Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs like the Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Guest (Male): The assigned topic of evangelism is a really important topic. I think that there are a number of hindrances to our evangelism in our own theology as reformed people who misunderstand some things.

I know that's a very vague and general statement. What I want to do right now is to present to you the framework in which I understand the entire Bible. You can't do that in just an expositional sermon. But the framework in which I understand the entire Bible informs my evangelism. It tells me how I want to do it and why I should be optimistic about the results of it.

I think the text that really drew me to this was in Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 13. Jesus is on the road there with the disciples near Emmaus and he's going to explain to them his theology of the Bible. Now, we don't have that in great detail, so I'm going to have to try to fill in some blanks here, but follow along with me.

Luke 24, verse 13: "That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened." This is following his crucifixion, his trial, his resurrection. They're discussing these things. "And while they were talking and discussing them, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him."

And he said to them, "What is the conversation you're holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priest and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And some of them who were with us went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

And he said to them, "O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

I think this is instructive for me, a man who desires to teach the Bible, that when Jesus wanted to explain his life, death, and resurrection, he went first to Moses. Going to Moses is to go to Genesis, right? Genesis plays huge in our theology because it is there that it is recorded that God created all things, and the pinnacle of his creation was humanity in his own image.

There is God over creation. There is inside of creation, man. And why is man there? According to Genesis 1:29, he's there to have dominion over everything else that is there. Every created thing is put under man. Man is the caretaker of all of creation under God. He is the representative, the appointed one. We would say he is the federal or covenant head of creation. He is appointed to decide the fate of creation. As Adam goes, so all of creation goes.

God within the created order creates an environment that is part of the earth, but not all of it. In this part of the earth called Eden because when you read Genesis, there are rivers that flow into and out of Eden. There are things above Eden and below Eden. Eden is not the entire earth; it's part of it. How big? We don't know. But it was the place from which Adam would rule in God's stead.

Adam was given charge of that garden. I think that you have to have something of this in your mind if you're going to make sense of this: that Adam is sinless. His will is free. But Adam is in a sense juvenile. He's young. He's immature. It's hard to find the words to say this because I don't want to imply sin. There is no sin in Adam. But there was some growing up that had to be done, and the result of the growing up would be that his rule would be expanded from that garden to the whole earth.

As the federal covenant head put in the garden, I believe the garden was a probationary period. I think the Garden of Eden itself was a blessing and a test for Adam. Adam, if you rule this well, I'll give you all of it. But you've got to rule this well first.

And so how did God mature him? What was God's plan? I believe there were a few elements that God put in place to raise up his boy. First of all, he made him work. Now, if you're a father and you've got a son, this is what you know inherently about boys: they're lazy. Boys are inherently sinfully lazy. They have to be taught to work. Adam was not inherently sinfully lazy, but he had to be taught to work. He had to be taught to rule. He had to be taught how to handle authority. So what did God do? He created the animals and then he said to Adam, "Name them." That's a sign of authority. You name the animals. They're here for you. You take dominion over them.

And one way he took dominion was by giving them a name. How do you know you're in charge of your children and not mine? You named yours; you didn't name mine. Adam was in authority over the garden, the animals in it, and God said literally, "Beautify this, work this, till this, make it gorgeous, Adam. Subdue it, improve it. It's yours. Take it and enjoy it." That's Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to work it." That was part of the growing up process.

By the way, if you have a problem with a sinless man needing to be put through tests before he comes to the ultimate greater test, you're going to really struggle with some passages in the New Testament that say Jesus learned obedience through the things that he suffered. Same principle: sinless man who starts out with smaller tests and they will increase. Adam had to learn to deal with work. He had to learn to deal with being tested, patience, trust God, know that God knows best.

Because in that garden there's a tree. Then God says, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but"—now think about this—"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." I would argue that that was a temporary prohibition. God would say to him, "I've given you every tree in the garden to eat from, every single one of them." And I think you could add the words "in my time." They're all yours.

