Burk Parsons: Nothing Too Hard

[Applause] thank you Chris I want to echo what Chris said in that we are a parachurch ministry we're not the church in fact we are not even really a parachurch ministry appropriately as a parachurch ministry is a ministry that comes alongside the church we are more so a sub Church ministry a ministry that serves the church that comes under the church a ministry that strives to listen to the church to understand the needs of the church and provide the church globally with resources that can help serve the church and advance the gospel in the Word of God so that the Great Commission might be fulfilled in all its fullness that said as it is something I often say at the beginning of conferences wherever I might be speaking is that conferences are wonderful we get to see a lot of old friends they're wonderful times almost like family reunions we get to hear teaching from the Word of God and about the Word of God in the theology of the Word of God but I want us all to remember that conferences are not ultimate we are called to be faithful church men faithful church women we are called to attend regularly to the means of grace that God has given us as his people they keep changing the time on me here going from 45 to 40 I think it's going to go to 30 minutes here in just a second the longer I speak so I know that I'm preaching to the choir but sometimes the choir needs to be preached to and we need to be reminded that we are first and foremost called to be faithful members of our local churches so with that I want to also say that this is a conference and I will not be preaching in the typical manner that I do at st. Andrews and morning and evening on the Lord's Day going verse by verse right now we are making our way through Romans and coming to the end of Romans very quickly in Romans 16 and preaching through first Peter in the evenings today we're going to be considering the omnipotence of God the power of God and we'll be looking at a passage of Scripture and a few passages later on but be mindful that as we consider this topic a topic and a subject an attribute of God that all Christians should agree on I think that we'll find is that there are in fact many Christians who do not in truth agree on this most foundational attribute of who our God is and how he acts let's pray together our Father we thank you for your love for us we thank you for your goodness we thank you for all all that you are and all your glorious attributes that you are a holy God and that you are a sovereign God you're a gracious God that you're a loving God lord help us by your Holy Spirit not only to understand your word but to love your word not just to read your word but to study your word and can consume your word and to be consumed by it make us even more hungry for your word help us Lord to be faithful men and women boys and girls help us to be faithful as we rest and the once for all finished work and faithfulness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and whose name and for his glory we pray amen now if you're a Christian you confess what all Christians throughout the ages have confessed you and your churches and we and our church will often confess the Apostles Creed and when we confess the Apostles Creed we begin by saying what I believe in God the Father Almighty now if you confess that which all Christians ought to confess all Christians ought to believe and all Christians claim they believe if you confess that if you believe that then you are in essence sing heartily that you believe that God is all-powerful you are confessing that God is Almighty you are confessing that God is great and God is awesome that God is the God of Israel he is the king of kings he is the Lord of lords that nothing is too difficult for God you are confessing that God is the Lord of hosts the Lord of armies that God is creator that God is sustainer that all things are upheld by his power you confess and confessing that God is all-powerful that he is el-shaddai as God himself revealed himself to Abraham firstly in calling himself that he was declaring to Abram that he is God Almighty God all-powerful that's God's self disclosure because theology comes from God as I first learned from one of my mentors and friends dr. Sinclair Ferguson years ago and quoting Thomas Aquinas who said theology proceeds from God it teaches us about God and it leads us back to God it leads us back to God and knowing God and loving God and worshiping God if our theology that proceeds from God doesn't teach us about God and doesn't lead us back to God in doxology that it's not biblical theology the theology that comes from God it informs us it changes us it brings us to our knees in worship and prayer and faith and repentance and that's God's self-disclosure God says that he is powerful but nothing is too difficult for him now if I went around the room this morning and I surveyed all of you and I said do you believe that God is all-powerful do you believe that God is omnipotent everyone in this room I am almost certain would say yes I believe that God is all-powerful I believe that God is omnipotent if we went around to all the members of our churches throughout world if we went around to Christians from every different walk in every different denomination and if they're Christians who confess the Apostles Creed and they believe that God is Almighty and we say to them and we ask them do you believe that God is all-powerful do you believe that God is omnipotent what are they going to say yes but then if you ask them this question you might get a different response is God all-powerful over salvation is God all-powerful in regenerating in redeeming is God all-powerful in justifying as God all-powerful over everyone's will can anyone resist the will of God is God all-powerful over the good and the bad is God all powerful in his justice and in all his decisions is God all powerful in his saving and in his condemning then you might get a different answer and so while all Christians claim to believe that God is omnipotent and all-powerful too often too many Christians sitting in too many pews in too many churches in fact do not believe