The Attribute Of Attributes (part 2) - [Exodus 33:19]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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It was probably about 10 years ago, I remember Luke was little and he was sick.

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It was the middle of the night, it was about 3 in the morning. And since my wife took care of usually the feeding duties of the kids when they were especially little, when the kids were sick in the middle of the night,

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I tried to get up and serve and take care of the kids. And I just remember holding Luke by the fireplace at our old little cabin in Sterling, just kind of rocking back and forth.

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Even though we didn't have a rocking chair, I still was kind of just trying to rock back and forth. And then without getting into too much detail, then he'd get sick again right then and there.

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And we'd just have to take a bath together and a shower together. And then we'd come back out and then, you know, repeat.

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And you know what I did to comfort Luke? I just held him really closely and I said, you know, son, let me tell you about viruses.

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Viruses, even though I might be able to give you some antibiotics, you just have to ride them through. The thing's called bacteria.

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There are all kinds of different things that get in your system and you have to kind of ride it out. You don't want to get dehydrated.

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You might have to drink a little bit. And I didn't say that at all.

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You know what I said to Luke? It was very simple. I said,

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Daddy's here. It's going to be okay. I'd hold him tightly.

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One of the reasons why I think men are supposed to have bigger muscles than ladies is so you can hold kids like that at times like that and say,

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Daddy's strong arms are just going to hold you close. It's okay. And I would sing that little song,

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Everything's All Right, in my father's house. And I was trying to convey to Luke that it was going to be okay, that he could trust his dad,

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I'll do everything I can to make sure you're okay. Today in our passage, it's going to be very interesting because many of us, when it comes to God, we want to know the answers.

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We want to know the whys. We are a scientifically driven, empirically driven kind of culture, and we, if we're not careful, want

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God to answer our whys. Why did you let that happen?

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Why did you let that baby die? Why did you let cancer affect that relative?

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Why are you letting these things go on in the culture? Why are other people going to get atomic bombs? There are a thousand why questions.

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And with Job, after losing all his children, asked, I believe, about 16 times, why

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God? And God never answered the question why.

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He always answered it with, let me tell you who I am, but you just can't know the answer.

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Let's turn our Bibles to Exodus chapter 32. As we're finishing today the topic of God as a sovereign and gracious God, who will be there today and tomorrow to lead you through any trial that you'll ever have, up to and including death.

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And we'll see this from Exodus chapter 32, where Moses needed God's sure confirmation that he would be there to guide

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Moses into the wilderness. Now, we're not Moses, but we have the same God, and you need to know today that God is sovereign, utterly sovereign, and He's graciously sovereign.

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He's just not a God who is a God who has fate, or kismet, or some kind of...

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It's just that way, but He is sovereignly, generously orchestrating things.

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And we're going to go to Exodus 32 and 33, and then move to Romans 9. And if I haven't got your attention so far, then

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I'll just do it this way. We're going to end up in Romans 9 in the passage that many people call immoral, because it shows the utter, naked sovereignty of God.

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We say we want sovereignty. I want a sovereign God. I want to be sovereign over health, wealth, skin color, who my parents were, what country

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I was born in. But do we really want the sovereign God of this book who says, I not only am sovereign over all those things,

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Psalm 103, the Lord's sovereignty rules over all, but I'm also sovereign in determining who goes to heaven and who doesn't.

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And this will be very good for us as a congregation, because we know these truths. But it's a good reminder, because we're going to need this kind of God and this kind of future.

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Paul was troubled on every side in 2 Corinthians. Trials are a way of life. Tonight, Eric will preach how to respond to trials.

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But this morning, my purpose is to remind you who the God is in your trials. So maybe the questions that are usually

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Y -oriented will at least end with who answers. Guide me now, thou great

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Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand.

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This doctrine this morning is very comforting in troubling times.

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It's very comforting in troubled times. But it also troubles you, because when you realize

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God is sovereign, you'll realize that you are not. And you'll realize that this

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God in Scripture is not some little votive God. You guys know little votive gods, little pocket gods?

