This coming Saturday is October 31. And for most Americans, that means Halloween.

But October 31 is also the anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of Christianity.

On October 31, 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety-five propositions to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Now, Luther wasn’t trying to start a new denomination. He wasn’t trying to overthrow the Roman Catholic Church. He was a Roman Catholic priest and a professor of theology. And he was deeply troubled by some of the things that were being taught and practiced in the church.

Especially the sale of indulgences.

The church was telling people that they could obtain relief from the penalties of sin through the purchase of indulgences. And Luther was convinced that this practice was not only corrupt, but that it was making a mockery of the gospel.

So he challenged it.

And that challenge helped set in motion what we now call the Protestant Reformation.

Over the next several decades, men like Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and others would lead a movement that transformed the Christian world.

At the heart of that movement was a question: how does God save sinners?

Does God save us because we do something to deserve his favor?

Does God do his part, and then wait for us to do ours?

Or is salvation, from beginning to end, the work of God’s sovereign grace?

The Reformers became convinced that the Bible taught that salvation is entirely a work of grace.

Not that sinners don’t repent. They do.

Not that sinners don’t believe. They must.

Not that Christians don’t obey. They will.

Not that Christians don’t do good works. We do them gladly.

But behind our repentance, behind our faith, behind every good thing that takes place in the life of a Christian, is the gracious work of God.

And the glory for our salvation belongs to him.

In the years following the Reformation, Christians continued to debate exactly how God’s grace operates in salvation. One of the most important of those debates took place in the Netherlands in the early seventeenth century.

The followers of a theologian named Jacob Arminius challenged several aspects of the Reformed understanding of salvation. In 1610, shortly after his death, they presented five objections that became the subject of a major international gathering of Reformed church leaders known as the Synod of Dordt, which met in 1618 and 1619. The Synod’s response, known as the Canons of Dordt, eventually gave rise to a famous five-point summary of the Reformed understanding of salvation.

The Bible certainly didn’t wait for the Synod of Dordt to come along before it began teaching these things, but the five points became a convenient way of describing five important doctrines concerning God’s saving grace. And somewhere along the way, somebody came up with an acronym to help people remember them: TULIP.

1. Total Depravity.
2. Unconditional Election.
3. Limited Atonement.
4. Irresistible Grace.
5. Perseverance of the Saints.

Some of those names are better than others. In fact, a couple of them are almost guaranteed to be misunderstood. They have been misunderstood and misrepresented repeatedly over the centuries. So today, rather than using TULIP, we’re going to use another acronym: ROSES.

1. Radical Corruption.
2. Overwhelming Conversion.
3. Specific Redemption.
4. Eternal Preservation.
5. Sovereign Election.

Reformed Christians, including reformed Baptists, know them as the Doctrines of Grace.

Five realities to how God saves sinners.

And we’re going to look at all five of them this morning.

That means we’re going to do something a little different from what we usually do.

Normally, we take a passage of Scripture and work our way through it, examining what the author says, why he says it, and what it means.

Today, we’re going to examine five doctrines, using passages from one book of the Bible: the book of Romans.

And there’s a good reason for that.

Romans contains one of the most thorough explanations of the gospel anywhere in Scripture. Paul explains our need for salvation, what Christ has done to save us, how God brings us to faith, and why our salvation is secure.

And behind all of it stands the sovereign purpose of God.

So we’re going to begin by reading one of the most magnificent passages in the entire Bible.

Romans chapter 8, beginning with verse 28.

S&R Romans 8:28-39

 ²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

FIVE fundamental realities of our salvation by grace

the first fundamental realitiy

Radical Corruption

This is where we need to begin, because unless we see what’s wrong with us, we’re never going to understand what God has done to save us.

The traditional name for this doctrine is Total Depravity.

And that’s one of those expressions that can give people the wrong idea.

When we say that human beings are totally depraved, we don’t mean that every person is as wicked as he could possibly be.

