to him. He took me from the fearful pit, and from the fiery flame. He was a new song in my mouth. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? and her tribe are all her foes. Take the jacket off. Let me say first of all what a great privilege it is to be here with you this evening. and to be able to speak to you on the word of God. I've never been in Dublin before. I think possibly I passed through Dublin once on my way north. I can't figure out how I was here but I passed round the outskirts of Dublin once so I've never really been in Dublin but my aunt and uncle came to Dublin a number of years ago on holiday out to Ireland. and they weren't certain whether they were going to enjoy their holiday too much because every bed and breakfast place they went into there was a picture of the Pope above their head. But all my uncle did was turn the picture in and he slept very well through the night. But he said to us that it was the best holiday he ever had. The people were so nice in Ireland and the south of Ireland that they really thoroughly enjoyed their holiday. So I've also got another interest in Southern Ireland in particular. I did a discourse when I went through the Teacher's College a number of years ago and it was on James Begg. Some of you may have heard of James Begg. He was a great preacher way back in the 19th century and he did a discourse. He wrote a book called The Handbook of Popery and I did a discourse on it and at the end of my discourse I was saying, I quoted from a letter that had come from someone in Southern Ireland I don't know what part of Southern Ireland, but it was a mission that the Free Church at that time had sent or had in Southern Ireland. And this was a letter from a converted Roman Catholic in Southern Ireland saying how wonderful, you know, was that the Gospel was being done in Ireland. And I'm saying, you know, what a wonderful thing it would be for us to be seeing the Gospel once again in Southern Ireland. And here I am preaching and speaking with you. over this weekend, so I look forward to coming and being with you. Now, I want to start off what I have to say this evening by asking you a question. And the question is, what is the great end in the preaching of the Gospel? What's the great end that there is to preaching? It's an important question because if you remember how in Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, the Lord tells us, So it's an important question that we ask when we ask, what is the great end of the preaching of the Gospel? you would say, well, the salvation of souls, sinners, that sinners would be saved. That sinners would be brought into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is a name, of course, in the preaching of the Gospel. But it's not the great end. If saving souls is the great end of the preaching of the Gospel, then you can do anything you like. You can preach as you like, you can do what you like as long as souls are saved. But you see the salvation of souls and the bringing of souls into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. And the great end of course is that God would be glorified. It is all to the glory of His grace. Now that then, we can go to the scripture and I just wanted to quickly bring before you four scriptures, two from the Old Testament, two from the New Testament that will show that. Nadab and Abiru, remember in Leviticus chapter 10 they offered up strange incense on the altar and fire from heaven came down and consumed them. Why was it? Because they had not offered as God had commanded them to offer. And Moses turns to Aaron and says this is that that the Lord spake before all the people I will be glorified. And we are told that Aaron's mouth was closed. God would be glorified at the altar. Again you come into Isaiah chapter 16 verse 7 and he says I will glorify the house of my glory. He doesn't say you will glorify the house of your glory. He doesn't say I will glorify the house of your glory. He doesn't even say you will glorify the house of my glory. He says I will glorify the house that is there for my glory. The church is there that it would set forth the glory of God and the grace of God. particularly in salvation. Now you come into the New Testament and you find that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in exactly the same term. Here it is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. You are his disciples, you bear fruit and by that you glorify the Father. That's the end. And then in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 10, When he shall come to be glorified in the saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. He looked forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when every eye shall see his glory. And we are told that he will be glorified in the saints. It doesn't say among the saints. He will be glorified in them. what God has done for them and what God has done in them. The preaching of the gospel then is essentially bearing witness to what God has done for his people in Christ. And that's the ultimate. Now that brings us to think this evening on our topic because John Calvin was taken up with this whole idea, this whole biblical principle of the sovereignty of Almighty God. It was through all of his writings, it was through everything that he wrote. Now my subject this evening is Biblical Calvinism. I want to look at three things. First of all, the need to understand. It's the need for Biblical Calvinism. I think that was the title that I was given. The need for Biblical Calvinism or Biblical