WWUTT 385 God's Sovereign Plan? (Part 3)

Why pray to a God who has predestined all things from the foundation of the world? Because the

Bible commands us to. The Bible instructs us to live lives of holiness in this present age as we await the appearing of our

Savior Jesus Christ, when we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the

Word of God. For questions and comments, email WhenWeUnderstandTheText at gmail .com.

And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. Today is part three of a sermon that we have been critiquing from Dr. Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, the same church that Dr.

Adrian Rogers pastored for over 30 years. Dr. Gaines is the current president of the

Southern Baptist Convention. On September 8, 2013, he preached a sermon entitled

God's Sovereign Plan. But as we've seen, Gaines' understanding of sovereignty is different than how the

Bible describes it. His root text is 2 Kings 8, and he has so far made the point that God has a plan for individuals.

He's got two points or two more points that he is going to make in this sermon. But first, let's review what it is that we've read so far in 2

Kings 8. Now, Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, arise and depart with your household and sojourn wherever you can.

For the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years. So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God.

She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And at the end of seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the

Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. Now, the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.

And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land.

And Gehazi said, My Lord, O king, here is the woman and here is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying,

Restore all that was hers together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.

So the first point that Dr. Gaines has made is that God has a plan for individuals. And we pick up, we pick up from there with Dr.

Steve Gaines preaching his sermon entitled God's Sovereign Plan. This woman was given a choice where she wanted to sojourn.

Number two, God has a plan for leaders, and I'll go a lot faster here. Seven through 18, then

Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben -Hadad, king of Aram, was sick.

It was told him, saying, The man of God has come here. Here's a king from a foreign nation, yet God had a plan for him and for the nation that he ruled.

Verse eight, the king said to Hazael, Take then a gift in your hand. Go to meet the man of God.

Inquire the Lord by him, saying, Will I recover from this sickness? So Hazael went to meet him, him being

Elisha, took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, 40 camels load.

He came, stood before him and said, Your son Ben -Hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying,

Will I recover from this sickness? Then Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will surely recover, but the

Lord has shown me that he will certainly die. He fixed his gaze steadily on him. That is, Elisha fixed his gaze steadily upon Hazael until he was ashamed and the man of God wept.

Hazael said, Why does my Lord weep? Then he answered, Because I know the evil, I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel.

Their strongholds you will set on fire, their young men you will kill with a sword, their little ones you will dash in pieces, their women with child you will rip open, rip up.

Now God told Elisha that Hazael would follow

Ben -Hadad and become the next king of Aram. He also told Elisha that Ben -Hadad would die.

But the fact that God told Elisha that Hazael would choose to do these things and to kill

Ben -Hadad does not mean that God ordained and predestined all the future and all the wicked actions of Hazael that are mentioned in our text.

Look at what Elisha said. He said, I know that, I know the evil that you will do, not that God has ordained for you to do.

I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel. You're going to burn their strongholds, set them on fire, their young men you're going to kill with a sword.

Now listen to this. Do you think God predestined this? Their little ones you'll dash in pieces and their women, their pregnant women, their women with child you're going to rip up.

Do you think God predestined that? The same God that said, I didn't plan that, didn't command that, it never entered my mind back in Jeremiah.

He wouldn't have planned this, this wouldn't have entered his mind either. If you say that God predestined these despicable deeds you're reading your thoughts into the text not out of the text and that's called eisegesis not exegesis.

Don't make God into the one who predestines little ones to be dashed to pieces and women with child being ripped open.

Don't accuse the impeccable, sinless, righteous God of such sins. Hazel would choose to do that,

Elisha was just reporting the facts, not blaming God for predestining that to happen.

Were there no pregnant women or babies on earth when God brought a flood on the earth and wiped all of mankind from the face of it save for eight people on the ark?

Were there no babies when God went through Egypt at midnight and killed all the firstborn in the land, even the firstborn cattle?

Were there no babies in Jericho when Israel was commanded by God to utterly destroy everything both man and woman, young and old, with the edge of the sword?

