In this sermon by Dr. Joseph Morecraft, III, the focus is on John Calvin's views on missions and evangelism, particularly in the context of Calvin's Geneva. Calvin believed that his doctrine of predestination intensified the zeal for evangelism and world missions, as it motivated people to spread the gospel all over the world. He saw the preaching of the gospel as the means by which God saves his people in this world, and that through the faithful preaching of the gospel, Christ would defend his doctrine, making ministers of the gospel victorious over the whole world. Calvin's view on the Great Commission is that it aims to bring all nations to the obedience of faith, and through the preaching of the gospel, Christ's kingdom will be established in all nations.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Joe Moorcraft with the following message entitled, Missions and evangelism in Kelvins Geneva Good to see everybody Since my subject is Calvin and missions and evangelism as he understood it and as he practiced it. And since Doug Phillips gave such a great message last night in which he stole most of my thunder, as usual for him, As Henry VIII said to his second wife, I don't guess I'll be keeping you long. I'm going to quote John Calvin many times this morning. You heard him before last night, but they are such quotable things. Now, I'm a great believer, as I'm sure you are, in reading books.

I particularly love to read the Puritans, which are sometimes difficult to read because you know you can have a sentence three or four pages long with 15 semicolons and colons and things like that, but not so Calvin. Calvin was a great literary figure in the history of French literature. In fact, his two books, Institutes of the Christian Religion, really one book in two volumes, Not only is one of the very most important books in the history of Christianity, but it is also a very important book in the history of French literature. Whether you're a Christian or not, you will understand that the Institutes of the Christian Religion were the first great books to be written in the French language. And he was a great writer.

And so he's very readable. I mean, he not only knew God like few people knew God, he wasn't perfect. We don't put Calvin up here on par with the Bible at all. But he was a man that knew God like few men knew God and was willing to dedicate the entirety of his life, meaning that he died young, in the advance of the gospel all over the world. And it's as Doug said last night, in the transformation of culture by the word of God.

So I'm gonna read some quotes by him throughout and make little comments on them. I could paraphrase the quotes, but no paraphrase that I could give would match the quotes themselves. Calvin, as I'm sure you know, is one of the most misunderstood Christians in the history of the Christian church. In fact, there was a liberal theologian by the name of Mitchell Hunter who wrote a book on the teaching of Calvin. And in that liberal book, he said, and I quote, certainly Calvin displayed no trace of missionary enthusiasm.

Now those words were either based on prejudice or ignorance. Others have said that Calvin's horrible doctrine of predestination makes nonsense of all missionary and evangelistic activity. Why do evangelism? Why send out world missions if God has chosen his people to be saved. However, the truth is that one of the consequences of Calvin's doctrine of predestination is an intensified zeal for evangelism and world missions.

In other words, where Calvin believed in predestination and where his disciples believed it, rather than squelching an evangelistic zeal and rather than squelching a world mission thrust, the understanding that God has a people that He's going to save and He's going to do it through the preaching of the gospel set fire in these Calvinist souls. And so they took the gospel of Christ all over the world. Predestination was not a hindrance. It was the great motive for evangelism. People have used Calvin to justify their lack of concern and lack of interest in evangelism.

But a careful study of Calvin's life and actions and doctrines and ministry and influence on successful generations proves him to be a man truly committed from the heart to both evangelism and world missions. Calvin's most thorough exposition or predestination is in a book that I recommend to you. You can still buy it today. It's called Concerning the Predestination of God. If you already believe in predestination, it's worth reading.

If you don't yet believe in predestination or you have problems with it, this is the book to read. Concerning the eternal predestination of God, let me stop here and tell you a funny story about the origin of this book. There was a man that was very critical of Calvin by the name of Pigius. And he not only would attack Calvin's doctrine, but he would always slander Calvin's character and Calvin's person. That rattled Calvin.

He didn't like that too much. And back in those days, you know, people like Calvin and Luther and the rest were a little freer in the names they would call people in public than we are. We might call them the same names in private, but they would call them names in print that were enemies of the gospel. So he wrote this book concerning the eternal predestination of God to answer Pigius. And since Pigius had slandered him a great deal, Calvin was red hot in writing this book.

