Romans 8:29 "God's Golden Chain of Salvation Part 4" - 1/3/2019

[Music] right here right here for it for come on now alright Kenan we're ready alright guys alright Kent says we're not ready I say I say we are ready yeah we got that we've got the scout team here we moved him up from the junior varsity kind of play big boy football with us today well we've got as always a great Bible study planned hope you had a great Christmas I do want to say thank you for the Christmas gift y'all gave to me I am deeply humbled and grateful and I just want to express my gratitude to you for that as we start our time together let's begin the word of Prayer father we begin the study in prayer because we know that this is your word this is your truth this is your doctrine and we need your spirit to teach us to illumine us we know that flesh and blood has not revealed this to us but our Father who is in heaven this is Peter confessed and so we ask that you would continue to open our eyes to the truth of your word and also open our hearts as to how this should deeply affect us so may this be the best Bible study of the entire book of Romans to which we've now come so I pray for these men you'd greatly bless them fill me with your spirit so that I may be an instrument who can be used in your hand in Christ's name Amen all right Romans 8 we're in verse 30 and I want to begin reading in verse 29 this is part 4 in God's golden chain of salvation and intentionally slowed down at this point as you've obviously noted because these verses are so pivotal if you get these verses right you're gonna get fifty other doctrines right and if you get this wrong you're gonna be wrong in a hundred other places and understanding your Bible it's that important I mean this is like a pair of glasses to put on and now you can see everything else that's around you so that's why I've slowed down on these verses and to give you a sense of hope we're going to pick up the pace next time but I've wanted to make certain that that we have been crystal clear on these verses so to this point we have looked at foreknowledge predestination and calling and now we want to look at justification and glorification so I want to begin reading in verse 29 the title of this again is God's golden chain of salvation part 4 for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren and these whom he predestined he also called and these whom he called he also justified and these whom he justified he also glorified what we see very clearly here is that in matters of salvation God always finishes what he starts in a work of grace God never instigates and starts a work of salvation but that he does not finish it all the way to the end God never walks away from the project he never walks off sight God never saved someone initially but that he doesn't always save them ultimately so that is the focus as we come to the end of verse 30 this is really what we would call the eternal security of the believer that a true believer who is justified will never become unjustified a true believer who is saved will never return again to be lost and that is crystal clear from from this passage here are the last two links now in this golden chain of salvation and let me just give you five words about this golden chain of salvation by way of introduction first of all is the word divine this is all God this is not God in man this is pure divine saving work I mean you can see that recess he foreknew he predestined he called he justified he glorifies not we it's he so first is divine it's 110 percent God second is eternal it starts an eternity past it consummates an eternity future it spans the horizon of time and so this is an eternal chain from eternity past to eternity future third is the word saving this all deals with God's saving grace has nothing to do a service has nothing to do with the ministry there will be application for service and application for ministry but this deals with matters of our having a right standing before God fourth is the word exclusive this deals with a very exclusive group of people within the larger mass of humanity there is a a smaller concentric circle inside the larger circle and it is those whom he foreknew those whom he predestined it's a it's an exclusive work of God's grace and the last word is irrevocable this chain has been forged upon the anvil of the sovereign will of God and it cannot be broken those whom he foreknew he also predestined whom he predestined he also called etc so we should take great comfort in knowing that this is an unbreakable chain so as I said to this point we've looked at for knowledge which does not mean foresight which means those whom God previously chose to love with a distinguishing saving love those whom God chose to set his heart upon with electing love then the word predestined which means to mark out on the horizon it sits out ahead of you in the journey and it really means the destination is determined before the journey begins those whom he foreknew he marked out their final destiny in eternity future then the word called and this is where it intersects with time those whom he foreknew and predestined he now calls into fellowship with his son within time and for me it was at one particular time for you is that a different particular time but for all of us it has become reality all of us who know Christ we were we all were going astray each of us went to his own way God had to call us out of the world and call us out of our sin into relationship with Christ so now we come to the word justified and so at the in the beginning in the middle of verse 30 this chain continues to extend with the same group and in verse 30 we read and whom he called he also justified just to remind us that he is God the Father everything in Salvation is flowing out of the fountain of God the Father it is God the Father who justifies Jesus does not justify us it is God the Father who justifies us by imputed the perfect righteousness that was achieved by Jesus Christ in a sinless life and substitutionary death it is God the Father who takes that righteousness that was earned by Christ in his active and passive obedience and it is God the Father who justifies us God the Father who declares us to be the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ verse 33 makes it very clear which is where we will soon be but verse 33 who will bring a charge against God's elect God is the one who justifies so let us be very clear within the Trinity it is God the Father who justifies us with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ so we see the Trinitarian nature of salvation and it's made real in our lives when we exercise faith in Christ and that's the work of God the Holy Spirit so all three persons of the Trinity are at work in our salvation that's why when we baptized we don't just baptize in the name of Jesus Christ we baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit because all three are a saviour all three are actively involved in our salvation and in the the act of baptism that is testified and confessed that's the father who for knew me and predestined me it was the son who secured my perfect righteousness and it is the holy spirit who caught who called me and converted me really regenerated me and gave me saving faith so as we see verse 30 he says