Whose Choice - God's or Man's?

The Sovereignty of God, and Man's Free Will are the subject of the next few weeks of Sunday School. I hope you guys can make it in, this will be good stuff to bring in something to jot some stuff down on. We began already, with a sort of introduction, so I will go ahead and mention a few things.

The first is that this study will no doubt present a few different ideas, and their teaching in Scripture, but may or may not leave many people with different viewpoints. Welcome to the debate.

The Question is this: Is salvation an act completely of God, partially of God and partially of man, or completely of man?

We tried to outline two of the most popular viewpoints - Arminianism, and traditional Calvinism (or Reformed Theology, Doctrines of Grace, etc).

The Arminian view would go like this:

- Salvation is an act of man, where he is free in his will, because God is just and gives people freedom, and a person is free to respond or reject the gospel. That is why the Scriptures say that we "persuade men" to repentance and belief in Christ.
- It is unjust that God would predestine some to damnation and others to heaven.
- God can only hold men accountable for their rejection of Him if they are free to do so.
- Missions then is the work of man, aided by God, but without the work of men it fails.
- Man has the right to choose, fully and freely.
- Scriptural evidence - The Garden of Eden, God's wrath against those who make wrong decisions in Scripture, The doctrines in Scripture regarding God "desiring that all men might come to repentance." Joshua telling the people of Israel - "Choose you this day whom you will serve." The Great Commission as a commission given to man to accomplish God's work.

The Calvinist view is a little more involved, and traditionally goes like this:

This is usually given in the acrostic TULIP.

T - Total Depravity - People are lost in their sins, they are totally depraved. They are SO lost that repentance and faith are impossible for them, and apart from God drawing them and bestowing faith upon them, they cannot be saved. "There is none who seek God, no not one" as it is given in Isaiah.

U - Unconditional Election - God has predestined some to repentance and saving faith and others to damnation apart from Him. God's sovereign election is man's only hope, and so in his mercy He has brought a group from mankind to be saved. This electing is unconditional, it is not based on anything but His divine purpose. Romans 9, Ephesians 1, other places that specifically use the terms elect(ion), predestined.

L - Limited Atonement - Christ died only for the elect. That Christ's saving grace was so specific and personal, that the atonement (the payment for our sins) was done only for those who were predestined to come to faith. There was no need for a Sovereign God to place the sins of those who would reject the gospel (whom He had not predestined) on His Son. Scriptural Evidence - not really much, this is mostly a logical conclusion that may or may not have been held by Calvin, but was held by His followers.

I - Irresistible Grace - God's wooing and drawing of the persons that He has predestined is irresistible. This doesn't mean that people are dragged kicking and screaming into heaven, it simply means that God's work in a person's heart will undoubtedly bring them to a genuine faith. Man could not and would not resist Him. Scriptural Evidence - Jesus talking about "calling", and that those whom the Father has given Him will hear his voice and follow Him. Others as well, that don't come to mind right now.

P - Perseverance of the Saints - This is undoubtedly the easiest for many from varied viewpoints on predestination to accept. Salvation is once and for all. The true believer WILL persevere in the faith, because He who began a good work in you WILL be faithful to complete it. You cannot lose your salvation, but the fruit of your life is the mark of salvation. All who are genuine believers will persevere in the faith until the end (this does not mean sinlessness, or some sort of legalism, it simply means Christians while dealing with their flesh will grow in their relationship with Christ as a mark of the work that has been done in their heart). Scriptural Evidence - John 10, 1 John (all of it), James, Romans 6, etc.

Can Someone Lose Their Salvation?

We spent one week talking about this, and I ended up speaking on it. This is the transcript from the sermon I gave this Sunday, and I hope it is helpful to you. If you would rather listen to it, you can find it on the Chrysalis page from www.firstbaptistwelcome.org. For an even more in depth look at this question you can see the transcript from a sermon by John Piper, called "When is Saving Faith Impossible?

Over the last few weeks it seems like I have had so many different conversations with people about this subject, and there have been several that have really had questions on whether or not we can take assurance that “eternal security” is really true. What I mean by eternal security, is whether or not someone who comes to genuine faith in Jesus Christ and is saved can then lose their salvation.