He was extremely critical of Pigius and pointed out that he was a liar and all that as well as a false teacher. Much to Calvin's chagrin, before the book is published, Pigius dies. Well, that means Calvin has to go back now and be a little nicer on dead Pigius. So he takes out some of the harsher areas in his book on the eternal predestination of God. But in the preface he said this, something to the effect, now that Piggius has died, I wanted to be kinder toward his memory lest I be accused of kicking a dead dog?" Now in this book concerning the eternal predestination of God, let me quote Calvin.

Now here's a book on predestination And he's talking about evangelism. He says, Since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that whoever we come across, we shall study to make him a sharer of peace. Even severe rebuke will be administered like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined.

So in other words, Calvin's doctrine of predestination didn't make evangelism and world missions unnecessary as far as He was concerned. Rather it made them necessary because in God's plan of conquering the world with the Gospel He has predestined His people to be saved but he's also foreordained the method by which he will save them. And that is through the preaching of the Gospel, through the free offer of the Gospel to whosoever will may come. What did Calvin say? He said, whoever you come across out there, whoever you meet, seek to win him to Christ.

So you see the whole idea of preaching and evangelism and world missions as far as Calvin is concerned was directly related to predestination. That's the means by which God saves his people in this world. Calvin made a very pertinent comment on Ezekiel 18, 23. Now I'm quoting some of these because most people, all they know about Calvin and wrongly so is he was a fatalist, that he only believed in predestination and nothing else. Except for one thing, I had a man come up to me one time and say, Pastor Moorcraft, how can you like John Calvin when he burned so many Baptists at the stake?

Let me assure you, my dear Baptist brothers, he did not burn any Baptist or anybody else at the stake. And the one person in his lifetime that was burned at the stake, Servetus, he was the one man in Geneva that pled with the officials not to burn him at the stake. And as they were taking him to be burned at the stake, Calvin followed them preaching the gospel to Servitus as long as he had breath. This is quite a different man than is described for us today. So here's his comment on Ezekiel 18.23.

Here's what Ezekiel 18.23 says, God says, do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live. Here's Calvin. God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were perishing and rushing to destruction should return to the way of safety. And for this reason not only is the gospel spread abroad in the world, but God wished to bear witness through all ages how inclined He is to show pity. And Calvinists need to have that emphasized to them.

God is more willing to show mercy to sinners than sinners are to receive that mercy. You don't have to force mercy out of God. Mercy is not something that God does, but he really doesn't want to. God loves to show mercy, and he freely offers the gospel and sent missionaries all over the world so that everybody in the world would know that he is inclined to show pity to the worst of sinners. Calvin made some great comments on the Great Commission as Doug Phillips stole from me last night.

Let me read the Great Commission again and then read to you Calvin on and Jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." In Matthew's version of the Great Commission, he gives the claim of the exalted Christ, that He has all authority in heaven and earth. He gives the mandate of the exalted Christ, that is to make the world's nations His disciples. He gives a missionary strategy of the exalted Christ, which is baptize and teach. And he gives a promise of the exalted Christ, which is his continual presence with the faithful church to the end of the age. Calvin tells us that Christ first spoke of his authority before he got to the Great Commission itself for a good reason.

Calvin said, for no ordinary authority would here have been enough. But sovereign and truly divine government ought to be possessed by him who commands them to promise eternal life in his name, to reduce the whole world under his sway, and to publish a doctrine which subdues all pride and lays prostrate the whole of the human race." Calvin says the reason Jesus talked about his universal authority first is because nothing less than universal authority, nothing less than unlimited divine sovereignty would be able to accomplish what this Great Commission commits the church to. And what is it? And I'm going to read this word several times because Calvin liked this phrase. And he would use this phrase very frequently in explaining the Great Commission.

Here's what it is. He says, Christ has given us this authority to reduce, that's the word, to reduce the whole world under his way and to publish a doctrine which subdues all pride and lays prostrate the whole human race. You think Calvin had any confidence in the gospel? He says the preaching of the gospel by the church and the carrying out the Great Commission will have the effect of reducing the world to obedience to Christ. It will have the effect of subduing all pride and arrogance and exalting God.

