The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Finding Rest: Christ's Invitation to the Weary Soul
The age-old theological tension between God's sovereignty and human responsibility continues to challenge believers today. Does Reformed theology turn humans into robots? Does free will exist in a meaningful way? What does Jesus really mean when He invites the weary to come to Him?
This thought-provoking episode dives deep into the heart of Reformed theology and its approach to salvation, tackling the misconceptions that often surround Calvinistic beliefs. We explore how every Protestant's understanding of salvation inevitably aligns with either Arminian or Calvinistic frameworks—whether they acknowledge these theological roots or not.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when we examine what truly determines our choices. While many celebrate the notion that "God loves us so much that He gave us free will," Scripture never makes such a claim. Instead, the Bible consistently points to God's love being demonstrated through the gift of His Son. We discover how our nature—not abstract free will—determines what we choose, and why this understanding is crucial for grasping how salvation works.
Through a careful examination of Matthew 11:28-30, we unpack Jesus' profound invitation: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This passage beautifully illustrates the harmony between divine calling and human response. Christ commands us to come while simultaneously being the one who enables that coming through the gift of a new heart.
For those wrestling with questions of choice, predestination, and God's sovereignty, this episode offers biblical clarity without compromising the mystery. You'll gain a deeper appreciation for the miracle of salvation—how God sovereignly works while we genuinely and willingly respond to His grace.
Join us as we discover why Christ's yoke is truly easy and His burden genuinely light—not because we have innate ability to bear it, but because He provides everything necessary for us to come and find the rest our souls desperately need.
Christians, good evening. I hope you had a good weekend, an enjoyable weekend, and I hope you had. Regarding the veil of Moses, and the reason why I was going to complete it was because I actually hadn't started it, because the conversation that was intended when I started the subject was willfully derailed because of some discussions that we had during that conversation. But, in any case, I'm going to pick that up tomorrow. Today, however, I'm going to deal with a chapter or with a passage out of Matthew. Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. Now, before I begin, I want to state something very clearly. What I like to do is to be very clear about the things that I hold to, and I know that people like to place labels on things so that they can have some justification for dispensing the baby with the bath water, so to speak. Now, everyone who calls themselves a Christian holds to a set of theological beliefs. There's a theological system that they hold to. Whether you want to admit it or not, none of us have originated anything when it comes to the doctrines that are laid out in the word of God. None of us. And you can hear a lot of these people, because a lot of folks will like to tell you things like oh man, I don't know about Calvinism, I don't know about Arminianism, I don't know about this ism, I don't know about that ism. All I know is that I've read the word of God on my own, and it's just been me and the Holy Spirit, and my conclusions are true because I got it from the Holy Spirit directly, almost as if they were insinuating that you got your belief structure from somewhere else or from someone else. My theology, my theological set, is reform theology, plain and simple, reform theology. Reformed theology and reformed theology came from and was derived by the reformers. For those of you who still read history, especially when it comes to church history, so I do hold to reformed theology, and without reformed theology, protestants might not exist today. Most of those, most of you, who sit on the panels that I do when I go live, and all of us who listen to whatever, most of us who are not Catholic, are Protestants, and Protestants have a great deal of debt that they owe, when it comes to understanding the word of God, to the reformers. No reformers, no Protestantism, at least the way we know it today.
Speaker 1:That being said, the theological system when it comes to salvation, or the salvific aspect of reformed theology is Calvinistic aspect of Reformed theology is Calvinistic and, as I have stated many times before, everybody who is a Protestant, if they admit it or not, every Protestant, has the grounding of their salvation, their belief on salvation or soteriology. It either comes from the arminian camp or it comes from the calvinistic camp. So every, every, every protestant has a theological system that they adhere to, and it is either a calvin, calvinistic theology when it comes to salvation, or it is arminian system when it comes to salvation, and there is no mixture of the two in any of the key points regarding salvation. So, when it comes to man's depravity, election Atonement, the call of the Holy Spirit to salvation and the perseverance or the salvation of the saints, the president, the perseverance of the saints, perseverance of the saints, everybody has holds to a perspective on each of those points that is either Arminian or Calvinistic, one or the other.