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I love to go overseas, and usually the last thing my wife says before she says, I love you, honey, she usually says, don't bring home any little votive gods.

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Well, that's just like telling me, saved although still with a sin hangover, time to bring home another little votive god.

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Because I like to sit him around the house, so I can realize, why would I want to worship some little pocket god that somebody made?

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You know, let's get a piece of wood, and let's carve some of that for a god, and let's carve some of it for fire, and carve some of it for a toothpick.

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This God today, that we'll see from this Bible, and from Exodus 33 and Romans chapter 9, blows away all our thoughts about a

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God created in our likeness. This God is great, this

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God is awesome. This God of Romans 9, you just think, if it's not written in the

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Bible, I couldn't believe it. You'd even say, if it wasn't in this Bible, I shouldn't believe it.

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And this is a God who shows himself to be what evangelicalism, and what the world, and what

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Bethlehem Bible Church needs. The gracious, sovereign God, who rules, who reigns, who ordains, who's sovereignly in charge of everything.

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Not just your past, but your future as well. Calamitous times require a great

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God. Not some little votive icon,

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God made of ivory. Well, just to catch you up, if you weren't here last week,

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Exodus 32. Very simple. Moses is up in the glory cloud on top of Sinai, for all to see.

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Described in Exodus chapter 24, like God, a consuming fire. He's been up there too long, the people can't wait any longer.

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We need somebody to lead us into the promised land. We need a God, we need a little votive God. And we need to represent

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Yahweh in such a way that they'll show some strength to it. After all, how strong can God be? If Moses is still up there, we have no leader.

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He might have got us out of Egypt, but we need to get into the promised land. This deal's only half done. So let's see, what's a strong votive

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God for the Egyptians? A cow. That's right, and so let's just make a cow out of gold.

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And you know the story. They make this horrible, grotesque thing, and they worship it instead of the

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Creator. And God, with holy, righteous anger, judges them.

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Now they all deserve to die, but God only killed how many? He only killed 3 ,000.

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Moses comes down. Moses has already been down there, the people are dead. And now Moses wants a new reminder that God will lead him into the promised land.

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An approbation on his leadership. And we'll pick it up in Exodus chapter 33, verses 12 and following, where Moses prays.

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We're leading up to the essence and nature of God. Certainly, God is holy, holy, holy.

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But in this particular case, what Moses needs is a sovereign, gracious God to lead in the future.

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And I think that's what we need as well. In verse 13 of Exodus 33,

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Moses says, you see right in the middle of the text there, Show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

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Consider, too, that this nation is your people. So God, I want to know you, and we know from the context last week,

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I need your leadership skills. I need you to lead me. I can't lead these people into the promised land.

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And then Exodus 33, verse 14, and he said, God said to Moses, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.

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With wonderful assurance and closeness, my face will be there. I will intimately be there to take you into the promised land.

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Give you rest. I guarantee it. Verse 17, the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken.

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You have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. Then Moses said a very odd thing to God, in light of the cloudy pillar being up there on the mountain, the cloudy pillar taking them out of Egypt.

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He says, I pray you, show me your glory. I want to be reminded again that you will guide me through this barren land.

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I can't go it alone. There are enemies there, these obstinate people. I need a renewed perception of your guiding, sovereign, gracious hand so I can lead the people.

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He's not asking for some kind of mystical experience. He needs assurance. And then with great condescension we see in verse 19.

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This is the verse that shows God for who he is. If you could boil God down to his nature and essence, what would you see if it was possible?

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Verse 19, And he said, I myself will make my goodness pass before you, all my character, all my nature,

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I'll pass before you and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you.

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And what is the nature and essence and substance of God? I will be gracious to whom

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I will be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. I am who

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I am, Exodus chapter 3. Expand it a little bit. I'm just not self -existent.

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I'm just not I am who I am, but I sovereignly give grace. I sovereignly give mercy.

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I reserve the right to extend mercy and grace to whom I please. In the context, you're 3 ,000 people.

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It wasn't wrong for God to withhold grace and mercy from the 1 ,900 ,000 -some people, was it?