And it will have the effect of laying prostrate the whole human race under the conviction of sin, but the word I want you to see is reduce The whole world to obedience to Christ. We'll come back to that again. Here's some more Calvin. Christ expressly calls himself the Lord and King of heaven and earth because by constraining men to obey him in the preaching of the gospel, he establishes his throne on earth. And by regenerating his people to a new life and inviting them to the hope of salvation, he opens heaven to admit to a blessed immortality with angels, those who formerly had not only crawled on the world, but had been plunged in the abyss of death." Now, did you see it?

He said, by the preaching of the gospel in evangelism and world missions, Christ establishes His throne on the earth. It's because of ideas like that that the Puritans, the English Puritans would refer to the pulpit in the church as the throne of God. They would also refer to it as the judgment seat of Christ from which He would govern and rule and subdue the world. So you preachers, I want you to be humbled by the responsibility that you have Sunday after Sunday. That you stand behind the throne of God, the judgment seat of Christ, and that through your voice the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, preaches and establishes his sovereignty and his rule and his government in the earth.

You know, in a very real sense, Jesus is the only preacher whose preaching can do you any good. You might be eloquent, but my preaching's not gonna help you. My preaching cannot help you at all. And you preachers here, your preaching is not going to help anybody. Your preaching is of any value only if the Lord Jesus Christ decides to use your frail and weak and fallible mouth to speak his powerful word through you into laying bare human hearts.

One of the passages that I get encouragement from year after year and decade after decade is Romans 10, which says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That means whoever worships Jesus as God shall be saved. Next verse, But how shall you call upon him in whom you have not believed? Next sentence. How shall you believe in him whom you have not heard?

Now some translations don't get that verse correct. For instance, some translations and good translations like the authorized version refer, translated as how shall you call upon him in whom you've not believed and how shall you believe in him of whom or about whom you've not heard. Well, now that's true. And I could tell you why there shouldn't be an of there. And those of you who know Greek will know that the direct object of verbs is always in the accusative tense unless that verb is one like a kuo which takes a genitive for its direct object.

Now, aren't you glad I told you all that? So the point is whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved How shall you call upon him in whom you have not believed? How shall you believe in him? Whom You've not heard You're not going to believe in Jesus unless you've heard his voice my sheep hear my voice and Follow me next line and how shall they hear without a preacher? Now in Greek that word isn't preacher.

It's not inaccurate to call it preacher. The word preacher, of course preaching and preachers are very important in the Bible. The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. But the word preacher doesn't, preacher in Greek hardly ever occurs in the New Testament a very small number of times. Because the preacher is not the big deal.

Preaching is the big deal, not the preacher. It doesn't focus on the person. So what it is in Romans 10, it's a participle. It says, how shall you call upon Him whom you've not believed? How shall you believe in Him whom you have not heard?

How shall you hear without one who continually preaches? And how shall he preach unless he's been sent by the Christ who has all authority in heaven and earth? And What I'm getting at is to explain to you things like Calvin This is why he would say that the preaching of the gospel in evangelism and world missions is the establishing of his throne on earth because through the faithful Preaching of the gospel the sovereign Christ governs the world you know that whatever Jesus preaches happens? You ever thought about that? Now, not everything I preach happens unless Jesus should preach through me.

Have you ever noticed in the Bible it says that Jesus came preaching peace and then it also says he brings peace. It says in Mark that he came preaching the kingdom of God. And then it says he brings the kingdom of God near. So whatever Jesus preaches happens. When the Lord Jesus Christ preaches through our preaching, that preaching accomplishes things only God can accomplish.

And that's why Calvin says that the preaching of the gospel in evangelism and world missions is the establishment of the throne of Jesus Christ upon the earth. And by regenerating his people to a new life and inviting them to the hope of salvation, he opens heaven to admit to a blessed immortality with angels, those who formerly had not only crawled on the world, but had been plunged in the abyss of death." He goes on, therefore the meaning of Christ's mandate amounts to this, that by proclaiming the gospel everywhere, this is John Calvin, the big predestination guy, by proclaiming the gospel everywhere, they should bring all, A-double-L underline, highlight all nations to the obedience of faith. That is, that obedience to God's law in the Bible that faith in Jesus Christ motivates. You see, there's no legalism here. There's no meritorious works here.

