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I. WHAT MAN CANNOT DO "No man can...." (Jn.6:44a)
1.Man because of his depraved nature cannot understand
God's word
without the guidance, aid or influence
of the Holy Spirit
(Jn.8:43, 47, I Cor.2:14, Heb.3:7-13,
Jn.16:13; Acts 10:1-48)
2.He cannot hear without a preacher, Rom.10:14.
3.He cannot understand without the explanation of a preacher
or preaching Christian
under the guidance of the Spirit, Acts
8:19-42; 10:1-48.
4.He cannot have true repentance without a realization
of his sins and its consequences
and have godly sorrow, II Cor.7:9-10.
5.He cannot repent apart from the conviction of the Holy
Spirit,
Jn.16:8-9;Heb.3:7-12; Prov.1:23-24;27:1.
6.He cannot have real faith until he truly repented and
hated his sins,
Ps.119:37, 113; Isa.55:7; Acts 20:21.
7.He cannot love God until he understands God's love demonstrated
at
Calvary's cross, Jn.3:16, I Jn.4:9-10,
19.
8.He cannot exercise faith toward Christ without the grace
of God and
the aid of the Holy Spirit, Acts
18:27, Mark 9:24, Eph.2:8.
9.He cannot believe without hearing the gospel , Rom.10:14,17,
Rom.1:16.
10.He cannot call on God unless he believes the gospel, Rom.10:14
11.He cannot come to God unless he has faith, Heb.11:6.
12.He cannot come to God without the influence of the Holy Spirit,
John 6:44.
13.He cannot make a free choice unless salvation is freely offered
to him, Jn.12:47-48.
14.He cannot decide freely except he is invited to come, Matt.11:28.
15.He cannot regenerate himself for it is the work of God, however
he can decide to
accept Christ so that God will
perform His work of regeneration to his soul, Jn.1:12-13.
16.He cannot save himself, however he can accept God's offer
of salvation by faith, Eph.2:8-9.
II. WHAT MAN CAN DO UNDER GOD'S GRACE. "...except the Father which sent me draw him...." , Jn.6:44b.
1.The spiritually dead under divine influence and conviction
can seek and
know God, Amos 5:4-6, Isaiah 55:6-7.
2.Under the influence of the Spirit, he can hear, know,
understand the preaching of
the gospel, Acts 8, Rom.1:16.
3.Man under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has the
freewill, either to accept or reject
Christ, Acts 7:51, Heb.3:7-12, Prov.1:23-33.
John 1;12, Josh 24:14-15, Jn.12:47-48.
4.Depraved sinner under conviction of the Holy Spirit
can repent and believe on Jesus
to be saved, Jn.16:8, Jn.3:16, Luke
13:3.
5.The depraved sinner under the Spirit's influence can
ask God for mercy to save him,
and can exercise faith in Jesus, Luke18:10-14,
Eph.2;8-9.
6.He can come to God under Christ's invitation, Matt.11:28.
7.He can have the willingness to be saved, Rev.22:17.
8.Under the Spirit's influence, the sinner can search
the Scriptures but
he can resist the Spirit also, John
5:39-40, Acts 7:51. Prov.1:23-33
9.The spiritually dead under God's grace can hear, repent
and believe in order to
have life, Ezk.37:1-6, John 5:24-25,
Acts 17:30; Luke 13:3.
10.The spiritually dead under God's grace can hear a spiritual
instruction to believe,
and can obey the gospel command,
and can exercise faith in order to be saved, Acts 16:30-31
11.The spiritually dead under the Spirit's influence can ask
God to save him, and can exercise
faith in Jesus for the salvation
of his soul in order to be saved, forgiven and justified,
Eph.2:8-9, Lk.18:10-14, Rom.5:1,
Acts 10:43-47.
12.The spiritually dead under the influence of the Spirit and
the gospel can exercise faith
in order to be indwelt and sealed
by the Spirit, Acts 10:44, Eph.1:13.
13.The sinner can come under Christ invitation and he can refuse
too. Matt.11:28.
No one can refuse an invitation
if he is not invited.
14.The depraved sinner under God's grace has the freewill or
freedom of choice either
to accept Jesus by faith
or reject him as Savior. John 12:47-48
III. WHAT GOD HAS DONE, IS DOING, AND WILL DO
"...the Father which sent me draw him, and I will
raise him
up at the last day" (John 6:47c)
A. What God has done --- "...the Father which
sent me (Christ)...", Jn.6:47c).
1. Jesus is the Savior of the
world, not just some people. ( Jn.3:16, I Jn.4:14, I Jn.2:2).
2. Jesus is the light of the world,
not just some people. Jesus offers the light to all
not just
to a few. Men has the choice either to accept or reject the light
(Jn.3:19-20;
812; 12:46; John 1:7-12)
3. Jesus has the ability to save
all men because He died for all (Heb.7:25),
but He
chooses to save only those who humble and believe. (I Cor.1:26-27).
