John Pt. 14 | John 3

All right, if you will, at this time, take your copy of the Scriptures. We will be in the

Gospel of John. John, Chapter three, Gospel of John, Chapter three.

Let's pray. Our dear, precious

God. Lord, you who created the heavens and the earth, you who have established your plan,

Lord, and in time you are working this plan out in your decree by the walk of men,

Lord. And though we cannot see it, Lord, we pray in our day to day, we cannot see it,

Lord, we pray that we will recognize it. And give you the glory. Be with us as we study your

Scriptures. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So this is our 14th message in the

Gospel of John. Today, our theme is the sovereignty of God and human responsibility.

So we're not actually focusing too much on breaking down the text that we've been going through.

But because of where we are in the text, this is where we land. The sovereignty of God and human responsibility.

This is a subject that most Christians, instead of believing that both are true because they are.

They get behind one or the other and at the same time diminishing the other. Right.

A lot of hardcore Calvinists who only want to focus on the sovereignty of God diminish human responsibility.

A lot of Armenian are a lot of people that they hold to their precious free will.

They get behind it and they diminish the sovereignty. Of God, the

Bible speaks about both. God is sovereign, he is in control, all things are ordained by him and you better make the right decision.

Amen. Now, how can this be? I got to answer for you.

I don't know. Right. If we want to be honest, right.

And as a matter of fact, if you meet someone who claims to know what we can know has been revealed to us by God in holy

Scripture. This is what we have. Right. How do we know what we know?

Oh, this is what we have. This is what he has given to us. And it speaks about both.

Now, there's been many, many men. Because I speak about them being parallel troops and they are.

And there's been many men who says they're like train tracks. You know, you got one track outside of the track.

It's the sovereignty of God. And the other one is is human volition, man's responsibility. And they parallel each other and in heaven they meet.

I don't see that. I don't see that.

They are parallel. But I don't think these two things can meet. Our finite understanding will never be able to put this together.

My plan today is to look at both truths and to show that the Bible does speak about them both.

And the reason, again, the reason why our attention is focused on the subject is because of where we are in John.

Jesus in John chapter three tells Nicodemus that he tells him how one sees and how one enters the kingdom of God.

So if you look at chapter three, we'll just read verses three through five to see the sovereignty of God. This is where we have been.

Jesus answered Nicodemus and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Think with your eyes, right? Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

So Nicodemus raises a metaphor. Can a man enter into his mother's womb a second time?

Jesus takes the metaphor and points him to scripture. We saw this in Ezekiel, but Ezekiel is pointing to the new birth where where God is going to sprinkle you with clean water, remove your heart of stone, give you a heart of flesh and put his spirit in you that causes you to be born again.

This is something that God does and we cannot do. The next chapter in Ezekiel speaks about the valley of dry bones, that there's just bones laid out on the ground.

And it's through this prophecy, through this word spoken, that these bones start coming together, that this is something that the spirit of God has to do.

And Jesus is referring to this as our being born again, the new birth. We see that in verse three and in verse five, also in verse three and verse five, it speaks about a kingdom, the reign of God, that in order to see with your eyes the reign of God and to be a part of this reign of God, you must be born from above.

So Jesus is telling Nicodemus that being born from above and being a part of the reign of God is something that people have no control over.

This is speaking about the sovereignty of God. Of course, Nicodemus would have thought that it was

Gentiles becoming Jews through baptism and circumcision.

Notice when it comes to the book of Galatians, and they're trying to get the Gentiles to go all the way into Judaism, the

Judaizers don't tell them to be baptized, because they were baptized. Now they just needed to be circumcised.

And Paul says, ex that, we're not becoming Jews. They're not becoming

Jews. So their idea of the new birth was something that you could, humanly speaking, you could do.

Jesus is saying that this, this new birth that's pointing back to Ezekiel, this is something that we cannot do.

It's something that God has to do, and it's through a message. Right? In Ezekiel chapter, the violet -dry bones,

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy. You and I, when we're preaching the gospel, we're one sense prophesying, we're speaking

God's word, right? I mean, it's not the same idea that God is speaking to me audibly and for me to tell you what

He's saying, but we have the word of God, and I'm speaking forth the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And it's through this message of Jesus Christ that men are born again. And this is pointing to the sovereignty of God.

