The scripture reading is Zechariah chapter four. We quoted from it last week in part, but we're going to read the whole chapter this time. These words were given by the prophet to Zerubbabel and the returnees to Jerusalem who were rebuilding The temple, I get Nehemiah and Ezra mixed up there, which one's rebuilding what? But this was the temple, I think, in this case, and they were discouraged as a result. And so here's this great lesson for us to learn that essentially what God tells Zerubbabel is, Zerubbabel, your problem is, You're trusting in yourself to get this thing done. And it's not going to be done by might or by power. It's going to be done by my spirit. So take heart. And so here it is, Zechariah chapter 4. And the angel who talked with me came again. and woke me like a man who's awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, what do you see? I said, I see and behold, a lamp stand all of gold with a bowl on top of it and seven lamps on it with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it. one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. Now the imagery there is that there is an infinite supply of oil being fed by these trees into these lamps. And I said to the angel who talked with me, what are these my Lord? The angel who talked with me answered and said to me, Don't you know? Do you not know what these are? I said, no, my Lord. Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain and he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of grace, grace to it. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth. Then I said to him, what are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand? Second time I answered and said to him, what are these two branches of the olive trees which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out? He said to me, Do you not know what these are? I said, no, my Lord. And he said, these are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth. There's one of the most incredible chapters in all of the Old Testament prophets, and it contains extremely important lessons for us because we are to be at work as well in, you might say, building the house of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, doing his work in the church. And it's easy for us to get discouraged sometimes and grow weary. How are we going to do this? And the danger there, when that happens, is that we say, we think, we've got to come up with something. We'd better come up with something here, see, rather than recognizing that it is the Lord then that builds his church and he will supply us with his spirit and his strength and his guidance. Well, we're going to continue then this morning with this series that we began last time, God's Power in Our Weakness. The principle that God works through foolish things, through the weak things. He always does this. And specifically this morning, what we want to look at is how man's pride inevitably distorts the gospel. Always do that. Distorts the gospel and turns it into a tool that men use to boast about themselves and so on. Well, let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing on the ministry of his word then. Father, we do ask your blessing on the preaching of your word, the hearing of your word, that you would, by your spirit, give us understanding, show us where we need to confess sin, where we need to repent, and where we can be encouraged as well, because this principle before us was a great encouragement to the Apostle Paul when he recognized through your hand, sometimes heavy hand upon him, that when he was weak, that's when he was strong. And Father, we pray that you would teach us the same thing as well. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, here are these theme verses out of 2 Corinthians 12 that our series here is based upon, the words of the Apostle Paul. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Well, here you have it then, lots and lots of lessons just in those few verses, but certainly here we see that the Lord always works through weakness. That's a true truth about God. He always works through man's weakness. When we're strong, that is when we look at ourselves and we boast about our own ability to do the Lord's work or anything else, or we boast about how we've contributed to our own salvation, what can we expect? Well, we can expect that the Lord will withdraw from us. because his power is perfected in our weakness, not in our boasting. He will remove his spirit. We'll become like Laodicea. This is what had happened to them in pretty short order here. Revelation three, for you say, church at Laodicea, you say, I'm rich, I have prospered, I need nothing. Not realizing that, well, here's the truth of the matter. You're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. God's power is perfected in weakness. And we need to learn that lesson. That's not the American spirit, is it? But it is certainly the spirit of the Lord, and this is a truth we need to get hold of, 1 Corinthians 1, another example. For consider your calling, brothers. Now, if Paul was writing that to us, what he would mean by that is, you guys look around, look at the guy, look at yourself, look at the guy behind you, look at the guy in front of you, look around. Not many of you were wise, according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what's weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are. So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, See, there it is. How come you're a Christian and the next guy isn't? Because of him, not because of me, because of him. Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it's written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Boast in the Lord, don't boast in yourself. Now, one of the repeated pictures of this same principle, when I'm weak then I'm strong, God's power perfected in weakness, is that God has chosen to work through his church, which is described repeatedly in the Bible as a remnant, all right? Think about the meaning of that word. When you think of, well, there's a remnant of the chocolate cake left, right? You're not thinking most of the chocolate cake is there. Remnant means the remains, the remains, the leftovers. And that's how God's people are so often described. Here's some examples. John 6, after this, many of his disciples, Jesus' disciples, turned back and no longer walked with him. Was it Robert Godfrey that said John 6 should be known as the church shrinkage chapter, right? As God affects the sin, Jesus would do that repeatedly. They weren't walking with him anymore, they left. So Jesus said to the twelve, Are you leaving too? You want to go away too? Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Jesus, Jesus had a small band and as we'll see even these 12 left, and one was a traitor. Micah 4, in that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the great and mighty, no, the lame, and gather those who've been driven away and those whom I have afflicted, and the lame I will make the remnant, those who were cast off a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. Romans 9, and Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Romans 11, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals to God against his real Lord. They've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life. But what's God's reply to him? I've kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there's a remnant chosen by grace. But if it's by grace, it's no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would be no longer grace. 2 Timothy 4, for Demas, this is Paul's experience, right? Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. I remember one guy in this church, not here anymore, none of you guys, but a long time ago, we were looking at that verse and he said, but Demas was a Christian. That doesn't mean he wasn't a Christian. Wrong. Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me, get Mark and bring him "'with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.'" So hardly anybody was with him. In fact, in this next one, nobody. 2 Timothy 4, again, "'At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, "'but all deserted me. "'May it not be charged against them, "'but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, "'so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed "'and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. And you see, you know, you see this on, you know, page after page of scripture. Deuteronomy 7, the Lord tells Israel, it wasn't because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. You were the fewest of all people. God's power, he works through the weak. Matthew 7, the gate is narrow. the ways hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Luke 12, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So you see it. Clearly, God's power is perfected in weakness. He chooses to work through the weak things. We saw that last time. Gideon, the 300, what did they start off with? 20,000, too many, whittled it down, whittled it down again, ends up with 300. Lord didn't even really need the 300, but nevertheless, he chose to work through a weak small band. He tells Gideon, I don't want any of you boasting about the victory. When we're weak, then we are strong. And we are weak. Individually, we're weak. As a church, in and of ourselves, we are weak. But when we sin and boast and praise ourselves, well, that's when we're really weak. That's when the Lord's power leaves. Now, let's consider, as we'll see in a moment here, something that J.I. Packer called the New Gospel. The new gospel that permits man to boast, particularly about his own salvation. The gospel of Christ is foolishness to the world. That's how it is. It's always been that way and it always will be that way. The gospel of Christ is foolish. It's the wisdom of God, but the world despises the message of the cross. Now think of it. How are you going to sell that to somebody, right? How are you going to, I've got this message that I know you regard it as absolute stupidity, but I'm going to convince you to buy it, right? The thing is impossible. It can't be done. That's something only the Lord then can do. 1 Corinthians 1, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly, through the foolishness of what we preach, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and stupidity to the Gentiles. With a gospel like that, with a message like that, only God can pull off bringing somebody to faith. As I mentioned last Sunday, the history of this church, I mean, from years way, way back, you can look through some of the records, and some of it, much of it we experienced, too, as well, but the history of this church evidences the sin of pride. Now, you know, you think of this matter, it's like our reaction here. Come on, man, don't say bad things about our church, right? Well, now think this through. Since when did it become a bad thing for a church to acknowledge its sin and confess it before the Lord? Think of the letters to the churches in Revelation. Five out of seven, the