Is Predestination True? (Part 3)

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Is Limited Atonement Biblical? w/Dr. James White (Part 4)

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Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. One of the many texts we'll be looking at today as we look into this doctrine of unconditional election or unconditional grace.

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Again, which is kind of the definition, unconditional grace. We're in our series right now on the doctrines of grace.

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Studying what the Bible teaches about God's grace and salvation. We're looking at concepts like the elect and predestination,

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God's choice to save. So Romans 9 is one of the premier passages in reference to the concept of God mercying whom he wills and hardening whom he wills.

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So Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. I encourage you to spend lots of time in this particular passage.

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It is something we have to wrestle with as believers and yield to what Scripture teaches about God as the judge,

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God's sovereign right to give mercy to whom he wills. We're going to start in verse 6.

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Romans 9 and verse 6. Hear now the word of the living and the true God.

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But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

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But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

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For this is what the promise said. About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son.

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And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather

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Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger, as it is written,

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Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then?

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Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

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I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth, so that he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

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You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?

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But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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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, even us whom he has called not from the

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Jews only but also from the Gentiles. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word.

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Let's pray together as his people. Father, we come before your holy word praising you,

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Lord, for this amazing gift. You have spoken. You've spoken and you keep speaking in the created order itself.

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You're shouting to the world about your presence and your power. But you've also given to us the revelation,

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Father, of your son. Lord Jesus, you are the revelation of God entered into history, revelation incarnate walking among us.

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And God, you've spoken through your word. We can have certainty about what you've said because you've told us.

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The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But what he has revealed belongs to us and to our children.

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Lord, we're grateful, Lord, that we don't have to simply relegate things to incomprehensibility simply or to mystery.

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But where you have touched, Lord, we can know. We can know your heart.

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We can know your mind if you've revealed it. And so, Lord, we're thankful. We're thankful, Lord, for your grace, your mercy.

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We're thankful, Lord, that you've saved rebel sinners like us that deserve the justice. You've given us mercy.

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And it's mercy and grace that is totally undeserved. We should have the opposite,

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Father. Help us to see it. Help us to know it. As we examine these texts,

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I pray that you would break down the pride we have within our hearts, our arrogance, our haughtiness.

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Teach us, Lord, about your sovereign will and your powerful love and grace. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So the purpose of this study is to whittle down our church to a small number.

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No. I had a friend many years ago. He was Pastor Tom Schrader at East Valley Bible Church way back when, and when he would do his annual work through the doctrines of grace, he would say, the parking lot's getting too full.

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It's time to clear it out. So he started the doctrines of grace. Now, that shouldn't be the case when you see the glory of God and the glory of his grace.

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The problem is human pride. The problem is stubbornness.

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The problem is a haughtiness that says, there must be something in me that attracted

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God to me. There must be something in me that's different from the other that allowed me to see these truths, to come to Jesus, to trust in him.

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That's what makes us all different. Is there something in the creature, not in ultimately

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God and his sovereign will and purpose, but something in the creature that makes them able to get themselves to God.

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Something different. Now, of course, acknowledging that people will say, no, you need God's grace.

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Of course, you need the grace part. You need the power of God part. But it's still something ultimately, not in God, but the creature that makes the final say, the vote count.

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You've heard things like, God's cast a vote for you. The devil's cast a vote against you.

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And your vote is the deciding vote. You know, pithy little evangelical slogans like that.

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Is it really in the creature? Or is God as sovereign as the Bible teaches? Over every detail.

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Every detail. From birds falling from trees to the creatures in the ocean that many of us have never even seen or would be horrified if we did.

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To the sustaining of the entire universe with billions of galaxies.

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We're in one. The sovereign God who brings down kings, who directs the heart of the king like a stream of waters.

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The sovereign God who says that He predestines and elect people for His purpose, for His glory.

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Is God as sovereign as He says in His word? That He's the one who declares the end from the beginning.

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That nobody can stay His hand. Nobody can thwart His purposes.

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The Bible teaches that God is sovereign. We started this entire series with that as the foundation.

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God is the sovereign. It's one of the quotes I put here in the soul food today.

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I thought it was simple, profound, easy. It's a line, it's from Dr. R .C. Sproul and I think it should cut us.

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I hope it does cut you, challenge you because it's true. It's so true.

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It's everywhere. It's not just in this subject but it really is everywhere. All over our theologies, all over our praxis.

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Our sovereignty. Us as the powerful ones. Our will as the ultimate.

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Dr. Sproul says most Christians salute the sovereignty of God but believe in the sovereignty of man.

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It's true. It really is. God is sovereign. We give Him the nod. We tip the hat at that doctrinal truth because you can't get away from it.

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It's from Genesis to Revelation. It is everywhere, incontrovertible. It is overwhelming.

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God is sovereign. And yet we have soteriological beliefs, beliefs about salvation, theological beliefs that put us mainly in the center.

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Sure, God is sovereign but ultimately somehow our theologies or our soteriologies have

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God somehow constrained with His hands tied behind His back. Somehow, like we say things like God is sovereign but we have a free what?

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We've got a free will, you see. And God can't ultimately get in the way of the free will.