Speaker 1:Now the accusation. The accusation that is often leveled against those of reformed theology, or what we refer to as the doctrines of grace, which is what I dearly hold to proudly. One of the accusations that we are often accused of is believing that when we stress the sovereignty of God in the word of God. When we stress and put emphasis on the sovereignty of God, we do so at the expense of man's responsibility. They will say things like well, you look at that sovereignty of God, the way we present it presents men as robots or God forcing people to be saved against their wills. This is the kind of thing that you hear often. So they believe that we don't acknowledge man's responsibility, nor do we celebrate it, and I'll explain the celebration part in a second. So we are often accused that we don't acknowledge man's responsibility, and nothing can be further from the truth. I understand something, and that is this I believe it is very plain that the word of God teaches that God is absolutely, 100%, 100% sovereign in our salvation and along with everything else. But I also believe 100% that man is responsible. Man has a moral responsibility as a free moral agent to believe the truth, and so I find complete congruity between the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God and the problem that people that hold to a different perspective they fail to see that. So they throw sovereignty of God out and they hold on to man's sovereignty over his own salvation. And so this takes me to the point that I wanted to make about those who would say that we don't celebrate the responsibility of man.
Speaker 1:To give you an example this past week, this past week, I had a discussion with some believers and this is what one of the gentlemen said.
Speaker 1:He says that God loves us so much Listen to what I'm saying here God loves us so much that he gave us free will. Let that sink in for a second. God loves us so much that he gave us free will. You have to be some kind of arrogant person to believe that God gave you a free will and you managed to stay saved, or, in fact, you managed to be saved at all. I know, left to my own devices, left to my will, being free, there is no way I can consider myself saved and I can never be comfortable with saying I'm saved. I can never be comfortable saying that my salvation is the result of the maintenance of my free will, as opposed to the sovereignty of God. This is where we are today, of God. This is where we are today. So people today, they believe that the free will of man is something to be celebrated because quote unquote God loves us so much that he gave us free will. Now, I'm not going to make a big deal tonight about free will exclusively. That's not the point.
Speaker 3:But it's going to affect what I'm going to be reading tonight, and so I'm going to be.
Speaker 1:When I'm calling on people in turn, I'm going today in the fact that he gave us a free will, where the Bible never says any such thing. The Bible never says any anything even remotely close to God loves us so much that he gave us free will, but what the word of God does say, what the word of God does say, is that God loves us so much that he gave us his son. That's what he said, not that he gave us a free will. We know what happens when men have a free will. Go back to the garden and see what happens to Adam and Eve, because they had it. So Christ did not go to the cross in order for us to be restored to the condition that Adam was, in, which was he held a fallible position, that he was able to fall even though he hadn't until he did. Now, that being said, I want to open up and get initial remarks from people on the panel.
Speaker 3:I will call on you so you don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 5:I have a good thing to say. Don't just speak out.
Speaker 1:I will call on everybody.
Speaker 5:Okay, can I go ahead and just go?
Speaker 1:Go ahead, liz, go ahead.
Speaker 5:What I've been telling my children lately. I've landed on this consequence of consequences my children lately I have a five-year-old and an eight-year-old. So, um, action causes response and response causes consequence. So if you are able to deal with the consequence, then respond how you want to, but if you are not able to deal with the consequence, then don't.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Play pal your thoughts initially, your initial thoughts.
Speaker 3:Well, in all honesty, I gotta look at Jonah.
Speaker 5:Jonah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the prophet. Okay, god chose him to be a prophet.
Speaker 6:Right.
Speaker 5:Am.
Speaker 6:I wrong.
