This is an excerpt from a longer article called The Pelagian Captivity of the Church published in Modern Reformation magazine. The article is doctrinal in that it discusses salvation, justification, the righteousness of God, the glory of God, and the human will, from the early days of Church history until the present, all in a 4-5 page document, depending on your favorite text font. If doctrine puts you off, you probably won’t want to read the entire article, nor will you be interested in it if you are spiritual growth comfort zone is akin to the ‘wading pool’ down at the park. However, if you like to treading in deeper waters and love to be challenged in your faith, it’s a must read and worthy of serious discussion. Just click the above link to the Modern Reformation magazine or click here.

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church  – R. C. Sproul

God’s Sovereignty in Salvation

This is the issue: Is it a part of God’s gift of salvation, or is it in our own contribution to salvation? Is our salvation wholly of God or does it ultimately depend on something that we do for ourselves? Those who say the latter, that it ultimately depends on something we do for ourselves, thereby deny humanity’s utter helplessness in sin and affirm that a form of semi-Pelagianism is true after all. It is no wonder then that later Reformed theology condemned Arminianism as being, in principle, both a return to Rome because, in effect, it turned faith into a meritorious work, and a betrayal of the Reformation because it denied the sovereignty of God in saving sinners, which was the deepest religious and theological principle of the reformers’ thought. Arminianism was indeed, in Reformed eyes, a renunciation of New Testament Christianity in favor of New Testament Judaism. For to rely on oneself for faith is no different in principle than to rely on oneself for works, and the one is as un-Christian and anti-Christian as the other. In the light of what Luther says to Erasmus there is no doubt that he would have endorsed this judgment.

And yet this view is the overwhelming majority report today in professing evangelical circles. And as long as semi-Pelagianism-which is simply a thinly veiled version of real Pelagianism at its core-as long as it prevails in the Church, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I know, however, what will not happen: there will not be a new Reformation. Until we humble ourselves and understand that no man is an island and that no man has an island of righteousness, that we are utterly dependent upon the unmixed grace of God for our salvation, we will not begin to rest upon grace and rejoice in the greatness of God’s sovereignty, and we will not be rid of the pagan influence of humanism that exalts and puts man at the center of religion. Until that happens there will not be a new Reformation, because at the heart of Reformation teaching is the central place of the worship and gratitude given to God and God alone. Soli Deo gloria, to God alone, the glory.

Following are short excerpts from “The Calvary Road” by Roy Hession that speak wisely to much of today’s postmodern evangelical environment in which anything that might be critical is termed as ‘judgmental’, or ‘non-encouraging’ and thus, unwelcome or forbidden conversation.

“That friend of ours has got something in his eye! …how painful it is until it is removed! It is surely our part as a friend to do all we can do to remove it. We should be grateful to him, if he did the same service for us.

In the the light of that, it seems clear that the real point of the well-known passage in Matthew 7:3-5 about the beam and the mote is not the forbidding of our trying to remove the fault in the other person, but rather that reverse. It is the injunction that at all costs we should try to do this service for one another. True, its first emphasis seems to be a condemnation of censoriousness, but when the censoriousness is removed, the passage ends by the saying, “Then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

But what did Jesus mean by the beam in our own eye? I suggest that the beam in our eye is simply our unloving reaction to the other man’s mote.”

It’s not about the validity of ‘mote removing’, it’s the ‘why’ of our wanting to be the ‘remover’. If that attitude is other than a loving desire to remove hindrances to our brother or sister’s spiritual growth, or righteousness zealousness for the Father’s house’, it just might very well be questionable.

There is also risk involved in this manner of expressing of love for your brother or sister, even with utmost love! That friend just might take offense, play the ‘judge not’ card, resulting in a lost friendship (hopefully only temporarily)!

Then you must ask yourself, which is most important, the spiritual growth of your friend and the honor due His name, or your friendship. Therefore, HANDLE WITH PRAYER!

