So, I've introduced Dr. Lawson,
I've introduced Dr. Nichols, and I have two representatives
here today from the People's Republic of California. Of course, you all know Dr. Joel
Kim, and sir, I'm sorry, what was, who's this? Oh, that's right. What did R.C. always call you?
Johnny Mac, is that right? He called me Johnny Mac, but
he also called me Boris. Yes, that's right. Now that you've
brought that up, you're going to have to tell the story. Well,
some years ago, Boris Yeltsin, the premier, whatever title is
of Russia, climbed up on a tank in Moscow and stopped some revolution. And so he always felt that I
was the guy who would stand up and fight the heretics. So he
nicknamed me Boris. Actually, last spring and summer,
as we saw what was developing there, I thought, there goes
Boris again. I'm always looking for a tank to
stand on. The way the church has had to
respond through all of these different changing circumstances,
it certainly differs in various parts around the world, and we're
grateful for the boldness and the church's commitment to continue
to meet. Church is essential, and that
is a message that we certainly resonate with, and we're just
grateful that you've been able to be with us, Dr. MacArthur,
and to be with us, Dr. Kim. Dr. Kim serves as president
at Westminster Seminary, California, and you're the fourth president
there. Is that right? I am, and if you
know anything about the institution, the three predecessors were Robert
Strimple, Robert Dendulk and Robert Godfrey. I don't know
if you noticed the pattern there. They're all Roberts. Can I call
you Bob? Well, this is where our dear
friend Bob Godfrey, when I was appointed and making the announcement,
suggested that I change my middle name to Robert so that they could
call me Joel Bob or JB. And so I go by any of those things
just to stay in line. We're off to a good start this
afternoon. If you've never been to one of
our Ligonier conferences before and never seen our time of Q&A,
it's a time where we try and get through as many of your questions
as possible and try and use this to kind of elaborate on some
things that have already been said, but also to have broader
and wider range of discussion as well. One of the things that
we talk about often, it's in Ligonier's vision statement,
is to propagate the Reformed faith. to propagate the Reformed
faith to the church throughout the world. But let's just not
take any assumptions here that people know what we're talking
about when we talk about the Reformed faith. And so, I'll
just throw it out for anyone who wants to jump in here. Can
you briefly explain the tenets of Reformed theology, and does
Reformed theology continue to reform? I think the place where it begins,
and more can be added to this, but I think it does begin to
define Reformed theology with the five solas of the Reformation.
Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Christos, Sola
Deo Gloria. And I think that that was a minimalist
statement of the gospel, that salvation is by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone,
based upon the teaching of Scripture alone. And so the Reformation,
Reformed theology, obviously coming out of the Reformation,
was first and foremost a recovery of the authority of Scripture.
that it is not Scripture and the church, not Scripture and
tradition, not Scripture and the pope, but it is Scripture
alone. And then the next three solas
define really who is in the kingdom of God and who is not in the
kingdom of God, who is going to heaven and who is not going
to heaven, and salvation is by grace alone, not grace and anything
that would have been added by the Roman Catholic Church, whether
that be being born in the church, married in the church, whether
that be indulgences, whether that be prayers to saints, whether
it be treasury of merit, whether that be even last rites, whatever,
that it is solely by what God, and God alone has done through
His Son, is the merit of salvation, and it is received exclusively
by faith alone, not faith and water baptism, not faith and
church membership, not faith and good works. It is by faith
alone, and that faith is a repentant faith that recognizes the lordship
of Christ and submits the life unto Christ. and then it is in
Christ alone. It's not in Christ and the church,
not in Christ and any saints. It is in Christ alone. Only that
is for the glory of God. Any departure from that is, as
Stephen said in his first message, is really a damnable message. And so, the Reformation was really
all about a recovery of that gospel and how sinful man can
find acceptance with holy God. It was further specified by what
we would call the five points of Calvinism or the five doctrines
of grace, which is looking at it from another angle what God
has done to save sinners, that man is wretched and totally depraved,
unable to save himself nor commend himself to God, even unable to
believe. being dead and trespasses in
sin, that God the Father chose His elect before time, God the
Son died for these elect upon the cross, and God the Holy Spirit
brings conviction of sin and regenerates those that are spiritually
dead and trespasses in sin. So, it's a Trinitarian work,
as Stephen brought out this morning. And then finally, it is a work,
it is a lasting work that endures throughout time and eternity,
and one can never fall away from that grace. Now, other things
can be added to that in R.C.' 's book, What Is Reformed Theology? adds some other specifics and
nuances to that, but at its base entry level, I think Reformed
theology falls within those confines, and you can also add the doctrine
of providence that the Reformers saw that God was sovereign over
not only salvation, but over the building of the church, over
the affairs of this world, and administrates His own eternal
decree by bringing to pass whatsoever He foreordained. So, it goes
down to the very events and circumstances of life. And so, it's a…the question
is simple, and we could have a whole series of conferences
on just answering what that is. There were some diversity as
you build out, but at the very epicenter of that, those five
solas and those five doctrines of grace, I think, form the infrastructure
And again, that going back to eternity past and even an inter-Trinitarian
agreement before time began and the carrying out of all of this. So, I'll just hop in to begin
that. Sorry for the long answer, but
it's a great answer. if I humbly say so myself, because
it is the truth, and we need to shout that from the housetops. LARSON So the follow-up to that was,
does Reformed theology continue to Reform? We've heard about
Semper Reformanda, I was going to stay quiet the whole day today.