Have you ever thought of—I think we hear these phrases so much we don't think about what they mean. What is this tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why was it so alluring for Adam and Eve? Why was it a test which Satan would turn into a temptation? Think about what I've said so far. Adam was put in the garden, put in authority over the garden as God's representative. If he was faithful in the garden, if he ruled the garden well, he would rule the entire earth well eventually. But what would he need to rule the entire earth? He would need the ability to judge good and evil. He would need the ability to discern danger is present here versus no danger present here, right? Doesn't every mature man need to know those kinds of things?

And so Adam, when he eventually would have been given the reward of that tree, it would have been the time in which God entrusted to him, I believe, the authority of the whole earth. But that time had not yet come. There was this probationary period where Adam had to handle the garden well. And part of handling the garden well was God saying, "I give you every tree to eat from, but not that one, not yet. Don't touch it." Well, he didn't say that. Eve said he said that, but I agree with her; that's not recorded in Scripture. "Don't eat of it. Don't take from it."

Because when Satan came to him, he said to him, "Adam, if you eat of this tree, you'll be like God." And that was true because when God—now think back to creation—when God created the world, what did he say about it? "It is good." How did he know that? He didn't have to eat from that tree to have the knowledge of good and evil. It was inherent within him as God. And that tree represented that knowledge that God could stand over something and look at it and say, "That's good. That's good."

That was the wisdom contained in the fruit of that tree: to be able to take authority over a situation and say "it's good" or "it's not good." Adam didn't have that yet. We know that, don't we? Because when something not good came into the garden, he didn't handle it. He let his wife do the talking. He didn't step up and take authority over his family or the garden which God had given him. He was juvenile. He was young. He had growing up to do, and God was growing him up. But he said, "That tree is not for you, not yet. Eventually yes, now no. I give you dominion over a small area."

And what did Jesus teach us about little things? If you're faithful with little, God gives you much. That was the same principle in play with Adam. I'll give you everything, but not yet. So he had to learn to deal with work. He had to learn to deal with testing, patience, trust God, know that God knows best. And he had to learn to deal with the enemies of God. Genesis 2:15 says that he had to not only work the garden, but he had to keep it. The garden was not just Adam's home. It was the throne room of God on the earth. It was where God came to meet with Adam.

Adam wasn't surprised that in the cool of the evening he heard the footsteps and the voice of God, because that was the place that God had appointed to rule the earth from through Adam. That's why it makes perfect sense that when Adam messed everything up, what did God station at the door of that garden? The same angels that guard his throne room in heaven, the very same ones. Because now they would take possession of that garden because Adam had proven that he had failed to trust God and to be patient and to wait for God to give him the fruit, which would give him the wisdom that he needed to rule more territory.

I won't belabor the point because you know Genesis 3. The enemy of God comes into the garden. He says to him—now listen, if you're skeptical of what I've said, that's fine. But think about the temptation in light of what I've said. I think it makes a lot more sense to me why Satan could twist certain truths with certain lies and cause Adam, who was a sinless being, to believe it was a good thing to take that fruit. "I want to have that knowledge. I want to have that authority. Yeah, God just doesn't know that I'm ready for this. He doesn't know that I'm capable of more." And Satan says, "That's right, he's holding out on you. You could rule this whole place." "Yeah, I could do that. Why doesn't he give me more authority? Eve, can you believe this?" We don't know the conversation that took place between Adam and Eve, if there were any words exchanged. We just know what was recorded. But doesn't it make more sense in light of Adam being sinless how Satan could get him to distrust God and take that fruit?

And don't you see that sinful attitude from your first father in your own heart at times when it seems that God is withholding blessing from your ministry? And you say, "But I've been faithful." And Satan says, "Yeah, you deserve more. Go on, take it." Don't you see that in your own heart at times, that you're being passed over, neglected, not getting the credit that is really due because of the hard work you've done? Brothers, that's the voice of Satan every time.

So he appeals to Adam. Adam does not show himself to have a knowledge of good and evil and then he takes the fruit anyway. And now he does have a knowledge of good and evil, but he has it, as it was said so clearly, experimentally. He now is evil. He knows it. And he tries to hide, he tries to cover it up, he tries to rationalize, and he tries to blame. And God could have annihilated him. But instead, God finds an innocent animal and annihilates it and takes its skin and clothes Adam and Eve, foreshadowing of what was to come: the innocent slaughtered for the guilty to cover and, in Christ, take away the sins of the guilty.

