Writings

2 Peter 3:11

Charlie Garrett 2 Peter, 2 Peter (written), Daily Writing, Epistles, Epistles (written), Writings 0 Comment

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 2 Peter 3:11

Peter now gives a practical application for what he has just said. The word “therefore” is not found in the Greek, even if it is implied. Rather, it reads more simply, “These things, in this way, all being dissolved.” It is a way of asking them to consider the importance of their ties to materialistic things. “If all of this stuff is going to be dissolved, then of what true importance is it?”

Man builds empires which seem as if they will last forever, and yet, within a very short time, there is nothing left but rubble. The great Assyrian kingdom was so completely destroyed that Bible naysayers claimed it was only a myth. Eventually, the ruins of Nineveh were discovered, proving the biblical account, but what was once great and imposing eventually became nothing but a curiosity for archaeologists to dig through for clues about the past.

The same is true with all that is around us today. The empires of the world are all set to be dissolved in the heat of the end-times destruction. None of the things that are so highly valued by man will be of any value at all.

Considering this, then what is of true value? What is it that man should be pursuing? Peter asks, “what manner of persons ought you to be?” The question is a rhetorical device in which the answer itself is stated with the words “in holy conduct and godliness.” If the material world is set to be obliterated, then man should be focusing on something other than that material world. If the creation is a futile place to set one’s desires, then the Creator must be the only place to do so.

In setting one’s desires on the Creator, one will then conduct himself in a manner which is pleasing to the Creator. This is what Peter is relaying. There is no true reward in earthly gain, but there is great reward in conducting one’s affairs in holiness and godliness. Paul makes a similar argument in 1 Timothy 4:8 by saying, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

Life application: Whether we like the thought of the world being destroyed by fire or not, it will be. And regardless how we feel about everything man has done being wiped out, the fact is that God has spoken, and it will be so. The end of all things is at hand, and so we need to look forward to what God has planned after this age, not during it. This means that our lives in the current age need to be conducted in holiness and godliness.

Is this something you are pursuing? You alone are accountable for what eternity holds in store for you. Make sure you live without the prospect of eternal regret, but instead for rewards from the Lord for your conduct now, during this walk of faith in what lies ahead.

Heavenly Father, may we live our lives without fear of the promised coming destruction upon this earth. But rather, help us to be confident in our hope of a surer foundation in a world without end – a world where we will live in the presence of Jesus. Give us the wisdom to live our lives for Him now so that when that time comes, we will be welcomed into our eternal dwelling with abounding joy and not regret. Amen.

 

 

 

2 Peter 3:10

Charlie Garrett 2 Peter, 2 Peter (written), Daily Writing, Epistles, Epistles (written), Writings 0 Comment

Monday, 24 February 2020

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10

Peter has been speaking of the coming of the Lord, something denied by the scoffers due to the lengthy time which is said to elapse between the promise and the occurrence. The very fact that Peter penned this, after such a short time from Christ’s ascension, should clue these scoffers in that it would be a really long time. He went on to say that one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Reading his words, then taking the rest of Scripture in that light, it should be obvious to anyone willing to heed the word that a great time interval of millennia could be expected to pass before the return of the Lord. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but for the scoffers of today, it should be as plain as the noses on their faces. Regardless of this, Peter now continues the thought by saying, “But the day of the Lord…”

This is a phrase used rather sparsely in the New Testament. He spoke of it in Acts 2:20 –

“The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”

What is obvious from Peter’s words here in 2 Peter, is that the prophecy of Acts 2:20 was not fulfilled at that time. He was not speaking of the events surrounding him and his audience as being fulfilled, but that they were anticipatory of a later date when they would be. The same term, “the day of the Lord,” is seen again in 1 Thessalonians 5:2. An allusion to this is also seen in 1 Corinthians 1:8 and in 2 Corinthians 1:14. The one from 1 Thessalonians 5 says –

“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.”

This is exactly what Peter next says, that it “will come as a thief in the night.” The question is, “Was Peter making a generally known statement, or was he citing Paul?” It is true that Jesus spoke with similar terms in Matthew 24:43, where He spoke of a thief coming, but it is not as specific. Further, John will quote Jesus with the same “thief” terminology in Revelation twice. And finally, some manuscripts only say, “like a thief.” Thus, many translations follow in that. Therefore, it is hard to be dogmatic about Peter’s words.

However, Peter will, in just five more verses, speak of Paul’s letters. The fact that he does this, and the fact that Paul had said to those at Thessalonica, “For you yourselves know perfectly,” it seems to show that this was a common teaching of Paul’s, and possibly one commonly taught by the other apostles as well. Their message was consistent that the coming of the Lord Jesus would occur, and then there would be a time of great cataclysm which would come upon the earth. Peter begins to describe that with “in which the heavens will pass away with great noise.”

Peter now uses a word found only here in Scripture, rhoizédon. It is an onomatopoetic expression where the sound of the word expresses the meaning. It comes from rhoizos, the whistling of an arrow. Thus, there will be a rushing noise which fills the heavens as the atmosphere is sucked up and out of the areas where the events occur. This is a perfect expression to describe modern thermobaric weapons that use oxygen from the surrounding air to generate extremely high-temperature explosions. In such explosions, there is a blast wave which is normally significantly longer in duration than that produced by conventional explosives.

