A Few Questions Still Unanswered in Martyn McGeown’s “An Answer to Phil Johnson’s “Primer on Hyper-Calvinism,” Scott Price, Common Grace, and God’s Love for All Men” by Matt Hagen

Recently, I created a graphic to the left with a quote from Phil Johnson’s Article, “A Primer on Hyper-Calvinism”  and I posted it on social media.  I was quickly swarmed with a somewhat hostile group of men claiming that this was not a working, acceptable definition for hyper-calvinism and that “common grace” was a heretical myth.  I’ve publicly shared the same quote several times over the years, yet I’ve never had anyone react so corrosively over it.   I did, however find an article online that explained the views against Phil’s quote much better than the hooligans that preferred to charge head-first, eyes-closed, “Heresy!” and resort to ad hominem personal attacks and circular reasoning.  The article was written by Rev. Martyn McGeown from the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church and is titled, “An Answer to Phil Johnson’s “Primer on Hyper-Calvinism”” and it is very articulate. I’d rather engage with the article than go another round of verbal fisticuffs with the online debate version of the Dudley Boyz.

Now I’m not a pastor and I don’t have a degree of any kind, but I would like to ask a few questions that were not answered in McGeown’s article, point out a couple things that I noticed that seem worrisome to say the least, and make a couple new points along the way.  However, I will also be addressing some other issues with hyper-calvinism, common grace, and Scott Price. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some much needed perspective to the conversation.

To begin, I’d like to post some framework – quotes, Scriptures, and any other material that can provide a basis for understanding the conclusions I’ll draw later.

COMMON GRACE

“God has demonstrated His kindness to the whole world, the rain does fall on the just and the unjust. There is what theologians call “common grace.” Common grace is sunshine and rain, and a good meal, and love, and marriage, and children, and every beautiful thing in life. That’s common grace. That’s God loving all men in some way. And we are to literally fill the world with that common grace.

And if you go back in history you will find that Christianity has done that. Christians are basically the ones who have changed the world. Wherever you have had Christianity for centuries, you have the most advanced societies providing the most care for people. It was Christians who developed nursing hospitals; and all of that basically had its roots in the transformation the gospel made in people’s lives that caused them to reach out to care for people. If you go back in history to primitive cultures they were happy to behead each other and kill each other. Christians change the character of the world wherever they have gone, and that’s the way it absolutely should be.” – John MacArthur, “Bible Questions and Answers, Part 67“

I believe that the denial of common grace is an egregious error.  The people I met who denied common grace became hostile very quickly (which is not a great way to facilitate healthy discourse or make a strong case for any position), defined the term on their own without listening or accepting any other definition, and then in less than 24 hours blocked me from explaining (which is why I’m writing this article).  They’re somewhat bigoted, refusing to handle the information they were presented and then refusing to let anyone else define the terms.  Their refutations were riddled with fallacies.  Refuting their own version of common grace instead of the one presented – that is a strawman fallacy.  They also employed false dilemma, attempting to force me to choose between “love and hate” as if the two were mutually exclusive; as if love and hate were polar opposites.  They quoted,

James 4:6,
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

and insisted that God’s love and grace only fall on the Elect. This is evidently the conclusion of many of those who have taken issue with Phil’s original article.  Indeed, after McGeown lists a lengthy bulk of Scripture references and other quotes, he then concludes the same as the internet goons,

“Clearly, then, we see a pattern in New Testament preaching. Christ and the apostles preached indiscriminately, calling, commanding and urging all men to repent and believe, and promising believers—and only believers—rest, peace, salvation and eternal life. Christ and the apostles did not preach that God loves all men, that Christ died for all men and that God desires the salvation of all men head for head. Thus the New Testament rebukes both real hyper-Calvinists on the one hand, and Arminians with “free-offer Calvinists” on the other hand.”

Frankly, I find this sort of thing disturbing, and would agree with Phil Johnson that this is a widespread form hyper-calvinism and after reading the response from McGoewn I learned two things, (1) he has great writing skills and (2) he still misses the mark, demonstrably.  And I believe the root of this, the core of this, is to look behind the scenes of Evangelism, because I believe that common grace stems from, or at least is a consequence of, the atoning work of Christ.  Who did Christ die for?  What did Christ’s death purchase for the Elect and for the reprobate?  Because if you get the atonement wrong, then you’ll probably miss everything else. If you get the atonement right, hopefully you’ll see Christ’s varying love for all mankind.

Please note that it’s probably safe to say that these hyper-calvinists understand they are on the fringe.  They seem to know they’re peddling doctrine that is not accepted by the calvinistic church at large.

“This is my guess, my estimation, somebody might have some better technical data on this, but I would say at least 90% of sovereign grace, calvinistic reformed people hold to the theory of common grace.” – Scott Price, “Chosen in Christ #37 The Myth of Common Grace,” 5-19-19

Scott Price seems to believe the problem with the rest of us, the 90%, is that we’re using the word “grace” to describe “providence.”  I’ve heard some refer to common grace as “common mercy.”  But, is there any issue with using the term “common grace?”  Scott Price seems to believe that saying common grace is akin to saying a “cuss word.”

“And for those that have actually, uh, seen, it’s been revealed to them God’s, uh, purpose in Christ through His free and sovereign grace – just to hear those two words put together, ‘common’ and ‘grace,’ it’s almost like a cuss word or you think ‘you’re kidding me right? you’re joking” when you hear that.  And that’s the way it was for me back as early as 1990.  I was converted in ’87 and as I started reading I didn’t come across anything technical explaining about this ‘common grace’ and free offer stuff. But I knew a man that helped me out on kinda guiding me on what to read theologically – saved me alot of time and money. And he brought this up in a conversation, that there are actually these people that believe the doctrines of grace, the 5 points, that hold to this doctrine of common grace and the free offer.  And after he explained it to me, I was shocked. I said, ‘Are you…’ I, I didn’t believe it.

I said that’s just Arminianism to me. And he said, um, I’ve told this story several times to the congregation here – he said, ‘that’s very astute.’  I said, ‘it just seems like common sense’ because it was easy to see.  Um, so it wasn’t like I was well studied in the technicalities of the history of this doctrine, the in’s and out’s of it, it just seemed on it’s face to be heresy.  So shortly after that we had a fella come in, um, named Charles Trukstrah from the PRC church and, uh, he did a message on each one, common grace and the free offer and countered it with, you know, what we hold to sovereign particular grace.  So after that I was able to study and see more clearly the implications and particulars of these problems.  And I’m thankful, back in 1994, um, those people bringing this to the surface so I could see it.  Some things it’s odd to me, and I can’t control it God controls it, and He only knows why He does things in certain times You know, we wish we would’ve known something 20 years ago instead of just last week.   Because it seems like things would’ve fit together better, it would’ve flowed better. God is in charge of that.  So we can’t, um, I’m not going to argue with Him. ”  – Scott Price, “Chosen in Christ #37 The Myth of Common Grace,” 5-19-19

Price affirms “sovereign particular grace” which he believes is, yet again with another false dichotomy, mutually exclusive to “common grace.”  Notice a pattern here?  It’s a high contrast black/white, either/or, love/hate way of thinking that seems to fuel the perception of God and Scripture in this way – missing the grey areas, missing the levels and high-definition distinctions, missing the complexities, and ultimately missing the mark.

The pattern we see here, is that their thinking is polarized before they even read the Scriptures.  Scott Price seems to have been indoctrinated into this by the PRC church before he ever even got a chance to study and grasp a theologically accurate understanding of common grace.  His eyes, his perception, is skewed through this false-dilemma-ridden filter before he ever had a chance to read Scripture without that lens.  Sort of how parents can raise their children to be racist or narcissistic and once that doctrine sets in, the child just can’t seem to see things any other way.  Notice Price says,

“And that’s the way it was for me back as early as 1990.  I was converted in ’87 and as I started reading I didn’t come across anything technical explaining about this ‘common grace’ and free offer stuff……..Um, so it wasn’t like I was well studied in the technicalities of the history of this doctrine, the in’s and out’s of it, it just seemed on it’s face to be heresy.

Now, it seems, that Price can read the Word of God and can read texts that clearly show all the mercy and grace God shows the reprobate, yet refuses to call it grace.  He must call it “providence” he says. He states,

“Now we won’t deny that God, we saw it in the text, that He provides all these things to everybody – in providence. But we know better than to call it ‘grace.'” – Scott Price, “Chosen in Christ #37 The Myth of Common Grace,” 5-19-19

“Where does this come from?” you might ask.  How is it that price can see God’s providence, but his mind forces him to divorce God’s providence from God’s grace?  Why the dualism?  Why, in his mind, must it be either/or, all or nothing, one or the other, but not both? Is it that complicated, that God’s grace and mercy aren’t in competition with His providence?  No.

Cameron Buettel writes on Grace to You (found here),

Some people appeal to God’s unconditional love as if that trumps or invalidates His other attributes, most notably His wrath. But as John [MacArthur] emphatically argues, such sentiment amounts to nothing less than a popular form of idolatry.

“Belief in a God who is all love and no wrath, all grace and no justice, all forgiveness and no condemnation is idolatry (worship of a false god invented by men)” – John MacArthur

People have this tendency to omit or overshadow one of God’s attributes in favor of another.  In this case, the PRC, Scott Price, and Martyn McGeown have done that, overshadowing God’s grace with his providence.  They’re cancelling God’s common grace and love of all men, in favor of a heavy-handed providence – as if we have to choose between grace and providence.  Don’t fall for it.  It’s their “either/or” thinking problem, their fallacy – but it doesn’t have to be yours.

