So, now what we're going to be talking about is two books that I have written but we're going to
talking about the content that's in these books. In our first session, we're going
to talk about Foundations of Grace. And Foundations of Grace is a
work that I have put together that covers virtually every verse in the entire
Bible on the subject of the sovereignty of God in salvation. It's a very ambitious project.
It's six hundred pages. The Scripture index in the back, they had to go to a triple column, there
are just so many Bible verses. And I originally pulled this material together to teach the men
in our church about the doctrines of grace. When I say the doctrines of grace, it's sometimes
known as the five points of Calvinism and has gone by the acrostic "TULIP." Total
depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,
and the perseverance of the saints. It is these truths that bring greatest glory
to God, and I know in my own personal life no one ever started further away
from these truths than what I did. I grew up in an Arminian church. I went
to seminary being a card-carrying Arminian and was suddenly brought face-to-face with
these truths in the Scripture. I really didn't know what to do with them. I tried to refute
them. For every time I tried to dismiss them, they were like rabbits. They were just growing and
multiplying everywhere. I'd go to sleep at night, next morning wake up my Bible, and there's more
of these verses in my Bible until I realized that these truths are taught throughout the
entire Bible. Sometimes, people think that the doctrines of grace are, well, it's only in a
chapter in Romans and it's just in a doxology in Ephesians and there's a few verses in the Gospel
of John and that's basically all that there is. And so what I did, I started in Genesis and I
walked the men in our church all the way through to the end of Revelation. And we just studied
it book by book by book by book. What did Moses have to say about the doctrines of grace? What
did Joshua have to say? What did David? What did Solomon? What did Isaiah? What did Jeremiah?
What did Ezekiel? And then, we came into the New Testament. And what did Jesus, the greatest
expositor who ever lived and the greatest evangelist who ever lived, what did He have to
say about the doctrines of grace? And what about in the book of Acts and the explosive growth of
the early church and the preaching of the gospel, did they shy away from these truths or did
they incorporate these truths into their very preaching? And then we looked at the Apostle
Paul, thirteen epistles in the New Testament. And what we discovered, even as we continued
all the way through to the book of Revelation, that this is a master theme that runs
through the entire Bible from cover to cover that it would be absolutely impossible
to not see these truths in the Scripture and especially if you preached verse by
verse through entire books in the Bible. If you were a topical preacher and just bouncing
around where you could avoid these truths, then it would be possible, I suppose, to preach
for some period of time. But as you would preach through books in the Bible, these verses are
inescapable. They are everywhere in the Bible. And so, what I did was, I wanted our men to
understand what is the foundation of this church. And I met with them every Friday morning
at 6 a.m. We were finished at 7:30. I would teach for an hour, and the last thirty minutes you
could ask me any question you want to ask me, hard questions, push back on anything you want to
push back on. Men came from three states to attend that 6 a.m. Bible study. A couple of men got
up at 3:30 to leave their house and would drive over two and a half hours just to be in the room
as we were studying these verses. And when I showed my handouts to Dr. Sproul, Dr. Sproul said,
"I have never seen anything like this. There's not another book in the world that's ever been written
like this on the doctrines of grace." He said, "Every book I've ever read about the doctrines
of grace, there is one chapter on total depravity and it collects a lot of verses. And there's one
chapter on unconditional election and it pulls verses together but it's all very topical." He
said, "This is the only book I think in existence that actually starts at the beginning of the Bible
and you just work your way book by book by book, author by author by author, and it becomes a
comprehensive presentation of this truth." So, Dr. Sproul said, "We want to publish this," and
that was at the beginning of Reformation Trust. We need the truths that are contained
in the doctrines of grace. We need the truths that are contained in this book.
The church has always been the strongest when the church has understood the doctrines of
sovereign grace. Those have been the mountain peak eras of church history. That's when the church
has stood the strongest. It's when they had the highest view of God, a towering view of the
supremacy of God and how salvation is of the Lord. It was B.B. Warfield who said years ago,
"The church needs Calvinism." And the church has always stood strongest when it has had the
Reformed bent in its understanding of how it is that Holy God saves sinful man,
that salvation is of the Lord. And so, I want to just walk us through
what is a summary of what's in this book. Now again, I would need...in fact,
with Ligonier I've done something like forty-some odd teaching sessions on DVD to
walk through the entire Bible. So, I have a very limited time today to do this with you but what
I want to do is just fly over the Bible with you and I want to underscore the
importance of these truths with you. So, let's start with the Old Testament.