That was my job. I have brothers here who are
more learned and smarter than I am, and I want to learn from
them as well. Oftentimes, as we discuss Reformed theology,
and in particular this phrase, church always reforming, it's
used often to indicate a desire for certain change or certain
ways of responding to present-day change. That is to say that the
church should adapt and adopt to the new situation, giving
answer to what's taking place. Now, that's a very admirable
goal, and I think many of us can agree that what we understand
about our theology and teachings of Scripture should address the
challenges as well as the needs of our time. But it's often misused
in this way, that is to say that it indicates that the church
must be flexible in terms of what it believes in and where
it stands. And I don't think that was the
intention of the use of the phrase. Dr. Lawson was so articulately
describing the core understandings of doctrines of grace I would
be one of those guys that might add a few things to it in terms
of remembering that that is a part of the larger sovereignty of
God at work. And even further, that's because
Scripture is at the base of all these things where the authority
of the Word becomes the basis for all that we do. And I bring
that up in particular, that phrase is, church is always reforming,
is actually a passive notion. The church's being Reformed is
the idea. But being Reformed also indicates
that there is an external agency involved. It's not the church
simply wanting to change for the sake of change, but it's
being changed from that which is outside. That is, God in His
Word is the one that continues to inform uphold and grow the
church. And so, as an understanding of
the growing maturity of the church upon the foundation of the Word,
it's an agreeable phrase that I think articulates our desire
to be faithful articulators of our faith to every generation,
and not just the previous generations. But as an articulation of church's
flexibility, which is oftentimes used, I don't think that's the
case. It's about sovereign God through His Word, establishing
the church, and strengthening and growing it is the idea that's
implied. LARSON How or in what way are
we made in the image of God? Well, I…pardon? Yeah, what did
I say? What were you thinking of specifically?
Well, you had three key words that define that. No, you got
it. Do you remember them? I'm trying to remember back to
that sermon. It was phenomenal. It was three weeks ago. pretty
sad. Well, the ways that come to mind,
first of all, in that we are designed for that is being created in the
image of God. God is a trinity. Let us make
man in our own image. So, unique to all creation, we
can establish relationships. Relationships that basically
carry the rich realities of life. I think secondly, we can create. Animals do what they do by instinct,
but they have no creative powers. But when you look at the human
realm, the gap between whatever the highest form of animal is
and what man is, is this massive, massive gap in which there's
nothing created. And by creation, I don't mean
you create something in the divine sense, you make something exist
that never existed, nor did its components exist, but rather
that you can take all that exists and out of that create. that
it's not just a matter of instinctively reproducing the same exact behaviors
in the same exact environments. That's why there's music and
there's art and there's science and there's medicine and, well,
there's all forms of learning, all forms of knowledge, vast,
incomprehensible. I was talking to a girl last
Sunday who as a mathematician with a Ph.D. in math, and she
was talking to me in language I did not understand, and not
in the least did I understand. I didn't even know the vocabulary.