Monergism.com (found here) gives this definition of common grace:

“Common Grace is a theological concept, primarily in Reformed and Calvinistic circles, referring to God’s common patience or forbearance with sinful man … the non-saving sustaining grace of God that is common to all humankind. It is “common” because its benefits are experienced by, or intended for, the whole human race without distinction between one person and another. It is “grace” because it is undeserved and sovereignly bestowed by God. In this sense, it is distinguished from the Calvinistic understanding of “special” or “saving” grace, which extends only to those whom God has chosen to redeem. An example of the concept can be found in the idea that God allows the sun to shine upon both the righteous and the unrighteous and sends rain on both the just and unjust.”

Did you catch that? “It is ‘grace’ because it undeserved and sovereignly bestowed by God.” Undeserved and sovereignly bestowed sounds like a very healthy, cohesive marriage of grace and providence.  Also, the PRC idea of particular grace is captured in the larger calvinistic church’s doctrine of saving grace.  The saving grace, or the special grace, is the particular grace of which they speak.  So what’s with the semantic games?  The only real issue here, is that they are denying that God has any love at all, any grace at all, any mercy at all for the reprobate.  Yet, we are commanded to love our neighbor, love our enemies, and Christ obeyed the Law perfectly.  Christ loved His neighbor.  Christ loved His enemies.  God is not a hypocrite commanding us to love people that He Himself doesn’t love.  And how graceful is He!  For through us, through His people, He pours out His love on the undeserving reprobate – that’s active, Spirit-driven, Scripture-commanded grace towards them!

In regeneration we are indwelt the Holy Spirit, when our affections, our will/volition is transformed, we are born again with a new heart, new desires, and more and more what God loves we love, and what God hates we hate.  The Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ, and that’s how we are able to obey the commands of Scripture.  We’re sanctified, set apart, as His Bride, becoming more and more like Christ.  How on earth could we love our neighbor if Christ doesn’t love them too?  How on earth could we love our enemies if God doesn’t love them too?  Is that not grace – active, powerful, unmerited favor towards reprobates and the converted Elect and yet-to-be converted Elect alike?

What about “restraining grace?” Do they also reject that?  I mean, not everyone is as bad as they could be.  What other than God’s active, potent, powerful grace, in his providence (not set at odds with it like hyper-calvinists wrongly assert) could do such a thing?

John MacArthur writes (found here),

“What about the charge that the doctrine of election is not fair? In one sense, there’s some truth in this. “Fair” would mean that everyone gets precisely what he deserves. But no one really wants that. Even the non-elect would face a more severe punishment if it were not for the restraining grace of God that keeps them from expressing their depravity to its full extent.

Fairness is not the issue; grace is the issue. Election is the highest expression of God’s loving grace. He didn’t have to choose anyone. And He is, after all, God. If He chooses to set His love in a particular way on whomever He chooses, He has every right to do so.”

We cannot pit grace against providence.  There is no internal warfare between God’s attributes.  God’s attributes are not in competition with each other.  Is it so hard to understand that saving grace is different from common grace?  But the way they use a strawman is by conflating the two terms, misrepresenting the doctrine, and insisting that nobody but them are allowed to define this term “common grace.”

Tim Challies writes (found here),

“Why is it that after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and incurred the just penalty of death, they did not immediately die? What enabled them to go on living to enjoy the many of the benefits of life for years afterward (food, marriage, sex, children, etc.)? And why do so many sinners today enjoy those same benefits, even those who will never believe?

In general, we can answer by pointing to grace–a fitting description for every one of God’s blessing, each of which is, by very definition, undeserved. However, because the grace we are talking about here is poured out “on the just and on the unjust” (that is, on both believers and unbelievers–see Matthew 5:45), and since it is of a different kind than the other manifestations of grace we read about in Scripture (e. g. forgiveness of sin, adoption into the family of God, eternal life in heaven—that is, special grace, or graces related to redemption), theologians have found it helpful to distinguish this as common grace. It is common in that it extends to all people without distinction just as the common room at a university is accessible to every student.

As Wayne Grudem succintly defines it in his excellent Systematic Theology, “Common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation.” Berkhof tells us what such grace accomplishes: “[It] curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art, and showers untold blessings upon the children of men.” Thus common grace encompasses not only physical blessings like rain and food and health, but also blessings in the areas of intellect, morality, creativity, society, and religion. Like all grace, all undeserved favor, it is meant to point us to our kind, loving Creator.”

RC Sproul describes common grace this way,

“In the Scriptures when the Bible speaks of salvation, it speaks of salvation in more than one way. We’re accustomed to using the term salvation for being saved in the ultimate sense of being redeemed by God and brought into a saving relationship to Him that will last for eternity.  But in the Scriptures, for God to save somebody can mean several different things. The word “to save” refers to any act of rescue from a serious and dire circumstance, or from a calamitous situation. If you are restored from a life-threatening disease, you are saved.  If you are rescued from capture in battle, you are saved.  Any rescue from calamity is a kind of salvation biblically.  Then there is the ultimate sense of salvation where in that regard the Great Calamity from which we are saved is from God. That is, we are saved from having to face God in His wrath on the day of Judgement.  And we are rescued from that wrath which is to come. God is at the same time the Savior and the One from Whom we are saved.”

You can see where he’s going on this, that the eternal salvation is special grace, or saving grace, and that all the various temporal salvations are a type of common grace.

Another thing to consider when staunch hyper-calvinists declare that God has no grace at all for the reprobate, no love at all for reprobates, is to remember that we all are Imago Dei, that is, created in the image of God and we all have the law of God written on our hearts.  Now, for a reprobate headed to Hell for eternity – that’s highly undeserved and can only be said to be God’s grace and mercy on them.  That God is so merciful, so loving, that He would ever allow such a thing.  Grace and justice are different, in that grace has nothing to do with our works and justice is based on our works.  Grace is never owed, but justice is owed.  God is not obligated to give the same level of grace to all people, because grace is not provided based upon merit or our works in any way.

Matthew 5:45 states,

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

RC Sproul says in regards to Matthew 5:45,

“Common grace refers to the kindness and benefits and favors that God pours out liberally to people whether they are believers or not believers.  But we’re not just talking here about rain.  We’re talking about a multitude of favors that are enjoyed by people who are not in fellowship with God through personal redemption.  And we see that these things that God gives, gifts of life and health and safety and order and all the rest that we need to survive, is something that God does in order to preserve His creation.

From the fall of man, God did not utterly destroy the whole human race, but He has preserved the human race even to this day.  And we have seen a progress in history of the impact of God’s grace on just simply the standard of living of people.  I know that not every one in this world enjoys an equal standard of living.  Not every one in America has the same standard of living, and certainly the basic standard of living in America is much greater than other parts of the world where people live in abject poverty and severe deprivation. Nevertheless, even in those areas the life expectancy and the quality of life tends to be significantly better than it was for the masses of the populated areas of the world in centuries past. So that just life itself has become easier and better as it were, as the progress of history.  And not the least of the reasons that has provoked the improvement of life and the conditions of life, and many people contribute simply to science or the secular enterprise of education – we have to look to the influence of the Christian church on the world over the past 2000 years.”

RC Sproul further explains,

“The Church is always called, and the Christian is called to imitate Christ as Christ imitates God. And as Christians, engaged in the Christian life, we are called to be imitators of God.  That’s what it means to be made in the image of God.  And if God is concerned about common grace, the general welfare of the human race, what is our responsibility?  We are also called to be concerned about the general welfare of the human race.  In fact, Jesus says if your neighbor, or even in this case if it’s your enemy, is naked – you clothe him, if he’s hungry you feed him, and if he’s thirsty you give him drink, if he’s in prison you go and visit him, if he’s sick you minister to him, and we see Jesus demonstrating in His ministry, for example, the parable of the good Samaritan indicates the priority that Jesus gives to His Church to be concerned not only in the special grace realm of evangelism, but also to be concerned about the general welfare of the human race.

What does James tell us, that the essence of true religion is the care of orphans and widows.  Now, I labor this point for a reason. That there has been a strange divorce that has taken place in the last hundred or so years in the Christian community.  A crisis occurred in the 19th century, with the advent of 19th century liberal theology, which by and large rejected the supernatural aspects of the Christian faith – denied the virgin birth, denied the resurrection, denied the atonement, the deity of Christ and so on.

And they had a crisis because they had basically rejected historical Christianity, and yet they had tons of money invested in careers and in church buildings and programs and institutions all over the place.  And so in order for them to remain viable, from a social perspective, they had to create a new agenda for the church.  Well, they said we already have an agenda, and it’s the humanitarian outreach concerns, the ministries of mercy, and they began to put their emphasis on taking care of the social agenda at the expense of evangelism.  And orthodox Christians were saying, “Wait a minute! The Church is still about the supernatural questions of personal reconciliation and we’ve got to almost double our efforts for evangelism to make up for the repudiation of it that is coming from the liberal wing.”

And this unnatural schism took place, where evangelicals began to say, “Oh social action? Social concern? Concern for the general welfare of the human race? That’s a liberal matter. That’s a liberal agenda.  Whereas concern for souls and personal salvation, that’s the real concern of the Church.  If Christ would hear that – He would say “apox on both of your houses!”  Because the Church is called not only to the ministry of special grace, but also to the ministry of common grace.

Nobody is qualified to receive the grace of God.  If reprobates are not qualified to receive the grace of God, then neither am I and neither are you.  We all receive the benefits of mercy on the basis of grace.

COMMON GRACE AND THE ATONEMENT

It is my belief, that Christ’s atoning work on the cross purchased varying levels of grace for all men, not just the Elect.

Christ’s died for the eternal salvation of some (obviously), but all benefit to some degree from temporal salvation – His grace, love and the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel of Christ being spread throughout the world. Christ died for all in a general sense, and Christ died for His elect, His Bride, in a salvific sense.

Spurgeon said this:

“We believe that by His atoning sacrifice, Christ bought some good things for all men and all good things for some men. And that when He died He had a definite purpose in dying and that His purpose will certainly be effected.”

