Sermon Tone Analysis

TEXT: John 10:27-29

TOPIC:  God's Grace and Our Assurance

Baptist Faith and Message Sermon 8, *Written by Calvin Wittman*

May 11, 2009

* *

Introduction: I read a little story this week which reminded me of precisely why this series on doctrine is necessary.

While I think it was fictitious, it made a very good argument for being certain that what we believe comes to us from a reliable source.

Seems a biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage.

Suddenly the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside his cage, all the while her parents are screaming in terror.

The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back for a brief minute, letting go of the little girl.

The biker grabs her, pulling her to safety and brings her back to her parents.

The scene is emotional, as the parents hug their child and profusely thank the biker for his heroic actions which saved their daughter’s life.

A reporter has seen the whole scene, and addressing the biker says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I have ever witnessed.

Where did you get such courage?”

“Why it was nothing,” The biker replied, “The lion was behind bars, after all, and I just saw the little girl in danger and did what I felt anyone else would have done.”

To which the reporter replies, “This kind of action will not go unnoticed.

I’m a journalist and I promise you that this will be on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper.

By the way, what kind of motorcycle do you ride?” “A Harley Davidson,” says the biker.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see what the reporter had written.

And there in large bold font, he read the following headline, “Biker Gang Member Assaults African Immigrant and Steals His Lunch.”

Seems we can’t believe everything we hear or read.

That’s why it is so very important for us to be certain about the source of our doctrine.

As Southern Baptists we hold to the inerrant and infallible word of God as the sole source of our doctrine.

Our doctrinal confessional statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, is a summation of our understanding of what the Bible teaches on specific doctrines.

This morning we come to the seventh sermon in our series on the doctrinal foundations of our faith.

Today we deal with the doctrine of Election and the assurance of our salvation.

Article five of the Baptist Faith and Message reads:

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.

It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end.

It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable.

It excludes boasting and promotes humility.”

“All true believers endure to the end.

Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall preserve to the end.

Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”

For the purpose of our study this morning we will break our study into three sections.

First we will consider the two specific topics addressed in article five, that of election and eternal security and finally we will conclude with some practical suggestions for application.

First, the issue of election,

 

*I.

Election*

 

The doctrine of election is, without doubt, one of the most difficult things for us to comprehend.

Simply put, it is a biblical doctrine which says that everyone who comes to faith in Christ, does so because God, in His grace and His mercy, chose them to be saved.

There is no denying that this is the clear teaching of the Bible.

Ephesians 1:3-5 says, “/Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ; for he chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight, in love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will…”/

 

Jesus Himself speaks of the elect.

In Matthew  24:24 He says that in the last days false prophets will come who will perform signs and wonders and will be so persuasive that if it were possible they would even lead the elect astray.

And in verse 31 of that chapter He says that the Son of Man will, /“Send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”/

While there is no question that this is what the Bible teaches, there are many questions as to what it really means.

That is to say, there are many things within this doctrine upon which many Baptists do not agree.

* *

Douglas Blount, a professor at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Joseph Wooddell, a professor at the Criswell College, recently edited a commentary on the Baptist Faith and message.

The book is comprised of articles written by a number of scholars across the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr.

Danny Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, authored the article in their book on this particular section of the BF&M.

In his article Akin says that it is “instructive to note what is said here and what is not said.

Election is an act of grace, rooted in the purpose of God.

Election unto salvation starts with God, not man.

Election to salvation is rooted in grace, not works.

It is unmerited and undeserved.

And yet the nature and basis of election is not defined.”

(Baptist Faith and Message 2000, edited by Blount and Wooddell)

 

The reason the nature and basis of election are not defined is because Baptist have never really ever been able to agree on the basis and nature of election.

There are some things upon which we will only find agreement in heaven, there are some things which God has chosen not to reveal to us and finally there are some things upon which we all seem to agree.

At the heart of the difficulty with this doctrine is the tension between God’s election and the free moral agency of man.

Libraries of books have been written upon this subject and no one has ever been able to sufficiently settle the myriad of questions surrounding this tension.

Those of the reformed tradition would say it is the tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, while many of those outside the reformed tradition would say that it is the question between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will.

Now, a word is in order about what exactly I mean by the term, “reformed tradition.”

I am speaking of what is commonly known as Calvinism.

I have found it difficult to identify a universal definition of Calvinism because everyone I have met who claims to be a Calvinist wants to define exactly what they mean by that.

Needless to say, we cannot be exhaustive in our treatment of this topic.

So for the sake of our study we will simply overview the basics.

For the sake of our discussion, I will loosely follow the definition Dr. Akin gives in his article on this section of the Baptist Faith and Message.

At the same time I will tell you what some of the critics of Calvinism say.

Akin says that Calvinism stems from the teachings of the great reformer, John Calvin, who lived between 1509 and 1564.

Incidentally, that is who my parents had in mind when they gave me my name.

Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God, the sinfulness of man and the necessity of grace for salvation, things which our foundational to our theology as Southern Baptists.

Some years after he died, his followers systemized his theology and went beyond what Calvin himself taught.

This system, says Akin, would be codified with the now famous acronym TULIP.

*The ‘T’ in Tulip stands for Total Depravity*.

Since the fall, man is born with a natural bent toward sin.

Every part of his being has been infected with this disease so that he cannot save himself, nor can he seek God without the prompting of the Holy Spirit through God’s grace.

The Bible clearly teaches that we cannot come to God on our own.

It takes God drawing us to Himself.

John 6:44 says, /“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” /“Most Baptists,” says Akin, “would agree on this point.”

*The “U” in Tulip stands for Unconditional Election –* This says that God, in His grace and mercy, unconditioned on anything else, by His own sovereign desire, chose some for salvation and left others to suffer the consequences of their sins.

The tension here arises from the twin truths which state that no one is saved apart from God’s plan and yet, anyone who repents and trusts Jesus Christ can and will be saved.

The Bible teaches both that God chooses us and that we must choose God.

It teaches that God will hold us responsible for our decision to choose or reject Jesus, and yet it says that we cannot come to Him unless He enables us.

It says that God has His elect but it also says that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

This is one of the great tensions in scripture.

Calvinists insist, and rightfully so, that since salvation begins and ends with God and that it is by His grace and His mercy, man can have nothing to do with it.

Those who do not hold to reformed theology, however, quote verses like 1 Peter 1:2 which says that /we are elect, according to the foreknowledge of God/.

In other words, they say that God chose us based on His knowledge of who would choose Him.

In His wisdom God did not choose to tell us how He chose us.

He did not give us insight into the nature or basis of that election, He simply tells us that He chose us and that all who will receive Him are chosen.

I sometimes get amused at the degree to which some people are preoccupied by the doctrine of election and how it affects salvation.

Folks, we don’t know who’s elect and who’s not.

All we know is that we have a responsibility before God to go out and nominate everyone we can to become a member of the family of God.

God does the electing.

He has chosen for us to do the evangelizing.

The emphasis for us should be on doing.

*The “L” in Tulip stands for Limited Atonement *– Akin admits that this is an unfortunate phrase and that most five point Calvinists would prefer the term, “particular redemption.”