The Doctrine of Absolute Inability Oct 4

The perseverance of the saints 1 Aug 29/04
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-270/~/about
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory
blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty,
dominion and authority, before all time now and forever. Amen.” Jude closed out his epistle with that
great statement that we are kept from falling. We are kept by God, and therefore deserves all the glory.
That introduced us to a doctrine that is known as, The perseverance of the saints. True believers will
persevere in faith to the end. Often that doctrine is called the “doctrine of eternal security.” Sometimes
it’s sort of cryptically said, “Once saved, always saved.” And, of course, all of those things are true.
This is a historic doctrine, it’s the most important component of salvation, because if salvation were not
permanent, then the doctrine of election would be called into question; the doctrine of justification would
be called into question; the doctrine of sanctification would be called into question; and the doctrine of
glorification would be called into question; the calling of God would be called into question; therefore,
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit would all be called into question as well.
And so, what makes the whole of the doctrines of salvation come together and stay together is the
eternality of salvation, the perseverance of the saints. And this has been the historic doctrine of the true
church.
The place was Westminster Abbey, that famous London church. The room inside the Abbey was called
the Jerusalem Room. In 1644, there was a gathering of the best theological minds and the greatest
biblical scholars in England. The Puritans were the dominating force, lovers of Scripture, lovers of God,
lovers of Christ, lovers of truth. About a hundred of these Puritans gathered together with lords and
commoners, they embarked upon an endeavor, five years of intense study of Scripture, intense dialogue,
scholastic effort and discussion, to produce a statement of doctrine. In the year 1649, they completed
their task, producing what is known as the “Westminster Confession of Faith.”
Well-known Puritans like Thomas Goodwin, James Usher, Jay Lightfoot, Samuel Rutherford, Jeremiah
Burroughs, and the chairman of this group, a man named Twisse. It has become the most important
Christian creed called the Westminster Confession of Faith.
In that creed, among other things, is a statement about the security of salvation, about the fact that
salvation is eternal. This, they were convinced, was what the Bible taught. They didn’t call it the security
of salvation; they actually called it perseverance, and they named it correctly.
In the Westminster Confession of Faith, there is a brief and unambiguous declaration: “They whom God
hath accepted in His beloved Son, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor
finally fall away from a state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally
saved.”
That is the biblically accurate and well-summarized statement of the perseverance of the saints in the
Westminster Confession. It needs no amending; and no altering as it stands. It is biblically accurate,
supported by many scriptures. It wasn’t as if they had to look a long time to find passages of scripture;
this was only one of the things they were engaged in clarifying over those five years. But passages,
like John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has
eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in
Him should not perish, but have eternal life. He who believes in Him is not judged.”
John 3:18, “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned
already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
John 6:37-40, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will
certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who
sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose none, but raise it
up on the last day. This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him
may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
There is that monumental text in which we see that no one falls through the cracks in the process of
salvation. Whom the Father chooses He draws, whom He draws He draws to Christ. Whomever is drawn
to Christ comes, and when He comes, Christ receives Him, keeps Him, and raises Him on the last day.
John 10, “27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they
will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater
than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
Indicating the security of the believer. He knows who we are. He holds us in His hand. The Father holds
us in His hand, and no one can take us out.
John 4, “13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who
drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in
them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” It is a wellspring of eternal life.
1 Corinthians 1, “8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord.”
My sins are covered by Christ leave me blameless. God is faithful who called me to confirm me bring me
blameless to the end into His eternal presence.
1 Thessalonians 5, “23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul
and body be kept sound[f] and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you
is faithful, and he will do this.”
He was faithful to call you into salvation; He will be faithful to preserve you until that salvation is
complete.
1 John 2, “19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they
would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. 20 But
you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.”
The true believers stay and abide and remain not because they have the power on their own to do it, they
don’t. But because the same God who called them, the same God who justified them, the same God who
is sanctifying them has promised to glorify them.
The Westminster Confession accurately affirms that saving faith cannot fail. It’s crucial for us to
understand what the perseverance of the saints does not mean.
First, it does not mean that Christians don’t ever fail that Christians don’t fail seriously and severely in
OUr Christian lives. We do. What it does mean is what the confession says it means. They do not
completely nor finally fail. Fail? Yes. Fail severely? Yes. Fail repeatedly? Yes. Fail completely? No. Fail
finally? No.
The Westminster Confession went on to say this:
“Nevertheless, believers may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, through the prevalency
of corruption remaining in them, through the neglect of their means of preservation, fall into grievous
sins and, for a time, continue therein, whereby they incur God’s displeasure and grieve His Holy Spirit,
come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened and their
consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.”
The writers of the Westminster Confession understood that we are not perfect. Persevering is not to say
we are perfect. There is corruption remaining in us. There is the neglect of the means of grace. There is
stumbling into grievous sin and continuing for a time therein. There is the incurring of God’s displeasure
and grieving of the Spirit and bringing upon ourselves the deprivation of some measures of grace and
comfort. There is the reality of hardhearted sin and a wounded conscience that doesn’t function as it
should. There is the reality of hurting and scandalizing others in the church and outside and bringing
upon oneself temporal judgments and disciplines.
Perseverance doesn’t mean perfection. There is no perfection to be had here in this physical realm at ll.
Persevering is not perfection nor a state of sinlessness. We’re talking about persevering in faith, not
unaccompanied by failure.
Second, it does not mean that all who “accept” Christ can therefore live any way they like without any
fear of hell. It is not enough to have a superficial faith in Christ. It is not enough to have a superficial
commitment to Christ, a superficial interest in Christ. It is not enough to have some good feelings about
Jesus and make some momentary commitment to Him. That is not what the Westminster Confession
says, the correct way to describe this doctrine is the perseverance of the saints rather than eternal
security. It is not just that we are eternally secure; it is that we are eternally secure because our faith
perseveres.
John 8, True Disciples
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my
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disciples;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do
you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
In fact, by their fruits you can know them.
Ephesians 2, From Death to Life
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You were dead through the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.
3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses,
and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you
have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—
9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.
A person who has “accepted” Jesus, made a decision for Jesus, prayed a prayer and goes on to live in a
sinful pattern of life with no fear of hell because they think they’re eternally secure is deluded. That’s
why we have to be careful when we talk about the doctrine of eternal security as if the one prayer makes
you forever secure.
This is what is taught by many people. All those people who deny the doctrine of the lordship of Christ,
all those non-lordship people affirm that one prayer prayed one time makes you eternally secure without
perseverance. That is a misrepresentation of what Scripture teaches, and that’s why I wrote the book The
Gospel According to Jesus and the follow-up The Gospel According to the Apostles; that is not true.
To speak of the security of the believer is not in itself wrong; we are secure. But the other expression is
more careful and it’s more accurate. It is not true that someone is secure no matter how much they live in
sin, no matter how much they turn against Christ and even flatly deny Him as many have said. Security
is a reality because of perseverance. A believer may sin seriously and repeatedly, but he will not abandon
himself to sin. He will not come again under the utter domination of sin. He will not lose faith in Christ,
and He will not deny his Lord and the gospel. No true believer will shun holiness and embrace sin
altogether.
1 John 3,
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Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin,
because they have been born of God.
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The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is
right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
It’s that simple. Anyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not of God. The doctrine of the believer’s
security is tied to the believer’s persevering faith.
The doctrine of perseverance, then, is this: at salvation, you are given a supernatural faith from God to
believe the gospel, to believe the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Christ, and therefore to believe
in Christ, and having come to Christ you have come to know the true and living God. This faith is a
supernatural gift from God. It is a gift of grace, and it is a gift of mercy.
Ephesians 2,
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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—
The grace is from God and so is the faith. What kind of faith does He give you? If saving faith is a gift
from God, then what kind of gift would God give you? He would not give you a temporary gift of faith. If
your salvation depends upon a human faith, I will promise you that it will die, if we could lose our
salvation, we would lose it.
Matthew 24, Persecutions Foretold
“Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all
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nations because of my name.

10 Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another.
11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.
13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
14 And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the
nations; and then the end will come.
You can tell who those that are going to enter into salvation in the next life. They are those whose faith
endures to the end because it is an enduring faith. That’s the kind of faith God gives, which is different
than human faith.
A simple illustration of how human faith works. We live by human faith every day of our lives. I go to a
restaurant, I order something, and I eat it. That is an act of faith. It is. I don’t know what it is; I don’t
know who’s been playing in it; I don’t know where it came from; I don’t know what condition it’s in; I
don’t know who cooked it; I have no idea. They put something in a glass and I drink it. They tell me what
it is, but I don’t know what it is; that’s an act of faith. Even more than that, I turn on the water faucet at
home, fill up the glass and drink it, and have no idea what’s playing in my pipes. It’s an act of faith.
There’s a reason for that. That’s an educated faith. We’ve been around to know long enough that the
food you get is okay because you’ve been eating it for years, and drinking the water’s okay because
you’ve been drinking it for years.
When it comes to putting my faith in Jesus Christ, I literally have to deny myself, completely abandon
myself to someone I’ve never seen and never experienced unless I come to that complete abandonment.
That requires a faith that is beyond the normal human faith. It requires a faith that is a gift from God, a
supernatural faith, and the only kind of faith that God gives is a faith that endures.
I could not muster up my own faith to be saved, nor to stay saved. Were I to depend upon my own faith,
it would fail me when God didn’t do what I thought He should do, when He didn’t take care of my life in
the way I thought He should, when I had many disappointments, tragedies and sorrows, etc. My own
human faith would constantly be weaker and weaker, and I would begin to call all kinds of things into
question because my experience would not be sustaining, at least visibly for me, what I expected from
God, particularly if somebody told me, “Come to Jesus and everything will be great.”
It is the gift of supernatural faith, given by God that endures so that you believe even when everything
does not go the way you think it should. This enduring faith is inexplicable humanly. It has taken martyrs
all the way to the stake, the guillotine and the loss of everything. It’s not explicable humanly.
Security in Christ, then, is tied to a persevering faith that endures to the end. Any idea of salvation that
leaves out security is a distortion of the truth. I cannot have salvation without security. I can’t have
eternal life that’s not eternal. I can’t have a secure salvation without persevering faith. Obviously, it
doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but it means that we persevere. It’s not enough to pray a prayer at one
time and then live like a nonbeliever the rest of my life and figure I’ve got it, that’s a terrible mistake.
1 Peter 1, A Living Hope
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.
6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested
by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in
him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Almost a doxology!
Now, notice those two things are tied together. We are protected to the receiving of this eternal
inheritance, and that protection comes to us through faith.
Jude 1, Benediction
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the
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presence of his glory with rejoicing,

25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time and now and forever. Amen.
The heart of the passage:
who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
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time.
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for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
He means there the final salvation: glorification. This matter of security, of being protected, is tied to an
enduring faith. Peter is the right person to give testimony to perseverance because if there was any New
Testament person who was constantly prone to failure, it was Peter. It was the very man who wrote these
words because he was the man who most frequently experienced the protection of a persevering faith. I
guess in His case it was kind of a bounce-back faith.
Based on the record of the gospels, none of our Lord’s disciples, except Judas, failed more miserably than
Peter. Impetuous, erratic, ambitious, selfish, vacillating, weak, cowardly, hotheaded. Rebuked from the
Lord. Matthew 16:23, “Get thee behind Me Satan!” When the Lord identifies you as the tool of Satan,
you have seriously stumbled. That low point occurred almost immediately after the high point of his life
recorded in the same chapter in V16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Flesh and blood
didn’t reveal that to you but My Father who is in heaven.”
But Peter is this great example of the extreme high and the extreme low. Peter is proof that a true
believer can stumble and stumble seriously, and fail and fail seriously, be weak and cowardly, make
temporary denials. Because he has been given protection by enduring faith produced in his heart by the
sovereign work of God, he never fails completely, he never fails finally. It wasn’t long after that denial
that he went out and wept bitterly, desperately wanting to be restored.
Jesus even told him this was going to happen. Luke 22:31, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded
permission to sift you like wheat.” Do you understand that Satan can’t do anything to anybody unless he
has permission? Satan is the servant of God; he can do nothing other than what God allows him to do. He
wanted to tear into Peter because he knew how important Peter was to the gospel mission.
Luke 22:32, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.” That’s how Jesus prayed that’s
what’ll happen; his faith won’t fail. Peter thought the Lord didn’t understand how strong he really was.
Peter thought he’d be fine, he gives testimony to it Luke 22, “33 And he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to
go with you to prison and to death!” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until
you have denied three times that you know me.”
Jesus let it happen. Satan could not tempt Peter if the Lord hadn’t allowed it, and He allowed it, knowing
that Peter’s faith could not fail because He prayed that his faith fail not. His prayer is always heard and
answered by the Father because Jesus always prays according to the Father’s will, just as the Spirit
intercedes according to the will of the Father. “Why in the world did He let it happen?”
So that the trial would prove to Peter the enduring character of his faith. The Lord didn’t need to know
his faith was real, but Peter did, and I’ll tell you why later in the text. What about us? Let us read the
High Priestly prayer:
John 17, Jesus Prays for His Disciples
1
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,
2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent.
4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the
world existed.
6
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you
gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;
8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth
that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you
gave me, because they are yours.
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father,
protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and
not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made
complete in themselves.
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world,
just as I do not belong to the world.
15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
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“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,[f] so that the
world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you
have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory,
which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent
me.
26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have
loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Jesus puts us in His Father´s care. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and
I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be
one, as we are one.
Wow, what an amazing prayer. “Father, protect them.” Not just Peter. Not just Peter’s faith not fail, but
none of them. “Keep them all – all the ones You have given Me, all the elect, all the justified, all the
sanctified, keep them; keep them in Your name consistent with who You are: the great, powerful,
almighty, omniscient, keeping God, so that together We may be one in the glory of that day when all of
redeemed humanity is gathered into Your presence.”
The Lord is interceding for us, as He did for Peter in Luke 22. It’s not an oddity; it’s not unique; it’s the
same intercession that He carries out in John 17, and it’s not just for the apostles then, but for all who
would believe that the Father would keep them and bring them to eternal glory intact as one in Him and
in the Son.
Hebrews 7,
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Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from
continuing in office;
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
25 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives
to make intercession for them.
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For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from
sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
27 Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and
then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself.
28 For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which
came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
John 17 is a prayer that Jesus continues to pray at all times, our great High Priest at the right hand of the
Father interceding for us, able to save us forever because He always lives to make intercession for us. We
are kept by an enduring faith that is sustained and maintained to the end by the intercession of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. The Holy Spirit weighs in on this same great keeping ministry:
Romans 8, Life in the Spirit
1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—
indeed it cannot,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does
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not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
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13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of
adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so
that we may also be glorified with him.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that
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very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God.
This is a silent, private, inter-Trinitarian communion where the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words. There are no words. It’s the Spirit interceding on our behalf. “And He who searches
the hearts” – that’s God – “knows the mind of the Spirit, because He intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God.” Christ prays according to the will of God that our faith not fail, that the Father keep
us. The Spirit prays according to the will of God.
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We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his
purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that
he might be the firstborn within a large family.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those
whom he justified he also glorified.
Christ’s intercession guarantees my future glory. The Holy Spirit’s intercession guarantees my future
glory. The Father’s purpose guarantees my future glory that He foreknew me, He predestined me, He
called me, He justified me, He will glorify me because His purpose at the beginning was to conform me to
the image of His Son. He didn’t save me for a temporary enterprise; He saved me to conform me to the
image of His Son in eternal glory, to give me the holiness of Christ.
When you think about heaven, it’s not that we will look like Jesus physically; it’s that we will be like
Jesus in terms of perfect holiness. We have been chosen, called, justified, sanctified, and will be glorified.
We are kept until that hour, kept by an enduring faith sustained by the intercessory work of Jesus Christ
who prays that we will be protected from anything that would assault that faith, whether it be the flesh or
the world or Satan himself. Added to the intercession at the right hand of the Father in heaven is the
intercession from the heart of the Holy Spirit who is praying in ways we don’t even know how to pray, in
a silent inter-Trinitarian communion for the will of God. God hearing and answering that prayer causes
everything to work out for good. Everything.
We are sustained by our supernatural faith given to us by God. Jesus said, “I pray that your faith fail
not.” He was saying to him what was is true of all of us: the Lord intercedes for us that our faith may
endure. He always prays according to the will of the Father who always answers prayers according to His
will.
If your salvation was up to you, you’d never be saved. If keeping your salvation was up to you, you’d
never be saved. Your human faith can’t save you. Your human faith can’t keep you. Therefore, you need
a faith that is not human, a faith that is supernatural that has to come from God. The faith to believe the
gospel in the beginning came from God, and it is an enduring faith that always believes.
Jeremiah 32:40;
40
I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will
put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.
41 I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart
and all my soul.
A statement about the new covenant that saves us. What a statement. It is an everlasting covenant of an
everlasting salvation based upon an enduring faith. This faith never fails. There are no true Christians
who are dropouts.
Hebrews 6,
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have
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tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding
him up to contempt.
What about those that have fallen away on V6?
1 Timothy 1,
having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in
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the faith;
Those are warnings to false believers. Those are warnings to people who are uncommitted. Those are
warnings to people who have come close to the gospel and made a superficial acknowledgement of the
gospel but not a real one.
It’s very crucial for us to understand that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not mean
that people who pray a prayer or “accept” Jesus or make a decision for Jesus and some emotional
experience are necessarily secure and can live any way they want to live. No. If they have really come to
Christ, there will be in them an enduring faith that will be characterized by a love for righteousness, a
love for Christ, and a hatred of sin. It will not be perfection, but it will indicate direction in the way of
righteousness.
Peter understood the keeping power of God. If Peter could have lost his salvation, he would have. How
close can you get to Satan so that the Lord looks at you and says, “Get thee behind me, Satan”? You can’t
get any closer than to be espousing Satan’s desires, but did Peter ever rebound from that.
John 21. Peter denied Jesus six times on three occasions. Jesus finally confronts Peter. Just to give you a
quick background, Jesus, after his resurrection met with the apostles. Jesus said to the disciples, “Go to
Galilee and wait for Me there.” Jesus went, “The disciples are at the Sea of Tiberias.” There they were,
“Simon Peter,” always named first every time because he’s the leader. “Thomas, and Nathanael, James
and John the sons of Zebedee, and two others.” Simon said to them, “I’m going fishing.” Greek language
here has a certain finality about it. He says, “I’m going back to fishing.” What he was going to do was go
back to his old career. They went out, got in the boat, couldn’t catch anything. They knew that lake like
the back of their hands; they grew up fishing there. They knew exactly what time of day and what season
of the year to find fish in what spot. Jesus showed up and asked the question that you never want to ask
somebody who’s fished all night and caught nothing, “You don’t have any fish, do you?”
“They said, ‘No.’ “And then He said” – this ridiculous thing – “‘Cast the net on the right-hand side of the
boat and you’ll find a catch.’” That’s very insulting.
“What do you think, we fished one side? Or maybe you think the boat stays in one spot? Or maybe you
think the fish know the right from the left? What kind of a statement is that?” But always Jesus spoke
with authority, so they did what He said, and they got so many fish they couldn’t handle them.
“And then that disciple there for whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It’s the Lord.’ And Peter,” bless his
heart; did he have enduring faith? Sure. Was it weak? Yes. Did it fail? Yes. But oh my, did he rebound.
V7, “When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped
down to his inner garment for work), he dove into the sea. The other disciples came in a boat.” He was in
such a big hurry to be restored. He hated so much the sin that he saw in himself. He hated his own
disobedience and just impetuously dove in.
They were a hundred yards away. And, of course, the rest of them were saying, “That’s Peter. He leaves
us to drag this huge amount of fish into shore.
And they came in, and the Lord had prepared breakfast. You know how the Lord prepares breakfast,
don’t you? “Breakfast.” And they brought in some of the 153 fish. V11, “Jesus said, ‘Come and have
breakfast.’
“And nobody said, ‘Who are You?’ They knew.’
“And after breakfast” V15, “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, do you love Me more than these?’” What
a provocative, penetrating question. “‘Do you love Me more than these fish, these nets, this way of life?
Do you love Me more than these other disciples? You said that if everybody forsook, you never would.
You said you were willing to go to death with Me. You didn’t; you denied Me.’”
And I guess the right question is, “‘Simon, son of Jonas do you love Me?’
“And he said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love you.’
“And He said, ‘Then teach my lambs’” – then do what I tell you. I called you to preach and to teach, not
to fish. And remember, Peter had denied Him three times. So, the Lord was going to restore Him three
times. “He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’
“And he said, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You’” – You know that.
“And He said, ‘Then shepherd My sheep’” – do what I told you to do. “And He said to him the third
time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’
“Peter was grieved this time” – this hurt. “He was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you
love Me?’ And he said to Him this, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’” Why?
Because God himself had given to Peter an enduring faith, an enduring love for Christ. Weak? Yes.
Vacillating? Yes. Stumbling? Yes, but never completely and never finally and always the first to be eager
to be restored.
“And Jesus said, ‘That’s all I asked; tend My sheep’” – you’re the shepherd I’m looking for. “‘When you
were young’” V18, “‘you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wanted; now you’re old; you’ll
stretch your hands out’” He was speaking of Peter’s crucifixion, “‘someone else is going to tie you up and
bring you were you don’t want to go.’ And this He said, signifying by what death he would glorify God.”
Peter, you’re going to be a martyr.
Peter was faithful to the end, and when it came time to be crucified, he wouldn’t let them crucify him the
normal way because he wasn’t worthy, he said, to be crucified like his Lord. So, they flipped him over
and crucified him upside down, a more excruciating way to die. He endured to the end. There isn’t
anybody better, really, to write about the perseverance of the saints, about an enduring faith, about an
enduring love, about remaining faithful to the end. There’s nobody better to write that than Peter, the
man who repented with tears, the man who was so pained by his own failure that he dove into the water
to swim as fast as he could to Jesus, the one who was so confident of his own genuine love and faith that
he asked the Lord to read his heart, knowing that what He saw there He would know is the real thing.
Peter knows about persevering faith.
Peter is speaking from personal experience. He knew what it was, in spite of his weakness, to have an
undying, enduring faith. And that is the faith that belongs to every person who is truly saved. And as I
said, in the end, Peter was faithful to proclaim Jesus Christ in the face of death.
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5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.
We are protected by a faith that has six elements; six dynamic, spiritual realities operating in it. Peter
unfolds them for us here.
The perseverance of the saints 2 Sept 5/04
Jude 1, Benediction
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the
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presence of his glory with rejoicing,