these whom he called he also justified and with that word justified we come back to what is the core doctrine really in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans it is the doctrine of justification by faith alone also known as Sola feeding and it's the central truth and the core verse in the book of Romans we all know as Romans 1:16 and 17 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith just as it is written the righteous man shall live by faith so this righteousness that is charged to our account that is deposited into our account that is declared to be ours comes to us in this act of justification now before I move on I want to just Park here for a moment on justification because some of you weren't with us a year ago when we were looking at Romans 3 in Romans 4 so I see some smiles on some faces may have been more than a year ago but I want to give you some words just to hang our convictions on regarding justification because it's the core doctrine in this book of Romans regarding salvation first of all is the word immediately when you're justified you're justified immediately in a moment and the twinkling of an eye it's an immediate transaction an immediate declaration that God makes sanctification is progressive justification is sudden it is immediate you sit down lost you stand up justified you come to church lost you leave justified based upon faith alone in Christ alone second word is fully when God justifies someone he justifies them fully and no one around this table is more justified than anyone else now some of us may be more sanctified experientially but none of us is more justified than anyone else we all have the same equal standing before God so it's a glorious truth third is the word freely we are justified freely without cost there is nothing that we can do to contribute to our salvation or to our justification it is freely given by God and it is freely received by us by faith alone the fourth word is undeservedly God does not justify good people God justifies bad people God justifies wretches God justifies rebels who come to the end of themself and bow the knee and put their trust in Christ God justifies thieves on the cross on their deathbed when they put their faith in Jesus Christ fifth is the word vicariously we are justified because of the perfect obedience of someone else who stood in our shoes who stood in our place who lived the life that we should have been living but have not because of sin this some other person has lived perfectly under the law in our place and died upon the cross in our place so justification is a matter of the vicarious imputation of the righteousness of another Christ to our account six is the word irrevocably and I want to want to use that word again I just love the way it sounds irrevocably once justified always justified the verdict will never be reversed God will never rescind his justification it is a permanent eternal justification and then finally the word perfectly God gives the perfect righteousness of Christ to us which gives us a perfect standing of acceptance with God so this is a an extraordinary matter that the gavel has come down in the courtroom of heaven and the supreme judge has declared us to be righteous and that's why verse 33 says who can bring a charge against God's elect there's only one seated on the bench and all that matters is what God declares it doesn't matter what anyone else says all that matters is what God says and God declares us to be righteous who can bring a charge against God's elect God is the one who justifies who is the one who condemns it's a rhetorical question the answer is no one can condemn those whom God has justified so this really is at the heart of the gospel no matter how sinful your past no matter how guilty your soul no matter how - defiled your heart God fully freely forever justifies those who are the least deserving when we believe in his son the Lord Jesus Christ and you may say well Steve you don't know how sinful my past is I mean I'm sitting around this table or on one of these benches and I look nice with my Bible open but you don't know about my life five years ago or 10 years ago well let me just say to you you don't know how gracious God is and you don't know the depth of his forgiveness and the the fullness of the righteousness of Christ where sin is about grace does much more about it mega abounds it's like the ocean of God's righteousness and you're like microcosm floating on the surface and your sin that there is more than enough righteousness to override any sin all sin that you've ever committed so this is at the very heart of the gospel so those whom he called he also justified and this is an indicative statement it's a matter of fact if you have believed in Christ this is true put this on your tombstone here lies a justified man it's not in my notes okay all right we're having church here so never remember number five we come to glorification here's the last link and what what this golden chain is if it's like two cliffs separated by a massive chasm and this golden chain is just anchored on one side of the chasm and it's now anchored on the other side of the chasm and it spans time it's anchored in eternity past anchored in eternity future and it's forged with unbreakable links so we come now to the anchoring of this golden chain in eternity future in the courts of heaven and the palaces of of the New Jerusalem with God Himself so notice what it says at the end of verse 30 and these whom he justified he also glorified the he again is God the Father and it's like God the Father is the mighty Atlas who's put this whole thing on his omnipotent shoulders and it is God the Father who has upheld this entire saving Enterprise it's the father who sent the son the father and the son who sent the Spirit but this is all God the father's doing he's the even the architect of the gospel the the author of this whole plan of salvation and so even to the end we are reminded of of this is a work of God the Father the word also is very important it's it's not either/or it's both and those whom he justified he also glorified and this word glorified deals with our future glory it is you and me one day standing before the throne of God clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ standing faultless before him in fact even in Revelation 2 and 3 it says we're seated on the throne with Christ which is it's just too much for any of us to even take in but the idea is is what is true of Christ is true of us in the sense of acceptance with the father and the father deeply loves the son and the father deeply loves those who are in the son and so we are glorified please note the verb tense here to past tense we're not even there yet it's a done deal in the eternal will of God and in the mind of God you already have both feet planted in heaven firmly nailed to the floor of heaven it's put in the past tense as a past reality this and in fact this started in eternity past and in that moment in eternity past when he foreknew you at that split-second he also in his mind and in his will he also predestined you called you justified you and glorified you all at once the reality of that did not take place though until time I don't want to be misunderstood you weren't justified until you believed in Christ but in