The Book of Romans XV, Predestination and Free Will

Nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a tremendous affirmation from God. Tremendous promise. It's the dividing line of Romans. It sits squarely at the end of the first half of the book of Romans. And Paul said, nothing's going to separate us. And then look what he says. Chapter 9, I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. It's a tremendously insightful way to make a transition in theme here. Paul has made this powerful statement with no conditions. And then he goes and says, but I wish that I was cut off from him, if it would mean that my kinsmen by race, my brothers by blood, the Jews, would be saved. Tremendous. You see the use of the grammatical kind of thing there? On one hand, he says, it'll never happen. Then he says, I would that it would happen if it would mean that they could be saved. And he goes through and chapter 9 begins to unfold the story of the Jews and God's dealing with them and the elect people of history, verses 4 and 5. It tells us what the people had. Look at this, the divine glory, the covenants, receiving the law, the temple worship and the promises, six different things. And yet they did not respond. Paul goes down through these verses and tries to explain why they didn't and what their condition is. He goes on to say that some Jews were really just ethnic Jews, that is, they were born Jews, but some were true Jews, Jews of the heart. And he goes all the way back to the establishment of the race. In verses 11, 12, and 13, he talks about Jacob and Esau. And he said, there always is going to be a group of people who respond to God and a group of people who don't. He said, there's always going to be true believers and true children of God and those who are rebellious and resistant to God. He said, there's always going to be a core and a remnant. There's always going to be those who are chosen by God and those whom God passes by. And regardless of your age tonight, in years or in Christ, there is and ought to be a sort of holy moment of contemplating the words that I've just spoken. Because the scripture here clearly tells us that God chooses some and not others. Look at it. Even before Jacob and Esau were born, he says clearly, verse 11, before the twins were born or had anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in 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 hated. And so we touch a very sensitive, and it should be, cord in every one of our hearts. Paul argues the point, what is this about God? Is there injustice with him? Is it fair to sovereignly choose some to be blessed and others to be cursed? Is this fair? Paul goes on to argue and say, yes, it is fair. This, by the way, I will guarantee by the end of the night, those of you who tend to be sleepwalking during the messages, if you'll tune into that, you will find ample evidence of the sovereignty of God and the plan of God for your life and the life of people you love, that I believe you'll be changed. You'll be changed as a child of God. So I'm not going to have the normal amount of illustrations and all, but you're going to need to tune in because it's very heady stuff. You'll need to require yourself just to be a bit disciplined. I say that only because I know I can't really do justice to this as I wish I could. You see, Paul argues that God has the right to do what he wants to do. He says later on down here, does the clay say to the potter, what are you doing with me, man? See, Paul argues that God made everything that is. It was his design and his creation. He argues that he chose Pharaoh and you can read about it in verse 17 and 18. I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you. Verse 18, God has mercy on whom he has mercy and hardens the one whom he chooses to harden. So we go through here and Paul argues that not only Jews, but Gentiles can respond to this choosing of God. God can do what he decides to do. He can pick some and pass some by for the reasons known only to him. He reminds us at the end of the chapter, God has the right to do this. Look at verse 30. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith, but Israel who pursued a law of righteousness has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Who's the stumbling stone? Jesus Christ. So Gentiles, even though they were disobedient, they can receive and the Jews, even though they sought to be obedient, they can be cut off. It's God's prerogative. Now I thought real seriously about saying, let's all stand, receive the benediction and go home. We've just covered chapter nine, but I figured some of you would trip me on the way out to the door and say, I want answers, pastor. This chapter begins and lays really the groundwork for the most profound controversy through the centuries in the church. And can we all agree that tonight I probably won't solve the controversy? I won't even try to solve it. What I'm going to try to do is inform you because it's apparent to me by your vote that you like to follow the crowd and you need to know why you stand where you stand. I believe that the Lord has some things to instruct us with and I ask the elders to pray with me that we would be changed in our actions, not just have more head knowledge tonight. Now these