This follows with what Peter had just said in verse 3:7 which also spoke of the heavens and the earth coming under judgment. It also is what Jesus referred to in Matthew 24:35 with the words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” What Peter is referring to here is a passage from Isaiah 34 which speaks of a great heavenly cataclysm –

“All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as fruit falling from a fig tree.” Isaiah 34:4

Peter then continues with, “and the elements will melt with fervent heat.” In our modern times, we can see how this is easily possible – thermonuclear war. Before this age, it would not have been imaginable how such things could take place. Now, it is hard to imagine how, eventually, they will not take place. The world is becoming more and more fractured in ideology, and the greed of the human heart will, at some point, bring about the fulfillment of these ancient prophecies. At that time, Peter says that “both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

These words used by Peter are greatly expanded on in Isaiah 24. It is a passage which speaks of judgment upon the earth on a global scale. The entire passage is worth reading to get the sense of what is coming, but verse 6 is rather clear –

“Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left.” Isaiah 24:6

Life application: Someday, the world will rejoice at the thought of “peace and safety” brought about by a treaty between Israel and the surrounding nations. But the very thing they believe will bring peace is what will bring about destruction.

The dividing of the Land of Israel as prophesied in Joel 3 will lead to judgment. The land belongs to God and He has given it to Israel as a heritage. But the world is now working to divide it. This will come about as prophesied, and the nations will be judged because of it. The book is written, and the prophecies have been spoken. The question isn’t whether these things will come to pass, but when.

Lord Jesus, when You come for Your faithful at the rapture, we certainly want to be counted among that number. Just as important, though, is that many around us will hear and accept the good news of the gospel now, so that they too will be saved from the Day of Judgment to come. May we be bold to open our hearts and our mouths so that we may proclaim this good news while there is still time! Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

God’s Predestination and Election in Christ

Charlie Garrett Doctrine, Doctrine (written), Sermons, Writings 0 Comment

God’s Predestination and Election in Christ

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me, 14 for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. 15 Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’” Exodus 9:13-16 

In our last sermon, we looked into the doctrine of being saved by grace alone through faith alone. This, as we saw, does not mean that we must first make Christ Lord of our lives (MacArthur’s Lordship salvation). Logically, that cannot happen until one is saved. It is faulty logic based on a faulty premise.

We also cannot logically repent of sin prior to our conversion in the way that Ray Comfort of The Way of the Master presents. It is true, we are sinful beings, and we need a Savior. But to repent of sins as Ray Comfort states then implies that we know all of that which is considered sinful, turning from all of that, and only then can we can be saved. This too is faulty logic.

We turn from sin as we discover that which is displeasing to God, and that comes from discipleship, not calling on Christ by faith to receive the gift of salvation which God offers in Him.

Both of those teachings were shown to be faulty because they present a faulty view of the simple gospel – salvation by faith alone through grace alone. But what is the process provided by God that even gets us to that point? And once we arrive at that point, what are the results of the act of salvation which God provides?

These doctrines, those of predestination, election, and that of the security of the believer, are major doctrines. Today we will look at predestination and election. Next week, we will look at the security of the believer.

However, these are not separate in the mind of God, as we will see today. Each point of doctrine leads logically and absolutely to the next because of the very nature of God. That they are combined, is seen in the words of Paul to the Romans in a single verse, Romans 8:30, but for more context, we will give you both verses, 29 and 30…

Text Verse: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:29, 30

Paul speaks of being foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified – all in just two verses. Each of these five verbs is in the same tense – aorist, indicative, active. In essence, the act is defined at a particular moment, it is past, and its effects are ongoing.

Today, we will look at some of the mechanics of what this means for the individual who is to be saved by God through Jesus Christ. Be advised, though, that no matter what is said in the next few minutes, another ten volumes of commentary could be added to each point, and there would still be someone who says, “But you didn’t cover this verse in Romans,” or “Why didn’t you mention that particular point.”

The study is vast, and it takes a lifetime of pursuit. So, please don’t think that every “i” has been crossed or every “t” has been dotted… Wait! reverse that, please. This is just a short talk to hopefully encourage you to desire more. Because there is ever so much more to be desired in His superior word. And so, let’s turn to that precious word once again, and may God speak to us His word today, and may His glorious name ever be praised.

God’s Predestination and Election in Christ

Paul says that believers are predestined, and they are called. The Greek word, proorizó, translated as “predestined” means “to mark out beforehand.” It comes from the preposition pro, meaning before, in front of, and so on, and also the verb horizó, meaning to mark off by boundaries or determine. You can see the English word “horizon” in it. One might think of “pre-horizon,” and thus “pre-determined.”

God has “pre-determined” those who will be saved. But what does that mean? Did God actively choose each before creation as in, “I will make a Charlie Garrett, and I will save him”? If this is so, does He then say, “I will make a Joseph Stalin and I will condemn him”?

Or does God say, “I will make a path to salvation. This is the predetermined boundary, and any who accept that path will be saved”? Or, is there some variation between these that God will use to save man?

One thing is for sure, Paul says believers are predestined, and so there is no reason to argue if this is true or not. What needs to be established is what that actually means, and how it comes about. The importance of why this needs to be known translates directly into the nature of God – His love, His competence, His trustworthiness, and so forth.

It also translates directly into what the believer needs to do in salvation, and even after salvation – both in regard to his salvation, and in regard to his obligation to others for their salvation.

In order to understand at least a small part of predestination and election, we will go over various views on what is involved in them. To do this, we will repeat points already covered in earlier sermons from the books of Moses, and in several Bible studies that some of you have already attended or watched.

However, as this is a series on doctrine, the repetition is necessary, and it will – hopefully – be a good refresher for those of you who have already heard these things before. So, no napping and sit up straight.

Paul’s words of Romans 8:29, 30 are a result of his statement in 8:28 about all things being worked out for good for those who are the called according to His purpose.