the mind and the will of God it was a done deal because it was predestined and so with glorified it's all it's put in the past tense he's writing to the Saints in Rome their their their their address is Rome they're not even in heaven yet but it is spoken of by Paul in light of the sovereign will of God and I'll use the word again the irrevocable will of God now this is a truth that Paul introduced us to earlier just very briefly in Romans 5 and verse 2 at the end of the verse Paul writes we exult in hope of the glory of God and he just touched it momentarily and then just kept going knowing that he will be bringing this up in greater detail in chapter 8 but gesture reminds you he's already put this card on the table he's already brought put this ball into play and when he says we exalt that means we are excited I mean we are pumped up about this we're not stoic we're not lukewarm we are fervent and passionate we exult in hope and the word hope in the Bible does not mean wishful thinking we've talked about this many times means a confidence steadfast assurance with deep conviction about the future we exalt in hope of the glory of God and what that means is the certainty that we have of being glorified one day in the very presence of God now to be glorified means that we will have a glorified body and we will have a glorified spirit or soul a glorified body means that we will have a resurrection body I mean we'll have to have a body that's perfectly adapted for our new environment in heaven I mean if we're gonna worship God forever and ever and ever I need a an upgrade on my body if I'm going to look upon the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ I need glorified eyes if I'm gonna hear Christ speak to me I need glorified ears if I'm gonna be on my knees singing his praises I need glorified knees and if I'm gonna serve Him I need a glorified shoulder and a glorified feet to carry out whatever assignments he's going to give me that will bring pleasure to me and promote his glory throughout all the ages to come so I need a glorified body that will be endued with limitless energy and power in order to carry out my eternal worship and my eternal service of God right further a glorified soul and by that we mean that what remains of our sinful flesh or sin nature will be eradicated in a split second in that moment never again to have a selfish thought never again to be jealous or to have envy never again to have a false humility never again to toot my own horn to be boastful never again to be self dependent to the extent that even as a sanctified believer I still have lapses of self dependence - in that moment have only holy pure undefiled thoughts and affections and will can you even imagine what this is going to be like and all intensified in our thoughts towards God intensified in our love and devotion for God that is why we will be filled with joy to overflowing yeah it's gonna be great to walk on the streets of gold and walk through gates of pearl that is so secondary compared to seeing Christ and being with him in this glorified state now here's a question I know what some of you are thinking why did he skip over sanctification we just went from justification to glorification there's some smart guys around the table here some yeah and so why did he pass over sanctification well I no mention why do we just go from justification to to glorification I'll give you three reasons why number one Paul is only mentioning those aspects of our salvation that are exclusively a work of God a monastic work of God means only one active operator you must understand this about sanctification it is what we call synergistic meaning there are two active agents God and us and I would simply refer you to Philippians two 12 and 13 verse 12 says work out your salvation in fear and trembling that is our responsibility that is our duty God worked it in you work it out in fear and trembling in other words taking God very seriously as we pursue holiness next verse verse 13 for it is God who is at work within you both to will and to work for his good pleasure so in sanctification in this sense is a joint venture now God is the author of our sanctification capital a don't misunderstand me but we cannot come up with a passive view of sanctification and just say well let go and let God or it's all of grace there's no responsibility on my part or all my sanctification is is just to look back at my justification which is a lot of what you hear today no that's bad theology it's called antinomianism against the law no sanctification is our responsibility in the power of the grace of God but it's synergistic so in Romans 8:29 and 30 paul is only mentioning those parts of salvation that are manjar gistic God and God alone we had nothing to do with being for none we had nothing to do with being predestined we had nothing to do with being called or justified or glorified 150 percent God 0-0 for us okay not so as sanctification when we stand before the Lord on the last day even as a Christian we're gonna give an account of our time our talent our treasure we're gonna give an account to how I invested my life in the service of the Lord so we bear great responsibility and the choices that we make in our Christian life so that's the first reason why sanctification is not mentioned here Paul is only addressing those parts that our God and God alone second thing I would tell you sanctification is mentioned indirectly it is mentioned indirectly in verse 28 as the word good the greatest good in your life is for you to become like the Lord Jesus Christ that's what sanctification is it is for me and you to become more like our Savior and our Lord and in verse 29 it becomes even clearer when he says so that he excuse me to become conformed to the image of his son that work has already begun it began the moment you were regenerated the moment you called upon God to save you the moment you went through the narrow gate you put the first you took the first step you put your foot onto the narrow path that leads to life and being conformed into the image of Christ began with the first step of that journey as you now are headed in a new direction you now have the mind of Christ first current first corinthians 2:16 you you you have a love for Christ you have faith in Christ I mean that's what it is to be a Christian I mean you've put your trust in Christ you're following Christ you love Christ you obey Christ you serve Christ you worship Christ so sanctification is mentioned in verse 28 and the word good and verse 29 being conformed to his image and the third thing that I would add and I've already touched on this what we see in verses 29 and 30 in these five words foreknowledge predestined call justify glorified we're all equally for known equally predestined equally called equally justified equally glorified we're not all equally sanctified in that some of us are being conformed to the image of Christ more than others and that's just a fact some remain in immaturity spiritual immaturity Paul says to the church at Corinth you know I had to treat you like babes by this point you ought to be eating meat but I'm still having to feed you milk I mean after church I'm having to burp you you know you're here just you're acting like a child like a baby you should have grown up