The Greatness of God in the Doctrines of Grace: TULIP Session 1

0:00 The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that I do impart, and I'm going to say it to you because I believe it's true tonight as I stand in his place and speak on his behalf, that he said, I impart a wisdom among the mature. not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away, but I speak a wisdom hidden and from God, which God predestined, this wisdom he predestined before the ages for your glory. So before there was time, ages, and matter that goes with time, God was wise. And he had a plan.

1:04 and the plan was your glory forever. That's amazing. And then he says, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what has never entered into anybody's imagination, what God has prepared for those who love him. Now that's the same as the glory for you.

1:41 Those unimaginable, unimaginable things God has prepared before the ages for those who love him. Not for everybody. It's going to turn out really badly, this universe, for those who don't love God, for those who don't trust Christ, but for those who love God. unimaginable glory.

2:12 And then he goes on to say, the natural man, psychikos anthropos, the soulish human, no Holy Spirit, cannot grasp these things. Therefore, I explain spiritual things to spiritual people. Now, the reason I start with that little introduction is because I'm aware as I look at you that this has been a busy day, right? You're not thinking about Tulip. You're probably not thinking about God that much. And your mind is now very soulish. I'm assuming most of you are born again. I doubt that all of you are.

3:05 I'm only speaking to the believers, and I hope the unbelievers awake to the glory of what's spoken. But I'm speaking to spiritual people, that is people who have the Holy Spirit, who are altering your minds to make crazy glorious things understandable and acceptable and thrilling. That's what he does. And I know that Christians have ups and downs like this. And today's been a down for a lot of you. Like you're not tuned in yet. And that's why I'm talking about what I'm talking about for these five minutes. And for the next 20 probably. This is a long introduction this week. Won't do this every week.

3:57 So as I prepared for this, I thought they're not going to be ready for this. They're not going to be ready for this. This is too crazy wonderful, too glorious, too high, too amazing, and they're just walking off supper, kids, troubles at home, business. They're not going to be ready. So what are you going to do? Just kind of tea. Let's go with tea. Tulip. No, not going to do that.

4:26 I'm going to try to get you ready. I'm going to try to get your minds up. maybe a trillion miles up out of what you're soaking in right now that is so ordinary. It's not sinful necessarily. I'm not saying everybody lived in sin today. I'm just saying you lived ordinary, humdrum lives that we all live, and the pump needs to be primed. That's the way I come to church anyway, unless I work really hard at it on Sunday morning and Saturday night. Before I go to that long introduction that's priming the pump of your spiritual readiness, I want you all to have this book. Yes, I wrote it. I don't make any money off these books, you know. In fact, believing in Reformed theology affects your economics big time. I'm talking big time.

5:24 how you live your life, the lifestyle you choose to live, where you live, what you drive, what kind of vacations you take, what royalties you receive or don't receive is governed by T-U-L-I-P. so I didn't I wrote this but and Matt Lunn who runs the bookstore says I got lots of these and he's got a better price than Amazon or any other bookstore and if you buy books at the bookstore you bless Bethlehem College and Seminary so this is the summary of the teaching for the five weeks that I do there will be a lot more that I say that isn't in here but I hope you get this $7 and something, I think it is. And I'm going to hold up another book next week by Johnny Erickson Tada that he doesn't have yet, so I'm going to hold it up.

6:20 But you're going to hear a little bit about it tonight. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Johnny Erickson Tada. That's good. That's good. I don't expect everybody to know, everybody I love, but she's one, and she's a big deal when it comes to Calvinism. and you'll know why in a few minutes. So that's another preliminary thing. Let me see if I've got... So how do we do this? I mean, this is not preaching. I'm going to have overslides. I don't use slides when I preach, but I do when I teach. And I want, even though it's a big group, and my hearing is terrible, I've got hearing aids here squeezed in with my glasses, and this thing here, I hope nothing falls off my head because I've got three things hanging on my ears right now.

7:13 So I can hear you, and it's not good enough. So I'm going to say, at any time, you may raise your hand, all right? And I will call on you, and if I don't hear you, then we'll just move on. I mean, I'll just, I won't blame you. If I hear you, and it's a question that's going to be answered in an hour, I'll say, wait. And if it's a question I can't answer, we'll say, wait for Kenny. He'll answer that one.

