How to Argue Like a Calvinist
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00:00:04.000 | There's much to learn from 18th century pastor and hymn writer John Newton.
00:00:10.000 | Newton's autobiography was a best-selling hit in his day, and we still sing his hymns today.
00:00:16.000 | His whole life is a testament to God's sovereign grace in saving a wretched sinner,
00:00:22.000 | a story captured well in his most famous hymn, Amazing Grace.
00:00:27.000 | And we celebrate John Newton's birthday today.
00:00:30.000 | So today has me thinking about him, his hymns, and his living legacy.
00:00:35.000 | It's a rich legacy he left behind.
00:00:37.000 | I was honored to write a whole book on his pastoral counsel,
00:00:41.000 | and that really gave me the chance to soak in his pastoral letters for about three years.
00:00:48.000 | He wrote amazing letters to people who were in need and needing answers,
00:00:54.000 | something very reminiscent to this podcast.
00:00:57.000 | And Pastor John has a wonderful biographical message looking at the life of Newton.
00:01:02.000 | It's titled, "John Newton, the Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness."
00:01:06.000 | And particularly, Newton has a lot to teach us on the topic of controversy
00:01:10.000 | and how to argue like a Calvinist.
00:01:14.000 | Here's Pastor John in that 2001 biographical message,
00:01:17.000 | talking about John Newton's approach to controversy and speaking to a room of pastors.
00:01:22.000 | Here's what he said.
00:01:24.000 | Now maybe the most illuminating way to get at this man's pattern of tenderness
00:01:29.000 | is to talk about the way he handled his Calvinism and his doctrine
00:01:33.000 | and controversies of his day and so on.
00:01:36.000 | This is something I'm very, very interested in for us and for myself in particular.
00:01:41.000 | At this point, we're going to see the root bearing fruit in tenderness.
00:01:49.000 | The root of truth bearing fruit in tenderness called love.
00:01:54.000 | I think his patience and his perception guided him between a doctrinaire intellectualism over here
00:02:00.000 | and a doctrinal indifference and carelessness over here.
00:02:07.000 | So let's talk for a minute about his patience, tenderness as it relates to his doctrine.
00:02:13.000 | Here's what he says first.
00:02:15.000 | A lot of people ask me, I've been here 20 years now, so I'm starting to feel old
00:02:19.000 | and people are starting to treat me that way.
00:02:23.000 | And so I get asked a lot about what did you do at this point, at this point, at this point, this, this, this.
00:02:32.000 | He said, "I have been 30 years forming my own views.
00:02:38.000 | And in the course of this time, some of my hills have sunken, some of my valleys have risen.
00:02:43.000 | But how unreasonable within me to expect all this should take place in another person
00:02:50.000 | and that in a course of a year or two.
00:02:53.000 | I mean, some of you have been on your way theologically for 20, 30, 40 years
00:02:59.000 | and you might have a thing or two figured out.
00:03:03.000 | And you start preaching and teaching as though this class should have fixed the atonement for these people.
00:03:12.000 | "Predestination, we got this now. You've been to my classes."
00:03:21.000 | And it took you 20 years to settle in on where you are.
00:03:26.000 | So he's calling for us with tenderness and patience to realize that that's the case.
00:03:34.000 | It's not going to happen for our people any faster than it did for us and for some slower.
00:03:42.000 | Yes, he had a passion for propagating the truth, the whole reformed vision of God as he saw it.
00:03:51.000 | But he did not believe controversy served the purpose.
00:03:59.000 | Here's what he said, "I see the unprofitableness of controversy in the case of Job and his friends.
00:04:08.000 | For if God had not interposed, had they lived to this day, they would be still disputing."
00:04:19.000 | So he labored to avoid controversy and replace it with positive demonstrations of truth.
00:04:26.000 | Here's what he said, "My principal method of defeating heresy is by the establishing of truth.
00:04:33.000 | One proposes to fill a bushel with tares. Now, if I can fill it first with wheat, I shall defy his attempts."
00:04:43.000 | He knew, given his Calvinism, that the embrace of many glorious, precious truths
00:04:49.000 | required supernatural spiritual illumination from God on the inside.
00:04:54.000 | And therefore, he made his approach patient and unobtrusive.
00:05:02.000 | He's the way he said it, "I am a friend of peace and being deeply convinced that no one can profitably understand
00:05:09.000 | the great truths and doctrines of the gospel any farther than he is taught of God.
00:05:14.000 | I have not a wish to obtrude my own tenets upon others in a way of controversy.
00:05:22.000 | Yet I do not think myself bound to conceal them."
00:05:28.000 | He said in the introduction of the old hymns, "The views I have received of the doctrines of grace,
00:05:35.000 | code name Calvinism, are essential to my peace. I could not live comfortably a day or an hour without them.
00:05:46.000 | I likewise believe them to be friendly to holiness and to have a direct influence in producing and maintaining a gospel conversation.
00:05:57.000 | And therefore, I must not be ashamed of them."
