0What Do We Mean By Grace Alone? – Part 3
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 & John 6
May 28, 3017
As you know we are in the middle of a study called
“500 Years of Reformation” in which we are seeking to better understand
The gospel which was rescued for us from the dark ages.
Men like Luther and Zwingli and Tyndale and Calvin and a several others literally battled against the Roman Catholic church and worked to clarify the gospel which had become so lost and confused in that false religion.
And we started by saying that the first foundation they worked upon was the foundation of SOLA SCRIPTURA.
To put it plainly, it is the belief that the truth of Scripture
Stands supreme over all other forms of thinking.
Even if that truth contradicts our traditions, our logic, our desires, or our creeds,
We must always place Scripture above them all.
The Reformers did this and as such
Were able to find the gospel of the Bible.
And through the study of Scripture the first pillar we have come to examine is that of SOLA GRATIA, or Grace Alone.
We believe that salvation is solely the work of God’s grace,
A completely monergistic effort, which God performs
On behalf of dead sinners who could not and would not
Do it on their own.
And we have spent a couple of weeks looking at this.
We found out in Romans 5 that Adam wrecked us.
• We sinned in him, we were condemned in him, and we died in him.
• And as such we are dead men who do not have an ability whereby we could seek for or even respond to God.
We also looked at Ephesians 2 as Paul outlined for us how we were dead men who could not and would not seek God.
• And then Paul said, “But God…”
• “made us alive”
• “raised us up”
• “seated us with Christ in the heavenly places”
It’s no wonder then that Paul would say:
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
According to Paul, even the faith which you give to God
Was first a gift to you by God.
That is why we say that salvation is totally by GRACE ALONE.
There was nothing good in man by which he cooperated with God
In order to bring salvation.
Our salvation is perfectly illustrated by the miracle Jesus worked for Lazarus.
• Here was a man who was more than just sick, he was dead.
• And to make sure of the fact Jesus even waited 4 days so as to make the situation clear.
• Jesus then called that dead man out of the tomb.
• The first miracle is that Lazarus heard Jesus.
• The second is that he walked out of the tomb.
Before Lazarus could even respond to the command,
There had to be given him enough life to even hear.
The resurrection of Lazarus was all of grace.
Now certainly we see a SORT OF PARTICIPATION with Lazarus
In the sense that Lazarus responded to the call of Jesus
And did in fact walk out of the tomb.
We are not ignoring the obvious human response here.
We are merely stating that of all that occurred in that man’s resurrection,
The least miraculous thing was in Lazarus’s decision to respond.
Jesus made the dead man here
Jesus made the dead man live
Jesus gave power to the dead man’s body
I promise you that when Lazarus told that story
He did not focus on his role in deciding to walk out of the tomb.
It was grace and GRACE ALONE.
And I had fully planned to move on tonight, but as I pondered this,
I decided I wanted to spend a little more time here,
Just to make sure that we are exhaustive in this.
I want to give you a few other passages that really echo this sentiment.
And we’re going to start here in 1 Corinthians 2.
I love this chapter because in it Paul defines his METHOD of ministry.
You may remember that when we first started talking about
Why this matters a couple of weeks ago,
I told you that the church’s evangelistic method is really at stake here.
Because if salvation is really up to the decision of man
(as the semi-pelagians or arminians suggest)
Then our evangelism focuses on convincing the sinner to come.
And this is primarily what you and I have most been exposed to.
• It is the manipulative altar call
• It is the logically persuasive sermon
They do that because
They believe that our role is to persuade sinners to respond.
And we’ve been talking about how foolish this is
Since a dead man does not have it within himself to respond.
WELL, LET ME SHOW YOU PAUL’S METHOD OF MINISTRY.
Look at the first 5 verses.
(READ 1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-5)
Now just some obvious points here.
Notice Paul’s absolute rejection of any and all gimmicky methods.
• “I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom”
• “I determined to know nothing among you”
• “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling”
• “My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom”
You won’t find many preachers with that ambition.
• Don’t use intelligent speech.
• Don’t use wisdom.
• Don’t act like you don’t know anything.
• Be weak
• Look afraid
• Be nervous and trembling
• Be dull
Most believe you need to be confident and assertive, witty and intelligent,
Be strong and courageous and pointed.