7:42 And if I can answer it, I'll do it quickly. So really, seriously, I know it will slow us down if we do that, but I won't let it slow us down too much because we've got a lot to talk about. But this is a seminar. It's not just a lecture. Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they asked me, what's his name? What shall I say to them? And God said, I am who I am. That's not his name. That's his first response to the question, what's your name? I am who I am. We'll come back to that. And he said, say this to the people. God said, say this to the people. I am.

8:33 Shortens it down from I am who I am to I am. I am has sent me to you. Now comes the name. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel. the Lord, Yahweh. That's the way we attempt to pronounce that Hebrew name. You know how many times that name occurs in the Old Testament? 6,828 times. Now that's significant because the meaning of it is given here. So that every time you see all caps, L-O-R-D, 6,000 times in your Old Testament, think this, all right? Yahweh, the Lord, it's not translated Yahweh. There are some translations that use Yahweh, but the ESV and most modern translations just use L-O-R-D, all caps.

9:27 The Lord your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. So what does God want to be known as? First, I am. That is the most staggering reality that is. There's a God. And even saying a God gives me the willies. Like, no, there is God. And the reason that's so staggering is because you all think, like, the world is important. The world is like nothing. It's like nothing. It's just come on the scene lately, and forever and ever and ever and ever was God. He just is.

10:25 Little children come to you, right? You got a three-year-old? They're going to ask you, who made God? They are. That's the greatest question there is. Who made God? Where did he come from? How did he start? Every kid's going to ask that question if you teach them about God. And the answer is, Johnny, God never started. he is absolute reality. And they don't know what that means, absolute. They don't know that word. They don't know the word reality. You've got to find your way, parents, to say he's absolute reality.

11:10 I return to this text right here over and over just to be blown away by the existence of God. I am who I am means nobody makes me who I am. I didn't come into being. I never go out of being. Nobody counsels me. Nobody trades with me. Nobody barters with me. I am. I am absolute reality. The universe, I carry in my pocket like a peanut. If you don't stand in awe of the reality of God, the doctrines of grace, Calvinism, tulip, will be pointless. These doctrines deal with the greatest realities in the universe under that kind of God. God is.

12:07 Second observation, He's really great. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and the breath of his mouth, of the breath of his mouth, all their host. So everything you see out there, everything the Hubble telescope, the James Webb telescope, are seeing, he made those.

12:34 O Lord, our Lord, O Yahweh, our Master, how majestic is your name. Don't ever let that, I wonder what that refers to. I am, I simply am. I absolutely am, and you're nothing compared to what I am. You are totally dependent. I depend on nobody. I am reality. You're secondary. I love to get on my knees every morning and say quietly to my God, I am not God. Of course you're not God. It's good to say so.

13:26 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, not your arms, not your biceps, not your shoulders, your pinky, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? Astronomy magazine. Using the Milky Way as our model, we can multiply the number of stars in a typical galaxy, 100 billion, by the number of galaxies in the universe, 2 trillion. The answer is an absolutely astounding number. There are approximately 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. He made them with his pinky. Now, these folks might be off a few trillion. Doesn't matter. That's impressive. God is great. God is great. We have such teeny notions of greatness because we measure them by our world.

14:30 He can't even see the world. He has to stoop down to see it according to the Tower of Babel. Like it says, God came down to see what they were building to see how they're going to get to heaven. That's an image to make it look ridiculous. That's the point of the story. God can't see the Tower of Babel from heaven. Well, he can. Of course he can.

14:51 NASA science, or just stay with our little solar system, which is 8.6 trillion miles across, and consider our star in relation to the earth. Our sun, 864,000 miles in diameter, the sun, 10,000 degrees on the cooler surface, would take 1.3 million earths to fill the sun's volume. Sometimes I'm walking on the bridge on the way to prayer meeting on Friday at certain seasons of the year, and the sun is just coming up over there. The sky is blazing red as it was several times this week at about 6.15 in the morning. And it is not hard for me to imagine why people worship the sun. Our teeny little planet, a million of those could fit in the sun, and we think it's a big deal.

15:49 It's not a big deal. God weighs the nations in a scale, and they go up, and the dust goes down. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these, he who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name. You believe that? 200 billion trillion names? Probably not numbers, names like Joe, Mike, Mary. 200 billion names means something. It means something. He's very great. By his greatness, his might, because he's strong, not one is missing.

16:41 Every star there by appointment. If it burns out, its time is up. God decide, it's over. Job, behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. Oh, indeed, how small a whisper do we hear of him, but the thunder of his power who can understand. This is a verse you should all know by heart. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. How inscrutable are his ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Answer, nobody. Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? Nobody puts God in their debt. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever.