Lord had something against. And He's calling them to Repent of it. What would have happened if they'd just been like, all like Laodicea, oh, we don't have anything to repent of, you know, we're great here, and so on. So it does behoove us to acknowledge that the history of this church evidences the sin of pride. How does it evidence? Well, some of you were here. Years ago, nearly 30 years ago now, remember? A guy that had enjoyed power. He was a diatrophist. He enjoyed power in this church, love being first. He storms down this aisle and comes up here and blasts away and points at me. And he says, I just remember his words, he doesn't even give us credit for building this building. If you wanna display that you're guilty of the sin of pride, that's probably a pretty good way then to do it. That man has since departed his life. I hope that he repented, but he never came back here and repented. Another man of the same arrogant spirit boasted frequently, I remember him saying after a service, he didn't like the sermon, and he said, our church, has a reputation in this town. Our church has a reputation of being a fine family church. Now, you can hear the arrogance in his voice, but think about that. Is that specifically to be the essence of Christ's church? We're a fine family church. Well, what does that mean? What we're supposed to be is Christ's church, the body of Christ. That's what we're here to glorify, to glorify God. So there was this arrogance that crept in. When? Only the Lord knows. But it was years then before. I just tell these stories because it's so characteristic of the sin that can creep in to our church, to any church, It's always a temptation to us individually and as then a church. The Lord has done some amazing things through this little church. He has, but he did it. We didn't plan it. He did it and he's the one that gets all of the glory for it. There can never be any boasting then about it at all. Well, what happens to a church? or to an individual's life. What happens when Jesus leaves? Remember last time, last week, we mentioned, we put it this way. Churches don't die because people leave. Churches die because Jesus leaves, right? And remember Jonathan's words to his servant? He said, you know, the Lord's not limited. by many or by few. He's not limited by that to effect his work and effect a victory. But what happens when Jesus leaves? Well, you end up with something like this. Isaiah one, what to me, this is the Lord, what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I've had enough of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, you know, you come here on the Sabbath, in our day we'd say to a church, when the Lord would say to a church like this, you know, when you gather together for church on Sunday, Who's required of you this trampling? It's all this is, is just trampling with unclean feet of my courts. Bring no more vain offerings. Just stop it. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. You know, all of the church activities and so on. I can't endure the iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They've become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, and in some ways this is the worst, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood." See, there was no repentance. That's what's left over when Jesus departs because the church embraces sin and sin of pride and all other sorts of wickedness, you see. And so we know that just as happened with Israel, a church can be on the surface of it, you know, like the Pharisees, whitewashed and so on. On the surface of it, it can look like a happening, cooking place. I can remember, here's another example of pride. I can remember, you know, years ago, we gave a shot to affiliating with a denomination, North American Baptist. And we learned there that what's written on paper isn't necessarily what's practiced, right? But I can remember the district minister at a local convocation of pastors and churches. And he stood up and he pointed to one of the pastors that was there. And of course, as it always seems to go, one of the bigger churches in numbers. And he pointed to that guy and he said, now listen everybody, if you want to do worship right, if you want to see worship done right, you go to that guy's church, that place. Now they do worship right, you see. And I mean, just seething with pride and arrogance. A church can become a corpse if Jesus takes his spirit and leaves. That's all you've got is a dead body. And why does he leave? I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. A local church can become an idol temple. We can create all kinds of false gods and pat ourselves on the backs, you see. Isaiah 45, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. By myself I've sworn from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. You see it over and over. It's I alone am the Lord. There is no other. And yet man will try to set himself up as little gods, you see. Have you ever wondered why wicked, prideful people even bother with church? What is it? Are we like some magnet, you know, sign outside? Wicked people come here. Actually, some church signs almost read that way, you see, but why do Satan's emissaries, you know, put on the disguise of Christianity and come into the church. Well, I think largely here's the answer. Paul says it, Philippians 1. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm put here," he was in prison, for the defense of the gospel. The former, these arrogant ones, proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition. It's all about them. They're diatrophies. Third John loves to be first. It's a way That wicked, the wicked prideful man creeps in and utilizes the local church as a vehicle for self-praise, for becoming, and there can be just masters at it. And also then, that kind of a person will look at somebody like the Apostle Paul, and actually their goal is to cause, try to cause him more trouble. Oh yeah, that's the Apostle Paul over there. He's in prison, you know. He's in prison. The Lord's not blessing him. Listen to me. Third, John, I've written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, he's a, that's the biblical definition of a narcissist, that's him, Diotrephes, he likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority, so if I come, I'll bring up what he's doing, talking wicked nonsense against us." And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. In other words, he becomes the power broker then in the local church. Notice how John's going to handle him. He's going to confront him. And else that infection will spread through the whole church. Now, as I mentioned earlier in the Sunday school hour, J.I. Packer says, the boastful pride of man embraces the new gospel. And Packer wrote, he said that in an essay, I showed you this in Sunday school, but I'll hold it up for the people online, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen, written in the 1600s. And he, Packer wrote a wonderful essay at the beginning of that book, which you can find online, and I recommend that you read it. We're going to read a good portion of it here in a moment. But Owen's purpose in his book was to demonstrate that the Arminian doctrine of universal atonement, that is that Christ died for the sins of the entire world, is a false and damaging doctrine. Christ himself said, John 17, his high priestly prayer, for example, I pray for these that you've given me, Father. These you've given me. I don't pray for the rest. I'm praying for those that you have given to me." So he died for his people. Interestingly, when we sang the hymn in Sunday school this morning, What was it, Charles Wesley's hymn? And Can It Be. You look at the verses in there again, and even Charles Wesley said that Christ died for his chosen race. He died for his chosen race, you see. Well, as Packer says, the new gospel is a false gospel. It's man's creation, and its purpose is to permit man to boast. about contributing to his own salvation. Wherever the contagion of pride creeps in to a church, you can know for sure that this kind of a gospel is going to come along with it, you see. And the so-called church that it builds is going to be a straw house. Listen to Packer then, follow along. I'm quoting him at length, I'm skipping just portions of it, it's not the whole essay, but this is one of those scenarios where I can't say it as good as him, so here we go. The death of death and the death of Christ is a polemical, that means a strongly critical refutation. is a polemical work designed to show, among other things, that the doctrine of universal redemption, that Christ died to redeem everybody. right, on the cross, is unscriptural, and it's destructive of the gospel. There are many people, therefore, to whom Owen's work is not likely to be of interest. They won't even look at it. Those who see no need for doctrinal exactness, oh, let's not bother with that, you know, that's just going to cause trouble, and have no time for theological debates, that might show up divisions between so-called evangelicals may well regret the book's reappearance. Some may find the very sound of Owen's thesis so shocking that they will refuse to read his book at all. He says, so passionate a thing is prejudice. and so prouder we have our theological shibboleths. I'll let you look up shibboleths, right? That comes out of the, what is it, judges and judges there? But it's hoped that this reprint of this book will find itself readers of a different spirit. Without realizing it, We have, during the past century, bartered, traded the biblical gospel for a substitute product, which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing. Hence our troubles. for the substitute product does not answer the purposes for which the authentic gospel has in past days proved itself so mighty. The new gospel conspicuously fails to produce deep reverence deep repentance, deep humility, a spirit of worship, a concern for the church. Why? We would suggest that the reason lies in its own character and content. The New Gospel fails to make men God-centered in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts because this isn't primarily what it's trying to do. One way of stating the difference between it and the old gospel, that is the biblical gospel, is to say that the new gospel is too exclusively concerned to be helpful to man, to bring him peace and comfort and happiness and satisfaction, and it's too little concerned to glorify God. The old gospel was helpful too, more so indeed than the new, but so to speak, incidentally, to help man is not the primary purpose of the old gospel. Its first concern was always to give glory to God. It was always and essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons a call to the sinner to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace. Its center of reference was unambiguously God. But in the new gospel, the center of reference is man. This is just to say that the old gospel was religious in a way that the new gospel is not. Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach men to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and his ways with men. The subject of the new is man and the help that God gives him. There's a world of difference. The whole perspective and emphasis of the gospel preaching has changed. From this change of interest has sprung a change of content, for the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interests of helpfulness. Accordingly, the themes of man's natural ability to believe of God's free election, I read that wrong. Accordingly, the themes of man's natural inability to believe of God's free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for his sheep, are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not helpful. They would, it is said, drive sinners to despair. If you preach this stuff, you know, you are suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. Now let me just interject here. That's what happened in this church decades ago. That's what happened because we saw the fruit of it. People were not, this message was not preached to them and they took glory upon themselves and, well, I'm not, totally unable to save myself. I can contribute toward God, you know, I'm a Christian and my neighbor's not because I did this and he didn't and I chose. But the old gospel, as Packer says, and as the Bible says, suggests to sinners, guess what? You're headed for hell and in and of yourself, there's nothing you can do about it. For by grace you have been saved." Right? And it's through faith, not of yourselves. Why are we saved? But God, being rich in mercy. That's the only reason. Now, as Packer says, the possibility that causing people to despair in their own strength might be a good thing is not even considered. It's taken for granted that it can't be. because it's so shattering to our self-esteem. However this may be, and we'll say more about it later, the result of these omissions in our preaching is that part of the biblical gospel is now preached as if it were the whole of the gospel, and a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. And thus, we appeal to men the new gospel does, as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time that they choose. We speak of his redeeming work as if Christ had done no more by dying than to make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing. We speak of God's love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive anyone who will turn and trust. And we depict the Father and the Son not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence, powerlessness, at the door of our hearts for us to let them in. It's undeniable that this is how we preach. Perhaps it's what we really believe. But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. The Bible is against us when we preach in this way, and the fact that such preaching has become almost standard practice among us only shows how urgent it is that we should review this matter. to recover the old authentic biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need. And it's at this point that Owen's book on redemption can give us help. The five points of Calvinism, so-called Calvinism, are simply the Calvinistic answer to a five-point manifesto. It's called, in church history, the remonstrant. This was stuff that happened over in Holland in the 1600s, all right? It was put out by certain semi-Pelagianism. Let me define this. The Pelagian heresy denied the total depravity, denied original sin, and it denied the total depravity of man, said man retained ability to choose God, to believe in Christ, and so on, and do some good. And so this was being taught by this Arminius in the church, and so they had the Synod of Dort, they met. And they condemned that as heresy. But anyway, the Calvinistic answer to a five-point manifesto is what these five points of Calvinism are. The theology which it contained, which this heresy contained, known to history as Arminianism, stem from two philosophical principles. Now, don't get hung up on these two principles. He'll explain it as we go along. But first, that God's sovereignty, his all-authority-ness, you would say, his sovereignty as king, is that divine sovereignty is not compatible with human freedom. nor therefore with human responsibility. Second, that ability limits obligation. The idea there is that, hey, if man didn't have the ability to believe, God wouldn't tell him to believe. That kind of false reasoning, you see. From these principles, the Arminians drew two deductions, and this is a little easier to understand. First, That since the Bible regards faith as a free and responsible human act, it can't be caused by God. It can't be a gift from God. It is exercised independently of him. Second, that since the Bible regards faith as an obligation on the part of all who hear the gospel, then the ability to believe must be universal. Hence, they maintain scripture must be interpreted as teaching the following positions. So here are the five points of Arminianism, of the Arminians, to which the five points of Calvinism are the answer, okay? So here it is. First of all, this new gospel, it isn't really new at all, but the new gospel that's so widely preached, at least in part, in the churches. is this, first of all, man is never so completely corrupted by sin that he can't savingly believe the gospel when it's put before him. Now remember, the gospel's foolishness to him. Why would he choose it? He has no ability to choose it. Second, nor is he ever so completely controlled by God that he