Rich Wilkerson, Jr. — Book Of Romans: God's Sovereignty, Our Responsibility

today I want to preach to you from this theme God's sovereignty our responsibility God's sovereignty our responsibility and I brought up one of my most favorite possessions that I own this is my carry-on luggage right here in any travelers in the house anyone that wick who really travels like come on okay so you know you know my pain praise God this bag is special to me because I've traveled all over the world in this little bag and this bag is full of really cool features it's got like compartments in and it's got like hidden crevices it's got all these little things it's got this cool expander that it's got and carry on for me is like important because all of us know these days that we know with the airline if you check a bag well that's gonna cost you more money if you check a bag you have to be there earlier if you check it bag it to be there later if you check it back they lose your bag I'm not bitter but it's funny cuz I've now flown if you believe this 3 million air miles with American Airlines I wish I could say that they're nice to me but still we're waiting ok but I've got like all I mean I've gone to Australia with just this bag all I have is like one pair of underwear I've been to South Africa just this bag alone earlier this year I was I was in Sweden it's funny I was in Sweden coming back and the thing with like carry-on bags the reason why we want to bring carry-on bag is because everyone's trying to get it in the overhead bin and this has created a problem for the airlines have you guys noticed this and so they have this contraption that measures your bag right there as you're boarding the plane but the problem with the contraption is the contraption it's leaning in favor of the airline because everybody knows that the contraption that they're measuring your bag with is much smaller than the overhead bin itself and so what they love to do is at any moment their subjective choice they can steal your carry-on and check it which is the whole reason why you put everything into a carry-on the other day I'm coming back from from Sweden and this bag has this expander and so it gets bigger and so it was cold and Sweden and so I had my jackets and stuff there and so I got there and they said I'm so sorry sir can you put your bag into the measuring contraption yeah absolutely and I try to fill in but it was not fitting me like they go your bag doesn't fit as like yes it does like pulling out wd-40 no my god well it when it fits so have you ever done this before I had to open my bag I started putting layers of clothes on this is like this is like some real stubbornness you know I had a hoodie on and two two jackets I'm like now it fits inside I got that I got the bag on and I had a heat stroke on the airplane on the way home a lot of cool features about this bag but I think ultimately in my opinion my favorite feature about this bag is that it's got handles on it and the handles are important because ultimately the handles help me get the contents that are inside the bag to and from in a much more effective efficient way like I I love the handle the handle is not the bag but the handles attached to the bag and the bag is the good stuff but but the handle makes the good stuff just simpler it just makes it easier I can get to it I can carry it I can walk with it I can use my bag it's right here it's got all I packed it I unpacked it I know all this stuff on the inside but I got a handle I think sometimes in church what can happen is is so often in church we can give people handles but we haven't revealed what's inside the bag and this is a big deal because honestly like following Jesus and going on the faith journey requires you individually to unpack the bag to repack the bag to discover the depth of the bag to discover the crevices in the bag the features of the bag you think God's Word it is it is deep and it is rich and it requires us to go deep into it and wrestle with it and fight with it and question it and solve things and then have more questions and what can happen to so many people today as so many people can walk out of church with handles but they have no idea what they're holding on to and the power is not in the handle the power is in what the handle is attached to and so we live in a world today that's full of cliches and churches are full of cliches and people are full of cliches and we have these little soundbite answers ooh that'll tweet oh I could gram that and many times what's taking place is because people haven't gotten into the bag they've settled for handles and cliches I wrote down this way my journal cliches are handles that are no longer holding anything that's what it is and a lot of us we just settle for that we just go okay cool I got some cliches and that'll work it's important that you do the journey of packing unpacking bag for instance like like like the best is yet to come that's a cliche if you don't know what you're holding on to does it make sense like like all this is a handle but the power of that statement that's the handle but that statement is packed with some stuff and it's a cliche if you haven't ever actually been through some stuff if you've never gotten deep into the valley of the shadow of death it's a cliche if you're wondering man have you ever gotten to some pain some trials you see all of a sudden it doesn't become just a cliche it becomes a handle when you've walked through the valley and you've discovered even though I've gone through some pain by God has always shown up and he's always been faithful therefore I can stand on the promises of God that the best is truly yet to come it's not a cliche it's a handle but I know what I'm holding on to God is good [Music] and all the time I love our church it's full of so many new Christians they don't even know that cliche like what is this weird phrase but God is good all the time and all the