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22,

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

Matthew 20:28 says,

“even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Phil Johnson writes,

“Again as 1 Timothy 4:10 plainly says: “Christ is the Savior of all men” but He is not the Savior of all men equally. He did not die for each and every individual alike. “I am the good Shepherd,” Jesus said in John 10:11, “and the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” And the context makes His meaning inescapable. The good Shepherd does not die for the goats in the same way. He doesn’t die for the wolves like He dies for the sheep. Verse 15 He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” And in the Apostle Paul’s speech to the elders of Ephesus, Acts 20:28, he says this: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which The Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the Church of God which He has purchased with His own blood.” It was the Church that Christ purchased with His blood. They, the church, not the grievous wolves that were threatening the Church but the people of God, His elect. They were object of Christ’s affection and their salvation was the main reason for which He died. And the benefits that accrue to the reprobate are just secondary effects of that.

Here’s the real issue in the atonement. Now in what sense did Christ purchase the Church? In Ephesians 5 Paul uses language that evokes the imagery of a marriage price. Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.” Not for her enemies, but for her. So Christ bought the Church with His own blood. For what reason, Ephesians 5:26-27, “that He might sanctify her and having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the Church and all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she should be holy and blameless.”

Taken from Monergism.com (found here), Louis Berkhof writes,

Reformed theologians generally hesitate to say that Christ by His atoning blood merited these blessings for the impenitent and reprobate. At the same time they do believe that important natural benefits accrue to the whole human race from the death of Christ, and that in these benefits the unbelieving, the impenitent, and the reprobate also share. In every covenant transaction recorded in Scripture it appears that the covenant of grace carries with it not only spiritual but also material blessings, and those material blessings are generally of such a kind that they are naturally shared also by unbelievers. Says Cunningham: “Many blessings flow to mankind at large from the death of Christ, collaterally and incidentally, in consequence of the relation in which men, viewed collectively, stand to each other.”[Hist. Theol. II, p. 333.] And it is but natural that this should be so. If Christ was to save an elect race, gradually called out of the world of humanity in the course of centuries, it became necessary for God to exercise forbearance, to check the course of evil, to promote the development of the natural powers of man, to keep alive within the hearts of men a desire for civil righteousness, for external morality and good order in society, and to shower untold blessings upon mankind in general. Dr. Hodge expresses it thus: “It is very plain that any plan designed to secure the salvation of an elect portion of a race propagated by generation and living in association, as is the case with mankind, cannot secure its end without greatly affecting, for better or for worse, the character and destiny of all the rest of the race not elected.” He quotes Dr. Candlish to the effect that “the entire history of the human race, from the apostasy to the final judgment, is a dispensation of forbearance in respect to the reprobate, in which many blessings, physical and moral, affecting their characters and destinies forever, accrue even to the heathen, and many more to the educated and refined citizens of Christian communities. These come to them through the mediation of Christ, and coming to them now, must have been designed for them from the beginning.”[The Atonement, pp. 358 f.] These general blessings of mankind, indirectly resulting from the atoning work of Christ, were not only foreseen by God, but designed by Him as blessings for all concerned. It is perfectly true, of course, that the design of God in the work of Christ pertained primarily and directly, not to the temporal well-being of men in general, but to the redemption of the elect; but secondarily and indirectly it also included the natural blessings bestowed on mankind indiscriminately. All that the natural man receives other than curse and death is an indirect result of the redemptive work of Christ.[Cf Turretin, Opera, Locus XIV, Q. XIV, par. XI; Witsius, De Verbonden, B. II, Kap. 9, s. 4; Cunningham, Hist. Theol. II, p. 332; Symington, Atonement and Intercession, p. 255; Bavinck, Geref. Dogm. III, p. 535; Vos, Ger. Dogm. III, p. 150.]

OFFER and CALL (not offer vs command)

McGoewn titles one segment, “Offer/Invitation Versus Command,” and titles another, “The Gospel Offer or Serious Call?” which creates a false dichotomies pitting “offer” against “command” and pitting “offer” against “serious call.” He takes issue with Phil’s use of the word “offer” and lists out several verses from Scripture that describe a “call.”  This, says McGoewn, refutes any possibility of an offer.  But what McGoewn doesn’t do is quote or handle Phil’s description of said offer in context.

Here’s what Phil Johnson wrote in his article:

“2 Corinthians 5:20: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.“ The whole thrust of the gospel, properly presented, is to convey an offer (in the sense of a tender, a proffer, or a proposal)” of divine peace and mercy to all who come under its hearing.

Now here’s what McGoewn quotes and writes in his article:

“A command is something very different from an offer, even if sometimes an offer or an invitation is couched in the language of a command, that is, in the imperative mood (“Come!” “Take,” etc.). Johnson writes, “The whole thrust of the gospel, properly presented, is to convey an offer (in the sense of a tender, a proffer, or a proposal) of divine peace and mercy to all who come under its hearing.”

But that is not what the gospel call is!”

Notice anything suspicious?  You should.  McGoewn omits the 2 Corinthians 5:20 verse from his article and never handles the Scripture at all. He quotes Phil out of context, as if he had no biblical basis for defending “offer.”  McGoewn simply lists out every verse he can find that doesn’t sound like an “offer,”  and writes at length on the Greek “Kaleo” (call), but spends no time at all handling Phil’s actual argument.  Seems a bit dishonest to me.

This is yet another fallacy, another false dilemma.  Trying to force us to choose between “offer” and “call,” when in reality that’s not a choice we have to make at all.  Scripture clearly indicates both.

So much more could be said here, but I’ll just leave a link to several other writings on Common Grace.  And if someone wants to refute the teaching of common grace, they’ll need to handle the material first and actually handle the Scripture being provided.  Ignoring the entire doctrine and making up your own terms is merely a strawman.  I do believe that those rejecting common grace have a truncated Gospel – a bitter message void of the love and grace of God towards all men.  One that blurs the full spectrum of the effects of the atonement.  One that requires the threadbare overuse of fallacies like false dichotomy.  Oh the irony, as they whiz by doing online ad hominem&block hit&runs, and as Scott Price put it, condemning “at least 90% of sovereign grace, calvinistic reformed people” who “hold to the theory of common grace” as heretics.  To think, that Martyn McGeown, in an attempt to defend the PRC, wrongly condemned so many.

CLICK HERE FOR SEVERAL MORE DOCUMENTS REGARDING COMMON GRACE ON MONERGISM.COM 

Matt Slick from CARM.org says, “When I give the Gospel, I don’t mention the sovereignty of God.”

The following was a live discussion about the sovereignty of God in the Gospel, between Matt Slick and Matt Hagen, that ended without resolution.

[discussion begins]

MATT SLICK: Welcome back everyone, we have 3 open lines, [gives phone number], let’s get to Matt from Hot Springs, AR – welcome, you’re on the air.

MATT HAGEN: Hey, how are you doing again?

MATT SLICK: Alright.

MATT HAGEN: I think where we were at, I was presenting my question about Steve Lawson, he had a sermon that came out about the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of sovereignty, and stating, you know, um, that it’s “not a secondary truth,” that it is the “Mount Everest of doctrine,” that it’s the, um, “it is the bedrock of all doctrine,” were quotes from him.When I posted the meme what happened is that I started getting those attacks, you know, “oh now you’re trying to add to the Gospel” that the sovereignty of Christ, or the Personhood of Christ, or the attributes of God, to whatever degree, are not essential to the Gospel. So, I don’t believe that personally, but I did want to hear your thoughts on how you would handle the sovereignty of Christ, the sovereignty of God, in terms of Gospel presentation, or the Gospel, and being essential.

The meme that sparked the discussion. 

MATT SLICK:  Well, when I give the Gospel, I don’t mention the sovereignty of God. I mention the, uh, the law, the Gospel, and the cost. Three aspects I think need to be presented. And, Apologetics is where the issue of the sovereignty of God comes in. So, different people have different ways of emphasizing different doctrines. Now, the sovereignty of God of course is an incredibly important, and it means God has the right to do with His creation as He desires. He’s sovereign, He can accomplish whatever He desires. And this is important. We “Christians” need to know that. It’s really a paramount doctrine for “Christians” to know. We already know the doctrine of the Trinity, that Jesus is God in flesh, that’s salvation’s by grace through faith in Christ, not by works, not by baptism, not by ceremonies, and also the sovereignty of God because we have to face the issues in life of losing family members, financial difficulties, health difficulties, etc… as well as blessings come in, you know. So we have to understand that God is sovereign over all of these, and that nothing occurs without His permission. And so this is why it’s really important for the “Christians” to understand sovereignty, moreso than I would think the unbelievers. The unbelievers can’t really accept the things of the sovereignty of God, so to speak, because they’re not believers yet. They don’t understand. So, I’m not sure what that gentleman was getting at, or trying to.

MATT HAGEN: I guess where it comes in is, I would say, I mean, I don’t believe that unbelievers necessarily can understand too deep of truth, I mean they can’t even have faith – faith is impossible to the unbeliever, so there are a lot of things that are impossible for the unbeliever when it comes to biblical truth. It’s just for me, when it comes to the Person of Christ, right, what I see in Scripture is that – if somebody were to say that they were a believer, but, and they’ve been given the Gospel, but they have no understanding of the sovereignty of Christ or of God…if they don’t believe in Him being above all things, then they kind of reduce the Personhood of Christ [gets antsy and seems irritated] to a place where it’s no longer Christ.

MATT SLICK: Noooo….[interrupts (1)] Be careful with that…

MATT HAGEN: And at that point, is it a saving Gospel, if you’re giving the wrong Christ?

MATT SLICK: Well, that’s true, but you gotta be careful cause people don’t know about the sovereignty of God. They may not even understand what that means. Alot of Christians don’t know.

