Pelagianism, of course, bears
the name of its, I don't want to say inventor because we know
the enemy is the inventor of these things, but I want to say
the person who made it prominent and tried to make it mainstream.
We also know that later that was, you know, 4th, 5th century,
6th century. We also know that later in the
16th century that that same doctrine was revisited by Arminius, and
Arminius became at odds with Calvin, Pelagius became at odds
with Augustine, and so forth. And then we looked at, as we
closed our time out last week at the 19th century, the 1840s,
where a man by the name of Charles Finney, who popularized present-day
evangelical teaching, which is now known as traditionalism.
That's what it's called. That's the label that they've
given it. And traditional evangelical theology is nothing but Pelagianism
all over again. It started in that route, it's
continued in that route, and it's in that route again today.
I want you to understand that historically we will always see
this type of stuff. We will see theological systems
come and go. We will see philosophical theology,
and what I mean by that is people taking something that's clearly
taught in Scripture and then becoming more philosophical about
it and then logically trying to develop the system even further.
outside the confines of Scripture, which then makes it heresy by
definition because it's not biblical in its root. Though we can infer
easy things logically, like if Jesus says that you cannot believe
because you are not of my sheep, then we can also infer the antithesis,
which is you are my sheep, therefore you can't believe. and that's
common sense. But we don't take philosophy
to a natural argument in the mind of men and say, okay, now
because this is true, then let's posit this, then let's posit
that, and let's posit this, and then we come up with this new
doctrine. That's heresy. And so when we look at history,
there's several things I want you to keep in mind as I continue
and finish this discussion tonight. One is I want you to remember
that the scripture says that only by the illumination of God
the Spirit will someone understand the scripture. There are many
people who have academically approached the Word of God and
are very well-versed, pun intended, in the sense of Scripture, so
that they can understand what the Scripture is saying to a
degree, they can understand the history behind it, some of them
can even know the grammar of the original languages, and they've
done a very good job of developing a core of historical theological
idealism. And that doesn't mean that they
understand scripture. It doesn't mean just because
someone has a PhD, just because I have degrees in theological
studies doesn't make me the expert. And it also doesn't make anything
that I say authoritative. What makes what I say authoritative
is that is the clear and simple syntax of scripture. that Scripture
itself actually teaches, and that even when someone can logically
and rationally, within the grammar and the syntax of whatever language
it's been translated into, can grasp what it's teaching, in
order for that person to have complete faith in the object
of its teaching, who is Jesus Christ, they must be born of
God and granted faith. That's what the Scripture teaches.
Now, a lot of people say, well, this is an argument of two different
things, two sides of the same coin. To
which I say, poppycock. Ridiculous. It's absurd to say
that if I'm talking about one truth, and then you're talking
about another truth, and they're completely against each other,
that they're the same coin. The same coin could be, I have
a glazed donut and a chocolate donut. They're both donuts, they're
both sweet. One is the same as the other
except the other has chocolate on top of it in addition to what
the other one has. And that's even really silly
to even argue. So we cannot say that, as many
people do, this is an argument of interpretation. This is an
argument over Calvinism and Arminianism, which I think is where this question
came from to start with, Ben, as he asked about what is the
history behind these faults and these theologies. Some people say, well, it's an
issue of a gospel and man's free will and God's sovereignty and
all these things, but ultimately it's a confusion. See, Pelagianism
became the new traditionalism. Now, I know historians and so-called
semi-theologians all over the world would argue with me, this
is absurd, you don't know your history. Well, you're right,
I don't know all history, but I know enough history, and I've
read through the original writings of these people, and I know the
essence of what this doctrine does, and I know what this system
of theology is, and I can smell it from 1,000 miles away. So
that when someone comes to me and they begin to say, well,
you know, I'm more Arminian in my thinking, they mean I'm a
Pelagian. When someone says, well, I believe
in the free will of man, well, that's an Arminian distinction
historically, but it's a Pelagian idea. Well, I believe in prevenient
grace. Well, great, then you are holding
to a word that is classically Arminian, but you are coming
from a position of heresy, which is Pelagian. Because free will,
in order for it to be effectual unto salvation, must mean that
man is innately good. And so if you remember what we
talked about last week, we moved from Pelagian to Finney, Finney
to Moody, Moody to Graham, and so forth. And then after World
