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Providence in Conversion (Part 6) · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Last time we spoke about the providence of God over
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  Speaker 1: human action or human willing, including sinful human willing. Let's
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  Speaker 1: zero in on the most significant involvement of God and
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  Speaker 1: his omnipotent providence in willing, namely our conversion. How is
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  Speaker 1: God involved in the conversion of sinners out of unbelief
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  Speaker 1: into belief? The reason he must be so involved is
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  Speaker 1: because our condition is so helpless. Let me show you
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  Speaker 1: what I mean Romans eight six through nine. For the
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  Speaker 1: mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on
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  Speaker 1: the spirit is life and peace. Because the mindset on
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  Speaker 1: the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not
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  Speaker 1: subject itself to the law of God, for it is
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  Speaker 1: not even able to do so. Note that, and those
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  Speaker 1: who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you
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  Speaker 1: are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if
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  Speaker 1: indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. So they
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  Speaker 1: are two kinds of people, those who are in the
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  Speaker 1: flesh and those who are in the spirit. Those who
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  Speaker 1: are in bondage to unbelief and merely natural forces, and
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  Speaker 1: those who've been invaded by the spirit. And what's true
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  Speaker 1: about this person us? Before Christ? We can't please God,
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  Speaker 1: we can't submit to God, cannot Here it is again
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  Speaker 1: in one Corinthians two fourteen. A natural man does not
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  Speaker 1: accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they
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  Speaker 1: air foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, apart from divine help, we cannot understand the
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  Speaker 1: things of the Spirit and recognize the beauty and truth
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  Speaker 1: of Christ and be saved two Corinthians four to four.
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  Speaker 1: In their case, the God of this world has blinded
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  Speaker 1: the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the
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  Speaker 1: light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. We
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  Speaker 1: can't see it. Satan and sin are blinding us Ephesians
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  Speaker 1: two four. God being rich in mercy because of the
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  Speaker 1: great love with which He loved us even when we
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  Speaker 1: were dead in our trespasses. So we're dead and we're blind,
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  Speaker 1: and we have an inability. Is there any wonder why
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  Speaker 1: we need to address the omnipotent, governing, sustaining, all ordering
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  Speaker 1: providence of God in relation to conversion? What's God's remedy
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  Speaker 1: for our hopeless, helpless, unable condition? And his remedy is
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  Speaker 1: described in many ways. I think I jotted down eight here.
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  Speaker 1: Let me just tick them off and you can think
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  Speaker 1: about them more fully later. First, he makes us alive
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  Speaker 1: Ephesians two five. Even when we were dead in our trespasses,
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  Speaker 1: he made us alive. Together with Christ. By grace, you
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  Speaker 1: have been saved. So He comes to us in our deadness,
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  Speaker 1: He makes us alive. Now, let me put a parenthis
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  Speaker 1: in here and address a theological issues, So a little
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  Speaker 1: bit sophisticated, but some of you will want to know
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  Speaker 1: what I think about this. There is another view besides
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  Speaker 1: the one that I'm presenting here that says, Okay, we
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  Speaker 1: all agree we're dead and we're unable to leave. But
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  Speaker 1: God for everybody exerts a grace, and that grace doesn't
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  Speaker 1: bring us into salvation. It brings us to the point
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  Speaker 1: where we can choose to believe. So it brings us
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  Speaker 1: to a kind of point where we're not in bondage
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  Speaker 1: to see Him, we're not enslaved to Christ. We are
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  Speaker 1: in a middle place where our own self determining, finally,
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  Speaker 1: in the moment of conversion, decisive freedom, our self determination,
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  Speaker 1: can choose to believe or choose not to believe. That
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  Speaker 1: won't work in this text, It won't work in most
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  Speaker 1: of these texts I'm going to refer to. Let me
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  Speaker 1: read it again. We were dead and He made us alive,
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  Speaker 1: not alive into some neutral position, but alive together with Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Or secondly, he may us alive together with Christ. By grace,
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  Speaker 1: you have been saved. So the description of that God
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  Speaker 1: makes us alive is not some kind of middle point
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  Speaker 1: of halfway life where we are somehow not controlled by sin,
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  Speaker 1: not controlled by Christ. That doesn't exist in this text.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't exist in the universe. We are dead and
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  Speaker 1: blind and helpless, and God brings us to saving life.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the second one. The first one was makes us alive.
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  Speaker 1: Second one description of how God's providence works for us.
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  Speaker 1: He grants us the gift of faith Chapter two, verse
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  Speaker 1: eight of Ephesians. For by grace you have been saved
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  Speaker 1: through faith. This is not your own doing. It is
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  Speaker 1: the gift of God. God gives the gift of faith.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't give the gift of ability for you to
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  Speaker 1: produce your own faith. Third, new life is granted in
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  Speaker 1: new Birth one John five to one. Whoever believes that
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. The
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  Speaker 1: evidence that you were born of God brought from death
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  Speaker 1: to life is that you believe. Number four, He replaces
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  Speaker 1: blindness with glory shining in our hearts Tewod Corinthians four
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  Speaker 1: to six. God, who said let light shine out of
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  Speaker 1: darkness at the beginning of creation, does it again every
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  Speaker 1: time we're saved. He has shown in our hearts to
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  Speaker 1: give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
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  Speaker 1: God in the face of Jesus Christ. Fifth, he gives
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  Speaker 1: us to Jesus. God gives us to Jesus John six
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  Speaker 1: thirty seven. All that the Father gives me will come
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  Speaker 1: to me. Every single person who comes to Jesus has
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  Speaker 1: been given to Jesus by the Father, or a sixth
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  Speaker 1: way of saying it. God appoints us to believe, Act
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  Speaker 1: thirteen forty eight. And when the Gentiles heard this, they
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  Speaker 1: began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And
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  Speaker 1: as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
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  Speaker 1: We believe if we'd been appointed to believe. Number seven,
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  Speaker 1: He opens our hearts to give heed. At sixteen fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Thyahtara,
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  Speaker 1: a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening,
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord opened her heart to give heed to
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  Speaker 1: the things Paul had spoken, and she becomes the first
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  Speaker 1: convert in Philippi and number eight. Lastly, God grants repentance
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  Speaker 1: two Timothy two twenty four and twenty five. The Lord's
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  Speaker 1: servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to all, able
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  Speaker 1: to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness, correcting those who
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  Speaker 1: are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance
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  Speaker 1: leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may
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  Speaker 1: come to their senses and escape from the snare of
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  Speaker 1: the devil having been taken captive by him. To do
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  Speaker 1: his will. God grants as a gift repentance. So what
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  Speaker 1: we've seen is that God's providence, his sustaining governing ordering
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  Speaker 1: of all things, is essential if anybody is going to
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  Speaker 1: be converted. Time we will tackle the problem that is
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  Speaker 1: signaled by the wording of two Timothy two twenty four
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  Speaker 1: and twenty five, because it talks about God giving repentance
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  Speaker 1: leading to a knowledge of the truth. And there's a
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  Speaker 1: problem text that lots of people go to when they're
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  Speaker 1: trying to understand this, where it says God desires all
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  Speaker 1: to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Does that fit with what we've just seen. That's where
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  Speaker 1: we go next time.