God said to Adam in Genesis 1:29, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food." God said, "Adam, you'll have it, just wait." And Adam wouldn't do it. If you think what I've said is a little strange so far, you'll forget it in light of what I'm about to say. Because when Adam took that fruit, this is what I think happened. When I read the Bible, when I step back and I look at the Bible in totality, this is what I think happened.

I think when God created the earth, the clear intention that you see in Genesis and later the New Testament writers will make a big deal of this, is that God intended to rule creation through a human being, a man, not an angel. I think that's one of the biggest lessons in Genesis. God creates everything. And if you would have put Adam even in all his glory next to Gabriel and said, "You pick—we're going to play kickball—you pick your team, which one of these guys do you want first?" You wouldn't have picked Adam. Gabriel could whip him—faster, smarter, brighter.

And yet God said, "This one will rule, not this one. This one is created to serve this one." Isn't that what Hebrews says? Angels are ministering spirits created, sent to serve those whom God has purposed to save. We would have gotten it all backwards, but not God. He never intended to rule the earth through spiritual forces; he intended to rule the earth through a human being. Adam was that human being, representative of all human beings. And I believe when Adam willingly submitted to a being that had originally been created to serve him, something happened cosmically within creation.

God, Adam came, spirits given to serve Adam. Adam fell, those spirits rose above him. Jesus comes as a Last Adam, perfectly obeys the Father, demonstrates his power over demonic forces, and now he's going to go to the cross to deal with them fully and finally in this sense, that he's going to re-establish himself in dominion over the earth.

And you see that through the rest of the Old Testament. Angels are created to serve—Hebrews 1:14 if you want to check that out if you're not familiar with that passage. But then as the narrative unfolds, what you see so often is men worshipping and serving spirits and spiritual forces rather than the true and living God. Is that not the story of Israel throughout the Old Testament? And when you read the Old Testament, you would be tempted to think that the problem is that they're bowing down to wooden statues and stones, but that's not the problem. The problem is, as God so clearly says, when they throw their children into the fire worshipping Molech, they're worshipping demons. When they set up their false worship, it's not just sensuality that they're worshipping; it's the demons behind the whole thing.

Is this not how Paul talked to the Corinthians? If you think I'm off-base here, you've got to at least entertain the idea that I might be onto something because Paul establishes himself as an apostle in Corinth and they looked to him for wisdom over a particular matter. "Paul, can we eat of the Lord's table and then go to the old idolatrous feast that we used to attend?" They were confused. They had come out of idolatrous backgrounds, they had come out of all kinds of perverted religious experience, and they didn't quite know the clear path. And they appeal to the apostle, and they ask him about eating meat that's been offered to idols, attending feasts where there may be idolatrous worship. And here's their rationale—now think about it—they've learned that Jehovah God is the true and living God and that there is no other. They've come out of polytheism into monotheism.

So in the Old Testament, you see the manifestation of spiritual forces ruling over men again and again and again and enslaving them to worship what in and of itself is nothing, but behind it are demons. And I think that's why in Scripture God chose to call those nothings "gods"—little 'g' gods. Why? Because if one appeared in this room right now, you wouldn't say it's nothing. When you read the instruction manual on worship in the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms, this is the kind of stuff you hear again and again. Psalm 95 is just an example where verse three—so this is how God teaches his people to worship. When they sang, this is what they sang.

They say, if I were to even go back to the beginning, "Let us sing," 95:1, "Let us sing to the Lord; let us make joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods." Who are they? Who are these little 'g' gods? Or Psalm 96:4: "For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens."

Let me tell you what I think is happening in the Old Testament. The Israel and the pagan people around them, when they worshipped idols, they were worshipping demonic spirits who had led them astray, who were created beings, and God stood above all of it. And the distinction that the Old Testament draws over and over and over again in teaching Israel to worship God is you worship the Creator God, not some powerful but yet created being. That's the distinction. *This* God created everything. You worship him. *This* god—little 'g'—is powerful, frighteningly powerful. And you will be tempted to worship him. Don't do it. And you can see why idolatry infuriates God. Absolutely infuriates him. Because it's not the wood, it's not the stone, it's not the immorality at their feast, it's not the pagan practices; it's that he is watching his people bow down to a fallen creature that he created, and he hates that.