time God is good that's just a cliche if you've never actually been in a moment that you started a question is God good because I'm telling you like I know I say that in church but sometimes it just kind of seems like life happens and a lot of things in life are really really bad and if all this bad stuff is happening to me how on earth could God be good and until you've wrestled with that until you've unpacked that until you've repack that until you've gone through it you can't actually say that out loud and mean it but the moment that you've gone through some stuff the moment you have wrestled with God the moment you've come through the fire and you've discovered yeah go through some bad stuff and yeah I've gone through some tough stuff but I'm here to testify my god is good all the time [Applause] that's the point the point is is that you know what's in the bag the bags my story the bag is my experience the bag is my theology the bag is my perspective the bag is my filter I can share it with you handles but if you don't know what you're holding on to is silly cuz handles are they're sexy but but it's actually what's in the bag that matters I'm using that today as an illustration because today I'm gonna offer you some handles but these handles like they are so just soundbites and you can tweet them and you can Instagram them and you could put a really cool design thing on your Instagram like yeah I learned something and that's fine I love that you do that but if you don't actually go and get in Romans 9 10 and 11 this week and unpack it and get in there and go on the journey of wrestling with some of these scriptures all you have is a cliche cuz you don't actually know what you're holding on to Romans 9 10 and 11 is is interesting and we're not going to get into all of 10 or all of 11 we're just going to read a bit of Romans 9 but the reason why I keep packaging them together is because whenever you study Romans 9 you you would you would be wise to make sure that you read that thing in context in Romans 9 needs to be read with Romans 10 and it needs to be read with Romans 11 that they go together and ultimately the big thought in Romans 9 10 and 11 is that Paul is talking to us about the sovereignty of God now the word sovereignty when it comes to who theology is a dense word packed with lots and lots of truth and I could give you lots and lots of definitions today I'm going to kind of give you a layman's definition something you can write down this word sovereignty I would define it today as this is that nothing that happens occurs without God's knowledge and permission of it so that's that's not the full scope there's there's more to that but that's a good kind of working definition today when we talk about this word sovereignty that God is sovereign it means that nothing that happens occurs without God's knowledge or permission of it you see God is he's sovereign and we're speaking of his authority his power his his Dominion God is big god is great has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God have you ever wondered that God doesn't wonder like God thought up in heaven like oh my goodness it's raining I 95 is packed he's not surprised he doesn't get shocked by anything he's not worried huh what are they gonna do what do you do you are God's omniscient means he's all-knowing he's he's omnipotent he's he's all-powerful he's omnipresent meaning he's everywhere at the same time this is big this is great this is grand yeah what's amazing is that it was Charles Spurgeon when my favorite preachers in the last 200 years he he was quoted saying this that the truth is in the tension and so in so tension it occurs when something is pulled at both ends so both ends being pulled there in the center of the rope there would be tension and it's in that tension that you discover so much of the truth of God in fact if you don't like tension you probably won't like following God very much because God is mysterious God is abstract God speaks to us in metaphor God speaks to us and requires us to actually use wisdom and filter things out and what can happen to many of us on this journey is that many of us on this journey we can start to go okay I believe God is sovereign but if God's sovereign well then why does anything that I do even matter like this is the temptation for sure like if God sovereign he knows all things everything it happens he gives permission for I mean I'm not as well just like devote my life to playing Fortnight every day and you know just hanging at my mom's basement and eat bugles you know what bugles are those of the it's a great road trip snack right there yeah what what's funny about God is that you study the scriptures and story after story you'll see God's sovereignty at work but then you'll see an invitation from God for us to be a part of his plan being executed I take the story of Noah for instance God's like hey Noah I'm about to flood the earth but I'm gonna save you and deliver you it was like yay God's like build an ark it was like wait a minute I thought you just said you were gonna deliver me he's like I am build an ark I thought you were gonna get me out of this I am build an ark it's like Moses write Moses leaves Egypt with Israel behind him he finally comes to the Red Sea a Great Barrier each IFFT is behind him trying to come back and get them back and Moses starts to have a panic attack oh my god we might as well go back to Egypt because in Egypt that's where they killed our kids raped our wives made us worship false gods and we were in slavery anything would be better than this God's like now I'm about to say if you stretch out your arms and move forward and watch as the sea parts but you have to stretch out your arms and you have to move meaning God's sovereignty should never give us an excuse to be irresponsible [Applause] so here's the tension point God's sovereign but I still have to walk in responsibility that sounds like a