The Election - [Ephesians 1:4-6]

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I love to study history, and I'd like to ask you this question this morning as I start off the sermon.
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What am I describing? I'm trying to describe something. What do you think I'm describing? The thing that I'm describing is oily.
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It is colorless. It is a liquid.
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It contains oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, among other things.
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And it is unstable, and at the slightest jolt or impact, it can spontaneously detonate.
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What am I talking about? Nitroglycerin. The whole congregation said it in unison, did they not?
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It was discovered, nitroglycerin, in 1847 by an Italian chemist, but most of us know about nitroglycerin from Alfred Noble.
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And it was Alfred Noble who tried to stabilize it, and he thought, you know what, this has so much potential for inhibiting wars, and so much potential for quarrying work and extracting ores and gold and everything else, but it's hard to transport, and so he began to try to figure out how to stabilize nitroglycerin.
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Even in 1864, trying to add glycerol and sulfuric acid, his brother and other friends were killed while he was trying to stabilize it.
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Eventually, Alfred Noble figured out how to add a certain type of clay that would turn this liquid nitroglycerin into paste, so that you could put it in tubes or rods and transport it safely, and now we know that to be dynamite.
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Also fascinating, I thought, was, it was used so much in World War I to hurt people and destroy people, he was sad because he,
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Alfred Noble, was a pacifist. And the account reads, quote, soon after World War I, a newspaper mistakenly published
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Noble's obituary before he had actually died. He was horrified to read that he would be remembered for eternity as the man who created explosives that caused so much death and carnage.
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So to alleviate his conscience, he said, you know what, I'm going to have a Nobel Peace Prize for science, medicine, and in fact, that's exactly what he did.
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Well, today I don't want to talk about physical nitroglycerin, but if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 1,
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I'd like to talk about spiritual nitroglycerin, a Christian nitroglycerin that is wonderfully used when properly handled, but dangerous when mishandled.
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And today we're going to talk about spiritual nitroglycerin, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of predestination.
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In light of all that's happened in the world and the election that's going on in the United States, I wanted to talk about the election, and that is the election found in Scripture, unconditional election, which is really nitroglycerin for your soul.
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If I ask you a definition of election, I don't know what you might say, but it is simply
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God's sovereign act of choosing. He chooses some individuals for salvation.
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And by the way, when you're a Christian and you grasp this doctrine, it will give you praise, it will give you thanks, it will make you think,
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I cannot believe that in spite of who I am, God, the eternal God, the triune
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God, chose me in eternity past, and in eternal act, God chose me.
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It should help you with your assurance, it should help you with your praise, and it will help you with your pride, that is to decrease your pride.
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I don't know when the last time you heard a sermon about unconditional election. It's not preached on all that much.
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Professor James Dane said, sermons on election are so rare that even a regular church goer may never hear one, nor other doctrine has been so central in theology and so ignored in the pulpit.
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So we don't want to do that today. We will be in the book of Nahum very shortly. Our missionary
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Lance Roberts will be here next week preaching, and then the week after that, Lord willing, we'll start the book of Nahum.
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But for today, the doctrine of election. Why is it not preached? Why is it so sometimes spontaneously combustible?
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Michael Horton said, at least one reason is that this doctrine is unsettling to our feelings, impressions, and presuppositions about who
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God is and who we are, and now listen, and what God can do without our permission.
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Some people hate this doctrine. They seethe when it comes to this doctrine.
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Matter of fact, even the fall of the house of Usher, the book is a metaphor for the eradication of this doctrine of unconditional election.
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The book Moby Dick by Herman Melville is a reaction to this very doctrine. Positively, Daniel Defoe writes
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Robinson Crusoe as a tract or an appeal to promote this doctrine of unconditional election.
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No matter what, dear congregation, the words election and predestination are written in the words of scripture, and you're going to have to deal with them one way or another.
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So today we're going to look at Ephesians chapter one, probably verses three, four, five, and six.
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I can probably preach a whole sermon on this, and in one sense, I feel really bad preaching the sermon, and you say, why do you feel bad preaching the sermon?
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Because it preaches itself. It's almost like I didn't have to do any work. It just, it preaches itself.
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It's right there for everyone to see, and people have to deal with the sovereign election of God. That if you're a
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Christian today, I ask you the question, why are you a Christian? Why is your best friend or spouse or neighbor not a
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Christian? Is it something in you, or is it something that God has done?
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That is the question, and if you can grasp this and submit to this, your life will be completely different, and so we're going to go through Ephesians chapter one, verses three through six, but let me just read the greeting first from Paul in Ephesians one, verses one and two.