I believe these were the cosmic implications of Adam's fall. And I believe if you were to go back and read straight through the Old Testament with this in the back of your mind, you would note it again and again and again, that the problem is demonic influence over pagan nations and so often the people of God. And God hated it.

And that's the world into which Jesus was born. And he was going to change things. Because Genesis taught us that God intended to rule the earth through a man. And Adam submitted to a deceiving spirit and fell from that position. So God sends another man, a Last Adam, and he will not fail.

And so when Jesus launches his public ministry—now think about it—Jesus is the New Israel. He is the new people of God. He is representing what both Adam and later Israel should have become. He's the New Israel. So what does he do? He passes through the waters, his baptism. And where does he go when he passes through the waters? Forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, representative of Israel's forty years. And in the wilderness, who does he have to deal with? He has to deal with what Israel and Adam had failed to deal with. And he does so by not giving in to the deception.

"I'll give you the earth. You just got to take it now." Remember? "Just take it now." And I believe what made that temptation real is that Satan at that point could have made good on the promise for a time. The earth under God was his. In a very real sense, Jesus rejected that.

And then for three years he's going to minister publicly. Now, how much of Jesus' ministry was nothing other than demonstrating a new man's in town, and he doesn't have a problem with demonic spirits? I mean, I don't know about you, but when I read the gospels, if I didn't have the epistles, if I didn't have the rest of the story, I'd be looking for a demon behind every chair in this auditorium. Every time Jesus turned around, what was he confronting? Demons. But they recognize him. They know him. They know something's different. And they beg him not to destroy them. They know who's in authority over them.

And then Jesus is going to go to the cross. He's going to be the federal head of all of God's elect, that new nation, that new humanity that God is creating. He's going to take us with him to the cross so that our sins are punished in his body, so that our sins are buried with him in the tomb, and so that we are raised with him to newness of life, so that we can then say, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

But that's not all he's going to do. He's going to re-establish the cosmic order. How do you say that, Shane? John 12:31. I find this one of the most instructive passages on the cross because it's Jesus' interpretation of what he was about to do. This is how Jesus looked at the cross according to John. He's talking about the Son of Man being lifted up. He's trying to explain what's about to happen; his disciples never understood it. And in John 12:31, he says, "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out." Now, who does that refer to? Satan, absolutely. No other possible interpretation there.

Jesus when he looked at the cross, I believe he thoroughly understood it as a substitutionary atonement for sinners. I have no problem with that, and I don't want to do anything to put it down. Jesus was dying for the real sins of real people, not the theoretical sins of people who might possibly believe in him. But that's not all he was doing. He was cleaning house.

In fact, he had described his ministry of one like this: "You don't come into a strong man's house and take his stuff until you tie him up." Right? He's about to tie him up. But not like you think he would. God always turns it on its head. He's going to bind Satan up. He's going to cast Satan out of the world. And you say, "Wait a minute, Satan is still in the world after the crucifixion." Yes, but not the same way he was before the crucifixion.

Before the crucifixion, it was God and evil demonic spirits manipulating, leading, in some cases ruling over humanity. Job was a most righteous man on the face of the earth according to God at that time, and as all God had to do was remove his hedge and Satan did anything he wanted to with Job. Is that not true? The most righteous man on the face of the earth had no power against those principalities and powers unless God built a hedge around him.

Jesus said Satan will be cast out. And he called him the ruler of this world. So in the sense that he's going to be cast out is this: God, Adam came, spirits given to serve Adam. Adam fell, those spirits rose above him. Jesus comes as a Last Adam, perfectly obeys the Father, demonstrates his power over demonic forces, and now he's going to go to the cross to deal with them fully and finally in this sense, that he's going to re-establish himself in dominion over the earth.

