Attributes of God "L" (part 2) The Distinguishing Love of God - [Romans 9]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Well, if you have your Bibles, let's turn to Romans chapter 9 tonight. That's probably the only introduction I would need for such a great

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God -centered chapter, although I will give a little more introduction. On Sunday nights, over the last several years,

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I've been trying to work through a series on the attributes of God, picking 26 attributes or characteristics or perfections of God to talk about.

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And I try to do them in an expository way. I try to do them in such a way where we just don't jump all around.

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Even this morning, it was more of a topical message. There's nothing wrong with that. I think there's only a problem when you give people topical messages as a steady diet week in and week out.

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Teaching a topic that's in a Bible is certainly fine to do, but I like to teach passages verse by verse by verse.

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And so we've worked our way up to L. Last time, I think it was two, three weeks ago, we had a quiz. We won't redo the quiz tonight, but the topic tonight is the love of God and how apropos when it comes to Valentine's Day, to talk about the love of God.

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And so what we'll do tonight is let me give you a quick review and then we'll get right into Romans 9, what

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I'll call the chapter in the Bible that talks about the special, distinguishing, sovereign love of God, a chapter that some people think should be actually cut out of the

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Bible and some have called immoral. Romans 9, can you imagine a chapter in the

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Bible being called immoral because of the truth that it teaches and it sets God as king.

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God is the one who's in charge and it's almost going to be like I'm preaching part two tonight of this morning's sermon and that is

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God is on a throne and he's high and he's exalted and he is in charge. And last time we learned a little bit about God's love just in review, that there's lots of different words for the love of God and the one we focused upon mainly is the word that almost had to be invented for God's love and that is what, agape,

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God's self -sacrificial love, a love that says I'm going to seek the welfare of the object and therefore

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I will love that object. And it's quite staggering to think of God's love of a creature, a finite creature, let alone a creature that has fallen and unlovely.

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We learned that lots of times people think of God's love as some kind of sentimental love, sometimes people think that God is love is the same as love is

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God. And tonight we're going to work towards Romans chapter 9 now and that is that there's two kinds of love, many people don't know this and they don't think through it, two kinds of love, a love for the creation and a love for the bride, that is to say a love for everyone

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God bestows common grace on them and gives them rain and taste buds and pleasure and family and all kinds of other blessings and he loves them like in Mark chapter 10 when

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Jesus saw the rich young ruler and the text says, and Jesus what? NES does a horrible job,

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NES says he felt a love for him but the text is he loved him.

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There's a love for sinners that God has because he is a creator but then there's a particular love, a special love, a distinguishing love.

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Sometimes the vocabulary is the same but the meaning is different. For instance, remember when I gave you this illustration a few weeks ago, within moments

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Kim was sitting there, Janet Robinson was sitting behind Kim and after the sermon

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I walked up to Kim and I gave her a kiss and I said I love you. And then I went up to Janet Robinson and I gave her a hug and I said

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I love you. Same words but different meaning.

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One meaning was I love you Kim, you're my bride, you're my special one, you have a love for me that I give to no one else in the universe let alone my children, let alone

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Janet. But Janet I love in a general way, I love you, I love you.

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There's a difference and so God has a creative love and he has a special love or a distinguishing love and Romans chapter 9 is going to talk tonight about this distinguishing sovereign love.

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And by the way, do you think wrongly of me and do you think poorly of me that I only have my special love for Kim?

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That you don't get that special love, only Kim does. Kim and Kim alone, not Luke, not

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Haley, not Maddie, not Gracie, not Brian Bartlett especially, he does not get any kind of love.

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And so it's a natural thing but again if we're not careful our mind even though we're redeemed, even though we've been made born again, our mind still thinks wrongly therefore we have the scriptures to teach us the right way to think.

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You've got to get your mind right, you've got to think properly. I remember saying to some of my kids, by the way they're always saying to me now, say my name dad so I get a dollar, say my name and I say,

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I don't say your names anymore because then I have to pay up. But some of my kids, especially a young man named

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Luke, one time I said to Luke, you know, what were you thinking when you did that thing, that sin, okay,

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I owe you a buck. What? You have two what? Two, what do you mean you have two?