Obviously, that’s not true.

Some people are much more wicked than others.

There are people who commit terrible crimes, and there are people who live outwardly decent, respectable lives.

There are people who are cruel and selfish, and there are people who are kind and generous.

And the Bible recognizes those differences.

But here’s what the doctrine of total depravity actually means.

Sin has corrupted every part of our humanity.

Our minds. Our desires. Our affections. Our wills. Our consciences.

There is no part of us that has escaped the effects of sin.

And that’s why the expression Radical Corruption is useful.

The word radical comes from a Latin word meaning root.

When we say that human beings are radically corrupt, we mean that sin has reached all the way down to the roots of our nature.

It isn’t merely something wrong with our behavior.

There’s something wrong with our hearts.

Turn back to Romans chapter 3.

Beginning in verse 9, Paul makes the argument that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin.

In other words, everybody.

And then he begins quoting a series of Old Testament passages to establish his point.

In verse 10, he says that no one is righteous.

In verse 11, he says that no one understands, and no one seeks for God.

And in verse 12, he says that no one does good.

somebody is bound to object.

“Wait a minute, preacher. There are plenty of people who do good things.”

And that’s true, if we’re talking about things that are good from a human point of view.

An unbelieving mother can love her children.

An unbelieving man can work hard, provide for his family, and be a good neighbor.

An atheist can risk his life to rescue somebody from a burning building.

Those are genuinely good things as far as our relationships with one another are concerned.

But Paul is talking about something deeper.

He’s talking about righteousness before God.

He’s talking about whether fallen human beings, left to themselves, love God with all their hearts and seek his glory in everything they do.

And the answer is no.

Because sin has corrupted our hearts.

There’s another passage that makes this even clearer: Romans 8:7–8.

Paul tells us that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law.

In fact, it cannot submit to God’s law.

And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Notice that word: “cannot.”

Paul isn’t merely describing what sinners happen to do.

He’s describing what sinners are morally incapable of doing.

What is this law of God that fallen man cannot obey? Jesus summarized the whole law in two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Those are normally considered the two tables of the Ten Commandments.

The first four are focused specifically on loving God. The final five elucidate the fundamentals of loving our fellow human beings. The fifth one, honoring parents, is the bridge between the love of your Father in heaven and the love of people on earth.

And as Jesus sees it, the love you owe to God and man is absolute and unadulterated.

And that is precisely what fallen man cannot give.

He can love his wife. He can love his children. He can be generous to his neighbors. He can obey the speed limit and pay his taxes.

But he cannot love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Indeed, apart from God’s grace, he doesn’t even want to.

And that is the problem. Sin has not merely corrupted our behavior. It has corrupted our loves.

We don’t simply need somebody to tell us what to do. We need God to change what we love.

that doesn’t mean people lack the physical ability to do what God wants. It doesn’t mean they can’t understand the words of a sermon.

The problem is that, apart from grace, the sinner doesn’t want the one true God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible—on God’s own terms.

He wants to be his own master.

He wants to run his own life.

He may want God’s blessings. He may want forgiveness. He may even want to go to heaven when he dies.

But he doesn’t want to surrender his rebellion against God.

And here’s the terrible thing about sin.

The sinner’s rebellion is voluntary.

He does what he wants to do.

But his wants have been corrupted by sin.

Think about that for a moment.

If the only problem were that we didn’t know what God wanted, somebody could explain it to us.

If the only problem were that we needed a little encouragement, somebody could encourage us.

If the only problem were that we had developed some bad habits, somebody could teach us better habits.

But what if the problem is our hearts?

What if we love darkness rather than light? That’s what Jesus says is true of us in John 3:19-21.

What if we are hostile to the very God who made us? That’s what Paul says is true of us here in Romans 8:7-8.

Well, then, we need something far more powerful than advice.

We need something miraculous

the second fundamental realitiy

Overwhelming Conversion   

The traditional expression is Irresistible Grace.