by now so some do grow up spiritually more than others and so for that reason sanctification is somewhat in a category all by itself now I want to end with some application because we've been we've been hitting it hard on theology and theology is all practical there's no theology that's not practical there's no theology that's only theoretical or philosophical so how should this change our life okay I've got some ways and I'm looking at the clock because I really want us to discuss this as well but let me just get a few out on the table maybe we'll finish it next time but number one pride crushing this this is the ultimate pride crusher a God could have just as easily not for known you as for known you there was nothing in me that made God love me God didn't love me because of me he loved me in spite of me he loved me because of Christ and he loved me because that love welled up within the heart of God and God chose to love me before the foundation of the world before time began and we could just stop right there on application and go home and just meditate on that I remember when I first came to understand this truth I was reading a commentary on Romans by John Murray the great Scottish professor and when he explained what foreknowledge means that it doesn't mean forced sight I always played that foresight game and when that rug was jerked out from underneath me it brought me to my knees because I thought as I'm in seminary I thought I was doing God a a wild favor by going to seminary and by going into the ministry like God got a lottery pick with me you know I you know I mean look what all I've given up you know to come enter into the ministry so you know unknown to my own heart I mean there is a certain arrogance about that and stinking thinking just pride and when I saw this I honest-to-goodness without exaggeration I don't know that I hardly spoke for a week I it's it was it stunned me it was like I had been electrocuted or something and I realized it's the total other way around I didn't God I hadn't got a favor on anything God had extended mercy to me undeservedly and if you're in Christ today I can tell you as a fact that God chose to love you and he was under no obligation to love you and God could have just passed me over he could have passed you over and just left you in your sin that I understand for God to love me and God to love you that I don't understand I understand the Passover I don't understand that God would love me because there's nothing lovely inside of a train wreck to love so number one it's it's a pride crusher and it's an oxymoron to be a proud reformed believer that that's that that's like a world like a heavenly devil or something I mean it's just a total oxymoron it's like postal service just an oxymoron dead live oak you know I miss just for my tree guys over here so a proud reformed believer is the ultimate oxymoron we should be so brought to our knees and let me just tell you this never and we never get over it and even as I come back to a passage like this it still just shocks me that I do believe this and this is true and I'll just add this as a footnote this is so antithetical you understand what antithetical means total opposite of the way the natural mind thinks this has to be divine revelation because this human reason would never come up with this second is this is worship inspiring hi Theo ji produces high doxology crummy theology you're gonna have to have some really good mood music in church to make that float this we could worship God in the hull of the Mayflower this we could be in the catacombs of Rome getting ready to be led to the lion in the Coliseum and still be able to sing the praises of God that this this is the ultimate let us rise up and give glory to God that he chose me before the foundation of the world to be with him forever and he would not take no for an answer within time and though I may have pushed back and pushed back and pushed back a few times in the day of his power he brought me to himself and and washed all my sins away and he clothed me with the righteousness of Christ I I need to be singing the praises of God forever and ever and ever this is the ultimate giving glory to God that there's no part that I sing duet with God in this okay this is all God this is all God in the spotlight this is all praise going to God and as I've told you that's why when we get to heaven that crown is going to be in your hand for a millisecond I mean it's gonna be cast back at his feet so quickly because you know exactly how it is that you got there it was all of His grace third its holiness producing we have seen that the whole purpose of predestination is to conform us into the image of his son you see that in verse 29 this whole eternal purpose of God is to make us like his son so that the son would be have people in heaven that bear his image without the flaw of a sin so how can we live in the world and be like the world if we know we who have been chosen out of the world from before the world I mean this causes us to want to be so different not odd just different in the way that we conduct ourselves impersonal holiness godly this purity of mine of tongue of actions this that this will put octane and your Christian high octane and your tank as you pursue holiness forth its evangelism igniting listen there are people that God is going to save whether you take the gospel to him or not God will have somebody get the gospel to every one of his elect this so liberate sus and frees us up in this sense no one is impossible to be saved whoever you think is the furthest person away from God would never be saved I want you to know in a heartbeat God can bring them to to Christ and so as we bear witness of Christ as we give our testimony as we tell others about the gospel of Christ we need to have confidence we almost ought to be overconfident not in a self-dependence way but in a God confident way that there are people whom God is going to save and we can be a part of that and so this is evangelism igniting some people think that this poorest you know cold water on the hot flames of evangelism no total opposite this actually pours gas on the fire of evangelism it makes us want to worship because there are hearts that God will conquer and no resistance can can thwart it fifth its missions motivating these elect are all around the world I can't even imagine being a missionary and going to Russia going to China going to some hard core Afghanistan Pakistan if I didn't believe in the doctrine of election if I thought it was going to be dependent on me and my presentation and me being able to arm twist and can and compel no God has his elect all around the world when William Carey who launched the modern missions movement got on a boat left England and sailed to India there were some people on board he found out who did not believe in this doctrine of election he threatened to have the ship turn around and go back to England you're gonna ruin the mission field if you don't believe in the doctrine of election because you're gonna you're gonna give up after three years you know how long Kerry went until he saw his first convert seven years what what kept his feet nailed to the floor it was the doctrine of sovereign election that there is a people whom God will say well let me tell you this