25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time and now and forever. Amen.
That is a statement of the security of our salvation. Our Lord is able to keep us and to present us. This is
so important for us as we go through life, trusting the Lord, surrenderin to His will, enjoying the Holy
Spirit´s indwelling presence and continuous guidance.
The guarantee of scripture and therefore the promise of God is that salvation is forever. This is not a
stand-alone doctrine. This is not one that you can believe or not believe without any major effect on other
doctrines. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
To get this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or the eternality of salvation wrong is to produce
chaos in regard to the doctrine of predestination, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of justification, the
doctrine of sanctification, and the doctrine of glorification. It is, if you will, to unravel all the strands in
the cord of salvation. That’s why I said at the outset that the most important element in all the range of
salvation doctrines is this issue of the perseverance of the saints. It is what makes salvation, a salvation
forever.
The fact of the matter is it is an absolutely critical component in the entire understanding of
salvation. There are many passages of scripture that relate to this, but it suffices it to say, that as we
study the Bible in the future we will see those passages and we will be able to get answers to what once
troubled us.
Matthew 18, The Parable of the Lost Sheep
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“Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels
continually see the face of my Father in heaven.
12 What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not
leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went
astray.
14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.
Luke 12,
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“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
John 10,
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My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s
hand.
30 The Father and I are one.”
The word “know” has to mean more than “I know who they are” because that would be true of anybody
and everybody. To “know” them means to “have an intimate and personal relationship with them.” We
are held in the secure hands of the Father and the Son.
John 17, Jesus High Priest
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father,
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Father, I’m going to go through the cross. I’m going to be bearing sin. Keep them and bring them into
that eternal oneness that you have prepared for them. Only Judas was lost, he was a devil from the
beginning and never a true believer.
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I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
Seal their faith, seal their salvation, if it were possible. By such statements and many more, we are to be
confident that those who are genuinely the children of God through faith in Christ are secure in that
relationship forever and will never perish. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will never
perish. Salvation is the gift of eternal life and those who receive it will never lose it, or forfeit it.
That is so essential to understanding salvation that it really does boggle the mind when we question
it. Yet there are many Christians, who have been denied the sweetness of that confidence and the joy of
it, who have been denied the peace of that confidence, the hope of that confidence, the assurance of that
confidence, the rest, the tranquility that that confidence brings.
So many have been told that they will be lost unless they hold on to their confession, unless they hold on
to their faith, unless they hold on and keep on believing on their own. Remember, that if I could lose my
salvation, I would lose it. If I was in charge of it and I had to hold on, I wouldn’t, because I couldn’t
produce my salvation by an act of my own faith and I couldn’t sustain it either.
It’s a terrible thing to say to people, you have to hold on, you have to live righteously. People are caught
in this idea of doubt, fear, and unnecessary anxiety, wondering how far they can go in sin and still not
lose it, or how much they can doubt and still not have a non-saving faith.
This is a rejection of the very clear nature of salvation, the very clear promise of God. So it is a sin in the
sense that it under-appreciates what God has done. It diminishes gratitude because it diminishes
understanding, and in diminishing gratitude, it diminishes worship.
It is interesting that in some churches there is a denial of the eternality of salvation, the perseverance of
the saints, the doctrine of security, which has to diminish their understanding of salvation, which then
has to diminish their understanding of justification, sanctification, election. It therefore diminishes God
and their gratitude to Him, the joy that they should have. Yet it’s so interesting that their level of emotion
transcends the level of emotion of people who accept that doctrine, which almost makes you feel like
they’re trying to convince themselves that everything is okay against their real instinct.
Because we are to receive with full joy, and full gratitude all that God has given us. Because we are to
respond with full praise, and full worship, all the promises of God, and give him glory for them all, we
must be clear on this, the most gracious pledge in the doctrine of salvation.
Justification is the great head of all the doctrines of salvation, and the wonder of the doctrine of
reconciliation, redemption, ransom, adoption, conversion, and regeneration. In the end, though, what
makes all of those have such infinite value and produce such lasting joy is that they are all forever. As
soon as you pull that out, you’ve diminished everything. Any idea of salvation that leaves out security or
perseverance is a distortion of the truth.
If you’ve ever been saved, you can never be lost. But, you’re not going to live a life that presumes on
that and go out and sin any way you want because you can’t lose your salvation, because if you’ve truly
been converted, you love the law of God, you long to obey Christ, and that’s how you’re going to
live. And consequently, your faith is a persevering faith.
We are secure in our salvation by the gift of God of a faith that perseveres. He doesn’t just give us the
faith to save us as a supernatural gift, and then remove it. So now we’re stuck trying to generate our
own faith to hold on to salvation on our own. He gives us a faith as a permanent gift that
perseveres. That’s why instead of talking about eternal security which states a truth but doesn’t tell us
how, we would rather talk about the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, meaning that we have a
faith that never turns to doubt so severe as to become unbelief.
We have our moments of doubt. We have our struggles. But never does our faith turn to final
doubt, complete doubt and denial. We are secured by the same supernatural faith that was given to us to
cause us to believe savingly, and we are sustained by the gift of that same supernatural faith. Salvation
can’t fail because the faith can’t fail, the faith that’s come to us from God.
1 Peter 1, this marvelous epistle begins with the doctrine of election. Chosen, sanctified by the
Spirit, obedient to Christ and sprinkled with his blood.
An epistle directed at the elect, those who have been sanctified by the Spirit, through justification, unto
glorification. Peter comes in V3 and starts to unfold the blessing of this salvation, which began in eternity
past with election, and was realized in time through the sanctifying work of the Spirit in our lives, that
produce submission to the Lordship of Christ. Notice where he starts.
A Living Hope
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5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.
“I acknowledge that you are the elect. I acknowledge that you are those whom God has chosen and
whom the Spirit has set apart from sin to God. I acknowledge that you are those who obey Jesus Christ. I
acknowledge that you have received grace and peace in fullest measure.”
Notice V1, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a doxology. This is a
benediction in response to our salvation.
We rejoice in the fact that we have a living hope, that you have an inheritance that can’t perish, can’t be
defiled and can’t fade away, that is now reserved in heaven for you, and that you are protected by the
power of God through faith.
Peter says, “Look, the thing that produces the joy, the thing in which you greatly rejoice, the thing that
causes you to praise and glorify and honor God, the thing that fills you with joy inexpressible and full of
glory is that the end result of your faith is the full and final salvation reserved for you at the coming of
Jesus Christ, at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is the whole point. This is the passage as much as
any in the scripture that tells me how at the heart of all matters of salvation is this issue of
perseverance. The key phrase for you to underline would be in V5, “Who are protected by the power of
God.”
To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to
Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
V1, Peter was writing to aliens. Christians living in the world and they are aliens, as we are in this
world. Christians, believers who are the elect, who have been sanctified by the Spirit, that includes their
salvation and ongoing sanctification, those who are obeying Christ, having been sprinkled with his
blood, that is in a sense having made a covenant obedience with him.
Peter writes to these scattered believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Those are all
Gentile parts of the world. He’s writing to believers who are not just scattered, but they’re feeling some
serious persecution. 1 Peter 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, references are made to their suffering. Peter is writing to
scattered believers in Asia Minor, which is modern Turkey. They are facing severe persecution, death
and martyrdom. These believers have a natural fear for their own lives and a fear for their own
faithfulness.
Remember they don’t have a Bible. They don’t necessarily know the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints, so they have to be instructed. Put yourself in their place. You’ve come to Christ. You’re in a
Gentile world. You only know the gospel that you heard and whatever else you’ve been instructed in, and
you’re at best a neophyte. You’re new. You feel the heat of the world around you, and the pressure of the
world around you, the escalating hostility toward the faith, and you see others being persecuted and
martyred. They wonder if their faith could stand that test.
I’ve asked myself that question through my life. What would I do if I were standing there before the
stake or if I were standing there before the guillotine to put my head in to have it chopped off. What
would I do if I was to be tortured in some horrific way? With all that I know, I believe at this particular
point that the Spirit of God would accomplish his work in me and I would stand the test and pass the
test. But if I didn’t have what the Word of God has to say about that, and I was just kind of hanging on to
my own ability to take that severe test, I might begin to wonder whether I’d ever pass the test.
Here we have these new believers and very normal for them not to trust their own faith, not to trust their
own strength. They are aliens in the world, citizens of heaven. Peter calls them a royal priesthood, living
stones in God’s temple, a people of God’s own possessions. They belong to him, they do not need to fear
or be intimidated. They do not need to be troubled by persecution. They never need to be afraid that
their faith will fail when it comes to the test.
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In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
In other words, what he says to them is, you have been given a faith that shines in the fire. V5, you are
“protected by the power of God through faith.”
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so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested
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Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in
That’s what we’re talking about. It’s the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. “Persevering
faith, faith that perseveres.” They were protected by the power of God through the faith that he gave
them. You don’t have to say to people, “Well, if you can keep on believing, you can keep on being
saved.” I couldn’t be saved by my own faith. I could fall, I would fall. But I can’t fall because I have a
faith that’s a gift of God.
The issue is very similar in Jude,
1
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ:
2
May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.
These people to whom Jude wrote had a lot to fear because they were in a world of false teaching, and
they were being told to go and reach those who were in false religious systems. It was dangerous
work, V23, “ save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear,
hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.” You get near to false doctrine, you can get polluted by
it. That’s why he says at the end, “Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling.” You are the
chosen, you are the kept, and you will not fall.
If it were true that believers could lose their salvation, he would have to say something very different
than this. If believers were there worried about whether they would survive persecution, worried whether
they would survive martyrdom, worried whether their faith would hold on, and it really was up to
them, Peter would have written this letter very differently. “Hang on, folks. Hold on. Don’t abandon the
faith. Be faithful. Be true.” But, he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s all
in his hands, the one who chose you, who foreknew you, who sanctified you, who gave you grace and
peace in fullest measure. It’s all in his hands, and according to his great mercy he has regenerated you to
a hope that ever lives, to an inheritance that can never fade away. You are protected by the power of God
through faith,” et cetera.
If this had depended on them, you couldn’t say all that. But Peter doesn’t give them doses of
sympathy, “Oh, I understand. Well, hold on.” He doesn’t indicate that their fears are legitimate, but he
points, rather, to their absolute safety. They might lose all their earthly possessions and their lives, but
never their salvation. Their heavenly inheritance is fixed and guaranteed by God. Their faith will endure
through anything and everything because that faith is not natural faith. It’s a gift from God. It’s
supernatural. Their love for Christ wills stand against all assaults and never ever fail.
The word “protected” in V5, phrouroumenous. A military term. It indicates being guarded by
soldiers, present tense, constantly under guard by a powerful, protective force. Those who belong to God
are perpetually guarded from all enemies until the war is over and the victory is complete. “5 Who are
being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
We often say, “I was saved 20 years ago.” That’s true. It would be true to say, “I am nearer to my
salvation than I’ve ever been.” I was saved from the penalty of sin in the past when I believed and the
righteousness of Christ was imputed to me and my sin imputed to him. I have been saved. It is also true
to say, “I am being saved. I was saved from the penalty of sin. I am being saved currently from the power
of sin, which no longer has dominion over me. But there is an element of my salvation that hasn’t taken
place yet, and so I am nearer to my salvation than I’ve ever been. I will be saved from the very presence
of sin.”
The salvation that the Lord determined before the foundation of the world to give me is not complete
until that last element is fulfilled. He doesn’t start saving people and then stop. Philippians 1:6, “I’m
confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it.” We have been
and are being protected for a salvation yet to be revealed. Protected by the power of God. By what
means? Through faith, for that salvation that is our final glory.
There are six ways we’re protected:
1. We are protected through a living hope.
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We have been born again, regenerated, given new life. It is the life of God, eternal life, which is not a
duration of life, but a kind of life. It is the life of God in us. We have been regenerated to this new life. In
this new life we experience a living hope. Everything in our new life is supernaturally and spiritually
alive. Our joy is a living joy, our peace is a living peace, and our hope is a living hope. It’s the opposite of
one that dies. It can’t die. We do not have a hope that dies, but a hope that lives.
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Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that
Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.
Stop worrying about whether you’re going to survive the suffering. Stop worrying about whether you can
stand before the tribunal of men and maintain your faith and your testimony for Jesus Christ in that
hour. Stop fearing that, and start fixing your hope on the grace that it will be brought to you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Live in hope. This is a hope that cannot die because this is a life that cannot
die.
2 Thessalonians 2:16, “Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God the Father, who has loved us
and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts.” When you
live in this world, you’re not supposed to live with fear, anxiety, panic, worry that the devil’s going to
take your salvation, or somehow you’re going to lose it. God doesn’t want you to live that way. He loves
you, and he’s given you eternal comfort and good hope by grace. So comfort and strengthen your hearts
with that.
Romans 5, Results of Justification
1
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of
sharing the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit that has been given to us.
Colossians 1, Paul Thanks God for the Colossians
3
In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the
truth, the gospel
6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing
fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
Titus 1, Salutation
1
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and the
knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness,
2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began—
3 in due time he revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the
command of God our Savior,
To Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share:
4
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus 2,
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,
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12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-
controlled, upright, and godly,
13 while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ.
Folks, we are protected by that living hope. In contrast to human hopes that fade and die, this hope
cannot fade, cannot die, cannot disappoint.
Hebrews 6,
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We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind
the curtain,
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where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to
the order of Melchizedek.
Our eternal life is secured by his conquering death:
3
If I’m going to receive an inheritance, that’s enough for me. But he adds, “which is imperishable,” in case
you wonder. If you’re still wondering, “undefiled.” If you’re still wondering, “it won’t fade away.” “It’s
reserved there for you.”
We’re guaranteed an inheritance, imperishable, aphthartos, not liable to corruption, not liable to pass
away. “No one can snatch them out of my hand,” John 10. “Who could bring a charge against God’s elect
that would stick?” Romans 8, God’s already justified us.
Our inheritance can’t be plundered, it can’t be stolen by any enemy, by Satan, demons. It is eternal, it is
indestructible, it is protected by God. Then he adds the word “undefiled,” amiantos, unstained, not
subject to defect, not capable of failure. Then he adds amarantos, will not fade away, can’t diminish.
This is how it is with earthly beauty and earthly joy. It all crumbles away. But not our heavenly
inheritance. Everything in this life is subject to corruption. Everything in this life is subject to decay, it is
subject to fading. But our salvation is incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. Because it is not a part of this
world. It is not human. V4, “It is reserved in heaven for you.” Because it’s there, it’s not corruptible, it’s
beyond corruption, it’s outside of the capability of corruption. It’s reserved in heaven for you, in heaven
there is no corruption.
And that verb, “it is reserved,” perfect passive participle from tre, to “keep or to guard.” Perfect passive
means it has been and continues to be protected there in the safest place in the universe, heaven. And you
remember the words of Jesus that we quoted this morning? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal. But lay up your treasure
in heaven, where moth and rust does not corrupt, and thieves to not break through and steal.” The safest
place in the universe is heaven, right? That’s where your eternal inheritance is reserved.
It is protected there to be revealed at the last time. V5, “For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.” A salvation that’s ready, hetoimos, means “at hand, present, prepared.”
2 Corinthians 10:16 is translated “That which has been accomplished.” It’s already done.
John 14, “I go to prepare a place for you,” what was he saying? “And I hope you’ll show up or I’ll have
to rent it out to somebody else?” If he’s going to prepare a place for you, he says, “I’ll come again and
I’ll get you, and there won’t be anybody else in your place but you, because I’m preparing it for you.”
We are protected until the salvation yet to be revealed in the last time, when we come face-to-face with
the Lord, either through death or his coming, to receive the inheritance that now at this moment already
is at hand in its place, already prepared waiting our arrival. There aren’t going to be a lot of vacant
rooms in the Father’s house, because folks for whom they were prepared didn’t show up.
“Protected” is a military term and the verb tense speaks of continuous action, always being
protected, always being protected. And protected through faith. Underline that. That’s the key. That’s
why we talk about the perseverance of the saints, because if you’re truly saved, you have a faith that
lasts. 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would
have continued with us. They went out from us that it might be made they were not all of us.”
What about the person who believes for a while and goes away?” That was human faith, that wasn’t the
gift of faith from God. They never were genuinely saved. If they were genuinely saved, if they genuinely
came to Christ, if they genuinely repented and believed, if they genuinely were given that gift of saving
faith, if they truly and honestly opened their heart to that gift from the Lord, that gift would be there to
the end. Our continued faith in Jesus Christ is the instrument by which God protects us.
As we look at this idea of protection, we are protected by means of a living hope, we experience that
protection, the reality of that protection through our living hope. Second, V5, we are protected by God’s
own power. We are protected by a hope that cannot die, and we are protected by a power that cannot
fail.
God’s power is limitless, sovereign, supreme abd can never ever fail. The Bible is pretty clear about the
power of God. But if you’re wondering about the power of God, you might just remember that he created
the universe out of nothing. If you still wonder how much power he has, he created the universe by
speaking it into existence in full maturity. If you’re still wondering, he spoke it into existence in full
maturity in six days, and he could have done it in six milliseconds, but he established a pattern of life for
us with the idea of a week.
Our great and powerful God, he created the universe, he upholds the universe, he sustains the
universe, he keeps it together. When Einstein comes to the end of his life and says, “After all my studies
and all my discoveries,” he said, in effect, he said not in exact words, “I die disillusioned and incomplete
because I never could find what is the power that holds it all together.”
It’s fine to understand the atom. It’s fine to understand what the components of the atom do. It’s fine to
get down to the most minutest elements of existence of matter and energy, but in the end he couldn’t
discover what it was. And because of that there was great disillusionment.
But, it is simply the power of God. It is that same power that keeps us. The means he uses to keep us is by
giving us a faith that does not die. If there was a time when you believed and now you don’t, if there was
a time when you had interest in Christ and now you don’t, if you are indifferent to the Lord at all, if you
don’t have a hunger and thirst for him, if you don’t have a desire for his Word, if you don’t love him and
long to serve him, if you don’t want to know him, if you don’t have a sustained trust and confidence in
him, if you don’t live your life in the hope of eternal glory, then whatever you may or may not have done
in the past, you’re not a Christian.
Because Christians live by faith, an enduring sustained faith, in perfect harmony with our wills. We
remain steadfast, but not passive. We are active in persevering. We are pursuing Christ with all our
might. We are pursuing obedience. We are longing for it, desiring it. We hate sin. We love
righteousness. We actively persevere, that’s why we can call it persevering.
It is a kind of faith that captures our minds, and captures our souls, and makes them enamored with
Christ, and in love with his Word, and in love with his law, and desiring to serve him. All our being,
everything in us, reaches out to honor Christ, and we live in a kind of state of grief because we do what
we don’t want to do and don’t do what we ought to do, and we find ourselves, in Romans 7, sick of our
own remaining sin.
Peter says, “You are worried about whether your faith will endure these terrible severe tests? Don’t
worry.” As Jesus said, “When they take you before the synagogue and before the authorities and the
kings, don’t be anxious, the Holy Spirit will show you what you should say.” You’ll say what you should
say, you’ll stand and give your testimony to Jesus Christ in the worst possible situation because that’s the
gift of faith that you’ve been given by God, sustained by the Holy Spirit.
So we are protected, protected by a living hope, protected by divine power, a faith that is a gift from
God. But it is an active faith, not a passive one. It is an aggressive faith, not a weak one. It is a pursuing
faith, not a fleeing one. And we are eager for the salvation that is ready for us to be revealed in the last
time. There are four more of these means or experiences by which we know divine protection.

The perseverance of the saints, is a good biblical title to describe a doctrine that is often called the
doctrine of eternal security, or the security of the believer. The bottom line in this doctrine is that when
the Lord saves someone, that salvation is forever, never to be reversed. The Bible is clear, salvation is
irrevocable.
In spite of the clarity of scripture, there are those who have fallen under the influence of teaching that
denies it. There are many in the Christian church who are living in some kind of fear with the possibility
that they could lose their salvation. They are warned that they can, by sin or failure to believe, forfeit that
salvation which God has given to them. Implying that a believer can become again an unbeliever, a new
creation in Christ can become again the old. Those who are now the children of God can become again
the children of the devil. Those who are citizens of heaven can become occupants of hell. In fact, all that is
given to us in Christ can be lost and forfeit.
There is a list of doctrinal passages to be used as a support for the idea that you can lose your salvation.
Essentially, these are the verses that are very often used to support the idea that you could lose your
salvation.
John 8, True Disciples
Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my
31
disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Implying that if you don’t stay in the Word, you would cease to be a disciple.
John 15,
If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered,
6
thrown into the fire and burned.

You’re going to go to hell if you don’t stay faithful or if you don’t abide.
Matthew 24,
But he who endures to the end will be saved.
13
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all
nations; and then the end will come.
So, it really does depend upon your endurance.
Matthew 10,
21
Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents
and have them put to death;
22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
Acts 13,
43
And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed
Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
It seems as though you have to will and commit yourself to continue in the grace of God to be saved in the
end.
Romans 2,
For he will render to every man according to his works:
6
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal
life;
8 but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and
fury.
In other words, if you don’t persevere in doing good, persevere in seeking glory, honor and immortality,
you won’t receive eternal life.
Romans 11,
22
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s
kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.
There are these warnings about abiding, remaining, enduring, continuing.
Colossians 1,
21
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and
irreproachable before him,
23 provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel
which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became
a minister.
So again, is this word “continue.” The words are pretty much the same in all the verses: Abide, remain,
continue. They all trace back to a common Greek origin.
Hebrews 3,
5
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken
later,
6 but Christ was faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence
and pride in our hope.
14
For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end,
15 while it is said,
“Today, when you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
It’s about holding on, enduring, continuing, remaining, abiding. All of these passages are passages that
have to be understood.
Are they warnings to hang on to your salvation? Are they warnings that if you let go, or if you drift, or if
you deviate, or if you fail to endure, you’re going to lose your salvation? Well if they are, then the Bible
contradicts itself. Clearly, scripture teaches salvation is forever. It also teaches that salvation is of God
and you can’t save yourself, either initially or in an ongoing sense. You couldn’t be saved initially by the
strength of your own faith, and you can’t hang on by the strength of your own faith.
The idea here is these are not warnings to believers to hang on with all their might, lest they lose their
salvation. They are rather statements that those who endure, those who continue, those who persevere,
those who hold fast give evidence of being the ones who are saved. So that you can take all of these verses
and answer them all in the same way. Jesus is saying, “If you’re one who abides in my Word, then you’re
a real disciple. If you’re one who does not abide, you’re not a true disciple. If you’re one who endures,
you’re going to receive your final salvation. If you’re one who continues in the grace of God, and
continues in the hope of the gospel, and continues steadfastly, and holds on, then you give evidence of
having had the mighty saving work of God, because you possess the only faith that saves, and that’s an
enduring faith.”
These passages then define the nature of saving faith. They are not warnings in the sense that believers
would need to be warned to hang on. They are warnings to superficial believers, to sham believers, to
professing believers who aren’t the real thing. They are saying, “if your faith is real, it will endure to the
end, kept by God, protected by God.”
But how does he protect us? Through faith. He gives us a faith that saves and a faith that endures to the
end. We were saved by faith and we endure by faith. It is not natural, it is supernatural and it is a gift of
God.
Ephesians 2,
8
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—
9 not because of works, lest any man should boast.
You were commanded to believe and you did, savingly. You were commanded to obey for salvation the
gospel, and you did. You are now commanded to believe and obey for sanctification and you do. And you
are commanded to persevere in obedience and faith to the very end and you will.
What the writers are saying is this is how you identify the real believer. You’re the real thing if you
persevere. The text on which that interpretation rests is:
1 John 2:19,
19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued
with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.
When somebody abandons the faith it’s proof positive that it wasn’t saving faith. It wasn’t the
supernatural faith that God gives, because it didn’t remain, because it didn’t abide, because it didn’t
continue, because it didn’t hold fast, because it didn’t endure.
2 Timothy 2,
10
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which in
Christ Jesus goes with eternal glory.
11 The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we shall also live with him;
12
if we endure, we shall also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
13
If ever anyone denies Christ, rejects Christ, all they manifest is that they never had the real faith, because
the real faith is an enduring faith, it is the gift of supernatural faith that endures to the end. He has
identified himself with you. He has given you to share in his life. Those who endure are the true
believers. Those who do not endure are false professing believers, and the true believers will have
temporary struggles with their faith.
It’s true, there are times when our faith is weak. Do we forget the words of Jesus who said to his own
devoted followers, “O you of little faith?” But never outright denial in some final and complete sense. So,
it really is fitting that we turn to Peter, because Peter had the real saving faith, but he also manifest
temporary weakness and even a temporary denial when confronted at the trial of Jesus.
Peter is the one to whom we turn for the strong testimony of persevering in spite of faith that is weak and
being protected by God with a faith that cannot fail. Peter’s faith had its weak moments. There were
those temporary denials. I might just fill in a little blank for you. Peter had that terrible temporary lapse,
before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit came to dwell in him. “And after the Holy Spirit is come upon
you, you shall have power,” Jesus said.
After the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, you never hear anything about a denial on
the part of Peter again. He stands up before the whole population of Jerusalem and preaches Christ. He
understood lapses, but he also understood persevering faith. His lapse was never final and it was never
complete. He surely understood then the Lord's faithful love. The Lord brought him and restored
him. He understood grace and the strength of the faith that the Lord had given him. If you’re the real
thing, your faith will not fail completely or finally. You will, to the very end, trust in Christ because you
are kept.
1 Peter 1,
5
who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
That is such an important statement. Protected by the power of God through faith. How does God keep
us? Through our faith, through our persevering, enduring, continuing faith.
Remember, Peter is writing to Christians who are being persecuted, even martyred. In the face of that,
they were wondering whether their faith would hold up, and they were very anxious about it. Would
their faith fail if they were taken prisoners? Would their faith fail if they were facing beatings? Would
their faith fail if they were facing death?
They didn’t trust in their own strength because they knew their own struggles as believers. They knew
they all lived like we do in Romans 7, not doing what we want to do and doing what we don’t want to do,
battling the remaining flesh. They wondered whether or not they would ever be able to survive in
extreme trial. Not trusting in their own faith, they feared their faith might fail. Peter writes this letter and
foresees that they’re going to have some very trying times. V20, he talks about being harshly treated and
enduring it with patience.
1 Peter 3, The Example of Christ’s Suffering
16
and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in
Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.
18
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle but also to the
overbearing.
19 For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly.
1 Peter 4, Suffering as a Christian
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though
12
something strange were happening to you.