that God is all-powerful because they deny that God is all-powerful when it comes to salvation and their very own will now at this point I want to stop and say that some of you realize those of you who are careful students of theology and of the Scriptures you know precisely where I'm headed you know that this is the issue about which so many people disagree and it was an issue and was a matter and a doctrine that I myself disagreed with and not only disagreed with this whole matter of God's omnipotence and God's sovereign power over salvation I didn't just disagree with it I hated it I fought against it for about two and a half years of my life studying theology in the original languages and looking at all the scripture trying to do everything I possibly could with all the free will I could possibly muster convince myself convince myself that what Scripture seemed to be saying was not actually true about the God that I believed was all-powerful and all-loving and all good those of you who know dr. Sproul story know that he fought against it for about five years of his life for those of us who fought and came kicking and screaming to understanding the sovereign power of God and the omnipotence of God in Salvation many of us we struggled and we fought and it was hard you know I never went through at least in my mind I never went through what so many referred to as that cage stage Calvinism where they kick and scream and kick against the goads and they finally come to a place where they they recognize and acknowledge God's sovereign power and salvation but then they start beating up everyone around them as if they should get it immediately I never went through that because it was hard for me because these doctrines are hard these doctrines are difficult they're difficult not because the Bible makes them difficult because we in our sinful minds and our finite minds make them difficult because we are not God and we don't understand the ways of God his ways are past finding out we cannot understand the mysteries of our triune God all that we can do is learn from what he has revealed to us for us and our children anyone who tries to make you think that you're stupid or foolish or ignorant and you just need to get it dearly beloved what you need to do is you need to study scripture not just read it but study it because for so many of us from so many different traditions we come to scripture with our own ideas about who God is and about what God should do about what God shouldn't do and you often hear people say things like this well my god and usually what follows that demonstrates that it's not the god of Scripture my God wouldn't do this my God couldn't do that and so even now is we don't want to create a straw man argument there are many who are even here today as I remember myself sitting with friends somewhere right about there in the balcony in 1997 my second National Conference here still wrestling with these things still struggling with these things coming to a prescience view that was a semi Pelagian sovereign tea and salvation thinking that I finally had an answer but realizing that what I actually believed was an ancient church heresy but we struggle with these things these things are hard and so as we consider God's power and which we consider God's omnipotence as we consider how it is that God is all-powerful that nothing is too difficult for God where we need to focus our attention because we're the greatest amount of difference in debate is regards God's sovereignty over salvation turn with me to Romans chapter 9 now at st. Andrews in our study of Romans I spent numerous numerous weeks in Romans chapter 9 and I'm sorry to say but I'm sure you're grateful to hear that we won't be spending the next several hours in Romans 9 but what I would like to do is give a brief survey looking at a couple of other different passages in Scripture all the way through about verse 24 and so we're gonna read section by section I'm gonna make brief comments so as to help us get the argument that Paul is making understand that I won't be able to comment on everything I won't be able to deal with everything in this text but hopefully we can cover some of the essentials to help us better understand how it is that God is indeed all-powerful and how it is indeed that God is gracious Paul writes I'm speaking the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself for a cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law of the worship and the promises to them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all blessed forever amen do you hear Paul's heart do you hear Paul's anguish do you see how Paul's heart is broken over so many of his fellow kinsmen Jews who had rejected the long-awaited Messiah do you hear Paul's heart for the lost who are dying and going to hell apart from the Messiah Paul begins Romans 9 with a heart for the Lost Paul begins Romans 9 with with describing in the most sincere terms he possibly could saying please believe me I really mean this I'm not just saying this I'm not just giving lip service to my real heart for those who are gods who have rejected the Christ he begins with a heart for the lost and a heart even for the gospel going to the lost it's a heart for evangelism it's a heart for missions and then at beginning of chapter 10 just see briefly Paul writes again with no chapter divisions of course in the original brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved he's praying for them he doesn't just have a heart for the Lost he's praying for the Lost so often so many circles I keep continuing to hear this nonsense about those who understand and believe the doctrine of God's sovereign power and salvation that we don't believe in evangelism that we don't believe in prayer that we're just a bunch of frozen Chosin who don't care because God is sovereign he's gonna do whatever he wants and he doesn't need us balderdash we as God's people who love the grace of our Lord and love the gospel of God and believe in the sovereignty of God we believe that God is sovereign we believe that God has foreordained all things that come to pass yet he is neither the author nor the