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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you, there's the
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Greek greeting, and peace from God, there's the Hebrew greeting, from God our Father and the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And then what Paul does, verses three through 14, is write one sentence in the original language, in the
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Greek language, your English Bible's got punctuation, but this is one long sentence, giving praise to the
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Father through the work of His choosing, through the Son's redeeming work, and then the
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Spirit sealing people to the day of redemption. Every blessing that you have starts off right here.
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And by the way, while some people say, I love to praise Jesus for redemption and forgiveness, and I don't have to bear my sins, they rarely, if ever, praise
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God for what Paul starts with, and that is praising God for choosing me. When's the last time
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I could ask you here, Lord, thank you, as a Christian, you chose me.
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That's unbelievable, you chose me. God has a plan, that's in the book of Ephesians, and He has that plan, and He works it out through and only in Christ Jesus, and He does it to the praise of His glory.
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Let me read verses three through 11, and I want you just to see this explosion of praise.
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This is Paul not saying, praise like this, he's just praising, I think, so you will praise like this.
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This is not an argument for all this happening, this is just a declaration, this is just truth. This is not
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Romans working through a logical argument, this is very logical, that's true, but it's not an argument, it's a fact, it's a declaration.
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And this is Paul, by the way, 25 years after Damascus Road. All of us who have been
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Christians for some time, I've been a Christian for 31 years, and remember when you first got saved? How excited you were, and maybe too excited sometimes when it comes to family or preaching, and you're so zealous because you can't believe your sins are forgiven.
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And then kind of later when you mature, you just kind of get, you know, tired with the whole thing. May that never be.
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For Paul, it didn't happen. 25 years later, here's Paul's explosion of praise.
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See if you can pick up the Trinitarian praise in this, and I'll highlight it before I read it.
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Verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace. Verse 12, to the praise of His glory.
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Verse 14, to the praise of His glory. These doctrines are not meant to make you mad, but to praise.
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Say, well, I hear unconditional election, I get mad. That's not the biblical response. I'm going to try to be as kind as I can, as pastoral as I can.
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That's not Paul's response. That ought not to be your response. Let me read verses 3 through 14, and listen to how
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Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, praises God. Blessed be the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which
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He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which
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He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight -making, known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which
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He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
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In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.
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In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, you were sealed with the
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Holy Spirit, the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.
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This is Paul praising God for salvation, that is, election, redemption, and sealing.
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Go back in verse three, and before I get into our main text, in verses four, five, and six, the header is verse three.
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Blessed be the God and Father ever, Lord Jesus Christ. The word there is easy to figure out.
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It's where we get the word eulogy. And if you go to a eulogy at a funeral, it just means good word.
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Somebody says a good word about the deceased, something that they were, or something that they did. This is a eulogy, and it just means to praise, to celebrate with praise, to say something well of God, to say something good about God.
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And this is a word exclusively used of God in the New Testament. God has blessed us, and He deserves to be spoken of well.
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400 times in the Old Testament it's used, talking about God bestowing benefits on His people.
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And every blessing comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the
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Lord Jesus, salvation, the risen Savior, no benefits to the believer. No benefits to anyone.
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But here we have this great, purposeful Paul, modeling how you praise, intended to have you have gratitude, and thanks, and trust, just like Paul did.
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The Father chooses, the Son dies, and the Holy Spirit seals. It's like three stanzas, is it not, in some song.
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The first stanza is about the Father choosing, and then it's about the Son redeeming, and then it's the Spirit sealing.
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And when I read my notes, this is exactly what I said. We tend to think of a eulogy at a funeral.
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But here it is, about God. But often our praise is the one that's dead. That's not what we want.
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What we're looking for, this internal, it doesn't have to be external, with hands, and jumping, and slaying, and all these things.
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It has to do with a deep -seated joy inside. I deserve hell, and I get heaven.
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How? The Father chose, the Son died for, and the Spirit seals. One quick moment in hell would make you think, for just even that second,
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I can't believe the depth of Christ's work on my behalf, as He experienced, as it were, the torments of hell for those three hours, and then
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I get to go to heaven. Salvation has been planned. I could ask you this, dear congregation and YouTube people, you ever hear this?
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Give them the plan of salvation. Give unbelievers the plan of salvation.
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Romans has the plan of salvation. I've got a question. When was it planned? It might be a plan of salvation, but when was it planned?
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And our passage today answers that question. Verse 4, He chose us.
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Verse 5, He predestined us. Verse 9,
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As a plan for the fullness of time. Verse 11, Been predestined.