Based on this, he says that those whom God “foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Those who are a part of God’s plans and purposes will be conformed. It is already done in God’s mind. How does this come about?

Four main views will be presented – supralapsarianism, infralapsarianism, sublapsarianism, and Wesleyanism. Despite being mentally challenging and a bit complicated, we can simplify the big words for your mind by using easier examples for you to grasp.

In the past, I have used ducks in a pond which then flows into a river. That was so that people wouldn’t quack their heads by thinking too hard. Today, we shall use real people stuck in the same dilemma. The wrong views will be explained first, who believes them, and why.

*The first view is known as Supralapsarianism (supra – above). It says that election, or predestination, is logically prior to the decree to permit the fall of man. In other words, even before sin entered into the picture, election was made for all people. The big word is more easily understood from its parts – Supra-above. Lapse-fall. Ism-doctrine. This is the doctrine of “before the fall.”

This view involves a group known as hyper-Calvinists. It is also known as double-predestination because its effects actively go in two directions. It is radical and biblically unsound. It inevitably leads to judgmental egoists who feel God loves them and hates everyone else.

The reason for this is because their assumption is that God predestined humanity before He permitted the fall of man. Therefore, He actively elected some for salvation and actively elected others for condemnation. The fall hasn’t even happened, and He has made His choice.

In His act of creation, He purposefully created with the intent that His people would either be saved or condemned. That is their state and they have no choice in the matter.

This means that God provides and applies salvation only for the elect. This is known as limited atonement. Christ’s atonement is limited only to those who were elected, and it applies – both potentially and actually – only to certain people. Another term must be applied to those who are saved and those who are unsaved – forced salvation to the one, and purposeful condemnation to the other.

To explain, we can look at the Garden of Eden where God placed man. God created both the garden and the man. The man was placed in the garden, and even before the man has done anything wrong, God has already chosen which of his descendants He will love and which He will hate.

Only after this decision, this one man and his wife disobey. In this, the catastrophe of sin entered into the realm. Man was forced from the garden into a stream of existence, one generation leading to the next. However, that stream leads away from the garden to the abyss of hell – complete, total, and eternal separation from God.

But, during the course of time, God actively comes along and initiates a process of salvation for those He chose to save even before any wrong had been committed. He gives them his Spirit and seals them for future glory whether they want it or not. The choice was made even before the fall, and they were saved at that point in time. The work of Jesus may be a part of this process, but it is actually an afterthought in the stream of events.

And the ones He created for condemnation, He actively withholds His saving of them, forcing them into condemnation and hell because He chose them to be created for condemnation. This is a mean and angry God who actively hates some of His creation, the non-elect, even before He created them.

If you think about it, for those who espouse this doctrine, there is absolutely no reason to evangelize anyone. Why bother telling anyone about Jesus or sending out missionaries? God chose and that’s that. And more, why go to church or read your Bible? If you are elect, there is nothing needed by you in regard to that nonsense. So, live it up, elect!

It ascribes evil to God because the evil that exists is not attempted to be corrected by Him when it could have been corrected by Him, even by those who may have desired it.

This view, double predestination, was held by the first Calvinist, John Calvin. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Chapter 21, Section 5, he states –

“All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.” John Calvin

Such is the view of the first Calvinist, and it is a heretical view of what God is doing in the stream of human existence.

*The second incorrect view is Infralapsarianism (infra – below). This concept says that the decree of election, meaning to call someone to salvation, is logically after the decree to permit the fall. This is held by strong Calvinists, but it is technically not double-predestination.

In essence, God created all and then He permitted the fall of man. Since then, He has and will continue to elect some and will pass by others. He provides, and applies, salvation only for the elect. He chooses who will be saved and they have no choice in the matter.

Traditional Calvinists such as RC Sproul, John Piper, and others, are in this category. This view still holds to limited atonement like the first view. Christ’s atonement is limited only to those who were elected and it applies – both potentially and actually – only to certain people who will be saved. To the saved, it is forced salvation, and to the unsaved we could use the term uncaring condemnation.

We’ll go back to the Garden of Eden to understand. God creates the Garden and the man. After this, man disobeyed, and the catastrophe of sin entered into the realm. It is at this time that God decides who He will save and who He will simply ignore.

In the meantime, man is forced from the garden into a stream of existence, one generation leading to the next. But that stream leads away from the garden to the abyss of hell – complete and total separation from God.

During this course of time, God actively comes along and initiates a process of salvation for some of these people. He gives them his Spirit and seals them for future glory whether they want it or not. The rest, He simply ignores. He does nothing to secure their salvation.

They were simply not a part of His plan. One might argue that this isn’t a hateful God, but that is incorrect. He is uncaring about those He didn’t elect, and to not care about their eternal state is an unloving act.

He made the choice for salvation or condemnation after the fall, but He also did so before He actually took any action to correct the matter. Thus, the cross is an afterthought in God’s redemptive plans and purposes. In His mind, they were saved before His decree to correct their state. Like the first view, the work of Jesus may be a part of this process, but it is actually a secondary thought in the stream of events.

There is an implicit problem with this view which brings it to the same level as the first view. God is all-knowing. The order of the occurrences as I am presenting are for our benefit and understanding, but they are not actually how God’s mind see things. He knows all things at all times. To state that God didn’t actually create some for salvation and some for condemnation in this view would be a hard sell.

In both views so far, God loves only the elect in terms of salvation. The others, He either actively hates, or He simply doesn’t care about them. Which, by default, is a hateful act.

Another problem with this is that God is love – He loves everyone equally. There is no increase or decrease in His love for us from His perspective. The Bible proclaims this. But to pass over some while choosing others, especially after finally providing the means of salvation to the world, is actually no different than actively condemning them. Both views present an unloving God towards the non-elect.