13 But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his
glory is revealed.
14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God
rests upon you.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker;
16 yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God.
17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what
will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18 And “If the righteous man is scarcely saved,
where will the impious and sinner appear?”
19
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful
Creator.
1 Peter 5,
9
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your
brotherhood throughout the world.
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory
in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you.
The letter recognizes that they’re under very serious intimidation and threat, concerned as to whether
their faith will survive. He says, V5, “you’re protected, you’re protected by the power of God through
faith.” It’s not your faith it’s the faith that comes from God that’s given to you as a gift. It’s a
supernatural faith.
Now we’re looking at the elements or the components of this protection. First, we’re protected by a living
hope.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to
3
a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
A hope that cannot die, that’s the point. Our hope is heaven, to see Christ, to receive eternal reward, to
enter our heavenly home, to receive our inheritance.
Hebrews 6, The Certainty of God’s Promise
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore
13
by himself,
14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.
16 Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for
confirmation.
17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable
character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath,
18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who
have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind
the curtain,
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the
order of Melchiz′edek.
This is the future for us, the future in the next life. This is an inheritance that Peter says is imperishable,
undefiled, can’t be corrupted, unfading, can’t be diminished, and it’s reserved for us in heaven. Heaven is
he safest place to put anything, our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, has himself entered into
heaven as a forerunner. Jesus went into heaven and anchored there our eternal hope. This hope is
anchored, secure in the safest place, which is heaven.
Matthew 6, Concerning Treasures
19
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves
break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves
do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Revelation 21,
27
But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those
who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
No thieves can get there to steal my inheritance.
Revelation 22,
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they
14
may enter the city by the gates.

15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and every one who
loves and practices falsehood.
It’s the safest place you can put anything, because only the redeemed and the righteous are there. And
what is in heaven is sealed.
Ephesians 1, Spiritual Blessings in Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
3
in the heavenly places,

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
5 He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his
grace
8 which he lavished upon us.
9 For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he
set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Before the world ever began, before time ever began, he chose us to be there when it was all over with
him in glory. So he’s going to get us there. He predestined us to be adopted as sons. This was the intention
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. He determined in eternity past that he would bring us to
glory. He predestined that.
11
In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will,
12 we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
It’s an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose. This is about an inheritance that
was predetermined before time began. Our eternal destiny was locked up, sealed and delivered, before
the world was ever created. It was all according to his purpose and he works all things after the counsel
of his will. The purpose of it was that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be the praise of his
glory.
We can call the Holy Spirit a lot of things but when we call the Holy Spirit “the Holy Spirit of promise,”
the Holy Spirit comes as a seal to guarantee something in the future, something unrealized as to
yet. That’s the Greek word arrabōn, down payment, “down payment.” A word for engagement ring,
earnest. We were given the Holy Spirit as a seal at the moment we believed as God viewed the future and
“the redemption of his own possession to the praise of his glory.” The phrase, “the praise of his glory,” is
repeated over and over.
So, at the moment that we believed, we were sealed and our inheritance is unchangeable. That’s the way
God planned it in eternity past. That’s his purpose, that’s his will, and that’s exactly what he will do.
From the moment we believed, we were sealed, and the Spirit was given to us as that seal.
Ephesians 4,
30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
We have been given a living hope, beloved, a living hope, the hope that cannot die, an inheritance that
cannot ever change, and we have been given a down payment, a guarantee in the indwelling Holy Spirit
of promise, who seals us for that day. We are protected by the power of God through a living hope.
Second, we’re protected by God’s own power. V5, “protected by the power of God,” is intended to
remind us that we are protected by the greatest power there is. “Protected by the power of God for a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We are protected by the power of God until that salvation
which is now ready. The word means “prepared, at hand, present, already accomplished,” until it’s
finally delivered in the last time when we see Christ in his glory.
Philippians 1,
And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
6
Christ.
The day of Jesus Christ is the same as the day of redemption, the day we see Christ and enter into eternal
glory. It’s the day that John had in mind:
1 John 3:2,
2
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that
when he appears, we shall be like him, because we’ll see him just as he is.
2 Timothy 4,
7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
We are sealed until a salvation to be revealed at the last time is ours. We are kept to that by divine power,
the very power of God himself.
Romans 8, God’s Love in Christ Jesus
31
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with
him?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies;
34 who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written,
“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
37
38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There isn’t any power that can conquer the power of God and his love for his own. We persevere through
a living hope and through divine power.
Third, we are protected by hope, we are protected by power, we are protected by trials. This may seem to
be sort of counter-intuitive, against the grain of what seems reasonable at first, but let me show you how
important this is.
The heart and soul of this wonderful truth here:
1 Peter 1,
5
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials,
6
7 so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire,
may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Of course we rejoice that we’re protected by God’s power, protected through a living hope. The trials are
different for everybody because the spiritual necessities are different for everybody. We all are at
different points along the path of spiritual development, and the Lord needs to do different things in our
lives, so we get tests according to necessity that God determines we have for them and we rejoice in those
tests.
Instead of these people looking at the possibility of being arrested, put in prison, tortured or martyred
and fearing their faith would fail, V7, “You ought to greatly rejoice in these distressing trials.” Here’s the
reason, “That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Let us take the first part of V7, this is the proving of your faith. We are protected by trials. God sustains
our faith. Here’s a way to understand it. God sustains our faith not by keeping it away from trials, not by
making sure it’s never tested. God doesn’t protect us, hold on to us, keep us enduring continually,
holding fast by making life easy. He does the opposite. God sustains our true faith by putting it through
hard times. He sustains our faith by means of trials.
I have a trial and I come through the trial trusting the Lord. “Faith is real.” The phrase, “you greatly
rejoice,” might catch you by surprise. We get it backwards, we’re not helped at all by prosperity
preachers that give people false hope and lying, preaching prosperity instead of suffering, difficulties and
trials. These aliens are facing life-threatening persecutions. Fear is a human response. Peter says, “Yet
you greatly rejoice.” Why? You rejoice because these tests prove the character of your faith. Human faith
would disappear.
James 1, Faith and Wisdom
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,
2
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The parable of the soils. Some seed went into rocky ground, it sprung up for a while, when persecution
came, it withered and died. It’s always a test of the reality of spiritual life. Trials strengthen faith and
reveal true faith.
“Do I question my salvation?” Sometimes young people ask me that. “I’m struggling with whether I’m
really a Christian or not. My answer honestly is no. When I was very young, you know, the devil would
hammer me with doubts. But the truth of the matter is I don’t question the true character of my saving
faith because it has withstood so many trials.
Every time I go through a trial, I see the nature of my faith. The trials don’t help God find out what kind
of faith I have, because He gave it to me. It’s not that he needs information about my faith. Trials become
a joy to me V3, “when I encounter various trials knowing that the testing of my faith produces endurance
and endurance has a perfecting result.”
What is a greater gift than to have the assurance of salvation? If you ever live with doubts and fears and
all of that, it’s wonderful to know you’ve got the real thing. It’s wonderful to see its capability to survive
disaster. I have found in my life that the more severe the trial, the stronger my faith is, the more my
confidence in God rises.
2 Timothy 1,
8
Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but take your share of
suffering for the gospel in the power of God,
9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own
purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago,
There is that doctrine of election, predestination which is foundational to our security.
10
and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,
11
12 and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure
that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.
He says, “I survive, I rise to the occasion.” The greater the suffering, it seems as though the brighter the
shining testimony. Now, Paul can say from personal testimony, V12, “I know whom I have believed.”
How do I know him? Because he’s manifested himself in all my suffering, in all my trials, I know whom I
have believed. I know that I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have
entrusted to him until that day. Redemption day, the day of Christ, the day I see him face-to-face. I know
whom I have believed. I know that I have believed. I know he is able, that is dunatos. He is powerful to
guard what I have entrusted to him.
Parathēkē, that’s “deposit,” what I’ve deposited with him. My life, my soul, my eternity. I know he’s able
to guard it. I know he can guard it through my faith, because no matter what the trial, my faith never
fails. He has given me a faith that survives it all. Real faith emerges from trials stronger than ever.
31
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies;
34 who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
37
38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
V35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Is there anything that can happen that can cause
Christ to stop loving us? Or you could flip it over. Is there anything that could cause us to stop loving
Christ? “Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword?” He did not grab those
words out of the air? No, that’s autobiographical. He has been there.
2 Corinthians 11,
23
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors,
far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
24 Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
25 Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a
night and a day I have been adrift at sea;
26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people,
danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false
brethren;
27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold
and exposure.
28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Romans 8:37, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That’s
where the word “Nike” comes from, nikē, the conqueror. You see, this kind of faith that God gives us
rises in the trial. It rises.
I’ve faced some pretty hostile environments. I have to put my faith on the line in some environments. I
find a level of energy, commitment, conviction and of boldness in those environments that perhaps is even
greater than others. And there is that work of the Holy Spirit so that that trial becomes for me the
affirmation that the faith, not mine, but that he’s given me is the real thing.
1 Peter 1,
5
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials,
6
7 so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire,
Trials do produce distress for a little while. They come like fire to burn off the dross. And that’s the
point. Not only do they reveal your faith, but they purify it. And what emerges, is a faith that is more
precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire. When you get your faith tested, it
comes out purer, more precious. With that in your mind, instead of asking for God to protect you from
trials, I should ask him to make sure he puts me through all the trials necessary to give me the confidence
that my faith is real.
Acts 5,
So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not
40
to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor
for the name.
42 And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the
Christ.
That’s what the Sanhedrin did, they came out of there so happy, bleeding, bruised, battered,
embarrassed, humiliated, full of joy. Why? Because they knew they had a faith that was real. They knew
they had the real thing. All it did was make them bolder.
Even Jesus Christ himself was strengthened through suffering. It says in 1 Peter that “he did not revile
when he was reviled, while suffering uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who
righteously judges.” The writer of Hebrews says he was “made perfect through suffering.”
We’re protected because God has given us a living hope. It’s a hope built into our faith that cannot
die. God has given us a faith that is energized by divine power that cannot be assaulted. No force is its
equal. God also protects us through a faith that is tested and tried.
Fourth, we are protected by eternal purpose. By a living hope, divine power, trials and eternal purpose.
so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire,
7
We are headed for something to be found “in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus
Christ.” Our faith is designed to survive to the end. This is an amazing promise. We have a faith that
hopes, a faith that is unassailable, protected by divine power, a strength of faith that is only made
stronger through trial. We have a proven, tested faith that finds its fulfillment in the purpose and plan of
God in a union with the Lord Jesus Christ at his appearing. At which time we receive glory, praise and
honor from God. That goes right back to the reason we were saved in the beginning, we were chosen so
that we would be brought to eternal glory.
The Bible teaches that we will be like him, we’ll have a body like unto his body. We have a heavenly
home. He’s preparing a place for us. We’re just passing through this world. We’re not citizens here. This
momentary light affliction that we suffer is not to be compared with that glorious weight of glory that
awaits us in his presence. We cry out for the redemption of our body because we know what God has
prepared for those that love him. You know all those verses. We are already heavenly citizens. Our
Father is there, our home is there, our life is there. The pledge of God is to bring us to eternal glory. That
was his pledge to us in eternity past, long before we ever or anybody ever was even created. God
predetermined then that we would be brought to eternal glory.
That is to say you don’t understand salvation at all if you don’t understand its three dimensions. There is
the point at which you believe. There is the process by which you are kept, and there is the final salvation
in which you are glorified. When God predetermined to save you, he predetermined that all three would
take place, not some part of them.
Romans 8, Future Glory
18
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be
revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;
20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in
hope;
21 because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of
the children of God.
Whatever we might suffer here, we rejoice because it shows us we have a real faith and strengthens that
faith and none of that suffering is to be compared with the glory that God has predetermined for us. So
we are protected by a living hope, divine power, trials, and the promise of eternal glory.
Fifth, we’re protected by undying love.
1 Peter 1,
8
Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice
with unutterable and exalted joy.
9 As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.
We have a love for Jesus Christ, is the bottom line. At the end of 1 Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 16,
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
21
22 If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.This is a profound statement about the nature of true
salvation. It is characterized not only by faith in Christ, believing in him, but loving him.
We can believe the facts and not be saved. The devil believes the facts. The demons believe the facts. They
know them to be true. The issue here is loving the Lord Jesus Christ. “And you love me if you keep my
commandments. You love me if you desire my glory and my honor.” Though you have not seen him, you
love him.
If you were to define Christianity in its purest sense, you would have to use that word “love.” You could
talk about believing in Christ, but you really wouldn’t get there because so many people say they believe
in Jesus Christ. I read that there are three billion Christians in the world, but I’m quite sure there aren’t
that many who love him sacrificially, who love him totally, obediently, worshipfully, righteously. “And
because we love him, though we do not see him now” V8, “but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy
inexpressible and full of glory.”
You can tell a Christian because they love Christ so much it comes out in joy. Do you know the only
religion in the world that sings is Christianity? A few others chant in a minor key, sort of non-biblical
rap. True Christianity sings in a major key. We sing because we’re filled with joy, because we sing about
Christ.
What did Jesus ask to Peter in John 21 when he wanted to restore him? At the Sea of Galilee he said,
“Peter do you do you love me?” That’s the way he defined his relationship. “Do you love me?” Peter
answered, “I love you.” He said, “Well then, do what I tell you, feed my sheep.” He asked him again, “Do
you love me?” Peter, “Yes, I love you.” “Feed my lambs.” Third time, “Peter, do you love me?” The
reason he asked him three times, paralleling Peter’s three denials. The Lord knew Peter knew that love
was demonstrated in obedience, Peter knew he couldn’t call on his obedience, because there wasn’t any.
So I love what he answered “Lord, you know everything. You know I love you.” He said, “You’re
omniscient. You know what’s in here. You know I love you.” “Feed my sheep.”
He knows if we love him. 1 John 4:19, “We love him because he first loved us.” You know a true human
relationship requires love and trust, so does our relationship with Christ. That’s how it’s really
defined. There’s no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t love Christ. In your life long as a believer you
grow in your love for Christ. You grow in your affection for him.
That’s why the Paul says, “That I may know him.” Because the more you love someone, the more you
want to know them. Paul knew that he was loved and he knew nothing could separate him from Christ’s
love for him, but he also knew that nothing could separate him from his love for Christ. Romans 8.
Isn’t that the idea? You can hit me with tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, famine, sword, and
nothing will change my love for Christ. Nothing. I love him with a love that he gave me. Romans 5:5,
“The love of Christ shed abroad in your heart.” It’s a gift from God, just like faith. You’ve been given a
supernatural faith. You’ve been given a supernatural love which never changes.
It is that undying love that holds on to us. It’s a component of our faith. So we are kept through faith, V5,
and now V9, finally. What is the end? “Obtaining your faith, the salvation of your soul.” That’s why we
say that this doctrine should be called the perseverance of the saints, or better yet, the perseverance of
faith.
You have been given a faith that never perishes. You have been given a faith that is protected by the
power of God, a faith that has a hope that never dies, a faith sustained by a divine power that can’t be
overthrown, a faith that is proven, tested, strengthened through trials, a faith that is designed for the
fulfillment of eternal glory, which was promised before the world began, a faith that contains within it an
undying love for Christ. And the outcome of that faith will be the obtaining of the final salvation of your
souls.
There is no escape from this reality. The result of this saving faith is your final salvation. The present
salvation which you now experience is a result of this faith. The initial salvation was a result of this
faith. And the final salvation will be yours because this faith will persevere and endure to the very
end. That is the nature of this faith. It is nothing less than a permanent gift from God.
To even consider the possibility that you could lose your salvation is a misrepresentation of God’s
grace. It’s a misrepresentation of the nature of faith, the gift of his love, the work of his Spirit. It’s a
misrepresentation of his power and his purpose. It’s a misrepresentation of his eternal decree in the lives
of his elect.
Philippians 1,
And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
6
Christ.
The doctrine of election 1 Sept 19/04

Jude, a promise that God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before his presence
with glory. That introduced to us the wonderful doctrine of eternal security, or the perseverance of the
saints, or the preservation of the saints. Our salvation is secure to the end because our salvation was
predestined in the very beginning to be completed.
Romans 8, “For whom he foreknew, he predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son.” That
is, all whom God predestined will become conformed to the image of his Son in eternal glory. Thus
“whom he predestined he called, and whom he called he justified, and whom he justified these he also
glorified.” The foundational truth that secures our future is God’s decree in eternity past. It is the fact
that we are chosen for final salvation that makes our salvation secure.
The doctrine of election is a disturbing doctrine for many people. “To suggest that the merciful, long-
suffering, gracious and loving God of the Bible would invent a dreadful doctrine like this
(predestination) which would have us believe it is an act of grace to select certain people for heaven and
by exclusion others for hell comes perilously close to blasphemy.” “The flawed theology of preselection is
an attempt to eliminate man’s capacity to exercise his free will, which reduces God’s sovereign love to an
act of a mere dictator.” “This doctrine makes our heavenly Father look like the worst of despots.”
“This doctrine is the most unreasonable, incongruous, self-contradictory, man-belittling, God-
dishonoring scheme of theology that ever appeared in Christian thought. No one can accept its
contradictory, mutually exclusive propositions without intellectual self-debasement. It holds up a self-
centered, selfish, heartless, remorseless tyrant for God and bids us worship him.”
“Five-point Calvinism, which includes the doctrine of election,“ makes God a monster who eternally
tortures innocent children. It removes the hope of consolation from the gospel. It limits the atoning work
of Christ. It resists evangelism. It stirs up argumentation and division, and promotes a small, angry
judgmental God rather than the large-hearted God of the Bible.”
“To say that God sovereignly chooses who will be saved is the most twisted thing I have ever read that
makes God a monster, no better than a pagan idol.”
“This doctrine makes God a diabolical monster and reduces man, who was created in the image of God,
to a mere robot.”
“This doctrine’s misrepresentation of God has caused many to turn away from the God of the Bible as
from a monster.”
Now the operative word in all of this seems to be “monster.” These are rather severe statements about
this doctrine, but they represent a large portion of the evangelical world. We’re not talking about the
illiterate. We’re not talking about those who only have a limited knowledge. We’re talking about people
who are leaders of ministry, pastors, and writers. And yet, this doctrine is taught in scripture.
The pervasive notion of these skeptics and critics of this doctrine is that somehow election is
unfair. Somehow it is unjust. But, God is not to be measured by our understanding of what is just, fair or
righteous. We have to be the first to admit that our understanding of virtually everything is somehow
warped and twisted and affected by our own sinfulness.
Psalm 50:21,
“you thought that I was altogether like you.”
Isaiah 55:8,
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.”
God has ways and thoughts incomprehensible, unresolvable, inscrutable to us.
Romans 11,
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and
33
how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
34
or who has been his counselor?”

35
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.
36
Who could know how God thinks? Who could be so bold as to tell God how he ought to think?
It is an essential understanding of God that He is holy, that His nature is holy, that He is infinitely and
perfectly just, that He is morally flawless and perfect, that He is perfection. Everything in Him, of Him,
for Him, from Him and by Him is perfect.
What is the rule of God’s justice? What is the principle of God’s justice? What is behind his
judgments? What is behind it is his own free will and absolutely nothing else. God makes determinations
based upon nothing but his own free will. Whatever it is that he wills is by definition just because he is
just. It is just because he wills it. It is not because he sees that it is just that he wills it, it is that he wills it
and then it becomes just.
“We must not think that God does a thing because it’s good and right, but rather the thing is good and
right because God does it.” The Creator owes nothing to the creature who cannot understand his
ways, cannot understand his mind, cannot be his counselor. How could God ever be called “unjust” for
choosing to save some, because there are none who deserve to be saved? Salvation never has been a
matter of fairness. I don’t think we want fair, do you? Election is rooted in pure grace. He is most
gracious and it seems that he is most gracious to those to whom grace seems most undeserved.
1 Corinthians 1:26,
26
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many
were powerful, not many were of noble birth;
27 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong,
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things
that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and
sanctification and redemption;
31 therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.”
When God does his choosing, when he is gracious to whom he will be gracious and merciful to whom he
will be merciful, it seems as if his grace stoops to the most undeserving of all so that no one could boast.
When we come to the people who believe the message in the New Testament, they are the poor and the
outcast, the ignoble, the weak, the harlots, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors. God passes by the
mighty, the noble, the religious, and the educated most often. There are few. Salvation is not a matter of
justice, it is a matter of pure grace. God has chosen to give that grace to those to whom it might seem
most unfair.
But we cannot be wrestling with these things intellectually as if there is going to be some answer in our
reason. We must come to the Word of God and we must look at what the scripture says to reveal the
truth of this doctrine. We must not let this doctrine become the victim of our corrupted sinful minds and
our self-centered and proud reasonings.
Like every other biblical truth, we simply open the Bible and submit ourselves to what it says. And
because it’s painful doesn’t change anything. Hell is a very painful doctrine, that doesn’t change
anything. While it may be hard for us to grasp this, it may be to our feeble and sin-stained minds less
than what we might think is fair, we set all of that aside and submit ourselves to the Word of God.
Some people think that this doctrine of election is somehow alien to God and his purposes in the
world. But is not true. The doctrine of election has its roots in the Old Testament. After all, clearly out of
all the people in the world, God chose Israel. Out of all the people in the world, God chose Abraham and
removed him from Ur of the Chaldees, and made him the father of a great nation. That’s why Israel is
called, “His chosen ones.”
Deuteronomy 7:6
6
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the
peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Psalm 135:4,
4
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.
Deuteronomy 14,
2
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on
earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
God said it wasn’t because you were better than any other people, it wasn’t because you were more
attractive than any other people. God said it is because I of my own free will predetermined to set my
love upon you and for no other reason. Israel, mine elect. God calls them.
In the New Testament, the church is called “the elect, the chosen.” Not an isolated term in reference to
the church. It’s repeated. The Olivet Discourse, Jesus talks about His second coming:
Matthew 24,
22
And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days
will be cut short.
23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’—do not believe it.
24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if
possible, even the elect.
They’re not called “believers,” they’re not called “Christians.” They’re called “the elect.”
31
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
His elect. Elect by him. That is a designation for the people of God.
Luke 18:6, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said, ‘Now shall not God bring about justice for his elect
who cry to him day and night?’ ” Again, believers are called “his elect, chosen, selected.”
31
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us
everything else?
33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.[
Those of us who are saved, that are believers in the family of God who have been redeemed, regenerated,
reconciled, we now belong to God. We have been declared righteous. The righteousness of God has been
imputed to us through faith in Christ. If God declares that we are righteous before him, no one can
successfully bring an accusation against his elect. Again, the church is called “the elect.” In each case of
the last two passages, God’s elect, his elect. It’s not that we elected, it’s that he elected.
Colossians 3,
12
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience.
Believers, then, are people whom God has chosen to belong to him. In the Old Testament, admittedly, it
was a nation of people on the earth, a temporal people. In the New Testament, the elect is a spiritual
people. The New Testament is just filled with this inescapable teaching. John 15, “You did not choose me,
but I chose you.”
John 17, High-Priestly prayer
6
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you
gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;
8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth
that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
This is in the Holy of Holies of the Trinity where the Son communes with the Father. V9, they are Thine.
They belong to you, you chose them, you gave them to me.
Acts 13,
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had
48
been destined for eternal life became believers.