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3 ,000 were killed, but they all deserved it. And you notice how the action is repeated?

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This is a Hebrew idiom. I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

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Why didn't he just say, I will have grace and I will have compassion? Why? The answer is because in the

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Hebrew language, he wants to put focus, that I'm choosing, that I'm picking, that I'm selecting.

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God selected 3 ,000 to be killed. The other ones all deserved it, but he didn't kill them.

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1 ,900 ,000 -some deserved it too, but he was merciful to them.

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He repeats the action. This is the free will of God is what it is.

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He gives mercy. He withholds mercy based on his good pleasure. Boy, that kind of sounds,

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I want to start shaking my head, and all of a sudden all these ideas that I've ever heard in my life where God looks down the corridors of time, and he sees your steps toward Jesus, therefore he picks you.

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If I have to look at the character and essence of God, here in Exodus 33, verse 19, somehow these things don't seem to be jiving too much.

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God does what he pleases, as he pleases, only as he pleases. And if you're saying to yourself, what about this verse, and what about this, and what about that?

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Well, right now I want you to just camp right here. What about this verse? God, I need that kind of greatness in you to lead.

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I don't need a God that has external constraints. I don't need a

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God that has compelling forces outside of him that make him do things. By the way, do you?

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I don't know what the Lord has for you for this week, or for this year, or the next ten years, but do you need a God who does as he pleases, only as he pleases, as often as he pleases, a

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God who has loved you in Christ Jesus, the risen Savior, or do you need a God to trust who can be controlled by anything or anyone?

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If you've got a God that can be controlled, caged, then you're in trouble.

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God never has to give an account of anything about anyone to anyone.

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He answers to no one. Look at the rest of the verse. We'll pick this up before we go to Romans chapter 9, the rest of the passage.

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Exodus 33, 20. Exodus 34, verse 5.

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The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, Yahweh the

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Lord, a merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

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And what is the only response to the God revealed in Scripture? And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

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If you'd like to know what kind of God inspires the most worship, I'll tell you it's the sovereign

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God of the universe. Now, let's turn to Romans chapter 9 because Exodus 33, 19 is found in the

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New Testament. And we're going to go to Romans chapter 9 to see how Paul uses

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Exodus 33, 19. And we're going to see this very, very clearly that as sometimes temporal deliverance of the

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Old Testament is no longer talked about as temporal salvation, it's talked about eternal salvation.

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They're rescued out of Egypt in the Old Testament. They're rescued out of the slavery of sin in the

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New Testament. So, too, here you're going to see God sovereign over who dies temporally and who lives and now eternally it's the same thing.

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Romans chapter 9, the passage that I called before that some people called immoral. Some people say this isn't

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Paul, this isn't inspired by the Spirit of God because it's too hard, it's too difficult.

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Romans 9 .15, recognize it. For he says to Moses, Romans 9 .15,

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I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

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And just like the Hebrew, so, too, does the Greek say when you're repeating this, this linguistic kind of device, the focus is on the sovereignty of God.

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The focus isn't on the people who receive, it's God choosing. I choose and I pick. I do what

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I want, when I want, as often as I want. With singular language,

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I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Furthermore, if you just want to be blown away, look at verse 18.

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So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

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Do you see the same kind of language? This repetition, this kind of parallel reinforcement? We would never say somebody deserves mercy, somebody deserves grace.

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Deserving mercy is a contradiction of terms. You say, but this sounds like double predestination.

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This sounds like election. This sounds like unconditional election. This sounds like God chooses who goes to heaven.

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That's exactly what it sounds like because that's exactly what it is. And you say, here goes

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Avendross' hobby horse again. Well, let me say this. R .C.

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Sproul said, we'll deflect it a little bit. R .C.

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was asked, what's your favorite doctrine? And he said, it's the sovereignty of God.

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And then R .C. quipped, and it's God's favorite doctrine too.

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And if you were God, it would be your favorite doctrine. This culture we live in, and even in our heart of hearts, we will have no sovereign rule over us.