This “passing by” someone, when He knew before creating them that He would “pass them by” is actually more than uncaring. It shows a disdain for a certain portion of His creatures. Calvinist’s like to say that those who are not elect are “simply not a part of His plan,” and that may be true, but it is He – not the poor soul who might want to be – who determines it is so.

In order to justify this, many verses have to be taken out of context, and entire doctrines which are, in fact, taught in Scripture – such as free will – have to be dismissed. By denying free will in the process of salvation, Calvinists then supposedly remove this stain from God, as they view Him.

Like the first view, there is no reason why someone would bother telling anyone else about Jesus or sending out missionaries. They will dispute this, but it is the logical result of such a view. If God chooses us for salvation apart from our will – and even before He has initiated the plan for man’s salvation – then honestly, what is the point? Are God’s plans going to be thwarted by us somehow?

Further, proponents of this faulty view would say that if it was intended for all to be saved, then all would be saved – because God’s sovereign intentions must come about. God is, after all, sovereign – as we saw in a previous sermon. Therefore, if it was not intended for all to be saved, then it was only intended for some, meaning the elect.

This is a fallacy of thinking known as a false dilemma. The atonement of Jesus is an offering and it is intended to save all, but it only applies salvation for those who believe – as 2 Peter 3:9 states explicitly –

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

Calvinism wrongly assumes, and therefore asserts, that the atonement of Jesus has only one purpose, which is to secure the salvation of the elect. In other words, Jesus died so that we can be saved. This is incorrect.

It can be inferred that Jesus’ sacrifice, according to Romans 1:32, has another purpose – to reveal the righteousness of God in judgment. God sends His Son to die in your place, but you turn Him down. Even without the cross, we are condemned. How much more just is God in judgment because of it!

The result of the idea of limited atonement is that it denies that God really desires all people to be saved. This is contrary to His omni-benevolence and also to what Peter wrote, as inspired by God, and which God included in His infallible word.

To understand this view more clearly, one needs to consider the concept of free-will. Do we freely choose Christ, or does God choose us apart from our will? The two options are known as monergism and synergism.

**Monergism, or Unconditional Election, teaches that regeneration is completely the result of God’s work and man has no part or cooperation in it. It is salvation by irresistible grace leading to regeneration and then to faith. In other words, if thought through logically, a person is saved before he is saved. This is in accord with the two models we have already discussed – supra- and infralapsarianism.

To justify this, Calvinist doctrine says that one is born again by the Spirit. After that occurs, they then choose Christ Jesus, and then they are saved. In other words, being “born again” is not salvation, but rather an intermediate step on the road to salvation.

One could paraphrase that by saying, “Nobody has freewill unto salvation, but God chooses a person to be saved, gives them freewill to choose through regeneration (being born again) and then he uses that free will of choice to be saved.

But if they have free will to choose after being born again, and they cannot use it to reject Christ, then it really isn’t free will. Rather, it is “forced will.” Calvinism is convoluted and it involves very unclear thinking and a twisting of the Bible.

Further, this view actually usurps God. If you have no choice in your salvation, then how do you know you are saved? How can anyone make a claim that they are saved when they didn’t have anything to do with their salvation? In other words, you are speaking for God by claiming salvation at all.

Of course, an answer might be, “I believed after regeneration; therefore, I am saved.” However, there are false gospels and people believe them. There are people who believe wrongly and yet claim they are saved. When they find out they are wrong, they change their belief (hopefully) in order to be saved. So, when were they saved? When they believed correctly!

But Calvinism says they were saved by God’s predetermined will, even before they were created. So why did they go through the times of falsely believing they were saved. What exactly was God doing with them at that time? If He wasn’t doing something with them at that time, then they had to have been freely choosing to do what they were doing. Hence, they had free will in the matter.

False gospels imply there is a true gospel and the spirit of the antichrist implies that there is a true Spirit. Belief must precede regeneration. And it does. This is what the Bible teaches. Your faith brings salvation. Finally, monergism denies free will in fallen man, but free will is necessary for love because forced love isn’t love at all. And if you are forced to will, then you are not freely loving.

**Synergism, or Conditional Election, on the other hand, teaches that we freely choose Christ and then are regenerated to life. This is exactly what the Bible teaches numerous times, both by Jesus’ words as well as the apostolic writings –

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13,14

An argument against this though is that the Bible says we are dead in our sins and that it is Jesus who restores us to life. The argument is, “How can a dead person choose life?” RC Sproul, who is now dead, basically says it this way – “You have as much power to awaken yourself from spiritual death as a corpse has the power to awaken himself from physical death.”

This is a fallacy, or an error in thinking, known as a category mistake. We are spiritually dead in our sins. We are not dead beings. God made us with the ability to reason, to choose, and to decline. In fact, this is exactly what Genesis 3:22 implies –

“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…’” Genesis 3:22

Just because we are totally depraved beings, incapable of saving ourselves, it does not mean that we cannot see the good and receive it. People always strive towards what they perceive is good. And this is what Jesus came to do, to lead us as a beacon back to God. As He said Himself –

“He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” John 12:44-46

Christ is the Beacon, and man comes to God through Him. Nobody in his right mind who has read the Bible accurately assumes that he can restore himself to life. Only Christ can do that. He has done all that we need for that to happen. We simply receive it, and He accomplishes the rest. Peter speaks of this synergistic model in 1 Peter 3 –

“There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 3:21 

There, he uses the word suneidésis, translated as “conscience.” It is a compound of sýn, meaning “together with” and eídō, meaning “to know or see.” It provides a look into the idea of synergism.