verses, this is number one on your overhead and on your handout, indicate that God and God alone has made determination before the fact of who will be saved and who won't be saved. This position is basically called Calvinism or the reformed position, if you will, and in its purest form, the double predestination position. That is this, by decree of God, some are predestined to eternal life and some are predestined to reprobation or condemnation or separation. All of this happens before the foundation of the world. Turn to Ephesians 1, put your finger there and turn over to Ephesians 1, just a few pages. Let's read in verse 3, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Look at verse 4, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world, do you see the timing there, to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. Folks, that is one heavy scripture. Verse 11 says the same thing, chapter 2, verse 8 and 9 say basically the same thing. God chose even works for you to do beforehand, you don't even know about it, he has already prepared them for you. This position argues that Jesus died only for the elect because he wouldn't spill his blood for those who would not respond, it would be a waste of his blood. Calvin argued very logically and very forcibly that only the elect would have the gift of faith that we read about in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 and that the non-elect are passed over and in so being are not treated unfairly. Why can I say that? Well because we've been reading, if we've been here over the last weeks as many of you have in Romans, what do we know about every human being in the face of the earth? They've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is not one righteous, Romans 3, 10 says, no not even one. And so the Calvinist argues with great fervor that every human being in the face of the earth deserves to go to hell, everyone does. But God amazingly, because he is so merciful, decides to look over this mass of humanity that is marching its way into hell and choose out of that mass some people to be his chosen people, to give them the gift of faith and to save them and to claim them, to adopt them as his own and to give them the gift of eternal life. And this is totally his work from beginning to end, that's a very important point. He doesn't just give them a start and say now you do it and finish it up, but from the beginning to the end God is doing it. Not only does man not choose, Paul would argue that man cannot refuse. That is to say, if God selects you, you can come kicking and screaming, but you're going to come. It's called what? Irresistible grace. It's the grace of God that you just can't say no to. I watched this evening a clip from Tim and Bonnie Ferencz's testimony. I don't know if you got to see that on the 700 Club a few weeks back, it was really neat and we ought to show that sometime. And Tim tells this story how he came to church and his wife was trying to share the Lord with him and it just wasn't working and one night in his car, he's driving along and he looks up in the rear view mirror and what he saw in the rear view mirror penetrated into his heart and brought conviction. And he knew right then that the Holy Spirit was there. You know what he saw in the mirror? His own eyes. He saw into himself, in other words, he saw the man he saw in that mirror he realized was a man that was in deep trouble and that if he didn't come to God, that the end of his life, the end of his sin would be death. It's a neat story and I would say he's one of the ones that was in that mass of humanity that God just chose, just pulled out and put his blessing upon. He tends to agree with that. You say, well, is it really fair? Is it just for God to do that? Well, think of this analogy. A judge is in a courtroom and he convicts 50 people of an offense and fines each one of them $100 for the offense. Who among us could accuse the judge of being unjust if he decides of his own free will to open up his wallet and peel off 10 $100 bills, $1,000 and go over to this group of 50 now convicted criminals and say to them, for reasons known only to me, I have paid your fine, your fine, your fine, yours and so on and names 10 people. You're free to go. Come with me. Who could say the judge is unfair? What charge could you bring? All you could say was that that judge was rich in mercy and chose to bless the 10. Now, predestinarians hold that the downside of this is that if God passes by those who are on their way to hell, he's not unjust. He in fact is giving them their justice. They're only getting what they deserve. Just because others were chosen to be his elect doesn't mean he was unfair. He was just merciful. I had an application of this a number of years ago. Carol always hates these when I come up with these things. We were traveling on the Beltway in Washington, D.C. This was a number of years ago, Missy, I want you to know that. The speed limit was normally 65 in the Beltway, but it happened to be 45 because there was some construction going on. It was about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, middle of the night. I was convinced that it was perfectly safe to be going 60 miles an hour or so, mainly because all the other cars, and there were still