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We want our independence. We are autonomous. Don't tell us what to do. In our creaturehood, in our fallen creaturehood, we've somehow constructed a

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God who is able to do things to us and for us, and for that unsaved family member, only if that unsaved family member will let them.

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Now, Jesus was often a gentleman, but when it comes to salvation, if you have a loved one that you're praying for,

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I challenge you to pray this prayer. Dear Lord, would you please have

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Gentleman Jesus kind of knock on the door of their heart and be super kind, do what you do best, just woo and encourage and kind of just beckon in.

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With wooing and beckoning and that kind of stuff, do you know what your husband, wife, child, friend, relative says who's not saved?

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You ever seen somebody who plays football and they give a stiff arm? This God here isn't the

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Gentleman Jesus. And I forgot we're kind of stoic, half -Presbyterian, half -Baptist, but I want to say hallelujah.

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This is the God who bulldozes depravity down, who says there's no external constraint, no greater power, and if I want to show mercy to that person in spite of their own obstinate, rebellious sin,

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I'm going to give them mercy. And as 1 Peter 1 says, I will cause them to be born again. If the

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God of this Romans chapter 9 is, well, you know what, I really voted for you, and I know you're having

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Satan really vote against you, and I'm just begging you to cast the final vote.

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The bad news is you're always going to vote no. Your unsaved loved one is always going to vote no. I want somebody who's stronger than Satan, stronger than sin, stronger than obstinate depravity, don't you?

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I actually want, and I know you want it too, a God who has grace upon people.

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He could say, I will have grace on none, but He said I'll have grace on whomever.

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He gives grace to people. And here's the argument, and then we'll look at it in detail.

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Paul is going to quote Exodus 33, 19. God has mercy upon whom He will have mercy, has compassion on whom

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He has compassion, as an argument for the reason why God chooses one and doesn't choose another, the reason why

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God loved Jacob and hated Esau, and that reason is, that's just the nature of God.

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Don't be surprised when God chooses Jacob and He doesn't choose Esau, because if you can boil the essence and nature of God down to something, it's a sovereign, gracious God.

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That's just what He does. Why are we so shocked when it happens? Paul says, because that's who God is.

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Remember temporal salvation in Exodus chapter 33 and 32? It's the same now.

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From the human perspective you might say it's arbitrary. From God's perspective it's anything but arbitrary, but out of His goodwill and His counsel

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He chooses, and He chose to give grace and mercy to 1 .9 million people in the old, and now

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He does give grace and mercy to some people eternally. Remember, He doesn't have to give it to anyone.

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How many people deserve to be killed as they were worshiping the cow? It really hits home when you go to India and you see these huge oxen just walking through the street, and I remember asking stupidly as an

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American, I said, you know, who owns those oxen? Where do they go at night? They just walk around and then they go back home.

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They know what to do. And just imagine I'd say to myself, oh, to think that you could worship a cow, and you go up to the cow and you sing a praise song to a cow.

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She is exalted, the queen cow is exalted on high, and I will milk her. I mean,

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I don't know what you sing, but you just go, I want to catch the urine. It's the nectar of the gods and I want to drink it.

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And I just look at that and I go, kind of refined. You know, I'm a fairly sophisticated kind of guy in my own mind.

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I have refined, sensible tastes, caviar dreams, and if you worship a

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God who is less than sovereign over salvation, friends, it's like worshiping a cow.

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And I'm very thankful to be a pastor at this church because for us here, we've been taught by the

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Lord, if the Bible says something, it says it. If the

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Bible controls the way we think about God and worshiping God with our mind, then that just is what we have to do.

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And we're going to see in Romans chapter 9, the mind is so smart, the mind is so insightful, the human mind, although tainted by the fall and sinful, still will do everything it can to wiggle out of this universe because in this universe of Romans 9,

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God is sovereign. The best thing for us to do is speak,

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O Lord, as we come to You to receive the food of Your Holy Word. Teach me. I don't want to be an idolater and I know you don't either.

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So since God is sovereignly gracious by definition, what are the implications?

