It’s commonly alleged that Calvinists don’t evangelize or make disciples, or that it’s inconsistent for them to do so. In this message, Robert Bosley will show that historically this has not been the case—in fact, the opposite. Further, theologically this does not follow the Scriptures, as God uses means to accomplish his predestined ends, and preaching the gospel is the means of saving the elect. Finally, while there can be a lax attitude toward evangelism and discipleship among some Calvinists, this comes from a misunderstanding of the doctrine, not as a necessary consequence.  

Our Father, we come before you this morning so thankful for your blessings. Thank you Lord for giving us another day. Thank you for giving us a day to rejoice in your gifts, to enjoy the good things that you've given us. God I pray that you would take my words and the words of the other speakers in the sessions this morning and throughout the rest of the day and God may you cause them to bear fruit. In ourselves we can do nothing.

In myself I know that I have no power to to do anything but God by your spirit you can make words have power and take effect and bear much fruit and I'm God I pray that you would do that today. Help us to be attentive to your word as it's proclaimed throughout this day. Lord, thank you for all the men who are speaking and God may you be glorified in all the messages that are done today. Lord, help us to speak what is proper, what is necessary, and Lord in all that may you be glorified and may the name of Christ be magnified among His people here today. In His name we pray, amen.

So again the topic that we're going to consider this morning is the question, does Calvinism hinder making disciples? I would imagine if you have spent much time on the internet, on social media, in any type of theological conversation regarding the doctrines of grace or the sovereignty of God, this has been brought up at some point. The idea that if you're a Calvinist, you believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, you can't evangelize. Why do any of these things? It's predetermined.

It doesn't matter. Well today I want us to look at that in light of history and in scripture. And I want us to consider how we can answer this question. I want us to begin by reading 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. The apostle Paul writing to his protege Timothy says, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains, but the word of God is not chained.

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So Paul writing here, he says he endures all things for the sake of the elect. God has his chosen and the apostle endures all things so that God's chosen ones, those who will receive salvation would receive it. Paul seems to not have any conflict in his mind with the sovereignty of God and election and the need of preachers to proclaim the message of salvation. Now I would imagine that most of us in this room are Calvinists or at least sympathetic to the doctrines of grace.

Maybe you don't fully know what the doctrines of grace are. Maybe you've been raised in a family and in a church that holds on to those things but you're not sure about them yourself. There might even be a few Arminians or other kind of synergists here and I'm sure a few strange creatures in between. But regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of the sovereignty of God and man's freedom, I am sure that any of us who have thought about these issues long have had the question arise in your mind if not asked to you pointedly. If Calvinism is true, why evangelize?

If what we say about the sovereignty of God is true, why send missionaries? Why do these things? And I want us to answer that question today. Now to lay my cards on the table, I am fully convinced of the doctrines of grace. I believe Calvinism is true.

To borrow Steve Lawson's phrase that he used in the preacher's conference a few days ago, I'm an eight-point Calvinist. Five points just isn't enough. I want even more of them. So I am fully on the Calvinism bandwagon, we could say. But I myself, even many years ago, made the mistake that many do, thinking that if you have a high view of the sovereignty of God, then it's inconsistent to be active in discipling and evangelism.

It struck me as strange when I first heard these things. Suffice it to say I was mistaken and I want to show that today. I do not believe that Calvinism is in any way a hindrance to making disciples. Now if you go online you see the conversations people have and even many books have been written, you'll see that there are many people who would argue against that point. There are many who would oppose loudly, saying, no, you have to see that there's some sort of inconsistency with a high view of a divine sovereignty and the need for preachers.

But I actually want us to see that Calvinism, rather than being a hindrance to evangelism, rather than being a hindrance to making disciples, it should actually cause us to be more zealous. It should actually encourage us and fuel us to become zealous and faithful disciple makers. One last introductory point. We're discussing Calvinism and I want to be clear in what I mean by Calvinism. I'm not referring to the whole systematic theology of John Calvin.

I'm not referring to the broad sweep of what we call reformed theology. Specifically, Calvinism deals with how the relationship of God's sovereignty and man's salvation interact. The doctrines of grace are often called the the five points of Calvinism is what I'm referring to. Many of us if not all of us are familiar with the the acronym TULIP. That's what I mean by Calvinism today.