Calvinism today. The need to understand Biblical Calvinism. If there is ever a day we need to understand Biblical Calvinism, it's today. The second thing is the need to return to Biblical Calvinism. There's a need today, as there is in every generation, as we'll go on to see, to return to the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And a return to Biblical Calvinism is as necessary today as it was in past days. And then the need to defend Biblical Calvinism. Just a short thing at the end. The need to defend it. The need first of all then to understand Biblical Calvinism. What is it? If we are going to understand something, or if we are going to say that there is a need for something, then it would be best to understand what it is. And you don't think it's wonderful, but you see the present, a visible manifestation down through the history of the church, not just in the Bible, but down through the history of the church, a visible manifestation of the love of Christ and the presence of God in his church, in that he raises up men to defend the truth. At times when it is particularly needed. That's true when you go back in the history of the church. For example, Athanasius in the 4th century raised up with the grace and the gifts to stand against the alien heresy. Giving grace, giving gifts to be able to stand and say this is wrong. Here is the Bible, here I stand and I can go no further. You come then to Augustine. You know what great gifts Augustine is given? To stand against Pelagianism. To stand for the truth. And then you have, for example, Luther, Martin Luther, being raised up and being blessed with a man who is justified by faith alone. And what a wonderful peace and wonderful field it opens to him. when he discovers that it's not by works, but by the grace of Almighty God, it's by faith alone, justified by faith alone, without the deeds of the law. And then you come to Calvin, John Calvin. When you look at John Calvin, of all the stars that shine I'm not talking about film stars, I'm talking about stars that shine. They're all stars, they all shine, they're all reflecting the glory of God. Some stand out in their own field. John Calvin stands out as one of the great reformers of his day. Born in France at the age of 22, he was reputed to be the most learned man in Europe. He could have gone down the road of philosophy, he could have gone down the road of the sciences, he could have gone down the road of any discipline of learning and he would have made a great name for himself. But here he goes down that road of standing for the truth and it is his own spiritual experience It's his own spiritual experience of coming and standing at the foot of the cross and looking at that cross and drinking in the wonder of the love of God in Christ. That's what made him to put pen to paper. That's what made him write the way he wrote. A love of Christ. He stood at that cross with the greatest wonder. And it enthralled him. It was his experience. Now he wasn't the first one to see the sovereignty of God and salvation, any more than Luther was the first one to see justification by faith. These truths have been there down through all the centuries. The Huguenots, the Valdensians, many of them write down. But here was a man who came and he dedicated his studies to the things of God. He saw the darkness that there was in his day. He saw the perversion of truth in his day. And he was given an insight into these things that we have and we are able even to read today and to wonder at the marvel of the gifts that God gave to the man as he came to the scripture, to the Bible. And he applied that Biblica, that truth, to his theology. Now there was a vast area of subjects covered by John Calvin. You could go to the relationship between the magistrate and the church, the state and the church, the duties of the magistrate, sacraments, worship, there's a vast area that he covers. But there's one particular area that his intellect took hold of and that he studied. And that one subject was the sovereignty of divine grace. The sovereignty of divine grace. There's three things I want to draw to your attention. First of all, so far as John Calvin was concerned, divine grace as sovereign was a settled truth. It was a second truth. It wasn't just, it wasn't from the witness of man, because there is one whose witness is greater than man, from the word of God. The Spirit speaking in the word, set before him the sovereignty of divine grace. But not just the word of God, but sanctified reasoning. A sanctified mind. The truth you know is not unreasonable. The truth is not unreasonable. And when he came to the spirit speaking in the word and with a sanctified and Christian experience. Christian experience telling him that divine grace must be sovereign. It was settled because of the condition of human nature. They saw around him, you only need to look around, around him, you only need to go into this building. And you know John Calvin, you don't even need to go out there, you only need to look in your own heart. That's who you need to go for, your own heart. And you discover it's a settled truth, the sovereignty of divine grace. But above all, this sovereignty of divine grace is that which gives glory to God. It's settled for him. It gives the glory to God. It doesn't rob God of His glory the way every other system and the system that was there in his own day was robbing God of His glory. Here was truth that was settled because it gave God all the glory. But the second thing wasn't just settled truth, it was necessary