ROMANS - WHO SETS YOU FREE (Week 5)storage.cloversites.com › canyonlakecommunitychurch... · 2015-02-03 · will not let Israel go.” This is a man by his own human will who digs

WHO SETS YOU FREE: ROMANS 6-11 (Week 5) - What is Your Greatest Stumbling Block?

•Romans 8 dealt not only with the assurance of our salvation, but it also dea l t w i th the assu rance o f ou r transformation.

Romans 8:2929 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Copyright © 2014 Thor Ramsey www.canyonlakechurch.org

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Ephesians 2:1010 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

•God’s purposes cannot be frustrated, which leads us into Romans 9 where Paul deals with an objection to this teaching. “If God’s purposes can’t be frustrated, then what about the Jews? Why haven’t more Jews embraced Christ? Has God discarded them? And if He has, then how can we be sure He won’t toss us aside?”

Isaiah 37:2626 “‘Have you not heardthat I determined it long ago?I planned from days of oldwhat now I bring to pass,

•Misconceptions today: Predestination destroys evangelistic zeal, it negates human free will, it makes God unjust and it perverts the gospel.

A . T h e m i s c o n c e p t i o n t h a t p r e d e s t i n a t i o n d e s t r o y s evangelistic zeal

Romans 9:1-16 God's Sovereign Choice

9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

1. Paul’s example destroys this misconception.

2. Being a Christian goes hand in hand with being burdened for someone.

3. If you don’t find yourself concerned with someone’s salvation, then it’s time to inspect your discipleship.

4. Lack of Christian love can be a stumbling block to nonChristians.

5. Don’t be offended if you know someone is praying for your salvation

B . T h e m i s c o n c e p t i o n t h a t predestination makes God unjust

•Now Paul begins to answer this objection about God’s plans for the Jewish people:




4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

It’s not about nationality. It’s not about ethnicity. It’s about grace. Some countries view America as a Christian nation, therefore they equate being American with being Christian. It’s just not how it works.

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

The promise of salvation is like a ragging river. It begins to flow from Abraham and God has decided who will be added to that stream as it flows throughout history.

9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

•It’s undeniable that election highlights grace.

•It’s also undeniable that this will bring up some objections. Is it unjust for God to be gracious?

•If God elects, why is man free? Why is he held accountable?

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means!

What standard of justice are you holding God to? The only reason you even have a sense of justice is because you are created in His image. And yet you hold Him to your sense of justice? He is the only One who is truly just and righteous and loving, so how is it that you accuse Him?

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

“If saving grace were resistible, Christ would have died in vain for many.” (Joel Beeke)

Imagine a world of people who are all in prison awaiting death by lethal injection. They all deserve this sentence for they have all committed treason. “Not only do we not




deserve grace, we do deserve hell.” There is only one innocent person in the entire world and he has the power to pardon some for his own good purposes. All that we can object to is that we don’t know his purposes? We can’t object and say that all deserve to be pardoned because none of them deserve to be pardoned.

C . T h e m i s c o n c e p t i o n t h a t predestination destroys human free will16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

John 1:12-1312 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

If predestination eliminated free will, Paul wouldn’t mention it here. He mentions that it doesn’t depend upon human will because there is human will. You are responsible for your actions. The doctrine of predestination does not deny that you make choices. That’s why we need mercy to begin with, because

of our choices. We chose the creature over the Creator.

Most of us have problems reconciling predestination and the human will, but Scripture does not.

Luke 22:2222 For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

This Scripture clearly teaches that events are predestined by the hand of God, and yet we are held accountable for our actions.

We are all predestinarians in practice. Who has ever set goals and then embarked upon the best means of attaining those goals? What architect doesn’t make drawings and plans before building? We all conduct our daily activities along preconceived plans and their fulfillment.

If we want to be truly biblical, we can’t afford to sacrifice either the sovereignty of God or accountability of humanity.

But they are not equal doctrines. This is not a fifty-fifty split. Man is accountable because God says he is accountable. It all begins and




ends with the God who determines things to be so.

Romans 9:17-2216 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Oh, but we have the same objections today as they had then.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 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? 22 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,

Exodus 5:22 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

This is a man by his own human will who digs his feet in against God. There is no injustice

on God’s part for using Pharaoh for His own purpose.

Romans 9:23-3323 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

We may not be able to understand how God predestines us and yet holds us accountable for our actions, but that isn’t a problem for God.

Jeremiah 32:1717 ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

D. The misconception that the gospel is reduced to predestination

Romans 9:25-2925 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”




27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”

Luke 21:2424 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Romans 9:30-33Israel's Unbelief

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Conclusion: The Christian is no longer motivated by guilt in trying to make up for his

sins. The Christian is now motivated by love. He wants others to know who he knows.




ROMANS - WHO SETS YOU FREE (Week 5)storage.cloversites.com › canyonlakecommunitychurch... · 2015-02-03 · will not let Israel go.” This is a man by his own human will who digs

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