And once again, that expression can be misunderstood.

Some people hear the words “irresistible grace,” and they imagine God dragging an unwilling sinner into heaven, kicking and screaming all the way.

As though the sinner is crying out, “No, Lord! Please don’t save me!” And God replies, “Too bad! You’re getting saved whether you like it or not!”

But that’s not what the doctrine teaches.

In fact, it’s almost the opposite.

The miracle of conversion is that God changes the sinner’s heart so that he wants to come to Christ.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t normally save us against our will.

He changes our will.

He opens our eyes to see the glory of Christ.

He gives us a new heart.

In rare cases, like Saul of Tarsus meeting Jesus on the road outside Damascus, This happens in a tsunami of experience and emotion that is simply and utterly irresistible.

Most of the time, though, it’s like the tide coming in. You think you’re sitting safely away from the surf. So you drift off to sleep in the sun and the sand. Then all of a sudden your sunglasses are washing away down the beach into the ocean. You’re not even sure when it happened.

Conversion may overwhelm you suddenly, like a tidal wave, or it may creep up on you slowly, like the tide. But the point is that God gets his way without fail.

Look again at Romans 8:29–30.

Paul describes a series of things God does in saving his people.

He foreknows them.

He predestines them.

He calls them.

He justifies them.

And he glorifies them.

we’re going to come back to predestination a little later.

But for the moment, notice what Paul says about calling.

Everyone whom God calls in this passage is justified.

Everyone.

There isn’t a single exception.

And that tells us something important about what Paul means by calling.

Because there is a sense in which God calls everybody who hears the gospel.

Whenever the gospel is preached, sinners are called to repent and believe.

And many of them refuse.

They hear the invitation. They understand what they’re being told. And they reject it.

So Paul cannot be talking about that kind of calling in Romans 8:30.

Because everyone who receives the call he’s talking about is justified.

Theologians call this the effectual call.

And the word effectual simply means that it accomplishes its intended result.

God calls, and the sinner comes.

how does that happen?

Think about the difference between somebody telling you to do something and somebody causing you to want to do it.

A father can tell his son to clean his room.

He can explain why the room needs cleaning. He can threaten consequences. He can offer a reward.

And the boy may finally clean his room, even though he doesn’t want to.

But suppose something happens that changes the boy’s attitude toward the room itself.

He begins to see the mess for what it is. He begins to want things clean and orderly.

Now he cleans the room because he wants to.

The outward action may be the same, but something has changed inside.

Of course, that illustration only goes so far. God does something infinitely more profound when he saves a sinner.

He doesn’t merely persuade us to make a better decision.

He gives us spiritual life.

And when he does, we begin to see things we never saw before.

We begin to see our sin as hateful.

We begin to see God’s holiness as beautiful.

We begin to see Jesus Christ as the most wonderful person in the world.

And we come to him.

Willingly.

Gladly.

Because God has changed our hearts.

somebody might object that the Bible frequently describes people resisting the Holy Spirit.

And that’s true.

Stephen accused the Jewish leaders of resisting the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 7.

People resist the preaching of the gospel all the time.

But that’s not the question.

The question is whether God’s saving purpose can ultimately fail when he determines to bring a sinner to Christ.

And Romans 8:30 says that everyone whom God calls in this saving sense is justified.

Not because the sinner is stronger than everybody else.

Not because he’s smarter.

Not because he’s more spiritually sensitive.

But because God has graciously brought him to life.

And that ought to change the way we think about our own conversions.

Christian, why did you believe the gospel?

Why did you repent of your sins?

Why did you come to Christ when so many others heard the same message and walked away?

Was it because you were better than they were?

Because you were wiser?

Because you had something inside you that they didn’t have?

No.

You came because God was gracious to you.

And when you understood who Jesus was, and what he had done for sinners, you found yourself wanting him.

That’s overwhelming conversion.

