The Gospel-Driven Church:

Knowing and Speaking the Gospel

Part Three: What’s the Point? Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
Instructor: Paul Lamey

Introduction:

The theological problem of “antinomy.”1

At numerous places throughout Scripture we are faced with what we might call an antinomy.
If you look up this word in your dictionary it will say something to the effect of “a
contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary”
(Shorter OED).

So some would say there are two concepts that are both true but at some level cancel each
other because they contradict one another.

As applied to theology, an antinomy is not a real contradiction but an apparent contradiction.

It is an apparent incompatibility between two truths. It is when two truths are laid side-by-
side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both undeniable.

Examples: dual-source nature of Scripture, Jesus is fully God and fully man, the trinity is one
God in three persons. These are impossible to reconcile from a finite vantage point yet
Scripture affirms them all.

Our dilemma may be expressed in this way: if God is completely sovereign and will save
His elect then why is it necessary for believers to evangelize.

I. Two Truths, One Message

A. God sovereignly delights in saving sinners

⎯ Sovereign? (Unequalled power, total control, highest authority, total
superiority, ultimate).
o 1 Cor 1:26–31
o 1 Thess 1:4
o James 1:18
o 1 Pet 1:3, 23
o John 6:37

Could it be that our distrust of God’s sovereignty arises from a suspicion of his heart? A
fear of being controlled, a loss of freedom or a prior commitment to a belief that we
know what’s best for us and that God doesn’t have the best in mind for us? . . . We want

                                                                                                               
1J. I. Packer discusses this phenomenon at length in his excellent book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1961), see esp. 18ff.

  1  
 to reserve for ourselves the option of evaluating god’s purpose with our limited horizon
and puny standard of whether god’s sovereign acts fit our definition of love.2

⎯ Demonstrated in Israel
o Deut 7:6–8; 14:2; 32:6; 64:7–8; Rom 9:10–13
o Luke 4:24–29; 10:21–22; 12:32

⎯ Enacted before time began

o 2 Timothy 1:9
o Eph. 1:4–6

⎯ Due to the Lord’s pleasure

o Eph 1:11–12, 14
o E.g., Gal 1:15 (“was pleased”)

Think. It is the Holy Spirit who works in our hearts to make us aware of God. It is the Holy
Spirit who convicts us of sin. God is the one who gives us the spiritual ability to cry out with
saving faith. . . it is Jesus alone who has done the work of justification for us. After death we
will stand before God and give him all glory for what he has done—not what we have done.
God does the work, including calling us to himself.3

B. Man is freed by God to believe the gospel

⎯ Not free will but a freed will.
o Rev 4:11
o John 1:13; 6:37
o Mark 1:15

⎯ Free offer to all without discrimination

o Rom 10:12–13
o Rev 22:17
o Isa 55:1ff

Saving grace originates in God’s gracious and giving nature, and it for people that are so
incapacitated by love of themselves that they are unable to change. They are super-glued to
their idols. When people elevate worldly things above God, they become enslaved to their
petty desires and driven by their self-designed gods. Saving grace is the miracle cure for
those who cannot save themselves and in no way merit their Maker’s compassion. Grace
only functions as grace when it comes to those who have absolutely nothing to recommend
them as candidates for God’s favor.4

II. What’s the Point?

                                                                                                               
2 Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People (Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity Press, 2002), 140.
3 J. Mack Stiles, Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity

Press, 2010), 51.

4 Metzger, Tell the Truth, 139.

  2  
 Some biblical resolutions regarding evangelism and the sovereignty of God:

A. God is sovereign and also decrees the necessity of means in evangelism.

B. God is sovereign and also gives an urgent call to evangelize the nations.

C. God is sovereign in election and genuinely offers salvation to whosoever will.

D. God is sovereign in grace and sinners are responsible to believe the gospel.

E. Therefore we have hope that God will accomplish His purposes in

evangelism.
⎯ “God’s sovereignty is not only the source of our ability, but also the
ground of our confidence.”5
⎯ Our hope in God also shows us that no one is beyond God’s ability to
save.

F. Therefore we can be bold in our witness to the gospel.

⎯ “So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in
grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For
it creates the possibility—indeed, the certainty—that evangelism will be
fruitful.”6

G. Therefore we can be patient in our witness of the gospel.

⎯ Being patient in our witness means that faithfulness to the message will be
of greater importance than “results.”
⎯ Being patient means we are unmotivated by guilt. Rather we see sharing
the good news as a privilege of being used by God to spread His
message of redemption.

H. Therefore we can be prayerful with confidence in God.

⎯ In Acts 2:42 we see the church in prayer and then in Acts 2:47 we see, it
was the Lord who added to their number.
⎯ We plead with God in prayer to do what only He can do through the
message (i.e., save sinners).

I. Therefore we can confidently call the lost to the gospel.

⎯ One must understand the gospel to be converted (God is holy, man is
sinful, the cross is the answer).
⎯ To be converted one must believe (by faith, Eph 2:8–10) and repent (turn
from sin, 2 Tim 2:25).
⎯ Conversion is followed by a changed life.
⎯ Conversion is the work of God in the soul.
⎯ Converts must be cared-for by the Church.

                                                                                                               
5 John Cheeseman, Saving Grace (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 117.
6 J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 106.    

  3  
One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the
preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, “how did you come to be
a Christian?” I sought the lord. “But how did you come to seek the Lord?” The truth flashed
across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some
previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked
myself, how came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to
read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw
that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the
whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this
day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to
God.”7

Questions for Discussion:

1. Why does God saved sinners?

2. Why do people resist teaching God’s sovereignty in salvation?
3. Discuss how trusting in good works (self-righteousness) undercuts grace.
4. Is it biblical to say, “I chose Jesus?”
5. Why doesn’t everyone respond to the gospel (Rom 9:1–25)?
6. How does understanding God’s sovereignty help our praying for the lost?
7. Does God’s sovereignty in salvation have any impact on the results of our
evangelism?
8. How will you respond to this teaching?

                                                                                                               
7 Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography, 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1962, orig. in 4 vols. 1897-1900), 165.    

  4