God's Sovereignty (Part 2)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

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

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

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

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And we're going to see in Romans chapter 9, the mind is so smart, the mind is so insightful.

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The human mind, although tainted by the fall and sinful, still will do everything it can to wiggle out of this universe because in this universe of Romans 9,

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

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

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

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

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God is sovereign, and since he is, is he unrighteous? Question one, since God is sovereign over everything, since he is king, sovereign, almighty, rules, reigns, predestines, ordains, foreordains, determines, decrees, maybe he's unjust.

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And so Paul answers that question. Is God unjust? Well, if salvation was just determined by you come up with your faith and God looks down at the quarters of time and sees your faith, then the question would never pop up because Paul would just go, well,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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It just kind of gives me an acid. I mean, it doesn't give me acid. It gives me acid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Now, you tell me the truth. Look at verse 13, as it is written,

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Scripture clearly says it, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. In the context of Romans 9, right out of Romans 8, salvation.

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You say, well, you know, that's nations. Well, number one, there are personal pronouns that are singular in this passage.

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Number two, if they were nations, P .S., nations are full of thousands upon thousands of people.

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And so that doesn't get you out of your problem because nations are full of individual people. I mean, it's just shocking for me to say, especially in light of our culture that says, you know,

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God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Esau I hated. Esau I hated.

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And people go, well, that just means to love less. It doesn't mean just to love less. But even if it did, your problem still exists.

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

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

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

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

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Heel biter. No, it was not heel biter. Heel snatcher. He probably would, he probably did bite his heel too.

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We just don't see that. He didn't have ultrasound at the time. The mercy that God gives

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

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

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

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

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And faith is a gift of God. Whose definition of justice? Ours? The moral majority?

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

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

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Paul says in Ephesians, I mean, excuse me, in Romans chapter 9 verse 13, it is what? Written.

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

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

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

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God show mercy to everyone? The answer is, he could.

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But if you say, he ought to show mercy, he must show mercy, it is necessary. He has an obligation.

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And friends, you haven't considered A, scripture, or B, the fall. If God's choice was based on foreseen actions, our faith,

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Paul would never say there's no injustice with God. Because we would all say, God looked down the course of time, he saw, he chose, just.

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Paul just pushes the idea. Thomas Arnold said the distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this.

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That in these other religions, men are found seeking after God. While Christianity is

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God seeking after men. Question two.

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God is sovereignly gracious, so we say, is he unrighteous? No. We ask a second question, how could anybody be held accountable then?

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Question two. God's sovereign, since he's sovereign, how can your unsaved loved ones be accountable?

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

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

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

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Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? I said these were

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

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Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? If God gives grace to anybody he wants, if he hardens anybody he wants, how can they be responsible?

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You can see just the ingenuity of the sinful heart trying to figure this out, putting

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

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

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They can't both be true. Something's wrong. But they can both be true. They are both true.

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And the questioner says, how can we resist his will? How can we be opposed to a sovereign God who creates with the word?

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Who's going to resist his will? Nobody. God could give mercy to everybody, couldn't he?

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And then now, here comes the questions. I jumped ahead of myself. 9 .20. God has the questions now, and God has given you a mind to think biblically.

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So think biblically. But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Grace is deserved. And you'll never sing amazing grace unless you say to yourself, it was amazing that Christ should die in my place, on my behalf, in my stead for my sin.

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And I should have been like the person who died, and I was given eternal life. I should have been

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Judas times 500, and now I have eternal life. And God, you were not obligated morally to do it, you didn't have to choose me, you didn't have to pick me, but you did.

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Does a thing molded say to the thing who molds it, you owe me an answer. More questions here from God, verse 21, so we could walk circumspectly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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We're going to get into 1 Corinthians next week, so let's keep going. Question three, since God is sovereign, what are the implications?

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

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

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

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

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Creature, creator, infinite, finite, holy, sinful.

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And when God creates, he controls. He answers to no one, he reports to no one, he's free from all external compulsion.

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Isaiah 40 says, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or been his counselor? Who has taught him? With whom took he counsel and who instructed him?

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Taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge. We know the answer is, no one.

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If you've got a loved one, let me repeat it again, or if you've got a trial coming up in the future, this is the biggest trial.

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

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

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

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

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That's why your response should be, son of David, have what? Have enough sense, son of David, to see my good life, to see my virtues, to see that I'm trying.

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I try to read my Bible. I try to walk the aisle. I try to say things that are good. I try to be a good person. I try to live right.

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I try to have more good works than bad works. Son of David, see that and respond based on what

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I deserve. Give me what's fair to me. Doesn't that sound funny?

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That's exactly what they say. But how about the God here, who is called in 1

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

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

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

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

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Your hope is asking the great God of the universe, who specializes in saving his people, to save them out of his grace and his mercy and compassion.

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

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

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God and the gospel, that the God of Romans 9, the God of the Bible, is a great enough

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Question four. Since God's sovereign, then why pray at all? God is sovereign, why pray?

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

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

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

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God's sovereign, why pray? Answer? Because He told us to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Would you save my daughter? Would you sovereignly grant? I know it's thy will be done.

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I know if it's Lord willing, but you love to save. And you saved a person like me.

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You've got enough power to save a person like him. And you use means and the means, I pray, God, it's save my son.

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Question five, if God is sovereign, why evangelize? If God is sovereign, why evangelize?

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Answer. See the answer to number four. Number six, it's the same thing.

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Faith comes by hearing. And if God has an elect one, and they're not saved, and he brings the gospel to them like we learned about today with the

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Ethiopian eunuch, you preach the gospel, and through the preaching of the gospel, faith comes by hearing.

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That's Romans 10. Question number six, lastly.

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Since God is sovereign over everything, including salvation, ask yourself this question.

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Why don't I trust in this God more? If every single event in the universe and every atom is ordained and controlled by God, including evil, including the evil of Joseph's brothers, where God knows that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

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

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God says, I have ordained that sin, and I will make something great come out of it. If God loves me enough to have his son die for me, why don't

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I trust him with my tomorrow? Pink said, without a doubt, the world is in crisis.

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

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But God is not alarmed. He is never taken by surprise. It is no unexpected emergency, which now confronts him, for he is the one who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

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The world might be panic -stricken, but my word to you, Pink says, is fear not.

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Jerry Bridges said, confidence in sovereignty of God is all that affects us. Confidence in the sovereignty of God, in everything that affects us, is crucial to our trusting him.

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

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

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

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

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

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Moses needed it, and we need it too. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org, or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.