And then, last week we began verses 13 through 21, and we got to verse 15.

So, let's just read 13 through 15. Jesus speaking, and He says,

And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the

Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

So, verse 15 introduces something else into the equator, into the picture, into the text.

Jesus says that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

The first part of John tells us that we have nothing to do with our regeneration, the new birth.

And then in this middle section of John chapter 3, we're told that eternal life is by believing.

Notice the two truths are mentioned. Sovereignty of God, the new birth, something happens to you, you do not control it, oh, and you are to believe.

And unless you believe, you will perish. We see that in John chapter 3, verse 16.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

That if you don't believe, you're going to be destroyed. You have nothing to do with it,

God is sovereign, you can't cause yourself to be born again. But if you don't believe, you're going to be destroyed, you're going to perish.

The two truths are right there. So, because of that, we're landing where we are.

And the next week, again, we'll go back and finish our outline. If you have life through faith, then you can be sure that you have entered the reign of God, the new birth.

Nicodemus believed, but he had the wrong belief. He believed because he saw signs.

Here in our text, Jesus is telling Nicodemus, unless you believe that I am the

Messiah, he speaks to himself as the Son of Man, unless you believe that I am the Son of Man, the

Messiah, the long -awaited one, the one that was coming to fulfill your prophecies, unless you believe that, also, that I came down from heaven, that I once was in heaven and I entered into time, and that I'm going back to heaven, that I'm going back, that I will one day be returning after I am lifted up.

And we looked at that last one. This is speaking about him being lifted up and on a tree, dying in our place, and that all those who will look to him for what he has done will be healed.

Unless you believe that, not signs, but that message, that if you don't believe that, you cannot have eternal life.

And all this is just speaking about the gospel, that God in heaven entered into time, lived a life we couldn't live, took our punishment, on the cross, buried, three days later rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, that if you don't believe that, there is no eternal life.

And yet you cannot believe that unless God causes you to believe it, because it's scientifically impossible.

We don't see this stuff happening, something that we have to take by faith.

So again, before we finish our outline that we started last week, we want to highlight these two truths.

Also last week I mentioned, and the week after, and probably the week after, it's been building up, that deciding to become a

Christian is something that we don't have the capability to do, and yet scripture tells us to repent and to put our trust in Jesus Christ.

So our first passage we want to look at is seen in Acts chapter 17. So if you will turn with me to Acts chapter 17, we'll look at verse 30 and 31.

This is in the context of Paul in Athens. Paul goes to Athens and these

Athens are religious. They have statues, they have images of so -called gods that they worship.

Paul approaches one of these statues and it had an inscription on it to an unknown god.

And Paul takes this as a way to present to them the gospel. But in his closing message of this he says, in verse 30, therefore, speaking of God, having overlooked the times of ignorance,

God is now commanding men that everyone, everywhere, should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.

Right? He's not going to judge the world in love, he's going to judge the world in righteousness.

Through a man whom he determined having, hold on, he's going to judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he determined having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead.

So God is going to, Paul is saying that he let things pass, but now all men, not just Jews, all men everywhere are going to repent because God has sent a man whom he has determined and he's furnished proof by raising him from the dead.

All men everywhere, all men everywhere, not just the Jews, what are they to repent from?

What are they to repent from? A religious set of, in Athens they're worshiping these statues and he is telling them to repent, to not worship false gods, but to worship

Jesus Christ. They were, you and I are to turn to God and repentance.

The Jews were so focused on the Mosaic law that it became an idol to them the same way that this idol that they had erected to an unknown

God, this Jewish system that they were called to do became their

God. It became the goading cow that they danced around. The same way that the

Jews were to turn from that system, the same way that these religious Gentiles were to turn from worshiping these gods that they made with their hands, the same way that you and I are to turn from whatever it is that we worship.

We're to turn in repentance to God by trusting in Jesus Christ. This is what

God has called us to do, all men everywhere, we're to turn. I also mentioned this last week,

I didn't read it, but we just touched on it in passing, 1 Timothy 6.

I've read this before but I think it's going to go well with what we're looking at today because we want to see that it's impossible unless God's sovereignty takes place.

