The Choice, is it Yours? – Part 3

God’s sovereignty or your free will – which is it? How do we stand firm in our faith when pressures mount, and the world unravels?

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we’re in uh part three of our study together looking at a very provocative portion of scripture man it’s exciting I got to tell you you know this is a non-denominational church which uh you all come from various backgrounds various denominational Persuasions and you would be shocked or maybe not to find out that in this first service today there are those of you who have a certain view of Roman chapter 9 that is 180 degrees different than others standing around you uh because of how you were brought up in a denominational

persuasion well let’s let the Bible speak for itself and let’s let the Bible speak in its totality because God didn’t give us his word to confuse us but to make things more clear and this is a powerful chapter nine chapter 10 chapter 11 wow we’re talking about the sovereignty of God and again this is part three of a message titled the choice is it yours with a question there on the end I’ll read verse one if you’ll pick it up ni l in verse two I tell the truth in Christ this is Paul speaking I am not lying my

conscience also bearing me witness in the holy spirit that I have great sorrow for continual grief in my heart for I could wish that I myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh the Israelites to whom pertain the adoption the glory the Covenant the giving of the law the service of God in the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh Christ came who listen to this who is overall the eternally blessed God Amen but it is not that the word of God has taken no

effect for they are not all Israel who are of Israel yeah don’t forget that verse six is powerful nor are they all children because they are the seed or descend genetically of Abraham but in Isaac your seed shall be called that is those who are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted as the seed for This Is The Word of Promise at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son and not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man even by her father

Isaac and here’s a parenthetical insert for the children not yet being born remember this having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him who calls it was said to her the older Shall Serve the younger as it is written Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated father give us ears to hear father may we be focused today we ask you Lord God that every word would be propelled by your Holy Spirit into our hearts Lord shine the truth and the light of your

word into our souls we pray in Jesus name and again all God’s people said amen you may be seated church family and um very powerful very powerful words and from this argument is the title The Choice is it yours it’s deliberately put that way there will be those in one camp that saying that God is Sovereign and yes he is but they view God’s sovereignty in such a way that God has pre-programmed all things to go a certain way and that is how it’s going to be and it’s it’s done today’s done tomorrow’s

done the forever is done and then there are those who say well yes we agree with the sovereignty of God and we do agree with predestination is a Biblical Doctrine but we would say that the word for knowledge precedes the word predestination and that is true in the Bible and so God does know everything and God is Sovereign but in God’s sovereignty with life being lived out in Our Moment does he not know all things before they happen yes that’s for knowledge based Bas on God’s forn knowledge does he not then go to work in

the lives of people and our Nations yes now this study is going to bring us down to a very Bedrock area and that is do we understand the nature of God you have got to understand the totality of God’s nature from Genesis to Revelation the Bible requires this of us to know the god in whom we love and whom we worship and serve I gave you this before I know it’s been a few weeks but I’ll give it to you again when we talk about the choice is it yours I want you to write this down or remember this uh the choice is yours but where did you

get the ability to choose I just want to lay that out to you um yes God is Sovereign but does God hold man responsible for his choices is a possible for a sovereign God who’s the creator of all and everything is it possible that he could create within the human being one who is created in His image that is our moral likeness resembles gods that is uh we’re different than angels I think you know that by now right in a lot of ways you say oh I’d love to be an angel no you wouldn’t read your Bible carefully the Bible says in

the day of judgment you and I will be the ones judging Angels wow so apparently you and I got a we got a big makeover coming we’re going to be so much like Christ in the resurrection that we’ll be judging the ministry of Angels in eternity wow but the truth of the matter is God created us humans in his own image is it possible then that God in his creation engineered within the human being a level of sovereignty where a human can choose not only what they’re going to have for lunch today or breakfast but what they would do with

