Understanding God's Sovereignty in Election (Part 1)

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Understanding God's Sovereignty in Election (Part 2)

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us and to we thank you for the opportunity to study your word.
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And Lord, as we come to this very important passage of Scripture, as they are all important, as all the Scriptures given by your very breath, O Lord, you have spoken these words to us.
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We pray that as we examine the truth of Scripture, that you would open up our hearts to the truth, that you would keep us from error, me particularly, Lord, as I seek to give exposition.
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And I pray over the next few weeks as we examine some of the more controversial passages of the New Testament, that you, O God, would simply be merciful to us in our examinations, that in everything that we do and in all the studying that we do, that we would not do it to be intellectually puffed up so that we would feel like we are smarter than other folks.
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But Lord God, that we would just seek to know you better, that we would worship you the right way.
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Lord, we know that there are many in our congregation who are in need of prayer tonight.
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And as we come around your word, let us be also mindful of them, lifting them up always.
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And Lord God, we pray your mercy upon them.
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And Lord, we thank you again that so many have come out tonight to hear your word, be with us as we study in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Romans chapter eight, as those of you who have been here know, is considered by many theologians to be the crown jewel of sacred scripture.
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They say some have said that if the Bible were a ring, Romans would be its precious stone and chapter eight would be the sparkling point of that stone.
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So we have devoted quite a bit of time to going through each verse of the chapter we have so far over the past many weeks, look at verses one through twenty seven.
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And we have learned a lot about how the spirit is given to the believer and how the spirit works in the life of the believer.
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That is the spirit who empowers us to live a life that is pleasing to God.
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In the very early part of Romans chapter eight, the apostle Paul makes a clear distinction between the people who are of the flesh and the people who are of the spirit.
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And he says those who set their minds on the things of the flesh are of the flesh and those who set their minds on the spirit are of the spirit.
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And he makes a great distinction between the two.
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And his point is that those whose mind are set on the flesh do not do the will of God, nor can they.
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His point, of course, is that those who have not had that spiritual change are still lost in their sins.
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They're still bound in their sins.
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But those of us who have received the spirit of God are not only released from the power of sin, but we are also empowered to live for God.
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Thus, Romans eight is all about that empowerment.
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We talked about adoption and how the spirit gives us that feeling of adoption by which we can cry to God, Daddy, which is the word he uses.
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Paul uses Abba.
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And you remember us talking about that and how we can cry out to God with language like that.
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So obviously, this is a great encouraging passage for the believer.
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That's what it's about.
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It's meant to encourage us.
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Now, when we get to verse 28 and begin to go through verse 39, we come to the part that I have entitled in your notes, the believers security, because as much as the Apostle Paul has tried to remind us of our spiritual empowerment, he also is reminding us that God is the sovereign power behind it all, that God is the one who has planned it, who has ordained it and who will see it through to the end.
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So he ensures that we understand that when we get to chapter or verse 28 through to the end of the chapter, he makes it clear to us that God is the one who is bringing all of this to pass.
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So let's open, if you haven't already, our Bibles to Romans 8 and we are going to look at tonight versus 28 and we're going to go to the end of the chapter.
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Now, I will say this before I even begin.
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We are going to spend a couple of weeks on this.
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Tonight is overview.
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OK, tonight is just over.
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So if you think I'm going too fast tonight, forgive me.
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I want to show how this whole section holds together as a unit and then we'll go back and break it down in the coming weeks.
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So let's read verse 28.
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Verse 28 begins, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.
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For those who are called according to his purpose.
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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined.
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He also called and those whom he called, he also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
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What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is it, who is to condemn Christ.
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Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed is interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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No.
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And all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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May God add his blessings to the reading and to the hearing of his word.
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All right, we're going to begin tonight by looking at the invincible, the invincible purpose of God.
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Then I forget that it's as hard looking here, looking at the invincible purpose of God, and I use that word invincible for a reason.
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God's sovereignty.
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Is so misunderstood and so differently discussed among so many people that everybody says they believe in it, but rarely do you find someone that actually can speak about it in such a way that it actually makes sense.
