Hardened hearts

There can be self-hardening by our stubborn unbelief AND there can be God-judicial-hardening for judgment.

God’s people may experience the former. Those who are not God’s people experience both.

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Jesus’ emotions

Jesus felt compassion; he was angry, indignant, and consumed with zeal; he was troubled, greatly distressed, very sorrowful, depressed, deeply moved, and grieved; he sighed; he wept and sobbed; he groaned; he was in agony; he was surprised and amazed; he rejoiced very greatly and was full of joy; he greatly desired, and he loved.

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Causing my prayers to fall before the LORD

 

(Dan 9:20) Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting ^{[causing to fall]} my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God …

(Jer 36:7) Perhaps their supplication will come ^[fall] before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people.

The posture of the suppliant – his falling down before God – is transferred to his supplication as if it were laid before his feet." ^{(Keil and Delitzsch)}

"The Scripture speaks of prayer, that it rises and that it falls. Both expressions are suitable, though to be understood in a different way; for prayer cannot be rightly offered except man ascends and falls. These two things seem contrary, but they well agree together; nay, they cannot be separated. For in prayer two things are necessary — faith and humility: by faith we rise up to God, and by humility we lie prostrate on the ground. This is the reason why Scripture often says that prayer ascends, for we cannot pray as we ought unless we raise upwards our minds; and faith, sustained by promises, elevates us above all the world. Thus then prayer is raised upwards by faith; but by humility it falls down on the earth; for fear ought to be connected with faith. And as faith in our hearts produces alacrity by confidence, so also conscience casts us down and lays us prostrate. We now understand the meaning of the expression." ^(Calvin)

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TULIP

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the saints

Perhaps below would be a better description

God’s Sovereignty

Radical Depravity

Accomplished Atonement

Called effectually

Eternally Secure

“Consider: if we are actually dead in ours sins (radical depravity), then only God could choose us in Christ (unconditional election), only Christ could atone for our sins (particular redemption), and only the Spirit could draw us to Christ (efficacious grace) and preserve us in him (persevering grace). Therefore, all praise and glory belong to God alone: ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever!’ (Rom. 11:36).
Source: James M. Boice and Phillip Graham Ryken, The Doctrines of Grace (Wheaton: Crossway 2009), pages 32-33.

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… in all times … in all cases

“This is the believer’s safety and happiness, that this everlasting High Priest is able to save to the uttermost, in all times, in all cases.”

Source: Matthew Henry

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Good figs and bad figs (Jeremiah 24)

"… this does not so much design the quality of persons, as the issue of things, with respect unto them. The captivity of the one would issue in their good, and so are compared to good figs; when the sins of the other would bring upon them utter ruin and destruction without recovery, and therefore compared to bad figs that cannot be eaten." (Gill, Jeremiah 24)

"… those that are good, who are made so by the grace of God; for none are so by nature, or of themselves; they are very good: they have many good things in them; they have a good heart, a new and a clean heart, and a right spirit created in them; they have a good understanding of spiritual things; they have a good will to that which is good, and good affections for God and Christ, and divine things; they have the good Spirit of God and his graces in them, and Christ and his word dwelling in them: and they do good things, and are prepared for every good work; they are good to others; pleasantly and acceptably good to God through Christ; and profitably good to their fellow saints and fellow creatures.

On the other hand, those that are bad are exceeding bad; as they are by nature children of wrath, unclean, corrupt, loathsome, and abominable in the sight of God; so they are from their youth upward, and continue so, and are never otherwise; all in them, and that comes from them, are evil; their hearts are desperately wicked, the thoughts and imaginations of their hearts are evil continually; their words are idle, corrupt, and filthy, and all their actions sinful; there is no good in them, nor any done by them; they are good for nothing; they are of no use to God, to themselves, or others; sin has made them like itself, exceeding sinful: and now between these two sorts there is no medium; though all sins are not alike; and some in a comparative sense may be called greater or lesser sinners; yet all are exceeding bad, even the least: they are all of the same nature, and have the same wicked hearts; though some may be outwardly righteous before men; and hypocrites and formal professors are worst of all.

There never were but two sorts of persons in the world; the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent; the children of God, and the children of the devil; and so things will appear hereafter at the great day; the one will be placed at Christ’s right hand as good and righteous men, the other at his left hand as wicked, and will have separate states to all eternity: and so those figs are explained in the Talmud; the good figs, they are the perfect righteous; the bad figs, they are the perfect wicked." (Gill, Jeremiah 24)

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