approver of sin or evil we who believe that that he is the primary and ultimate cause of all things we also firmly believe that he is also the one who has ordained secondary means God ordains not only the means of all ends he ordains the ends of all things he ordains both the ends and the means to those ends and he has ordained that we pray he has ordained that we evangelize and proclaimed the gospel he has ordained even that we would have a heart for the lost do you have a heart for the lost Spurgeon goes so far as to say if you don't have a heart for the lost you yourself might be lost Paul was grieving in his spirit for the lost this was the people of God the ethnic people of God to whom God had given his word his promises his Oracle's his laws his commandments God chose this people this this ethnic people who were not a people and God made them a people they were a little nation and God gave to them his promises his laws his Oracles and Paul's heart longed to see them saved and he prayed to that end but he writes in verse 6 it is not as though the Word of God has failed this is significant it is not as though the Word of God has failed you see that was the question has God's Word has his promise failed if God called a nation and he declared that these were his people what gives why aren't they all saved why don't they know the Lord Jesus Christ why didn't they receive the long-awaited Messiah that was first promised after the fall in Genesis 3 why weren't they all believing didn't Christ come to save his people from their sins yes but who his people are needed some further clarification and that's precisely what Paul is doing here in Romans 9 who are the chosen of God who are the chosen of the Lord and just as Paul explained in Romans 4 and even in Romans 5 that it is by faith just as Abraham believed and it was reckoned to him as righteousness that is the language of justification we believe and we who believe are the sons of Abraham we are the seed of Abraham because it is by the spirit not by the flesh it is by faith not by our ethnic connection so it's not as if the Word of God has failed now Paul is about to explain how it is the Word of God has not failed how it is that God is all powerful that God's promises cannot be undone they cannot be taken back that God's Word has done exactly what God intended for it to do that God's Word will accomplish all that God has intended it to accomplish but notice that word all that God has intended a key word all that God has willed that it would accomplish you see there's the rub because when we say that God is all-powerful we are not saying that God can do anything can God do anything don't answer those of you who are careful theologians and know your confessions and catechisms well you know that the answer that question is no not really because God cannot go against his will God cannot go against his nature God cannot break his promises God cannot be overcome he cannot be denied he cannot be created he cannot be destroyed God cannot lie God cannot do that which is out of accord with his character that which is out of accord with his will or his intent but God can do all that He wills and as Agustin said this is not limiting God's power this is showing that God has absolute and true power over all because if God could do those things he wouldn't be God it's not as though the Word of God has failed and so Paul explains he explains to a largely Gentile audience with some Jews many Jews were filtering back into Rome after Claudius died having expelled the Jews from Rome in 49 now having died in 54 many of the Jews were coming back into the Rome Roman churches and so writing to a largely Gentile audience but still some Jews in this magnum opus Paul explains that the Word of God has not failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham because they're his offspring but through Isaac shall your offspring be named Paul has just now begun to make his argument and this argument is in the form of theodicy now when I use the word theodicy many people instantly go to the classic work by Homer and think that I'm saying the Odyssey Chuck we got it right okay we're not saying the odyssey we're speaking of theodicy one word wherein we are seeing Paul give a justification in order to vindicate God who is both good and who allows evil how can a good God permit evil if God is good why is there evil the bigger question by the way that I often ask when I'm asked that question wherever I am out in the world and they say well if God is good if God is just if God is holy God is all-powerful then why is there evil and my question is why is it there not more evil if you understand the sinfulness of man if you have a right regard and a high regard for the total depravity of man the question is why isn't there greater evil in the world why isn't there more sin why aren't there more mass shootings and murders and suicides and abortions because God is good and he restrains evil by his spirit and by his law so that we might even have been born and exist as the elect of God from all eternity but that's what Paul's doing he's giving us a theodicy an explanation a defense and a vindication of God's ways because many people are asking this doesn't make sense this whole Christianity thing doesn't make sense this was the same God you're saying right Paul this is the same God who came and dwelt among us took on flesh and his very own people whom were given the Word of God the the first gospel the commandments the Oracles they've rejected him and you're still trying to convince us that this Christianity is true Paul sang to many of you haven't really been reading the Word of God and for so many of the Jews they were actually just more busy studying their traditions rather than the Word of God and that has been the case in the church for so many years and among so many that they are more consumed with studying their traditions even studying their techniques and their programs than they are studying the Word of God in our day to many churches and to many Christians are studying the culture rather than the Word of God they're taking their cues from culture rather than from the Word of God