In his sermon titled 'Reformed Theology And Confessionalism,' James Lundquist explores the importance of confessions in summarizing biblical teachings and aiding in the understanding of sound doctrine. He emphasizes that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and confessions serve as a starting point for grasping key doctrines. Lundquist highlights the significance of the Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) as a well-tested guide. He warns against new doctrines that have not stood the test of time, cautioning against prideful educators introducing novel ideas. The sermon delves into Reformed theology, explaining its roots in the Reformation and its focus on God's sovereignty and scripture as the foundation. Lundquist outlines the five solas: sola scriptura, solus Christus, sola fide, sola gratia, and soli deo gloria, along with the TULIP acrostic, which includes total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. He discusses the central question of how a person is justified in the sight of God, emphasizing faith as a gift of grace from God and the role of Christ's atonement. The sermon underscores the importance of God's sovereignty in salvation, asserting that God's grace is irresistible and that He chooses whom to justify. Lundquist concludes by encouraging believers to rely on God's sovereignty and grace, affirming that salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for God's glory alone.

So, number one, I have a couple points there. One, let's talk about confessionalism. This is a short point that I'll get to, but what often comes to mind when we think of confessionalism is the Roman Catholic Church and their confessions or maybe our own confession, their confessing of sin to a priest or maybe our own confession, our own repentance. What a confession is, is it expresses and summarizes the teaching of the Bible. Why is that important?

Because the Bible is the very word of God. We need help in understanding the very word of God. And a confession helps us with that. In 2 Timothy 1, 13, Paul exhorts Timothy, therefore he exhorts us through God. Hold fast the pattern of sound words, sound doctrine.

Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Hold fast to sound words, words that are free from error. There's only one set of words in all of history that are free of error and that's the Bible. Paul is saying God therefore is sound, hold fast to these words. We should be very concerned with the correct teaching of the very Word of God.

And what all of confession does is simply help us understand and know key doctrines, key beliefs about God and what he has told us. I use the Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith regularly on many issues. Name a topic. This is our confession of faith, the Second Lenten Baptist Confession, 1689. Name any topic.

Name any issue in the culture today. And I should be able to get to it from the Word of God. So the Word of God's sufficient for everything. What the confession helps me though is a starting point. Let's talk about it this afternoon.

I don't think there's a topic that you can raise that I can say, okay, I don't know exactly where to start in scripture, but let me start here. I think it might be of the church, or maybe it's about baptism, maybe it's about marriage, maybe it's about the Lord's Supper, maybe it's about God, right? All starts with God. And from there, it can get me to Scripture, which is the key place I want to get to. I need some helps to get me to Scripture at times.

And that's what confessions help me with. And a well-worn confession, like the SLBC, Second Lenten Baptist, confession has been tested for over 300 years. It's not perfect. When I get to glory, I'm going to find out everything that's wrong with it. It's not the word of God, but it's been tested over time, over 300 years on these key doctrines we need to know.

Rob Ventura says that it helps remind us that our job is not to discover new doctrines. The faith we are called to contend for is the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints in Jude 3. I've said it before, say it this way. If there's a doctrine, a doctrine of just a teaching of scripture, a key teaching of scripture, if there's a doctrine, a belief that we get out of scripture that's only been started teaching on the last 50 years, 100 years, 150 years, be careful. I'm not saying it's wrong, but has it really stood the test of time?

That gets to a man's sin and it's that we all tend towards anyway, of wanting to come up with something new, something exciting, something nobody's ever done. There's a lot of pride in that, and there's a lot of prideful educators or teachers out there that want to come up with something nobody's ever seen before, and so these new things crop up. Be careful. Be very careful of them. The confession of your church, whatever church you go to, there's a couple of guests this morning, whatever church you go to, the confession of your church matters and it should be public.

You should know what they believe. You should know it well not only for what they believe but what they believe you should believe and know about God. Most churches have a written confession. It might be small, it might be long, it might be older, it might be newer, but you should know it and know what they think you should believe. Confessionalism.

So let's look at reform theology. Let's start with the brief context. Let's start with a brief context of the Reformation. The Reformation, the word itself is reforming, reforming something. It was time about the reforming of the predominant teaching of the time.

