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. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Think for a moment about the gospel of Jesus Christ, about what it accomplishes. Obviously it rescues sinners from judgment for their sins, and for the penalty for their sins, from eternal torment in hell. But is there something else it accomplishes, even something greater than saving sinners from God's wrath? Consider that with John MacArthur today as he continues his study on a subject that's challenging for a lot of people. The title of this study, The Doctrines of Grace.
And with that lesson now, here's John. I understand that this is not a small controversy. When you talk about the doctrine of election, there are many people who feel, as I noted in our original message, that this is a dangerous doctrine, that this turns God into a monster, that this is a almost blasphemous that this is a a kind of heresy. And yet no matter how much Human Reason Human preference might rage against this doctrine. It is inescapably taught in Scripture.
And 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. I understand. what the Bible says about these matters of salvation.
And I understand. That the Bible says In 1 Timothy 2, 4, that God desires all men to be saved. and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I also know that the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish. But that all should come to repentance.
And I know that the Bible says we are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature. And I know that 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.
And Jesus posed the question: why will you die? You will not come to me, he said. that you might have life. And I know that 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. I know that God wept over a recalcitrant, rebellious, and unbelieving Israel.
And he wept through the eyes of Jeremiah. It's recorded in Jeremiah chapter 13. I also know that the Bible indicts all people as sinners. and all sinners as personally guilty. Of violating God's holy law and deserving of divine wrath and eternal punishment.
And I know that the Bible indicates that all sinners have enough revelation to be responsible for their sin. Through creation in Romans 1 and through conscience in Romans 2, the sinner is given light, which followed. leads To the truth. If they fail to follow it, They will perish under God's wrath.
Now, I understand all of that, and so do you, and that is all in the scripture. But at the very same time. Without any contradiction, only an 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. The natural man understandeth not the things of God.
They are incomprehensible to him. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to him. No sinner on his own is capable of repenting. In fact, as Acts 11:18 says, the only way a sinner could ever repent is if God grants him repentance. And even believing.
is beyond the capability of Human beings. John 1 says, As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. But of God. Believing does not come. By the will of men.
or the will of the flesh. The Bible then says that people are incapable of understanding the truth, the gospel truth. They are incapable of repenting. They are incapable of believing.
So that the only way any sinner can be redeemed is by the work of God. God has to grant understanding, grant repentance, grant 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. That's why we say salvation is all of God.
It's not just all of grace, it's all of God.
Now, 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're saved.
And we have life. Because God freely chose. to give it to us. Let's start in John 6. Verse 64, Jesus says, Now there are some of you.
who do not Believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were. Who did not believe? As well as who it was that would betray him, namely Judas. Verse 65, and he was saying, For this reason, I have said to you, that no one can come to me.
Unless it has been granted him from the Father. 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.
Why did God choose to rescue sinners from his just judgment? And the answer really is. Staggering. To understand why God did this, I want to help you work through some very, very powerful texts of Scripture. Let's start in Titus chapter One.
Titus chapter 1. And I want you to get the really big picture of this glorious doctrine. of election. In the beginning of Titus, Paul introduces himself. And he introduces himself in ways which are.
essential to his Calling He is a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the large sense, he serves God. In the more specific sense, he serves God as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Now, in discharging his service to God and his apostleship on behalf of Jesus Christ. There are a number of elements. in his ministry. First of all, He says, for the faith of those Chosen by God, or as some translations put it, for the faith of the elect of God.
So the first thing that Paul says is, God has called me into his service. And by the way, Paul's conversion and call. Is a picture of the conversion of every sinner. He is on the way to Damascus. His heart is filled with hatred for Christ.
He's headed to persecute more believers. He's stopped in his tracts and sovereignly saved. My God. He then becomes a servant of God and an apostle of Christ, and his first task is for the faith of the elect. That is to say, it is to bring the gospel.
To the electronic.
so that they can hear it and believe.
Now, since Paul doesn't know who the elect are, since there is no way to identify them, since the decree of God 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 evangelism is, and this was the first aspect of Paul's ministry. It's the ministry of evangelism. You bring the gospel so the elect can hear it and believe.
And then there's the second aspect to his ministry. It starts out with evangelism and moves toward edification. He says not only is he Called by God to represent Jesus Christ in bringing the truth. To the elect, so they can hear it and believe. But to those who believe, he brings the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.
That's the second aspect. Once people have believed, they need to be taught the truth so they can grow in Christ-likeness.
So you could say the first aspect of his ministry was salvation, the second is sanctification. He says, I preach the gospel so that the 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. There's a third aspect of ministry, and it's true for him and for all of us. Verse 2, in the hope of eternal life.
The third aspect is that element of encouragement and consolation and hope that looks at future glory.
So, summing it up, he says, 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. And then I tell them about the eternal life to come so that they can live in hope. And hope becomes their great comfort.
So there is in his ministry an aspect of salvation, an aspect of sanctification, an aspect of glorification. And we all have that responsibility. I mean, that's what we all do. We bring the gospel, and then those who believe, we instruct that they may grow, and then we fill their minds with the hope of what is to come in the glorious inheritance that awaits us in the future. But verse 2 is where I want you to focus.
Titus 1.2 All of this, he says. All of this, from justification through sanctification to glorification, all of this. comes from God. who cannot lie and who promised it And the NAS says long ages ago. The Greek says, before time began.