And that’s why we give God the glory for our salvation.

the third fundamental realitiy

Specific Redemption

The traditional expression is Limited Atonement.

And of all five points, this is probably the one that causes the most disagreement, even among people who embrace the other four.

And frankly, the expression “limited atonement” doesn’t help matters very much.

Because it sounds as though we’re saying that there is something inadequate about the death of Jesus Christ.

As though his sacrifice wasn’t valuable enough to save everybody.

But that’s not what we’re saying.

The death of Jesus Christ is of infinite value.

There is no shortage of saving power in the blood of Christ.

The question isn’t whether Christ’s death is sufficient to save everybody.

The question is what God intended to accomplish through the death of his Son.

Did Jesus merely make salvation possible?

Or did he actually secure the salvation of the people for whom he died?

before we look at Romans, there’s something worth remembering about our own Baptist history and it’s something a lot of Southern Baptists today don’t know.

We Southern Baptists have deep roots in the Particular Baptist tradition.

In seventeenth-century England, there were two major streams of Baptist life.

The General Baptists, who largely embraced an Arminian understanding of salvation.

And the Particular Baptists, who embraced the Reformed Doctrines of Grace.

They were called Particular Baptists because they believed Christ died with the purpose of securing the salvation of his elect people in particular. He sacrificed himself for specific people. Do you remember the old gospel song “When He Was on the Cross, I Was on His Mind”? That’s what I’m talking about. The redemption our Lord worked out on the cross was intended for specific people. What Jesus said was “I lay down my life for my sheep.” And there in that chapter of John Jesus clearly distinguishes his sheep from those who are not his sheep.

It’s passages like that in the Bible that led our Particular Baptist forebears to come to the convictions they held about the doctrines of grace.

Many of the Baptists who shaped the Southern Baptist tradition were heirs of that Particular Baptist theology.

The Philadelphia Baptist Confession, which influenced early American Baptist life, was based on the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689.

And the Charleston Baptist tradition, which is even older, was the 1689 word for word.

that doesn’t mean every Southern Baptist has been a Particular Baptist.

But it does mean that these doctrines aren’t some strange Presbyterian invention that has recently found its way into Baptist churches.

They are part of our own theological heritage.

And whether we agree with all of them or not, we ought to understand what they actually teach.

turn back to Romans 8.

Look at verses 31–34 again,

Paul says that God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all: that is, Paul himself, along with all the believers in the church at Rome. It’s clear that ultimately he’s referring to himself along with all the true believers in Jesus until the end of history. That’s who the “us” are.

And then Paul asks how God will not also graciously give us all things with Jesus.

Then Paul refers to us as God’s elect.

And he tells us that God is the one who justifies us.

And Christ is the one who died, was raised, and now intercedes for us.

notice how closely Paul connects those things.

Christ is given for his people.

God justifies his people.

Christ intercedes for his people.

And Paul presents all of this as the foundation of the absolute security of Christ’s people.

Here’s the question.

Did Christ die merely to make it possible for God to save these people? Or did he die to secure their salvation?

Paul’s argument points toward the second answer.

Christ’s death isn’t a possibility that might or might not accomplish its purpose.

It’s the foundation of a salvation that cannot fail.

we need to be careful here.

Romans 8 doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus died only for the elect.

And there are faithful Christians who understand the extent of the atonement differently.

They believe that Christ died for every human being in the same saving sense, even though only believers receive the benefits of his death.

We shouldn’t pretend that their position is foolish or that there aren’t biblical passages they can and do appeal to.

But the Reformed argument is that Scripture speaks of Christ’s death as actually accomplishing redemption for a particular people. It is a total redemption for specific people.

And Romans 8 places Christ’s death within that larger saving purpose.

Think about the difference between a man who offers to pay somebody’s debt and a man who actually pays it.

The first man has made payment possible.

The second man has accomplished something: the debt has been paid.

the illustration isn’t perfect. The atonement is far more than a financial transaction.

But it helps us understand the point.