But it wasn't the only teaching. We think of the Reformation, we think of Luther versus the Catholic Church, and we think, Catholic Church, that's all there was, but it's not all there was. God always has a remnant. There have been prophets in scripture that thought they were all by themselves, and God's like, no, you're not. Four hundred years of silence we say between the Old Testament and New Testament.

Does that mean God wasn't working? Does that mean there were no believers during that time? Absolutely not, because we know at a minimum Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. Other people in the temple that were there. Just some key names that were around that have been influencing during this time.

You have Augustine in 400. You have Anselm in 1050, right? Luther's 1517. You have Wycliffe in 1384 who was called the morning star of the Reformation. Revolution in many ways, but the morning star of the Reformation.

That's what, 130 years before Luther? You have Jan Hus in 1411, along with Luther in 1517. You have another monk that was Luther's superior. You have Johann von Stoppitz that was also right there along with Luther. We don't hear much about, I don't know much about him, but he was right there with Luther.

Around the same time you have Zwingli a couple years later, Calvin about 15 years later, and Knox about 50 years later. There was a lot of teaching. Yeah, it was a lonely time for those that thought the Word of God was the Word of God, and we learn and we trust the Word of God. And that's where we're centered. That's where we start.

It was a rarity. It was a predominant view. And that's the Reformation that we have. At the time of Luther, lots of things that the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, believed. There's a lot of things that are wrong with it then and are wrong with it now.

One of the key things that I think may be the worst of all they believe that was the center of what Luther was pushing back on is the belief in the heresy of purgatory. Now why do I call that a heresy? Because it says the heart of that really means when you look at it, Christ atonement wasn't enough. His work was not finished. I'll talk about that more here in a little bit.

But these priests were really wolves, really wolves that are praying P-R-E-Y, praying on people's fears is what they did. They're praying on people's fears to not have to go to purgatory. They might have to spend thousands of years. And how do you minimize that time? You can't eliminate it, most likely, unless you're the pope or somebody else, you most likely can't eliminate it.

So let's help you minimize your time there through penance, through doing things, praying things, different types of prayers, different ways to pray, different ways to serve, different ways to do things, and indulgences. Pay for things. Pay for things. In a house that we lived in, that we were renting, down the basement, we got down there, I was like, is this real? I've never seen this, never heard of that, I've had some Catholic friends, and it's real.

Saw somebody from what, there was a receipt from World War two a Catholic Receipt from World War two with a picture that we burned, but it was it it it was they were they paid They paid during World War two paid for somebody that had died That God would be gracious to them and minimize their time. And I forget how much money it was at the time. It was $0.50 or something like that. But the beautiful cathedrals they think are all beautiful over there in Europe were by the Catholic, were built on these fears of people. Give us money to build these cathedrals, to worship God better, to help the people, and maybe you'll have less time.

Maybe, maybe, No assurance, no assurance. The question Luther needed to answer, and when he got to the chorus, he's looking around and wondering what's going on, and he looks into scripture. The question Luther needed to answer and that he said was the article on which the church stands or falls. Here's the question that is at the center of the Reformation. At the center, the question at the center of Reformed theology is, how is a person justified in the sight of God.

And you have to know that answer. Or there's no heaven, there's no eternal life. You have to know this. How is a person declared righteous as God is righteous? Why do you have to be declared righteous as God is righteous?

Because God commands us to be perfect, to be righteous, to be holy as He is perfect, righteous, and holy. He commands that in the Old Testament and the New Testament. You'll hear that throughout today. Old Testament and New Testament agreeing on what needs to be said on what God says is right and I love it when God makes it that clear that I'm not a different God that God is the same yesterday today and tomorrow He's the infinite. Holy true.

God always was always is always will be In Matthew 25 Jesus says the righteous have eternal life. Connecting justification, being made righteous to eternal life. Since justification makes one righteous for eternal life, we must get this answer right. And Luther was focused on theology. Don't be concerned about theology.

Recommend R.C. Sproul's book called Everyone's a Theologian. Theology is the study of God. Every time you pick up your Bible, you are studying God. Saying what God says is right, is good, is holy, what is just, what is righteous, what he loves, what he hates, what is salvation.