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Verse 11, To the purpose of Him who works all things, to the counsel of His will. This is all about the
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Lord God, the triune God, and we're going to come to the doctrine of election. You say, well,
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I don't like that. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. But what you like to do, you don't want
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God to do? Who's your favorite football team? If you've picked a wife, if you live in the western world and not the eastern world where there's arranged marriages, did you in fact choose your wife?
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Or was it arranged? Did you choose your favorite food, your favorite football team? You're an image bearer of God, and God chooses, that's part of His sovereign character and nature, and therefore we choose.
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When you look at Scripture, God chooses Israel, not all the nations. God chooses some angels, not all angels.
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God chooses a Levitical priest, Noah the priest. He chooses Jeremiah as a prophet, not every person.
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And He chooses believers. And that is in the Scriptures, as Calvin said, with an indelible iron pen.
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So what do we make of it and how can we praise God? So let me give you the outline for today. Since I don't always use acronyms, but we're not always locked down in COVID either, so I'm going to just do it today.
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I'm going to give you an acronym that's essentially the acronym NITRO. So N -I -T -R -O, and it's easy to follow from Ephesians 1,
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Ephesians 1, verses four through six. And this is nitro, so it should stimulate your praise of who
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God is and for election. So the first letter, N, not because of anything you were or did.
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God is to be praised for His sovereign election because He chose you, N, not because of anything you were or did.
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Take a look at verse four. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
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Stop there for a second. Before the foundation of the world, before Genesis 1, before there was anything.
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Before anything, God chose you. That is amazing. And therefore, if God chooses an eternity past, there's nothing that we've done or said or anything else that contributes.
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This is unconditional. There are no conditions to this. God is freely choosing because He chooses before we're even born.
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Paul says in 2 Timothy 1, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus, listen, from all eternity.
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This is the language of Revelation 13, from the foundation of the world. Revelation 17, from the foundation of the world.
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And you say, no, no, no, Pastor. Here's what God does. He looks down the corridors of time and with foreknowledge,
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He sees what's going to happen and then He chooses people based on what they're going to do. Is that really what you think?
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Is that what you think? That God sees something good in you and He learns something, so therefore
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He chooses? Do you really think if God looked down the corridor of time, He'd see anything but death and destruction and depravity and sin and no one seeks after God?
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This has nothing to do with God looks down the corridors of time. This has to do with God chose us.
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And the word foreknowledge, unless somebody wants to say, you know what, every English word is exactly the same in the
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Greek and vice versa. Foreknowledge doesn't mean I foreknow something that will happen. Obviously, God knows that.
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The language of foreknowledge is to forelove. I forelove somebody ahead of time.
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I set my love on that. That's exactly what he's talking about in Romans chapter eight. It's a foreordination of people, not actions.
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Foreknowledge never talks about I foreknow a person's actions, but I foreknow people. Election is not based on God's foreknowledge of our faith.
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Election is based on God's sovereign will. Well, what does the text go on to say?
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The text says, not just He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, but additionally, the second letter for our outline today is
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I in spite of who you were. And this relates to the first one. First N in nitro is not because of anything you were or did.
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And number two, the second letter, I in spite of who you were.
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Notice the text. This also speaks against any kind of silly knowledge of foreknowledge or somehow we do something first and then
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God reacts. Verse four says, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
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Listen, that we should be what? Holy and blameless before Him.
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We weren't holy. We weren't blameless. He chooses for a purpose. The text does not say, since you've lived a holy life, since you've lived a blameless life,
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God chooses you. No, it's the opposite. And by the way, which one causes more praise? God, I did these things, therefore you chose me.
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Or God, I was those things, these sinful things, these awful things, and you chose me in spite of who
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I was. I've said it, I don't know, a hundred times from this pulpit. Kim and I were engaged 31 years ago,
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May 6th, 1989. We were married June 6th, 1989.
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You say, a one month engagement? Yes. Why? Well, there were several reasons.
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One was, this is true, you know what, if this young lady finds out who I really am, she'd never say yes.
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So let's get the deal done because she's a woman of her word and it's still death to us part. Can you imagine,
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God knew everything about you. He knew every sin you'd commit, that you are committing, or will commit, and he said,
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I don't care about any of that, I don't care that you're unholy and blameful, I'm going to choose you because the end purpose of my choosing is, you're going to be a holy people, a blameless people.
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God chooses in spite of, we choose because of. I played a lot of basketball in my life, and if you're going to play at the college gym, you lose one game, you never play again the rest of the night, you better win, so you better pick the four people that will keep the court.
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I choose the best. And by the way, this is why the church is such a motley crew, and why we're not many mighty, not many noble.
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Even there in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, three times God chose, God chose, God chose, because then he gets the praise.