truth. Necessary truth. It was indispensable truth. regarding God and salvation. It wasn't something that was optional. It was necessary regarding the truth of salvation that God is sovereign. Every other means was insufficient to have a view of the glory of God and to satisfy a sinner looking for salvation. Seeking the moral and spiritual means For a sinner, only the gospel that speaks of sovereign divine grace would satisfy. It was necessary. But the third thing is, not just that it was settled truth, not just so far as he was concerned that it was necessary truth, but so far as Calvin was concerned, it was at the centre of all truth. It was at the centre. In science, a way back in years past, you know, they looked out at the stars and they looked at the sun and they used to think that the earth was here and it was the sun that was circling the earth. And that's what they do, you see, with theology. God circles man, man becomes the centre and God circles him. But Calvin saw it right, didn't he? He saw that the sun is there, and it's the earth that circles, and every truth circles this one truth, the sovereignty of a divine God. And you take what we call the five points of Calvinism, and every single one of them are thought through with the sovereignty of God, giving glory to God. Let's just for a moment Look at these five points. I don't want to spend the whole evening just looking at the five points of Calvinism. I just want to go through them with you and point out one or two things. Total dipravity. I remember hearing a preacher one time say, you know, Arminianism, the Calvinists are something more than Arminianism. Arminianism, but the Calvinists are something more. That's nonsense. Calvinism and Arminianism are two opposites. They're two opposites. You've got Arminianism and then Calvinism is something that's sort of broader a bit more. They are two complete opposites. Total depravity. You go to the Westminster Confession of Faith. Do precede all actual transgressions. It doesn't say we commit every evil. from a heart that is disposed and inclined to evil and against that which is good, every transgression flows from it. Let's see what Calvin says. Therefore after the heavenly image was obliterated in him, he was not the only one to suffer this punishment, that is Adam and the curse, that in place of wisdom, virtue, holiness, truth and justice, With which adornments he had been clad in wonderful wisdom, virtue, holiness, truth and justice. Imagine being clothed with that, Adam clothed with that. Now comes forth filthy plagues, blindness, impotence, impurity, vanity and injustice. And that not only in himself, but he entangled and immersed his offspring in the same. You go to Ephesians that we have read together, Ephesians chapter 2, the next chapter that we didn't go into. You have equated to our dead in trespasses and in sin wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the children that worketh and the children of disobedience among whom we all had our conversation and so on and so on. He says dead. in trespasses and in sin. It's God that quickens, not man that quickens himself, God quickens. And they walked ungodly. Because they're dead, they are walking in disobedience. And every one of them, he says, we all, even the Apostle Paul, we all had our conversation in times past. And what bondage? Look at what he says, the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. You see, Lazarus is not only brought alive, he's also taken out of a tomb. Because he's in bondage and he's brought to life and out of the tomb. And we are by nature children of wrath. We were as children, we're not appointed to it, but deserving of wrath. can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. He that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God will abide upon him. The wrath of God is on him, and the wrath of God will continue on him, and it will abide on him for all eternity. Total depravity, but then unconditional election. What other one we don't like isn't it? Election. We don't like to hear about election. Let me read to you what Jonathan Edwards says about it. The sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish. And if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls, as one who may have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and harden whom he will. Election after election, and that not because he foresaw faith, Unconditional. He has chosen and he could have passed by but he chose out of his mercy and his love a people for himself. And he passed by others. Reprobation. The word reprobation is used in the scripture there as reprobate silver. Some have a reprobate mind, reprobate concerning the faith. False professors of religion called reprobate. Let's see what the larger catechism, the Westminster larger catechism puts this, I like the Westminster catechism, excuse me for that. God by an eternal and immutable decree out of his mere love for the praise of his glorious grace to be manifested in due time hath elected some angels to glory and in Christ hath chosen some men to eternal life and the means thereof and also according to his sovereign power, and the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth favours as he pleaseth, have passed by and foreordained the rest to dishonour and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted to the praise of the glory of his justice." Now you notice here, the eternal, it's an immutable, unchangeable, an eternal decree. When you ask what the decrees are, the catechism says this, they are his eternal