and Paul says you need to understand what the Bible says you need to understand what the Word of God actually does say and so Paul as he quotes the Old Testament throughout Romans nine what he is demonstrating is that this is not new that this understanding of God's sovereignty in salvation and God's sovereignty in an election is nothing new it goes all the way back to the very beginning let me give you some examples Paul says here is Isaac Isaac was chosen and not Ishmael and then the Jews might say well yeah that makes sense because Ishmael wasn't a true a true true born son of Abraham he was of Hagar so Paul says okay well let me take it one step further if you don't like that example let me give you another example and so Paul argues there and verse seven again through Isaac shall your offspring be named from Genesis 21 this means that it's not the children of the flesh or the children of God but the children of the promise are counted as offspring oh he could have just stopped right there if you understand what Paul is getting at there he says that's not the children of the flesh it's not because they were of ethnic Israel it's because by faith those who were to believe in the Messiah that they are in fact the sons of the promised the true seed of Abraham they are the ones that God has called for this is what the promise said verse 9 about this time next year I will return and Sara shall have a son and not only that but also when Rebekah conceived children by one man our forefather Isaac though they were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue or might stand not because it works but because of him who calls now let's stop there because there's that word that some of you still don't like though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad no Paul didn't need to say that you know why he said that under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit it seems that what Paul was doing was coming down to our level with all our presuppositions about God saying what God won't do what God can't do what God is not powerful enough to do or what God certainly wouldn't do Paul comes down says ok let me try to explain this to you in the most simple way I possibly can had not yet been born it didn't do anything yet either good or evil just to make it clear this is before they were born they hadn't done anything Paul condescends to us he comes down to us to explain in the simplest words he possibly can in order that God's purpose of election might stand that God's purpose and election might continue that it might be shown for what it is not because of works because of him who calls it's not because of our exertion it's not because of our works it's because of him who calls it's not on account of our works it's not on account of anything that we do it's on account of the one who calls it's on account of the one who elects and then Paul goes deeper doubles down and digs in he needs for them to understand what election is and what election isn't he needs them to understand the grace of God in its fullness he wants them and God wants us to understand how God is powerful in what ways God has revealed his power and this is where it gets really hard for so many and my fear dearly beloved my fear is that in covering this today and looking at this passage today that many of you are going to come away disliking me or even hating me and I don't want to be disliked but my bigger concern is that you'd come away rejecting this powerful God that you had come away and that you had faced these doctrines and these truths so blatantly in your face that you would say I can't believe in that God that I can't believe in a God who is like this but here's the here's the problem if you can't believe in that God you don't believe in the God of Scripture and if you don't believe in the God of Scripture you don't believe in God and you don't know God you're not saved friends that's hard to say but you have to do something with this you have to somehow reckon to this and as we see that the real real hard part of this doctrine you can't just ignore it you can't just relegate it you can't just say well we don't understand that Paul is wanting you to understand it God is revealing to you that you might understand it not that you might understand and know the mysteries of God we you know the mysteries of the Godhead but what we can know is what he's revealed and so listen to what Paul says not because of works but because of him who calls verse 12 she was told the older will serve the younger as it is written Jacob I loved but Esau I hated now some of you and coming to this passage have studied and have read and have heard from preachers this explanation that really how that could be understood is that what Paul is saying and quoting from Malachi is that Jacob the Lord has loved but Esau he has loved less that's a very common interpretation now in reality we need to understand what Paul is doing here Paul is employing a very typical method of arguing it's a Hebrew as 'm Paul is making a contrast indeed just like Jesus made a contrast and recorded in Luke 14 where Jesus said something along the lines of if you come to me you must hate father mother wife children or you can't be my follower that was a typical Hebrew a ISM a way of contrasting in order to show that we must love Christ holy and above all else that's what Paul's doing yet that doesn't get Paul off the hook turn with me to Malachi chapter 1 because what we see there in the context of where Paul is quoting from Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated we hear this Oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi in Chapter 1 and verse 2 we read the following now I know that many of you are Baptists and many of you aren't Baptist but we are at least in a Baptist Church and so you all ought to be there by now and our congregation the my they're so patient with their pastor because they know if I even mention a text they ought to get going there as quickly as possible Malachi chapter one we read see I just gave you a little extra time Malachi chapter one I have loved you says the Lord but you say how have you loved us see they're