Latest / Reformed Thinking / Born of God: Providence and the Divine Work of Bringing Sinners to Faith

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Born of God: Providence and the Divine Work of Bringing Sinners to Faith · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So I want you to imagine for a
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second that you are standing on the deck of a ship, you are
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looking out at the ocean and you see someone drowning.
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Right, a terrifying situation. Yeah, very terrifying.
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And they're just thrashing around in the water, gasping for
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air, fighting the waves. What do you do?
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I mean, obviously you grab a life preserver and you throw it
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to them. Sure, that is the logical
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response. Right, it makes sense.
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But what if the person isn't thrashing on the surface?
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What if, and this is a grim thought, what if they are lying
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lifeless at the absolute bottom of the ocean floor under miles
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of crushing water? Yeah, a life preserver isn't
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going to do anything in that scenario.
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Nothing. Throwing a flotation device from
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the deck of the ship is useless. A rope does nothing.
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I mean, the person doesn't need assistance at that point, you
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know, they need a resurrection. Spot on.
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And according to the theological text we're examining today, that
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scenario, the one at the bottom of the ocean, is the precise
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description of the human soul. Yeah, so today we are taking a
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custom tailored deep dive into the divine mechanics behind how
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a person comes to faith. We are drawing from 2 highly
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detailed sources on God's Providence in salvation.
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And you know, if you came here looking for 10 steps to finding
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spirituality or maybe the newest church growth strategies, we
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should probably set the record straight.
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Right now? Oh, definitely.
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We're putting human methods aside completely.
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Instead, we are looking at 3 specific biblical pictures of
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salvation. We have the new birth, the
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effectual call, and the new creation.
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OK, let's unpack this because we really need to understand the
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core problem before we talk about any solutions.
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Yeah, we have to start with a diagnosis.
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We're dealing with texts that look right past the surface
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level symptoms of the human condition and diagnose the root
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cause. The sources we are examining
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insist that salvation cannot be explained by, well, your
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temperament, your family background, your moral
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seriousness, or even how persuasive A preacher might be.
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Yeah, none of that cuts it. No, they argue that faith is the
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result of a direct sovereign act of God.
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The texts point out that the human condition apart from
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Christ is not described as sick or wounded or religiously
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underdeveloped. It is much worse than that.
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Far worse, citing the Apostle Paul in his letter to the
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Ephesians, chapter 2, the texts state that humanity is nichras.
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Necras. Yeah, that is the Greek word for
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dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
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It is an ontological reality describing a total
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unresponsiveness to the beauty of holiness and the truth of
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Christ. OK, I have to jump in here
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because that word ontological might sound like something you
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only hear in a university philosophy department.
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Fairpoint, yeah. For anyone listening right now,
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ontological refers to the very nature of being.
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I mean, the issue isn't just about bad behavior or making a
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few mistakes. The issue is our actual nature.
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We are dealing with a state of existence.
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Yes, that distinction is absolutely critical.
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When Paul uses the word necras, he is not speaking
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metaphorically to make us feel bad about ourselves.
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He's not just using strong rhetoric.
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Right. He is laying out a forensic,
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biological and spiritual reality.
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A corpse has no capacity to respond to stimuli.
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You could yell at it. You can play beautiful music for
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it. You can offer it $1,000,000 and
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well it will not react. Yeah, yeah, zero reaction.
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What's fascinating here is the sharp contrast between this
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biblical diagnosis and our modern assumption.
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For sure. Because in contemporary Western
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culture, we love the idea of human potential.
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We want to believe that everyone has a little spark of goodness
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inside them, you know, and religion is just the process of
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fanning that spark into a flame. Yeah, we want to be the drowning
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swimmer who participates in our own rescue by reaching out and
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grabbing the life preserve. Precisely.
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But the text we are reviewing argue that the Sinner is the
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corpse at the bottom of the ocean.
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A life preserver does absolutely nothing for a corpse.
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Let me offer an analogy here to make sure we are really grasping
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the gravity of this diagnosis. Think about walking into the
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intensive care unit of a hospital if you have a severe
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migraine. The doctor can give you a strong
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medication. Your body takes the medicine,
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processes it, and you start to heal.
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There is cooperation between the medicine and your active
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biological systems. Right, because you were alive to
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receive it. Exactly.
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But if you are lying on a hospital bed with a flat line on
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the monitor with zero brain activity and 0 cardiac function,
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no amount of medicine will wake you up.