Work the sinner into a corner and then draw him in with your argument.
What Paul says here is not at all what people want from a public speaker.
And yet Paul says that is exactly how I came.
I only determined to know one thing.
(2) “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
I CAME WITH NOTHING BUT THE GOSPEL
Romans 1:14-16 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Paul had total and utter faith in the gospel,
Not in his own speaking or persuasive ability.
And why wouldn’t he?
Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Only the gospel calls dead men to life.
So Paul says
• I had no interest in being persuasive.
• I had no interest in connecting with you in an emotional sense.
• I had no interest in entertaining you.
• I wasn’t looking to make you laugh, or cry, or contemplate, or any of those things.
WHY?
Because dead men can’t respond to human gimmicks.
Now this is a point that A SYNERGIST CANNOT ABIDE.
After all, if you will remember,
This was Cassian’s great argument against monergism.
“cripples the force of preaching”
What good is a powerful and persuasive and witty and intelligent and convicting preacher if the goal is not to persuade men?
I think we can agree that those elements aren’t important.
Paul would agree since he determined not to use them.
All he did was proclaim “the testimony of God” which was “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
And he tells you why:
(5) “so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
A sinner argued into the church is soon to be argued out.
But a saint resurrected from the tomb by the Spirit of God
Will be here forever.
Now, all of that is clear enough.
The thing I want you to see is WHY Paul is so committed to this belief.
This isn’t just Paul’s preferred method of preaching.
THIS IS THE ONLY METHOD WHICH PAUL BELIEVES WILL WORK.
And I want to show you why.
Let’s look at what Paul says next.
(6) “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature…”
There does come a time when we go very deep with the truth of God.
We do that with the redeemed who are already made alive and are mature.
It does little good to speak about those things to a dead man,
But once a man is brought to life then we certainly do.
(6-8) “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”
When we speak to the mature we speak of this great wisdom,
But it is not man’s wisdom, it is God’s wisdom.
Paul calls it “the hidden wisdom” and “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood”
He describes this wisdom further in verse 9.
(9) “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
This wisdom we talk about to the mature are things that
Dead men couldn’t understand even if they were told,
They are things God has reserved only for those who love Him.
And this knowledge does not come from worldly wisdom,
It only comes by revelation from God.
(10-13) “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
That is to say, that
• This wisdom exists only in the mind of God
• And only through the Spirit of God can you have it,
• And once people have the spirit of God then we are more than happy to proclaim all the depths of this wisdom.
Now in saying that Paul is really making our point for us yet again.
HE SAYS: When I speak to the lost, I don’t speak in wisdom at all,
I just give them the gospel over and over and over.
But once people are redeemed, and have the Spirit of God,
I gladly give them the deep wisdom of God,
For these are the things which God has revealed to us to know.
So why not just start out there Paul?
Don’t you think if you started telling the lost how good God is, and of all those things that God has for him, that you could persuade him to come to Christ?
(14) “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
There it is again: ABSOLUTE INABILITY
• There is no power in the lost man to comprehend even the smallest fragment of God’s truth.
• If he is to comprehend any of it, it will only be because God gave him enough life and ability to do so.
• We are talking about dead men who do not have it within themselves to respond.
So after reading Romans 5, and Ephesians 2, and 1 Corinthians 2, I think you should be well persuaded as to what Paul’s belief on this was.
Paul clearly believed that salvation was a monergistic work of God.
Paul built this theology off of an understanding of the Old Testament.
And we can see that very clearly.
TURN TO: ROMANS 3:9-18
Now my question is this:
• If there really isn’t a righteous man (one capable of making a good decision)
• And if there really isn’t anyone who understands
• And if there really isn’t anyone who seeks for God
• And if everyone really has turned aside
• And if everyone really is useless
• And if there really isn’t anyone who does good
• And if deception is all they want
• And if cursing and bitterness is all they spew
• And if murder is in their path
• And destruction and misery is all they want
• And if there really isn’t anyone who fears God
THEN HOW COULD YOU EXPECT TO PERSUADE ANYONE
TO COME TO CHRIST?
You can see that it was the Old Testament which allowed Paul
To construct his theology of the absolute inability of man.
