Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church
**Pastor Dennis Tuuri**

uh version of Psalm 2 of course comes from the time of the reformation in Geneva under Calvin. The reformation was that reformation was why we named our church Reformation Covenant Church. We believe in the need for reformation and revival transformation in our day and age. The reformation was about the sovereignty of God. That’s what it was at its core versus Arminianism found in the Roman Catholic Church and then later in other arrivals.

And so the heart of reformation in history and in the scriptures is the assertion of the sovereignty of God. I know that was a it’s kind of a strange setting for some of you. it’s a kind of old-fashioned way of writing these words and actually the same people that did the Anglo and even Psalter that did these words have kind of trans-modernized the words a little bit. So there’s a little more modern version.

Doug Wilson has produced a much shorter version of the confuse of the particular words but there important words and I always when we sing this psalm love to think of the Protestant Reformation and John Calvin and Geneva and what we hope to see here in America based upon those same truths of the sovereignty of God. Today we’re going to wrap up our discussion of the five points of Calvinism dealing with truths found in the Canons of Dort.

The sermon text from for today will be John 3:12-21. I want to focus on verse 16, probably the best known verse in the Bible, and talk about its relationship to what we’ve talked about for the last few months, but I want to put it in its proper setting. John 3:12-21. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. And I’m going to read it with little pauses. I think this flows into a nice sevenfold section, which we’ll talk about just a little bit later on.

But putting this statement of John 3:16 in its context, we’ll see it’s at the center of a series of seven basic statements. So John 3:12-21 and the importance of this for our consideration today and talking about perseverance in eschatology is that the Lord has brought into effect a new creation. So that answers the question of eschatology. The world will indeed over time more and more manifest this new creation reality that’s now in place.

Okay. John 3:12-21. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for your most holy word. Bless us, Father, with a sense of the great gift that you offer to us today. This knowledge of what the future is based upon the past work of our savior. Bless us today, Father, that we may indeed leave this place joyous over the bright future that lies in front of us and Lord God empowered to see our salvation to the purpose of serving you. Thank you Lord God for the text of this scripture bless us transform our lives by it and the other ones we’ll be looking at may your spirit do his work amongst us today by transforming us establishing us strengthening our hand and encouraging us for ministry in Jesus name we ask it and for the purposes of his kingdom not ours Amen.

Please be seated.

This last another unusual thing about the version of Psalm 2 that we sing is the last verse is only half of the most of the other verses and we sang then blessed are they who on our God rely with constant hope on his strong arm depending. This is a good paraphrase at the ending of Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is about the victory of Jesus over all the nations. All the nations upon Jesus’s ascension, resurrection, and ascension.

Today, I have begotten you in a sense. Of course, the son is eternally begotten. But now mankind comes of age in Jesus at the resurrection. Now everything changes. Now all the nations of the earth will be discipled and are his inheritance. That’s the strong arm of God and his purposes in history. And we are those who come together in the words of the Genevan psalm. Blessed are they who on their God rely with constant hope on his strong arm, ending who humbly strive to serve the Lord most high with grateful hearts and fervor never ending.

So our purpose in knowing the brightness of the future is to serve him. I want to talk about that today. I want to talk about the importance of Calvinism as we conclude this series. I know I got a lot of notes here in front of you. don’t worry about it. I kind of wanted to give you something here at the end to kind of wrap up a lot of what we’ve talked about. Maybe you keep this in your Bibles or at home. sometime look it over. Maybe you use it to teach yourself your husband, your wife, your children, other friends and neighbors about what the five points of Calvinism, so-called TULIP, are about. Maybe use them to remind yourself the implications of these things. And I have other notes in there to just make clear something I said last week from 1 John 3 that’s important for our topic today.

So don’t worry too much about that. But I did want to stress here in wrapping up eschatology the importance of this doctrine, the sovereignty of God. I was at a pastor’s the first meeting of the Reformation Society in Portland. Rick Phillips, who was in town at the Ligonier Conference this weekend with R.C. Sproul, was originally the founder of so-called reformation societies in various cities. And now there’s one in Portland.

And the first event was this breakfast for round 100 people, oh probably a good 30, 40 or more 50 pastors to have breakfast with R.C. Sproul and Rick Phillips from Ligonier Ministries and then to engage in a time of discussion with him. Well, actually questions and answers with R.C. and a brief devotional from Rick Phillips and actually this text from John 3 which was already be my sermon text today was partly what Mr. Phillips talked about.

