WWUTT 173 Predestined for Hell? (Part 1)

This week we've been looking at Romans 9, studying verse by verse to help us understand this controversial chapter.

Today we're going to hear from someone who views Romans 9 in a different way and how we should critique this common opinion when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments email

WhenWeUnderstandTheText at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .utt

.com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Page Patterson once said that whatever your views are regarding the subject of God's sovereignty,

I pray you'll join me in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Amen.

When it comes to talking about God's sovereignty or predestination or who the elect are,

I do not believe that these subjects are cause for division. Many brothers of mine and even members of my own congregation do not share the same views that I have regarding these subjects.

I don't often invest so many words in talking about God's sovereign election, except where it comes up in the text.

Since Romans 9 is where we are in our study of Romans, it is the topic of discussion this week.

I hold the view that before the foundation of the world, God is predestined who will be saved and who will be the objects of His wrath.

I see that Romans 9 clearly teaches this. In verses 22 and 23, what if God, desiring to show

His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which

He has prepared beforehand for glory? Today, what I would like to do is present the viewpoint of someone who does not view

Romans 9 the way that I do. What do the arguments sound like from the opposing position?

And the sermon that I have chosen to share is from Dr. Adrian Rogers, entitled, Predestined for Hell?

No. I believe this sermon best encapsulates how a person who does not accept the doctrine of predestination exegetes

Romans 9. Dr. Adrian Rogers passed away a little over 10 years ago. He was the president of the

Southern Baptist Convention beginning in 1979 and served three terms if memory serves me correctly.

Rogers was a staunch advocate of biblical inerrancy. Under his presidency, all liberal and moderate seminary professors in the

SBC were removed from their positions if they could not sign a statement on biblical inerrancy.

Rogers also chaired the committee that refashioned the Baptist Faith and Message, a statement of beliefs that my church clings to, and it has now become the

Baptist Faith and Message 2000. While Dr. Rogers did many great things for the Southern Baptist Church, he was aggressively opposed to Calvinism.

Though he spoke passionately on sin and God's judgment of sin, he hated the doctrine of total depravity.

I believe that Rogers' influence is still felt in the SBC today. He is one of the reasons for the soundness in our seminaries, but unfortunately he is also one of the reasons there is such a disparity between those who ascribe to Calvinism and its doctrines and those who do not.

Rogers' statements regarding predestination were quite frankly divisive and you are going to recognize that in the message that you are going to hear.

I will be playing this message in full in two parts, split between today and tomorrow.

This has not been edited for content. I will be breaking in periodically to explain why

Rogers is incorrect, but I will also express my agreement with him as well.

I consider Adrian Rogers a brother in Christ with whom I will share in glory.

Presenting his exposition of Romans 9, here is Dr. Adrian Rogers. Would you take your

Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 9 and when you found

Romans chapter 9 would you look up here. Let me ask you a very serious and a very somber question.

Has God created, has God predestined, has

God ordained that some people are born to go to hell?

That there is nothing they can do about it? It is all settled.

They are a pawn on the chessboard of faith.

Is that what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not. The title of our message today is predestined for hell?

Predestined for hell? Answer, no exclamation point.

You are not predestined to hell. Rogers is using some loaded language here and it is the way that he is wording things that causes division among brothers over this issue.

Pawn on a chessboard of faith. See that is what he thinks of the view of the doctrine of predestination that I hold.

That I think of people as pawns. I rejoice in Christ Jesus my Lord that he saves me.

See Psalms 71 1 -6 and I pray that everyone I preach to would be saved.

See 1 Timothy 2 1 -4. Everyone that I share the gospel with whether it is from the pulpit or just walking up to a person on the street.

I have done street evangelism. I pray that their hearts would be broken and by the will of God they would know

Christ Jesus as Lord because of his love and mercy. Because of him who wills it to be done.

The Bible tells us not to quarrel about words which does no good but only ruins the hearers.

