The last two BLOGS we have been looking at a sermon on Regeneration from John 1:12-13 by a man named Asahel Nettleton. He was an evangelist during the 2nd Great Awakening. Interestingly enough to many people today as well as many in his day, he also greatly opposed Charles Finney and his new methods of evangelism that he brought into the church. In this sermon on regeneration he is giving us reasons why he was so against the new ways of doing evangelism:
“That the Holy Spirit makes use of the word and many other instruments to bring sinners to Christ, I have no doubt. But that men are naturally so inclined, as to approve of and obey the precepts of the gospel, unless some peculiar course of sin or prejudice prevent them, contradicts the whole tenor of the gospel, in which it is a fundamental principle, that by nature we are children of wrath, and that we are at enmity with God and blinded to the light of his truth and dead in trespasses and sins. That the Holy Spirit is communicated to all in a sufficient manner to save them, entirely overthrows the idea of any special grace, and makes one man as much born of God as another! Our text says that as many as received Christ, and believed on his name, were born of God. If so, others who did not, were not born of God, and the undistinguishing influences of the Spirit cannot be maintained.”
Here is one point of great distinction that apart from it many souls can be deluded. If all men alike are given the same power and benefits to be saved and all of those are by grace, then people will use the words “saved by grace” and yet mean something totally different by it than what has been historically thought to be meant by Scripture, Augustine, the Reformers and virtually the whole Church from the Reformation until the times and practices of Finney. What the former men meant by “saved by grace” was that grace that was planned by the Father, earned by Christ, and then applied by the Holy Spirit. This is quite opposed to any scheme or teaching which does not have the Spirit applying grace to the hearts of man but is the man himself applying the gospel by his choice. Scripture teaches us that man is dead and cannot be enticed to spiritual things much less apply them to his own heart.
“It is a great stumbling block, in the way of many, that God should give more of his Spirit to one, than another. To remove this subject of prejudice, Pelagius and multitudes ever since have maintained that all men receive gifts alike, and are alike furnished to work out their salvation. This effectually destroys the new birth, and makes it alike common to every man. On this scheme Judas had as much grace as Paul, Ahab who sold himself to work wickedness, as David, a man after God’s own heart. All the difference between them, was owing to the different manner in which they improved their privileges.”
This is why men so hate the biblical teaching of this and do all they can by scholarship and other methods to banish this truth from their minds. Nettleton has pointed this out and it would do us well to pay attention to his words. When it is maintained that all men have received the grace of God alike and what is needed for salvation is for them to make a decision, they have in effect destroyed the grace of God in the new birth though they might insist that is it by grace alone. If all men have the same amount of grace, then salvation is by grace only to a degree. The Gospel is that men are saved by grace apart from works, that is, by grace alone (Eph 2:1-10). For the Gospel to be by grace alone then it is by grace (moved by God rather than something in man) that God would regenerate the sinner. It is so vital to note this distinction because it is vital to the Gospel of grace alone and it is so different than what we see in the majority of places today. Many people who claim to be Reformed still leave it to the sinner to apply the Gospel to himself. Others will tell the sinner to believe and if the sinner says that s/he believes then they say that God gave that person his or her faith to believe. While this may sound as if it is in accordance with older orthodoxy, it is not. They have still left it in the hands of the sinner with no way for the sinner to tell if faith is coming from himself or God. They have also not told the sinner that s/he must be born by the work of God and so is in the hands of grace alone.
“I know such doctrine is agreeable to corrupt nature; and the easy reception it has met with ever since it was first preached proves how agreeable it is to carnal reason. But neither the Scriptures nor experience afford us any reason to believe it. I do not doubt that the Spirit of God strives with all men who are not reprobates. I fully admit it. I admit that the promises and threats of the gospel would be sufficient to persuade us to a holy life, if our understandings were neither darkened, nor our affections depraved. But after all this, I deny that common grace makes us the sons of God, or that we are persuaded to be Christians without any special divine influence; or that all men receive the same measure of the Spirit.”
The teaching of Pelagianism is indeed agreeable to human beings who trust in their own wisdom and power, even in the things of grace. While the teaching does not state it this way, it is much easier for carnal man to accept a teaching that leaves everything in his own hands. It is so easy for the carnal man to believe that God loves him and has done everything to save him and now it is all up to him to make that choice anytime he will. But if all of that is true, then no one is saved by the grace of God or by His love, but in reality is saved by his own will and choice. If all men receive the same measure of grace, then the only thing that distinguishes men is not grace but their own wisdom and will. It sure sounds to me a lot like the promise Satan made to Eve in the Garden that she would be like God. Rather than leaving things in the hands of men, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that we have no righteousness and no sufficiency in ourselves. All the grace of salvation must not only be from Christ but be applied by the Holy Spirit. Man is sufficient for nothing good from or within himself.
God Loves... Himself 
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