How one is saved, how one is justified, redeemed in the sight of God. God is at the center. That was one of the changes. This one, that one of the changes, one of the things that Luther was getting at and the people that were around him, God's the center, not the church. God's the center, not man.

God's ways are the center, not man's created ways. God's love, God's commands are the center, not man's traditions. The heart of the Reformation in the era of Rome. God is at the center. And The SLBC is based on reformed theology, on starting with the study of God, his sovereignty, his providence over all things That includes salvation.

Our church name reflects our Reformed theological beliefs. Sovereign Redeemer. Sovereign Redeemer. So how do we answer, how is a person justified in the sight of God there's a there's a few key focal points of the Reformation that help us I'm not going to go through them one by one you're gonna you're gonna hear them throughout the rest of the message but but you should know what these are called so we have our the five solas and across it called tulip So we have the five solas and the acrostic called tulip. So we have the five solas, which are sola scriptura, scripture alone, solus Christus, Christ alone, sola fide, faith alone, sola gratia, grace alone, and soli deo gloria, glory to God alone.

And then you also have the acrostic tulip, T-U-L-I-P. Now, don't get bent out of shape if you don't like what these different letters stand for. I'll tease them out, right? There's lots of different ways to do this, but it was helpful. But it is still helpful whether the, what goes with the acrostic is perfect or not.

It was done by man, but it's perfect or not, but it still gets at the heart of justification. And how is one justified? So you have two. Look, you have total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance or preservation of the saints. So let's now, let's work on answering this question.

How are we justified before God? The Reformation started with God as revealed in scripture. If you're gonna reform something, what's gonna be your basis? What's gonna be your foundation? If you're concerned that something is wrong, or in Luther's case, he's reading scripture, how he got to what the predominant teacher was wrong.

He's reading, he's studying scripture, he's a theologian, he's studying God. He's spending all his time, he's a monk, that's about all he's got to do and that's what he's committed himself to, studying God. And as he's studying the Word of God, he's having these concerns, he's seeing stuff that's not lining up with the predominant teaching. And so it starts with the Word of God. Our sinful bent, as I've said, is toward man-centeredness, and we need to be God-centered.

And that's only going to happen if you're centered on the Word of God. If you start with the word of God, you're not just going to casually become centered on God. Study God. So, back to 2 Timothy. Well-worn ground as we've gone through these distinctives, 2 Timothy 3, 15 through 17.

This you know, sorry, 2 Timothy 3, And that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is where we get to the heart of the message. I think the first message may be in this series, the sufficiency of scripture. It is sufficient for all things.

The Bible is the only inerrant, infallible word of God. When Luther has been publishing, he's been writing, he's been talking, he's been giving lectures. And when Luther was called before the leaders of the Catholic Church, he was being pressed to recant his beliefs, to recant his writings, he responded with, quote, unless I am convinced by proofs from scripture, I will not retract. For it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand.

I can do no other. God help me. Amen. Let what happens, happens. He knows the church has martyred people before.

Let whatever happens, happens. But I'm convinced by scripture. You are not convincing me by scripture you're convinced You're trying to convince me by your ways by your creator ways by by your fear by by your created traditions and in for Luther the key text that really set him on this journey was in Habakkuk 2, Habakkuk 2 and Romans 1, Old Testament, New Testament, both say the same things, the just shall live by faith. Which then, Luther begged the question to Luther, and should beg the question to us if you hear the just shall live by faith, right? The just, the righteous shall live by faith.

It should beg the question out of your mouth should be, how is one justified then? How is one justified? How is a sinner declared righteous by God? Well, the verse talks about faith. The just shall live by faith.

Faith is the instrument of justification. Help me with that, God. Help me with that. In Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2.8, I think will be here a couple times in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2.8 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God. So this faith I need is a gracious gift from God, which means I can't earn it because it's of grace, and I'm not owed it by God. God doesn't owe me faith. It's by grace alone. A man-centered view says that I have enough good left in me that when surrounded by God's grace, when I hear the good news of the gospel, or smart enough, we'll choose Christ.

But that's not what God says. When we start with God in his word, we find that that view is not possible. God tells us that we are dead with hearts of stone. A dead person has nothing to offer, much less faith, the ability to have faith or bring that faith out of their heart that may be deep down in there. It's a stony heart.