BURN YOUR PLASTIC JESUS
music by Steve Camp; words by Steve Camp/Aaron Porter

Burn your plastic Jesus
The one you keep hid in your drawer
The one you take to church on Sundays
Then conveniently ignore
He’s not big enough to worship
He’s Gandhi with a grin
He never judges sinners
‘Cause he tolerates their sin

Burn your plastic Jesus
Your social worker for the poor
Political crusader, won’t question your behavior
Don’t demand to be your Lord
He’s your presidential slogan
Your bumper sticker God
Who wants to make you happy
With your BEST LIFE NOW
Oh burn your plastic Jesus
Burn your plastic Jesus

He’s got no power, got no real love
He’s got no cross that he bled and died on
He’s got no tomb that he broke through
Burn this plastic Jesus … he’s just as plastic as you

Burn your plastic Jesus
You’ve got hold up in The Shack
Who shows up as female Papa, Spirit Sarayu
To get the real you back
He’ll help you find your purpose
And pray like Jabez too
Be relevant; emergent
French kiss postmodern truth
Burn your plastic Jesus
Oh burn your plastic Jesus

He’s got no power, got no real love
He’s got no cross that he bled and died on
He’s got no tomb that he broke through
Burn this plastic Jesus … he’s just as plastic as you

It ain’t no plastic Jesus who was Virgin Born
It ain’t no plastic Jesus who was beaten and scorned
It ain’t no plastic Jesus who conquered sin and death
And it ain’t no plastic Jesus who drank the cup of wrath
And it ain’t no plastic Jesus who reigns from heaven’s tower
Who’s King of kings and Lord of lords, the Sovereign with all power
It ain’t no plastic Jesus who we worship and we praise
And it ain’t no plastic Jesus who is the Life, the Truth, the Way

He’s got all power, got true real love
He bore a cross that He bled and died on
There’s an empty tomb that He broke through
He ain’t no plastic Jesus … He came to save the plastic you

copyright Nouthetic Music, August 12, 2008

This is a the conclusion of the series that started here and continued here (Part 2), here (Part 3), and here (Part 4).

THE BIBLICAL GOSPEL PRESENTS A WHOLE CHRIST FOR THE WHOLE MAN.

Fourthly, and finally, the Biblical Gospel presents a whole Christ for the whole man. The object of faith is not ‘the fact of the atonement’ but the person of Christ. Paul did not tell the jailor to just believe the ‘facts about Calvary’. He was told, “Believe on the LORD JESUS CHRIST” – Master, Saviour and promised anointed Messiah (Acts 16:31). But belief never simply means mental assent. It is trust, reliance on and commitment to Christ as Lord and Saviour. This is not the ‘cool buddy Saviour only Jesus’ of the contemporary gospel, who says “Come as you are and stay as you are”. How solemn to see a large number who call Jesus Lord, shut out of the kingdom, despite their many religious works (Matt 7:21).

‘Evangelical’ churches are full of people who do not exhibit the fruits of salvation, but who are not embarrassed to say they are Christians. But if a man says he has faith and has not works, can that faith save him (James 2:14)? God saves people so that they will do good works (Acts 26:20) and live as His bond slaves (1 Thess 1:9). Therefore, any salvation experience that does not turn a rebel sinner into a basically obedient servant is spurious. “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.. every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast in to the fire” (Matt 3:8).

Liberal theologians have filled churches and preached a blood-less gospel and a deity-less Christ. Now, evangelicals have filled churches with a gospel that lacks a call to repentance. Which is worse? The net result is the same. Let us ensure that our sermons, our gospel tracts and the missionary endeavours we support present every aspect of the true Biblical gospel.

The entire article can be read online at Banner of Truth, here.

This is a continuation of the series that started here and continued here (Part 2).

Secondly, the Biblical Gospel makes proper use of the law of God. A sinner must understand the gospel to be saved (Matt 13:15,19, 23, Acts 8:30-31, Rom 3:11). But before a sinner can understand the mercy of a loving God, he must understand the requirements of a righteous God. Now, the law is not the gospel and the gospel is not the law; but the gospel establishes the law (Rom 3:31). That law which the Gentiles have in their hearts by nature (Rom 2:15), Israel also had written on stone – and the purpose of this law is clearly stated by Paul: “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20). Paul further states that he would never have known he was a guilty sinner without the law (Rom 7:7). Since no one can be saved without repentance (Luke 13:5) and no one can repent unless they know they are guilty, the true Biblical gospel must make proper use of the law, the chief end of which is to convince the whole world of its guilt (Rom 3:19).