49 Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region.
50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up
persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region.
51 So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Unambiguous, for those who resist this doctrine, here’s a verse very hard to swallow. V48, As many as
had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Romans 9, God’s Election of Israel
1
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—
2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my
kindred according to the flesh.
4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises;
5 to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over
all, God blessed forever.[c] Amen.
It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,
6
7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants
shall be named for you.”
8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted as descendants.
9 For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one
husband, our ancestor Isaac.
11 Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election
might continue,
12 not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”
“I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”
14
What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16
So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.
17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in
you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
A passage strong and unmistakable. Before they were born, before they had ever done anything good or
bad, only because of God’s purpose according to his choice (he is the one who calls) he determined the
older would serve the younger. Jacob he loved, Esau he hated.“Boy, that’s pretty clear.” Absolutely
clear. God made that choice before they were ever born.
V14, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? ”This doesn’t seem fair. “May it
never be.” No, no, no. It’s unthinkable. This is nothing new for God, to make this kind of choice between
two. This is nothing new, for he says to Moses way back in Exodus 33, “I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
So it doesn’t depend on the man who wills, or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. God’s
choice does not depend upon the will of the man, but on God. V18, “So then he has mercy on whom he
desires and he hardens whom he desires.” Inescapable, absolutely inescapable.
He’s just been talking about Elijah the prophet who thought that he was the only one left, and God says:
Romans 11,
But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the
4
knee to Ba′al.”
5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
1 Peter 1, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
1 To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappado′cia, Asia, and Bithyn′ia,
2 chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and
for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Reading the New Testament, every time you see the word “call” or “called,” it refers to God’s effectual
electing sovereign choice to call someone to salvation. The called are those who are effectively called, not
just a general call such as Matthew 22:14, “Many are called but few are chosen.” Whenever the call is
identified in the epistles, it is an effectual call.
1 Corinthians 1,
9
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are the chosen, and the predestined, and therefore the called.
Ephesians 1, Spiritual Blessings in Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
3
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him.
5 He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of his grace
8 which he lavished upon us.
9 For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose
which he set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
The language there says we are chosen for final holiness and blamelessness. In love, we were predestined
to be adopted as sons through Christ. All of this because of the kind intention of God’s own uninfluenced
free will, so that in the end all the praise and glory goes to him for his grace freely bestowed on us.
1 Thessalonians 1,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope
3
in our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you,
5 because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy
Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for
your sake.
By all of that, you’re the chosen. You’re the elect. It’s evident from your life.
2 Thessalonians 2, Chosen for Salvation
13
But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God
chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the
truth.
14 For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us,
either by word of mouth or by our letter.
16
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us
eternal comfort and good hope,
17 comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.
There is no capability for a person to be sanctified, and sanctification begins at the point of
salvation, separated from sin. There wouldn’t be any hope of sanctification or any hope of faith in the
truth unless God had chosen you from the beginning for salvation. All this language is consistent.
“He chose you before the foundation of the world that you should be like Christ.”
“He chose you that you should be blameless and holy.”
“He chose you that you should be ultimately in the presence of his glory.”
“He chose you that you would gain the very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“He chose you that you would bear his image in heaven.”
He chose you in the past, he called you a powerful effectual call that awakened you from the dead and
granted you clear understanding of the gospel in the gift of saving faith. This is not an ambiguous idea.
This is not in doubt in the Bible, if you believe the Bible, you believe in predestination, in God choosing
who would be saved, that God determined who would be saved and that salvation would reach its final
conclusion when they are glorified in heaven. If you believe the Bible, you believe that God effectually
calls those that he chooses and grants them faith. And yet with all that clarity, people still resist this
doctrine.
Romans 8,
14
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I
have compassion.”
16 So it depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy.
17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in
you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.
The imaginary opponent which helps Paul kind of argue with himself and continue to clarify his
teaching.
Romans 9, God’s Wrath and Mercy
19
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
20 But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you
made me thus?”
21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another
for menial use?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much
patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared
beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
If this is all cut and dried, if this is all determined by divine choice before anybody’s ever born, if this is
God being merciful to whom he will be merciful and having compassion on whom he will have
compassion, if this is not about the man who wills or the man who runs, if this is all about God, then how
can he find fault with anybody? How can you blame me if I don’t believe? How am I supposed to resist
his sovereign and eternal will?
That’s a fairly reasonable response, wouldn’t you think? This is the bone that people always choke on in
the doctrine of election. Paul anticipated it. You’re going to say, “That’s not fair because then you can’t
condemn me to hell. You can’t find fault with me. How am I going to resist his will?” V20, gives us an
amazing response, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Shut your mouth, that doesn’t
clarify anything. Are you accusing God of unjust punishment of sinners? Are you accusing God of unjust
condemnation? Are you accusing God of evil? You better close your mouth before you say anything else.
The illustration is amazing. “The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like
this, will it?” When a potter makes a pot, the pot doesn’t talk. The pot doesn’t say, I don’t want to be this
shape, make me another shape. This isn’t fair. I like to be like this pot, or that pot. V21, “Doesn’t the
potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another
for common use?” That is amazing.
Don’t you dare question God. God’s the potter, you’re the clay. The clay is so far beneath the potter. It is
inanimate dirt. It has no right to even entertain the idea of speaking to the potter. And as vast as the gulf
is between the pot and the potter, even more vast is the gulf between you and God. The potter, V21,
doesn't he have a right over the clay to make it the way he wants to make it?
V22, what if God wants to demonstrate his wrath? Doesn’t he have a right to demonstrate his
wrath? Isn’t that part of his glory? Can’t he put his wrath on display? He is God. Can’t God make his
power known in his judgment, in his wrath, in his condemnation? Yes he can, notice how V22 ends. It
flips into passive verbs. It never says God created vessels prepared for destruction, that’s double
predestination, and the Bible doesn’t teach that. It says he “endured with much patience vessels of wrath
(passive) prepared for destruction.” Not that he prepared for destruction. God doesn’t go down the list of
humans to come and say, “Okay, you go to heaven, and you go to hell.”
The Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches that all men are on their way to hell. God chose to rescue
some and he endured the others who are headed that way not because of something God did, not because
of a decree that God made individually for them, but because they continue in their sins and are fully
guilty. God has every right to demonstrate his wrath, and he is as much glorified in his wrath as he is in
his mercy.
V23, “He will make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy.” Here the verbs are (active.) He
makes the vessels of mercy, he endures those that are fitted for destruction. God is active in
redemption. He is passive in reprobation.
In Revelation 19 we are told the Lord God reigns. We don’t comprehend what we’re talking about when
we read that. What does it mean? It means he makes every decision that’s ever been made, about
everything. He reigns, as the Most High, he rules in the armies of heaven and none can stay his hand or
say to him, “What are you doing?” He works all things after the counsel of his own will.
He’s the heavenly potter who takes hold of our fallen humanity like a lump of clay, and out of it he
fashions us into vessels of honor and he endures those who fashion themselves into vessels of dishonor. He
is the decider and determiner of every person’s destiny, and the controller of every detail of every
individual’s life. Which is only another way of saying God is God. God is not constantly being trumped
by Satan we are.
This doctrine of election is not easy to accept, this doctrine hurts. It is so painful that the only reason
anybody believes in it is because it’s in the Bible. We just wouldn’t make it up. No man, no number of
men, no committee would ever come up with this. We would never come up with a doctrine of eternal
hell, either, because these are things that conflict with the dictates of the carnal mind.
I can’t comprehend the Trinity, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. I don’t know what it means to be three
persons and yet one. I can’t comprehend the virgin birth. I can’t comprehend the character of Christ, his
nature. There are so many things I can’t understand. There are so many things that are
incomprehensible to me, but I believe them because they’re revealed in scripture. I don’t mind some
tension here. I don’t even mind the fact that the Bible also says, “Whosoever will,” the Bible also says
that, “Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said you will not come to me that you might have life.”
You say, “Well what is all that?” That’s simply saying that anybody will come can come and anybody
who does come will be received. You say, “How does that work together with election?” I don’t
know. But aren’t you comforted in the fact that I don’t know, because if my mind was like God’s mind,
that would be horrific.
There’s so many things that I don’t know. If I ask you a very simple question. If I say to you, “Who
wrote the book of Romans?” What are you going to say? You can’t even say that, can you? You see, I
heard some feeble, “Paul.” Then you’re all of a sudden holding it up because you know that’s not the
complete answer, right? You say, “Well, the Holy Spirit wrote it.” Well, was it Paul or the Holy Spirit? It
was both of them. What does that mean? Paul wrote a verse, the Holy Spirit wrote a verse? How do we
understand that?
You say, “Is every word out of the mind of Paul? Every word out of the vocabulary or Paul? Every word
out of his heart?” Absolutely. But also, every word came from the Holy Spirit. How can that be? That is
an incomprehensible and inscrutable to me.
I can ask you another question since you did so well on that one. Was Jesus God or man? The right
answer is yes. But how could you be 100 percent God and 100 percent man? You can’t be 200 percent of
something? How can you be all man and all God? That is beyond our comprehension. When we say 100
percent of something, that’s it. But if you’re fully man, then you can’t be fully God. If you’re fully God
you can’t be fully man, and yet he was. It just goes on and on like this.
If I ask you another simple question. Who lives your Christian life, what are you going to say? Come on,
you’ve got to do this every day. Who lives your Christian life? “I do.” Really? “No, I don’t.” You say,
“It’s Christ who does it.” So we going to blame it all on him? I mean, we can’t give you the credit and we
can’t give him the blame, so we’ve got a problem here.
You say, “Well if there’s anything wrong, it’s me, anything right, it’s him.” And they say it’s a mystery
that’s inconceivable. The Apostle Paul said this about that, he said, “I am crucified with Christ
- ” Galatians 2:20 “ - nevertheless I live, yet not I.” See, he didn’t know either. You have a - John
Murray said many years ago that in every major doctrine of the Bible there is an apparent
paradox. There is an unresolved paradox that is transcendent. And this means God is God and the fact
that there are so many of those in the scripture means the scripture was not written by men.
So because we believe that Jesus is God doesn’t mean we don’t believe he’s man. Because we believe that
he was born of a human mother does not mean we don’t believe he was born of God. Because we must
persevere in our faith doesn’t mean we aren’t secure. Because the Bible was written by human
authors doesn’t mean we don’t believe it wasn’t written by the Holy Spirit.
Because we have to discipline ourselves to live the Christian life doesn’t mean we don’t believe that it’s
not Christ in us. Because we believe in the doctrine of election doesn’t mean we don’t believe in human
responsibility. These are apparent paradoxes we can’t resolve. The danger is, you destroy the truth
and come up with some rationalistic middle ground. That’s dangerous. So, the unmistakable teaching of
scripture is the doctrine of election. Even the foreknowledge, 1 Peter 1:1, he says that we are
chosen, “who are chosen.” V2, “According to the foreknowledge of God.” That’s the key. According to
the foreknowledge of God.” Immediately they’ll say, “What does that mean? That means that God knows
what you’re going to do, right? Before you do it, foreknowledge.”
God, in eternity past, because he knows everything, he will look down the annals of history and
said, “John MacArthur, he’s going to be born into that Christian family and uh-huh, he’s going to hear
the gospel and he’s going to believe the gospel so I’m going to choose him.” You think that’s
strange? That’s what most Christians believe. That’s what most Christians believe and teach.
But this is like foresight, about what people will do. Now the problem with this is how are these
dead sinners going to resurrect themselves to do this unaided by God? You answer that question. How
are those who are totally depraved, totally blind, totally dead going to come to the place where they make
the decision for salvation? How they going to do that?
Can't do it. “Can the leopard change his spots? Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Neither can you do
good who are evil.” How is that going to happen? If God just looks down and sees who’s going to make
the decision, then his election is not based on his own free will, it’s based on their merit. It’s based on
their merit. The good guys are going to choose me and so I’m going to choose them.
This has nothing to do with all those verses we read, absolutely nothing to do with them. “We are chosen
according to the foreknowledge of God.” V19, “Christ, for he was foreknown before the foundation of the
world.” Oh, we’ve got a problem. If foreknowledge means that God looks ahead and sees what’s going to
happen in V2, then being foreknown must mean the same thing in V20.
So does that mean that God looked down history and said, “Oh look at that. Christ is going to give his
life. Well, if he’s going to do that, I’ll make him the Savior.” I mean, obviously foreknowledge can’t mean
that because Jesus said he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father. That’s why he is called
Christ, mine elect.
What does foreknowledge mean? It’s prognosis, prognsis. We get the word “prognosis” from it, used in
medical terms. It is a predetermined choice. It is a predetermined choice. Christ was foreknown. That is,
he was known by God in the intimate sense as the Savior, the Redeemer before the foundation of the
world. It’s talking about the intimate kind of knowing. Like it says in the Old Testament, “Israel only
have I known.” Does that mean the Jews are the only people God knows about? No, it’s the kind of
knowing that you have in Genesis. Cain knew his wife and she bore a son. That doesn’t mean he knew
her name. It doesn’t mean he knew who she was. It means he had an intimate relationship with her and
out of it came a son.
Jesus said this in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.” He’s talking about an intimate
love relationship. The shock was that Mary was pregnant and Joseph had never known her. We use the
expression carnal knowledge, meaning a sexual union, an intimate knowledge. What you have here in
foreknowledge is a predetermined intimacy. Just as the Father had a predetermined relationship with the
Son that would bring him to be the sacrifice for sin to shed his precious blood as a lamb unblemished and
spotless, so the Father had a predetermined relationship with those whom he chose. Foreknowledge is a
deliberate choice.
Acts 2,
“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
22
with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know—
23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified
and killed by the hands of those outside the law.
24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in
its power.
You’re guilty. You’re culpable. You did it with your own will. But God had predetermined it would be
done. It was set in his predetermined plan and foreknowledge. That is to predetermine, to foreknow, is
not simply to have information about what’s going to happen, but to predetermine it. So we understand,
then, that the Bible is very clear on the doctrine of election.
That raises the compelling question about why God did this. I believe is the most compelling, the most
powerful, the most sweeping understanding of redemption that is possible to know.
The doctrine of election 2 Sept 26/04

The doctrine of election, chosen by God, who chose whom. This is not without controversy. The doctrine
of sovereign election, the truth of predestination is much discussed and most discussions can degenerate
into something very heated.
In fact, to say that there are people who hate the idea of predestination is not an overstatement. There are
people who hate the thought of divine election, sovereign choice. Some others who say that the doctrine is
demonic and satanic. It is such an affront to their sense of fairness and sense of what they think is
right, that there are people who call themselves Christians who would see this as truth that comes from
the enemy of God and not God himself.
For many, it seems unfair that God chooses who will be saved. For other people, it is emotionally hard to
accept and endure that God would decide who he would save. To other people, it seems as an assault on
free will, human choice, which many people are convinced is some kind of human right.
It is a hard doctrine to accept. All of us who have come to understand what the Bible teaches about the
doctrine of election have had to deal with the rational arguments that say this doesn’t seem fair, this
doesn’t seem just, this doesn’t seem equitable, this can’t be the way it is. We’ve all had to deal with the
emotional issues of, it’s tragic, it’s sad that God passes by some sinners. We’ve all had to deal with the
fact that while we have volition, and we have choice, ultimately it is not independent of God.
I understand all of those things, because no one comes to a biblical understanding of the doctrine of
sovereign election without working through those issues. But then again, what satisfies my reason, my
emotion, and what satisfies my sense of freedom is not the determiner of truth.
So we have to come back to that point. I’m not God. While things may not make sense to my reason, my
reason is fallen. While things may not make sense to my emotion, my emotion is fallen. While things
might not seem to square up with my sense of freedom, my freedom is fallen, too. One thing I will not
do, and none of us really would openly want to do, we will not create God in our image. We will not
design God to fit our reason, our emotion and our freedom. We cannot design God to be what we think
he should be. We cannot design God to act how we think he should act.
There are some who are bold enough to attempt shaping God to their own needs, rejecting the doctrine of
divine election, predestination, they end up creating a God who is not the God of the Bible, an idol. The
God of their creation may be more reasonable to them, he may be more comfortable to them. He may fit
their instincts better, but is not the true God.
A misrepresentation of God, any corruption of God, any diminishing of God, is to then create a God in
your own mind that is not the true and living God, and such misrepresentations inevitably corrupt our
worship, they corrupt our service to him, and they can be blasphemous as well as ignorant.
An illustration of that from another area that deals with the nature of God would be creation. If you
believe in evolution, if you reject the idea that God created the universe in six days, if you will not accept
that as fact but you believe that there’s an evolutionary process going on, you have just stolen some of
God’s glory, right? Because he is to be glorified as the Creator.
The fact that time is broken inexplicably really apart from creation into seven-day periods is a constant
reminder that God created everything in six days. There’s no other reason to break things down into
seven-day periods. But human life itself is a constant reminder in the cycles of time that God is the
Creator and God is to be honored as the Creator. To hold a view that there is somehow other forces
operating in creation beyond what scripture attributes to God is to then to diminish his glory. Any
corruption of the nature of God then takes you to a level below the reality of God, and therefore corrupts
worship because it corrupts your understanding of who he is.
We do have reason. Reason, according to Romans 1 allows us to conclude there is a God. We do have
emotion. Emotion gives us the faculty to relate to each other, something animals and plants don’t
have. Emotion also gives us the privilege of relating to God. And we do have will. We do act in some ways
with a measure of freedom. But our reason fell when Adam fell, and our emotion fell when Adam
fell, and our freedom fell when Adam fell. So all our faculties, while they are residual, there are still some
residual elements of those faculties given to Adam before the fall, all of our faculties are, to one degree or
another, corrupted. Our reason, emotion and our will, are corrupted by the flesh.
Therefore, in order for reason, emotion, and will to function as God wants them to function, they cannot
be left to themselves because they’re fallen. They must be brought under the authority of scripture. What
is truly reasonable is not what seems reasonable to us. What is truly satisfying is not what is satisfying to
us. What is truly an expression of our will is not what our fallen will longs for.
The only way we’ll ever get an uncorrupted view of God is to go to an uncorrupted source, the Word of
God. So in every issue that relates to God, we go to scripture. I do understand that the idea that God
chooses people for salvation is a hard thing to accept, it’s hard because we’re so concerned with what is
fair by our understanding. I do understand that it’s a difficult thing emotionally, and certainly with
regard to the freedom of the human will.
But denying the doctrine of election or denying the doctrine of predestination doesn’t change
anything, because if I say that you’re able to go to heaven based on your choice, not God’s, that you’re
the determiner of your destiny, your eternal destiny, that this is up to you to do, God leaves it completely
to you, the next question would be, “Does God know what you’ll do?”
And the answer to that question has to be yes, he does know what you are going to do because he knows
everything. And because he already has a book from eternity in which the names of all the people who
will believe are already written down, so God already knows, so the question is if he knew you weren’t
going to believe, then why did he go and create you anyway? I mean, you really never escape the
dilemma.
Somebody might come along and say, like the openness theologian people, and say, “Well, he doesn’t
know.” Well, if he doesn’t know then for mercy’s sake why doesn’t he just throw this thing to the
wind like a bunch of dandelions and let it fall wherever it would? He certainly must have known how it
would turn out, terribly. He certainly knew he had thrown Satan out of heaven, He knew that a third of
the angels went with him. He certainly knew that they were doing what they were doing in the Garden of
Eden. Why would he do this? Why would he create the race if there was even the possibility of hell? You
never really do escape the issue.
In the end, one thing is clear. God never, ever planned to save everyone. “How do I know that?” Because
not everyone is saved, therefore God couldn’t have planned to save everyone. Because God can do
whatever he purposes to do. Is that not true? So the question is then, why does God pass over some and
choose others? Last, for his own glory. Romans 9, again, tells us that God is glorified in his wrath as he is
in his mercy.
Now, this is a huge issue, but denying the doctrine of predestination or the doctrine of election doesn’t
solve the problem. One thing is clear. God did not determine to save everyone. It is clear, Jesus said that
when he said, “Many are on the broad road that leads to destruction.” So the question then is, if God in
his perfectly just, and holy, sovereign purpose determined to save some, by what means did he determine
to do that?
Did he determine to do it simply willy-nilly on the part of the people making the choice, or did he himself
make the choice? First, he determined not to save all, or there wouldn’t be an eternal hell, and there
wouldn’t be “few” that find the way to life everlasting. So, the only question remaining is who chose
whom? Do people choose God or does God choose people? The answer is found in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 10, God speaks of Israel
14
Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,
(God´s supreme authority in the universe)
15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them,
out of all the peoples, as it is today.
Moses writes to tell us that the Lord owns everything. Everything in heaven and the highest heaven,
everything in earth, all that there is belongs to God. Out of it all God chose you, the seed of Abraham,
your descendants, and set his affection to love you above all people. He made a choice. He passed by all
the other nations. This is not something extraordinary for God to do in the New Testament era. This is
how he’s always operated. He even chose Abraham.
Matthew 11,
27
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
The only way you’ll ever know God the Father is if the Son wills to reveal him to you. All the
prerogatives belong to the Trinity to God.
Matthew 22,
14
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
I don’t know how much more clear that could be. There is a wide, broad gospel call, few are chosen.
Mark 13,
And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom
20
he chose, he has cut short those days.