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What kind of questions come out of that? Let's look at several. Number one,

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God is sovereign. And since He is, is He unrighteous? Question one, since God is sovereign over everything, since He is

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King, Sovereign, Almighty, rules, reigns, predestines, ordains, foreordains, determines, decrees, maybe

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He's unjust. And so Paul answers that question. Is God unjust?

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Well, if salvation was just determined by you come up with your faith and God looks down at the corridors of time and sees your faith, then the question would never pop up because Paul would just go, well,

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God's not unjust. He just looks down at the corridors of time and He sees your faith and then he saw Jacob wouldn't believe and Esau wouldn't.

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But it's not like that at all. Look at Romans 9 .14. 9 .14. What then shall we say?

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What shall we say then? I mean, this kind of teaching elicits response.

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This is kind of controversial. I just kind of want to stay away from that.

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But here Paul knows. Paul needs to teach this church at Rome the truth about the righteousness of God.

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About who Christ is. What shall we say then? And he anticipates the objection. You know,

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Paul was trained well. He knew these kind of things. And he anticipates the objection to what was going on in chapter 9, verses 6 -13.

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Basically, God's sovereign and he loved Jacob and he hated

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Esau. I mean, think about it. If God elects with distinguishing sovereign grace, how can anybody be guilty?

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How can we know that's really all of God? Hey, God was unfair to Esau.

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God was unjust to Esau. Of course, 2 Chronicles says there's no injustice or partiality with God.

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I like King James translation here. Is God unjust? God forbid.

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No way. And you can see how sin creeps in. Sin creeps in this way.

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God, you're not doing things rightly. Doesn't agree with me. Doesn't go down well. That kind of doctrine makes me want to have a few tums.

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It just kind of gives me an acid. It doesn't give me acid. It gives me acid.

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I'm in God's place. I'm going to tell you what's right or wrong. And nobody ever stops long enough to think, how do we even know what just and unjust is unless we have

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God? Lots of times people say, how can God be good and let this happen?

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How could God be good and let my mother die of cancer 5 years ago? How could God be good and the baby that was in Kim's womb between Haley and Luke had to get a

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DNC? How could God be good? Now, those kind of questions I don't think people should ask. But there's a greater, more serious accusation against God than all those put together, and that is,

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God, you pick and choose who goes to heaven. You're unjust. It's a lot worse.

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Demanding that God tell us an answer about predestination, justifying himself, putting him on the witness stand, now you tell me the truth.

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Look at verse 13, as it is written, Scripture clearly says it, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.

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In the context of Romans 9, right out of Romans 8, salvation. You say, well, you know, that's nations.

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Well, number one, there are personal pronouns that are singular in this passage. Number two, if they were nations,

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P .S., nations are full of thousands upon thousands of people, and so that doesn't get you out of your problem because nations are full of individual people.

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I mean, it's just shocking for me to say, especially in light of our culture that says, you know, God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

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Esau I hated. Esau I hated. And people go, well, that just means to love less.

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It doesn't mean just to love less, but even if it did, your problem still exists. One is chosen unto eternal life.

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One is not chosen. You say, this is going to kind of split a church up.

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This is, we ought not to do this until, this is like Wednesday night Bible study stuff where we talk about it later once we capture you into the church.

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How about Paul in Ephesians 1? You want to praise God? Praise God for election. The question for me is not,

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I can't believe how he could hate Esau. I can't believe how he could love deceiver, heel biter.

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No, it was not heel biter. Heel snatcher. He probably would, he probably did bite his heel too. We just don't see that.

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He didn't have ultrasound at the time. The mercy that God gives

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Jacob flowing back from Christ's life and death and substitutionary atonement, the redemption found in Christ, is

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God's to give. He could have given it to no one. He could have given it to everyone.

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Or he could have given it to some. Must a righteous

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God elect people on what they do? Must a just God pick people based on some foreseen faith that they would never come up with because they're depraved?

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And faith is a gift of God. Whose definition of justice?

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Ours? The moral majority? The culture? Ahab said he has absolute right to govern and dispose of all his creatures simply according to his own good pleasure.

