Category Archives: The Sovereignty of God

God’s Wrath Against Unrighteousness

Posted by Dan C. on

God gave them up. . .

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

The wrath of God isn’t reserved solely for the second coming of Christ, or the final judgment when those who rejected The Son will be cast into outer darkness. God’s wrath against sin is also demonstrated right now, right here, on planet earth, in our country, in your city, on your street, perhaps even in your home.

We are told the reason for God’s wrath being revealed right here, right now, is the failure to acknowledge God; the general knowledge of God that is in the heart of every man. This would apply not only to the professed atheist, but all those for whom there is a god, but whose god is not the sovereign God who created the universe and everything in it,

We are then given three ways that those that fail to acknowledge God are ‘given over’. The word translated “gave them over” or “gave them up” is a word that basically means “to give into the hands of another, to give over into one’s power, or to deliver one up to the custody of another.” In other words, God removes His restraining hand, that bit of moral conscience that we all seem to have because of that inner knowledge of God, and men are completely controlled by their own sinful natures, seemingly without any remorse or sense of conscience concerning their deeds.

Men are ‘given over’ to the impurity of their hearts, to dishonorable passions, and to debased minds. And while we tend to focus on sins of homosexuality, Paul also gives us a ‘vice list’ that covers ‘all manner of unrighteousness’ not necessarily specific to sexual sin! Paul is telling us when we at refuse to acknowledge God as He is revealed in His creation, that there exists a very slippery slope that hits bottom with God removing his restraining hand (moral conscience) from our lives and with us being ‘given over, given up, released to our sinful nature, and possibly abandoned by God.

My friend, dear reader, if that’s true, it has to be the worst possible state any living person could be in – abandoned by God, and without hope!

Our prayer this morning is that if you are reading this, God is still speaking to you and you are listening.

If you are reading this and think it nonsense – that God is not angry at your sin and even now He is not revealing His Holy wrath against it – perhaps that God doesn’t even exist, think again. You are in grave danger, and as an earlier passage in the same chapter of Romans tells us – you stand without excuse , without any reasonable defense), before the holy, perfect, and just judge of His entire universe!

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“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Man’s Will and God’s Will – Horatius Bonar

Posted by Dan C. on

“Cannot I do with you as the potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.” – Jer. 18:6.

“I do not deny that in conversion man himself wills. In everything that he does, thinks, feels, he of necessity wills. In believing he wills; in repenting he wills; in turning from his evil ways he wills. All this is true. The opposite is both untrue and absurd. But while fully admitting this, there is another question behind it of great interest and movement. Are these movements of man’s will towards good the effects of the forthputting of God’s will? Is man willing, because he has made himself so, or because God has made him so? Does he become willing entirely by an act of his own will, or by chance, or by moral suasion, or because acted on by created causes and influences from without?

I answer unhesitatingly, he becomes willing, because another and a superior will, even that of God, has come into contact with his, altering its nature and its bent. This new bent is the result of a change produced upon it by Him who alone, of all beings, has the right, without control, to say, in regard to all events and changes, “I will”. The man’s will has followed the movement of the Divine will. God has made him willing. God’s will is first in the movement, not second. Even a holy and perfect will depends for guidance upon the will of God. Even when renewed it still follows, it does not lead. Much more an unholy will, for its bent must be first changed; and how can this be, if God is not to interpose His hand and power? ”

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), Scottish minister and hymn writer.

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Above excerpted from the larger work by the same title, which can be read here.

Saving Grace – Resistible or Irresistible?

Posted by Dan C. on

There are only two groups of people on the earth, those who have been regenerated – born of the Spirit of God, and those who are still in bondage to their sin – the natural state of every person born.

Those remaining in bondage to their sin ‘naturally’ resist God’s grace, if they are indeed children of wrath, as Paul tells us in Ephesians. Those who have been regenerated – brought to spiritual life, might also resist the gospel message and call of God drawing them to the Cross of Calvary. However, they will not remain resistant if God has issued His call. The very purpose of the call of God is to bring a lost soul to the Cross and eternally save a man, and the purpose of God cannot be thwarted.

What does that mean in terms of the resistibility of God’s grace?  Simply this – that the power of the grace of God can and will overcome the resistance of the one drawn by God to His Son (John 6:44). No one is dragged kicking and screaming to the cross against their will. Those who come, come running; their wills so moved upon by God’s power and love that their former resistance has been totally overcome.

Food for thought – another perspective on a term used in Calvinism.