Well, let's start with the Old Testament. And in the Pentateuch, these truths are
found in seed form. These seeds will grow into a towering forest by the time we come to the
New Testament. But contained in the first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, these truths are found. And we call this
"progressive revelation," that truths taught in the opening books of the Bible are there faintly,
but as you advance through the Scripture they become brighter and brighter and brighter. It's
like in our dining room we have a dimmer switch, and you can have it turn where the light's barely
on, and then you can turn the dial and the light overhead becomes brighter and brighter and
brighter. That's the way it is in the Bible. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity.
There in the first chapter of Genesis 1, "Let us make man in our image," there are
allusions to the Trinity though it is not spelled out in its fullness as it will be in the
New Testament. The same is true with the doctrines of grace. They are there standing in the corner.
They are there in the shadows. They are sprinkled in, but as you work your way through the Bible
they become increasingly obvious. And by the time you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul
and Peter and John, they are glaringly obvious. So, let me just select a few of these verses, and
these are only a sampling. So, what this means is you're going to have to go get the book, okay?
That's what that means. Let me just spell that out. Very obvious, you're going to need to get
the book. But here are some of these verses. Genesis 6:5 is one of the strongest statements
on total depravity and radical corruption of the human nature. We read, "Then the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually." If you only had one verse in the entire Bible,
it would be hard to find one better and stronger than that one verse in Genesis 6 verse 5 that
all mankind wherever he is on the entire planet of this earth he is marred and flawed with
wickedness that is great. But it's not just his outward actions; it's his nature. It's not just
what he does; it's who he is and what he is, that every intent of the thoughts of
his heart are on evil only continually. That is an incredible statement. And when you come
to understand the doctrine of total depravity, that man's mind is darkened by
sin and he cannot see the truth, that man's heart is defiled and he does not
desire the truth nor does he desire God, and that man's will is dead and it is inoperative
toward God. Once you understand the first of the doctrines of grace, total depravity, you
are begging for the other four. It becomes a closed case at that point. And so, here in
Genesis we see this taught crystal clear. And the doctrine of total depravity serves as a foundation
upon which the other four doctrines will stand. In Genesis 8 verse 21, "For the intent of man's
heart is evil from his youth." In other words, upon his entrance into this world, he has
already been corrupted by sin. In the Pentateuch, meaning the first five books of the Old Testament,
the truth of sovereign election is also present as well. Exodus 33, verse 19. You'll recognize
this verse because Paul quotes it in Romans chapter 9. "I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion," that God is free to bestow
His saving grace upon whomever He so desires and to withhold it from others because no one can
lay a claim to it. It is not owed to anyone. If God only gave it to one human being on the entire
planet, that would be amazing grace. But that God has chosen to show mercy and compassion in His
saving grace upon untold multitudes of myriads and myriads of sinners who are undeserving of His
grace speaks of the enormity of the mercy of God. He says in Genesis 18 verse 19,
"I have chosen him," referring to Abraham. You remember Abraham lived in Ur of
Chaldees. He was a moon worshiper. He was a pagan. He lived in total complete darkness. And
out of that entire region of Ur of Chaldees, God initiated calling Abram. Abram was not
looking for God. Abram knew nothing of God. But the call of God came upon his life, and God
said, "I have chosen him." And it would be through the loins of Abraham would come the nation of
Israel. That was by God's sovereign design. And then, maybe one more verse just to sprinkle
in front of you, Deuteronomy 30 and verse 6. "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and
the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God." That is a metaphor for the
new birth. That is a metaphor or analogy to be born again, for you to have your heart circumcised. Romans 2:28 and 29 will pick up
on that much later in the Bible, but it is only God who can open a human heart. It is only God who
can open that closed heart and place His eternal life within a spiritually dead soul. So, that's
just a sampling from the beginning of the Bible. We come to the historical books, the next
twelve books. And as we might expect with historical books, which are not designed to
teach doctrine, but to tell the narrative of the redemptive history of God at work, there are
very few verses that would address this. However, when we come to the wisdom books, those five
books in the middle of the Old Testament – Job, how to suffer. Psalms, how to worship.
