor unjust person, nor adulterer," &c. Now hear Christ's answer concerning this pharisee; you shall see what he thinks of this righteousness he speaks of; "The publican went away rather justified than he;" and the reason is, because he did go in the strength of this righteousness of his, to speed with God; his expectation was from this: it was not a righteousness of his own devising and contriving; but a righteousness according to God's law.

If you look further into Phil. 3, you shall find, the apostle speaks fully to the case in hand, instancing in himself, in Verse 5-7, where he gives an account of his estate, in which he was before the time of his conversion. First, he saith, he had a zeal for God, and that put him on so hot, that be persecuted the church of God, merely out of ignorance; for, saith he of himself, "I did it ignorantly:" and "concerning the righteousness of the law (saith he) I was blameless;" mark that passage well; as all this was before conversion; afterwards he tells us, this was in the time of his ignorance, wherein he made full account that this righteousness of his was his gain; but, saith he, "what was gain to me, I accounted less; yea, and I suffer the loss of all things, that I may be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is by the law." By all these passages, I say, put together, wherein the apostle so fully expounds himself, it plainly appears, that the righteousness of the law, the establishing whereof; he here taxeth, as a dangerous mistake, and a fruit of ignorance, is that, wherein men walk according to God's own law blamelessly.

I am not ignorant, beloved, how this assertion goeth under the foul blur of Antinomianism, that blameless walking according to the law, being established, is a fruit of ignorance, and a cause of men's not "submitting to the righteousness of God." And no marvel it goes for such now; for, in the apostle's time it was accounted so; nay, it was objected against the apostle himself as direct Antinomianism: and, therefore, he was enforced to vindicate himself thus," Do we make void the law, (saith he) through faith? God forbid!" he takes away the objection they put to him, upon his establishing of God's righteousness, and his overthrowing our righteousness. It was objected, that hereby he went about to make void the law; and, therefore, it is no marvel it holds still as an objection, that the maintaining of this principle is the overthrowing of the law. But, beloved, I must say to you, as the apostle did in the same case, "God forbid! yea, we establish the law," that is to say; in its right place. It takes men off from performing duties to corrupt ends, and from the bad use they are apt to make of them; namely, idolizing their own righteousness. And, therefore, he doth not condemn the use of the law, and our righteousness, simply: that which he speaks against here is the establishing of our righteousness. Our own righteousness is good in its kind, and for its own proper uses; but then it proves a fruit of sin, ignorance, and a dangerous stumbling-block, and an idol, when we go about to establish it.

I come, therefore, to the second thing, which is to clear this truth more fully, namely, What it is to establish this righteousness; or what establishing the apostle drives at in this place?

For the clearing of which, the antithesis, or the opposition, that he sets, will give you a great deal of light to understand his meaning and purpose here, by "going about to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting to the righteousness of God." He speaks here, therefore, of such an establishing of our righteousness, according to the law, as to bring it into the room, and stead, or place of God's righteousness. It is such an establishing of it, as that for it we cannot, nor will not admit, that the righteousness of God should do its office. So far forth, then, as any righteousness of ours encroaches upon the privileges and prerogatives of the righteousness of God, so that that cannot do its own work, or at least must be circumscribed in doing it, by this, so far is there an establishing of our own righteousness, which is a fruit of ignorance, and is a stumbling-block, and a rock of offence.

It will be worth the while, therefore, to consider, When our righteousness is said truly to be established in the room and stead of the righteousness of God. This will be cleared by the consideration of the main scope and drift of men, in the performing of the righteousness which they establish. When men put that upon their own righteousness, which should have been put upon God's only; when men make that the sanctuary and refuge that God's righteousness only should be, then is it set up as a grand idol, and established in the room and place of God's righteousness. To clear the case to you, by some particular instances: it is a thing of great importance, as at all times, so now at this time of eminent danger, the sword being over our heads, and over the whole nation (the Lord having revealed to the spirits of men, by his truth, that in case of eminent danger, there should be a great deal of zeal to God); that the people of God should be put mightily on, to deal with God in this present extremity and necessity; but, I am afraid, many have a zeal of God, in this very case, but yet, not according to knowledge; for that too many (ignorantly and zealously, I confess, yet, 1 say, too many), in this zeal to God, for their own safety and security, too ,much establish their own righteousness: and, I fear, if there be a miscarriage after so many fasting-days, and so much praying and seeking God, that the fruits will be the establishing of our own righteousness, in the room and place of the righteousness of God. As, for example, when sin abounds, whether personally or generally, what is the way to get off, or get out of such transgression? appeal to your own spirits, you that are spiritual; is not this your end, you propound? To fast, and pray, and mourn it out; this that which must bring you a discharge of your sins; this is that which must bring you tidings that God will be pacified towards you, that God will turn away his anger from you; if you do but fast spiritually, mourn bitterly, pray zealously with strength of spirit, this is that that shall overcome God.

I ask, or I beseech you rather ask your own spirits (I mean still, you that are spiritual), Do not your hearts run out continually this way? Do they, or do they not? What, then mean all the complaints of yours upon the defects of your fastings, your humiliation, self-denial, and the subduing of your corruptions? That this is that which pulls down the wrath of God upon us; is not this common among us, as long as men do not mend, there is no hope that God will? And, if every man would mend one, this is the way to redress the evil of the times? Beloved, let me deal plainly and freely with you; they that put deliverance from sin and wrath, upon the spiritual performances of that righteousness, which the law, commands them, they put that righteousness in the room and place of the righteousness of God; they make it as great an idol as can be; for they make it to be that which God's righteousness only is. I speak not against the doing of any righteousness according to the will of God revealed. Let that mouth be for ever stopped, that shall be opened to blame the law that is holy, just, and good; or shall be the means to discourse people from walking in the commandments of God blameless.

All that I speak is this, That it will prove a rock of offence in the end, if it be not turned from; namely, That we should expect that our own righteousness should bring down a gracious answer from God to our spirits; that when we have done our work, in effect, that must prove our mediator and messenger from God; and, as that will speak, so will we have peace, or remain in bitterness of spirit. What can the righteousness of God himself do more than this, to have power with God, to prevail over God for good to us?

Beloved, although some, peradventure, may magnify performances done in a spiritual way with attributes and titles even of God's own peculiar; I mean with attributes of omnipotency and invincibleness; certainly there is no omnipotency but God himself, and the righteousness that is God's own; the best righteousness that ever any man could act, or perform in all his life, is not able to divert the least effect of sins, or wrath, or procure or obtain the least smile of favour from God. You know, that "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity;" (Hab. 1:13) you know, that iniquity is that which separates between God and a people; now what is the perfectest righteousness which the best man upon earth performs? Is it not full of unrighteousness and iniquity? "All our righteousnesses (saith the prophet Isaiah) are but as filthy rags;" (Isa. 64:6) and, saith the apostle, "I account all as dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness." (Phil. 3:8,9) Is there dung and filth in the best of man's righteousness; and can this righteousness have power with God, and prevail over him?

Look upon Christ himself, when he did bear the sins of many, upon his own person; he himself was deserted and forsaken of God, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Is Christ forsaken, when the sins of men are upon him, and shall men's persons be accepted and received in respect of such an act of theirs that carries sinfulness in the face of it? Nay, that carries an universal leprosy in the nature of it? Suppose your righteousness were a fulfilling of the whole law of God, if you fail but in one point, that very failing in one point, makes you guilty of the breach of all the rest; and, when men stand guilty before God, shall they plead that which is full of guilt, to procure favour, mercy, or grace from him? No, no, the sacrifice of God, which is accepted of him, must be a male lamb, and" a lamb without blemish;" till, therefore, you can purge your righteousness, and separate all iniquity from it, know that all your righteousness in its own nature doth but separate you from God; so far is it from prevailing with him.

Surely, will some say, the righteousness that is performed according to the will of God, pleases him, and moves and melts him, and prevails with him to do this and that good to his people.

I answer, Too many people in the world too much stint the will of God, so much spoken of when they speak of a righteousness according to it, or a righteousness to do it; what is it? It is true indeed, righteousness done according to the will of God, infinitely prevails with God; but shew me the man that can perform it, a mere man without Christ? Shew me a man that ever did, or ever can do this, acting righteousness according to the will of God? "Of myself," saith Paul, "I can do nothing:" "without me," saith Christ, "ye can do nothing;" nay, the apostle goes further, "How to perform that which is good, I find not," Rom. 7:18 whilst men conceive that the will of God consists only in the materials of righteousness; peradventure they may think theirs is according to it; but alas the materials of righteousness, are but the least part of the will of God wherewith he is pleased: now to do an act partly with the will of God, and partly against it, is this to do an act according to it? To do something that God calls for at your hands in some things, and to walk directly contrary to him in others; is this to do his will? Suppose for the matter, the righteousness you do, be according to the will of God, that you do the thing that he calls for of you; as for instance, you fast, and pray, and the like; do you do these things according to the will of God, because the outward act is done? the will of God extends to the manner of doing, to the disposition of the person that is to do, as well as to the matter: as in Isaiah i, were not "New moons, and sabbaths, and solemn assembles," God's own ordinances? And was not the performance of them materially according to the will of God? Yet, nevertheless, God loathed this service of righteousness; he was weary of it, he could not bear it; there was sinfulness mixed with it; "Your hands are full of blood," saith the Lord,; therefore, tough the things were materially according to his will, yet his soul abhorred them, being done amiss.