But she is one of the most brilliant minds in math. She works for
Google X and is a believer. And we think about God, we think
about Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament
shows His handiwork, day and night declare His glory, the
sun takes the solar system across its own orbit, and all of that
shows God. And as laypeople, with minimum
observable capacity, with minimum, I should say, observational capacity,
we can see that. But what you can't see, she can
see. because she goes down to the
very depths of the mathematical structure of the universe in
ways that were absolutely beyond my comprehension, and all she
discovers there is God, the glory of God in the micro, in the minutia,
in the smallest possible conceivable way. Everything is mathematically
connected. and the schemes are absolutely
inviolable and invariable. And so she sees the order of
God at a depth that I don't see it, but that's because she is
given by God the creative, the powers, along with intellectual
powers, to plumb the depths of things that nonhumans could never
ever plunge to. So those are the two things that
come to mind when I think about created in the image of God.
And the other thing that I would emphasize is that we are eternal. We live forever, and that is
the lasting way in which we bear the image of God. Did I get it? Yes, sir. You got it. Don't mind us. We spend a lot
of time kidding each other. LARSON Do you have to hold knowledge
of the gospel to be saved? And the follow-up question, I
think, informs where they were trying to take that. Do you have
to hold knowledge of the gospel to be saved? Can those with intellectual
disabilities be saved? You know, as I… I think a couple of things. I think,
number one, as we look in Scripture, we do have the simplicity of
the sinner's prayer. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And I think there is a basic
realization there, and I think that's different than someone
who is knowingly rejecting a proposition of the gospel, has maybe explored
the doctrine of the incarnation, and has adopted an heretical
view of Christ as the God-man. I think we can see that as a
barrier and a hindrance to the gospel, while not expecting anyone
to have a saving faith, to have the articulation of a Nicene
Chalcedonian formulation of the incarnation. So as I think about
this notion of the propositions that are necessary to the gospel,
that are necessary to a saving faith, I think we can distinguish
between those that are rejecting the propositions and then that
simple plea, that simple sinner's prayer, Lord, have mercy on me,
and recognizing my sinfulness and recognizing my substitute,
and maybe not able to articulate a full Christological statement,
but recognizing those fundamental truths. R.C. Sproul, Jr. Yeah,
I think just to emphasize what you said this morning, you can't
believe a false gospel and be saved. But you can believe the
true gospel without a full understanding of every aspect of the full gospel
because we would all agree that probably every one of us was
saved with a less than complete understanding of all the richness
of the gospel. Maybe this is something that
will help people continually ask, practically, how do you
present the gospel? How should we present the gospel? And I would just give you just
a simple little pattern to think of. You have one access point
to a sinner, and only one, and that is the sinner knows he's
a sinner, because the law of God is written in his heart,
and his conscience accuses him. You have no access with regard
to the gospel in the sense of who God is or who Christ is because
that knowledge is alien to him. He understands not the things
of God. But what the sinner does understand is his own sin. And
that is why life is so hard for the sinner. That is why there's
so little satisfaction, fulfillment, hope, joy, meaning, significance. That is why He drinks, takes
drugs, changes partners, because there's a wretchedness in His
own soul. Look, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked, and who can know it in
the sense that you know it well enough to do something to change
it? But the sinner knows he's a sinner. So, the only possible
way you can initially approach a sinner and have him affirm
you is to confront the sinfulness of that person. That's why the
Apostle Paul says that he proclaims the manifestation of the truth
in 2 Corinthians 4, and even commends himself to nonbelievers. How do you commend the gospel
to a nonbeliever? How do you get a nonbeliever
to say, wow, that's the truth? not by preaching the resurrection
at first, not by preaching the deity of Christ. You commend
yourself to the sinner with regard to the gospel when you tell the
sinner what he already knows, that he is sinful. And the first
thing you do then is to confront the sinner at the point of contact
of his sin, call for repentance and the cost of repentance. Okay,
that's the entry point. Do you understand that you're
a sinner? Do you desire to be delivered from the presence,
power, and consequence of your sin? Here's the cost of that
repentance. The second thing is to say, God
has made a provision, if you repent, for you to be forgiven
and delivered from that sin. That's where you talk about the
person and work of Christ. And then the next thing you say
with joy is, if you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and His work, God promises to forgive your sin and take you
into eternal heaven. That, I think, puts the point
of contact at the only place that it's viable for the sinner. You say, well, the sinner may
reject that confrontation. There's nowhere else to go, right?