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You owe me money? Did I talk about you this morning? Oh, that's right,

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I said it earlier. Happy Valentine's Day.

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Oh, and Kim, she's just earned six dollars, which is double her typical weekly allowance so that's very helpful.

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Oh, there's Janet. Now where are you? You're supposed to be sitting over there. Did you notice this morning everybody was all messed up in terms of seating?

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People just took wrong seats and all the pews were all messed up and I looked down and people were not where they were supposed to be.

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Luke, why did you do that,

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Luke? No, no, it's not per use of the name, it's per instance of illustration.

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And he said, Daddy, I wasn't thinking right. It's a good answer.

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When we sin, that's exactly what happens. We're not thinking properly and when we're not thinking properly, then we won't do the right thing.

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If you think properly, of course, you'll do the right thing. And so what we want to do tonight is we want to think properly about God.

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Left to ourselves, we would say God is powerful. You could look at Niagara Falls or the

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Grand Canyon or a baby born and you could say there's a lot of wisdom to God, there's a lot of power of God, there's a lot even of love of God as He just bestows

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His blessings upon us. But there are specific things, there are points of detail that you could never come up with because you're fallen.

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I couldn't come up with because I'm fallen. So God reveals Himself. He discloses Himself and He wouldn't have to, but He does and we have that self -disclosure called the

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Word of God. We have His mind inscripturated, not His complete mind, but a lot of His mind, at least from our perspective, it seems to be a lot of material in the

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Bible. And so today, we go to Romans 9 so we can begin to think rightly and continue to think rightly about the love of God because if we're not careful, we'll think like the world thinks, like our emotions think, like the world,

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I already said the world, like the educational system would have us think. So what we're going to do is we're going to go through Romans 9 tonight talking about the distinguishing love of God and we'll see that there's a difference between God the

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Creator's love and God's electing love for His bride.

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And by the way, I think you're going to like that topic in this regard. Who would want to have

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God love His people just in a general way but not a personal way?

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Kind of, you know, God loves everybody, John Doe, Jane Doe, kind of this amorphous, generalized love.

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He just kind of loves people, but you're going to see tonight that it is personalized. God has your name in His mind and I think of John 10.

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He knows His sheep and calls them all by name. God's love we'll see tonight is not to whom it may concern.

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That wouldn't be the kind of love that we would like. Kurt Daniel said, I know Dan Rathbun enjoys the ministry of Kurt Daniel and so do

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I. He says this, God selected, here's what other people say, that God selected a vague, nondescript number in general and leaves the individual choice to us.

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It would be like saying that God prepared so many seats at a banquet but leaves it totally up to us whether we will be at the banquet or not.

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That is not what the Bible teaches, says Kurt Daniel. Scripture teaches that God has indeed prepared a banquet table with just so many chairs.

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Now here's the best part, this is worth it tonight. But He has also placed name tags at each seat.

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Isn't that good? Personal name tags. It's not this general love, this kind of vague love or kind of a national love, but here's the banquet table, here's the exact number of seats and here's the name tag at the seat.

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Now that's a wonderful, wonderful personal love of God. Kurt Daniel said, election is divine reservation for us in particular.

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So let's go to Romans chapter 9, I've said that a couple times tonight and now let's dive into Romans 9, but it is hard to dive into 9 until I tell you the background for chapter 1 through 8.

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Remember how 8 ends. By the way, let's just look at the beginning of 9 to make sure you'll realize, as Dr.

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Maheu would teach me and I would want to teach you, how 8 is connected to 9 and 9 is connected to 8.

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You don't even see a contrast in 9 -1, you don't see a connecting word, you don't see an and, a but, a therefore, you just see another verse.

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These are connected so much so, I'm glad we have a chapter break, but here these things are connected.

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We don't even have a bridge, no conjunction, no particle to connect the two.

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But here's what happens, we go from celebration in chapter 8 to lamentation in chapter 9.

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We go from the heights of nothing can separate us from the love of God which is found in Christ Jesus.

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Trials, tribulations, death, sickness, nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.

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There is no condemnation for us. We've been justified by faith, although sinful, now declared righteous.

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And now we move to chapter 9 and it's almost like it's one of those minor key kind of passages with lament.