Suppose men go further than simply doing things according to the will of God materially; they do not only the things, but do them spiritually, with enlargedness of heart and affection; you fast, and you fast with bitterness of spirit, you eat bitter herbs in fasting; you mourn, and you mourn bitterly for your transgressions; you pray, and pray zealously; in the heat and fervour of your spirits: now if all this be not done in faith, it is abominable; "without faith, it is impossible to please God; he that comes to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him:" (Heb. 11:6) he that hath performed a duty, and expects from that performance, an answer according to his mind, he doth not do it in faith; for "we must do all we do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," saith the apostle; and "when we have done all, must say, we are unprofitable servants;" and it must be Christ alone that must prevail with the Father for us: all our righteousness will prevail nothing at all with God, nor move him a jot, except it be to pull down wrath: there is not one act of righteousness that a person doth but when that is finished, there is more transgression belonging to him, than before he had performed it: and there is no composition, there is no buying out of evil by good doings; the doing of good doth not make a recompence for what sin doth; we pay but our debts in doing good; so that as there is a new righteousness performed, there is still a new reckoning added to the former; by acting of righteousness, you make up a greater number of sins, (Rom. 14:23) than before; so that it is only Christ from whom we must have the expectation of success, in whatsoever thing we desire.

In a word, let a man's righteousness be never so exact; yet that is not according to the will of God, which hath not God's ends, which he proposeth in the doing of righteousness: you shall find the general rule of Christ and his apostles, to be this, that what we do, we must not only do it in the name of Christ, but also to the Lord, and for the Lord: "Being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, let us serve him in holiness and righteousness;" it is not, let us serve ourselves in holiness and righteousness, but let us serve him; "You are bought with a price, therefore," saith the apostle, "glorify God in your bodies and spirits, for they are God's;" (1 Cor. 6:20) he doth not say, being bought with a price, let us,now seek our own good, as if we were still our own men; as if we had now liberty to trade for our own selves; you are "not your own," and therefore not your own, because you are "bought with a price;" therefore "glorify God in your bodies and spirits." It is most certainly true, that God having provided through Christ all things appertaining to life and godliness for his people; thereby calls them off from all self-ends, and bye-respects in his services, to have only respect to him in them; he hath done all that may be done for yourselves.

But some may say, peradventure, this is a way to overthrow all righteousness at once: what, all that ever a man doth, though he doth ever so spiritually, though ever so exactly, to no purpose, and in vain? Doth a man get nothing by all the righteousness he performs? Then we had as good sit still, and do nothing at all, will some say.

I answer, this is carnal reasoning indeed; look but into the ground of this argument, and it will discover nothing but the selfishness of the person that makes it: I dare be bold to say, that that man will do no righteousness, but simply for his own sake; who, if he should know beforehand, that his righteousness will get him nothing, would therefore sit still, and do nothing; I dare be bold to say, he had as good sit still indeed, and do nothing: he serves himself, not God, and though he performs righteousness ever so exactly, if he serves himself, God will never reckon that he serves him: when self is eyed, we can never serve God; when our commodity and advantage be not in the thing, we will sit still.

But, beloved, though the righteousness we are to perform be superfluous and vain, in respect of any power it hath with God; to move him to do us good, yet it is not altogether superfluous; it is most true, that all the righteousness of man cannot prevail with God to do us good; there is but one mover of God, the man Christ Jesus, who is the only and sole mediator. If you will have your own righteousness to be your mediator with God, to speak to God for you, to prevail with God for you; what is this, but to put it in the room and place of Christ's? What is the mediation of Christ else, but for him to come between God and man, and be the day's-man to lay his hand upon both, and at once to reconcile them? and shall your righteousness be the day's-man, and lay hands upon God and man; then farewell Christ and his mediatorship; for this is the peculiar office of Christ, to be man's mediator, and advocate with the Father, to prevail with him for any good for us; so far, therefore, as any person locks after his own righteousness, to bring glad tidings from God to him, so far a man establisheth it in the room and place of the righteousness of God; which proceeds from the ignorance of that righteousness, and will in the bud prove a stumblingblock to men, and a rock of offence to them.

All this while I desire not to be mistaken: some, it may be, will desire to know then to what use this righteousness of ours serves, seeing it is not of power to prevail with God. "My goodness extends not unto thee," saith David; not to God, but it may to men; "my righteousness extends to the saints of the earth, and to such as excel in virtue." (Ps. 6:3) Our righteousness is appointed for excellent uses, if we could be contented with those God hath ordained it unto.

First, It serves as a real way to manifest our thankfulness to God, for what we have already received of him: in Psalm ciii. David is excellent, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name:" Why, what is the matter; David? "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies:" (Ps. 103:3,4) mark it well, I pray, a!l that is within us must be praise, and nothing but praise; and the ground is this, God pardons our sins~ heals our infirmities, and supplies all our wants; in consideration of this, all that is within us should continually express his praise.

Again, secondly, There is this usefulness in it, namely, that we may serve our generation; and the apostle gives this charge, that, "men study to obtain good works," because, saith he, "these things are profitable unto men;" as we may therefore do good to men, so according to our ability, and talent received, we must employ ourselves to the utmost for that end and purpose. The heathens could say, "They were not made for themselves, but for others:" therefore there is this usefulness in our righteousness, that others may receive benefit by it: "Let your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven;" that men may be drawn on to glorify God, we must shine before men in a godly conversation.

Thirdly, It is useful, as it is rite ordinance of God, wherein the Lord hath appointed us to meet with him, and wherein he will make good those things which before he hath promised. And this is the very end and ground of our fasting, praying, and mourning in our exigencies, and extremities: not that these duties do at all prevail with God, or at all move him; for, it God that moves even these services, and all the spiritualness in us in them; and therefore he moves them in us, because when we are moved by his Spirit, and according to his will come forth to meet him where he appoints, there he will pour out himself in grace and love, according to his promise, not according to our performances. Thus, I say, this great objection may be answered easily, why we fast, and pray, and mourn in adversity, if they do us no good? I say, though they, do us no good, yet we fast and pray, in that the Lord saith, come to me, meet me in this and that ordinance, and I wilt come with my hands full; then, and there, I will pour out that which mine own freeness hath engaged me to do for you: is it not injustice not to meet him then? We confess our sins to him, but what is the ground of forgiveness? not our confession of sins, not our fastings, prayers, mourning, and tears; but "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isa. 43:25)

I will draw towards the conclusion. In a word, whoever he be that is selfish in his own righteousness, and goes about to establish it in the room of God's, labouring to procure some good unto himself thereby, and makes that righteousness do that for him, that God's righteousness should do, so making an idol of it;

First, He plays the most dishonest part with God that can be. Do you profess yourselves to be the servants of God? If you be, what dishonesty is there in you, that you professing to serve him, do, notwithstanding, by secret and by stealth, serve yourselves? If an apprentice should hide himself all day long, to earn and gain money the himself, might not his master justly tax him for a dishonest fellow? Why doth the master keep him, and find him, but that all he doth, he should do for him, and not for himself? Are you at God's finding, or are you at your own? Miserable are you, that are at your own: are you at God's finding then, and not at your own? What is it you seek for, and would get by the righteousness you seek so eagerly after? The truth is, there is nothing to be gotten that you have not already; if you have Christ, all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Are you one of Christ's? A man need not work for that which is his own already; why then do you work for that which is yours already? Are you in Christ, or are you not? Do you work to get into Christ? Alas! how long might men work out of Christ, and work themselves into hell at last? What can a man get of God by all his righteousness and works, if he hath not Christ to get it for him? Therefore all things are yours, because you are Christ's, or else you shall have nothing at all God gives nothing of gift, and of his dear love, but as men are in Christ, and for his sake; therefore you do but labour in vain, if you labour for that which is yet to be produced.

But to do good to others; "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren:" let these be the ends of your services; work because good is already made sure to you, and not to make it sure: when a father settles an inheritance upon his son, he makes the deed so, that the son shall not work for the father's means; because the father hath passed over all that he hath to his son, he serves out of love, for what he hath already received, not for what is hoped for.

And as there is a dishonesty in self-seeking; so, secondly, there is a foul blur cast upon God. Beloved, if you should see a servant go about the streets complaining thus, Sir, help me to a little work, I must starve except I can work for myself: what would you think of this man's master? Surely, you will say, he is a hard master, that his servant must starve, except he seek for himself, and purvey for himself: you that say in your hearts, you are undone, you must perish, you are lost, except your prayers and humbling of yourselves can get some supply; is not this a working for yourselves? Is not this plain saying, there is no trusting to God, and that we must work for ourselves, or else we shall perish.

I should come to consider the other particulars in this text; but time not permitting, We will wind up all in one word of application.

We now stand before the Lord, and, among other mercies, we expect this great mercy, salvation; not only salvation in heaven, but salvation from the sword: it is not, it must not be your good doings that must procure it; or your repentance, that must bring it: you must not rest upon your performances to get it; do all that God calls for when you are in his way; in this respect be doing; but as for your help look up unto the hills from whence it cometh; your help stands in the name of the Lord, that made heaven and earth; and, therefore, in the expectation of help; all your business must he in this, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord."

By Tobias Crisp

AN EVERLASTING TASK FOR ARMINIANS

2008-10-26T12:03:00.003Z

By William Gadsby

A Letter to Rev. Edward Smyth

Note: The cause of the appearance of this work was a controversy which took place between Mr. Smyth, of St. Luke's Church, and Mr. Roby, then minister of the Independent Chapel, Grosvenor Street, Manchester. Mr. Smyth wrote a work entitled, "Paul against Calvin," to which Mr. Roby replied, and this work was issued as a further task for Mr. Smyth. The only answer that Mr. S. wrote was, that "as MR. G. had compared himself to a country rustic, he [Mr. S.] would pass him by as a good dog would in a farm-yard." Mr. Smyth-

Sir: Learning you are again preparing, or rather gathering together, another volume of scraps, which you intend to publish to the world in vindication of free-will, and to hold up to contempt the doctrine of electing grace, after having a thousand thoughts revolving in my mind upon the propriety or impropriety of interfering in the business, seeing you have, in many respects, been so ably handled already, I at last resolved to drop you a few lines, to which I request your very candid attention; for I assure you, as far as I know my own heart, I have nothing in view but the glory of the eternal God and the welfare of Zion.

And, first, you are hereby desired, as early as possible, to inform those characters whom your extraordinary piety induces you to hold up to public view as murderers, upon what ground the salvation of a poor sinner depends; whether it depends wholly and entirely upon the free grace of Jehovah, or whether it rests wholly and entirely upon man's free-will, or whether it be a joint concern, depending partly upon God's free grace, and partly upon man's free-will?