Speaker 1:Right, no, liz, liz, just let him talk okay.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. All right, go ahead, brother. God told him go tell Nineveh to repent. Right, pet, right. And being the good Jew he was, he knew that Syria is gonna take captive the ten tribes of Israel. Okay, and his love for Israel? Well, there's no way that he was gonna do that, so he went the other way, mm-hmm? Well, there's no way that he was going to do that, so he went the other way. I hear you, brother. I think of free will, and then I think of chosen and called right, right. So I figure this I could be wrong, but I'm going to throw it out here. All right, brother, go ahead, throw it out. Those are those who are meant to do the will of God Absolutely and they don't have free will Absolutely. And those who are called. Yeah, they got that choice. But the reason why? Those who are chosen, such as the prophets, because of what they did before they were flesh.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's move around.
Speaker 5:Brother Brian, can I touch on?
Speaker 1:something Liz? No, you can't, we take turns.
Speaker 5:Okay, sorry.
Speaker 1:We take turns, brian. Go ahead, brother. Thoughts initial.
Speaker 2:I mean you already know where I stand on all of it, so I mean it just, to me it's self-explanatory, so I don't know. When I talk about this subject with people, I mean you just have to have spiritual discernment. If they're not, if people do not want to accept truth, it really leads you to question what gospel they actually believe in so for.
Speaker 1:So for the, for the, for the people who don't know your position, I do know what is your position god's sovereign.
Speaker 2:Do I hold to the five points? Absolutely. I mean it's if anybody's ever done church history. If we didn't even have church history, if all we had was scripture, that would be enough. It would be plenty. Right, you can't. I understand where people want to jump to one extreme or the other, but I always say this you have to be comfortable with the tension in scripture about man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. They both were clearly taught. You just have to be comfortable with it.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely, brother. Appreciate that Candy girl. Your turn, your initial thoughts.
Speaker 7:God's will is God's will and it will be done. So either do what he's telling you to do or go through the trials that you end up going through until you end up going and doing what he told us to do. Anyway.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a question Is there any scenario where God's will is not accomplished?
Speaker 7:No, I do not believe. There's nowhere, anywhere, ever. His will will not be done.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, brother Jeffrey, your thoughts initially. Good evening, brother.
Speaker 4:Good evening, jonathan. My thoughts went back to a verse in the book of Joshua, chapter 24, verse 15, where it reads but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in this land you're living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. So I have always held the belief but I'm willing to listen to you, of course that we have a choice. God put his love out there for us. He showed it to us on the cross and he says now, what are you going to do with it? I've bought your salvation, I've paid for it. You can't, you can't. I did. What are you going to do with it?
Speaker 1:Right, well, see here's the thing about that passage, because that's a good one. I'm glad you brought it up.
Speaker 4:Okay, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:So the first thing that I wanted that I want to do is make sure that we understand that there's a difference. There's a difference between choice and the will and what the will chooses. In other words, we have to understand that there's a distinction. Will and choice are not synonymous. They're not synonymous terms. Choices are what is laid out in front of us. The will is what makes us determine what we choose Two separate things. So, regardless of what the choices are, it is the nature that is going to be effectual in what it chooses, and the nature, because of his nature, will always choose the same category of choices. Now, if you are outside of Christ, then that means you are still in your sinful nature, then that means you are still in your sinful nature A carnal mind which is at enmity against God, unable to choose anything righteous and holy, even though righteous and holy choices are before you. So the issue is what makes you choose what you choose? Your nature, your nature. So if your nature is sinful, then what will you choose? Sinful choices.
Speaker 4:But if you are in Christ, you have two natures, the flesh and the spirit, and you choose which one of those you allow to be Lord in your life do we now?
Speaker 1:yeah, so this, so this is so. This is where, this is where you and I will have our first disagreement. Okay, because I believe. I don't believe that is true at all. Okay, I believe that, when you come to Christ, the old nature, the old man has died and is dying, and it is the flesh that we have put away and now we're able to serve God in the newness of which we are called to do. In other words, we are made able to be transformed and conformed into the image of God, transformed by the renewing of the mind, so transformed by the renewing of the mind, so there is no possible way that we can have the Holy Spirit in us dwelling together with sin.