War II and the great, I don't even know if there's ever a name
historically for this because I sort of get sick of reading
it. But what I would call the great under God movement of the
1950s, right after God established America's success and Europe's
success in the World War over Nazi Germany and others and the
axis of evil, everyone became religious. Everyone became concerned
with God saved our country, we're under God. And God we trust has
been imprinted on our money. The Pledge of Allegiance was
changed to add one nation, indivisible, under God. Well, the word God
in itself is not a name. The word God in itself does not
distinguish between the God of Ra or the God of Baal or the
God of Catholicism or the God of Buddhism. The word God, by
definition, means the highest of all things. The Most High
One. The Hebrew people use the term
Elohim. Elohim meaning the highest of all things. So God by His
own revelation is the highest of all things. So the word means
that. God is not His name. That is
what He is. And by that same standard, God
that we know as the God of Scripture says of Himself, I am God and
there is no other. So there in that sense, then
the Word in itself has become the very essence of who God really
is. Because you cannot have many highest of all things, because
if you have two things that are equal standing, then you don't
have a highest of all things, you have a pair. If you have many, it's the highest
of all things, then you have a manifold, you have multiple,
you have a plurality of gods. And then you can edge yourself
into Roman and Greek mythology, you can edge yourself into world
religions and the fodder and the foolishness and the silliness
of self-revelation that leads itself all to the cults. If you
realize this, outside of world religions, every cult that has
been established was established almost at the same time as colonization
and westward expansion. Because now the freedom of religion
and the freedom from religion that our Constitution granted
us in this country gave people the privilege of expressing their
philosophical views about how a man is standing before God
and also what God or who God might be according to his own
standard without fear of death and persecution. And I'm appreciative
of that. Because God help if we had been
still under the reign of monarchy and that monarchy was Roman.
or that monarchy was orthodox, and the sword was its sifter,
or taxation was its sifter, what poverty would look like for the
true believers, for the true body of Jesus Christ would be
uncanny. So people will argue with me,
but Scripture makes it very clear what is and is not true. So remember
all these things, and I've sort of lost count as to what point
I'm on, but oh well, it's in here somewhere in this head. Remember that without illumination,
there is no faith. There's no belief. We can think
and understand and know a lot of data with it, but without
the Spirit of God bringing us to life, there is no hope of
true, saving faith. And there is no hope of anyone
understanding what Scripture actually teaches about who God
actually is and about what He's done to save His people. Evangelicalism,
and if we use the term evangelicalism, it has changed meanings over
the last 50, 60 years. Even in my lifetime, it's changed
meaning twice. It used to be just those Protestants,
of the Protestants, the protesters who came out of the Roman Catholic
Church, and in their understanding of the gospel, which is the word
evangel in the Greek, gospel, God speak, God spell, good news,
that's how we translate it. that they began to go out and
share it. It wasn't just, we believe it
and here we sit, we're going to share it. So evangelicalism
by definition, by the word, is those who of the Protestant tradition
began to go out and tell the gospel. Tell the gospel. And it doesn't even mean that
anymore. Because we don't even have evangelicalism
as a whole holding to the true gospel of grace. As a matter
of fact, I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would carry
the banner of evangelicalism on their badge, and also carry
free and sovereign grace, because the two now traditionally
are diabolically opposed. They're arch enemies. Now, in
our day, all of evangelicalism hold to the view of Pelagianism,
which is what I term traditionalism, or what I say traditionalism
is, in two forms. Here's the two forms. And there
are many more, but these are the two that I really want to
focus on tonight. The first is free will decisionism. Free will decisionism. That is
that here is God, here is the work of Jesus, it's available
for all people, come on down, pick your prize, name the tune,
you win the prize. If you come down and grab hold
of the robe of Christ, you have eternal life. Come on down. You're
the next contestant on. You're going to hell anyway. And that is birth in the 19th
century by Charles Finney. I would love maybe when I have
another break, I might do a little historical bios of certain people
and I might do a little bio of Charles Finney. I might read
you all some of his work, but I'll be honest with you, I'd
rather not read it again. I'd rather go to the dentist
and have him punch me in the nose twice and then charge me
$500 than to read that garbage. But yet most traditionalists
would say, that's a little harsh, Pastor. Satan's a liar. Let's call him what he is. But
most traditionalists would say, well, you know, Finney was the
father of modern-day evangelism, and they're telling the truth.