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God's sovereignty is free. And Paul doesn't make an apology. Well, you know, we don't like to talk about this in front of sophisticated people.

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Paul says in Romans 9, verse 13, it is what? Written, that's what the

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Bible says. It's like Genesis 1 -1, in the beginning, God. Is there unrighteousness with God?

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Who's wrong when God withholds grace? Who is wrong when

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God judges sinful mankind? But in our flesh we say, but couldn't

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God show mercy to everyone? The answer is He could.

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But if you say He ought to show mercy, He must show mercy, it is necessary, He has an obligation, then friends, you haven't considered

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A. Scripture or B. the Fall. If God's choice was based on foreseen actions, our faith,

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Paul would never say there's no injustice with God, because we would all say God looked down the course of time, He saw,

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He chose. Just. Paul just pushes the idea.

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Thomas Arnold said the distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these other religions, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is

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God seeking after men. Question 2.

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God is sovereignly gracious, so we say is He unrighteous? No. We ask a second question.

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How could anybody be held accountable then? Question 2. God's sovereign, since He's sovereign, how can your unsaved loved ones be accountable?

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Romans 9 .19. I have to say, now God begins to ask the questions.

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This reminds me of Job 38 -40. 9 .19.

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You will say to me then, this is all singular language, it has nothing to do with nations, it's in the context of Romans 8 and the promises of God, why does

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He still find fault? For who can resist His will? I said these were God's questions.

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Those are coming up in a second. These are still our questions. Hopefully they're not our questions.

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Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will? If God gives grace to anybody He wants, if He hardens anybody

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He wants, how can they be responsible? You can see just the ingenuity of the sinful heart trying to figure this out, putting

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God on trial. You can just watch it. You have to be very careful. James Boyce said, be careful not to dismiss

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God or blame Him. There's a difficulty, and so since God is sovereign, we can't be responsible.

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So they can't both be true, something's wrong. But they can both be true. They are both true.

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And the questioner says, how can we resist His will? How can we be opposed to a sovereign

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God who creates with the Word? Who's going to resist His will?

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Nobody. God could give mercy to everybody, couldn't

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He? And then now, here comes the questions. I jumped ahead of myself, 920. God has the questions now, and God has given you a mind to think biblically, so think biblically.

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But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?

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Well, what does molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this?

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God, you don't do things rightly, and I'm insulted.

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God doesn't even give the answer. He just says, I can't believe you're asking the questions through, Paul. One man said, it's the greatest abuse of mental faculties to employ them to question the conduct of Him who gave them.

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If your question is, I'm trying to figure out how God can be sovereign and we can be responsible, it'd just be good for me to know. Fine. If the question is,

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God, you owe me an answer, and you're out of order, then the spirit of the question should be rebuked.

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Say, yeah, but I'm no puppet. Well, I don't think Paul would ever think you're a puppet.

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At least puppets have enough mental acumen to say, I don't think we should talk back to our puppet maker this way.

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Puppets don't sin. Robots don't sin. Robots don't have the power of personal choice or even thinking.

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And here he says, if you're going to say, you choose who goes to heaven, actually, you can think of it this way. You believe in arranged marriage, and you had the gall,

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Father, to pick the bride for your son. You owe me an answer. Then the response is, we say to the kids sometimes this, and we say it without using any decibels.

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Questioning and criticizing God. Now again, if this was just forcing faith, if it was just some kind of nation, this would not have to come up.

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But Paul knows people are going, if this is at the end of the day, grace is obligated. Grace is deserved.

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And you'll never sing amazing grace unless you say to yourself, it was amazing that Christ should die in my place on my behalf, in my stead for my sin, and I should have been like the person who died, and I was given eternal life.

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I should have been Judas times 500, and now I have eternal life. And God, you were not obligated morally to do it.

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You didn't have to choose me. You didn't have to pick me. But you did. Does a thing molded say to the thing who molds it?

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You owe me an answer. More questions here from God. Verse 21, So we could walk circumspectly.

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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, notice that, out of the same lump, out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use,

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China, and another for dishonorable use. Some kind of pot that you put garbage in.

