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God Desires All to Be Saved (Part 7) · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: At the end of last time, I posed the question,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is it a problem with what we've been saying, namely
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  Speaker 1: that God's providence, his governing and ordering of all things
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: so as to bring people effectively out of darkness into
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  Speaker 1: God's marvelous light and save sinners in a providential, powerful,
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  Speaker 1: omnipotent way, is that inconsistent with the statement in 1
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Timothy 2, 4, that God desires all to be saved.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So let me read that text, 1 Timothy 2, 1
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  Speaker 1: to 4. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
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  Speaker 1: and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and
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  Speaker 1: all who are in high positions, that we may lead
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  Speaker 1: a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
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  Speaker 1: This is good and is pleasing in the sight of
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  Speaker 1: God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved
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  Speaker 1: and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now,
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  Speaker 1: does that conflict with God's omnipotent, providential, effective bringing some
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  Speaker 1: people and not all people out of bondage and blindness
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  Speaker 1: and death into salvation through Jesus Christ. If he only
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  Speaker 1: does that for some, can this still be true? That's
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  Speaker 1: the question. Is there a conflict or are they somehow coherent?
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  Speaker 1: And I don't want to deal with this in generalities.
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  Speaker 1: I want to bring two texts right together. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason I bring these together is because they're both right
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  Speaker 1: there in 1 and 2 Timothy. They have the very
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  Speaker 1: same kind of language. You can hardly imagine that Paul
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  Speaker 1: is not thinking of one text when he writes the
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  Speaker 1: other text because of how similar the language is. So
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  Speaker 1: let me read again what we read in the last session,
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  Speaker 1: namely 2 Timothy 2, 24 to 26. Listen for the
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  Speaker 1: similarity of language to first Timothy two, four, the Lord's
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  Speaker 1: bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but he must be
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  Speaker 1: kind to all able to teach patient when wronged with gentleness,
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  Speaker 1: correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps here comes,
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  Speaker 1: God may grant them, maybe God will grant them, teach
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  Speaker 1: and love in a certain way that through you, God
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  Speaker 1: may grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.
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  Speaker 1: And thus, they may come to their senses and escape
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  Speaker 1: from the snare of the devil who has held them captive.
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  Speaker 1: Now let me put the two verses right next to
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  Speaker 1: each other so that you can hear the similarity. Here's
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  Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 2.4. God desires all people to be saved
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  Speaker 1: and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Here's
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  Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 2.25. God may grant them repentance leading to
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  Speaker 1: a knowledge of the truth. So in both verses, 1
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  Speaker 1: Timothy 2.4, 2 Timothy 2.25, the goal is I want
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  Speaker 1: them to be saved and come to a knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the truth. God may grant them repentance unto a knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the truth. Can those fit together? Well, of course
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  Speaker 1: they can fit together. How do they fit together? Most
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  Speaker 1: Bible believing Christians agree that the solution is not that
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  Speaker 1: everybody is saved. That would be universalism or universal salvation
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  Speaker 1: and it would discount the reality of hell and all
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus talked about it. So that's not the solution.
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  Speaker 1: So there must be something else when it says God
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  Speaker 1: desires all people to be saved and yet all people
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  Speaker 1: are not saved. Almost everyone agrees that that between the
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  Speaker 1: desire that all be saved and the fact that all
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  Speaker 1: are not saved, something is happening. Some conviction or some
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  Speaker 1: commitment of God is happening that keeps him from doing this,
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  Speaker 1: keeps him from saving everybody. And there are two different
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  Speaker 1: answers to that question. And the question is, which of
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  Speaker 1: these two answers is biblical? Not philosophically acceptable to Americans,
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  Speaker 1: but biblical. The answer that I don't think is right
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  Speaker 1: says God is committed to giving man ultimate self-determination, free will,
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  Speaker 1: ultimate self-determination in the moment of conversion. So that at
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  Speaker 1: that moment, God having done everything he can do, at
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  Speaker 1: that moment of conversion, the decisive power of whether a
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  Speaker 1: person goes into faith or into hell lies with the person,
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  Speaker 1: not with God. That's the reason he doesn't save everybody
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  Speaker 1: because he intends, he values giving man that kind of
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  Speaker 1: self-determining freedom more than he values the salvation of everybody.
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  Speaker 1: That's a free will kind of solution. The other solution
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  Speaker 1: is to say, no, We don't find that kind of
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  Speaker 1: self-determination taught in the Bible anywhere. I don't. I find
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: verses by the dozen that go against that. What keeps
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  Speaker 1: God from going from desiring all people to be saved,
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  Speaker 1: which is true, to not saving all but giving repentance
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  Speaker 1: to some is God's commitment to manifest the fullness of
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  Speaker 1: his justice, and mercy and wisdom and the whole panorama
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  Speaker 1: of all of his perfections, which in his wisdom he
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  Speaker 1: believes will be more fully manifest for the enjoyment of
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  Speaker 1: his people forever if he does it this way, namely
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  Speaker 1: gives salvation to some and not to all. That's what
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  Speaker 1: stands between him. Those are two different solutions to why
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  Speaker 1: all are not saved. The question is not which is
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  Speaker 1: philosophically comfortable. The question is which is biblical. I think
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  Speaker 1: the second one is what we've seen over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: We will keep seeing it. Let me close with this exhortation.
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  Speaker 1: There are three things to keep in mind when you
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  Speaker 1: face this issue, namely that God grants repentance. Second Timothy 2.25,
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  Speaker 1: God grants repentance and not to everyone. Three things. One,
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  Speaker 1: none of us deserves the gift of repentance. God owes
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  Speaker 1: us Nothing. We are treasonous. We are rebellious. We are hard-hearted.
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  Speaker 1: We belittle God every day by preferring other things to Him.
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  Speaker 1: We don't deserve anything but judgment. That's number one. Number two,
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  Speaker 1: it is sheer grace that anybody is saved. that God
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  Speaker 1: would be pleased to not just throw the whole creation
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  Speaker 1: away and start over with a new humanity. Instead, he
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  Speaker 1: sends his son, bears our guilt, saves millions and millions
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  Speaker 1: of people. If any of us is saved, it is
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  Speaker 1: owing to pure, sheer, glorious grace. And the third thing
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  Speaker 1: to keep in mind is this. It is not double talk.
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  Speaker 1: to say that God desires all people to be saved
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  Speaker 1: and he doesn't save all though he can. That's not
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  Speaker 1: double talk. We know it's not double talk because the
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  Speaker 1: Bible talks like this over and over again about God's
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  Speaker 1: commanding and desiring and what he actually does. For example,
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  Speaker 1: God commands us not to murder, right? He desires us
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  Speaker 1: not to murder. He commands it. Thou shalt not murder
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  Speaker 1: in Exodus 20. And God willed and ordained, planned and
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  Speaker 1: brought about the murder of his son. And there would
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  Speaker 1: have been no salvation without the preordained murder of his son.
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  Speaker 1: If Jesus had stumbled and fallen over a cliff and died,
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  Speaker 1: we couldn't be saved. God had scripted this execution of
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  Speaker 1: his son to bear our sins in a certain way.
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  Speaker 1: It is not inconsistent. It is not double talk. It
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  Speaker 1: is not divine schizophrenia. It is what the Bible teaches
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  Speaker 1: about the way God works. And if we are tempted
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  Speaker 1: to criticize God for his way of saving sinners instead
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  Speaker 1: of praising him, For salvation, I think we should put
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  Speaker 1: our hands on our mouths and pray for more light.