He is. With all of his error, he was
an unregenerate, uncouth man who hated Christ, and he hated
the God of Scripture. A stock clock is right twice
a day, unless it's in military time. Then it might not be right
once a day. but two forms. Free will decisionism. And the other, which is going
to be a little surprising to you, is free will assurance.
And I've never heard anybody use that term, but I'm going
to start using it. free will decisionism, and then the other
is free will assurance. Now we can understand decisionism,
we can understand you choosing to stay, we can understand the
blasphemous way when it's eisegetes, those people, the eisegesis is
when someone tries to take a written text and make it say what they
want it to say rather than what it actually says. The opposite
of that is exegete, which comes out of the text. Exegete means
I read into the text. I read into the text my thoughts
and feelings. Exegete is the text speaks to me, and I can't
argue with it. So we exegete what Scripture
teaches. Free will decisionism says, you
know, this is Pelagius, this is Arminius, this is Wesley,
this is all of these people, and going on down the line like
we talked about, this is Finney, this is modern day traditionalist.
I'm going to go toward God for salvation and until I move toward
God, until I move toward God, He's not going to move toward
me. Where is that? I've asked that question of several
people over the last few months who have been in conversation
with me on these issues, and I've asked them to give me two
things. One, explain to me your thought process on believing
that we have to make an approach to God before He'll come and
save us. And secondly, can you prove that in the context of
Scripture? And it boggles my mind that they always go to some
Very myopic and temporal usage of the Old Testament. They'll use Joshua or Moses or
Pharaoh. Interestingly enough, the very
same people that the apostles used and that Jesus used to show
His sovereign grace in election. These people that say, go toward
God and He'll come toward you. You first love God, then He'll
love you. Isn't that not a direct contradiction? If what we do
with our choices actually causes God to save us, then wham, what
a whiny God. He's not the sovereign God He
says He is. He's not the God that rules over Satan and all
things. He's not the sovereign God who
saved His people. He's trying, and He's hoping, and He's wishing,
and oh, have mercy on our souls if we don't come. It's like Grandma
offering a little party, but her house stinks, and we don't
want to really go there. So she bakes her cakes and sets
out her tea, and we just decide we're not gonna go. Well, sadly,
the rest of the family has thought, well, nobody will miss me, and
then 20 people don't show up. You know, Grandma is so sad.
She set a table, she's bought snacks, she's baked things. She
can't help that her house smells like mold and mothballs. And no one comes, and she's distraught.
And beloved, that is how most people view God. The other side of that, free
will assurance, is the argument of monergistic versus synergistic
sanctification. We're not going to get into all
that tonight, but you're going to hear more from me, especially
on Sunday mornings and when we get into Romans on this issue.
Monergistic, mono meaning one, alone, if you will. Monergistic
would be that God sets us apart alone, without our help. Synergistic,
synergy, working together. God does some things and then
we do some things and then God meets us where we are and we
meet God where he is and everything works out. And when we think
of assurance, a lot of times people have come, because of
Pelagian influence, to the idea that, okay, it is by grace, and
this is where some of our fellow Reformed, semi-Calvinistic views
might come from, might be, rather. Well, we're getting more and
more like Christ. Well, give me the example. Can
you give me one example from present day? Is it you? Go ahead and say it's you, because
I can read 1 John to show you're a liar. Or, oh, is it your grandma? We know how wonderfully worshipful
she was when you didn't show up to her tea party. There's
no tea parties like my nana's tea party. Oh, maybe it was somebody in
the Bible. Maybe it was Charles Spurgeon, you know, that drunken,
smoke-filled, cigar-smoking, what else could we say about
him? Depressed man. They had to drag upstairs and
shove onto the pulpit. And that was after the fire killed
some people. Who is this? Paul? Oh, certainly
don't say Paul. Paul says, oh, what wretched
man have I? Who will rescue me from this body of death? I'm
an idolater. I worship idols. Yet I have a
heart that loves God with all of its heart, strength, and mind.