17:34 God is great. Third observation, God has revealed himself, his ways, his purposes in his word. Otherwise, we're just jabbering. I look at Christians who don't believe the Bible and still hold on to a little bit of Christianity and I say, you're just making it up.

18:09 If you leave the book, you're making it up. Those are two choices. You can go with the book and the way God has described himself and his ways, or if you lay the book down and turn away and you come up with ideas to call Christianity, you're just making it up. That's going to look ridiculous on the last day. I promise you, you're going to wipe your eyes out for trying to make up a new Christianity. We don't do that here, right? We love the Bible, Bethlehem. If the Bible is false, we're closing up shop. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. breathed out by God. And here's why that matters, verse Samuel 3, the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, appeared, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord. You want to meet God? You want to spend time with God?

19:20 You want to walk close to God? through the Word, through the Word, through the Word. You try to do an end run around the world and have fellowship with God in the woods with no word from God, you're going to be a false religion. You're going to make it up. It's going to go very bad. There is a way to know God. There is a way for Him to appear to you. There's a way for Him to be revealed to you, and it's by the word of the Lord. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is in the Father's side. He has made him known. Jesus, this is Jesus, is the final and decisive revelation of God. And oh, how sweet it is that we have four portraits of Jesus that lead off the New Testament and the rest of the New Testament explains it all even more deeply.

20:23 So right now I'm reading Mark, and I read this morning, even the demons obey him. That's world-shaking. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Observation number four. This is all introduction, trying to get our minds soaked with a little bit of reality so that when we deal with these glorious things, we'll have a mindset that just might be ready. God upholds and governs all things from galaxies to subatomic particles. That's a quote from the Bethlehem Elder Affirmation of Faith. I'll be quoting the Elder Affirmation of Faith for five weeks because I want you to know that what we believe is believed by all the elders, not just me. For example, kingship belongs to the Lord. He rules over the nations.

21:22 He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He commands unclean spirits, that's our bread, and they obey him. And though this world with devil's field should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not. For him, his rage we can endure. For lo, his doom is sure. One little word will fail him. Sing it. And though this world with devils fill should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

22:27 The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. For lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fail him. And the word is just go.

22:53 And you have authority in Jesus in the middle of the night to do that, you know. I've dealt with many people who are demon-arassed, if not possessed, see green things on the ceiling, their house shakes at night. When they come to my office, I don't tell them, oh, that doesn't happen, that's superstition. I don't question whether it happened. It may or may not happen. I can't prove whether it happened, but I know what to do if it happens. Renounce him in the name of Jesus. Get out of my house. In the name of Jesus. I'm not speaking on my own authority here. Leave me alone. Leave my child alone.

23:29 The devil is real, folks, and he is 10 million times stronger than you are. If this sentence is not true, we're goners. We are goners. It's true. I mean, just think of it. The devil and how many unclean spirits are there? I don't know. Millions, millions. They're all over the world. Prince of the power of the air. They're just filling everywhere, demons everywhere. Does that scare you? It doesn't have to. One little word, and you're done. And you walk in that. You walk in that purchased power. The wind and the sea obey Him. Tsunami takes out 230,000 people in one night. Earthquake just happened yesterday, right? Where did that come from?

24:24 The wind and the sea obey Him. It's just no point trying to get God off the hook with these things. The Bible teaches everywhere. He rules everything. NPR calls me up after the tsunami Christmas 2005 says I need an evangelical response to the death of 230,000 people I've talked to Imam, I've talked to a rabbi I talked to her for 45 minutes and I said here's the main message of the tsunami, you should repent Miss so and so because Jesus said, do you think, Luke 13, 5, do you think that if you weren't killed, you're no worse sinner than they were? No, repent.

25:18 That was the message. That was the message. That's the message for us right now. We were not under the wave that killed them, and we were not in the buildings that killed them when the buildings fell down. Why not? because we're called to repent. That's why. All calamities in the world are not because those people are bad and you're good. It's to tell you to stop trusting in yourself and get right with the living God. Otherwise, you're going to be under there someday. It's called hell. he rebuked the fever this one really offends a lot of people but let me tell you then the Lord said to him who has made man's mouth who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind I know good and well you all have relatives that are blind or deaf or mute or disabled mentally or physically and if you don't if you have not been taught a certain way that's going to be an outrageous statement absolutely outrageous.

