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Good to see you tonight, and
if you have your Bibles, please open them with me to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, reading at verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Our Father,
we pray now that as we open your word that your presence might
be in our midst by your Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts
as we consider this eternal word. And we thank you for this privilege
that we have to open the word tonight. We thank you for each
one who's present. We ask your blessing upon each
of our lives. We pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, I'm entitling this message,
Refuting Calvinism. And certainly Calvinism is a
segment of Christianity today that's Quite large, in fact. And it has spoiled many by turning
theology from a Bible-based system of study, and in the place it
substitutes a humanistic method of interpreting the scriptures,
mainly through religious philosophy. Though it has become a very strong
movement today, it's nothing to be thought of as something
that's new. Being removed from the true gospel
to a perverted gospel is as old as the Garden of Eden. And Solomon,
the preacher, said in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, The thing that hath
been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that
which shall be done. And there is no new thing under
the sun. Is there anything whereof it
may be said, see, this is new? It hath been already of old time,
which was before us." So even in the days of the apostles themselves
there were distortions of the true gospel that were actually
being ingrained into the churches and so much so that the Apostle
Paul himself marveled about it. He said of the churches of Galatia,
I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ into another gospel which is
not another but there'd be some which trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. And Paul likewise had to caution
the church at Colossae about the spoiling effect of men's
speculative philosophical thinking that was displacing the gospel
that Paul had preached to them. He said, as we read tonight,
To them, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments
of the world and not after Christ. The church was being made a spoil. They were being carried off.
They're being carried away through empty deceitful philosophical
speculation. They were observing traditions
of men. They were observing the rudiments
or the principles of this world and not Christ. And so this very same spoiling,
vain philosophy of the world by man's traditions, by man's
philosophy is certainly found in Calvinistic theology today.
And the common denominator of all Calvinists and the bottom
line of Calvinism is that it turns theology into philosophy. And with all of its web of philosophical
speculations, Calvinism has really been impersonating Bible doctrine
now for hundreds and hundreds of years. And today, Calvinism
is riding this wave of resurgence on many fronts. And it's on the
advance, it's on the march, it's in denominations, it's taken
over many of the Christian publishing houses, it's in Bible colleges,
it's in seminaries, it's in churches, it's in homeschooling, it's in
homeschooling materials. And all these avenues and so
many more are today experiencing a rise of Calvinism, Calvinistic
teaching. And it's riding this kind of
a wave because the devil understands its divisive nature and how that
it just dampens the evangelistic zeal. I mean, who really needs
to go out and reach sinners and tell them the gospel if a sovereign
God has already predetermined from eternity past who will be
saved and who will be lost? You see, it dampens the effect
of evangelism. So we're seeing a turning from
Christ to the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world.
We're living in a day when churches, especially the larger ones and
of course many others, but they've become little more than just
religious forms of country clubs, social entertainment centers.
It's sad to see that. It's all about concerts. and
sports and going on amusement trips far and near and it's all
about entertainment. Let the good times begin, let
the fun times begin. We've got something for everyone,
the old, the young, we will entertain you and in this kind of an atmosphere,
who's got time to seriously study the doctrines of the word of
God or to test the spirits to see whether they be of God. So
true theology is just believing from the heart, just believing
from the heart, allowing the Bible to interpret itself by
comparing scripture with scripture. And as we've already noticed
in Colossians 2.8, the Bible warns about philosophies that
are fabricated by the vain deceit of men and their traditions and
not after Christ. Colossians 2.8, beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
The very name The very name of Calvinism is revealing. It's revealing of the origin
of this philosophy. It's origin is men. Calvinism,
particularly John Calvin. The Lord Jesus is the only standard. He's the only measurement. that
any philosophy or any other belief system should be measured against.