Why? What is this assurance? Both
of these are error. One says we go to God to meet
Him where He is that we might be saved, and the other says
then we run toward God to grow in our holiness. And they're
both wrong. Of course, we must define terms,
and by the Lord's mercy, I'm going to chop like rock silly
terms that are silly doctrines. Why? Because I don't want to
speak in error in error. People use misused terms all
the time. In this new traditionalism, the term repentance has become
penance. Stop sinning, put away your sin, give it all up, then
you come and believe in Jesus. You want to know who's the...
I mean, where does that come from? It comes from Finney in our day. It comes from Pelagius. who when he saw the nature of
the teaching of the church in his day, he thought, I'm in Rome,
these people live like Satan. I mean, they were bad. Y'all
think we've got problems in the United States? There is no such
debauchery to match the level of wickedness that Rome did publicly. Pelagius was like, if I don't
teach works, these people are going to keep living this way. So people like to say, well,
repentance now means turning from sin. Very popular, very
popular, even evangelical schools will teach this. Here's the law. Law, law, law, law, law. What
does the law do? It kills. What does the law do? It convicts.
What's a conviction? It's an opportunity to stop.
No, it's an indictment that it's already been done. Conviction
is an awareness that you've already broken it. Matter of fact, conviction
is proof that you've broken it. If you're convicted by a jury,
you're guilty. Sanctification is a word that's
been misused. Holiness, the same word there,
hagios, hagiosmos in the Greek, it means to be set apart. Some
people add progressive to that. Well, we're positionally sanctified
in Jesus, but we're progressively made more and more in His image.
And again, I say, where's that talk? Don't give me a half a
sentence, Pop. Where's that talk and where's
the example? And if you show me the example,
can you show me the checklist whereby I can check to make sure
this man meets it? I mean, of course, for Saul,
Saul was a man of extreme righteousness before he was born again. Saul
never, ever, ever sinned according to the law. Ever! Yet he was the vilest of
all sinners. According to the law, Saul did
not sin killing Christians. Blameless. The law gave him the
right to kill Christians who blasphemed the holiness of God
by believing in Jesus Christ. So it's not Saul. Saul didn't
go from pimp to priest. But maybe it is those guys, maybe
it is the silky smooths of the world who womanize on the side
and sell drugs on the weekend. Maybe those are who they're talking
about, but certainly when they're born again, they'll be aware
that these things, of course, are not congruent with a new
life in Christ. And surely by the grace of God,
He will deal with this. But that's not sanctification
at all. That's just being born again.
We're sanctified in Christ. We're set apart fully as we're
given to the Son. Only those who are given to the
Son by the Father will come to Christ. And all that come will
be saved. And all that are saved will be
raised in the last day. And all that are raised will
never be cast out. Misuse of these terms. But the
term faith doesn't mean anything today. The term faith. I got faith. In what? In whom?
Well, I just believe. Believe in what? Jesus. Jesus
what? Jesus Tiffins? Jesus Hampton? Jesus Smith? Jesus Manning? What Jesus are
we believing in here? What Jesus? Oh, you know, the
one in the Bible! Which one? What did he do? Who
is he? What did he say? What did he accomplish? Well, he did a lot of cool stuff.
So like David Copperfield, ta-da, new arm, ta-da, new legs, ta-da,
new eyes, ta-da, back to life, ta-da. So we knew he was powerful. So I believe Jesus can do anything
he wants to do. And Jesus said he wants to save me from hell.
So ta-da, he gave me a ticket right out of there. Ta-da. That's
not the Jesus of the Bible. And I hate to be mocking him.
I told him, but that's where we have to go. That's where we
are. I'm not mocking anyone in particular, I'm just mocking
the reality of that absurdity, that silliness, that foolishness.
The word faith, the word gospel in itself has been misappropriated
to just some great offer of God. Oh, this is so good, God opened
up a mall. God opened up a mall and He had
the sanctification store and the redemption store and the
regret store and the no condemnation store. If you just come in there,
we'll validate your tickets if you buy something. You got to
use the bathroom? You got to purchase something.
Living water stand. Just get a cup. Doesn't matter.
Just come get it. Bread of life? We'll give you
a wafer. That's what Jesus has done. He's opened a shopping
mall for most traditionalists. He's offering. All we've got
to do is go in and shop. And then when we go to pay, we realize
it's all free. But we had to pick it out. We
had to put it in the cart. We had to apply it ourselves.