26:20 Did we lose it? How long has this been going on? I'm circling the air. Start and stop. I'll give you the last time. So here's what I was going to say while he's working. John Knight. Raise your hand if you know John. Okay, that's great, more than I thought. John Knight works for Desiring God. He's been here for 30 years, I suppose. And I think Pauly is 26 now, so give or take. I remember when Pauly was born. He had no eyes, no eyes in his eye sockets. We've got a problem here, right? The nurse, we've got a problem. John took a detour and had a real struggle with God, made a full turn to embrace this verse. Who made my son blind?

27:17 God made my son blind. I can either live the rest of my days with fury and anger and bitterness, or I can submit to the inscrutable wisdom of a good God. And he chose the latter, and what a witness he is today. I mean, he works for us over there, the people he pastors from his place at desiring God who are suffering in this world. Unbelievable what God has done through John's life. So bless you, John. You're not here are you? You've got important things to do with your family. He makes grass grow. That's pretty ordinary. Scientists think they've explained how grass grows, photosynthesis. No. Well yes. Yes, but God makes it grow. The lot is cast in the lap. So Reno, Nevada, Las Vegas, guess what?

28:16 Plunk. God chose that. I play Scrabble with my wife, right? I wish there were a game that involved no chance. I suppose chess comes close, right? But Scrabble involves chance. Namely, what letters do you pull out of the bag? So I put my hand in the bag. Is it fair to pray? I do, I pray. But I don't pray what you think I pray. I pray for the kingdom and for the family.

28:57 Meaning, if I need humbling, you'll give me all A's and E's and O's and U's and no consonants. And if she needs humbling, I get a Z and a Q and a U and two Es and an S and a blank. Next play, 94 points. I didn't ask for it in OL, I just submitted to sovereignty. I just submitted to sovereignty. I believe this, folks. I believe that. There are no accidents ever anywhere. My wife calls them God-sidents or God-incidents. Now come you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

29:54 You don't know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while. Here's what you ought to say. You ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live. Okay, I'm 78 years old. I might not make it through this lesson, right? Make my day. I will live precisely as long as God wills me to live. So will you. You don't have any choice about that. None. You think you do if you commit suicide? You don't. Good grief. You think God doesn't know that's going to happen? God didn't plan that? You cannot escape the sovereignty of God. You have no choice but to submit. You can either do it gladly because he's a good, wise God and offers his son to save you, or you can live in rebellion and perish.

30:49 Those are your choices. and not only will we live just as long as the Lord wills, we will do this or that. So here, I stand up here and go, I go, like this. I don't think about that. God does.

31:09 God did that. You may not like it. And he's doing it for seven, what, eight billion people right now, and it does not tax him. So concluding this point, I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. Here's the kicker. But dare he rule the human will? Dare he touch this most sacred of all human idols?

32:11 ultimate self-determination. The word ultimate has a certain meaning. It could be... decisive self-determination.

32:35 What we care about in this class with regard to Calvinism and sovereign grace in salvation is whose act is finally decisive. So you see the word finally and ultimate and decisive here. Whose act is finally decisive at the instant of conversion. God's or man's? Calvinism says God's.

33:11 That's what we're at. Trying to dig into that. Martin Luther wrote a book against Erasmus. Erasmus you may have read in high school praise of folly freedom of the will Erasmus was a Roman Catholic scholar who translated the New Testament to Greek we bless him for that but oh how Luther could not stand Erasmus because of the issue of the will so you remember Luther's title somebody tell me the bondage of the will there you have it the freedom of the will the bondage of the will Erasmus Luther the Reformation we call the Protestant Reformation was largely that issue what is grace how strong is grace how pervasive is grace how deep and decisive and ultimate is grace That's where we're going.

34:24 A little historical background. I know that week three you're going to get a better, a bigger picture, but I want us to have some sense of, why are you even talking about tulip? Where did that come from? Where did Calvinism come from? Where did doctrines of grace come from? So Calvinism, at least the part that relates to salvation, doctrine, doctrines of grace, reformed theology. There's one more term I'm forgetting. They all mean the same thing in my vocabulary. John Calvin, the reformer of Geneva and author of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, was born 1509, died 1564.

35:18 From his name comes Calvinism. That's not rocket science. The Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius, born 1560, died 1609, he came to disagree with Calvinist doctrine, and from his name comes Arminianism. And that's what you usually hear bandied about, Calvinism versus Arminianism. I'm not going to spend significant time explaining Arminianism. I just want to give the positive over here, but it'll come out. If you want to read the best Arminian who's alive, read Roger Olson. Roger may have been listening to this. He knows me.