R.C. talked about heresies in our day and age and he spoke specifically of open theism. Open theism is a movement in evangelical churches or what we might call post evangelical churches in America today. I it’s kind of hard to explain exactly, but I have a quote that I found in Wikipedia from John Sanders describing the view of God’s sovereignty displayed in open theism. He says this that God changes in some respects implies that God is temporal working with us in time. God, at least since creation, experiences duration. God is everlasting through time rather than timelessly eternal. Now, he’s trying to recover something other than a Greek view of God and more of a Hebraic view. So far, okay. But then he goes on to say this, we believe that God could have known every event of the future had God decided to create a fully determined universe. So if he wanted to make a fully determined universe, he could have known the future.

However, in our view, God decided to create beings with interdeterministic freedom, which implies that God chose to create a universe in which future is not entirely knowable even for God. For many open theists, the future is not a present reality. It does not exist and God knows reality as it is. You know, it’s should be laughable. God doesn’t know the future. but sadly, this is a heresy that’s growing. It’s becoming more popular. And what is it? Why, it’s that same old Arminianism taken to its logical conclusion.

This is what R.C. pointed out in the question and answer time that open theism is Arminianism. It’s just kind of, you know, it’s a way to think of God that allows for the Arminian view of man that everything is dependent upon him and that there is no sovereign God as decreed whatsoever comes to pass. Now, this flies right in the face of, you know, literally the whole Bible, but that’s where we’re at. So, don’t think that Arminianism is some sort of past battle for us. It isn’t. It’s here now. And the implications of it, as I’ve tried to point out over the last few months is also very much with us. We live in an Arminian world and that has implications for education and politics and our culture.

All right, so let’s review quickly what we’ve talked about and it’s TULIP tulip was later on given to it probably you know because tulip was a nice Dutch flower and these the Canons of Dort were the Synod of Dort was primarily Dutchman although lots of other churches were represented but if you actually look at that the canons themselves, the so-called five heads of doctrine, they’re laid out under five points that make TULIP, not Tulip. They actually start, you know, with the assertion of God’s unconditional election. So, their heading was divine election and reprobation.

And now, the reason I’ve given you the handout again, I’ve made this point several times, but I’ll bet you’re not doing it. I know how you’re busy people, busy lives as I am, but I think it’s if our view of God is so essential to producing reformation in our time, if what the scriptures teach about God’s sovereignty was the key doctrine of the reformation and it was I mean I don’t care if you look at Lutheranism with Martin Luther’s bondage of the will or Calvinism and Presbyterianism or reformed people with Calvin’s institutes or the Episcopalian or Anglican church originally with its book of common prayer all thoroughly Calvinistic in their original documents. Now they’ve gone some revision some of these and you know it’s kind of fallen apart but the reformation itself was about the assertion of the sovereignty of God and those great documents that came out of the reformation make that clear.

So the five points of Calvinism were covered under five heads and the first one is divine election reprobation and I give you here texts to remember so that when you discuss these things in your family with other Christians It’ll be quite easy for you to have a couple of texts in mind. Ephesians 1 is where we start. So in Ephesians or let me say first Acts 13:48, a little tougher to remember, but it says this. Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

So the ones that are appointed to eternal life, unconditionally elected by God, these are the ones that believe. Ephesians 1 makes this quite clear. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, God, not by his decision. Did Paul make decisions? Yes. But what’s the cause for Paul being an apostle? The will of God. And then he says, he gives his greeting and then says in verse three, he says, “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him.”

So there you go. Just remember Ephesians 1 and the very beginning and all the other doctrines kind of flow from this one. The fountain head doctrine of God’s unconditional election of his people. You get right, you just keep reading a few verses down and there it is. Ephesians 1:3, God chose us. Who chose us? By the way, my wife pointed out uh maybe at least a lack of clarity in the confessional statement of our church. There’s a number of them. We need to revise it. But we talk about I think the election work of the Holy Spirit in our confessional statement. Just as he chose us, who? Well, the one that was just blessed. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as he chose us, that’s he the father. In him, the son before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

The Bible seems to emphasize now God is one God existing in three persons. So, father, son, and holy spirit all do the electing work. But the father is the emphasis in terms of the person of the father doing election and the son is emphasized as the one that comes and dies for his dies for those that are elect or unconditionally called and then the holy spirit’s job is to bring us into that relationship. So the way this thing works kind of goes from father to son to holy spirit and so here is a text that tells us that it’s the father’s elective work before the foundation of the world before creation god chose us in Christ okay

So, so and then it says that we should be holy and without blame before him. And then in love is in verse four. But the verse divisions in the Bible are not inspired. I think in love is the preceded to the next statement. In love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. Remember the golden chain. Romans 8:29 and 30. He those whom he foreknew not actions that he foresaw us doing. And we’re not talking about God’s omniscience, his knowledge. Those whom he foreknew means the ones that God placed his sovereign love upon for his own pleasure, for his own reason, not conditioned upon what we would do.