The book of Romans contains the only systematic setting forth of the gospel in the whole Bible. Paul uses the word ‘law’ 38 times before he mentions the word ‘love’. From Romans 1:17-3:19, Paul sets forth the case against the sinner. It is a sorry tale of condemnation, wrath and guilt. Finally, in chapter 5:8, Paul states that God commends his love towards sinners. Why does Paul present the gospel in this order? Because the gospel will not make any real sense to the sinner until he realizes he is guilty of rebellion against the law of a holy God. If we start by telling the typical Westerner “God loves you”, he will puff out his chest and say in his heart “Why shouldn’t He; I’m a good person?”

Preachers of the old school believed that a man would not grab a spiritual lifebelt, until he was convinced he was drowning; nor submit to medical treatment until was sure he had a disease – so they never set the remedy of the gospel before the sinner’s mind until thoroughly convincing him of his sin. But the contemporary gospel knows better. It uses the carrot of ‘benefits’ instead of the stick of the law. It says, “If you come to Jesus you will be happy, fulfilled, be part of a loving family and spend eternity in a golden mansion – if you would like to have all of this, just say sorry for your sins and ask Jesus into your heart to be your Saviour.” If only this were an unfair caricature or a straw man -but it is not. This is exactly how it is presented universally today in print and in the pulpit. The net result is that sinners ‘come to Christ’ with a false motive. Then when persecution and pressure come their way, they discover that they were not told the whole story. They are offended and quickly disillusioned. However, they have now been vaccinated against true salvation. After all, they tried Jesus and He failed.

As we seek to restore the true Biblical gospel we must remember that the issue is righteousness not happiness. True peace and joy are the fruits of salvation, but they are never to be presented in Biblical sermons as a draw card, to encourage sinners to ‘make their decision for Christ’. We must understand that simply quoting “All have sinned”, followed by a quick “But the good news is…”1 will never awaken anyone. Sinners must be faced with the fact that covetousness (the love of things) is idolatry (Col 3:5), hate is murder (1 John 3:15) and lust is adultery (Matt 5:28). Driving down the motorway, there are a number of excuses one can think of to justify going at 85 mph. ..until the law enters. When you see a Police car on the side of the road, your foot hits the brakes. By the law is the knowledge of sin. That is what will make a man, rushing headlong down the highway of life to hell, sit up and listen. He simply must see his precarious position or he will never repent.

Presented with a choice of either diamonds or a glass of water, who would not choose the diamonds? But take a man who has been lost for four days in the Sahara desert with nothing to drink and present him with the same choice. He takes the water. What has changed? The inherent value of the goods on offer? No. His perception of need. And so, let a man be utterly convinced from scripture, by the Holy Spirit, that he is lost, guilty and helpless and he will cry out, “What must I do to be saved?”

The proper initial reaction to the gospel on the part of the sinner is conviction of sin (John 16:8, Acts 2:37). But what is conviction of sin? It is more than just the ordinary smiting of the conscience (Rom 2:15). It is more than mere fear of hell. Simply being scared of the consequences of sin is not true Holy Spirit conviction. Nor is conviction ‘admitting you are a sinner’. Balaam, Pharoah, Judas and many others admitted “I have sinned”, but went to hell. Nor is conviction a mere head knowledge of the doctrine of the fall of Adam. Conviction is ‘a proper sense of the dreadfulness of my sin against God’. Have you ever realized this? All sinners must echo David’s realization in Psalm 51:4 when he said “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” Conviction of sin is vertical, not horizontal.

We must return to the true Biblical gospel and preach that men are sinners by nature and practice (Eph 2:1-2); that their very best endeavours are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that they are utterly helpless to save themselves (Eph 2:8). As a sinner acknowledges that he is condemned, unclean and guilty, he draws near to salvation, for “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart; and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

NEXT: THE BIBLICAL GOSPEL SOUNDS A CLEAR NOTE OF REPENTANCE

With God nothing has any standing except grace.

Grace signifies that favour with which God receives us, forgiving our sins and justifying us freely through Christ.

The best and infallible preparation [for grace] is the eternal election and predestination of God.

