Latest / Sovereignty of God / 018 - Ch 11 Difficulties and Objections part 1

Transcript

018 - Ch 11 Difficulties and Objections part 1 · Sovereignty of God

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, Part one of Sovereignty of God. This is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Recording by Genreimundo. Sovereignty of God by Arthur Pink, Chapter eleven,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Part one, Difficulties and objections. Yet ye say the way
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the Lord is not equal? Here now O House
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Israel is not my way equal? Are not your
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: ways unequal? Ezekiel, eighteen twenty five. A convenient point has
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: been reached when we may now examine more definitely some
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of the difficulties encountered and the objections which might be
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: advanced against what we have written in previous pages. The
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: author deemed it better to reserve these for a separate consideration,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: rather than deal with them as he went along, requiring
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: as that would have done the breaking of the course
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of thought and destroying the strict unity of each chapter.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Or else cumbring our pages with newmorous and lengthy footnotes.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: That there are difficulties involved in an attempt to set
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: forth the truth of God's sovereignty is readily acknowledged. The
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: hardest thing of all, perhaps is to maintain the balance
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of truth. It is largely a matter of perspective. That
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: God is sovereign is explicitly declared in scripture. That man
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: is a responsible creature is also expressly affirmed in Holy
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: writ To define the relationship of these two truths, to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: fix the dividing line betwixt them, to show exactly where
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: they meet, to exhibit the perfect consistency of the one
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: with the other is the weightiest task of all. Many
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: have openly declared that it is impossible for the finite
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: mind to harmonize them. Others tell us it is not
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: necessary or even wise to attempt it. But as we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: have remarked in an earlier chapter, it seems to us
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: more honoring to God to seek in his word the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: solution to every problem. What is impossible to man is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: possible with God. And while we grant that the finite
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: mind is limited in its reach, yet we rem remember
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: that the scriptures are given to us that the Man
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of God may be thoroughly furnished. And if we approach
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: their study in the spirit of humility and of expectancy,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: then according unto our faith, will it be unto us.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: As remarked above, the hardest task in this connection is
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to preserve the balance of truth while insisting on both
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of the creature.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: To some of our readers, it may appear that impressing
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the sovereignty of God to the links we have, man
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: is reduced to a mere puppet. Hence, to guard against this,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: they would modify their definitions and statements relating to God's sovereignty,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and thus seek to blunt the keen edge of what
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is so offensive to the carnal mind. Others, while refusing
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to weigh the evidence that we have adduced in support
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of our assertions, may raise objections which, to their minds,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: are sufficient to dispose of the whole subject. We would
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: not waste time in the effort to refute objections made
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in a carping and contentious spirit. But we are desirous
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of meeting fairly the difficulties experienced by those who are
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: anxious to obtain a full lofk knowledge of the truth.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Not that we deem ourselves able to give a satisfactory
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and final answer to every question that might be asked.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Like the reader, the writer knows but in part and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: sees through a glass darkly. All that we can do
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is to examine these difficulties in the light we now
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: have in dependence upon the spirit of God, that we
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: may follow on to know the Lord better. We propose
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: now to retrace our steps and pursue the same order
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of thought as that followed up to this point. As
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: a part of our definition of God's sovereignty, we affirmed.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: To say that God is sovereign is to declare that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: He is the Almighty, the possessor of all power in
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: heaven and earth, so that none can defeat his counsels,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: thwart his purpose, or resist his will. The sovereignty of
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. To put
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: it now in its strongest form, we insist that God
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: does as he pleases, only as he pleases, always as
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: he pleases, that whatever takes place in time is but
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the outworking of that which He decreed in eternity. In
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: proof of this assertion, we appeal to the following scripture.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: But our God is in the heavens. He hath done
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: whatsoever he hath pleased Psalm one hundred and fifteen, verse three.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, And who shall
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: disannul it. And his hand is stretched out, and who
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: shall turn it back? Isaiah fourteen, verse twenty seven. And
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And he doth according to his will in the army
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: doest thou Daniel four verse thirty five. For of him
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and through him, and to him are all things to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: whom be glory forever Amen, Romans eleven, verse thirty six.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: The above declarations are so plain and positive that any
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: comments of ours upon them would simply be darkening counsel
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: by words without knowledge. Such express statements as those just
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: quoted are so sweeping and so dogmatic, that all controversy
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: concerning the subject of which they treat ought forever to
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: be at an end. Yet, rather than receive than at
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: their face value, every device of carnal ingenuity is resorted
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to so as to neutralize their force. For example, it
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: has been asked if what we see in the world
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: today is but the outworking of God's eternal purpose, If
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: God's counsel is now being accomplished, then why did our
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Lord teach his disciples to pray Thy will be done
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: on earth as it is in heaven. Is it not
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a clear implication from these words that God's will is