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Certain folks, when they talk about God's sovereignty, want to stress, well, God is sovereign, but yet we still have an absolutely ultimate free will.
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And that's and they want to try to find some kind of paradigm wherein those two can exist together.
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And we're going to talk about free will in a minute, but before we get there, I just want to address this.
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The reason why I say the invincible purpose of God is this.
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When we talk about God's plan from eternity past, we are talking about something that God has determined will absolutely come about the way he determined it to come about.
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And that plan cannot be thwarted.
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That is a kind of an important word.
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What does it mean to thwart something? Means to stop it or to or to put up a barricade so that it cannot be or to, as we used to say, to throw a monkey wrench in the program.
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All right.
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That means to thwart something.
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We we try to put something to an end, try to stop it.
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And God's sovereign plan, which has been determined from eternity past, cannot be thwarted by us.
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That's something we need to come to realization with you pointing at.
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Oh, it does that to save battery life.
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It's still recording.
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I just can't see myself anymore.
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So now I'm depressed.
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No, no, no.
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That's foolish talk right there.
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No, but we talk about God, the will of God being thwarted.
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Another word that is very important that we might want to put into our mind is the word frustrated.
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Have you ever wanted to do something? And because of the inaction of others, you were frustrated that it didn't get done.
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And you had a desire for something to happen.
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I don't know.
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Maybe it's build something.
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And the people that were supposed to help you didn't show up.
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Or maybe it was to go somewhere.
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And the people who were supposed to go with you didn't show up.
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And as such, your plans were frustrated.
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What you had planned to do because of the willing or unwillingness of someone else, your plans were caught off guard and made null and void.
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It is not so with God.
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God's plans are not frustrated by us.
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As much as we might like to think we have the power to put an eternal monkey wrench in the plan of God, we cannot.
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And I'm making this I'm stressing this point because I often hear people who want to argue the virtue of man's free will, and they want to tout that as the absolute highest of all truths contained in Scripture.
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I've heard people say man's free will is the most important truth in the Scripture.
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Well, first of all, you have to ask, is it even a truth in the Scripture? And second of all, you have to ask, is it even that important? You see, the problem is we focus so much on our ability.
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We focus so much on what we do that in our free choices that we forget that God has a free will.
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Have you ever thought about that as much as we want to tout our free will? Have you ever thought about the fact that God's will is free? That God can do whatever he wants to do, however he wants to do it, and he doesn't have to ask your approval or permission.
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Have you ever even considered the fact that God is more free than you are? Some of you may say, well, that's pretty simple.
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Not necessarily when you get to thinking about it, because if you think that you buy your will, you can frustrate the will of God.
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That means in some way you're more free than him.
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Because God is bound by your will rather than the other way around, we being bound to his.
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You see, that's the key.
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Understanding man's will comes first and understanding that God has a purpose in all things that he is ensuring will come about.
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I want you to just hear this verse of Scripture, Isaiah 46, verses 8 through 11.
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If you want to write it down, it's Isaiah 46, verses 8 through 11.
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The Lord is speaking through Isaiah, the prophet, and he says this.
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Remember this and stand firm.
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Recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old.
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I am God and there is no other.
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I am God and there is none like me.
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So far, so good, pretty easy to understand.
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God is God.
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There's no one like him.
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God is God.
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There is no other.
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Then he goes on to say this, I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done.
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What he said, he said, I have declared from the beginning all the way to the end things that haven't even been done yet.
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And he goes on to say, my counsel will stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
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I have spoken and I will bring it to pass.
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I have purposed and I will do it.
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That is how God looks at the world.
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He has purposed it and it will be done.
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There is no way in the world that we can throw a monkey wrench in God's program.
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We can talk about man's freedom, and I think it's important for us to.
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But when I talk about man's freedom, I do not use the word free will, because free will tends to bring about a picture in the mind that I am simply free to go left or free to go right.
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And there is no influence in my life at all.
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I prefer to use the term free moral agency.
