Your Choice, His Chosen, part Two
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 9
As you find your place, let me tell you a story:
On the April 11th, 1970, the Apollo 13 rocket launched
It was supposed to be our 3rd trip to the moon
Two days into the mission, an oxygen tank in the service module failed, and the mission was aborted
Everything became about what it would take to get the crew home
NASA engineers who’d designed ever aspect of the rocket, the lunar module, the service module, as well as every piece of gear on board were brought in with one question:
What is what you built capable of?
Not what is its purpose, but what is it capable of?
The question surprised them because capability was not the design of their engineering:
EVERY PIECE OF THAT EQUIPMENT HAD PURPOSE-DRIVEN DESIGN
Transition
As it turns out, you and I were designed for a purpose as well:
We were created for the purpose of worshipping God with all that we are.
We’ve learned in our journey through Romans...
How we brought sin and death into the world,
How God has moved through His Son, Jesus Christ, to free us from sin and death
We’ve learned about our need for a new Spirit...
The Holy Spirit can move in us to bring about obedience to God
The Holy Spirit grows the fruit of obedience in us
You can know whether or not you are saved by looking at the fruit in your life
Anyone CAN turn from their sins and find forgiveness in Jesus Christ…but not everyone will
God has given us free will, but He is Sovereign King over everything
God desires that all would be saved, and yet he has known since before there was time who would choose Him and who would not
And God, in His Sovereignty, has made His perfect plan,
that those that He has called and chosen for Himself will see all things work for our good and His glory
that those that who suffer wrath will glorify Him in their just punishment
And we were reminded last week that you can glorify God like Moses or you can glorify Him like Pharoah,
THIS is where we pick up in Romans 9:19
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ”
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;
for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.”
And just as Isaiah foretold,
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity,
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Pray & Invite the church to sit
*Listening Guides Out
This morning, we are really jumping into the deep end. It is crucial for us to understand that Scripture teaches both free will and the Sovereignty of God.
You get to make choices, and yet God chooses whom He will choose
And when I say that God chooses whom He will choose, we get all bent sideways with two objections
First, we say that it isn’t fair that a loving God would choose some to be saved and others not to be
Secondly, we argue that if God chooses beforehand that we don’t really have free will
And this morning’s text deals squarely with both of these objections. Let’s start with the first one. Look at verse 19:
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
The first thing that you need to understand this morning if you want to truly understand this, is that
I was created for God’s Purposes and to live by His rules
I was created for God’s Purposes and to live by His rules
Verse 19 sounds like the cry of this generation, doesn’t it?
Don’t judge me! Don’t push me against your standards!
Give me a break? I won’t believe in a god who judges me just because I don’t do what He wants
When we say “don’t judge me, we’re saying “don’t call me out!” “Don’t point out what I know is wrong with what I’m doing.”
We get upset at God, as though His judgment is somehow unfair.
I love this image from verse 21:
It is absurd to think about a lump of clay arguing about what the potter is making it to be
Imagine your coffee cup arguing with you.... and if it was cracked and wouldn’t hold coffee?
God formed us; He is the one who makes the rules & sets your course
With our free will, we broke the law. All that we deserve is judgment for the things we did wrong
We have no room to complain, Because He made us for His plan, and He is in control and doesn’t owe us an explanation-that is what it means to be sovereign
We need to understand that fair and just are different things
Fair is a concept from kindergarten, based on the idea that we deserve and are entitled to the same number of cookies as everybody else
We look down the street at the bigger house, car, bank account, that isn’t fair
we read God’s Word and we see that some find forgiveness and others are judged and we say that isn’t fair.
God isn’t worried about fair! But God is just
Each and everyone of us deserves judgment
We were made for God’s purposes-He is the One that made us, and He gets to decide what He made us for!