That is 2 Timothy 2 14. So while Rogers is going to say things like no exclamation point and put a divisive emphasis on some of his language,

I am not going to respond that same way. At least I hope not. I hope I can keep myself in check. I want to be as even about this as possible but still emphatic, still passionate about the word of God with a desire to proclaim his glory.

And I think Adrian Rogers wanted to do that too. I think he was a faithful and passionate man of God who wanted to see people get saved.

From what I know of him, I believe him to have been faithful to his ministry and I have personally encountered people who call themselves

Christians today because of the teaching of Adrian Rogers. But on this particular subject, he was wrong.

And I wish to respectfully disagree with the way that he exegetes Romans 9. You will find that there are places where Rogers and I are in agreement but we will be in mostly disagreement.

Does God will to save some and destroy others? Yes, he does.

Does God desire that the whole world hear his gospel and come to repentance? Yes, he does.

And these two ideas do not contradict one another nor do they perpetuate a belief in a schizophrenic

God. There is what God wills to have happen and then there is what God will do.

God uses even evil and the destruction of the wicked for his sovereign plan.

The betrayal of Judas in Luke 22 3, Herod's contempt for Jesus in Luke 23 11, the

Jews shouting crucify him, crucify him in Luke 23 21, Pilate handing over Jesus to death in Luke 23 24 and the

Roman soldiers mocking Christ in Luke 23 26. These things were all prophesied.

These evil acts God foreordained so that we might be delivered from evil.

The two things do not contradict. Luke displays an understanding of this sovereign will where as he would write later in Acts 2 23, this

Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

And in Acts 4 27 and 28, truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Did Judas, Herod, Pilate and all the people of Israel and Rome, could they have rejected God's will and done the opposite of what

God had predestined for ordained and even spoken about through his prophets in the Old Testament? They could not.

It was predetermined by God yet. They are held accountable for their actions and yet no one can find fault with God.

That is what we're going to understand and look at further as we continue. Let's read here in Romans chapter 9, the first three verses.

I say the truth in Christ. I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

May I say this, friend, that ours is the greatest mission on the face of this earth.

That is the salvation of lost souls. Our message is the greatest message.

That is the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And our master is the greatest master.

That is Jesus Christ himself. The church that's not interested in evangelism and soul winning is not worthy of the ground that it occupies.

We are to evangelize or we will fossilize. Our mandate is to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature.

The Bible says of that early church in those days the number of the disciples was multiplied.

In many churches it doesn't even make good addition. We do so little with so much.

They did so much with so little. They didn't have any colleges. They didn't have any seminaries.

They didn't have any radio and television stations. They had no printing presses. They had no finances.

They had no prestige. They went out to tell the message of a Galilean peasant, a carpenter's son who was crucified.

And they went out against the imperial might of Rome. They went out against the intellectual sophistry of Greece.

They went out against the stiff -necked bigotry of the Jewish religion. And it was said of them that they turned that world upside down.

Really what a great way he put that. They did so much with so little and we do so little with so much.

That should be convicting. That we should desire to do all that we can to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ without prejudice or bigotry because Christ has commanded us to.

Matthew 28, 19 -20 reads, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age. Now one of the leaders of that crew was a little

Jew named Paul. And what you have here in the scripture that I just read to you is the heartbeat of a soul winner.

The heartbeat of a man who is interested in evangelism and getting souls saved. And I want you to notice the concern that he had.

Look if you will in verse 1 of this chapter. He says, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the

Holy Ghost. The apostle Paul had a sincere concern for souls.

He said, I'm telling you the truth. I'm not telling a lie. If I would ask, lift up your hands, how many of you have a concern for souls?

Almost every one of you would lift up your hand. But you would have a twinge of conscience because your conscience would not bear you witness.

He had a sincere concern for souls. And look if you will, he had a steadfast concern for souls.