So if you look at chapter 6, look at verse 13, 1 Timothy 6 beginning in verse 13.

Paul writes to Timothy, he says, I charge you in the presence of God, notice right here, so we have

God who gives life to all things and of Christ.

So we have God and we have Christ, Christ Jesus, whom testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandments without stain or reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15, who will bring about at a proper time he who is blessed and only sovereign, the

King of kings and the Lord of lords. All right, so who is the blessed and only sovereign?

We have an answer, who is the blessed? Jesus Christ. And it says only sovereign,

King of kings, Lord of lords, who alone, speaking of Jesus still, dwells in un, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.

Right here, and no man has seen or can see to him be honor, glory, honor and eternal might.

Amen. People have seen Jesus. So who is it that they haven't seen?

Go back to John 1 18, the Father. So we have God the Father, we have

Jesus Christ, that God the Father and Jesus Christ, I want to add in the

Holy Spirit because it's God, the word Theo, that Him, that both of them, they dwell in unapproachable light, that you cannot approach

God. That's what the scriptures are saying, that He is, He alone has immortality.

He dwells in unapproachable light, that we cannot approach God. John 14 6,

Jesus speaking to Thomas, Jesus said to him, Thomas, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one, listen, no one comes to the

Father but through me. The only way you can get to the

Father is through Jesus Christ. John 6 44, no one, Jesus speaking, no one can come to me.

You think you can come to Jesus? Listen, no one can come to me. We can't go to the Father unless we go through Jesus, but Jesus says that no one can come to Him.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws

Him, and I will raise Him up on the last day. So if we cannot approach

God in our natural fallen state, and we cannot get to the Father unless we go through Jesus, and we cannot get to Jesus unless we're drawn by the

Father, how do we reconcile this? The answer, we don't.

It's not our child. God reconciles this. This is not our business.

This is what God does. In the mind of God, what we see tension, what we see as an apparent contradiction, in the mind of God, there is no tension, there is no apparent contradiction because God knows everything in His decree.

He has decreed all things. He knows everything in His decree, but not only does He know everything in His decree,

He knows how everything works. We don't know how everything works.

It's above our paid grade. We can only know His decree will in as far as He's revealed to us in His Word.

But we don't have to know how everything works together. We have to have faith that He knows.

And the things that we don't understand, such as these two parallel truths that both are true, that He's sovereign,

He's holding all things together He's in control and you better make the right decision. We trust that He has all this worked out.

Let's look at the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. In chapter 11 we'll look at two verses.

We're going to see these two truths in two verses. Back to back.

Verse 27 of Matthew chapter 11 speaks of the sovereignty of God and verse 28 is going to speak on human responsibility, human volition.

Verse 27 Jesus says all things have been handed over to me by my

Father and no one knows the Son except the

Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the

Son wills to reveal Him. What's He saying?

You can't know the Father unless I reveal Him to you. Again John 1 18

He has come to exegete the Father. Jesus came to explain to us the

Father. Why? Because no one has ever seen the Father. He who is at the bosom of the Father has come to make

Him known and you can't know Him unless Jesus reveals Him to you. Verse 28

After He says that He says this come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

You cannot know me only the Father knows me and I only know the Father and no one can know

Him unless I reveal Him to you but come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden.

Like how can this be? Verse 27 is saying the same thing that we read in different words from John 14 6 where He says

I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me John 6 44 no one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws Him to me. This this this this idea that we can do nothing to be saved that God has to do it but in the next verse

He says come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Both truths back to back. We see this as well in Romans 9 and Romans 10.

Let's go to the Romans 9. So Romans 9 is going to be focusing on the sovereignty of God Romans 10 is going to be focused on human responsibility.

Romans 9 in verses 1 through 5 we have Paul's love for his brothers. Right? This is speaking of his the

G's I want to ask yourself do you love your brothers in this way? If you just look at verse 2 he says

I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart for I could wish myself were accursed this means cut off separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers my kingsmen according to the flesh.

Do you love someone that much? That you would wish yourself not a

Christian sentenced to hell so that they could be one and he goes on to say some really hard things in Romans 9 about his brothers but he's stating this up front.

Verses 1 through 5 again speaks about his love for his brothers and then we come to verse 6 through 9 where it talks about Isaac and Ishmael.