So T, I'm gonna go through the TULIP acronym to give you a definition, make sure that we're all on the same page when you hear what I'm saying about Calvinism. So the acronym TULIP, the T stands for total depravity. This is the idea that all of us are born sinners, that sin has affected every part of our being. It's not just that we do bad things, but at the core of us we are bad. We are fallen sons and daughters of Adam.

Now it doesn't mean that everything the sinner does is purely sinful. Jesus even said that evil men can give good gifts and do good things, particularly for their children. Or it doesn't mean that every person is as sinful as they could be, but it does mean that every part of us, the totality of who we are, is affected by sin. So that's the T, the U in Tulip, unconditional election. If men are this fallen, then how can they be saved?

It is not something, their salvation is not something that is grounded in who they are. They cannot, men cannot, as fallen sons of Adam, seek God on their own. It is God who saves. God is the one who elects, Not in view of anything good or virtuous in the sinner, but He elects unconditionally. He elects on the basis of His good pleasure.

L, limited atonement. This is probably the most controversial for most people. This was what held up me for a long time. But L, the limited atonement. If God has chosen who He will save out of the mass of fallen humanity, The question then becomes, for whom did Christ die?

And the answer logically, and I do believe biblically, is that Christ came and died for a specific people. He came and He gave His life as a ransom for many, those whom God had elected to salvation. Christ is a perfect Savior, not a hypothetical Savior. He took names to the cross. He did not merely make salvation possible for the mass of humanity.

He is a perfect Savior who will receive the full reward for his suffering. I, irresistible grace, if men are this sinful they cannot choose God and God is that gracious and elects some to life and sends his son to die in their place, then what is the role of the Spirit? The Spirit takes that perfect sufficient work of Christ and applies it to the elect at the proper time according to God's will. God draws all his elect to himself and the Spirit makes that drawing irresistible and effectual. Now that's not to say that every work of the Spirit is irresistible.

Obviously the Scripture itself says that you always resist the Holy Spirit, But what irresistible grace means is that at a certain point all opposition, all your stubbornness, all your hard-heartedness is overcome by the Spirit of God in the heart of the elect. God will save those he has chosen. P. Perseverance of the Saints. If God will not fail to draw and redeem all He has elected and all for whom Christ died, He will not lose one of them.

They will not fail to persevere in their faith. He will preserve them. Though the world, the flesh, and the devil wage war against the Christian God will keep his own not one of them will be lost all that the Father has chosen all for whom the Son has died all that the Spirit will work a work of grace in they will continue in faith and be saved in the end. They will stand before God and enjoy His favor. So that's what I mean when I talk about Calvinism.

Now I want us to begin answering the question of does Calvinism hinder making disciples by looking at history? Since Calvinism did not come into existence in the 2020s, we ought to look back at what previous generations of people who held to these doctrines said and did. And I want us to propose that the first answer to the question does Calvinism hinder making disciples is history says no it does not. Now there's so much that we could consider, we are going to merely take a brief look at about 300 years of history, from the Reformation to the beginning of the modern missionary era. Now the reformers were often criticized in their day and even today were criticized for a lack of missionary activity.

However, much of this criticism is unfair. It is simply not true. Now, yes, at the time the Roman Church was very active in sending missionaries around the world. Think of when the Reformation happened. It's 1517 when Luther nails the thesis on the door in Wittenberg, it's only been a few decades since the New World was discovered.

There's many missionaries and colonists going to the New World and going to these new areas that have been discovered, and you have this explosion of travel around the world and much of this is missionary activity. I don't want to focus on the method of the mission activity of the Roman Church, But suffice to say that the reformers came along and they had a slightly different take in many ways. But when the Reformation begins it is not a missionary movement, it is as the name implies a reform movement. The whole idea is we are wanting to purify and and reform the church as it exists. Luther never intended to create a new church.

He wanted to reform what existed. But as time went on and the differences became more and more pronounced. Each side crystallized in their views and by the time you get to the Council of Trent in 1545 it was obvious that there was no longer any chance of reunification. But the goal was always to reform the church. The Reformation did not begin as a missionary movement.

And it's also very hard for the reformers to be engaged in extensive overseas missions when the main sea powers of the day are heavily Catholic, France and Spain. It's much harder for the Protestants to engage in foreign missions when they're mainly landlocked in central Europe. So the Reformation is a reform movement. Its emphasis was not on reaching the un-evangelized primarily, but rather awakening the nominal Christians who had been lulled into a false sense of security by the Roman system in Europe. But even that is making disciples.