purpose. God is a purpose. People talk today and think, oh God is no purpose, there is no purpose in this world. Everything has a purpose in this world. God is the one who gives it his purpose. And his purpose is an eternal purpose, most wise and free and holy, according to the counsel of his will. His purpose is according to what he wants. But he wills, therefore he hath foreordained whatsoever will come to pass. We're not living in a world that's randomly passing by with no God in control, no God behind it. All God is sovereign in everything. He has foreordained. He has foreordained the elect. He has foreordained even the reprobate. to the glory of His grace, He has elected some to everlasting life. And by His power, to the glory of His justice, He passed by others. And they are brought to dishonour and wrath. And why are they brought to dishonour and wrath? Not because they're not elect, not because He passes them by, but because for their own sin. That's what takes a sinner into hell. their own sin to be their own sin inflicted. Now you go to Romans chapter 9 and you see Pharaoh for this purpose he says I have raised him up that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared in all the earth therefore he hath mercy on whom he hath mercy whom he will he hardeneth there is a purpose in it all limited atonement You know, if you, I'm sure you've heard this often enough, Arminianism secures salvation for no one. It goes even further than that. It actually puts in jeopardy the salvation of everyone, even the elect in itself. You notice how charismatic? Separate the Holy Spirit from the world. We'd better be careful that we don't separate the Holy Spirit from the Word. There's the Word and the Holy Spirit speaking to me, separate from the Word altogether. We need to be careful. We need to be careful of that. That we would not separate the Holy Spirit from His Word. There's another way, however, that we could separate the Holy Spirit. And that is that we would separate the Holy Spirit from the work of Christ. Christ died for them but the Holy Spirit will not draw them. Christ dies for sinners, Christ Jesus comes into the world to die for his people but the Holy Spirit won't actually draw them irresistibly. You see how? uncertain the whole work of Christ becomes. And look at what, when Christ came into the world, she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Not he might do it, he will do it. Robert Canglish, one of the great pre-church ministers of the 1800s, Robert Canglish, of Christ's work as undertaken and accomplished for any but those actually saved under whatever vague phraseology of a general reference or general relationship which this may be doing, we altogether change the nature and character of the work so that it ceases to be a work of substitution, properly so called. We subvert the whole doctrine of imputation, whether of the individual sinner's guilt to Christ or of Christ's righteousness to him. We materially modify the principle in which faith is held to justify, to say and save us, making it not simply the instrument of vital union to Christ, but a work or condition. of the salvation that is in Christ. For example, any departure from the strict view of the extent of the atonement is to be seriously dreaded because it almost uniformly indicates a lurking tendency to call in question the sovereignty of divine grace altogether. In John's Gospel, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. In other words, our preaching must be covenantal. In covenantal terms. Irresistible grace. Pelagianism. Pelagianism was the view way back in the 4th century which basically said that salvation is all the work of man. Man can do it from beginning to end and God isn't involved at all. It's all the work of man. Semi-Pelagianism took a sort of a halfway house. You need assisting grace. It's half the work of man and half the work of God. Man's free will. It is mine to be willing to believe It is God's grace to assist me, was the great paraphrase there. Arminianism, in later days, advanced it further. It said that grace was resistible. It wasn't irresistible grace, but grace is resistible. Think of what the Lord himself says, All that the Father give me, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Acts of the Apostles. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Believed. Why did they believe? Not because of their free will, but because of the irresistible grace of Almighty God. And what wonderful promises there are accompanying that, promises that the Arminians can't give. Arminianism sort of makes all men savable, takes the preaching outside of any covenantal terms, and everything becomes arbitrary. Think of what Calvin's gospel offer is given indiscriminately and that all are invited and urged to come to Christ and to embrace him but deny that this is from any design or purpose on God's part to save all men outward there is the outward call and there is the inward call and it is irresistible grace that draws that sinner and awakens him out of his death I've got a leaflet just now in and around Edinburgh for our own congregation. And I said to the people, I said in this leaflet, you know, you've religion. Everybody's got religion. Even if it's the religion of evolution. It's a religion. It's no more than a religion. We all came from monkeys. It's just a faith. It's a religion. Everybody has a religion. And I said, your religion might have done something for you. It might have. You might have been an alcoholic and Alcoholics Anonymous has changed your life. Or