You don't need a Savior if you don't know you're a sinner. What
are you being saved from? Only those crushed, broken under
the weight of their own sin, fearing the judgment of God,
flee to the salvation that's offered. So, I think that first
approach identifies whether the Spirit of God at that point has
prepared that heart. How else do you know that the
Spirit has done the work that you can't do? You can throw the
seed. You can't plow the soil. So how do you know when the Spirit's
prepared a heart? When there's an eagerness for
repentance, a willingness to pay the price of repentance because
the desperation is that high, and all they want to know is,
what do I do to be saved? Related to that, a question came
in, we know that regeneration is all a work of God, but can
people affect when they or others are regenerated? LAWSON No, that's
solely in God's hand. The one who is dead in trespasses
and sin has no moral ability whatsoever. And the new birth is what we
call a monergistic regeneration. not synergistic where there are
two operating parties, God and the sinner. It's monergistic
in that there is only one active agent, capital A, at work in
the new birth, and that is God. And so, the sinner has no more
ability to determine the time of his spiritual birth than he
had ability to determine the time of his physical birth. There's
nothing that any of us have done to determine when in history
we were physically born into this world. That was exclusively
a sovereign choice by God that was made before time began, and
there is no plan B. There is no plan C. is only plan
A. And so, the same is absolutely
true with the new birth. God has appointed the time of
our entrance into His kingdom, not only that we would enter
the kingdom, but God has orchestrated all of the events of the sinner's
life not only when they would be born again, but who would
bring the gospel to them, what the verse would be that God would
use as the entry point into their heart. God was in control of
whatever was going on in their life, if they were being humbled,
if they were being traumatized, whatever. That's all in God's
hand. And so, He makes us willing in
the day of His power. And so, that's why when we get
to heaven and we are given a crown, it'll be on our head for about
half of a millisecond, and it'll be immediately tossed back at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ because He and the Father and
the Spirit They determined when we would be saved. They determined
that we would be saved. They determined everything. They
executed everything. They brought everything to pass.
And so, there is no way that the sinner, even through initial
resistance to the work of the Spirit, No sinner is greater
than God. God is the Almighty. He is omnipotent. And so, God brings about our
new birth at exactly the millisecond He so sovereignly desires. Some
of us were converted in our youth. Others of us were regenerated
in college. Others in a latter year in life. and all of that was foreordained
and predetermined by sovereign God in heaven. So, therefore,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, it all goes back to
God. From Him, through Him, and to
Him are all things. To God be the glory forever and
ever. Amen. cessationism. Please explain
it. So, this is related to the sign
gifts, and it's the view that the sign gifts have ceased, that
they were there in the apostolic age in the life of the church.
That is, that you put this in a biblical theological context,
you see that signs or miracles or wonders were there to give
attestation to the prophet, to give attestation to the message.
And so, we don't see them all over the Bible. We see them at
specific moments where God is breaking in in redemptive history. We see them in the lives of the
prophets as they come along and give the prophetic message and
then are verified by these signs. And so it was with the apostles. And so the sign gifts functioned. As that apostolic era was then
coming to a close with the canon of Scripture, those sign gifts
have fulfilled their purposes and have ceased. And so, we call
that view cessationism. The other side of the coin is
non-cessationism that sees those sign gifts continuing in the
life of the church. And the challenge with that non-cessationist
view is ultimately, I believe, it's a challenge to the sufficiency
of Scripture, that we have in Scripture all that we need for
life and godliness, and we don't need these signs to come along.
And it's very fascinating, even as you look at the author of
the book of Hebrews, early on in those verses of the opening
of Hebrews, speaks of how it was to them, the apostles that
were the signs and the wonders that it was attested to. And
there's even a distancing there as Hebrews is one of the later
New Testament epistles. And so, we see it even within
the canon of Scripture, this reflection on the purpose of
the sign gifts. But cessationism is the sign
gifts have ceased with the apostolic era and the closing of the canon. Just to add a footnote, and that's
exactly right, but to help you with that in the contemporary
setting, the only people who openly and publicly claim sign
gifts have bad theology. And if God was going to validate
anybody, it wouldn't be them. LARSON At what level should pastors
and leaders within the church be open about their own sin or
failures? Are there dangers of too much
versus too little public confession? Well, as a point of beginning,
I think it depends on what the sin is, number one, and second,
how widely it is known. If a pastor falls into immorality,
he's disqualified from pastoral ministry, and I think that as
he resigns from his church, there needs to be a full confession
of his sin, that for which he has fallen into. If the pastor,
in driving to church, misses a green light and is frustrated
and hits the steering wheel, I don't think that needs to be,
you know, confessed before the church. I mean, those would be
the two opposite ends of the spectrum. And I think probably
at times that there are excesses in both directions. I think there
are times that pastors give me way too much detail, almost glorifying
the sin in some ways. on one end of the spectrum, and
there have been times in my pastorate where I've had to get into the
pulpit the next week after I have misused my tongue in humor, for
example, and because my sin was before the whole church, as I
would improperly use humor to have the whole church laugh at
one person from the pulpit. then the next week I knew I needed
to get back into the same setting before the same congregation
and confess that I had misused my tongue from the previous Sunday. I don't think there's a hard,
fast formula on this. And I think every person's conscience
is a factor and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but I don't
think every sin needs to be laundered in front of the congregation.