The obedience of faith is that obedience to God's law motivated by faith in Christ alone for salvation. And Calvin says that he prays that the gospel is proclaimed everywhere, not just in churches, marketplaces, homes, everywhere, so that through the preaching of the gospel, all nations, throughout all the world, not just Switzerland, all nations be brought by the power of the Holy Spirit to that obedience to God's law that faith motivates. And next, that they should seal and ratify their doctrine by the sign of the gospel, baptism. The great commission is concluded with Christ's promise to teach us, said Calvin, that Though the ministers of the gospel be weak and suffer the lack of all things, Christ will be their guardian, so that they will rise victorious over all the opposition of the world." Don't you love that? In like manner, experience clearly shows, he says, in the present day that the operations of Christ are carried on wonderfully in a secret manner so that the gospel surmounts innumerable obstacles.

In other words Calvin says in the preaching of the gospel in the Great Commission there are no insurmountable obstacles. There are no hindrances that God by His Word or by His providence or by His Spirit cannot melt away. Nothing stands in the way of this reduction of all the nations of the world to obedience to Christ. You sure you believe that? Nothing stands effectively in the way of the reduction of the world's nations to obedience to Christ?

You say, well, Joe, there is one thing, because I'm a Calvinist, and that's human depravity. I believe that man's totally depraved, and I think that stands in the way. How can you talk about the reduction of the world's nations to obedience to Christ when they're all totally depraved. Because I believe that sovereign grace is more powerful than total depravity. I believe that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

And It's ideas like this that Calvin had in his mind that made him you notice the victory orientation in Calvin I mean Calvin was sick Calvin if we look at the symptoms that Calvin had died in his 50s if we look at the symptoms He may have had everything from stomach cancers tuberculosis to very poor blood circulation The only way he knew of treating himself was wrapping himself in hot towels, which made the blood flowed out even slowed out even more and Was sick and yet He said there's nothing, not sickness, not death, not the Pope in Rome, not the King of France, not Henry VIII. There's nothing that's going to stop the preaching of the gospel from conquering the world. Nothing. Neither a Mormon nor a Marxist. By the way, remember, I'm preaching an election sermon in good Puritan faction the Sunday before election.

And it's gonna start with two sentences taken straight out of the Bible. I'm not gonna be partisan. And they are this, these. Obama is a grasshopper. Romney is a grasshopper.

And I am not afraid of grasshoppers. And the living God has grasshoppers under his control. And the preaching of the gospel according to Calvin could actually stop all of the havoc and corruption and devastation caused by a Mormon or a Marxist. Then Christ claimed all authority for himself and promised his continual presence, thus declaring that, Calvin said, he would defend his doctrine so that his ministers may confidently expect to be victorious over the whole world. His ministers, now think of who these ministers are.

You and me. Ordinary every day. You know one of my favorite verses I find great comfort in. Not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the weak and the base and the insignificant in the eyes of the world to overcome and to topple the high and the mighty. That's great hope for me because what are we in this room?

We are the insignificant minority in the eyes of the world. But what does it say? It says that Christ will defend His doctrine. Christ will defend His doctrine of predestination, His doctrine of justification, His doctrine of sanctification, His doctrine of the kingdom of God, His doctrine of faith and repentance, His doctrine of the church and the covenant and all the various other things revealed in Holy Scripture that this world may ridicule and think we are fools and obscurantist for believing the things we believe. You don't have to worry about being in a minority.

Christ will defend the faithful true doctrine you preach so that you as ministers of the gospel may confidently expect to be victorious over the whole world. You say, Joe, I just don't see it. I mean, you don't know where I live. You don't know the city that I live in. You don't know my church.

You don't know the criticism I get whenever I preach on anything my heart wants to preach on from the word of God. I just can't see it being victorious as a preacher of the gospel over the world in all its opposition. Well guess what? I can't see it either. Abraham couldn't see it.

We're not to walk by sight, we're to walk by faith. We're not to let our attitudes and our evangelistic zeal and our understanding of the future be determined by what we see or We'd all learn to play a guitar and sit around and wait for Jesus to come No We walk by faith in the Word of God Somebody asked me one time they said Joe, how can you be so optimistic about preaching in the light of what you read in the newspapers? And I said, well, I don't get my doctrine out of the newspapers. And that's a very important point. I'm not being facetious.