36:10 He was teaching Bethel. We've had lunch together. He wrote a book called Against Calvinism. I was the bad guy in that book. I think we have significant respect for each other because we're clear. We don't try to hide anything. So if you want a clear sense, written by an Arminian of the other side from what you're going to hear in this seminar, get against Calvinism, or better, the more full book. He has a book called just Arminianism.

36:42 1610, the followers of Arminius presented five doctrinal positions called the Remonstrants to the Dutch state authorities. These expressed the key areas of disagreement with the Calvinists, five of them. November 13, 1618 to May 9, 1619, Calvinists met at the Synod of Dort, which is Dort College.

37:10 Guess where they are theologically, right? The Synod of Dort to answer these five disputed points. their answers came to be called the Canons of Dort, and those five points are the origin of the five points of Calvinism. And somewhere along the way, and as far as I can tell, we don't know, but maybe Seth has found out why, and he'll tell you, why it came to be put under T-U-L-I-P. I don't know, but that's clever, right? Because tulips grow in the Netherlands, and the Netherlands was a place where this controversy was happening. And so how sweet is that? Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, most of those have problems. That is, the names are not ideal, and we'll talk about them as time goes. So that's the limit of my historical background. More in two weeks from now.

38:13 Johnny Erickson. You wonder, what in the world is he talking about Johnny Erickson Tata for? So my concern now, as I move to Johnny, is not mainly that I get your mind saturated with the greatness of God before I take up great things about God, but rather that I might be able to overcome a little bit of preconception, prejudice, that people who care about this are theologians who live pretty irrelevant lives, like Piper. He just thinks. and writes and stays in his study 90% of the time.

39:17 People like that, they talk about this. Oh, that's not true. and I'm going to introduce in my five sessions a bunch of people, of which that's not true, who were driven by the doctrines of grace to do the crazy, glorious, wonderful missionary things that they have done. Now, Johnny, as you know,

39:45 is 74 years old. Maybe you didn't know that. So she's three and a half years younger than I am, all right? I did that math because I saw when she was born. She's the founder of Johnny and Friends, whom we love as a church, because we like ministries to disability, right? We want to be a caring, open-armed church to people with all kinds of disabilities. We don't want to look at this person with a disability and cross to the other side of the room. I'm talking about that. I mean, that's my text on Sunday, right? They went to the other side of the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a global ministry. My wife has gone three times to Africa with Johnny and friends, taking wheelchairs. for the disabled in the name of Christ. She has been paralyzed since she broke her neck at age 17.

40:42 If I do my math right, that's 57 years in a wheelchair. Never in 57 years was she able to go to the bathroom by herself or get in bed by herself or scratch anything that itches or get into a position that hurts. I mean, that stops hurting. She's had cancer twice.

41:09 Praise God for Cantata, her husband, who married into this and cares for her. all right so that's who she is beautiful suffering every day I mean every day and she's she's gonna hear about this I'm sure so hello Johnny thank you I love you um I'm you're you are a hero of mine but I don't go I don't worship you I don't think but I do want to be like you Weeks before her high school graduation, now I'm quoting, see these little quote marks here? So John Sloan has been her editor for decades. John Sloan wrote the introduction to this book, which is going to be on sale for you next week in the bookstore.

42:07 And you should get it. I have it. All these quotes come from it. It's a daily devotional modeled on Brother Andrew practicing the presence of God, only she practices the presence of Jesus. And the introduction blew me away, written by John Sloan, and you'll see why. I mean, I knew Johnny's a Calvinist, right? She has said that out loud many times, especially down at Ligonier when she spoke there or at the Sing Conference. it gets better. Weeks before her high school graduation, Johnny prayed an ominous prayer. She bolded, this was before her accident, she boldly pleaded for God to do whatever, absolutely anything to rescue her from her enslavement to lust.

42:56 Shortly after, she broke her neck. A numbing despair crept into her life, along with thoughts of suicide, I guess. 17 years old, never walk again. She violently thrashed her head on her pillow, hoping to break her neck again and end her life.

43:22 Eventually, Johnny found the strength to pray, God, if I can't die, please show me how to live. The next day, she rallied, sat up in her wheelchair, and began moving forward. Has she moved forward? If you've got little problems in your life, you need to get to know Johnny, because you'll stop complaining, maybe. We're pretty irrational folks, so that doesn't always work. Miss Erickson refused, still quoting her now, Miss Erickson refused to skate the surface of the questions that plagued her. Her friends, mostly college-aged Calvinists, and I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa, where's this going? Why'd you say that, John Sloan? I mean, that's divisive. I mean, Johnny ministers to crazy varieties of people, right?