his first wife died first of all she went insane then she died his son died he remarried the second wife died his second son died he translated the New Testament into Sanskrit which was a monumental task and it burned up in a fire hit his Darla's all over from scratch he was there for 43 years and never took a sabbatical 43 years and never came back to England David Livingstone at least came back once from the heart of Africa what what welded his feet to the mission field it was the higher purposes of the eternal will of God that there is a people in India whom God will call out and save it emboldened him to bear witness for Christ number-6 ministry launching as I've already said these trees energize our service they motivate us to want to serve God because when you understand these truths you don't want to be a benchwarmer you don't you don't want to be passive you want to live your life with a sense of destiny a sense of eternal destiny that God will go before us and God will open doors and God will cause ministry to to happen these truths it's like we're riding a wave of destiny and it causes us to to not sit but to serve the Lord number seven assurance giving these truth produce true assurance of salvation you say how so because you would never be pursuing the Lord except God first pursued you and you would have never laid hold of Christ except God first laid hold of you and it brings deep assurance to your soul you realize I would never be pursuing Christ I would never be loving God accept these truths are actually true that God has initiated this in my life I would have never initiated this this all started with God number nine it's eye-opening and I've already mentioned this when you see these five links in this golden chain you see five hundred other things in the Bible you did this is what we call a telling doctrine in that it reveals so much more than just our understanding of these truths this now enables us to see really much of the rest of the Bible through an eternal personal perspective from God's perspective we now can see somewhat in a limited way but as God sees salvation and history and tenth it's its joy enlarging I'll just tell you this it's like getting saved all over again they come to the knowledge of this truth it really is I wish I had a nickel for every person who's come up to me and said that very sentence see this is like getting saved all over again in fact I because I was saved as a younger child now as an adult and to see these truths I think my joy is even greater well as an adult you have a greater capacity for joy but jesus said in john 15 11 these things i these words I have spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full five verses later he says in verse 16 you did not choose me but I chose you and ordained that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain and whatsoever you ask in my name that will I do so this just takes a bathtub of joy and just pours it into the thimble of our heart tell it just floods our soul and overflows in our lives so these truths are not intended for us just to sit in an ivory tower and contemplate and meditate these and until we just fossilize know these truths are intended for us to be humble worshipers who are serving the Lord witnessing for Christ either going to the mission field or supporting missions it puts pep in our step gliding our stride I mean it just puts joy in our heart to know that God's got this whole thing wired on my salvation and I tell you what it makes a difference when you come to the end of your life and the doctor says you need to get your affairs in order and the doctor says you're probably going to want to call your loved ones and the reality that my time here is over as your staring death I ball the eyeball to know how certain it is what's on the other side of the door that you will be immediately transported into his presence to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and the transformation that will take place in your life we're barely going to recognize you in heaven but we'll have glorified eyes and a glorified mind so we'll figure it out we'll know one another in fact we'll finally really know one another because there'll be no misunderstandings so guys we have now finished the golden chain of salvation we will be we will be selling t-shirts on your way out all the proceeds go to the iconic herbs house that will say I survived God's golden chain of salvation so when we meet next in a couple of weeks we'll be in verse 31 I think it's in two weeks I can look it up here and you guys be thinking about what you want to any input you've got ya 17th January 17th will be here in two weeks so you can pray for me I'm leaving here going to the airport going to Los Angeles and I'm gonna teach preach for 12 days 13 days solid and I'll be back here when I land step off the airplane and then I'll turn around go back to the airport and fly to Atlanta and preach in a great conference there but let's talk about God's golden chain we got the microphone here thoughts what do you like about this and you could say everything questions any time teaching on this it always raises 50 questions so that doesn't mean you're an unbeliever if you have questions that need to be so how does this work with prayer how's this work with evangelism has this work with this or that we've got great answers that's what we got Kent here okay hashtag be nice to Steve so so tell me how does this hit you yeah for me when I when these shoes became relevant in my life was the the burden of these responsibilities kind of shifted away from me because I think naturally we're like oh I've got to keep my faith I've got a have enough belief to be justified before God but then once it shifted to no God did this in eternity past and he's still doing this and you already glorified and you just don't even know it yet you know and that just frees you to have joy in Christ like more than you've ever known before even in all the way down trickles down to evangelism it's like oh I've got a you know have a speech prepared that's strong enough to convert this person but if you believe this to be true that no God has elected this person hopefully or this person it's it's the most freeing thing so I think that's been the biggest game-changer in my life about the golden chain know thanks for sharing that that's tremendous it does have that trickle-down effect doesn't it it just covers the whole Christian life there's no area that's unaffected by this yeah someone else you know I love preaching in a wax museum can't wait you got something there okay good how do we minister to those Christians that don't have the same knowledge and enthusiasm for the gospel without being condescending and looking down on them yeah I'm assuming this means those who have not embraced the doctrines of Sovereign Grace and well for me the answer is just from from my own life I didn't come to believe this until I was 28 years old I was already in seminary I'd gone to seminary already for three years I had already been ordained licensed to preach was already preaching and I resisted I was angry with people who believe this I was upset with s Lewis Johnson for teaching this until God just pinned me to the floor and I realized God's bigger than I am and his mind is bigger and my emotions