It is a word used frequently by Paul that signifies joint-knowing. In other words, man has a “…conscience which joins moral and spiritual consciousness as part of being created in the divine image. Accordingly, all people have this God-given capacity to know right from wrong because each is a free moral agent” (HELPS Word Studies).

Peter says that man uses this God-given capacity, acknowledges what God has done through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he is saved.  As man is a free moral agent, and as his conscience must work out an acceptable faith in the work of Christ – a work which culminated in His resurrection – then it shows that man is not regenerated in order to believe as Calvinism wrongly states.

Rather, man’s free will must actively reason out his state before God, see that he is lost in a world of filth (meaning moral unrighteousness), and come into the Ark of Safety, which is the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and thus be saved.

The faith in Christ leads to the “baptism” which is the demand, or question, by which God answers – “Am I right before God?” The answer is, “Yes.” It is Christ who allows this to occur.

Mixing categories, and rejecting core doctrines of the Bible – as Calvinism does – leads to bad theology, such as monergism. To understand the doctrine of free will better go back and watch our Genesis 2 sermon entitled Free to Will or Not Free to Will.

The Bible teaches what we would call anthropological hylomorphism – we are a soul/body unity. The spirit of man is dead, but the spirit of man is tied to the soul. Paul, speaking to saved believers in 2 Corinthians 5, says the soul without a body is naked. The spirit of man is made alive when we call on Christ, even if the body later dies.

This is eternal life, and it occurs the moment we believe. We don’t become a soul/body/spirit unity. Rather it is our soul which is now spiritually alive. Adam’s spirit died at the fall, faith in Christ regenerates that spirit. As I said, the spirit of antichrist which John speaks of confirms this. This is the error of Calvinist thinking. The spirit is not a separate entity. It is a reconnection of the soul to God.

The third wrong concept of our four major categories is Wesleyanism – named after John Wesley. Jacob Prasch, who we mentioned in a previous sermon, is a proponent of this faulty view. It says that God’s election is based on His foreknowledge but not necessarily in accord with it. In other words, God’s decrees are conditional; He changes His mind.

This is the beginning of major error and it goes back to a guy named Jacob Arminius who lived in the 1500s. His view denies eternal security. It reveals a God who is changing and makes mistakes.

John Wesley couldn’t decide what was right and so he followed the teaching of Arminius after asking God for a sign and then throwing lots twice. But we don’t get our theology from happenstance and chance. Instead, we get it from the Bible.

John Wesley, the Methodists, the Church of God, Mennonites, and others who hold this view are wrong – frightfully wrong. Like the previous view, they believe that God created all and then permitted the fall. Then He provides salvation for all people.

God knows who the elect are based on the foreseen faith of those who believe. Because of this faith, He applies salvation only to believers, but believers can lose their salvation.

Going back to the Garden of Eden for an example, God creates the garden and the man. The man disobeys God and the catastrophe of sin entered into the realm. Man is forced from the garden into a stream of existence, one generation leading to the next. However, that stream leads away from the garden to the abyss of hell – complete and total separation from God.

God, however, offers the corrective measure for man – He sends His Son to die for their sin. The Son calls out, “Come to Me and be saved.” Some never hear the message and continue through life without Christ. Some respond and come to Him. Others like the existence they are living and have no care about where their end will be, or they simply fail to believe what they hear, and they reject what God has offered.

For those who come to His Son, however, they can never know if they have upset God enough for Him to take away the salvation He has provided. They must keep doing things, or not doing things, in order to continue to be saved. If they fail in the doing, or not doing, God removes His salvation from them, and they are returned to the highway to hell.

There is never true safety, and in fact, those who are saved can’t really tell if they are saved or not from day to day. They spend their entire life trying to please a group of lower level pastors, preachers, and scholars who carefully decide what constitutes acceptance or rejection.

When God says in the book of Hebrews that those who believe have entered God’s rest, it is a conditional statement. When God says in the book of Ephesians that the seal of His Holy Spirit is a guarantee, it is so in name only. But a guarantee in name only is not a guarantee. In this, God – and what God says in His word – cannot be trusted.

Where Jesus says that hearing His word and believing in Him who sent Him results in 1) everlasting life, 2) that they will not come into judgment, and 3) that they have passed from death to life, does not really mean that. Jesus’ words are not to be taken at face value, but rather, they are conditional.

As this is so, one must earn his salvation, and thus salvation is not by grace through faith. This is a failed system of deceit which comes from a God who vacillates and changes. His decrees are conditional.

Understanding this, we can make a simple and logical refutation of Wesleyanism. First, there is actually no chronological order in the decrees of God. We put them in an understandable order for our benefit, but in God, there is no chronology.

He does not think in time or in sequence. Rather, God knows everything immediately and intuitively. All thoughts in God are simultaneous, and so chronological thinking is therefore excluded. However, there is an operational order in what God has done.

He has willed all things to occur in the temporal sequence of time. One thing happens and then another. We know that God created first. Only after creation came the fall of man. Only after the fall did God then begin to explain His plan of redemption. That plan slowly unfolded in the stream of time.

In this, we can think of a person getting sick. Once sick, a plan is made to bring him back to health, the doctor writes a prescription, and if the man follows what has been prescribed, he will get well. But this plan is unfolded for our benefit. What God has decreed is eternal –

“All of God’s attributes, thoughts, and decisions are eternal in accord with one another, and none is logically dependent on or independent of another. If it were, there would be contradictory logical sequence in a God who has no multiplicity, not even in His thoughts.” Norman Geisler

God provides salvation. Man accepts the prescription which has been filled out for him. The man is saved. The man is sealed with the Holy Spirit. The salvation is eternal. Each decree is eternal, none is taken out of the whole, but is in accord with the whole, and man is saved. That corresponds wholly and accurately to Paul’s words of Romans 8:29, 30 which was our text verse today.