When Jesus died on the cross, he wasn’t merely opening a door and hoping somebody would walk through it.

He was accomplishing the redemption of his people. It is a specific redemption.

And because he accomplished their redemption, their salvation is secure.

none of this means that we should hesitate to preach the gospel to everybody.

Absolutely not!

The gospel is to be preached to every creature.

Every sinner who comes to Christ in repentance and faith will be saved.

And nobody who wants to come to Christ will ever be turned away because he wasn’t among the elect. The only way he could ever truly want to come to Christ would be if he was among the elect. He will not know he’s among the elect. There’s no such thing as feeling elect. Election is God’s business.

All we need to know is that the invitation is genuine.

The command to repent is universal.

And the promise is certain.

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

But the reason anybody comes, and the reason anybody is saved, is that Jesus Christ has actually accomplished salvation.

Not merely made it possible.

He saves his people from their sins.

This is a specific redemption, won by a spectacular Redeemer.

the fourth fundamental realitiy

Eternal Preservation

The fourth reality is Eternal Preservation.

The traditional expression is “the Perseverance of the Saints.”

And there’s an important distinction between those two expressions.

Perseverance emphasizes what Christians do.

Preservation emphasizes what God does.

And both are biblical.

Real Christians continue in faith.

They persevere.

They don’t persevere perfectly. They may stumble terribly. They may go through periods of doubt, weakness, and even serious sin.

But God doesn’t abandon them.

He preserves them.

And because he preserves them, they persevere.

Once again, we cannot see what God is doing. We only know he’s doing it because he reveals that to us here in his word.

We know we have to continue in grace, because we’re told that we must. We must persevere. And yet the invisible power behind our perseverance is the preserving hand of our loving Heavenly Father.

look at Romans 8:30 again.

Paul says that those whom God justified, he also glorified.

And that’s remarkable.

Because glorification is something that, for us, still lies in the future.

We haven’t yet received our resurrection bodies.

We haven’t yet been completely delivered from the presence of sin.

And yet Paul speaks of glorification as though it were already accomplished.

Why?

Because in the purpose of God, the final salvation of his people is absolutely certain.

Every person God justifies will ultimately be glorified.

Not most of them.

Not ninety-nine percent of them.

Every one.

And then Paul spends the rest of Romans 8 celebrating the security of God’s people.

Who can bring a charge against God’s elect?

Who can condemn them?

Who can separate them from the love of Christ?

And then he begins listing all the terrible things that might happen to us.

Trouble. Persecution. Hunger. Danger. Violence.

And he concludes that none of these things can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Not death.

Not life.

Not angels.

Not rulers.

Not anything in all creation.

think about what Paul is saying.

The Christian’s salvation is secure because God himself has undertaken to bring him all the way to glory.

And nothing can defeat God’s purpose.

Sometimes people hear this doctrine and say, “Well, if that’s true, then I can live any way I please, and I’ll still go to heaven.”

But that misses the whole point.

Remember what we said about conversion.

God changes the sinner’s heart.

He gives him new desires.

He brings him to love Christ.

And the God who begins that work doesn’t abandon it halfway through.

So the doctrine of eternal preservation doesn’t mean that somebody can live in settled rebellion against Christ, without repentance or faith, and still have assurance of salvation because he prayed a prayer when he was twelve years old.

That’s not what Paul teaches.

A genuine Christian may fall into sin.

But he cannot finally and permanently abandon Christ, because Christ will not abandon him.

And that is tremendously comforting.

Because if my salvation ultimately depended on my ability to hold on to God, I’d be doomed.

And so would you.

We know how weak we are.

We know how easily we’re tempted.

We know how often we fail.

But our hope isn’t that our grip on Christ is strong enough.

Our hope is that his grip on us is stronger than anything in heaven or earth.

And that’s what Paul is celebrating in Romans 8.

The God who justified us will glorify us.

The Christ who died for us now intercedes for us.