Let's read those carefully. Beginning in verse 6 but it is not as though the word of God has failed for they are not all

Israel who are descended of Israel nor are they all children because they are

Abraham's seed but through Isaac shall your but through Isaac your seed will be blessed that is the children of the flesh are not the children of God speaking of his kingsmen according to the flesh but the children of the promise are considered seed for this is why the word of promise at this time excuse me for this the word of promise at this time

I will come and Sarah shall have a son now this right here is pointing us if you want an interpretation of this we see the interpretation in Galatians Galatians chapter 4 so speaking of Isaac speaking of Ishmael and their mother so the mother of Isaac is

Sarah and the mother of Ishmael is Hagar so in Galatians we have the

Judaizers in the context remember the Galatians they they think in order to be a follower of Jesus you have to become a

Jew they had already been baptized so now they needed to be circumcised

Paul tells them in verse 21 of chapter 4 tell me you who want to be under the law because if you're circumcised you're going to be under the law do you listen to the law for it is written that Abraham had two sons one by a servant woman speaking of Hagar and one by a free woman this would be

Sarah but the son of the servant woman has been born according to the flesh now go back to Romans 9 he's speaking of his brothers his kinsmen according to the flesh that these are the ones that are of the flesh while the son of the free woman is through the promise speaking of Isaac this is spoken with an allegory for these two women are two covenants think old covenant new covenant

Hagar Mount Sinai right here one from Mount Sinai bearing children to slavery this is

Hagar how is she bearing children to slavery because they're under the law of God now this

Hagar is Mount Sinai of Arabia she corresponds to present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children they are underneath the law but the

Jerusalem above above is free she is our mother speaking of Sarah whose

Sarah son Isaac Isaac is the son of the promise so then verse 31 so then brothers we are not children of the servant woman

Hagar the Jews but we are of the free woman we're not called to be

Jews we're not called to put ourselves under a yoke of slavery we're called as the free woman in Romans 9 in this particular part he's not speaking to Gentiles he's speaking to other

Jews who are also a remnant according to this promise he'll at the end of this he'll bring the

Jews he'll bring the Gentiles into but we won't cover that now if you look so Paul is speaking about his

Jewish brothers that some of them are children of the flesh speaking of that they're under Hagar and some of them are children of the promise that these are the children under Sarah but of course we know that they that these

Jewish people all came from Sarah but Paul is saying not all not all who are born

Israel are Israel some have been rejected he said well how can this be

Jeff God is love Romans 9 look at verse 10 through 13 and not only this but there was

Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man our father

Isaac the one of the promise right for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad so that the purpose of God according to his choice would stand not because of works but because of him who calls it was said to her the older will serve the younger just as it is written

Jacob I loved but Esau I hate it what do we do with this we see that so through Hagar and Sarah there was a separation but even in the promise seed through Sarah we see that God has a choice and he says that even some that were actually born through this promise seed some of them were not chosen some of them are considered as if they were born under Hagar that they are part of Ishmael not a part of the

Israelites again these are things that most people don't touch on because they're scary but let's see what

God has to say so we'll read beginning in verse 14 I won't give any commentary we'll just read through it what shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God may it never be for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion so then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs but on God who has mercy for the scripture says the

Pharaoh for this very purpose I raised you up in order to demonstrate my power in you in order that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth so then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires you will say to me then why does he still find fault for who can resist his will on the contrary you who are you oh man to answer back to God will the thing that is moated say to the motor why did you make me like this or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make some lump of vessels that for honorable use thank the promised seed and another for dishonorable use thank the flesh and what if God wanted to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power endured with much patience vessels of wrath thank the flesh that he had prepared for destruction in order to in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy thank the promised seed which he had prepared beforehand for glory now he's going to bring in the gentiles even us whom he has called not from among the jews but also from the gentiles so romans 9 it speaks about the flesh versus the spirit right the spirit being the promised seed and even those of the flesh who are actually a part of the promised seed are discounted they he is saying that they were created for vessels of wrath because not all israel are israel now let's look at human responsibility so if you look at chapter 10 let's just look at verses one and two real quick he says brothers my heart's desire and my prayer to god for them who's who's the them his kingsmen according to the flesh it's it's it's the ones that he loved right when you look over here and in verse 2 of chapter 9 that i have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for i could wish myself to be a curse and separated from christ for the sake of my brothers my kingsmen according to the flesh chapter 10 brothers my heart desire and prayer to god for them my kingsmen is for their salvation the ones that god has rejected or all of his people he's praying that that god will give them salvation verse 10 i mean verse 2 for i testify about them that they have a zeal for god but not according to knowledge so right here when it talks about according to knowledge what is the according to knowledge that someone has to have jesus speaking in his high priestly prayer of john john john john john john john john john john john john john john john my kingsmen their salvation for them but not according to knowledge but not according to knowledge so Mary and Joseph upon him references here.

