Election. It's baseless with them. It's just, it's, you know, he's like the guy behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. You can't look back there. He's sovereign.
No, we can't. That's what the revelation of the Bible gives us. It says, this is the character of your God. This is Baal. This is Asherth.
This is God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this is his heart. This is what he does. He loves sinners, he wears a crown of thorns for us. There's no secret compartment to this. Faith has become works with them.
Okay. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
And now here's Pastor Rick with part two of his message called Predestination. Judging others. One writer, Lawrence Vance, writing against. Calvinism said the basic era of Calvinism is confounding election and predestination with salvation. which they never are in the Bible.
But only in philosophical speculations and theological implications of Calvinism. As some of you say, now what is that last part, philosophical speculations, theological implications? When they come to a verse that they want to prop up the doctrine. They form a hypothesis And without basis, they make it law. And they've done it with the word predestination.
We'll come to another one. The big one is when they change the word world to mean the elect. How do you do that? You can go by their study Bibles of the Calvinists. You can go turn to John 3:16, and you can see when they say, This is the elect.
They don't mean Israel, the elect. They don't mean the elect lady that John talks about in his letters. They're talking about those who have been elected. Through sovereign, irresistible. Grace.
If it's irresistible, it's not grace, it's forced. Grace doesn't work that way. Grace is undeserved kindness, but it's not slammed over anyone's head.
So it makes bad doctrine worse because it is popular make-believe teaching. Its definition tampering. And Calvinism cannot function without changing. Three basic definitions. Predestination is one.
They've changed it to pre-cause. One doesn't mean that.
Sovereignty. God is sovereign. You can't ask. He just does it, and that's that. That's tyranny.
In fact, some of them will say, if you believe, that you can be saved. By accepting God's invitation. You believe in salvation by works. And not the sovereignty of God. That's how they twist this.
It's like, are you crazy? I believe in the sovereignty of God, and in His sovereignty He has allowed me to choose. Toza is gonna I'm gonna get to a good quote of him on that one, but coming back to the words they They tamper with Election, it's baseless with them. It's just, it's, you know, he's like the guy behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. You can't look back there.
He's sovereign. No, we can. That's what the revelation of the Bible gives us. It says: this is the character of your God. This is Baal.
This is Ashtareth. This is God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this is his heart. This is what he does. He loves sinners, he wears a crown of thorns for us. There's no secret compartment to this.
Faith has become works with them.
As I mentioned, the word world has been changed by them arbitrarily. without basis. to apply only to those who God Predestined.
So, that corruption alone is sufficient to expunge their credibility. If you take the word world and you change it to the elect, I don't need a second example. You have just ruined your credibility with me. What other verses do you like to overturn to prop up your doctrine? I'm talking about their heroes like John MacArthur doing this kind of stuff.
The over-exaggeration of the word depravity. We're depraved, we're born sinners, we are born in iniquity, but nowhere in the Bible does it say. That we are so depraved. that we've lost the ability to reason when something is offered to us. We still have free will.
Nowhere does it say we've lost this. But In their tulip, the five points of Calvinism, and the acronym tulip, T stands for total depravity. You can't even say yes if you're offered salvation because you're too depraved. Where do you get that from?
Well, it helps our doctrine stand. These are intelligent. Articulate People. That are pushing this doctrine forward. And you scratch your head and say, well, it's like Trump derangement syndrome.
They make up words. They have to label you if you don't agree with them.
So if you Here's a word they just make up. Compatibilities compatibilism. Yeah, right. Who even cares how to pronounce it? teaching that God's sovereign election Enables the human will to respond in faith, but only through divine grace.
That is saying Oh yeah, God allows free will. to the one he is chosen to save. S Double Speak. That's double talk.
So it's not free will. He's forcing me to have free will so I can choose. But he's bypassing the other guy because he's not elected. And I'm supposed to be comfortable with this approach to the scripture. And it gets worse.
But if you believe... That God's sovereign election enables the human will. And to respond or not. That's Compatibilism. The Intellectual Department of Protestantism controls this doctrine.