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You might say, well, that just sounds real fancy.
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Why are you going to be all fancy? It's not about being fancy.
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It's about what it's expressing.
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I am a free moral agent in the sense that I make decisions in accordance with my nature.
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Those decisions do affect me in life.
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However, those decisions are not absolutely free, because if my decision were going to thwart the invincible purpose of God, then I would not be allowed to do it.
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You might say now, wait a minute, Pastor, that sounds an awful like like like you're saying God actually has the ability to influence your will.
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Oh, well, yeah, he does.
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And yes, he does do it.
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There's a passage in the Old Testament, and it's not my notes, and I wish I would have I would have thought to look it up and maybe some of you might know where it is.
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But when God is talking to the Israelites and he's talking to the men, he says four times a year, you're going to go up to the mountain and pray, you're going to leave your family behind.
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He says in those times that you go up, he says those that surround your camp will not covet your land.
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Now, I don't know about you, but coveting to me is an internal desire or will to have something that is someone else's.
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And that's the definition of coveting, an internal desire or will to have something that is someone else's.
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And you know, the Israelites were always fighting that battle.
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They were constantly fighting the battle over land.
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They're still fighting that battle today.
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But God said on those days when you are most vulnerable, on those days when the men leave and go up to worship and not no one is left, but the elderly, the women and the children on those days, they will not covet your land.
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That to me speaks volumes about God's invincible purpose.
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Now, I do want to get to the text, but before I do, I want to just remind you of one thing.
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It's R.C.
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Sproul's, it's not mine.
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If I quote somebody, I like to try to recognize the quote.
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R.C.
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Sproul made this point.
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He said.
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We are free.
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But God is more free.
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When our freedom runs into God's freedom, we lose.
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That's pretty easy.
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I think that's of all the books I've read on the subject and all the things I've hit, that one struck me most in the heart, because I think that's that really sums up Jonathan Edwards point, because Jonathan Edwards wrote a book called The Freedom of the Will.
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Coincidentally enough, on the subject of how bound the will is in sin, but it was called the freedom of the will, he was simply expressing the idea that, yes, we make choices, but they're in accordance with our nature.
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Our nature is bound in sin.
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Thus, we make choices according with that nature.
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As the Bible says that the leopard can't change its spots, nor can the Ethiopian change his skin, nor can we change and make ourselves good who are accustomed to evil.
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It is God who does that.
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All right, now let's move on to the text.
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For the invincible purpose of God, those of you who are taking notes and you have my notepad, and if you don't, you can still write this down.
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We're going to look at five undeniable affirmations, five undeniable affirmations.
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We see these in Romans 8, 28 through 30.
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The first undeniable affirmation is this.
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All things work together for the good of the called.
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Like I said, if you have the worksheet that's already written down for you, but if you don't, you might want to write that down because that little phrase is important because I've heard so many people say this.
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They'll say all things work together for good.
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Don't stop there because that's not what the text says.
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Don't just say all things work together for good.
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The Bible makes a very important distinction.
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It says we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
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Two distinctions are made.
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It says all things work together for the good of whom? The called, those who love God, which is the same group, those who love God or the called, those who are called, love God.
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Wait.
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Yeah.
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OK, I said that right.
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All right.
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Now, Paul is elaborating here on this overarching sovereignty of God.
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He is using this as a basis to give his readers confidence in their circumstances.
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He is telling them that no matter what you're facing, we can face it with confidence that God is working it out for our ultimate good.
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And I can tell you this, in times where I've had to deal with people who are going through some severe trial, this verse is the verse that has always given me the most comfort.
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There are some people out there that have been through so much that I can't even compare my life to theirs.
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I can't compare my life to a person who has lost a child.
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There's I don't know, even I don't even want to begin to think about the pain such a thing would bring.
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Or someone whose child has been injured.
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Seriously.
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And their whole life has been altered as a result, I don't know what that feels like.
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I've gone through my experiences of pain.
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I know you have, too.
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Some of you in here may have lost a child, maybe somebody in here has something similar has happened to them.
