Your Witness
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Last week we spoke about the necessity of prayer, and the importance to be praying for all types of people. This brings us to v.4 which has been grossly misquoted over the years. We need to gain a clear understanding of the verse to have a clear understanding on the character of God.
Erroneous Thinking
Erroneous Thinking
This verse is a source of lots of erroneous thinking not just today, but throughout history.
Before we speak about what Paul means by this verse, we are going to cover what some believe this verse to mean, and why they are incorrect.
Pelagian View
Pelagian View
This was deemed a heresy in 431 A.D. No thousands, but 431.
This states that we are free moral agents.
We are able to voluntarily choose what is right, and what is wrong.
You will hear people convey this system of belief with statements such as, “they have a good heart.”
In order to be a free moral agent, to actually have a free will, means that you are good at heart....
This belief states that God is allowing mankind to choose whether you will return to Him, or continue in rebellion.
This view states that God desires to bring people to repentance, but He can’t.
For bringing them to repentance would be violating that persons will.
He has given us Jesus, so that we might be saved. He has given us people to preach the gospel, and by doing so has done all that He can without doing violence to our freedom.
Problem
This view assumes in the basic goodness of man, and that we actually have the free will to choose God.
It does not take the true depth of human depravity into mind.
Romans 3:11-12
Romans 3:11-12
We aren’t morally free to choose to do good.
No one does good.
We need to be brought from death, to life.
That isn’t a voluntary act.
What can a dead man do?
Arminianism
Arminianism
Some people don’t want to go full Pelagian, so they come with a halfway point.
This belief is that though grace is necessary for salvation, however, that grace can be resisted.
The statement would sound like
“God wills all, which means God has given his grace to all so that they can be saved. But there are some people who are just stubborn and resist the grace of God. What can God do, we have a free will.”
This belief denies the sovereignty of God. It denies the omnipotence of God.
It says, God has a will, but your will is stronger than God’s.
In that case, who is the sovereign one?
Not God, you’ve placed yourself in that position.
How can God be all powerful, and control of all things if your will is strong enough to wreck His plans?
There is an old poem called, “For want of a nail.”
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
and all becasue of the want of a nail.
R.C. Sproul used to say, “if there is one maverick molecule, one molecule running loose outside the scope of God’s sovereign ordination. Then there is not the slightest confidence that you can have that any promise that God has ever made about the future will come to pass.”
If there is one maverick molecule, then God is not strong enough to secure your promise of salvation.
Our Great God
Our Great God
But, glory be to our great God, He is sovereign.
Becasue He is sovereign, the call that God issues is effectual. That is to say that it is effective to accomplish what God desires for it to accomplish.
Romans 8:30
Romans 8:30
Whom God predestines, he also calls.
He doesn’t allow them to find their way on their own, but He beckons to them.
Who he calls, he justified.
Not He might justify them, if they don’t reject his calling.
No, the one’s He calls, He has justified you in the eyes of God, through the work of Jesus Christ.
Who He justified He glorified.
Are you in glory yet?
Your salvation is so sure, Paul is saying it’s like it’s already taken place.
We must have a high view of our great God.
We understand the we are sinners, incapable of choosing God.
There is none righteous, no not one.
We need God to bring us to life to be saved.
We understand that we are born again, not because of our desire or choice, but becasue of God.
John 1:13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
To the view that says you can reject the will of God, that is saying your will is greater than His.
But you aren’t born again according to your will, but God’s will.
John 5:25
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
For this is the gospel, we were dead in our sins and trespasses, but God made us alive.
This is having a high view of God. One we must hold fast to.
After we understand this, then we can begin weeding through a passage to find out what is God saying?
So, what does the bible mean by all?
Desires All
Desires All
What is meant by desires all?
It doesn’t mean that he is hoping they choose him.
It doesn’t mean that he has given them grace, and he is waiting to see if they will reject it, or come to him.
All who God calls, will be saved.
Are all people saved? Do we believe in universalism?
No, we don’t.
Some people go to heaven, some to hell.
Does this mean that God fails, no.
All
As we saw last week with prayer being made for all.
It doesn’t mean you pray for each and every person on earth.
Pray for all kinds of people.
From the kings, to the regular, to your enemies.
pray for all.
The same when we speak of salvation.
God desires/wills all kinds of people to come to know Him.
From kings, to slaves, from Jews to Gentiles.
God has effectually called people from every class.
This might not sound like a huge deal to us, but when Jesus says:
Matthew 15:24
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
and
John 4:22
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
It’s pretty clear that the oracles of God were first for the Jews, so now when
Colossians 3:11
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
That’s a big deal.
So in 1 Timothy when Paul is instructing them, pray for all kinds of people.
For God desires salvation for every race, every class, every nation.
Our Response
Our Response
Gratitude
This is a reminder that you are saved becasue of nothing you have done.
Your salvation begins when God, (due to His work of predestination) quickens you to life.
You grow becasue God continues to work in you.
Little by little He sanctifies you and removes a little more of your sin nature.
In the end, you will enter heaven, receiving your promised inheritance becasue God has set His seal on you and he was able to present you blameless.
This should drive us to our knees in gratitude.
Makes us raise our voices in ceaseless praise.
Builds in us, a desire for obedience.
Obedience
Does your life glorify God?
Are you fleeing your sinful passions?
Gossip, pride, lust.
Do you fight those desires to bring your body and mind into submission under Christ.
Standing against the things in this culture that are blatant sins.
Homosexuality, Transgender, Toxic Masculinity, feminism.
Just a plane apathy for the things of God.
Do you try to build a culture glorifying to God?
This is using the gifts that God has given you to build a culture that isn’t focused on the sinful indulgences of this culture, but rather a culture focused on bringing glory to God.
Starting businesses that provide services that people need, and doing it to the best of your ability with an ideology that is centered around Christ.
Getting involved in the political sphere, so you can direct your community with morals that are theocentric, God centered.
You do this by showing hospitality and having a atmosphere in your house that is centered on God.
What we are doing is recognizing the all that God has done for us, then we are seeking to honor Him as an act of love, and worship.