Verse 2, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

The apostle Paul didn't blow hot and then blow cold. He wasn't up and down. He didn't get under conviction when the preacher preached about it and then forgot about it when he got home and turned on the television.

He had a steadfast concern for souls and he had a sacrificial concern for souls.

Look if you will in verse 3. For I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ, my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

If I understand plain English, what the apostle Paul was saying is this. I would be willing to die and go to hell if my

Jewish brothers and sisters could get saved. That's sacrifice. Now I don't believe

I could say that. I don't believe I've come to that place. But I believe that Paul was so full of Jesus that that's what

Paul said. Paul said I'd be willing to take their hell if they could take my heaven. That's exactly what

Jesus did on the cross. Jesus had a sacrificial concern for souls and Paul is so full of Jesus that he is concerned about lost souls.

All of that is right on point. And again, I reiterate that we must have that same passion to reach the loss for Christ.

All people, a sacrificial concern for lost souls. If we are filled with Christ, we should desire for all men to be saved.

But notice as we tighten the focus, he's talking about his brethren, his kinsmen, according to the flesh.

He's talking about the Jewish nation because the Jews, when they heard about God saving the

Gentiles, they were saying, well, what happened? What happened to all the promises to the Jews? We're the chosen people.

Has God forgotten us or has God failed to keep his word and his covenant?

And Paul is going to address that. But when Paul addresses this message to the Jew, he has a great message to those of us who are

Gentiles and to the church of the living God. Because in this, we learn something of the character and the nature of God.

All true theology has to learn something. It has to know something about the nature of God.

So that's what we're going to learn today as we look in this passage of Scripture. Three things about God. And when you learn those three things about God, your theology will come into a focus.

Number one, you need to recognize that God is the

God of sovereign choices. Now, write that down. Sovereign choices.

Beginning, now, look, if you will, in verses three through five. He says, for I could wish that myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are

Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom, as concerning the flesh,

Christ came, who is overall God -blessed forever. Now, what Paul is just simply saying is that the

Jews are the chosen people. God chose the Jews. Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, it is absolutely true.

There is a special people chosen and blessed of almighty

God. They were chosen for purpose and they were given privilege. And I want you to see the nine special privileges that they had.

OK, before we get to these nine special privileges, God chose Israel because it was through Israel that the

Messiah would come. Jesus Christ is the promise. Jesus fulfilled all that Israel could not do.

Just as the Israelites were called out of Egypt, so Jesus was called out of Egypt. That's Matthew 2, 15. Just as the

Israelites passed through the Jordan River, so did Jesus, Matthew 3, 16. Just as the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years,

Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days, Matthew 4, 1 through 2. But when Israel was tempted, they sinned and fell away from God.

When Christ was tempted, he remained faithful and perfect. Jesus fulfilled all that Israel could not.

He became the faithful witness when Israel was not. He's described in Revelation 1, 5 as the faithful witness.

Now all who are in Christ are Israel. Branches have been cut off.

Other branches have been grafted in, which is an illustration that Paul uses in Romans 11. Israel is still

God's chosen people because we Christians are Israel.

God has no plan to redeem any particular race or ethnicity on planet

Earth. You will find that nowhere in the Bible. Our only redemption is in Jesus Christ, our

Lord. We are no longer marked by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God, Philippians 3, 3. Now that point deserves a sermon in and of itself.

But for the sake of time, that's as far as I'm going to go. Paul has been unfolding this theology all throughout

Romans, not just in Romans 9. It was stated at the start of chapter 3 that no one gets special privilege.

Everyone, Jews and Gentiles, we all stand condemned before God and are delivered into righteousness only through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Now here's Roger's nine special privileges. Number one, he calls them

Israelites. That's a name of honor. Israel means prince.

And then it says they have the adoption. That is God said of this nation, God spoke of Israel as a son.

And then it says they had the glory. That's speaking of the Shekinah glory of God that led them out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan and the

Shekinah glory that dwelt in the tabernacle and in the temple. Then they had the covenants.