God didn’t look down time and say, “You’re going to pick for me. Therefore, I predestined you.” No. He had his creation in his mind. He knew Don Rogers before Don was brought forth for the world was created. And he says, “I’m going to choose Don, not because Don’s a great guy, not because he’s going to choose for me, not for any condition. I’m going to choose Don solely because I decide to put my love on him and not some other people.”

Now, that’s you may not like it. This is what the Bible says. The Bible says that God unconditionally elects certain people without condition to them. And he does this and then in that love, he then predestinates us. He then says, “I love Don. I’m going to decide his destination. in his end point. Okay. Those whom he love, those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. So God does that predestinating work based on love.

The beginning of everything is the love of God set sovereignly upon his people. And this is all verse six says to the praise, the glory of his grace. So the providence the sovereignty of God is to the glory of his grace. one little point in terms of our major topic today, eschatology. Verse 10 says this, after this whole flow in Ephesians 1, he then says in verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ.

So his purpose for this sovereign loving predestination election, the whole purpose of this is that he might gather all things together in Christ. There is a direct relationship ship between the sovereignty of God and what we think of as salvation. The five points of Calvinism, we think just in terms of who gets to go to heaven. But the whole purpose of that Ephesians 1 tells us is that he might gather all things together in Christ.

Just like Psalm 2 says, when Jesus comes, he inherits all the world. All things are now the subject of Christ’s salvific work. So creation moves, history moves in terms of historical optimism about the future. uh so we’ve been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things. The Bible says according to the counsel of his will.

So the golden chain. So Romans Ephesians 1. Remember it. Just read through it with folks. Help them to see. We’ll see what this means. Look at this. Love is the beginning and then he predestines us sovereignly. And then always remember the golden chain. Romans 8:28-30. Romans 8:28. Everyone knows that one. We all know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

We could say there just briefly, the called according to his purpose. That’s what we’re talking about today. To what purpose? You know, perseverance of the saints. The evangelical saying of that is once saved, always saved. And that’s okay from one perspective. It’s, you know, it’s it can turn into decisionalism that somehow if I make a decision, I can live like heck the rest of my life and I’m saved. And that’s a perversion of the truth of eternal security. But even worse than that, once saved, always saved emphasizes our condition. Okay, we’re saved. And the only thing it really talks about is perseverance so that we get to go to heaven. But the Bible says that perseverance is in terms of our calling. Once called, always called.

There’s a difference because calling stresses what we’re supposed to be doing, what we’re called to do. the present state and energy of the church. So he we are the called according to his purpose and as we see from beginning to end in the Bible from the proto-evangelism the first declaration to Adam and Eve actually to Adam’s first calling the purpose is the transformation and glorification of the whole world. It’s not to bring some people out and then destroy the whole thing. For God so loved the world. That’s the purpose. And the purpose is accomplished by people that God brings into the new humanity of Jesus Christ.

I say that and I know people don’t like the term humanity, the new humanity. It’s not, you know, sometimes we use the term race. Well, it just doesn’t mean a race in the sense of biological descent. There is a new humanity, a new race of faith, not of flesh. And that new humanity is who we are now. And that new humanity owns the whole world. We’re the ones who inherit the world. We’re the ones responsible for beautifying the earth now and doing our job.

So if you have perseverance, it’s not to the end that you can just it’s not God preserving you just you can dog paddle as I’ve said several times now but it’s so that you will persevere in your calling once called always called. You’re called for the purposes of God and then it goes on to say you remember that verse Romans 8:28 everybody knows that verse well just next time you’re talking to your friends about this subject verse read verse 29 for whom he foreknew Remember, knowledge in the Bible is love. Adam knew Eve. God knew Israel and not the other nations. There’s lots of ways to prove it. And just grammatically, it doesn’t say those whom he foreknew would do certain things. It says those individuals, those people that he foreknew. He’s not foreseeing actions. He’s he’s not he’s not foreseeing actions. He’s not foreknowing actions. He’s foreknowing individuals, people.

Okay? Those whom he foreknew, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Okay, so God calls us. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified.