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You are entirely unresponsive. You are.
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So if the human will is completely dead and unresponsive
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like that flat line, it forces a massive quotient.
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How does anyone ever believe what causes the very first spark
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of of faith if the system is completely shut down?
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That is the central question of the entire discussion, and the
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sources are clear on the answer. The spark cannot come from the
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human being. A flat line cannot generate its
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own heartbeat. Yeah, that makes sense.
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The dead cannot self resurrect. The initial breath of life must
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come from a source entirely outside of the dead person.
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And you know, this debate over human capability is actually
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ancient. The sources bring up the
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historical context of the 5th century.
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During that era there was a British monk named Pelagius and
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he traveled to Rome. Oh, I've heard of him.
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Yeah, when he saw the moral laxity of the Christians there,
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he was just appalled. So Pelagius developed a theology
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arguing the humanity possessed the inherent moral capability to
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obey God without the necessity of inward regenerating grace.
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So he thought we could just do it on our own.
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Essentially, yes. He taught that we are born into
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this world entirely neutral, much like Adam before the fall.
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In his view, sin is just a bad habit we pick up from our
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environment and therefore we have the internal capacity to
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simply choose to stop sinning. I mean, that sounds incredibly
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appealing to the modern ear. It sounds like taking personal
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responsibility. You can just pull yourself up by
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your bootstraps and make the right choices.
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It does sound appealing, which is why I gained so much traction
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back then, but Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, recognized that
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this teaching completely destroyed the necessity of the
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Gospel. Right, because if you can fix
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yourself, you don't need a savior.
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Spot on. Augustine vigorously refuted
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Pelagius using the biblical texts, specifically the ones we
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are discussing today. He demonstrated that because of
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original sin, humanity is not neutral.
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Humanity is radically corrupted. The will is bound by its own
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sinful desires. So it's locked in.
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Yes. The text also points to the
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Westminster Confession of Faith, specifically Chapter 9, which
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addresses this concept of free will.
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Oh yeah, that chapter is heavy. It is the confession provides a
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striking summary. It states that humanity, by the
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fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will
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to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.
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Therefore the natural person, being altogether researched from
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that good and dead in sin, is not able by their own strength
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to convert themselves, or even to prepare themselves for
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conversion. That phrase right there prepare
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themselves for conversion is huge.
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I mean, you can't even get yourself ready to be saved.
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You can't soften your own heart. You really can't.
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Which means the rescue has to be entirely unilateral.
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The rescue must be an invasion of grace.
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And that leads perfectly into the first biblical picture
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provided in our text, which is the miracle of the new birth.
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Yes. Let's look at that.
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We see this play out vividly in the Gospel of John chapter 3.
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Jesus having a night time conversation with a man named
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Nicodemus. And we need to set the
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historical stage here because Nicodemus isn't just an average
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guy asking questions, Not at all.
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He is a Pharisee. He is a member of the Sanhedrin,
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which is the ruling council in 1st century Judaism.
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He has the highest level of education available.
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He has the cultural pedigree. She's the elite of the elite.
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Exactly. He is a man of extreme outward
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moral seriousness. He spends his entire life
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studying the law, debating the law, and trying to keep the law.
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And that background of Nicodemus is vital for understanding the
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weight of Christ's words. Jesus didn't deliver this
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teaching about the necessity of a new birth to a tax collector
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or prostitute or a notorious public center.
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Right, which is what we might expect.
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Right. He delivered it to a moral,
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highly privileged teacher in Israel.
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By choosing this specific audience, Jesus shatters the
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assumption that heritage, morality or religious education
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can produce spiritual life. Nicodemus assumes that his
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natural birth, being a biological descendant of Abraham
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and his rigorous rule keeping give him a secure place in the
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Kingdom of God. But Jesus looks at this pinnacle
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of human religious achievement and tells him that flesh only
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produces flesh. That is a staggering blow to
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human pride. I mean, flesh can do a lot of
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things. Flesh can refine itself through
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discipline. Flesh can educate itself by
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reading volumes of theology. It can.
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Flesh can even decorate itself with beautiful religious
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ceremonies and charitable deeds. But flesh can never produce
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spirit. It is categorically impossible.
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Spot on. The sources highlight the
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specific Greek word Jesus uses in this conversation unto them.
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When Jesus says you must be born again, that word unto then
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carries a dual meaning in the original language.
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Oh really? 2 meanings.