Even if you wanted to appeal to that one good and rational part of man
You’d be sunk,
Because there is no rational and good part of man to appeal to.
THAT’S THE POINT.
Now, that’s just Paul.
Surely Jesus didn’t hold to such beliefs…
Let’s see:
TURN TO: MATTHEW 13:10-17
This of course is immediately following Jesus preaching of
THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER.
• This parable was cryptic at best.
• There was no spiritual point made at all, it was a farming illustration and the
crowd was dismissed.
The disciples were perplexed as to why Jesus
Would not go to greater efforts to appeal to these men to respond.
And look at Jesus answer:
(10-11)
Did you catch that?
• The only way these men can understand is if God grants it.
• And in their case, He did not.
(Now, we can read verses 12-15 and see that this hardening was perfectly just, for every time God had put truth in front of their eyes, they rejected it.)
The point is that no sinner would ever get it
If God didn’t perform a supernatural work.
Which is why Jesus says this in verse 16.
(16) “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”
• Notice He didn’t say, “perceptive are your eyes” or “strong are you ears”
• He said “blessed”, indicating that by grace they had been fortunate enough
to have their eyes and ears opened.
Go a few chapters to the right.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 16:13-17
Jesus asks the disciples who the people say that He is,
And of course the confusion was obvious.
Jesus asks the disciples who they say He is and Peter responds with a doozy!
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And notice Jesus’ response.
(17) “and Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heave.”
• So Peter was just smarter than the rest?
• So Peter just wanted it more?
No, God, by His sovereign grace, had determined to open Peter’s eyes
To the truth and reveal what man could no otherwise see.
It was the sheer work of Grace Alone.
Let’s go to John’s gospel.
TURN TO: JOHN 6
We could probably spend a lot more time here than we have tonight,
But I think the point can be clearly seen.
• In the first 15 verses of John 6 you have the feeding of the 5,000 and as a result the people want to make Jesus king.
• That is, they found someone who could solve the problem of world hunger and they wanted to enlist Him into their permanent service of feeding them.
• This wasn’t an honor, they wanted to rope Him into full-time duty and obligation.
• So Jesus escaped.
• That night He walks on water to the other side and there the crowds find Him again.
Their carnal desire is obvious, all they want is food.
They either want Him to provide more,
Or they want Him to show them how to do it themselves.
(READ 26-34)
You can see that all they want is bread.
• Jesus told them over and over that He was the bread and that God wanted faith, but dead men can’t see, hear, or respond.
And this is where it gets interesting.
After they totally miss the point and seem stuck in their carnality
You will notice that Jesus DOES NOT GET MORE PERSUASIVE.
That is to say He doesn’t start reasoning with the crowd,
Instead Jesus simply states the present spiritual reality,
(READ 35-40)
DID YOU HEAR THAT?
JESUS ISN’T SURPRISED AT ALL.
“I am the bread of life and I am everything you need,
But you don’t believe even though you’ve seen Me and heard Me.”
But that doesn’t even seem to bother Jesus,
For He understands that salvation is the sovereign prerogative of God.
(37-40) “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Wow! Jesus understood what was going on didn’t He?
• God is the One who is saving sinners,
• He will give Me the redeemed.
• And those who He gives Me, I won’t lose.
Jesus doesn’t even seem surprised by their lack of faith or their unbelief.
He understands that salvation is not a matter of convincing sinners to respond, but that salvation is a matter of God’s grace to give life.
Now, after Jesus says this, THE CROWDS GO BALLISTIC.
They don’t like His insinuation that they don’t believe.
And so they respond:
(41-42) “Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”
Jesus said they don’t believe, to which they respond,
“Well why would we? You speak utter nonsense!”
You say things like “I am the bread that came down out of heaven”
When we know darn good and well that you were born to Joseph.
You tell us we don’t believe and it is You who speak craziness.
And what was it that Paul taught us?
1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
And look, Jesus knew that too.
For look at His response:
(43-44) “Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus hears their grumbling and says, “The issue is not that you don’t understand, it’s that you can’t understand.”
“No one can come to Me unless the Father…draws him.”
It’s not about persuasive ability, it’s about supernatural work.
Jesus knew that.