the gospel when presented to them now that causes a silence to fall upon this sanctuary and I get it but let me put this out to you right now I believe that God and it is my opinion that God has built within us the ability to have sovereignty to a level meaning you can only have a consistent Bible in my view of Heaven and Hell whereby God gets all the praise and the worship and the glory for having provided us a heaven having provided us salvation having provided us Christ who went to the cross and rose again from

the dead that when the invitation to accept Christ arrives that God gives us the ability to choose it’s all to God Amen to that to God be the glory we will not enter Heaven saying wow I’m so glad I chose all this are you kidding you and I will walk in heaven and then probably fall flat on our face and absolute awe and wonder at the grace and the goodness of God thank you Lord for bringing me here thank you Lord for getting me here in the same token those who inherit hell if God was eeny meeny miny mo sending

people to hell then they would be walking around hell saying that God is unfair I really wanted to go to heaven but he didn’t let me in or I had no choice about it I don’t believe that wherever predestination based on forn knowledge appears in the Bible it is always in the favor of God’s love toward those who believe and whenever you read about hell and those that are there they’re responsible for not having accepted Christ Joshua put it this way am I yelling I’m sorry excited about what I’m talking

about Joshua put it this way Joshua said for you Israel make up your mind are you going to serve these gods of your Pagan fathers that worship Bal and ASU and all these Pagan deities or are you going to worship Yahweh choose today whom You Shall Serve if God determined in Advance those who would go to hell based upon his choosing then what was Joshua talking about you see I believe those that are in hell today are in hell because they chose to go there and they’re responsible for being there and that’s

what makes hell justifiable and their rejection of so great a Salvation I hope that makes sense I hope so so church family writing these down if you would and we’ll jump back into our series The sovereignty of God is is predicted and predicated upon the love of God Ephesians 1: 4-5 says just as he chose us in him watch this just as he chose us in him just as God the father chose us in Christ when before the foundation of the world before time began that we should be holy and Without Blame before him in love having

predestined us to adoption as Sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will you should say Amen to that that if you’re here today and you love the Lord Jesus or you’re here today because you’re curious about the things of God I just want you to know that before the universe was ever created God has a plan based on his forn knowledge that he puts into his predestination work and you’re here because God has brought you here you’re watching right now because God has put it within your

heart to tune in and this cannot be spoken about without considering the omniscience of God omniscience it’s a big word uh its meaning is bigger the omniscience of God is that the god of the Bible knows all things watch this he knows all things and he knows all things in the now he lives in the Eternal now that means he’s never learned anything watch this you’re living today on the calendar but to God this day with you in it on the calendar has always been in front of him for all eternity that’ll freak you out tomorrow

oh well we’ll find out about what tomorrow holds guess what he has eternally forever known what tomorrow holds that ought to deal with your fret and your worry pretty amazing his omniscience he knows everything and uh somebody will come up after and say so I’ll tell you right now somebody will say yeah well what about this if God knows everything if I choose to go right then make then I change my mind and I go left did God know that he not only knew that he knows what happens if you go right and he knows what

happens if you go left even if you never go left it’s called in theology decree not degree like the temperature decree the decree of God is that he knows all things actual and all things possible we have no idea the depth of his wisdom and knowledge his omniscience the all- knowing god is the god of the bible Jeremiah 1:5 says before I formed you in the womb he speaks to Jeremiah I knew you oh my gosh how big is your God my God’s big enough that he knew Jack me I mean it’s not that he didn’t

know Jack he knew Jack in my mother’s womb he knew you in your mother’s womb before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I Sanctified you I ordained you a prophet to the Nations God told Jeremiah and by the way he told him that when he was a teenager Jeremiah was called to serve God as a teenager can you imagine your teens our teens have no excuses Jeremiah was a prophet to the nation at a young age and God says don’t tell me what you can or cannot do I knew you from your mother’s womb again Joshua

uh 24:15 I quoted it earlier Joshua said and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for yourself this day whom you will serve whether the gods of your fathers sered that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the amorites in those land you dwell but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord that’s a beautiful choice that Joshua made once again Ephesians 1:1 tells us in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his