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He sort of set this game in motion and set up rules that are sort of above Him. He can't violate these rules because, you know, we have sort of a free will and God's not going to manipulate things or He's not going to do anything to interfere with this supreme truth that man has a free will.

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And because of conflicting theological presuppositions or views of soteriology and how a person is saved, the issue of God's sovereignty becomes muddy.

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It becomes secondary. Not overarching as the Bible makes it as overarching and supreme,

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God is sovereign, but His sovereignty becomes secondary to our sovereignty. Us, the creatures, the sovereigns in the sovereign's universe.

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See, the purpose of this study, so you know why. Why would you do a study? Why talk about it again? Because we do have a series behind us.

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We've done this before. Why talk about it again? And the answer is because it is my life's goal to defend the biblical gospel, to preserve the biblical perspective of God's grace.

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There are always, there has been throughout the history of the church, and I believe moving forward they're going to keep coming, there have always been distortions of grace, distortions of the biblical gospel.

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And as Christians, we have to always know what is the truth about God's grace.

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What is the biblical gospel so that we can proclaim that gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, and preserve and defend that gospel for future generations.

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These are essential truths. The grace of God in salvation is not a side issue.

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It's not a tertiary issue. It's not adiophora. It isn't. It's central.

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We are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, in Jesus alone.

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But the big question is, how gracious is God's grace? Because, listen, you fudge grace, biblical grace, and you get false gospels.

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You mix up what God says about grace, and you will grow false gospels out of that mixing up of God's grace in Scripture.

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So it is our goal, our purpose to defend the biblical gospel and the Bible's definition of grace.

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The question to ask is this, how gracious is grace? How gracious is

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God's grace? So again, we started with the foundation of the whole study. Number one, the sovereignty of God.

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Is God kind of sovereign, sort of sovereign, mostly sovereign, or is God completely sovereign?

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I'm not going to rehash that whole sermon right now. Go back and listen to it, but that is foundational. God is the sovereign.

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He rules. He determines. He's in control. I hate that I have this.

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It's really, by the way, I'm wearing t -shirts because it's super hot up here, and I hate that I have this, where I have to have sort of a powerful, powerful sermon, and it's okay.

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Thanks, Elliot. Talking about very profound, powerful truths, and then sipping on the straw.

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But this one's cold. That one felt like it was left in the heater. So number one is sovereignty.

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That's foundational. Number two, we talked about total depravity or total inability. Now, listen.

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If you get these truths that are incontrovertible, they cannot be taken down.

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They will not be taken down because it is pervasive. It is consistent. Listen, you can spot the false theological belief via its inconsistencies.

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This is consistent through and through. God is sovereign. How sovereign? Completely sovereign.

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Over every detail. Not a maverick molecule in the entire universe. God declares the end from the beginning.

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He sustains all things. It's His purpose and plan. Next is the condition of fallen men and women.

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If you're a son and daughter of Adam and Eve, and that means all of you, of every color, we're all the same, you are fallen.

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Not righteous. Not good. Romans 3. Non -God seeking. There is none who seeks for God.

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That's the condition. Jesus says in John chapter 6, no man is able to come to me unless the

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Father who sent me draws him. Which one? The one unable. And Jesus says,

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I will raise him up. Who? The one the Father drew who was unable to come to God.

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So the idea that our wills are free is not a biblical concept.

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It's not to say that we don't have a will, and we're not making willing choices. We have a creaturely will.

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That is, according to Jesus in John 8, enslaved. Where did we ever get the idea?

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That our fallen wills are free. Jesus says this, and here it is. He said we could do it all day.

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But we already did it, so I won't do it all day again. I'll just stay on the foundational ones. Jesus, the

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Lord of glory, God incarnate, said this about sinners. He says, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

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Now, are slaves free? They're in bondage. They're enslaved. He says this though, but if the

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Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. So our contention is that biblically, there is no

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God seeker. There is none righteous. We have all gone astray. We are enslaved.

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We are in bondage, and unless the Son sets us free, we will not be free. So those two are foundational.

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God is totally sovereign. All of mankind, every human being, is either in Adam or Jesus.

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Romans 5. If you're in Adam, you are dead spiritually. There is condemnation.

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You are not righteous. You are condemned in Adam. If you are in Christ, there is the gift of eternal life and of righteousness.

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Two categories according to the Apostle Paul for all humanity. How do you like them apples? He doesn't break humans up into different colors and ethnicities.

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He says you're either in two representatives, Adam or Jesus. Which one? One is death and condemnation.

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One is the gift of eternal life and righteousness. That is the summary of all of humanity.

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And so our condition is fallen, rebels, by nature children of wrath, Ephesians 2, dead in our sins and trespasses and the glory of God's grace is this.

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But God. But God. Though that is the condition of every single human being.

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Though we are rebels. Though we are enemies of God. Romans chapter 1. But God, who is rich in mercy with the great love that he loved us.

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It says this. We were dead. God made us alive together with him.

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By grace you've been saved. That brothers and sisters is the biblical definition of grace according to the

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Apostle Paul in that famous evangelical passage we all quote from.

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By grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not according to works lest any man should boast.

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That's after he says you were dead. God made you alive. By grace you've been saved.

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That's how gracious this grace is. It's an undeserving grace which is again the definition of grace.

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You see there are two concepts we need to understand here in terms of God's choice to save. His sovereign will and salvation.

