Dale Partridge - July 05, 2024


Romans 9_19-24： How to Become a Calvinist with Dale Partridge


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

125.32303

Word count

4,995

Sentence count

255

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this sermon, Pastor Ken teaches on how to become a Calvinist. Calvinism is a system of belief based on the doctrine of Calvinism, which is that God controls the salvation of His people through the doctrines of grace.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Turn to Romans 9, 14, and follow along with me as I read the Word of the Lord.
00:00:06.960 Also stand, if you would, please, for the reading of the Word of the Lord.
00:00:30.000 might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all earth. So then he has mercy
00:00:36.200 on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Verse 19, you will say to me then,
00:00:43.200 why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back
00:00:48.600 to God? Well, what does molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter
00:00:54.040 no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another
00:00:59.140 for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power,
00:01:04.420 has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known
00:01:10.980 the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory,
00:01:15.740 even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
00:01:19.500 This is the Word of the Lord.
00:01:20.660 Well, praise God. I want to remind us of Jesus' words. It says,
00:01:29.820 These people worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
00:01:34.020 I think it's easy when we're at church to just be here, say amen, but your heart is not there.
00:01:45.300 and so I just want to this has nothing to do with my sermon by the way this is
00:01:51.620 just calling you all to make sure your heart is here focused in a state of
00:02:00.620 worship it's a difficult thing it's actually tiring I don't know if you've
00:02:05.960 done this and you've actually worshiped truthfully with tears and sorrow it's
00:02:12.340 It's tiring, and that's why our flesh hates it, but our flesh needs to be in subjection
00:02:19.180 to our spirit.
00:02:20.860 And so as we listen to the sermon today, take note, mentally, physically, let your heart
00:02:30.000 be in it.
00:02:31.800 I've decided to call this message, How to Become a Calvinist.
00:02:36.900 Now, I know that's a little tongue-in-cheek, but this passage of Scripture may be the Bible's
00:02:43.900 most clear and convincing argument for God's sovereignty over salvation.
00:02:51.940 Now you guys know that I'm not here to win anybody to Calvin.
00:02:55.620 My goal is not to make more Calvinists.
00:02:58.100 I'm simply affirming what John Calvin and many others before him recognized in Scripture.
00:03:04.580 I see what he saw as it pertains to the sovereignty of God over salvation.
00:03:13.780 I've said several weeks in a row now, John MacArthur's quote,
00:03:16.640 I became a Calvinist because the Bible gave me no other option.
00:03:20.740 Charles Spurgeon actually once said,
00:03:22.860 I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it,
00:03:25.660 but because I have found his teaching in the word of God.
00:03:28.920 If Calvin taught the doctrines of grace as indeed he did,
00:03:32.280 I am glad to be a Calvinist because I find these doctrines in the scriptures as well.
00:03:38.160 And so, Augustine, who was 1,200 years or 1,100 years before Calvin, was also a Calvinist.
00:03:49.060 No, it's that Calvin was able to codify these doctrines.
00:03:53.640 And for some reason, God has elevated his legacy that these doctrines be named after him.
00:04:02.280 and are remembered for his systematic devotion to the scriptures.
00:04:09.440 When you exegete the text with a literal, grammatical, historical hermeneutic,
00:04:16.100 when you are looking at the scriptures carefully, you end up at Calvinism.
00:04:22.780 That's just what happens.
00:04:25.380 I was not a Calvinist until I went to seminary.
00:04:28.540 And when I went to seminary, I was forced to exegete the text, historically, culturally, grammatically, literally.
00:04:39.720 And you end up at the doctrines of grace.
00:04:44.640 It's just what happens.
00:04:47.860 Most of the individuals that deny Calvinism, not all, but most of them are not careful interpreters of the word.
00:04:55.160 when you see someone who wrote a 700 page book on three passages of scripture it's generally done
00:05:05.560 by a Calvinist these people take the word of God seriously and that's what the doctrines of grace
00:05:14.520 do to a man or woman they make you reverent it is the most God-exalting and man-humbling system
00:05:23.580 of salvation that has ever been discussed.
00:05:30.520 I want you to pay attention to this chapter.
00:05:34.120 This chapter, Paul deals with three of the most critical questions that come against
00:05:41.540 Calvinism.