Calvinism teaches
that Christ is able to save only a few people whom He died for.
So they teach
that God's saving power is limited only to a few.
4. The blood of Jesus and its
saving power is sufficient for all men but efficient only to
those
who believe. (I Tim.4:10) . The atonement is universal for all men but
the
application
is limited to the believers.
5. The Gospel of Christ cannot
be intended for all men if Christ did not die for all men.
The command
of the Gospel to repent and believe is void if Christ did not die for all
men (I
Cor.15). The offer of salvation in the gospel is void if Christ did
not die for all.
The fact
that the gospel is commanded to be preached to all men, and that the gospel
is sincerely
intended for all men, and that men will be punished for rejecting the
gospel
show that Christ died for all men (Matt.28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47;
Acts 17:30;
II Thes.1:7-9).
6. It is a fact that there are
those who rejected Christ among those to whom He was
sent (Jn.1:11;
Jn.11:51; Jn.12:47-48; II Thes.1:7-9) A person cannot reject something
that which
is not offered him. The fact that there are those who were able to
reject
shows
that salvation was offered to them. But salvation cannot be offered
apart from
the death
of Christ. (Heb.9:22).
B. What God is doing --- "...the Father
which sent me draw him...", (Jn.6:47). –
1. Man by nature is sinful, depraved,
unwilling to come to Christ, does not seek God.
But God
is the one seeking for man because of His grace and mercy. He is
the one
who made
an initiative of demonstrating His love for man by Christ death on the
cross
( Rom.3:10-11;
Rom.5:8; I John 4:19)
2. God wants all men to repent
and believe in Jesus Christ. The Calvinist teach, according
to their
interpretation II Peter 3:9, that God wants only the elect to repent and
to be saved.
they do
not believe that God wants all men to repent and believe in Jesus.
Try asking
them a
question, "Does God want some men to reject Christ?". They will try to
avoid
facing
this question directly, but as the discussion gets deeper, they will reason
out that
God ordained
sin and unbelief. Such is an erroneous doctrine. God is not
the author
of unbelief
in Christ. Jesus is the author of faith (Heb.12:2). God wants all
men to repent
and believe
(Acts 17:30).
3. However, men do not repent
just by himself without the conviction and influence of the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit reproves all men (Jn.16:8-9). He does reprove men
because
they do
not believe . John 16: 8-9 says, "And when he is come, he will reprove
the world
of sin,
and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin because they believe
not on me".
The Calvinist
teach that only the regenerated can hear and so the Spirit will reprove
those
who are
saved already. But the truth is that the Spirit reproves the unsaved
because the
Spirit
warns them of God's impending judgment. The believers are no longer
judge of
eternal
condemnation (Jn.3:18). The Spirit influences all men and apart from
the
influence
of the Spirit, no one will come to Christ.
4. Under the influence of the
Spirit, the sinner has the freewill either to believe or not.
The Spirit
invites all men. (Rev.22:17). Without the invitation of the Spirit,
no one will
come.
Under the invitation of the Spirit, one has the choice either to accept
or reject.
Matt.22:14
says, "For many are called but few are chosen". The Calvinist uses
this
verse
also. But they believe there are two kinds of call, God's call and
the Preacher's
call.
According to them, God's call is the effectual call while the preacher's
call is the
general
call. They say when it is the preacher who calls, no one responds
but when it is
God who
calls, it is effective that no one can resist. The question is, Who made
the call
in Matt.22:14, God or the preacher? If they say, it is the preacher,
then we can find
men chosen by God through the preacher's call. But if they say, it
is God, then we can
find that among those called by God there are those who were not chosen.
Calvinism
has a lot of inconsistencies. The context of Matt.22 shows that the reason
why others
were not chosen is because they did not respond to the call of God.
Many passages
in the Scriptures shows that there are many who were called by God and
yet
they resisted. ( Acts 7:51; Heb.12:25-26; Prov.1:23-33; Isa.45:22; Jer.6:19;
7:13, 23-25; 9:13; 11:7-8; 13:11; 15:6; Heb.3:7-13; Ezek.33:11; Matt.23:37)
C. What God will do
in the future--- "...and I will raise him up at the last day",
John 6:47
There are two kinds of resurrection --- The resurrection of the righteous
and the
resurrection of the wicked. The resurrection of the believers will
be to everlasting
happiness while the unbelievers will be to eternal punishment. Jesus
promised the
resurrection of the believers will be glorious. The believers will
obtain an incorruptible
body and will meet Christ in the clouds and in the air (I Thes.4:14-17;
I Cor.15).
There is no argument to the fact of the resurrection of the believers because
Christ's
statement on that fact is very clear.