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And here's what Paul is saying. Chapter 8 says you are secure in Christ. Did you know if Jesus died for you?

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You're going to heaven. Eternal security, perseverance of the saints. But now somebody's standing there and they're looking and they're saying, hmm, that could be true.

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No condemnation. We have the spirit of God. Sinful, yes, but forgiven, justified by faith alone, declared righteous by the work of Christ.

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But that could all be fine and dandy for us, but I don't know if I can trust who God is because Israel, they're not all going to heaven.

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How can the promises to Israel be broken and the promises to us be unbroken?

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And Paul's going to deal with that very issue by talking about grace, talking about grace and how not all

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Israel is going to be saved. And the reason is, listen, because God never intended all of Israel to be saved.

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That's Romans chapter 9. God had a specific distinguishing love for some in Israel.

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And tonight we'll see that it applies to us as well. I call this passage breathtaking. Sometimes you're in situations in life where you just think,

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I've got to kind of take a deep breath. This is one of those passages.

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Forget some kind of sentimental, sappy love. This is going to be sovereign, distinguishing love.

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One man said, if Jesus of Nazareth were the true Christ, the Son of God, why was the Jewish nation,

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God's covenant people, turning away from Him in unbelief? Paul solves the problem of the rejection of the

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Jews and the calling of the Gentiles by appealing to divine election. God says, do you want to know?

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Paul says, do you want to know why some believe and some don't? Because it's the sovereign love of God. The ultimate reason for the rejection of the majority of the

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Israelites for heaven is because of God's purpose. It's God's sovereign love.

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Charles Spurgeon said, as long as Romans 9 remains in the Bible, no man shall be able to prove

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Arminianism. So long as it is written there, not the most violent contortions of the passage will ever be able to exterminate the doctrine of election from scriptures.

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All right, let's take a look at this love. Verse 1 of chapter 9. Who writes like this?

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The apostle Paul does. I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the

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Holy Spirit. We've moved from celebration now to this lamentation that I have, verse 2.

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By contrast to chapter 8, this pinnacle, now down in the valley, I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

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He knows what Israel's case was back then. He knows the moral landscape, the spiritual landscape of Israel, and he's sad about it.

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Verse 3, with echoes of Moses in Exodus 32, who also wished the same thing.

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For I wish, I could wish. He knows it's a theological impossibility, but he says, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

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And now he gives the special blessings for Israel in verse 4 and 5. I think there's eight who are

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Israelites to whom belongs the adoption of sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the promises who are the fathers and from whom is

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Christ according to the flesh, the Christ who is overall God -blessed forever, amen.

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And now Paul's going to say, no matter what Israel does, God will still keep his promises.

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His sovereign purpose for the nation will come to fruition. Let me give you the first proof of this divine love found in verses 6 and following.

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Proof number one, that's my outline tonight. God is sovereign with his love.

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Proof number one, God's word endorses such a sovereign love. How do you explain all the seed of Abraham not believing?

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Answer, Abraham's seed was limited in purpose. Verse 6, but it is not as though the word of God has failed.

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By the way, failed is a very interesting word. I think you'll find this fascinating. I did. Failed is a word where you're setting for a direction out on the ocean in your ship and you go off course.

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If you've ever read the Shackleton account in the endurance ship and how he had to figure out exactly where to go in that small ship based on the stars and based on his crude things.

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If he's off one degree, he's never going to make Elephant Island, does that sound right?

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What about the word of God? Is it off just one degree, invalidated 10 degrees?

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Has it failed? And then what does the text say? For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.

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Every time you read the word Israel in Romans chapter 9, 10 and 11, you'll read it 11 times. I think you'll find every single time it refers to ethnic national

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Israel. That's how Paul uses it. Not all Israel who are descended from Israel.

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Elect nation does not mean elect people to heaven. The covenant of Abraham was never meant to be all exclusive of all people for all time.

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Jump down to verse 27. You can see elsewhere in Romans chapter 9,

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Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Romans 9, 27. Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it's not everybody in the nation who gets saved.

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It is who? It is the remnant that will be saved. There are unbelievers in Israel.

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They're chosen by God as a nation and they were physically saved out of Egypt. But there are some people in Israel who are the chosen people of God, Israelites, who are not chosen into salvation, just the remnants.