contradiction oh but that's Jesus right I mean Jesus is all God and all man tension born of a virgin like we just say that but that's wild like anyone who's here for their first time today you brought them they've never been to a church and they hear us say that they're like yeah this is why I'm not coming back it's it's it's tension a messiah murdered how could a messiah be murdered he's God conquered death hell and the grave you resurrect tension but we're gonna find truth in the tension when we pull from both ends there in the mystery we will find God I'm not just gonna give you a sound bite or a handle I'm not just gonna give you a cliche I want to give you some language today as we study these scriptures but you have to go back and you have to pack that bag and unpack that bag and discover all that God has for you come on somebody why don't you go ahead and put your hands together [Music] well bro Romans as we've been studying last few weeks just kind of bring us up to speed it's important that we understand the context that Paul is writing this letter Paul is ultimately writing this letter to the Jews and the Gentiles living in Rome the Church in Rome and really what his big picture idea and his challenge that he is trying to try and to solve is that the Jews have been kicked out of Rome more than once now Claudius the emperor has died and so now Jews are allowed to come back in but as Jews are coming back into Rome what they're find out is that their brothers and sisters other Jewish men women that had stayed have been converted to this thing called Christianity although they didn't call it Christiana they call it the way which meant they followed Jesus they believed in to be the Messiah who came from a Jewish birth but they believed that he was the savior of the world but not only that now it's really crazy now they've opened up the door to Gentiles people that are not Jews and so now they're mixing together and they're having meals together and this guy's eating kosher and this guy's not this guy says we can't eat shellfish and this guy's like everything is cool under grace it's a big big thing and so Paul is is has the task of trying to present why this is good news because Jews are having a hard time going how could this be good news we're feeling excluded and we're feeling kicked out once again and so Paul begins write Romans chapter one is like hey Gentiles you're in trouble hey Jews you're in trouble Romans chapter three for all have sinned we're all in trouble Romans chapter four it's about faith thank God for grace Romans chapter five Adams crude stuff up but praise God for Jesus he made it all right Romans chapter six don't be a slave to sin be a slave to Jesus Romans chapter seven oh my god but I still struggle what's the deal good news is you don't live under the law anymore you live under grace but how can that be Romans chapter eight because you're led by the Spirit but we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus and if God is for us then who can be against us come on somebody put your hands together at the 12:15 Paul has taken eight chapters to make it very very clear what his proclamation of the gospel is so we're not backtracking we're not gonna change that now he is saying that you are saved by grace through faith that we're not under law we're not under sin but rather we've been justified we're being sanctified the Spirit intercedes for us the Spirit is helping us to look more like Jesus now as we get into Romans chapter 9 the longest introduction you've ever heard Paul's gonna begin to apply this and he's gonna try to explain why this is good news for both the Jews and the Gentiles Romans chapter 9 verse 1 he says I speak the truth in Christ I'm not lying my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart I want you to hear the burden of his heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people those of my own race the people of Israel there's is the adoption to sonship there's the divine glory the covenants the receiving of the law the temple worship and the promises there's are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah who is God over all forever prompt praised amen handle number one God calls us to serve people not save people here's the tension today God is sovereign but I must be responsible I want you to hear what Paul is saying Paul starting off in chapter nine and he's talking about Jewish people who he is Jewish and he said yo I love my people so much here this the weight of what he's saying I love my people so much that honestly if I could be cut out of this thing called salvation or if I could be cursed in order for them to be blessed I would do it I mean this is an extreme radical prayer it's not the first time we've heard of product.this in the Bible Exodus chapter 32 the story of Moses Moses was the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt and Exodus out of Egypt and there in the wilderness God begins to reveal himself to them and one day he calls Moses on top of Mount Sinai Mount Sinai is not just a hospital it's a mountain in the Bible we're just and there a Mount Sinai got God gives Moses the law he's gone for like some 40 days and while he's gone the people down beneath at the bottom mountain - I guess God's forgotten about us it's funny how quickly we will turn our back on God you got a word from God last Sunday you haven't heard from him again since this Sunday like I think God's left me no he hasn't and there he comes back down the Mount when he come out and the people guess what they're doing they have created a golden calf and they are partying and worshiping the golden calf as their God this is a wicked and evil thing to do towards God yet what Moses prays in Exodus chapter 32 is he goes and he intercedes for the people he's a type of Christ and he intercedes for the people and he says God I wish that you would blot me out in order that they may be forgiven wow