We understand making disciples as we've heard already is not merely going out and getting converts. It's not merely getting people to make a decision and say, yes, I believe in Jesus. Making disciples is also teaching them to obey all things I've commanded you. And that was a massive part of the Reformation. Going and teaching nominally Christian Europe what Jesus had said and was teaching them to obey.

Second, the criticism against the Reformers is unfair because it actually isn't true that they had no concern for evangelism or that they weren't missionary minded. This may not been their primary task but it was a concern especially in Geneva. The namesake of Calvinism, John Calvin, was the primary reformer in the city of Geneva, and under his leadership the city became an absolute powerhouse of discipleship and missionary activity. Under Calvin, missionaries, church planters, preachers, disciple makers of all kinds were sent out from Geneva to preach the gospel, not just to the nominal but to the unreached. During his time, the academy in Geneva trained over 1,500 men who took the gospel all over Europe and even to the New World.

Now we don't know the exact numbers but at 1500 is a safe estimate. Many of the names weren't recorded because of security concerns. Calvin was particularly zealous to see his home country of France reached with the true gospel. To that end, many refugees, many Protestant refugees fleeing the persecution in France, came to Geneva where They were then educated and trained and then sent back to France to be evangelists and church planters. They were so successful in about the 10 years when this church planting mission to France was most active, the number of Protestant churches in France increased from a small handful to over 2,000 in about 10 years.

The French missionaries were so successful that it's possible that by 1562 that nearly half the royal family were professing Calvinists. Other missionaries and church planners were sent to other parts of Europe including the first Protestant mission to the Netherlands which famously would go on to fully embrace the doctrines of grace and where we would become the site of the Synod of Dort, which is where the the five points of Calvinism that we talked about earlier were formulated in response to the Armenian controversy. And this disciple-making zeal in Calvin's Geneva was not confined only to the Europeans. In 1556, Calvin sent church planters as part of a larger mission to Brazil. And remember, this is only about 50 years after the Europeans even knew Brazil existed.

The Catholic Church had already established missions there. There were colonists there from Portugal, Spain, But the Protestants recognized the need to send their own missionaries, not just colonists, not just refugees, but also to send Protestant missionaries who would reach not just the Europeans who had arrived, but even to evangelize the native peoples there in Brazil. Sadly the mission ended in tragedy after a few months the leader of the mission apostatized and betrayed the missionaries to the local Catholic officials. Several missionaries were exiled and the rest were murdered. But on top of all of this is a great zeal and an endless stream of Christian literature also being published in Geneva.

So much so that printing actually became, during Calvin's tenure in Geneva, printing became the leading industry in Geneva. They were so zealous and so concerned with getting not just Bibles but good Christian books into the hands of the people that printing became the dominant industry in the city. By the end of Calvin's life you could look at Geneva and say that its second greatest export was Christian literature and Its greatest import was Christian preachers Its greatest export was Christian preachers So if Calvinism hinders making disciples Clearly no one took the time to tell Calvin that. They were zealous for making disciples among the unreached as well as strengthening and equipping those who had already professed faith. Now moving on from Geneva we see that this missionary and disciple-making impulse didn't end with Calvin.

The heirs of the Reformation in England and in the Americas, the Puritans, carried on this legacy. The Puritans often get a very bad rap on, well, just about everything. Most, almost all of it unfairly. But especially when it comes to missions and evangelism. Now It is true that the 17th century Puritans were not as zealous for foreign missions as the 18th century Evangelicals and Calvinists were but again, this is largely a circumstance of history The Puritans were embroiled in many political conflicts and it's hard to send missionaries overseas when you're fighting a civil war.

It's also hard to engage in foreign missions when you're being kicked out of your churches and when the denominational head is expelling you from your congregations. But in spite of all the opposition that the Puritans faced, they were masters of disciple making in their own churches, in their homes, in their communities, and among the unreached. They were zealous not only for right doctrine and preaching, which is really what we typically think of with the Puritans, the precision, the doctrinal accuracy that they brought to their preaching, but they weren't concerned only about that in their preaching, but also in the hearts and minds of their hearers. Like Calvin's Geneva, they were prolific in publishing literature in order to make disciples, including many evangelistic tracts and booklets that are even still printed and used today. They were zealous to bring awakening to those who had not yet been converted or who were merely nominal in their faith.