MATT HAGEN: [interrupts (1)] …well, the word. [the word “sovereignty”] The word maybe not. But just the concept of God being above all things, like in their own words, their own understanding.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (2)] but that’s different…

MATT HAGEN: then it would at least have to recognize that God is all the way up, and that there’s nothing…

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (3)] just a second…hold up…you’re going too…hold up….okay….back up….you’re saying too much.  ‘cause I wanna comment about some of the things you’re saying. Sovereignty isn’t exactly what it is you were saying you need to know, you know, that “God’s above all things.” Being above all things is really not very descriptive. And, when you talk about sovereignty you gotta define your terms.

MATT HAGEN: Reigning and ordaining.

MATT SLICK:  If you don’t define your terms when you’re discussing these things with people, then confusion and resentment will stick, will come into play. So sovereignty – that’s why I said it earlier – means that God has the right to do with His creation as He desires. Whether it’s good or bad to us, He has that right. So that’s what that means. To say He’s “above all things…”

MATT HAGEN: Are you saying that’s necessary for the Personhood of God and Christ in terms of the Gospel?

MATT SLICK: No. No. I never see that as a requirement of being taught in the Gospel. The Gospel is the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And the Gospel is what saves us.

MATT HAGEN: But can you say the name “Christ” without also having, I mean profoundly the word “Christ” means a lot more then just the word Christ. It’s not just a word.

MATT SLICK:  I hear you, but, look if you’re gonna witness to an unbeliever you know you have ways of saying things. What I wanna say to somebody is Jesus Christ is God in flesh. Died on that cross. He bore our sins in His body on the cross. I’m gonna give them the basics. I don’t wanna have to go into doctrines of sovereignty, communicatio idiomatum…

MATT HAGEN: I’d like to reframe my question a little bit to you, or reframe what I’m trying to say

MATT SLICK: okay.

MATT HAGEN: is that, whenever we say that Christ is “God in the flesh,” now we’ve used another word, “God.” And I think that there has to be a deeper understanding of who God is, because say you come up to the person with

MATT SLICK:  I got you.

MATT HAGEN: your general Gospel presentation, the death, burial, resurrection…I would include ascension…but it doesn’t sound like.. I don’t know if you would or not…

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (3)] lemme ask you something, let me ask you a question. I understand where you’re going. I understand, I understand.

MATT HAGEN: …you go through those things, and then, you go up two weeks after they’ve said they’re saved, and then you ask em, “Hey, Christ?” and they don’t understand sovereignty at that point, are they truly saved? If they don’t even know who Christ is?

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (4)] Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You’re going way too far.

MATT SLICK: You see, the job of the church is to equip the Christians and to train them. So, you could be saved without even knowing what the Trinity is. Not having a good understanding of the Trinity, or what’s called the “communicatio idiomatum” where the attributes of both natures are ascribed to a single person which validates His nature and sufficiency of the atoning work. They don’t know that kind of stuff. But this is essential to knowing who Christ is, ultimately. Where are you gonna draw the line and say, this is a doctrine you oughta know in order to be a true Christian? We’re not saved by doctrine. We’re saved by the grace of Christ. And then the Christian church is there to equip us, and then they go. So, if two weeks later someone doesn’t understand the sovereignty of God, it doesn’t mean they’re not saved. It means they haven’t been taught yet. That’s all.

MATT HAGEN: So if their version of Christ after they’ve, you know, professed to be Christians, is a non-sovereign Christ, you still believe that person is saved?

MATT SLICK: I don’t know. I would have to ask more questions. I don’t jump all over em and say, “sorry you can’t be a true Christian you don’t believe in the complete sovereignty of God.”

MATT HAGEN: Well, not “jump all over em.” In terms of just getting the question out, cause it’s kind of a profound question…

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (5)] let me answer, let me answer… Let me answer, okay. The thing I would do, is ask more questions. And I would just come alongside of them, and show them the Word of God, and show them God is sovereign.

MATT HAGEN: Absolutely.

MATT SLICK: I’d do that quietly. Patiently. Lovingly. And that’s the way it has to be done. That’s what we do as teachers.

MATT HAGEN: I agree with everything you’re saying, aside from, I would probably, if a person didn’t understand that God and Christ, or Who God is, or Who Christ is, if the Personhood of God and Christ isn’t understood to be sovereign, then I don’t believe that’s a saving Gospel. I believe that’s the wrong Christ, like an animistic religion like John MacArthur said, like believing in a rock.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (6)]. Where does it say in the Bible you have to believe in the sovereignty of Christ in order to be Christian? Show me that.

MATT HAGEN: Where it says the word “Christ.” And if you don’t know Who that is, if you don’t understand that He is sovereign, then you..

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (7)] hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on….

MATT HAGEN: You asked me a question, I was just trying to answer you.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (8)] I know, but you’re jumping all over the place. You’re just going off the rails here. I’m asking you a specific question. Show me where it’s necessary for that to be said. It’s not. When you say well, “Christ” and then you, what you do, is you’re picking this one aspect of His nature, and saying you have to know that. What about the Hypostatic Union, the communicatio idiomatum? What about the communicatio idiomatum? Do you know about the communicatio idiomatum?

MATT HAGEN: Yea, I would say that the Hypostatic Union, being both God and man..if someone denies that…then yes, they have the wrong Christ.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (9)] Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt [interrupts (10)] I asked, do you know what the Hypostatic Union…excuse me, the communicatio idiomatum is?

MATT HAGEN: No, I don’t know what that is, cause I’ve never heard the term. I know what the Hypostatic Union is.

MATT SLICK: Then Matt, I could say to you, “You don’t know the true Christ do you?”  How do you have a true saving Gospel if you don’t know that about Christ?

MATT HAGEN: No, here’s the deal though, here’s the deal, if I go look up the theological term, and I deny it…if I deny the truth, then yea I would be denying the true Christ.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (11)] Hold on, Hold on, Hold on, Hold on..Matt, Matt, Matt, Hold on, Hold on, Hold on.

MATT HAGEN: I’m sorry my answers aren’t two words… I’m just trying to answer your question.

MATT SLICK: You’re going off. You’re not hearing.  You yourself don’t know something that you want someone else to be required to know, expect it’s just a different doctrine. Why is it that they have to know about Christ’s sovereignty, but you don’t have to know about the communicatio idiomatum? The communicatio idiomatum is a necessity for the sufficiency and the atoning work of Christ.

MATT HAGEN: What are the odds that maybe I do know what that is, I just don’t know the term you’re using? So if you were gonna define that for me right now, and I’ll tell you if I do or don’t know about it? Because maybe I’ve studied that in Scripture and I just don’t know that word. Which is what I’m trying to say about sovereignty.

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (12)] I’m just trying to help you here  Oh God, look, I’m trying to help you. What you preach is Christ and Him crucified, then you teach them the truth about Christ more and more later on. If they don’t know something, patiently lovingly teach them. If they continue to a true doctrine like that, then you have to doubt their salvation. But it takes a while. Give it time. Okay?

MATT HAGEN: How long does it take to tell someone that God is sovereign when you’re presenting the Gospel? To make sure that they understand that on the front-end without having all this worry about that? I mean, I don’t understand what the…

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (13)] You asked a question, “how long does it take?” There is no answer to the question, okay? There is no answer to the question, because…

MATT HAGEN: [interrupts (3)] …to explain that God reigns and ordains all things? It takes 5 seconds.

MATT SLICK:  Agggghhhh, okay, we’re gonna move along Matt I’m sorry…I’m trying to work with you. You have a hobby-horse, that you’re just you know, you’re just beatin this, I’m trying to help you.

MATT HAGEN: I feel like you don’t understand what I’ll say, you just pre-empt..

MATT SLICK: [interrupts (14)] We’re just gonna go on, I’m sorry, but that’s just how it’s gonna be.

[Matt Slick disconnects call]

He continues to talk about Hagen in his next phone call, on air, and in comments section calling him a “troll” and attacking him when he could not defend himself.  Hagen responds in defense of himself via comment section, then Matt Slick blocks him from commenting as well. Screenshots below.

A Comment made in response to the attacks on Hagen, “the pages on Facebook are brutal like this” referring to Carm.org commenting, “Maybe he’s a troll.” Another comment said, “This is miscommunication.”  When Hagen tried to comment in his own defense, CARM.org posted, “I blocked him.”

Suggesting Hagen “was a Troll”

Commenter says, “Pages on Facebook are Brutal”

Hagen is blocked

Total Interruptions:
Matt Hagen: 3
Matt Slick: 14

THE QUESTIONS –

Should a Gospel presentation include the sovereignty of God or not?  How significant is the sovereignty of God in the Gospel?  Can you be saved without understanding any level of sovereignty like Matt Slick suggests?

WHAT SPARKED THE DISCUSSION – 

Steve Lawson says, “The sovereignty of God is not a secondary doctrine that is relegated to an obscure corner in the Bible. Rather, this truth is the very bedrock doctrine of all Scripture. This is the Mount Everest of biblical teaching, the towering truth that transcends all theology. From its opening verse, the Bible asserts in no uncertain terms that God is and that God reigns. In other words, He is God—not merely in name, but in full reality. God does as He pleases, when He pleases, where He pleases, how He pleases, and with whom He pleases in saving undeserving sinners. All other doctrines of the Christian faith must be brought into alignment with this keystone truth.

The sovereignty of God is the free exercise of His supreme authority in executing and administrating His eternal purposes. God must be sovereign if He is to be truly God. A god who is not sovereign is not God at all. Such is an impostor, an idol, a mere caricature formed in man’s fallen imagination. A god who is less than fully sovereign is not worthy of our worship, much less our witness. But the Bible proclaims for all to hear that “the Lord reigns” (Ps. 93:1). God is exactly who Scripture declares He is. He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, whose supreme authority is over all. This is the main premise of Scripture.