Before time began. Before time began, God promised that He would save, and sanctify, and glorify. Believers.
Now the question is before time began To whom did he make this promise? He certainly didn't promise it to any human being because there weren't any. Before time began is before day one of creation. He certainly didn't promise this to angels because there are no. Saved angels.
There are holy angels who never fell, and there are fallen angels who are never redeemed. but are headed for a lake of fire prepared for them. There's never been the salvation of any angel, so he didn't make any promise about. Salvation and sanctification and glorification to angels, and he didn't make it to people because there weren't any people. In fact, it's very likely that when this promise was made, there weren't any angels either.
Because the angels seem to be created it. around the time that everything else was created. Then who in the world is he making a promise to?
Well, it has to be an intra-Trinitarian promise. It has to be God making a promise within the Trinity. And to whom then is he making the promise? Look with me at um Paul's Second letter to Timothy. And let's follow the path of this.
2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. Verse 8 ends with a reference to God, and then verse 9 says, referring to God who saved us. And called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works. But according to his own purpose.
And grace. Which was granted us in Christ Jesus, and here's the exact same Greek phrase. As in Titus. One, two. Before time began.
I don't know why the translators in Titus 1:2 translated it long ages ago, and here the very same phrase they translate from all eternity. What it means is before time began. 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?
Well, verse 9 says, It was granted in Christ Jesus, and I will tell you right there is the key. The father made a promise. to the sun. 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 am going to do it. for you.
I'm going to do it for you. Why would God do that? Because he loves the sun. And The 17th chapter of John, the Son celebrates the mutual love that he has with the Father, and love gives. And 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 uh The ancient world, fathers chose the brides for their sons. It's the way it was done. Nobody chose for themselves.
That was the Father's responsibility. And here you have the divine pattern as God. determines that he will choose a bride. For his son. In John chapter 6.
Verse thirty-seven. This is critical. All that the Father Gives me. Shall come to me. This is where it Has to be understood.
Every saved person. is a gift from the Father to the Son. 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. The whole of redemptive history is about the father pursuing a bride for his son. And 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. In fact, look at verse 44. No one can come to me. Unless the Father who sent me draws him.
You can't come. You can't understand. You can't repent. You can't believe. It's just what we read in the same chapter, verses 64 and 65.
I've said to you, no one can come to me. Unless it's been granted. Him from the 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. And then back to verse 37: 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 and understanding and repentance and faith. And verse 37 says, 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. It isn't that 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.
I mean, I think we understand that in a 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. And he would never reject a gift from his father.
And in verse 39. 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.
Verse 40, 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. Are you beginning to understand? The father chooses a bride, writes the name down. In time, as history unfolds, those whom the Father are. Has chosen are given to the Son.
As they repent and believe, the Son receives them. The sun does not reject them. The sun Never loses any of them, but raises them up at the last day. And it is not based upon value that's inherent in us. We become precious.
Because the Son cherishes the gifts. of his father. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Today, John continued his compelling study on the essence of salvation. It's called the Doctrines of Grace.
Well, it's certainly encouraging to know that once you receive salvation, you are permanently in God's grip. He will not let you go. but maybe you've known people who professed faith in Christ for years and they seemed to have genuine faith, but then they just sort of walked away from the Lord. How does that happen? And should you be worried that you might walk away from Christ some day?
Here's how John answered those important questions.
Well, I think John answers that in 1 John 2.19, where he says, They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out from us that it may be made manifest they were never of us. No, when people profess Christ for a period of time and then walk away and deny Him, they were never true believers. True believers sin, true believers may stray away.
But true believers will never stop believing. They will never turn to denying Christ, denying the gospel, denying the Lord, and living open, sinful, God-denying, Christ-denying lives. Why? Because if they are genuinely converted, they have a new disposition, a new nature. They are new creations, old things have passed away, and all things have become new.
Because they are new creatures in Christ, they manifest the characteristics of new creatures. They're not perfect. but the direction and the affections of their lives reveal that transformation. When you see people who walk away, You just have to know they never knew the Lord.
So, when you're asking the question, how do I know if I'm saved? You will know if you're saved because you'll remain in the faith and you will continue to believe in the Lord. You may be sad, you may be sinful, you may need to repent, you may feel sorry for the things that you have done. You will not deny Christ. You will not stop believing in Him.
You will not stop loving Him, desiring to honor Him, desiring to obey Him, even though it's a struggle. That's the evidence of a true and genuine faith. And if it's the real thing, you will not abandon it. That's right, friend. If God has chosen you for salvation, you will never lose your salvation.
Important stuff to understand and live by. To help you embrace these truths and apply them to your life, I encourage you to go to our website and download the 10 lessons in this study titled The Doctrines of Grace. Get in touch today. All ten downloads are available for free at gty.org. You can get the MP3s or the transcripts or both.
In fact, there are more than 3,600 of John's Sermons and many other Bible study tools available for free at our website. Take advantage of everything that's there for you at gty.org. And just a reminder of the brand new book called The Doctrines of Grace. In it, John helps you understand how God saves sinners like you and me, and it will help you more effectively explain that truth to others. It's a great resource to share with new believers.
The Doctrines of Grace costs twenty dollars and shipping is free. To order, call 855 Grace or go to our website gty.org. Our phone number one more time. 800-55 GRACE. and our website gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day, and be back tomorrow as John MacArthur shows you why the doctrine of election is your steady anchor in a world that's full of uncertainties. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