There's nothing alive in it. To have Ephesians 2.1 says that we are dead in trespasses. It's not the only place that says that. We also have that in Ephesians 2, Colossians 2, John 5, Ezekiel 26, Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 37. Throughout scripture, we are told that we are dead in trespasses.

This is where we get the thought of total Depravity. A total depravity isn't utter depravity. It doesn't mean that we're as sinful as we possibly can be. There is nobody in history, nobody I know where our minds go to, but there is nobody in history that has been as sinful as they possibly could. Bring the name to me and I'll tell you a way they could have been more sinful.

It's absolutely possible. It could have been more wicked. There's nobody in history, no person in history that could have been more wicked. Satan's held back even. He can't be redeemed, he is unredeemable, but total depravity doesn't mean unredeemable either.

If I was walking around in 30, 35, 40 AD, 30 AD or so, And looking at Paul, looking at Saul, I might have been saying there's no way God said he is unredeemable. Look at him against the church. He hates the church. He kills people or he's at a minimum four people being killed for believing in the Christ, believing in the way as it was called at the time. How is he possibly redeemable?

But God redeemed him to be probably the greatest missionary in the history of the world. So total depravity doesn't mean utter depravity, it doesn't mean un-redeemable. What it means is sin saturates us to our core. Our heart, our soul, everything about us is infected by sin. We sin because we're sinners to our core.

And our sin is so bad, it's affected creation. God says that creation even groans about it. It affects creation. There's famine, there's wars because we're sinner, but there's famine, there's hurricanes, there's tornadoes, there's sickness, there's diseases, and ultimately we die. There's thorns and thistles.

Taking dominion is not easy. Our sin affects everything. John six, the flesh profits nothing. Ephesians two, by nature, we're children of wrath. Romans 14, Whatever is not from faith is sin We bring nothing we got we're dead Our flesh profits me nothing.

Oh, it looks good It may look good to the world or compared to your neighbor, God says it's not profiting you anything for salvation, for truly honoring God. Your desire is not there. By nature we're children of wrath, deserving the full wrath of God for our sin. You sin in one part of law, you've committed sin against the whole law. God says it'd be perfect once you sin once and you don't even know when that happens.

It probably happens in the womb, you're not out of conscience of it even, you're not perfect. You're conceived in sin as David says and that doesn't mean that your parents were sinful. When they conceived you, it just means that when God puts you, knits you together in your mother's womb and you were conceived in your mother's womb, that you're bent at that moment is towards sin. And every human has that. And whatever is not from faith is sin.

And since we don't have faith, we can only sin. We're dead. I have no faith. And every sin is building up this unpayable debt to God this debt of wrath for the wages of sin is Death and this debt needs paid to be justified to be righteous to have eternal life. I can't pay that debt though because my flesh profits me nothing.

I can't even get break even. The profits me nothing. Hebrews 11, without faith it is impossible to please God. Romans 3, a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of law. Notice I can't work for that justification.

Romans 3, where Paul is quoting Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, there is none righteous, no, not one. So again, the heart of the Reformation, a reformed theology, is this, how am I justified? How am I declared righteous? And how is that possible? No one is righteous.

No, not one. How is that possible when I'm dead? Well, it says I must have faith, and I can't get into my natural state. So how do I get faith? I Need faith.

How do I get faith now? I'm standing here saying it urgently like but I'm a Christian as a non-christian you're not sitting here looking at this, right? Luther was a Christian and you're not looking, I'm not going through this as a non-Christian, going, I must have faith and I'm urging, like, how do I get this? God show this to me. That's not where, it's not where a non-Christian is.

But I must know, I need this faith. How do I get it? Well, back to Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 again. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. In Romans 11, if by grace, then it is no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace how do I get this faith?

It's a gift of God. By grace alone, from God alone to his glory alone, Hebrews 11, 12, 11, 2. Jesus who is God, the author, the author and finisher of my faith. But the author of my faith is not my heart, is not my desires. I'm dead.

I can't have Godward desires. I can't have desires for really anything. I have no desires for God. I only have desires for sin. So I'm dead.