questioning God saying how have you loved us what about Esau did you love he saw the the nation that came from him that word eat a meaning read from Esau who has read how have you loved us is not Esau Jacob's brother declares Lord yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert if Edom says we are shattered but we will build the ruins rebuild the ruins the Lord of Hosts says they may build but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever it's one of the passages to which we turn and understanding the eternality of Hell the Lord will be angry forever your eyes shall see this you will behold this and you shall say great is the lord beyond the border of israel great magnificent mighty powerful that this God is a great God and how is it that he is showing his power out of his destruction and his hatred toward Esau and his descendants so even though Paul is giving to us and employing this Hebrew ism as Jesus was we see here from this context clearly what we're talking about we are talking about judgment and eternal condemnation and the anger of God try putting that on a bumper sticker or billboard it's not very seeker-friendly see those who want to say well this is the God of the Old Testament they need to read the New Testament because he's the same God and I know this is hard dearly beloved but in these hard truths we find the beauty of the grace of God what shall we say then is there injustice on God's part by no means may it never be god forbid there is no injustice on God's part as we read from all of Scripture Deuteronomy 32 Zephaniah 3 that all God's ways are justice that there is no injustice with God that God is always just you can't charge God with being unjust see the reality of it is so many of us we want we want justice for everyone else but we want mercy for ourselves you know when we hear about someone hurting or something that has happened to someone you know it sometimes the first thing that pops in our mind is what did they do to deserve that but what happens to us what do we do god what did I do to deserve this the truth is God is just and he's merciful these are not parts of God these are not attributes sort of put alongside God or things that he possesses if you will these are who God is God is just God is merciful as we'll see here in just a moment how God even defines or discloses who he is even more fully is there injustice on God's part by no means for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion now in Exodus 33 that's right get going there in Exodus 33 Moses is interceding for Israel after the golden calf episode and sin against God after the Lord had already told the sons of Levi to destroy and to kill their brothers and sisters about three thousand fell that day and a plague came upon Israel Moses is pleading with the Lord do not blot my name out it and if if you're gonna blot their name out blot my name out that's similar to what we hear Paul's heart and cry in Romans nine and ten may it come upon me and Moses pleading as if he could make atonement which he couldn't it was only someone greater than Moses who could he's pleading with the Lord saying lord have mercy upon your people and then Moses and interceding says lord I want to know you ought to see your glory I want to know your ways I want to know who you are I want to know your being I want to know who you are our God as a holy God who are you show me your ways and Moses said to the Lord in verse 12 of 33 of Exodus see you say to me bring up this people but you have not let me know whom you will send with me you have said I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight now therefore if I have found favor in your sight please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight consider to that this nation is your people consider to that this nation is your people Moses speaking in ethnic terms of the nation of Israel and God helps him to explain why it is that he just had killed about 3000 of his people and he said my presence will go with you and I will give you rest and he said to him if your presence will not go with me do not bring us up from here if you're not gonna go with us Lord just let us die here at Mount Sinai if you're not gonna go with me if you are not gonna be with us then just let us stay let us die here for how shall it be known verse 16 how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight that I and your people is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct we are separate I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth now listen verse 17 and the Lord said to Moses this very thing that you have spoken I will do for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name and then Moses said please show me your glory and he said I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name Yahweh the Lord and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy God in declaring himself and who he is and seeing his glory seeing his power seeing his greatness seeing who God is Moses must understand that the reason he put so many to death and the reason he brought judgment but also the reason he is showing mercy also the reason he is showing compassion also the reason that he will go with them and also the reason that Moses has found favor with the Lord is because God is the one who shows mercy and God is the one who shows compassion to those whom he will no further explanation is needed and if we grasp that truth then we will grasp the corollary will grasp that which is necessarily connoted by what God has declared about himself and Paul makes it crystal clear so then verse 16 chapter 9 it does not depend on human will or exertion some of your translations have it doesn't depend on him who wills or runs it doesn't depend on our desire our wanting to and it doesn't depend on our actions it doesn't depend on our will it doesn't depend on our exertion it depends on God who has mercy and Paul says in case it's not clear enough let me make it even more clear so that you can rightly understand the power of God and how God uses his power in all of history for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you see Pharaoh and all the Egyptians