you've become a Jehovah's Witness and it's changed your life. And I suggest to them that whatever religion they have, if it doesn't change their life in some way, they should pack it in because it's not worth a salt. Because every religion somewhere along the line will affect their lives, will change them. Because the Gospel achieves something. When the Apostle spoke about what the Gospel was about, he didn't say it changed my life, it did change his life. It most certainly did. He was born again by the Spirit of God and he was changed. But when he spoke about the Gospel, he said the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. It achieves salvation. And no alcoholics anonymous, no Jehovah's Witnesses, no Mormons, no other belief, no other religion achieves that. is achieved salvation. And a sinner is irresistibly called by divine grace, salvation. And that brings you on to the last, it says perseverance. Perseverance of an abiding principle of graciousness with Arminianism. Dr. Mullen, you've probably heard this before, but him and others calculated that there are 612 texts in the Bible that clearly declare the final perseverance of the saints. This is the Father's will that hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. That's the covenant keeping God. That's what no other religion has. You go to Islam and the most perfect living Muslim is never assured that they'll get to heaven. The only way you can assure yourself that you're a Muslim to get to heaven is if you go on a plane load of people and you blow them up and you blow yourself up with them. It's the only way you can guarantee going to heaven that really is a heaven that's, as I said I think in Glasgow, it's just the decadent West. That's what a heaven is. You know, all these maidens coming and all their gratification. The very thing that they all speak about in this earth is what they want when they get to heaven. Nonsense. And they're not even guaranteed it. You go to Romanism. A Roman Catholic's not guaranteed, even the Pope's not guaranteed that he'll get into heaven without the prayers of others. But here is a covenant-keeping God who has given promises to his people and these promises are here, they men, in his son Jesus Christ. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Many have come along with a doctrine that denies the sovereign grace that makes man king, that puts his free will as opposed to God, and he says, this is wonderful. And I say to you, it's an abomination. It takes away any assurance that you have. Because it rests on yourself. You look to yourself. So to sum that up, the Gospel calls to all men as the universe to you and Gentile have commanded to call to repent and to believe the Gospel. Not just by the preacher, but by an all powerful and sovereign God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ that's preaching. And Christ speaks authoritatively. He doesn't come and say, I wish you would do this and if only you would do that, I'll do that. Even the devils obey the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have to ask His permission to be cast into the swine. That's the Lord that we have. When the Lord, when He addresses the same words to the reprobate, though not to correct them, He makes it serve another use. Today, to press them with the witness of conscience, in other words, to restrain their sins, and in the day of judgement to render them more inexcusable. The second point, the second thing, if that's the need to understand, there's a need to return to Biblical Calvinism. Arminianism, Universalism, hypothetical Universalism of the Amaraldians, it's another gospel. I remember one time, one man said to, it wasn't to me, it was to one of the lecturers in the college I was in, he says, well what happens is that, you know, when there's an Arminian gospel, you know the answer to God, he says, there isn't such a thing as the Arminian gospel. There's one gospel. The apostle says that, there's one gospel, there's not two gospels. And the difficulty is that Satan doesn't come with something that's a wheel, he comes the way he did to garden in the garden, dressing it up, in such a way that it's very subtle, very plausible. Because you see, while the great end that God has in the preaching of the Gospel is the glory of His grace and the glory of His justice, that He will be glorified, what's the Satan's greatest end? To rob him of that glory. That's not Satan's greatest end. It's the same end that Satan has today as he had at the beginning with Adam. And the one thing that you see with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Buddhists, Roman Catholics, with Islam, they all seek to rob Jehovah of his glory and take the glory to themselves. Why do we need to return to biblical? Why do we here need to return and love Let me take you to the world first of all. To the world, right? The world needs to hear Biblical Calvinism. Do you know what pervades, what theology pervades Scotland? England. And it'll pervade this Dublin too. Humanism. Humanism. Pelagianism, he believed that man was a sinner, not because he had a depraved, fallen human nature, but it was learned behaviour. His behaviour was learned from what he saw around about him. Sin was learned. His outward circumstances dictated really, in some respects that's true, But is that not really ultimately what the world believes? You ever hear, recently there was a young lad who had murdered a schoolteacher out in, I can't remember the names, murdered a schoolteacher out in front of the school, went to jail, and now there's