Our final view is what is correct. First, it makes sense from a philosophic standpoint. Second, it makes sense from a moral standpoint. And third, it is the only view which is supported by the Bible. It also answers the question of why we fell in the first place.

Further, it answers where evil came from without ever ascribing it to God. Without this view, one is forever searching for where evil came from. This is a question that Calvinists must, and do, ask. They can never find an answer to it because their theology leaves no room for it.

Their mistaken idea is that God created everything perfect and so if man fell, then God must have blown it by creating a being that could fall. This is especially true because if intent to sin is evil (as Jesus clearly says it is), then Adam fell before the fall because he lusted after the fruit before he ate it. But they know God didn’t create evil, so – as RC Sproul is noted for asking – “Whence comes evil?”

As a short and logical reason for free will in Adam, it is obvious that what Adam did involved self-determination. That Adam sinned can be taken as an axiom. But was it caused by another, meaning it was determined; was it uncaused, meaning it is undetermined; or was it caused by himself, meaning self-determined?

We know that God did not cause him to sin, and the serpent did not force him to sin. So, it was not determined.

As far as Adam himself, there was no lack in him concerning the matter at hand. What he possessed in himself as created by God was perfect. Though he did not possess the knowledge of good and evil, that was not an imperfection. A lack does not necessarily correlate to, or imply, imperfection.

Adam was given a command which he could obey. He simply did not. As there is no such thing as an uncaused action, the action was not undetermined. The answer to “Whence comes evil?” is that it was self-determined by Adam.

For our views on predestination and election, the correct view is sublapsarianism (sub, meaning under or after). In order of decrees, God’s order to provide salvation came before His order to elect the people of the world, as the Bible reveals in Revelation 13:8 where it calls Jesus “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

“I will send My Son to die, and then all who call on Him will be saved.” It provides unlimited atonement for everyone potentially, but only for God’s people who choose Christ actually. Thus, it is unlimited atonement, potential; limited atonement, actual.

Like the previous two views, this view holds that God created all and then permitted the fall of man before election. He provides salvation for all people, but the elect of God are those who believe. God passes by those who do not believe based on their rejecting His offer of Jesus. It isn’t that He doesn’t care about them, it is that they don’t care about Him.

This view applies salvation only to believers who cannot lose it. This is in accord with Scripture which reveals there is security, eternal security, in the arms of Christ. A theological basis for this view is that God is omni-benevolent. In other words, He loves all of the people of the world because He is love, as the Bible states.

There is no hatred of the person willing to come to Him, and no active passing by people. He offers to any and all who hear the message, and the elect respond. He desires all to come to Him for His unmerited salvation and favor. This doesn’t mean there is good in us, it means we see the good in Him and we come to it – as the Bible states. Christ is the Light drawing all men unto Himself.

For a final, and correct visit to the Garden of Eden – God creates the garden and the man. The man disobeys God, and the catastrophe of sin enters into the realm. God, at this time, reveals that He will provide salvation for man – before He elects anyone to that salvation.

This is the order which is revealed in the Genesis 3 account. Man fell, God’s curse came, but even during the curse, He promises a Redeemer. After that, Adam demonstrates faith in the promise by naming his wife Khavah, or life, and because of that act, God covers the man and the woman – a picture of man’s atonement.

This pattern continues outside of the garden for those in the stream of existence, one generation leading to the next. The stream leads away from the garden to the abyss of hell and complete and total separation from God, it is true. Jesus said it is so in John 3:18 –

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18

God, however, offers the corrective measure for man – He first promises a Redeemer and those who believe are rewarded for their faith, such as Abraham. Eventually, He sends His Son to die for sin. The Son calls out, “Come to Me and be saved.”

Some respond and come to Him, others like the existence they are living and have no care about where their end will be. Or, they simply reject Him out of disbelief. Or, they are never told the message because a bunch of Calvinists who say that God’s plans in salvation cannot be thwarted – and so it isn’t necessary to share the gospel for people to be saved – fail to get out and share the message of Christ. Or, for whatever other reason the word doesn’t get out.

For those who come to His Son, they move from condemnation to salvation. They move from hell to heaven. They move from mortality to immortality. They are further protected from themselves by Christ, even if they fail Him along the way.

They are clothed in Christ, they are no longer imputed sin, and therefore, they cannot die again, because “the wages of sin is death,” but death comes through sin. If sin is not imputed, death no longer reigns. And, as a witness to them that this is true, God’s word says that they are sealed with a guarantee – not a crummy Wesleyan Arminian guarantee that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, but the guarantee of God in Christ.

God was pleased that they believed. He saved them, and He continues to save them, even if they may have forgotten it. Peter even says that can happen in 2 Peter 1:9. A person can go so far away from God that he can forget he was ever saved, but God never does. God’s redeemed are eternally secure because of what He has done, not because of what we may do or fail to do.

God even gives us examples of people who either commit such grievous sin that what they do is worse than anything Paul can describe among the Gentile nations, or who completely shipwreck their faith, and yet Paul uses terminology saying that they are saved, and they will remain saved, yet as through fire. Meaning they will suffer great loss at their judgment.

Concerning predestination and election, the first two views hold to salvation only for the elect. The third view holds to salvation for believers but that they can lose it. The correct view holds to salvation for believers, who are the elect, even though it is offered to all – and when that is accepted it is a done deal, the salvation cannot be lost.