thought that Pharaoh was there by all the gods of Egypt Pharaoh thought he had power that came from his gods and from his own mighty right arm God is saying to Pharaoh I put you there it was my power that raised you up I'm the one who made you so successful and so powerful but you were an instrument that I was using to show forth my power God said so we read the examples from Exodus for this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth so then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whom ever he wills you will say to me then why does he still find fall for who can resist his will that's what they're asking that's what those who struggle with these doctrines and some of you who still struggle with these doctrines and sooo struggle with God's power and his sovereignty and salvation and all things you struggle and you're still asking that question as I asked that question as I came even to a crisis moment in my life either questioning Scripture or having to totally have a different view of who the god of Scripture is here's Paul's answer who are you o men to reply against God who do you think you are and when that came to me it was as if the Lord slapped me upside the face and said keep your mouth shut who are you who are you to question God who are you to question the ways of God who are you to question the power of God who are you to question away God has acted throughout history who are you to question the almighty all-powerful creator of all things who do you think you are Paul says who are you a man to answer back to God it's similar to what we find in job well what is molded say - its Mulder why have you made it like this why have you made me like this 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 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 you see this is that doctrine of reprobation and there are many Christians who say they believe in the doctrine of election but if you don't believe in the doctrine of reprobation you don't believe in the doctrine of election it's double or nothing if you don't understand the doctrine of reprobation you don't understand the doctrine of election if you don't understand that it is God who ultimately passes over passes by and hardens from all eternity because of the sin of mankind that's the language of our confessional standards the language of the canons of dort but all according to his ordaining power and sovereign shooting he elects and he chooses he plucks out and saves and he passes over there by condemning others and I know that many of you say well that's just not fair well you should be grateful that it's not because of it were we'd all be in Hell right now the truth of the matter is the truth of the matter is that many of us want to ask the question and we still want to ask this question especially if we have a heart for the lost we're not just talking about the lost out there that we see we're talking about our friends and our family we're talking about moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas we're talking about our own children we're talking about our grandchildren that may not know the Lord and we're praying God save them and I pray that they would be among your elect and when you're on your knees praying for the salvation of those you most dearly loved you would give everything for you say God how can it be like this God why didn't you just elect everyone we don't know the answer to that question except that God has done all things perfectly according to his perfect and sovereign will and he's done all things for his glory and his name and while we cannot fully understand how God works and why he does what he does we need to rest in His perfect sovereignty and not ask the inappropriate question God why don't you elect everyone because that is a question that runs right up against the same answer from Paul who are you we need to rather ask the more biblically informed question God why do you save anyone because we were at M nity with you we are your enemies we are in opposition to you and when you came down in the person of your son we put you on the cross and killed you why would he save any of us why would he elect anyone you see if God just elect one person he would have shown forth His grace but that he has elected a people from every tribe tongue and nation because you and I both know that if we've come to understand these doctrines that each and every one of us have been able to say Lord why me why did you save me why did you elect me we did all this to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of Mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory you see friends it's only when we rightly understand the sovereign power of God and salvation that we can really begin to understand the true omnipotence of God it's only when we understand the sovereignty of God and salvation that we can understand the grace of God it's only when we understand the grace of God that we will be able to hear those beautiful words the Lord Jesus Christ said to Paul my grace is sufficient for you not only in salvation but in all of life and it's when we understand that grace it's when we rest in the grace of God by the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit it's only then when we can begin to understand that his power is made perfect in our weakness in our humility in our weakness and our dependence upon him let's pray Lord you are God Almighty Father Son and Holy Spirit thank you father for saving us for electing us help us O Lord to rest in that so great a salvation fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and let us rest in the gospel and your grace which saves us and without which we would be condemned forever we praise you Lord and we thank you make us and keep us humble and help us to know always that your power is made perfect in our weakness in Christ's name we pray amen [Applause]

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Keywords: Ligonier, Ligonier Conference, orlando conference, ligcon, Jeremiah 32:17, god's will, holy will, gods decree, omnipotence

Id: BXH1NP77-U8

Length: 51min 20sec (3080 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019