Old Covenant and New Covenant references. Verse 3, For not knowing about the righteousness of God, they seek to establish their own righteousness.

That they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about a righteousness which is of the law, right here, the man who does them shall live by them.

That's Old Covenant. Keep the law, live in the land. Do this and live. This is what Moses has written about.

Verse 6, But the righteousness of faith speaks of this,

Do not say in your heart who will go down into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will go into the abyss, that is to bring

Christ up. Right here, it's the battle of the New Covenant versus the

Old Covenant. The righteousness of Moses that Moses spoke about, the righteousness that they weren't seeking because they didn't have the right knowledge, is the righteousness according to the law.

This is Old Covenant, the righteousness of God that they weren't seeking, that they should be seeking, is found in belief in Jesus Christ.

And that's where verse 8 picks up.

Verse 8, But what does it say? The word is near you, it is in your mouth and it is in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth, hold up, how can they confess?

God is sovereign, He has to do something. Right here again, He's saying that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart of a person believes, for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.

For the Scripture says, Whoever believes upon Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

The same Lord is Lord of them all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him.

Verse 13, For whoever calls upon the name of the

Lord will be saved. But again, if you just go back, chapter 9, look at verse 16, and look at verse 18.

So it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Verse 18, So then He has mercy on whom

He desires, and He hardens whom He desires, but yet whoever calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved. It's the two truths, right? It's in Scripture the whole way.

We see it in two verses. We see it in one chapter, John chapter 3, it's in the chapter.

Matthew chapter 11, it's in two verses. Romans chapter 9, chapter 10.

Like there's no way to escape these two truths. And trust me, there's many other ones that we could point to and look at.

So the idea is that someone would say, which is it? I don't know. Have you heard this before? Which is it?

Is He sovereign or are we free? Is He sovereign or are we free? It's both.

Let me ask you this. If you're in Christ, did God choose you? And the answer is yes.

If you're in Christ, did you actually receive Him? The answer is yes.

Right? You actually do receive Him. You actually do receive

Him. This is something that you do. You do believe. John chapter 1, verse 12, it says, but as many as received

Him, to them, them being those that received Him, to them, He gave the right to become children of God.

None of those who were born, even those who were born, believed in His name. So more questions.

Do we actually come to Christ or are we robots? Right? We get that a lot, right?

You're Reformed, you believe we're robots, right? Are we robots? No. John 6, 36, all that the

Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will never cast out.

So let's look at some incidents in the

Old Testament. We'll ask ourselves, are these men robots? So Genesis chapter 50, look at verse 15.

Genesis 50, we'll look at verse 15. This is speaking about Joseph and his brothers.

Jacob has died. His brothers are fearful because they have sent him into slavery and they're afraid that their brother, once the father is dead, is going to repay them back.

And that's what this is speaking about. Verse 15, then Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead and they said, what if Joseph bears a grudge against us and returns back to us the evil which we dealt against him?

Question, did Joseph's brothers in their own human desires sell their brother into slavery?

Is that something that they did, right? Yes. Were they robots?

No. No. When you read the story, you see how everything played out.

They were jealous. Joseph got the coat of many colors, right?

Joseph was Jacob's special child. And out of jealousy, a fit of rage came upon them and they threw him into a hole.

And then instead of killing him, they sewed him into slavery. We can read and see this play out.

We can see their human volition. They're making choices. Look at verse 16.

So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father commanded before he died saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, please forgive,

I beg, the transgression of your brothers and their sins for they dealt evil against you.

So now please forgive the transgressions of the slaves of God, the slaves of God of your father.