Does God sin decreeing that infants should be put to death? That's what

Steve Gaines is suggesting. Now I'm not saying that what Hazel did was right, Hazel was a wicked king who did not fear the

Lord, but the death and destruction he brought against Israel was willed by God because of Israel's sin.

Later on in 2 Kings 10 .32, in those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel.

Hazel defeated them throughout the territory of Israel. Who began to cut off parts of Israel? The Lord, using

Hazel as his instrument to bring about judgment. In 2 Kings 13 .3, and the anger of the

Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them continually into the hand of Hazel, king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben -Hadad, the son of Hazel.

God gave Israel into Hazel's hand to dash their little ones into pieces, their pregnant women to be ripped open.

As God showed Elisha, this was what was going to happen. Hazel was God's instrument to bring about his judgment.

Hazel's intentions were evil. God's intentions are always good and righteous and holy.

God is the one who gives life. He has the right to take it away. We don't have that right.

God does. It says in 1 Samuel 2 .6, the Lord kills and brings to life.

As Job said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. May the name of the

Lord be praised. Now, no one would be able to answer this question but Steve Gaines, but did he actually read the whole story?

Did he review how this story went before he taught this lesson? Is he deliberately ignoring the parts where it explicitly says

God is the one who brought these events brought these events about? Again, he singles out these texts to serve his preconceived intentions.

That's eisegesis. That's reading into the story what you want it to say apart from what the

Holy Spirit truly means to communicate. Verse 13, then Hazel said, but what is your servant who is but a dog that he should do this great thing?

And Elisha answered, the Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram. Now there's the sovereignty of God over leaders.

God told him that's going to be the next king. God had a plan for Hazel to become the king of Aram, a foreign nation.

And then Hazel acted in a manner that bore witness to Elisha's words. Verse 14, he departed from Elisha, returned to his master, said to him, what did

Elisha say to you? He said, he told me that you're going to surely recover on the following day. He took the cover. He dipped it in water.

He spread it on his face so that he died. He suffocated the man. Hazel became king of this place.

Hazel murdered Ben -Hadad. God did not predestine it. God did not coerce it. God just knew it was going to happen.

And it was the choice though that Hazel made and he had to live with the choice. Again, I point this out.

If God showed Hazel through Elisha what Hazel was going to do, then

Hazel could not have made any other choice. This argument that Gaines is making in defense of the free will doctrine is a complete illusion.

There is no other option Hazel could have chosen except what God showed him he was about to do.

If God knows the choices that we will make, but did not predestine them, then we're all just characters in a storybook that God is merely reading, but did not write, according to Steve Gaines.

When the writer of second Kings, then he lets us know that God was also moving the leadership of other nations.

Watch this. Now in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, that's another, that's, that's a king, another king,

Jehoshaphat being then the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah became king 32 years old when he became king.

He reigned 88 years, rather in Jerusalem. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. That's bad. Just as the house of Ahab had done, that's bad for the daughter of Ahab became his wife and he did evil in the sight of the

Lord. So Judah's righteous king Jehoshaphat was replaced by an ungodly king named

Jehoram. He did what was, he did not God made him. He did what was evil.

Did you catch that? The words catch the words. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. It does not say

God made or caused or ordained or predestined or coerced Jehoram to do evil in the sight of the

Lord. It says he did evil in the sight of the Lord. And he did, he did what was evil in the sight of the

Lord. And Jehoram was judged for that. God does not judge us based on our understanding of his eternal decree from everlasting to everlasting, because we don't know what that decree is.

He has not revealed that to us. He judges mankind based on the decisions that we make in the realm in which we live.

The Bible says God is supremely and absolutely sovereign. And the Bible says man is morally depraved and responsible for his own sin.

And it's only our folly that leads us to believe these two concepts contradict one another. Calvinists, monergists, biblicists, reformed theologians, whatever category you want to ascribe to those who believe in the doctrine of God's sovereign election.