We had to put the breastplate of righteousness on, helmet of
salvation. We had to hold the shield of faith. And when we
went up there to pay, it said, Jesus paid it all. All to Him
I owe. Hallelujah. Now give me a mop,
I'm signing up. I want to be a maintenance man
in this here mall. That's called ministry. That's
what most people think it is. It's nothing like that at all.
The devil builds the mall. The devil paints sanctification
as a purchase, as a work, as a process. The devil says, here's
the living water, just come take it, and it's all for you, just
come get it. And then all the while, the world comes in unregenerate,
thinking they're going into the narrow gate, but they're being
shoved by hordes into the broadway that leads to destruction, and
then the Father from heaven looks down and says, anathema, and
He burns them all in the mall. Economic development, people
don't like that message. Neither do most evangelicals. Not only do they misuse terms,
they misuse interpretation. Like I said earlier about eisegesis,
they have an eisegetical assumption. I know this is not God, the Bible
doesn't say it, but by George, maybe that's his name, I'm going
to prove it. Pretext after pretext, word after
word, little chop after little chop, trimmy trimmy here, trimmy
trimmy there, here trim, here we go. There's no gospel anywhere
and we now have a new and true gospel. And we're going to talk
about sanctification as something man does by the power of God. The Pipers of today. God has
Puted righteousness, Jesus. Righteousness, but He's also
going to do a work in you that when you stand before the Father,
you're going to have grown so much, you're going to almost
be indistinguishable from Jesus. Where's that come from? Judaism. Roman Catholicism, that's where
it comes from. Pelagianism, that's where it
comes from. So Corinthians 4, we do not twist,
we have this. Scripture here, having this ministry
by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. What ministry? The
ministry of reconciliation, proclaiming the reality and the power of
God's divine work in the new covenant of Christ. That's the
ministry. We declare to you, God has brought
His people home and punished His Son that they may be free. And so they are. If that is the
gospel, anything else is a devil's lie. You see? It's time to start
saying, what is what? America. It's time to start understanding
church in a way of grasping just how deep the heresy goes. Friends, it's not just our cult
neighbors who are in cults. It is our so-called Christian
neighbors. And you notice I'm not arguing
from lineage to John the Baptist. And I'm not arguing from the
1730s King James. And I'm not arguing through the
practice and precepts of evangelicalism or Baptist tradition or John
Calvin. I am arguing from the mouth of
Christ and the mouth of Paul. It's a big difference. Because
it sounds, when we say these things, oh, y'all must be the
only church in town with the truth. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. But if any other church in town
preaches another gospel, let them be forever damned. And that's
a quote from Paul, not James. If an angel comes, if a man stands
on a stage and says God came to him in the real way and 500
people saw it, let him be forever damned. People have misused the Scripture. We do not lose heart, verse 1
of chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians. We have this ministry by the
mercy of God. We do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful
Underhanded ways. What does that look like? The
next sentence. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's
Word, but by the open statement of the truth, We would commend
ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And people
say, well, people won't hear your gospel if you don't water
it down, if you don't relate to them, if you don't make it
palatable, if you're too strong on this doctrine of election.
Doctrine of salvation, you mean? Doctrine of redemption? Then
people are just not going to know what to do with it. That's
the point. Paul says if our gospel is veiled, they're not going
to be able to see. Hallelujah, you're telling the
truth. They're not going to be able to come. Yes, finally you
speak wisely. Of course they're not able to
come. But if our gospel is veiled, we're doing it right. It is veiled
only to those who are perishing. I'm quoting Paul verbatim. In
their case, In their case, he says, the God
of this world, I'm not gonna argue this with my friends, but
either way we look at it, God is the author of this blindness,
unveiling, and he uses the devil to do everything he wants him
to do. So the God of this world, in my estimation, in this interpretation,
is the devil, even though he is used by God. The condition
of that we see very clearly in the book of Job. In their case, the God of this
world has blinded the minds of unbelievers in order to keep
them from seeing the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not of
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as the Lord,
with ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. Verse 6, my
favorite verse in the entire Scripture. For God, who said,
let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That is the only condition by
which you can be saved. That's it. I've run out of time,
so I wanted to get there. Like I said, the Word of God
is authoritative. History's not. People misinterpret Scripture
on how one is saved, on what the Gospel is, on the work of
God in the life of the believer, on the audience of the Bible.