And Joseph wept and they spoke to him. When they spoke to him, then the brothers came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your slaves.

But Joseph said to them, do not be afraid for am I in God's place?

Verse 20. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day to keep many people alive.

So why did Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery? Jealousy. Why did

God send Joseph to Egypt? To be second only to Pharaoh so that he can preserve the life of Israel through the famine.

Right. Two things are going on. God needs Joseph to go to Israel.

I mean, I mean, I mean, God needs Joseph to go to Egypt in order to become second to Pharaoh.

Joseph's brothers sell their brother into slavery. They're doing something evil.

God is using it for good. Even the brothers who sold him into slavery survived because the brother became second to Pharaoh.

What they meant for evil, human volition, God meant for good,

God's sovereignty. So are they robots? Like to say that we believe people are robots, it's stupid because that's how the

Bible plays it out. It says it plainly that his brother sold him into slavery, but God meant it for good.

We see this also in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 10, Isaiah chapter 10, verse five through seven.

God says this. He says, woe to Assyria. I mean, yeah, woe to Assyria. But then it says the rod of my anger.

Right. And imagine picking up a stick and you hit someone with a stick. The stick, this rod is of your anger.

You're swinging this rod with your anger. God says, woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger.

So God is going to use Assyria in this story as the rod of his anger. He says, and the staff in whose hand my indignation.

I send it against godless nation. Who's the godless nation?

The Jews. And commanded against a people of my fury to capture spoil and to cease plunder and to trample them like mud in the streets.

He's speaking about the Jews, his chosen people. They were in sin.

God is sending Assyria as the rod of his anger, verse seven. But it does not intend to act in this way.

And it does not think in its heart in this way. Rather, what is in its heart is to destroy and to cut off many nations.

Assyria's plan is to destroy and cut off many nations. God uses Assyria as they plan to destroy and cut off many nations as a rod in his anger to destroy his own people for not repenting.

Then you see verse 12. So it will be that when the

Lord has completed all of his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will say,

I will punish the fruit of the ignorant of the heart of the king of Assyria, the pump of his eyes, which are raised high.

For he has said, speaking of the king of Assyria, who is the rod in God's hand to execute judgment on the people of the

Jews. So this king says in his heart, by the power of my own hand and by my wisdom,

I did this. He does not recognize God's using him to destroy this people.

So without going into great detail, God uses the Assyrians to take out Assyria, Judah, and Israel.

And he calls the Assyrians again the rod of his anger. And then he punishes the

Assyrians for destroying his people by having a different motive in their heart.

He takes them, destroys the people, and because they didn't recognize God's hand in it, he destroys them.

They didn't perform the act for the glory of God. They were taking God's glory for themselves.

They weren't acknowledging the sovereignty of God in their own actions. Ladies and gentlemen, this is something that we as a people can be guilty of.

When we as a people desire our own human autonomy over God's autonomy, we in turn not acknowledge the glory of God in our day -to -day activities, and we are taking the glory for ourselves.

We might be doing something to satisfy our own motives, all the while God himself is carrying out the motive through us for his glory.

And we will be wise to see that, to understand that we're not robots, and to understand that what we're doing, we do it for the glory of God.

Your being here today is for the glory of God. And you can be here today,

God has you here today, but your motives could be something different. You'd be thinking, man,

I'm going to, you know, people go to church to meet women, to meet a husband, to meet a wife, right?

Going to church is a good thing, right? God wants you in church, but your motive could be different than what God's motive is for you.

He wants you to be here for his glory, to worship him, right? Not to be seen, not to try to...

Listen, if you can find a husband or wife in church, that's a good place to find them, but that's not to be where your motive is.

Our motives need to be lined up with God's motive. We need to be living our lives, doing what God wants us to do, not to earn favor, but to please

God. One more story in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verses 22 through 24.

Here in this passage, we're going to see three things take place. We'll see the sovereignty of God, and the human responsibility, and the glory of God within three verses.

So God's... the sovereignty of God, verse 22 and 23a.

This is Peter speaking. Peter filled with the

Holy Spirit. Jews from all over the world, the known world at this time, traveling to Jerusalem because of the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit has come upon them. They hear them speaking in other tongues. You have uneducated men who were preaching, and people were able to hear them in their own language.