a big debate whether he should be put out of the country or left in the country. Now whether he should or not, that's not the point. The fact is, whenever you hear the debates, the great argument diffused is, he's been conditioned. It's the fault of how he's been brought up, it's the fault of society, it's the fault of You know, there's a young lad being murdered in Liverpool there, a family saddened, and you hear people saying, well, you know, this goes on as society will ever. That's just polygynism. And I'm sure that very often people are influenced, but you never actually hear them going back and saying, but wait a minute, It is original sin. It is depraved human nature. It is coming. Children start off perfect and then they're conditioned. Not at all, says the Bible. I was shapen in iniquity and in sin. You see, what man is doing is blaming God. Isn't that right? It's his circumstances. He blames God. He'll do that today. He'll do it when he gets before the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day. He'll get before Jesus on Judgment Day and Jesus will have the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. And the sheep he'll say, well done, enter into my glory. And they're humble. He says, when did we ever do anything? You've done it all. But wait a minute, when you've done it to the least of these, my little ones, Then you did it to me. And then the other sucker, the court, well wait a minute. You never gave us a chance to do it. We weren't alive when you were alive. When did we have the chance to visit you in prison? To feed you when you were hungry? To give you drink when you were thirsty? To give you clothes when you were naked? It's really your fault. Isn't it? Blame you. He didn't give us the opportunity. The Lord says when you didn't, you see it's coming from you, it's falling. You didn't do it to the least of these, my little ones. Depart from me, you workers. See they'll blame God. Even today they blame God. The world blames God. The only time you ever notice God become sovereign is when there's a disaster. They put planes into the World Trade Centre. Where's God? The world, you see, needs to hear about total depravity, about the need to be born again. The world needs to hear about the sovereignty of Almighty God, before whom they are responsible and will one day be brought to account. The world needs to hear Biblical Calvinism. It needs to hear about the Gospel. It needs to hear about original sin. It needs to hear, thou art the man, not God, thou. God has everything under his sovereign control. But it's not just that the world needs to hear, the church needs to hear biblical calvaries. Doesn't it? When you come down through Pelagianism to Arminianism, down into the 17th and 18th century to John Wesley. John Wesley is rightly called the Apostle of Arminianism. That's where he's coming from. Unashamedly. Top lady. He was against top lady. Why? Because top lady believed that God worketh all things according to the counsel of his will and everything he works is right and perfect. Not so, says Wesley. John Wesley. An Arminian. exposing. Even when Toplady was almost on his deathbed, in his bed, and Wesley thought, I'll get in here. Toplady has changed his mind. The trouble is, Toplady revived and got up out of his bed and refuted it. And then when Toplady did die, he then waded in again, so that Toplady's friends had to come along and say, all that he's saying here is not true. Not true. It's in many respects sad that, I'll just say this as an aside, it's in many respects sad that recent books by Banner of Truth and that exalt John Wesley. Ian Murray exalted, not being critical hardly at all of John Wesley. John Wesley detested Calvinism predestination. The predestination makes God a devil. That's what he said. Worse than a devil, he says. Whitfield was the great man of that day. He stood. And then came Moody and Frankie. Moody and Frankie. Following on, you see how it's there, it's always there. It comes along, Moody and Frankie. Gail Moody said one time, was reported to have said one time, go to the drunkards in Edinburgh, tell them God loves you, Christ died for you, and there'll be no drunkards left in Edinburgh. That's all the work of man. God loves you, Christ died for you, on you go. I don't know if you've heard of the story of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, you maybe have, Notice the difference in how he deals with a sinner that came to him. Palmer in America. I only read this recently, maybe you've already heard it. Palmer was in his study this day and he was writing away when a young man came into his study. And he closed the door and Palmer said, yes, what can I do for you? He says, you preachers are contradictory. Oh, says Palmer, what's wrong? Where am I contradictory? And he began to write. that I must believe. And then you tell me that I'm not able to believe. So Palmer kept on writing. Well, he says, young man, he says, I suggest to you, if you can believe, you better go and do it just immediately. You go and believe. And he kept writing. And the young man never moved, you see. And then after a minute the young man blurted out, but I've been trying for three days and I can't believe it! And Palmer put his pen down and he says, ah, he says, now that puts a different complexion in the matter. Let's bring your problem to the Lord. Let's bring it there. And he put him on his knees and he prayed with him. See, even his inability he could bring to God. It's like the publican in the temple, Lord, You see, that's what's needed in the