I don't think that's of any help, and I think it's a false humility,
quite frankly, or an incredible spiritual immaturity. to think
that everything needs to be paraded. But there are times that I think,
depending upon the sin and the setting, that you do need to. I agree with everything Dr. Lawson
said. I think there's…it's a wisdom
call in terms of how much and what. We live in a generation
and time where authenticity, transparency, these are all things
and traits that are heralded. And in many ways, that's helpful,
but I think it's a wisdom call as to how much and what. If I
can take it from a different angle and perhaps add to it this
way, There is, and part of that is my own upbringing as well,
part of that is what we see in our church community, there is
a sort of a separation and distancing of the pastor and the pastorate
versus the lay. and the self-isolation of the
pastors because they feel uncomfortable, or at least they're concerned,
to be able to openly share some of the concerns and the sins
that perhaps that they're struggling with. And this is not an, you
know, I'm not advocating that we somehow share these things
widely and openly to all the congregation members. It's not
what I mean by it. But I do think, given where we
are, and especially in the setting in which we are training future
pastors as well, their honesty about their own sins and being
able to be with people with whom they can be honest and not just
be isolated in their ministry is also very important, not only
for their spiritual health, but longevity as well. I see a lot
of my peers, you know, when you're slightly younger, I think there
are great aspirations about what you might want to do, and every
seminarian graduates with hopes and dreams about how the Lord
might use them. And then you reach a certain
point where my dad was in ministry for decades, my grandfather stayed
in one church for 39 years. At that point, your mindset is,
I want to finish well. That's the goal. I want to finish
the race well, faithfully, and lift up the name of Christ Jesus
in my ministry and my life. And in order to run that race,
forgive me, I probably am least qualified to speak on this. They
need a group of people with whom they can be honest about these
things. So, if we're talking about honesty in pastoral ministry
and sinfulness with the congregation, that's completely a wisdom call
to what degree and what when it comes to the need for that
honesty and transparency with people. I think that's a necessary
way to sustain the marriage by God's…I mean, not marriage, but
ministry by God's grace. But in order to do that, you
do need to be surrounded with people that you can be honest
to. What does discipleship, what
does discipleship practically look like in the local church?
How are the elders to model discipleship specifically with the individual
members of their congregation? Is the Jesus with His disciples
or the Paul-Timothy relationship, are they a practical model of
life-on-life practical discipleship? That's something that we've worked
a lot on. You have to remember the Great
Commission is to go make disciples, and how do you do that? By teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So discipleship
is simply the process of teaching. The Greek word is mathētēs, and
it means learner. So, sometimes I think we assume
that discipleship is primarily just the mentoring practical
side. It's really passing on divine
truth because people live and make decisions based on convictions. There's a process with the truth.
At first you understand it, then you believe it, then it takes
over your life because it becomes a conviction, and then the next
step would be affection. For new believers, first comes
understanding, and then comes belief, and then you want to
get to the point of conviction, and then you want them to mature
to the point of affection. So, full discipleship would be
where you love the truth, where you have passed down the love
of the truth. And I think discipleship then
at its primary heart is content-based. It's based on passing the truth
of the Word of God, the living and abiding Word of God to someone
else. And we tell our people, find
somebody who knows more than you do and learn from them. Find
somebody who knows less than you do and teach them what you
know. everybody should be in the flow of passing on the truth. And so as a church, you know,
we would find every conceivable way to put people together in
every kind of group there is with that as the goal all the
time, no matter what the group definition is. It might be a
home Bible study. It might be a fellowship group,
a Sunday school class. It might be a men's group, a
women's group. It's always geared around making the Word of God
clear, passing the Word of God down so that it becomes the truth
that eventually becomes their conviction and their love. And
the other thing about discipleship is sometimes you can do it without
personal contact. I have to believe as a pastor
that I have discipled many people that I've never met. We were up in Oklahoma City eating
at the stockyards. Some guy took us to a Cattleman's
Steakhouse. It's one of those, you know,
highfalutin' places where the steaks are $7.95. And this waiter's waiting on us.