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Verse 28, for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth thoroughly and quickly. And just as Isaiah foretold

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Romans 9, 29, except the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies had left to us a posterity.

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We would have become as Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah. If it wasn't for the mercy of God, we would have been, even

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Israel would have been fire, sulfur, brimstone. There's a remnant saved by grace.

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Proof number two, that one was pretty easy to take. Proof number two of sovereign love is that God chose only to bless through Isaac and not the seven other children of Abraham.

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How many kids did Abraham have? How many sons? I just told you. Okay. All right.

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Watch this. Watch this. I just kind of looked around. Remember last week we had somebody on Sunday morning snoring.

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You watch these verses right here, you're not going to snore. God chose

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Isaac over Ishmael on purpose with his selective love. Verse seven, neither are they all children because they're

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Abraham's descendants. But here's the specific distinguishing sovereign love through Isaac your descendants will be named.

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Just because you've got Abraham as a father doesn't mean you're going to heaven. And he says in verse eight, that is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants for this is the word of promise.

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Verse nine, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. It's through Isaac and Sarah.

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By the way, I did some research after Sarah died in Genesis 23, Abraham had six other sons by Keturah and she bore to him,

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Keturah did, Genesis 25, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua.

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Through Isaac, not through Zimran, through Isaac, not through Jokshan, through Isaac, not through Medan, not through Midian, not through Ishbak, and not through Shua.

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Let alone Ishmael, who was born to Hagar in Genesis chapter 16.

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If you're a physical descendant of Abraham, it's not enough. You have to be chosen by God's sovereign love to go to heaven.

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God, by definition, is God, and therefore he rejected Ishmael, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua.

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I talked to someone this morning and they said, I'm having a hard time with this whole sovereignty thing. Can I just say something tonight?

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Of course I can say something. I'm preaching. Out of all the angels that existed, what percent fell?

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What percent sinned? One third. God did not give them any mercy, any grace, any redemption, any plan

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B, or any sovereign love. And since God didn't do that, what is your view of God today?

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Is it somehow torqued? God, how could you? They sinned and you didn't give them any kind of option for redemption.

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Do you just say God is sovereign? They deserve it. Don't you say that? I do, that God gave them no plan

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B, no redemption. When we look at all this choice, we have to remember these people are sinful.

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They're fallen. And what does God owe sinful, fallen

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Adam? Sinful, fallen Eve. Sinful, fallen people. And you say, yeah, but Adam did the sin and then now

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I have to pay for it. Now Adam was my representative and I don't want to have to pay for what he did.

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How many people here have ever inherited money? Some have. When you got the will, maybe you got together and the lawyer read it, or maybe you just got the piece of paper.

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And they said, well, you know, you had a grandfather and he died, and therefore you get $10 ,000.

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How many of you that raised your hand said, that's unfair. I didn't earn it.

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I didn't merit it. He's just part of the family and he just gave me the money, and it's completely unfair because I don't deserve it.

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Who sent the money back? Nobody sent it back. Here God says in wisdom,

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Adam will be your federal representative, and he will do that. And then we have this relationship by God's wisdom, which we would just take for granted in some kind of inheritance situation.

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And you say, yeah, but that's not fair. How many times have you ever heard that in your life when it comes to God's sovereign love?

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It's not fair. Friends, fair is what? I think my kids know this. Maddie, she would never know this.

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Oh, I owe you a dollar, sorry. You don't want fair. Fair is justice.

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You want grace. God doesn't owe Isaac anything. He didn't owe Ishmael anything.

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But God said, I by my own sovereign decree and purpose, I will pick Isaac. So the question should never be to yourself,

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I can't believe God sends people to hell. The question should really be, I can't believe God takes sinners and sends them to heaven based on the work of his son.

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And you say, yeah, but Isaac and Ishmael had the same father but different mothers. So God's seed goes through the same father but different mothers.

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That doesn't seem right. Proof number three. God sovereignly chose to love Jacob and not

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Esau. Proof number three, verse 10. It almost gets worse before it gets better.

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You can see Paul just start tightening the grip. There's nowhere to run. Romans 9 .10.

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And not only this, you can almost think, not only this, I've had enough, uncle. But there was

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

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Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand.

