Do the doctrines of Grace really matter in 2021?

Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

What are the riches of his glory in the saints, and what is the glory of his glory in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead,

and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Over eight weeks now we've been looking at the doctrines of grace, or that notion of how we experience God's absolute sovereignty in our salvation.

We've dug into that, we've looked at some questions this morning, our final question is, as Martin's already introduced, do they really matter in 2021?

It's a lot of fuss about nothing.

Historically, how we experience God's sovereignty in salvation has become a great theological divide.

On one side of the divide is the notion that God must, needs to save sinners.

He can't save themselves.

On the other side of the divide is those who believe that God helps sinners to save themselves.

That is, people have some ability at some point to move towards God, and then God helps them in that effort.

It's a big theological divide.

The debate, the divide was at the heart of the Reformation 500 years ago.

But it actually wasn't new then.

It raged 1,100 years before that, because all the way back to the 5th century, and earlier than that even.

And so in the Reformation, what we call the Doctrines of Grace was a formal statement representing the major Protestant reformers.

And they, as a unit, were convinced from the Bible that the nature and extent of sin renders a person unable and unwilling to move towards God or to save themselves.

So, quite naturally then, from there, they determined that every aspect of salvation from start to finish had to be God's initiative, had to be God's sovereign power intervening in a sinful life, a sinful person, and turning that life around.

It had to be through grace alone.

God doing for and in the sinner what they could never do for themselves.

And that was in sharp contrast to what many believed and taught.

And it goes something like this.

In sharp contrast to people who saw that, well, okay, yes, we agree that people generally are, or people universally, are severely affected by sin.

No question at all about that.

But we also believe that still within that person, they have a freedom to choose and the ability to choose to move towards God in the right circumstances.

And that indeed, God recognizes that and then helps them along the way, as it were.

So, it's a joint effort.

Partly my contribution and then partly God supplying what I can't do.

There's two powers at work in there.

God's sovereign power and some of my own remnant power, sovereign power.

But interestingly, the debate's not about God's sovereignty.

We'd be wrong if we thought it was about God's sovereignty because both sides of the divide actually concede the necessity for God's sovereignty,

for God's sovereign power to be at work in our salvation.

The issue is whether God's sovereign, powerful action is required at every point in salvation or not.

Or whether we maintain some sovereign power enabling us to contribute at whatever point to whatever degree.

Now, to me, it's a massive theological divide.

But I think the climate of Christians and evangelicals today is that so many Christians would just dismiss this issue as a historically and theologically redundant issue.

It's a waste of time, people would say.

What does it matter, they say?

Why do Christians just get so nitpicking about these detailed processes of something like salvation?

Let's focus on the majors we hear and not the minors.

And so people are actually relegating a discussion like this to the minors, something that's just sidetracking Christians.

And so we hear today, many people said, look, what's really important is that we just love and affirm one another.

And not fuss about this process of being saved.

So I say again to you, do they really matter in 2021?

Well, the first thing I want to say in terms of answering this is that no, the doctrines of grace do not matter, comma, in the sense that it's not necessary to believe them to be saved.

Now, I want to be really, really clear here.

It's possible for a person to be saved, genuinely saved, and not believe in election, predestination, particular atonement, God's effect of our irresistible calling, or the final perseverance of the saints.

It's possible to be a Christian and not believe any of that.

The Lord's not limited by our lack of understanding, or our sinful refusal to consider such important issues, or even to make them important, or even sinful pride in thinking that our faith is our contribution to salvation.

The Lord's not limited by any of those things in his purpose of salvation.

However, I would argue the experience of any believer over a period of time pushes us more and more towards the idea of God's absolute sovereignty and grace in our salvation.

And it works like this.

As I become more and more aware of my sinful failings, and just my abject step before God, and become aware of God's grace and mercy in moving towards me,

then what happens is that I become smaller.

And God's grace becomes bigger and bigger.

As I understand myself more, looking on the inside, I think, yeah, that would never have happened.

I would never have done that except of God's sovereign action in my life to turn me around, to turn my thinking around, turn my desires around.