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But I will tell you this, what gives me comfort is not platitudes.
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You know, I hear people we talked about this.
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I gave a hospital ministry class last night to our deacons.
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One of the things I talked about was avoiding the use of platitudes when somebody is going through a brief situation.
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What's a platitude? Oh, well, you know, he's in a better place.
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You know what? Somebody just lost their eight year old.
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They might not want to hear that right that moment, not that way.
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You might want to share with them the promise of heaven and the promise of glory.
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But don't just say, hey, they're in a better place.
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So don't worry about it.
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Really? That the approach you want to take with somebody in that condition? No, it's not.
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Here's the point that I'm making.
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When I see someone who has gone through a tragedy or when I myself face something that is difficult and there have been tragic circumstances, I can look at the history of my life and I can tell you things that would probably surprise you as far as things that I have had to go through as a child and growing up, not because my parents didn't love me, but because people make mistakes and things happen.
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But you know what? I can look back at it now and I can say everything that ever happened to me was a part of God's divine ordinance, because all of those things were responsible for me being here tonight preaching on the sovereignty of God.
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Now, you may have to wait 20 years like I did before you understand why your tragedy is in the plan of God to bring about your good.
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But you can know this, that if you love God, if he has called you and if you love God, he has called you and if he called you, you do love him.
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It's a kind of an easy thing.
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Then all the things that are happening are going to ultimately be for your good.
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That's why we call it the invincible purpose of God, because nothing can thwart that.
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No man, no demon, no devil, nobody can thwart God's purpose.
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The love of that should give us the utmost confidence.
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That's why I'm in love with the theology that I teach.
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People say, why do you make such a big deal about reformed theology? Because it's so focused on the sovereignty of God, it's so focused on God being in control and me not.
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It gives me confidence well above I ever had.
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When I was before I've been introduced to these things.
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Now, having said all that, I want to talk about one word that's in this passage, I'm going to get maybe no.
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But I do want to talk about one of the words, it is the word elect.
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That word is an important word.
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It's here in the text.
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In fact, it is here that it's used for the first time.
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Wait a minute.
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It's not here.
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It's not here.
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It's in this passage.
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It's later.
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But I look like I jumped ahead of my notes.
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I read my notes earlier.
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I'm a couple of pages ahead of you.
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I'm sorry.
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Let me back up in my mind.
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He says those who are called.
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All right.
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When he says those who are called later, he identifies them as the elect.
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OK, in fact, I'll show you where that is.
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If you go down to verse thirty three, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? That word elect.
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That's the first time the word elect is used in Romans.
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Not the first time it's used in the Bible, but it's the first time it's used in Romans.
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And the reason why I make that point of that word being used is the antecedent of the elect, the one who is the preceding group that is referring to as the call, the ones who love God.
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That's it's the same group.
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OK, that's that's just my point.
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I jumped to that passage mentally.
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I'm sorry.
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I'm excited to preach.
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But I know people, I know folks, you could election and predestination are two sides to the same coin, but they are not the same thing.
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Election is God making the choice.
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Predestining is the choice he made.
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It's it's it's.
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Let me see if I can find an analogy.
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If I if I make a choice for my son to go to college, that's my electing to do so.
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If I once I decide which college he's going to go to and send him.
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That's the predestination.
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That's that's I've determined it's not exactly the same, but it is it's not exactly parallel.
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But when we talk about predestination and election, election is God making the choice and predestination is what he's making the choice for them.
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He's making the choice that they'd be predestined to go to heaven.
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OK, so it is connected in that.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
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But yeah, hopefully that analogy didn't throw you off.
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I came up with it on the fly.
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I'm not sure it was a great one, but but they are they do need to be defined separately.
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But the word elect is important because there are certain folks who don't like to use that word.
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In fact, I've been in certain places where if I if I refer to God's people as the elect, I'm automatically branded as a no good Calvinist.
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That word comes up when you when you use the word elect your your Calvinist when you use that word beloved, if that's true, Jesus was Calvinist.
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Because Jesus called us the elect a bunch of times, I just wrote some verses down.