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We need to understand the concepts of grace and mercy. Kind of well three concepts.

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Grace, mercy and justice. Grace is getting something that you do not deserve.

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Mark it down. Grace is getting something that you do not deserve.

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It's unmerited. It's gift. It's a definition of gift. There's no wage.

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There's no labor involved. It's just grace. That's why we love Christmas at Apologia Church.

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It's a day of grace. It's a day of celebrating grace. God gives us Jesus. We don't deserve him and we'd like to celebrate that day with a ton of gifts.

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As many as we can give away because we're showing grace, grace, grace.

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The next concept is mercy. What is mercy? Not getting what you do deserve.

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Not getting what you do deserve. You're guilty. You should get this punishment but I will not give it to you.

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I will show you mercy. You deserve this but I will not give it to you.

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I'll show you mercy. The next concept is justice and that's what we do deserve.

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Righteous response. We talk about God's wrath. God's wrath isn't even like our wrath.

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It's settled opposition against evil. When we think about wrath, we think about our own outbursts.

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I was really angry. I was filled with wrath and so I let it go. That's not how God's wrath works.

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God is a just judge. When He has wrath, it is a settled opposition against evil and when

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He responds as a good judge, He gives a righteous sentence. A righteous penalty and here's the deal.

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According to Scripture, every single son or daughter of Adam and Eve is condemned.

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Romans 5. Romans 5. If you are born a son and daughter of Adam and Eve, you are born dead in your sins and trespasses by nature a child of wrath and you are condemned and you are worthy of God's just response to your sin.

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Justice, grace, mercy and justice. Why am I talking about it?

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Because here's the deal. When people hear about God's sovereign grace, what they'll always say is this, wait, are you saying that God chose to give grace and mercy to these people but not to these?

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That's not what? Fair. You've been in this conversation before.

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That's not fair. Grace and mercy to these but not to these but God is a

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God of love bro. He's a God of love bro. He's a God of love and I can't see a

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God of love saying I'll give you grace and mercy but I won't give it to you.

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That doesn't seem fair. I don't worship that God. I say well perhaps you don't. The Bible actually teaches that those concepts grace, mercy and justice are different categories and what does every single human being deserve from a holy

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God that we're rebels against? One thing. What is it everyone? Justice. There is no denying that biblically.

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You cannot controvert that. You can't get around it. You can't deny it. Every single human being is a rebel against a holy

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God. That is a testimony of this book and we all deserve one thing from God and that's justice.

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We cannot say why doesn't God give it to everybody? Proof that you don't really believe that is that nobody acts that way in human courts.

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Nobody. When we walk into human courts today it's a terrifying experience.

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You ever been in a court? It is truly a terrifying experience. Even watching other people get the sentence.

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There is a sense, a presence of justice that is heavy in the courts.

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It is terrifying. I've had to go into courts as a pastor to testify for people to beg the judge for mercy on people who are coming to Christ out of drug and alcohol addiction.

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That's a terrifying experience. Even for a pastor to go before a judge and to plead. I remember distinctly

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I think you're in this room. I won't point you out. People came to Jesus. Lives totally transformed facing sentence.

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And I go before the judge and I stand in court. I went to court that day just thinking to myself

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I'm going to go to court. I'm the pastor. I'm going to talk about the life change and I'm going to beg the judge to give mercy in the sentence.

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And I remember getting into the courtroom. It just came out of nowhere. This deep sense of oh my goodness there is justice ahead.

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This is serious. My hands and my legs were shaking. I could barely get my voice out to the judge to explain why

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I was begging for mercy on behalf of this person that had come to Jesus. There was a sense of justice and I was pleading for mercy to the judge.

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Please be merciful. Please do not give everything that could be given.

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Please be merciful in some way. Don't send him to jail for 10 years. Put him under my care.

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Let me be responsible for him. But please show mercy. Please do something merciful in his case.

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There was a terrifying sense in the room that day. But what was

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I doing before the judge? I didn't go in before the judge and say to the judge your honor if you're really a judge who loves then for the rest of the day you're going to give every person that comes before your court mercy.

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And if you don't do it you're not a good judge. We all recognize this guy is really guilty and this judge has a responsibility to give a just sentence.

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The judge doesn't know anybody in that courtroom mercy or grace. The judge has a job to do and that is to be righteous and just.

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To protect victims rights. And if this person walks into the courtroom and is found judicially guilty, truly guilty the judge has one duty and that is be righteous and judge.

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To give a sentence. We all recognize in a human court that's the judge the judge's job.

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That's his role. But the amazing thing is we don't walk into courts today saying your honors love and grace and mercy for everybody let them all go.

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Proof is that when you've been victimized and I've been victimized we go into that courtroom as victims expecting the judge to do right by us and to sentence the guilty.

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But isn't it amazing when we stand in this discussion about God's justice and his mercy we stand before the ultimate righteous judge and we actually say to him you're unjust.

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You should have given mercy to everybody. How could you ever do such a thing? You see really if you think about it biblically when everybody is guilty and we're all the rebels and criminals in God's universe and we're all enemies of God, children of wrath, non

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God seeking, slaves to sin. The real question is not why does God save some and not others.