Nowhere is God’s sovereignty more clearly demonstrated than in His salvation of the lost. God is free to bestow His saving mercy on whom He pleases. God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Ex. 33:19b; Rom. 9:15). He is not obligated to extend His grace to any undeserving sinner. If He were to choose to save none, He would remain perfectly just. He might determine to save a few and still be absolutely holy. Or He could choose to save all. But God is sovereign, and that means He is entirely free to bestow His grace however He will—whether on none, few, or all.

From beginning to end, salvation is of God and, ultimately, for God. The apostle Paul writes, “From him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). In this comprehensive verse, God is declared to be the divine source, the determinative means, and the designated end of all things. This is most true in salvation. According to this text, every aspect of the operation of saving grace is God-initiated, God-directed, and God-glorifying. Every dimension of salvation is from Him, through Him, and to Him. This is to say, salvation originates from His sovereign will, proceeds through His sovereign activity, and leads to His sovereign glory.”

CLICK FOR STEVE LAWSON’s LECTURE ON SOVEREIGNTY
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/attributes-god/the-sovereignty-of-god

R.C. Sproul says,  “God from all eternity according to His own holy and wise counsel, did freely and immutably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.”

I paused at that point in the seminary classroom and said to my students, “How many of you believe that statement?” You have to understand, this was a Presbyterian seminary, so these fellows were pretty well-steeped in the Augustinian tradition. I got about a 70% vote of those who believed it.

Then I said, “Okay, how many of you don’t believe that statement?” and thirty or so hands went in the air. I said: “Fine. Now let me ask another question. Without fear of recriminations—nobody’s going to jump all over you, we just would like to know, so feel free to state your position—how many of you would call yourselves atheists?” And nobody put their hand up.

So I went into my Lieutenant Columbo routine as if to say, “There’s just one thing here I can’t understand,” and I looked at those thirty who had raised their hands and said: “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? I can’t figure out why those of you who raised your hands saying you did not believe this statement didn’t raise your hand when I asked if you were atheists.” And they looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement and bewilderment—the same kind of looks I’m seeing in your eyes here today. I was saying, “Because if you don’t believe this statement, you understand that fundamentally, bottom line, you’re an atheist.” And that was about the most outrageous thing they ever heard in their lives.

I said: “Let’s understand that this statement I have just read, that God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, is not a statement that is unique to Calvinism or to Presbyterianism. It doesn’t distinguish the Reformed tradition from other traditions. It doesn’t even distinguish Christians from Jews or from Muslims. This statement distinguishes theists from atheists.”

They were still puzzled as I continued this harangue. I said, “Don’t you see that if there is anything that happens in this world outside the foreordination of God, that if there’s no sense in which God is ordaining whatsoever comes to pass, then at whatever point something happens outside the foreordination of God, it is therefore happening outside of the sovereignty of God?”

Understand that when we talk about God’s ordaining things, there are different ways God ordains things to come to pass. This doesn’t necessarily mean that God jumps down onto the planet and makes something happen through a direct and immediate personal involvement on His part. But the trick in the statement has to do with the word “ordain.” All that statement means is that God is sovereign over anything that happens. Nothing in this world can happen apart from divine sovereignty.

We distinguish sometimes between God’s efficacious will and His permissive will. You’ve heard those kinds of distinctions, but let me state this in the easiest of all possible terms. If something happens in this world, whether by the power of men, the power of nature, the power of machines, etc., God always has the power and authority to at least prevent it from happening, does He not? And if He does not prevent it from happening, that means at least this much: He has chosen to let it happen.

That doesn’t mean that He applauds it. That doesn’t mean He’s in favor of it insofar as He gives His divine sanction to it. But He does allow it to happen (again, not always in the sense of approving) and, in so allowing, He is making a decision and making that decision sovereignly. He knows in advance what is going to happen, and if He decrees that it shall happen, He is retaining His sovereignty over it.

If things happen in this world outside the sovereignty of God, then that would simply mean God is not sovereign. The reason I brought up the question of atheism is because if God is not sovereign, God is not God. It’s that simple. If God is not sovereign, God is not God. And if the God you believe in is not a sovereign God, then you really don’t believe in God. You may have a theory of God. You may have theoretical theism. But bottom line, for all practical purposes, it’s no different from atheism because you are believing in a God who is not sovereign.”

 

Do you truly believe in God, or are you full of bologna?

Love and obeying God and belief are all united. When a person who is saved says, “I believe in God,” it means something totally different than when a false convert says, “I believe in God.”  The actual believer means that they love God and their highest goal is to obey Him in love. That’s actual belief.

On the other hand, the false convert says he believes in God, but doesn’t actually have Christ inside his heart reigning supreme. The false convert doesn’t actually want to obey the Bible simply because his love for Christ is the highest authority in his heart.

So true believers and false converts both say, “I believe in God.” The difference is that if you actually search deep into their motivations and desires and hearts, you will find that only the true believer actually believes and loves and obeys God because he knows God and is forever indwelt the Holy Spirit. Therefore the true believer will persevere until the end, and always grow stronger from persecution and struggles and failures and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, the false convert doesn’t actually believe or love or obey God from a heart forever ruled by Christ. That’s why under persecution and struggle and failures and weaknesses, the false convert falls away and recants his belief in Christ and the Bible, and abandons the truth, and eventually seeks out a lifestyle that makes sense to him – like the world and sin.

It’s something else, you know, when you meet those people who say, “I believe in God too” or“yeah, I’m a Christian too.” And inevitably they follow up with the self-exposing words, “but I don’t go to church” or “but I don’t read the Bible” or “but I don’t pray.” I’m like, “Really? You’re a Christian who doesn’t follow Christ?” That must be some new form of Christian that the devil invented.

When a person claims to be a Christian, yet lives a sinful lifestyle that is totally void of any actual fruit and love and obedience and belief in God and His Word, and his life is characterized by the world, worldly lusts, worldly desires, worldly motives…. then, chances are that person is full of bologna.

Follow up with a few statements from the Bible, and see if their attention suddenly drops. Quote Christ a few times, and see if they suddenly lose their interest in the conversation . Ask them their testimony and see if they even have one. Ask them the Gospel and see if they even know it. Ask them who Christ is and see if they say God. It usually doesn’t take long to discern that they desperately need a full-on Gospel presentation and that their wild lifestyle isn’t merely circumstantial, but rather a direct result of their choices and desires to follow sin instead of Christ.

There is a reason people don’t know the Bible, and it is usually because they have spent their whole lifetime choosing to read anything else, and the Bible is the least important thing to them. Be discerning people, there are lots of false converts out there, and instead of teaming up with them, we should be evangelizing them and avoiding their misdirection. We need to be discerning and test our friends, family, loved ones and peers. We shouldn’t be naive, but rather we should be diligent and wise and prayerful and sober-minded.

If people are complicating the Bible, and complicating their lives and missing church and missing Bible study and missing fellowship and missing accountability and missing enthusiasm to obey Him, then it’s likely not just a coincidence, but rather a giant redflag about them.

People who don’t actually like something or love something, over-complicate matters and make excuses and miss meetings and have a hard time showing genuine enthusiasm. Contrastly, when people do actually like something or love something, then they make it simple and take responsibility and show up early and get excited to participate and even seek out additional related things.

Like, a person who wants to go to the store might say, “It’s just a block away, we’ll be there and back in no time. Let’s go.” See, easy. There’s like 1 step involved and plenty of enthusiasm and simplicity.

But, a person who doesn’t want to go to the store might say, “It’s dark and dangerous outside, and it’s raining, and the store is all the way down the street, and we have to put on our shoes, get dressed and find our raincoats, and find my wallet and keys, and then get into the car, and maybe dirty up the floorboards, and maybe stop and get gas, and then hope that they aren’t closed, and…”  See, difficult. Complicated. Lots of steps involved. No enthusiasm. No simplicity.

I always ask myself when I’m dealing with a person who claims to be a believer, which one of these people do they become when I am talking to them about God. Which person are they when extra events are introduced into the conversation. What about Bible study, and fellowship groups, and opportunities to serve, and evangelizing strangers? Are they at least trying to find way to obey and serve Christ, or are they making things complicated and trying to increase the number of steps involved? My question is, what are their actual desires about God and the Bible and belief and obedience and love? Because those things come in a cluster. If you love, you also obey, and also believe. So without all of those, then a person isn’t really believing at all. They are just saying they believe They’re lying to themselves and others.

If I told you I believe that my house was on fire, but I just sat in the house calmly and didn’t do anything about it, then it would be hard to convince you that I am telling you the truth.

But, if I told you that my house was on fire and I jumped up and ran outside fast as lightning, then WOW! You’d really be convinced that I believed that.

Same concept applies with actual saving belief in God. If a person actually believes, then God’s Word, the Bible, won’t be a table decoration. The person who actually believes because he is filled with the Holy Spirit and ruled by Christ, knows God and is highlyconcerned with Him and obeying Him and learning about Him. Anyone who is actually saved knows exactly what I am talking about. True Christians are hyper-aware of their sin and they have a genuine desire to please God, because they know that the Almighty GOD is reigning and orchestrating every single detail of life!

True Christians KNOW that the all powerful God is able to answer prayer and control everything in the universe and they are aware and conscious of Him and therefore, because they actually know that to some extent, they are overwhelmed by that truth and are forever changed by that heart-piercing reality. You can’t meet God and then be the same afterwards. It’s impossible to be transformed, given the Holy Spirit, born again, and then like… I don’t know… somehow forget God is right here watching and listening to everything you do. That’s not something that you can walk away from the same as you were before.

It is the most important and supernatural and extraordinary thing that has ever happened in your life. It’s more important than your wedding, the birth of your children, your graduation, your first kiss, anything. There is nothing more amazing then having your eyes opened to the truth of God and your own depravity, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, and loving and believing in God for the first time. It is the single most important and radical thing that has ever happened. So, how can a person say they “believe in God” and yet have nothing to say in terms of a testimony or the Gospel or some change in their heart or anything?