these are radical prayers yet what we see about both these prayers is that both Paul and Moses are fully aware that no matter how much effort they put forth no matter how much they try no matter how much they want something or desire something they understand that they don't have the power nor the authority to save people yet although they know that it does not stop them from serving people loving people caring about people hoping for people preaching to people even though they know that God does the saving it doesn't remove their responsibility of serving the Apostle Paul goes all over the world preaching the gospel he didn't just preaching cool auditoriums with really cool gobos and lights he would preach in the streets and when he would preach people get so angry did throw rocks at him yet he had this firm conviction I gotta keep preaching he was building churches all over the world although he knew he couldn't save people it didn't stop him from serving people look what he writes Romans chapter 10 you read it this past week but let's go to chapter Romans chapter 10 verse 14 how then can they call on the one they have not believed in and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard and how can they hear without someone preaching to them and how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news here's my question for you today how beautiful are your feet and I'm not asking if you got if you got you know a pedicure this past week Paul like Moses knew that they could not save people yet it didn't stop them from having a deep desire and a brokenness for people you've seen a couple weeks we have this thing called I love my city and you need to know it vous Church we do not have a motto that we're here to change and save the city we do not think we are God we know we can't change it we know we can't save it so what we do instead is that we commit ourselves to a life of responsibility and what is our responsibility to serve this city to love this city to pray for this city to partner with this city because as we serve it we believe our God is gracious and merciful that he might save it come on somebody give him some praise when I was younger I loved the story father Damian father Damian was a Catholic priest in the late 1800s who was a missionary to Hawaii and he was a missionary to Hawaii but he had a scope and a specific target market of who he was trying to reach he wanted to reach the colonies of people that were living with leprosy and so literally he inserted himself into colonies of people with leprosy anyone who knows a little about leprosy knows that it's one of most contagious diseases you can get and it's always a fatal disease of course Father Damien died from leprosy yet he was quoted as saying I have become a leper that I might reach lepers for the sake of winning one to Jesus come on somebody give God some praise this is see what I've learned is that salvation doesn't lead to arrogance it leads to compassion and what we do not have time for in our community here at food church is a whole bunch of people that are puffed up with spiritual knowledge that somehow they find themselves separated and they create a narrative which is us in them it is not us in them it's just us and we are gonna do everything we possibly can in our power we know that God is sovereign but we're gonna be committed to being responsible we know it's God who does the saving but it's not gonna stop us from serving come on food Church give God some praise in this place it's a tension point man it's a handle it's a handle it has to be worked out you got to go through that you got it you got to get in there you have to discover that truth for yourself I can give you the handle but you got to carry that bag yourself Paul's gonna continue Romans chapter 9 verse 6 he says this it is not as though God's Word had failed because here's the question okay Paul cool like I hear that you have a burden for the Jews but does that mean the Jews are out have you guys moved on what about God's promises I thought I thought the Jews were God's people I guess this is once again us being kicked out us being excluded I guess you've forgotten about us but Paul says no it's not as though God's Word had failed for not all who descended from Israel or Israel nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children on the contrary it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned in other words it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring for this was how the promise was stated at the appointed time I will return and Sarah will have a son not only that but Rebecca's children were conceived at the same time by our Father Isaac yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose an election might stand not by works but by him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written Jacob I loved but Esau I hate it second handle today is God's promises are not based on our performance God's promises are not based on our performance Paul is now pivoting and he's trying to win both audiences and he's trying to reveal the gospel the good news to both that this whole thing called salvation it's not about race it's not about ethnicity it's not about a physical birth it's about a spiritual birth and the way that he's going to do that is he's gonna draw from the past and he's gonna go all the way back to Abraham where the first promise was initiated I don't if you know the story of Abraham but it's a good one to know and it matters in our faith Abraham at 75 years of age gets a call from God God's like yo Abe he doesn't call him a but I bet he did anyways he's like yo Abe listen I got I got a I got a plan for your life I'm gonna I'm gonna bless those who bless you I'm a curse those who curse you and I'm gonna turn you into a great nation great nation the problem with this promise is that Abraham 75 years of age and the problem is that Abraham doesn't have any kids let alone