As far as our own abilities are concerned, there is no difference whatever between us; but the grace of Christ alone causes us to differ.

On man’s part, nothing precedes grace but rebellion against grace.

No-one can be good and do good unless God’s grace first makes him good.

Grace is freely given to the most undeserving and unworthy, and is not obtained by any strenuous efforts, endeavours or works.

To want to merit grace by works that precede faith is to want to appease God by sins.

Since we are one mass of perdition, no-one is justified except through the grace of Christ without merits.

Either sin is lying on your shoulders, or on Christ, the Lamb of God. According to law and justice, your sins should no doubt remain on you; but grace has cast them upon Christ the Lamb.

Grace and life were given you [believers], but it meant bitter work for Him [Christ].

The Word, I say, and the Word alone, is the conveyor of the grace of God. . . No matter what things appear to be like, grace clings to the Word.

No nobler preaching exists than that of grace.

Grace freely grants us the faith that alone justifies us.

Conscience cannot be brought to rest and joy unless it has peace through this grace; i.e. the forgiveness of sins promised in Christ.

Man must completely despair of himself in order to become fit for the grace of Christ. The proper preparation for the grace and goodness of Christ is the awareness that I need them.

The devil is forever attracting people to good works to make sure that they do not reach the point of thinking that they need the grace and mercy of Christ.
The law is not to be discarded because of the promise of grace. Rather it is to be taught.

In giving us gifts, God gives only what is His; but in His grace, He gives His very self. . . Grace is not divisible nor is it given piecemeal, as are gifts; but it takes us entirely into God’s favour for the sake of Christ, our Advocate and Mediator.

This grace of God is a very great, strong, mighty and active thing. It does not lie asleep in the soul. Grace hears, leads, drives, draws, changes, works all in man, and lets itself be distinctly felt and experienced. It is hidden, but its works are evident.

Christ our Lord, to whom we must flee, and of whom we must ask all, is an inexhaustible well of all grace. Even if the whole world were to draw from this fountain enough grace and truth to transform all people into angels, still it would not lose as much as a drop. This fountain constantly overflows with sheer grace. Whoever wishes to enjoy Christ’s grace – and no-one is excluded – let him come and receive it from Him.

I am seeking and thirsting for nothing else than a gracious God.

Gathered by John Brentnall in Peace and Truth 2008:1.

Imagine for a moment you have been called to, and are engaged in prison ministry. While you participate in small group Bible studies and at times assist a prison Chaplain with church services, you have a special calling to share the Gospel with inmates on Death Row.  A few of those to whom you minister are still working appeals, but others have run out of appeals and are only waiting for the day they will be taken to a room where they will die at the hands of the State and meet their maker.

There’s a story about Charles Wesley and a friend of his who, a scant few months after being saved, actually asked to spend the night with death row inmates in England who were all scheduled to die on the gallows the next day. As the story goes, every one of them went to their deaths at peace with their Creator, having received Christ as Savior sometime during that long night. What a testimony to the power and glory of God!

I’ve been to minimum, medium and maximum security facilities with ministry teams, but I never spoke to anyone on Death Row.  What would I say? Where would I start? I certainly wouldn’t tell them ‘God has a wonderful plan for them’,  how to experience ‘their best life now’, or help them discover their personal S.H.A.P.E. for their ‘unique Purpose in life’.  Somehow I don’t those evangelizing tools would be very effective.  What tool could I use?

Well there’s the simple message the Apostle Paul used, that Jesus died for their sin and was resurrected so that those who believe in Him might also have eternal life.  You know, that really seems to be the only appropriate message for someone on Death Row. Yeah, that’s it. If I ever visit folks in prison again, especially if they are on Death Row, that’s what I’ll use.

. . . .

Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, said:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God..” – John 3:18

Whoever does not believe in Christ has already been condemned? If that means what it says, every time I speak with someone who doesn’t believe in Christ, whether or not that person has had an opportunity accept or reject Him, I am speaking with someone already condemned by the sin of ‘unbelief’ – someone living on Death Row! 

Evangelist and preacher, Paul Washer often begins a sermon with:

“I’ll preach as a dying man to dying men. . .”