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Paul did not say, God you look down the course of time, and you know, you saw me kill all those
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Jews, and put them in jail, and go to persecute, but you saw that little inner light in me, that little inner
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Quaker light, and I had some good, and therefore you chose me. No, that's not what Paul's saying here.
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Paul's saying, I'm unholy, I'm unrighteous, I'm blameful, and you chose me anyway, and then he says, I praise you for that.
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People say, well you know what, if you believe in this doctrine, of election, you're going to go live a crazy life, you're going to live an antinomian life, a lawless life, a life filled with all kinds of sin.
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Is that what the text says? The text says, he chose us for what? Holy living, blameless living, unto that kind of living.
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Not the opposite. We that understand the doctrine of unconditional election, would like to honor
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God with our actions of obedience, and respond to his work, by holy living.
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Not to get saved, not to stay saved, but because we are saved. Say, I still have a problem with unconditional election, could
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I help you? This will solve the problem for you. If you understand the depravity of man, that is men and women, and children, and boys and girls, it will unlock for you the key to election.
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Every person that has a hard time with election, although they see the words in the
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Bible, they will have a difficult time with election, until they say, you know what,
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I'm as bad as the Bible says I am. Even my righteous deeds are like what?
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Filthy rags. And if God were to look down the quarters of time, and to see something, he'd see nothing worth choosing.
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Romans 3, there is none righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands, there's no one who seeks after God.
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All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There's none who does good, there's not even one.
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You say, but we're not as bad as we could be. That's true, that's God's restraining grace. But we're so bad, we have no ability to believe, no ability to trust, no ability to rest.
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We are wholly depraved. That is to say, our minds have been affected by the fall, our will, our consciences, our bodies, and therefore, we need a savior.
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If we had no ability to save ourselves, we're going to need somebody to save us. That's why we need the
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Lord Jesus Christ. When you have a hard time with election, it's because you haven't, may
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I just say kindly, grasped the doctrine of total depravity, inability to do anything toward God to save yourself.
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Ephesians 4 says that unbelievers are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.
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We are slaves to sin as unbelievers. We are servants of sin. We have no peace with God.
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We walk in the vanity of our mind, the Bible says. We are so blind, we can't see the truth, and to top it all off,
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Satan is blinding us as well. And we need a savior. We don't need a cooperation.
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We don't need, as my brother used to say, you finally get to heaven. I mean, this is a good question. When you get to heaven, what will you say to the triune
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God? Will you fist bump Him if you could and say, we did it? Obviously not.
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You will say, you did it all. Jesus is to receive honor and power and glory forever and ever.
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It will be a Revelation 5 moment for you. The key to understanding the doctrine of election is, it's in the
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Bible, I have to deal with it. It's either pre -destination, my destiny is determined pre -foundation of the world, or my destiny is determined post -foundation of the world, something based on what
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I do. There's a little poem that goes this way, talking about depravity and election.
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"'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse thee had thou not chosen me."
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Not because of anything. That's praise. In spite of, that's praise. And now the third letter
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T in our NITRO acronym, truly because He loves you. Not because of anything you did.
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If you're a Christian today, it's not because of what you did. It's in spite of who you are, and it's because He loves you.
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This should motivate you for praise. What does the text say at the end of verse four? Early on it says,
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He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. And then some words that you should never forget, for anybody that says pre -destination, and election, and sovereign control is unloving.
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Friends, it's in your Bible. Look at your Bible. In love He predestined us.
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Now when I say think, I mean think. And when I say feel, I mean feel. What does that make you think of, when you read that?
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How does that make you feel? The God of the universe, dear Christian, loves you. He chose you in eternity past, because He loves.
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Never ever think, the only reason God the Father loves me, is because the Son assuaged the wrath of God at Calvary.
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That's a lie from the pit. The Father in love sends His Son, for God so loved the world.
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And the Son in love goes and does what the Father says. Love of the Father, and love for His Bride. And the
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Spirit in love, does exactly what the Father has wanted. He chose the Son. The Son died for those some.
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And the Spirit of God applies, the work of the Son, to those same Son. You say, well,
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God just, you know, here's how God chooses. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Arbitrarily choosing.
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What's the text say? In love. That's not arbitrary. When I used to play hockey, when I was young enough to play, with some of you
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BBC folks, I never did this growing up, because we were too poor to go to the hockey rink, frankly.
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And too scared to skate on the ice. We put all the hockey sticks in a big pile. If you're going to choose up teams, and then you just kind of throw them different ways, and whichever way your stick goes, you're on that team.
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Kind of this arbitrary way to choose a team. And if you live in Hawaii, or you lived there for a while, you're like, what's hockey, right?
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How do I choose in an arbitrary fashion like that? How does God choose? God chooses because He loves.