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Yeah, it means again referring to a chronological sequence,
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meaning a second birth is required.
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But it also means from above referring to a spatial or divine
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origin. That's fascinating.
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Both meanings are active and intentional in this text.
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The second birth is an absolute necessity, and its origin is
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strictly from the heavenly realm.
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It is a divine beginning. You cannot engineer it from the
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earth. Here's where it gets really
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interesting, especially when we look at the grammatical
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mechanics the sources bring to our attention.
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If you look at the First Epistle of John, specifically chapter 5
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verse one, the text says everyone who believes that Jesus
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is the Christ has been born of God.
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Right? Now you might read that in
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English and think the believing cause is the birth, but the
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sources dissect the exact verb tenses used in the original
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Greek language and it completely flips the common assumption on
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its head. The grammatical precision of the
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Greek text is staggering. The sources point out that the
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phrase has been born is a perfect passive indicative.
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Let's break that down because that sounds like grammar class.
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Right, right. So in Greek syntax, the perfect
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tense describes an action completed in the past that has
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continuing lasting results in the present.
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OK, the passive voice indicates that the subject receives the
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action. The subject does not produce it.
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Think about a physical infant. The infant does not 'cause its
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own conception, and it does not perform its own birth.
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It is entirely passive in the event of coming into existence.
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Right. The infant just experiences the
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reality of having been born. Meanwhile, the word believes in
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that same verse is a present active participle.
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The present tense denotes an ongoing continuous action.
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Yes. So the exegesis, the pulling out
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of the meaning from the text, is inescapable.
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The ongoing active reality of believing is the result of the
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already completed passive reception of the new birth.
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So the birth comes first. Always the new birth does not
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bypass faith. Rather, it creates the living
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heart that is finally incapable of believing.
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God's act of begetting causes our act of believing, not the
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other way around. Let's make sure we grasp the
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psychological weight of this. If I am an infant, I contribute
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absolutely nothing to my own conception.
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I don't sign a contract agreeing to be born.
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You literally can't. Right.
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I'm brought into the world by forces outside of my control.
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In the spiritual realm, faith is not a condition we meet in order
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to convince God to give us the new birth.
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Faith is the living, breathing act of a heart that God has
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already regenerated. We breathe because we have been
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made alive. That is the essence of the
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doctrine. Jesus goes on to compare this to
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the wind. He tells Nicodemus that the wind
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blows where it wishes. You hear it sound, but you do
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not know where it comes from or where it goes, right?
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The Holy Spirit works with sovereign freedom, moving
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entirely independent of the desires, permissions, or actions
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of the unregenerate flesh. The Spirit sovereignly breathes
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life into the spiritual corpse. So if this internal reality of
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the new birth is happening, this changing of a heart of stone
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into a heart of flesh, there must be an external summons that
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initiates that waking of the dead.
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It brings us to the second biblical picture in our deep
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dive, which is the invincible life giving call.
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Yes, the effectual call. For this, we look at another
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historic event in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11.
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This is the account of Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus,
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and I want you to visualize this scene for a second.
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It's a dramatic scene. Very Bethany is a small village.
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Lazarus has been dead for four days.
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The professional mourners are wailing, the body has been
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wrapped in grave clothes and the stone has been roll in front of
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the tomb. The sister of Lazarus even warns
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Jesus about the odor of decomposition.
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Yeah, she says. Lord, there will be an odor.
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Right. The natural human limit has been
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far surpassed. Here Jesus stands before a
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rotting corpse. He does not offer medical
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advice. He does not ask Lazarus to
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search his heart and make a decision for life.
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He simply commands with absolute unyielding authority, Lazarus
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come out. And the sources draw a critical
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theological distinction here between two types of calling.
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There is the general outward call, the gospel.
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This happens every time a preacher stands in a pulpit
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where a parent reads the Bible to their child.
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Or you know you share your faith with a Co worker.
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Right, that's outward. The outward command is given
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repent and believe the gospel. But because of the radical
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corruption we discussed earlier, the reality being spiritually
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dead, this outward call is universally rejected, mocked, or
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simply ignored by the natural person.
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They hear the acoustic sounds of the words, but there is no
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spiritual resonance. It bounces right off that, like
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speaking to the stone in front of the tomb.
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That is a great way to put it. But hidden within that outward
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call is the inward effectual call of the Holy Spirit.
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This call is fundamentally different.