Should you be disposed to give the preference to the first of these, you will have the goodness to reconcile that to your Arminian creed, and for the better clearing of the way, you will be very particular in stating upon what branch of the free grace of God salvation does absolutely depend; and lest you should mistake what I mean, I will just state a few things, unto which I hope you will conscientiously attend. And in the first place, does the salvation of a sinner depend upon the everlasting love or mercy of Jehovah, or is it not possible for a sinner to be interested in that mercy, which is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17) and after all perish everlastingly?

And if so, does it not evidently appear that salvation does not depend upon the mercy of God?

But secondly, does salvation depend upon redeeming grace, and may the characters redeemed unto God by the precious blood of Christ (Revelation 5:9), depend upon the efficacy of the redemption of Christ for salvation, seeing they are thereby redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), and out of the pit where there is no water (Zechariah 9:11), or may not a sinner be interested in the redemption of Christ, and be damned at last?

And if so, does it not appear that salvation does not depend upon the redemption of Christ?

Thirdly, does salvation depend upon quickening, regenerating, or renewing grace?

As it is written, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1)

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:5)

Or may not a sinner be quickened, regenerated and renewed by the Holy Ghost, and after all be banished from the presence of the Lord into the burning lake of never-ending perdition?

And if so, does it not appear that this grace is not sufficient to save a sinner?

Fourthly, does salvation depend upon justifying grace?

"Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24)

"And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:39)

Or may not a sinner be justified by grace from all things, and after all be brought into condemnation, and have his everlasting portion with unbelievers in the torments of hell?

If so, does it not appear that justifying grace will not save a sinner?

Fifthly, does salvation depend upon sanctifying grace?

As it is written, "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Or may not a sinner be sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God, and be lost at last?

If so, does it not appear that sanctifying grace will not save a sinner?

Sixthly, does salvation depend upon the grace of adoption?

"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 unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Or may not a sinner receive the adoption of sons, be an heir of God through Christ, (Galatians 4:5-7), and fall short of Heaven at last?

If so, does it not appear that salvation does not depend upon the grace of adoption?

Now if salvation does not depend upon any of these, separately considered, will you have the goodness to inform us whether it depends upon the whole of them, jointly considered, as one infinite treasure of immortal grace; or may not a sinner be interested in the whole of them, and after all perish in his iniquity?

That is, may not a sinner be interested in the unchanging mercy of God, and in the redemption by Christ, and in the quickening, regenerating and renewing influences of the Holy Ghost; and may he not be justified from all things, and be washed and sanctified by the Spirit of God; and may he not be a son and an heir of God; I say, may not a sinner be interested in the whole of this grace today, and tomorrow die in his sins?

And if so, how can salvation be of grace?

But in order to give you room for your strength, and allow you every fair opportunity of proving salvation to be all of God's free grace, and yet the creed for which you contend be of God, I will ask in the seventh place, does salvation depend on the unspeakable gift of grace, viz., Christ Jesus?

For "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

And if salvation depends on the unspeakable gift of grace, you will be particular in informing us what part of this gift it is that it depends. Does it depend upon the work of Christ, or upon the characters He bears, or the offices He fills, or the fullness that in Him dwells, or the union and relationship that subsists between Him and His church; does salvation depend upon these things jointly or separately, or may not a sinner be interested in the whole of this grace, and be lost at last?

But to make the matter as straight as possible, I would ask, may not a sinner be interested in the work of Christ, that is, in his active and passive obedience on earth, and his intercession in Heaven; and may he not build upon Christ as a foundation; shelter in Him as a hiding-place from the wind; rest upon Him as a resting-place; bathe in Him as the fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness; enter into the sheepfold by Him, as the door and strait gate; trust in Him as the Lord, his rock and fortress, and deliverer, and strength, and buckler, and as the horn of his salvation, and his high tower (Psalm 18:2); may he not receive Him as his Prophet, Priest and King; as the Captain of his salvation, his Day's-man, his Surety, Advocate and Mediator; may not a sinner live upon Him as the bread of Heaven, the water of life, and the wine of the kingdom; may he not be interested in Him as the everlasting Father, and the elder Brother, yea, a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother; may he not be united to Him as a loving Husband and a living Head; may not his life be hid with Christ in God, and he be life of His life, body of His body, bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh; in a word, may not a sinner receive Christ as the Lord his righteousness and strength, his portion, and his all in all; be blessed with repentance unto life, and have Christ in him the Hope of glory; "be born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Peter 1:23); be blessed with the fruits of the Spirit, as "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23) ; and after all be brought into condemnation?

And if a poor sinner can be interested in the whole of this grace, and be lost at last, do, sir, for the Lord and truth's sake, and for the sake of poor, perishing sinners, inform us upon what salvation does absolutely depend.

I presume it is impossible to propose to you, or to any other person, a subject of great importance, and therefore I hope you will use all diligence to make the matter clear and straight; and if, upon due inspection and cool deliberation, you conclude that no sinner can be interested in the whole of this grace, and be damned at last, you will then, without the least reserve, inform us what part of it a sinner may be interested in, and yet be lost, and what part he cannot be interested in, and miss Heaven, that we may be able to form some just views of our real state, and be no longer left at an uncertainty about the grounds upon which salvation absolutely depends. Should you be disposed to give the preference to man's free will, and inform us that salvation depends upon the will of man, you will inform us how such a sentiment agrees with the word of God. But if, after all, you cannot feel any regard for me, yet for the truth's sake, and for the sake of poor, perishing sinners, you will inform us how such a sentiment agrees with the following passages of Holy Writ: The first passage that I will recommend to your attention upon this part of the subject is John 1:13: "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

The second is in Romans 9:
"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."

The third is Ephesians 2:8-9:
"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."

The fourth is 2 Timothy 1:9:
"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."

The fifth is James 1:18:
"Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."

The sixth is Philippians 1:6:
"Being confident of this very thing, that He Who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

The seventh is Acts 13:48:
"And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

See also the first six verses of the second chapter to the Ephesians. I could produce many more, but am inclined to think the above will be as many as you will be able to manage, and keep free-will upon its throne.

We also earnestly wish you to inform us whether the will of man became completely perverse by the introduction of sin, or whether it was only slightly injured, or whether it was injured at all; and if the former, what you and your brethren mean by free-agency and free-will; and if the latter, and salvation depends upon free-will, what do you mean by praying that God will have mercy upon all men, and save them with an everlasting salvation, and then tell the congregation that God has done all He can to save them, and the matter now rests with them, whether they will be saved or not?

Surely, such vain jangling can never be acceptable to God, however it may feed the carnal mind of man; for if God has done all He can, why pray to Him to do more?

And if He has not done all He can, why tell the people He has?

Strange as such contradictions may seem to a sensible mind, they are frequently produced in the course of one hour by an Arminian preacher. Now, sir, depend upon it, the credit of your favorite system depends much on these things being made to appear clear; nor can an experienced child of God be satisfied with a shuffling put off.

If you feel disposed to say that the salvation of a sinner, is a joint concern, depending partly upon God's free grace, and partly upon man's free-will, you will doubtless be careful to inform us, where such a salvation is recorded, and how it agrees with the following passages of Holy Write:

"I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Savior."
(Isaiah 43:11)

"Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men. whereby we must be saved."
(Acts 4:12)

"And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more of grace; otherwise work is no more work."
(Romans 11:6)

"Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance! behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity."
(Isaiah 40:13-17)

"It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity."
(Isaiah 40:22-23)

And again: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise"

(pray, sir, do not forget that) ;

"and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. that no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Now from this account given of man by the eternal God, it evidently appears that all the nations of the earth are but as a drop of the bucket, or the small dust of the balance, as grasshoppers, having no might; nay, they are as nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity.

What flesh can bear it?

Well, be it as mortifying as it may to proud man, God informs us by the mouth of the psalmist that "every man at his best state is altogether vanity." (Psalm 39:5) And it evidently appears that if any of these particles of nothing.-, and less than nothing, and vanity, appear to shine brighter than the rest, there are but few of these saved. But God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised; and the end answered thereby is, that no flesh should glory in His presence; that, according as it is written, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

Now, sir, in case you should still feel yourself inclined to maintain that salvation is a joint concern, partly depending upon the free grace of God, and partly upon man's free will, your work in this business is judiciously to inform us what deficiency there is in the free grace of the eternal Jehovah, and in what sense He needs the aid and assistance of this drop of the bucket, this small dust of the balance, these wonderful grasshoppers, these particles of nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity, yea, these foolish, weak, base, and despised particles of less than nothing, who, at their best estate, are altogether vanity; I say, sir, your work is to inform us, and that with the greatest accuracy and clearness, wherein these worms can aid and assist the great Jehovah in their eternal salvation, and upon what part of their aid salvation depends. And having done this, you will then inform us whether it be just and righteous in God to demand all the glory, and not to admit any flesh to glory in His presence, but in the Lord, seeing that all the goings forth of the free grace of God will never save one sinner, if the sinner neglect to do his part. It is to be hoped that you will not pass these things over as trivial matters, for they are matters of the greatest importance; and surely it behooves every sinner that expects to go to Heaven to be well persuaded in his own mind upon what ground his salvation depends, lest he should be building upon a false foundation, and, after all his diligence and watchfulness, be found wrong at last.

Now, sir, as your conscience is so tender that you could not satisfy it till you had protested against the doctrine of unconditional election, you surely cannot die in peace without answering these important questions; important, I say, for I repeat it again, that nothing can be of greater importance than to know upon what ground salvation does absolutely depend; and if it will not be thought insulting your superior abilities and understanding, I will remark, that should you find yourself inadequate to the task, you are at full liberty to call in the assistance of any of your brethren, and truly they are many; for if the matter be but fully and clearly stated, it matters not to us whether the statement be the work of an individual, or the joint concern of a host; it is the truth itself we want to appear. You will perhaps wonder that I so frequently mention the pronoun us, as if this epistle was a joint concern; but if you will only read a small pamphlet called "A Dialogue between a Barber's Block and a Methodist Minister," your wonder will perhaps be at an end, for there you will see the same question proposed, namely, "What is it that saves a lost sinner?" in which pamphlet some of the above questions are asked.