Executive Clemency

Posted by Dan C. on

We are all probably familiar with the US President/State Governors granting executive clemency/pardons for some few individuals in prison, based on certain factors or conditions. In other words, the person occupying the highest office in a state or our nation, under certain conditions, has the right/power to pardon, and even expunge the criminal record of a limited number of persons in prison. This right/power is both limited and conditional. Through the years, there have been many spirited discussions concerning some who have been the recipient of executive pardons, as well as some who might have been more ‘worthy’ of a pardon. I am not aware of any serious debate concerning the right of an executive to grant clemency to whomever he decides based on the evidence/merits presented to him .

The salvation of lost sinners is also a kind of ‘executive pardon. By birth and by nature, men are all children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3), imprisoned by our own sin, completely unable to free ourselves from the death sentence over our heads. God, however, has the right and power to grant clemency to lost sinners, based on His own rules/conditions. In fact, God has done exactly that, having sent His own Son to bear the punishment of those to whom He grants ‘clemency’.

There are no human conditions that must be met, in fact no human conditions/actions could ever merit clemency. We are told that God unconditionally chose those whom He would save from the eternal death sentence before this world was even created (Eph 1:3-4), and that the reason God chose some was based solely on His mercy (Eph 2:4-6, Rom 9:14-15), and according to His own pleasure and purpose (Eph 1:5). That God’s choosing some for salvation is not based on human decision or works of any kind is seen in John 1:12-13 and Eph 2:8-9.

One form of clemency is conditional while the other is unconditional. Both are limited in a fashion, one by human laws regulating it’s execution, the other based on the Executive’s power and right. Why do we not have issues with the right of governors and presidents to decide who goes free and who serves their just sentence, yet we have issues with the biblical doctrine of election?

Food for thought . . .

"Irresistible Grace – is it Biblical?"

Posted by Dan C. on

Question: “Irresistible Grace – is it Biblical?”

Answer: Irresistible Grace is a phrase that is used to summarize what the Bible teaches about the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of sinners. It is represented by the “I” in the acronym TULIP that is commonly used to enumerate what are known as the five points of Calvinism or the Doctrines of Grace. The doctrine is also known as “Effectual Calling,” “Efficacious Grace,” “Efficacious Call of the Spirit,” and “Transformed by the Holy Spirit.” Each of these terms reveals some aspect of what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of irresistible grace. However what is important is not the name assigned to the doctrine but how accurately the doctrine summarizes what the Bible teaches about the nature and purpose of the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of sinful, spiritually dead men. No matter which name you use to refer to the doctrine of irresistible grace a through study of the Bible will reveal that when properly understood it is an accurate description of what the Bible teaches on this important subject.

Simply put, the doctrine of irresistible grace refers to the biblical truth that whatever God decrees to happen will inevitably come to pass, even in the salvation of individuals. The Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the elect so that they inevitably will come to faith in Christ. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit never fails to bring to salvation those sinners whom He personally calls to Christ (John 6:37-40). At the heart of this doctrine is the answer to the question: Why does one person believe the Gospel and another does not? Is it because one is smarter, has better reasoning capabilities, or possesses some other characteristic that allows them to realize the importance of the Gospel message? Or is it because God does something unique in the lives of those that He saves? If it is because of what the person who believes does or is, then in a sense they are responsible for their salvation and they have a reason to boast. However, if the difference is solely that God does something unique in the hearts and lives of those who believe in Him and are saved, then there is no ground for boasting and salvation is truly a gift of grace. Of course the biblical answer to these questions is that the Holy Spirit does do something unique in the hearts of those who are saved. The Bible tells us that God saves people “according to His mercy…through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In other words those who believe the Gospel and are saved do so because they have been transformed by the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of irresistible grace recognizes that the Bible describes natural man as “dead in his trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13) and because man is spiritually dead he must first be made alive or regenerated in order to understand and respond to the Gospel message. A good illustration of this is seen in Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. In John 11:43 it is recorded that Jesus told Lazarus to “come forth” and that Lazarus came forth out of the tomb. What had to happen before Lazarus—who had been dead for several days—would be able to respond to Jesus’ command? He had to be made alive because a dead man cannot hear or respond. The same is true spiritually. If we are dead in our sins, as the Bible clearly teaches, then before we can respond to the Gospel message and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we must first be made alive. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3, you must be “born again to see the kingdom of God.” John 1:12-13 tells us that being born again is not the result of something we do—“the will of man”—but is a sovereign act of God. Just as Lazarus could not bring himself back to life or respond to Jesus’ command without being brought back to life, neither can sinful man. Ephesians 2:1-10 makes it very clear that while we are still dead in our trespasses and sin God makes us alive. The Bible is very clear that the act of being born again or regenerated is a sovereign act of God. It is something He does which enables us to believe the Gospel message, not something that comes as a result of our belief.