And nothing can separate us from his love.

the fifth fundamental realitiy

Sovereign Election

And this is where everything we’ve been talking about ultimately begins.

Not in time.

But in eternity.

Because before any of us was born, before any of us believed, before any of us had done anything good or bad, God had already determined to save his people.

the traditional expression is Unconditional Election.

And what that means is that God’s choice of sinners to salvation isn’t based on some good thing he sees in them.

It’s not based on their good works.

It’s not based on their intelligence.

It’s not based on their character.

And it’s not based on their being more likely to believe than somebody else.

God chooses sinners according to his own gracious purpose.

look at Romans 8:29–30.

Paul tells us that those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.

And then he describes how God brings that purpose to completion.

some Christians understand foreknew to mean that God looked down through the corridors of time and saw who would believe in Jesus.

And then he chose those people because he knew they would believe.

But there’s a problem with that interpretation.

Paul doesn’t say that God foresaw their faith.

He says that God foreknew them: the individual people themselves.

And throughout Scripture, knowing somebody  means far more than simply possessing information about him.

It describes a personal relationship of love and commitment.

But we don’t have to settle the entire question from that one word.

Because Paul develops the doctrine of election much more fully in the next chapter.

Turn to Romans 9.

Paul begins by expressing his grief over the unbelief of so many of his fellow Israelites.

And that raises an enormous theological question.

If Israel was God’s chosen people, and so many Israelites have rejected their Messiah, has God’s promise failed?

Paul’s answer is no.

Because not everyone descended from Israel belongs to the Israel of God’s saving promise.

And then he gives us the example of Jacob and Esau.

Two brothers.

Twins.

Same father.

Same mother.

And before either child was born, before either had done anything good or bad, God chose Jacob rather than Esau.

And Paul tells us why.

So that God’s purpose of election would stand.

Not because of works.

But because of him who calls.

And then, in verse 16, Paul says that God’s mercy doesn’t depend upon human willing or exertion, but upon God who has mercy.

that’s a difficult doctrine.

And Paul knows it’s difficult.

In fact, he anticipates the very objections that people still raise today.

Is God unjust?

How can he hold people responsible if his will cannot be resisted?

Those aren’t modern objections.

People were raising them in Paul’s day.

And Paul doesn’t respond by denying God’s sovereignty.

He responds by defending God’s freedom to show mercy.

here’s something we need to understand.

God doesn’t owe salvation to anybody.

If God were obligated to save us, salvation wouldn’t be grace.

It would be a debt.

And if God were obligated to save everybody, then mercy wouldn’t be mercy.

It would be justice.

But the astonishing thing about the gospel isn’t that God doesn’t save everybody.

The astonishing thing is that God does save anybody.

Because every one of us deserves his judgment.

Every one of us has sinned against him.

And yet, before the foundation of the world, God determined to save a people for himself through Jesus Christ.

Not because he found something attractive in us.

But because he is gracious.

And that means the ultimate explanation for our salvation lies not in us, but in him.

there’s a question people sometimes ask.

“If God has already chosen whom he’s going to save, why should we preach the gospel?”

Well, think about the man who wrote Romans.

Paul believed in sovereign election.

And Paul spent his life preaching the gospel.

He traveled across the Roman Empire.

He endured beatings and imprisonment.

He risked his life repeatedly to tell people about Jesus Christ.

In the end he gave his life for the gospel by the sword of a Roman executioner.

Why?

Because the God who ordains the end also ordains the means.

God saves sinners through the preaching of the gospel.

And we don’t know whom God has chosen.

We’re not told to figure that out.

We’re told to preach Christ.

We’re told to call sinners to repentance and faith.

And we’re told that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Election doesn’t make evangelism unnecessary.

It makes evangelism possible.

Because when we preach the gospel, we’re not depending upon our own ability to talk spiritually dead sinners into giving themselves new hearts.

We’re depending upon the power of God.

