00:00Can you explain Calvinism versus Arminianism?
00:04Well, I already did that this morning.
00:06In one sense, I just opened the Bible and that's what is there.
00:15Okay, let me do it this way.
00:16Okay, I'm going to give you a little test.
00:18Okay.
00:21Do you believe that God is sovereign in salvation?
00:24Of course, we went through that today.
00:25Do you believe God chooses who will be saved?
00:26Of course.
00:27Do you believe the Father draws?
00:28Yes.
00:28Do you believe that the Son keeps?
00:30Yes.
00:30Do you believe the Son rays?
00:31Yeah.
00:31It's all sovereign.
00:32It's all predestined.
00:33It's all established.
00:33Absolutely right.
00:35This is what the Bible says.
00:37Do you believe that whosoever will may come?
00:40Yes.
00:41This is what the Bible says.
00:44Do you believe that God finds no pleasure in the death and judgment of the wicked?
00:49Yes.
00:50Do you believe that Jesus wept because sinners wouldn't repent?
00:53Of course.
00:54Are you willing to call all sinners to repent?
00:56And do you believe they're responsible if they don't come?
00:59Yes.
01:01Well, how do you harmonize that?
01:03I don't know.
01:05I don't know how to harmonize that.
01:06Well, you're asking too much of me.
01:08I'm not God.
01:09You want my little peanut pea pusillanimous brain to grasp that?
01:16Give me a break.
01:19It's not my problem.
01:26But the one thing I can't do is deny what Scripture says.
01:31This will comfort you.
01:34Who wrote Romans?
01:39This is basic.
01:40Christianity 101 here.
01:44Who wrote Romans?
01:48Can't answer the question, can you?
01:51Why?
01:53All of Paul?
01:54All his vocabulary?
01:56All his heart?
01:57All his thoughts?
01:58All his words?
01:59All of God?
02:01And yet not mechanical?
02:06Since you did so well on that question, I'll ask you another one.
02:13Who lives your Christian life?
02:17God?
02:18So you want to hold him responsible for the condition of your Christian life?
02:25Who lives your Christian life?
02:26This is pretty basic, right?
02:28You're doing it right now.
02:30Every day.
02:30Who's living your Christian life?
02:32You say, I am.
02:34Really?
02:36You say, God is.
02:38I don't know whether you could convince everybody who knows you.
02:44You can't even answer that question.
02:47Listen to what Paul said.
02:48I am crucified with Christ.
02:51Nevertheless, I live.
02:54Yet, not I.
02:56He didn't know either.
03:02He said, this is the divine mystery.
03:06It's all of me and all of him.
03:07And what's wrong is me and what's right is him.
03:10In every major doctrine of the Bible,
03:12in every major doctrine,
03:13you have an apparent paradox that you cannot resolve.
03:18I know that I'm kept eternally secured by God,
03:22but I also know I'm commanded to persevere in faith.
03:25Two sides of the same thing.
03:28I know I can't be saved unless I'm chosen and called,
03:31and I know I can't be saved unless I'm willing to repent and believe.
03:35I don't have to harmonize it,
03:37but nor can I deny those things.
03:40And in the end,
03:42mark it, folks,
03:43in the end,
03:44God will get all the glory for every righteous thing that is done,
03:49because it is all his work.
03:53So, rather than answering the question by removing your confusion,
03:58I just spread your confusion over a wider area.
04:04And you rest in the fact that you don't need to grasp the mysteries
04:11that are clear in the mind of eternal God.
04:14Amen.
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