The reason this doctrine is called “irresistible” grace is because it always results in the intended outcome, the salvation of the person it is given to. It is important to realize that the act of being regenerated or “born again” cannot be separated from the act of believing the Gospel. Ephesians 2:1-10 makes this clear. There is a clear connection between the act of being made alive by God (Ephesians 2:1,5) and the result of being saved by grace. (Ephesians 2:5,8). This is because everything pertaining to salvation, including the faith to believe, is an act of God’s grace. The reason God’s grace is irresistible and efficacious (always bringing forth the desired result) is because God “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into” His kingdom (Colossians 1:13). Or as Psalm 3:8 puts it, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.”

To understand the doctrine of “Irresistible grace,” it is important to recognize that this is a special grace given only to those God has chosen for salvation (His elect) and is different from what is known as “common grace” which God bestows on both believer and the unbeliever. While there are many aspects of common grace, including life and all that is necessary to sustain it, common grace is what is often referred to as the “outward call of God.” This is God’s revelation of Himself given to all men through the light of creation and their consciences. It also includes the general call of the Gospel that goes out anytime the Gospel message is preached. This call can be resisted and rejected by those that receive it. (Matthew 22:14; Romans 1:18-32). However, God also gives an “inward call” which always results in salvation. This is the call of God that Jesus spoke of in John 6:37-47. The certainty of this inward call is seen in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” John 6:44 confirms this: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Other verses where irresistible grace can be seen include 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, Acts 13:48; Acts 16:14 and Romans 8:30. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, after explaining why some people do not believe the Gospel (it is veiled to them and their minds have been blinded towards it) Paul then writes, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The God who said “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) is the same God who gives the light of salvation to those He chooses, and the result is just as sure. The same truth is seen in a different way in Acts 13:48. Here it is said that “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” God saves those He chooses to save; therefore His saving grace is always effective or efficacious. In Acts 16:14 we have another example of God’s irresistible grace in action. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia “to respond the things spoken of by Paul.” Finally you have what is called the “golden chain of redemption” in Romans 8:29-30. Here we see that everyone God calls to salvation (the inward call) will be saved (justified).

A common misconception about the doctrine of irresistible grace is that it implies men are forced to accept Christ and men are dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. Of course neither of these are accurate descriptions of the doctrine of irresistible grace as revealed in the Bible. In fact the heart of irresistible grace is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit whereby He takes a man dead in his trespasses and sins and gives him spiritual life so that he can recognize the unsurpassing value of God’s offer of salvation. Then having been set free from the bondage of sin, that man willingly comes to Christ.

Another misconception concerning this doctrine is that it teaches the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted at all. Yet again that is not what the doctrine teaches because that is not what the Bible teaches. God’s grace can be resisted and the Holy Spirit’s influence can be resisted even by one of the elect. However what the doctrine does correctly recognize is that the Holy Spirit can overcome all such resistance and that He will draw the elect with an irresistible grace that makes them want to come to God and helps them to understand the Gospel so they can and will believe it.

The doctrine of irresistible grace simply recognizes that the Bible teaches God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when He wills to. What God decrees or determines will come to pass always does. This truth is seen throughout Scripture. In Daniel 4:35 we see that “He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand!” Psalm 115:3 declares, “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” God’s grace in salvation is irresistible because when God sets out to fulfill His sovereign purpose, no person or thing can successfully resist Him.

The doctrine of irresistible grace accurately summarizes what the Bible teaches about the nature of saving faith as well as what must happen to overcome man’s depraved nature. Since natural man is dead in his trespasses and sins, it stands to reason that he must be regenerated before he can respond to the outward call of the Gospel. Until that happens man will resist the gospel message and the grace of God; however, once he has been “born again” and has a heart that is now inclined toward God, the grace of God will irresistibly draw Him to put his faith in Christ and be saved. These two acts (regeneration and faith) cannot be separated from one another. They are so closely connected that we often cannot distinguish between them.

Recommended Resource: Chosen But Free by Norm Geisler and The Potter’s Freedom by James White.

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The above was taken directly from the GotQuestions Web site and is a good summary of the teaching. It is not intended to be judgmental, argumentative, or to persuade anyone of anything. Persuasion of scriptural truth is always a work of the Holy Spirit.

Before and after. . .

Posted by Dan C. on

by Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)

“Before conversion man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, and to make himself whole by his duties.  He is apt to trust in himself, and set up his own righteousness, and to reckon his counters for gold, and not to submit to the righteousness of God.