Thus you see that I am not the only person who wishes to know upon what ground salvation absolutely depends; and as I have never heard of any of your brethren that have ventured to solve the important question, I thought if the question be put to Mr. Smyth, and the nature of it be clearly stated to him, who can tell but he will exercise his superior talents in giving a plain, unequivocal, decisive answer; and I think I may venture to say, that in this town I can find some hundreds of people who feel themselves interested in the subject, and who will be sure to conclude that if Mr. Smyth does not answer the above, the just reason will be because he cannot. And therefore, if neither regard for the truth of God, nor a concern for the welfare of souls, will induce you to answer this epistle, let your credit as a man of learning and talent have some weight with you, and never let it be said that country rustic, William Gadsby, has proposed questions to the Reverend Edward Smyth, formerly of Trinity College, Dublin, which he is not able to answer without exposing the fallacy of his own creed, and that, therefore, rather than do that, he will pass them by in cowardly silence.

I would not have solicited an answer, did not the subject appear to me to be a matter of the greatest moment. I am acquainted with characters who are in possession of an immortal soul, and consider themselves bound for an eternal world, and have had, or imagine they have had, some Soul-ravishing foretastes of immortal felicity, and are living in daily expectation that, "When the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, they have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," where they shall be forever free from sin (a monster that their better part abhors), yea, where they shall be free from all the insults of hell, the sorrows of the world, and every lurking care, fear and distress, and be forever with the Lord: where they shall see as they are seen, and know as they are known, and in one immortal song chant forth the high praises of the triune Jehovah forever and ever.

Oh how the soul longs to be with Christ, which is far, infinitely far better than to dwell below!

Indeed, sir, they are expecting the period to arrive very soon, when their immortal sight will be favored with a clear view of the majestic blaze of Jehovah's unsullied glory, when all their powers will be sweetly employed in realizing those immortal blessings which are in reserve for those who wait upon God.

But if, after all, they are only building such expectations upon a false foundation, how awful, how dreadfully awful will be the disappointment!

The very thought of being disappointed convulses the whole frame; and when such a thought prevails any length of time, it produces a tremor in the mind not to be expressed by tongue or pen. Therefore, to such souls no subject can be of greater importance than that now proposed for your consideration. We might expect to be princes and emperors, and be disappointed, but a disappointment of this nature is not worth a thought compared with the above; for all the riches, pleasures, honor and dignity which this world can afford are but poor, fleeting, perishing trash. A few years at most puts an end to the whole, and the beggar upon the dung-hill, and the king upon the throne, will become equally level with the dust. But to be disappointed in soul concerns, concerns of an eternal nature, is awful beyond description; therefore, if Mr. S., or any of his brethren, feel any regard for poor, perishing sinners, who are thirsting for God, even the living God, let them inform us, with the greatest accuracy, upon what salvation's does absolutely depend, that we may know upon what to ground our expectations.

Bear with me a moment, sir, for I have one thing more to propose, and then I have done for the present. If, after you have dispassionately discussed the above subject, you should still think yourself doing the work of an evangelist in holding up to contempt the doctrine of unconditional election, and still maintain that upon the ground of such a doctrine God is more barbarous than the worst of tyrants, nay, even as sanguinary and implacable as Appollyon himself, you will have the modesty to inform us what there is in sinners, and what they have done, that lays the eternal God under the obligation of providing for them a Savior.

Now, sir, either God is just in electing some according to the good pleasure of His will, leaving the rest without what you call a chance of being saved, or else man must have some just and righteous claim upon Him, whereby he has a right to demand salvation at His hands. Suppose upon this subject we propose a passage of Scripture for your consideration; and if we turn our thoughts to the third chapter to the Romans, we shall see that there were characters who slanderously reported the apostles, and affirmed that they said, "Let us do evil, that good may come," whose damnation, we are informed, is just.

Having given this statement of the matter, does the apostle then begin to admire his own goodness, and the goodness of the rest of the apostles and believers in Christ Jesus, and intimate that they were characters more worthy of Jehovah's complacency and delight than those whose damnation is just? No, not a single hint of the nature, but quite the reverse. Hence he asks, "What then? Are we better than they?" To which he replies, "No, in no wise." That is, if I understand him aright, we are in no sense whatever more deserving of the favor of God than they: for we are by nature no better than they, but were by nature children of wrath, even as others.

But what is the reason the apostle gives for such an assertion?

A very plain and a very obvious one indeed, namely, that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin; and then, to illustrate the point, he quotes a variety of passages from the Old Testament, which give a short description of the real state of man by nature; at 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; their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in all their ways, and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."

This, sir, is a short description of fallen man, given by holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; and from the same unerring authority we learn that "God made man upright, but men have sought out many inventions."

Fertile inventions indeed, if the above be a true description of them, and who dare deny it?

And pray, sir, for which of all these inventions is the eternal God obliged to provide salvation?

Or what virtue can there be in these things, jointly or separately considered, sufficient to merit the immortal favor of Jehovah, or to render Him an unjust tyrant in case He gives them their portion with fallen angels?

Does their virtue lie in their want of righteousness, and so because they are altogether unlike God He is necessitated to love and redeem them, or be unjust?

Or does the virtue lie in their dreadful ignorance or want of understanding, or because they seek not after God, "having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart?" (Ephesians 4:18)

Or does it lie in their having gone out of the way, and being altogether unprofitable, or because they do no good, seeing that they that are in the flesh cannot please God?

Or does the virtue lie in that dreadful stench of sin which they emit through their throat, which is an open sepulchre, or in the deceit which they use with their tongues?

Or is it in the poison of asps under their lips, which is a composition of every species of sin and rebellion?

Or is it in that mouth full of cursing and bitterness they possess?

Or does it lie in the swiftness of their feet to shed blood, or in the destruction and misery that are in their ways, or because they are strangers to the way of peace?

Or does the virtue lie in their having no fear of God before their eyes?

Now, sir, if there be no virtue in the whole of this, jointly or separately, that lays the eternal God under an obligation of extending His mercy toward, and bestowing His special favors upon them, He must be just in saving some, as the effect of His own purpose of grace, and leaving the rest to perish in their sins; I say, Jehovah must be just in so doing, unless His justice can be impeached upon some other foundation than what has already been stated.

But as I said in the beginning of this letter, that I have nothing in view but the glory of God and the welfare of Zion, so I say again, and can assure you that I do not wish to take any unjust advantage of you or your creed.

We will, therefore, for the sake of getting more fully to the real truth, suppose that some men by nature are not so vile as others, and we will suppose that those who believe in the doctrine of unconditional election are by far the worst, and that those who believe in the doctrine you profess are by far the best, and we put the question to each, Do you believe that the eternal God would have been just had He left you to perish in your sins?

What says the electionist to this question?

Me thinks I see every one who in heart believes the doctrine, from a feeling sense of its intrinsic glory, ready to say, without the least reserve, Just indeed!

I have been astonished, almost to an infinite degree, that He could be just in saving me. I am quite sure I have deserved His righteous indignation in thousands of instances, and had He seen fit to banish me from His presence, into that place where hope never cometh, I must have said, even then, it is what I justly deserve.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

Adored be His eternal name, that He has brought my poor, guilty, ruined, hell-deserving soul to know that He has made Him to be sin though He knew no sin, and in the riches of His grace has made such a God-dishonoring wretch as I the righteousness of God in Him!

"Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth! for the Lord hath done it."

When by a precious faith I am enabled to behold unworthy me among the sons of God, the purchase of the precious blood of Christ, I am lost in wonder, I sink to nothing before Him, and am compelled, sweetly compelled to cry from my very soul, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto me, and not unto the world?" (John 14:22)

I am persuaded that it is not for works of righteousness which I have done, but according to His mercy He saved me, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. O my soul!

let all thy powers unite in praising the eternal God for so great a salvation. Great God!

Fill me with Thy blessed self; and may it ever be my highest ambition to be nothing, and to magnify Thine infinitely adorable name.

But hark! What do I hear?

Is it not the voice of Mr. S. calling such language "cant"?

O, fie, fie, blush for shame!

But whether you are capable of blushing or not, this is the language of a sinner saved by grace; and if you and your brethren were to call it by the detestable name of cant, ten-thousand times ten-thousand twice told, it would be their language still.

I admit it is language that hardly becomes a man who believes that God would be an unjust tyrant if He did not provide salvation for him; for what thanks can be to Jehovah for redeeming characters whom He in justice is bound to redeem?

He either must do it or impeach His justice; and then wherein can grace and mercy shine?

Indeed, sir, I am greatly mistaken if upon an inspection you are not induced to call the terms, grace, mercy and compassion of God, cant, too, or else give up that for which you plead.

If salvation be a just debt that God owes to His fallen creatures (and it must be, if He would be unjust in case He did not provide it), how can it be of grace and mercy?

If your mind be not overwhelmed with enmity, against the sovereignty of God, let these thoughts occupy it for a moment at least.

But we will now turn our thoughts to those characters whom we supposed might be considered the best sort of sinners, namely, the Arminians. [Those who credit their eternal salvation upon anything they can think, say, or do.]

Will Mr. S. inform us what claim these have upon the Almighty for an everlasting salvation?

Now, sir, we earnestly wish you to be very particular in telling us what they have in them, or what is done by them, that is so virtuous in its own nature as to oblige the eternal God to provide salvation for them, or else be a cruel, unjust tyrant. But in order to get at the truth, we will suppose that Mr. S. is not able to answer for all this body, seeing they are so amazingly numerous, and we will therefore bring the matter into a narrow compass, and he shall be desired to answer for himself only. Then the matter now rests here: If you feel yourself inadequate to answer for the whole, you are desired to come forward and truly declare, without any reserve, what you have done that lays the mighty God under an obligation of providing salvation for you, and wherein Jehovah will be an unjust tyrant if He does not give you a chance of being saved. We hope you will state upon what grounds you can appeal to the infinite God, and tell Him you have a right in justice to expect salvation at His hands, and that if He withholds it, and leaves you to perish in your sins, He, is no less than a capricious tyrant.