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It says when Jesus is talking about the end of the world and he's talking about the trials of the elect, he says, if those days had not been cut short, no human would be saved.
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But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
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You've heard that.
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I know you all heard read that.
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Well, he calls them the elect.
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That's the word.
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Matthew 24, 24, he says, for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
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So it's a very common biblical word, Matthew 24, 31, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and he will gather his elect from the four corners or from the four winds and one end of heaven to the other.
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Luke 18, seven, and will God not give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? It's a common word for Christ.
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It's a common word.
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Paul, it's a common word.
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Who did Peter write his first epistle to? To the elect saints, he may use the word elect in the very opening of his first epistle.
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So it's not an uncommon biblical word.
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The reason why we don't like the word elect is because it does focus on God's action rather than ours.
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It focuses on what God does more than it focuses on what we do.
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It focuses on God being the one who is the sovereign ruler rather than us.
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However, to deny that the Bible uses that language is is to deny the very words that we've read tonight.
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All right, so he says.
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All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
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Now, I realize ESB reads a little bit different than that, but that's how I memorized it.
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So and I do want to make a point you've heard about me.
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Well, I better not go there.
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There's a small textual variant at Romans 8, 28, some of your Bible say God causes all things to work together.
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Some of the other ones say all things work together.
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And that is because in some of the older manuscripts, Hafez, which is God, it's the Greek word for God, is included.
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And I believe that it was included as a scribal error as a way for people to make sense of why all things work together.
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I don't think necessarily that it was part of the original.
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I think it was part of a scribal amendation where a scribe simply said God works all things together.
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And we have again, it's not my subject for tonight.
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We're doing a whole week on textual criticism later in the year and we're going to talk about that subject.
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But anyway, the point of matter is if your Bible says God causes all things to work together or if your Bible says all things work together, no, that's the reason for the difference.
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All right.
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Either way, the point is that God is causing all things to work together.
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All right.
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Am I lost anybody yet? Are you bored? OK, because I see some folks, it looks like I'm I'm speaking Greek.
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I guess I did say one thing in Greek.
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I didn't speak.
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Yeah, I did speak Greek once and Latin.
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You like that? All right.
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All things work together for the good of those.
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Who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose.
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Now comes the second we said there were five undeniable affirmations, the first undeniable affirmation is all things work together for the good of the call.
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That is undeniable.
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I've never met anybody who denied that because it's so plainly taught in Scripture.
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However, when I say, how does that happen? But, well, God rolled the cosmic dice and this was the best way it was all going to come out, he knew.
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No, if there was if there was one rogue molecule in the vast expanse of universe that we exist, if there was one molecule that was outside of the sovereign power of God, that could be the one that thwarted it all.
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Remember, it was the sand in the shoe of the horse that threw the horse and it was the one horse lost the battle, one battle lost the war, one war lost the nation.
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Right.
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There's not one rogue molecule.
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There's not anything anywhere like and I'm going to quote John Calvin.
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John Calvin did say that not one drop of rain falls from the heavens apart from the sovereign decree of God.
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I believe that with all my heart.
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I don't mind quoting anybody if they're right.
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People say you believe what Calvin says.
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I believe Calvin as long as he believes, as long as he teaches what the Bible taught.
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I don't believe in his view of baptism.
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I don't believe in his view of the Lord's Supper.
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I don't believe in a few things that Calvin taught.
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But on this, I think he was right.
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I think Zwingli was right about the other stuff.
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But you don't call me a Zwinglian, I don't know who that is.
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But the point of the point and Martin Luther would be mad at me for that.
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He's my hero.
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But anyway, he didn't like Zwingli at all.
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None of them did.
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That's why I like him.
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All right.
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All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose.
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Now, number two, the second affirmation, whom God foreknew.
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He also predestined to be conformed.
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To the image of his son.
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Now, I've heard some people say, see, it doesn't say it was predestined for salvation, it says he was predestined to be conformed to the image of God's son, that doesn't mean predestined to salvation.