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It carries the exact same creative force as the command
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Jesus spoke into the darkness of that tomb.
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When Christ commands the dead to live, the command itself carries
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the omnipotent capability to fulfill what it demands.
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It literally creates the obedience, It commands the
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inward call, penetrates the stone, raises the center from
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spiritual slumber, opens their deaf ears, and grants the very
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faith that the outward gospel requires.
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The sources bring in the Apostle Paul's first letter to the
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Corinthians to explain this dynamic even further.
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We should look at the cultural context of Corinth because this
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was a wealthy, bustling, morally corrupt port city, but the
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citizens were incredibly proud of their intellect.
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Oh, they were. They were obsessed with Greek
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rhetoric, sophisticated philosophy and public debate.
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And to a Greek citizen chasing intellectual sophistication, the
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idea of a crucified Jewish Carpenter being the Lord of the
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universe looked like absolute foolishness.
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It was intellectually insulting. It just didn't make sense to
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them. Not at all.
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On the other hand, to a Jewish person looking for a conquering
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military Messiah to overthrow Rome, the cross was a scandalous
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stumbling block. A crucified Messiah was an
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oxymoron. The outward message, Christ
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crucified, was proclaimed to everyone in Corinth.
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The responses differed sharply based on the spiritual condition
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of the hearer. But then Paul identifies a
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specific group in that city. In First Corinthians chapter 1,
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he calls them the called. The Greek term is tuac latwa.
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Yes, to this specific group the called whether they are ethnic
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Jews or ethnic Greeks, Christ is suddenly perceived as the
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ultimate wisdom and the supreme might of God.
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So they hear the same thing, but it's different.
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The objective message is identical.
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Everyone hears the same sermon, but the saving perception of
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Christ differs radically. Because God's effectual call has
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acted inwardly on Tawak Lotwa, the call has granted them the
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capacity to recognize the supreme value of what previously
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looked foolish. Hold on, I have to stop you
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there because if you are telling me this call is an invincible
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force that creates obedience, my immediate thought goes to
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coercion. Are humans just meet puppets?
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That is a very common reaction. Right, because if God's call
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guarantees the outcome, does it bypass our responsibility or our
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free will? Are people being dragged into
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the Kingdom of God against their will?
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That is the most common objection to this theology, and
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the sources clarify it brilliantly.
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The effectual call is never coercion against the human will.
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God does not drag people kicking and screaming into his Kingdom
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while they're trying to run away.
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Rather, the effectual call is a merciful liberation of the will
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from its bondage. So the will was trapped by its
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own corrupt nature, and the call sets it free to act according to
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a new nature. Precisely.
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The natural person cannot come to Christ because they will not
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come. They love the darkness rather
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than the light. Their will is freely choosing
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the sin it loves. So they're doing what they want.
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Yes. What the effectual call does is
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grant spiritual sight, new desires, and a new principle of
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life. The sitter chooses Christ
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entirely willingly because their desires have been radically
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altered from the inside out. They now see Christ as
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infinitely beautiful, satisfying, and desirable,
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whereas before they saw Him as boring or foolish.
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They come freely running to the Savior being made willing by His
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grace. The texts point to the logic of
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Romans chapter 8, verse 30. To show how unbreakable this
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divine process is, Paul lays out a sequence that theologians
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often call the golden chain of redemption.
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He writes, Those whom God foreknew, he also predestined.
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Those whom he predestined he also called.
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Those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he
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justified he also glorified. It is an unbroken chronological
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chain of divine action. The sequential logic demands
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that everyone who receives this specific inward call is also
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justified. Since we know from the entirety
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of Scripture that justifications attained by faith the call must
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be 100% effective in bringing about that saving faith.
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There is no drop off rate between the calling and the
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justification. So nobody falls through the
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cracks. Nobody.
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You do not have a group of people who are effectually
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called, but who refuse to believe it is an invincible
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summons that always hits its target.
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Waking up from spiritual death is 1 reality.
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Hearing the call the shepherd and walking out of the tomb is
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another, but being able to actually see in the dark, to
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perceive beauty where you once saw nothing, is 1/3 distinct
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reality. And this brings us to the final
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biblical picture in our discussion, which is the Fiat of
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the new creation. The core obstacle we face in
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this picture is blindness. In the second letter to the
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Corinthians, chapter 4, Paul explains the spiritual mechanics
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of why some people do not see the truth of the gospel when it
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is presented to them. He writes that the God of this
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age, referring to Satan, has blinded the minds of
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unbelievers. I want to highlight that point.