Should you feel yourself disposed to say that Jehovah ought to have prevented the fall of man, or provided a salvation that extends to all the fallen race, you will then, no doubt, inform us from what quarter such an obligation arises or how Jehovah came to be thus obliged, and whether He was not as much under the same obligation toward angels as men; and if He be just in leaving fallen angels to perish, without a possibility of being saved, upon what ground can His justice be impeached in leaving fallen man to the same condemnation?

If Satan were as much disposed to cavil with the sovereignty of God as Mr. S., and had the same opportunity of publishing his views to the world through the medium of the press, could he not represent the Almighty in as odious a light, for passing by fallen angels and redeeming fallen men (seeing they are all the creatures of God), as Mr. S. has done, upon the ground of unconditional election? Indeed, sir, to be consistent with yourself, it is high time your bowels began to yearn a little over fallen angels, and instead of calling Satan the destroyer, and arch-fiend, etc., represent him in the same favorable light as you do fallen man, and be a complete champion for universal charity at once.

O, sir, think and tremble. I have often thought that man excels Satan himself in rebellion against God; for though we read of him tempting Christ, and of him crying out, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come to torment us before the time?" yet we hear nothing about his calling Him a capricious tyrant, because He has not given them a chance of being saved. No, this species of rebellion appears to be the sole prerogative of ruined man. I have no more to say at present, only again to solicit your candid attention to the things proposed, and to request that you will give us a plain, unequivocal, decisive answer. That the truth of God may run and be glorified, is the prayer of

Yours to serve in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,

-William Gadsby

OBJECTIONS RAISED AGAINST GOD'S FREE GRACE

2008-09-10T11:53:00.002+01:00

LIMITED ATONEMENT

2008-08-22T15:26:00.000+01:00

One great truth which has ever been emphasized by the faithful church of Christ is the truth of the atonement. To define further the Scriptural idea of "atonement," churches of Reformed, Calvinistic backgrounds speak of "limited" atonement. It is vital for the child of God to understand what is involved in the truth of "limited atonement." This truth concerns the very heart of one's spiritual life.

Atonement

The word "atonement" is used many times in the Old Testament but only once in the New Testament: in Romans 5:11 -- that is, in the King James Version. The word "atonement" is a theological term which is rather unusual. Most of the terms or words used to describe Scriptural doctrines in the English language are words which have been derived either from the Greek or from the Latin. But that is not true for the word "atonement." This word is of English or Anglo-Saxon origin. It is composed of two words: "at" and "one." The word "atonement" suggests, therefore, a dwelling-together, a making one out of that which had been divided.

One of the basic ideas of the Hebrew and Greek words for "atonement" is that of covering. The atonement is that which covers or hides. "Atonement" represents a debt which is paid, and thus "covered." One might illustrate this idea by speaking of a debt at a bank. If a person is unable to make payment on the debt which he owes to the bank, and if a friend volunteers to pay this debt for him, then that debt is covered and the man is free from all obligation. Such is the idea of atonement.

The word "atonement" as a theological term treats the relationship which exists between God and man. The word suggests, in the first place, that there is a unity or oneness between God and man—an "at-one-ment."

Secondly, however, the word implies that there once was something which divided these two. That something was the sin of man in which he walked in rebellion against God.

Thirdly, atonement reminds that a way has been found to unite the two, God and man, by means of a payment which removes the guilt of sin. Finally, there is implied in the word "atonement" a consciousness within a person that the evil which formerly divided has now been removed.

Atonement that is "limited"

The second word we ought to understand is the word "limited" as it is used to describe the atonement. The word is somewhat unfortunate since it can easily be misunderstood. When we speak of the "limited atonement" of Christ, we do not mean that the atonement is at all limited as far as its power is concerned. The word "limited" is used rather to describe the Scriptural truth that the atonement does not cover all men, but only a certain group -- the elect of God chosen before the foundation of this world. It is this truth that we must consider.

The atonement refers to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, which death serves as payment for the guilt of sin.

The question arises repeatedly, "For whom did Christ die?"

You may know that there are those, sometimes called "Arminian" (or "freewillists"), who teach that Christ died for all men without exception. This idea has become very popular—even within Reformed circles where historically it was condemned. It is popular because it appeals to man—though it is not based upon Scripture.

The second of the "Five Points of Arminianism," written in 1610 in the Netherlands, declares this about the atonement of Christ, "That agreeably thereto Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, died for all men and for every man, so that He has obtained for them all by His death on the cross redemption and forgiveness of sins, yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins except the believer according to the Word of the Gospel in John 3:16: 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.' And, in the First Epistle of John 2:2, 'And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'"

The Arminian understands the atonement of the cross thus: it is universal, i.e., for all. A large number of gospel hymns include this same idea. These portray a Christ Who died for all men—and now He awaits the reaction and response of the sinner.

This error of the Arminian, however, is not taught in the Bible. That Christ died only for a specific group, called in Scripture "the elect," is evident from many passages in Holy Writ. A clear statement concerning the extent of the work of Christ was given to Joseph, the husband of Mary, in a dream. The angel said to Joseph, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

The name "Jesus" itself is derived from two words meaning "Jehovah saves." The name "Jesus" is therefore an extremely beautiful and descriptive name. It reminds of that Scriptural truth that if a people are to be saved from their sins, it is Jehovah Who must save them. No dead sinner can deliver himself from his sins. Jehovah, the unchangeable God, alone can do that. Now the angel specifically informs Joseph that the babe to be born of the Virgin Mary is to be called "Jesus," for He shall save His people from their sins. His work will be to deliver a specific people, His people. The work of salvation, then, does not cover all men, but is limited to His people.

Another passage of Scripture which indicates the extent of the atonement of the cross is John 10. In verse 11 Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep." Again in verse 15 Jesus declares, "I lay down my life for the sheep." And in contrast to this willing sacrifice for His sheep, there is the fact presented in verse 26 that some are not Jesus' sheep. Jesus says, "But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep." The distinction which Jesus makes is very clear. He speaks of two groups of people: His sheep, and those which are not His sheep. For the former group, Jesus lays down His life; He dies for His sheep. For the latter group, Jesus does not die; they are not His sheep. Therefore, too, they do not believe on Him. Again here it is very clear that the payment which Jesus made for sin upon the cross is a payment for a specific group of people -- not a payment for the sins of everyone.

Again we read in John 17:9, "I pray for them; I pray not for the world; I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." Jesus is speaking here not only of His disciples, but also of all those who believe on His Name through their word (see verse 20). Jesus insists that He prays only for those whom the Father had given to Him. He will not pray for the world. The conclusion ought to be obvious. Those for whom Jesus prays are those for whom presently He will on the cross. He does not pray for the world because He did not die for them. Surely, had He died for every man, He would pray for them too.

To one final passage I call your attention. We read in Romans 8:32, "He spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all—how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" Notice that the apostle emphasizes that God gave not His Son for all, but for us all. There is an obvious difference. The "us" refers to the church at Rome—and by extension, to the church of all ages. The "all" in this text represents the total number of the church of God. Christ died for them.

What of Certain Scriptural texts?

There are, however, a group of passages in the Bible that seem to substantiate the idea of a universal atonement. One of the most often quoted is 1 John 2:2: "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

Or there is that well-known text of John 3:16: "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."

And in John 6:51 Jesus says, "And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." There are other passages which express a similar thought.

The question in each of these texts is the proper interpretation of the words "all" and "world." One who studies Scripture even superficially soon finds that these two words do not always mean every individual who lives or has lived on the earth. Repeatedly the words are used to point to a definite and limited group. I give only a few illustrations of that. I have already quoted from John 17:9 where Jesus declares, "I pray for them; I pray not for the world."

Obviously the term "world" in this passage refers only to the total number of the reprobate wicked. Jesus does not pray for that "world." But also in Scripture the term "world" refers to the totality of God's chosen people. That is true in John 3:16 and similar passages. Or one reads in Romans 5:18, "Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

Now obviously, the "all men" who receive the free gift of justification does not include every man on the earth. This is a particular group; it is every member of the body of Christ. So also one must interpret 1 John 2:2. Christ is presented there as the propitiation for our sins, that is, for the sins of the apostle and of those whom he addresses; but also Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world -- for all those of all ages who have been given Him of the Father.

Because the doctrine of "limited" atonement is a Scriptural truth, we find it expressed also in the confessions of the Reformed churches. The Heidelberg Catechism, for example, says this in Question and Answer 40: "Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself, even unto death? Because with respect to the justice and truth of God, satisfaction for our sins can be made no otherwise than by the death of the Son of God." And the Westminster Confession, chapter 8, paragraph 5, says, "The Lord Jesus by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself which He through the eternal spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father and purchased not only reconciliation but an everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him."

The Importance of Limited Atonement

This truth is significant and important in the life of the church and in the lives of its individual members.

In the first place, it gives to the child of God the full assurance of his salvation. If Christ did indeed die for every man that ever lived, I could never be certain of my own salvation.

If Christ died for all, and so very many perish, what certainty do I have that I shall be saved?

You see, such a view, which is also unscriptural, can only leave one in doubt about his salvation.

But now, in light of the testimony of Scripture itself, one can know with certainty whether he is saved and will enter into heavenly glory. Jesus died for the sins of His own people—those given to Him by the Father. When Jesus dies for them, they also receive His Spirit, Who works in their hearts that life which Christ merited for them. Such are converted, confessing before God and man that they belong to Christ. These are they who cry out in heartfelt repentance, "Oh, God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" And these have the assurance of the forgiveness of sin and the certainty of eternal life in heaven. None can take that certainty away from them. None can destroy their faith. These will not fall away from that grace of God once given to them. These do find comfort and assurance in their confession, "Jesus died for me."