00:05:43.700 Number one, the question is, if God controls the salvation of His people, then why did
00:05:50.420 the vast majority of the Jews reject Christ?
00:05:53.140 We dealt with that in Romans 9.6 a few weeks ago.
00:05:56.960 Number two, is God unjust for choosing to save some and not others, regardless of their
00:06:04.760 behavior or foreseen actions?
00:06:07.780 We dealt with that about a week or two ago, Romans 9.14.
00:06:13.480 And then the third question, which we will deal with today, is how is it just for God
00:06:19.500 to condemn someone for not having faith if their unbelief is according to God's will?
00:06:27.000 It's a very difficult question.
00:06:31.160 It's Romans 9 19.
00:06:33.040 Ultimately, this chapter is dealing with the intersection between God's sovereignty and
00:06:40.160 man's responsibility.
00:06:42.800 It's a very difficult passage of Scripture.
00:06:47.340 You're going to see this is one of the great antinomies of Scripture or a paradox of Scripture.
00:06:54.740 It frustrates the human mind and surpasses our ability to understand every element of
00:07:00.000 it.
00:07:01.000 There is some mystery within this section of Scripture.
00:07:06.780 Now just to offer you guys some more context, we just came off of Romans 8, which claimed
00:07:12.980 that God is in total control of the salvation of His people.
00:07:15.280 heard in Romans 8, 28 through 30. And we know that God causes all things to work together for those
00:07:21.120 who love him are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknow or foreknew, he
00:07:26.060 predestined. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also
00:07:30.800 justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. In chapter 9, Paul addresses the first
00:07:39.460 critical question. If God controls the salvation of his people, then why do the vast majority of
00:07:45.080 the Jews reject Christ.
00:07:48.740 And to this Paul responds, but it is not as though the word of God has failed.
00:07:53.200 It's not like God's word failed to convert the Jews.
00:07:56.580 No you're thinking of it incorrectly, for they are not all Israel who are descended
00:08:01.540 from Israel and they are not all children of Abraham because they are Abraham's descendants.
00:08:08.040 So he imposes a new paradigm upon the Jews that there are not spiritual heritage is not
00:08:19.360 a result of physical heritage.
00:08:24.260 He realizes if you're a Jew that there is a group within a group.
00:08:29.700 There is the covenant and then there are people in the covenant who are elect. 0.88
00:08:38.040 And so ethnic heritage, again, does not secure spiritual heritage. 0.85
00:08:42.440 In verses 8 through 12, he goes on to provide two examples. 0.93
00:08:46.460 We saw this over the last few weeks of this divine election.
00:08:50.380 And it's not just divine election.
00:08:51.960 It's divine election within the covenant.
00:08:55.560 And he shows us Isaac and Ishmael in contrast with Jacob and Esau.
00:09:04.620 And so what made this election so perplexing for many people, and it still stumbles many people
00:09:12.860 today, is that God's election was not based on any actions or forcing behavior in either of those
00:09:20.800 circumstances. Romans 9-11 said, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or
00:09:29.040 bad though they were not yet born and had done nothing nothing in the future
00:09:37.540 they had done nothing in the present they had done nothing either good or
00:09:41.820 bad in order that God's purpose for election might continue not because of
00:09:48.000 works but because of him who calls she was told the older will serve the
00:09:52.780 Younger, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.
00:09:58.320 So God did not look down the corridors of time to see that Isaac and Jacob would choose
00:10:06.960 him and then decide to elect those individuals.
00:10:09.740 That's not what happened.
00:10:10.680 That's not what the scriptures teach.
00:10:12.900 No, God simply chose to have mercy on Isaac and Jacob and to pour out his wrath upon Ishmael
00:10:21.880 and Esau.
00:10:22.780 And he did this without regard to any action or behavior.
00:10:28.900 They had not been born yet, and there was nothing good or bad accomplished by either of them.
00:10:35.800 Now, we can confirm that this was the intended meaning of the text,
00:10:39.960 because if you look down to verses 14 through 18, Paul addresses that very concern.
00:10:45.700 Some people say, oh, well, that's not what he was talking about.
00:10:47.540 It's not that he hated Esau.
00:10:49.860 He just loved Esau less.