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Unbelievers are not just lacking data.
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They don't just need more information, a better
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apologetics argument, or a more charismatic speaker.
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Their minds are actively, supernaturally blinded to the
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truth. They are looking right at the
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evidence and cannot see the reality of it.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, the sources point out
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that Paul is deliberately echoing the creation account in
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Genesis chapter 1. Let's think back to the opening
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verses of the Bible. The earth was without form and
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void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.
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The very beginning. Right there was absolute chaotic
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nothingness. God spoke into that primal
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darkness and said let there be light, and light was created out
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of nothing. It was a sovereign Fiat.
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Wait, Fiat? We usually hear that word in
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economics like Fiat currency or regarding a government decree.
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In this theological context, you mean a reality that exists
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simply because God spoke it into existence, right?
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No pre-existing materials required.
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That is the concept. A Fiat is an authoritative
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command that brings a new reality into existence by the
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sheer force of the speaker's will.
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God did not ask the darkness for permission to shine the light.
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He commanded the light to exist, and the darkness had to flee.
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Exactly. Paul draws a direct parallel
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between that cosmic event and the microscopic event of an
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individual salvation. The God who said let light shine
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out of darkness has shown in our hearts.
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Just as God spoke physical light into existence at the dawn of
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the universe, He speaks spiritual light into the
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darkened human heart. And we must look closely at what
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this spiritual light actually illuminates.
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It isn't just a warm fuzzy feeling, Paul says.
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God gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
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the face of Jesus Christ. The sources dig deep into the
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original languages here and it is fascinating.
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The Greek word used for glory is doxa, which in the Greek
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translation of the Old Testament translates the Hebrew word
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kabod. The concept of kabod is weighty.
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Literally the root of the word means heavy or massive.
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It refers to the manifest, majestic, overwhelming presence
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of God. It's a massive concept.
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When the unregenerate person, the one still sitting in
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spiritual darkness, looks at Jesus of Nazareth, they see a
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historical figure. They might conceive he was a
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good moral teacher, revolutionary, or an unfortunate
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martyr, but they just see a man. There is no way to him.
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But when the newly created heart is given this divine Fiat of
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spiritual light, that supernatural blindness is
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shattered. The believer perceives Christ
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not as a mere historical footnote, but as possessing
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infinite worth, divine majesty, and the exact imprint of God's
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nature. Yes, they see the heavy, radiant
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glory of the Creator shining in the face of a crucified Jewish
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Carpenter. The scales fall off their eyes.
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This brings us to a massive theological point that the texts
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highlight, which is Christological fulfillment.
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All three of these pictures, the new birth, the effectual call,
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and the new creation, are not about some vague generic
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spirituality or mystical awakening.
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They all terminate on the person and work of Jesus.
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Christ. Let's trace that out.
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The life given by the Spirit and the new birth brings sinners to
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look away from their own dead works and rest entirely upon the
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crucified Christ. He is the resurrection and the
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life right. The voice that calls the dead
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and the effectual call is a specific voice of the Great
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Shepherd gathering his sheep by name.
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And in the new creation. Christ is the second Adam, the
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inaugurator of the new heavens and the new earth.
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The triune nature of God is acted in every single step of
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this rescue. The Father appoints the
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redemption from eternity past, the sun accomplishes the
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redemption in history through His sinless life and atoning
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blood, and the Holy Spirit applies that redemption directly
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to the individual by giving birth, calling them out of the
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grave, and grabbing them light to see.
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So what does this all mean? If God is the one doing all the
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heavy lifting, speaking light into existence, breeding life
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into corpses, and raising the dead, it begs a very practical
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question. Why do we even have churches?
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Why do pastors spend hours preparing sermons?
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It's a fair question to ask. Does human effort matter at all,
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or should we just sit back and wait for lightning to strike?
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That is the logical next question, and the text addressed
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this thoroughly in our discussion on the appointed
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means of preaching and Providence.
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The concept is that God's sovereign Providence does not
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bypass human agency. God ordains the ultimate ends,
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the salvation of his people, but He also ordains the specific
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means by which that end is accomplished in space and time.