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In eternity past, He sets His love on people. That's amazing to think. You want a divine motive for salvation?
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It's not because we're good, it's because He loves. Well, if I... Now as a
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Christian, you know, if I just do enough things, God will love me. That's also a derivative problem that we have in Christianity.
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God's demonstrated His love toward us, that He demonstrates His own love toward us, that while we were yet what? Sinners. Christ died for us.
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The Father in love chooses. The Son in love dies for. And then now somehow, we've got to keep on that gerbil track and keep on that treadmill.
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If we don't do the right things, God won't love us as Christians. That's wrong. God loves
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Christians. If He loved you when you were an ungodly sinner, and an unbeliever, do you think He doesn't love you now?
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It's so crazy, but we're just like the Galatians. We start off by faith, and then we think we've got to keep up by works.
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In love, He predestined us. I will never forget when I heard the great James Montgomery Boyce, who passed away,
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I believe in 2000, at 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia. And he was teaching a bunch of Bible study fellowship people, who would then go ahead and teach some of the ladies and men at a
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Bible study fellowship. And he said, we're gonna look at the doctrine of election in our next passage. And when you're teaching this, people are gonna say all these kinds of things.
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What about this? What about that? What about that? And he said, I want you to regularly say, please look in your Bible, put your finger under the words, and then read out.
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What does your Bible say? In love, He predestined us. Yeah, but I feel this.
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In love, He predestined us. Yeah, but what about that? He chose us before the foundation of the world.
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It's right there in Holy Writ. I have a question for you. If this is to cause so much consternation in the life of a church and people, did the
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Holy Spirit make a mistake in putting unconditional election in the Bible? Here's what some churches do.
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We never talk about election from the pulpit. It might divide. We save that for like Wednesday nights.
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And I say to them, you're supposed to teach the whole counsel of God. And for Paul, Paul didn't say it divides.
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He says, it causes praise. I know sometimes when pastors...
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Do pastors ever use hyperbole and exaggerate at all? I don't think there's anything more praise producing than the doctrine of unconditional election.
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There's more, of course, than that Jesus would suffer in my place even though I should go to hell, etc. I get that.
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But for Paul, it starts right off with this doctrine. Praising God for choosing me.
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It's unbelievable. What's God's attitude to Christians? Anger? Hatred?
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I mean, what about your last week's obedience? And your last week's holiness? And you say, well, I wonder what
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God thinks of me in this last week? Well, for sin, there's discipline. But the attitude of God for His children is what?
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Do you think it starts with love? Ends with love, but He doesn't love you in the middle? And since He doesn't love you, you better earn that love by your obedience?
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Of course not. God is motivated by love. He takes pleasure in His people because His people are in the
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Son. And He takes pleasure in His Son. One of my all -time favorite verses for this doctrine, and you don't have to turn there, but I'll just read it.
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Hosea 14 .4 You ought to look at Hosea 14 .4 one day, and here's what
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Hosea 14 .4 says, God speaking, I will love them freely.
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Free choice of God to love them. The verse starts off this way, though. I will heal their apostasy.
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I will love them freely. Not because they're lovable, but because God is a
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God of love. Yes, He has other attributes. That's true. We've talked about sovereignty, and He's just, and He's righteous, and we've prayed even today,
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He's holy. But just because the world torques the view of God's love, it doesn't mean we as Christians need to run from talking about God's love.
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May it never be. There might not be a doctrine in the
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Bible so distorted today, but still, we don't want to run from it. It is an expression of God's love for us that He would choose us in eternity past.
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He would select us. He would predestine us. God loves sinners.
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One commentator wrote, My reaction to this difficult doctrine must be belief. Although I cannot decipher it,
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I can accept it. Just as I cannot comprehend, and this is funny, how a brown cow eats green grass and yields white milk, which turns into yellow butter, nevertheless,
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I enjoy its products. And while I don't know every detail when it comes to sovereignty of God, because I'm finite and sinful, and God is holy and infinite,
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I can still believe it. Not because of anything you've done, in spite of who you are, truly because He loves you, and now are, fourthly, royally as sons and daughters.
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Royally as sons and daughters. God is to be praised, dear Christian, for His sovereign election because He chose you royally as sons and daughters.
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Do you see it in verse 5? Do you see how this just preaches itself? He predestined us in love to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself.
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Children, the song, I'm a child of the King, it's true for Christians.
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Romans 8, you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out,
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Abba, Father. Now, I've met some people before who are adopted, and we have several children in this church that have been adopted, and I like the story that you probably have heard many times that, in this particular case, goes like this.
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I'm gonna tell you a story about my wife here, this writer said. Her younger brother's adopted, and like many younger brothers, he occasionally liked to tease his older sister.