It’s just crazy what some people will accept in a profession of faith. How many people are out there who call themselves Christian, and yet are the farthest thing from it? Too many. And many have even been baptized! They have never admitted their helplessness or repented of their sins or believed in Christ with saving faith or understood the Gospel or submitted and committed their lives to God. They have never truly loved God or believed in Him, and they will walk away from God as easily as they supposedly chose Him.  They call themselves Christians and believers, for all the wrong reasons.  They are Hellbound and in desperate need of the true Gospel. Be discerning, brothers and sisters. There are many false converts out there saying, “I believe in God” and claiming to be Christians.

The Good People

There are so many people who want to say they’re good. They always want to say they are “good people.” It typically implies that in comparison to “bad people.” The problem is their level of contentment with their own condition. As a “good person,” which basically means they don’t lie, cheat or murder, that they’re doing all they need to do to feel comfortable with themselves and their lives. They would go through life, being that “good person” and doing whatever they think is right.

But, what about growth? What about progressive sanctification? What about learning and understanding and being more and more obedient to the Word of God? What about the thoughts they have and the feelings they have and what goes on in their hearts? Not merely an external assessment, but also a complete internal assessment of every moment they live publicly and privately. But instead of lust, they judge themselves based on adultery. Instead of greed and envy, they judge themselves based on stealing. Instead of gossip and resentments, they judge themselves based on murder. They examine the outside, but not the inside. They examine behavior, but not actual holiness and purity. They examine their surroundings, but not God and the Bible.

The “good people” rarely compare themselves to Christ. Instead, they compare themselves to the people around them. Instead of the Bible, they use society as their measuring stick.

Love is a chief concern for most people, yet without obedience to Christ they’re cannot be loving. A person cannot disobey God and somehow think they are still loving others.  Anyone who is disobeying God is not loving you or being a “good person.” It’s so easy for people to pretend to be “good” and “loving,” as long as God and the Bible are not the standard.

It’s a lie. That’s what I’m saying. The idea is a lie, that people are “good and loving,” yet they don’t need to apply more Bible and obedience to God’s Word every day, and they haven’t even examined their hearts and minds against the Bible and Christ. They’re not really goodat all, and their lack of interest in pleasing God and assessing daily their hearts with God is the first redflag.

People who aren’t constantly updating and disciplining themselves, applying biblical obedience, examining and re-examining their hearts, comparing themselves to Christ, comparing themselves and their lives to the Bible, are not even in the realm of good or loving. Holiness and purity are hard work! We have to constantly assess ourselves, our motives and our thoughts and behaviors. Christ said if you love Him you will obey Him. That doesn’t mean just the parts you want to obey, that means everything He has said and recorded in the Bible; and anyone who loves Christ is going to be seeking greater obedience to Him. They are going to love pleasing God and have a powerful desire and attraction to God. You don’t have to convince Christian people that they aren’t doing enough for God, because they already know they’re not good enough and are struggling to some degree to improve and evaluate themselves all the time.  Remember to elevate Christ’s perfect life and sacrifice and His Holy Word the next time you encounter “the good people.”

But, watch the defensiveness rise when you approach a “good person” about a flaw or error. They will fight tooth and nail to prove they are “good people.” They take every hint of advice or admonishment or reproof or rebuke or encouragement as an attack on their “goodness.” But, placed next to Christ, how does that really look? If we’re going to be good, then we need all the help we can get and we should trust others and invite and welcome all the insight and advice we can get. We should be seeking out accountability from others, and not avoiding the confronting of sin in our lives. Sin is the enemy, and loving God means hating sin. We should accept any assistance at locating and destroying sin in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Robin Williams: The Dark Fall of a Bright Life

The star of two of my favorite movies – Good Will Hunting and Aladdin. Yet, there seems to be no indication anywhere that he was a believer in Jesus Christ. In fact, after searching for a few hours, it seems that most people figure he was probably an atheist. He was a brilliant mind. He knew comedy and delivery better than most people on earth. In his movies, he was warm and personable. But his stand up comedy was very raunchy and often he mocked God and religion. Foul language and extremely graphic skits were typical for his stand up sets. And now with a quiet ending to a very busy life, the vanity of this world rings loud and clear to believers, especially this believer.

I consider a life like his, with that level of talent and brilliance, to be a prime example of the simple truth that God’s grace touches all mankind, if even just for a moment. But greater than this life, is the life to come. Eternity infinitely outweighs this world we live in now, and forever is only a blink away. This life is a snap and it’s over, and we have no excuse to live without hope, love, grace, mercy, compassion, selflessness, and joy. We have no excuse because Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, the Prince of Peace, was slaughtered so that we can taste this world and enjoy the things of this life. But, our ultimate purpose is to glorify God. Our ultimate purpose is to deny ourselves, deny our lusts, deny our flesh, and follow Christ even if it kills us.

As those with faith in the Lord persevere, counting all things as loss, struggling to maintain their first love, moving forward even under persecution and intense tribulations, we can looks around us and see clearly that not everyone is conscious. Not everyone loves God and believes in His Son, yet we are called to witness to them, and to reach the lost and spread the good news of salvation. We don’t have to live that life. We don’t have to pretend that a person dying in unbelief doesn’t hurt us, because the moments we stop telling them the truth are the exact same moments that others are passing. This life is too short!

US President Barack Obama said Robin Williams was a “one of a kind,” and that he “ended up touching every element of the human spirit.” For me, this is one of the most heartbreaking truths of life. That brilliant men and women, and talented and caring people, can live a full life and die without ever embracing Christ and putting their faith in Him and submit to Him alone. It happens every day.

Matthew 7:14 says, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We know that everyone is unique in some way. Most people have a tender side and a gentleness at some point, and yet that isn’t salvation. That isn’t faith and that isn’t the path to everlasting life. Jesus said unmistakably, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

There is no entrance into Heaven apart from Jesus Christ, and not a single human being on the earth is exempt from this. It’s a tragedy to know that people are dying, not just in Hollywood, but all around us who don’t know Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are people all around us who have no genuine grasp on Christ. They don’t have that grasp, because the only way to truly embrace Christ is through faith alone. We are broken in to pieces, and we abandon ourselves, and we are poor in spirit, and we know that we are wrong and hopeless without Him, and when we are convicted like that and reach out to Christ with a true faith that lasts forever, then we are saved. When we commit to Him as our God. That’s when tragic death is avoided. For a believer in Christ, death is not a tragedy, because Christ has graciously given us eternal life through faith in Him.

There is a reason to rejoice and be glad and know this, that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).

We have dead people dying all around us. We are surrounded by death on all sides. There is no way to avoid the fact that we will die, and therefore right now is the time to stop being hardened and stop being deaf and stop being blind, and wake up and listen to the truth and stop wasting life without Christ. Cling to God’s Word only and never think twice about this world’s precepts, because “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). His purpose, not ours. We only have one life, and every second you spend away from Him and without Him as your Master is a second wasted.  A second that has eternal consequences. There is no such thing as a genuine peace and eternal salvation apart from the love of Christ, and faith in His Word.  Change!  Instead of death and hopelessness, cherish Him and never let go.

Your First Pledge Should Be to Christ

The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own personal views, and are not necessarily the views of anyone else I know. 

The United States Pledge of Allegiance. 

Essentially, we can make a valid argument for the pledge. I mean, who doesn’t want to support “liberty and justice for all?” Who doesn’t want to be patriotic and submit to the authority of the government? I mean, it’s biblical to be a submissive and supportive person of the government. There’s just four problems I have with this process of indoctrination, and they are (1) the massive ideological understanding that precludes a genuine pledge of this magnitude, (2) the darker history that prompted the pledge, (3) the current nature and definition of the flag in the United States Flag Code, and (4) the lack of necessity to subject ourselves to all these explicit and potential dangers.

1. The first objection lies in the fact that the people who are most likely to recite the Pledge every day, small children in schools, cannot really give their consent or even completely understand the Pledge they are taking. Children, who cannot vote or make any sound decisions for themselves of a ideological nature, are indoctrinated by reciting these words according to the United States Flag Code,

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

Notice that the words “Flag” and “Republic” are capitalized. I ask you, what does that mean “to the Republic for which it stands?” Do little children know? Do they ask them if they know before they start indoctrinating them? Are they required to understand, or are they merely required to be indoctrinated by reciting these words over and over? What good is a pledge that isn’t understood or sincere?

It’s a very sad, sad place where all the children pledge allegiance to flags and none to Christ. As Christians, we understand that children cannot even pledge to Christ without fully understanding and believing in Him, yet in America they superficially indoctrinate children as they recite pledges that they not only don’t understand but they also don’t deeply agree with to the extent of a genuine pledge. It’s just as bad as forcing them to say “sorry” when they don’t really mean it. Most children aren’t even aware that they have the option to refuse to recite the pledge, and are coerced and indoctrinated without ever having an opportunity to think for themselves.

Parents and teachers who teach children to comply and pledge to deep ideological concepts that they don’t first fully understand are teaching them to be foolish and naive. If a 5 year old doesn’t understand deep ideological concepts such as committing to Christ, how do we expect them to understand deep ideological concepts like pledging allegiance to a flag that is considered a “living thing?” Kindergartners shouldn’t be reciting a pledge they cannot even comprehend. There is a serious ethical problem with indoctrinating children. They are being trained to “pledge first and ask questions later.” That’s extremely foolish behavior. Even as Christians who desperately desire for our children to believe in Christ, we don’t have them recite every day, “I believe in Christ” until it comes true. Why? Because if they don’t really understand and believe, then they are LYING. That’s the same ethical problem with getting children to repeat something like the pledge. It’s brainwashing and it’s lying. It is repeated exposure to a thing until they psychologically accept it to be true, whether or not they consciously choose it while practicing sober discernment.