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OK, the texts cite the apostle Peter in first Peter chapter 1
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and James in his first chapter. Both of these biblical writers
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state that the new birth happens through the living and abiding
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word. James says God brought us forth
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by the word of truth. Paul writes in Romans that faith
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comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
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The sovereign, invisible action of the Holy Spirit in the
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audible preaching of the Word are joined together by God's
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design. God gives the birth through the
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hearing of the Word. He calls the dead through the
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preaching of the Gospel, and He shines the light as the
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historical crisis publicly proclaim.
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So we are involved, yes. The human preacher is the
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acoustic instrument the Spirit uses to issue the divine Fiat.
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And the sources issue a very severe warning here against
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modern church pragmatism. If the actual diagnosis is
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spiritual death and supernatural blindness, then a vast majority
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of what Western churches rely on today is utterly useless.
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You cannot entertain a corpse into life.
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No, you can't. You can pump the room full of
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artificial fog, you can have a stadium rock light show, you can
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play emotional chord progressions on a keyboard, and
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you can give the the most manipulative altar call
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imaginable. None of it raises the dead.
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The text argues that pragmatism operates on a false diagnosis.
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It imagined that clever packaging and psychological
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pressure can accomplish what only the Holy Spirit can do.
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If you treat sinners as consumers who need to be wooed
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by entertainment rather than his spiritual corpses who need the
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Thunderbolt of God's Word, you are abandoning the only true
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cure. Yeah, you are throwing a shiny
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life preserver to a body at the bottom of the sea.
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Now the sources shift gears slightly to look at modern socio
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political ideology, specifically mentioning critical race theory
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and secular social justice movements.
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And just to be absolutely clear, our goal here is to report the
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author's argument neutrally. We are looking at how these
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frameworks diagnose the human condition compared to the
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biblical texts we've been examining.
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Right, The author argues that these secular frameworks
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diagnose humanity score problem as external and systemic.
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They locate the disease in oppressive social structures,
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power dynamics, and historical inequities.
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Consequently, the solutions they offer are rooted in human
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activism, grievance and the dismantling of external systems.
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However, the author contrasts this external diagnosis with the
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biblical texts, asserting that the Bible diagnosis the core
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problem as an internal spiritual death and a radical corruption
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of the human heart before holy God.
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According to the source, because the true biblical diagnosis is
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internal spiritual death, the only valid solution is the
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supernatural new creation brought about by the gospel.
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Therefore, the author concludes that substituting the biblical
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gospel for these secular political narratives amounts to
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abandoning the true cure for humanity's deepest problem.
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You're trying to fix the outside of the cup while the inside
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remains entirely dead. That is the.
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Argument presented in the text regarding those ideologies.
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It circles back to the absolute necessity of what theologians
26:16
call the ordinary means of grace.
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The true method for the Church, according to these sources, is
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humble confidence in plain, unadorned proclamation.
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Preach Christ clearly, command all people everywhere to repent
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and believe, pray fervently for the spirits inward work, and
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trust God to act. The pastor's job is not to
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engineer decisions through psychological pressure.
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The job is not to obscure the bloody offense of the cross to
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make it more palatable to a modern audience.
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The job is simply to act as a faithful herald, announcing the
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truth and letting the Spirit blow where he wishes.
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And this theology is not meant to be cold academic speculation
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discussed in ivory towers. If grasped correctly, it should
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have a massive life altering impact on your daily life.
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It is meant to humble the mind, comfort the heart and move the
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hands. Let's talk about how this hits
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the ground for you, the listener.
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The first application the sources draw out is humility.
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I want you to think about this intensely.
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If your faith is the result of a miracle that you did not, 'cause
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pride is monstrous. You cannot look at an
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unbelieving neighbor, a hostile family member or a cynical Co
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worker and think to yourself, I made myself to differ from them,
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I analyzed the data better, I had stronger willpower or I am
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just more morally sensitive than they.
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Right, because you didn't do it. You did not 'cause your own new
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birth, you did not speak light into your own darkness.
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The only difference between your belief and their unbelief is the
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sheer unmerited mercy of God. The second application is
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assurance. This is huge because I know so
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many people who struggle with agonizing doubts.
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They look at their own fluctuating emotions, they look
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at their daily failures, and they fear that their faith is
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too weak to be real. They wonder if they were going
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to lose their salvation because they didn't have a good quiet
28:00
time this week. These texts offer the most
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stunning comfort imaginable for that exact fear.
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If you are afraid your faith is weak, Remember the mechanics we
28:08
just discussed. You did not generate your faith
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in the 1st place. You're not keeping yourself
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alive by the sheer force of your own will.