But even more important, this truth of Scripture that Jesus dies only for the sins of His own people, is the only truth which exalts the power and glory of the Name of God. Any other divergent view detracts from the glory of His Name. Any view of the atonement which suggests that the ultimate decision concerning one's salvation rests with man, detracts from the power and glory of God.

God does not share His power and glory with any!

He is God alone!

He has absolute power. He determines the beginning from the end. He determines the final destiny of every creature—and He does so in harmony with His perfect righteousness.

When one properly considers the fact of the atonement; when one understands that he for whom Christ died shall surely be saved—he cannot help but glorify the Name of God Who has worked such wonders!

By G. Van Baren

GOD'S SOVEREIGN ELECTIVE GRACE

2008-07-02T13:14:00.003+01:00

The electing and rejecting God is Supreme. Such is the plain teaching of Scripture. To deny the sovereign character of elective grace is to deny that God is God. It is to maintain that of the two, God and man, man is the stronger, and thus the factor that shapes God's choice. This is indeed the lie that constitutes the premise, the supporting pillar, of the average sermon to which our church-going public is made to listen. I realized that the phraseology of which I avail myself in defining the lie with which the modern Evangelical discourse is fraught, may be strange to you.

The apostles of a dethroned God and an enthroned sinner would perhaps recoil from declaring that man is able to defeat the purposes of God. They rather speak of a God who loves and wills to save all men (head for head), of a Christ who died for all, and of a (depraved) sinner who can believe if he will. But know that, though God is supposed to will to save all men, many perish, so that the eternal death of an unrepentant sinner spells defeat for the Almighty. To say, therefore, that God indiscriminately wills to save all, is to dethrone God. To maintain that the natural man, destitute of regeneration (such is indeed the implication), can will to believe, is to seat him on a throne, left vacant, as was said, by a dethroned God.

Once more, to deny the sovereign character of elective grace is to deny that God is God. Yet many do deny it. The sad fact is that the doctrine of a sovereign election and reprobation is to many a dreaded doctrine. The number of the divines in the Christian Church who will consistently champion it, is comparatively small. Many openly decry the conception of a God, who has mercy upon whom He will have mercy and hardeneth whom He wills, as the product of a diseased brain and, when pressed, begin to prate of an election reposing upon foreseen faith. Others of a more Reformed persuasion prefer to keep silence about the matter altogether, which they do, except on rare occasions when custom compels them to bring it up. But even then this truth must be neutralized by some such nefarious admixture as "a general well-meaning offer of grace."

Scripture is most outspoken respecting the matter of election and reprobation. This no one acquainted with the contents of Holy Writ will deny, ever has denied. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world..." (Ephesians 1:4).

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father..." (1 Peter 1:2).

Verily, the doctrine of election runs like a seam of gold through the entire Word. It is the main pillar upon which the truth-structure, reared by the prophets and the apostles, reposes. It is so interwoven with the texture of every other truth of the Christian religion, that to preach any of these is to preach election. There is nothing cold about this doctrine. Election spells divine love, mercy, compassion, wisdom, power, justice, holiness. God in infinite mercy, taking an ill-deserving sinner included in Christ Jesus, to His bosom, to be to Him a close companion forever—this is election.

Whereas, as far as I am aware, it is freely admitted that Scripture in unmistakable speech teaches a divine election and reprobation, the issue is not:

Does Holy Writ teach election?

but rather:

What is the character of the selective process?

Is it supreme and sovereign, or bound and imprisoned by the will of man?

We affirm on the basis of Scripture that the divine choice must be as sovereign as God Himself. And He is absolutely sovereign. High is He above all nations, exalted far above all gods.

What may be the secret of His supremacy?

He is God, infinite in might, the almighty Creator of the earth and the fullness thereof. He appears in Scripture as the Creator of the saint and as the sole source of his salvation. Also of sin, He is the supreme necessity. He forms the light, and creates darkness; makes peace and creates evil (Isaiah 45:7). Verily, the joint testimony of Scripture that God is supreme is overwhelming. The burden of the joint message of all the prophets and the apostles is: God is supreme. He is God.

What then must be the truth about His choice, His elective grace?

As God, this choice is, must be, supreme. This is the proposition to the defense of which we arise in this pamphlet.

Proven From Scripture

What we will now prove from Scripture is that God's choice, selection, is sovereign, that is, not bound, tied down and held in bondage by man.

What may be meant by a supreme, in distinction from bound choice?

Let us illustrate. The matter is simple enough. A merchant is in need of an able clerk. He advertises, and shortly two men, "A" and "B" apply. The merchant fixes his gaze first upon the one and then upon the other; and the thought rises in his soul, "A" strongly appeals to me. Him will I select, providing he possesses the necessary fitness. A brief interview, however, convinces him that the fit man is not "A" but "B." "B" therefore is taken and "A" dismissed. A bound choice; bound because shaped and influenced by a circumstance (the fitness of the applicants) which the merchant did not create, but before which he is compelled to bow and take cognizance of, a circumstance, therefore, that constitutes the factor that determined the choice. On the other hand, if the merchant, capable of making of a man what he wills, could choose without considering what the applicants within themselves are, his choice, determined solely by factors within himself, would be free and sovereign. From the very nature of things, however, man's choice is always bound. He cannot move mountains; hence he chooses the path that leads him past them. He decides to cross the ocean in a ship because the opposite shore can be reached in no other way. His choice to go his way alone is shaped by the refusal of the friend to set out in company with him. Forsooth, the field in which man's will can operate is exceedingly small.

However, as the choice, selection, of a God who made heaven and earth, moves mountains, dries up seas, creates evil, turns men's hearts, is the source of anything of goodness in man -- this choice, elective love, of God is supreme. Nowhere is this more plainly taught than in the ninth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. Attend to the argument of the verses ten to fourteen: "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; for the children 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; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

This passage asserts, mark you, that God loved Jacob before he had done any good, so that the supreme cause of the divine choice as it devolved upon the younger child was not the good works, which he, as a historical phenomenon, performed; but the will, the good pleasure, of the Almighty God. And this is the same as saying that He chose Jacob with a view to creating in him life, goodness, and power. For, not of works but of Him that calleth, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. Forsooth, God's choice is supreme. The sole factor that determines it, is found within Him. He has mercy upon whom He will.

Deny the sovereignty of the divine choice, say that a sinner of himself believes, can believe if he but will, and cannot be made to believe, if he will not; and you brush aside with one sweep the entire mass of testimony of Scripture that God is God, and set man on a throne left vacant by a dethroned God. For if the spiritual Israel, as to its hallowed energies and power (its faith, hope, love, and good works) is not of God, is not the creation of His almighty will; He is not Israel's Maker, exalted and almighty Father, King and Saviour. To say, therefore, that there is something of goodness in man that is not of God, not the creation of His will—some power, however infinitesimal, to appropriate the Christ and the blessings of the kingdom, to take hold of the life-line thrown out, some power to utter a single faint cry for mercy—is to strip Him of His infinite might, yea of all His glories, and draw Him down to the level of the creature to be trodden under foot of man. Consider that man is by nature dead in trespasses and sin, and thus destitute of spiritual life and power.

How, then, can He believe, will to believe, of himself?

As to Esau, God hated him before he had done any evil so that the supreme reason of the divine rejection as it devolved upon the older child was not his corruption, the evil works he as a historical phenomenon performed, but the will, the good pleasure, of God. For reasons within Himself the Almighty resolved to reject and to harden the historical Esau. "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will he hardeneth." (Romans 9: 18). Consider that if Esau's total depravity was the supreme reason that compelled God to reject him, the Almighty would have been forced to reject Jacob as well, for he by nature was as depraved as his reprobated brother. This shows that the supreme reason of Esau's rejection was not his wickedness, but the sovereign will of God.

Know well that to rebel against the reasoning of the above-cited Scripture, is to be compelled to embrace the sickening lie that the supreme reason of the divine rejection of the sinner, is the latter's wickedness—his persistent refusal to give ear to the pleading of a God who would save but cannot and therefore finally resolves, contrary to His inmost desire, to punish the incorrigible culprit with eternal death. And this is equal to saying that the attempt of the Almighty to save ends in dismal failure as often as a sinner perishes. But let me ask:

Is God's will bound? Does the unwillingness of the sinner to be saved spell defeat for the Almighty?

Does the iron wall of man's opposition stay the Lord?

Is His resolve to save a man shattered upon the rock of man's stinking pride, arrogance, and contempt?

Don't say that I speak too disparagingly of man. He is a creature with a stiff neck, with a heart of stone, with a mouth full of dreadful curses, with a tongue under which lurks the poison of asps, with a throat that is an open sepulchre, with feet swift to shed blood, with a mind imagining vain things. In a word, he is a creature incapable of saving good and inclined to all evil. Dead is he in trespasses and sin.

Does the stony heart of this man constitute the rock that resists the hammer-blows of God's grace, the rock with which His will collides and is dashed to fragments?

Nay, my friend, there is no such rock. The stony heart of man defeat God—Him who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in balance; Him before Whom the nations are nothing; Him, the incomparable God, Who bringeth the princes to nothing and maketh the judges of the earth as nothing? (Isaiah 40).

This God overruled by the will of man, receding when man advances, proceeding only when man deigns to let him pass?

Nay, it cannot be.

How preposterous the very idea!

No heart so hard that He cannot break.
No will so stubborn that He cannot bend.
No sinner so dead that He cannot revive.
No sinner so proud that He cannot debase.
No heart so filthy that He cannot cleanse.
No sinner so lost that He cannot save.
No sinner sunken so low that He could not raise up and set in heaven with Christ.

However, He hath mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. The one believes, repents, and cries for mercy, because God so wills. And another resists, hardens his heart, says no to the Almighty, and perishes in his sins, because He so wills. The electing and rejecting God is supreme.

Will any true lover of God care to maintain the contrary?

Again I say that I cannot conceive of him doing so.

The First Objection Weighed

It is said, that the doctrine that God, according to His own purpose and for a reason in Himself, to wit, His own good pleasure, chooses one and rejects another, is inconsistent with divine justice. The apostle dealt with this objection. That he did so proves conclusively that the views we champion are actually his. Otherwise it could never be explained why he should raise and remove the aforesaid objection immediately upon having quoted from the discourse of the prophet Malachi the words, "Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated." (Romans 9:13).