Christ is the standard by which all human knowledge should be
measured. It doesn't matter how lofty,
how intellectual, how skillful, it appears if it's not after
Christ, as verse eight says in Colossians chapter two, then
it doesn't pass the Bible's test. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4
and chapter 4 and verse 5, we preach not ourselves, but Christ
Jesus, the Lord. So obviously implied in that
statement, we preach not Calvin, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. And In Acts chapter 17, the philosophers
on Mars Hill, they were measuring everything including Christ by
their philosophy. And the modern day Calvinists
do the very same thing. They've got it backwards. The writings of John Calvin or
any other man should be measured by the word of God. And instead
what you see in Calvinism when you read their writings is that
in many points the Calvinists attempt to make the Bible support
the teachings of John Calvin. And the Lord Jesus Christ, his
inspired, his preserved word are the measurement, are the
standard for any and all human knowledge. And why shouldn't
he be? He's the creator of of all, he's
the sustainer of all, he's the upholder of all, the universe
itself. Turn with me over to Acts chapter
17 for a moment. Acts chapter 17. Sermon from Mars Hill by the
Apostle. God will judge the world by Jesus
Christ. He says in Acts chapter 17 and
verse 18, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the
Stoics encountered Paul. And some said, what will this
babbler say? And others said, other some,
he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. because he preached
unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him to Areopagus and said, may we know what this new doctrine
where thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears and we would know therefore what these things
mean. Verse 21, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there
spent their time in nothing else but to either tell or to hear
some new thing. So, here again we see these philosophers
and true Bible theology is not philosophy, it's simply just
believing the Bible, studying the Bible in order to try to
obtain the truth from heaven. That's what theology is. And
so philosophy uses the human intellect, uses human logic in
order to try to attain to truth apart from divine revelation. And I believe, as Mr. Creech
once said, Calvinism is the mental playground of the intellectual.
Calvinism is the mental playground of the intellectual. The authority
of the Calvinist is not in the plain teachings of the scriptures. That's not where the authority
of the Calvinist lies. But the authority of the Calvinist
lies in the humanistic reasoning of Calvinistic teachings. It's
an elitist type of mentality. They take the Calvinistic writings
and try to fit them into the scriptures. And of course, Calvinism
was developed by John Calvin, who lived in the 1500s, he taught this philosophy of his in his
institutes of Christian religion. And Calvin's writings gave rise
to the Presbyterian and the Reformed theology and many, many other
branches. So Calvinism turns theology into
philosophy. And it's only become a very divisive
apparatus that just divides churches, it splits churches, it splits
ministries. True theology is just to believe
the Bible with the heart and to allow the Bible to interpret
itself. Comparing scripture with scripture
without trying to put our human philosophies into it. And to
do that, to place the authority of Calvin or any other man on
a par that's equal to the authority of the word of God, that's serious
deception. And in the Calvinistic writings,
they do that. John Calvin in his Institutes
of Christian Religion quoted Augustine more than any other
source for his writings. And the teachings of Augustine
essentially gave basis for what became the Roman Catholic Church.
They believed in infant baptism and many other kinds
of false things. The acronym TULIP, as I'm sure
you know, it represents the five main points of Calvinism. The
T, the first of the five points, that stands for total depravity. And the Calvinist doctrine of
total depravity, it means that men have no righteousness of
their own. The heart of man is depraved,
which is right. That's right. But the Calvinist
doesn't stop there. The Calvinist further teaches
that total depravity so permeates man and that the will of man
is so in bondage that he can't believe the gospel. They teach
inability. And Calvinists, there's many
of them. I was amazed in just doing a
little research. They're prominent people. Calvinists
such as Arthur Pink, he believes that men have to first be sovereignly
born again before they can even believe the gospel. and he said
that in his book the sovereignty of God page 73 he states that
he says quote faith is not the cause of the new birth but the
consequence of it because the unregenerate are spiritually
dead and a dead man can't do anything so Calvinism's definition of
human depravity includes inability in ability man does not have
the ability to believe the gospel the only problem with that is
the Bible doesn't teach that the Bible doesn't teach that
is as sinners we don't have the ability to believe the gospel
that bring salvation that's not biblical why would Christ give the great commission to
his church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature, only for God to then refuse to give every
creature the ability to believe the gospel. That doesn't make
sense. And I'm telling you, you have
to get into some very serious elitist philosophical discourses
to come to those kinds of conclusions. And as Mr. Creech said, that's
exactly what it is. Calvinism is the playground of
the intellectuals. I mean, do you believe in a God
who would command you to do what you can't do without His grace
and then not give you the grace you need to believe and then
punish you eternally for not believing? Is that the God you
believe in? Well, welcome to Calvinism. God does command all men everywhere
to repent. Look at Acts chapter 17 and verse
26. It says there that God has made
of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if
happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us. Paul said on Mars Hill, for in
him we live. and move and have our being,
as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think of the Godhead as likened
to gold or silver or stone, graven by art or man's device. And in
the times of this ignorance that God winked at, but now now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. In verse 26, and here we see
in of Acts 17, Paul said, God has made of one blood, all nations
of men on all the face of the earth, we're his offspring. And
then he says in verse 27, they, all the nations of men should
seek the Lord And verse 30, he commands all
men to repent. The Calvinist teaching says that
only the elect can repent. The rest are totally without
ability to repent or believe because they have not been sovereignly
predestinated and predetermined to be elected to salvation. But that's not what the God that
Paul and Silas presented to the Philippian jailer when he said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? They gave him the only answer
that God has ever given to sinners. They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So there is a sense in which
to try to make the Bible teach that salvation is 100% of God. That denies many Bible passages. The Philippian jailer had to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. In John 3.16, for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever, whosoever believeth, should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Whosoever means whosoever, not
to the Calvinist, it means the elect. Acts 2 21, and it shall
come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Whosoever means whosoever, but
to the Calvinist, whosoever means the elect. You see, that's how Calvinism
turns or causes divisions among God's people by turning Calvin's
personal philosophies about God's sovereignty and election into
some kind of church dogma that they will not bend. The Bible is not man's philosophy
of theology. Not Calvin's or anyone else's.