And they have Locked God into the age of the Reformation, and they will go no further. And they're very proud of it, and that's why they call themselves Reformed Theologians or Reformed Theology. Trying to distance themselves a little bit from having, you know, being called Calvinists, because if you say to them, well, why would you name your doctrine after a human being? And you you really can't answer that.
Well, it can, but it's a weak answer.
So they suppose their redefinition of predestination cancels free will, as I've said a few times, insisting that it's not a misdefinition and you can be the judge. You get your concordance, you type in, you can Google it. The Greek word for predestination in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 5. and it will give it to you. And you'll find it does not mean precaused.
John chapter seven Verse 17, Jesus said, If anyone wills to do his will, It would be meaningless if you didn't have free will to say that. If anyone wills to do his will, if God, his major will, willful enough to do his will.
Well, then he would have said that. Is such an important topic. You don't, a child can understand this. And you parents know you share your gospel with a child. If you want to receive Christ, sweetheart, you just have to invite him into your heart, and the child gets it.
Then the Calvinists come along. And then they tell, no, no, no. Don't you believe that? John chapter 6, verse 28. Does it sound like Been very clear.
I don't like this doctrine. I don't think it brings anything to Christianity. I think many God-loving Christians have fallen for this. But I respect none of it as doctrines go. I can respect them on the Trinity, I can respect them on.
The veracity of God's word inspire of God's word being inspired, but when it comes to how God saves souls, I do not. Meet them halfway. My pastor would say, Just abide with Christ. That's all you gotta do. You don't have to answer this, just abide with Christ.
Well, I see Pastor Chuck with respect, and I think we should slam him. I think we should hold their feet to the fire. I think we should expose that just because they are intellectually Endowed does not mean they are infallible. It was the intellectuals that killed our boys in Vietnam. It was the intellectuals that looked at Tet offensive and said, we lost.
Only to realize later we won. My point is, intellectuals are often wrong. But they're so invested. And what they have to say. They're not going to back down.
Well, let's come back to this. John 6, 28. Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. They ask the question.
He answers the question. And he says, if you want to call faith works, go ahead. I'm going to accept that. Not as works, but as faith. And I point it out because the Calvinists will say, The predestination people will say You can't do that.
It's works. You're undermining the sovereignty of God. If you think you've got to say so in your salvation, you're undermining His sovereignty.
So that's that's so far-fetched. I will I will have to ask you to leave my presence or I'm gonna call the cops. It's so crazy. What are you going to do next? Jesus justified faith as an acceptable work before God.
And who are you to come along and tell me That if he makes so God is schizophrenic, I'm going to invite them. But I've already arrested them. They can't do anything about it. They are so bold, they call it irresistible grace.
Well, if I come to your house and say, Look, I'm going to lay some irresistible stuff on you. Yeah. I'm going to take your furniture. I'm going to eat all of all your food. It's irresistible grace.
Don't worry about it. You have no say-so in this. Revelation twenty two seventeen And the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him who has Who hears, say, come, and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Is it not insulting to say that doesn't mean that?
It means what I'm going to tell you it means. You ask the question. The difference between predestination and free will. And there really is no difference. They're two different things.
Once again, predestination is not pre-cause overruling your free will. It is a separate event completely. But the reformed theology has shoved them together. And you're not allowed. to make the distinction.
You have to accept it because these people are. Look, if I had a spelling test with some of their authors or an algebra exam, they might win there. But I could probably beat them in bowling. Or something. It's just they're human, my point.
You don't have to be a respecter of men. If your pastors, say you went to another church. And that pastor was wrong. He's wrong. That never happened here.
That's what we have to go outside of here to make that point. Mark Matthew 16, 24. It's not funny. We're talking about Calvinism. There's nothing funny.
Stay focused. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, What are you talking about, Jesus? Desires. There's no desire with you. It's whatever you say.
If you say we're saved, who cares what we desire? If anyone desired to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. You say, well, how do you go to their commentaries? How do they explain this?