I don't desire God. I don't desire faith. I can't give myself faith. I can't just pull myself by the bootstraps, look around and say, ah, I have faith. Now Were there Christians before the Bible was written?

Absolutely. Job may have been written before Moses wrote Genesis. Job may have lived before Moses wrote Genesis. We're going to see him. I know there were people there that we'll see in heaven before the first words of scripture were written, but they had to be by faith.

Abraham was saved by faith before the full gospel was expounded, before he knew the name of Jesus. He never knew that until he died. I am justified in my dead and total depravity. I am justified, declared righteous by faith alone, given by God by grace alone. But faith in what, right?

I must have this faith, but faith in what? Faith in what? Faith in the preacher, faith in whoever? Who? Romans 3, 24, God puts this together, Romans 3 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is Christ Jesus.

Romans 3 24. Justified how? By God's grace, through redemption in Christ Jesus. Nothing else, no one else, Christ alone. Redeemed, redeemed the penalty paid for my sin Redeemed from the penalty of sin redeemed from the wrath of God when when people ever ask you what you were saved from Your first should come to mind is I'm saved from the wrath of God.

And that's gonna lead to a great discussion. It will. Whenever I answer it that way, I've been saved from the wrath of God. Most people wanna start with, I've been saved from my sin. That is true.

I've been saved from myself so I can go to heaven. That is true. But if you start with, I'm saved from the wrath of God. God's a wrathful God. He's a loving God.

He's a wrathful God because he's a just God. I'm saved. I've been redeemed the penalty of sin From the earned deserved wrath of God. This gets us to that that that this is God Choosing right how am I saved if I How am I saved from this? How is one saved?

I'm dead. I don't have faith. I have a stony heart. Grace is a gift. Our faith is a gift by God's grace.

So if I can't choose him, I can't desire him to be justified. That only leads me to one answer. I'm justified by God alone because he chooses who to justify, who to redeem, who to make righteous. Those God elects chooses by his sovereign, wise decisions, which we call unconditional election. I can't earn it.

I can't desire it. So it must be chosen by the gift-giver, God alone. 25 times in the New Testament, 25 times, God talks about election and predestination, 25 times, he says, even the elect, his elect, the elect, God's elect, elect of God your election by God He also predestined whom he predestined being predestined 25 times There is nothing a dead enemy can do to compel God to redeem me. I've got nothing to give him. God doesn't need me.

He didn't create me because he needed a companion. He didn't create me because he needed a companion. He didn't create me because he needed worship by me. He didn't create the angels because he needed more worship. He didn't create a universe because he was lonely and needed more things around him.

God is God. God is satisfied in and of himself. He also loves grace he loves being merciful Jesus who is God loved giving himself a redemption of a people he must choose us by grace he must give us well he must gift us with faith alone in Christ Jesus and it must be chosen by that or we have no hope if it's not chosen by him. In Romans nine, we have, in Romans nine, 13 and 15, we have God talking about, Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated. I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and compassion on whomever I have compassion.

Remember, who was the older, Jacob or Esau? Esau. Who was treated like the older? Jacob. Who made that happen?

Oh, you can say Jacob lied. God's the one that did that. He proclaimed that. He said that before he was born that the younger, or that the older would serve the younger. Before they were even born, he told his mother that.

Yes, Esau, therefore the Enamites were wicked. They were wicked, but why were they wicked? God doesn't hate Esau because they became wicked. He hates him because he chose Jacob to love, to be merciful on. That's how we got the line of Israel through that.

God could have easily have decided that it would have been the wisest thing to do to make the nation of Israel come through Esau and change his name to Israel, but that's not what he did. God chose to have mercy and compassion on one and not the other. So, so just leads leads the natural, there's a natural response by us. That's not fair. What did Esau ever do?

But you got the question wrong. He got the question wrong. Esau's treated completely fair. He's a dead enemy of God. Nobody, nobody deserves grace and mercy.

By definition, you don't deserve grace and mercy. There is no injustice in some getting God's grace and others not. Because God's been gracious to one, it's not obligated to be gracious to everyone. We know that those of us that are parents know that. Because I do something for one child, does that obligate me to do that thing for another child?