You get your doctrine out of the word of God and Christ will defend that doctrine. By the power of his Holy Spirit through the faithful preaching of the word of God, he'll make you victorious over the whole world. Sooner or later, one time or another, There's coming a time in which we're not going to be an insignificant minority in the eyes of the world. When Mark speaks of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature, Calvin understands by that statement that, in his words, no certain limits are prescribed, but the whole world is assigned to those who preach the gospel to be reduced to the obedience of Christ. That by disseminating the gospel wherever they could, They might erect His kingdom in all nations.

Remember what Doug talked about last night? That the Great Commission is not just a saving of an isolated, detached individual here and there among the nations, though individuals are important, But the real focus is the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the nations, the overturning of the kingdoms of sin and Satan, and in their place the re-establishment of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel. Now let me point out one other thing about Calvin because it's easy in this age with such a weak view of preaching and doctrine and Christ and evangelism even for those of you who are Reformed to get mixed up. Personal evangelism is important of course. I trust that you are seeking opportunities as an individual to lead people to Christ.

Family evangelism is important. To have unsaved people over to your house to see the way you relate to your wife and to your children with the prayer that the door would be open for them to ask, why are you different than I am? Those are all important. Track evangelism, pamphlet evangelism, I use all those things. They are all important.

Giving out Bibles is important. But the Westminster larger catechism reflecting the scripture says it's not simply the reading of the Bible, it is the preaching of the Bible that is of ultimate importance. All these other things and forms of evangelism are important. There is no power like the preaching of the word of God. So don't downplay that.

When you send missionaries, when you want to support missionaries from your church, make sure they can preach. Make sure they're willing to faithfully and courageously preach the gospel. You're a preacher, make sure you can preach. And not just a teacher, but somebody who holds forth the Word of God in power. There is a difference between preaching and teaching.

The Bible makes that distinction several times. It's not always easy to define the distinction because preaching obviously includes teaching. Preaching also includes exhortation. Preaching probably includes more exhortation than teaching. So how would I distinguish the difference?

Power. It has to do with power and passion. There is a passion in the preaching of the Word of God. There is a fire shut up in my bones, said Jeremiah. There is a power of the resurrected Christ when His Word is faithfully preached, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

That's the focus of Calvin. All these other forms of evangelism are important. We attack them on all fronts. But the focal point, the spearhead of The bringing of the nations to the obedience of Christ is the authoritative, faithful, courageous, passionate, powerful preaching of the Word of God. Isaiah 2.4 says, And he will judge between the nations, and he will render decisions for many peoples, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war." Listen to Calvin. Calvin explains that when Isaiah says that Christ shall judge among the nations, he means that the doctrine or the preaching of Christ will be like a king's scepter that God may rule among the nations. And again, he confirms the calling of the Gentiles because Christ is not sent to the Jews only, that he may reign over them, but that he may hold sway over the whole world." In other words, when Calvin comes to Isaiah 2, 4, it says, Christ shall judge between the nations and render decisions for many people and cause them to hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and so that nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war." Whatever your eschatological view is, Calvin's is, that is the preaching of the gospel that's going to accomplish this. He's not talking about the second coming. Now he believes in the second coming, but he's not saying that it's only until we have to wait until the second coming when Christ comes for nations to hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations will lift up sword against nation. Never again will they learn war. He's talking about what Christ is going to do through the faithful preaching of the gospel in evangelism and world missions. He will make decisions. He will judge between the nations.

He will bring international peace through the preaching of the gospel and evangelism and world missions. You have faith to believe that? Now don't take my word, just keep reading the Bible. Keep reading Isaiah. The doctrine I used to be, I won't use any labels list.

We have some here that call themselves these things. So You'll have to read between the lines. I used to be a rapturous. I mean, I used to believe that Jesus is gonna come any second and burn everything up and there's no use in trying to do anything. There's no use in trying to change culture because the world's going to hell in a hand basket and that's what God is predestined.

