Divine Sovereignty and the Mystery of Salvation
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Sermon Summary
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Sermon Clips
"Faith is a gift of God, not a creation of man out of his own ultimate self-determination. It's not a product of free will understood as self-determining power. You can see that in Philippians 1:29, you see it in Ephesians 2:8, but you see it especially in Acts 13:48 where Luke says that it is those whom God has chosen and appointed who will actually believe when they hear the gospel." [00:03:36]
"I take this to mean that human self-determination is not the ultimate explanation for why all people are not saved, even though Paul says God desires all people to be saved in 1st Timothy 2:4. In fact, Paul says as much in these very letters to Timothy, for example in 2 Timothy 2:25 he says this: the Lord's servant should correct his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance unto a knowledge of the truth." [00:04:27]
"So, I think Paul makes it clear that what hinders God's desire for people to repent and come to a knowledge of the truth, what keeps it from rising, what keeps that desire for all to be saved from rising to the level of decisive action in which everybody would be saved, is not the power of human self-determination, so-called free will, but rather the fact that God may or may not grant repentance and faith." [00:05:53]
"At one level, God desires all to be saved. He does not delight in the death of the wicked, Ezekiel 18:23 says, but another commitment in God, another commitment to act with wisdom and justice and a wider love, love seeing through a wider perspective, a wider lens, prevents him from acting on the desire for all to be saved in a way that saves all." [00:06:28]
"The explanation of hardening in Isaiah's and in Jesus' ministry is that this design of God's word is judgment. It's judgment upon sin. This dulling, hardening effect of the preaching is not happening to people who love the word of God. He's not going out and finding people who love and submit to the word of God and then preaching so that they become hard-hearted." [00:09:00]
"No one is made blind against their will, mark that. This indifference to God is what they want. There's nobody kicking and screaming, moving into blindness, 'I want to see.' There are no innocent people under the judgment of God's blinding, none. Nobody is made blind to God who loves to see God. This blindness and dullness are judgments for sin." [00:09:33]
"And I'll end with this: where is this judgment leading? What's the big picture? And Paul tells us in Romans 11:25-26, he says to us Gentiles, lest you Gentiles be wise in your own sight, I don't want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." [00:10:15]
"Then, in this way, all Israel will be saved. It's leading to salvation. And then later in that same chapter, verse 32, he says God has thus consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable are his ways." [00:10:50]
"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Thank you for walking us through an answer to this very common and very perplexing question, Pastor John, and thanks for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app." [00:11:06]
"Well, why does Christ want some to not believe? That's a perplexing question for a lot of Bible readers who scratch their heads when they meet texts like Matthew 13:13 and Luke 8:10. Today, the question arrives from a listener named Max, a question for Pastor John who joins us again over Skype today." [00:00:04]
"There really are two questions here. They're both good. One is, does 1 Timothy 2:4 imply that God's desire for all to be saved rule out his decisive sovereignty over who is in fact saved? So if he desires all to be saved, are you going to draw the inference, well then, he can't be involved in choosing some to be saved and some to pass over and not be saved?" [00:01:04]
"The other question is, what is God's reasoning or purpose behind preventing some people from seeing the truth and being saved in Luke 8? Now let's take those one at a time and then relate them. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 goes like this: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, all those who are in high positions." [00:01:42]
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"I take this to mean that human self-determination is not the ultimate explanation for why all people are not saved, even though Paul says God desires all people to be saved in 1st Timothy 2:4. In fact, Paul says as much in these very letters to Timothy, for example in 2 Timothy 2:25 he says this: the Lord's servant should correct his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance unto a knowledge of the truth." [00:04:27]
"So, I think Paul makes it clear that what hinders God's desire for people to repent and come to a knowledge of the truth, what keeps it from rising, what keeps that desire for all to be saved from rising to the level of decisive action in which everybody would be saved, is not the power of human self-determination, so-called free will, but rather the fact that God may or may not grant repentance and faith." [00:05:53]
"At one level, God desires all to be saved. He does not delight in the death of the wicked, Ezekiel 18:23 says, but another commitment in God, another commitment to act with wisdom and justice and a wider love, love seeing through a wider perspective, a wider lens, prevents him from acting on the desire for all to be saved in a way that saves all." [00:06:28]
"The explanation of hardening in Isaiah's and in Jesus' ministry is that this design of God's word is judgment. It's judgment upon sin. This dulling, hardening effect of the preaching is not happening to people who love the word of God. He's not going out and finding people who love and submit to the word of God and then preaching so that they become hard-hearted." [00:09:00]
"No one is made blind against their will, mark that. This indifference to God is what they want. There's nobody kicking and screaming, moving into blindness, 'I want to see.' There are no innocent people under the judgment of God's blinding, none. Nobody is made blind to God who loves to see God. This blindness and dullness are judgments for sin." [00:09:33]
"And I'll end with this: where is this judgment leading? What's the big picture? And Paul tells us in Romans 11:25-26, he says to us Gentiles, lest you Gentiles be wise in your own sight, I don't want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." [00:10:15]
"Then, in this way, all Israel will be saved. It's leading to salvation. And then later in that same chapter, verse 32, he says God has thus consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable are his ways." [00:10:50]
"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Thank you for walking us through an answer to this very common and very perplexing question, Pastor John, and thanks for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app." [00:11:06]
"Well, why does Christ want some to not believe? That's a perplexing question for a lot of Bible readers who scratch their heads when they meet texts like Matthew 13:13 and Luke 8:10. Today, the question arrives from a listener named Max, a question for Pastor John who joins us again over Skype today." [00:00:04]
"There really are two questions here. They're both good. One is, does 1 Timothy 2:4 imply that God's desire for all to be saved rule out his decisive sovereignty over who is in fact saved? So if he desires all to be saved, are you going to draw the inference, well then, he can't be involved in choosing some to be saved and some to pass over and not be saved?" [00:01:04]
"The other question is, what is God's reasoning or purpose behind preventing some people from seeing the truth and being saved in Luke 8? Now let's take those one at a time and then relate them. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 goes like this: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, all those who are in high positions." [00:01:42]
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