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If you're a Y person, that's the answer to the Y right there. So that God's purpose according to his choice would stand.

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Not because of works but because of him who calls. It was said to her, the older will serve the younger.

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That's odd. God, just as it is written, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.

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This is prenatal. This is not normal. This is not cultural. This is not natural.

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This is not in time. Why, God, do you do this?

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Paul says, why are some Jews going to heaven and not all Jews going to heaven? Answer, so the purpose of God would stand.

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Paul says, God can do whatever he wants with fallen people. If he wants to save some, he can save some.

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As I alluded to before, you'll like this. I've used this quote before. As to Jacob I loved but Esau I hated, a woman said once to Mr.

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Spurgeon, I cannot understand why God should say he hated Esau. That, Spurgeon said, is not the difficulty, madam.

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My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob. The final answer on who

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God loves is not found in the lovability of the person. It is found in God.

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And you say, well, what am I going to do with that then? What should we say? Look down at verse 14.

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What should we say then? We ask the same kind of questions. What do you mean he chooses some and doesn't choose others?

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Paul anticipates, like a good lawyer, dealing with these objections. And what does he do first?

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He's going to bring out the pride of man and make sure we take care of that. What should we say then?

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There is no injustice with God, is there? That's not fair.

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God's unrighteous. Is God unjust? Is He arbitrary?

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Is this a democracy? God does whatever He pleases and everything

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He does is just. It's good. It's right. Do you think

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God has to choose people based on their moral goodness? By the way, if God just looks down the corridors of time and sees what people do and then chooses them, then you would never ask this question, verse 14.

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What should we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? If God sovereignly chooses, you ask this question.

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If God chooses based on foreseen merit, foreseen faith, some kind of corridor of time stuff, nobody asks this question.

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Because you don't ask this because you go, well, they did something, therefore

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God chose them. And everybody goes, that's the American way. It's settled. But when you realize that God chooses not based on anything, not even based on birth order, not based on any cultural standard, not based on anything, but He chooses an eternity past for His own good pleasure, then you say to yourself, it kind of seems unfair.

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It's unjust. And Paul says what? May it never be. May it never be.

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There's no unrighteousness with God. It should be a negative answer. A billion times no.

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The God of the universe does the right thing. If you come up with your own faith and God says, then

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I elect you, you never ask the question. But if God saves you and then gives you faith,

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He's chosen you before eternity has begun, and then gives you faith, you say to yourself, yeah, well, maybe

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I better ask the question. Jacob and Esau were both guilty in Adam.

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What does Paul do? In the middle of divine sovereign love, people ask the questions. And then if I were

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Paul and I was trying to build a megachurch, I'd say, now everything is going to be okay. All I'm trying to say is this and see how this works.

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What does Paul do? People are going, oh, I can't quite get my arms around this. I know the text says it.

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I know it's bold. I know God is God. What do I end up doing with this? And Paul says, here's what

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I'm going to do. You thought the volume was a nine. Now the volume is 15. And he turns it up, and it's almost like he's going to force you to deal with it all the more.

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He doesn't downplay the idea. He pushes it to the nth degree. And Paul says this, basically.

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Your idea of God that includes He must save, He ought to save, and He should save sinners should be obliterated.

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Is God's love unjust? Is His sovereign love unjust? You say, well, at least this is all kind of nations.

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All right, let's move from nations to individuals. Verse 15. So I can see if he chooses nations.

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That might be okay. You know, the Hittites were never any good anyway. What about individuals?

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P .S., nations are full of individuals. But look at this in terms of individual personal language.

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For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom

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I have compassion. I'll have mercy,

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I'll have pity. I'm going to have mercy and compassion on whoever

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I want. And don't you like what the text says? I will have mercy on none.

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No, I will have mercy on some. I will have mercy on some.

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And he just leaves it fairly vague. I'm just going to have mercy on some.

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I'm going to do whatever I want to do the way I want to do it. I am who I am, and I do things the way

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I'd like to do it. True or false? I love to ask true or false questions.

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It is God's nature to pick and choose. If you could take God somehow and boil down all the attributes,

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A to Z, and one attribute kind of comes to the top, and it kind of typifies.