00:10:52.040 No, we can actually assume that the intended meaning was the offensive meaning
00:10:56.560 because he actually deals with the offensive meaning.
00:10:59.780 In verse 14, we have a God who elects without reference to human actions or human will.
00:11:07.680 We have a God who elects people without reference to human actions or human will.
00:11:18.640 Paul answers the second question.
00:11:21.100 He says, is God unjust for choosing to save some and not others without reference to their
00:11:30.940 behavior?
00:11:32.040 Is God unjust for doing that?
00:11:35.980 In other words, he expects his readers to struggle with the idea that election is solely
00:11:41.540 determined by God's will and not determined by human will.
00:11:45.740 He expects that to be offensive.
00:11:48.440 You're saying that I wasn't saved because I chose?
00:11:54.760 Correct.
00:11:55.600 I'm saying that you were saved because God chose you.
00:12:01.280 And as Dr. Moody often says, God changes your chooser.
00:12:05.860 He changes your ability to choose.
00:12:09.600 Yes, you do choose, but only after you've been chosen.
00:12:13.320 Yes, you do believe, but only after you've been elected.
00:12:16.220 Yes, you do repent, but only after you've been made alive.
00:12:24.520 To support Paul's argument, he cites the example of Pharaoh.
00:12:30.000 Pharaoh is like the most willful individual in the entire Bible.
00:12:36.720 And Paul references how God even controls Pharaoh's will. 0.59
00:12:42.820 if anybody was to say that they had a free will
00:12:46.520 it's going to be Pharaoh
00:12:47.400 and God makes it clear
00:12:49.640 that Pharaoh does not
00:12:51.820 have a free will
00:12:53.280 if God controls the kings of the world 0.93
00:12:56.460 it's foolish to think
00:12:58.360 that he won't control the ponds
00:12:59.680 I said last week that
00:13:03.380 if God only said he controlled ants
00:13:06.120 then it would be fair to say
00:13:07.260 well he doesn't control superior beings like humans
00:13:09.740 but
00:13:12.100 when God says he controls the stars and the galaxies and kings and rulers and
00:13:17.200 wars and weather, it's foolish for us to think that he won't control you. So Paul
00:13:25.960 concludes by saying, so then it depends not on the man who wills. Wait a second.
00:13:35.880 Does that mean we don't have a free will? Correct. It does not depend on the man who
00:13:41.180 wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. A few verses later, it says he has mercy
00:13:49.900 on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. He hardens whom he desires. The apostle John
00:14:00.020 and John chapter one, verses 12 to 13 says, but to all who did receive him, to all who were given
00:14:07.660 In Christ, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
00:14:13.460 Verse 13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
00:14:24.220 of man, but of God.
00:14:27.060 How were they born?
00:14:29.220 How did they come alive?
00:14:31.180 It wasn't by their own will.
00:14:32.840 Therefore, salvation is not repentance, faith equals born again.
00:14:42.880 No.
00:14:43.900 The Bible says that it's born again equals repentance and faith.
00:14:51.420 It's completely opposite.
00:14:54.360 Of course man would come to the conclusion that I can born myself again. 0.98
00:15:01.020 It's a ridiculous idea.
00:15:02.840 but it sounds very human, and the supernatural reality is that you cannot born yourself again.
00:15:11.920 How much involvement did you have in your first birth?
00:15:15.800 To think that God did not ask you for your choice to be created, 0.98
00:15:26.480 but he asks for your choice to be recreated is a foolish idea.
00:15:32.840 The whole reason that Jesus gave that metaphor of birth is to prove the point that you have no involvement.
00:15:43.140 You did not choose to be born, and therefore you did not choose to be born again.
00:15:48.880 It is a sovereign work of God.
00:15:53.280 Now in today's text, Paul addresses a third critical question.
00:15:59.140 how is it just for God to condemn someone for not having faith if their unbelief or their hardening
00:16:09.100 is according to his will in other words if God controls the wills of men and women as he did
00:16:17.420 with Pharaoh and causes or prevents them from coming to him in repentance how can God still
00:16:24.360 find fault. How can God find fault if he's the one doing the hardening? If our wills are
00:16:32.640 ultimately determined by God's will, how can he hold us accountable for not being willing to come
00:16:39.380 to him? That's an important question. That's a question that stumps many individuals in the
00:16:47.980 church today. Paul says it this way, you will say to me then, why does he still
00:16:55.840 find fault? For who can resist his will? Now this question, why does he still find
00:17:04.240 fault, is likely the most prideful question in the entire Bible. Why does
00:17:11.600 he still find fault? How could he harden me? How could he blind me to the path of redemption?