The Bible is the inspired preserved word of God eternally and forever
settled in heaven. So Calvinistic theology changes
the word world to mean elect whenever it's in the Bible. It
changes the word whosoever to mean elect. It changes the word
all to mean elect. Now, there's just no evidence. There's no evidence in the plain
language of scripture. You have to put a humanistic
philosophical interpretation to it to justify those words
meaning the elect. And of course they readily do
that. Calvinism readily does that in
order to make the Bible accommodate Calvinism. They readily do that
in order to make the Bible accommodate the teachings and writings of
Calvin. We're studying a course right
now in evangelism in the Bible Institute. And people have written extensively on the subject of Calvinism from
the right perspective, and they all agree that Calvinism hinders
the work of evangelism. It hinders that work. And, of
course, there are exceptions. I mean, Charles Spurgeon was
a Calvinist, but Spurgeon didn't allow the philosophies of Calvin
to usurp the authority of the Bible. Spurgeon preached the
gospel throughout his life, inviting all sinners to come to Christ
for salvation. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
one, Isaiah chapter one. and look at verse Isaiah chapter
1 and reading at verse 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider, our sinful nation. A people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors.
They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. And the whole heart faint from
the sole of the foot, even unto the head there is no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have
not been closed up, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
A sinful, laden with iniquity, evildoers, corruptors. But notice
this, to these people, to these people, Look down at verse 18
to see what God said to these people. He said to these people, these
sinful, laden with iniquity, evildoers, corruptors. He said,
come now and let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. So where is the total inability
in the plain words of scripture? It's not there. Does the Bible support the Calvinistic
doctrine of total depravity? For the most part, yes, it does. Does the Bible support the added
Calvinistic doctrine of total depravity which includes total
inability? No, it doesn't. And like I say, if you've got
the mental wherewithal to dive into some of the Calvinistic
books and teachings, they they create this web of philosophical
they that's where they go to to total inability because it
has to fit if they take total inability out of it the whole
deck of cards comes down is it true that the Bible teaches
that man is morally corrupt certainly Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked Is it true that the Bible
teaches that man is dead in trespasses and sins? Sure. Ephesians 2.1,
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin? Is
it true that the Bible teaches that man is spiritually blind? Yes. First Corinthians 2. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither for they are foolishness
to him. He can't know them because they
are spiritually discern. The God of this world has blinded
their minds. But nowhere, nowhere in the Bible is it taught
that man is without ability to respond to the gospel message. And if the Bible reader Any Bible
reader, if they don't place their own interpretation on the words
of the Bible, and they just allow the Bible to speak in plain,
ordinary language, the only reasonable conclusion is that God has given
to man the capability and the responsibility to believe God
unto salvation. And not just to the elect, But
all men have that ability by the grace of God. John 1 9 teaches
that Christ, the true light, lights every man that comes into
the world. Christ illuminates. He illuminates
the understanding of the heart of man, and God elevates man
out of his depravity to a capacity to be able to understand and
believe the gospel message. It doesn't mean that we will
believe it, or that we will receive it, but they will understand
it and make their own choice. Let's turn to one more passage
back in the New Testament to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter
one and verse 18, Romans 1.18. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them. Christ is the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. Verse 20, for the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and God had so that they are without excuse. God has been
revealed to all men by creation, by the word of God written in
their heart and in their conscience, by preaching, by the written
word, all men have been shown and all men have been made to
understand even the eternal power of the Godhead so that they are
without excuse. Now, you have to ask yourself, You have to ask the Calvinist, do you believe in a God who would
make known his will to man only to then say, but I'm going to
withhold from you the ability to respond to my will. I'm not
going to give you the ability to believe because you're not
one of the elect. And then I'm going to punish
you eternally for not believing. The Calvinistic teaching of total
inability makes about as much sense as some loving parents
making their will clearly known to their child, a will that has
the wellness and the good of the child, good of the child's
life in view, only to then by their power to withhold from
that child the ability and the means to respond to their will.