And equally true, I think, therefore, also, individual Christians and church communities will not be as mature as they might be if they relegate this great divide or debate to something unimportant.

Why?

Why?

Because it will be a church of individuals with a very seriously diminished view of God.

A very diminished view of God's specific love, specific commitment to their salvation.

Perhaps even it will be a church where they claim for themselves that which is rightfully God's to claim and take glory for.

And so, again, you see, in churches where these things are relegated as unimportant, then I think God will be smaller in their thinking than he ought to be.

And conversely, individual Christians will be bigger in their thinking than they ought to be.

But here's the point, the main point I wanted to make in this section.

As those who do thoroughly believe in the doctrines of grace, and I include myself, as those who do thoroughly believe in the doctrines of grace, the golden chain of salvation,

we have no business suggesting that others who do not hold this position are not and cannot be genuine believers.

Now, sad to say, I make this point because that's exactly what some have done who hold the doctrines of grace over the generations.

And they do so without biblical warrant.

They've taken a superior position.

It's actually unbecoming of the very gospel they claim to be defending.

Second answer is this, that the doctrines of grace do really matter in 2021.

First sub-point then.

They are nothing else than the sum and substance of how and why God saves us.

They underpin and permeate the whole of scripture.

Now, why can I say that?

Because in the end, the doctrines of grace are just really about God's character.

You can look at them lots of different ways, but at the end of the day, the doctrines of grace are just a display of God's character.

And God's character is displayed right across the breadth of the Bible in two closely related words.

First one is the word grace that we're so familiar with here in this church, which means God's act of blessing or showing mercy.

Something that's entirely of his own choice.

And he does this to those who are totally undeserving of anything from him except condemnation.

And every page of the Bible, we see that's God's character.

To move towards people who cannot command anything from him.

The second word, very closely related, is steadfast love.

In the New Testament, it's more agape.

In the Old Testament, it's the Hebrew chesed.

God's unwavering loyalty to those he has committed himself to bless.

He sets himself to love.

And nothing that that person can do, good or bad, will cause him to waver in his commitment.

And that chesed, that steadfast love is expressed mostly in God's plan and purpose of salvation.

He determines he's going to save out of this sinful pool a great multitude of those who will show his glory and reflect his character.

And he does just that.

And in spite of sin wrecking everything good in God's creation, we're shown repeatedly that God's steadfast love is both powerful and unwavering.

And that his grace is unconditional and free to those who do not deserve it in any shape or form.

And we pick up here in Ephesians now.

Paul's language is repeatedly and overwhelmingly and just overflows from Paul all the time.

He speaks about the riches of God's grace and how God has lavished that upon us.

It's extravagant language.

Paul talks about being overwhelmed by the sheer generosity and beauty of God's actions towards sinful people.

And we pick it up in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We've looked at this passage several times in this series.

But it's worth coming back to again.

Paul in verse 3 says,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

It's extravagant language.

It's overflow language.

This is how we see God's character is Paul's point to these Christians in Ephesus.

And we just need to let that sit.

And we just need to sort of swim in that for a little bit.

Because Paul then goes on in verses 4 through to 14 to spell that out a little bit.

What does he mean when he talks about every spiritual blessing?

Well, verses 4 onwards is this golden chain of salvation again.

Where Paul just starts from eternity past.

God determining before the creation of the world to love the unlovely.

God's character to love the unlovely.

Promising to renew and restore relationship with them.

God's grace.

Restoring relationship when condemnation would be the right thing.

Rightful path ahead.

Actually saving them by securing forgiveness at great cost in the death of his son.

Somebody must pay the penalty for these sins.

There must be a death.

But I will cover the cost.

I'll absorb the cost myself.

Through the death of my son.

God's character on display.

Effectively moving people to respond.

When left to themselves, they would not have cared less about Jesus' death.

God making sure that each individual has the benefits of Christ's death applied to them.

When, as I say, left to themselves, they couldn't have cared less.

Leading them into full knowledge and enjoyment of himself.

And overcoming all the obstacles to the fulfillment of this promise that arise at every stage and throughout life itself.