He's a big, burly, oaky guy. And he heard the man who had
taken us there, pastor, refer to me as MacArthur. He said,
are you John MacArthur? And I said, yes, I am. No, what am I doing in this hokey
steakhouse in Oklahoma? Anyway, long story short, his
name is Billy Jack. and Billy Jack was so overwhelmed
because he came to Christ listening to me preach, and he told me,
27 years an alcoholic, and then he's been saved, and he's had
no desire for that, he only desires the Word, and then he said, could
I hug you? And I'm sitting down in this
sunken booth, you know, and he pounced and hugged me. And I
thought to myself, this small, encouraging, sweet providence
had nothing to do with me knowing him at all, but it did have to
do with me passing the truth on to Him so that He felt a life
connection to me. So, it's about the truth, and it's
about doing everything you can to put the truth in someone's
life, and it's even more powerful and effective if you do know
them personally because you can undergird the truth with how
you live. And so, it happens when you're
not around through the mechanism of the media, but it happens
with an even greater intensity when you are life on life. LARSON
What counts as the gospel going to all the nations? Is it Reformed
theology and the understanding of the gospel, or is it simply
an open call to repentance? Well, the gospel is what Stephen
laid out for us in the first message so well, and to reduce
it down, it's basically, you're a great sinner and Christ is
a great Savior. And the only way you may have
the great salvation that the great Savior has come to provide
is through repentance and faith, which is exactly what John said
in his earlier answer. What Reformed theology does is
it brings it more sharply into focus, what God has done and
who you are and the full ramifications It's like going from black and
white to seven color. And so, Reformed theology really
opens up the lens and gives the most vibrant picture of this
salvation. However, you don't have to be
a Calvinist in order to be saved. There are Calvinists in hell
who never truly believe the gospel, and there are Arminians in heaven
who have believed the gospel. but we love Reformed theology
because it's biblical theology, and it causes the brilliant colors
of the gospel to shine more brightly. The darkness of sin is even darker
when you understand total depravity. The glory of grace shines even
brighter when you understand it was from eternity past, and
what Christ actually came to do upon the cross with a definite
atonement. and the irresistible effectual
call of the Holy Spirit, it causes you to glory in that gospel all
the more, and that you can never fall away from this grace once
you are enfolded into this work of God. But that takes place
usually after conversion, that you grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you understand all the more what
it is that God has done. But you don't have to, in order
to be saved, you don't have to understand all of the nuances
of Reformed theology. That's a part of really a progressive
sanctification for the most part. And the fact is, I mean, I'm
still learning and Stephen's still learning. We're all still
learning the height and depth and the breadth and the length
of the love of God towards us in Christ. But nevertheless,
even a child can be saved because they've put their faith and trust
in the One who has died for them upon the cross and are painfully
aware that I have sinned and violated the holiness of God,
and I desperately need His grace. But I think we need to make a
distinction, you know, between those two, the gospel and then
the fuller, the full counsel of God, the full purpose of God
in Reformed theology. If we talk about, as was talked
about earlier, the sovereignty of God as the wraparound, you
might think, well, you don't want to get into the sovereignty
of God in evangelism. That's way too much. And then
you go back and read John 3. And Jesus is evangelizing Nicodemus,
and Nicodemus says, okay, what do I do to be born again? And
Jesus says, He didn't say pray this prayer. He said, the wind
blows where it wills, and we hear the sound of it. It comes
and goes. So is the Holy Spirit. What a bizarre answer. I don't
think you've ever had an evangelism class that would have taught
you to give that answer. The basic answer was you don't
do anything to be saved. It's the will of God through
the work of the Spirit, and God chooses whom He saves. Jesus told Nicodemus that he
could do nothing. He didn't give him a prayer to
pray. He said, this is the work of the Spirit of God, and He
does it to whom He will, when He will. That is Jesus evangelizing
at the very essential point that you have to establish this is
the sovereign work of God. You don't activate it by say
these words, pray this prayer, you cry out to God to be gracious
and save you by His own will.