I'm not God, so I, so right, I'll get it wrong at times of where I do one thing with a child and one with another, but it doesn't obligate me. It doesn't obligate me to treat every lady as I would treat my wife, right? There's no obligation. This is God we're talking about who doesn't even need us to begin with. But He created us and redeems us out of His mercy, out of His grace, out of the power of His grace.

Now If you're here and you're pushing against this, I have one question for you I want you to think of. Think of this. If you're pushing against this, think of this. I want you to consider why you pray then. I want you to consider why you would pray for people and the salvation of people.

You pray saying, God save them. You are calling down God to intervene on many different things, on salvation by His grace. You're calling down on God, God heal them, God restore their marriage, God help them with their finances, God help them with their children, help us in this land. You're calling down God to intervene. And here's the thing.

Once God, when God intervenes once, once, that's all it takes is for God to show his intervention once And that makes him sovereign over everything. Because when you choose to intervene once, then you're choosing not to intervene other times. And intervene's the wrong word, because there we really get to, has got his sovereign over everything. His providence is over everything. Every molecule in the universe seen and unseen, heaven, earth, hell, is completely ordained and sovereignly controlled by God.

People pray like reformed people, therefore embrace God's sovereignty of everything. We pray that way. We do. If you don't believe this, then change your prayers. But I'm begging you don't change your prayers.

Keep praying for God's work, God's gracious work, God's merciful work, God's powerful work. Call on the only holy righteous one that has ever been and ever will be, till he saves us. But we're not eternal. He's the only holy eternal one that declared what is right and wrong. Call on him.

Continue to. So Why did God save me? Because He's gracious. He's gracious. Why didn't He save others?

Because He's just. So redemption is all of grace. By God's election before the foundational world from eternity past written in the lambs written in Jesus book of life God wrote it from the foundation of the world wrote names down who he would say who is part of this church who he would justify, who he would make righteous, who would be gracious to, merciful to, who you would give faith and redeem and save. He wrote that down, he is God, that was wise, whatever's there. I don't know who's there, So I still preach the gospel to everyone.

How does he choose? How does he elect? How is that done? How are they redeemed? How does he elect?

How does he redeem? It's in Christ alone. This penalty for sin must be completely paid to be justified, to be declared righteous. John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one, no one comes to the Father except through me, except through Jesus.

You want justified by God? It has to go through Jesus, who is God. Romans 4, 26, Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Second Corinthians 521, for he, God the Father, made him Jesus, who is God, who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him that we might be justified justified by God in Christ Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead so we could be justified so people could be made righteous So God then could gift them with faith so that's a Jesus did that but for me he did that 2, 000 years ago All right over 2, 000 years ago, but he did it he paid it once he paid the price once and then Jump forward to in the mid 70s somewhere, if I do the math right, 1976, 77, right, Then he gives me faith for work that's already been done. And I'm justified by God.

And Jesus paid that wage for who for his sheep for his sheep John 10 11 10 11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd gives life for the sheep all right that can sound general but the sheep when God talks about the sheep when Jesus talks about his sheep and the sheep, he's talking about Christians, those he would redeem. And then verse 27 through 29 of John 10, my sheep hear my voice, my sheep, specific sheep, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand." This is what we call limited or particular atonement. Christ's sacrifice was only for his sheep, for his bride, for the church, for Christians.

Think about it. If we say that Christ's sacrifice was for all, because it's not fair. What you're saying, James, what you're saying, which I'm saying, Scripture's saying, isn't God powerful? If Jesus is God, isn't he powerful to save everyone? Yes, he is.

Amen, he is. But he doesn't. Why? Because he's all wise. And we must always go back to he is wise, he is God, he knows what's right, he knows what's wrong, he is all righteous.

But if it was for all, right? Okay, if it was for all, then what you're saying is Christ's sacrifice was not enough for most people. So I think I can make a case that there's more people in hell than heaven. I can definitely make the case during Noah's time. If there is a purgatory, then Christ's sacrifice wasn't enough for them.

So I still have more work to do. The Catholic Church teaches that purgatory is a place for purification of the souls. How do you get that from scripture? From scripture you get that God justifies, makes righteous. And when you die, the work is complete, it is finished.