Speaker 6:If we have a new nature added to us, it doesn't leave any room for sanctification. All you've got is like the devil on one side and the angel on the other side having a fight. You would never be sanctified. You're just having two natures, having more with each other.
Speaker 1:Each other sister frozen.
Speaker 6:Glad to have you on here, glad you made it let you have a real calvinist on the line, since we're talking about this doctrine. I'm here.
Speaker 1:God bless, brother and what you said is true. I mean, see, the thing about it is we, we. We have an aspect about us that is that old man is what is dying and Christ gave us A new nature which enables us to obey God. See the issue, the issue with will, with the will of man. See the issue, the issue with will, with the will of man. And I'm going to get to the verses that I want to read in a second, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:So no amount of the exertion of any man's free will can he change the way God sees him if he doesn't come to God on God's terms. And the only way to come to God is by faith in his son, jesus Christ. There's no other way. By the faith in him is the only way that you get to change. So your free will, it doesn't change God's decision or his view of you in terms of being reconciled to him. And this is what we want to change. We want to change God's mind, as it were, about how he sees us. Not that his mind changes, but I'm using, I'm speaking in human language. Meg, go ahead, you had something you wanted to say.
Speaker 8:Okay, first thoughts. One can only operate in the nature in which they are given. Right, that's my first thing.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 8:Number two we're going to read Psalm 14 just so we can understand, I think. I think, what people, what believers don't understand is their actual condition before one comes to Christ. Right? So we're going to go to Psalms 14. It says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. Check this, verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Have all the workers of inequity, no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the name of the Lord. So how I see it is, verse two is just the kicker for me. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. And the answer is no, none.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you something that's important about that, meg the same choices that people have today, or they believe that they have today, existed then, and yet we are told over and over again throughout scripture this is the familiar refrain throughout scripture that man is incapable because he is unwilling and he's unwilling because he's incapable. And this is what the generality of mankind in the christian community don't get, and it's sad because this is the golden calf.
Speaker 8:This is the golden calf that believers want to hold on to. I chose, I got to do this. I did this, and there's still this self-righteousness inside that people don't want to give up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Greg. Your thoughts, brother, your initial thoughts.
Speaker 9:Presbyterian up here.
Speaker 1:That's chosen, I know, I know.
Speaker 6:You mean the true Christians, the true Catholics?
Speaker 9:Yeah, Would you say a true Catholic? Yeah, yeah. What did you say? A true Catholic? Yeah, pretty close, anyway. Anyway, yeah, I think the biggest mistake that people make they think if God commands something or demands something from us, that that implies an ability on our part. So if God commands us to repent and believe, well, we must be able to right. No, no, I mean, you know, the bank can demand payment from me whether or not I have the money right. I mean, even if I'm broke, if I owe them the money, they can still make a lawful demand for it. You know, god can make a lawful demand to any sinner to repent and believe, but that does not imply that they have the ability to do it.
Speaker 1:And it also doesn't imply that you can afford to pay it back.
Speaker 9:That's right.
Speaker 1:It also implies that, so, matthew.
Speaker 6:Can I add one more verse real quick.
Speaker 5:Sure go ahead.
Speaker 6:You know when we're instructed to be holy, as our Father in heaven is holy.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:Well, it's absolutely impossible, right, Right? Can any man make himself as holy as God the Father? Like Greg just said, there is instructions, right? It's clearly an impossibility.
Speaker 1:You're exactly right. So we have a mandate by God, a very clear one Obey his law completely and in totality in order to be saved. We would have to be perfect. No man can say that. No amount of his choice has enabled him to be that way.