They do not stand in their pulpits and say, God has foreordained all things from the beginning of time, so therefore you have no human responsibility.

You know who does say that? Only the critics of this teaching. Upon their own anvils, do these critics chip off pieces of the teaching and then flatten them down into something pliable that they can hold up and criticize?

They refuse to behold the intricacies and the complexities of the thing forged in the fires of God's word because it's just too heavy.

And these critics are too weak. May none of us turn our eyes from the things which

God in his grace has allowed us to look into and see according to his word, the

Bible. And when the image of the thing that God shows us isn't clear to us now, let us praise his majesty and search all the more diligently asking for wisdom from God who gives to all without reproach.

If this text teaches anything, it is that God has a plan for leaders. Proverbs 21 .1

is a verse I have asked you to pray for our president and our leaders in America. I've been praying it virtually every day.

The king's heart is like channels of water in the Lord's hands. He turns it wherever he wishes.

New Living Translation is beautiful. The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord. He guides it wherever he pleases.

Now look, if everything that the king does is predestined by God, why would

God tell us to pray for leaders? Why?

I mean if it's all predestined, why would we pray? What does our prayer do? You say, well,

God uses means. I understand where you're going with that, but I'm telling you, really, if it's already predestined, our prayers don't really do anything except just kind of agree with God.

We're not asking God in faith to do something otherwise, but 1

Timothy 2, 1 through 6 really does not lend itself toward us just acquiescing with God.

That's all prayer is. If prayer doesn't change anything, if it doesn't really matter that we pray,

God's going to do whatever God's going to do, then why pray? Really, I mean, let's just be honest. Why pray? Very simple answer to that question.

Because God commanded us to. That's why. Prayer is not optional for Christians.

It is required. R .C. Sproul, responding to this same question, said the following, prayer, like everything else in the

Christian life, is for God's glory and for our benefit in that order. Everything that God does, everything that God allows and ordains is in the supreme sense for His glory.

It is also true that while God seeks His own glory supremely, man benefits when

God is glorified. We pray to glorify God, but we also pray in order to receive the benefits of prayer from His hand.

Prayer is for our benefit even in light of the fact that God knows the end from the beginning.

It is our privilege to bring the whole of our finite existence into the glory of His infinite presence.

Someone like Steve Gaines might ask, why would we pray to a God who is sovereign? My response would be this, why pray to a

God who isn't? But 1 Timothy 2, 1 -6 says prayer does change things. First of all then he said,

I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving, four kinds of prayers, we don't have time to break it all down, be made on behalf of all men for kings and for all who are in authority.

Why? So that we may lead a tranquil life and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. And then look at these verses that just happen to be in this text.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved.

Are all men saved? I ask you a question. Are all men saved? But God desires for all men to be saved.

And don't tell me all men doesn't mean all men, because He just said pray for all men. I mean in the same context, you've got all men here, meaning all men.

A verse or two later it doesn't mean something different than that, it means all men. Here, at least, all means all, and that's all all means.

Who desires all men to be saved, even though they're not saved, and come to the knowledge of truth. There is one

God, one mediator, also between God and men, all men, the man Christ Jesus who gave

Himself as a ransom for, say it again, all. Testimony given at the proper time.

Make no mistake, God has a plan for leaders. Now, Dr. Gaines asserts himself on verse 5 to suggest that Christ is the mediator between God and every single person, but that's just not true.

And I'm willing to speculate that if Dr. Gaines was able to get outside the box he's in for this sermon, he would agree with me.

Jesus Christ does not stand as the mediator between God and every individual. If He was, then anyone who prayed to God would be received by Christ, regardless of whether or not they believed in Christ.

But Jesus said in John 14 6 that no one gets to the Father but by Him. It is not enough to believe in God.

You must believe in His Son or your prayers are not heard. Now someone might say,

Brother Gabe, I don't think that's what Dr. Gaines meant. I think that he meant that anyone can come to Jesus who is the mediator between God and anyone who comes to Him.