44:19 Roman Catholics and Lutherans and Methodists, Free church and Baptists and Presbyterians and unbelievers. Johnny's got a great broad ministry. What you bringing that up for? so she's surrounded by these campus outreach guys types who love the sovereignty of God created a circle of prayer for her she took part in the study sessions that lasted long into the night she studied Lorraine Bettner, are you kidding me? the reform doctrine of predestination, big fat book on theology, she's 18 Lengthy work that helped her understand the expansive extent of God's sovereignty over all afflictions. She was astounded to learn that the reach of God's dominion covered even the granules of shifting sand at the waters in which she broke her neck.

45:26 far from off-putting, and I'm wondering how many of you are going to be so put off by the doctrine of God's sovereignty that you're not going to come back next week. I'm wondering how many in this room are feeling that right now. Like, I don't want anything to do with that kind of God. Far from off-putting, she found the doctrine of God's sovereignty comforting.

45:58 She found a friend in Jonathan Edwards. Many of us have. You know, one of the reasons I get so worked up about this is because I'm old and I've been at this church for 44 years. I was a pastor for 33 of those.

46:20 And I watched a lot of tragedies. unspeakable disappointments in life. A lot of babies died. A lot of accidents on motorcycles, a handful of suicides. the people who embraced the sovereignty of God and its mysteries did not go insane, and they said that was the reason. I have heard it from young mothers so many times. I cannot not be excited about these doctrines. the rock on which we stand is simply massively unshakable and glorious. We don't have all the answers. That's not what this seminar is about. Okay, answer every question about the sovereignty of God and the mysteries of the will of man. The question is, what is true in the Bible, and can I stand on it in the worst of times?

47:36 That's the way Johnny experienced it. Now, watch this. Johnny's spiritual formation was largely influenced by Puritans and Reformed pastors and theologians. So, Puritans, they're all Calvinists. Reformed means Calvinists and theologians. Johnny sat on the back porch of the family farm and listened to R.C. Sproul, modern-day Puritan Calvinist, gone to be with Jesus. John Gerstner, his teacher, Calvinist lover of Jonathan Edwards, modern Calvinist who strengthened her positions on the sovereignty of God. So John Sloan is going out of his way to get Johnny in trouble. What's up Sloan? Miss Erickson became a five-point Calvinist. I read that and said, you're kidding me? You used that word? Well, she's never called herself a five-point Calvinist out loud, as far as I know. She's usually reformed and Calvinist, but now, in public, probably one of her most popular books on the way that was published in November, and it's introduced by saying, oh, by the way world. It's written by a Five Point Calvinist.

48:52 I'm going to write to her, and I'm going to say, what's up, Johnny? I did that with John MacArthur. Remember when MacArthur stood right here, what was it, 1990 or something like that? And I had noticed, he won't mind me saying this because I've said it in front of thousands of pastors with him sitting beside me.

49:15 I noticed that in his books, he had printed Puritan sermons at the end. It was a season where about every book that came out, that four or five books, he had Puritan sermons just tacked on for no apparent reason. I thought, John MacArthur is a fundamentalist, pre-trib, pre-mill, anti-Calvinist. He's not, I mean, anti-charismatic, right? He's not a Calvinist, is he? So I invite him to come to the pastor's conference and speak to find out. and he spoke, and then the Q&A. I'm sitting right about over there in this room. I said, Dr. MacArthur, I noticed that at the end of the last two or three books that you just published, there's Puritan sermons.

50:19 Are you a five-point Calvinist? So this is in front of about 400 pastors. This is like coming out. And he paused and he said, yes. to gasps. I said, so why haven't you said so for the last 40 years?

50:46 And he said, sometimes you have to get old enough to be wise and bold and straight. I don't know those exact words. Those are my words, something like that. So maybe Johnny will, I don't know what she'll say. But I found this shocking. Bethlehem, of course they do seminars on five-point calendar news. That's what we do. We've done this for 40 years. This is not surprising to anybody. Johnny, in the introduction to a beautiful devotional book that will be read across the theological spectrum, many theological tributaries helped fill the river of this woman's love for Christ. But God's Word and her afflictions, God's Word and her afflictions are the main source of her adoration and devotion to Jesus Christ. I confess, this is John Sloan talking now, knowing her for 40 years or so, I confess I have never met anyone who has the kind of constant communication with Jesus Christ that Johnny experiences.