So when God sets his love upon us, that’s the beginning of predestination. And everything else is sure. Everything else is sure. You see, God is sovereign. Implications. Well, God’s absolute sovereignty. He’s decreed whatsoever comes to pass. the preeminence of Christ, the our great sin is pride. Unconditional election drives a stake through the heart of our pride. Grace and humility are the immediate results.

so, I’ve brought on your outline, I’ve got some implications of this. And here’s a very important implication. The doctrine of reprobation serves election. So, God’s purpose in election is to transform humanity. yes, he sends some people to hell. He reprobates people. But that the doctrine of reprobation is not to be seen as equal to the doctrine of predestination or election. It serves it more people. God’s grace is demonstrated through his sovereign election of more people. Reprobation serves election.

And what this means is evangelism is not deterred, but rather we have the confidence of knowing that we’re eternally saved but eternally called to transform the world by calling other men and women through the power of the Holy Spirit.

All right. Secondly, limited atonement, death of Christ, redemption of man thereof. Isaiah 53 is the text I’m recommending you listen to here or remember. Verse four, he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows. Verse 5, he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastised as our peace was upon him. By his stripes we are healed.

Collective atonement. He’s doing he’s suffering on the cross and dying for his people, not for the sins of everybody. And that sounds, you know, oh well, somehow this isn’t a good thing. He died for the sins of all the world. well, from one sense he did because he’s saving the world, but it doesn’t mean every last person. Jesus Christ died on the cross for his people. The ones that the father foreknew and gave to him and that were predestined. And those are the ones that Jesus dies for.

by the way, again, if we want to think in terms of what the implications of this is in terms of eschatology, if we look at verse 11, look at Isaiah 53:11. Turn there, please. Isaiah 53:11. Verse 11 of Isaiah 53. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. So this is the father sees the labor of the son’s soul and he’s satisfied. Penal satisfaction some people called it.

So the idea is that Jesus didn’t die as a demonstration of something 2,000 years ago. He didn’t die so that God might be satisfied in relationship to you and to Dawn or the rest of us. He died so that the father would see his death, atoning death. for those that he’s chosen in love and be satisfied. So, the doctrine of so-called limited atonement, particular redemption, that God had a particular purpose. Jesus died for particular people is linked to the idea that there is an actual atonement made 2,000 years ago. It’s not a potential atonement. God saw the travail of his soul and he was satisfied.

edified that your sins were forgiven. There’s a real atonement that has happened on the cross 2,000 years ago. Arminianism moves away from real atonement. Now, when we don’t have the atoning work of Christ, what do we have? Well, then we have self atonement or someone else atoning. I’m going to make you pay for my sins or I’m going to pay myself massochism. All the different implications, the idea of trying to find a boogeyman and everything so obvious in politics all the time.

This results from a failure of believing and appropriating the atoning work of Jesus Christ. So it’s very practical, you see. But what I want to get a turn here for is look at what the verse goes on to say. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many. So he doesn’t justify everybody. He justifies the many, most people on the cross. Okay? So the cross is effectual for producing justification, right? Standing with God. It’s not potential. It accomplishes it. He justified many. He shall bear their iniquities.

Our iniquities were born actually literally born on the cross by Christ, not potentially. And what’s the result of this? Therefore, verse 12, I will divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he has poured out his soul into death and he was numbered with the transgressors and bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

As a result of that work, this verse says the same thing that Psalm 2 says. Therefore, Therefore, I’m going to give him all the nations of the world. Therefore, he’s going to be the victor. Therefore, he’s the strong, powerful savior of the whole world. Therefore, he brings into existence a humanity that will grow to fill the whole world. Therefore, the meek shall inherit the world. Therefore, Jesus Christ is king of kings and lord of lords. Therefore, he’s been now empowered and enthroned and been given all the nations of the world. And therefore, he can tell us as he before leaves us in Matthew 28 at that worship service the same thing he tells us at every worship service the nations shall be discipled by you’re going to baptize them and you’re going to teach them the nations not few people here and there so these texts show us the relationship of the sovereignty of God in election reconciling all things and limited atonement or particular redemption the end result again is the solving of these personal problems we have of trying to atone for our sins or trying to atone for somebody else’s sins or them making us atone.

We have we’re delivered from all of that. Not so again that we can dog paddle so that we can be powerful people again and have freedom to act and do things. The guilt is relieved. All that is taken away and as a result of that we can become effective warriors for the Lord Jesus Christ and that’s the mechanism by which the world will be discipled.

So three, total depravity, the fall of man. This was necessary because Ephesians 2 tells us that you have made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of the power of this age. Well, why were we dead if the atonement was effectual? Because that’s the work of the son. His work is done, but the work of the holy spirit is calling us and making that applied to our accounts.