quite a few cars in the Beltway, were also going that fast. They were just trucking along. It was fine that no construction vehicles were out or anything like that. It was the middle of the night. I looked in my mirror and I saw lights. Not white ones, red and blue. I was pulled over. I said, there must be a spot check here or something going on. The officer said, can I see your license? I said, yes. He said, do you know how fast you were going? I said, well, I guess I was going about 60 miles an hour. He said, do you know what the speed limit is? I said, well, yes, I do, officer, but everyone around me was going the same speed. In fact, some people were passing me. You know what he said? What's the speed limit? Well, 45. How fast were you going? Well, about 60. What do you think you should get? Oh, I should get let off, officer. Really, I should. He didn't see it that way. I got a ticket. You see? Now, was he unfair in pulling me aside? No, I mean, I wanted to feel he was, but he wasn't. He just happened to see my car and say, that one needs a ticket. Well, see, we can't claim that God's being unfair. Paul says, if everyone has made reservations for hell by the way they lived, and God chooses to draw out some, it's his mercy to do so. And God graciously and mercifully says, I want to choose these out and call them to be my own. And by the way, let me hasten to add something here. You may say, well, what basis is there? I don't know the answer to that, but one person who argues this thing very eloquently, I couldn't begin to duplicate it, is R.C. Sproul. Some of you have heard him. He is a double predestinarian, all the way down. R.C. would warn you not to say that God arbitrarily picks people up. I just want you, you, you, and you. God doesn't do it that way. Rather, God, for reasons known only to him, makes these selections. Now, this is an interesting audience tonight. When you all sat down as Arminians, I knew this was going to be the toughest part of the message for you. So far, most of you are clenching your teeth, but we're going to get to your point here in just a second. So it's not arbitrary. This is what they hold. This is the basic summarization of the Calvinistic position called Tula. Write it down. I think it's on your overhead there. Five major tenets of Calvinism. It's a very well-known historical teaching. Total depravity. Every man is totally unable to respond to God. He's depraved. Unconditional election. Limited atonement. In other words, Christ only died for some. Irresistible grace. And perseverance of the saints. That last one is very important because that theological point says that once God's put his marker on you, it doesn't matter. Really, you may try to get out of it later on. You may try to go back to your old life, but in the end, you're going to be in. He even sees to it from the very beginning when you were totally depraved, he calls you out to the very end. No matter what you think you're trying to do to get away from, you're going to be saved. Now, let's give a little bit of a synopsis of this. Here's some of my reactions. First of all, I'd have to say that this point of view is biblical. I'm not getting much reaction from the 300 and some of you who sat down, but here we go. It may not be understood by everyone. You may not like it, but in order to get rid of it, take your scissors out and start cutting. Get it out of your Bible. Predestination, election, the word election itself, which is, by the way, the personalized idea of predestination, election is talking about individual people, occurs 48 times in the New Testament. It is a very biblical concept. Number two, this point of view extols the sovereignty of God. By the way, I have to say to you, how many of you wish that the rest of the world understood how marvelous and gracious and sovereign our God was? This point of view says, God is in control, period. This point of view underscores that salvation is a gift, totally a gift. Number three, that is, no works are involved except as a response of faith. And number four, go ahead, you are overwhelmed when you discover, listen, when you recognize that He has chosen you, not by how good you were, how nice your mom and dad were, or how much effort you put forth seeking Him, He just point blank selected you. It should be an incredible release in your life, overwhelming you with His goodness. And finally, I have to say this, many scores of very intellectually brilliant people hold this position, much more intellectually brilliant than this speaker or most that would be here tonight. Now, there are some difficulties. Here they are. Number one, it seems that in Scripture, man has some very real choices. It seems that Adam and Eve, it starts all the way back in the garden. Eve made choices and it seems like that whole process began way back then. Joshua said, choose this day whom you will serve. Jesus went to the rich young ruler and He spelled out what He needed to do and He said, now you make the choice and what did the rich young ruler do? He walked off. And it seems to me that choices are peppered all through Scripture. You know, whosoever will may come. There's some conflict there. Next, if everything is preordained, then this is a difficult one. It seems that all you and I really are are