2 Thessalonians. Let's try this, children. I'm
not doing this to be ugly, but let's try this. All the kids
in the room, listen to this. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.
That's who's writing the letter. To the church of the Thessalonians
and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So who's the audience?
The church of Thessalonica. grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'm coming and I'm
saying grace to you and here's who it comes from. And then he
says, we ought to always give thanks to God for you brothers.
And that word is also inclusive of sisters. the brotherhood,
as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the
love of every one of you for one another is increasing." Now
who is he praising in this text? The Thessalonians? No. We ought to always give thanks
to God for you because your love for one another is growing abundantly
and your faith is growing abundantly. Therefore, because of this, now
we ourselves boast about you." We tell people about the work
of God there. "...in the churches of God for
your steadfastness in faith, in all the persecutions, and
in all the afflictions that you are enduring." Now, this is the
evidence, what? Your suffering and persecutions
is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may
be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. Don't, don't, don't lose heart,
like Paul just said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4. Don't lose
heart. I didn't get there, but he does. That's that long, struck
down but not destroyed, crushed but not perplexed, you know,
not driven to despair, that one. He says this is the evidence,
because you are suffering, this is evidence of God's righteous
judgment. that you may be considered worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since
indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those
who afflict you." What is God doing? God is teaching them through
the Apostle Paul that their persecution and that their stress and that
their torment is only for the righteousness of God and His
judgment, so that God is even more righteous in His judgment against
their oppressors. And there's so much more there. So God will repay with affliction
those who afflict you, and God will grant you who are afflicted
as well, relief. As well as to us, because we're
afflicted too. When? When the Lord Jesus is revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels. So now all of a sudden, he's
talking to these Christians about this thing, and he says, when
are you going to receive the reprieve? When Christ returns. And he's going to return, not
as this lamb, because he's already suffered as the lamb, the work
of the lamb is finished. Now he's the roaring lion. He
comes in flaming fire with His mighty angels, and as you have
been inflicted pain, He is going to inflict vengeance. On who?
You? No. Now the subject changes,
or the actual context, the subject changes of discussion. The subject
of the recipients is still who? You. The saints who are in Thessalonica. Now, in flaming fire, inflicting
vengeance on those Those. You know the difference in y'all
and them? About to get real country with
you? Hey, y'all, we gonna live forever. They about to die. You see it? How is it that you and them become
the same people? Because the devil twists the
Scripture in the minds of his children. Did you hear what I
just said? Because the devil twists the
Scripture in the mind of his children, those who are not believers. Those who do not know God, And
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they,
not you, they, not among you, they're your oppressors. They
will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might when
He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled
at among all who have believed because our testimony to you
was believed. And he goes on, to this end then
we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His
calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work
of faith by His power so that the name of the Lord Jesus may
be glorified in you and who you are as born again sheep of Christ. According to what? According
to the choices that you made? According to the way you came?
According to the work that you made yourself more and more holy
and set apart for God? According to what? No. According
to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The mercy
upon mercy upon mercy upon mercy. Charis. Charity. To those who don't deserve it.
And that is for the elect alone. audience of the epistles. And
we see and we misinterpret, a lot of them do, they misinterpret
the idea of who's receiving the letters and they see things that
Paul says, therefore welcome them in a worthy of the calling
which you've been called. See there brother James, you better preach that junk before
people go to hell. Nah, I preach that junk to the
people who will never go to hell. You see, and it ain't junk. That's
just I'm mocking some unknown person that I've never heard. I preach that to those who will
never go to hell. That's called exhortation. That's called admonishment. And brothers and sisters, according
to Paul, it's encouragement. It's encouragement. this Pelagianism has moved to
become the new traditionalism, and brothers and sisters, it's
become the new Calvinism. It's become the new Calvinism.