If  I consider myself an evangelical Christian, concerned for lost souls, I guess I had better get the Gospel right – share the ‘only appropriate message’, and proclaim it “as a dying man to dying men”, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we all?

This an excerpt from an article by John MacArtur in Pulpit Magazine.

“Many of today’s church leaders have bought into the subtlety of pragmatism without recognizing the dangers it poses. Instead of attacking orthodoxy head on, evangelical pragmatism gives lip service to the truth while quietly undermining the foundations of doctrine. Instead of exalting God, it effectively denigrates the things that are precious to Him.

First, there is in vogue today a trend to make the basis of faith something other than God’s Word. Experience, emotion, fashion, and popular opinion are often more authoritative than the Bible in determining what many Christians believe. From private, individual revelation to the blending of secular psychology with biblical “principles,” Christians are listening to the voice of the serpent that once told Eve, “God’s Word doesn’t have all the answers.” Christian counseling reflects that drift, frequently offering no more than experimental and unscriptural self-help therapy instead of solid answers from the Bible.

Christian missionary work is often riddled with pragmatism and compromise, because too many in missions have evidently concluded that what gets results is more important than what God says. That’s true among local churches as well. It has become fashionable to forgo the proclamation and teaching of God’s Word in worship services. Instead, churches serve up a paltry diet of drama, music, and other forms of entertainment.

Second, evangelical pragmatism tends to move the focus of faith away from God’s Son. You’ve seen that repeatedly if you watch much religious television. The health-wealth-and-prosperity gospel advocated by so many televangelists is the ultimate example of this kind of fantasy faith. This false gospel appeals unabashedly to the flesh, corrupting all the promises of Scripture and encouraging greed. It makes material blessing, not Jesus Christ, the object of the Christian’s desires.

Easy-believism handles the message differently, but the effect is the same. It is the promise of forgiveness minus the gospel’s hard demands, the perfect message for pragmatists. It has done much to popularize “believing” but little to provoke sincere faith.

Christ is no longer the focus of the message. While His name is mentioned from time to time, the real focus is inward, not upward. People are urged to look within; to try to understand themselves; to come to grips with their problems, their hurts, their disappointments; to have their needs met, their desires granted, their wants fulfilled. Nearly all the popular versions of the message encourage and legitimize a self-centered perspective.

Third, today’s Christianity is infected with a tendency to view the result of faith as something less than God’s standard of holy living. By downplaying the importance of holy living–both by precept and by example–the biblical doctrine of conversion is undermined. Think about it: What more could Satan do to try to destroy the church than undermining God’s Word, shifting the focus off Christ, and minimizing holy living?

All those things are happening slowly, steadily within the church right now. Tragically, most Christians seem oblivious to the problems, satisfied with a Christianity that is fashionable and highly visible. But the true church must not ignore those threats. If we fight to maintain doctrinal purity with an emphasis on biblical preaching and biblical ministry, we can conquer external attacks. But if error is allowed into the church, many more churches will slide down the grade to suffer the same fate as the denominations that listened to, yet ignored, Spurgeon’s impassioned appeal.”

Read the entire article here, including a brief history of how this sad state of affairs came about. Pragmatism has contributed greatly to the church being transition between Biblical Christianity and the New Spirituality described here.

Through the years I’ve seen, and engaged in. both extremes of evangelistic endeavor. One extreme is beating people over the head with the judgment and wrath of God. The other extreme is focusing mainly on God’s love, improperly defining sin and never getting to judgment and wrath. Both are WRONG! They both assume that the primary goal of the salvation of men is making it to heaven, and both of them, to a degree, are man-centered. One has the ‘candidate for salvation’ escaping certain Hell and making it, while the other has him/her enthusiastically jumping to the lap of a cuddly grandfather. The former fails to express God’s great love in salvation and the latter overemphasizes it and offers a mere caricature of God.

The fact of the matter is that the salvation of anyone is first to demonstrate the riches of God’s grace, according to His pleasure, and for His glory!

Therefore, the best starting point for anyone who desires to share the true gospel of Christ is a proper knowledge of His Father. Listen to the beginning of the high priestly prayer Christ offered to His Father just before he went obediently to His death:

“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”- John 17:1-3

It is only when we know the Father, both His goodness and severity (Romans 11:22) that we can truly behold the Son.