So we were dead, he says, and mankind was dead. but been brought back to life through Jesus Christ. Now the point here is that in Adam’s fall we sinned all. We became walking dead men and there was no way a dead man can make himself alive again. Just simply can’t do it. Total depravity, the fall of man. We once walked this way. We were dead, but now we were by nature children of his wrath, but now we’re not. Now we’re children of God in heaven. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

So if Ephesians 2 goes on to tell us, so you remember Ephesians 1 with unconditional election, Isaiah 53, the particular redemption that Christ has accomplished. Ephesians 3, that we needed this because we were dead in trespasses and sins. Romans 3 of course is another place, you know, Paul in Romans is bringing together Jew and Gentile, the bipolar world, the distinction of Jew and Gentile, a priestly nation, and those outside of the nation. God-fearers but still outside. That dichotomy, that bipolarity is done away with.

And Paul writes to this church in Rome to tell them that Jew and Gentile are now one in Jesus Christ. He’s brought these two things together. And so this is the purpose of writing this epistle of the Romans. And what Paul goes on to do in the next few chapters after the first chapter is to say how we all needed this because we all were dead. Whether we were Jews or Gentiles, we all were rebellious sinners against God. And Romans 3 is a text that tells us about that.

Now, this is important because if we don’t recognize the depravity of man, if we think that man still has some good emotions that can be worked on to make him good or maybe that his knowledge just needs to be brought up a little bit, then we’re going to try to save the world through education or through moral persuasion. We pass enough laws and we’ll save the world. No, that’s not true. Man’s problem goes much deeper. He’s not able to be reformed in the biblical sense of the term become a new man apart from his union with the Lord Jesus Christ him be prior apart from becoming a Christian.

So you know atonement solves the problem of false atonement or sadism or masochism or its various versions. It sets us free. the doctrine of man’s total depravity sounds like a downer but it isn’t really. It says there is a solution. It’s just not to be found in education. Education is a false savior and it’s one our probably our most important savior in our day and age. The government provides educational systems and this will save the world. No, it won’t because man is totally depraved. He needs total regeneration. He needs to be born again. He’s a walking dead man. And all the knowledge in the world, all the great symphonies in the world, all the attempt to make people feel better and more compassionate through the fine arts, None of it will help.

We’ve had the great demonstration God in his grace gave us Nazi Germany. There it was. The height of intellectual attainment, the height of culture. These men would go to the opera and go to the concert hall and hear wonderful classical music and weep. These Nazi officers would weep at the beauty and the knowledge of the movement of the symphony and all that stuff. And then they would go out and do their thing at the gas camps, at the concentration camps. A man can’t be saved that way. He can only be saved through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and man’s total depravity is a reminder of that.

We know the height of man’s creation, the depth of his fall, and the tremendous renovation now that Jesus Christ accomplishes through his work.

Four, irresistible grace, conversion to God. I’ve talked about this before, but in 1 Corinthians 1, he says in verse, look at turn to 1 Corinthians 1. This is important. Romans Ephesians 1 and 2 is easy. Romans 3, that’s pretty easy to remember. Isaiah 53, not so easy to spot this in 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to look down at verse 24. Well, verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. 1 Corinthians 1. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Now, there you have it. There’s a general call through the preaching of the gospel. But the effectual call, which is what Paul is using here in this, to those who are called, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. So, to some, they’re generally called, but it doesn’t bring them to faith in Christ. To those who are effectually called by the Holy Spirit, he uses the word called here in two different senses, is the point. they’re brought into a knowledge of God.

Again, it isn’t based on them. It’s based upon the power of the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit does his work in men’s hearts, calls them to Christ, and the doctrine of effectual calling reminds us of that. Now, that helps us because otherwise we’re liable to come up with all kinds of weird tactics and manipulation to try to get people to become Christians. revivalism in America has tried to do this. You pull the right emotional strings and people will go through something some kind of conversion experience. We don’t do that. we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the dynamite, the power of God into salvation.

Our job is to preach the gospel faithfully. And it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to effectually call and he will those who have been for loved, those who are in spite of their depravity, now their sins have been paid for by the work of Jesus on the cross 2,000 years ago. These men are brought to salvation through the effective work of the Holy Spirit.

So it makes our evangelism easier.

And then finally, perseverance of the saints. We’ve talked about this more the last few weeks. I don’t think we need to say a whole lot about that except to say that last week in 1 John 3, we saw that perseverance is not just in salvation. Perseverance is in sanctification. God is preserving us in terms of our walk. In terms of our walk, it’s our very nature. Now, we’ll be preserved by God and will persevere because our nature, our identity, who we are is now in union and communion with Jesus Christ.