church. Preaching that will bring men down to the place where they need, and they are told that they must be born again. That no free willism will save them, no decision for Jesus will save them, but that there must be a radical change. They must have the law applied to their hearts, in such a way that they don't end up believing in their believing, but they end up believing in Christ. And there's a difference between believing in believing, believing in your faith, believing in your decision, and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is a difference. The sinner must come to see his great need, and his nothingness, and even his inability, and then cry out to God. and to see that everything is there. John Kennedy referred to the problem of inability and responsibility. He said to me, he says, you preach man's inability and yet you preach his responsibility. How can he be responsible for something that he's not able to do? John Kennedy says, John Kennedy, a great man in the 1800s, he says, what a silly question, a silly You don't act that way every day, do you? You go to the bank, and you say to the bank, I want to borrow a million pounds, and the bank gives you a million pounds, and you go out and spend it all, blow the whole lot, you don't have one penny left, you go back in to them and say, I'm not able, and I'm not responsible. Who's going to find out whether you're responsible or not? The bank will not say, oh well you're not able to do it, well that's fine, on you go, we'll give you another million. yet, and that's what Adam did. God gave him everything in that garden, and he lost all ability to come to God in his disobedience. He's still responsible. Still responsible. Now, just three, I'm a times person Brian, times is going on this year, three things just at the end of the need to return. We need to return for the confidence of the preacher. For the confidence of the preacher, don't you? Imagine, I go out around Edinburgh, I go out and I go and preach, you know, you go around Dublin, and you're waiting and people making a decision, free willism, and you go on, and you go on, and nothing happens. What despair. What despair. I remember one man who was going around putting tracts out round the doors in Glasgow and someone said to him, you keep on putting these tracts out of them, do you ever come to the church to do them? No. How long have you been putting them out? Oh, a number of years. What's the point of putting them out? He said, I don't put them out for that reason. I put them out because God has told me to put them out. God has told me to go out and put them out and he will bless his word according to his own purpose. He says my word shall not return unto thee void, it shall accomplish what he pleases and it shall prosper in the things whereunto I shall send it. You can sow that seed and you never know what the Lord will do with it. You've got the confidence that the Lord has appointed the means whereby he will draw his own people to himself and they will be saved and you can go out with that confidence. You need it for the hope of the believer, do you not? Not just for the encouragement of the preacher that he knows that God will bless that word and God will use it to encourage his people, but for the very hope of the believer. You're sitting there and your salvation depends on you and your faith. I'll tell you this, there are very few of us saved. If you say, God that began the good work will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. You see, the sovereignty of God and the biblical Calvinism brings the sinner not to be simply looking at himself, brings him to look to Christ. The one in whom we have put our faith, that's when it draws our attention to the Lord. Can you draw your attention and faith to Christ? And that's a different thing altogether to looking at your own faith. But it's not just the confidence of the preacher and the hope of the believer. I remember, I remember, we move on from Sankar Moody and Sanky right up to the last century, to the 20th century, to Billy Graham. Billy Graham came to Scotland Great, great work, great work. I know an umpteen people in Skye that went forward and made a decision and there's not one of them today that I know of that follows the Lord. Not one of them. And my own niece was one who went forward with this decision for Jesus. Not one of them following to this day. Well, I tell a lie. I don't want to tell people in Dublin a lie. My niece has actually converted, but it was subsequent to that, so later on she was gloriously converted. I'll tell you that, she went to herself and her husband, she married him, he hadn't been in church, and she went to a wee church down in the north of England, and they started going to church. She used to be brought up in the church. She went to the church, and her husband came out this day and said, that preacher wasn't saying the right thing. She said, why not? He said that Jesus was God. Oh, well I think he's right, she said. And that's the first thing that brought conviction to that young man to realise that Jesus is the Son of God. Wonderful. But it's a challenge, Calvinism is certainly a challenge to believers, to unbelievers. The hope of the believer, but a challenge to unbelievers. What challenge is there? In telling people, all you tell them is God loves you, And Jesus died for you, here's a wee pillow, go and sleep in it. No, no, you go. Biblical Calvinism tells you, you're a hell deserving sinner. You are bankrupt, and you're on your way to hell. And you need the power of that