It’s similar to reciting the sinner’s prayer. Just because someone repeats it over and over, that doesn’t mean diddly squat. It’s just foolishness if you don’t believe it or understand it. It’s a lie, a deception, a fabrication. Without understanding, it’s a puff of smoke from a magician. We shouldn’t want to teach children to say things they don’t mean. That’s not Christian-like at all. The Bible doesn’t teach us to, “say it until you mean it.” The Bible teaches us, “above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment” (Matt 5:7; James 5:12). We are supposed to be sober-minded and shouldn’t commit to something unless we fully understand and agree with it. We shouldn’t say it unless we mean it, and we can’t mean it if we don’t understand it.

2. The second objection is in the darker history of the pledge. For instance, do the children reciting this pledge have any idea what it’s original purpose was at all? Do they understand it was created with a socialistic, nationalistic agenda? Do they know anything about Francis Bellamy and his reasons for writing the original pledge? Before they begin their recitals, do they know Bellamy wanted to the national government to be in charge of everything? Do they know that is precisely what Hitler did as well? Did they know beforehand, before they recited the pledge, that these same tactics were used by Hitler, and that after the war began and Hitler and his tactics were demonized, the country pulled back from the socialist and nationalist agenda and then we were left with the pledge, an afterthought of what was meant to happen? Do they know anything about the pledge at all, or are they merely reciting something they are clueless about?

3. The third objection is about the way the United States defines “the Flag.” The first thing a person pledges allegiance to in the pledge is “the Flag” – an inanimate object. What’s the difference in bowing to a statue or any other object of idolatry? The US Flag Code states, “The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing” (Section 8j). The flag is considered a “living thing?” If we do not agree with this definition, why would we still volunteer to pledge allegiance to this so-called “living thing?” And to bring back the first objection, are the children at all aware and understanding this and the ramifications of this?

4. The fourth objection is in regard to the voluntary nature of the pledge as stated in the United States Flag code. Legal challenges started in the 1950’s when Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs prevented them from swearing loyalty to any power other than God and who objected to policies in public schools requiring students to swear an oath to the flag. They objected on the grounds that their rights to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment were being violated by such requirements.

Today, the United States Flag Code states, “the Flag Code serves as a guide to be followed on a purely voluntary basis to insure proper respect for the flag. The Supreme Court has ruled that politically motivated violations of the Flag Code are protected by the First Amendment. The Flag Code has no provision for enforcement. No fines, no penalties. There is nothing law enforcement can do when the Flag Code is broken.”

In other words, there is nothing that forces anyone to even say the pledge, and as controversial and idolatrous and foolish as it is, why on earth would we say the pledge, much less send children to blindly pledge their lives to this “living thing?” Why if they cannot reasonably pledge their lives to Christ do we expect them to voluntarily pledge their lives to the flag? Why do teachers and leaders and guardians not explain to children their rights and ensure that children fully understand the history, ramifications, nature, and ideological controversies of the flag? If we consider the massive weight of this subject, it’s no wonder Bellamy originally design this to be perceived as “easy and simple” and wanted it be be recited in a mere 15 seconds. It’s as easy as it could be to make this pledge. In fact, we know you don’t have to understand it at all to make it.  As far as the US is concerned, if you’re old enough to form the words with your mouth, then you’re old enough to pledge your life.  It is infinitely more easy to recite than to understand and explain.Those are very off-balance proportions, and they deserve far more inspection than most are willing to give.

At the very least do your homework, have your children do their homework, and discover the truth about who is Francis Bellamy, what were his intentions, what the pledge was originally intended to be, and what that government has to say about the flag and the pledge today. Know your rights and teach your children to have integrity and practice discernment by knowing and understanding these things in full before they decided whether or not to pledge.

Comments welcome – sharing encouraged.

Here are some USEFUL RESOURCES for researching the Pledge:

1. Flag Code for Congress

http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf

2. Pledge of Allegiance on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

3. Flag Code at USHistory.org

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagcode.htm

4. John Weaver 2-Part Sermon Series titled, “The Pledge – History & Problems” on SermonAudio.com 

http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakerWithinSource=&subsetCat=&subsetItem=&mediatype=&includekeywords=&keyword=John%5EWeaver&keyworddesc=John+Weaver&currsection=sermonsspeaker&AudioOnly=false&SpeakerOnly=true&keywordwithin=pledge

In Jesus Name

“You know, you could say to a guy, “Well I wanna go to Chicago” and you could say, “Well there’s no way to Chicago, you can go any way you want. Just start off in any direction.”  Well, that isn’t true. If you’re going to go to Chicago there’s a direction. And the same thing is true in terms of God. If you’re gonna go to God, God says, “Here’s the way.”  It isn’t that God is trying to be unkind or unfair or narrow-minded or picky – it’s just that He wants to tell the truth.  You know, I could say, “Well, I’d like to tell anybody just do what you want, you’ll be alright.”  But that isn’t the truth, so you don’t do a guy a favor to tell him that.” – John MacArthur, 1979

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). 

Let us pay extra close attention to the definite article “the.” Jesus did not say, “I am A way, and A truth, and A life; there are many ways to the Father.” Rather Jesus said something exact, and He gave very articulate and precise directions. He said, in exclusion to all other ways, that He is THE way, and THE truth, and THE life; no one come to the Father but through HIM.

This is as profound and exact as the statement, “In Jesus’s name.”  Too many people think that “in Jesus’s name” is some sort of superstitious incantation that they can rattle off at the end of their requests and sentences and that it somehow gives supernatural power to their words. That’s not what “in Jesus’s name” means. If you are going to be “in Jesus’s name,” then you have to be in His way, in His truth, and in His life. To be “in Jesus’s name” means to be under His authority and in His family and in His will and obedient to Him.

But people are so defiant and ignorant, and they are so deluded, that we have this epidemic on our hands where millions of people think they are Christians and it’s all based on a few words and superstitions and misdirection. The only way to God is through Jesus, and that means the exact same thing as “in Jesus’s name” or “in Jesus’s family” or “in Jesus’s way” or “in Jesus’s truth” or “in Jesus’s life.” They all mean that you are following Him and that you have faith in Him and that you are obedient to Him. You cannot get to God by being foolish and self-controlling and going some way other than Jesus.

If you are going to be in Jesus in any way, then you must have faith, you must obey Him, you must follow Him down His path that He chooses, and you must leave your self-will aside and totally submit to Him. That’s what it looks like when Christ saves a person. He doesn’t save people and leave them in some other way. The saved are in His way. He doesn’t save people and leave them in sin and lies. The saved are in the truth. He doesn’t save people and leave them in death. The saved are in life. He doesn’t save people and leave them the same. The saved are completely transformed, inside and then out.

And speaking of the outside transformation, Jesus Christ has full authority to lead you wherever He chooses! You are no longer your own! If you are Christ’s, then you have been bought with a price and you are now His. If He leads you through hardship and struggle and tribulation, then you follow Him. If you are His, and if you are “in His name” then you are going to be obedient to Him. We should not hesitate for one second, and we should allow Him to command us as easily as sheep are controlled by the shepherd.

John 10:3 says, “he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
John 10:4 says, “he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him.” 
John 10:9 says, “if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.”
John 10:14 says, “I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

That’s it. There’s no question about the Lord/servant, Master/slave, Shepherd/sheep relationship and intimate correspondence between Christ and His that He has bought and given His Holy Spirit to lead them into obedience to His Word which is written out in the Holy Bible.

If you don’t have this obedience driven relationship with Christ that is clearly described in scripture as a shepherd/sheep relationship, then what are you waiting for? Asking Christ into your heart means nothing if He doesn’t enter in it. How do you know if He entered into your heart? This intimate relationship of obedience, this intimate knowing of Christ, as He said, “even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father” displays Christ-likeness and holiness and purity just as Christ’s intimate relationship with God displays God-likeness and holiness and purity. Your love for Christ and your relentless desire to serve Him should look like His love and relentless desire to serve God.

If you are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, which all saved people are, then you have a full-time, forever kindred and relationship with Him that catapults you to actually live “in Jesus’s name” with everything that Jesus represents and loves becoming everything that you represent and love. Pray for THAT. Pray for Him. Pray to actually be saved and that you would actually go through Christ, which means submission to Him in obedience and love. Pray “in Jesus’s name” by actually conforming to who He is, just as He conformed to the Father, and just as sheep conform and follow their Shepherd wherever He may go with no more regard to your own way. Because that’s what the Holy Spirit inside you does to you! The Holy Spirit’s presence within a person is not an idea, it’s a life-transforming reality! If this has not been the reality of your life, and you think you are a Christian, then you are mistaken. Pray to Him and Pledge your allegiance to Christ, the only way to God.

You cannot have saving faith without truth, and you cannot have faith in the truth without conforming to it.

I’m very scared for those who believe they are “good people,” yet they have no empowerment from the Holy Spirit and they have no transformation and hey have no commitment to obedience, and they are not following Christ at all and they have no intimate relationship with Him and they are not overwhelmed with a sense of urgency to follow Christ.  The reason they don’t have all of those things  is because they don’t have the Spirit of God inside them. 

The number of deluded people going to Hell is high! They have been lied to, and they lie to themselves, and they believe all the wrong things. If we love these people, we must do something and we must say something. And we need to make it as clear as possible and fully biblical.

Irresponsible Grace

 

I believe that instead of calling it “hyper-grace” we should refer to that movement as “irresponsible-grace.” Because whenever I talk to advocates of the hyper-grace movement they try to sound biblical by using Gospel terminology to release themselves from their responsibility in sanctification.  They speak of Christ’s work on the cross as if it accomplished their entrance into Heaven 2000 years ago, but has no effect on their lives today.  They speak as if Christ died to give them a right standing before God, but claim that His work has no effect on their current heart, behavior and purity.   They deflect all responsibility and redirect to Christ’s work 2000 years ago, and they seem to have no regard for Christ’s work inside of the hearts and lives of believers right now in this day.