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The real question is why would a holy and just God save anybody?

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Even one and especially me. That's the real question.

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And it's only arrogance, pride and haughtiness that gets us to a place where we look up to God and we actually accuse him of injustice when he has actually given mercy and grace to so many.

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And it was a mercy and grace that was purchased through his perfect eternal son.

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That is mind -boggling and incomprehensible. The problem with people resistant to unconditional election is that they're mixing man -made philosophies about our condition and our rights with biblical truth and they're coming into conflict.

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They will not meet in a coherent way. So here we are talking about God's unconditional election.

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That when God chooses to save, he chooses to save before the foundation of the world. We're going to go into some of those texts.

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But it's this concept that God is the sovereign and he's the judge and he chooses to give grace and mercy that is undeserved to sinners that ought to get justice.

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You see, A, this offends rebellious creatures. And it's no surprise that it offends rebellious creatures because criminals often have a very low view of their judge at sentencing.

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Right? You ever seen criminals or, you know, really violent criminals before the judge as he delivers a sentence?

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You ever seen him go berserk in the courtroom, start yelling at the judge? You should watch Worldstar.

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It's quite a thing. People who are criminals often have a low view of the judge.

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Next, oddly, this biblical concept of God's choice to extend mercy to whom he wills is offensive to many modern evangelicals who believe, ultimately, that they're the sovereign, not

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God. A passing view of yes, God is sovereign, but really the creature is the ultimate sovereign here.

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We're the determining factor. And next, this is a problem for many, this concept of unconditional election or unconditional grace because there is the charge of injustice.

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But again, as you work through this, just think about this conceptually. What does a good God owe the guilty?

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Mercy or punishment? Mercy or punishment? Punishment.

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Now, Sproul did an amazing illustration of this.

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I think it was actually really good, so I'm just going to do it. I don't have a board that Sproul used to have. He'd write on the chalkboard behind him or whatever.

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But he would do it by way of drawing stick figures on a board. He would draw six stick figures on the board and he would circle three and then circle the other three and he would say, mercy for these, justice for these.

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Now, he would say, as you look at the board, I want you to imagine this is all of humanity. All of humanity.

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And all of these stick figures are actually guilty criminals. They're all sinners. They're all rebels.

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Every one of them deserves justice. Now, if I come up and I circle three and I say mercy and grace and I circle the other three and I say justice, the question is this.

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Has any injustice been given in that concept?

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Can anybody say there that's unjust? All are guilty.

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All are worthy of justice. All are deserving of justice. If God chooses to give grace and mercy to a set and justice to the other, the question is this.

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Can there be a legitimate claim of injustice? What do you think?

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Because the ones who get justice, did they deserve it? Yes. And the ones who get mercy, what should they have gotten?

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Justice. But what did they get? Mercy. Was it owed? No. So no injustice has been done and finally again, the incomprehensible thing is that God saves even one.

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He saves even one. So here are the questions that come up. Or the challenges that come up.

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We're going to go into a lot of text today, but I'm going to fill out some of the questions and challenges. People will say, yes, you can get away from it.

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Predestination is all throughout the Bible. The word is there. Predestined. Election is there.

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God chooses. He chose us in Him, Ephesians 1, before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

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In love He predestined us to adoption as sons. There it is. Can't get away from it. It's right there.

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It's not a verse here or there. Whole discourses, whole chapters describing this particular doctrinal truth.

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So people will say, I can't get away from God choosing. I can't get away from predestination. I can't get away from election.

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My goodness, Paul opens his letters up talking about the elect of God addressing the elect of God.

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So what do I do with it? I need to somehow save God. So what I'll think is that really, you see, what it is is like this.

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God created and when He created, there's a sense in which He looked through time to see who would choose

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Him and believe in Him and on that basis He chose them.

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What are the problems with that biblically? If God looked through time He would see a graveyard.

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He would see a world with a full history of dead people.

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What does Romans 3 say? There is no God seeker. So if God did look through time to see who would be seeking

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Him or believing in Him, what would He see? Rebels. Hostile.

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All of them. Non -God seeking. Spitting in hatred at their creator.

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So when God looks through time, does He find anybody able to believe in Him because of their rebellion?

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John 6, no man is able to come to Me. So if God looked through time to see who would believe in Him and on that basis

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He chooses them, what does He find? Non -God seekers. So there is no one looking back at Him and further and I think this is demonstrably one of the most powerful responses to that kind of argumentation.

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God is all -knowing. Amen? Think about it. God is all -knowing. If God quote, looks through time to see something and He learns from that it means

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God learned something and He wasn't all -knowing. So that doesn't work.

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Biblically it doesn't work. But then people will say, okay maybe it's not like that. Maybe it's that His choice is based upon their choice, maybe their deeds, their righteousnesses.

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And now we're right into a false gospel and there is no righteous one, none that does good and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

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So God's not choosing people on the basis of their own good deeds and their works because the Bible says we're dead.

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We're rebels. We're worthy of wrath. So when God is choosing, He's choosing to give salvation to unworthy people.

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People who are enemies, people who are slaves. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, this whole concept of election

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God's choice His sovereign choice needs to start somewhere of course.

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Now, I wanted to say as I always say in this, this isn't exhaustive. We could go all day long here with passages and it's almost endless.

