Part 2
Calvinism:
understanding John 6 and the rest of scripture regarding your sin, your
salvation, the power of God, the power of man, the power of the cross, and how
to get out of bed in the morning a believer
I.
Review
A.
Submitting to the bible
B.
5 points
C.
Total Depravity
D.
Free Will? (TD vs. the Arminian doctrine)
i. Definition
of TD – man is so dead in sin that he cannot convert himself or prepare himself
thereunto
ii. Spiritual
Freedom vs. Action Freedom
i. Conclusion:
Human beings are so spiritually dead in sin that we are bound for eternal
destruction and cannot do anything about it (on our own).
II.
Irresistible Grace
A.
Definition
i. “this
doctrine asserts that the Holy Spirit never fails to bring to salvation those
sinners whom He personally calls to Christ. He inevitably applies salvation to
every sinner whom He intends to save, and it is His intention to save all the
elect.”
ii. WCF:
All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased,
in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and
Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to
grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and
savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and
giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by his almighty
power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to
Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his
grace.
B.
Scripture
Grace
Can Be Resisted Until God Wills to Overcome Resistance
Acts 7:51
You men
who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting
the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Ephesians 4:30
Do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.
1 Thessalonians
5:19
Do not
quench the Spirit.
Romans 10:21
But as
for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a
disobedient and obstinate people.”
Story of lesbian woman who had a great
life and didn’t want to be converted was converted by pastor.
How were you converted?
What is the difference between you and the
unbeliever you talk with everyday?
Are you smarter because you chose Christ?
Does the success of evangelism rest solely
in your hands?
Six Arguments for Irresistible Grace
Argument #1:
Faith and repentance are a gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by
grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 12:3
For
through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more
highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
2 Timothy 2:24-26
The
Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach,
patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if
perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will.
Acts 11:18
When
they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God
has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
Acts 16:14
A woman
named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper
of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things
spoken by Paul.
2 Chronicles
30:6-12
(Hezekiah’s call for repentance)
“O sons
of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may
return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of
Assyria. Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the LORD
and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD
your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you. For if you return to
the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led
them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious
and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to
Him.” So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim
and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked
them. Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves
and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart
to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.
Argument # 2:
We cannot come to Christ unless God draws us.
John 6:44
No one
can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up
on the last day.
John 6:63-65
“It is
the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have
spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not
believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe,
and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I
have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him
from the Father.”
Argument # 3:
God’s effectual calling overcomes resistance to the gospel.
1 Corinthians
1:22-24
Indeed,
Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ
crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those
who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God.
Argument # 4:
The new birth enables us to receive Christ.
1 John 5:1
Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born [literally: perfect tense, “has been
born”] of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.
John 1:11-13
He came
to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to
those who believe [= are believing] in His name, who were born, not of blood
nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3
Jesus
answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be
born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and
be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind
blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it
comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Argument # 5:
The New Covenant promises grace that will triumph over resistance.
Deuteronomy
29:2-4 (The
problem with the Old Covenant)
And
Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the LORD
did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and
all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and
wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes
to see, nor ears to hear.”
Deuteronomy 30:6
Moreover
the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants,
to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that
you may live.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
“Behold,
days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made
with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house
of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them
and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people.”
Jeremiah 32:40
I will
make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to
do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will
not turn away from Me.
Ezekiel 11:19-20
And I
will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the
heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may
walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My
people, and I shall be their God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
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.
Argument # 6:
Who then can resist his will?
Romans 9:14-23
What
shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For
He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man
who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says
to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in
you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then
He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say
to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the
contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will
not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not
the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel
for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, though willing to
demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the
riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for
glory.
C.
Explained
i. General
Calling:
The gospel invitation extends a general call to salvation to everyone who
hears its message. This invitation promises salvation to all who repent and
believe.
But this call will not bring sinners to Christ because people are by
nature dead in sin and unable and unwilling to forsake their evil ways and turn
to Christ. No external power can cause such a dead person to respond.
ii. Effectual
Calling:
The Holy Spirit, in order to bring God’s elect to salvation, extends to
them a special inward call in addition to the outward call contained in the
gospel message. Through this special call, the Holy Spirit performs a work of
grace within the sinner which enables him to understand and believe spiritual
truth, gives him eyes to see and ears to hear, creates within him a new heart
and nature, and renews his will (ie. regeneration or new birth). By this act
the sinner also spontaneously comes to Christ of his own free choice as a
result of his regeneration.
David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, and S. Lance Quinn, The
Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented (Phillipsburg:
P&R, 2004).
John Piper, TULIP: The Pursuit of God's Glory in
Salvation (DVD series)
Westminster Standards
Canons of Dort
Belgic Confession
Heidelberg Catechism
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