This will be the subject of our next sermon entitled “Once Saved Always Saved? Or, Not So!” There is ample biblical support for salvation being offered, free will in the process, and also of eternal salvation. Any verses which appear to contradict these views are taken out of context by the theologically confused Christian.

John 6:44, for example, is a boilerplate verse used by Calvinists to deny that one can come to Christ through free will. It says –

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:44

“See, you have no free will to come to Christ! See!” Wrong! The problem with using this verse for saying that one does not have free will in salvation is at least two-fold. First, it rejects the context of what Jesus relayed to the people. His words were based on the argument he had begun to build in John 5. There He said –

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:39, 40

God had drawn them, through His word, for about 1500 years. However, they were unwilling to accept the word and failed to come to Christ. When Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father who sent Christ draws him, that is true.

Nobody can come to Christ apart from the word of God. Paul says as much in Romans 10 – “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Paul goes on to show in the next four verses that God did, in fact, draw them, and He continues to do so today.

The problem isn’t the drawing by God. The problem is the rejection by the people. This is without a doubt, because, secondly, John 12:32 – which comes after John 6 – says the following –

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

God draws all men to Himself through His word, and it is His word which tells of the cross of Christ, by which Christ will draw all people to Himself, and thus all people to God. Likewise, this goes for John 15 where Jesus says –

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” John 15:16

NEWS FLASH: Jesus was speaking to His disciples. The entire chapter deals solely and only with them. He said the same to them in John 6:70. He chose them. Such verses cannot be used to justify God electing people apart from their free-will.

Predestination is what God has done for the people of the world by sending Christ. When they receive that, they are a part of God’s predestination. Election is God’s calling in Christ. This comes about when one hears God’s message of salvation and responds to the call. When this occurs, the man is justified. And when that occurs, the man is glorified.

In God’s mind, these are eternal decrees which came about through His will being expressed in the temporal sequence of time. Our response to them results in an action which is not conditional, but which is fixed and forever.

To further solidify this, we will spend next week looking at the doctrine of eternal salvation as a separate doctrine. But you can see from what has been submitted today, they are only separate in our minds, not in God’s. This is something that will be confirmed in our closing verse.

As I said at the beginning of this sermon, we could go on and on, for hours, and yet someone will find a reason why I should have also addressed this particular precept, or this particular verse. There is no end to the learning that can be done.

What matters concerning this sermon is not the content which is not provided, but the content which is. And that which you have been provided is accurate, it is logical, and it is in accord with the word of God. Please be sure to now take this information, and use it as a basis for going forward and analyzing the countless other precepts which this short sermon did not include due to its time limitations.

Closing Verse: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:11-14

2 Peter 3:9

Charlie Garrett 2 Peter, 2 Peter (written), Daily Writing, Epistles, Epistles (written), Writings 0 Comment

Sunday, 23 February 2020

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

In the previous verse, Peter, refuting the scoffers, noted that to the Lord, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day. That was provided to show that “The Lord is not slack.” The word here is bradunó. It signifies, “to loiter” or “to be unduly slow.” There is the sense of being late in regard to an appointment.

Peter is saying that this is not the case with the Lord. Rather, He has His appointed time for all things, and He will meet those appointments perfectly. This includes the timing “concerning His promise.” That is speaking of the return of Christ which Peter said the scoffers bring up as a way of mocking His truthfulness. In verse 3:4, he cited them as saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?”

But Peter shows that the promise has been made, and that even if it seems like an inordinate amount of time has gone by, and that the Lord is tardy to His appointment, this is not the case, especially “as some count slackness.”

In the previous verse, it was noted that we as humans look at time, and the events in time, from our own personal perspective. This is why there have been prognosticators in every generation who have claimed that the Lord was coming during their own lifetime. When it doesn’t come about, there is the accusation that the Lord is unnecessarily tarrying, or that He is actually slack. These scoffers then use that as a pretext to deny the truth of Scripture.

But what they believe is a delay which allows them to sin, and to live in lives of sin, is actually a delay which has come about for their own possible good. It is the Lord’s way of showing mercy, even on them. As Peter says, the Lord “is longsuffering toward us.” This is one of the main attributes of the Lord. In Exodus, Moses asked to see the Lord’s glory. When the Lord passed before Him, He made a proclamation concerning Himself to explain His very nature. When He did, He said –

“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” Exodus 34:6

The Lord is merciful even to those who scoff at Him. He is gracious in giving them time to consider their errant ways, and He is longsuffering in His attitude toward them, not immediately giving them exactly what they deserve. He is also “abounding in goodness and truth.” He has made sure and reliable promises to His people, and He will fulfill them exactingly. Peter then precisely explains this by saying that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish.”

Man is made in His image. The value of man is not in who he is, however, when in Adam. In Adam, man is fallen and is already condemned. However, the Lord Jesus came to remedy that. He entered into the stream of human existence to specifically correct that defect in man – giving him a value which he was originally intended to possess. After His coming, He gave instruction to those who have come to Him to continue teaching about Him – even to the ends of the earth.

If Christ came back immediately, or after a short time, the world would not be fully evangelized. But when we set our priorities correctly, we will desire to have others come to Him, and we will set our budgets, our actions, and our lives to work in accord with that. All of this is because the Lord truly desires “that all should come to repentance.”

These words are specifically spoken concerning even the scoffers. To repent simply means “to change one’s mind.” One cannot repent about Jesus if he has never heard of Jesus. However, scoffers have obviously heard of the Lord. They have heard of His promised return, and they have scoffed at it. This indicates that they are not saved, and they therefore need to repent, or change their minds, about who Jesus is and about the state of their relationship with Him.