Proverbs, how to work. Ecclesiastes, how to enjoy. And Song of Solomon, how to
love. In those wisdom books, the truth of sovereign grace begins to emerge like the rising
of the sun in the morning. Some of the strongest statements on total depravity found anywhere in
the Bible come from the book of Psalms. In fact, it is the book of Psalms that Paul will quote
in Romans chapter 3. He'll build his case for total depravity simply by going back to the
Psalms. Here's an example, Psalm 14 verse 1. "There is no one who does good. The Lord
has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there any who understand, who
seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there
is no one who does good, not even one." What an extraordinary statement! Given that
fact, how could anyone ever be saved? How could anyone ever put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
if everyone is running away from God? And the answer is that God must take the initiative
and that God must be the pursuer of the sinner and that God must mark out those whom He will
bring to His Son and bring into the kingdom of God. In Psalm 65, verse 4, "How blessed
is the one whom You chose and bring near to You." That is a wonderful summary of sovereign
grace that those whom God chose in eternity past, these are the ones that God brings to Himself. Thus, all the glory goes to God. Towering
statements of God's sovereignty are found here. "Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever
He pleases," Psalm 115 verse 3. "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His
sovereignty rules over all," Psalm 103 verse 19. And there are also statements of the eternal
love of God from eternity past to eternity future towards those who fear him. In Psalm 103
verse 17, "But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear
Him." And so, we see even in the book of Psalms, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
This is just the mountain peak, but the whole mountain range is found
in the entirety of the book of Psalms. And we see also in the book of
Proverbs statements like this: "The king’s heart is like channels of water in the
hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes." It's an argument from the greater to the lesser.
If the most powerful man on the planet, God has his heart in His hand and God channels that
heart whichever direction He so desires it to go, how much more so for those who are farmers and
blacksmiths and those who are under the king? It shows the sovereignty of God, that God holds the eternal destiny of every
man and every woman in His hand. We come to the major prophets and we see more of
the same from Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel. Time really does not permit me to read
all of these quotes, but things like this: God said to Jeremiah in chapter 1 verse 5,
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." For God to know Jeremiah in the womb does not
mean merely that God had cognitive information about Jeremiah; it means that God had already
chosen to set His heart with distinguishing, redeeming love upon Jeremiah, that before he
was even born God had already set him apart unto Himself. And as it was with Jeremiah,
so it is with everyone of God's elect. When we come to Ezekiel, listen
to this particular verse. This is what we call "monergistic regeneration."
This is what we call "sovereign regeneration." God said, "I will sprinkle clean water on
you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will
remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
will be careful to observe My ordinances." Five times God says, "I will...I will...I
will...I will." He doesn't say, "We will," as though it's a joint effort between God and man.