So that that saved person will make it home to heaven.

Eternity.

Future.

Future.

At every point.

We, what we call salvation is just the sum and substance of God's character.

Why he saves us.

How he saves us.

Both of those are explained by God's character.

His grace.

And his steadfast love.

So friends, the point I want you to grasp here is that the doctrines of grace are biblical truth.

But I don't want us just to think of them as a sort of bland biblical truth.

The doctrines of grace are a display of God's sovereign character and purpose in this world.

They're to be embraced, therefore.

What a great God.

He's come looking for me when I was hiding from him.

They're to be treasured.

God has actually done something for me that I could never have done for myself.

They're to be guarded for successive generations.

I want my children and grandchildren and everybody else in this country to know the same character of God that offers them the same option of salvation.

I don't want to let that go as an inconsequential thing.

I want it to be front and center.

I want it to be my legacy as I leave this church and go home to be in heaven with the Lord.

I want the next generation and the next generation of this church to be teaching the same stuff for the same reasons.

And the doctrines of grace cannot rightly be dismissed as a historical creed.

They have been, but they cannot rightly be dismissed as a historical creed that perhaps has some value in its day,

but no longer an issue for genuine believers who want to serve the Lord.

If we're going to serve the Lord, we must serve the Lord within response to his character.

Second point, it pushes to have proper supernaturalism with respect to our salvation.

The cry of all Bible writers and indeed the teaching of Jesus himself is that salvation is of the Lord.

But sadly, again, I suggest to you this morning, this concept has been severely diminished or even lost among some so-called evangelical Christians today.

I think it works like this.

No longer do we hear of the need for a person to be saved or to be converted.

Because both those statements emphasize God's action of rescuing a person from their hopeless plight and renewing them.

Now, the common statement we hear, so many evangelicals teach, is that people need to make a commitment.

They need to make a decision to follow Jesus.

Now, do you hear the difference in the verb there?

It suggests that it's something the person does primarily and substantially.

Now, I think this is more than just modernizing language.

I think it expresses a radical change in our theology of salvation.

Now, clearly, and I want you to hear me carefully here,

Scripture does call us to be committed to Christ at every point in life.

But that's always in response to being saved.

God's action in our life, to start with.

The one can't cancel out the other.

The one doesn't replace the other.

It appears that desperate issues of salvation, that is being dead, being under God's wrath, being made alive, that we see here in Ephesians 2,

it appears that those desperate issues of salvation have been lost or rejected or so toned down as to be unimportant.

And therefore, Jesus becomes more of a model of morality, a lifestyle to emulate or reproduce,

rather than a substitutionary sacrifice for sin.

And so, if we ask why professing Christians today argue that the doctrines of grace do not matter,

I think sometimes we find the answer in this change of theology.

The modern gospel, which is so common among evangelicals today,

plays down the holiness of God, especially in respect of his anger at sin and rebellion,

and plays up the basic goodness of a person or people individually.

Saying that, well, yeah, we've got some problems, but we're not all bad.

We've got some good things that we can rightly bring to the table when we approach God.

Even though they'll also say that, yes, when we do that, we still need God's help.

The modern gospel promotes, my friends, I'm going to, this is probably the most provocative thing I'll say this morning.

The modern gospel, I think, promotes shared sovereignty.

Now, they'll quickly add that our sovereignty is not equal to God's, so it's not an equal sovereignty,

but it's a shared sovereignty.

Something that is, something that's real, something that we have the right to bring with us

when we're approaching God.

Something that we can actually bring to the table as we say, well, okay, what's going to make me acceptable to you, Lord?

Well, I'll bring this.

I recognize that you need to provide that.

My friends, the doctrines of grace, I believe, put things back in the proper perspective.

As I've said already, it makes God big, demanding his supernatural activity at every step in our salvation.

And equally important, it makes us small, demanding our humble dependence and thankfulness for God's mercy and grace.

Third sub-point, then, is they get glory for God like nothing else.

The doctrines of grace get glory for God like nothing else.

Very simple point here.