one child for a nation to form but what I love about God is is that if you want big promises from God you have to be willing to walk through big problems with God he's like yo Abraham you 75 guess what your story's just beginning you got a pulse yep there's a purpose in their favor okay cool like here we go and what happens is is that decades I don't say decades a decade is ten years not just ten years but decades decades past and they don't have any children so Sarah Abraham's wife is like oh my goodness I'm so old and you're so old and oh my god what about the promise oh my god what are we gonna do she I got a plan why don't you sleep with our maidservant Hagar Abraham's like you don't have to tell me twice it's in the Bible hey girl gets pregnant from Abraham and she gives birth to a son named Ishmael yet as you study the Scriptures what you'll find out is although Ishmael was part of the physical birth of Abraham he was not a part of the promise of Abraham why because Ishmael actually represented striving effort man taking plans into their own hands Abraham and Sarah did not perform if anything they they disobeyed yet watch God and His grace at the age of 100 that's how old Abram was and Sarah was in her 90s God gave them the promise in giving them the son known as Isaac do the hundred years old having a child that's not just crazy that is totally nasty yet God was illustrating that Abraham this was not about your performance Ishmael was about you striving and putting out your effort but Isaac represented you believing and trusting in me I'm the God who asked that you'd believe in me to trust in me for my promise stands even when you don't perform but Paul continues with this same metaphor he goes it's also like this it's like come on what about the story right there I mean Abraham Isaac Isaac then marries this girl named Rebecca and they end up having two kids they're twins actually and one was Esau one was Jacob he saw the older Jacob the younger and he starts to use this as an illustration now as well he says before the twins even came God declared that the older one would serve the younger one why is he doing this because he's illustrating his story throughout the beginning of time that we served the god of grace and although God is a God of grace what that means for us is that you might look strong on the outside but God is not impressed with strength on the outside we serve the god of grace His grace is sufficient for us for he can take weak things and make them strong he can take small things and have them do big things and so back then the thing is is that if you were the firstborn that meant that you would get the inheritance and the blessing and it would really mean that the entire family would follow the firstborn big big deal yet God says no the firstborn will serve the second born and so if you don't know the story of Jacob and Esau it's a cool story that Esau came out of the womb first and although he was just maybe a minute or two first I mean he he was the firstborn so he was the one that should get that inheritance but following him the promise of God was is that the firstborn would serve the second born his name was Jacob Jacob's name means deceiver imagine naming your child that get over your deception like a mere idolatry get up here right now like that's what his name means and he lived up to his name Esau was a hunter scriptures tells us that he was hairy and he was redhead I don't know why they tell us he's redhead but he was Jacob the deceiver would be at home in the kitchen with his mother and help around the house and one day here's the story that Esau is out hunting he comes back from this trip and Jacob had it in his mind to deceive Esau and so Jacob has a bowl of soup and when Esau comes in he's so hungry he's like oh my gosh I'm so famished I've been hunting and working oh my god I need some food and there's Jacobs like I had some soup and and he says like he'll give me that soup Jacobs like I'll trade you my soup for your inheritance for your birthright Esau so hungry uh absolutely give me the soup and he trades his birthright for a bowl of soup I run it down this way it's crazy what you will settle for when you are starving [Applause] you can see here in lies the problem with so many of us that is so many of us today we exchange the eternal reward for temporary rewards so many of us we think that we know why it is that we're settling it's because we've got this problem no no you have one problem the problem is that you are hungry and you are starving for the wrong things and so so many of us we're treating symptoms we actually have to get to the root of the problem the root of the problem is is that you're hungry for something eternal and if you'll quit actually exchanging that which God has for you for the immediate sense of gratification you'll find yourself walking in the full promises of God nonetheless Jacob he goes in and he puts fur on his arms and he goes in and Jacob comes in to his dad Isaac Isaac has a practically blind psyche hey it's it's Esau and it's this crazy store in the Bob we gotta go back and read it and and literally Isaac gives Jacob the blessing now this man did not perform for that promise in fact he completely under performed it God had a plan and that's not to say that he forced Esau to do that he was just saying that here's how the plans gonna work out the older will serve the younger and what happens is that Romans chapter 9 verse 6 I wanna bring your attention back to it cuz this is important for me today as a church because here is maybe one of the most debated scriptures in the Bible in fact this little script right here has created may be the largest doctrinal divide in the church today and so it we have to look at it if we're gonna if we're gonna go through it and so Paul writes just as it is written Jacob I loved but Esau I hated now this scripture is coming from the Old Testament this is not