That is the special agreements that God made with Abraham and God made with Isaac and God made with David.

God has made solemn promises to the Jews. And then they were given the law.

That's the Old Testament law that is still today the standard for all good jurisprudence and the foundation of all true law.

And then they were given the service. That is the service of God, the Levitical rituals and all of this that pointed toward the

Lord Jesus Christ. And they were given the promises. God made great and wonderful promises to the

Jews. And then last of all, as he saves the best for last, they were given the

Messiah of whom Christ came, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But as Paul said earlier in Romans 2, 28 through 29, for no one is a

Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a

Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God. What Paul was basically saying was this.

If you have the spirit of God in you, you're a Jew. You are the chosen people of God.

He's laid that out previously in Paul's letter to the Romans. He expounds on the theology more in Romans 9, 10 and 11.

Rogers is confused in assuming that the chosen people of God are an ethnic group of people rather than a spiritual group of people.

I want to tell you, the Jews are God's chosen people. If you want to know what God is doing in the world today, just put your eyes on Israel.

The Jew is God's yardstick, God's blueprint, God's program, God's prophecy of what he is doing in the world now.

Now, they are the ones that gave us the Messiah. I was talking to some Jewish rabbis and they said, we don't believe that you ought to be trying to win

Jews to Jesus Christ. And I said, now wait a minute. I said, my savior has commanded me to witness.

Are you telling me I can't practice my religion? If so, that's religious persecution. And I said, by the way,

I'm not trying to proselytize you. The Jews proselytize me. I worship a Jewish Messiah.

He is the one that came into the world. He is the Messiah, Israel's Messiah that I love and worship.

So God chose the Jews. Here's one of the dangerous things about this theology that Rogers is sharing.

Whether or not he meant to say it this way, he just said that he is not trying to convert

Jews. He should be trying to convert Jews to Christianity because an Orthodox Jew, a

Jewish rabbi, does not know Christ as the son of God. So Rogers' incorrect theology would lead a person to withhold telling a

Jew to repent and follow Christ. I have met people with similar theological views who do not think

Jews need to be witnessed to with the gospel. The ethnic nation of Israel is not some kind of yardstick for what

God is doing in the world. They do not recognize that Jesus Christ is the son of God. God's favor is not upon them.

Jesus said in Matthew 8, 11 through 12, I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this is what has

Paul so vexed at the start of Romans 9. For the sake of his fellow ethnic

Jews who were the first to receive the oracles of God, he would go to hell for them if it meant their salvation.

And so we should desire the salvation of the Jews. The orthodox Jew does not know

Christ and does not know salvation. Now let's continue to read here and we're talking about God's sovereign choices.

Notice how God chose the Jew, beginning now in verse 7, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children.

But in Isaac, thy seed shall be called. Now notice something here, Rogers skipped

Romans 9, 6, the verse he skipped says, but it is not as though the word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

Why did he skip that? Why did he go from verse 5 to verse 7? I don't want to presume that he meant to be intentionally deceiving, but it's really odd that he omitted the verse that says not all who are called

Israel are ethnically descended from Israel. Might it be because he knows how difficult it would be to explain his theological position about who

Israel is in light of that verse? Now what he's saying is that not all the children of Abraham were chosen because Abraham had

Ishmael and he had Isaac. What he's saying is that God sovereignly chose

Isaac. God did not choose Ishmael and then go on.

God did not choose all the sons of Isaac. But Isaac had two sons,

Jacob and Esau, and God chose Jacob. He is really stammering here.

And I try not to question a person's intentions by their stammering because I stammer sometimes just trying to find my words or get back on track.

But this is Dr. Adrian Rogers. He knew his stuff. He was a seasoned preacher.

He was smooth all the way up to this point, and he'll smooth out again. But right here, he's really fighting to try and explain something, having skipped a key verse.