The more hopeless the plight of the condemned person, the greater will be the love, adoration, and sense of indebtedness

of the one forgiven and rescued and freed into new life.

For Paul, when he talks about the gap between God and sinful people,

he's talking in terms of the gap between heaven and hell.

Between being saved by grace alone, chapter 2, and being without hope and without God in the world.

Massive gap.

And four times in this one chapter here, and I don't have time to go through them all,

but in verse 6 and 7 and verses 12 and 14,

four times Paul bounces from describing the spiritual blessings we have in Christ

as a result of God's salvation purpose to saying,

he just stops, and it's all too much for him,

and he just stops to the praise of his glory.

To the praise of his glory.

To the praise of his glory.

It's just so overwhelming that Paul just has to stop and breathe.

To the breathe.

I've done a day of thought again.

To the praise of his glory.

And Paul goes on from there in the following chapters in his letter to the church at Ephesus

to speak about the beautiful mystery of God's grace that is salvation in Jesus.

The unsearchable riches of God's grace in Christ.

Chapter 3.

These very things that create the church,

the community of resurrected people, of saved people,

through whom God's incredible wisdom and love, faithfulness and purpose is shown.

Again, God's character.

And from here in chapter 4, and from there in chapter 4,

he urges a whole of life response.

And here's Paul's point.

Since God is sovereign in salvation,

since salvation is really an experience we have,

a very personal experience of God's character,

of grace and steadfast love and mercy.

And because of that, we're new.

Join heirs with Jesus.

Then, says Paul, chapter 4,

we owe him everything.

We owe him everything.

We owe him everything.

Heirs with Jesus.

And that's why, my friends,

Christian songwriters,

modern and ancient,

write over and over and over again

about amazing grace.

I remember when I was a bit younger,

I used to think,

why do Christian songwriters have these cliches?

Because amazing grace is in so many songs.

And I've come to appreciate now

that it's not a cliche,

unless it's in my mind a cliche.

It's the essence,

the sum and total of God's character

that we experience every single day

as we experience at that single point

when we were saved and made alive.

To say that salvation is of the Lord

in conception,

in planning,

accomplishment,

application,

such that sinners like you and me

will be in heaven with the Father forever,

is simply to give God

the glory he deserves.

So the better we understand

the doctrines of grace,

the more we respond to God's grace

and mercy and love

by showing we owe him everything,

the more glory he gets from us.

It literally is to the praise of his glory.

Second point then,

and we're getting close to being done.

The doctrines of grace free us.

They free us and encourage us

to confident Christian living.

Two sides of this coin,

encouraging us to come to Christ

in all our sinfulness.

Now I suspect you're just like me.

If you're not,

then you just listen in for this moment.

But so often,

I fear I'm too sinful to be saved.

Perhaps we,

if you're like me,

perhaps it's some big sin in the past.

You think,

I can understand God being forgiving

and all this,

but this one,

no, that one's just too big.

No.

Too awful for God to forgive.

Or it can be more immediate.

So sometimes we can get worn down,

not just by that big sin from the past

that we cogitate on,

but sometimes it's our small,

daily,

repeated sins

that just rise up

to cause fear.

And it's when we go to pray,

because we're praying and confessing

the same sin today

as we confessed yesterday

and the day before

and the day before

and the week before

and the month before.

And we think to ourselves,

really?

Is God going to listen to this again?

You see,

in Ephesians chapter 1,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Paul gives us

the tools of freedom.

By saying it is,

it's not about my failures,

it's about God's commitment to me.

It's about his golden chain of salvation

that he didn't leave anything to chance.

He didn't leave any part of my salvation

down to my own resources

because he knew jolly well

that I would stuff it up.

In Christ,

we have every spiritual blessing

in the heavenly realm.

There is nothing else, my friends,

nothing else that God could do for us

or give us

that would make us more secure,

that would make us more new.

So when our fears threaten to overwhelm us,

we need to drive them away

by praying as Paul prays

in verses 15 to 23.

I've even got it written down here wrong.

Thanks for embarrassing me, Liz.

From 15 to 23,

we need to drive away those fears

by praying as Paul prays.