The words of this verse, as much as any others in Scripture, show definitively and without any ambiguity, that the doctrine of free will is correct. It utterly refutes the Calvinistic concept of the Lord first regenerating a person to believe, who then believes and is born again, and who then chooses Christ and is saved. If this was so, then what Peter says here would also indicate that God has failed.

If he desires that none should perish – but that people do perish – then God is the one who failed to regenerate the people that He desired to not perish. Rather, man has been given free will, and man must come to his own conclusions about the Lord, calling out to Him for salvation.

Life application: Peter reveals here what he has been leading up to for the past eight verses. Those who laugh at or argue against the Lord’s return, because of the many intervening years, have failed to understand the reason for the delay. It is for our personal benefit that the Lord is waiting, and for the sake of all who will be a part of His heavenly temple. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:19-22 –

 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

The Lord is building a holy temple and is using the saved of the ages as living stones to form it. What we may perceive as “slackness” is the Lord’s longsuffering. As wickedness abounds in the world, He is holding out His hands to those who would call on His name. He is doing it as a master Architect. No builder would start a project without considering the materials needed to complete it. God knows the exact number of souls that it will take to build His temple, and when the last person who is needed to finish the next phase of that project calls on Jesus, then the next event in His time schedule will come to pass.

The Lord is not willing that any should perish in the process, but that all will call on Him. Those who actually do will receive their reward; those who fail to do so will be condemned. The process is completely just and is perfect in its scope and execution. What a great God!

O God! How precious it is to be one of the elect – a living stone in Your glorious temple. Thank you for having been patient and longsuffering, and that those who have called on Jesus have been given the chance to do so. Now, please give us patience as we watch You work in other lives, bringing them to the same state of salvation which we now stand in. To Your praise alone! Amen.

 

 

2 Peter 3:8

Charlie Garrett 2 Peter, 2 Peter (written), Daily Writing, Epistles, Epistles (written), Writings 0 Comment

Saturday, 22 February 2020

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3:8

The words here take us back to verse 3:4 where the scoffers ask, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Peter gave an answer to the question in the next two verses. He now gives a second reply, directly from Scripture, where he cites the substance of Psalm 90:4. This is a Psalm written by Moses, and thus it is the oldest psalm in the Bible –

“For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.”

Following this general thought, Peter writes, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing.” Peter is asking his audience to not “willfully forget” as the scoffers were said to do. Rather, he asks them to actively remember what he will say.

Whereas the scoffers willfully forgot the acts of creation that Peter spoke of; they then willfully forgot that if there is a creation, there is a Creator. If there is a Creator, He is before His creation. If this is so – and if time, space, and matter are all a part of the creation – then God is outside of time.

Therefore, time has no bearing on God’s plan, except as He has set that plan into motion within the stream of time. But to Him the amount of time something takes to occur is irrelevant.

The scoffers, like all people, are bound by time, and thus the reference to time is important. Everything that we do is set within a definite boundary – a span – which we cannot exceed. And further, that boundary is unknown to us. We live our lives not knowing what will occur, or when will it occur. This is especially true in regard to death.

As death is the final boundary of our reference to the world, and as we have an understanding that there is a generally set maximum span for each human to live, we naturally expect that a promise which has been made will be fulfilled in our lifetime.

For example, since the Bible was written (even within the Bible), people have expected the Lord to return. Writings throughout Christian history reveal that people expected that their generation would be the one to see Christ’s return. How much, then, would those who deny the Creator’s hand in His creation also want to deny the return of the Lord – simply because of the vast amount of time which has elapsed without it coming about.

But Peter next says, “that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Because God created time, He is outside of time. Therefore, the difference between a second and a million years is irrelevant. God sees all of time, and all that occurs within time, as one simultaneous event.

If a train leaves New York on the way to San Francisco, God sees the beginning, all of the journey, and the arrival without any hindrance to a time reference. The entire journey – and indeed the ages of ages – are laid out before Him.

Because of this, a promised return of Christ could happen at any time – be it one generation or a thousand – and it will be considered a promise kept. We cannot limit God, and what He is doing in the stream of history, to our own limited span of time and expect to find fault in Him. But this is what the scoffers are doing. They imply that because the Lord hasn’t yet returned, He is not trustworthy to return. It is small-minded, shallow thinking.

Life application: The biblical pattern is that God’s plan for man is laid out on a 7000-year timeframe. Jesus came right around the 4000th year, directly in the middle of the timeline. Based on this, and based on a literal 1000-year millennial reign of Christ (as is clearly indicated in the book of Revelation), we can estimate a return of Christ sometime around 2000 years from His ascension. Before the millennial reign, the book of Revelation first tells us of a 7-year period known at the Great Tribulation which focuses on the Jewish people.

Knowing this, we can look to the book of Hosea for a pattern based on Peter’s words –

“After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.” Hosea 6:2

If a thousand years is like a day to the Lord, then we could expect that Israel would be revived after 2000 years of dispersion – exactly what has happened.

Likewise, we can expect that at the dawning of the “third day,” the Jewish nation – with Christ as its Head – will be raised up to rule the nations, just as is promised in the Old Testament.

Likewise, they will “live in His sight” as He rules from a literal throne in Jerusalem. This isn’t idle speculation, but a sound analysis of what God is doing in human history. Jesus Christ really will return, and He really will rule the nations from Jerusalem. The time is coming, and may it be soon!

Lord, we long for the day of Your glorious return. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that we would rather see than the beauty of Your countenance. We look to You now in faith, but we long for that faith to be turned to sight! It is our great hope and our greatest desire. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.