Featured Church Sign Message Has Low Opinion of Christ and High Opinion of Mankind

I have no idea how you got such from the OP.

 

I have no idea what you think in the OP is sanctimonious.

I realize in this day and time that many people want a "feel good", "I'm okay and you're okay", insipid, false religion. I want no part of such. I own my vileness, I do not claim that in myself I am anything but a dirty, filthy, rotten sinner, saved by the free sovereign grace of God because Christ fulfilled ALL of the conditions for my salvation.

 

There you have it - Christ died for the ungodly. God's elect are a bunch of dirty, filthy, rotten, wretches before He regenerates them(and even afterward(Romans 7:14-25), even though He chose them before the foundation of the world. I own my vileness, I do not claim that in myself I am anything but a dirty, filthy, rotten sinner, saved by the free sovereign grace of God because Christ fulfilled ALL of the conditions for my salvation.

As Joseph Irons put it in a hymn in Zion's Hymns:

"Black, Yet Comely"

Song of Solomon 1:5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.

1. Mysterious truth, the Saints are all
Both black and comely too;
Black and polluted through the fall,
Comely in Jesus' view.

2 Black as the tents of Kedar's race,
They own themselves most vile;
But comely through their Surety's grace,
And favour'd with His smile.

3 I'll own my blackness till I lie,
Abas'd at Jesus' feet;
I'll claim my comeliness, and cry,
"Lord, take me to thy seat."

 

From fallen man's viewpoint it may appear that man is the captain of his own fate, but the Bible does not teach that. To teach that man has free will would mean that man could prevent God from achieving His will. It is absurd to teach that the creature can frustrate his Creator.

"God's will determines all the choices and circumstances of his creatures, so that nothing is up to man's "free will." In fact, because God is completely sovereign, man has no free will:

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:16)

The LORD works out everything for his own ends – even the wicked for a day of disaster. (Proverbs 16:4)

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? (Proverbs 20:24)

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. (Proverbs 21:1)

All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35)

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

All things are decided and caused by God – nothing is free from his control, and he has not chosen to forego his control on anything. The doctrine is repulsive to those who abhor the rule and honor of God, and so they oppose it. But the doctrine is a source of comfort and celebration to those who love him. Why would we want it any other way, than for God to rule over all things? And what better life can we wish for, than to be ruled by God?"

- from Vincent Cheung's Systematic Theology

 

You seem to be offended that God does whatsoever He pleases.

Yes, God is pleased to save His elect, chosen and given to God the Son to their Surety before the foundation of the world.

The gospel of Christ is not an offer. The gospel of Christ is a declaration of what He has accomplished for His sheep to be their perfect righteousness, which is imputed to His sheep, just as the sins of His sheep were imputed to Him and He paid their sin debt on the cross.

 

I don't. Also, for the record, I am not Reformed.

God requires a perfect righteousness, not a good college try. What you advocate is salvation based on man's sincerity. Just how much sincerity do you claim that a person must exhibit - 70%, 80%, 90% 95%? No one is going to show perfect sincerity. Your idea of the gospel is a false religion in which there is no salvation as you condition it on man fulfilling conditions, whereas the gospel of Christ declares that Christ fulfilled all of the conditions for salvation on behalf of His sheep.

Absolutely.

Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

(emphasis mine - they are given to Christ before the foundation of the world - Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world; 2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

 

Since the Bible teaches that God is absolutely totally sovereign, then obviously no such passage exists.

 

If salvation is based in the least little bit on unclean man meeting some condition, then not a single person would be saved.

"A man cannot make himself clean by anything he can do, by his repentance and humiliation, by his good works, duties, and services; none can do this but God." - excerpt from John Gill's Bible commentary on Job 14:4

 

It is not a matter of if I am right or if you are wrong. God said it, that settles it.

Repentance is a gift from God. Acts of the Apostles 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Also, faith is a gift from God. Philippians 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

(emphasis mine)

 

Separated out from what?

 

Present one and let's deal with it.