Well, there's still problems with that, too. Not everyone who calls on the name of Jesus is even received by Jesus unless they call on Him with a pure heart.

And the one who purifies is God. Hebrews 10 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Then we're able to come to God through Christ. And that's the work of God. In John 6 44,

Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

Matthew 11 27, Jesus said, All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father, and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

Jesus does not stand as the mediator between God and every individual person. Only those who have been given to the son by the father, who are also those to whom the son has revealed the father.

Now about this statement, all means all. And that's all all means well, all just like any other word has a context.

And anytime we see all in the scriptures, it almost always has limitations.

For example, Romans 3 23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

In context, all is describing every individual of fallen humanity.

It doesn't include angels because not all of them have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And it's certainly not including the only perfect man, Jesus Christ. It is everyone descendant from Adam, Jew or Gentile.

So even in Romans 3 23, all has limitations. First Timothy 2 4 is no exception to this rule.

In context, all is referring to all sorts of people from every walk of life, including kings and those who are in high positions.

There is no one from whom we should withhold the gospel or hesitate to pray for.

This is not the same thing as saying that God has given free will to every individual to either accept him or reject him.

The choice be theirs. That's not what first Timothy 2 4 means. And look at me.

I want to say this to you. The Bible says, and I don't have this on my notes, but you need to write it down. First Peter 2 17 because some of you talk so negatively about political leaders.

I want to encourage you to stop because you are disobeying Scripture. You need to stop.

God convicted me about this and you say, well, I don't care what you say. I don't care what

I say either, but you'd better care what God says because if you keep it up, God's going to discipline you.

The Bible says in first Peter 2 17, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear

God. Now are you ready for this? Honor the king. And that was

Nero, a sexual pervert that he was talking about at the time. Doesn't matter who's in the office.

You honor the office. Stop talking about political leaders.

Start praying for them that God would take them in his sovereignty and that their hearts would be like channels of water in God's hand.

So Gaines is teaching his hearers to ask God to sovereignly intervene in the lives of unbelievers, including

Kings and all those who are in high positions that he would lead them to belief. So even

Gaines doesn't truly believe that God abstains from directing the course of a man's heart.

These truths in the scriptures are impossible even for the most flaming free willer to avoid.

Gaines has referred to Proverbs 21 one, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the

Lord. He turns it wherever he will. God sovereignly directs every decision that pops up.

Even in the language Dr. Gaines uses, he just doesn't want to submit to it. You know what

I've been praying? I just been praying for anybody in Washington that doesn't know Jesus from the

White House to any places. I don't know who's saved. You don't know who's saved either. People nowadays say they're saved.

There are people in this church say they're saved. They're not a bit more saved than a man in the moon. But I'm praying for senators.

I pray for governors. I pray for presidents. Anybody else that doesn't know the Lord. I don't know who knows the Lord. I know people say they know the

Lord, but I, you know, Jesus said, many, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy on it? There's going to be preachers in hell.

I know that there'll be politicians in hell. There'll be other people. There'll be a lot of church members in hell. So I don't know who's in heaven.

But the bottom line is this. I've been praying that people that really know Jesus will get to our politicians and witness to them.

And you know what? I don't want anybody to go to hell. Do you? So quit talking about them and pray for them. Like first Timothy two says you're supposed to do it.

And I mean, stop doing it now. Stop talking about them right now. Don't do it anymore.

So I'm telling you, God will discipline you if you do. Is it quiet in here? Stop it.

It's not godly. It's not a good witness. It's not a good witness. Stop it and start praying for them.

I think what Gaines is saying is good, but don't think that the apostles, Paul or Peter are saying that we should not criticize our politicians ever.

Jesus called Herod a fox, Luke 1320 or 1332.

But we must be careful with how we criticize and not let contempt for another human being sneak its way into our hearts.

We are indeed instructed to be subject to every human institution for the Lord's sake and to honor the emperor.

Ecclesiastes 1020 is a good instruction to heed in this matter as well. Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice or some winged creature.

