Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com

Freewill Religion Makes

The Eternal God a Pathetic Failure!

Daniel 4:34-35

Freewill/works religion makes the eternal God a pathetic failure! Preachers everywhere tell us that God is trying to save multitudes who are not saved. They tell us that God wants to do many things for us and with us that we will not let him do. We are told that Christ died for all the people of the world in an attempt to redeem and save all men; but that all are not saved. Modern religion tells us that God the Holy Spirit calls all men alike to Christ; but some men resist the power of his grace, while others allow him to have his way. We are told that God has done all he can to save sinners, but some will not allow him to save them.

Utter Blasphemy

My first theology professor actually put his blasphemous opinions about God into print. This is what he said…

“What is hell? It is an infinite negation. And it is more than that: hell is a ghastly monument to the failures of the triune God to save the multitudes who are there. Sinners go to hell because God Almighty himself could not save them! He did all he could, he failed!”

Such a god is a pathetic, miserable failure. His will is limited by the will of man. His power is broken by the power of man. His purpose is thwarted by the purpose of man. Such a god is to be pitied, not worshipped! According to modern religious opinion man is sovereign over God, man is gracious to allow God to save him, God is obligated to man, not man to God.

Is this the god I must trust for the salvation of my soul? Perish the thought! Such a god as this, while he is popular with proud men, is nothing more than the idol of modern religion, the figment of man’s imagination, an idol carved from one of the trees in the dark forest of man’s depraved heart.

God Sovereign

The God of heaven is sovereign, majestic, glorious, almighty. He never tries to do anything. What he purposed in eternity, he will do. He says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10). The sovereign, eternal, omnipotent God is not limited in his own power or in the accomplishment of his purpose by the imaginary free will of puny man. God is not at man’s disposal. Man is at God’s disposal. God is not obligated to man. Man is obligated to God. God is not subject to man’s will. Man is subject to God’s will.

Every believer rejoices in the sovereignty of God. God’s saints rejoice to hear him say, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” (Matthew 20:15). Nothing in this world is more comforting to the believer’s heart than the knowledge of the fact that “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Psalm 115:3). Yet, in this day of religious darkness and confusion, there is no truth of Holy Scripture for which we must more earnestly contend than God’s dominion over all creation, his sovereignty over all the works of his hands, the supremacy of his throne and his right to sit upon it. We rejoice in God’s sovereignty. Yet, there is nothing revealed in the Bible that is more despised by worldlings and self-righteous religionists.

God’s sovereignty is so basic and fundamental that it is impossible to understand any doctrine taught in the Bible until we recognize and have some understanding of the fact that God is sovereign. A god who is not sovereign is as much a contradiction as a god who is not holy, eternal, and immutable. A god who is not sovereign is no God at all. If the god you worship is not totally sovereign, you are a pagan, and your religion is idolatry. You would be just as well off worshipping a statue of Mary, a totem pole, a spider, or the devil himself as to worship a god who lacks total sovereignty over all things.

Redemption Accomplished

The Lord Jesus Christ, God the eternal Son, did not die at Calvary in an effort to save every person in the world. His blood is powerful and efficacious. If he had intended to redeem and save the whole human race, all would be saved. It is written, “He shall not fail” (Isaiah 42:4). If one soul for whom Christ shed his blood were to perish, his redemptive work would be a miserable failure. He would never see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Such blasphemous notions cannot be endured. — “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13). Every soul for whom the Son of God suffered and died at Calvary shall be with him in heaven.

The Bible speaks of the redemptive work of Christ as an accomplished, effectual work, done for a particular, elect people (Isaiah 53:8; Galatians 3:13; Hebrews 9:12; Revelation 5:9). Nowhere in the Bible is there even a hint of universal atonement. That doctrine asserts that Christ died for everyone in general and no one in particular. It is a blasphemous heresy!

If Christ died for those who perish as well as those who are saved, man is his own savior. It is not the blood of Christ that makes the difference between the saved and the lost, but the decision of man!

If Christ died to redeem and save all men and some are not redeemed, then he is not God, for he has failed to do what he attempted to do; and God cannot fail (Isaiah 42:4). To deny the biblical doctrine of particular, effectual redemption is as much a denial of Christ’s deity as the denial of his virgin birth! God’s servants and God’s people must never tolerate either (2 John 9-11).

Grace Irresistible

God the Holy Ghost does not try to draw sinners to Christ, hoping that they will let him save them. His power is not defeated by the power of man’s free will. The Holy Spirit invades the hearts of those dead sinners who were chosen in eternal love and redeemed by the blood of Christ, giving them eternal life, creating faith in their hearts toward Christ. He draws sinners to Christ by the power of his omnipotent mercy and irresistible grace. — “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power” (Psalm 110:3). — “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee” (Psalm 65:4). This is the God of the Bible. This is the God we worship. He is the eternal triune God, the God of sovereign power and irresistible grace. This is our God.

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s