puppets, kind of going through the motions of authentic living, not really making genuine choices, but just kind of doing what we've been programmed to do. And when you play this all the way out, the Calvinist has a difficult time avoiding the charge of being a fatalist or determinist. In other words, you don't do anything but just show up and God does everything. And when you try to press them on it, by the way, I have to say most Calvinists have a difficult time qualifying this. They can't really answer this charge too clearly. I read, did I not, in Ephesians 1 that all this was determined when? Before the foundation of the world, all right? Not before, you know, last week, but before it ever happened. And number three, a very grave concern that it's a difficulty of this is that evangelism is sabotaged. In the minds of many people, this point of view sabotages evangelism. God's going to save some, doesn't matter what you do. He's not going to save others, doesn't matter what you do. Now, most of you know that I spent a number of years in the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church is a very strong Calvinistic background. Some of, others of you, likewise, all reformed background people, strongly Calvinistic. This probably shouldn't show up in your notes, but let me just share something. I think that one of the reasons why the Presbyterian and other reform type churches have had such a difficult time maintaining their outreach is because fundamentally at their core, the impetus for evangelism has been undercut. Do you see why I'm saying that? Do you understand what I'm saying? See, if God's already going to move to save some, it doesn't really matter if you go witness to him or not. He's going to find, you know, he'll send somebody else. And if God's not going to save them, you can beat your head against the wall and they're not going to come to Christ. And unfortunately, that tends to demotivate people. Now, that's not a conscious thing, and some would even argue against it. But I think it is unconscious, and I think you could trace it through the history of a lot of the reformed churches. But in the end, the Calvinistic position cannot be dismissed in a summary kind of a way. You just can't say, I don't believe that. You've got to realize these things that I said are true. The points that I made, I can back up with scripture. Now, let's go to the other end. Let's hear a cheer from the Arminians. Both Calvinists, and they'll sink down in your seat a little bit. Here's the other side. Are we okay temperature-wise? Is it warm or cool? It's a little warm, folks. We have some to get to. Rick, could you please try to get some air going? You can put the air conditioner on one of these units anyhow, Rick. All right. Pelagian, named after a man who began to battle with Calvin, or the free-will position, says basically this, that Jesus achieved potential salvation on the cross for everyone, but only those who take the effort to receive him. Only those individuals who make a personal decision to receive Christ, those are the ones for whom the atonement matters. Most Dominians would say that God's omniscience and foreknowledge operates in this way. Now listen, before the foundation he looks down and he knows that you're going to choose, so what does he do? He chooses you. God, in his foreknowledge, looks down and knows that you're going to say yes, and so what does he do? He chooses you. Do you understand what I'm saying? Foreknowledge sees before the fact and omniscience says, now I know what they're going to do and so I'll just decree that. Admittedly, that's a bit of a circular argument, isn't it? Think about it logically, it is. Alright, but those who repent and trust Christ personally, they become God's elect, their election is based on this foreknowledge and God says, you chose me, so I'm going to choose you. I see what you're going to do, so I'm going to choose you. Arminians believe that God supplied the sin sacrifice in Christ and that men and women must participate to the degree that they invite Jesus by their own free will to be that sacrifice. In other words, a very key distinction is Arminians believe in an active role, Calvinists believe in a passive role of the individual. It's apparent that many of you believe that. Jacob Arminius was a peer of Calvin's and he argued this thing. I mean, they had these big synods where they battled it all out. I mean, this was big stuff, folks. This wasn't just a little history lesson in our theology books. the whole church was in the balance over this issue. Might still be, it looks like. Alright, here are some of the positives. Number one, the Arminian position does seem to give a lot of explanation to scriptures like John 3,16 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. All the rest of the ones, Romans 10,10, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. There's lots of scriptures. Oh, come and taste and see that the Lord is good. There's a lot of scripture out there that seems to argue that you just have to do it. And the minute you do it, you're on your way. Secondly, this position seems to resonate in our hearts about the rest of human experience. In other words, we make choices in life in every category, do we not? We make choices about