00:06:01.000 | But then he adds this, "The cause of truth itself may be discredited by an improper management.
00:06:13.000 | The scripture which teaches us what we are to say is equally explicit in the temper and spirit in which we are to speak.
00:06:25.000 | Though I had knowledge of all mysteries and the tongue of an angel to declare them,
00:06:31.000 | I could hope for little acceptance or usefulness unless I was to speak in love."
00:06:40.000 | Listen to this. He says, amazing, "Of all people who engage in controversy,
00:06:49.000 | we who are called Calvinists are most expressly bound by our own principles to exercise gentleness and moderation.
00:07:03.000 | The scriptural maxim, 'The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,' is verified daily in our observation.
00:07:15.000 | If our zeal is embittered by expressions of anger, invective or scorn,
00:07:22.000 | we may think we are doing service to the cause of truth when in reality we shall only bring it into discredit."
00:07:31.000 | He noticed one of the most Calvinistic texts in the New Testament calls for patient tenderness.
00:07:39.000 | You know which one I'm thinking about? One of the most Calvinistic texts in the New Testament.
00:07:45.000 | It's 2 Timothy 22-24 to 26. I'll read it.
00:07:51.000 | Notice what Paul brings together here. Newton noticed it. Had a huge impact on him.
00:07:58.000 | "The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher,
00:08:08.000 | forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness."
00:08:14.000 | Then comes the Calvinistic part.
00:08:17.000 | "God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth,
00:08:28.000 | and escape from the snare of the devil, after having been captured by him to do his will."
00:08:35.000 | Wow! That's a very powerful text.
00:08:39.000 | God grants repentance. God brings people to know the truth. So what's our part?
00:08:46.000 | "Not quarrelsome, kindly to everyone, apt teacher, forbearing, correcting in gentleness."
00:08:56.000 | There's the Calvinistic agenda. Isn't it amazing what he puts together there?
00:09:01.000 | Newton saw it. Have you seen it? Do you do it?
00:09:06.000 | And given that Calvinistic truth that God's the one who grants repentance,
00:09:12.000 | God's the one who opens the eyes of the blind to see the truth, prayer became utterly crucial for him.
00:09:18.000 | Prayer is asking God to do what only God can do. Man can't do it. God has to do it.
00:09:22.000 | You preach to people on Sunday, you're not going to change anybody in an evangelical, deep, heartfelt way.
00:09:27.000 | God's got to do that. You have your role. It's described right there.
00:09:31.000 | But God's going to do it. So if you don't obey that thing in prayer,
00:09:34.000 | you're missing one of the great means of grace that God has appointed for you.
00:09:38.000 | And this is what he said about prayer in controversy.
00:09:42.000 | He writes to a friend, "As to your opponent, I wish that before you set pen to paper against him,
00:09:51.000 | and during the whole time you are preparing your answer,
00:09:55.000 | you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord's teaching and blessing.
00:10:02.000 | This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him,
00:10:09.000 | and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write.
00:10:16.000 | If he is a believer, in a little while you will meet him in heaven.
00:10:21.000 | He will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have on earth.
00:10:28.000 | Anticipate that period in your thoughts.
00:10:32.000 | If he is an unconverted person, he's more properly the object of your compassion than your anger.
00:10:40.000 | Alas, he knows not what he does, but you know who has made you to differ.
00:10:49.000 | Namely, not you. You didn't make you to differ.
00:10:54.000 | 1 Corinthians 4, 7. God made you to differ."
00:11:00.000 | Yeah, one of my all-time favorite biographical sketches.
00:11:03.000 | Newton, of course, could draw lines.
00:11:06.000 | He drew very bold lines around Wesleyan perfectionism, for example, and he roundly condemned it.
00:11:12.000 | And in the second half of his life, he spoke out boldly against the African slave trade,
00:11:16.000 | the very trade that he participated in in the first half of his life.
00:11:20.000 | He could draw very bold lines, but he was so careful to do it in a humble sense of God's sovereignty.
00:11:26.000 | You can read Newton's famous letter on controversy.
00:11:29.000 | That's its title, "On Controversy." There's even more of this theme.
00:11:33.000 | This sermon excerpt was taken from the message titled, "John Newton, the Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness."
00:11:38.000 | That full biographical message is available online at DesiringGod.org.
00:11:42.000 | And the title of my book is, "Newton on the Christian Life to Live as Christ."
00:11:49.000 | Well, in a week, we will look at how controversy is both essential and deadly.
00:11:54.000 | There's a powerful lesson to be learned here, and that's coming up next Wednesday in a week.
00:11:58.000 | Stay tuned for that.
00:12:00.000 | But first up, if we read our Bibles, why do we need to listen to sermons also?
00:12:05.000 | Isn't personal Bible reading enough?
00:12:08.000 | Pastor John will say an emphatic no and explain why not next time when we close out the week with Pastor John back in the studio with us.
00:12:15.000 | I am Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Friday. Thanks for listening.
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