There is a doctrine in the Bible that caused me to revolutionize my whole understanding of the future so that I chucked the pessimism and the defeatism that so many people hold for the future and embraced a very optimistic victory orientation toward the future. And you know what that doctrine was in The Bible that totally, totally changed my mind. The doctrine of preaching. And what God promises to accomplish through the preaching of the gospel. That gospel will cause people to, what does it say?

Hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again learn war. That is through the preaching of the word of God. There's gonna be international peace. There'll come a time in which nations will have forgotten how to do war.

So if a couple of countries want to have a war, they'll get together and say, let's have a war. Another will say, How did we used to do this? I forgot how we did this. That as Christ works through the preaching of the gospel, the nations will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.

Now let's spend a few moments defending Calvin's reputation from those who say he didn't believe in evangelism and world missions and just talked about predestination and was a mean, hard little guy. As foundational as John Calvin's influence on the West has been, no one has been more viciously and unjustly criticized as John Calvin. Eric Fromm, the humanist, said that Calvin and Luther, quote, belong to the ranks of the greatest haters in history. F.L. Cross, a liberal, described Calvin as, quote, the unopposed dictator of Geneva.

Even though most of his life he wasn't even allowed to vote. Roland Benton, the liberal from Yale, said of Calvin, this is sort of funny, if Calvin ever wrote anything In favor of religious liberty, it was a typographical error. I have in my library a several hundred page book entitled The History of Evangelism. It's about that thick. From the first century to the 20th.

You can look up in the index. It never mentions John Calvin. So that the implication you get from this book is that John Calvin did not believe in or practice evangelism or world missions because of his doctrine of predestination. However, in the face of these slanderous remarks are three indisputable facts from Philip E. Hughes.

If Calvin was a cruel man, how did he attract so many, so varied, and so warmly attached friends and associates who speak of his sensitiveness and his charm? If Calvin had dictatorial control over Genevaan affairs, How is it that the records of Geneva show him plainly to have been the servant of its council, which on many occasions rejected out of hand Calvin's wishes for the religious life of Geneva? And thirdly, how can such things be said about Calvin in the light of the remarkable phenomenon of the great numbers of persons who fled to Geneva for refuge from the fierce persecutions that raged against adherents of the Reformed faith elsewhere in Europe and especially in France. We can see Calvin's commitment to evangelism in four facts. One, write this down, it's good to tell you France.

Four facts that prove that Calvin was dedicated to evangelism in world missions. First of all, Calvin's practice of evangelism and world missions. Calvin's own life and his own practice. Calvin's sick, though he was. Sometimes couldn't ride on a horse.

Laying, lying down in a bed caused him great pain. He even said one time he was so sick that wine was tasteless to him. That's really sick. We have too many Baptists. Okay.

So Calvin's own practice of evangelism. Calvin personally, from the time he was a teenager, preached the gospel sometimes at the risk of his life in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Furthermore, by his published writings and letters he spread the Gospel all over Europe. So his own practice showed that he was committed to evangelism. Secondly, the writings of Calvin on the necessity and promise of world evangelization, quote, listen, there is no people and no rank in the world that is excluded from salvation, Because God wishes that the Gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception.

That was not written by Jacob Arminius. That was written by John Calvin. Now the preaching of the Gospel, he says, gives life and hence God invites all equally to partake of salvation. In other words, in Calvin's view and also of that of the Westminster Confession of Faith, you could look anybody in the face that you come in contact and you can say to them if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ repent of your sins God will forgive you of your sins and save you You don't have to worry whether the person's elect or not. You can say that to anybody Remember Jesus parable go out in the highways and hedges and whoever you find out there, compel them to come in.

A lot of times when young men just get introduced to Calvinism, they become a little hyper-Calvinist. They have a little problem with evangelism and the free offer the gospel until they mature That was me back in the early 60s when I went to seminary and just got my taste of predestination And I was gung-ho And but I worried how do you jive this with evangelism? Until a godly preacher said to me, he said, Joe, you go out there and you preach the gospel to everybody you meet and God will forgive you if you get the wrong people saved. He says, there's no people or no rank in the world that's excluded from salvation because God wishes that the gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception. Now the preaching of the gospel gives life and hence God invites all equally to partake of salvation." Calvin goes on.