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Let me ask you this there, Marty, just for the question, I want to I want to respond to that question because I've had it asked so many times.
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Who is being conformed to the image of his son is a believer, unbelievers who goes to heaven, believers, unbelievers.
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So if he's if he's predestined to be conformed to his son, is there anybody who's not going to heaven who is being conformed to the image of his son? No.
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Is there anybody who is being conformed to a son who's not going to heaven? And that what I just said? Let me say it the other way.
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Is there anybody who is going to heaven who's not being conformed to the image of the son? No, it works both ways.
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It is synonymous, the confirmation to the image of the sun is tantamount to our sanctification.
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Our sanctification is the result of our justification.
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And I want to show you something, because it says for whom he foreknew he predestined, whom he predestined, he did what he called and whom he called, he justified.
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So if our sanctification is a result of our justification, our being conformed to the image of Christ as a result of our justification, and his foreknowledge, predestination and calling preceded our justification, and our justification preceded our sanctification, then it is by necessity that the predestination is to salvation.
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Now, if I lost you, it's because you weren't listening fast enough.
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No, I'm serious.
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Yes, I am.
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But not tonight.
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This is tonight.
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In fact, next week, we are going to go over just Romans or just the word foreknew.
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We're going to spend a whole hour on just the word foreknew.
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The week after that, we're going to spend a whole hour on what it means to be called effectually and what it means to be called generally.
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So, yes, we got all that's coming tonight.
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I was hoping to overview it all, but it looks like it's not going to happen either.
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Really, though, we can overview it.
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I'm just getting bogged down because, again, I'm excited.
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Wednesday nights have been really fun for me.
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My wife got on to that.
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She said, you should really just preach your Wednesday night stuff on Sunday.
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I thought, well, when I preach on Wednesday night, it would then become my Wednesday night stuff and you'd want me to preach it then too.
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Anyhow, the point of the matter is, it does say the second thing I put on your list is that for whom he foreknew, he predestined.
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That is an undeniable affirmation.
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Whom God foreknew, he also predestined.
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Number three, the third undeniable affirmation, whom he predestined, he called.
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OK, the fourth undeniable affirmation is whom he called, he justified.
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And the fifth undeniable affirmation is whom he justified, he glorified.
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God speaks of our glorification, which we have not received of in the past tense.
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Why? Because to God, his promises are as if they have already come to pass, because for him they have, because God was outside of what we call time.
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That's that's real big right there.
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When you think about the fact, I ask people sometimes, I say, now, if this if this if this line, this might this might throw some of you off.
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Don't let it.
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If this if this was the beginning of time and this was the end of time and depending on your eschatological viewpoint, we could be anywhere in here.
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But I'm going to put us closer to the end.
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All right.
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I don't know how close and don't ask.
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But if this if this timeline designated time, this is the beginning of time and this is the end of time and we are here, where is God? God's the board.
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God's not bound to where we are.
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God is not bound in time as we are.
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I've heard that before.
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I do have some issue with that.
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I don't think it's bad.
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I have a concern of some people use that to say that's how God knows how we're going to be safe because he sees what we're doing.
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And that would be my biggest concern about using that analogy is that indicates God is somehow taking in knowledge, which means he had to learn, which means he had to change because he went from not knowing to knowing.
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And again, it goes back to us dealing with an absolute being there.
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We don't even really can make an analogy, but I don't think it's a bad one.
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I just think that we have to just like with the Trinity, we talk about, you know, well, ice and water and, you know, it's liquid.
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It's solid.
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You know, we got to remember.
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I don't know why I went to a Boston accent, but any time we try to analogize God's situation like we talked about Sunday, we're using anthropomorphic terms.
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We're using God for man formed terms, anthropopathism, anthropomorphism.
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We're using language that really it comes close from our side, but it really doesn't it really doesn't come close to the truth.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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Now, whom he who he foreknew, he predestined, whom he predestined, he called, whom he called, he justified, whom he justified, he glorified.
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Now, that is the five undeniable affirmations.
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For the next few weeks, we're going to just break those apart.