No, in the new birth it is an exclusive work of God alone. I could ask you this question,
"What did you do to be born physically? Not much. Nothing. It was a sovereign God who
determined your gender, who your parents would be, what your DNA structure would be, what
time in history you would be born, where you would be born, what your IQ would
be, who your family would be. That was all at the sovereign discretion of God. It is
exactly the same in the spiritual realm. In the new birth, it is God and God
alone who births us into His kingdom. And those whom God chooses to regenerate are those
whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world. God literally performs a heart
transplant. God takes out the heart of stone that was resistant to Him, that was spiritually
dead. It was harder than a rock, that heart of stone that had no life in it. God takes out that
heart of stone and God implants a heart of flesh. It's a heart that is alive unto God. It
is a heart that has a spiritual pulse. It is a heart that responds to the things
of God. It is a heart that loves God. We don't perform the heart transplant; God and
God alone does, and it is by God's initiative and by God's grace. He then puts His Holy Spirit into
that heart and causes us to walk in His statutes. The greatest miracle that God ever performs is not
the creation of the world; it is to make us to be new creatures in Christ Jesus by the operation of
His sovereign grace. These verses are everywhere, even in the Old Testament. In the very next
chapter, that was in Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 37, you remember how God said to the prophet,
"Son of man, go into the valley where all the dead bones are"? "Son of man, can these
bones live?" "Lord, you know all things." "Prophesy to the dead bones. Preach to the dead
bones. And I will send the wind of heaven from the four corners of the earth and there will be a
resurrection and the bones will come alive." And, you know how the different parts of the skeleton
came together and flesh then came upon them. All of that was but a picture and a prophecy
of the nation Israel that would come alive spiritually to God, but it pictures every new
birth. Every time you and I witness to someone, we are preaching to dead bones. All we can do is bring the message. But it is God by His
sovereign grace that causes the Holy Spirit to work in that person's heart in such a
way that there is a spiritual resurrection. And those who were dead in trespasses and
sin come alive unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And the very first thing they do in that split
second is they call upon the name of the Lord. But the order is very important. There has to be
a spiritual resurrection first, because dead men cannot believe. Dead men cannot come to faith in
Christ. What can a dead man do? Stink! That's all. Dead men don't repent and believe. And these truths are taught in the Old
Testament long before we even come to the New Testament. And just to close out
the Old Testament, Malachi 1 and verse 2, "I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau," God
making discriminating choices on whom He will save and whom He will pass over. And this will be a
passage that Paul will quote in Romans chapter 9. So that's a survey, a very quick survey
of the Old Testament, and it's killing me. If you could only see all the verses I have
on my page right now that I'm passing over. But I've got the best part still yet
to come. I have the New Testament. I have the Lord Jesus Christ. And
as we come to the New Testament, we learn that Jesus had much to say about the
doctrines of grace. Jesus clearly understood the truth of the sovereign election of God, of those
who could not believe or come to Him. For example, Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 37,
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me." Now, there is a group that was given to the
Lord Jesus Christ long before they ever come to faith in Christ. And this group that is
given to Jesus is given to Him by the Father, because the Father has chosen them to be His own. And He gives them to the Son. And all of this
group known as "the elect" will come to faith in Jesus Christ. And not a one will fail to believe
in Jesus and no more will believe in Jesus. Jesus said in John 13 verse 18, "I do not speak
of all of you. I know the ones I've chosen," very clearly that not all were chosen to believe.
In John 15 verse 16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." I've translated that out of
the original Greek and this is what it means: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." It
means what it says, and says what it means. It's not hard to understand. It may be hard
to swallow, but it's not hard to understand. In John 15 verse 19, Jesus said to His disciples
and representing all who would believe, "I chose you out of the world." He didn't choose the whole
world, for reasons known only to the Father. The Father chose a vast number to be saved, and
they are chosen out of the world. It's a Greek word that is used in the Greek version of the Old
Testament known as the Septuagint of when David went down to the brook with his slingshot and he
needed five stones to put into the slingshot to go after Goliath. And he went down to the brook
and out of all the rocks he chose five, perfectly suited for his purposes. It's that same word that
is used here. "I chose you out of the world." Jesus would say in John 17:9, "I ask on their
behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me."