this was so upsetting I just think I'm so glad God was patient with me and I just have to be as patient with others as God was patient with me and I was really you probably would not have wanted to have run into me in the snack room at seminary because I was just on my soapbox against this so I would just say to the person ask this question rarely does a person go from a hundred and eighty degrees running as hard as they can in this direction and in a millisecond pivot and turn around you just have to keep loving people and putting the truth out in front of them truth is its own best defense and the one thing I had was I had a deep reverence for the Word of God and if God says it I believe it and I just couldn't explain it away so just keep putting the Word of God in front and and you have to realize this - God is sovereign over who believes in his sovereignty so that there are some people that God has opened their eyes to see this and there are others that fit within the larger purview the sovereignty of God it just hasn't been their time yet so we have to accept that Matthew 16:17 the flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven what else you got can't pastors saying asking for advice and what he's saying is is initially what would how would you lead your congregation in these in these in these doctrines of grace and teaching them and I think I would add to that you know there are people that lead with these doctrines on every text there's people that never mention them there's people that mention them when you get to the day I mean how do you how do you how do you how do you teach this is it is just when you get there is it how do you yeah there's not a one-size-fits-all answer on this I'll say to this pastor the first three churches in which I was a pastor none of those churches believe this and and two of them were quite antagonistic against it so I don't know a lot but I know what it's like to walk into a church and nobody believes this number one thing is you can't have this on your cuff and lead with this as you were saying people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care I mean you need to love the people there reach out to them rub shoulders with them and for them to know that you truly desire God's best for their life second thing is I would preach through books in the Bible and and for anyone to see you haven't gone out of your way to bring this up now the challenge is in most books in the Bible it's in Chapter one because everybody believed this in the first century I mean this is just Christianity 101 so Paul doesn't have to hide it in the last chapter he doesn't have to bury it under a doxology or something he just leads with it I mean just think about it as you walk through even the New Testament each individual book he basically leads with this so that'll be the challenge but to preach verse by verse they see that this is just in this sequence of going through a book in the Bible third would be to be sure and preach the gospel and call people to faith in Christ because people will immediately assume will your anti evangelism know people need to hear you plead for souls to be saved people need to hear you call loss people to faith in Christ you need to preach the cross you need to preach the good news of salvation and be impassioned and persuasive as you do this and then the next thing is is that you really preach the pursuit of holiness in the Christian life and I I'll say one other thing the way I finally got a crack in the door and saw the whole church turnaround was I started a Saturday morning men's Bible study I just said meet me at 6:30 on Saturday morning and I asked 10 men to come all ten accepted I opened it up to the elders I opened it up to any other man in the church who wanted to come and we got in the library we got around a table just like this and I taught them systematic theology and they had opportunity to ask me any questions they wanted to ask me and we had an opportunity to discuss it I was able to be used by God to win those men over to the truth of the word of God from there they now are like my sales force they now talk to their wives they now infiltrate their Sunday School classes and it spreads to the church and anyone who would want to rise up against me and I did have people rise up against me I now have men who are gonna stand shoulder to shoulder with me and I believe that this I see it in the Bible for myself this is true so you come after the pastor you're coming after the rest of the church because we stand with the pastor I remember one Sunday the older men in the church all got up out of their pews at the end of the service and they literally formed a wall around the pulpit they formed a circle around the pulpit and they were making a statement to the congregation we believe this and we stand with the word of God the pastor just happened to be the one who taught it to us so you're gonna have to come through us to get to him so that that Saturday morning men's Bible study was revolutionary I did it again at the next church I did it again at the next church and it puts the the crack in the wall to be able if you get the men to stand with you then you can stand against anything I was even able to overcome the beauty parlours in town because I had the men standing yes sir all the way in the back yeah yeah it's both public and private and it's an axe to house to house as well as in the large setting in in Solomon's portico yeah it's not it's not either/or it's both and you've got to have a large public ministry whether the church is 50 people or 500 people but then also a small discipleship group with men and and when you get those men in the smaller setting and when they have freedom to ask you whatever question they want to ask you when they become convinced the field is now tilting in the other direction momentum just changed jerseys the wind is now blowing in a different direction you've got them with you can't question why are people so resistant to this why is it such a battle and even if people say ok I get it but I'm gonna get to the 10-yard line you know they call it a four pointer or a four and half I mean why why is this such a I mean grace and mercy is easy to accept why do people not why is it why is it a battle well number one when you reach age 45 you have lost all capacity to think in anything new it's it's over you have a hardening of the categories I mean you are so set in your ways that it is so hard to teach someone past age 45 that's why the Reformation was a college movement and that's why as I've seen this turn churches around it's always with the younger men because they don't have the concrete already set with bad thinking that's that's number one number two it's not because they know too much about the Bible it's because they know too little about the Bible and that was the case with me once you see this you don't see three or four verses you see three or four hundred verses I mean that they're like rabbits multiplying they're they're everywhere while you're asleep people are putting them into your Bible and you go where did you know Psalms come with this where did Isaiah where did Jeremiah I mean we're this is everywhere so it's you just haven't been you've probably been sitting in a church where the pastor did not preach verse