He begins the good work and he completes the good work in you at death You wake up those eyes and you have been remade, not the same way of being born again, but you're remade. Perfect. The righteousness is all there. The remaining sin is gone. You have been declared righteous for salvation, but now you are completely actually physically, righteous, all remaining sin gone that the Catholic Church teaches it to say, hey, it's a mystery of how this happens.

It may be through fire or maybe through cold, but it's a it's a torment of sorts. This purification like refining fire. If if here's the ultimate thing that comes there, brethren, if Christ's sacrifice wasn't enough for some, then ultimately how how could I even trust that it's even enough for me for anything? Where's that hope in that? Keep running that hamster wheel, Keep working for that salvation because you don't know.

You might have a thousand years, you might have a million years, you might have two days, but keep working to try to minimize your time. Because unless you're certain people in the history of the church, that's where you're going to end up, because you can't do enough. So do more, just in case. Romans 3, Romans 3, 3, 26 through 25, or 23 through 26. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation that just means that that Jesus Sacrificed his death on the cross and resurrection was accepted by God for the payment for sin for the wrath that we Deserved and set forth to the propitiation, acceptable sacrifice, by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, Jesus righteousness, because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, right?

He's been long suffering with us to demonstrate that at the present time Jesus righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Since Jesus is God and became man, he is just, perfect, holy, righteous, and the substitute therefore that's able to take the wrath of God that all the sacrifices pointed to, take the wrath of God in our place for our sin, for our justification, and He's the justifier. We're justified through the blood of Christ who is God. We're back to we're justified by God. God commands and he makes the way to obey his commands.

That's the beautiful thing. I can I can try to teach you things but I can't make you believe things? I could tell you one plus one equals two forever. And I can give you the tools to do that, but I can't make you be that way. God commands and gives the ability to obey the commands by giving you faith by his grace.

Romans 5, having been justified by the blood of Christ, we are saved from the wrath through Christ. It's for all who repent and believe in Christ alone for the work to save, the work for salvation is complete. In 1 Corinthians 6 we also hear justified by God. If we all got what we deserved, there's no incarnation, there's no crucifixion, there's no resurrection, there's none of that. There's no reason for Christ to come If his plan is just to give everybody what they deserve, which is the wrath of God.

But Jesus greatly humbled himself because he's God. Instead of being worshipped for the three and a half years he was by everybody that came upon him, oh yeah, there were many. But we read mostly about the ones that didn't, the ones he warns. It's great humility. That's what he does to save his sheep and save a bride.

God chooses to save by the work of Christ alone, by grace alone, by faith alone, that is a gift of God for his glory alone. How does he make these dead people alive, right? He's done all this work. I haven't answered the question though. How does he make these dead people alive?

We know that he's the one that justifies by his grace, by a gift of faith, it's in Christ alone. We know that, but how does he do this? It's what we call irresistible grace. There are people, It doesn't mean there aren't people that resist his grace. Look at the world around you.

There's grace all around us. There's plenty of people hating his grace, especially the grace of the gospel wherever it is preached. What we mean by irresistible grace, it is the power of God. When God gives grace and by grace he gives faith to believe, you will believe. You will repent.

You will believe. John 3 tells us that we must be born again. I couldn't and what God's getting at is I couldn't physically make myself born the first time. I had nothing to do with me being born the first time, right? I can't do anything to make myself born spiritually.

I must be born again, raised from death to life. I need a new spirit within me. That's Ezekiel, right? Back to Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27. Then I, this is God, then I, God, will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean.

I Will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols? And so at that point might say okay. I just need a help getting cleaned up I was I was I was good I was along the way I was headed that way thank you God for the help to finish it he left it there you might be tempted to think that but then you're forgetting the rest of scripture he continues I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them.

God changes my nature. God gives me a new heart. God changes my desires. God changes my will. I am not coming to him kicking and screaming because he makes me alive and I desire to come to him.

That's the irresistible grace. He changes my will and my desires by making me reborn, putting a new heart and a new spirit within me. I had nothing to do with that. I brought my sin. I was dead Trespasses and sins He makes me justified Before him that's the great exchange We call the great exchange Christ takes my sin pays the price with his righteousness and I get his righteousness As if I had always been righteous.