And those who were given to Jesus are those for whom He went to the cross to lay
down His life, as He would die a specific death for a specific people such that not one drop of
His blood was wasted. Jesus laid down His life for the elect. In John chapter 10 and verse
11, Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down
his life for the sheep." The sheep are those who are chosen by the
Father and given to the Son for the Son to be their Shepherd, to be their good Shepherd. And
Jesus says, "I lay down My life for these sheep and I lose not a one of them." Why this verse
is so important is this is Jesus' own commentary on His own death. No one can preach the cross
like Jesus can preach the cross. No one can preach Christ crucified like Christ can preach
Christ crucified. No one can say as with Paul, "I'm determined to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified." So, we ask Jesus, "Jesus, for whom did You die and what did You
accomplish upon the cross when You laid down Your life?" And Jesus specifically says, "I am the
good Shepherd. I lay down My life for the sheep." If He had laid down His life for every single
person, and some of them ended up in hell, He's not a good Shepherd; He's an imposter
of a shepherd. He is a bumbling shepherd who loses those for whom He would have died. But
no, Jesus is the good Shepherd. And everyone for whom He laid down His life upon the cross, Jesus
has secured their salvation and not a one that Jesus died for will ever descend
down into the bowels of hell below. He repeats it in John 10 verse 15. He says it
again, "I lay down My life for the sheep." Now just a few verses later is a very important
verse, John 10 verse 30, "I and the Father are one." It doesn't mean one person
because they are two persons. It means one in mission, one in will, one in saving
enterprise. The Father has chosen His elect. If the Father and the Son are to be
one, then the Son must lay down His life for the very same ones, for the elect. You can't
have the Father choosing only a certain number, but the Son then saying, "Oh, no,
no, no. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to die for everybody. You can choose who
you want, but I'll die for a different group." No, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." And it
preserves the unity of the Trinity, the unity of the Godhead. Those whom the Father
chose in eternity past, He gave to the Son. It was these that the Son went to the cross and
laid down His life. And it is these for whom the Son and the Father send the Holy Spirit into the
world to bring about this sovereign regeneration. Jesus was crystal clear on this. He said in John 12 verse 32, "If I am lifted up,
I will draw all men to Myself." Now, what does that mean? Well, it either means that He will draw
every single person who has ever lived to Himself, which means He would have emptied hell, that
everyone who has ever been born is in heaven, known as universalism, and
that's a heresy. Or, "all" means all kinds of people, Jews, Gentiles,
male and female, educated and uneducated, masters and slaves, husbands and wives. It means
all without distinction as opposed to all without exception. The word "all" can be used
either way. And in this case it refers to all kinds of people for whom Jesus died.
Some would take it as "all of the elect." Well, there is so much more I want to tell you
that Jesus taught. Let me give you one more. John 6 verse 44, "No one can come
to Me." Do you know what that means, "No one can come to Me"? Do you know the
difference between "can" and "may"? "May" is a word of permission. "Can" is a
word of ability. Jesus did not say, "No one may come to Me," because everyone has
permission and the free offer of the gospel to the four corners of the earth. It's just that
"No one can come to Me," because they are dead in trespasses and sin. They are suffering from
moral inability because faith does not come from us. Faith is a gift that God
must give to the elect. "No one can come to Me." To come to Christ is
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So then, how would anyone ever believe if no one
can come to Christ? The second half of the verse: "No one can come to Me unless the Father
who sent Me draws him." That word "draw" is a powerful word. That word "draw"
means literally to drag and to haul. Some people think it means God just gives a little
bump to the sinner, "Hey, you ought to go in that direction." It's the word that was used in Acts
chapter 16 in Philippi when they arrested Paul. They drug him through the streets of Philippi
and confined him in the prison. It's the same word that's used in John chapter 21 when Peter
went back to his nets after the death of Christ and cast his nets. And it says there were a one
hundred and fifty-three fish that were caught in that net. And Peter with those burly strong
arms had to literally drag those fish onto dry land. "No man can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him." You see, God must overcome the sinner's
resistance. God must make the sinner willing in the day of His power. God must apply
His omnipotence to draw the sinner to faith in Jesus Christ. So many more verses
that I would love to tell you concerning the Lord Jesus Christ! Okay, one more John
10 verse 27, "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 from My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all;
and no one shall pluck them from His hand." That is a composite understanding of
the doctrines of grace. The very sheep for whom Jesus died and laid down His life, every
one of them will hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the effectual call and they will be
brought to Christ. They will follow Christ and they will never perish. Jesus holds them in
His hand and then the Father takes His hand and puts it around the Son's hand. We are
doubly secure in the Father and in the Son. And Ephesians 1 says that the Holy Spirit
seals us in Christ. The entire Trinity holds us in His sustaining grace. No believer
will ever fall from grace because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all
work together to save the same sinner. And by the way, that's why when we baptize
we baptize not just in the name of Jesus who is the Savior of the world, John 4:42,
but we baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, right? Because
they all operate in reality as one Savior. God the Father chose from eternity
past those whom He would save. He gave them to the Son in eternity past. God the Son dies for the very same sinners that
the Father chose and gave to Him. God the Holy Spirit now sovereignly calls and regenerates and
draws these same elect. And every time we baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, it is a testimony that we believe that these three Persons operate in one
saving mission toward the same sinners. Jesus had much more to say. In the book of
Acts, I wish I had time to take us through the book of Acts, Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost, "This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and
foreknowledge of God, you nailed to the cross." Peter preached, "As many as the
Lord our God shall call to Himself." At the end of Acts 2 we read this, "The Lord
was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." The Lord was saving some
on Monday, some on Tuesday, some on Wednesday, but it was the Lord who was adding to their
number because He said in Matthew 16 verse 18, "I will build My church, and the gates
of Hades will not prevail against it." That is a strong statement
of the sovereign grace of God that no matter how dark the hour in history, no
matter how great the tribulation, Jesus will build His church. Only if He is sovereignly in control
of salvation can there be the fulfillment of that promise. In Acts 13 verse 48, we read, "As many
as had been appointed to eternal life believed." Let me ask you three questions.