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But we've got to start somewhere conceptually and if you are in a different place on this particular subject right now, all

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I would ask you to do right now is just be humble enough to hear the perspective and then work through it biblically.

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And I thought a good way to do this is to start in the Old Testament and to start in a particular place that every

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Christian seems to have agreement on. We all seem to have agreement on this particular point.

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And so let's go to it together. Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 6 through 8.

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Deuteronomy 7 6 through 8. It's amazing because this is actually a popular concept and I always found that this particular truth ought to be something that wakes us all up to this concept of God's sovereign choice.

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Because we all recognize it here oddly. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 6 through 8.

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Here's what it says. God's speaking here to His people. It says for you are a people holy to the

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Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

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It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all the peoples.

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But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He has swore to your fathers that the

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Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

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Now think about this again conceptually today. People have a big problem with this today and it is true that much of evangelicalism is responsible for a lot of this.

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I'm not going to get into this whole discussion right now. But people talk today about America's support for who?

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Israel, right? And what do evangelicals today typically say in the West? They say well those are

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God's chosen people. Israel is God's chosen people. Even though today you have people there who reject

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Jesus violently opposed to the message of the gospel, try to prohibit the proclamation of the gospel.

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People today evangelicals will often say that's God's chosen people Israel. And we'll go to a text like this and say in terms of the nation of Israel God says

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I chose you out of all the nations on the earth. And what we say is typically that's exactly right that's true.

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Israel as the people of God. God chose them out of all the other nations. It's not that they were more numerous.

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They were actually least. But God chose them because he loved them. Because he was keeping his promises.

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But we all recognize God had the sovereign right out of all of humanity out of all the tribes to actually choose

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Israel for his plan. And we all recognize that was a sovereign choice and it wasn't anything in Israel.

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Do we know Israel's history? It's a little spotty. It's a little spotty.

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Right? I mean even getting redeemed and seeing the crazy miracles and the exodus and all the blood water and all the frogs and locusts and the

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Red Sea just popping up and they're just walking across like on dry land and seeing

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God destroy their enemies. They still can't get it right. And then God's raising up kings and then they're sinful and they're broken.

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And even David, a man of God's own heart. Yeah. Guilty of adultery and sending a man to get killed.

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All of them have their warts. All of them. Sins. All of them. Sinners. But God says

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I chose you. And we all recognize that. Listen. God chose the people of Israel.

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What's that mean? He didn't choose the Philistines. He didn't choose the

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Egyptians. He didn't choose the Amorites. He didn't choose the

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Hittites. He didn't choose the Jebusites. He didn't choose the Babylonians.

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He didn't choose the Persians. We love that concept. He chose Israel by His grace to bring about His perfect plan.

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It was the people of Israel. Those are God's chosen people. They were His elect. And think about it in the reverse.

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If He chose Israel, He didn't choose those other nations. It means they were passed over.

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And Israel was chosen. Now watch this. Challenge your thinking on this. Was God unjust in the mass of sinful humanity to choose to give grace to Israel to bring about His perfect plan?

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Was it unjust? Was there injustice done? We all recognize no. Israel deserved what the rest of the nations got.

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They should have been passed over like the rest, but God was merciful to Israel and we all recognize in God's choosing of the people of Israel out of all the nations on earth to bring about His sovereign perfect plan of redemption, there was no injustice and God was free as the sovereign, as the judge, to give grace and mercy to whom

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He pleases. So to the modern evangelical who calls

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Israel God's chosen people, was God unjust to pass over the pagan nations to give grace to Israel?

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We all recognize He was not unjust. It was a great act of divine mercy and choice.

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Next, let's look as we've looked at the concept of God's choosing Israel out of all the nations on earth to bring about His plan of redemption.

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Let's look at the consistent testimony, the incontrovertible testimony to election and predestination.

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These are, brothers and sisters, inescapable biblical realities. And listen, what we cannot do as a person can't be confronted with these texts and allow their theology to change is for the person to say, well,

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I guess it's just a mystery. There are things in the faith that are mysteries, unclear, that God has not been completely clear about.

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There are things that we just don't fully understand and we won't know until we're in eternity, for sure.

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But if God has spoken on something, we can be certain about it. And God has spoken on this subject a lot throughout the

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Bible, whole sections of Scripture. This is not a mystery. It is clear. It's as clear as the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is

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God in the flesh. It's as clear as God's word is His word, the inerrancy of Scripture.

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It's as clear as justification through faith in Jesus Christ. It's as clear as the physical resurrection of the

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Son of Man, that Jesus actually physically died and physically rose again. This doctrine of election,

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God's choice, predestination is abundantly clear in Scripture. So here are some verses.

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I'm going to give you a smattering of verses just to show you this concept and then we're going to go to a couple of texts.

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I think the most important thing is to let you rest in the text more than explanation.

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So, here is a smattering of verses. You can go and read these later. Unfortunately, something happened with my printer as I was printing this up, so what

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I have are the verses, but for some reason the verse references were a different color and the printer didn't like that, so now you have homework.

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I'll give it to you and then just ask Google. Some of these I know where they're from though, okay? For those whom

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He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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Foreknown, predestined. For by grace you have been saved, through faith,

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Ephesians 2, 8 -10. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.