The kingdom of Christ was only begun in the world 2, 000 years ago, when God commanded the gospel to be everywhere, proclaimed. And at this day, its course is not yet complete. That little mustard seed, That's what he's getting at. That little mustard seed that was planted 2, 000 years ago, not very impressive. One of the smallest seeds.

When I was born, my mother was sick with toxemia. I was two months premature and I was born less than two pounds. Not very impressive. I made up for it since. So this little mustard seed, nothing impressive about it, but eventually It's going to grow and grow and grow until it becomes the greatest seed in the garden, overshadowing all other trees and the birds of the air will come and make nests in its branches.

So is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a little piece of yeast. Just a little teeny piece of yeast. Not very impressive. Work it into the dough.

Set the dough aside. Eventually, every particle of that loaf is going to be leavened by the yeast. Once the gospel gets in a heart, it never leaves that heart the same again. It leavens the whole life gradually. Once that gospel gets in a culture, It begins its leavening work.

Once that seed is planted, it begins gradually to grow. That's what Calvin's getting at. When the kingdom of God was planted 2, 000 years ago, not very oppressive. But it hasn't completed growing yet. And oh, the future that awaits the gospel of Christ.

Here's another quote by Calvin. We see our word reduce. The apostles therefore were missionaries who were to reduce the world from their revolt to true obedience to God and to establish His kingdom universally by the proclaiming of the gospel. So you've seen several things in Calvin so far. You've seen the world was on his heart.

And that's what I pray for you brothers and sisters. The world was on your heart. Somebody told me that years ago, he said, I just want an intellectual elite remnant. These guys, you know, I love them. They hold up signs.

Let's say 10 minutes, 5 minutes. I love these guys. Okay. So he said, I'm trying to create an intellectual remnant elite of great writers and lecturers to conquer the world. And I said, brother so and so, not I.

It's the world I want. For God so loved an intellectual elite. For God so loved something as vile and filthy and low and rebellious as the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That was Calvin's hope. That was Calvin's goal.

That he see the world reduced from its revolt against God to true obedience to God and that God's kingdom would be established universally by the faithful preaching of the gospel. The third proof that Calvin was devoted to missions is the establishment by Calvin of the academy in Geneva. The establishment by Calvin of his school or academy in Geneva. Calvin established an Academy in Geneva to train men to be missionaries. Geneva, as one has said, was the hub of a vast missionary enterprise.

Another said it created an explosion of missionary activity detonated in large part by the Genevaan consistory, that is the elders and preachers, and other Swiss Protestants. The Genevaan archives hold hundreds of letters containing Calvin's pastoral and practical advice on establishing underground churches. He did not just send missionaries. He invested himself in long-term relationships with them. Calvin had a school, hundreds of people, year after year came to this school and Calvin taught them, and the other teachers, taught them how to take the Gospel, how to understand the Gospel and take it to the four corners of the earth.

You don't, most people because we've been brainwashed by so much of modern education, don't think of Geneva as a hub of missionary activity that sent missionaries all over the world. We think of this ingrown group of dictators that made all these strict rules about how life should be lived and if anybody was having fun anywhere in the world, none of these Geneva people could sleep at night. That's not Geneva. Calvin established this great, in fact the first school of evangelism. Geneva was a hub of missionary activity.

Now listen to this. This is true. This is not hyperbole. Historians have estimated that in 1555, Calvin was in middle age, that in 1555 there were five of these underground churches in France. You got the figures?

1555, five underground churches in France. 1559, this is largely due to Calvin's Academy. 1559, there were 100 churches in France, Underground churches, four years from five to 100. By 1562, two years before Calvin's death, There were 2, 150 underground churches with 3 million attendees. Geneva was not only a haven for hundreds of exiles persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, especially from England during the reign of Bloody Mary, it was also a school.

John Knox, who himself was a Marian exile there, wrote that it was the most perfect school of Christ which has been seen on earth since the days of the apostles. But Calvin's Geneva was even more than a haven and a school. It trained men for world evangelization. It organized mission strategy. It sent men out into the world with the gospel, and it superintended those missions.