Number one, which comes first, believing and being appointed to eternal
life or being appointed to eternal life and believing? Well, let me read the verse one
more time and it'll be very obvious to you. "As many as had been appointed to
eternal life believed." Second question, do any more believe than those who were
appointed? Listen to the verse again. "As many as the Lord our God appointed unto
eternal life believed," as many as, no more. Third question, do any less believe?
No, those whom God began with in eternity past are those who will be with God in eternity
future. In Romans 8:29 and 30, Paul writes, "Those whom He foreknew, these He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son. And those whom He predestined, He also called;
and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified."
The first two took place in eternity past, foreknowledge and predestination.
The next two take place within time, being called and justified. The last takes
place in eternity future, being glorified. The group He began with in eternity past
is the group that is glorified with Him in eternity future. There are no dropouts along the
way. There's no one slipping through the cracks. There's no one added along the way beyond
what God started with in eternity past. Do we not see that salvation is of the Lord?
We go out and preach the gospel to everyone, but we leave the results to God. And
God will call out a bride for His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And that bride is a chosen
bride that the Father has elected for His own Son. We come to the Apostle Paul who wrote
thirteen epistles. And you know I don't have time to go through the Apostle Paul,
but let me give you one interesting fact. Some of the strongest verses in
the entire Bible on sovereign grace are found in the opening
verses of Paul's epistles. They're not hidden at the back of the book
where a lot of people won't find them. They are frontloaded. They're placed on the front
doorstep of these books. And that tells us a couple of things. Number one, how well taught
the first century church was in the doctrines of sovereign grace that Paul can begin his
letter, chapter 1 verse 1 or chapter 1 verse 2, and just put it out there about the elect of
God and those who are sovereignly called by God. Further, there was no explanation needed
to be given. Everybody who received the letter to the Romans or the letter
to the Ephesians or the letter to the Thessalonians where there is an immediate
introduction to these truths of sovereign grace. It just shows what common knowledge it was in the
first century and all of the previous teaching that they have sat under that this can just be
tossed out in the opening verses of so many of Paul's letters, and not just Paul's but
even Peter's letters. I find that amazing. This wasn't a truth that they kept back for
Wednesday night service where there were only twenty people there and it's not going to hurt
anybody's feelings, but we're sure not going to preach it on Sunday morning and shout it from
the house tops. No, we'll just whisper it in the broom closet where no one else can hear, because
we wouldn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. Well, that's not the way the church was in
the first century, I'll guarantee you that. And they put it out because it is so important
to understand how it is you even came into the kingdom of God and because it brings so much
glory to God and it elevates worship of God. Listen, it's our theology that produces our
doxology, right? The higher our view of God, the higher our worship will
be. The lower our view of God, the lower our worship will be. We'll have to
prop it up with some kind of music or something. I know where your live nerve is. But listen, when you understand the
truths that salvation is of the Lord, you can be in a catacomb in Rome and worship
God. You can be in the hull of the Mayflower and worship God. You don't even need to have an
electrical socket to worship God. It's the truth. You shall worship the Lord your God in spirit and in truth. It is the truth that explodes
in the heart and causes us to adore God. Well, let me just give you a
couple of these opening verses. 1 Corinthians. Now, let me just remind you this.