That is an honest question from honest people, and I wanted to take this Sunday morning to teach on this subject that is important for us to understand. We will be in the book of Hebrews today, looking at the passage that is most often used as evidence that it is possible to fall away from the faith.

But before we do that, I want to begin with a story. I’ve told this story before in another sermon a few months back, but the reason that this is important is that regardless of what we say about the Scriptures this morning, the real hindrance is going to be in some of your minds regarding people you know. What I mean by that is that typically a discussion on what the Bible says about eternal security with someone who doesn’t believe in it ends like this – “well, you don’t understand, there’s this guy that I know…” Because that is how we think sometimes, very practically. "There is someone I know that used to do great things for God, or really seemed to love God, or whatever, and now he doesn’t want anything to do with God."

Well, I can sympathize with you in some ways, and I don’t want anybody you know to be a stumbling block to you, so I am going to tell you the story of someone who beats them all. And the reason for that is that we don’t base our beliefs about God and about salvation based on our personal experience and lives, we base it on the word of God alone. So what the Bible says when it comes to salvation is more important by far than our life experiences. The teaching we are going to look at today is serious, and it isn’t going to be a “don’t worry, we’re all okay” look at the word of God. Instead, it is going to be a sober reminder that with salvation there is fruit in our life, without it there are thorns and bristles.

In the early part of the 20th century, the 1930s and 1940s there were two men who were part of the beginning of a huge revival, especially among teenagers, from an organization called Youth for Christ. The man that was seen as the leader and the main guy, was this man Charles Templeton. He could preach the lights out. He gave gospel presentations that were clear and accurate. He called sinful people to repentance. In the crusades that he was involved in, overall, thousands of people came to faith in Christ. Many were beginning to see him as the next great revival preacher. There had been Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and now Charles Templeton.

But one day Templeton saw a picture of a woman in a magazine who had just lost her baby boy, and she was distraught.

He decided then and there that there could not be a God, because a loving God would not do something like that to a person.

He left his position as an evangelist; he walked away from Youth for Christ. He totally left the faith even, and became an atheist. He even wrote a book later in life called A Farewell to God. He became a sportscaster, went through several marriages, received some recognition in various jobs because of his rhetorical skills. And he lived the next 50 odd years of his life, having totally walked away from God. Youth For Christ, which he walked away from was left under the care of another man who wasn’t as skilled as Charles was, and people said it would never work because of the man’s hopeless Southern accent, and his lack of flair.

That man’s name was Billy Graham, and don’t worry about him, he did okay. Not because he was as good of a speaker, or as talented, but because his faith was genuine, and because his faith was genuine he was a man of integrity and humility, and a man who leaned on Christ. And God blessed his ministry more after Charles was gone, than he had even when the great orator was there.

We are not saved by works, we are saved by faith and the grace of Jesus Christ bestowed upon us when we come to him in repentance and are born again. Charles Templeton had a longer list of works and accomplishments for the kingdom than you or I may ever achieve. Many around him would have said that his faith and love for Christ seemed very genuine. But God is the author of the heart, and time proved that Charles may have been emotionally involved, passionate, caring, knowledgeable about the things of God – but none of those things were saving faith.

And so today we look at a greater authority than any man’s life, the word of God. I hope you take notes today, this is important. If you don’t have a way to do that, underline or write in the margins of your Bible. This is one of the most common questions among people, and we need solid Biblical answers, not our own beliefs.

The Scripture this morning is Hebrews 6:4-8, I invite you to turn with me there this morning.

There is something that we need to establish this morning before we even delve into this topic.

1. If the Bible is the Word of God, all of it is true, which means it affirms the same teaching.

2. If Hebrews teaches the opposite of what Jesus taught, or that John writes, or even what the book of Hebrews says in other places or whatever, than either one of them is a liar, or all of them are liars, or we don’t have a correct understanding of what they are saying. So if we know something clearly from several places in Scripture, including elsewhere in the book of Hebrews, than we need to examine this passage in that light.

The book of Hebrews is a very serious book, and it gives warnings against having a misunderstanding of faith. God would rather have you uncomfortable with the truth than happy and content and believing a lie.