We could spend the whole morning discussing the Puritan emphasis on holiness and doctrinal instruction to the average churchman. The Puritans as a group had the great lofty goal of making everything holy to the Lord. And to that end the Puritan ministers saw it as their duty to educate and instruct their congregants from the smallest children to the elderly on their deathbed. What it meant to follow Jesus, that was their great passion. They were zealous to make true disciples of those under their care.

But also missionary activity, reaching the lost, reaching those who have not yet heard. Most prominent among the foreign missions that the Puritans engaged in was in the New World among the Native Americans. John Elliot is probably the most prominent of these Puritan missionaries to the Native Americans. John Elliot, he was nicknamed the Apostle to the Indians. So great was his zeal and his concern for the salvation of the Native Americans in in New England.

Now while some missionaries were unfortunately most focused on making the Native Americans into Englishmen rather than making them into Christians. Elliot rather had a laser focus on saving souls and bringing them to Christ. He encouraged Indian settlements, he encouraged them to hold on to as much of their culture as they could as Christians. He encouraged Indian publication in their own languages. He preached to them in their language.

The crowning achievement of his life was the publication of the Bible into the Algonquin language. And he is just a small sample of the Puritan commitment to making disciples among the unreached. Now yes, it's true that not every Puritan was a Calvinist, but clearly Calvinism was the main view of the Puritans as a whole, and it clearly did not hinder them in making disciples among the unreached and among their congregations and among their people. Now if the Reformers and the Puritans are not enough for you, the modern missionary movement should be the final nail in the coffin to the idea that Calvinists don't evangelize or make disciples. My time is getting away from me so I'm going to shorten this pretty significantly but let's consider what is called the father of modern missions William Carey.

He in particular stands as a rebuke to those who think that Calvinism means you can't be concerned about missions. As a committed Calvinist, he rejected the hyper-Calvinism that was common in his day, that had perverted the doctrines of grace. There were those who said, if God is sovereign, we don't need to evangelize. Famously, when Carey first publicly aired his his desire to go and preach the gospel among those who were unreached, John Ryland Sr. Is reported to have said after composing himself because he got angry, reportedly he said young man sit down When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine.

Now, that's probably apocryphal. His son, John Ryland Jr., actually joined Cary. He was a part of the missionary society. He actually said that never happened. But regardless, that does give you, have a feel of what Kerry was up against.

There were those who had perverted the doctrines of grace. But it was warm-hearted, zealous, Calvinist-like William Kerry, who launched the modern missionary movement. Carey, for instance, he went to India in 1800, labored for years translating the Bible into dozens of languages, preaching and making disciples until his death in 1834. All the while doing this not in spite of his Calvinism but because of it. He went to India because he said because he knew the sovereign God would accomplish this task.

And this set the stage for the next hundred years or more in the missionary movement. We could go on and on with other Calvinistic evangelists and missionaries, George Mueller, George Whitefield, John G. Peyton, Charles Spurgeon, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, even more modern, Martin Lloyd Jones, R.C. Sproul, men who were zealous to make disciples. So we have to look at history and ask if we are asking the question does Calvinism hinder making disciples we look at History and the answer is a resounding no It did not hinder it.

In fact, it fueled it And so I want us to see that that's also the conclusion we get to from Scripture. So history says no, what does the Scripture say? We began with reading 1st Timothy 2, 8 through 10. I want to read that again. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer even to the point of chains but the word of God is not chained therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory The Apostle Paul in prison here and suffering for the gospel says, I endure all these things.

I endure all things for the sake of the elect. But Paul, if they're elect, if God's chosen them, then won't they be saved regardless of what you do? I don't think that question would have even made sense to the Apostle Paul. He clearly believed and he operated on the assumption that that God's election of certain individuals was not opposed to preaching the gospel and God's ordained means of bringing salvation to that elect people. If you ask Paul, Paul wouldn't they be saved without you?

Paul would respond, I'm the God-ordained means to bring that salvation to the elect. This same Paul who says here, I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain that salvation. He is the same one who wrote the golden chain of redemption in Romans chapter 8. Where he writes, those whom God foreknew, He also called. Those He also called, He justified.

Those He justified, He's glorified. And no matter how you try and cut that up or divide it or reword it, it is absolutely crystal clear that there is no cooperation with you and God in your salvation in that passage. It is God who foreknows, it is God who calls, it is God who justifies, it is God who glorifies. He loses none of those he foreknows and calls. They will be saved.