This was the most carnal church there was. I mean, they pushed the envelope on how carnal
can you be and still be a Christian. Because there are no carnal Christians for their whole life,
they have pushed the boundaries out to the nth degree and you're still in the kingdom of God. And
you would think with these little immature baby Christians that you would hold these truths back
from them and wait until they finally grow up and then we'll tell them the truth. No, this is to be
taught to even those who are infants in the Lord. So, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2, he
says, "To the church of God." And by the way, the word "church," ecclesia, means "the called out
ones," those who have been called out of darkness and out of the world into fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. "To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been
sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling." Sinners become saints as a result of
the effectual, irresistible call of God. It's a summons. It's more than a summons; it's
a subpoena, that which God apprehends the sinner and brings him to faith in Jesus Christ.
Look at Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. It was Christ who exploded into his life that
day just like in your life and in my life. So, he says, "Saints by calling, with all who in every
place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, the order there is very
important. First, God calls the sinner, then the sinner calls on the Lord. Did
you get that? First, God calls the sinner and the result of that is
it's like a domino effect. The sinner then calls on the name of the
Lord. The order there is very important, because no one will ever call on the name of the
Lord until God has first called them to Himself. 1 Corinthians 1:9: "God is faithful, through whom
you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." See, we're called into
a relationship with Christ. This isn't talking about being called into service or ministry.
Those are other verses. This is talking about being called into a relationship with Christ.
And in 1 Corinthians 1:24, the believers are identified simply as "the called." If you're a
true believer, you're one of "the called." And in verse 26, Paul says, "For consider your
calling brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are
strong, and the despised God has chosen." God likes to do it this way, God likes to reach
to the bottom of the barrel to find His people. That way all the glory goes to God. No one can
say, "Well, look at that church. No wonder they're doing so well. Look at the zip code they're in.
Look at the well-heeled people who attend that church. They could just bankroll everything.
That's a church full of make-it-happen people." And all the glory goes to the people
because of their deep pockets and because of their brilliant intellect and because of their power in the community. No, there may be
a few of those, but that's not how God operates. God has chosen the nobodies of this world by and
large. James 2:5: "Has not God chosen the poor to be rich in faith?" That way when God builds the
church there is no explanation for this church. On a human level, it defies everything. There
is no explanation, except God has done this. I mean, look who Jesus chose for His disciples. It was the leftovers. The only one who had
anything going for them in the world was Judas. So, God's sovereign grace is at the very center of
the heart of God. This is not a peripheral matter. This is not a secondary issue.
This is God at work saving sinners. Well, my time is passed. You didn't
listen quick enough is the problem. So many other verses! "He who
began a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus,"
Philippians 1:6. "Brethren beloved by God, His choice of you," 1 Thessalonians 1:4. "He
saved us and called us with a holy calling, according to his own purpose which was granted
from all eternity," 2 Timothy 1 verse 9. And we didn't have time to go
through the general epistles. But let me tell you this. When we get to
heaven and we're before the throne of God, there's not going to be any doubt in
any one of our minds how we got there. We will know in that day that it was
sovereign grace that sought us and bought us. Revelation 5 verse 9, I'll end with this one
verse. The myriads and myriads around the throne, "Worthy are You to take the book and
to break its seals; for You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood men from
every tribe and tongue and people and nation." Out from the nations and out from all
the tribes and the tongues of the people, there were those out from among them that the
Lord Jesus Christ purchased with His own blood. And these are those who will all be around
the throne of God, because they are the sheep for whom Jesus died and laid down His life. And
when the crown is placed on your head in heaven, it will be on your head for one half of one
millisecond. And you will immediately cast it back at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ because
you know that crown does not belong on your head. He chose you in eternity past. He
predestined you in eternity past. He redeemed you at the cross. He reconciled you
to God. He sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God called you and drew you and dragged you
and birthed you and regenerated you and sealed you in Christ and indwelt you
and kept you secure and preserved you so that you would not fall away and
brought you all the way home to glory. This crown doesn't belong to my head. It's the
wrong head. It needs to be cast at His feet. And it signifies Romans 11:36 that all things
are from Him and through Him and to Him. "To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