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It's never right to criticize God. God doesn't arbitrarily say, you go to heaven and you don't.

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He judges those who don't go to heaven by their own sin, doesn't He? Jonathan Edwards said, and if you're an unbeliever,

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I ask you the question, if God should forever cast you off, it would be exactly agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ, wouldn't it?

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It's not just, well, they're really good people, they're innocent people, and they get thrown to hell because they're good and innocent.

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Friend, the fall has affected all. God judges people for their sin. It is not within our jurisdiction to ask

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God, do you do the right thing, God? Question three.

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Question three. We're going to get into 1 Corinthians next week, so let's keep going. Question three.

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Since God is sovereign, what are the implications?

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I ask this question. Can you really admire a God who is frustrated by the rebellious will of a created human being?

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How could you admire a creator who can't even control the creature?

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I only know of one situation. There may be more, but in the annals of my brain, one situation where somebody creates something and they can't control it.

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Who created something that couldn't control what he created? Dr. Frankenstein.

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Creature. Creator. Infinite. Finite. Holy. Sinful. And when

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God creates, He controls. He answers to no one.

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He reports to no one. He's free from all external compulsion. Isaiah 40 says,

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Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or been His counselor? Who has taught Him? With whom took

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He counsel, and who instructed Him? Taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge.

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We know the answer is no one. If you've got a loved one, let me repeat it again, or if you've got a trial coming up in the future, this is the biggest trial.

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Stock market in the future is not the biggest trial. Israel bombing Iran is not the biggest trial. Floods, famines, fire, cancer, everything else, none of those are the biggest trials.

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The biggest trial is, will you go to heaven if you're here today and you're not a believer?

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And if it was up to you, you couldn't go to heaven, and you wouldn't go to heaven. And that's why there's a

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Savior who's greater than your depravity, and who loves to, by His own mercy and grace, save sinners just like you.

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That's why your response should be, Son of David, have what? Have enough sense,

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Son of David, to see my good life, to see my virtues, to see that I'm trying. I try to read my Bible. I try to walk the aisle.

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I try to say things that are good. I try to be a good person. I try to live right. I try to have more good works than bad works.

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Son of David, see that, and respond based on what I deserve. Give me what's fair to me.

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Doesn't that sound funny? That's exactly what they say. But how about the God here who is called in 1

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Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus, God our Savior. He saves.

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He didn't have to save, but He saves. Out of His steadfast love and mercy and compassion, triune covenant,

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He says, I save people like you. So if you've got a loved one today who's not saved, you have one hope and only one hope.

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There's only one hope for you. And that hope is not putting tracks in your husband's sandwich in the morning, nagging your wife to believe.

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Your hope is asking the great God of the universe who specializes in saving

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His people, to save them out of His grace and His mercy and compassion.

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If you have got a loved one, I want you to know that Jesus Christ, the sovereign King, can bulldoze their depravity and save them.

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Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. I want you to know that if you have a loved one with a stony heart, stiff -arming

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God in the Gospel, that the God of Romans 9, the God of the Bible, is a great enough

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God. Christ Jesus is great enough to give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. He shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

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I want you to know that if you have got friends and relatives, or if you today are here saying, joining in the chorus of Luke 19, we will not have this man reign over us.

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I have my own life to live and I like sinning and I hate some kind of moral kind of God telling me what to do because I am sick of having sins in my mind when

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I want to sin. I want to have nothing in my mind when I sin. Then there is a great enough

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God for you. His name is Christ Jesus. If you have got loved ones who say, we will not have life eternal,

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Christ Jesus is a sovereign Savior to all who call upon Him. Quickly, question 4.

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Question 4, since God is sovereign, then why pray at all? God is sovereign, why pray?

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Well, you know, the same Paul that wrote Romans 9 that said God is sovereign and who goes to heaven said in Colossians 4, devote yourself to prayer.

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1 Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing. You know, God uses evangelism and He uses prayer as the vehicle, as the instrument to save people.

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But I will give you the main reason. I pray. Why pray for people's salvation? What is the answer?