So let’s look at this passage:

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance,

How can it be impossible for someone to come to repentance? Let’s look at this:

This passage is talking about someone who has experienced the following: Enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift (Holy Spirit), made partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come. This is not a person who has come to faith in Jesus Christ, it is someone who has been around it, possibly for a long time. Enlightened by the teaching of the gospel. Tasted of the heavenly gift and been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean being given the Holy Spirit in salvation, the author is talking about sensing the nudging of the Holy Spirit, and being surrounded by the work of the Holy Spirit. Maybe even surrounded by religious things in which the spirit is at work.

Imagine the people of Paul’s day who were witnessing miracles and works of the Spirit, they were partaking of the work of the Spirit, but they did not have the Holy Spirit. Someone who is religious and lives a good life, and is moral, and involved in church and ministry, may be around the work of the Holy Spirit, Templeton sure was, and he had tasted of what the Holy Spirit could do. They have tasted the word of God and the gospel, they have heard the truth of Scripture and the teaching on eternity and the coming judgment. The text is saying that once that person has walked away, or fallen away from the faith, it is impossible to bring them back to repentance.

Now it is important to note that the Greek that is being used here is in hyperbole, it could also be translated “it is extremely difficult.” That it cannot be done by human means. Jesus says the same thing when the rich man walks away from him and he remarks about how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. But Jesus ends his statement by saying “what is impossible with man is possible with God.”

There is hope and incredible seriousness here about the state of someone’s heart towards the gospel.

And so the writer of Hebrews gives a warning that it is very, very, very difficult to bring this person to repentance, that it is just about impossible. Why is it impossible? Well for two reasons:

Number 1 – you can’t recreate what never happened the first time.

Number 2 – What is there left for drawing this person to salvation?

They have tasted the work of the Holy Spirit, his nudging towards repentance, the truth of the gospel, the truth of eternity and judgment and they have walked away. What else is there to show them or teach them? It is never the case that someone who comes to God in genuine repentance is turned away; never. Hebrews 12:16-17 sheds light on this when it talks about Esau – “he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

Our hearts get hardened, the person that the writer is talking about is someone whose heart is hardened by his rejection of the truth, and a repentant heart is something that he is quickly losing.

Understand that it never leaves anyone unscarred to have so many chances at true salvation and to walk away. It will be a much greater work that God must do in that person’s heart, than even in the heart of someone who has never heard the gospel. That’s what the writer means when he says that they “again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

The text is not saying there is not enough grace for them, after what they have done, so Christ would have to die again to pay for them, which he won’t do. That is how this verse gets understood by so many, and I can see why it may be easy to take it that way, but you cannot believe any of the teaching on salvation and God’s grace, and Christ’s work on the cross in the Scriptures and believe that. This text is talking about someone who has seen for themselves the truth of the gospel, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and the sacrifice made for sins by Christ, and decides that it is really not for them.

To show that kind of rejection towards Christ, is as grievous of an act as if we were to decide to crucify him all over again. God sent his Son into the world to die a horrible death and be raised again so that you might have life and be saved from your sin, and live eternally. To reach an understanding of the truth of that, and then decide that you would rather just live your own life without Christ is as wretched as if you found Christ and nailed him to the cross all over again.

When someone who has been enlightened, and tasted the work of the Holy Spirit, and the truth of the gospel, and the power of God and the message of eternity decides that it just isn’t good enough for them and they would rather have the world in essence they are saying “I agree with the people who crucified Christ – let’s get rid of Him.”

The writer closes these verses with an illustration involving two sections of ground. If this were a passage of Scripture talking about someone losing their salvation, it would go like this: "There was one section of ground, it had lots of fruit and vegetation, but then it got overgrown by thorns and bristles and wasn’t any good anymore." That is not what it says, there are two sections of ground, both have drunk the rain, both are going to yield a crop.

Jesus says this truth numerous times in the Scripture – you will know them by their fruit. That either the fruit of the Spirit grows in them, and their faith grows, or the thorns of this world and of sin choke everything else out.