So our sins won’t break us away from that union. Our little ones, David’s big sin in Psalm 51, don’t break it away. And in fact, God uses these sins sinlessly to do what? To bring David to heightened sense of commitment to God. So even the sins that may cause us to doubt and may cause us to wonder whether we’re really persevering ing God uses those in the life of the elect to get them to persevere in the secondary means through prayer and the reading of the word and encouragement and worship and all that stuff.

So God our sins won’t separate us and in fact God uses those very sins to mature us in Jesus Christ. So there’s a synergy a promise and command in this doctrine the perseverance of the saints. and then we talked about the secondary means before.

Now, I want to make two last points about perseverance as a way of summing up everything we’ve said in the last few months. First, what’s the practical implication, the real life implication in our world of a rejection of the doctrine of perseverance or the preservation by God? If we don’t believe in that, that we’re eternally secure in Christ, then the result of that is insecurity. Now, people don’t like to live in insecurity. you know, people are going to resolve that tension one way or the other.

It’s like atonement. It’s a fact of life. You can either, you know, by the Holy Spirit appropriate the atonement of Christ for your sins, or you’ll try to make yourself pay or somebody else pay. Well, security is the same way. You’ll either rest in the security of the preserving God that will cause you to persevere, or you’re going to seek other methods of security. And what do we have in our country? We live in an Arminian and pelagian world. We live in a world that produces education as salvation, moral persuasion of salvation. We live in a world where the state becomes more and more sovereign because we don’t want God as sovereign. And what we live in a world that increasingly through the civil state gives you security. Womb to the tomb, right? Cradle to grave, every the the government has been on a crash course for 50 years to remove all insecurity from your life.

What’s it doing? It’s doing just what Rome used to do. It claims that it is the method of salvation and it through taxation and provision of programs and moral persuasion and education and all this other stuff. Now you can rest because the great state will keep you secure in your person and being and protect your womb to the tomb.

You see, when we reject the security that God gives us, God gives us wonderful promises. No weapon that’s formed against you, Isaiah says, shall prosper. Er, that’s security, folks. It’s secure. We are the most free, liberated people who embrace the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and then its implications in these five heads of doctrine. We should be the most powerful, influential, you know, happy, joyous, settled sort of folks in the world. We have the freedom to act. Now, I know that, you know, pitching it up a little bit, I know that sorrow and depression and doubt are part of the Christian life. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but I’m saying in general, we’re forgiven eternally. And we got a God that’s preserving us in everything. That’s security. We don’t have to worry about trying to get security in some other way. You know, our old man still wants to do that, but our new nature says, “No, we’re secure in God.”

And then finally, perseverance is tied to eschatology because of what I said earlier. We don’t p We’re not once saved, always saved. We’re once called always called. God preserves us, but it’s to a particular purpose. Philippians 1:6 is one of the verses that people turn to for perseverance. Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That’s good, you know, and there’s other texts like Isaiah 43. When you pass through the fire, I’ll be with you. No weapon formed against you. All that stuff. But notice what Philippians 6 says. confident in this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you, not he who saved you eternally so you can go to heaven. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.

You are called to serve, to labor, to work for King Jesus. You are recalled to be second Adams, to transform and beautify where you’re at. I gave you the little handout from last week on the somewhere the notes there. There’s the half-page handout of First John 3. You see those two columns? Look at them there if you would. Those two columns. I mentioned this last week that there’s this parallelism. and I give this to you. We can look at you can look at the rest of it later, but there is a relationship between sinning and the work of the devil. And the point is that verses 5 and 8b line up.

You know that he was manifested to take away our sins. So he’s manif the very purpose of the appearing of revelation of Christ is to take away our sins. And then for this purpose the son of God is manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil. So what’s the purpose for which Jesus came? Why are we called effectually to destroy the works of the devil and to do it by the reduction of sin in the world and the reduction of sin in what we do and a commitment to righteousness and holiness by the power of God’s law.

That’s what First John 3 says. He’s begun a good work in us. We have a calling. The calling is to serve King Jesus as his new humanity. That’s what we’re to persevere in. Perseverance emphasizes calling and a calling particularly to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is not a man centered doctrine. It gives us comfort. It gives us security, but it is primarily presented in the scripture.

is to the end of being a theocentric truth. God will accomplish his purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will destroy all the works of the devil. He will take away sin. As John the Baptist says, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus Christ will take away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ will disciple the nations. This is the purpose for which he was manifested. And perseverance of the saints and the preservation of God.