something that he's saying as of today I think what's really really important that as you're reading Romans 9 10 and 11 understand that as Paul is writing he's not talking about individual election he's talking about national election he's not talk about individual salvation he's talking about national salvation remember he's talking about Jews and Gentiles so this isn't about individual people which many people have claimed that it is I believe that he's talking about the Jews in the Gentiles and he's using all of these characters from the Old Testament to create an that we might discover a truth and the truth is good news the second part here is that he says this word but Esau I hated this is important because this word hated this is actually a Hebrew idiom it's a it's like an expression you know to be my expression right like yesterday it was raining cats and dogs if I text you that yesterday nobody in this room would have gone oh my god call everybody Oh Hardy's got a text from pastor rich oh my goodness we got Shar Peis in the sky we got shih tzus and Bulldogs they're all coming down no no you would know that as many as is raining a lot yeah okay praise God so we don't have to go to the pet store okay praise God no vents no vet oh jeez I've got freaked out there when the author's using this word hated he's talking about a preference he's talking about one being greater than the other one having more focused in fact Jesus New Testament he's walking around he goes up to somebody and they're talking he's like hey if you want to follow me you must hate your mother and father now maybe you're new to do Church day and you give your life to Jesus if you go home and say mom dad come anyone talk to you tell you what thanks for bursting me thanks for feeding me but I hate you I love Jesus you would have read the scripture out of context because Jesus once again is just speaking the language of the day and he's trying to give you an order and he's saying the order is this is that I must come first and I must be above all things in your life even your mother and your father nothing can take my place I come first so from this scripture people in the tension point have created two different systematic theologies way that they view the Bible of study of the Bible of study of God and I think it's important once again some of you're like dude I don't even care about this but I want you to know some of this stuff because it's important as a church as we're growing in the 1500s there was this thing called the Protestant Reformation and this guy David Martin Luther he started in fact Martin Luther King is named after Martin Luther who was the leader of the Protestant Reformation the Protestant Reformation is important for you to know because that's actually how we all got here at that time what was taking place was the Catholic Church had become corrupt they were doing all sorts of wild stuff they were selling these things called indulgences and indulgence was like I get out of hell card like after your family died if they weren't sure if they were saved you could give money to Catholic Church they go here you go now they can get out of hell not only that people were completely illiterate and uneducated the only people that had access to the scriptures was the leaders in the Catholic Church and so what they did is what we always do when we're left to ourselves is we go back on Jesus and we go back to the law we put a burden on people and we begin to put a system on people's backs that they could never carry what happened was this guy by the name of Martin Luther he gets a hold of the scriptures and he starts reading it in fact he's reading Romans of all things and he's like wait a minute I'm getting saved because of God's grace and my faith in Him and so he goes and he writes out 95 things that's wrong with the church he nails him to a door and with that a revival begins to break out that's still going on today and there's this guy's name's John Calvin John Calvin is the first kind of viewpoint of Piell people do the scriptures and it's called Calvinism in John Calvin's a French theologian who was one of the fathers of the Protestant Reformation incredible Bible teacher one of the greatest expose eaters that we have ever ever come across incredible man his writings from the fifteen hundreds are still being taught and used today and then he had an understudy that was kind of growing up in the school of Calvinism this guy's name was Jacob Armenian and it formed our mini ISM and what happened was this other guy Jacob he was he was a theologian from the Netherlands and as he started to study Calvinism he agreed with most of it yet there was one major thing that he could not wrap his mind around and as he studied the scriptures that he found was a different tension point and it came around this idea of the sovereignty of God especially in this issue known as predestination predestination meaning that God has predetermined who would choose what and people that choose Jesus is because God had them choose Jesus and people that decide not to follow Jesus is because God had them not follow Jesus ultimately saying that God is picking who goes to heaven to hell and so there's five major areas out of this little verse that they began to disagree about as they pulled scriptures I just wanna show you the five areas quickly the first areas this area of depravity and we all believe that man is depraved yet there is a tension point here between the Calvinism crew and the army ISM crew which is Calvinism and say that we are totally depraved I would actually kind of fall into this category that we are spiritually dead our minions would say yes that we are totally dead but we have this thing called free will that God has given us previant grace that with that we have this one opportunity that with his nudging we can sense that he is there and we can choose the second area is this area of election which we're