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He used to say, ha ha, mom and dad had to keep you, but they chose to keep me.
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There's some truth to that, right? God chose us. He adopted us. In the old days, in the
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Bible days, sometimes even adults were adopted. We think of adopting little babies and little toddlers and infants.
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If an adult couple had no children and they wanted to pass on their inheritance, their fame and their wealth and everything else, they would adopt an adult person to pass on their wealth and all that belonged to them.
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And we now have the rights of the children of God. Let me ask you this. When you read these verses, what do you think?
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Praise or like, ah, meh. When the fullness of time came, God set forth
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His Son, born of a woman, born under law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons, and because you are sons,
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God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Here's the point for those that are here today.
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Listen. Therefore, you're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
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What's your response if you're a Christian? You're no longer a slave but a son. The answer should be,
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I can't believe it's true. This is almost too good to be true. But since it's in holy writ,
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I will take it by faith. Say, well, you know what?
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I don't think that I like this God choosing thing. Well, A, it's a fact, and B, that's not the right response.
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That's telling me you're thinking too humanly, too man -centeredly, not through Scripture enough.
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And by the way, if God chooses a million, I don't know what the number is, it's more than a million, they'll all make it. Philippians 1,
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I'm confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
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He's not going to lose an adopted son. While we might lose an adopted son, or the courts get involved or something,
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He'll never lose an adopted son. Spurgeon, it's not thy hold on Christ that saves me, it's
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Christ. It's not thy joy in Christ that saves me, it's Christ. It is not even thy faith, though that be the instrument, it is
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Christ's blood and merit. And it was determined that He would give you that in eternity past.
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And then lastly, O, nitro, not because of anything you were or did, that's why God chose you, in spite of who you were, truly because He loves you, royally
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His sons, and O, the letter O, number 5, only due to His grace. Only due to His grace.
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Why are you going to be in heaven, dear Christian? By grace. If you're not a Christian, how could you get to heaven?
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By grace. We just read in Ephesians chapter 2, did we not? Take a look at verse 5 and 6.
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And tell me if this is not grace. According to the kind intention, that's
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His sovereign pleasure, of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which
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He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Everything about this is,
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God is to be praised because He chose, and in this particular case, because of His grace.
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Election isn't necessarily by rational thinking, it's by revelation. Use your rational mind, but submit to revelation, and don't place yourself above God, but under the
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Scriptures, to the praise of the glory of His grace. I ask you again, dear congregation, and those watching, when's the last time you said,
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I can't believe I've been chosen. I can't believe that God loves me. He's graced me.
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I didn't deserve any of it, but this is just the kind of God, God is. You watch how He deals with Israel, you watch how
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He deals with Moses, you watch how He deals with these people, and you think, and He's dealt with me, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
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This is the response. I hear about something in God's Word, there has to be a response. The response is,
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I don't believe it. The response is, I could care less. Or the response is, that's true, and I will praise God for it.
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You say, well, I'm not really the praising type, and my arms don't go up, and I don't do this or that, and I'm kind of a
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German Stoic on the outside. I don't care what you do on the outside, because you can do all this as you want, and still not have it on the inside.
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But if you have it on the inside, that's what I'm concerned about. Grace. It's like when it was said of Mary, Hail favored one, graced one, the
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Lord is with you. I know you have some questions, so let's ask a few questions and answer them in the remaining time that we have.
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I have all day, by the way, but I'm not going to do it.
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Just a few questions, because this doctrine makes you ask questions, so I'll anticipate your questions.
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Does this make God unfair? Question one. Does sovereign election and predestination make
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God unfair? It's interesting. Remember Jesus in Matthew 20 said this,
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Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? The answer is
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He can do whatever He wants. Or is your eye envious, Jesus said, because I'm generous?
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God does whatever He wants, but on our side, what do we all deserve? We all deserve hell.
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If you want fair, here's fair for you, the wage of sin is what? Death.
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Death. That's fair because everybody gets what they earned. And for then God to come along and say, but I choose,
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I don't have to choose any, I could choose all, but since I'm a sovereign God, a choosing God, and I have my own plans,
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I choose some. What's wrong with that? Nobody gets injustice. Either Jesus pays for the just punishment of our sins, or people pay for them in hell forever.
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Everybody deserves hell. The sinner has no right. If you're an unbeliever, you have no claim on God saying, you owe me this.
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God does whatever He pleases, always as He pleases, and you cannot judge what God does. Saved by grace through faith.
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It's not a question of fair, it's a question of grace. Question two, I know you might be asking, doesn't this hurt evangelism?