 

“Irresponsible-grace” is a grotesque misrepresentation of who Christ is, what He has accomplished, and how He sanctifies and builds His people throughout their lives.  Where in Scripture has Christ ever allowed His Church to use Him as an excuse for irresponsibility and sin?  Christ said, “Go, and sin no more.”  And that command was not a heavy burden!  Christ’s work on the cross saved us, and He ascended into Heaven, and He has given His people the Holy Spirit to comfort, sanctify and purify them more and more until we are finally glorified; and the means by which He does that is by infusing in us a loving, thankful responsibility and obligation to follow the many commands and heed the many warnings in the Holy Scriptures.  Christ did not die to make you irresponsible.  Christ is not irresponsible; Christ’s grace is not irresponsible; and neither are Christ’s people ever given an out to justify any irresponsibility.  We are responsible for following His commands and heeding His warnings in Scripture.  There is nothing about Christ that indicates any irresponsibility whatsoever.  Christ did not stop working with His people the day He died on the cross.

 

Christ is alive and sitting at the right hand of God and He is directly involved in the lives and hearts of every single believer; growing them and transforming them and giving them hunger for obedience and renewing their minds and steering their hearts and controlling their affections and strengthening their assurance and motivating them and driving them to holiness and increasing their responsibility and widening their understanding and developing their maturity and emptying their self-will and turning them towards Him and increasing their love for others and purifying their motives and heightening their awareness of sin and directing their steps and conforming them to His Word and He is still actively preparing His Bride!

 

Don’t you dare leave Christ on the cross!  He is not impotent and He has not abandoned His Church whom He loves perfectly!  Don’t you dare accuse His grace of being lazy and without effect!  You are in direct violation and conflict with God’s Word every time you invoke “irresponsible-grace.”  His grace is fully responsible, and we are fully obligated and dutiful for our lives in Him, and He is worthy and His love is active, present and endures forever within the minds and hearts of those that belong to Him.  Every time a professing Christian rejects responsibility for his life and sanctification, he casts reproach on God and accuses Christ of being irresponsible.   yYou are obligated to take responsibility for yourself and take responsibility for your neighbor and lovingly grab hold of the power of the Holy Spirit with thankful, faithful obedience to the Word of God! 

 

Taking responsibility right now and struggling for excellence and holiness are manifestations of the Spirit of Christ within you, and they are the inevitable consequence of His work on the cross in the lives of those who have faith in Him.  Apart from faith in Christ there is no salvation, and faith without works is dead.  If you are not encouraged by Him and His work and death and resurrection and ascension, motivated by Him and His work and death and resurrection and ascension, and enduring with Him because of His work and death and resurrection and ascension; what makes you think you even know Him or have any relationship with Him at all?  If Christ is not your Lord, then you cannot possibly be saved.  No more irresponsible-grace!  There is no such thing as irresponsible-grace in the Bible aside from the false ideology which belonged to the liars and false converts.  The Biblical example of grace is extremely active, responsible, potent; and it is continuously transforming the minds, hearts and lives of all that are His.  His grace is constantly driving them to take responsibility for themselves and relentlessly calling them to action., and this is precisely the same thing He does with true believers today.

Romans 12:1 – The Worship Verse!

What is #worship?  Worship is not defined as raising your hands during a song service.

Sometimes the Bible gives undeniable, explicit and very precise prescriptions on practical issues we deal with every day.  In the case of Romans 12:1 that’s exactly what we find.  The Bible tells us precisely what worship is, and it is extremely clear.  Read this verse,

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1). 

See, worship is not a song service. In other words, worship is not singing 5 hymns then moving on to something else. Worship is something we do 100% of the day, and we do so through total sacrifice, which means a selfless lifestyle. We can sing unto the Lord, and singing can be one single form of worship in our day, but worship is not defined simply as singing – it is a lifestyle. Worship is a sacrificial lifestyle enslaved to Christ. If the only time you “worship” God is during song services, then you are not truly worshiping Him properly at all.  And for Christians, that’s a HUGE deal!  For those of us who love and follow Christ, we cannot shrug His Word away.  We crave to obey Him.

We are not called to run down a checklist and perform a certain number of good deeds per day. We are called to totally empty ourselves and become permanent slaves of the Holy Spirit of God – that’s biblical worship. We are called by the mercies of God, that special grace by which we are saved. God showed us eternal mercy, and saved us from damnation by sending His Son to be crucified so that we may live. With that life we are called to now be a continuous living sacrifice sold out to the Spirit of God as slaves. We are now living slaves of the Spirit instead of being dead slaves to sin as we were before salvation.

1. “by the mercies of God” • The mercy God has shown us when He crucified His Son to save us from sin and death.

2. “present your bodies” •• Our whole bodies, starting with our minds which includes hearing, vision, speech, and thoughts.  Then also the rest of our bodies as well, because as saved person’s our bodies are not our own, but are God’s. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20).

“Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you” (Romans 6:13-14).

“Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness…For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Romans 6:17;19).

3. “living” ••• We were dead in sin, but have been made alive in Christ. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-6).

4. “holy” •••• God’s holiness is entirely foreign to this world. We are to be holy, as He is holy. Paul Washer has asked which is more like God, an angel or a maggot? He answers, “neither.” Both are equally not like God – only He is holy. We must possess His holiness. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

5. “sacrifice” ••••• Total self-sacrifice that willingly offers one’s self to God as His slave.

6. “acceptable to God” •••••• “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Romans 12:1 – that’s worship. Are you doing it?  Have you EVER truly worshiped God?

The Rules of Christian Liberty

 

This is an outline I made of John MacArthur’s 1976 sermon titled, “Principles of Christian Freedom.”  If you would like read the entire transcript or download the audio, please follow this link:  http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/1843/principles-of-christian-freedom

 

 

 

“You’ve got to know three POINTS : No. 1, the principles, No. 2, the purpose, No. 3, the pattern.
These three things will enable you to glorify God in the use of your Christian freedom.

POINT 1, the principles-

Principle No. 1, edification over gratification.
Edification/building up:
• The Word; read the Bible.
• Preaching and teaching.
• Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.
• Obedience; obedient service.

EVERYTHING you do, build up.

Principle No. 2, others over self.
• When it comes to choosing between what builds me up and what builds him up, I do what builds him up.
• I’m going to do what is spiritually beneficial for both of us if I can, but if I have to make a decision I’ll do what’s most beneficial to others and sacrifice my liberty.
• Condescend to others, love others, and love will build you up more than if you exercise your liberty and tear others down because that becomes a sin.
• Every Christian then in his liberty has to be guided by a spiritual principle, and that is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Give things up for others, for the love of a weaker brother. What are you giving up for somebody else so they don’t stumble? You have to crucify self and self-desire somewhere or you’re never going to know what it is to really be fulfilled as a Christian.

It’s a DISASTER to the church, anyway, and to the fellowship of believers when everybody exercises their liberty and doesn’t care about anybody else.

Principle No. 3, liberty over legalism.
• Don’t ask any silly questions. There’s no sense in making a mountain out of a molehill. If it isn’t an issue, don’t make it an issue. Don’t ask needless questions.
• Don’t get picky.
• Enjoy your liberty.
• Don’t be over scrupulous.
• At all costs, avoid legalism.
• We limit our liberty, not to offend, but we certainly should teach the weaker brother the truths of freedom so he’ll grow out of his legalism. You don’t want to make sure the legalists all stay legalistic because we all continually bow to them.

It’s very COMFORTABLE to be a legalist; cause you don’t have to do anything internally, it’s all in a box for you. You have a little list, “I don’t, I do, I don’t, I do, I don’t, I do, sometimes I do, I don’t, I do.” You’ve got all your little lists there. That’s a lot easier than living by the Holy Spirit’s power because that you have to yield to in an internal way. So you want to take somebody out of the little box of rules and you want to allow them to have the freedom to operate and the freedom that God has given them.

Principle No. 4, condescension over condemnation.
• If you have to choose between offending a Christian and offending a non-Christian, offend the non-Christian.
• Don’t do something that’s going to make your Christian brother condemn you.
• Don’t thank God and go out and do something that’s going to make some other Christian condemn you for doing it.
• You can’t thank God for something that another Christian brother’s going to stumble over.

If you have to choose between a Christian and a non-Christian, offend the non-Christian at that point, in order that your love might be made manifest to the world. And I don’t mean that you should just run out and offend non-Christians just at will. The basic rule, Beloved, don’t offend what? Anybody. But if you have to choose, offend yourself before you offend a weaker brother. And if you have to choose, offend an unbeliever before you offend a weaker brother. But if you can don’t offend anybody. Condescension over condemnation. Don’t do anything that’s going to cause somebody else to condemn you. Now there are the principles, Beloved.

POINT 2, the purpose – 

Let’s go to point two, the purpose. Why does he give us the principles? Why does he tell us edification over gratification, others over self, liberty over legalism, condescension over condemnation, verse 31, “Therefore…here’s why…so that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do it will be done all… what?…to the glory of God.” God is glorified when you do it with these principles in mind. You want to glorify God? Do you think it’s important to glorify God or to be a reproach to God? To glorify. Do you want to glorify him follow the principles. What is the purpose…bang…verse 31, “That God will be glorified.”

POINT 3, the pattern – 

Lastly, the pattern. It’s fine to have the principles, it’s fine to have the purpose, but Paul closes with a very typical, practical word. He says, “Let me give you a model to follow.” Verse 32, “Give no offense neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks nor to the Church of God.” And there you have the three divisions, incidentally, of humanity: Israel, the Gentiles, and the church. Don’t offend any of them. And here comes the pattern…even as…what’s the next word?…I. Paul says, “I’m the model. I’m the pattern. Even as I please all men, in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be…what? Saved.”

– John MacArthur, “Principles of Christian Freedom”