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?" (Romans 9:14) is the question the apostle now puts forth.

And his answer: "God forbid. For He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion ... For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth."

Both passages are from the book of Exodus (9:16; 33:11). The purpose of the apostle is obvious. He sweeps away the objection by showing that Scripture and thus God Himself unmistakably declares that He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy and hardeneth whom he will unto His glory. What God actually does—does unto His everlasting glory (such is the implication)—is, must be, just. So, then, what the apostle would bind upon our hearts is that, whereas God (according to His own purpose, for a reason in Himself, and with a view to Himself) actually chooses one and rejects and hardens another—this doing of His is, must be, just. Let this sink deep into your heart, my reader. God's works (including the rejection and hardening of the sinner) are truth and verity; they being performed by Him for a reason in Himself, according to His purpose, and with a view to Himself, to the enhancement of His name, with an eye singled to His glory, with Himself before His eye as the ultimate goal. Consider that He is the highest good, a Being wise and just, the inclusion of all that is good and lovely. Hence, any work of His that has not Himself as its supreme cause and goal falls short of Himself and is vile. Because God ends in Himself, He is the just and the holy God. Such is the reply of the apostle to the objection that sovereign rejection involves God in an unfair treatment especially of those whom He wills to reject and harden.

The apostle's reply does not satisfy you?

So, then, it is not enough for you, to know that—whereas it is actually the way of God to have mercy on whom he will have mercy and to harden whom He will—Paul's doctrine of a sovereign election and rejection is, must be, consistent with divine justice?

Consider that what you set aside is God's very own appraisal of His doings, yea, of Himself.

You dare say to God that His appraisal of Himself is wrong?

You, finite creature of the dust, dare to sit in judgment over God?

The Second Objection Weighed

The Objection

Another objection raised against sovereign elective grace is that it is incompatible with human responsibility. This grievance, too, was advanced by the enemy of the truth who rose before the eye of the apostle. It again shows that the doctrine of the preceding verses is: God chooses one and rejects another because He wills. The form in which the apostle has the objector cast his complaint is: "Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?" (Romans 9:19).

The reasoning here is plain:

If it be true that the destiny of man is in the almighty hand of God; if it is not of him who willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; if one believes because God saves him; if another remains impenitent because God hardens him, and is lost because God fits him for destruction; if man's state and destiny depend on God alone -- how can He find fault, that is, how can He blame man and hold him responsible?

For who can resist His will?

Observe that the objection is precisely the one being urged against our doctrine of the character of the elective grace of God. Let this set you to thinking. It shows that we are in exceedingly good company, in the company of no one less than Paul.

"Who hath resisted His will?" The objector then has grasped the force and implication of the apostle's reasoning. The question is, however, whether the doctrine of the preceding verses yields this conclusion. And the answer: In the mouth of the objector, the complaint, "No one can resist His will" is vile slander. What the objector means to say is that the reprobated sinner is hardened irrespective of what he can do about it, is hardened therefore against his own good will and better self. If God would only withdraw and permit this better self to assert itself, the hardened one would obey and not rebel. The sinner, according to the reasoning of the objector, is being compelled to say no to the Almighty, though he would say yes. Hence, God cannot find fault.

What has the apostle to say to this?

Nothing directly. He could have replied: Thou, O man, canst not resist God's will in the sense that thou, being hardened by God, canst will to do nothing else but harden thyself and say no to Him. Thy will is only evil as thyself. With thy whole being, with all the power that is thine, dost thou pitch thyself against God. He, therefore, finds fault with thee, holds thee accountable. For thy rebellion is wanton, willful, unrestrained, unfettered.

Verily, though hardened, man is the subject of his rebellion, and behaves in agreement with his nature. With such amazing freedom does he sin, so far is he from being able to detect the power of the Almighty over and in him as something foreign to himself, that he denies the existence of God. Ask a man who persists in his unbelief why he continues to say no to the Lord, and his answer will not be: God hardens me, but, I will not believe, I hate God and refuse to come to His service.

That the apostle knew how to meet the aforesaid objection is evident from the following passage taken from the first section of his epistle: "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." (Romans 1:32-2:1).

So then, the express declaration of Scripture is that the rejected sinner, though hardened and fitted for destruction by God, is nevertheless inexcusable, and is thus being held accountable for his moral state. Though hardened by God, man sins as a free moral agent. If you ask,

How can this be?

I must reply that I know not. What Scripture here presents is no contradiction but a mystery, which for this reason defies our powers of penetration. Deny either that man is at fault, or that God hardens him, and the mystery vanishes into thin air. The exponents of the theory of a well-meaning offer of salvation to all men, of the theory that God wills to save all, that Christ died for all, of the theory that a sinner of himself can believe -- I say, the exponents of these various theories have no mystery.

The Reply

"How can He find fault. For who hath resisted His will?" Let us now attend to the apostle's reply to this question. Consider, that the question is rhetorical and may therefore be converted into a positive statement thus: God cannot find fault, for no one can resist His will. The opponent feels certain that the objection he now raises compels the apostle to concede that his doctrine is inconsistent with human accountability and therefore shall have to be relinquished. But the apostle is not to be silenced. In replying, however, he purposely refrains from caviling with his opponent about the matter of human responsibility, for the reason that all such complaints rise not from sincere perplexity, not from an earnest desire to know the truth about the matter, but from a stinking pride that dares to cavil with God and challenge His claim upon His moral creatures. Grievances they are that spring from a sinful unwillingness to believe that with God there can be no unrighteousness; from a vile stubbornness, that against better knowledge, refuses to concede that, whereas God is God and man His creature, a thing formed, God can do with man according as He wills. The apostle, therefore, frames a retort designed to rebuke the opponent's stinking pride and to expose the blasphemous root-thought from which the complaint springs (read Romans 9:20-23)—the root-thought, namely, that God hath no right to do with His moral creatures as He pleases. Essentially this complaint is like unto the one first raised: "Is there unrighteousness with God?"

Attend now to the apostle's reply: "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?" (Romans 9:20).

It is to be noticed that the apostle here judges the opponent out of his own mouth. The opponent had thought to overturn the apostle's doctrine by the complaint, "Who can resist His will?" Just so, such is the force of the apostle's reply, in the right sense (not in the sense in which the opponent meant it), no one can resist His will. When He hardens, the sinner can will to do nothing else but harden himself. Hence, thou, O man, art but clay in the hands of God. Being clay, it behooves thee to hold thy peace.

"Who art thou that repliest against God ..." Let every opponent of Paul's doctrine seriously ask himself this question.

Let him ask:

Who am I that dare to set my mouth against Heaven and say, There is unrighteousness with God?

Who am I that dare to challenge God's claim upon His moral creatures?

Who am I that have the vile courage to call God to account?

Indeed, who art thou, O man?

Consider for a moment who thou art: a vile lump of clay by thyself, impotent, lifeless, without power to make anything of thyself at all, either a vessel unto honour, or a vessel unto dishonour. Consider, that thou canst not as much as harden thyself except the Almighty hardens thee. In God thou dost live, move, and have thy being (Acts 17:28). Thou art creature, the issue of His will. Even as a vile sinner thou dost come forth out of the womb of divine providence. In a word, by thyself, thou art clay. Thy caviling with God, how utterly preposterous! It behooves thee to hold thy peace and to extol the adorable sovereignty of thy Maker. For thou art clay. Yet thou openest thy mouth, thou a vile lump of clay, to criticize God, to accuse Him of unrighteousness, to challenge His claim upon thee, to say to Him, Why hast thou made me thus?

Unbelievable! O man, thou art clay. Tell me, asks the apostle,

hath not the potter power, that is, right over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

O man, have you ever heard of anyone challenging the right of the potter over the clay?

Would it not, among men, be considered the height of the absurd for anyone to deny that the potter has this right?

And would it not be considered the height of folly and arrogance for the dishonourable vessel, a mere lump of clay, to say to the potter, "Why hast thou made me thus?"

And yet, O man, thou repliest against God, sayest to him, "Why hast thou made me thus?"

What, then, is God's very own answer to him who challenges His right over His moral creatures and insists that with Him there is unrighteousness because He exercises His divine prerogatives over man as his sovereign Maker?

It is this: Consider, O man, that with me there can be no unrighteousness as I am holy God. Consider, further, that I am thy sovereign Creator and therefore have a right to do with thee according to My will. Therefore, be still and bow before the sovereignty of thy Maker. Humble thyself under My mighty hand. Extol My sovereignty, My glories, as thou beholdest them in the face of My Son, Christ Jesus. Doing so, thou hast within thyself the evidence that thou art a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory.

O man, will you continue to denounce the adorable God because you cannot reconcile His perfect doings with your corrupt conceptions of what is right and proper for Him to do?

Not satisfied with God as He is, you try to improve upon Him. Improve upon God and you get a monstrosity.

So then, He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. It means that the relation He sustains to sin is causal. He hardens first, and as a result the sinner hardens himself. The exponents of the theory of the free will of man reverse this. Man first hardens himself and as a result God hardens him. The very fact, however, that the apostle insists that God may do with His moral creatures as He pleases proves that His hardening the sinner is the cause of the sinner hardening himself. The heart of the entire argument of the apostle is that the relation God sustains to sin is causal, active, progressive, and not, as is commonly held, passive, permissive, receding. What is meant is not an abandonment of man to a reprobate mind, a withdrawing of the restraining influences of His Holy Spirit, a giving up to the uncounteracted operations of surrounding hardening or perverting influences, but a positive giving up of the sinner to sin through the wickedness of his own heart. Deny this and you overturn the entire argument of the apostle that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.

Conclusion

Having brought to the fore and removed the chief objections raised against the God of sovereign mercy and of sovereign wrath, let us now face the question:

What may be the real reason for the rejection of this God?

