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Man's Responsibility
L. R. Shelton An audio file of this sermon is available at www.sermonaudio.com/vot There are some "evils" that you can never lay at the door of Calvinism. My attention has been called to the fact that there is a great difference between the word "Calvinist" and Calvinism, and that, I certainly know. You may be spoken of as a Calvinist, and yet you may be ignorant of Calvinism. Now, for instance, I have said that Baptists have a Calvinistic creed, but they have an Arminian ministry. You cannot say that Calvinism teaches that man is not responsible. Man is responsible! Just as soon as I begin to speak on the Sovereignty of God, and God's Election that flows out from His Sovereignty, many will say, "Well, Bro. Shelton, what are you going to do with man's responsibility?" Well, that's what we want to talk about at this time. Man is responsible. He'll believe, or go to Hell. Now man does not have a free will; he is a free moral agent, but he does not have a free will. As we have said, man's will is held in slavery, or bondage, by his totally-depraved, and he is at liberty to choose only evil. The sinner is responsible to keep the moral law, and his inability does not do away with his responsibility. I am responsible to pay my debt, whether I can or not. And God holds every sinner responsible unto Him, whether he is able to meet God's requirements of holiness or not. Sinner, get this one truth: you are responsible! |
Every saved individual to whom I am speaking realizes that great truth. One day you lay at the feet of Christ saying, "If I don't get to Christ, I'm going to Hell." And though you realized, on the one hand, you would go there if God did not save you, yet you realized, on the other hand, your responsibility. Now, let me set forth this great truth. There are two lines of truth that run from cover to cover through God's entire Word: God's Sovereignty,
and Man's Responsibility. There are individuals who see only the Sovereignty of God, and that's all they see. Then there are other individuals who see only Man's Responsibility, and that's all they see. But, my friend, these two great truths – God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility – are two great truths that run from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, throughout God's Word; and they never conflict.
Absolute Election flows from God's Sovereignty. Both of these truths, God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility, are just as plain and definite as can be. And they both run throughout God's Word.
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Let me emphasize this fact: The great Doctrines of God's Sovereignty out of which flows absolute Election is taught in God's Word from cover to cover, from lid to lid, whether you believe it, or whether any man believes it. Then, on the other hand, Man's Responsibility to repent and believe the Gospel and to keep the moral law is also taught in God's Word from cover
to cover, whether you believe it or not. I dare any man to deny it or disprove it from God's Word. You may try to do so by twisting the Scriptures to your own satisfaction, but, brother, God's Sovereignty, on one hand, and Man's Responsibility, on the other, are two great truths that parallel each other throughout the entire Word of God. I have been backed against
the wall many times by both groups, but there or the two lines of truth. The whole system of truth through the entire Bible runs in two parallel lines; they never cross, and they never conflict. These two great truths – God's Sovereignty and God's absolute Election, and Man's Total Depravity and Man's Responsibility – run parallel in God's Word from cover to cover.
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All right, let me state it this way: If we were to declare that man is so free to act as if there were not God over his actions (and that is what the world wants today; they have taken counsel against God Almighty, and they will break His bands asunder and say, "God, You go on fishing: we are going to run this universe"), then you would be driven to atheism, infidelity and despair – and that is exactly where we are headed today. That's the condition the world is in today, because they have taken God off the throne, in their own mind, and they have told Him to go fishing. "Let us run this thing," they have said, and what a mess this world is in today! Men are dying, their hearts or fainting within them him – heart failure – because of what is coming upon the world, according to Luke 21:26. And you see right there, man as a responsible being is fulfilling God eternal prophecy.
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