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For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 1, 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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Listen to that again. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

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John 6, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

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There are people given to Jesus by the Father, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His own purpose and grace, which

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He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. Before the ages began,

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God chose to give this to us in Christ Jesus. But we ought to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the

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Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth. All things have been handed over to me by my

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Father, and, listen, no one knows the Son, who the Son is, except the

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Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the

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Son chooses to reveal Him. And we know that for those who love

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God, Romans 8, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

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For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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Foreknown predestines. Now, of course, we've talked before at Apologia about foreknown.

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Foreknown is not God looking through time to try to see things.

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Foreknown is actually something that speaks about the intimacy of God's relation to you as His child.

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Those whom He foreknew. He chose to enter into intimate relationship with.

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Think about how God talks about Israel. Remember God's chosen Israel out of all the nations on the earth? He says, You only have

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I known out of all the nations of the earth. That's what He says about Israel. You only have I known out of all the nations of the earth.

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Are we saying that God didn't know about the other nations in the world? No, He knew about the nations. That is an intimacy term.

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Known. Adam knew Eve. That has to do with intimacy. It's not like he didn't know she was standing there.

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He was like, Oh, nice to meet you. No, known is something different. Adam knew

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Eve. That's intimacy. That's an intimate relation. And when God says, You only have I known out of all the nations on the earth, that's intimacy.

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And when it says that God foreknew you, it means that He chose to enter into intimate relationship with you.

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He called you. He predestined you. He chose you by His grace.

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And this is something that took place before the foundation of the world. We know this is the truth. We've already read the text from Ephesians that talk about He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

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Before the foundation of the world. What does it say about Jesus? It says that Jesus is the

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Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. This is a sovereign

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God working out a plan to redeem an undeserving people. That's a clear testimony of Scripture.

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Look what Paul says. He says, Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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And again, Romans nine, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

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I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, so that it depends. Listen closely.

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Please hear it. It's right here. It's in the text. It cannot be avoided. So that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God.

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God's the sovereign who has mercy. Listen to this one from Acts.

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Acts, is this six? Sorry, I've lost the references guys. I believe it's six. And when the

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Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

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Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

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And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

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So that he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

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This is one of my favorites. It's from the Lord Jesus. Listen to this one. It's powerful. It's powerful. You did not choose me, but I chose you.

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You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the

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Father in my name, he may give to you. Jesus, in John 10 says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

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Father's hand. Guys, brothers, sisters, listen just to that. That's my hope, by the way. If you want to know where I go as the anchor of my soul, if you want to know my deep, dark moments where there is trial and tribulation, and there is trouble in this world, there is hardship, if you want to know where I go,

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John 6 and John 10. That's where my soul rests. Because Jesus tells me there that the

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Father gave sheep to Jesus. He gave a people to Jesus, and Jesus says,

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I know them. I lay my life down for them. They'll never perish. I give them eternal life.

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They're in my hand, and nothing can snatch them from my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my

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Father's hands. That is the anchor for my soul. But note that Jesus says that the

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Father has people that he gave to Jesus, and that Jesus says,

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I know them, and I give them eternal life. So there are people that the

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Father has given to Jesus to never lose, to save, and to give eternal life to.

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This is God's sovereign choice. His sovereign choice. Here we go.

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Another one. For as the Father raises the dead, and gives them life, so also the

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Son gives life to whom He will. Another one.

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And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect whom

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He chose, He shortened the days. Here's an introduction from the apostle

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Paul. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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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.

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We can go and go and go, but let me just get us to the main text that we need to have underneath us for this concept of God's sovereign choice,

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His mercy, His grace. Let's start in John 6. John 6.

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I'll make some observations. And I want us as a church to have this underneath us, not simply for the debate over the doctrines of grace and unconditional election, but brothers and sisters,

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I mean this. Please hear me. This has got to be food for your soul. It has got to be satisfying food for your soul.

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When you watch the news and you're seeing all the numbers and you're seeing the death counts and of course the changing of the narrative over and over and there's confusion, there's difficulty and you see strife and you see all that's going on around you.

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This is satisfying to your soul. When you face death, when you face trial and tribulation, financial trouble, loss of a business, loss of loved ones, this is satisfying to your soul.

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When you feel like God is far off, when you feel like He's the absentee landlord, when you feel like He has no concern for you in this life, when you feel like there is nothing but darkness around you, this is satisfying to your soul.

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John chapter 6, Jesus is telling them about the food that comes from heaven, the bread that comes from heaven.

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And in verse 28, after they see

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Jesus and they hear His testimony, in verse 28, listen to what they say. Then they said to Him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

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Don't you love it? The response of people, right? Like, what do I get to do? What's my part in this?

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Like, what are my sort of deeds? What do I need to sort of store up here? What do

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I have to accomplish? And I love the response, straight gospel, I love it. Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom

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He has sent. What do I have to do, Jesus? This is it, believe. Believe in Him whom

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He has sent. And so they said to Him, verse 30, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

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What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my

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Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

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They said to Him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life.

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Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

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Alright, let's stop there and let's grab the hold of this. This is an encounter with the incarnate

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God -man and He says to people who are not truly believing, you've seen me and yet you do not believe.