They will endure to the end. The same Paul who wrote that said that he endures all things for the sake of the elect. God ordains not merely the ends, but He has also ordained the means. He has ordained that the elect would receive salvation, but He has also ordained that men would go and preach the gospel so that that elect group would be saved. Just a few chapters after the golden chain of redemption in Romans chapter 8, Paul lays this out very clearly in Romans chapter 10 beginning in verse 13.

He's quoting the Old Testament. He says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. As Calvinists, we don't need to be afraid of the word whoever, okay? The Arminians import a lot of baggage into that word as if it implies some sort of ability, as if it's saying that everyone has an equal ability to be saved. It's not saying that.

It's a simple statement that any or whoever calls will receive. Whoever calls will be saved and they will find in Christ a perfect Savior. He says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and goes on, but how will they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe if they've not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

And how will they preach unless they are sent? Here we have the whole missionary and evangelistic enterprise laid out before us. And this follows what Paul has said throughout all the rest of the book of Romans. Romans 1 through 3 about the deadness of man and sin, total depravity. About Romans 4 and 5, the promises of God and giving Christ as the propitiation for those who would believe.

You have limited atonement. 6 and 7, about the promise of new life in Christ In Romans chapter 8, the golden chain assuring the absolute perfection in God's ability to save those whom he foreknew. Romans 9, about the freedom of God to choose and to save whom he will. He then turns to how will they believe without a preacher? There is no conflict in Paul's mind.

The absolute sovereignty of God is not at odds with preaching. It is actually the motivation for preaching. The sovereignty of God did not dampen Paul's fervor for the evangelism of the lost, Rather it stoked it, it fueled it, it provoked it. Far from dumping water on the fire for missions and evangelism, real warm-hearted Calvinism pours gasoline on it. And it should inflame us and drive us to preach clearly and loudly and proclaim the message that we have a sovereign God and a perfect Savior.

That is what Calvinism should do. Now why is this the case? Because the Calvinist knows that God will save his people. God has his elect and he will not fail to save each and every one of them. And therefore the Calvinist preacher, the Calvinist missionary, evangelist can go preaching the gospel without trying to make it palatable to sinful fallen men and the Calvinist missionary can know that God will do his work and he will save his people.

We don't have to go oh man how can I make this appetizing to the people? How can I entice them? How can I get them to sign on the dotted line? No, we go in full confidence knowing that the Spirit of God will accomplish this work in the hearts of God's people. So we go to our homes, we go to our own communities, we go abroad knowing that God has His elect and that He has ordained the means of preaching to bring them in, preaching and personal evangelism.

We see this consistency throughout Scripture. God has ordained the means as well as the end. We go knowing that there is a definite number of the elect. I think we see a hint of this in Revelation chapter 7. If you think of what happens there, what you see in Revelation 7, you have 144,000 that are sealed.

John hears those numbers. He hears that there are this definite number sealed. But then he turns, and he turns from what he hears to what he sees. A great multitude from every tribe, tongue, and nation. I believe that's the same group.

Revelation is a symbolic book. Not going to argue about that. We're just going to go with it, alright? It's a symbolic book, it's the same group, this definite number of 144,000, God knows exactly who they are, where they are, it is a numberless multitude from every nation and tribe all over the earth. He has his elect, he knows who they are, and they will all stand before the throne of God robed in white.

We go to the nations knowing the promise of Psalm 2 that the Father has said to his Son, ask me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. The Father has promised to give a people to his Son, but then what does the Son do? He turns to us and says, go and make disciples. We are part of that work of the Father giving the nations to his Son. It's a promise and we're bringing it to pass by God's grace.

And so the scriptural answer to the question, does Calvinism hinder making disciples? Absolutely not. Rather, it fuels making disciples. Now, history says no, the scripture says no, Calvinism is not a hindrance to making disciples. Unfortunately we are not always perfectly consistent with our theology.

We often fail to live up to our ideals and to what we believe. Unfortunately, we know we can look around and we can look at our even ourselves and our Calvinistic brothers and sisters and say sometimes it seems like it does hinder making disciples. It shouldn't, but sometimes it does. I know a story of a man that he was a professing Calvinist and he had several children, but he seemed to have no concern for their souls. He let them run wild.

He did not really discipline or train them. He wasn't evangelizing his children, and he was confronted one day by a fellow churchman who said, what are you doing? You need to preach the gospel to your children. And the guy responding said, well, but we're reformed. If God's elected them, they'll be saved.