52:02 All I want you to hear from that is, Calvinism saved her life to this very day at age 74, getting ready to meet Jesus. She's going to wave that flag, and it is the means by which she has the closest communication with Jesus of anybody that John Sloan knows. So if you think Calvinism does not have that kind of sweet, personal, practical, life-saving daily effect, you need to stay in this seminar for five more weeks, six more weeks. We've got 15 minutes. Where are we? One more illustration. Good many of you know this person. I don't think they'd mind if I gave you their name, but I'll just let you figure it out.

53:02 In December of 1987, he wrote me this letter. My father died unexpectedly at age 63. I was plunged into a journey of several months, struggling to understand what had happened. I was at Bethlehem, but new to the teaching, and apparently missing many of the distinctives. He's talking about Reformed theology. He was too new, and some of you are too new here to know what I'm talking about. And this is going to be your bath in the sovereignty of God, your immersion. Fast forward to 1992. so from 87 to 92, we had been in China for a year and returned home to have our first child. As you remember, she lived one day and died in our arms.

54:03 It was then that the teaching of God's providence came home to roost. God had not turned us loose to some natural events, but in his divine mercy had seen fit to give us a child and through the process of taking her from us, work in us a honing and sanctifying unlike anything we had ever known.

54:42 Thanks to the foundation laid in my life through our years at Bethlehem, I was now able to embrace and understand such verses as the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's what Kenny wants me to teach this and wants to be a part of this. That's the kind of people we want. I was sitting right on the front pew there where one of our missionaries from the Middle East came back. They had gone to Turkey. Many of you will know who this is. They had gone to Turkey to have their first baby. The baby died as she was giving birth. And they came back here, arms empty. It was the very first Sunday that we ever sang, blessed be the name of the Lord.

55:39 I'm standing there, and they're sitting right there in the second or third pew. He gives and takes away. He gives and takes away. My heart has learned to say, how blessed is your name. And their hands were like this. totally submitted to the sovereignty of God. They're back there now. You want me to find out who it is? Let's go find out who's in the Middle East, right? They're back there now. Got lots of kids now. They came through, and they came through, and that song, you know, I sometimes wonder when you sing that song with 30,000 students at Passion, do they have any idea what they're saying? Can they sing it like it's a cheerleading song? and I've said to our worship leaders, you know, if we ever sing that song, Chuck won't remember this, but if we ever sing that song, when we get to that chorus, just let the drums drop out.

56:43 We're talking about dead babies. We're talking about dead babies or 10 children wiped away in a hurricane. You don't sing it like that. he gives and takes away he gives and takes away that's how you sing it Okay, that's introduction.

57:09 Ten minutes. Why in the world are you starting with I? T-U-L-I-P. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. And Piper starts with I, not T or U or L. or Pete. Why? Here's why. my practical experience of getting people over the hump of their initial indignation at the thought that God and not themselves was decisive in their coming to Christ, God was decisive, not their free will, my discovery in dealing with folks in helping overcome that hump is to ask them how they got saved I'll give you an illustration in this sanctuary I preached a message in which I I don't remember the text but the point was pretty clear that God is sovereign if you came to Christ God was decisive in that act not you and you should be giving him eternal thanks and singing amazing grace.

58:43 I once was blind, but now I see. That should be your song for the rest of eternity. She came up afterwards and she said, I can't handle that. I cannot handle that God decides who is saved and who's not rescued from their blindness. I said, look, I know where you live in Phillips. Hang on. You're walking home? Yes. I'm walking home too. Let's walk together. So we walk across the bridge. I can picture it. And I said, tell me about coming to Christ. She's probably 26, 27 years old. Tell me how you came to Christ. She was very candid. She said, when I was about 12, I was the tallest kid in the class. Taller than boys, taller than girls.

59:39 And it was awful. And I was walking home one day. I grew up in a Christian home. I was walking home one day, and some girls started talking down to me and making fun of me as the giant in the class. and I felt like I came to a crisis of faith at that moment that if God is real and loves me, that doesn't matter, and if he's not, that matters a lot, and I don't like it, and I decided God's real, and that doesn't matter. I'm his. I think that's where I got saved or at least that's where I knew I was saved and I said that's amazing that's beautiful now really let's call her Jane really Jane at that moment you think you were smart enough spiritual enough wise enough to make that glorious discovery and commitment happen and that wasn't a gift from God?