Well, I just told you how they explained it. They say, yeah, there's free will. If God gives you the free will, then it's not free will. We're robots. Spurgeon Who preached, I don't know, 1854, 1892, I think.
Almost forty years in London, the Prince of Preachers Over 3,500 of his sermons are still available. I have them.
Now we have actually in our hallway In officer country, where the pastor's officers are. We have a plaque. With the stenographer's notes on one of Spurgeon's sermons with his handwritten Redactions. And you can look at it there for $15 each. We figure if you look at it enough times, we can get the building built.
Anyway, it is there, no charge, of course. My point, Spurgeon was such a powerful preacher. Thousands of people would get saved. And he was charged with conduct unbecoming of a Calvinist. By the Calvinists.
Because Spurgeon said, I am a devout Calvinist. I believe in all tenets of Calvinism. But they didn't like that he preached like he was in a Calvinism, and they didn't like that he was friends with D.L. Moody. Who didn't care for Calvinism?
And these two men were saving souls in the United States and London at such a rate, we couldn't keep up with them. You still can't count them to this day. Who are these? Naysayers, remember, Those Who are doing less than you are the most likely to criticize you for what you're doing more than them. It's not the ones that are getting things done.
They know the drill. It's the ones who are doing nothing. That are quick to criticize, and that's what they did with Spurgeon. This is one of the things he says. God he's speaking of God, Smurgeon.
He never uses force. He conquers only by love. The Holy Spirit works upon the will of man. But he leaves it still a will. He leaves your will.
He doesn't force it, come down. And he's supposed to be a big-time Calvinist. A.W. Tozier speaking about the sovereignty of God. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon his creatures.
He would be afraid to do so. Tozier is saying it takes a truly sovereign, almighty God. to allow The inmates The freedom to choose. Anyone less than him would lose control of creation. Only our God can pull that off.
He has allowed this system of choice and election based on his son. And when Paul starts off here in Corinthians, he says, just as he chose us in Christ, He says in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the spirituals. In Christ. And so Hebrews chapter 2. Notice the pronouns refer to the believers.
How shall we Escape if we neglect so great a salvation. Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us. By those who heard him. How will we escape if we neglect?
Well, neglect is on me. If I don't get to work because the only bridge into the town collapses, then that's not negligence. But if I don't shovel the ice off my sidewalk, And I've had ample time to do it because I just didn't feel like it. And if someone walks and slips and breaks an elbow, in the old days, that was negligence, and you would be sued.
Now you probably get an award if you're in a Blue City So Neglect has something to do with the individual choosing. If I were predestined, it wouldn't matter. All of this stuff about neglect and free will wouldn't matter. I'm already pre-death, I'm in the club. What do I gotta worry about?
Hebrews 12, 25. See that you do not But again, the Pronouns. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. Oh, wait a minute, I can refuse him?
Well, you know, the the great Apostle Paul, who I believe wrote Hebrews. Is saying we can refuse God out of free will. The Calvinists say, no, no, you got that all wrong. For if they did not escape who refused him. who spoke on earth, how much shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven?
These three topics on Calvinism, Reformed theology, and predestination, I would rather not. speak on. as a personal preference. But as a pastor I am obligated The Lord led me to put the question boxes out there. The Lord led me to answer each question.
This one incidentally had a smiley face on it. I said last week's rapture one had a smiley face. It didn't. It had high. but this one had a smiley face, and that was kind of nice.
Kinda breaks the tension a little bit. Anyway. For human choice, For human choice. According to Hebrews 12, 25 and Hebrews 2:3. It's not invalid.
Jesus said, I would. But you were not willing. That would be kind of weird if they couldn't, anyway, because he didn't give them the ability to do will.
So you see, can you see how crazy this doctrine is? And then you say, well, wait, but these people that push this doctrine are such respectful people, they're so knowledgeable.