can't reject it. I'm gonna reject the gospel, God, and there's nothing you can do about it. See, that's what they're saying. God's election, third, of those who shall be saved, is prompted by, well, he looked ahead into the future, saw who would believe, and then he elected them. It's still resting upon man. Fourth, Christ's death did not ensure the salvation of anyone. for it did not secure the gift of faith to anyone. There's no such gift, they would say. What it did, rather, was to create a possibility of salvation for everyone if they would believe. How many people would be saved if that was the case? Zero. None. Fifth, it rests with believers to keep themselves in a state of grace by keeping up their faith. Those who fail here fall away and are lost. You better work, work, work, and keep up your faith, because if you ever stop believing, then you're headed for hell. Thus, Arminianism made man's salvation, Packer says, depend ultimately on man himself, saving faith, being viewed throughout as man's own work, and because his own, not God's in him. Now, the Synod of Dort was convened in 1618 to pronounce on this theology, and the five points of Calvinism represent its counter-affirmations. This is the old gospel. They stem from a very different principle. the biblical principle that salvation is of the Lord, and they can be summarized by this. First, fallen man in his natural state lacks all power to believe the gospel. just as he lacks all power to believe the law, despite all external inducements that may be extended to him. Second, God's election is a free, sovereign, unconditional choice of sinners as sinners to be redeemed by Christ, given faith, and brought to glory. Third, the redeeming work of Christ had as its end, as its goal, the salvation of the elect. Fourth, the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing men to faith never fails to achieve its object. And fifth, believers are kept in faith and grace by the unconquerable power of God till they come to glory. Here's a little more then from Packer. These five points are conveniently denoted by the mnemonic TULIP, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and preservation of the saints. Now, here are two then coherent interpretations of the biblical gospel, which stand in evident opposition to one another. The difference between them is not primarily one of emphasis, but one of content. One proclaims a God who saves. The other speaks of a God who enables man to save himself. One view presents the three great acts of the Holy Trinity for the recovering of lost mankind, election by the Father, redemption by the Son, calling by the Spirit, as directed towards the same persons, the elect, and as securing their salvation infallibly. The other view gives each act a different reference, the objects of redemption being all mankind, of calling, Anyone who hears the gospel and of election, those that respond. It denies, the new gospel denies that man's salvation is secured by any of them. This comes back then to just what did God intend by sending his son into the world? Over and over again, God the Father sent the son into the world to save sinners. Did he do it? Was he successful? Why did God, why did Christ go to the cross? Did the cross accomplish anything? Or is it just there, Christ died on the cross, now you all that want to go ahead and come, right? What is it? Did it really accomplish something? The two theologies thus conceive the plan of salvation in quite different terms. One makes the salvation depend on the work of God, the other on a work of man. One regards faith as part of God's gift of salvation, the other as man's own contribution to salvation. One gives all the glory of saving believers to God. The other divides the praise between God, who, so to speak, built the machinery of salvation, but it's man who operates it. Plainly, these differences are important, and the permanent value of the five points as a summary of Calvinism is that they make clear the points at which and the extent to which these two concepts are at variance. And here we go. This really gets it in a nutshell here. Look at this. Where the Arminian, therefore, will be content to say, I decided for Christ. I made up my mind to be a Christian. The Calvinist will wish to speak of his conversion in a more theological fashion to make plain whose work it really was. And here it is from the hymn. Long my, you know, how'd you get saved? How did this happen? Well, here it was. Here it is. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I awoke. The dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. And there it is. Clearly, these two notions of internal grace are sharply opposed to each other. Now, the Calvinist contends that the Arminian idea of election, redemption, and calling as acts of God, which do not save, they don't necessarily save, that's the Arminian point, cuts at the very heart of their biblical meaning. That is to say, in the Arminian sense, that God elects believers and Christ died for all men and the Spirit quickens those who receive the word, get this now, is really to say that in the biblical sense, God elects nobody, Christ died for nobody, and the Spirit quickens nobody. The matter at issue in this controversy, therefore, is the meaning to be given to these biblical terms and to some others which are also, soteriologically means concerning how we are saved, all right? Significance such as the love of God. Does God love everyone in the same way? The covenant of grace and the verb save itself, what