00:17:22.840 How could he condemn me? What they're really saying in this question is, if God is the promoter
00:17:30.040 and preventer of salvation, then shouldn't the fault of not coming to God be laid upon the
00:17:34.720 Almighty and not men? That's what they're really asking in that question. If God causes rebellion
00:17:43.700 or hardening or blindness, is it not God's fault that these people don't come to Christ?
00:17:51.200 And we know from the experience of Pharaoh that God's will is irresistible.
00:17:58.200 I don't know why we struggle with the doctrine of irresistible grace.
00:18:01.460 scripture says right there who can resist God's will it's a rhetorical
00:18:07.580 question no one and so anyone asking these questions or thinking this way has
00:18:20.180 forgotten the vital truth of Romans 3 23 it says for all have sinned and fallen
00:18:30.340 short of the glory of God. It says in Romans 5.12, sin came into the world through one man and death
00:18:36.200 through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned. So how could a just God prevent people
00:18:45.060 like Ishmael and Esau and Pharaoh from coming to him in repentance and redemption? That is the wrong
00:18:52.020 question. That is the wrong question. The correct question is how could a just God save sinners
00:19:00.540 like Isaac and Jacob and you? That's the right question. 0.71
00:19:08.380 The fundamental misunderstanding in Arminian theology is that they assume that God's grace
00:19:15.180 and mercy are owed to everyone. I was listening on the way in to a Calvary Chapel preacher.
00:19:22.020 Christ died for all of you Christ died for every man and woman in the world
00:19:27.460 those are the words that he said the fundamental misunderstanding in Arminian
00:19:33.360 theology is that they assume that God's grace and mercy are owed to everyone
00:19:37.060 rather than recognizing that they are owed to no one they're owed to no one
00:19:44.140 they believe if God is going to offer his mercy to some then for him to remain
00:19:50.360 just, he must offer his mercy to all. They cannot fathom the idea of God offering mercy to some
00:19:57.920 and not everyone. When God himself says, I have compassion on whom I have compassion and I will
00:20:04.600 extend my mercy to whom I will extend my mercy. He chooses who. But we want to believe that God,
00:20:15.940 if he's going to offer mercy to anyone, he must offer it to everyone. When in reality,
00:20:21.660 we should be asking the question, why do you even offer it to anyone at all?
00:20:30.100 Paul responds to these questions with what I call a checkmate response. A checkmate response.
00:20:37.600 Verse 20, he says, on the contrary, who are you, oh man, who are you to reply against
00:20:51.380 God?
00:20:53.300 Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this?
00:21:00.260 Essentially, Paul is asking, have you forgotten who you are?
00:21:04.000 do shadows criticize the path of the sun do raindrops question why they are being dropped
00:21:13.240 on a person or a particular geographic region do the trees object to the way of the wind then why
00:21:20.560 does humanity reply against God it's basically the rhetoric that is going on there in Job we
00:21:29.840 see an almost parallel scenario. In the face of suffering, Job makes 10 prideful
00:21:39.720 replies to God. Keep in mind this phrase, who are you to reply to God? Okay. This is
00:21:47.800 Job being a fool. Job 3, 11 through 12. Why did I not perish at my birth and die as I 0.99
00:21:56.760 came from the womb. Where were the knees or why were the knees to receive me and breasts that I
00:22:03.560 might be nursed? Job 7 20 through 21. If I have sinned, what have I done to you? You who see 1.00
00:22:10.680 everything we do. Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not
00:22:17.780 pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust. You will search for me
00:22:23.180 and I will be no more. Job 10, 2 through 3. I will say to God, do not condemn me, but tell me
00:22:31.600 what the charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of
00:22:37.460 your hands while you smile on the plans of the wicked? Job 13, 23 through 24. How many wrongs
00:22:44.680 and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me
00:22:50.180 your enemy. Job 23, two through four. Even today, my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy in spite
00:22:58.180 of my groaning. If only I knew where to find him. If only I could go to his dwelling, I would state
00:23:05.500 my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. We should be shocked that Job has remained alive
00:23:12.720 after this. To these questions, God does not provide any answers. None. Instead, he
00:23:25.480 offers 77 other questions. And he demonstrates his supreme power and Job's
00:23:37.440 spiritual and mental limitations. He asked questions like, where were you when I laid
00:23:47.860 the foundation of the world? Where is the way to the dwelling of light? Questions
00:23:55.680 like this that you just go, oh wait, I have no answers to these questions. And
00:24:01.140 And question after question, if you read in verses or chapter 38 and 39, God restores Job's perspective as a grain of sand.