everything. About our careers and about our spouses and about just everyday decisions of going here and doing this and not doing that. Does it seem somewhat inconsistent with all of life for us to say that, well, and the most important thing in all of life, we have no choice. It doesn't seem consistent with being made in the image of God. And so, this position, the Arminian position, seems to resonate with the fact that we have those choices built into us and it seems to be consistent with that. Number three, and probably for most of you, this is the reason why you would be an Arminian, is because it solves the very distasteful problem of God consigning people to hell. Double predestination says some are chosen for heaven, some are chosen for hell. This says, no, wait a minute, that's not the way it is. This says that all people are given an opportunity to receive Christ. They choose which way they want to go. If they receive Christ, they go to heaven. If they reject Christ, they go to hell. Now, how many of you just say, that's the end, let's do it, this is it, I'm right, I was right the first time. How many aren't sure now? Well, now we've got more undecided. Well, we'll all be standing by the end, folks. Now, here are some of the problems. I'm on schedule, we're doing fine. Here are some of the problems. I guess I'm speaking to the great majority tonight. What do you do, those of you who are Calvinists, what do you do, those of you who are Arminians, rather, what do you do with the text about predestination? Well, I erased mine, I just, I got a black magic marker, just went right over there, you can't see it at all. I mean, you, there are problems with the, with ignoring those texts, you've got to deal with them. Alright, and here's a problem that I think is quite serious. This point of view seems to subject God's sovereign majesty and person to the whim of man. I have difficulty with this. You know, for many people in America, dealing with God is like buying a cheeseburger. You know, we come and say, you know, we get up, well, here's what it means to be a Christian, you know, and we, and would you like to be a Christian? Ah, well, I don't know if I want to be a Christian, I don't think I do, you know. And we take this God of this sovereign, you know, the Bible says the potentate of the universe, the creator of all time, and we reduce him down to this little thing that man has the whim to just kind of take him or leave him. It's reductionism is what it is. And most of America, by the way, has a very tiny view of God, don't they? Real tiny. And this, this viewpoint where man just kind of chooses at his own whim contributes to that, it kind of feeds a little bit. Number three, under this serious problem, here's a, here's a real dumper for you. The Bible says if he's in separatude that you were dead in your trespasses and sin, okay, what does dead mean? I looked it up in a Greek and dead means dead. I mean, we're talking no life signs, all right, that you were corrupted to the very core of your being by the, the sin that's in the world and number three that you were blinded by the evil one, 2 Corinthians 4, 4. In other words, your condition was dead, corrupted, and blinded. And this position holds that a dead, corrupted, and blinded person can clearly and rationally analyze the complex spiritual issues and objectively make a unilateral decision that will determine his eternal destiny. You hear what I'm saying? How can a dead, corrupted, blind person do that? You know, it's kind of like saying that a 5-year-old kid who doesn't even own a typewriter could walk in and correct the AT&T computer snafu on Monday, you know, just a little bit over his head probably, right? When you're talking about eternal salvation and you're dead and you're sin, how, how can you do that? Now, the point comes down to this, which is double predestination makes us cringe. It makes me cringe inside that I would be left out of the process that man wouldn't have the ability to have input in the decision-making posture of his eternal salvation. But, my discomfort with that is only surpassed by the idea on the other side of the spectrum that God would leave an issue such as eternal salvation in the hands of someone like me. You see what I'm saying? Why would He do that? I have more trust in the fairness of God than I do in the wisdom. You can leave me out, it makes me nervous. You can leave God out, it makes me tremble. Because I've learned that I don't want God to pull out of any area of my life that has anything to do with making decisions, any area, let alone the one that would say if I don't choose right, I'm going to be separated forever. I know looking at my own life, I couldn't have made the choices that I've made to get to the place where I'd say yes to Christ. He had to be working. All right, so what do we do? What do we do? We pick up the dukes here and fight it out with one another? How about we just say who cares? Yeah, why not? Hey, we're charismatics, you know. That's not any good, is it? Flip a coin, you know, heads, you're Calvinists, tails, you're in our minute. Obviously, we need to come to some sort of a reasoned position here and let me say that the easy way for me to get out of this would be to say that, well, this is an