That just does not make sense. The plain teaching of the Bible
is that God enables all men to respond by giving them light. John chapter one and verse nine,
by drawing them, John chapter 12, verse 32, by convicting them,
John chapter 16 and verse eight, and by commanding them to repent,
Acts 1730, and commanding them to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, Acts 1631. So, what about you? What about your
unsaved friends? What about your unsaved family
members? Why are they unsaved? Why do they remain unsaved? Is
it because the sovereign God has not predestinated them to
salvation? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom
the God of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe
not. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them." That passage teaches that men
are blinded because of their own unbelief. And they are lost because they
reject the gospel. Not because a sovereign God Won't
give them the grace to believe because they're not part of the
elect. It's God's sovereign will to
save every sinner. We read that in first Timothy
talking about God, our savior. And he says, who, who will have
all men to be saved? What does that word all mean
to the Calvinist? That means the elect. Because
if it was his will for all to be saved and he didn't save them,
that won't fit into the Calvinistic theology and philosophy of God's
sovereignty. So that means the elect. But
sinners can resist the will of God. The Lord Jesus said, you
will not come unto me. that you might have life. He
didn't say you cannot come. You've not been foreordained
to come. He said you will not come. He didn't say that you don't
have the ability to come. You will not come. So God truly
elects and man truly chooses. And those two things are not
contradictory with one another. Calvinism says that because of
total depravity man can't do anything, not even believe. Because then man would have a
part in his salvation and he could boast about it. But the
Bible says that faith and believing are not works. Ephesians chapter
2, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. So, this is a very, I think, needed
subject to be brought from time to time to be thought about because,
like I say, it's riding a wave of resurgence in our days. But if you're here tonight and
you don't know Jesus as personally as your Savior, then there's
no greater thanksgiving that you can share
in than to have a thankful heart because you've trusted Him to
be your Savior and your sins are forgiven. And you know, God
has made that possible. What He did for you, what He
did for me. God sent his son, the spotless
lamb of God, to be our substitute. He paid our sin debt as he hung
there between two thieves. And what is our responsibility? It's certainly not to try to
work our way to heaven by being a good person. or by being religious. Our responsibility is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I mean, it's absurd to think
that you can look at the cross of Calvary and then even think
that there's something that you can contribute to that work. Man can't contribute anything.
That's why the Lord Jesus uttered those words on the cross, it
is finished. So this indeed could be a thanksgiving
for you if you're here lost and without the savior to put your
faith and trust in him. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the
plain teaching of your word and we thank you that the spirit
of God instructs us out of the scriptures not to put our own
interpretation upon your word. And yet we know, Lord, that this
all started very craftily in the Garden of Eden. And it's
only been a downhill journey ever since for man. But
we thank you that you're still in the saving business. You're
still in the business of saving sinners. And we know that you
will save all who will call upon you. And Father, we do pray that
we might understand the spiritual atmosphere, the spiritual landscape
that we live in, that we would not be carried away by man's
philosophies and vain deceit. And we certainly know if a church
is as good as the church at Colossae, that the Apostle Paul himself
went in that direction. we certainly know that we can
be susceptible to that too. So we pray that you'll protect
us and that you'll encourage us in your word and in the things
of the Lord. And father, we thank you for
this, this Thanksgiving season. And truly we are thankful people
because we know our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray your
blessing, uh, upon this word that we've heard tonight. And
we pray that you'll encourage us in the days ahead. We pray
it all in our savior's name. Amen.
Refuting Calvinism
| Sermon ID | 1121122043204 |
| Duration | 45:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Colossians 2:8 |
| Language | English |
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