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God is sovereign, why pray? Answer, because He told us to.

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Luther said, if I was told to go across a street and eat dung, I would go across a street and eat dung and I know it would be good for me.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio. God ordains all the ends and He also ordains the means.

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Prayer. And even your prayer though limits the freedom of that person you are praying for.

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You don't believe in real free will if you are praying, God, save my son, save my daughter.

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Just, you know, don't coerce, don't make born again, don't, you know, grant faith, don't, you know, woo, don't compel them to come in.

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Do whatever you want as long as you don't hurt their free will. Just please save. But you don't pray that way, do you?

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God, I don't care if you have to break them and humble them, do whatever you want, but would you just save my son?

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Would you save my daughter? Would you sovereignly grant? I know it's

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Thy will be done, I know if it's Lord willing, but you love to save.

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And you saved a person like me, you've got enough power to save a person like Him. And you use means, and the means,

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I pray God, it's save my son. Question five, if God is sovereign, why evangelize?

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If God is sovereign, why evangelize? Answer? See the answer to number four.

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Number six, it's the same thing, faith comes by hearing.

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And if God has an elect one, and they're not saved, and He brings the Gospel to them, like we learned about today with the

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Ethiopian eunuch, you preach the Gospel, and through the preaching of the

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Gospel, faith comes by hearing. That's Romans 10. Question number six, lastly, since God is sovereign, over everything, including salvation, ask yourself this question, why don't

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I trust in this God more? If every single event in the universe, and every atom, is ordained and controlled by God, including evil, including the evil of Joseph's brothers, where God knows that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

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Even the worst sin ever created, ever happened in the universe, Jesus Christ getting killed by creatures, fallen finite creatures.

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God says, I have ordained that sin, and I will make something great come out of it. If God loves me, enough to have

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His Son die for me, why don't I trust Him with my tomorrow? Pink said, without a doubt, the world is in crisis.

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This is 50 years ago he wrote. And everywhere men are alarmed. Doesn't it sound like today? This is

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Drudge Report. But God is not alarmed. He is never taken by surprise. It is no unexpected emergency, which now confronts

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Him, for He is the One who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. The world might be panic stricken, but my word to you,

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Pink says, is fear not. Jerry Bridges said, confidence in the sovereignty of God is all that affects us.

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Confidence in the sovereignty of God, in everything that affects us, is crucial to our trusting

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Him. If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God's sovereign control, then we cannot trust

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Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited, and His purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust

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Him. You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions. I may love you, and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere.

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But if I do not have the power or ability to guard your valuables, you cannot truly entrust them to me.

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In the future, there awaits for you a God who is sovereignly gracious, and graciously sovereign.

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Moses needed it, and we need it too. Father, seal these words to our hearts.

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May the Spirit of Christ Jesus work in us that we might think about You properly, that You would help us praise

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You in response to our salvation. We didn't deserve grace.

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We didn't deserve mercy. We deserve judgment and hell. But by Your own good pleasure, maybe taking an eternity in heaven to understand all the reasons why,

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You loved us. And that love was mostly demonstrated at Calvary where You made it conspicuous that You would give

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Your Son to die for Your enemies. And we know there's no greater love than if somebody lays down his life for his friends.

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But in this case, there's a greater love because Your Son has laid down His life for His enemies. And then because of that work,

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You've made us friends. Adopted as sons and children, and now we have eternal life.

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Heirs of Christ Jesus and all that He owns. So Father, I pray for our church, Bethlehem Bible Church, for the future as we have exciting times of new babies born and others who die.

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Where to go for church building and land and what to do in the future. Concerned about loved ones that aren't

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Christians. Friends and co -workers, neighbors, spouses, kids. That You would help us and You would guide us and that we would be more concerned in worshiping

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You for who You are than figuring out all the why details that cause us frustration, anxiety, and angst.

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So Father, we know You love us. Use Your Word today to prune us, to clip us, to strengthen us, to think that we weren't

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Your people and now we're Your people. Help us to act today by Your Spirit's power to act like sons and daughters of the living