antinomy, A-N-T-I-N-O-M-Y, antinomy, which means against law. In other words, an antinomy is really defined, write this down, it's not on your notes, two contradictory principles which stand in the face of each other and do not resolve until infinity is reached. Two contradictory principles that stand opposed to each other or in the face of each other and do not resolve until infinity is reached. In other words, folks, I could back out right now and simply say you'll never understand it until you see it from God's perspective and I want you to know that is the truth. There's lots of antinomies. What's another one? Good and evil. You ever try to explain to someone how evil can be in the world if God's good and created it? Creation and eternity, those two things, right? Time and space. The greatest antinomy, the greatest thing that doesn't make sense, my greatest one, you know what it is? It's Jesus Christ. That's why we sang that song because how could God, the infinite ruler of the world become a man? It doesn't make sense and it won't fit until finiteness intersects with infinity. given that as a basic tenant and there's a whole, I could just give another half hour in that, I want to draw my conclusion here and let you respond to it. We've got to hurry quickly here. Number one, scripture, this is the conclusion, makes strong cases, a strong case, rather, for the idea that groups are called, groups are predestined more than individuals. Notice in Ephesians 1, how many times it says we and us, it's a plural pronoun. It seems that God has acted in history over groups of people. It's kind of like he just calls in a group of people and then within that group people have the choice to make are they going to respond or not. I have to say, you look at America and it looks like America was one of those places. Man has the freedom still to choose but God's kind of like poured out his grace in a certain sort of a broad selecting kind of a way. God primarily predestines communities. When we read here about the Israelites, we know that God chose them as a group and yet he does pick individuals. You know, I can't argue against that. Great illustration. Tim wasn't really deserving, I don't think. If I heard the first part of his testimony, big time, right, he was not even close. But, you know, all through, we all know illustrations that go all the way back to John the Baptist, you know, while he was in his mother's room he was chosen. How about Paul, you know, the apostle? He was a God-fearer but he hated Christians and he was persecuting them and putting them in prison. God just kind of nailed him, took him off the horse and blinded him. So it still happens but it seems that God moves to choose groups of people and within that group individuals respond. I guess what I'm arguing here is it's a bit of a both-and situation in some respects and let me use this analogy. I understand that it's a possibility that up here in Cranberry the Sony Corporation is going to come and put in a factory. Is that right? Did you hear that? Well, I have some inside information I thought I'd share with you. By Sony, Scott. No. I heard that. I thought I read in the paper. I thought it was public information. But anyhow, if they do that, if it all goes through, they're going to come in and I understood that they were going to have upwards of 2,000 jobs in Cranberry. Now, what they would do, I would expect is they would advertise in the press in the classified section, these jobs available, we need all these kinds of people and if you meet these criteria then you'll have an interview and through the interview you'll get hired. Most of their workers will be chosen that way but what would they do for some very important people along the way, some certain select folks, what are they going to do? They'll send out some executive recruiters or headhunters and they'll say, sir, we're going to make you an offer you can't refuse. Man, we really need your skills and that kind of a thing. Well, that's what I see God doing. He just seems to broadly pour out and you can see it nationally and you can see it people group wise but then he still seems to finger individuals and say you. Number two, a bit of a proverb is this, that the same sunlight that melts ice also hardens the clay. What do I mean by that? It seems that God in his love and in his mercy and his grace shining down melts the impurities away of some and hardens the clay of others. As I look at scripture, every time a person evidences some brokenness or some hunger, the Ethiopian eunuch, Nicodemus, you name it, the Philippian jailer, here's a guy that didn't have any real spiritual background and he wasn't a Jew and Paul comes in and this miracle happens and the earthquake and all that and he says what? What must I do to be saved? Now Paul didn't say let me check and see if you're one of the elect here. Any time there's an evidence of a soft heart, God seems to melt away the impurity and the people come under safety. On the other hand, it seems that those who have a soft seems to let God's mercy and grace have great effect or harden the position even farther away. And number three is kind of an appeal more than it is a point and that is this. I'm able to kind of live in a tension between these two positions. I would have been lik