Speaker 1:And the idea that there are so many who believe, even after coming to faith in Christ, they still believe that there's an aspect of them which obedience to God's law is required for them to be saved. In fact, the idea, the very notion that they believe that that is a possibility on them to maintain their salvation is an absurd notion. And the Bible knows nothing of it. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Christ to come. There would have been no need for him to come at all. If one man could have kept God's law perfectly, there wouldn't have been any need for him to come at all. If that was impossible, if one man could have kept god's law perfectly, there wouldn't be any need for christ.
Speaker 1:Now somebody might argue that one way or the other, but it's not. It's not a point that I'm trying to emphasize as a as a truth. I'm just saying from an abstract, you know standpoint. It would show that man was capable, and man certainly is not. Christ came to be obedient to God's law, to keep it perfectly, in order that he might be able to impute his righteousness to those who put their trust in him and accept the fact that he died on their behalf, and they accept his righteousness as our own, and so this is essential.
Speaker 7:I was just going to say that could be backed up in. I think it's Romans 2, verse 19 through 21,.
Speaker 1:Maybe what's that?
Speaker 7:What you're speaking on right now. If I'm not mistaken, I think it's in Romans 2, verse 19 through 21.
Speaker 1:Do you have it up? All right, I have it up. All right, I got it up, all right. Go ahead and read it.
Speaker 8:Romans 2, 19 through 21.
Speaker 7:2, 19 through 21. I think so. I think the very end of it talks about the cross would have died in vain.
Speaker 1:No, that's not it. That's not it, that's not it no that's not it. That's not it. All right, let me go on, though I want to get to the text for tonight. It's in Matthew. Matthew, chapter 11, beginning at verse 28. You need to read it. Yeah, go ahead and read it. Read 28 through 30,. Meg, all right, you got it.
Speaker 8:All right, it says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So here's what I want to deal with, and I'm going to go through each verse and then I'll have some comments, and then we'll go around and see what people can add to it.
Speaker 1:But what I want to point out here, because this is a very, this is a very popular text, often quoted, and it's in that little that you know that library in people's minds that people often quote I come to me, all you get labor and are heavy laden, et cetera, et cetera. But I want to point out that, even as somebody who holds to a Calvinistic, theologyistic theology, when it comes to salvation, as I said at the top of the conversation, I own, like every single true believer owns that there has to be, that there has to be congruity, whether we understand it or not, between between not between between, uh sorry, between, um man's sovereignty I mean god's sovereignty and man's will. There has to be congruity there because the scripture is clear god is sovereign in our salvation and man is responsible. But we find out that in order for man, in order for his responsibility, to be effective in a way that benefits his soul, there's something that God has to do in order to enable that feature, so to speak in man.
Speaker 1:Forgive my loose speech On that matter, but this is the reality, the idea that so many people have a difficulty understanding what is very clear in the scripture that God must remove the old heart that is incapable Of doing anything of quality when it comes to salvation. It's impossible. So what does God do for his people? He takes out the old heart and he gives them the new heart. So what does the new heart do? The new heart that he gives enables the man to see the error of his ways, to see that he is in desperate need of salvation, sees that he has sinned to be repented of, and therefore, it is with that new heart that is given to him by God that he is able to make the right choices that are consistent with a holy nature.
Speaker 1:Now, in Matthew 11, verse 1 and verse 28, jesus says come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, come unto me. So what is the first thing he does? What is the first word he says? He says come, come unto me. So he is addressing the will, telling us to come to him, to come to him. So he's addressing something that we must do, like my brother Greg says, because we need to understand. Just because he says to do so doesn't mean we are given that ability until we are given that ability, or it doesn't mean that we have that ability until we are given it.
Speaker 1:But Jesus does say come to me. And what's interesting is that he also says come to me. Now. You have to think about something for a second. Not only does he say come unto me. At the end of the same verse he says I will give you rest. Now listen to this. Can you imagine any man on earth who is not God, any man on earth who is not God, telling people to come unto me? And then he says and I will give you rest. So before I get to the part where he says all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I want to deal with the, with the parenthetical aspects of this particular verse. He says come unto me.