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If God's going to choose people in eternity past, the Son died for them, the Spirit of God caused them to be born again, and seals them by the power of the risen
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Savior, who needs to evangelize? Because all the elect will make it. Well, at least you understand how sovereign
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God is when you ask that question, so I commend you. But this doctrine essentially unfolds like this,
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God is sovereign, we believe that in the scripture, and God tells us to go preach the gospel, does
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He not? Because God has both ends and means, the ends are certain people get saved, and the means are the preaching the gospel.
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You say, well, why do I pray if God's going to do whatever He wants? That's a good question. Answer, because try not to pray, that's a good one, but more importantly, the
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Bible says to pray. Yeah, yeah, but God's sovereign, why should I pray? The Bible says pray, because God uses means, secondary means, and He will save, through the preaching of the gospel.
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Every person who comes to faith, comes to faith through the
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Romans 10, preaching the gospel, faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. This is an incentive, when
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I've been going door to door, and other times that I've had to go evangelize at seminary, if it wasn't for doctrine of election, there'd be no hope.
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What, I'm going to talk somebody into it? I think I've told you this story many times, two houses in particular, that same day in Sunland, California, outside of Grace Church, we go out evangelizing, and you know, you kind of first knock on the door a little bit, oh, nobody's home, and then you quickly leave, right?
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And so then you just have to try to be bold, and your butterflies are just killing you on your stomach, and you knock on the door, and step back a little bit, and somebody comes to the door, hi, we're with Grace Church, and we want to tell you about who
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Jesus is, and invite you to a concert to sing His praises, and all that. There's a one grandmother opened the door, she looked like the kind of grandmother that would invite me in for sugar cookies, and she slams the door on my face,
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I'm a Catholic, she said. I'm like, oh, great, that's my first one, I'm not doing any more evangelism.
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And then the second one was this big guy, looked like he was a guitarist for ZZ Top, his beard's way down here, and I'm like, this guy's going to kill me,
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I'm so dead. I knock on the door, he comes up, I tell him the same thing, hi,
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I'm with Grace Church, we're here to talk about Jesus. He's like, you want to come in for a beer? That was his response.
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Neither of those people, a self -righteous grandma, or an unrighteous ZZ Top guitarist,
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I'm not making any comments about the state of those guitarists, they could be saved, I have no idea. But they both need to have the divine work of God from election to redemption to sealing.
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There's no hope without election. Everyone would say no, no, no, no, no. That's why
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Acts 18, when you go home today, read Acts 18. Paul said, you know what? God, you've got many people in this city.
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What was he meaning by Acts 18? There's a lot of elect people here who aren't believing yet, I better go preach the gospel to them.
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It's the only hope for evangelism, is election. The hope isn't in you, is it not? No, of course not.
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It's not a hindrance to evangelism, it's an incentive. Jesus said in John 6,
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No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the
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Father. Do you hear that? Pink said, those who misrepresent the doctrine of election do it this way.
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Here I am, sitting down at my table with my dinner and my family, it's a cold night, there's some people out on the street, hungry, starving, tramps and children, and they come and knock on my door and say, we're so hungry, sir, we're so hungry, we're starving, give us something to eat.
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Give you something to eat? No, you do not belong here. Get off with you! Now people say that is what election means.
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That God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners, conscious of their own deep need, come to the
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Lord and say, have mercy on us. No, no, you're not my elect. Pink.
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Now my friends, that is not the teaching of this book, the Bible, nor anything like it. That's absolutely false representation of God's truth.
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Here's the truth. God has spread the feast, but the fact is nobody's hungry. No one wants to come and everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast.
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And when some are bidden to come, they say, we do not want to, we're not ready yet. Now God knew that from the very beginning, this would happen.
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And that's why we go then preach the gospel. God saves through election, redemption and sealing.
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Well, are there any other questions? Well, what about faith? Don't people need to believe? Answer? What would you say?
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Of course, that's the response. Faith isn't the cause. Think about it. What caused you to be saved?
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Your faith? Did faith die on Calvary? Did faith live a perfect life? Did faith heal a leper?
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Did faith walk on water? Did faith rise from the dead? Is faith coming back? Faith isn't the cause of anything.
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It's the instrument, the non -meritorious instrument, the instrument that receives and rests. It doesn't give anything.
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It receives. That's why a little bit of faith in the right Savior is enough. It's not how strong is your faith.
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It's who the Savior is. If you say, well, what about election? What does that do with faith?
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It encourages faith. Faith is the right response to a God that saves by election, redemption and sealing.
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Number four, what's the response? And I wouldn't even put this in a nice way. I'll just be blunt about it.
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Yeah, but what does that do to my pride? What does that do to my pride? We all struggle with pride.