There it is. Who chose whom? He chose us. He shortened the days. In the time of the tribulation, there
will be horrific things going on, judgments all over the world. The time is condensed, it’s short or the
elect couldn’t even survive. Not for the whole world, “but for the sake of the chosen whom he chose.”
Romans 11,
3
“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are
seeking my life.”
4
But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the
knee to Baal.”
So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
5
Talking about Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

What does God say? Elijah in his life goes out and he confronts the prophets of Baal and then he feels
he’s the only one left and there’s nobody faithful to the Lord. People started chasing him, Jezebel. He’s
running into the desert, and asking God to take his life because somebody is going to kill him. He thinks
he’s the only one left. The divine response in V4, I chose them. I kept them.
There were 7,000 people who were true to God, who were believing in the time of Elijah that God had
chosen and kept, and there is in the present time when Paul writes this, and in every time, and today, a
remnant according to God’s gracious choice. It’s a choice. “7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it
was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.” Those who were chosen obtained
it. Those who weren’t chosen were hardened. God actually gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see
not, ears to hear not, down to this very day. Strong language about sovereign choice.
2 Timothy 2,
10
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is
in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Life was so hard for Paul, talks about suffering hardship like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. V5, he
competes as an athlete, strenuously. V6, a hard-working farmer. It’s all sacrificial. V9, suffering
hardship, “even to imprisonment as a criminal.” Why do you do that? “For this reason I endure all
things, for the sake of those who are chosen.” It’s unmistakable. God has his chosen and their choosing
has to be confirmed by the hearing of the gospel.
James 1,
17
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind
of first fruits of his creatures.
What’s the best gift that could come down from heaven? Salvation, the perfect gift, the gift of spiritual
perfection is from above. Everything that’s good, salvation would be at the top of the list, is from God. He
did it. It came down from heaven. As an exercise of his will, he brought us forth and he did it by the
Word of Truth, that is through the gospel.
James 2,
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and
5
to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into
court?
7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
Revelation 13,
8
and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the
foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.
Revelation 17,
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to
8
destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from
the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to
come.
2 Timothy 2,
who have swerved from the truth by claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are
18
upsetting the faith of some.

19
But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and,
“Let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.”
20
In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for special
use, some for ordinary.
What is on that foundation? It’s a great foundation for the church, these words, “The Lord knows those
who are his.” The Lord knows those who are his. He knows who belongs to him.
John 3, Nicodemus Visits Jesus
1
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born
from above.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time
into the mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of
water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So it’s not going to happen apart from the Holy Spirit.
7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’
8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes
from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11
“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not
receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about
heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life.
Whatever, whenever, wherever it happens, to whomever it happens, it happens by the work of the Holy
Spirit. It is a birth from above. Isn’t that amazing? The wind goes where the wind wants to go. You don’t
tell the wind where to go. We’ve been watching all those little lines, haven’t we, down there in the Gulf,
all those hurricanes, nobody’s telling that thing where to go. It goes wherever it wants to go. So it is with
the Spirit, he goes wherever he wants to go. He blows wherever he wants to blow. He sovereignly does
whatever he wants to do in whatever life he wants to do it in. In the end, he gets all the glory.
1 Corinthians 1,
26
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not
many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that
are,
29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption,
31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Just take a look at the congregation, you’re sitting there in the church at Corinth, look around. See the
ones who have been called effectually into salvation. How many of the world’s wise are there? How many
of the world’s mighty are there? How many of the nobles are there? How much royal blood is there in
your church?
This says God wanted to receive all the glory. No person who is saved could ever boast about his own
salvation and it served God’s glory best for him to choose the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised, the
nothings, and the nobodies.
If the weak and the foolish chose God, this passage doesn’t make any sense. If the weak and the foolish
chose God, then who gets the credit? The weak and the foolish. So how does this end human boasting? It
turns the whole passage into nonsense. V30, We are in Christ Jesus because God did it, so V31, “If
you’re going to boast, boast boast in the Lord.” This passage isn’t about man’s choice, this isn’t anything
to do with man’s choice. This is about God’s choice.
Romans 9,
8
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted as descendants.
9 For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one
husband, our ancestor Isaac.
11 Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election
might continue,
12 not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.
13
As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
God chose Jacob not because of anything they had done, not because of any merit, not because of any
good work, purely because of His own purpose.
It doesn’t say anything about Jacob choosing God.
14
What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
Do you understand the importance of that issue? If Jacob was choosing and if people were choosing, and
if anybody could choose, and if it was up to us, why then would you have to defend the justice of God?
Why would you ever have to say, “Well there’s no injustice with God.” I mean, if it’s us choosing
him, then why is Paul worried that we might think that God is unjust if it’s just our choice?
If Paul is saying God just chooses those who choose him, well that’s not unjust, nobody needs to defend
God’s justice. I mean, nobody would accuse God of being unjust if he just chooses whoever chooses
him. But Paul knows that people will accuse God of injustice because it goes against the grain of our
fallen reason when we hear that God makes the choice according to his own purpose.
20
But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who
molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”
Why would anybody talk back to God? They wouldn’t be talking back to God if God just chose whoever
chose him. It’s that there are people who are so offended by the fact that God chooses that they answer
back to God. If God hadn’t been the one who made you what you are, then you wouldn’t be answering
back to him about that.
The whole argument here would be utter nonsense if it weren’t crystal clear that this is a divine choice. It
does raise the question of God’s justice, and it does raise the question of the rights of the pot in the hands
of the potter. If it is a human choice, there’s no need to object. If it’s a human choice and God just
chooses whoever chooses him, there’s no need to defend divine justice. There’s no need to defend God’s
sovereign authority to do whatever he wants with whoever. If you deny sovereign choice, if you deny the
doctrine of election, you turn all these texts either into nonsense or outright deception.
Romans 11,
33
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and
how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
34
Or who has been his counselor?”

35
“Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
36
Do you understand that you can’t plumb the depths of God’s knowledge and wisdom? Don’t
overestimate yourself. What might not seem reasonable to you, or emotionally satisfactory to you, or fair
to human will and freedom, you can’t challenge mentally the depths of wisdom and knowledge that
belongs to God. You not know how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways? Don’t
ever put yourself in a position to be questioning God.
Even you that may be having a tough time with this, have you ever congratulated yourself on your
salvation? Have you ever just looked up to heaven and said, “God, you must be really proud of me, the
choices I made, the way I decided to turn from sin and believe the gospel?” Had that thought ever
entered your mind? Have you ever thought, “You know, look at all these stupid people around me who
reject the gospel. I’m smart enough to see it for what it is.
What do you say to someone you love that’s outside of Christ? What do you do when you want to see
somebody saved? You pray. Why? You hope God will choose them if they choose him? When anybody is
saved, who do you thank?
You’re all closet Calvinists. You understand you were drowning and he saved you. You were dead and he
gave you life. You were blind and he gave you sight. You were deaf and he gave you hearing.
Titus 3,
3
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures,
passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.
4
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5
he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
6
This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by
his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
It was by his power, by his will, according to his purpose. We came because he drew us. It isn’t apart
from our will, he moved our will. He chose you. He saved you. But not apart from the Holy Spirit
activating all those true spiritual responses: Penitence, humility, love, hunger for righteousness. No, you
chose him because he chose you.
1 John 4, God Is Love
7
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and
knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might
live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice
for our sins.
11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
13
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.
16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and
whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a
brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and
sisters also.
It is absolutely inescapable in the Word of God. It doesn’t violate your personal freedom, it activates your
freedom. When we want somebody to come to the Lord, we pray, we pray that the Holy Spirit would turn
their hearts to Christ, that the hurricane of the Holy Spirit would come through their soul. We pray that
the Spirit would make them willing to repent and willing to believe.
Never when we pray that do we think we’re violating their will. You wouldn’t pray like this, “Lord, it’s
got to be their deal. It’s got to be their deal. So don’t you be messing around with them. It’s got to be
their deal. They’ve got to do it from their own hearts.” That’s absolutely absurd. You know that no
sinner is going to do that unless the Spirit moves.
The fact that God chose us is all over the Bible. It isn’t that he chose us because he knew we’d choose
him. Because if he hadn’t chosen us, we’d never have chosen him. I told you when we talked about the
doctrine of perseverance, or preservation or eternal security, if I could lose my salvation, I’d lose it. Well
I’ll tell you this, if I could lose my salvation, I’d lose it ten times a day, every day. I can’t save myself or
keep myself saved. God chose me, he awakened my heart and my will, he activated them all that I might
embrace him.
Isaiah 46:10, “He knows the end from the beginning,” what does that mean? Well, how is it
that Isaiah 41:21-22, Isaiah 44:7-8 say his knowledge of the future is what distinguishes him from false
gods? Or how is it that through the Bible he foretells events centuries before they ever happen? How is
it, for example, in Isaiah 44:28 that he names Cyrus as the ruler who will build up Jerusalem, yet the
name of Cyrus, and even his existence as a human being, depended on an unimaginably long and complex
series of human decisions separating the prophecy from its fulfillment? How did God know that?
In 1 Kings 13:2, God predicts the birth of Josiah 300 years before the event. How did he know
that? And 2 Kings 19:25, he states explicitly that he had ordained and planned the military victories of
the Assyrians long before they ever took place. God foretells the Egyptians’ voluntary oppression of
Israel in Genesis 15:13. He foretells Pharaoh’s hardening of his heart against Moses in Exodus 3:19. He
foretells the rejection of Isaiah’s message by the Israelites in Isaiah 6:9. He foretells the rebellion of the
Israelites after Moses’ death, Deuteronomy 31:16. He foretells Judas’ voluntary betrayal of
Christ, John 6:70-71. And so on, and so on, and so on.
These Open Theists say, “God’s really sharp. He’s really good at analyzing trends. He’s good at
predicting with accuracy what might happen because he kind of gets the flow.” It’s absurd. This doesn’t
work. You’re talking about prophetic events that are the end of millions of human
choices. Ridiculous. I’ll tell you what makes the whole thing most ridiculous. If God doesn’t know the
future, he doesn’t know Jesus is going to die. That’s a problem.
This is where openness theology goes down the drain. Acts 2:23, “Jesus was handed over to his enemies
according to the definite plan, determined plan and foreknowledge of God.” Did God plan Jesus’
arrest? Did God plan Jesus’ crucifixion? Did God plan that in detail?
Acts 4:28,
27
For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Come on, you don’t believe that God was just reacting to what was happening to Jesus as it
happened. We know He was a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. That’s what the Bible
says. If God does not exercise power, control over human beings and their actions, if God does not
control those actions into the fulfillment of his plan, or even have a plan because he doesn’t know what’s
going to happen, then how did he know Jesus would end up on a cross?
If he doesn’t know the future, how did he know the Jews, the Pharisees, Pilate and Judas would
cooperate? How did he know Judas wouldn’t bail out two years into the deal and split? How did he know
Judas would hang around long enough to betray him? How did he know Judas would throw the money
on the floor? How did he know that? How did he know that Jesus would be raised up like a serpent in the
wilderness? How did he know any of that if he doesn’t know the future?
He not only knows the future, he ordains the future, he makes the future happen. If he didn’t know the
future, he didn’t know the Roman soldiers would even crucify Jesus. How did he know Pilate wouldn’t
say, “Ah, I don’t want to deal with this just man, let him go? Give him a Roman escort, take him out of
town, let him shuffle off to Greece, get lost in a crowd.”
If God doesn’t know the future, then God doesn’t know that His Son is going to die for your sins. That’s
ridiculous. He not only knows the future, he ordains the future. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, one
writer puts it this way:
“The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the hinge pin of history, and the indispensable condition of our
salvation was most certainly not left up to the vagaries of human decision. It was ordained from the
foundation of the earth, and it is impossible that it might not have occurred. The Bible nowhere suggests
or even permits the interpretation that Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate and the soldiers were unwilling pawns
forced by God into the commission of a horrible crime. They acted freely and in accordance with their
own motives and purposes, yet they did exactly what God’s hand and plan had predestined would
happen.”
God ordains it all. He knows the future because he’s written it. All the choices are his. Certainly the
choice of salvation for lost, dead, blind sinners.
John said,
“We love him because he first loved us.”
The doctrine of election 3 Oct 17/04

Who chose whom? Not a small controversy when you talk about the doctrine of election. Many people
feel, that this is a dangerous doctrine, that this turns God into a monster, that this is an almost
blasphemous, that this is a heresy. Yet no matter how much human reason, human preference might rage
against this doctrine, it is inescapably taught in scripture. We need to bow our knees to this great truth of
divine election, and once we do it may become to us the most precious of all doctrines.
1 Timothy 2,
3
This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
4
2 Peter 3,
The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting
9
any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

The Bible says we are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature. The Bible commands all men
everywhere to repent and that God demands that all consider his Son, in whom he is well pleased, and
hear him. And that the gospel is essentially a command.
We talk about it as a gift, we talk about it as an offer, but it is essentially a command to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I also understand that the Bible teaches human choice and human volition. That the
Bible says “choose this day whom you will serve.” I know that Jesus said, “Come unto me all you that
labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I know that he said, “Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely.”
Jesus posed the question, “Why will you die? You will not come to me,” he said, “that you might have
life.” Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem and said, “Though I would have often gathered you as a hen
gathers her brood, you would not.” God wept over a recalcitrant, rebellious and unbelieving Israel, and
he wept through the eyes of Jeremiah, chapter 13.
The Bible indicts all people as sinners, as personally guilty of violating God’s holy law, deserving of
divine wrath and eternal punishment. The Bible indicates that all sinners have enough revelation to be
responsible for their sin. Through creation Romans 1, conscience Romans 2, sinner is given light, if
followed it leads to the truth. Failure to follow, the sinner will perish under God’s wrath.
We all understand, it is in the scripture. Without contradiction, but only in apparent difficulty in our
minds, there is a mystery unfolded for us in scripture that tells us that no sinner is capable of
understanding the truth. 1 Corinthians 2: 14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s
Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are
spiritually discerned. 15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no
one else’s scrutiny.
Acts 11,
18
When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to
the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
The only way a sinner could ever repent is if God grants him repentance. Even believing is beyond the
capability of human beings.
John 1,
12
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Believing does not come by the will of man, or the will of the flesh.
The Bible then says people are incapable of understanding the truth, the gospel truth. They are incapable
of repenting or believing. So that the only way any sinner can be redeemed is by the work of God. God
has to grant understanding, repentance and faith. God has to overpower spiritual death and give
life, overpower spiritual blindness and give sight, overpower spiritual ignorance and give
truth, overpower the pervasive love of sin and replace it with a desire for righteousness.
If anyone is ever saved, it is because God overrules all the normal natural inabilities. Salvation is all of
God, not just all of grace. That is never apart from human will, it is never in violation of human will. The
profound unsearchable reality is that no one would ever choose Christ if God had not first chosen
him. We are saved and we have life because God freely chose to give it to us.
John 6, The Words of Eternal Life
60
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend
you?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
64 But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones
that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.
65 And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the
Father.”
66
Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.
67 So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”
71 He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray
him.
I don’t know how much more clearly that could be said. You can’t come, you won’t come, unless God
grants you the understanding, the repentance and the faith. Salvation is a work of God, which leaves us
with a very important question to answer: Why did God choose to rescue sinners from his just judgment?
The answer really is staggering. We will go through some very texts of scripture.
Paul serves as an apostle of Jesus Christ, in doing it there are some elements in his ministry: First, “For
the faith of those chosen by God.”
Titus 1, Salutation
1
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and the
knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness,
3 in due time he revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the
command of God our Savior,
To Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share:
4
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Paul doesn’t know who the elect are, there is no way to identify them, because God´s will and his
sovereign election is secret and hidden, Paul then preaches the gospel everywhere he goes, knowing that
the Lord will use him to bring the gospel to the elect who will believe. This is what the ministry of
evangelism is, you bring the gospel so the elect can hear it and believe it.
Second, it starts out with evangelism and moves toward edification. He is called by God to
represent Jesus Christ to bring the truth to the elect so they can hear it and believe. Also, to those who
believe he brings “the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.” Once people have believed
they need to be taught the truth so they can grow in Christ’s likeness. We could say the first aspect of his
ministry was salvation, the second is sanctification. “I preach the gospel so that elect can hear it and
believe, and then I teach the Word of God so that those who believe can learn the truth, which produces
godliness.”
Third, true for him and for all of us, V2, “In the hope of eternal life.” It is an element of encouragement,
consolation and hope that looks at future glory. So, “First of all, I preach the gospel so the elect can hear
it and believe. Then I teach the Word so that those who believe can grow in the knowledge of the truth
into godliness. Then, I tell them about the eternal life to come so that they can live in hope, and hope
becomes their great comfort.”
In his ministry there 3 aspects, salvation, sanctification, and glorification. We all have that responsibility,
we bring the gospel and then those who believe we instruct that they may grow. Then we fill their minds
with the hope of what is to come in the glorious inheritance that awaits us in the future.
in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began—
2
God promised that he would save, and sanctify, and glorify believers. Who in the world is he making a
promise to? It has to be an inter-trinitarian promise. It has to be God making a promise within the
Trinity. To whom then is he making the promise now?
2 Timothy 1,
8
Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in
suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God,
9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own
purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Titus 1, Salutation
“Before there was time, God promised to save sinners and sanctify them and glorify them.” The question
is, to whom did he make the promise? He didn’t make it to the sinners. They weren’t there. To whom did
he make it? The Father made a promise to the Son. The whole of salvation comes from God. It is all
about his own purpose and it is granted on behalf of Christ.
So, what you have, then, to understand this great doctrine of election is this. The Father, at some point in
eternity past, says to the Son, “I am going to redeem sinners and I’m going to do it for you.” Why would
God do that? Because he loves the Son and the Son celebrates the mutual love that he has with the
Father. The Father determines in his eternal love within the Trinity that he will express his love for the
Son by giving the Son a gift, and that gift, essentially, is going to be a redeemed humanity. If you will, he
gives his Son a bride.
In the ancient world, fathers chose the brides for their sons. That was the father’s responsibility. Here
you have the divine pattern as God determines that he will choose a bride for his Son. It’s a way that the
Father could express his love to his Son. It’s a way he determined to do it, that he would give to his Son a
redeemed humanity.
John 6, the bread from heaven
35
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.
36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive
away;
38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise
it up on the last day.
40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life;
and I will raise them up on the last day.”
This is where it has to be understood. Every saved person is a gift from the Father to the Son. The Father
determined in eternity past that he would give to the Son a bride, that he would give to the Son a
redeemed humanity. The Bible tells us that he actually wrote their names down in the Lamb’s Book of
Life knowing that even before the foundation of the world, the Lamb would have to be slain to pay the
price for that redemption.
There was always a price paid for a bride, paid to the father by the one who took the bride. In this case,
the Father had to give up his own Son, the Son had to give up his own life to pay the price to purchase his
bride. Every saved individual is a part of that bride. Even the Old Testament saints are engulfed into the
bride and take up residence in the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven as a bride adorned
for her husband, becomes the capital city of eternity, the bridal city. The whole redemptive history is
about the Father pursuing a bride for his Son. The Father determined before the foundation of the world
who the bride would be and he wrote down the names so that every person who comes to Christ is given
to Christ by the Father. It’s just a staggering and glorious truth.
44
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the
last day.
You can’t come. You can’t understand. You can’t repent. You can’t believe.
64
But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones
Father.”
This is a divine grant. So how is it that people are saved? They are chosen. Their names are written down
in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Every one of them is a personal gift from
the Father to the Son. V37, “All that the Father gives me shall come to me.” If you’re given, you will
come. This is what theologians through the centuries have called “irresistible grace.” If you are chosen, if
you are a gift from the Father to the Son, you will come.
You will be given life, understanding, repentance and faith. V37, “The one who comes to me, I will
certainly not cast out.” Why? Because there’s something inherently valuable in the sinner? No. This is
one of the evangelical illusions today, that we’re so wonderful God can’t resist us. He just loves us to
pieces because of what we are. Not at all. The value is not in the gift. The value is in the giver of the
gift. It’s because the Son so perfectly loves the Father that whatever the Father gives the Son takes on
infinite value because of the giver, not the gift.
We understand that in the natural sense. Gifts given to us by people that we love take on a value far
beyond their inherent value sitting on a shelf. It isn’t that there’s anything particularly glorious or
wonderful about us, it is that because we have been given to the Son by the Father we become precious to
the Son. He would never reject a gift from his Father.
V39, “This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me, I lose none - ” I lose none, “ -
but raise it up on the last day.” V40, “This is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son
and believes in him - ” because the Father allows him to do that, empowers him to do that, everyone who
does that “ - will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Do you understand? The Father chooses a bride, writes the name down. In time, as history unfolds, those
whom the Father has chosen are given to the Son. As they repent and believe, the Son receives them. The
Son does not reject them, never loses any of them, but raises them up on the last day. Not based upon
inherent value in us. We are precious because the Son cherishes his Father gifts.
John 17,
I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you
9

The elect have been God’s since they were chosen. They’ve always belonged to him. He gives them as gifts
of love to the Son. The Son says I’m asking about them. I’m praying for them.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent
them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Some have called this chapter the Holy of Holies of scripture. Here you get deep into the communion
within the Trinity between the Father and the Son. Here, Jesus is talking to the Father about us, talking
to the Father about His bride, those that the Father has given.
Jesus is feeling the separation that’s going to come. He says, “Father, there’s going to be a time here when
I’m not going to be able to keep them. Father, could you keep them for that time that I can’t keep
them, and when I come back to you, would you keep them then, too?” In that moment when Jesus was
separated from his Father, God stepped in and kept his own. Since Christ ascended to glory, he sent the
Holy Spirit who is the guarantee, the down payment, the one who keeps us, who seals us.
Why all of this? Because we are precious. Why are we precious? Not because we’re inherently any better
than anybody else, but because we’ve been given to the Son as gifts of love from the Father. V24, “Father,
I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you
have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” I want them to see my
glory. Father, I want to have them come to the great wedding, and I want you to keep them. The Father
will lose none. The Spirit seals us unto eternal redemption.
What is the purpose of all of this? The Father has chosen to give to the Son a bride. For what reason? To
love the Son forever, to serve the Son forever, to praise the Son forever, to glorify the Son forever. It
would be like saying to your wife, “I love you so much, I don’t know how to express that love, and so
what I’ve done is I’ve collected a huge group of people, and they’re going to spend all their time and all
their energy following you wherever you go, serving you, praising you. They’re going to be your own
private hallelujah chorus, just extolling your virtues, doing everything you desire them to do. Not only
that, but they’re going to reflect your glory, they’re going to be as much like you as possible, they’re
going to be a whole hallelujah chorus of clones. We’re just going to radiate everything that’s beautiful
about you.”
“That is wacky.” Sure. Because we can’t conceive of any human being deserving that kind of praise. But
Christ does and in the mind of the Father, he is worthy of a redeemed humanity who will fill eternal
heavens with praise and honor given to the Son. They will be, as Revelation 4 and 5 pictures
them, gathered around the throne of God crying out forever and ever, “Worthy is the Lamb.” They will
serve Christ, they will even be made like him for they shall see him as he is. They will have a body like
unto his resurrection body, Philippians 3:20-21 says.
As much as glorified humanity can be like deity incarnate, we’ll be like Christ. This is the way that one
must understand election. This is what Paul calls in Philippians 3 the prize of the upward call, the prize
of being called up is to be made like Christ. Being made like Christ so that we can reflect His glory, so
that he’s the prtotokos, the premier one among many brethren, that is many who are made like
him. We’re going to bear His image.
Redemptive history ends when the last name is redeemed. In the end, the Father will have gathered the
bride in total and presented the bride to his Son. It will be at that great final glorious location, the New
Jerusalem, that is adorned as a bride for her husband. It will eternally be the city of the bride. All the
saints of all ages will make up that redeemed humanity and all we’ll ever do forever, and ever, is honor
the Lord Jesus Christ. That will satisfy the Father, who has perfect love for the Son.
1 Corinthians 15,
Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every
24
ruler and every authority and power.