Tell of the matter. By the way, who would want to be president of the United States? I saw every leader in America, church leader, political leader, business leader.

They're all made fun of all the time. They are minutely looked at, they're talked about, cheap shots on the internet.

And you know what? A lot of these people that are so sharp sounding on the internet, if you met them, you'd never give them the time of day.

A lot of them are just boys that live at home with their mama and don't even own a car. And they're mama's boys, they can't get married, they can't get a job, they can't do that, so they stay on the internet all the time.

They're flunkies in life. And because they sound so cute and sarcastic on Twitter, people listen to them.

Blows my mind. This is really strange. I'm not going to sit on this for too long, but you just notice that he gets real sharp with his congregation about criticizing our elected officials, but then he goes into this tirade of whom he calls mama's boys.

You'd never give them the time of day. I mean, come on. What happened to all means all, and that's all all means.

We're supposed to pray for everyone. First of all, then, I urge that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

God has a plan for leaders. Finally, God has a plan for nations.

Look at verse 19, however, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. Does that sound like maybe God has a plan for nations?

Judah was wicked, had a wicked king, but God wasn't through with Judah yet. I'm praying that God's not through with America yet.

But I want to remind you, God doesn't need us. God doesn't need America. Look at me.

God doesn't have to save by little or big. God is God. God doesn't need

America. America needs God. But he said, however, the

Lord was not willing to destroy Judah for the sake of David, his servant. Ah, there we go. Since he had promised him to give him a lap to him through his sons always in his days.

Edom, another nation now, who are they descendants of? Esau, that old wicked man that sold his birthright for a bowl of soup, revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a king over themselves.

Then Joram crossed over to Zareh and all his chariots with him. He arose by night, struck the

Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots, but his army fled to their tents.

So Edom revolted against Judah to this day. Then Lipna revolted at the same time.

The rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did are, they're not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

So Joram slept with his fathers, was buried with the fathers in the city of David. That's Jerusalem.

And Ahaziah, his son became king in his place. In the 12th year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Joram, king of Judah began to reign.

Now these are the kind of verses that honestly when you're reading the Bible through you say, Lord, what is the deal here? Why am

I reading all this stuff? Well just think about it. If you think about it, it's showing you right now the sovereignty of God among the nations.

Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king. He reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Adaliah, the granddaughter of Amri, king of Israel.

He walked in the way of the house of Ahab. He did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab had done because he was son -in -law of the house of Ahab.

When he went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to war against Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth Gilead and the

Arameans wounded Joram. King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the

Arameans had inflicted on him. These are very important words when we think about we're about to see in the next week or so we're going to see

Jezebel get killed and all of this, all these facts play into it.

This is the sovereignty of God that is working here. So King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the

Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth when he fought against Hazael, king of Aram. Then Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see

Joram and the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick. And we're going to see a man named

Yehu who drives like a maniac, and he's going to kill a whole lot of people here including

Jezebel. But it was God getting them all in one spot for them all to be killed.

God was working in Edom. God was working in Judah. God was working in Israel. God was working in all these places.

God has a plan for the nations. Let me read a verse of Scripture. Why don't you stand up? I know you're tired. Stand up. Let's all read this

Acts 17. Paul is preaching to the Greeks at Athens, the center of intelligentsia of the day, and he makes this statement.

Let's read it. From one man, God created all the nations throughout the whole earth.

He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

How many of you believe God can do that? Anybody? He did. Put that back up there just real quick.

From one man, who is that Adam? God created all the nations throughout the whole earth. Now I want to say this to you again.

I say this all the time. Those of you out there that are proud of your color, whether it's white, black, brown, whatever it is, get over it.

We are all biologically kin. Get over racism. There's only one race, the human race.

We all came from Adam. Or as Dr. Rogers would say, a drunken sailor named Noah. Heard him say that one time.

He said, we all came from a boat, from a sailor that got drunk when he got off. One man,

God created all the nations throughout the whole earth, and then what else? God decided. Everybody say, God decided.

God decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and He determined their boundaries.

Do you believe that? Does God have a plan for nations? God is sovereign, and God is not insecure.

He is so secure, He made us with choice. He was not so insecure that He had to determine every little flinch that we would do.

He did not have to predetermine every little decision we would make in order for His ultimate will to be done.

God is bigger than that. God is bigger than your disobedience, and God did not predestine you to go to heaven.

God did not predestine you to go to hell. God provided the way. He predestined the way for you to go to heaven.

You can say yes or no to Almighty God, but you've got to live with that decision. In all of that, look at me,

God is God. And if we'll obey

Him, not because He coerced us to do so, if we'll obey Him, He'll bless us. If we disobey

Him, He will discipline and punish us. That's the way it is. He does not predestine sin, which is what you have to come to if you believe that He predestined everything that happens.

All right, so in review, according to Dr. Steve Gaines, if God predestined every little thing from the foundation of the world, which

Gaines says is an anti -biblical doctrine that is indicative of our whole society, then

God is to blame. God is wicked. God is insecure. God is responsible for our sin.

God gives a false hope to unbelievers, and God does not need to be prayed to.

This is dangerous ground that Dr. Gaines is treading on, because if indeed the Protestant reformers were right about what the scriptures say regarding the sovereignty of God, Dr.

Gaines has just accused him of being evil. By contrast, Dr. Gaines didn't really offer much.

This was all mostly a criticism of those who hold to the doctrine of predestination.

Dr. Gaines never actually showed from the scriptures that God gave us the freedom to make choices that are beyond His control.

He made a lot of inferences and arguments from silence, but he never showed us in the

Bible where it says that God has foreknowledge of the choices that we're going to make but doesn't choose for us.

Why didn't he show us that? Because it isn't there. It's easier for Dr. Gaines to point and mock than it is for him to actually present a biblical case for the beliefs that he holds.

Now, again, Dr. Gaines' main argument, for which he gave no biblical support whatsoever, is an argument that commits suicide.

If God knows the choices that we are going to make but doesn't make us choose, giving us the free will to make our own decisions, there's no other decision that we could have made except the one that God foresaw.

There is no such thing as free will. It's an illusion. Or as Martin Luther put it, free will is an empty term whose reality is lost.

The only thing that we have the will to do is sin. In our hearts, we scheme rebellion against God from the moment that we are conceived.

There is nothing that we can do but sin. Even David said it in the Psalms, in sin did my mother conceive me.

We are born physically alive, but we're spiritually dead, enslaved to the sinful nature inherent in all of humanity.

It's not until the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart to hear and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ that our dead soul is brought from death to life.

We are made right before God by the sacrifice of his son and progress in righteousness and holiness for the rest of our days, able to do good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Read John 3, 1 -21, Ephesians 2, 1 -10,

Titus 3, 3 -7, passages all over scriptures that talk about this. This is what the

Bible says. We were dead in our sins, we're made alive in Christ. We are saved by grace through faith, and this is the gift of God.

And he says over and over and over again throughout scripture, I gave you a small sampling that God did not command that, nor did it ever enter his mind.

I wanted to move in Nazareth, but you did not believe. I could not do a work there because you did not believe.

I wanted to move in Jerusalem. How many times I wanted to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not let me.

I can't work. I'm not going to work. I refuse to let myself work. I limit myself.

You don't limit me, but I limit myself unless you respond with belief. And I will not make you believe because I don't want to force you to believe.

I want you to choose to believe, and there's a big difference. Which the Bible does not say.

Steve Gaines says that. The Bible doesn't say that. And again, if God limits his sovereignty or relinquishes his control to the decisions that we make, then he isn't sovereign.

Sovereign is a word most often given to kings. It means that he is supreme and has ultimate power.

If the king were to willfully relinquish some of that power and give it to someone else, he isn't sovereign anymore.

He might still have some power, but it's limited and he's no longer sovereign. Either God is sovereign or he's not.