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So I don't want to do it tonight.
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But I do want to jump real quickly to the five unanswerable questions, because I think these work together as a whole.
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Paul makes this grand claim that everybody God predestined is going to be glorified.
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There is no thwarting the plan.
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It's an invincible purpose.
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He made that claim.
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Then he comes back and he says, if God be for us.
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Who can be against us? That's the first unanswerable question from Paul's from Paul's viewpoint.
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It's if this is the way it is, if God has if God has brought us to salvation, if he is for us, who can be against us? Notice the word us twice.
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Who is the us? What's the antecedent to us? Those whom he chose, called, predestined, glorified, you know, that's the that's the group.
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He said, if God is for them, us, because we're a part of them, so them is us and us is them.
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If God is for us, who can be against us? That's verse 31.
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And then he goes on in verse 32 to ask the second unanswerable question.
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How will he not graciously give us all things? Read our reverse, he says he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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Who's the us again? Remember who we're talking about? Believers, he says, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? You know, that reminds me of the story of Abraham and Isaac, because God stopped Abraham.
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And just short of taking his son's life, and I don't know how many fathers in the room have ever thought about that story from an from from sort of an existential put yourself in the story.
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I read today I'm working on a sermon for a month from now.
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I don't know why I'm so much ahead, but I just happen to be.
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I'm working on a.
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You know, I did today when I was doing that sermon, I put myself in Abel's shoes.
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And I thought, you know what, this isn't even this isn't the first guy in history to be murdered.
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He was, but that's not all.
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It's the first guy in history to die.
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Adam and Eve are still alive.
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Cain is still alive.
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It's the first guy in history to die.
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And as his brother was taking his life and the very life in him was fading away.
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Can you imagine not even understanding what's happening? You see, for a moment that caught me, I want to share that and I didn't know how I was going to pull it in.
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I just because it really got my attention thinking of Abel's condition.
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But I look here at the same thing, I look at Abraham's condition.
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He was told, take your son, thy only son, whom thou lovest.
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Wow.
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What is only son? It was the son that he loved.
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It was the son that he had with Sarah.
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It was the son that he loved.
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And he said, take that son, your only son, whom thou lovest and sacrifice him on the mountain.
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Right before he was willing to do it, but right before he did it, God stopped him.
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He stayed his hand.
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But what does he say here? He says, but God, who did not spare his own son.
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He spared Abraham's son, but didn't spare his own.
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Who didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he not graciously give us all? If he was willing to do that, there is no end to his grace.
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You see that? That's that second question.
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How can he not? How will how can we not expect his grace? Yeah, the angel of the Lord, which in the Old Testament is a reference to.
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And he had the it was what's funny is I know you know this.
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But what's funny is you've got Christ and the type of Christ at the same place because the Ram was a picture of Christ.
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So you've got type and anti type together.
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And that's that I love to preach.
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I can't wait till I get to the Isaac because the Hebrews 11, I'm going to be preaching out of the Old Testament.
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Because it's all I can't wait.
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That's my favorite Genesis 22, that story, because every time I read it, I cry because I think about how hard it would be as a father to be commanded to do that.
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Can't help it.
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But anyhow, let's go back here.
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The third unanswerable question, who will bring a charge against God's elect? That was the one I was trying to say earlier is there.
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We know Satan brings charges against God's people.
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One of the most probably the one that I think of most is when Job.
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Job was living and the Bible says that Satan went with the other sons of God to present himself to and in that in that phrase, sons of God is a reference to angels, not Jesus.
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It says that Satan and the other sons of God, Lucifer, rather, I forget actually the name is you might be Satan.
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It says he went to present himself before the Lord.
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Really? Does that mean that Satan is still under the authority of the sovereign God? Is Satan not that rose molecule? No, he's not.
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One theologian said it best.
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He said, we forget sometimes that the devil belongs to God.
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That even though the devil is out there doing his evil things, he cannot go outside of the leash that God has put him on.
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He couldn't touch Job without the sovereign approval of God.
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And we presented himself before God.