Many people who hold the title of Calvinistic or Reformed and
this, that, and the other, they come to this idea of sola fide,
sola gratia, and all these other Italian-sounding Latin phrases. Yet they will tell them people,
Oh, the reason you know that you're born again, young sister,
is because you want to do what is right. You know, I want to do what is
right so my dad will be proud of me. I want to do what is right
so my kids will be proud of me. I want to do what is right so
I don't go to jail. I want to do what is right so that I can
be thought well of in the community, as I'm instructed to do. And
I want to do what is right because God has given me a heart to know
the difference. But that ain't proof of nothing.
Because every Mormon, every Jehovah's Witness, every Roman Catholic,
every Muslim, every Buddhist, every Hare Krishna, everybody
in the world, even atheists, have a standard of morality that
is equivocal to the Ten Commandments of God. Because their own God
they give no other but their own God. And we see that fleshed out in
what has been termed in the last 25 years as Lordship Salvation. And this is a silly term. It's a silly, silly term. It's
just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. First time I ever heard
it was when your brother Levi was a junior in high school.
I'm like, what in the world is that? And it goes something like
this. You want to be saved? There's
a condition you must meet. You must put Jesus on the throne
of your life. Where's that at in the Bible?
Anybody who puts their hand on the plow and looks back is not
worthy of the kingdom of God. How about we understand the context
of that discussion? We don't have time for it tonight,
but he's not talking about salvation. Because if he was, Peter is damned,
because he went a fishing. So you see, when we believe something
says something and we can't find an example of it anywhere in
Scripture, we're wrong. That's what it means. We're wrong.
So this lordship salvation is nothing but Pelagianism infused
into Reformed traditions, infused into Arminianism, infused into
Calvinism. And it's like you know that you
know that you know that you have eternal life by faith alone, but you better
get busy to prove it. You know that you're born again
because God is transforming your life. What if you were a pretty
good person before you ever came to faith? I mean, if I was in
the process of just, like, killing five people a week and hiding
their bodies in my glove box, I mean, yes, when God saved me,
I'm going to stop doing that. That's obvious. Don't check my
glove box. But what else is required of
me? You know what? Nothing's required of me to put away anything
that Christ has not already put away in His death. To put on
the new man is to be born again. to crucify the flesh is to know
that you're crucified in Christ. To be transformed is by the renewing
of your mind in the reality of what Christ has accomplished
for us as a finished work. That's Romans 12, 1 and 2. And
that is the gospel. So we cling to the cross of Christ
when we see what? Any sin that doesn't lead to death. 1
John 5. And some people put this lordship
mindset and they actually need to stop using that term because
it's so silly. Jesus, you must make Him Lord.
He's Lord of the devil. He's Lord of Satan, so Satan's
saved because he's made Jesus Lord. Nobody makes Jesus Lord.
He is the Lord. He is Adonai. Sovereign king, he rules it all.
Nothing happens outside his purview. Nothing happens outside his decrees.
Nothing happens outside his plan. Nothing. But I'm learning that
very few people actually believe this, even those who wear the
name tag of Reformed. And then by the very fact that
I say these things, people say, oh, you're an antinomian. Who
said that? Go ahead, dance your little sinful rebellion. Let's
see what happens when this church goes, what are you doing? Don't
dance like that. I'm so sorry, I don't want to
dance like that. I'll just kick you out! But they put a condition. I want
to call it conditional election. Where did that come from? The
remonstrance of Arminius. And what's the root of that?
Pelagianism. In other words, we must make
a condition. We must meet a condition in order to be saved. And that's
a lie. The covenant is between God and the Son. God the Father
and God the Son. The covenant is between God and
He has set the conditions by which He can forgive and be just
in justifying the people that have been sinful and are sinful
in nature and essence and practice. And the devil permits and breeds
in people who are unconverted this idea of freedom of will
and freedom of choice over the sovereignty of God because they
put God on fairness trial and fairness cannot indict sovereign. And then they argue, well, that's
how we stay in the faith. preserve ourselves. No, we persevere
because of the seal of the Holy Spirit. God will not destroy
that which has Himself in it. That's us. We're the temple. We're the pillars
of the temple. What about faith? You've got
to believe. You've got to believe in a certain
way and you can't believe until you turn from your sins and all this stuff.