Now, bear with me. I'm going to play bad cop here for a second, but I think he deliberately skipped verse 6 and he knows he did it.

He's timid about getting caught, and now he's stammering through verses 7 through 9. There's my psychoanalysis for today.

Perhaps I'm being too critical. If I were talking with Rogers, though, if this were he and I right here having a conversation,

I would certainly question him for why he skipped verse 6, especially given the version of Israel that he was presenting.

On that question, I'm not overstepping my bounds. Let's move on to Romans 9, 10 through 13.

Look, if you will, as we continue to read in this passage of Scripture, we're looking in verses 10 through 13, and not only this, but when

Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but him that calleth.

It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved,

Esau have I hated. So God didn't choose all of the sons of Abraham. He chose one son,

Isaac. God didn't choose all the sons of Isaac. He chose one son. That was

Jacob. Now, let's just pause right here because some people are going to get blown out of the water right here when

God says before these children were born, having done neither good nor evil, God chose one of them, and God says,

Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Now, somebody says, now wait a minute, pastor.

You're telling me when these little babies, before they were born, God said, I love this one and I hate that one?

And that God chose one to go to heaven and one to go to hell? No, that isn't what it says.

Now listen very carefully and pay attention. What we're talking about here is national and not personal.

God, when he's talking about Jacob and Esau, God is not talking about one boy or another boy.

God is talking about two whole nations. Put this in the margin of your Bible, Genesis chapter 25 and verse 23.

And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.

And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.

That is, those descendants of Esau are going to be one nation that will serve another nation, the descendants of Jacob, which is the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Now, he's not talking about just two little babies. God here is talking not personal but national.

And God here is not talking about salvation. God is talking about service.

Look if you will in verse 12. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. It doesn't say anything about saved or lost.

One going to heaven and one going to hell. It is national, not personal.

It is service, not salvation. He's already misinterpreted who is

Israel and who is not. So it follows that the rest of his theology on Romans 9 is going to be a little shaky.

His argument here is that God choosing one over the other is national and not personal.

But here's the problem. If God were to choose one nation over another nation, doesn't that affect every individual person in that nation?

If God chose the United States over Canada, doesn't that have very specific ramifications for every individual person in Canada?

If God chose Mexico over the United States, doesn't that affect every individual person in the

U .S.? The point I'm simply making is this. Even if I conceded to Roger's argument that Jacob I loved but Esau I hated is national and not personal, that still would not argue away the effect

God's choosing has on every individual person. God does not save nations for being that nation.

He doesn't save the United States or condemn the United States for being the United States. He will bless a people because the hearts of its individual persons are worshipful toward God or he will abandon a people and remove his presence from them because the hearts of its individual persons are far from God.

Joshua 11 20 says this, For it was the Lord's doing to harden the hearts of the

Canaanites that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the

Lord commanded Moses. Did God harden a nation? No, he hardened the hearts of individuals in that nation so that he could show his love and affection on his on his people.

Israel made up of individuals themselves who feared God. God does not choose one and disregard another, whether we're talking about nations or individual people.

As C .S. Lewis wrote about in his book, A Grief Observed, and I'm not going to say this quite like Lewis does, but God would not allow one set of events to happen to one person and disregard a completely separate set of events that happens to another person.

God doesn't just work in the macro. He also works in the micro. He works in the little, tiny details, far more intimate than we can dare to summarize with the word personal in the what's and the where's and the why's and the how's that we don't even ask because we think of them as so minutely insignificant.

God is working his will to his glory in each person and in each grouping of persons.

I remember Spurgeon saying that every dust moat floating in the air does not move an atom to the left or to the right, except by God's ordination.

Matthew 10, 29 through 31. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not. Therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. God knows and has fashioned even the littlest, tiniest details, even your

DNA, the importance of which we only discovered in 1943. God cared about the microscopic details of you since before the foundation of the world, according to Ephesians 1, 4, and according to Psalm 139, 16, every single one of your days was written before one of them came to be.