Have a blessed day. – B4B

This is from a longer sermon by Ray Stedman, based primarily on Romans, Chapter 9:

The simple truth is that if God did not move upon man’s will to make us believe, not one man in all of time would ever be saved. Jesus said, “No man can come unto me except my Father draw him, and all that my Father had given me shall come unto me,” {cf, John 6:44, 65}. That is the same thought, the same teaching.

“Well,” someone says, “you are teaching that God elects some to be saved and others to be damned.” No, not so. All are lost already, and God is not responsible for that. God never elected man to be damned, that was man’s own choice. The only time that man ever exercised his own free will was when Adam chose to accept the principle that the Devil set before him and to act independently of God. The moment that man made that choice he plunged himself — and the entire race of men following — into the natural results of that decision.

If I had sitting before me here this morning a glass of poison that I knew would kill me, I would have the choice of whether to drink it or not. But once I drank it I no longer would have any exercise of free will — I must reap the results — and this is the condition that God says the human race is in. Having drunk of the dregs of independence from God, at the instigation of Satan, man is plunged into the darkness and the depths of fallen humanity, and it is only God’s saving, electing grace that calls any out at all. It is not God’s hardening that deprives a soul of salvation; that merely leaves him in the state that he is already in. But if God did not move in mercy, we would all be like Sodom and Gomorah — blasted, corrupted, ruined, and burned.

Think about that for awhile when you think over this matter of God’s electing grace.

You see, if we find fault with God for saving some but not all, we are really asserting that men have a right to be saved, that they deserved to have mercy shown them. But the truth is that we deserve nothing but hell — all of us! As long as we demand that God consult us about our salvation, we slam the door to discovering his grace. But if we are willing to let God be God, and be sovereign in the exercise of his will, then we begin to see what it costs God to save men — not only the darkness and the anguish and the loneliness of the cross, but, as Paul points out, even today God is long-suffering in his patient dealing with evil men. God is putting up with all the foulness and hatred and enmity of man.

Listen to a conversation around you sometime, listen to people talk about God, listen to the way they take his name and cast it into the dirt and walk over it — the very one in whose hand is their very breath, listen to the way they speak in arrogant independence of him, and act as though they have the right to do whatever they want to with the very body he created, and died to redeem, listen to that, and then think of how many centuries God has been waiting patiently with that attitude! God could stop evil any time he chose. With but a flick of his finger he could wipe out the whole human race, but he doesn’t do it. And why doesn’t he? Because, as Paul says here, he desires

… to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, {Rom 9:22b-23 RSV}

Those verses suggest that, in order that some might be saved, there must be some who are lost. I don’t understand this. I don’t think anyone does. But I leave this with the sovereign choice of God who is willing to put up with all that man throws at him, century after century, in patient endurance, in order that he might bring to fulfillment the desires of his heart in the salvation of some.

Now, you will notice that it doesn’t say that God made men fitted for destruction. No, he didn’t. Adam did that, and men have helped him along ever since. But wherever man feels a hunger for God, wherever he finds faith in his heart to believe the record of the Scripture concerning Jesus Christ, wherever man grows weary of his selfishness and of evil, there is where the wind of the Spirit of God is blowing, wooing and fitting the man or woman, little by little, “to be a vessel of mercy prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called.”

This is NOT about John Calvin or Jacobus Arminius. It is about the teaching of scripture concerning the state of the ‘natural’ man and the sovereignty of the God of all mercy. Until I read scripture for myself, I also defended the “free will” of man as adamantly as many do today. After considerable study concerning the nature of man in his fallen state, both inside and outside of Holy inspired scripture, I can only conclude, at this point of my life, that the overwhelming preponderance of scripture supports the plain teachings of Calvin (not the man-invented ‘hyper’ variety) concerning the total sovereignty of God and the total depravity of the natural man. While my ‘natural’ man loathes (vehemently!) certain biblical truths that Calvin taught, my regenerate man embraces them with the same fervor.

My heart grieves for those who have been ‘abused’ by those who claim to be Calvinists and have taken his biblical teaching to extremes Calvin himself never intended.

The entire sermon transcript can be found here.