kind of talking about here today the Calvinist approach would believe in this thing called unconditional election whereas our mini ism would believe in conditional election which is all to say that it's brought this whole issue of predestination that that God has either picked you and if he picked you there's no going around that whatsoever once again our minis would say no I think God's picked the world and we choose him back the next area is this area of atonement Calvinists are prone of you would say we believe in the limited atonement and our minions would say we believe in unlimited atonement what's the difference limited atonement would be that when Jesus died on the cross and his blood was shed that that atonement that sacrifice was limited to the elect while the Arminian camp would say no we believe in unlimited atonement that is that when Jesus was blood was shed it was for everybody for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life that when his blood was shed that forgiveness is accessible to any and everyone that the fourth area is this area of grace Calvinists would say it's irresistible grace that once you hear grace and once you're exposed to grace and once God allows you there's no resisting it our minions would say once again grace you could get around God and you could you could be exposed but you have the ability to resist it the last areas this area of perseverance and this is another area of point of contention for me Calvinists would say okay no no perseverance that once you're saved you're always saved no matter what and army ins would say no you could guess say but you can walk away from that that's ultimately the soundbite answers around both of those things for me I believe if you meet Jesus encounter him and you get saved there's no losing that however I think that if you were to walk away from it that's an indication that you never actually met Jesus to begin with so these are handles that you have to get into the bag of all of it you need to know that we have Calvinists in our church if we have our minions in our church and guess what all are welcome like like these are not reasons to not gather together there's some dude here right now he's like bro I don't care about none of this stuff trying to make it to Thursday homey rich what do you believe that's all I care about you might die man despite all the hate on Instagram you my guy rich what do you okay what do I believe depends on which day of the week you ask me up my best handle today is that I sleep like a Calvinist but I wake up every single day and live my life like an Arminius saying that when I preach I know I can't save anybody in this audience I'm a preach like I can I'm a preach with a belief that if I could say it the right way if I could shout it the right way whatever I gotta do I believe if I could convince you I would God is sovereign but I'm still responsible and there's some truth in the tension neither one of these filters is necessarily right or wrong there's just tension I could show you scriptures on both sides get the one that is so overwhelming to me and that I want our church to know as Peter writes in 2nd Peter chapter 3 he says the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise oh I want you to hear this today a church as some understand slowness instead he's patient with you someone's like why isn't God come back because he's patient he's patient because not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance some of us we think that his promises are slow no his promises are patient because the heart of God is going I want everybody in on this thing and the Jews at the time they're going oh you're leaving us out you're excluding us you're getting rid of our traditions you're getting rid of our culture you got the Gentiles here and Paul's going no you're in on this promise too but the promise is not the law Jesus is the fulfillment of the law but what happens to us is that we want a system instead of a savior we want methods instead of a man we want all sorts of techniques instead of truth and we want gilt offerings instead of grace and Paul is shouting and proclaiming know the good news of Jesus is this is that the promises of God I've never been based on your performance but rather the promises of God are simply through His mercy and His grace and all you have to do is receive it come on somebody give God a shout of praise come on and give him praise today these are handles you got it you got to do the packing you got to do the packing lastly as we close Romans chapter 9 verse 14 can't even get into all of chapter 9 but he says what then shall we say is God unjust not at all for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion it does not therefore depend on Huell of this verse it doesn't depend on human desire effort but on God's mercy for scripture says to Pharaoh I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden here's my last handle just a handle if you don't know you're holding on to it's just a cliche but it's a handle God is going to use you whether you like it or not whether you like it or not the illustration that Paul draws back into is he uses this guy named Pharaoh all you have to do is a little bit of research on fair to discover who this guy was that he was completely immoral completely unethical that he was an evil man to say the least believed in multiple gods was a womanizer believe in child sacrifice yet what's amazing is that God placed Moses in his house I think God was given opportunities and chances and opportunities and chances for him to hear about God yet mo Pharaoh's heart became hard and ultimately as hard as his heart was God gave him over to a heart heart in fact this goes back to Romans chapter 2 that God gave us over to our evil desires but what he says is he says yo Pharaoh I'm gonna use your heart heart for my story in fact Pharaoh I want you to know I'm gonna use you whether you like it