He goes on:
(45) “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”
Jesus, like Paul, is merely giving His Old Testament foundation
For this belief.
Jesus knows that the only people who are saved
Are those who are “taught of God”.
That is to say,
Salvation is not a matter of one man persuading another man,
It is a matter of God revealing divine truth to a dead man.
And that goes right back to what Jesus told us in Matthew 13 and 16 “Blessed are your eyes because they see” and “Blessed are you Simon Barjona”
(46) “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”
• It’s not a matter of having physically seen God.
• Jesus said, I’m the only One who has done that.
• I’m just saying that no one can believe in Me unless God reveals me to them.
And then Jesus reaffirms the truth about who He is.
(READ 47-51)
So there again Jesus reminds them that
He is the Savior and the means of eternal life.
BUT AGAIN, THEY BALK
Because Jesus’ words seem to them to be foolishness.
(52) “Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
See, they just can’t see it.
And again Jesus lays out the gospel to them.
(READ 53-59)
And again they prove their spiritual blindness.
(60-64)
It’s a recurring cycle, over and over.
And it is redundant on purpose
So that you will see that there was nothing in these men
That would allow them by their own intellect to respond to Christ.
They could not, and they would not.
To which Jesus speaks again:
(65) “And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
There it is again. ABSOLUTE INABILITY
• Man cannot do this on his own.
• If he is to be saved, it will require the absolute work of God.
Now, look at what happens next.
(66-71)
Did you catch that?
There were some who did believe, why?
“Did I Myself not choose you…”
Do you see it?
There was no single element of man’s cooperation here.
It was all the sovereign working of God.
And do you suppose this is THE ONLY TIME we see statements like this from Jesus?
John 8:43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.”
John 10:25-26 “Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.”
John 12:37-41 “But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.”
Over and over Jesus reveals that man could not believe
Because it was not about the ability of man.
It is a work of sovereign grace.
Listen to Jesus as He spoke to the disciples in the upper room.
John 13:18 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’”
John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”
John 17:1-2 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.”
John 17:9-10 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.”
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Do you see it?
Even Jesus certainly knew that salvation was not a matter of persuasion, but of regeneration.
God, by Grace Alone, must grant life, or the sinner could not come.
This is the point we are making.
AND WE MAKE THIS POINT
So that you will understand the glory which God deserves.
In September of 1524, under pressure from the Pope, Erasmus (the one who gave us the Greek New Testament) wrote to oppose Luther’s views on salvation by writing what is called the Diatribe. In it Erasmus heralded the notion of man’s free will and sought to destroy Luther’s arguments.
A little over a year later in December of 1525 Luther responded with his book “The Bondage of the Will”. We may talk more about it later, but I love why Luther says he takes the time to defend this issue.
“I did not undertake this debate with a view to self-advertisement, but in order that I might exalt the grace of God.”
(Luther, Martin with J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnston [The Bondage of the Will, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI 2012] pg. 111
And that is what we are interested in doing as well.
I know that this issue is confusing, and indeed I will confess
That even when we are done, there may be some confusion left.
Even Luther said, “Are there problems raised by this Biblical doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God in providence and grace? Of course there are. Everything that God reveals of Himself transcends man’s comprehension; every doctrine, therefore, must of necessity terminate in mystery, and man must humble acquiesce in having it so.”
(ibid, pg.54)
Just because it is a difficult doctrine does not mean it isn’t a true doctrine.
Are you surprised that the mind of God exceeds yours?
Just because it confronts our intellect or upsets our nice and neat little package of doctrines does not mean it is false.
WE MUST HOWEVER YIELD TO SOLA SCRIPTURA
AND ACCEPT EVEN WHAT WE HAVE DIFFICULTY GRASPING.
We must examine these things that we might exalt the grace of God.
• It is absolutely essential for you to understand that your salvation is not of your own doing.
• It is absolutely essential that you be crushed of any notion of pride and boasting.
• It is absolutely essential that you give all glory for your salvation to God and God Alone.
• And it is absolutely essential that when you seek to do the evangelistic work of God that you know precisely how sinners are called into the kingdom.
We are only saved because God saved us.
Our salvation is a matter of God’s sovereign prerogative.
And maybe next time we’ll get into that a little more.