00:24:14.860 And in chapter 40, verses 4 through 5, after God makes this great case, all Job says is this, I am foul.
00:24:26.160 How can I reply to you?
00:24:29.040 How can I reply to you?
00:24:31.140 He says, I put my hand over my mouth.
00:24:35.080 I spoke once, but I have no answer twice, but I will say no more.
00:24:41.620 Now, Paul certainly has in view that statement from Job when he's writing this.
00:24:50.080 He says, who are you to reply against God?
00:24:54.480 Do you not know the story of Job?
00:24:58.080 Will the thing formed say to him who formed it?
00:25:01.140 Why have you made me like this?
00:25:04.000 What an absurd question.
00:25:07.980 This is actually a quote from Isaiah 29, 16,
00:25:10.440 and also Isaiah 45, 9 through 11.
00:25:13.220 They both speak to this fundamental truth
00:25:15.480 that the potter has authority and dominion
00:25:18.500 over that which he creates.
00:25:21.240 Isaiah 29, 16 says,
00:25:22.700 You turn things upside down.
00:25:25.320 Shall the potter be regarded as the clay
00:25:27.240 that the thing made should save its maker?
00:25:30.700 he did not make me.
00:25:32.280 Or the thing formed, say of him who formed it,
00:25:34.440 he has no understanding.
00:25:38.560 We live in a very confused world.
00:25:43.580 We are disordered, maybe more than any other generation.
00:25:49.280 But is there anything more absurd than a created thing
00:25:51.720 critically questioning its creator?
00:25:55.940 Like would a painting demand explanation from the painter? 0.69
00:26:00.200 How ridiculous is that thought?
00:26:02.820 Imagine a loaf of bread being frustrated with the baker. 0.96
00:26:07.780 What?
00:26:09.180 It's an absurdity. 1.00
00:26:11.540 The idea of humanity demanding answers from God is arrogant and foolish. 0.97
00:26:18.040 And it's why Paul asks in verse 21, the rhetorical question, 0.96
00:26:22.640 Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use
00:26:29.200 and another for dishonorable use.
00:26:32.680 Now this is a reference to Jeremiah 18.
00:26:35.920 Why don't you guys turn there with me?
00:26:37.100 Jeremiah 18, one through six in the ESV.
00:26:43.380 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
00:26:47.040 arise and go down to the potter's house.
00:26:51.320 And there I will let you hear my words.
00:26:55.920 So I went down to the potter's house
00:26:57.740 and there he was working at his wheel and the vessel he was making of clay was
00:27:04.180 spoiled in the potter's hands and he reworked it into another vessel as it
00:27:11.540 seemed good to the potter to do then the word of the Lord came to me Oh house of
00:27:19.160 Israel can I not do with you as this potter has done declares the Lord behold
00:27:25.780 like the clay in the potter's hand, 0.52
00:27:29.000 so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
00:27:33.480 This is not a new concept to Christian history.
00:27:39.780 The question of what the clay will become
00:27:42.920 is determined by the potter.
00:27:45.820 This makes sense.
00:27:48.580 And the question of which individuals
00:27:51.140 will be shaped into vessels of mercy
00:27:55.460 through election, and which individuals will be shaped into vessels of dishonor and judgment
00:28:03.040 is not up to humanity, but up to God.
00:28:09.120 This is why God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compassion on
00:28:15.780 whom I will have compassion.
00:28:17.800 Let me ask you a question.
00:28:18.860 Does God, the maker of heaven and earth, not have the right to work some vessels into jars for heaven and some vessels for jars of wrath?