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in
subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.
28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all
things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.
There’s a lot about consummation here, the end of everything, everything is subject to him, which means
all redeemed humanity. We’ll all be there. The story of redemption will be complete. This earth and
universe as we know it will be dissolved like elements melting in fervent heat, Peter says. It will be all
over, human history. The bride will be complete and given to the Son, everything put in subjection to
him. That is a staggering look into the glory of our future.
It’s saying this, that when the Father gives the Son the bride, when everything is done and all redemption
is over, and all the redeemed are gathered, and the Father has given the Son the bride, the Son in an act
of reciprocal love gives the bride and himself back to the Father so that God is all in all.
If you have some superficial, shallow comprehension of salvation, this has taken you places your mind
has never gone. We are being saved, beloved, because we are caught up in a glorious, divine expression of
love between the Father and the Son. It is way beyond us. We are, in a sense, saved not as ends in
ourselves, but as a means to an end. We don’t deserve to be saved. Hell is not unjust. Hell is just. Eternal
punishment is just.
But God is merciful to us, not because of some value which we possess, but because he so values his Son
as to give to his Son a redeemed humanity who will adore him forever for saving them, adding a
dimension of adoration and praise that angels can’t give, and the Son having received his bride will
give himself and his bride back to the Father in a reciprocal act of love. This is where it all finally
ends, and this is what Paul must have had in mind when he wrote to the Galatians and said, “I have pain
until Christ is fully formed in you.” “I want to present you,” he said to the Corinthians, “as a chaste
virgin to Christ.” He understood this. This doctrine of election is not some philosophical thing.
It’s not some abstraction. It is the heart and soul of all redemption. You are a Christian because the
Father chose you, the Father wrote your name down, the Father drew you, you therefore came, the Son
received you, and the Son will not lose you, and the Son will raise you, and the Father will glorify you
because that’s what he determined to do at the beginning. You are precious because of what it is that
you have been chosen to do throughout all eternity.
“There is a price for your bride,” a profound price. He bore in his own body our sins on the cross. We
were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ, like a lamb spotless and unblemished. He who was rich in heavenly riches became poor that we
through his poverty might become rich.
When we think about the doctrine of election from that viewpoint, it is just so staggering. The Father
makes the Son sin to pay the price for an unworthy bride. We’re very little different than Hosea’s wife
who was a prostitute, and Hosea went into the marketplace and paid the price to buy her back from her
prostitution. Then he set his love on her as if she were a virgin. We are a precious bride, bought with the
impoverishing of the Son and through his own death. We are precious now because we have been chosen
by the Father for the Son.
First, election is pride crushing. It just produces nothing but humility. It is not that you believe because
you were smarter than anyone else, or better than anybody else, or wiser than anybody else. It is that you
were chosen. Spurgeon called this doctrine the most stripping doctrine in all the world. He said, “I know
nothing, nothing again that is more humbling than this doctrine of election.” He said, “I have sometimes
fallen prostrate before it when endeavoring to understand it, but when I came near it and the one thought
possessed me, God has chosen me from the beginning unto salvation, I was staggered by that mighty
thought and from the dizzy elevation down came my soul, prostrate and broken, saying, Lord I am
nothing, I am less than nothing, why me, why me?”
Second, that crushing of all pride is at the very heart of worship. On the other hand, this doctrine is God-
exalting. It gives all the glory to God. This doctrine declares that understanding of the truth, belief in the
truth, repentance from sin, and the power for obedience to the gospel all comes from God, not unto us, O
Lord, but to thy name give glory.
Third, this doctrine is not only pride crushing and God exalting, it is joy producing. It plants in your
heart a sort of overwhelming joy. It is the mystery of it that contributes to the joy. It is the hopelessness of
our own abilities that strengthens that joy. We just continue to be floored with joy.
Psalm 65:4, “Blessed is the man whom you choose and cause to approach you.” If the Lord hadn’t chosen
us, we’d be like Sodom, destroyed. Rather than sit around and question the rational sentiments that
sometimes get attached to this doctrine, celebrate it. You have been loved by God with an everlasting
love.
Fourth, it is a privilege-granting truth. It grants to us unspeakable benefits and benefits that we could
never earn. “We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.”
Fifth, it is a holiness-producing doctrine. I don’t know about you but I can’t think of anything more
motivating to live a godly life than gratitude for this holy calling. I really believe to understand the
doctrine of election is to produce the most significant motivation for holy living. Spurgeon said,
“Nothing. Nothing under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit can make a Christian more holy than
the thought that he’s chosen.” Shall I sin after God has chosen me? Shall I transgress against such
love? Shall I go astray against such mercy? Shall I spurn such eternal kindness? My God, since you have
chosen me, I will love you, I will live for you, I will give myself to you forever.
Sixth, it is strength giving. It makes me at peace with every situation. I’m chosen. Philippians 1:6, “Who
began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ.” If the Father draws you, you come, and
you believe, and the Son receives you, and he never loses you, but raises you at the last day, therein is
great encouragement, great strength no matter what the circumstances of life.
There is a certain boldness, a certain confidence, a certain firmness, a strength, a fearlessness, if you will,
that belongs to those who understand they are chosen. That the gifts and callings of God are without
repentance. This is the blessedness of this doctrine. It is pride crushing, God exalting, joy producing,
privilege granting, holiness promoting and strength giving.
If we ignore it, or deny it, or reject it, we steal the glory from God. We must glorify God as our
redeemer. We must glorify God as the giver of life, and understanding, and repentance, and faith of
which we are incapable. If we deny this doctrine, then we are left with a misunderstanding of our own
weakness, and we lose the entire sense of the scheme of all redemptive history.
How do we know if we’re elect?” Do we believe the gospel? Have we repented of sin? Do we desire to
obey the Lord? Do we love the Jesus Christ? That’s the proof because that’s not possible apart from the
mighty sovereign work of God.
We could say a lot more about the doctrine of election, but we’re working our way through some very
important things. We started with perseverance, that our salvation is eternal. I told you that it has to be
eternal because it’s based on election. So then we backed into the doctrine of election.
We’re going to back into another doctrine, the doctrine of human depravity, the reason that you couldn’t
be saved unless God chose to save you is because you’re incapable of believing. That introduces us to the
doctrine of depravity.
People who don’t understand preservation, perseverance, or eternal security, don’t understand it because
they don’t understand the doctrine of election. People who reject the doctrine of election and believe the
sinner chooses to believe on his own don’t understand the doctrine of depravity. If you believe that
sinners can be saved on their own, then it’s not just a work of God, it’s something sinners do, then you
don’t understand the nature of sin
The Doctrine of Absolute Inability Oct 24/04

Just by way of brief review, we started out when we ended the book of Jude, by looking at the doctrine of
the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints. That is to say that if you’re ever
saved, you’ll always have the hope of eternal life. You cannot ever be unsaved. You can’t lose your
salvation, because he is able to keep us from falling and to present us before his presence with great
glory. That’s how Jude ends.
We are preserved to the end because we are chosen from the beginning for that purpose. That took us
into the doctrine of divine election, the doctrine of predestination, that God determined before the
foundation of the world who he would save, who he would bring to glory. Therefore whoever it is that he
calls, he justifies, whoever he justifies, he glorifies. So the great doctrine of preservation is connected to
the doctrine of election or predestination.
Any discussion of the doctrine of predestination or the doctrine of divine sovereign election or, sovereign
salvation as a work of God is based on another doctrine. God must save us. He must choose us, call us,
regenerate us, justify us by his divine power, because we are neither willing nor able to do it for
ourselves. This takes us to “doctrine of absolute inability.”
John 11, The Death of Lazarus
1
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother
Lazarus was ill.
3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that
the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,
6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there
again?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not
stumble, because they see the light of this world.
10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.”
11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken
him.”
12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”
13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to
sleep.
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with
him.”
God has a purpose in this sickness and it is not ultimately to bring about the death of Lazarus. Jesus
loved Martha, V5, loved her sister, loved Lazarus, but when He heard that He was sick, He didn’t
respond, but finally He went.
Jesus the Resurrection and the Life
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
17
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away,

19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the
world.”
V21, Martha indicts Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.” She had great
confidence in His healing power and apparently none in His resurrection power. They had this little
theological discussion and she locked in on the final resurrection as the only hope for her brother. But, as
the story goes on, V32, “Mary came where Jesus was, saw Him, fell at His feet saying to Him, Lord if
You had been here my brother would not have died.”
The Jews were saying, ‘Behold how He loved him.’ Some others said, ‘Could not this man who opened
the eyes of him who was blind have kept this man also from dying?” Just about everybody thought He
could heal the sick.
Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life
38
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already
there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard
me.
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that
they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Now what interests me here is that Jesus gave a command to a dead man. I’ve done a lot of funerals. I’ve
seen a lot of dead people. I’ve never asked any of them to do anything, nor has anybody else. Especially
would I never say to a dead man, “Bill, come forth.” I mean, you wouldn’t waste words. You’d look
foolish. Dead men can’t hear. Dead men can’t think. Dead men can’t respond cause they’re dead
and dead means the absolute inability to do anything in response to any stimulus. There’s no will. There’s
no power to think or act. V44, “He who had died came forth.” Lazarus did exactly what Jesus asked him
to do, Amazing! He must have stumbled out of there because “he was bound hand and foot with
wrappings. His face was wrapped around with a cloth and Jesus said to then, “Unbind him and let him
go.” Dead men can’t respond. Dead men can’t obey commands. He couldn’t, but he did. He did what was
impossible.
How is it possible for a dead man to do what Jesus told him to do? We know the answer, because Christ
gave him the ability to do it. If Christ hadn’t given him the life, he couldn’t have obeyed. That’s what’s
bound up in the earlier words of Jesus in V25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The amazing
miracle of commanding a man who can’t respond, then giving him the power to respond is analogous to
salvation. The gospel commands dead men to rise, dead men to believe, dead men to understand, dead
men to repent. The gospel commands dead people to do what they can’t do.
Ephesians 2, From Death to Life
1
You were dead through the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.
3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses,
and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—
10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand to be our way of life.
We were all dead. Dead to God, dead to spiritual reality, dead to the truth. Man’s basic problem is not a
lack of self esteem. It’s not that he’s out of harmony with his environment. It’s not that he’s sort of out
of sync with his Creator. It’s not that he needs to make a few adjustments to sort of get God on his
wavelength. Man’s problem is he is absolutely dead, and he is incapable of relating to God at all - God’s
person, God’s truth, or God’s commands.
Sin kills. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” The bible says that we are ignorant, blind, weak,
impotent and totally dead.
1 Peter 2,
15
For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.
John 12,
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart,
40
so that they might not look with their eyes,

and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
Matthew 26,
41
Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak.”
John 5, Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
1
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five
porticoes.
3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
5
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
Matthew 8, Would-Be Followers of Jesus
18
Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.
19 A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead. Outside His Kingdom is “dead.”
1 Timothy 5:6, “The one who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.” The one who
is dead has no capacity to respond to God. He is a servant of Satan, driven by the lust of his flesh. Sinners
can do some human good, be philanthropic, be charitable. They can help people, be kind, be
merciful. But they cannot do any spiritual good, cannot do anything that pleases God, no one can do
anything that pleases God unless it’s done for His glory, and it can’t be done for His glory unless it’s done
in the name of His Son. So while there is human good, it is dead good. It has absolutely nothing to do with
God.
Matthew 15, Things That Defile
10
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that
defiles.”
12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when
they heard what you said?”
13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will
fall into a pit.”
15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.
19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
Luke 6, Love for Enemies
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
27
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do
not withhold even your shirt.
30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to
sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and
you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Even Jesus’ words there admit that people do good. But it’s human good, and in a sense it’s bad
good. Good in the sense of human, bad in the sense that it has no pure motive and no bearing on one’s
relationship to God. Nothing about it pleases Him.
Luke 11, “13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!.” Even though you are evil, you do good
things to your children. That’s instinctive in parenting, but it’s not a good that in any sense satisfies
God. Even the natives on Malta, Acts 28 showed exceeding kindness to Paul. There is a kind of pagan
kindness and pagan goodness, and we would never deny that, but it has no relationship to God. It counts
for absolutely nothing.
Ephesians 2, the sinner is so dead that all that he is involved in can be summed up as being of the
world, of the devil, and of the flesh. He can do absolutely nothing outside of that. V4, does not
say, “However, one day you came to your senses.”
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us
4
have been saved—
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
6
Yeah, but we had to believe. Yes, read the folloing verses:

8
You see, even faith has to be given to the dead.
Second Peter 1, Salutation
1
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior
Jesus Christ:
We all have faith because we received it. It is a divine gift.
Philippians 1,
29
For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him
as well—
30
since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
If God didn’t grant you the power to believe, you couldn’t believe. You’re dead. It has to be granted by
God. Dead people can’t respond. That’s why the analogy of death is used.
Acts 3:16.
29
For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him
as well—
30 since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
The man understood that the faith to believe in Christ had to come through Christ. Think of it in these
words.
Philippians 1,
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the
6
day of Jesus Christ.

Who began the good work? Who initiated it? God did, He began it, He’ll fulfill it.
First Corinthians 1,
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not
26
many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that
are,
29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness
Dead men don’t obey. Dead men don’t respond. Dead men don’t rise. Dead men don’t do anything. They
can’t. We are, because of sin, spiritually dead.
Ephesians 4, The Old Life and the New
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of
17
their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance
and hardness of heart.
19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every
kind of impurity.
20 That is not the way you learned Christ!
21 For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.
22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.
Physically alive, spiritually dead.
Colossians 2,
11
In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in
the circumcision of Christ;
12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power
of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive
together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,
14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
Dead in transgressions. We live in the sphere of death. We live in the realm of death, void of all spiritual
sense, dominated by our flesh which is uncircumcised, or uncleansed. In that condition, He made us
alive, Ephesians 2 says.
Spiritually dead was not the way humans came from God. Adam and Eve were spiritually alive. They
communed, walked and talked with Him in the cool of the day. They naturally obeyed, loved God and did
God’s will. But God gave them one prohibition, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
and said, “In the day you eat, you die.” So, the day they ate, they died spiritually.
And all of a sudden they were alienated from God, lost in the garden. They covered themselves, hiding
from God, spiritually dead. That caused mankind to be born dead. Romans 5:12, “Just as through one
man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men.” The whole human
race is born dead because of the sin of Adam.
Paul is trying to explain to his readers how the death of one man, Christ, could effect so many
savingly. The way he explains how the death of one person could have such a great effect is to show how
the sin of one person had such massive effect on the whole human race.
Romans 5, Adam and Christ
12
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death
spread to all because all have sinned—
13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the
transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
First Corinthians 15,
21
For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a
human being;
22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
God made man upright, but God made man alive, but the whole of humanity is dead in trespasses and
sins. God comes along commanding sinners to repent, to believe in His Son, to love His Son, to confess His
Son, to submit to His Son. Can a whole race of Lazaruses respond?
This is the compelling question that lies behind the doctrine of election. If sinners are left to themselves to
believe, by what power do they do it? If I don’t believe in divine election. I believe everybody’s on his own
out there, making their own choice. God just looks down the way and sees what you’re going to do, but
it’s up to you to do it.” Then the question is by what power does the dead man rise?
If God does not make them willing and able, where does the power and the will come from? Those who
deny the doctrine of divine election and salvation as an act of God have to believe that there’s something
in man left to himself that enables him to become willing and to come to life. The Bible doesn’t describe
our condition as a disability. It describes it as death, unable to respond.
Let us see. John 1, “12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become
children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of
God.” We love that verse. Many memorize that verse. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the
right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” You can’t be born from the
dead by your own power.
Whoever received Him, whoever believed and became a child of God was enabled by God. It wasn’t their
own will, the will of the flesh, the will of man. It was God.
John 3, Nicodemus Visits Jesus
1
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born
from above.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time
into the mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of
water and Spirit.
He’s referring there to the water of purification and the work of the Holy Spirit, which was described in
the great prophecy that talks about the New Covenant. Ezekiel 18, 31 Cast away from you all the
transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!
Why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezekieal 36,
I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own
24
land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all
your idols I will cleanse you.
26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body
the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my
ordinances.
28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be
your God.
29 I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay
no famine upon you
John 3,
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be born from above.’
8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes
from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
Wow, what a statement. People are born of the Spirit because they’re born of the Spirit and the Spirit
goes wherever the Spirit wants.
John 5, The Authority of the Son
Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the
19
Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
20 The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater
works than these, so that you will be astonished.
21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he
wishes.
22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,
23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does
not honor the Father who sent him.
24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and
does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.
It is a difficult verse to discredit if you deny the sovereignty of sovereignty of God and salvation. The Son
gives life to whom He wishes. The Spirit gives life to whom He wishes. When somebody believes, it’s not
of the will of the flesh or the will of man, it’s the will of God. It’s God who wills it. It’s the Spirit who wills
it. It’s the Son who wills it. All the Trinity involved.
John 1, John 3, John 5, John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;”
John 6, The Words of Eternal Life
60
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend
you?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
64 But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones
Father.”
The point is you couldn’t possibly come on your own, not willing or able. You are Dead.
John 8,
36
So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Looking from another analogy, are not only dead, you’re a slave. You aren’t going to be alive unless He
makes you alive. You aren’t not going to be free unless He makes you free.
Matthew 11, Jesus Thanks His Father
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these
25
things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;
26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Now what in the world is that saying? It says that God has decided Himself to whom He will reveal the
truth. He has determined to hide it from the wise, intelligent and reveal it to babes. Why did God do
that? V26, “Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” He did it because that pleased Him. V27, finish
it all. It’s very clear. You’re not going to come alive or understand truth. You’re not going to believe
unless the Father wills. V28, constant paradox, apparent paradox. “Come to Me, all who are weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” What an amazing thing.
“How do you resolve that?” I have no idea how to resolve that. The offer to come is made
universally. The power to come is limited to those whom the Father raises. We’re not going to find a
text, in which Jesus defends the ability of sinners. We’re not going to find those texts anywhere where He
defends the freedom of their wills. Jesus is no Arminian. All those Scriptures that we went through and
many more place all the work of salvation on God’s side. All the will is on His side. All the power is on
His side.
To further answer the question, can sinners will and are they able? A deeper look at what it means to be
the living dead. What does the Bible say about the human heart? Genesis 6:5, we’re looking at the whole
human race here since the fall. “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.” “And the Lord was sorry He
made man on the earth, was grieved in His heart.” The biblical diagnosis of the human heart is that it’s
evil, more evil, and nothing but evil. And that’s it.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
Psalm 143:2, “No man living is righteous.”
Proverbs 20:9, “Who can say, I have cleansed my heart”? Wow. “Who can say, I am pure from
sin?” Answer? Nobody can say, “I got my act together. I cleansed my heart. I made the right call.”
Jeremiah 13:23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?” “Then can you
also do good who are accustomed to doing evil?”
When you look at the biblical diagnosis of the human heart, there’s just nothing there that can
respond. Desperately wicked. What proceeds out of that heart is all the sins and iniquities that
characterize it. If you wanted to look biblically at the heart, you could find a lot of other passages on the
heart.
What about the mind? If the heart is something deep, the mind is superficial thinking, if we make any
kind of distinction there, what about the mind? I mean, can’t we process this stuff and sort of overrule
that internal evil? Can’t we get our heads together and come up with some sound commitments on our
own?
Romans 1:28, “God gave them over to a depraved mind,” a reprobate mind. The word basically means a
mind that doesn’t function. So the unregenerate have non-functioning minds insofar as God is
concerned.
2 Corinthians 4:4, “The God of this world had blinded their minds so that the glorious gospel cannot be
comprehended.”
Romans 8:5, “Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who
are according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” That’s how it is. If you’re
according to the flesh, then your mind is devoted to the flesh. V6, “The mind set on the flesh is
death.” That’s typical of spiritual deadness. Your mind is set on the flesh. V7, “The mind set on the flesh
is hostile toward God, it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” V8,
“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Ephesians 4, The Old Life and the New
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of
17
their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance
and hardness of heart.
19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every
kind of impurity.
20 That is not the way you learned Christ!
21 For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.
22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.
Every description is the same: Ignorant, dark, futile, empty, dead. There’s no relief. No matter where you
go in the Bible, it is always the same.
Titus 1, “15 To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure. Their very
minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.
They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”
1 Corinthians 2,
Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and
14
they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.
They are spiritually dead. So there’s no hope for the heart, no hope for the mind.
Perhaps, down there somewhere there’s a spark in the will. John 8:44, “You are of your father the
devil.”
Ephesians 2, “You’re dead in trespasses and sin, ruled by the prince of the power of the air.” “You’re of
your father the devil, and you will to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the
beginning. He doesn’t stand in the truth because there’s no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own nature for he’s a liar and the father of lies. And because I speak the truth, you don’t
believe Me.”
Romans 6:20, “You are slaves of sin and free in regard to righteousness.” You can say to an unredeemed
person, “You have a great freedom in life. You are completely free of anything righteous.” You are.
Out of a dead heart, mind, and will comes nothing but the things that please the Father of the living
dead, Satan. Mark 7, “18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that
whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach,
and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a
person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication,
theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All
these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Matthew 15, Things That Defile.
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
10
it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that
11
defiles.”
Romans 3, None Is Righteous

9
What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and
Greeks, are under the power of sin,
10 as it is written: “There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
11
there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
12
there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.”