1:00:56 And she said, well, I don't think I'd want to say that. I said, that's all, that's my Calvinism in a nutshell. I wouldn't want to say that. I don't either. When I get to heaven and God says, why are you here? I say, I trusted your son. And he says, why'd you trust my son? He does not want to hear the answer, I'm smart. What answer does he want to hear? By the grace of God. of the grace of God, I am what I am. The definition of irresistible grace is, this is my definition, it's not written down in any book, it might be, irresistible grace is the act of God by which he overcomes all resistance and unfailingly, infallibly, definitely, surely, certainly, causes a person to see the truth and worth of Christ as compelling.

1:02:10 so that he, the person, embraces Christ as his supremely treasured Savior and Lord. that's a weighty sentence so irresistible grace is the act of God by which he overcomes all resistance now let's just stop there we'll spend the rest of our five minutes on that probably because it's right here because I don't want you to stumble and say I should have said already but I'll say it now I don't really give a hoot about the system of Calvinism as an authority or a criterion of truth.

1:03:03 This is the authority. This is the criterion of truth. If Calvinism matches, I believe it. If it doesn't, I don't. Is that clear? You got that? This is the truth. So, I'm assuming that's the most of you think. You're Bible people. And if you're not Bible people, be a Bible person.

1:03:27 Measure Piper by the Bible. He's not God. He's fallible. He's sinful. He's finite. He's culturally conditioned. Good grief. Why are you even here? but if it's in the Bible live and die by it so are you Bible people when you hear the term irresistible grace what's your first thought from the Bible The Bible says we resist. How can you call it irresistible? The Bible says again and again we resist grace. We resist the Holy Spirit. Give me a break, Piper. Get biblical.

1:04:13 That's why this first part is so important. The term irresistible grace was never meant to mean you can't resist grace. it just means you can't successfully resist sovereign grace. You can resist for a year or two or 10 or 20. If he wants you, he'll have you. He'll overcome it. So let's just see some text. You men who are stiff-necked, this is Stephen talking, and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You're doing just what your fathers did. so we can resist the Holy Spirit. We can resist grace. Yes, you can. Some of you are doing that right now, tonight. In some area of your life, you're just resistant. Grace wants to do this, and you, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to do it.

1:05:04 I'm not going to yield to that movement of the Holy Spirit. Well, guess what? He's God. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed. You can grieve the Holy Spirit. That's worth a whole seminar. Grieve God. Oh, my goodness. What a mystery.

1:05:31 His children can grieve God. Do not quench the Holy Spirit. You can quench the Holy Spirit. You can resist. you can grieve, you can quench or but as for Israel he says all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. God's hands are like this and they're obstinate. So, that's why I say irresistible grace is the act of God by which he overcomes all resistance and unfailingly causes a person to see the truth and the worth of Christ as compelling.

1:06:32 And they're done resisting. They're done. So just think how you got saved. I mean, many of you in this room, like me, got saved so early you can't remember it. That's okay. I don't remember those moments. My mother talked to me about them. I take it secondhand. I judge the certainty of my salvation not on the memory of my conversion but on the reality of Christ today. That's how I live. But many of you remember how you got saved. And if you're honest, at one point, the day before, Christ was not compelling. He was boring, disinteresting, questions, skepticism. Next day, or in the middle of the night, he's real. What was that? What just happened? He's compelling.

1:07:25 I can't not trust him. I can't walk away from this portrait in the New Testament. It's too glorious, too beautiful, too compelling. What just happened? I'll tell you what happened. Sovereign grace just happened. And you will praise it. I do hope that when you sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound saved a wretch like me, that's what you mean. So that's where we're going to pick it up next week. I've got seven arguments, and we haven't seen any of them yet. We haven't even started the seminar yet.

1:08:04 I have got seven arguments for irresistible grace. You'll have plenty of chance, I hope, next time to ask questions about those biblical arguments. But for now, let's pray, and I will make sure you get out on time so you might want to come back. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we all have things to do, and I pray now that those things would be caught up into the greatness of your person. You are. You are great. You govern all things, and you overcame. John Pipers and every Christian in this room, you overcame our natural resistance to yourself, to the gospel, to Jesus, and how thankful we are.

1:09:03 Dismiss these, friends, with your blessing. Bring them safely home. Fill their homes with joy and truth and love and peace and save those in this room that are outside Christ and make us emissaries of salvation everywhere we go.