And again,

I don't have time to go through this prayer in detail,

but I'd encourage you,

urge you to go through it in detail

in your own time.

Freedom from fear

is knowing the doctrines of grace,

to use the terminology,

but move away from the terminology.

Freedom from fear

is knowing God's power

and God's grace

and God's commitment

and God's purpose

in salvation.

Not just to make salvation

available

and hope to goodness

that somebody might be interested in it,

but to actually save those

he set his love on

and bring them home to heaven.

So they'll be part of this

vast multitude

that no man can number

who will just be singing

the praises of God's glory.

And this in turn,

you see,

frees us to confident Christian living.

It frees us

from the performance treadmill

of always trying

to earn favour with God

by getting things right.

And friends,

this also includes freedom

to fail again and again

as we do.

Then to seek God's forgiveness.

Once more determined

to live and act

and think in a way

that shows a proper response

of gratitude

and worship

for his mercies to us.

I'm still confident

even in our failures

that God is working

with us and in us

to make us more like Christ

little by little.

Jude chapter 24

says this.

I'm going to read this one too.

I'm going to find it.

I should have a look at it.

I should have a look at it.

Okay.

It's commonly used

as a doxology.

Now to him

who is able

to keep you

from stumbling

and to present you

blameless

before the presence

of his glory

with great joy

to the only God

our Saviour

through Jesus Christ

our Lord

be glory,

majesty,

dominion

and authority

before all time

now and forever.

God's character

our freedom

and security

God's glory.

The second

the other side

of this coin

is they encourage us

to encourage others

to come to Christ.

Now friends

there's no question

about it

at least in my experience

that evangelism

is hard work.

Which of us

can change

a single attitude

or desire

in another person?

Which of us

can cut through

that deep

instinct of hostility

that people have

towards God

or that deep

inclination

to hide from God?

The answer is

thankfully

we don't have to.

As we saw

two weeks ago

our job

is to simply

preach God's word

get on with our stuff

and let God

do his stuff.

That's a beautiful

freedom.

We just need to

speak when we

have opportunity.

Tell our friends

tell our families

tell our neighbours

tell our workmates.

It's God's work

then to create

new life

and repentance

and faith

in the person.

I just find

that such a

relaxing partnership.

The doctrines

of grace

are the platform

for confident

evangelism

and cross

cultural

mission

work.

As I said

two weeks ago

not only

has God

determined

that

a great multitude

would be saved

he's determined

how

and when

through the

preaching

of the gospel.

God's work

God's stuff

our stuff

wonderful freedom

in that.

God's work

God's work

God's work

God's work

I just want

to conclude

the series

then by

reading to you

from Acts

Acts 18:10

chapter 18

verse 10

Paul knew

the travail

of being a witness

for Christ

and speaking

the gospel

to people

who were lost

in their sin

and unwilling

even to hear it

and he says

this

or rather

the Lord

says this

to Paul

the Lord

said to Paul

one night

in a vision

do not be

afraid

but go

on speaking

and do not

be silent

here it comes

for I am

with you

and no one

will attack

you to harm

you for I

have many

in this city

who are my

people

where was

he working

Corinth

that den

of iniquity

bit like

our country

isn't it

I have

many

in this city

who are my

people

go on

speaking

do not

be silent

our stuff

God's stuff

Paul's

confidence

in a very

hostile city

with a

strong

worldview

that was

openly

opposed

to God

was

God's

sovereignty

in salvation

God has

his elect

people in

Corinth

and nothing

would stop

those appointed

for salvation

from being

saved

Paul could

roll out of bed

in the morning

sometimes even

nursing his

bruises

and get on

the job

of speaking

with Jesus

let me pray

Lord we

are just

literally

overwhelmed

by your

character

that you

pursue us

in love

and mercy

you call

us back

to yourself

in grace

and you

love us

with a

steadfast

love

help us

never

Lord to

even think

about diminishing

that at our

front and

center piece

help us to

make you

big

and ourselves

small

in Jesus

name I

pray

Amen

thank you

very much

for listening