The end result is not human comfort. It’s not our security ultimately. It is our empowerment as princes and princesses under King Jesus. Now, that doesn’t take away your security, but it makes you more than just kind of a pacified sop of a person. Excuse my embellishment of terminology, but it makes you a strong warrior person to do work for Jesus. And that’s fun. It’s fun to sing Psalm 2 and recognize this isn’t just some kind of wishful thinking.

This is what God’s doing in Jesus Christ. He’s saving the world. And somehow when I diaper the baby or when I go off to work at 8:00 in the morning, that’s part of Jesus Christ saving the world, I’m destroying the work of the devil by removing sinfulness from my life and being an influence for righteousness and the law of God in my world. That’s exciting stuff. It was exciting to me before I became a pastor. when I was a purchasing agent. That was exciting to me. I hope it’s exciting to you because that’s what the doctrine of perseverance is all about.

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in what?” In the work of the Lord. In the work of the Lord. That’s the purpose of perseverance, the work of the Lord. And we have these wonderful promises that the sovereign God who has Everything that comes to pass is at work saving the world. Our preservation is not a humanistic doctrine, a theocentric one. The purpose of our preservation is the kingdom of God and our place in it.

Isaiah 35 tells us what it’s like. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them. The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The excellence of Carmel and Sharon They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Hebrews repeats that, of course.

Say to those who are fearful, “Be strong. Do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, and he will save you.” Isaiah tells us over and over again what the picture of the future is. And perseverance is the way God brings that to pass. It’s perseverance in kingdom work and an establishment. Jesus Christ has come to destroy the gates of hell. That is the purpose to destroy the work of the devil to destroy the gates of hell and he will accomplish it.

Per perseverance culminates in the defeat and destruction of the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and the full blossoming of the new creation that began 2,000 years ago.

Look now at be on the outline John 3:16. Love at the heart of the new creation. I mentioned I would just briefly touch upon this seven-day creation week that we just read about in John 3, the setting for God so loving the world. Verse 12, turn in your Bibles to John 3:12. We’ll go over that quickly. John 3:12. Quicker you turn, the quicker I’ll be done. Okay. Yeah, I heard somebody turning bad. Yeah, that sounds good. Let’s turn quick.

John 3:12. If I have told you earthly things and you not believe them, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Jesus Christ, first day of creation, light, heavenly truths is what Jesus Christ is bringing to Nicodemus. Verse 13. No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. Only Jesus can reveal heavenly things. He is the firmament mediating between heaven and earth, second day of creation.

Verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The son of man in his resurrection action is the first fruits for what will become as we’ll go on in the text the salvation of the world but it’s the first fruits the son of man is lifted up on the third day third day of creation first of vegetation comes up not all of it first fruits sacramental sort of plants first fruits and Jesus Christ says that he’ll be lifted up and whoever believes in him so individual whoever individually believes in him won’t perish so the rep application individual and then the center is verse 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Come back to that in just a minute. The fifth verse in the sequence is 17. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. He didn’t come to destroy the world. He didn’t come to get rid of this world. What does it say? That the world through him might be saved. The first fruits on the third day becomes, you know, the multiple teeming things on the fifth day of creation. The fullness of things And the first fruits of Jesus Christ, he tells us, will result in the saving of the world.

The whole world will team with the hosts of Yahweh. That’s what history is all about is the movement of the gospel, the discipling of the nations that the whole world might be saved through him.

Six slot 18. He who believes in him is not condemned. He does not believe is condemned already. Sixth day, creation of man, man’s sin, destruction. And Jesus Christ says there are some that are condemned already. They don’t believe in the name of the only begotten son of God. This is the condemnation. Light has come into the world. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. In the old Adamic nature, everyone practicing evil hates the light. So don’t believe it when people don’t tell you they don’t hate God. They do hate God. Practicing evil does not come to the light that his deeds should be exposed.

That’s the sixth slot, judgment. And but the seventh is but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have done in God. The seventh day Sabbath, the light of the creation, beginning of the first day, culminates in the presence of God and Sabbath day worship. The light comes with us. We’re here today to walk in the light.

The very heart of this then is verse 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What’s the heart, the beating heart? What’s the light? What’s the presence of God? It’s the love of God at the center of this sevenfold structure. The fourth day, sun, moon, and stars, rulers in the created order for God. The rulers of the created order of God are those who are loved by God.