There is no middle ground. And if everything that happens is the will of God, again, the homosexuals are right.

God made them that way. Let's just leave it alone. Just wow. And again, we're talking about two completely different definitions of the word will here.

According to 1 Samuel 2 25, it was the will of the Lord to put the sons of Eli to death. According to 1

Thessalonians 5 18, it's the will of the Lord for you to give thanks in all circumstances. God executed his will against the sons of Eli.

God expects you to do his will as his dearly beloved children. These are two completely different applications of the word will gay marriage must be okay because God must have ordained it.

No, no, a thousand times, no. Everything that happens is not the will of God.

It's not the will of God that some crazy or demonized man goes into a theater and start blowing people away.

That's not the will of God predestined from the foundation of the world. If you believe that, I'm sorry you do, but you didn't get it from scripture, but God does have a will.

It is good, acceptable, and perfect Romans 12 to now, if I've offended you,

I've not tried to, do I believe strongly about what I believe? Yes, because nowadays

I'm telling you, all you hear is predestined.

This predestined that everything that happens is the will of God. Problem is it's philosophical, but it's not biblical and I'm not called to be just philosophical.

I want to be scriptural. Yeah, no. Throughout this whole critique,

Dr. Gaines has not displayed any reasonable understanding of the theology that he is criticizing.

It's been full of generalizations, straw man arguments, and red herrings. He's not cited one source, given one name, or made reference to a single reformed teaching.

He's misled his audience from beginning to end. I'm not going to argue with about it. Don't dare email me this week about this.

Don't tweet. You can tweet about me all you want to. I don't even like that word, but just remember you're going to give an account for every word you speak.

So am I. If I'm wrong, I'd rather stand on what I believe the word of God says and be wrong.

I believe that I'm right, obviously. So if anyone would ask me why

I don't personally contact Dr. Gaines about this and attempt to have a conversation with him about it before I make a public critique like this, there's your answer right there.

Don't you dare email me about this. Dr. Gaines has made up his mind and he absolutely does not want to talk about it.

His congregation has to listen to him, but he's not going to listen to anybody else. It is a poor example to other ministers and to our convention as the president of our convention as to how a pastor should behave.

This is not the way that I approach this subject with my congregation. Whenever I talk about the sovereignty of God, I absolutely welcome dialogue.

My office is open. You can come talk to me and even disagree with me if you want to, as long as you can be fair and civil and bring the word of God.

I'm not saying this to exalt myself. Oh, look at me. Look how much better I am than Dr. Gaines. I'm following the example of the apostles.

Paul himself was critiqued and challenged by the Bereans who went to the scriptures to see if the gospel that he preached was correct and they were commended for it.

God is sovereign. He has a plan for you. He has a plan for leaders that we need to pray for, not to denounce.

And God has a plan for nations. I don't know how long America's going to last, but I know God has already set its boundaries and God will do what

God's going to do. Amen. Father, bless tonight.

I believe it's your will to save people. I don't believe you have already condemned people to go to hell and consigned people to go to heaven.

I believe you give us choice. Let someone say yes to Jesus tonight. We pray in Christ's name. And if you agree, say amen.

Likewise, I pray that men like Dr. Steve Gaines, that their heart would be softened, that they would be receptive to the truth of the word of God, not trying to impose things that they believe onto that word, and that Dr.

Gaines would not be so closed off to any correction on subjects such as this.

He would set a good example before the Southern Baptist Convention. I'm sure that in his life, that he is a moral man, he is a godly man in his living.

I just pray that he would be more submissive to the authority of the word of God.

I pray, Lord, that none of us would ever try to impose ourselves upon that word, but we desire to be guided by that word, submitting ourselves to the authority of the scriptures of the

Bible. Lead this ministry when we understand the text in that way, that in all of the teaching that comes from this, whether it's the videos or the podcast or anything else, this is in submission to the authority of the word of God.

Thank you for the salvation that is given to us in Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

.com and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again next week as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.