00:28:36.960 Does he not have that right?
00:28:41.460 Are you going to judge God?
00:28:43.860 are you going to judge the justice of God while only having a framework of justice that you
00:28:54.440 received from God think about how crazy that just the only justice I know is from God yet I'm going
00:29:02.440 to judge God and his justice based off the justice that I have from him it's an absurd prideful and
00:29:10.000 arrogant position to take. Will you stand and demand equal mercy as one who
00:29:18.460 deserves justice? Have we forgotten that all deserve to be vessels of dishonor?
00:29:30.240 Every single created being deserves hell. 1.00
00:29:39.240 Unfortunately, many Christians are frustrated by the incomprehensibility of divine election. 0.98
00:29:44.440 It struggles the mind to think, how can God order the world this way and remain just? 0.90
00:29:53.800 and instead of embracing the unknown, embracing the mystery, they throw out the entire doctrine
00:30:02.460 of election altogether. They cannot fathom how God, before the foundation of the world,
00:30:08.260 could righteously elect some for mercy and righteously elect some for judgment. They can't
00:30:17.280 embrace that idea. And they forgot that Isaiah 55 9 says, for as high as the heavens are above
00:30:23.160 the earth. So are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways.
00:30:32.120 Your mind is like a grain of sand standing next to Mount Everest.
00:30:43.100 Romans 11, 33 says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
00:30:50.100 How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways.
00:30:58.920 Are we humble enough to trust that God can righteously elect some stars for light
00:31:10.200 and some stars for darkness?
00:31:12.640 but he cannot righteously elect some people for redemption and some for judgment.
00:31:23.400 Can God not choose to make our sun our sun and our moon our moon
00:31:28.720 and to create every galaxy that we've never seen
00:31:34.300 and to order the world in every perfect rhythm
00:31:38.400 and the weather patterns and the animals
00:31:43.100 and the microbiome and the cells in our bodies?
00:31:47.380 Can we trust him to order all of these things,
00:31:49.980 but not trust that God can righteously elect
00:31:54.800 some for mercy and some for judgment?
00:32:00.580 At the end of the day,
00:32:02.160 if you cannot fully rest in the hands of a sovereign God,
00:32:08.400 A God who, according to Ephesians 1.11, says that he works all things together according
00:32:17.580 to the counsel of his will.
00:32:19.660 If you can't embrace a sovereign God, you will always have a sense of fear.
00:32:26.720 You will never live in peace.
00:32:29.060 you will always assign incomprehensible outcomes to human fault or demonic entities. 0.91
00:32:41.120 You've seen this in your Pentecostal friends. There's always some sort of spiritual warfare 0.58
00:32:46.900 and dualism between God and man, or between God and the devil. You know, the devil is out to get
00:32:53.360 you and God can't do anything about it. Oh, that thing happened to me and, you know, God would
00:32:59.540 never, you know, want me to suffer. I can't say that these sufferings come from God's hand.
00:33:06.920 My child died. That can't be from the Lord.
00:33:10.480 Lord, the story of Job prevents you from thinking that way.
00:33:22.160 If you've read the book, you know that the primary cause of Job's trials were not Satan
00:33:30.120 or the people who committed those acts.
00:33:32.800 The primary cause of Job's trials was God.
00:33:38.040 Have you considered my servant Job?
00:33:42.480 Have you considered afflicting him?
00:33:44.980 Yeah, he does permit the enemy to attack him, but it's God who actually brings up the opportunity
00:33:54.120 of suffering for Job.
00:34:00.120 His material loss, his children's death, his own health was taken not merely by the work
00:34:07.100 of Satan and the men who carried out those acts, but it was also carried out by God.
00:34:15.080 God ordained and permitted those things to happen.
00:34:19.400 And people who cannot embrace God's sovereignty over tragedy, they have to deny the crucifixion.
00:34:27.240 They have to.
00:34:28.780 the Bible says in Acts 4, 27 through 28, for truly in this city, there were gathered together
00:34:35.180 against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
00:34:40.120 with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had 0.88
00:34:46.960 predestined to take place.