Territorial spirits, why would I be worried about that when the Lord of glory rules over everything? Jesus said the two implications of his death is that Satan would be cast down as the ruler of this world. And that happened. The rest of the Bible bears testimony to it even by its silence on the issue. It just says he conquered principalities and powers, right? How many times does Paul just in passing make reference to Jesus as Lord exalted over principalities and powers? When did that happen? His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. When Jesus Christ died and was raised and forty days later he ascended to the Father, his Father gave him a gift when he arrived. It was called the nations. They're yours, Son. You bought them with your own blood. They're yours.

He says we don't see it. Why? Because God hasn't ordained the time yet. To us it looks like everything's a mess. Why is that? Because God's ordained the mess. But churches are so divided. Yes, God's ordained that too. I mean, you're either a Calvinist or you're not. Either everything in your life comes from the hand of a loving God who rules over all things or you've wandered into the wrong conference. If you're going to be a Calvinist, be a Calvinist. Things are as they are because our Father has ordained that they be that way right now for our good and for his glory.

I mean, you're either a Calvinist or you're not. Either everything in your life comes from the hand of a loving God who rules over all things or you've wandered into the wrong conference. If you're going to be a Calvinist, be a Calvinist. Things are as they are because our Father has ordained that they be that way right now for our good and for his glory.

And so no, we don't see with our physical eyes what I have declared to be so this morning. But, verse 9, we see him. We see Jesus who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone—and everyone, that's a different sermon, but it's everyone who is in Christ, it's nothing against definite atonement.

So what do we see? We see with the eyes of faith Jesus at the right hand of the Father, having lived, died, and been raised again for us, and in doing so he cast down the principalities and powers and he exalted himself and his people over them. And the Father in reward gave him the nations when he ascended back to him. And Jesus turns to us and what does he say? He says, "Just go tell them."

This informs my evangelism. This tells me that what I am to do is not manipulate or cajole or trick, but simply to declare what Christ has done. That's my responsibility. I am to say that there is a man who rules over the world who will save you, and there he has appointed a period of time of amnesty in which he's giving you time to repent. He's sending his messengers out into the world. Hear what they have to say. Believe the message. Trust him.

Friend, I'm going to tell you one of the things that saddens me so greatly is that while we believe in the grace of God, we seem so often to believe it's for only a few. I don't want to stir a pot anymore than what I already have, but I think a man who believes that God is just as eager to judge as he is to save, which the Bible does not teach, when that man becomes a Calvinist and he has a very narrow view of the grace of God, it would have been better had he stayed an Arminian. Because at least then he would believe that God wanted to save people and he just couldn't rather than he really doesn't want to.

God, it is inherent in his nature. It is part of him to have mercy upon whom he has mercy. It is part of him, it is who he is to demonstrate forgiveness. And if he afflicts, he does so reluctantly. His nature is to save. That's why the New Testament again and again says—I mean, just think of Jesus' words—"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." And I'm a Calvinist. Jesus did not come into this world to condemn it, but what? To save it.

Will he do it? Will he save the world? I don't mean every last one. There's a hell and while God is reluctant to judge, he is clear in Scripture he will judge those who do not repent. He will. But in the end when we stand in heaven and we look around, and if we have eyes to see hell, will it look like God saved the world or not?

Friends, I challenge you: deepen your understanding of the grace of God. I don't claim to have all this figured out, but what I'm saying to you is this: that the God that I see in the Bible is ready to save. He's eager to forgive and he's reluctant to judge, and he will do it if pressed by the unrepentant heart. But he's a saving God. Father, I pray in the name of your Son Jesus who's Lord over the nations, that you would take these words and if error is in them you know it's unintentional and you would delete that from their minds because my desire is to preach the whole counsel of God, to proclaim your word. That you would take this message and use it for those who are so eager to proclaim you, to deepen them in your love and your mercy and your grace, not just for them but for the world. And that they would see that your election leads not to a slim few in heaven and hell teeming with billions upon billions upon billions, but rather that they would see it as heaven populated with myriads and myriads and thousands upon thousands and a number that no man can count. And that when they go to share the gospel, when we proclaim the gospel, we would do it in the light of that mercy. Father, help us to know that even though with our physical eyes we don't yet see everything in subjection, but with the eyes of faith we most certainly do. Help us, Lord. Jesus' name, Amen.

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