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: not now being done on earth? The answer is very simple.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: The emphatic word in the above clause is, as God's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: will is being done on earth today. If it is not,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: then our earth is not subject to God's rule. And
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: if it is not subject to his rule, then he
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is not as Scripture proclaims him to be the Lord
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of all the earth Joshua three, verse thirteen. But God's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: will is not being done on earth as it is
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in heaven. How is God's will done in heaven consciously
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and joyfully? How is it done on earth, for the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: most part, unconsciously and sullenly. In heaven, the angels performed
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the bidding of their creator intelligently and gladly. But on earth,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the unsaved among men accomplish his will blindly and in ignorance.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: As we have said in earlier pages, when Judas betrayed
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus, and when Pilot sentenced him to be crucified,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: they had no conscious intentions of fulfilling God's decrees. Yet Nevertheless,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: unknown to themselves, they did do so. But again it
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: has been objected. If everything that happens on earth is
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the fulfilling of the Almighty's pleasure, if God has for
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: ordained before the foundation of the world everything which comes
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to pass in human history, then why do we read
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: in Genesis six six it repented the Lord that he
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: had made man on the earth, and it grieved him
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: at his heart? Does not this language intimate that the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Antediluvians had followed a course which their maker had not
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: marked out for them, and that, in view of the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: fact they had corrupted their way upon the earth, the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Lord regretted that he had ever brought such a creature
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: into existence. Ere drawing such a conclusion, let us note
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: what is involved in such an inference. If the words
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: it repented the Lord that he had made man are
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: regarded in an absolute sense, then God's omniscience would be denied,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: for in such a case, the course followed by man
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: must have been unforeseen by God in the day that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: he created him. Therefore, it must be evident to every
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: reverent soul that this language bears some other meaning. We
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: submit that the words it repented the Lord is an
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: accommodation to our finite intelligence. And in saying this, we
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: are not seeking to escape a difficulty or cut a knot.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: But our advancing and interpretation, which we shall seek to show,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: is in perfect accord with the general trend of scripture.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: The word of God is addressed to men, and therefore
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it speaks the language of men. Because we cannot rise
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to God's level, He in grace comes down to ours
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and converse with us in our own speech. The apostle
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Paul tells us of how he was caught up into
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not possible
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: margin to utter Tewod Corinthians twelve, verse four. Those on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: earth could not understand the vernacular of heaven. The finite
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: cannot comprehend the infinite. Hence the Almighty deigns to couch
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: his revelation in terms we may understand. It is for
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: this reason the Bible contains many anthropomorphisms, as in representations
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of God in the form of man. God is spirit,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Yet the scriptures speak of Him as having eyes, ears, nostrils, breadth, hands,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: et cetera, which is surely an accommodation of terms brought
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: down to the level of human comprehension. Again, we read
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: in Genesis eighteen, verse twenty twenty one, and the Lord said,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: because the cry of Sodom and Gomorah is great, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: because their sin is very grievous, I will go down
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: now and see whether they have done altogether according to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the cry of it which is come up unto me,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: And if not, I will know now manifestly this is
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: an anthropologism, God speaking in human language. God knew the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: conditions which prevailed in Sodom, and his eyes had witnessed
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: its fearful sins. Yet he is pleased to use terms
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: here that are taken from our own vocabulary. Again, in
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Genesis twenty two, verse twelve, we read, and he God said,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: from me. Here again God is speaking in the language
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of men, for he knew before he tested Abraham exactly
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: how the patriarch would act. So too, the expression of
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: God so often in Jeremiah uh chapter seven, verse thirteen
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: et ceda of him rising up early is manifestly an
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: accommodation of terms. Once more, in the parable of the vineyard,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Christ himself represents its owner as saying, then said the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Lord of the vineyard, what shall I do? I will
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: send my beloved son. It may be they will reverence
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: him when they see him Luke twenty, verse thirteen. And
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: yet it is certain that God knew perfectly well that
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the husbandmen of the vineyard, the Jews, would not reverence
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: his son, but instead would despise and reject him, as
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: his own word had declared. In the same way we
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: understand the words of Genesis sixty six. It repented the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Lord that he had made man on the earth as
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: an accommodation of terms to human comprehension. This verse does
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: not teach that God was confronted with an unforeseen contingency
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and therefore regretted that he had made man, but it
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: expresses the abhorrence of a holy God at the awful,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: wickedness and corruption into which man had fallen. Should there
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: be any doubt remaining in the minds of our readers
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: as to the legitimacy and soudness of our interpretation, a
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: direct appeal to scripture should instantly and entirely remove it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: The strength of Israel, a divine title, will not heed
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: nor repent, for he is not a man that he
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: should repent. For Samuel fifteen, verse twenty nine, every good
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: shadow of turning James one, verse seventeen. Careful attention to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: what we have said above will throw light on numerous
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: other passages, which, if we ignore their figurative character and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: fail to note that God applies to himself human modes