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We can't just say, we'll take this part of God. But if you could somehow, for the sake of this kind of experiment tonight, and you could put all the attributes of God in some kind of beaker, and you boil it, and you distill everything down to the essence and nature of God, the one attribute that best defines

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God, you would say that attribute would be what? Holy is a good one.

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But let's turn to Exodus chapter 33 and see why Frank's wrong. I owe you a dollar. If you had to boil

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God down into one essence, what you're going to see is that God chooses anybody

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He wants to, and that's the essence and nature of God. Oh, He's more than that. But take a look at Exodus chapter 33.

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For those of you that are kind of balking at the idea, or bucking the system here, don't get caught up in my unbiblical illustration, but see what

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God does to this very thing. Where did that quote come from that we just looked at in Romans chapter 9, verse 15?

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Here's where it came from, Exodus chapter 33. All the people are worshiping false idol, calf, and God kills 3 ,000.

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He should have killed everyone, but He didn't kill the nation. He killed just 3 ,000. And now watch what happens, verse 17.

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The Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name.

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Then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. What a great prayer. Verse 19,

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He said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the

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Lord before you. Okay, I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you all my glory. I'm going to show you my goodness, and what parades as it were before the face of Moses, the essence and nature of God.

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And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

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John Piper said, It is the glory of God and His essential nature mainly to disperse mercy on whomever

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He pleases apart from any constraint originating outside His will. This is the essence of what it means to be

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God. Sam Storm says, To show mercy independently of external constraints or conditions is what it means to be

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God. Not pressured, not influenced, not forced, not coerced, not pushed.

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God's glory is a sovereign freedom. Truth has consequences.

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Back to Romans chapter 9. So, if it's God's essence is to choose, of course

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Frank is right, God's holy, God's good, God's kind. But if it's

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God's essence to choose, then who goes to heaven? Who gets the credit for anyone who goes to heaven?

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Romans chapter 9 verse 16. This is the inference to that truth. And don't you love this?

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So then it does not depend on the man who wills. It doesn't depend on man's will.

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Or the man who runs, man's effort. But it depends on God who has mercy.

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Not a man's willing, not a man's running, but on God's showing people mercy.

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God is fit to do whatever He wants with His creatures, and He thankfully is merciful to bestow grace upon them.

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Proof number four. God, in His sovereign love, chose Pharaoh to do

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His work. Romans 9 .17. Romans 9 .17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, Romans 9 .17,

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for this very purpose I raise you up to demonstrate my power, God gives mercy to Moses, God hardens

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Pharaoh, to demonstrate my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

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Well, there are implications to that truth as well. And so you read verse 18.

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So then He has mercy on whom He desires. Of course He does. He's God. By the way, this is not talking about nations.

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This is individual language. And He hardens whom He desires.

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Grace by definition doesn't say you deserve something. Mercy by definition means they don't deserve it.

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Yeah, but you know what? How can I be held accountable if God sovereignly chooses? God sovereignly gives a heart to Lydia that's open to receive, and He hardens

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Pharaoh's heart. How can I be accountable? I'm glad you asked. And here's one of the verses in the

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Bible that just boggles my mind. Verse 19. By the way, I think that, who said that?

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Was it Mark Twain? He said, it's not the verses in the Bible that I can't understand that bother me.

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The verses in the Bible that I can understand that bother me. This one will bother you.

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Until you submit. Until you bow down and then you love it. You will say to me then, why does

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He still find fault? Hey, it's not fair. Who resists His will? By the way, this isn't nation language.

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This is singular language. It's for who individually as a person. See, because Paul is saying this.

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You've got the nation of Israel. They're not all going to heaven even though they're chosen. And this is a good backdrop for that's true of Israel and it's true of people today too.

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Why doesn't everybody go to heaven? The answer is not found in them. It's found in God. How can

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God find fault with these people? Who has resisted His will? That word resist means to blockade, to barricade, to bar.

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Who resists His will? Nobody can. What's the answer to that kind of question?

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The answer is, if you'd like to know theologically, dare to ask.

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If you'd like to put God underneath your foot and tell Him the whatsoever and the wherefores and you're going to instruct

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God, it's better if you just, as we say in our house, zip your lip. On the contrary, who are you, oh man, who answers back to God?