or not and so Pharaoh I'm gonna allow you to rise up and have great power I'm gonna allow you to rise up and let the world think that you are the man with Dominion that you are sovereign over the entire earth that you have authority over all people it all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna call upon one of my servants his name is Moses he's a murderer and he has a stuttering problem and I'm gonna appear to him and call him into my story and then I'm gonna send him back to Egypt and with a stuttering problem and a staff he will lead the greatest Exodus that the world has ever seen that an entire nation overnight will leave Egypt and in one moment the greatest exchange of wealth will take place as the wealth of the wicked is exchanged into the righteous I'm gonna do it Pharaoh so that people will know who really gets the glory I'm gonna do it Pharaoh that all people will know even with your hard heart and disobedience that I am the God who is sovereign I am the God who's above all things God is gonna use you whether you like it or not so the question is how is he using you are you cooperating or do you think you're counteracting it are you helpful or are you hurtful are you partnering with God or are you trying to create problems for God no matter what you do God's gonna use that to tell his story but if I were you today I would say you know what god I'm not qualified you know what God I've got a lot of mistakes you know what God I've got all sorts of issues but if you can use anything that God used me and use me for your will have mercy on me see what we learn about God is that God doesn't need any of us and he wants us and he invites us and it's never been about being qualified it's always been about his promise in his story and his glory and I don't know how to explain it because it's tension but this is the truth for me the truth for me is that if you're just kind of like I don't know what percentage you know it's 99.9 percent God and there's that little 1% that he just kind of gives me this prompted Oh going hey God here's my pinky would you use me God chooses you every single time reminds me when I was a kid I used to play on the play basketball my brother out at recess or pickup games and my brother's about three years old me way better at basketball than me and I was like the guy who just wasn't very good I was always playing older guys and you know and pickup basketball you have to line up on the wall they picked two captains and then the captains pick the team when you're an adolescent junior higher that's like one of the scariest moments of life oh my god who's gonna pick me you know what's amazing is that although I was not qualified to play in those games every time my brother when he was the captain and saw me he every single time all the time picked me on his team not because I was qualified but because he wanted to play with his brother I want you to know today that you might have made some mistakes and you might feel like this is not good news but here is the good news if you'll put yourself on the wall of this thing called faith and just say God I'm willing every single time all the time our God is faithful and he chooses you and he picks you and he says you are my son you are my daughter this was never about being qualified I'm telling my story and I can use you I can use you Paul will take time giving us these handles and giving us this tension but we have to go we have to unpack it and pack it we have to struggle with it and wrestle with there we have to say I think I'm this no I think I'm that way I think I see it this way no I think I see it that way and we're interpreting and we're struggling with it but well all the while while we're doing that our bag is being filled with content and with truth and with grace and so when we share our handle whether the world knows it or not we know that that handles attached to something that's effective that's been tested that's been tried Paul he's amazing because as he finishes chapter 11 you're gonna read chapter 11 this week what I want you to see is that as we get into these doctrinal discussions and we as we get through these doctrinal debates debates good but our doctrinal debates and discussions should not divide us but rather we should discuss and debate and all of our discussion in all of our debate should result in us worshiping Jesus more it should it should shouldn't divide us for watch how Paul ends Paul ends Romans chapter 11 his whole thing on sovereignty and he ends it with a doxology at doxologies a worship song you're gonna read it this week but I'm just gonna give you the end of the chapter is what it says Romans chapter 11 verse 33 verses 36 oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor who has ever given to God that God should repay them for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever amen that's as Paul's worship song this is what I've learned I want you to write this down this is how I closed it a doctrine that does not lead to doxology is idolatry if all of our discussion and all of our debates if it doesn't bring us to the foot of the cross that we stand in awe and wonder of God if all this truth and all this information does not well up in praise into adoration that I stand absolutely amazed at the sovereignty and glory of God that I'm telling you it is pointless for Jesus Christ is bigger than your doctrine he's bigger than your systematical theology he's bigger than your box he's bigger than your prospects Epson he's bigger than your perspective and on a lead to worship so come on today everyone all over this room stand your feet lift your hands come on lift your voice come on it's worship Jesus [Music]

Channel: VOUS Church

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Keywords: rich wilkerson jr, vous church, book of romans, sermon

Id: qYpLkSPzwro

Length: 51min 18sec (3078 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018