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: of expression, will be obscure and perplexing. Having commented at
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: such length upon Genesis sixty six, there will be no
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: need to give such a detailed exposition of other passages
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: which belong to the same class. Yet, for the benefit
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: of those of our readers who may be anxious for
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: us to examine several other scriptures, we turn to one
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: or two more. One scripture which we often cited in
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: order to overthrow the teaching advanced in this book, is
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Our Lord's lament over Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Thou that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: How often would I have gathered thy children together, even
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: ye would not Matthew twenty three, verse thirty seven. The
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: question is asked, do not these words show that the
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Savior acknowledged the defeat of his mission, that as a people,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the Jews resisted all his gracious overtures toward them. In
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: replying to this question, it should first be pointed out
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: that our Lord is here referring not so much to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: his own mission, as he is upbraiding the Jews for having,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: in all ages rejected his grace. This is clear from
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: his reference to the prophets. The Old Testament bears full
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: witness of how graciously and patiently Jehovah dealt with his people,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and with what extreme obstinacy, from first to last they
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: refuse to be gathered unto him, and how in the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: end he abandoned them to follow their own devices. Yet,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: as the same scriptures declare, the Council of God was
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: not frustrated by their wickedness, for it had been foretold
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and therefore decreed by him. See for example, First Kings eight,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: verse thirty three. Matthew twenty three, verse thirty seven may
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: well be compared with Isaiah sixty five, verse two, where
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the Lord says, I have spread out my hands all
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the day, and to a rebellious people which walketh in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a way that was not good after their own thoughts.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: But it may be asked, did God seek to do
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that which was in acquisition to his own eternal purpose?
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And words borrowed from Calvin, we reply, though to our apprehension,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the will of God is manifold and various. Yet he
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: does not in himself will things at variance with each other,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: but astonishes our faculties with his various and manifold wisdom.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: According to the expression of Paul, till we shall be
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: enabled to understand that He mysteriously wills what now seems
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: contrary to his will. As a further illustration of the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: same principle, we would refer the reader to Isaiah five,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: verses one to four. Now will I sing to my
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: tower in the midst of it, and also made a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: wine press therein. And he looked that it should bring
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: our inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, I
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: pray you betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: been done more to my vineyard that I have not
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. Is it
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: not plain from his language that God reckoned himself to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: have done enough for Israel to warrant an expectation speaking
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: after the manner of men of better returns. Yet is
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: it not equally evident when Jehovah says, here he looked
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: that it should bring forth grapes, that he is accommodating
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: himself to a form of finite expression. And so also
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: when he says, what could have been done more to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: my vineyard that I have not done in it? We
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: need to take note that in the previous enumeration of
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: what he had done the fencing, et cetera, he refers
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: only to external privileges, means, and opportunities. Which had been
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: bestowed upon Israel. For of course he could even then
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: have taken away from them their stony heart and given
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: them a new heart, even a heart of flesh, had
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he so pleased. Perhaps we should link up with Christ's
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: lament over Jerusalem and Matthew twenty three, verse thirty seven,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: his tears over the city recorded in Luke nineteen, verse
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: forty one. He beheld the city and wept over it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: In the verses which immediately follow we learn what it
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: was that occasioned his tears, saying, if thou hadst known,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: which belonged to thy peace, But now they are hid
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It was the prospect of the fearful judgment which Christ
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: knew was impending. But did those tears make manifest a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: disappointed God. Nay Verily, Instead they displayed a perfect man,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the man Christ Jesus was no emotionless stoic, but when
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: filled with compacts, those tears express the sinless sympathies of
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: his real and pure humanity. Had he not wept, he
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: had been less than human. Those tears were one of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: many proofs that in all things it behooved him to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: be made like unto his brethren he Brews two, verse seventeen.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: In Chapter one, we have affirmed that God is sovereign
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: in the exercise of his love. And in saying this
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: we are fully aware that many will strongly present the statement,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and that, furthermore, what we have now to say will
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: probably meet with more criticism than anything else advanced in
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: this book. Nevertheless, we must be true to our convictions
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of what we believe to be the teaching of Holy Scripture,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and we can only ask our readers to examine diligently
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: in the light of God's word, what we here submit
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to their attention. One of the most popular beliefs of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the day is that God loves everybody, and the very
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: fact that it is so popular with all classes ought
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: are subject to the word of truth. God's love toward
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: all his creature is the fundamental and favorite tenet of universalists, Unitarians, theosophists, Christian, scientists, spiritualists, resolites,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: et cetera. No matter how a man may live in
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: soul's eternal interest, still less for God's glory, dying perhaps
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: with an oath on his lips. Notwithstanding, God loves him,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: we are told, so widely has his dogma been proclaimed,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and so comforting is it to the heart which is