00:34:48.720 So Jesus, the one who had no sin
00:34:53.480 Even his tragedy was predestined
00:34:57.380 But yours isn't
00:34:59.700 Isaiah 53 10
00:35:03.640 Prophesying
00:35:05.540 Of the cross says
00:35:08.480 Yet it was the will of the Lord
00:35:11.220 To crush him
00:35:12.940 The will of the Lord
00:35:15.340 To crush Christ
00:35:17.440 so until we can yield ourselves to a God who is the ultimate sovereign over all things
00:35:27.760 including our redemption you're not going to have spiritual peace if you always I say this often
00:35:36.140 if you believe that you can lose your salvation because you don't believe in a sovereign God
00:35:45.140 If you believe that you can lose your salvation,
00:35:47.920 that it's based on your choice or your maintenance
00:35:50.700 or your sustaining of your faith,
00:35:54.040 if you believe that you can lose your salvation,
00:35:56.180 you will always work to keep it.
00:35:58.820 You will always work to keep it.
00:36:01.660 Whether that means to...
00:36:03.500 Now, we obey.
00:36:05.860 We obey because we're saved.
00:36:09.360 We don't obey to be saved.
00:36:10.740 but if you believe that you can lose your salvation
00:36:14.740 because you have free will
00:36:16.120 and it wouldn't be loving for a God
00:36:20.800 to keep you saved
00:36:23.480 then you will always labor to keep it
00:36:27.860 you will always wonder if you've lost it
00:36:31.420 you will never have peace
00:36:33.640 that you rest in the hands of a sovereign God
00:36:35.640 now as I close here
00:36:38.460 I think that the problem, the greater problem, and I would say maybe even the ultimate problem
00:36:49.360 for why many reject Calvinism, the doctrines of grace or God's sovereignty over salvation,
00:36:56.780 whatever you want to call it, is because they do not know the nature and attributes of God.
00:37:05.480 They do not know these things.
00:37:07.240 Calvinism is downstream from theology proper.
00:37:14.080 Theology proper is just the study of God's character.
00:37:16.180 When a person has studied how the scriptures speak about God,
00:37:23.320 his holiness, his eternality, his sovereignty,
00:37:28.360 his immutability, his omniscience, omnipotence, his omnipresence,
00:37:32.840 When someone understands these dimensions of who God is,
00:37:39.860 Calvinism is the only reasonable conclusion of how God saves.
00:37:45.760 In fact, it's the Arminian view that is in contradiction with God's character.
00:37:51.820 God reveals himself as almighty, all-powerful, sovereign.
00:37:56.320 In other words, people who reject how God saves are typically based in not understanding
00:38:10.860 who God is.
00:38:14.900 When you see how the Bible systematically speaks of God, you cannot deny the doctrines
00:38:22.420 of grace.
00:38:23.060 So if you're struggling to embrace having a God that is sovereign over salvation,
00:38:31.080 I don't want you to just read the scriptures of the gospel.
00:38:34.660 I want you to read about the character of God.
00:38:39.460 Because when you go upstream and you see the almighty God,
00:38:45.040 the natural conclusion of salvation is the doctrines of grace.
00:38:50.140 I'll close with a quote from A.W. Pink
00:38:53.180 he once said
00:38:54.580 the foundation of all true knowledge of God
00:38:57.360 must be a clear
00:38:58.880 understanding of his
00:39:01.180 perfections as revealed in Holy Scripture
00:39:03.180 an unknown God
00:39:05.260 can neither be trusted
00:39:06.880 served or worshipped
00:39:09.000 if the heart be sound
00:39:11.400 in the doctrine of the sovereignty of
00:39:13.360 God the whole system of
00:39:15.280 truth will align
00:39:16.880 and be embraced amen
00:39:19.400 Amen.
00:39:19.920 Let's pray.
00:39:21.440 Father, we thank you that you are sovereign.
00:39:25.420 Lord, we trust you even when we don't understand.
00:39:28.120 We don't need to know exactly how when we know who you are.
00:39:33.260 Lord, we ask for your help,
00:39:35.340 that you would continue to put together the mosaic of who you are,
00:39:41.940 that we might understand and serve you and worship you.
00:39:45.200 We thank you for this passage of scripture.
00:39:47.300 We pray that you would continue to do this work
00:39:48.880 in our hearts and minds.
00:39:49.800 In Jesus' name, amen.