And so they stopped. They were curious, and Peter begins to speak. And he says this, Men of Israel, listen to these words.

Jesus the Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with miracles, and wonders, and signs which

God did through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.

This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

God's sovereignty. God delivered him over to you. This is going back to the covenant of redemption.

God's purpose to accomplish this purpose.

How? In his predetermined and foreknowledge of God. God predetermined to do this, and he delivered his son over to them.

And then the next part of this verse, verse 23b, we'll see human responsibility.

He says, You nailed him to the cross by the hands of lawless man, and put him to death.

God the Father, in eternity past, purpose to send his only begotten

Son, Jesus Christ, to come and save a people by his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

And yet he hosed the Jews responsible for having him killed.

Jews themselves didn't nail him hands and feet to a cross. They had the lawless man, the

Romans, to nail him to the cross.

And yet the blame is on the Jews. He says, You had this done to him. I sent him to you, my predetermined plan, and you nailed him to the cross.

He hosed them responsible. And we see that it's all for the glory of God, verse 24.

But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by its power.

So by putting him to death, they accomplished the purpose that Jesus was sent.

And yet they are blamed. They are held responsible.

But what's the covenant of redemption? God purposes to save a people. Jesus accomplishes the purpose. How? Through his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit applies the purpose through that message. If Jesus was not nailed hands and feet to a

Roman cross, he did not fulfill the purpose and the message by which we are to be saved.

We cannot be saved because there is no message. There is no message.

They accomplished the purpose. All this was for the glory of God. And what they didn't realize is that it was

God in them doing these things. The moment they realize this and turn and put their faith in Christ, what they're doing is they're transforming their motive to the motivation of God.

So the question is, how can we transform our motive, what it is that we're doing, to the glory of God?

And for that, we'll go back to Romans 10. And we'll close with this. Romans 10, again, starting in verse 13, says,

For all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So that's our mission right here.

All that calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. If you've called upon the name of the

Lord, you are saved. And so the question is now, everyone,

Jew and Gentile, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Verse 14, How then will they call upon him whom they have not believed?

How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

Verse 15, And how will they preach unless they're sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news.

However, they did not all heed the good news. For Isaiah says,

Lord, who has believed our report? Verse 17, So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

So the only way we can put these two truths together, we're told that the salvation is of the

Lord. We have nothing to do with it. And yet we're told to believe. That's where we've been talking about the regeneration process.

Regeneration must precede faith, and repentance follows that faith that's given to us.

So the thing that connects the two is faith. It's not connected in heaven. You don't have to wait till heaven to see it connect.

We can't explain it. I don't know why I believe, right? I didn't believe, and now I do believe.

Something happened to me, and it's called faith. God gave me faith to believe. He gave me something that I did not have, and it was through the message.

For me, it was when Ray Comfort, I heard Ray Comfort preaching. He preached the message of the gospel.

I saw myself naked and exposed to God, and I threw myself on his throne and begged him to forgive me.

Prior to that, I didn't. I was reading the word. I didn't understand it.

The two truths, sovereignty of God, no one can be saved unless God saves you, unless God rescues you, and you better believe.

It's the message. We have to preach the message. That's what connects the two. It's the message, and so I pray that every one of us are doing our part and fulfilling this purpose that God has given to us by preaching this message that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and he rose again on the third day, and I'm available to anyone who wants to talk,

Pastor Cal, Josh as well. Let's pray. Father, Lord, this is something that I've wrestled with most of my walk.

At times, I felt like Jacob wrestling the angel, and he reached out and broke his leg, snapped his hip.

Lord, my prayer today is not that we fully understand this. My prayer today is that we will be willing to wrestle with this, and that we can see that both truths are given to us in scripture, that you are sovereign, you are in control, and we better make the right decision, and that when we don't,

Lord, we turn to you in repentance. But even in the life that we live,

Lord, that we recognize that you have given us this life, and although we're not robots, you have ordained all things, and we are to give you glory.

We ask that you help us, that you lead and guide us, and Lord, right now we pray for this meal that we're about to receive, and we ask that you use it in our lives to bless us, to nurture us in our spirit,

Lord, that you will use it for us to grow in holiness. I pray this in Jesus' name.