Philip Hughes writes, human vessels were equipped and refitted in this haven not to be status symbols like painted yachts, safely moored at a fashionable marina, but that they might launch out into the surrounding ocean of the world's need, bravely facing every storm and peril that awaited them in order to bring the light of Christ's gospel to those who were in the ignorance and darkness from which they themselves had originally come. They were taught in this school in order that they in turn might teach others the truth that had set them free. Thus John Knox returned with the evangelical doctrine to his native Scotland. Englishmen went back to lead the cause in England. Italians to Italy, Frenchmen to France.

Inspired by Calvin's truly ecumenical vision, which penetrated far beyond the horizon of his own environment, Geneva became a dynamic center or nucleus from which the vital missionary energy it generated radiated out into the world beyond. And I don't have time to tell you, but I wish I did, about one group of missionaries that Calvin sent in the middle 1500s to Brazil. Do you know how far Switzerland would be from Brazil in the 1550s? And yet Calvin sent two missionaries. There is a book that was written in 1972.

You can get it either for $0.50 or $80. It just all depends on the day the Amazon puts it up. Called the Martyrs of Guanabara. The great French Huguenots, remember the French Huguenots were those that French Calvinists in France that were persecuted by the Roman Catholic government. The great French Huguenots, one of my heroes, was Admiral Caspar de Coligny, second, if not first, most powerful man in France, and a Calvinist and a dedicated Christian.

And as long as he was alive, he could hold back somewhat the persecution of the Huguenots. But he saw the handwriting on the wall and eventually he was assassinated. But he wanted to create a society in Brazil where French Huguenots could have the freedom to build a Christian civilization. And so he worked with a man named Vilgadillon, at least that's the way we pronounce French in West Virginia, that they got this man to come with a group of prisoners, as well as some godly French Huguenots, to start a colony where Rio de Janeiro is today. And this governor promised the Huguenots freedom, told Coligny that they'd give them freedom to practice the Reformed faith.

He actually was a student at the University of Paris with Calvin. But once they all get down there, the governor, Bill Gagnon, turns on them, shows his true colors, shows he is a bigoted Roman Catholic, and starts persecuting these poor French Huguenots that were stuck down there in Brazil. He was a beast. And so many of them came back home. Calvin sent two preachers.

But once the governor would not allow them to practice Reformed worship, they went back to Geneva. And So there were a few French Huguenots left, basically laymen, and this beastly governor began to persecute them. There were four men in particular. And I have their names if you want them. Be sure to look them up when you go to heaven because they will be great friends.

One man's name is Burdell, B-O-U-R-D-E-L. Another's name is V-E-R-N-U-I-L, V-E-R-N-E-U-I-L. Another one is Bourdon, B-O-U-R-D-O-N, and another is Lafon, L-A-F-O-N. They were ready to throw in the towel on the colony of Coligny because of the brutality of the governor. They needed money because they wanted to get a boat and take the boat back to France.

So, Vilain Gagnon comes to them and says to them, you need to work, do you, to make money to go back to France? I'm glad to get rid of you. Come to see me tomorrow and we'll work things out. So these four men are thrilled. They get to go home, they get to go back to their wives or families and their churches.

They get to get out from underneath this tyranny. And Bill Gaudinon says, but first I have a series of questions I want you to answer. And I'm just curious, what do you believe the gospel is? What do you believe about priests marrying? What do you believe about baptism and the Lord's Supper?

All these various Roman Catholic concerns. So these four men were thrilled. So they spent literally all night, the next 12 hours, all night long, answering Vilguignon's questions. And they took him to him the next day. And those answers comprised the first confession of faith ever produced in the New World.

None of these guys were preachers. They were tailors, they were teachers, they were blacksmiths, and they produce, and I have it here, and you can find it on the internet, it's called the Confession of Juan Abara, G-U-A-N-A-B-A-R-A. So they're thrilled now, They've answered all of the tyrant's questions. He's gonna give them a job. They're gonna be able to go home.

So a group of soldiers show up at their house the next morning after having stayed up 12 hours writing this. They take them to a cliff. They put cannonballs around their necks. They drop them into the sea. 12 hours.

They knew they were going to. But they said, how can we not confess our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the kind of Calvinists that took the gospel to the world. These are the kinds of men that brought the gospel here and is basically the reason most of us in this room love the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

We'll see. The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources, and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org.