Are we actually going to say that our choices were not considered on those pages that God wrote of us before the foundation of the world?

Well, you say, but what about that where it says that he hates one and loves the other? Well, I want you to pay attention to that also.

Look in verse 13, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Now folks, the way we use the word hate today is completely different from the way they use the word hate in Bible times.

What he is saying is I have preferred one, not that I abhor the other.

Now listen very carefully. I want to give you a scripture. I want you to jot it down in Luke chapter 14, and Jesus is talking about our being disciples of himself, and he says this, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple.

Now, come up close. I want to ask you a question. Do you think that Jesus is teaching us to despise our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters?

Do you think that Jesus is telling us to despise our little children in order to be his disciples?

No, listen. I love Joyce more than I could ever love

Joyce because I love Jesus. I mean, I love Joyce with a love I could not love her with if I did not love

Jesus. The word hate as it is used in the Bible simply means preference. Now the way

Rogers uses Luke 14, 26 is correct, but his usage of Romans 9, 13 is out of context.

Luke 14, 26 does not help us understand the use of the word hate here because there are times in the

Bible when hate is meant to sound as harsh as it does. For example, when we read

Proverbs 6, 16, there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him.

The list that follows is not merely preference. God hates haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises evil, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and the seventh thing, an abomination, one who sows discord among brothers.

Do you hear God saying, I would prefer that you not do those things? No, he hates them with all of the disgust that word can muster.

So how do we understand the right usage then of Romans 9, 13? We need to go back to the passage that Paul is actually quoting from, and that's

Malachi 1, verses 2 and 3. Rogers went back to Genesis 25 to try and establish a context of nations in Rebekah's womb.

So why doesn't he go back to Malachi to understand the context of what Paul is actually referencing?

Malachi 1, 2, I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us?

And the Lord says, is not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I have loved

Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.

If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins. The Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the

Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, great is the

Lord beyond the border of Israel. Now then, does that sound like God merely prefers one over the other?

No, he has prospered one and destroyed the other, and he has made an example of them to show his power and he is worshipped because of it.

God has predestined some for mercy and some for wrath for the same purpose, to display the full range of his glory.

Those who are destroyed, his glory is shown in his righteous and just wrath.

Those who are saved, his glory is shown in his mercy and his love. The reason why

Rogers does not actually go to the scripture that Paul is quoting in Romans 9, 13, I believe is because he knows it does not fit his point.

Continuing on. God had a preference, God had a sovereign choice for this man

Jacob, and he did not have a preference for Esau. It doesn't mean that he despised

Esau. He doesn't mean that it says, Esau, I created you to go to hell, I hate you.

No, that's not what it's meaning at all. Friend, number one, this is national, not personal.

Number two, it deals with service, not salvation. Number three, it deals with preference, not despite.

Now, if you don't understand that, you're going to get all mixed up and all confused. But God is a sovereign

God and God loves lost sinners. You've just read there in Romans 5, verse 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. God loves sinners. Don't get the idea that Esau was predestined for hell or anybody else is predestined for hell.

God chooses individuals. God has preferences for nations and it deals in the realm of service.

I have two brothers. God called me to preach. God did not call, so far as I know, either one of my two brothers to preach.

God said, I want Adrian to preach. Now, that's God's choice. God chose me. I didn't choose to preach.

I've been called to preach. Does that mean because God called me to preach that God's going to send my two brothers to hell?

No. He called me into service. He said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit.

Yeah, that is just an unfair generalization. I would not ever claim, and I don't know any preacher that does claim that just because I'm a preacher, one who isn't called to be a preacher must be going to hell.

It's wrongheaded generalizations like that that split people instead of uniting people over this issue when one side is misrepresented.

Now, this goes both ways. For those that agree with my view of predestination, we must understand and represent the opposing viewpoint in a right way and never mischaracterize a person who has a different viewpoint.