Well, the king has no clothes. You know, I don't want to take too much of my time, but he can give the king a suit. that it is invisible Two the ignorant people, but the really smart people will see the suit. And it was all a s it's it was a lie. And so the king is walking around naked in public.
And the rich people are acting like, boy, he just looks wonderful in that thing, because they don't want to be perceived as being dumb. It's such a funny little. Is that that's not an aphorism? Anyway. So some of that goes human humans can be guilty of this.
So this doctrine of Predestination as pre-choice is actually fatalism, and it's not in the Bible.
So, to answer your question once more, the difference between predestination and free will is not the valid question. The question is, how did predestined turn into pre-choice? How did predestined turn into something that wipes away all the invitations and the free will of people in the Scriptures, the desires that come if you thirst? How did that one word Turn it all upside down. And it is.
Or speak to almost any Christian, and they'll say, Well, you know, I don't really understand that one. Just look it up in the Greek. You'll find it doesn't mean what they say it means. Anyway. We come now to the second part of the question.
Why do so many get it wrong? As I mentioned, free will derangement syndrome. You would have mocked that 10 years ago, what? But now that you're seeing it, actually, it's something that can happen. A whole country can go crazy: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, there have been others.
I think part of their appeal is The Accreditation that goes with it. All of the people that really push this forward are formally educated people.
Well, there's nothing wrong with being formally educated. In fact, it's critical I want the guy who designed the bridge that I drive over to have been formally educated to benefit from the resources of the engineering school or the university's resources. In fact, if you're an engineering student, you're not out rioting. You're so busy working to get the grades to pass, you don't have time for that stuff. That's genuine science at work, especially civil engineering, which would design the bridge.
Well, anyway. It's an entrenched sacred cow now, as are other things in other fields, clinical. Not developmental necessarily, but clinical psychology is a sacred cow. You can't touch it. It says, where's science when it's not?
Evolution. Evolution says we're science when it's more a religion than a science. You've heard me say all these things before. But wait until the Calvinists hears me on YouTube. Then you're going to say, you know, it was worth sitting through that again.
All right, I've got to remember it's Wednesday nights. Wednesday nights, things don't fly too well up from up here. Anyway, coming back to this. This doctrine requires people have a little bit more in education, like low, middle class and up. You won't see them preaching total depravity, limited atonement, irresistible grace in the slums of the world.
in the hood And the barrios. They won't take it there. And it has to be taught. As I mentioned, a little child will come to Christ just at the simple gospel. But they will not say, wait, mommy.
That's Total depravity you're talking about. Is that irresistible grace? If I understand you correctly, he's going to get that. The child's not going to say, Is God forcing me into heaven? They're going to receive it.
And they pride themselves in not being emotional thinkers, but that is precisely what I think they are. The question now is: why do they do it? I'm giving you my opinion. Because the facts do not support their conclusions. And we just took predestination.
We didn't touch, or we did a little bit of the depravity. But the limited atonement, we'll get to the irresistible grace. Perseverance of the saints sounds so glorious, but what they mean by we don't know if you're saved till you drop dead preaching Christ. It's like, man, where did you come up with this stuff? We're almost done.
Thomas Sowell, If you don't know who he is, he is worth listening to. And he has many of his books on audio for free. He said, when you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. That's Calvinism to me.
People want to hear that. This is for the really intellectual ones that can really understand what's going on. And it appeals to a lot of people. Not all of them.
Some of them have just been exposed to this from their childhood. That's all they know. They're never going to give it up. I've never seen a converted Calvinist. There may be one out there.
The doctrine, as I mentioned, if you dare challenge it. you're gonna run into a firestorm. In fact Their doctrine to make it s do it this way. John MacArthur was asked if you could have been with Jesus in the days of the Apostles. What questions would you ask?
And one of his answers was this I would ask him to clarify the difference between.
sovereignty and volition. Volition is the act. of using your free will.
So he still doesn't understand. I could have answered that question for him. Abandon Calvinism, and you'll understand free will and sovereignty at the same time. Uh Thanks for tuning in today to Cross-Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked. We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today.
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