by verse through books in the Bible that's the only way you can escape you would have to be in a church where the pastor is just oh he's just bouncing like a ping-pong ball in different verses where he can conveniently skip over these verses but you start with chapter 1 verse 1 and you preach through that entire book it's unavoidable it's it's it's there and if you skipped over at the church ought to say time out pastor you just skipped verse 36 please tell us what you believe verse 36 says so Kent that's the only way to escape this is to be in a church where they're not teaching verse by verse through entire books in the Bible and and and in locking in on this you've been so poorly taught for so long you've been wrong for so long so III and I say that humbly and I and I put myself in that same category I was just wrong for so long I'll give it to you okay all right good my experience it seems like there's two big implications that push against people one is the idea that it runs against their previous teaching of libertarian free will yeah and so when you take your control out of salvation it makes people very uncomfortable the other thing is the implication that there are some who are not elect yeah and they have this conception of equality that they impose upon God rather than coming to the scriptures and letting the Scriptures speak so they to things that are grained in then that they read into scripture yeah and it's tearing that down and having them come and let scripture say oh well I like that libertarian free will I like that yeah we think that the kingdom of heaven is run by democracy rather than a theocracy and we think the kingdom of God is reduced to this bumper sticker god votes for you the devil votes against you and you have the deciding vote so it's God's done everything he can he can't do anymore the devil won't let you know it's doing everything he can to keep you from it you have the power to save yourself so that's very well put I like the way you express that and this is so as I said earlier antithetical to human logic and human reason that it's so abrasive to our natural way of thinking that God would be an equal opportunity employer you don't want equity you don't want fairness fairness is that we all go to hell we all deserve to go to hell we don't want God to be operating on fairness in that sense we need mercy we need what we do not deserve we need grace and you're right about those who are passed over which is the doctrine of reprobation but the fact is Jacob I loved and Esau I hated I mean that's there and we're gonna be coming wait'll we come to Romans 9 I mean you know the the whatever Commission on the Internet may shut us down I mean who knows once we hit Romans nine so anything else thank you very much yeah okay great personal anecdote what you said a couple weeks ago when I was 10 or 11 years before I was converted I remember sitting in a in a sermon and my pastor at the time made this statement don't know if you're elect cry out to God who is rich in mercy and in steadfast love and was making an evangelistic call-out of these doctrines and can you comment on when as a wise time in evangelism to bring these in so that we're not so scared to hide this stuff behind until they become converted and then we'll give them this great question thank you for asking that did AJ tell you to ask that ok Jesus preached this publicly to thousands of lost people so did you just let that sink in John chapter 6 we're all familiar was in John chapter 6 all the father gives me shall come to me no man can come to me except for the father who sent me draw him he's preaching that - but I don't know the exact number but he had just fed the twenty thousand and they've run around the circumference of the Sea of Galilee and he preaches this I'm the bread of life to the people he's just given the bread - and they are for the most part in rank unbelief so he's preaching this not to a group that's a 95 percent saved and 5 percent we don't know where they are he's preaching this to vast majority are unconverted Jesus is saying to them you cannot come to me you cannot believe in me unless the father who sent me draws you to me he preached the bondage of the will and sovereign election and effectual grace to those unbelievers he also did it in Mathew chapter 11 verse 25 to 30 you can it's breathtaking as Jesus says no one can know the Father except the Son and no one can know the son except those whom the father or no one can know the father except those whom the son wills to reveal him very next verse come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I'll give you rest so to these unbelievers that Jesus says you cannot know the father unless I sovereignly choose to reveal the father to you and the very next verse he says come take my yoke learn of me I'm meek and lowly of heart he preached that to a lost crowd no theya Pentecost I guarantee you they're all lost they're all lost except for the apostles and maybe just a handful of they've been in the upper room 120 they were in the upper room he's preaching this the thousands of lost people 3,000 were converted who knows how many were left in the pew he says it's according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God that Jesus was was crucified and then he says in verse 39 and 40 after he says repent he says as many as the Lord our God will call to himself no more no less not unless the Lord calls you to himself so Peter had obviously been paying attention to Jesus is preaching and he has seen Jesus stand up before thousands of lost people and pre hold in one hand saving grace and holding the other hand Sovereign Grace and bring the two together so what Peter did on the day of Pentecost was simply imitate what he had seen Jesus do and and there there are other examples as well so that there's no one set rule when because every situation is unique and you know as I've as I've gone to Pastor churches in one church that basically was an unconverted Church I'm in I I held the crown jewels in my back pocket until I'd been there you know a little while to interact with them and love them and try to gain some credibility with them let them see my wife my children I mean we're living on the narrow path and then to bring them out but as I was taught in seminary if when you teach this some people are not upset with you you haven't explained it so one mark that you have communicated this is that there are some people who are upset with you because it's repulsive to the flesh and it's hideous to man's natural way of thinking that I'm large and in charge and looking in the mirror and singing how great I am know now you realize you're telling me my salvation is totally in the hands of God well just be assured he does all things well he doesn't mismanage anything in the universe as RC sprawl says there's not a maverick molecule anywhere so every decision that he makes is the perfect decision for everyone and how humbled we should be that it simply pleased him to show his mercy to us so thank you very much what else you got can't okay good good let me closing a word of Prayer here wants to take and stay and those who need to head to work head to work father thank you for what you have revealed to us in these verses we need to have right thinking about you and right thinking