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Do you see a beauty in Jesus Christ that you did not once
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see? Do you grieve your sin when you
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fall? That face, even when it is
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trembling and small, is empirical evidence of spiritual
28:27
life given by God. And the same sovereign God who
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possessed the might to raise you from spiritual death possesses
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the might to preserve you to the end.
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The grammar of grace we looked at earlier is stronger than your
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fluctuating emotions. Those whom he called he
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justified, and those whom he justified he glorified.
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It is past tense. It is a done deal in the mind of
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God. He finishes the work He starts.
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You're not holding on to Him, He is holding on to you.
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The third application involves our approach to evangelism and
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prayer. There's a common misconception
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that if God is completely sovereign over salvation, we
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shouldn't bother witnessing. People ask, if God has already
29:04
decided who you will call, why should I share the gospel?
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Oh, I've heard that so many times.
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The texts argue the exact opposite.
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This doctrine is the greatest fuel for courage and evangelism.
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Think about the freedom this gives you.
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We can witness to anyone. You can speak to the hardest,
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most hostile, most intellectually cynical heart you
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know, because the pressure is off.
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Their salvation does not depend on your cleverness.
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It does not depend on your ability to win a philosophical
29:32
debate. It depends entirely on the
29:34
Creator's voice. You are just the delivery
29:36
mechanism for the Word. And we pray precisely because we
29:40
know God can do the impossible. We don't measure our hope by
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visible responsiveness. Remember the tomb in Bethany?
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Lazarus gave no encouraging signs of life from the tomb
29:50
before Christ called him. He was just dead.
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He wasn't moving around in there making it easy for Jesus.
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We cry out to the omnipotent Savior to blow by His Spirit, to
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call by His Son, and to shine by His fatherly decree, knowing He
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can wake the deadest heart. The texts challenge the listener
30:05
directly here. Have you examined your own
30:08
heart? Have you ceased striving in your
30:10
own religious works and bowed entirely to God's sovereign
30:13
mercy? The unbeliever cannot hide
30:15
behind this theology as an excuse.
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Right, you can't blame God. You cannot say, well, I am dead,
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so it is God's fault if I don't believe.
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The inability is moral. People refuse to come because
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they genuinely love the darkness.
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The outward command to believe is addressed to everyone, and
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the Savior promises He will cast out no one who comes to Him.
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This raises an important question.
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Have you bowed to that reality? The proper response to these
30:40
massive truths is never quarrelsome, arrogance or
30:43
theological elitism. The proper response is thankful
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obedience, breathless worship, and falling to your knees.
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We must rest entirely on the finished work of Christ and
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ascribe all the glory for our salvation to God alone.
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Let's briefly recap the immense ground we have covered today.
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We started with the grim biblical reality of the human
31:02
condition. We are not just struggling
31:04
swimmers looking for a rope. We are spiritual corpses at the
31:07
bottom of the ocean. It's a stark image.
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From there we looked at 3 distinct magnificent pictures of
31:13
divine rescue. 1st the miracle of the new birth, where the Holy
31:18
Spirit unilaterally grants life from above, creating the
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capacity for faith. Second, the invincible effectual
31:25
call, where the voice of the Shepherd summons the dead from
31:28
the tomb and grants the obedience it demands.
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And 3rd, the divine Fiat of the new creation, where the God of
31:36
Genesis speaks light into our supernaturally blinded minds so
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we can finally see the heavy radiant glory of Jesus Christ.
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And all of this happens through the ordinary appointed means of
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preaching the Word. This theology strips away our
31:49
human pride, fuels our assurance in times of doubt, and drives us
31:54
to bold evangelism and intensely dependent prayer.
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Before we sign off, I want to leave you with one final thought
31:59
to Mull over. Building on the mechanics of
32:01
everything we have discussed today.
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Think about the physical Bible sitting on your desk or the app
32:05
on your phone. If the precise divine voice that
32:08
spoke the physical universe into existence out of nothing, and
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the exact same voice that commanded A rotting corpse to
32:14
walk out of a stone tomb is the voice actively speaking through
32:18
those pages, how should that alter the way you open that book
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tomorrow morning? You aren't just reading ancient
32:24
literature. You are exposing your mind to
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the very voice that creates life from nothing.
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Let that shape your morning reading.
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Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive into God's
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sovereign grace. Keep thinking critically, keep
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searching the Scriptures, and rest entirely in the grace given
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to you.