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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 pose the question,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is it a problem with what we've been saying, namely,
• 0:08
  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,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: omnipotent way. Is that inconsistent with the statement in First
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Timothy to four that God desires all to be saved?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So let me read that text First Timothy two one
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to four. 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 pleasing in the sight of God,
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  Speaker 1: our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and
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  Speaker 1: to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now does
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  Speaker 1: that conflict with God's omnipotent, providential, effective bringing some people
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  Speaker 1: and not all people, out of bondage and blindness and
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  Speaker 1: death into salvation through Jesus Christ. If he only does
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that for some, can this still be true? That's the question?
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  Speaker 1: Is there a conflict or are they somehow coherent? And
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to deal with this in generalities. I
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  Speaker 1: want to bring two texts right together. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: I bring these together is because they're both right there
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  Speaker 1: in person, Say and Timothy. They have the very same
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: kind of language. You can hardly imagine that Paul is
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  Speaker 1: not thinking of one text when he writes the other
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  Speaker 1: text because of how similar the language is. So let
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  Speaker 1: me read again what we read in the last session,
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  Speaker 1: namely two Timothy two twenty four to twenty six. Listen
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  Speaker 1: for the similarity of language to one Timothy four. The
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  Speaker 1: lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but he must
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  Speaker 1: be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,
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  Speaker 1: with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps
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  Speaker 1: here comes God may grant them. Maybe God will grant
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  Speaker 1: them teach and love in a certain way that through you,
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  Speaker 1: God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the truth, and thus they may become come to their
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  Speaker 1: senses and escape from the snare of the devil who
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: has held them captive. Now let me put the two
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  Speaker 1: verses right next to each other so that you can
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  Speaker 1: hear the similarity. Here's one Timothy two four. God desires
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  Speaker 1: all people to be saved and to come to a
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the truth. Here's two Timothy two twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the truth. So in both verses verse Timothy two four,
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  Speaker 1: two Timothy two twenty five, 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 between the desire
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  Speaker 1: that all be saved and the fact that all are
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  Speaker 1: not saved, something is happening, some conviction or some commitment
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  Speaker 1: 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 questions which of these
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  Speaker 1: two answers is biblical? Not philosophically acceptable to Americans, but biblical.
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  Speaker 1: The answer that I don't think is right says God
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  Speaker 1: 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
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  Speaker 1: at that moment, God, having done everything he can do,
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  Speaker 1: at that moment of conversion, the decisive power of whether
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  Speaker 1: a person goes into faith or into Hell lies with
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  Speaker 1: the person, not with God. That's the reason he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: save everybody, because he intends he values giving man that
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  Speaker 1: kind of self determining freedom more than he values the
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  Speaker 1: salvation of everybody. That's a free will kind of solution.
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  Speaker 1: The other solution is to say, no, we don't find
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  Speaker 1: that kind of self determination taught in the Bible anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: I don't I find versus by the dozen that go
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: against that. What keeps God from going from desiring all
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  Speaker 1: people to be saved, which is true, to not saving
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  Speaker 1: all but giving repentance to some, is God's commitment to
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  Speaker 1: manifest the fullness of his justice and mercy and wisdom
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  Speaker 1: and the whole panorama of all of his perfections, which
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  Speaker 1: in his wisdom he believes will be more fully manifest
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  Speaker 1: for the enjoyment of his people forever if he does
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  Speaker 1: it this way, namely, gives salvation to some and not
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  Speaker 1: to all. That's what stands between him. Those are two
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  Speaker 1: different solutions to why all are not saved. The question
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  Speaker 1: is not which is philosophically comfortable, The question is which
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  Speaker 1: is biblical? I think the second one is what we've
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  Speaker 1: seen over and over again, we will keep seeing it.
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  Speaker 1: Let me close with this exhortation. There are three things
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  Speaker 1: to keep in mind when you face this issue, namely
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  Speaker 1: that God grants repentance two Timothy two twenty five. God
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  Speaker 1: grants repentance, and not to everyone. Three things. One, none
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  Speaker 1: of us deserves the gift of repentance. God owes us nothing.
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  Speaker 1: We are treasonous, we are rebellious, we are hardhearted. We
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  Speaker 1: 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 thank you, his son bears our guilt saves millions and
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  Speaker 1: millions of people. If any of us is saved, it
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  Speaker 1: is owing to pure, sheer, glorious grace. And the third
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  Speaker 1: thing to keep in mind is this. It is not
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  Speaker 1: double talk to say that God desires all people to
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  Speaker 1: be saved and he doesn't save although he can. That's
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  Speaker 1: not double talk. We know it's not double talk because
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  Speaker 1: the Bible talks like this over and over again about
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  Speaker 1: God's 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 twenty and God willed and ordained and brought
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: about the murder of his son. And there would have
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  Speaker 1: been no salvation without the preordained murder of his son.
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  Speaker 1: If Jesus had stumbled and fallen over 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.