Some of you have known folks that for a while it looked like there was some good fruit on the way, and it looked rich and wonderful, but in the end it wasn’t fruit, but their life instead yielded thorns.

Now, while we have time, let’s look at the teaching of Scripture that we need to supplement this passage:

First – 1 John 2:19 – John is writing to believers who no doubt are asking this same question. There are folks who were once with us, some of them really great folks, but they have totally walked away from God, what does that mean?

John writes – “They went out from us, but they were never really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

What happens in our lives is a testament to what happened in our hearts, and if we ever came to faith at all. Now I want to establish a couple of truths – we are not sovereign over any one else’s soul, God is. We don’t have final authority over whether anyone is saved or not, God does. We will all struggle, and go through seasons that are hard.

John has written already to these believers that they will sin, and when they do that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. They can take hope in that. But as John writes to believers, he speaks with clarity in his whole letter that when we know Christ, our lives will be different. Be afraid when you look just like, act just like, talk just like, walk just like the world. That is not the mark of a believer. When you desire and long for the things of this world, and not the things of Christ, be afraid, that is not the mark of a believer. When you love yourself, and you want yourself to be the ultimate authority, be afraid, that is not the mark of a believer.

It is the instinct of a believer to run to Christ not away from Him when trouble comes. It is the instinct of a believer to desire after the things of God, not just seek to serve Himself. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer for him to be convicted in his sin, and in his feelings of unworthiness to be reminded of the cross of Christ and the payment made for Him, and to come to God in repentance again and again.

John is not talking about people cleaning up their act, he is talking about the effects of whether or not salvation ever occurred in the first place. Their going out from us, shows that in the beginning, they were never of us.

Jesus, in John 10:26-30 says this “you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my Hand. My Father who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Listen to the promises of that passage that Jesus gives: First – You don’t believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me. There are no shoulds, coulds, or maybes in this passage. The Pharisees don’t really know Jesus, they have been around him, they have seen the great things He has done. They have never bowed their knees to Him and accepted the truth of who He is.

Jesus makes several remarks about the people who know Him though – They believe, they hear His voice, that He knows them, and that they follow Him. Following Him is not what makes them a believer, it is the result of what happens when they are a believer. Jesus doesn’t say they will follow me if they find the right church, or they will follow me if all of their life circumstances turn out just right, or they will follow me because I will always make it easy for them. He says they are my sheep, that is why they follow Me.

Second – I give them eternal life, they will never perish, no one will snatch them out of my Hand. My Father is greater than all, no one is able to snatch them from His hand. How can you be sure? Because I and the Father are One. My grandfather always liked to say – “How can you have temporary eternal life?” To think that God would give eternal life and then take it away is not valid and it’s not Scriptural:

Jesus says I give them eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. No one, not even themselves.

God’s grace is enough and it is something that we have received if we have believed in Him and come in repentance accepting Him, and it is not of works so that no man can boast, none of us have earned it.

If we cannot gain salvation, by our own merit, how can we lose salvation by our own merit?

Christ’s promise is true, they are mine and they are yours if we have believed in Him. And so today the question that you need to examine with much seriousness is the state of our hearts and those we know and love.

Jesus gives a parable of two men who built a house: one man built a house that was very nice, and gave the appearance of a great house, but it had been built upon the sand. The winds and rain came and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. But another man built his house upon the rock, and when the winds and the rain came and beat against that house, and the house stood firm, because it was built upon the rock.

If the house has collapsed, it is because it was never built on the rock of Jesus Christ to begin with. So the question you must ask yourself is “is your soul built upon the Rock of Christ or something else?” Salvation is found through believing in Jesus Christ and the work that He has done, His death and resurrection, that it was for you and for your sins that he bled and died, and bowing the knee of your heart before Him and accepting the free gift he offers of eternal life and a changed soul, and that He has taken the judgment you deserve.

When we have believed in that and accepted that, our souls are held forever in His hands, and no one can take them, not even you, from Him. And as we look at today, the warning for us is that the longer you run from a real relationship with Christ, the further you get from repentance. You don’t need rituals, or works, you need to bow your knees and your life before Him. For believers take comfort in the promises of God. For anyone who would come to Christ this morning, this is your time.