God forbid that we should have such an attitude. God forbid. That is not Calvinism. That is now degenerated into hyper Calvinism. A perversion of the doctrines of grace that says it's utterly meaningless for you to do anything.

That's not true. That's not what we see in Scripture. That's not what we teach. Ian Murray in his book Spurgeon versus Hyper Calvinism, he concluded in this way, the final conclusion has to be that when Calvinism ceases to be evangelistic, when it becomes more concerned with theory than with the salvation of men and women, with acceptance of doctrine, where when acceptance of doctrine seems to be more important than acceptance of Christ then it has become a system, or it is a system going to seed and will invariably lose its attractive power. It's gone to seed, it's gone wild, it's gone out of bounds, it's been perverted.

That's not Calvinism. We read in Ezekiel chapter 3 that God had established the prophet as a watchman on the walls. And that is in a sense true for us. God says to Ezekiel, son of man I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel therefore hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked you shall surely die and you give him no warning nor speak to warn the wicked of his way to save his life that same wicked man shall die from his iniquity but his blood I will require at your hand." God, yes, has an elect people, which then does mean there is a non-elect people.

But our job as Calvinists is not to know who the elect are. We are the watchmen on the wall. We see sinners in need of a Savior, and so we go to them. We proclaim the free and full forgiveness of sins in Christ alone, and We know that God will save his elect. We have great confidence Because God will save his people But we go as those watchmen on the wall knowing that Yes, God will save his people The elect will receive the judgment they deserve, or the reprobate will receive the judgment they deserve.

But that doesn't remove our responsibility. We have an obligation to warn, to preach, to exhort, to encourage, to compel as much as we are able, telling them, look to Christ and be saved. All the ends of the earth. So with the last couple of minutes, what does this, what does all this mean for us? How do we apply this?

Well first of all, if you are a professing Calvinist, you believe these doctrines of grace, which you should. I believe they're in the Bible, so you should believe them. Don't be bothered. Don't be disturbed when someone brings this accusation against you. It's not a good argument.

It's not a valid argument. When your Armenian friend says, how can you evangelize? I evangelize because I'm a Calvinist. I can go out with confidence knowing that God has an elect people. And we can look back at our Calvinist heritage and see that it is filled with passionate disciple makers, evangelists, and missionaries.

Second, we need to guard our hearts that the error of hyper Calvinism doesn't creep in. We should be zealous, warm-hearted, evangelistic Calvinists, those who love the sinner and want to see salvation come to our friends and family and neighbors. Don't, excuse me, don't let this claim have any purchase in your heart. Don't let your life be another excuse for the or another example so called for them to say see Calvinists aren't concerned with making disciples. Be zealous.

Now that's going to look different for people in different situations. Not everyone's a pastor. Not everyone's going to be a missionary. Most people shouldn't be missionaries, honestly. You have to be qualified.

You mothers especially. It's going to look very different for you. You stay at home moms. Your mission field is your children. Don't let anyone guilt trip you and say that you're lesser because you're not going out and sharing tracks on the street corner.

Your primary mission as mothers is your children. Evangelize your children. So lastly, what do we do as Calvinists who see the need to preach the gospel, we go and make disciples. We obey the command of King Jesus to go and make His name known wherever we are put. Wherever God places us, we go and we preach the gospel.

We go knowing that our God will do what he has promised to do, that he will save his people. We know that the Son will receive the full reward for his suffering. And so we go, we pray, we preach to that end. So let everything that you've heard this morning and the rest of this conference, may it work in your heart to make you zealous for making disciples wherever God has placed you. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your grace. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful truth that you have given us that you are a sovereign God but you are also a God who saves and a God who has ordained not merely the ends but also the means and Lord you have called us to participate in this great mission. Lord may we be encouraged by what you have said to us in your word that you will not fail to accomplish your ends. Your word will never return to you void. Lord may we take heart knowing that and may we be encouraged and go confidently to make disciples not in spite of believing the doctrines of grace but because of them and God may you be pleased to use us as instruments in your hands for the salvation of your people all around this world.

Lord, bless the rest of our day. Be with the other speakers as they continue and bless this conference. May it be a great encouragement to each of us. May it conform us to the image of your Son and ultimately God may it glorify you and magnify Christ and build your kingdom in this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.