He is the one that made us- His creation lives by His rules, and all of us broke them
Look at verse 22:
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Remember, God knew you before you were born
He knew the sins you would commit, but He let you make that choice
And everyone of us chose to sin
He knew whether or not you would choose to follow Him, but He left you the choice
Those that are His, He chose and to graciously redeem and call to Himself
Those that are not, He chooses to justly punish
But what we need to remember is our second point, that
While all deserve wrath, God uses both wrath and salvation for His glory
While all deserve wrath, God uses both wrath and salvation for His glory
Everything in all of creation is about God’s glory-should it surprise us that this includes both wrath and salvation
God is glorified when He is patient with guilty sinners, giving us every moment of our lives to turn to Him in repentance from the evil we choose.-And His patience is clear to His children!
God is glorified when His wrath falls upon the guilty, because they have sinned against Him and His justice is displayed on them getting what they deserve. His justice is clear to all, and amongst His children His mercy is magnified all the more, as we know that we deserve that same wrath.
We struggle with these things
Our just punishment
His Sovereign rule
His foreknowledge in all things.
Yet, from the very beginning, it was His intention to move all things to bring Him glory
even saving both Jews and Gentiles
EX: Martin Luther’s fireside chat-believer glorifies God in deserving Hell
We struggle with these things, because we say, if God chooses, and if He knows us all before, then why does God even make those that are bound for destruction? Doesn’t His perfect plan mean we don’t really have free will?
But the beauty of it is that God lets you choose. He knows what you are choosing, but He still lets you choose.
He has planned for your choice, and that is incredible-because He will be glorified by your decision, which goes according to His perfect will.
With your free will, you made a choice-you chose to sin
With your free will-you will choose to follow Him or to reject Him-
And He will call those to Himself that are His
Look at verse 25:
As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ”
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;
for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.”
And just as Isaiah foretold,
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity,
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”
This is our next point, friends:
God’s plan was always to save only the believing
God’s plan was always to save only the believing
What did God say through His prophets?
He always planned for saved children from among the gentiles
He never planned to take all of Israel, but only those that believe
That God is bring about salvation and judgment according to His plan,
AND, the only reason ANY have salvation is the mercy and grace of God
Salvation from sin and adoption as sons and daughters of God is available to any and everyone that will come!
But while we don’t know who will come to God and who will not, God does
His perfect plan has provided for the salvation of everyone who believes
But His plan was never for everyone to be saved, because He knew not everyone would believe
Thus, God’s salvation is universal in scope, but it is limited in its affect.
What does that mean?
It means that while Jesus died to pay for the sins of everyone, His salvation will only affect those that believe
Anybody can come to Jesus, but not everyone will-And God always knew that, and He has planned for it
Look at verse 30:
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Israel always thought that salvation was limited, they just didn’t understand it was by faith
They thought it was limited by birth into Israel
They saw the law as a list of check boxes, and obligatory “have to’s”
They looked at salvation the way a lot of us who say we are Christians do
If I show up at church, I’m saved
If I walk the aisle and say a prayer, I’m saved
If I get baptized, I’m saved
If I go to Sunday School and read my Bible, I’m saved
All of these things are good, none of them save you!
In reality, the only thing we have earned from God is His wrath
What Paul says here is that both Jew and Gentile are saved by faith, and that those who receive mercy are no more deserving than those shown wrath because all deserve destruction
You have free will-and with it you chose destruction. And now, God is the one who chooses. Anyone can be saved, But God is calling those that will be
And this last thing is hard.
you might not believe it
but that doesn’t make it less true-it is right here in Scripture
I will not twist the Words of His word to make it fit what I want, but I choose to take it as it is and believe
I have free will, and yet my God is sovereign to choose whom He will save.
The last thing I would have you note this morning leads us towards a call to response:
God’s salvation trips some, but saves the believer
God’s salvation trips some, but saves the believer
Verse 33 reminds us: not everyone will be saved. Not everyone will accept the truth
But those who accept the truth find salvation in Jesus Christ
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
don’t trip on these things this morning friends
be among those of us that put ourselves in the hands of the Potter, knowing that is where we already are
while you still have a choice, let your choice be to trust Him in faith.
If today you hear Him calling, harden not your heart
Pray
ADVERTISEMENT