to be brought home to the very core of your heart. That you will be brought to your knees and humbled, not to say, how good I am, look at my faith, I can do this, but you say you can do nothing. And it will send you to the one place and to the one person who can do it for you, the Lord. That's what we need to do, isn't it? Finally, and I've got five minutes to go through this, the need to defend biblical calvary. All falsehood leads to hermeneutism. That's what it does, it leads there. In preaching and in the church, it all leads there. And we need to defend it. You want me to tell you why? It's the essence of potpourri. Central Pope is the essence of potpourri. Potpourri hates the sovereignty of God's Word. and hates sovereignty and salvation, likes to take it all to itself. It lords it over his work, it lords it over his heritage, it lords it over salvation. Mr. Roos, the master of Eaton College, Arminianism is the spawn of potpourri, which the warmth of favour may easily turn into the frogs from the bottomless pit. Bishop Lord, you know Bishop Lord, he persecuted the Covenanters, He exalted all the bishops who were Arminians to high places, hated the Covenanters, hated Calvinists. And a letter from a Jesuit to the rector of Brussels, a letter that was discovered, I think, in Lourdes, says this, Now we have planted the sovereign drug of Arminianism, which we hope will purge the Protestants from their heresy, and it flourishes and beareth fruit in due season. But to return to the main fabric, our foundation is Arminianism. The Council of Trent embraces Arminianism. There is need to preach against it, to remind our people of the doctrines of grace, that who God is, He is a sovereign God, what He has done in Christ, But it's not just that we would know it, that we would live it. You need to live these biblical... It's alright having them here, you need to live them. Because you see, that's the difference. I was talking to a young lad just the last few days and he was up in the university and he met other people who were claimed to be Christians and they were death against predestination, against election, against Calvinism. And I said to him, well I said, how do they live? How do they live? Well, they wouldn't drink. I said, that's fine. They're hot by the Lord's Day. These Larminians are not hot on the commandment. Keep my commandments. Why not? Because they're saved by their faith. We're not under law, we're under grace. The Calvinists, however, by his faith, the commandments are not grievous because they love God. They love who he is. They love his son. They love the gospel. How we need to recognise Arminianism and the error of Arminianism. Can I just finish with one text? It summarises the gospel. Summarises, I hope, for you and for me. This is the biblical Calvinism that we need to see spreading across our land. It's this. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Not of us, lest any man should boast. Thank you for your patience and your time. Well, contrary to what we have on the board there, really Psalm 46 came to mind as our brother was speaking and we do. I've been greatly blessed by the presentation of that subject and it gives us the zeal that we need to press on in these things. and for God's truth. Psalm 46 verses 1 to 5, God is our refuge and our strength in straight to present day. Therefore, although the earth removed, we will not be afraid. The believer does not put his trust in anything, not even in the earth. He puts his trust alone in the strength of a sovereign God. We'll stand to sing verses 1-5 and then we'll remain standing for a closing prayer. Let us stand to sing. God is our refuge and our strength, his grace our Therefore, O Holy Angels, we will not be afraid. Because the water flowed in vain and troubled me, yet overcame my sweating sin. Just on verse 4, we'll lower the volume and then raise the volume again for verse 5. The river rips the streams apart, The holy place where in the heart most high a faith abodes. Nothing shall hurt me more, no more to hurt my soul than when my Father's life was made true. Our gracious God, we bless you for not just the presentation of what we have heard this night but for the gospel which underscores everything for these truths are only precious to us because they are a reflection of the gospel of a sovereign God of sovereign grace of the grace that has entered into our hearts and given us everlasting hope and this hope does not disappoint us because God who has promised cannot lie. Oh we bless a covenant God, a covenant keeping God ye sons of Jacob are not destroyed because God does not change. We bless you our God that you not only have provided this means of escape from your judgment but you have achieved all that is needful for men and women to approach before you in the Savior our Lord Jesus. So as we close now may we go into this night and as we look forward to your day with a sense of the privilege and of the blessing it is to be made different, even from the voices that we hear in the next room. God has made a difference in our hearts by the cross of Christ. Oh Father, we pray that we would mourn every sin that would show thanklessness for your great love, for with you have loved us. Forgive us, Lord, for not living like Calvinists. For not living like Christians. For not living like those who have been saved by the grace of God. Help us, Lord, to live in our lives what we profess with our lips. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the love of God. and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.