about ourselves if we are gonna live right and worship right so bring this even more sharply into focus thank you for these men these godly men these hungry men for the truth bless them and measurably and all that they do in Jesus name Amen remember I need to give you one more thing I need to there's a 10 o'clock flight if I could leave early that this the ice is coming in I'm on a 12 o'clock flight but I need to get on the 10 o'clock flight if I can so what do you got it I mean I'll take questions we're gonna take it cus playing the narrow path explain the narrow path the narrow path is a life of personal holiness the boundaries of which are established by the Word of God it's a metaphorical picture that you are tightly confined to living in a way that brings glory to God the broad path means you can just leave all over the highway live however you want to live hey that's okay God forgives doesn't matter what I do that's the broad path you can believe whatever you want to believe you can live however you want to live and you're still in the kingdom the narrow path means that there are boundaries that you gladly accept and you live in obedience to the Word of God these doctrines he's been in a church for a long time he doesn't want to step on any toes how does he break the ice yeah how does he break the ice I mean I mean maybe he feels like well I just want to you know I don't want to hurt the offering and yeah I mean what do you do what do you do what do you do here it really is a transformation of our mind isn't it yeah I mean all of our minds are just battling to be more transformed I mean we're God's ways are so much higher than our ways I guess so how do you do you do you tiptoe I mean there is a sense of I don't know that's that's a question well every situation is unique I want to say that again and I'm not I would never say to anyone tiptoe through the tulips you need to think through very carefully how you do this again I would say I would gather a group of men together on Saturday morning I would go through the attributes of God I would begin to teach theology I would go that way and then I would also teach verse by verse to a book in the Bible hey James good to see up here with the 18 and I would begin to preach verse by verse two books in the Bible and address it as it comes up another question grew up with you I'm the only Calvinist among the Christian students at my school as we know Armenians deny the perseverance of the saints does denial of perseverance of the saints equate with denying the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work yes yes I would say yes III don't think it means that you can't be a Christian I think that there are people who just are so poorly taught they don't even know what the sufficiency of Christ's atoning death means they'd never thought that deeply about the atonement and the death of Christ I mean when he said it is finished he meant he paid the price and all for whom he died will be saved they cannot fall away from Christ he holds them in his hand yeah and I understand my kids were the only ones who believed it in their school growing up I remember my daughter in the yearbook wanted to put a charles haddon spurgeon quote in the yearbook that if you don't believe it now you will when you get to heaven because God will whitewash your mind you'll see it that's a great thing you you just really can't put that into the in so again an arrogant reformed believer is an oxymoron we need to be humble and it's only by God's illumination that we see it there's some other questions here but they're not really on the subject I don't know if you want better well it may give me just one yeah so one one question here is will head out hold on a second let me see if I'm fine hold on people it's like saying I want I want to play football I just don't want to be tackled well you need a new game you need a new sport I want to be a preacher as you want anyone to be upset with me you need a new sport off the subject this gentleman wants your input on contemporary subject we're couples and families put themselves on YouTube calling themselves Christian vloggers doing daily videos as a means of income to pursue views and followers that they think's ministry want you to express your opinion in that context of that ministry or not it says he says I know of a young family that does this my heart's troubled i worried this could be equated to trying to appropriate a worldly centric benefit and call it ministry social media is so pervasive people are claiming things and ministry and self-exalting yeah the trouble with social media and I'm on social media so I'm all for social media everything has strengths and weaknesses strength is we're able to speak right now to the world fear wants to listen the weakness is there are no gatekeepers as to who gets on social media are you - it used to be you couldn't preach publicly unless you were licensed and ordained by a church that's why John Bunyan was in prison for 12 years he refused to be licensed by the Church of England that's why 2000 Puritans were put out of their pulpit they refused to do what was necessary to be licensed by the Church of England so as a result they were not allowed to go within 5 miles of a city could not be buried in a city because they weren't licensed I mean you had to pass a lot of scrutiny at the larger hierarchy level as well as the local church level well now anybody can claim to be a prophet and get on YouTube and say whatever they want to say where it is it's never been that way before now I believe every Christian needs to be a witness for Christ and I don't know that every Christian needs to be on YouTube you could say this is what you taught today in the last couple of weeks is really a higher view of God and that would you could you would you say that if you did teach this in your church that you would have a larger ministry a higher view of God does that give you a larger ministry does it give you a stronger ministry does it give you a deeper Minister it's like what our friend John MacArthur says you worry about the depth of your ministry let God worry about the breadth of your ministry you fill the pulpit you let God fill the building so God's just calling us to be faithful not successful there are a lot of faithful pastors who pastor churches of 50 people they're going to be at the head of the line on the last day and a lot of pastors who pastored churches of 20,000 people they're going to be at the back of the line if they are even in line so we're so numbers conscious we need to focus on the depth of our ministry so that's all that's all I can say it's in God's hands you know just like this Bible study I mean if I said I'm going to teach on love sex and money we could probably pack this place out yeah I know who the Antichrist is for me to teach Romans 8:29 and 30 I mean I've got the spiritual Marines here with me those guys who are ready to have a bayonet in their mouth and storm the beach so I guess we'll wrap this up but Kenneth thank you again for oh yeah we'll be here in two weeks January 17th thank you for opening up this coffee shop so if you're watching come on in to herbes house and good things will happen thank you Ken [Music]

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Published: Thu Jan 03 2019