So back to the article on which the church stands or falls and that Calvin says is the hinges on which the Christian life turns the question how is a person justified in the sight of God. It's by grace alone, by Christ righteous is known alone, by faith alone, to God be the glory alone. In that instance of giving, given faith, I am justified, I am declared righteous redeem forevermore. Every Christian in their mind and mind should be saying, Amen, bless the name of the Lord. Praise God.

Doesn't matter how bad you remember your life before salvation or how little you remember because you were saved younger and you had less ways to show your rebellion. You were older and you had many ways to show your rebellion against God. It took the same grace, the same work of Christ to redeem you. And how long are you redeemed? Forever.

Perseverance or preservation of the saints. He will keep us forever, never leave us nor forsake us. In Ephesians 1, God tell us, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance. In Philippians 1, in Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ, Jesus. Romans 835 through 39 read earlier, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation? No. Distress? No. Persecution?

No. Famine? No. Nakeness? No.

Peril? No. Sword? Death. Does death separate you from the love of Christ?

No. As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reformed theology starts with God and believes and applies God's Word. Since salvation is by grace alone, not the tiniest part earned, nothing for us to boast in it of ourselves, we boast only in Christ. 2 Corinthians 10, he who glories, boasts glories in the Lord. He who boasts, boasts only in the Lord. Finish with Romans 8, a couple applications.

Beginning of what we read earlier, Romans 8, 28, and 30. And we know that all things were together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew. One time he just looked down the corridor of time and said, ah, they're going to choose me, so I'm going to say them no, whom he foreknew, who he had already ordained, who had already written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundations of the world. He also predestined, so you can't get away from that word, to be conformed to the image of his son, that only happens if you're saved, if you're redeemed, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, Whom he predestined, whom he chose, he called.

Whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. God, we bring nothing of ourselves, nothing of ourselves. That greatly humbles me. Often I think much of myself.

But God, thank you. Praise to you, glory to you for your grace and your mercy. Praise you for your justice and praise you, Christ, that you satisfied the justice and redeemed a people. Amen. There are a couple applications that I forgot to give.

Sorry, the application one. I believe and we teach these are foundational truths. You won't hear it this hard in every message, right? But it is the backdrop to everything we believe and is foundational to everything we have so we believe these are foundation truths but listen to this in in telling the gospel and telling the gospel I should be able to stand next, right next to my non-reformed brother or sister, and we both preach the gospel and we both agree with one another. I must be able to do that.

You are not saved by reformed theology, by believing reformed theology. You're not saved. Now, when he says the gospel, I know I'm putting it through my filter. And when I say the gospel, I know he's putting it through his filter. We have filters, right?

But I should be able to present the Gospel. That doesn't have to sound like this. How many of us were saved believing this? Not me. That's not a requirement for salvation.

To believe this. The requirement for salvation is repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe that your sinner, God came to earth, lived the perfect life that I could not live, died the death I deserve, rose again from the dead, for all who repent and believe in him shall be saved." We all have a filter and you're hearing your own things through that, but he can be able to say, I believe he could say the same thing. So when you're presenting the gospel or learning how to present the gospel, practice that. Practice that where I can stand shoulder to shoulder.

Someone that's not, I'm not talking about a heretic, there are heretics that don't believe, but I'm talking about a Christian. There are Christian brethren, there are more Christian brethren probably that aren't reformed in our at least in their thoughts that way which fell print the gospel and agree that it's to the glory of God alone. Number two, do you need justification? Yes. Yes.

Well, here's the question. You know if you haven't repented and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. You know if you haven't. So listen to me. I'd ask you to look at me.

Maybe you don't want to look at me for this. But at least listen. The question you might have is, The question you might have is, the question you might have is, well how do I know if by God's grace he has given me faith to believe and repent? You know how you know? Repent and believe.

That's how you know. That's how you know He's been gracious to you. Do it now. Repent and believe. How do you know?

How do you know if Christ's atoning sacrifice paid for your sins and He will keep you for all of eternity? Repent and believe and you know. You might struggle with assurance but let us help you along the way. But how do you know? Repent and believe.

That's how you know. He gives you a new heart. How do you know you have a new heart? Repent and believe. How do you know you have a new spirit within you?

Repent and believe.