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And He says in verse 37 all that the

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Father gives me will come to me. You've seen me and you don't believe.

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All that the Father has given to me will come. And He says whoever comes to me

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I will never cast out. That is satisfaction to our aching souls.

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Whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I, Jesus says have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.

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And this is the will of Him who sent me. That I should lose nothing of all that He has given me but raise it up on the last day.

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For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise

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Him up on the last day. I have said before and I'll say it again, that's 110 proof Calvinism right there.

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That's Jesus teaching you the five points. You're like, but wait, Calvinism didn't exist yet. Calvinism is a name over particular theological beliefs over the gospel of God's grace.

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You want to know what Calvinism is? The five points of Calvinism tulip? It's right there. It's in this section.

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Jesus is not going to lose all that the Father has given Him. He's going to raise them up on the last day. And by the way, if you're truly believing in Jesus Christ that's a promise for you.

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Are there false professors? Yes. Are there warnings against apostasy in the

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New Testament? Absolutely. General warnings are given that if you abandon faith in Jesus Christ, you don't know

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Jesus Christ. The answer from the apostle John is they went out from us in order to show they were never really of us.

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I've been in ministry for a long time. I got to tell you, it breaks my heart. I can name the grays in my beard.

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I say that jokingly, but there have been people who I thought for sure this is truly a believer. And later they come and say,

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I never really believed in Jesus. I love this community. Heartbreaking, but that gets revealed.

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It's not that Jesus lost somebody. He doesn't lose anybody. What an affront to the

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Lord Jesus to teach that he could save somebody the father's given to him and lose them when he says this,

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I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who has sent me.

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And this is it. This is the will of him who has sent me that of all that he has given to me,

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I should lose nothing. If you're trusting in Jesus Christ, truly trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you're a sheep.

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He knows you. He laid his life down for you. You've been given to Jesus by the father and he'll never lose you.

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He will raise you up on the last day. That is the promise. Now here it is. Watch here. So the Jews verse 41 grumbled about him because he said,

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I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

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How does he now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

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Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me.

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No one is able. That's the testimony of the Lord of Glory. They're rejecting

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Jesus. They won't hear him. They don't truly believe. And he says, stop grumbling amongst yourselves.

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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up.

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Hang on that. No ability unless what happens. The father draws and Jesus says he raises up everyone the father draws.

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That's beautiful truth, brothers and sisters. And there is there that concept of the father giving a people to Jesus Christ.

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Listen, listen, listen. Calvinism, the doctrines of grace, holds together the work of redemption of the triune

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God. Because we believe that the father before the world began chose a people in Jesus Christ to be saved.

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That Jesus Christ enters into the world to do the will of the father and that is to bring those sheep to God and to never lose them.

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He takes their sin debt and he says it is finished and he means it.

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It's accomplished. It's over. Transaction is finished. And the spirit of God comes and actually applies that work into the heart of God's elect.

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Raising them to spiritual life. Giving them the gifts of faith and repentance.

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This is the story of the triune God and his redemption, his salvation.

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That's what it truly is. Now move over to Ephesians 1. And since we already read

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Romans 9, we're going to spend time unpacking those in future sermons.

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I'm not going to read that one again through, but I want you to see Ephesians chapter 1. We've been doing a lot of talking about it today and I just want to read the text to you, make some observations.

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Let's start in verse 1. Here's the address. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

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Stop. There it is again. Do you see what I'm saying? When I said it's incontrovertible, it's everywhere.

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Paul can't help himself. As he starts the address and he's talking about who's writing the letter, he says,

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Some guys would be pompous and arrogant about that, right?

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I'm an apostle. I'm a little higher up on the totem pole. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

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God did this. I'm an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

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Saint means set apart one. Sanctified one. Set apart.

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So watch. It's in the word itself. Saint means set apart.

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So two points here as it starts. An apostle by the will of God, not my doing to the saints, those who have been set apart by God in Ephesus.

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. 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 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 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 he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which 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 in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things who works all things according to the council of his will so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory do you see the difference

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Paul's gospel is God God God his glory his grace his plan

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God God God you see here's the thing why talk about this why teach on this because it's a difference between a

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God centered gospel and a man centered gospel it's a difference between a gospel that gives God all the glory for salvation and a gospel that wants to rob

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God of his glory by putting it into our hands this is about preserving the glory of God in the gospel that's why we fight for these truths some final thoughts here and again we are going to unpack more of these verses we're going to go into the the text that are used as chestnut arguments we're going to spend more time on this but I'm finishing on these thoughts here's the problem

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God is not simply a God who is love he is a

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God who is also just his throne is established on justice and the apostle

01:03:22

Paul here was pointing to this significant truth all to the praise of his glorious grace you see on the last day and there will be a last day there will be a final day of judgments there will be a final day for the watching world to watch the judge of all the earth do right on the last day there will be two attributes of God that are glorified in the sake of God's chosen the undeserving who received grace and mercy though they have rebelled against God and would have continued rebelling against God in their case there will be praise to the glory of God's grace but on the last day

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God will also be praised and glorified for his justice because when

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God gives justice to any one of us that's what we do deserve there's no question and if listen brothers and sisters a humble moment for all of us if you know your own heart and you know your life you know you deserve it what we should be is recipients of his justice and not his mercy so on the last day there will be two attributes of God minimally two attributes of God that are glorified

01:04:50

God's love, his grace and his justice some of you might say man and it's weird how it gets twisted because I see it completely the opposite I always have people say well wait a minute if God's chosen to save if he's chosen to save what's the point of doing evangelism

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I see it the opposite you see I see your system as the faulty one for evangelism

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I think the Arminian perspective or any other perspective actually destroys evangelism why?