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I know. I do. The doctrine of unconditional election pulverizes it.
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That's the answer. It decimates it. Michael Horton said, when we give in to election, we finally give up on ourselves in the matter of salvation.
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If you're not going to save me, God, nobody can. Even the old days,
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D. James Kennedy said, the reason people today are opposed to it is because they will have God be anything but God.
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He can be a cosmic psychiatrist, a helpful shepherd, a leader, a teacher, anything at all, but not
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God. For the very simple reason, they want to be God themselves. Question five, how can
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I know if I'm elect? Answer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.
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You don't know ahead of time until you believe. And after you believe, you read scripture and say, I see now God working.
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I see God working in my life and I see God working in eternity. I talk to people all the time.
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I don't know if I'm elect or not. I don't know if I'm elect or not. And I say, the feast is spread and the Spirit of God uses preaching from a frail man like me to say, believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Forget looking at election. Trust in the
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Lord Jesus. That's the issue. And then lastly, turn your
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Bibles to Romans 9. I'll just make it very quick. What about election for the kind of the final nail into election that should help us when it comes to the sovereign hand of God?
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What's a good way I could help my friend? Here's the question. What's a good way I could help myself or help my friend understand election?
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And the answer is Romans chapter 9. There are some people that will not read Romans 9.
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There are some people I've heard that even have torn Romans 9 out of their Bible, but there it is.
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Besides Ephesians 1, how can I be helped when it comes to a sovereign God who chooses? Answer, Romans 9.
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Look at verse 7 of Romans 9. It's our last question by the way. 9 .7,
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look at the choosing of God one over the other. Neither are they all children because they're Abraham's descendants, but through Isaac, not
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Ishmael, your descendants will be named. Well, go down to verse 13. Jacob is chosen and not
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Esau. Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
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Now Paul anticipates people who have questions. Verse 14. What shall we say then?
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Romans 9 .14. I know what they're going to say. God's unjust. He didn't choose everybody. What should we say then?
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Well, let's not say this for certain. Let's not say there's injustice with God.
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There is no injustice with God. Is there? May it never be. He's anticipating that objection.
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And by the way, if you think God is choosing people down the corridors of time based on what they will do or say or believe, there's no objection ever.
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There would never be this objection for that kind of choosing. Only this kind of choosing has that kind of objection.
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Verse 15. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.
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I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Mark this, dear congregation. Verse 16.
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So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs.
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Not his own will. Not his own effort. But it depends on God who has mercy.
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That's the issue. Verse 19. What do I do with this difficult doctrine?
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I'll tell you what not to do. Will you say to me then, why does he still find fault?
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Who resists his will? I'm going to talk back to God. I don't like this God. I don't like you God. Verse 20.
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On the contrary, who are you, oh man? And you could read it this way.
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Who are you, you little pipsqueak of a man who answers back to God? Don't talk that way.
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The thing molded us will not say to the molder God, why did you make me like this?
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Will it? Verse 21. You want to know the sovereignty of God and how he has rights over his universe and who goes to his heaven?
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Or does not, verse 21, the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use,
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China, to eat on, believers, and another for common use, privy pots, other things.
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Does not God have absolute rights over everyone? Answer, yes. I can look at the few people here and you on the camera.
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Does God have full rights over you? Is God sovereign over you and everything you say and do?
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Yes, the answer is yes. And then
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Paul, just like he does in Ephesians, ends at the end of Romans 11.
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You can either turn there or I'll finish here. Here is certainly spiritual nitroglycerin that's handled properly and well at the end of Romans 1 -11 before Paul gets into the very practical section in 12 and following.
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Here's how Paul responds in verses 33 -36. And this is my conclusion.
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And it is not, how could you God? I don't believe in you. That's not fair. That's unjust. This is inappropriate.
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Who do you think you are? I'll tell you what you can do. No other gods are like this. Here's how
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Paul responds, just like he did in Ephesians 1 with praise. And when you think of sovereignty of God, this is how you should respond.
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Oh, the depths and the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
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His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord?
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Or who has been His counselor? Who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him, where are we in that?
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Nowhere. And through Him, we are nowhere. And to Him are all things.
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Where are we in that? Only recipients. Only the objects of His love. To Him be the glory forever.
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Amen. The right response to unconditional election and the sovereignty of God is praise.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this great truth, humbling as it might be, but praiseworthy, praise -stimulating it is.
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I thank you for that. I pray for the people that are in this room, sound people and video people,
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I pray that you'd bless them and even over the technology. It's not a real corporate worship service, but it is the real
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Word of God that changes people. And so bring us back next week together as a body, Lord. Please, in Jesus' name, amen.