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The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this? Will it?

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Instead of you asking the question, God, how can you be fair? Now God asks you questions.

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Who are you to talk to God that way? And you can't say, why did you make me like this, when you're a created being, can you?

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Fallen, sinful creatures are not entitled to say they have complaints to the

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God of the universe. I think the judge in a courtroom might say to that person, you are out of order.

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You're out of order. It's preposterous to say something like that to God.

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By the way, if this was God chooses based on foreseen faith,

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God chooses based on foreseen confession, God chooses on foreseen something, then these kind of questions would never come up from the detractor, from the retractor, from the person asking the question.

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They would go, oh, that's just the way we do things. He did the right thing, then we bless. It's irreverent to ask this question.

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It's ungodly to ask this question. Boyce and Rykin said, in other words, a perfectly legitimate answer to our question is that the why is, listen, none of your business.

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God does not owe us an answer. The top lady said, the apostle hinges the whole matter entirely on God's absolute sovereignty.

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There he rests it, and there we ought to leave it. I like that. Why did you make me this way?

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Verse 21, does not the potter have right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, china, and another for common use, garbage can?

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The answer is yes. God is rightful king of the universe. He can make out of the same clay some nice little flower pot or some kind of vase, maybe some kind of little thing for perfume, something for honor, something valuable, and He can take another one and He can make a dumpster out of it.

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You read this kind of thing and you just think, that is God's sovereign, selecting love.

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Verse 22, what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

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Why is there anybody in Israel who is damned? Why is there anybody on earth who is not going to heaven?

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This gives us a slight insight. It does not give us the total picture, but it does give us some insight.

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Verse 23, and He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon you.

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You realize what you deserve and what you are going to get? You say, hallelujah, praise the Lord, that God prepared this beforehand, which

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He prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom He also called. I think

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I'm going to do a five -part series on that word someday. Called. Not from among Jews only, but also from the

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Gentiles. And then He quotes a bunch of Old Testament verses to show it's both Jews and Gentiles. Why are the

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Israelites not all going to heaven? Because God didn't owe them anything, yet some of those people

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He gave His sovereign, electing love to. And those that have received and been recipients of that sovereign, electing love, look over at the others and say,

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I deserve that and I got this based on Christ's death as the wrath of God was poured out in Romans chapter 3 on Christ for me.

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And I am loved and I'm going to heaven and I'll worship Him forever and ever. Turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians.

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And we're going to wrap things up in Ephesians chapter 3. Just quickly, because I already can anticipate what people are saying.

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They're saying, you know, I just need to get a better grasp of the love of God. I can't quite get my arms around this kind of love.

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It's so unworldly, it's so different, it's so alien. I think

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Paul knew that and so I'm going to take you to this prayer request and I'm going to just quickly teach you through this prayer so you begin to pray this prayer about the love of God so you can understand it a little bit better.

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Ephesians chapter 3 about the love of God and a prayer that you can put into your prayer request.

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If you would like to specifically pray for me, some people say, what can I pray for you about? What can you pray for the elders about?

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This would be a good thing. Might as well just pray right along with Scripture.

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And Paul says in verse 14, he's talking about his apostolic stewardship and he says, for this reason

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I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

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I'm praying to this great God, God the Father. I don't know how often you think about God as the

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Father and that He gives a special Father -like love. Have you ever seen kids playing and you as an adult come in with another adult and you think those three -year -old kids, those four -year -old kids don't have a care in the world.

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Have you ever said to yourself, too bad, you just can't stay at four years old and play like that because one day you're going to grow up and you're going to say to yourself, this is a tough world.

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All the things that I have to do and be careful of and now you're four years old and you don't know about bad things.

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You don't know about horrible things in the world and you don't have to do anything because your mom and dad take care of everything you need and do.

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You live in a little enclosed world. Wait, it's too bad you have to grow up. Have you ever thought that way? Now, if that's what

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I do as a fallen sinful dad, ought we not to think about God the Father in a greater way where we're

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His children. We say, everything we need has been taken care of and He's provided everything we need, all that we need, as often as we need.

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It's a great God who loves us. And so you say, I want to get to know God's love better. What a great prayer here.