“Their throats are opened graves;
13
they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”
14
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16
ruin and misery are in their paths,
17
and the way of peace they have not known.”
18
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This is a string of quotes taken from the Old Testament so it’s a universal diagnosis. You say, “Wait,
wait. In the Old Testament there are those statements about, “If you seek Me with all your heart.” We
can’t seek Him until He has already found us. We love Him because He first loved us. “There’s none who
on his own“ seeks after God.
There’s the basic description of the living dead. Evil, selfish. They’re just a whole race of Lazaruses. We
love our darkness and we love our sin. We thrive on selfish lust. We want to do the things that please our
father, the devil.
This doctrine has been called “Total Depravity,” but I feel that the “total depravity” is a misleading
term. If you look up “depravity” in the dictionary, it’s a synonym for viciousness. It’s a synonym for
being vile. In fact, to be depraved, according to the dictionary, is to be degraded, debased, immoral to a
dangerous degree like rapists and serial killers. The word “depraved” sort of connotes a level of evil
that’s just not applicable to everybody. To call someone “totally depraved” would set them outside
normal people as vicious perverts.
That is not what is meant when theologians refer to total depravity because not everybody is as bad as
they could be, and not everybody is as bad as everybody else. What we’re talking about here is what I’ve
chosen to call “absolute inability.” What is true of everybody is we have no ability to respond to the
gospel. We are completely unable to raise ourselves out of a state of death. We are completely unable to
give our blind hearts sight. We are completely unable to free ourselves from slavery to sin. We are
completely unable to turn from ignorance to truth. We are completely unable to stop rebelling against
God, stop being hostile to His Word. We are unable and unwilling to repent, to believe. If we are to
repent and to believe, then it must be like it was for Lazarus, where God who commands the dead to rise
has to also give them the power.
2 Timothy 2:25, “if perhaps God may grant them repentance.” Couldn’t be clearer. “Leading to the
knowledge of the truth, they may come to their senses, escape from the snare of the devil.” The only way
you can escape from the snare of the devil is to come to your senses. The only way you can come to your
senses is to have the knowledge of the truth. The only way you can have the knowledge of the truth is if
God grants you repentance.
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are you saved through faith; that not of yourself.” God has to grant the
repentance. God has to grant the faith. The core of this great truth is that God must Himself give life to
the dead. Regeneration is what theologians would call monergistic. It is a work of God alone.
In regeneration we are basically passive. It is when we have been awakened and granted repentance and
faith that it all comes together concurrently to bring about salvation. This is what the Bible teaches, and
if you don’t believe this, then how can the biblical doctrine of man leave any possibility for his
salvation? Is God merely commanding sinners to do what they absolutely can’t and won’t do?
Titus 3:3, “When we were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and
pleasure, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Pretty severe
description. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us,
not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through
Jesus Christ our Savior.” He saved us.
Some people have tried to make regeneration, this coming to life, a preliminary work to conversion. The
idea is that regeneration happens and then somewhere down the road after you’ve been regenerated, you
get saved. The word “regeneration” used here, V5, I just read it, Titus 3:5, palingenesias, is only used
here and in Matthew 19:28 in an eschatological sense. But here is the only place in the Bible where you
have the word “regeneration” connected to salvation. Please notice this, it is “the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,” or by the Holy Spirit.
Regeneration and washing are the same thing, the same glorious reality. You cannot be regenerated
unless you’ve been washed. Therefore, regeneration and conversion occur simultaneously. There are
some people who even believe you can be regenerated and not yet saved. No. It is the washing of
regeneration. Regeneration is that cleansing. It is that salvation. It is that conversion. It is that
redemption. It is that justification. It is that sanctification.
That all occurs in the great miracle at once. It occurs upon believing the Scripture so that we are born
again or regenerated through the living and abiding Word of God. You hear and believe the gospel
because at that very moment you are being regenerated, being washed, being converted, being redeemed,
being ransomed, being justified, being sanctified. It all happens at once, just like it did for Lazarus. And
out of the grave we come. In the end, all the glory goes to God. We will spend the rest of our lives here
and in eternity giving Him praise. “O the depths, of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of
God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.”
The doctrine of actual atonement 1, Nov 4/04

It may seem obvious to most Christians for whom Christ died, but it is because we tend to take things at
a rather superficial level and not think about them deeply, thus we miss the essence of some of
these glorious truths that we need to dig deeper.
It is very easy to be hard to understand. All you have to do is not know what you’re talking
about, nobody else will either. To be clear, you have to really understand the subject and work hard to
get it to an understandable way, and understandable format.
If I ask the average Christian “For whom did Christ die?”, the traditional answer would be, “Everybody,
Christ died for the whole world, He died for all sinners.” Most people then in the church believe that on
the cross, Jesus paid the debt of sin for everyone because He loves everyone and He wants everyone to be
saved. That’s pretty much the common evangelical view. Jesus died for everybody. He paid the price for
the sins of everybody. All we have to do is tell sinners that He loves them so much that He paid the price
and He wants them to be saved, and all they have to do is respond.
Now if that is true, then on the cross Jesus accomplished a potential salvation, not an actual one. That is,
sinners have all had their sins atoned for potentially, and it’s not actual until they activate it by their
faith. So, what we need to do is to tell sinners that they need to pick up the salvation that’s already been
purchased for them. Since Christ died for everybody, everybody therefore can be saved. It’s just a matter
of them coming to receive that salvation. And so, our responsibility is to convince people to come and take
the salvation that’s been provided for them, to convince them to come and accept the gift.
This is deep in evangelical theology, In the book: The Purpose Driven Church, The assumption is that if
you can just figure out the technique of getting to some emotional point, you can win anybody on the
planet to Christ because, after all, He’s died for all of them. That’s the popular idea. Many may think, it
seems to me that’s what I’ve always believed in. That’s what I’ve been taught.”
The fallout of that would be like this. Hell is full of people for whom Christ died. I’ll say it another
way. Hell is full of people whose sins were paid for in full on the cross. That’s a little more disturbing
when you say it like that. Another way to say it would be that the lake of fire, which burns forever with
fire and brimstone, is filled with eternally damned people whose sins Christ fully atoned for on the
cross. God’s wrath was satisfied by Christ’s atonement on behalf of those people who will forever stay in
hell.
Heaven will also be populated by the souls of those for whom Christ died. So, Christ did exactly the same
thing for the occupants of hell as He did for the occupants of heaven. That makes the question a little
more disturbing. The only difference is the people in heaven accepted the gift, the people in hell rejected
it. That’s pretty much the traditional evangelical view.
It sounds strange when you start to pick it apart a little bit. That Jesus died and paid in full the penalty
for the sins of the damned, died and paid in full the penalty for the sins of the glorified, that Jesus did the
same thing for the occupants of hell that He did for the occupants of heaven, and the only difference
hinges on the sinner’s choice. That is to say, the death of Jesus Christ, then, is not an actual atonement, it
is only a potential atonement. He really did not purchase salvation for anyone in particular. He only
removed some kind of barrier to make it possible for sinners to choose to be saved.
The typical evangelical message to sinners is, “God loves you so much He sent His Son who paid in full
the penalty for your sins. And won’t you respond to that love, and not disappoint God, and accept the
gift, and let Him save you since He already paid in full the price for your sins?” The final decision is up to
the sinner.
It carries the notion that God loves you so much, you’re so special, He gave His Son and He paid in full
the penalty for your sins, and that’s supposed to move you emotionally to love Him back and accept this
gift. So you work the sinner, manipulate the sinner in that direction, trying to find a psychological
point, a felt-need point, play the right organ music, sing the right invitation hymn. Grease the slides to get
him moving in the direction of making the choice.
We’ve got a big problem here. No sinner on his own can make that choice, the doctrine of absolute
inability. He cannot make that choice. All people are sinners, and all sinners are dead in their trespasses
and sins. All of them are alienated from the life of God. All do only evil continually. All are unwilling and
unable to understand, to repent and to believe. All have darkened minds, blinded by sin and Satan, all
have hearts that are full of evil, all are wicked, desperately wicked. All desire only the will of their father
who is Satan. All of them are unable to seek God. They are all trapped in absolute inability and
unwillingness.
How can the sinner make the choice? I don’t care what felt need you might find. I don’t care what you
might think you see “in his heart” that will let you lead anyone to Christ. I don’t care how many
invitation verses you sing, or how much organ music or mood music you play to try to induce some kind
of response, the sinner on his own cannot understand, cannot repent, and cannot believe.
John 1,
11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Ephesians 2,
8
“By grace are you saved through faith; but that not of yourselves.”
1 Corinthians 1,
30
He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness
Salvation is from God. We know that. He has to give life to the dead. He has to give sight to the blind. He
has to give hearing to the deaf. He has to give understanding to the ignorant. He has to give repentance to
those who love sin. He has to give faith to those who can’t believe. He has to move the heart to seek Him
who otherwise would not. So that all the elements that caused the sinner to come to Christ are God-
ordained and God-induced.
As we have learned, the doctrine of absolute inability means that people will only be saved if God saves
them, therefore salvation is based upon the decree of God, the sovereign doctrine of election. No one
could be saved unless God saved him, and God saves those whom He chooses to save. You cannot expect
the sinner on his own, no matter how emotionally or psychologically prodded he is, no matter how he’s
threatened, no matter what you say to him, on his own, you cannot expect him to “decide for
Christ.” Those who will come to Christ are those whom the Father draws and the Father gives to the Son
because He’s chosen to do so.
Now with that in mind, looking back at those doctrines, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of absolute
inability, we can ask the question again. For whom did Christ die? Did He die a death that is a potential
salvation for everyone, and therefore on the largest part it was useless? Or did He die a death that is an
actual atonement, not a potential one? For those who would believe because God calls them and God
grants them repentance and faith, because God in eternity past chose them?
The only answer to the question that makes any real sense is that Jesus Christ died and paid in full the
penalty for the sins of all who would ever believe, so that His atonement is an actual atonement and not a
potential one that can be disregarded. If Jesus actually paid in full the penalty for your sins, you’re not
going to go to hell, that would be double jeopardy.
The evangelical idea that Jesus paid the price for the sins in full of everybody, is a fraud with so many
obvious problems. That’s what the evangelical church believes, and that’s why it uses manipulation to
move people emotionally, and according to felt needs, and by what other means it might come up
with, believing that the penalty is paid in full for everybody, so that most of the people that Jesus died for
are in hell. Then what in the world kind of atonement did He provide for them?
If I believe in an unlimited atonement, I must be an universalist, that believes that everybody’s going to
heaven and there is no hell. That’s consistent, if you believe that Jesus paid in full the penalty for all the
sins of all the people who’ve ever lived. But we know better than that. We know the atonement is limited,
we know not everybody is going to heaven. An universalist have to ignore Scripture. Let me give you just
a handful of points, about that.
1. Atonement is limited.
By “atonement” we mean the sacrifice of Christ, by which He paid the penalty for sin.
Matthew 10:28,
28
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul
and body in hell.
Luke 12, Exhortation to Fearless Confession
4
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more.
5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority [a] to cast into
hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.
7 But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many
sparrows.
That tells me the atonement is limited. There is a hell and God is going to send people there.
Mark 9, Temptations to Sin
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better
42
for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two
hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two
feet and to be thrown into hell.
47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with
one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,
48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
V44 and 46, (which are identical with V48) are lacking in the best ancient authorities. V43 and V47, are
similar.
John 8, Jesus the Light of the World
12
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in
darkness but will have the light of life.”
Here’s a condition, we have to follow Christ. It is limited, to those who follow Christ.
24
I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”
There is a hell and people are going there. The only way to avoid going there, the only way to avoid dying
in your sins, that is dying without a sacrifice for your sins, the only way to avoid that is to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 7, The Narrow Gate
13
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and
there are many who take it.
14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
How could Jesus say you could die in your sins if their sins had been paid for? They had not been paid
for if they died without believing in Him.
John 3,
17
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him.
18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already,
because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
There is a hell and people go there who don’t believe in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 22,
13
Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
A further description of horrific punishment and judgment.
Matthew 25,
As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and
30
gnashing of teeth.’
2 Thessalonians 1, The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
5
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are also suffering.
6 For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
7 and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his
mighty angels
8
in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus.
The Bible promises there is a hell. The only way to avoid it is to not die in my sins. I have to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, if I don’t, I will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. That proves that the atonement
is limited. It does not apply universally. God did not intend to save everyone. He is God. He could have
intended to save everyone. He would have if that had been His intention.
Now we all have to accept that or be universalists. We know not everyone is going to heaven. In fact, it is
a little flock, it is the few which, if we were to hold on to this sort of evangelical idea, means that the vast
majority of people for whom Christ died and paid in full the penalty for their sins are going to go to
hell. That’s just something very difficult to believe. So we do believe in a limited atonement. It is limited
to those who believe.
2. How is it limited?
First, it’s limited because not everybody is saved, only those who repent and believe. Only those who
believe in Christ and confess Him as Lord are saved. Only those have their sins atoned for. It is limited to
those who believe. That’s how it’s limited.
By whom is it limited? We know it’s limited. We know how it’s limited. It’s limited to those who
believe. It is only applicable to those who believe. Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is
Lord, believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved.” Now by whom is it limited?
The popular view, “The atonement of Jesus is unlimited, but sinners limit its application.” We’re back to
what we said before. It is a potential atonement, the actuality of which is limited by the sinner. Now we
have to believe, then, that God has provided a sacrifice for sins in His Son that, in and of itself is not
sufficient, in and of itself is not actual, in and of itself is not real, because the sinner can neutralize it.
I don’t mind believing God can limit the atonement. God does limit the atonement as to its extent. You
have to believe that. Because He didn’t choose everybody and not everybody’s going to heaven. It is in
His mind, it’s the decree of God, it’s the purpose of God, and you have to come to grips with that.
I don’t have any problem at all saying the atonement is limited. I don’t have any problem at all saying
how it’s limited. It’s limited to those who believe. I have no problem saying and those who believe are
those whom God grants faith. The atonement is limited because God limited it. I’m much more
comfortable with that than that sinners can limit the atonement that Christ has provided, or that the
atonement that Christ has provided is wasted on the vast majority of people.
If we say that God provided an atonement which is only potential, which only removes the barriers so
that the sinner can be saved if he chooses to be, we know what we’ve done? We have said that God not
only limited the atonement as to its extent, and we have to believe that, but He limited it as to its effect. In
other words, if we believe in an unlimited atonement, and we think we’re one of those
magnanimous people who believed Jesus died for everyone. Then by saying the atonement is unlimited as
to extent, we have also said it is limited as to effect. It covers everybody, but not potently or powerfully.
So when you say you believe in a limited atonement or unlimited atonement? I believe in a limited
atonement as to its extent. It is limited to those who believe, who are those who are called, who are those
who are chosen. But I believe it is unlimited as to its effect. For those to whom it is granted, it is a full
atonement. Jesus did pay it all.
It was limited in its extent to those who would believe, who are the called and the chosen. But it was
unlimited in its effect. For them, it was a full and complete atonement. There is no such thing as an
atonement by Jesus Christ on the cross that is less than a true and actual atonement. There is no such
thing as some kind of potential atonement, some kind of half-way atonement. There’s no such thing as
Jesus paying in full for your sins and then you paying in full for your sins forever in hell. That
diminishes the work of Christ, that mocks the work of Christ.
What are you saying? You say Jesus only partially activated this and it’s up to the sinner to fully activate
it? If Christ paid for the sins of everybody and all don’t go to heaven, then whatever He paid wasn’t the
full price. So we’ve got to change our hymn and say, “Jesus paid half, the rest is up to you.” That would
be a good line. “Jesus paid the first half. The rest is up to you.”
I just can’t bring myself to believe that hell is full of millions of people whose sins were paid for in full by
Christ on the cross. I cannot see the Father fully punishing the Son on the cross for the sins of people who
will then be punished for those sins forever in hell. What is the point? What Christ did on the cross was a
true, and full, and complete atonement for the sins of all who would believe, and since no one can believe
unless God grants them faith, it is the sins of those whom the Father has chosen to call to Himself.
When you say the atonement is limited, people don’t feel very special. I don’t feel very special if you say
to me, “Christ died for you, He loves you just like He died for the millions in hell.” That doesn’t make me
feel very special. That’s kind of a hard way to do evangelism. Christ died on the cross for your sins, and
all the people in hell, too. That’s anything but special.
You mean to tell me He paid for my sins and I’m paying for them forever? Then I’ll tell you, whatever
His payment was, it was bogus. It’s not biblical to limit the atonement as to its power. It’s not biblical to
limit the atonement as to its effectiveness. It’s not biblical to limit the atonement as to its
accomplishment. If He paid in full the penalty for your sins, you will receive that salvation.
The atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross has to be in perfect harmony with the eternal decree. It is not
biblical to limit the atonement by making it potential and not actual. It is not biblical to limit the
atonement by the will of the unwilling and unable sinner. The atonement is limited by God to the
elect. But it is unlimited as to its effect. For them, it is a full and complete atonement.
Now, the sum of it comes down to this. Is the death of Christ a work that potentially saves willing
sinners, or is it a work that actually provides salvation for unwilling sinners who by God’s sovereign
grace will be made willing? The only possible answer is that God provided a sacrifice in His Son, a true
payment in full for the sins of all who would ever believe, and all who would ever believe will believe
because the Father will draw them, and He will grant them repentance, faith, and regeneration. Jesus’
death, is to be understood as a full satisfaction to God’s holy justice on behalf of all whom God will save.
Now who is it that limits the salvation of Christ? You say that Christ did not die so as infallibly to secure
the salvation of anybody. You say we limit Christ’s death, but it is you that do that.
We say Christ so died that He infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number
who, through Christ’s death, not only may be saved but will be saved, and cannot by any possibility run
the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement. We will never renounce
ours for the sake of it.
The atonement is an actual atonement, not a potential one. It is a real atonement, not simply a barrier
removed. It is in behalf of all who would ever believe, and since the sinner is unable and unwilling
to believe apart from divine intervention and regeneration, it rests on to the power of God.
God has by His own sovereignty limited the atonement to those who believe, but an atonement which in
itself is unlimited to all for whom it is provided, salvation will be given in its fullness. How do you know
whether Christ died for you?” The answer, “That whosoever will may come, and if you come and believe
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the death of Christ was for you.”
The doctrine of actual atonement 2, Nov 11/04

For whom did Christ die? The Doctrine of Actual Atonement. These doctrines challenge us because even
when we understand them the best we can from a biblical viewpoint, there is still a lot left over. There is
still the inscrutable reality of the incomprehensible mind of God. There are always things that just don’t
resolve completely to us. Every doctrinal symphony is, an unfinished symphony. Every major doctrine of
the Scripture ends in an unresolved chord because we, in our finite minds, cannot, in the end, fully grasp
the infinity of God’s mind. But we do the best we can and we leave the rest to Him. We entrust to Him
what we do not understand and embrace with all our hearts what we do.
The doctrine of the extent of the atonement is a doctrine that takes us way beyond where we will be
comfortable to go. It stretches our minds to the breaking point. It takes our theology out to the perimeter
of our tolerances. In the end it leaves us with some incomprehensible realities, as it should be. Since we
are finite and He is infinite, there should be a vast distinction between what we can know and what God
does know. But there are ways in which we can go to the edge of our comprehension and to the edge of
biblical revelation to understand the greatness and the glory of the work of redemption.
Luke 19, Jesus and Zacchaeus
1
He entered Jericho and was passing through it.
2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.
3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in
stature.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I
must stay at your house today.”
6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.
7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor;
and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”
9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
He was on a recovery mission, He came to rescue sinners alive then, alive today, and would live in the
future. His redemptive work on the cross reached back, and reached forward, and reached out to those
in His own generation.
The coming of the Lord Jesus was the most perfect revelation of the eternal God ever. God was never so
clearly manifest as He was in Jesus. The nature of God, the character of God, the purpose of God, the will
of God was seen in Jesus. We conclude that God is by nature a Savior. Paul call Him “God our
Savior.” Jesus comes into the world to seek and to save that which was lost, to fulfill that part of God’s
nature which reaches out to redeem sinners.
To save sinners, there had to be a sacrifice that paid the penalty for their sins. Jesus, who is God
incarnate, came into the world, took on human form to offer Himself as that sacrifice, an unimaginable
condescension, an undeserved act. On the cross Jesus died not under the wrath of men, but under the
wrath of God. Not because Romans or Jews, but by the determined plan of God, predestined before the
world began. He bore the wrath of God and separation from God for sinners, for all the sinners who
would ever believe. It was a satisfying sacrifice for Christ to do this. It was why He came, to offer that
sacrifice, to purchase God’s chosen people, to purchase His own bride.
Isaiah 52, The Suffering Servant
13
See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
Just as there were many who were astonished at him
14
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,

and his form beyond that of mortals—
so he shall startle many nations;
15
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;

for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
Isaiah 53,
Who has believed what we have heard?
1
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,
2
and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
3
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;
4
yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
5
crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
6
we have all turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
7
yet he did not open his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made his grave with the wicked
9
and his tomb with the rich,

although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out of his anguish he shall see light;
11
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.

The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
This is the classic Old Testament section of Scripture which deals with the substitutionary death of Jesus
in which He dies in the place of sinners. Isaiah is inspired to write of His death showing that He was
literally punished by God for our sins. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His
scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, corrupt an lost.
V4. “Our griefs, our sorrows.” V5, “Our transgressions, our iniquities, our well-being.” V6,
“the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Our, our, us, us, and the question comes, whose sins did
He bear? whose transgressions? For whose iniquities was He crushed? For whose healing was He
scourged?
V10, “it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.” It’s an amazing statement. Because God is by
nature a Savior and He finds His own satisfaction in saving sinners, which means He is pleased to have
His Son be the sacrifice that saves them.
He is being crushed, put to grief, given as a guilt offering in the confidence that He will see His seed, His
offspring. V11, “Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his
knowledge.” God was pleased and Christ was satisfied because out of it would come His offspring, His
seed.
V11, “The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” My
servant, meaning Messiah.
V12, “yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” The question is, who did
He atone for? It must be the offspring. Must be those that are the seed born out of that sacrifice because
that is what pleased God and that is what satisfied Christ.
1 Timothy 1, Gratitude for Mercy
12
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and
appointed me to his service,
13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy
because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
—of whom I am the foremost.
16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the
utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.
17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
That’s Paul´s own testimony, that’s the great enterprise. God is an evangelist, a Savior. Christ then, God
manifest, does a saving work. He came into the world to save sinners. All those that He saves He then
mandates to carry on this work. According to the great commission, we are to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. We are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I’ve commanded you and lo, I am with you always. We
are ambassadors for Christ, begging people to be reconciled to God. We have been redeemed to be
caught up in this great evangelistic enterprise. Jesus´ His final words:
Acts 1, The Ascension of Jesus
6
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the
kingdom to Israel?”
7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by
them.
11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been
taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Mathew 28, The Commissioning of the Disciples
16
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.”
That’s the last thing Jesus said on earth. My Father is a Savior. I am a Savior and you are to pick up the
glorious gospel of salvation and take it to the ends of the earth.
Mark 16, Jesus Commissions the Disciples
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for
14
their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.
16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be
condemned.
17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they
will speak in new tongues;
18 they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they
will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
The Ascension of Jesus
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the
19
right hand of God.

20 And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and
confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.
That’s why we’re here. Everything else is secondary in the church. Everything else in a sense is less
important. I don’t want anything to ever diminish that. When you’ve been teaching on the doctrine of
sovereign election, absolute inability and unwillingness, and the extent of the atonement, it is still
absolutely consistent to follow all that up with four nights of evangelism on four Sundays, because this is
our mandate, this is why the church is here.
We will worship and serve the Lord better in heaven. We’ll love each other better in heaven. We’ll do all
of that perfectly. But one thing we won’t do in heaven is evangelize the lost. They won’t be there. God,
who weeps through the eyes of Jeremiah, and Jesus, who weeps through His own eyes over the lost in
Jerusalem, calls on us to weep over the impenitent and to go forth bearing precious seed with tears.
God weeps over the impenitent. God weeps over the unbelieving. He has no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. He offers a legitimate and genuine call to sinners across the face of the world, both from the
pages of Scripture and out of the mouths of all of the believers who go and take the message, a legitimate
call to come and believe and be saved.
That evangelistic mandate defines why the church is in the world. It’s why we’re here, to preach the
gospel of salvation and reconciliation and forgiveness and heaven to the whole world. We are to beg
people to come to salvation.
Psalm 126,
4
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
6
bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Matthew 11,
28
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
1 Timothy 2, Instructions concerning Prayer
1
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for
everyone,
2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and dignity.
3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth.
We are told to set a godly example and to live our lives as shining lights so that men can see the power of
Christ in us and be drawn to Him. We are told if we’re going to name the name of Christ, we ought to be
like Him. We are told to proclaim the gospel and never to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it’s the
power of God to salvation. We are told to proclaim it to the Jew and to the Greek as well. It is a
legitimate offer, a real offer. Every sinner on the planet is accountable for the response to that offer.
Every man has a stewardship that God has given him. It may be a stewardship of a law written in his
heart, and a stewardship of his rational mind looking at the creation around him and being led to the
knowledge of God. And if he follows the path, as he should, in obedience to that stewardship that God has
given him, he will find the truth will open to him. Every man is accountable and no man has an
excuse. We are mandated to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Not everybody will repent and not
everybody will believe. We know that.
There are numerable souls even now that have left this earth and are already out of the presence of God
forever in eternal torment. That fact is inescapable. They’re going there every day that we live. By the
thousands, they die. There is an eternal hell and it will be continually filled with sinners until redemptive
history is over, sinners who ignored conscience, sinners who ignored the law written in their
hearts, sinners who ignored that which was known of God that was placed in them, sinners who ignored
the truth when they heard it, the Scripture when they read it, the gospel when it was preached to
them, sinners who rejected the grace and goodness of God, sinners who refused to repent. They all end up
in hell and if they were given the choice while in hell to choose differently, they wouldn’t do it. They
showed no interest in God then, they will have no interest in Him now.
So we are called to a worldwide task, and sinners are accountable for how they respond to the message at
whatever level they receive it. Not everyone’s punishment will be equally severe in hell. That will depend
upon how much truth you had, truth is dangerous. The more you have, the more culpable you are, the
greater your guilt, the greater your punishment. We shouldn’t be surprised:
Isaiah 6,
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said,
8
“Here am I; send me!”