The world is so loved by God that whoever believes doesn’t perish but has eternal life. And notice again, and it’s obvious what I’ve said, but his love is not just for a few people. He loves the world. Well, we could talk all day about that and the implications of it, but the most obvious implication is that Jesus, the savior of the world, that was created for Adam to rule in the context of and his second Adam he’s going to do what Adam was supposed to do and we as having union and communion with Christ or with God through Christ we are in Jesus we’re the vehicle by which the love of the world is demonstrated and the world is brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that’s the context that’s the movement and at the heart of that the sovereignty of God is displayed as loving the world and desiring to save the world.

So, John 3:16 is a picture of that. and on your outlines, I’ve got TULIP, perseverance and eschatology in relationship to John 3:16. God so loved the world. Well, he loved the world, he forknew the world. Titus 3:4 and 5 says, “When the kindness and the love of God, our savior toward man appeared.” So, God has love for the world. The world is eternally loved by God unconditionally in Jesus Christ.

Okay? And that love appears then Titus says in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus reconciled and saved the world. John 4, 1 John 4:14, he has sent the son as the savior of the world. So Jesus, God forknew the world. And it says that Jesus is the savior of the world. Romans 11:15, if they’re being cast off, the Jews is the rejecting of the is the reconciling of the world. world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead.

Paul said in AD70 when the church comes together, it’s the new creation. And it’s the beginning process of the reconciliation of all the world. 1 John 2:2, he himself is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the whole world. How do we understand it? Last every person individually, no. Some are condemned. But the world is identified just like our identity last week is in Christ. And our identity is not to sin but to exercise righteousness.

The identity of the world is the same thing. It is for love by God. Jesus came and died. You know a limited atonement. He atoned for the world. Not every last person but the world’s identity is atoned for by him. And the world he says if I’m lifted up I’ll draw all men to me. The world is being effectually called by the Holy Spirit to salvation in Jesus Christ. He loves us. We have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world.

The Bible says John says that Jesus has come to take away the sin of the world. 2 Corinthians 5:19, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The atoning work of Christ was the reconciliation of the world. in Romans 5:18, As through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. Even so, one man through one man’s righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life.

So he says that the world is to be thought of. We can think of it as an individual. That individual is saved. That individual is eternally forknew by God, atoned for their sins. The spirit is calling the world to it. And that world will persevere. We don’t got to worry about Global warming in the ultimate sense of the term. The world’s going nowhere. It’s here. God is preserving it. And not only and what is he preserving it for?

So it can be saved and he returns? No, he’s preserving it so that the work of the world and manifesting the beauty and glory of God in it can be worked out. The perseverance of the world is this demonstration that God is effective through Jesus Christ transforming all things. John 17:23 says, “Have love for each other because By your love, the world will see that I’ve sent you that Jesus was sent by the father and you’re my apostles.

So the love of the church at the heart of the message of John 3:16 isn’t just an empty witness. It is a witness that will be effectually used by the Holy Spirit to bring all people to Christ, to bring the world to Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51, I’m the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Same in John 6:33. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

We serve a savior that is not interested in saving you just to the end that you can go to heaven and do nothing here. He preserves you that you can do the work. God will complete the work he has begun in you and you’ll complete the work for the kingdom. And I believe that every bit of the Canons of Dort have the clear implication that God thinks the same way about the world. The world’s essential identity is forknew by him. He didn’t create the world to destroy it. He created the world to redeem it. He created the world to love it. He created the world that it might that Jesus Christ might take away its sin. He created the world to persevere and to be preserved by him as a demonstration of his glory.

This celestial ball will demonstrate the glory of God. It will be filled with the glory of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ will go over the whole world and this world shall become increasingly a beautiful shining orb of glory and praise to God. That is the clear implication of the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and creation and specifically of God’s perseverance.

The question is, what do we do about it? That’s the gospel. And the response is simple. We just figure out a way tomorrow to get up, be less sinful, more holy, destroy the works of the devil. Let the empowering work of the Holy Spirit have its effect in your life by living out tomorrow what the Bible has clearly told you today.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you. We bless your holy name for the tremendous truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Father, for so often seeing the gospel in such reductionistic, such little terms. And thank you, Lord God, for your scriptures opening to us a beautiful panorama and vista of that gospel and its implications for our world.

We bless your holy name. We even thank you for the heresies of Arminianism and its particular application today in terms of open theism, knowing that indeed these also shall be used by you to bring back the great reformational truths of the sovereignty of God and see transformation and maturation once more in this country moving ahead of where even the reformers were and our own ongoing reformation.

We bless your holy name for your sovereign control of all history that you’ve loved this world sent your son to die for it are effectually calling it and shall indeed persevere it shall persevere in your preservation we thank you father for our place in this world in Jesus name we pray amen