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: at enmity with God. We have little hope of convincing
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: many of their error. That God loves everybody is, we
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: may say, quite a modern belief. The writings of the
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: church Fathers, the Reformers, or the Puritans will, we believe,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: be searched in vain for any such concept. Perhaps the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: late D. L. Moody, captivated by Drummonds the Greatest Thing
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in the World, did more than any one else in
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the last century to popularize this concept. It has been
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: customary to say God loves the sinner, though he hates
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: his sin. Footnote Romans five, verse eight is addressed to
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: saints and the we are the same ones as though
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: spoken of in Chapter eight, verses twenty nine and thirty
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: end of footnote. But that is a meaningless distinction. What
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: is there in a sinner but sin? Is it not
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: true that his whole head is sick, and that his
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: whole heart faint, and that from the soul of the foot,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: even unto the head, there is no soundness in him
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Isaiah one, verses five and six. Is it true that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: God loves the one who is despising and rejecting his
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: blessed son. God is liked as well as love, and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: therefore his love must be a holy love. To tell
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the christ rejector that God loves him is to god
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: rise his conscience, as well as to afford him as
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: sense of security in his sins. The fact is, the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: love of God is a truth for the saints only,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and to present it to the enemies of God is
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: With the exception of John three sixteen, not once in
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the perfect Teacher, telling sinners that God loved them. In
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the Book of Acts, which records the evangelistic labors and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: messages of the apost Boscils, God's love is never referred
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: to at all. But when we come to the epistles,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: which are addressed to the saints. We have a full
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: presentation of this precious truth, God's love for his own.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Let us seek to rightly divide the word of God,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and then we shall not be found taking truths which
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: are addressed to believers and misapplying them to unbelievers. That
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: which sinners need to have brought before them is the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: inaffable holiness, the exacting righteousness, the inflexible justice, and the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: terrible wrath of God, risking the danger of being misunderstood.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Let us say, and we wish we could say it
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to every evangelist in preacher in the country. There is
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: far too much presenting of Christ to sinners today by
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: those sound in the faith, and far too little showing
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: sinners their need of Christ, as in their absolutely ruined
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and lost condition, their imminent and awful danger of suffering,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the wrath to come, the fearful guilt resting upon them
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: in the sight of God. To present Christ to those
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: who have never been shown their need of Him seems
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to us to be guilt of casting pearls before swine.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Footnote concerning the rich young ruler of whom it is
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: said Christ loved him, Mark ten, verse twenty one we
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: fully believe that he was one of God's elect and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: was saved some time after his interview with our Lord.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Should it be said this is an arbitrary assumption and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: assertion which lacks anything in the Gospel record to substantiate it,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: we reply, it is written him that cometh to me,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I will in no wise cast out, And this man
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: certainly did come to him. Compare the case of Nicodemus.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: He too came to Christ. Yet there is nothing in
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: John three which intimates he was a saved man when
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the interview closed. Nevertheless, we know from his later life
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that he was not cast out. End of footnote. If
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: it be true that God loves every member of the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: human family, then why did our Lord tell his disciples
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: he that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: is that loveth me, And he that loveth me shall
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: be loved in my Father. If a man love me,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: he will keep my words, and my Father will love him.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: John fourteen, verse twenty one, and verse twenty three. Why
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: say he that loved me shall be loved of my Father?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: If the Father loves everybody. The same limitation is found
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: in Proverbs eight, verse seventeen. I love them that love me. Again,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: we read thou hatest all workers of iniquity, not merely
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the works of iniquity. Here, then, is a flat repudiation
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of present teaching that God hates sin but loves the sinner.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Scripture says thou hatest all workers of iniquity Psalm five,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: verse five. God is angry with the wicked every day
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Psalm seven, verse eleven. He that believeth not on the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: son shall not see life. But the wrath of God
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: abideth on him. Not shall abide, but even now abideth
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: on him. John three, verse thirty six. Can God love
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the one on whom his wrath abides? Again? Is it
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: not evident that the words the love of God, which
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: is in Christ Jesus Romans eight thirty nine, marks a
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: limitation both in the sphere and objects of his love. Again,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: is it not plain from the words Jacob have I loved?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: But Esau have I hated? Romans nine, verse thirteen, that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: God does not love everybody? Again, it is written for
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: whom he receiveth he Ruse twelve, verse six. Does not
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: this verse teach that God's love is restricted to the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: members of his own family. If he loves all men
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: without exception, then the distinction and limitation here mentioned is
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: quite meaningless. Finally, we would ask, is it conceivable that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: God will love the damned in the lake of fire? Yet,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: if he loves them now, he will do so. Then,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: seeing that his love knows no change, he is without
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: variableness or shadow of turning. End of Chapter eleven, Part
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: one recording by Genre Mundo