9
And he said, “Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
10
and stop their ears, and shut their eyes,

so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.”
11
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
12
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

13
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.
The people of God are in serious trouble and grave danger. Isaiah lays out the sins that were
characteristic of God’s people and judgment is coming, severe and deadly judgment is coming:
Isaiah 5, The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
1
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
2
and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard
4
that I have not done in it?

When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
5
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
6
it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
but heard a cry!
Social Injustice Denounced
Ah, you who join house to house,
8
who add field to field,

until there is room for no one but you,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
9
Surely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.
11
Ah, you who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,
whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
12
tambourine and flute and wine,

but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
or see the work of his hands!
13
Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
14
and opened its mouth beyond measure;

the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.
15
People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
16
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.

17
Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.
Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
18
who drag sin along as with cart ropes,

who say, “Let him make haste,
19
let him speed his work

that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
that we may know it!”
Ah, you who call evil good and good evil,
20
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21
Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
and shrewd in your own sight!
22
Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,
23
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of their rights!
So, God needs a messenger to warn, a messenger to call the people to repentance before the judgment
comes. And the question is asked, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?” Meaning the Trinity.
This, of course, should be the response of every believer. “Who am I going to send to this world
plummeting into judgment?” “I’ll go.” The Lord said, “Go and tell this people. You go tell them, go and
tell them about judgment, and tell them about grace, and forgiveness, and mercy, as well. Tell them to
turn from their sin. You go, you tell them.” Then it says, V10, “Keep on listening, but don’t
perceive; keep on looking, but don’t understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears
dull, their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts,
return and be healed.”
That passage is repeatedly quoted in the New Testament, because it’s the defining passage on the
obstinacy of an unbelieving society, in particular Israel. “Know this,” He says to Isaiah, “They’re going
to listen, but not understand. They’re going to see, but not comprehend. They’re going to be
insensitive, dull of hearing, dim of sight. They won’t get it. They won’t return. They won’t repent. They
won’t be healed. So know this when you go.”
V11, “I said, Lord, how long?” Why should I do that very long? Just keep doing it “until cities are
devastated and have no inhabitants, and houses have no people and the land is desolate and the Lord has
removed everybody far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.” Just do it till
the place is devastated, till there’s nobody left, keep preaching.
It seems fruitless.” No. V13, is the key. “There will be a tenth portion in it.” This is one of the very most
tangled Hebrew constructions of any passage in the Old Testament. We call the “doctrine of the
remnant.” There’s a tenth. There’s a stump. V13, “There is a holy seed that is that stump.” There’s a
remnant. it’s that same seed Messiah saw in Isaiah 53 He saw His seed and His soul was satisfied. God
does not have a mystery about who’s going to be saved, of course not. He knows it will be few. He knows
it will be a remnant. He knows it will be only a portion, a holy seed. The word “holy” means “set apart.”
So we go like Isaiah went. We go to the world and we go with the gospel and we know that most will not
believe. We could be very discouraged and say, “How long do I do that?” He says, “Just keep doing it
because there is out there a seed already designated as holy.” They’re in His purposes set apart for
God. They are the elect, who upon hearing the gospel, will repent and will believe.
Acts 13,
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had
48
been destined for eternal life became believers.

Acts 18,
One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;
9
10 for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who
are my people.”
11 He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
They weren’t converted yet. You go there, you preach as I have many of the holy seed already
there. They’re waiting to hear. Who will believe our report? Isaiah says. Who will be saved at the
preaching of the gospel? All men are accountable and the offer is legitimate, but who will be saved? This
launches us into our look at the doctrine of actual atonement or definite atonement or specific atonement
or peculiar or particular atonement as it’s all been called.
When we ask the question who will believe and be saved? We just finished talking about the doctrine of
absolute inability and unwillingness, sometimes called the doctrine of total depravity. That doctrine says
no sinner on his own can or will seek God. No sinner on his own will pursue the truth or justic or will
come to reconciliation and salvation. He will not because he cannot. His condition as dead in sin makes
that impossible. So the only ones who can come are those to whom God gives life, light, understanding,
repentance and faith. We also learned that those to whom God gives, are those whom He has chosen to
give that to. God chooses whom He will save and God saves whom He has chosen.
Clearly, salvation is all of God. It’s His holy seed. It’s His holy offspring, in the language of Isaiah 53. It’s
His people he has already identified. Their salvation is not apart from their will, but it is in harmony with
their will when their will is altered by the power of God. It raises the question then for whom did Christ
die?
Most people in the church think that He died for everyone potentially and no one actually, right? He just
died for everybody potentially, it’s sort of out there, and you can pick it up if you want it or you
don’t, it’s not going to be applicable to you. So He died for everybody potentially, and no one
actually. Therefore, the actualizing of the atonement depends upon the sinner deciding to actualize the
atoning work of Jesus Christ on his own behalf. And if the sinner never believes, if he chooses never to
receive Christ, then the death of Christ for Him remains an unrealized potential.
Those who believe that, believe that the atonement of Christ is limited in its effect. They say they do not
believe in a limited atonement, they believe in an unlimited atonement. That’s not true. They believe in
an atonement that is limited in its power and its effect, that is limited in its impact to the will of the
sinner. That’s a very limited atonement. They believe that it is unlimited in its extent, that it extends to all
the human race, but it limits its effect.
What the Bible teaches is just the opposite. It is limited in its extent to those whom God chooses and
saves. For them it is unlimited in its effect, in its power. It is not a potential salvation for all, it is an actual
salvation for the many. Who the many for whom He died, for whom He actually bore sin’s judgment? It
is the holy seed. It is the holy offspring. It is the chosen of the Father. It is the bride of the Son. That
changes everything. If you believe that there’s a potential atonement floating around the world and you
just have to convince sinners to pick it up, to take advantage of it, then evangelism takes on a completely
different approach. It all becomes working on the will of the sinner to get him to actualize this only
potential atonement.
Ask yourself who gets the credit for that one? It doesn’t sound like the way to glorify God. That’s the
idea that Jesus’ atonement is unlimited in its extent but very limited in its effect. In fact, it isn’t enough to
save you. Is that amazing? Jesus dying on the cross, paying the penalty for your sin under that theology
isn’t enough to save you. You have to do something to complete it, which sounds to me like salvation by
works. But how is the sinner going to do that when he’s absolutely unable and unwilling to do that? Dead
in trespasses and sin, blinded by Satan. We know not everybody’s going to be saved. The atonement is
limited in its extent and the question is, Who limited it? God did.
Tthat’s sometimes hard to take. But He did. There is hell and most people who live in this world end up
there. That’s how it is. The real hard doctrine is the doctrine of eternal punishment. If there were no
hell, we wouldn’t even need to debate these other issues, they’d be academic. But it’s God who decides
whom He will save and who chose them before the foundation of the world.
I just can’t look at the cross and see Jesus at the very end of the cross looking up and saying, “It is
started.” What? “It is potential.” That’s not what He said, John 19:30, “it is finished.” Was the death of
Christ a full and complete payment to God satisfying His just wrath for some particular chosen
people? Or was it a potential for nobody? An actual for nobody, a potential for everybody.
Let’s look at the Scripture and see how to understand that. When we hear the word “world” we think the
world means everybody who ever lived. John 1:9, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming
into the world.” Coming into the world, what does that mean? Does that mean He came to every human
being on the face of the earth? No, it means He came into the human realm. He was in the world. He was
in the human realm. “And the world was made through Him, and the world didn’t know Him.” “World”
is just a term for humanity, or the created world. He was in the world, God in human flesh. There’s
nothing about every single individual on the planet being necessarily involved in that word, the created
order, humanity. John 1, “29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of of the world.”
We have to qualify that immediately, if He took away the sin of the world, everybody would be
saved. They’d all have their sin taken away. How do you qualify it? He came into this human realm, this
created order, He came to humanity to take away sin. In the future, it will be removed completely in the
new heaven and the new earth.
But you will notice that this is clearly limited. He didn’t come to take away the sin of
everybody. V11, “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” V12, “But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in
His name.” So taking away the sin of the world is then qualified by whoever believed in Him. They were
the only ones who had the right to be forgiven and become children of God. “World” is a generic term
meaning humanity, the created order.
The love of God, how far, how wide, how high, and how deep is it? John 3:16, “God so loved the
world.” What does that mean? Humanity. “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the
world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” Well immediately you know the world has to be
qualified. If you don’t qualify it, we’re all going to come out universalists here, with everybody being
saved. And we know that can’t be true because the Bible is so clear on judgment.
He loved humanity, mankind, people from all tribes and tongues and nations. He loved, the sense of
common grace and the offer of the gospel and compassion, He shows love to the world. But His saving
love for the world is limited to those in the world, the realm of humanity, who believe. “God so loved the
world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes.”
John 4:42, “It’s no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and
know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” It doesn’t say He’s the potential Savior of the
world, He is the Savior of the world. He is the Savior of the world unqualified so therefore the world has
to be qualified, you can’t qualify the word “Savior.” We’re trying to protect the universal concept of
world and we wind up limiting the Savior. It really points out the picture, doesn’t it? Either you’re going
to limit the effect of the saving work of Christ, or you’re going to limit the extent of it, one of the two.
He is the Savior of the world in this sense: He’s the only Savior this world will ever have. He’s the only
Savior the human race will ever know. The world has no other Savior. Whenever you read John, “the
Savior of the world,” “God so loved the world,” “He was in the world,” etc, keep in mind that John is
addressing an environment of Jewish anti-Gentile racism. The idea that the Messiah is for the world was
a foreign idea, it was a revolutionary idea.
John 6:33, “The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” To
the world. What part of the world? V35, “He who comes to Me shall not hunger, he who believes in Me
shall never thirst.” You’re going to have life if you come and you believe from whatever nation on this
planet. He’s the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14 says the same thing in the sense that it's not limited to
the Jews. But it is limited. It’s limited always to those who believe.
John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live
forever; and the bread also that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” He gives His life for the
world, but who in the world? It says in the same verse, “Whoever eats the bread will live forever.” It’s
always qualified by believing.
John 12:47-48, “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do judge him; I didn’t come to
judge the world, but to save the world.” Obviously, this does not mean that He’s going to save every
human being whoever lives. It does mean that He is going to extend His salvation without regard for
race, or color, or sex across this planet, humanity in general.
John 14, “22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to
the world?” What did he mean that “You’re going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” He
certainly didn’t mean every human being on the planet. The wider world, the wider realm of humanity
outside this narrow group, the general public, it means there.
Jesus understood His own limitations on the word “world.” John 17, “6 I have made your name known to
those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept
your word.” The men You gave Me out of the world I pray for them. “7 Now they know that everything
you have given me is from you;” V9, “I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world,
but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.” Here you have Jesus not interceding
for the world, but for the men whom God gave Him out of the world. Jesus himself there makes that
qualification.
John 17:15, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the
evil one.” There He understands the world as this human enterprise with all its sin. V16, “They do not
belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” V18, “As you have sent me into the world, so I
have sent them into the world.” Jesus knew there were qualifications on the use of the word “world,” just
general, beyond Israel, across all races and languages. The world is always qualified, never is there an
occasion when we can dogmatically say it means every human being whoever lived.
John 12:19, “The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has
gone after him!” What do you think they meant by that? Every human being that ever lived? No, it’s
always qualified. Luke 9:25, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world?” Well, that’s
qualified, no man is going to own the whole world.
So, we simply in the context understand that the term “world” is to get us beyond the provincialism, the
narrowness, and the racism of Judaism to get us to the extent of the atonement stretching across this
earth in all times and all nations. Romans 11:15 says that the rejection of Israel has brought about the
reconciliation of the world. Again, Paul doesn’t believe for a moment that that means that every single
person whoever lived will be reconciled to God. What he means is that Israel’s rejection being set
aside, the church is grafted in and the church is made up of Jew and Gentile.
The Jews had a hard time with this. That’s why the apostles had to shock them with the fact that the
Lord was doing a work among the Gentiles.
Acts 10, Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit
44
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.
45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had
been poured out even on the Gentiles,
46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said,
47 “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as
we have?”
48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for
several days.
That was part of that same provincialism. The gospel was never intended to be limited to Israel.
Acts 15, The council at Jerusalem
The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.
6
7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the
early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would
hear the message of the good news and become believers.
8 And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did
to us;
9 and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.
10 Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that
neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
11 On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they
will.”
It’s a hard pill for the Jews to swallow, that the gospel stretched outside Judaism to humanity, from
every tongue, tribe, people, and nation.
1 John 2, Christ Our Advocate
1
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.
3
4 Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such
a person the truth does not exist;
5 but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may
be sure that we are in him:
6 whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.
It’s making the same point that John made over and over again, the same point that they made in the
book of Acts, the same point that Paul makes in Romans 11: That the gospel is not limited to the Jews.
Propitiation, by the way, is a very strong word, hilasmos in the Greek. It means the actual satisfying of
God’s just wrath. It’s not a potential. It’s an actual word. It could be translated “placated,” or
“satisfied.” He Himself is the satisfaction. He is the placation. He propitiates God, satisfies God, placates
God’s anger for our sins. But not just ours, as the inside people, but the whole world. That is to say there
is no other propitiation for people in any other nation than the one who is the propitiation for us.
If this meant that He was actually a satisfaction for every person who ever lived, then the word is way too
strong to mean anything potential. It would have to mean actual because it’s a satisfaction. God was
satisfied with the sacrifice on their behalf. Nothing is left out. Jesus’ death, beloved, was a satisfaction. He
was the sacrificial lamb on the ultimate day of atonement whose blood sprinkled before God was a true
satisfaction. Propitiation is too strong a word to mean something potential because propitiation means it
turns God’s wrath away forever. Not just for us, but for any Gentile or anyone else who believes.
2 Corinthians 5,
16
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew
Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has
become new!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of
reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on
behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.
What do you mean by the world? It always has to be qualified, otherwise you end up, as a universalist,
and then what do you do with everybody that’s being sent to hell? God is reconciling the world to
Himself. What does it mean? “Not counting their trespasses against them.” That’s not a potential
anything, that’s an actual.
God is reconciling. God is not making reconciliation possible. God is not removing a barrier to
reconciliation. God is not giving eight-tenths of the deal and telling the sinner to take the next two
steps. He is reconciling to Himself in Christ, that is in the death of Christ, the world not counting their
trespasses against them. Beloved, not having your trespasses counted against you means that He bore
your transgression in full and you are under no condemnation.
That is not a potential salvation, that is an actual salvation. Whoever the world is here, it is the ones who
no longer have their trespasses counted against them. It is those who are, V17, new creatures in Christ. It
is those in V21, for whom “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” For those who were
reconciled to God that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
There’s no such thing in the Bible as a potential atonement. It simply means that there are no racial
limits, there are no ethnic limits. These passages regarding the world are all qualified. It’s just
humanity, the human world, this realm, not every single individual who ever lives. That has been said to
us through the years. Christ did not pay in full, He did not reconcile, He did not satisfy God fully so that
God no longer counts trespasses against every human being in the world. If that were true that is an
actual salvation and there can be no hell cause there can’t be any punishment. Then God would be not
just but unjust.
The Bible says “all.” I know it says “all.”
Romans 5,
18
Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all.
That transgression was Adam, affecting everybody. “so one man’s act of righteousness leads to
justification and life for all. If we drive the parallel in the wrong direction, we will come out with
this. “Everybody was affected by Adam’s sin and became sinners, therefore everybody is affected by
Christ’s righteous work and becomes righteous.” Untrue.
There’s only one illustration being made here. Paul is talking about the impact of the work of Christ, how
that the work of Christ is the redeeming work of all who believe. How can one man’s act have such a
great effect? How can the act of one man have such massive implications? So he simply makes the
parallel. “Look, by one man’s sin, everybody died. And by one man’s righteousness, everybody who
believe became righteous.”
For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience
19
the many will be made righteous.

Just to make sure we don’t think the ‘all’ is inclusive, he puts that in there just to back us off the wrong
understanding of V18, which would make everybody saved. Wait says Paul, That’s not what I’m trying to
say. Let’s use the word ‘many’ so we don’t get mixed up here. We’re only trying to illustrate the point
that one man’s work, one man’s deed effects all who proceed from that one man.” So that is all only in
the appropriate sense, qualified again in the context.
Romans 8,
28
We know that all things work together for good[u] for those who love God, who are called according to
his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that
he might be the firstborn within a large family.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those
whom he justified he also glorified.
31
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us
32
everything else?
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
33
Here’s “all” again. Some people will say, He was delivered up for everybody in the whole world.” That’s
not who he’s talking about here? Is that Paul’s “us”? Who is the “us” there? Everybody in the whole
world? Is God for everybody in the whole world? We have a qualified “us.” Who is the “us” that God is
for? I’ll tell you who it is. V29, “Whoever He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
whoever He predestined, V30, He called, whoever He called He justified, whoever He justified, these He
also glorified and if God is for us, who can be against us?” It’s the “us” of those who were
predestined, and called, and justified, and glorified. To put it another way, V33, “Who will bring a
charge against God’s elect?” It is the elect, we are the us all.
2 Corinthians 5:14.
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have
14
died.
15 And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died
and was raised for them.
Like Romans 5. Now the “all” is qualified. “The love of Christ urges us, convinced that one died for
all.” People say, “Oh, He died for all. He died for the whole world, every single person in the whole
world.” He died for them all? No. “He died for all, therefore all died.” What are, the all He died for
died. When we came to Christ, we died, “I am crucified with Christ.” In Him you die. So, “He died for
all, therefore all died.” He died for the all who died in Him. V15, “He died for all.” Who are the
all? “They who live.” He died for those who died and live in Him. It was for them that He “died and arose
again for them.”
Romans 5, the Lord died not for all, but for many. That’s another way to get to the same point, “all”
meaning “all” in a broad sense across the world, “many” meaning “less than everyone.”
Hebrews 9, “Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many.” You don’t want to do too
much with these words other than to understand in the context how they are always qualified.
Matthew 20:28, “28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom
for many.” Who are the many? All who would believe. He actually was a ransom, a satisfaction. He
actually provided an expiation. He actually achieved an atonement for those who would believe.
To put it in the angelic language, the angel says, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as
your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bear a Son and you
shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” The Bible teaches
nowhere a potential salvation. He saves His people from their sins. That’s what He will do when He
comes. It will be a real salvation for His people.
John 10, “11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 14 I am the good
shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep.”
John 11:50, “50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to
have the whole nation destroyed51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he
prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one
the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death.” What a
statement. Jesus died not just for Jews, but to gather into one body the children of God scattered all over
the world. That’s who He died for.
Ephesians 5, “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to
present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that
she may be holy and without blemish.” He paid the price for His bride, His church. He redeemed her. It
wasn’t a redemption of nobody in particular, it was a redemption of His own redeemed church.
It was a particular redemption. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined
us. “In Him we have redemption,” Ephesians 1:7. We have “the forgiveness of our trespasses, according
to the riches of His grace which he lavished on us.” Ephesians 1:14, “We are God’s own possession.”
Titus 2, “13 While we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” Who is that people? The people
whom God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to the Son as His bride.
1 Peter 2, “24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.” He didn’t die to potentially bring people
to God, He died to bring us to God. He died to satisfy God. He died to redeem the holy seed, the holy
offspring.
Hebrews 10, “29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned
the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the
Spirit of grace?” That says that some people will be punished, people who trample underfoot the Son of
God, and regard as unclean the very blood of His covenant are said to be sanctified.” It’s not talking
about sinners being sanctified, it’s talking about Christ, “by which He was sanctified.” “Trampling
underfoot the Son of God and regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which He was set apart
as the covenant sacrifice.”
Somebody could throw in a verse like 2 Peter 2:1 and say, “Wait a minute, it says of those people
there who were apostate that they denied the Master who bought them.” Sure, there’s a sarcasm
there, they claimed to be true believers. They claimed to be true teachers. They infiltrated the church as
false teachers and Peter says, “You now have denied the Master who bought you.” We know the Master
didn’t pay the price for damnable heretics.
So how do we summarize this? The death of Christ was a real, true actual satisfaction of divine justice. It
was a true payment and a true atonement in full, actually, not potentially, paid to God by Christ, on
behalf of all who would ever believe because they were chosen and redeemed by the power of God. The
death of Christ was then definite, particular, specific and actual on behalf of God’s chosen people, limited
in extent by the sovereign purposes of God, but unlimited in effect. For all for whom it was rendered it is
fully in force, or will be in each individual life.
It is the work of God. It is the work of Christ who accomplished redemption, not to make redemption
possible to then be finally accomplished by the sinner. Christ procured salvation for all whom God would
call and justify. Sinners do not limit the atonement, God does. Jesus did actually take the penalty in full
for all who would ever believe.
What does that mean to you? Well for one, you ought to rejoice because the price was paid in full for
you. You don’t have to activate it. You’re a trophy of God’s divine grace. Secondly, go out and
evangelize the lost with joy knowing that there’s a holy seed out there for Christ has already paid the
price for their sins and it’s our joy and our privilege to be God’s instruments to reach them.

The Doctrine of Absolute Inability Oct 4

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The perseverance of the saints 1 Aug 29/04

nations because of my name.

presence of his glory with rejoicing,

not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

presence of his glory with rejoicing,

The perseverance of the saints 3 Sept 12/04

thrown into the fire and burned.

something strange were happening to you.

may enter the city by the gates.

in the heavenly places,

to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

The doctrine of election 1 Sept 19/04

how inscrutable his ways!

or who has been his counselor?”

been destined for eternal life became believers.

spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of election 2 Sept 26/04

he chose, he has cut short those days.

Talking about Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

upsetting the faith of some.

Or who has been his counselor?”

The doctrine of election 3 Oct 17/04

any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

gave me, because they are yours.

ruler and every authority and power.

The Doctrine of Absolute Inability Oct 24/04

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away,

so that they might not look with their eyes,

Yeah, but we had to believe. Yes, read the folloing verses:

day of Jesus Christ.

many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Romans 3, None Is Righteous

there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.”

they use their tongues to deceive.”

The doctrine of actual atonement 1, Nov 4/04

The doctrine of actual atonement 2, Nov 11/04

—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,

kings shall shut their mouths because of him;

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

and like a root out of dry ground;

a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

crushed for our iniquities;

we have all turned to our own way,

yet he did not open his mouth;

and his tomb with the rich,

he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.

right hand of God.

bearing the seed for sowing,

“Here am I; send me!”

and stop their ears, and shut their eyes,

and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

and planted it with choice vines;

that I have not done in it?

I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;

it shall not be pruned or hoed,

who add field to field,

Surely many houses shall be desolate,

tambourine and flute and wine,

and opened its mouth beyond measure;

and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.

who drag sin along as with cart ropes,