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God gave him that authority one step at a time to test Job and Job later on.
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You know, he saw, you know, has gone through the trials of Job because he had he was him.
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And he said, why did God give him an answer? Not really.
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Except for to say, I made everything I'm going to do it my way.
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I thought he talked about the behemoth and you can't snare the behemoth.
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But I created the behemoth.
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You can't snare the Leviathan.
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But I created the Leviathan.
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You who are you to talk, you know, who you'd even ask? Now, I say that because later in Romans nine, Paul's really going to get into this election thing.
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Paul's really going to focus on the fact that God mercies him he wills and he hardens him he wills.
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And then he says, some of you will say to me that makes God unfair.
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But who are you? Oh, man, that's the answer.
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Some people said, well, Paul didn't really answer.
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Yes, he did.
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He told you who you were.
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And he said, why would you even ask? Oh, man.
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In fact, actually, the first word in the Greek in that in Romans nine, in that verse, man, that's the first word.
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Oh, man, who are you to answer that, pointing out your condition? We don't like it.
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So what he's got, there is no other.
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He's God.
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There's none like him.
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He's declared the end from the beginning, saying my purpose will not be thwarted.
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I think I heard that earlier.
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And I think that's something so important that we see God for how he truly is, because when we do, our worship will increase, folks, because you know what? These five unanswerable questions only make sense when God is sovereign.
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They make no sense when God is at our mercy.
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Fourth question, who is he that condemns? No one can condemn.
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Why? Because the work that Christ has done on our behalf is finished, it's final.
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God has accepted the payment.
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God has already taken the payment on our behalf and he will not renege.
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The Bible says God does not repent of his promises.
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The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
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Romans 11 is the verse I'm referring to.
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And the final one, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? One of the most beautiful passages in all the Bible.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will famine separate us? No.
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Will nakedness separate us? No.
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Will the edge of the sword separate us? No, that'll get us there faster.
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Now that we're running out to get slain by the sword.
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But the point, he makes that point because they quote and he said, as it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all day long.
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We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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And the point was so many of the people, so many within the church at that time are being persecuted.
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And he says, no, in all these things, even in persecution, you are more than conquerors.
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Through him who left, because we are with the one, we are in the one who is already one and being in him.
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And we are in God's plan, which cannot it's a different theology than most people have, but I don't know what else to draw from the text.
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I don't know where else to go.
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The text is so clear.
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There are five invincible.
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Purposes are five.
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What did I say it was? Five invincible fun and novel affirmations and five unanswerable questions and the invincible purpose of God.
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Beloved, that's where I have to end because of time.
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But know this, we are going to be on the subject for as long as it takes.
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Next week, I'm going to be doing the golden chain of redemption, dealing particularly with the foreknowledge question, because that's a big one.
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The week after that, we're going to deal with calling when we finally do get to Romans nine.
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I want to I want to encourage you this.
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If you're here tonight and you've never studied Romans nine, read it and meditate on it.
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One of the bad things about being the passage of Scripture that has been lauded as much as Romans eight is, is that Romans nine, which is so wonderful, follows it.
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And so many people read Romans eight and never read on.
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It's like being the pastor at a church right after they just lost a really good one.
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You don't want to be that guy because it's the same way kind of with Romans nine is it's this great passage, but it often gets overshadowed by the study of Romans eight because Romans eight is that kind of that crown jewel.
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But I encourage you, read on, read with focus, read with intent, read with the Holy Spirit, ask him to be your interpreter, your guide, seek to know the truth.
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Don't ever be afraid to seek the truth.
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Let's pray.
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Father God, we thank you for your word tonight.
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We we pray that this sermon has been an encouragement to all that are here.
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We pray that as we grow as a congregation, that you would just simply continue as you have been guiding us along to being that biblically functioning church, that you put that desire in our heart to be.
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We pray, oh, God, now, as we break, that you would keep us safe and keep our minds intent on Scripture and all these things.
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Lord, we pray in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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All right.
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Real quick, an announcement before you go.
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Let me turn my recorder off here.