But conversion changes his mind; now he counts his own righteousness as filthy rags. He casts it off, as a man would the venomous tatters of a nasty beggar.

Now he is brought to poverty of spirit, complains of and condemns himself,and all his inventory is “poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked”.
He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things, and calls his once idolized righteousness but filth and loss; and would not for a thousand worlds be found in it.”

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Joseph Alleine (1634-1668), served as preacher and pastor of  St. Mary Magdalene Church  in Taunton, Somerset, UK, a Puritan stronghold.

His ministry in Taunton as preacher and pastor was very fruitful. Richard Baxter recalled Alleine’s “great ministerial skillfulness in the public explication and application of the Scriptures—so melting, so convincing, so powerful.” Alleine was also an excellent teacher, devoting much time to instructing his people, using the Shorter Catechism. He was a passionate evangelist. One contemporary wrote, “He was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls, wherein he had no small success.

It was his habit to devote the hours between four and eight o’clock in the mornings to private devotions. His wife recalled that he “would be much troubled if he heard smiths or other craftsmen at work at their trades, before he was at communion with God: saying to me often, ‘How this noise shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than theirs?’ ”

Excerpt from Meet the Puritans
by Dr. Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson
Posted with permission on Monergism.com by Reformation Heritage Books

What People Believe

Posted by Dan C. on

It’s been said that, in general, people believe what they want to believe. Conversely, they don’t believe what they don’t want to believe. If you can change what people want to believe, you’ve got them in the palm of your hand. Just ask the salesman who is an effective ‘closer’. His success as a ‘closer’ relies on overcoming the resistance of the person buying a car/boat/house/time-share/you name it. In spiritual matters it is not much different.

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but–to proclaim good news; not in wisdom of discourse, that the cross of the Christ may not be made of none effect; for the word of the cross to those indeed perishing is foolishness, and to us–those being saved–it is the power of God.” 1 Cor 1:17-18

Now however, instead of the salesman, we are dealing with God. By nature, coming from the womb, we are spiritually dead, unable and unwilling to seek God on our own (See Psalm 14, Romans 3, and Ephesians 2). We don’t want to believe God, are living in rebellion against him objects of his wrath. That’s the bad news. Then, as Paul tells us, along comes the good news, the gospel of Christ and his death for our sins. But wait, a dead man can’t believe much of anything. What does God do?

God wakes the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, who changes what a person wants to believe, and guess what? The word of the gospel is brought to that one who now wants to believe it, he/she believes, and another adopted son or daughter joins the family of God!

What a mighty God we serve!

The Sovereignty of God Among the Nations

Posted by Dan C. on

The Apostle Paul,  in at the Areopagus, in Athens, spoke these words concerning the “unknown god” for whom there was a “just in case” idol:

“And he (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” – Acts 17: 26-31, ESV

What an awesome testimony of God’s sovereignty over all things, especially the nations, all the nations of the earth! In these few words, Paul summarized the activity of God concerning the nations, from creation to final judgment!

Listening to the various forms of rhetoric concerning the state of our nation, one hears just about everything from the far left to the far right, and everywhere in between. I have my own opinions about things, and it is very difficult to remain silent at times and remember that God is sovereign over all the affairs of men. this is not to say that the voice of an old soldier will not be heard by way of the ballot box, but only to say that God is sovereign and all moaning and complaining will not change his divine purposes.

I am also reminded of how many times in the book of Ezekiel alone God spoke the words “Then they will know that I am the Lord!” Depending on the translation, those words, or words like them, were spoken between 25 and 30 times. God spoke them when he was blessing his people and when he punished his people, claiming divine responsibility for both the blessing and the punishment. God spoke those words over pagan nations he caused to rise up as the instrument of divine discipline, and when he caused the very nations he used as divine instruments to be themselves destroyed as his enemies.

God WILL have his way with the nations, and he WILL gather his elect, the remnant out of all the nations, chosen for Himself before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4 & Rev 5:9).

What are we, as Christians, to do in this time? What is our reason for remaining ‘among the nations”?

There is but one answer in the heart of this old soldier – the gospel of Jesus Christ! We have the great privilege of being used of God to take the gospel to all the nations – the gospel that Christ died for our sins for our justification and was raised up again, as we are raised up in Him as we yet live, and will one day be glorified with Him in the final resurrection.

Our mission – the Great Commission – has never changed.

“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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matt 28:19-20

Perhaps this is a time when we, as individual believers and as the Bride of Christ, should ask ourselves. “How are we doing?”