does that mean? Arminians gloss them all in terms of the principle that salvation does not directly depend on any decree or act of God. It depends on man's independent activity of believing. Calvinists maintain that this principle is itself unscriptural and irreligious and that such glossing demonstrably perverts the sense of scripture and undermines the gospel at every point where it is practiced. This and nothing less than this is what the Arminian controversy is about. Arminianism is natural in one sense, in that it represents a characteristic perversion of biblical teaching by the fallen mind of man, who even in salvation cannot bear to renounce the delusion of being master of his fate and captain of his soul. There at the root, that's why there were explosions in this church. over the years. That's why, right there, because sinful man realized if what we were saying, what they were hearing is true, then wait a minute, are you telling me that I'm not the master of my fate and the captain of my soul? Are you telling me that? Because I cannot bear to hear that. And so there it is. This perversion appeared before in the Pelagianism, denial of original sin, and semi-Pelagianism of the patristic period. That's an early period of the church. And later in, well, this is in Roman Catholic theology. as well, and it's among Protestants, and it's among supposed Bible-believing evangelical, then, churches. As long as the fallen human mind is what it is, the Arminian way of thinking will continue to be a natural type of mistake. The pitiable savior, the pathetic god of modern pulpits, are unknown to the old gospel. The old gospel tells men that they need God. Not that God needs them, a modern falsehood. It does not exhort them to pity Christ. It announces that Christ has pitied them, though pity was the last thing they deserved. It never loses sight of the divine majesty and sovereign power of the Christ whom it proclaims, but rejects flatly all representations of him which would obscure his free omnipotence. You see, this comes down to, well, how do you present the gospel to an unsaved person, right? God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, maybe we should start with, do you understand that you're a sinner and that you are, without Christ, you are under the condemnation of God? That God is all-glorious. He's given us his truth. in scripture, but you're just disregarded. You're in trouble. You're in serious trouble. If you were to die right now, you're headed for hell. But God has provided a remedy. And maybe the circumstances would vary, but at that point, I would, if this was someone that I saw semi-regularly or something, I would say, When you're ready to admit that you are lost in sin, that you've sinned against a holy and righteous God, that He justly condemns you and would justly send you to hell if you died right now and stood before Him. When you're ready to admit that, give me a call and I'll tell you what the remedy is. Because until a person gets to that point where they are ready to repent, and they see their sin, and they're ready to repent, they're just fine, and they have no need, then, of Christ, you see. People that hear the biblical gospel Unless the Lord works in them to effect repentance and faith, then their response is going to be the same as that of Israel at Mount Sinai. Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die. You're telling me that I'm dead. I don't want to hear that. Your message has the stench of death in it. It doesn't smell good to me. I don't want it. I don't want to have anything to do with it. Well, there it is. We should pray constantly that we're never duped by that false gospel, that we never ever walk in pride, start boasting about how we essentially saved ourselves by choosing, and so on. repent of any aspects of that in our own lives that we might see. These truths are meant to be not only an admonishment to Christ's church, they're meant to be an encouragement. Because when we faithfully follow Christ, when Christ saves us, we really belong to him and we follow him, the going is gonna get rough. It's been rough for us for quite some time, right? And we're small and we're weak and powerless. What can we do? The Lord's not limited by what we are. In fact, when we're weak, then we are strong. I don't know, none of us know what the Lord's ultimate plans are and days ahead for this church, but we know this much. He's been teaching us that we're weak. And there it is. And when we're weak, When we finally get that lesson down and learned, well then we find out that we're strong because God's power is perfected then in weakness. For by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works that no one may boast. Were his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. I was gonna give you an illustration of the new gospel, but we don't really have time. It just says that, you got trauma? Well, the Bible's got your answers, says, psychologist, and here it is, and it's another example of how the New Gospel is all about man and not about the glory of God. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for these truths. Thank you that you are God and we aren't. What a mess that would be. Thank you that you do choose to work through weak people, and we pray that we would see our weakness, that we would cease from any boasting. And we pray that for your glory and your glory alone, we might see you powerfully work. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Would you please take your Trinity Hemlock?