We can love one another, encourage and support one another, and be humble even through our differing points of view.

The Bible says that God allows these differing viewpoints to exist in a body so that those who are genuine, those who are able to love one another through these differences might be recognized.

That's first Corinthians 11, 19. What we're talking about here, friend, I want to tell you is national, not personal.

It is service, not salvation. It is preference, not despite. Now, if you don't understand that, you're going to get mixed up.

And so what we're talking about here is God's sovereign choices.

Got it? All right. Let's move to the second thing. The second thing I want you to see is not only God's sovereign choices, but I want you to see

God's spotless character, God's spotless character. Begin reading now in verse 14.

What should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

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

I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Wilt thou say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

But nay, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?

Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath afore prepared unto glory?

Well let's just pause right there and talk about God's character. Somebody might not like God's choices in any realm, and the

Jews might say, what right does God have to break his promises to us?

We're the chosen nation. And what Paul is saying is your arms, as one preacher said, your arms are too short to box with God.

Who are you that replies to God? Now listen to me, folks. God is sovereign. Now I'd like to stop right there for a second to define this word, okay?

Sovereignty is a term that is used to describe a supreme ruler. It means that they have absolute authority and absolute power.

In Colossians 1 .18, Paul uses the word preeminent. It means God is top and above him there is no other.

It means that he is the ultimate decision maker and nothing is done that he has not ordained.

Lamentations 3 .37, who has spoken and it came to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?

Job 14 .5, God has appointed the limits of every person and they cannot pass them.

There is not a decision that is made that God has not ordained because he is sovereign.

God does as he pleases. God answers to no one. Respect this that God is

God. And also remember this, that God is not fair. God is just.

If you think that God has to be fair, you're thinking that God owes you something. And if you don't get it, you're all upset if you don't get it and if somebody else gets it before you do or gets more than you do, then you're upset because you think that God owes you something.

God doesn't owe us anything but judgment. God is not fair. God is just. And when you realize that God is just, then mercy is going to mean something to you.

Yes, on this point, Rogers and I are in complete agreement. Preach it, brother. Now, what is he saying here?

He's saying, listen, I am free to pardon and I am free to punish.

I am God and I will pardon whom I will pardon and I will punish whom

I will punish. Now, does that mean that God does that arbitrarily? No. God does as he pleases, but he always pleases to do right.

There is no unrighteousness with God. Now, God pardons according to his sovereign will.

Look again, if you will, in this passage of Scripture, verses 15 and 16, for he saith unto

Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom

I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Now, what is he saying here? Does that mean that God says, I'm not going to have mercy if you ask for mercy?

No. Does that mean that if you ask me for mercy, I'll not give you mercy? No, not at all.

God is just simply saying that if you're saved, you're going to be saved by grace. It's not because you will to have that I should be merciful to you, it's because I will it.

It's not to him that willeth, but of God that has mercy. This sermon from Dr.

Adrian Rogers was part of his TV program, Loveworth Finding. So the music that you're hearing there at the end was the end of this half of the sermon, and that's where we're going to break as well.

So we're going to pick up the rest of the message tomorrow. By the way, I might also add that a complete transcript of Rogers' sermon and my commentary of the sermon will be available on my blog this

Saturday. The address is pastorgabehughes .blogspot .com.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Let's close in prayer. Our Lord God, we desire to know your word, and we desire to become better worshippers of God, knowing you more and more, more intimately, the aspects of God that we can find written in your scriptures, the aspects of your sovereignty that we see written about in Romans 9.

So help us to rightly divide the word of truth, to understand it according to your spirit that we might worship you all the more and give you praise for the great

God that you are. And may we not be divisive with any brother or sister that has not yet come to an understanding of these biblical principles the way that we see it, but let us be patient with one another, guiding one another according to the scriptures, desiring to unify in these things, not divide and break apart.

As we are many parts in one body joined fast to the head who is Christ, let us be an example of the body of Christ.

We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.