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Verse 16, Paul says, and He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

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Verse 17, I just want to grasp this, Paul says.

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I want to have the power to grasp this. Ephesians, I want you to grasp this. BBC, I want you to grasp this.

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That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of God which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

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Paul says in verse 18, I want you to be able to grasp this idea, to lay hold of, to comprehend, to take a hold of this and seize it.

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Prehende is the Latin word, which means to grasp like a monkey's prehensile tail, to make it your own, the vastness of the love of God.

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He says, I want you to comprehend it with all the saints. That's interesting that the love of God is seen as corporate, must be understood in a corporate setting.

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That you may be able to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height. Breadth meaning maybe the free gift of God's love to all.

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Maybe Jews and Gentiles both receiving it. The length, long enough to last forever, eternal.

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When I think about the length of love, sometimes I think about a kid who says, I want a puppy and they get a puppy and after about one week the puppy's old news.

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I'll get you the puppy if you agree to take care of the puppy. Okay, dad. One week later, none of my kids ever did that.

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Gracie, I just wanted to give you a dollar. The Virgin said, it is so long

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God's love that your old age cannot wear it out. So long your conditional tribulation cannot exhaust it.

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Your successive temptation shall not drain it dry. Like eternity itself, God's love knows no bounds.

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The depth, we think of that song, you owe the deep, deep love of Jesus, the depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

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The height, higher than any adversary. Paul says, you never can come to the full knowledge of God on your own.

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So pray that God would give you insight, that you be rooted and grounded in love, corporately experienced. Verse 19, to know the love of God which surpasses knowledge.

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So you say with Samuel Rutherford, love, love, God's love is the hottest coal that I ever felt.

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Oh, but the smoke of it be hot. Cast all the salt sea on it, it will flame. Hell cannot quench it.

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Many, many waters will not quench love. God loves his creatures, and God sovereignly chooses which creatures he'd like to love.

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He loves all with a creation love, and only some with an elective love. That's a far cry from a man who said, you're not alone.

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You have good company in a parent whose children did the same thing as an ungodly parent.

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He did the best job possible, yet his children went their own way. It broke his heart as I'm sure it's breaking yours.

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Here's some of the things he did. He had a good support system. Within the

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Trinity, he was not alone. And this helps when people we love do things hurtful to them.

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What is that? That isn't the love of God at all. If you're a

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Christian, I want you guys to put this on the tape. I close with this. If you're a Christian, okay, you're going to hear me say it.

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Probably this is the only time ever in my life. If you're a Christian, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this night. I'm thankful that when we're tired, you're always strong.

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When our love is fading, we look to Calvary. That when we're lukewarm, your love still burns hot for your people and you're jealous and zealous for them.

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We're thankful that we have a mediator, an advocate Christ Jesus. Lord, we get a taste of sovereign love when we pick and choose, brides, adopting kids.

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Yet we know your love is the real sovereign love. And in heaven,

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I'm sure we'll be able to praise you for all eternity, thinking that you love sinners like us. So I pray that you encourage the people tonight, even on Valentine's night, where we think about love.

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And Lord, I have to admit that your view of love and my view of love sometimes are far apart.

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And so for my dear congregation, for the dear people here tonight, I pray that you not only give them a wonderful love in their marriage, if they're married, wonderful love for their kids, but Father, I pray that you would help them understand what is the depth and height of your love for us, your people.

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And then out of that, I'm sure we'll be able to love our family much better. Thank you that your son, Jesus Christ, because of his love, because of your love,

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Father, became cursed for us. Thank you that he fulfilled all the works of the law.

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Thank you that we have assurance and we know that if you're with us, if you're for us, who can be against us?

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And we're thankful in these days, Father, especially with a president who doesn't call your son

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Lord, senators and governors and the world. We're thankful to know that you love us and everything's going to be okay in your house because you are our

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God. And we're thankful that we can just live according to your word and knowing that you take care of us like a good father and mother would take care of their children, except much better.

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I pray for this congregation that you would help the people here tonight to not worry, to not have anxiety over the future, but to realize that you've loved them with an everlasting love.

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And it won't stop because of taxes, health issues, Democrats, Republicans.

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Thank you, Lord, for having a love that is constant, eternal, and not fickle.