The same God who called us can call them.

And that ought to make us bold.

I heard about one old Baptist preacher who was interviewing a young man who wanted to be baptized.

He asked the boy to explain the gospel to him and the kid said, “Well the way I figure it, God did his part and I did my part.”

Understandably the preacher was pretty concerned about this, so he asked the boy to explain.

The boy said, “That’s easy. I did the sinnin’ and God did the savin’.” That boy got baptized.

We’ve covered a great deal of theology this morning.

And there are plenty of questions we haven’t answered.

In fact, each of these five concepts could easily occupy an entire sermon—or a whole library.

But here’s what we need to remember.

These doctrines aren’t given to us so that we can win theological arguments.

They’re given to us so that we can understand the greatness of God’s grace.

Think about what we’ve seen.

We were radically corrupted by sin.

But God didn’t leave us in our rebellion.

He called us with a grace that overcame our hostility and brought us willingly to Christ.

And when we came to Christ, we discovered that he hadn’t merely made our salvation possible.

He had actually accomplished our redemption through his death on the cross.

And because he has redeemed us, he will never abandon us.

He will preserve us all the way to glory.

And behind all of it stands his sovereign choice, made before the foundation of the world.

notice something.

We began this morning with the condition of the sinner.

And we’ve worked our way backward.

From our corruption.

To our conversion.

To the cross of Christ.

To the certainty of our final salvation.

And finally, to the eternal purpose of God.

But God didn’t begin with our corruption.

He began with his purpose.

Before we ever existed, he determined to save a people for himself.

And in the fullness of time, he sent his Son to accomplish their redemption.

And by his Spirit, he calls them to himself.

And he keeps them.

Until the day when they stand before him, perfectly holy, perfectly happy, and perfectly secure in his presence.

That’s the gospel of sovereign grace.

And there’s something else we need to see.

Every one of these doctrines takes away a reason for boasting in ourselves and gives us another reason for boasting in Christ.

If salvation depended upon my goodness, I could boast in my goodness.

If it depended upon my wisdom, I could boast in my wisdom.

If it depended upon my ability to make the right decision, I could boast in my decision.

If it depended upon my ability to hold on to Christ, I could boast in my faithfulness.

But if salvation is the work of God’s sovereign grace, from beginning to end, then all the glory belongs to him.

And that’s precisely where Paul brings us in Romans 11.

After explaining the sovereign purposes of God, Paul breaks into worship.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

That’s where the doctrines of grace ought to take us.

Not to pride.

Not to arrogance.

Not to looking down our noses at Christians who understand these things differently.

But to worship.

And to humility.

Because if these doctrines are true, then the Christian has absolutely no reason to think himself better than the unbeliever.

The only difference is grace.

So, what should we do with all of this?

First, if you’re a Christian, don’t just agree with the doctrines of grace.

Rejoice in the grace those doctrines describe.

Worship. Shout to the Lord! He is a sweet and sovereign Savior for sinners.

Second, if you’re not a Christian, don’t spend your time wondering whether you’re one of the elect.

That’s not your business.

Your business is to repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ.

The gospel doesn’t say, “Find out whether you’re elect, and then come to Christ.”

It says, “Come to Jesus.”

And the promise of Scripture is that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

So come to him.

Turn from your sins.

Trust in the Savior who died and rose again.

And discover for yourself the overwhelming, redeeming, preserving, sovereign grace of God.

Eternal Father, in this very moment, we turn again from our sin and ourselves to you and your glory,

Trusting only in your Son’s sacrifice for our sins to make us right with you.

We want to shelter ourselves in the shadow of his cross,

Bathe ourselves in the blood that he shed there for us,

Rest ourselves on his redemption

Robe ourselves in his righteousness,

Renew ourselves in his resurrection,

Lose ourselves in his Lordship,

And find ourselves in his friendship.

We want him to become for us, for today and forever, wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and salvation.

For he is the One who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to you, our Father.