01:05:25

because it says this God wants to save, tries to save Jesus can die for their sins and accomplish ultimately nothing because they can still go to hell

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God can be trying, constantly trying and trying and trying and he's thwarted by the almighty will of the creature

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I say why evangelize? he's done everything he can he's trying so hard and the creature can thwart his purposes so if somebody says to me why do you evangelize?

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I say this because God is sovereign and when he brings that gospel and desires to bring someone from death to life there is nothing in heaven and hell and all of the universe that can stop him nothing

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I preach a gospel that saves the gospel is the power of God for salvation it's what he uses to bring dead people to life and I know that Jesus says all that the father has given to me will come to me and the one who comes to me

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I will never cast out so I go into the world proclaiming a gospel that is repent and believe and here's the problem and you'll catch it

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I believe here we think that the proclamation of the gospel today goes like this hey bro

01:06:39

Jesus loves you hey bro Jesus died for you

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I challenge you on this find that in the new testament find it, read the book of Acts and see if the apostles go about preaching the gospel going into cities placating to fallen sinners saying hey bro

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God loves you won't you give him a chance won't you give Jesus a try won't you just let him into your life and give him a try give him a 60 day trial as Rick Warren said years ago on Fox News give

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Jesus a 60 day trial that's manipulation that's seeing the creature as the ultimate that's why

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Rick Warren preached that because he ultimately believes the creature is the one who's determining everything and so give

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Jesus a try I don't have to preach a gospel like that and neither do you you can preach that Jesus is the king of the world he has all authority, he's

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God in the flesh he's a holy God, you're a sinful person God commands you to repent and believe Jesus died and he rose again so you need to repent and trust in him for life come to Jesus for life that word goes out into the world that word goes out into the world and think of all of the world like a bunch of cases of dynamite and some of them are filled with just cases of water when you throw fire into a tub of water, what happens?

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but when you throw that into dynamite, what happens? boom! and I love it when

01:08:20

I see it when you preach the gospel you preach to a crowd of 10 or 15 people and some of them are throwing things at you spitting at you, yelling at you rejecting and all of a sudden the lights come on what'd you say?

01:08:33

one time, I'll end with this, I was talking to an atheist he was at Calvary he was one of the atheists coming in constantly to challenge the pastor he was coming in to try to argue with me

01:08:43

I used to love it, I was like, yes, come in please, let's fight, come inside come in, please, let's tussle that's how you get these conversations going let people feel free to bring challenges, ask questions so he was the one that came in he had sort of slick back hair, long ponytail he was like one of these atheists he was one of those pastor

01:09:05

Jeff, but what you're not considering here is the implications of and he was like one of those guys very sophisticated, very erudite he's a great speaker, great thinker and I was challenging him he would get really frustrated by the end of the night, he'd leave, he'd be angry with me he'd come back, he'd be a little better we'd challenge, challenge, challenge and then one day,

01:09:24

I'm walking outside to my office and he comes out of nowhere sort of like side -swipes me he's like,

01:09:31

Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, I have another question for you I've been thinking about what we were talking about and so he's very just hard, hard, hard resistant, he just sort of dismisses everything

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I say and then I said one thing and then I challenged him on his sin and I saw his eyes completely change it was truly like you read the

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Bible, the scales came off he went from this hard -hearted stubborn, very sort of like out of the conversation he goes, wait, wait, wait he goes, wait, say that to me again and so I said it to him again he goes you're right he goes,

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I've known it all along I I am living my life like God is here constantly he goes, and you're right

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I can't say that there's any morality even possible if all these people just evolved from nothing to get to here if God isn't who he says he is, they don't have any value he's just,

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I'm watching him sort of, now he's preaching to me and you're right if God isn't who he says he is if Jesus didn't die for sins and he starts just preaching this mini -sermon for like 5 or 10 minutes and I said do you see now?

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he said yes, I said, are you turning to Christ and trusting him? he says, yes! right in front of me it was amazing to see that take place that's the

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God that we serve, the sovereign God that when that message goes out it brings people to life when

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God chooses to save and to give mercy, there is nothing that's going to stop him and that's why, brothers and sisters some of the greatest missionary efforts in the history of the entire

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Christian church were done by Calvinists because we go into the world with full assurance that Jesus has sheep he knows them, and they know him he laid his life down for them and they'll never perish and they will come and he will raise them up on the last day let's pray

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Father, I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today for your glory, for your purposes I pray that it motivates us for evangelism like never before knowing that you're the sovereign and you have chosen to save undeserving people

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I pray that we would revel in your grace glory in your grace and I pray,

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Lord for the world around us that's lost and dying of course, deserving of whatever comes to us

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I pray, Lord, God, for mercy we know, Lord, that you use your church as a means for transformation and grace extended in the world and I pray that you would empower us and bring life to the dead use us,