And the answer: the very fact that He is supreme, selects one and rejects another because He wills, for reasons in Himself, according to His purpose and unto His supreme and everlasting glory. A God so absolutely sovereign, the vile sinner cannot tolerate. So he fabricates himself a God. But what is this God other than an idol that can be taken up, stationed in a corner and stay put; a figurehead, if you will, trained to take orders; an ornament; a deified extension of man himself; a God who will talk along with man and say that He selects one and rejects another for reasons in the creature (man's virtue, faith, or unbelief that defies even the power of God). Such a God man makes for himself, a God who selects or rejects according as man wills and unto man's supreme glory. The apostles of a dethroned God have no objection to God casting a man into hell, if only it be conceded that the supreme reason for Him doing so, is the sinner, his stubborn will. Even in hell the lost one can then glory in himself, shake his fist in the face of God and with the proud Stoic of old say, My will even thou canst not overpower. It is noteworthy that the modern revivalist preaches hell and damnation with a strange ferocity. They preach a Christ, too, a Christ, however, who completes the task of housecleaning begun by man.

Pelagianism represents an attempt to improve upon the "hard" God of Scripture. Improve upon this God and you get a monstrosity. The men of whom Paul in his epistle to the Romans wrote tried it. But their improvement turned out to be a corruptible man, a bird, a four-footed beast, a creeping thing. Let us quote the passage: "And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:23).

Does any one suppose that the race of today could do any better than those heathen?

Not at all. The made-over God of the Pelagian, that God who wills to save all men head for head but cannot, is a monstrosity. This is plain enough. Consider that according to the apostles of a dethroned God, the supreme reason for a sinner believing is the sinner himself, his supreme will. It means that God cannot save unto His supreme glory. His redemptive labours, therefore, being works that fall short of Himself, must be denominated sin. And a God whose works are sin, is darkness. Further, the God of the apostles of a free will must destroy the wicked because of an inherent impotence to bring them to repentance, so that the perishing of the wicked spells his defeat. In a word, to deny that the electing and rejecting God is supreme is to change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible, vile, and impotent man. Improve upon the God of Scripture and you get a monstrosity.

Finally, if the electing and rejecting God is not supreme, a man's salvation depends upon his own capricious will. Though believing today, the assurance is lacking to him that he will still be cleaving unto Christ on the morrow. Even with the gates of heaven within sight, he may still plunge back into hell. The theory we expose, it is plain, renders everything uncertain. It is a theory that genders not peace but anxiety, not joy but grief, not hope but despair, not humbleness but stinking pride. How different the disposition of a man who firmly believes that the electing and rejecting God is supreme, the creative cause of his salvation, his Almighty Redeemer, Who loves him because He wills, for a reason in Himself. This man has rest for he rests in God.

Man by himself is nothing. God is all. He is supreme. His power is infinite. He saves to the uttermost a vile sinner, by himself hopelessly lost, whose only hope therefore is God. Knowing himself as claimed by a God of sovereign mercy, the redeemed one has peace and joy unspeakable, and he glories in the cross and will glory in God forever more.

Because He is supreme God, John the apostle hears every creature which is in heaven and in the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them saying, "Blessing and honour and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." (Revelation 5:13).

Preach sovereign election and rejection in and out of season, and the flock you pastor will soon be crying out the praises of God. Keep silence about this truth, and the praises of God will soon die on your own lips and on the lips of the sheep over which you have been set.

By George M. Ophoff

GOD'S GLORY - THE PROVISION OF SALVATION

2008-03-25T11:42:00.001Z

"GOD IS LOVE" (1 John 4:10), and the greatest evidence of God’s love is His sending His Son to die to honor His character in the salvation of guilty sinners. By nature all men are “dead in trespasses and sins,” guilty, depraved, without spiritual life, incapable of thinking, feeling, choosing, acting, enjoying, or loving communion with a holy and just God. If any are to be saved, God must in love choose and bestow eternal life upon them by the Savior. The Gospel declares that God in everlasting love, according to His own will and good pleasure, chose out of Adam’s fallen race a multitude of undeserving sinners which no man can number, and that He appointed His Son to be their Mediator and Surety. God laid all of the responsibility of their salvation upon Christ. Herein is God’s love.

God’s love is guided by His infinite wisdom and it is accompanied by His infinite power. There can be no obstacle that God’s wisdom has not foreseen or that His power cannot remove in the salvation of all the objects of His love, all whom He purposed to save. The definite nature and scope of the death of Christ lies in His representing the sinners for whom He became Mediator and Surety. They were all those whom the Father had given Him out of Adam’s fallen race before the foundation of the world (John 6:37).

God the Son became incarnate in order to successfully accomplish all the duties of His offices on behalf of His sheep. All of the conditions for their salvation were laid upon Him alone. The main condition of their salvation was that God be glorified. His having met and satisfied the conditions insures that every attribute of God’s holy nature demands the salvation of everyone whom He represented, for whom He lived and died. God’s love and holiness, His truth and faithfulness, His wisdom and mercy, His grace and justice, all being manifested, honored, and satisfied in Christ, demand that all whom Christ represented be made partakers of eternal life (John 17:2).

Another more subtle heresy that is opposed to God’s glory in salvation is the view that many of God’s elect, even the majority, will hate and totally reject God’s Gospel in this life and still be saved. Those who believe this heresy say that may of God’s elect will not come to a saving knowledge of Christ here on earth, but they will find out at the Judgment that they were elect, and, thus, saved. They say that many of God’s elect will never hear the Gospel, never come to saving faith and true repentance. They believe that this honors God’s sovereignty in salvation and that it takes away all the works of man in salvation. It is true that a universal/indefinite atonement and a conditional salvation denies everything that actually honors the character of God and everything that exalts Christ as Mediator. It is also true that to deny that all for whom Christ died will actually experience eternal life is deny God and His Christ. To deny that any of God’s elect will come to faith and repentance is to deny the same, because it denies the certainty of the Holy Spirit’s application of salvation to God’s elect in this life. The Holy Spirit’s work in the elect sinner is the direct fruit and effect of Christ’s work for the elect sinner. It all goes back to the glory of God in Christ.

To deny that any of God’s elect will come to faith and repentance also denies the everlasting covenant of grace. This covenant of grace declares that God the Father has actively engaged all of the infinite perfections of His character to save all the object of His love through Christ. Considering that a sinner is not saved until God is glorified in his heart (mind, affections, and will), it is necessary that the sinner be born again, come to faith in Christ and repentance of former idolatry and dead works, by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. The glory of God, every attribute of His character, is just as much concerned and engaged to bring His elect to faith and repentance as it was engaged to redeem them. Christ’s mediatorial glory consists in the fact that He is our Priest to redeem us, our Prophet to reveal God’s glory to us, and our King to make sure that nothing keeps us from being made partakers of all grace here and all glory hereafter. Those who deny this think themselves to be wiser than God. God has purposed and provided all things necessary to honor His sovereignty, as well as all His attributes, and to remove all ground of boasting on the part of men, in His purpose to glorify Himself in salvation conditioned on Christ alone. The promise itself, wherein God’s glory is revealed, honors God, exalts Christ, and excludes all grounds of boasting on the part of sinners.

CONCLUSION

Deceived sinners will raise many objections to the truths raised in this article. They will even wrest Scripture to prove their false views. One of the most misused is John 3:16 -

John 3:16
“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.”

They claim that the word “world” here proves that God’s love and Christ’s death are universal. But this Scripture teaches no such God-dishonoring doctrine. It merely shows the magnitude of God’s love, not to every individual, but to mankind, in the salvation of His elect through Christ. It is through God’s elect, based on the righteousness of Christ, that mankind will be preserved forever.

Many refuse to believe the truths of election and definite atonement because they think it means God refuses salvation to sinners who desire to be saved. But election, definite atonement, and the Gospel, wherein God’s glory is revealed, shuts no sinner out of heaven. The Gospel is God’s promise of eternal salvation and final glory conditioned on Christ alone. From this revealed truth, God commands all without exception to believe His promise of salvation and seek justification and eternal life based on the imputed righteousness of Christ alone.

GOD IS FAITHFUL TO FULFIL THIS SPECIFIC PROMISE TO EVERYONE, WHOSOEVER, BELIEVES.

The reason sinners refuse to believe this is due to self-righteousness that causes them to insists on a conditional salvation, giving the sinner room to boast. Men by nature do not really care whether or not God is glorified in salvation. They may desire salvation, and they may seek it diligently and continually in their own way. But until their way is rejected and God’s way is received, there will be no salvation. Sinners by nature think too highly of themselves and too little of God. The command of the Gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent from ever thinking that any part of salvation was conditioned on the sinner. This is the message that sinners by nature hate, but it is the only message can, if God be pleased, be the power of God unto their salvation. This is the message that true love to God and a true concern for His glory will not compromise. This is the message that the world labels uncompassionate.

Read the following quote from William Rushton’s “Defence of Particular Redemption.”

“There is a kind of charity prevalent among us, a spurious charity which rejoiceth not in the truth. It is now though an evidence of a bigoted spirit, to contend earnestly for the peculiar doctrines of grace; and it is considered the mark of a candid disposition to bear with doctrines opposed to truth, and to cover such opposition with the mantle of charity and forbearance. But how often does it occur that those amiable persons who can easily forbear, when only the honor of God and the glory of Christ are concerned; have very little forbearance, when their own dignity is wounded or their pride mortified. O how indignant are they when personally offended! How wroth, how implacable! Who would think that these amiable creatures, who are so charitable when the honor of Christ is wounded, could exercise so little forbearance when their own selves are injured.”

God’s testimony is not given to drive sinners away from Christ! It is given for the recovery of sinners, that sinners would see their need of God’s grace and believe God’s promise of salvation conditioned on Christ! These things are revealed so that sinners would come to repent from idolatry and dead works. We beseech sinners to be reconciled to God. All sinners who hear the Gospel have every reason to ask God to glorify Himself in their hearts. The command of the Gospel is a command to desire the honor of God’s character above all things and be loyal to God’s glory in Christ against all opposition!

Bill Parker