They just put condition after condition after condition. You
must turn from your sins. You've heard that. That's a lie. When God brings you alive and
then you are aware of the grace and the mercy of God and the
finished work of Christ, that He is your propitiation. And
I hope you know what that word means because we teach it all
the time. When you see that, then and only then are you able
to say, wow, I need to put away that sin. And you might say it
today, but then five days from now you might go, no, I really
like that. Well, I know I'm supposed to be kind and gentle and at
peace, but I'm about to rip that man's head off. And even if we
don't do it, we're still sinful for desiring it. And that was verbally. I mean,
y'all don't think I got bodies stashed everywhere. So where do we go from here?
What do we do? Well, why don't we go where Scripture teaches?
Why don't we understand that exhortation is for the regenerate? Why don't we understand that
admonishment and correction and rebuke are for the church? Why
don't we understand that it's for people who can never be condemned,
can never be lost, can never go to hell, and no matter what
they're doing in their life, there is a sin that leads to death,
and that sin is any sin of an unbeliever. We see Cain and Abel,
and we see Esau and Jacob. We see all these different people
where election and the purpose of election might stand. Election
is salvation and election is not conditioned on what we do
with what we're given. Election is conditioned unconditionally
on the sovereignty of God and the pleasure of His will. And
the words and the context, they show meaning and people will
argue. And recently even I've spent
hours writing several different people about this issue because
they ask me. And then when I give them the
answers, they rebuke me and mock me. And I'm done. Do not cast your pearls before
swine, lest they turn and render you. Dust your feet off and let the
dust settle and leave town. It's not unloving, it's obedient. Where do we go from that? What
about elder oversight? Pastors who give oversight to
the Word and teaching the body to do the work of the ministry,
which involves understanding how we're to relate together
and live together for the glory of God. So all of these things
work. Congregational intimacy. You know where most correction
and church discipline takes place? With relationships within the
context of the local assembly. Like people have told me many
times, don't get angry in the preaching. Your anger and your emphasis
is not going to make it. That's why this monitor is important,
because if I don't think you can hear me, they can hear me
across the street at Hoodies, because I'm going to get louder. That's
where I learned to preach, is outside. So it's still there. But no matter how loud I get,
no matter how passionate I get, it's not going to change you. It's
not going to teach you. What will teach you is the Holy Spirit
of God through the teaching of the Word. You haven't experienced God with
some movement of a man acting crazy or getting emotional any
more than you've experienced God if I read a transcript right
up here like this and sound like Max Hedrum. For the older folks
in the room, you know who that is. What about the fact that we're
never to condemn a believer? We're never to condemn a believer,
we're always to encourage a believer. Even when we have to correct
a believer through expulsion, we are not announcing and pronouncing
condemnation on them. But what does Paul say? That
God may grant them repentance and save them from the snare
of the devil. And they may very well be unbelievers because they
surely aren't listening, but we and ourselves do not know
that. But we treat them as if they are, pray for them in that
manner, and evangelize them accordingly. And beloved, I think we need
to begin to evangelize and pray for those who refuse the truth with patience and kindness and
long-suffering, and that includes one's assurance of salvation.
That includes the fact that this demonic heresy that's orchestrated
by the enemy from the very first people needs to be approached
carefully and lovingly, but it needs to be stamped out. Not
everyone who calls the name of Christ is our brother and sister
in Christ. Oh, but the Bible says everyone
who calls upon the name of the Lord, you just keep chanting then and
see how far it takes you. Context, context, context. The
good news is that God is sovereign. He's even made the wicked for
the day of judgment, for the day of evil. And He will not
lose any of us, but He will teach all of us. He will teach His
people so that we shall know the truth. And that truth, as
Jesus says in John 8, will set us free. What will it set us
free from? Sin and death and self-righteousness
and religion and everything else that comes along with being lost
in the world. Let's pray. We love you, Father. We thank you, God, for, in some
sense, a short hiatus of Romans, and I pray that you've been glorified
and honored in the teaching of these two weeks, dealing with
some doctrinal things and some historical theology. Father,
I pray that it would help us to grow, and most of all, help
us to worship. Lord, I desperately continue
to pray for our body that we would just become more intimate
and more aware of the truth of Christ and passionate about Your
Word. Work that in us, Lord, even if
it's through pain and suffering, knowing that it is sovereignly
orchestrated for our good to the praise of Your glorious grace.
We pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen.