Predestined for Hell? No! (A Response to Dr. Adrian Rogers)

The following is a transcript from the When We Understand the Text podcast, episodes dated for April 27 and 28, 2016. Featured was a sermon by Dr. Adrian Rogers entitled "Predestined for Hell? No!" with commentary. The sermon has been unedited and appears in its entirety, as well as my commentary as I gave it. Dr. Rogers' comments are in bold. 

Paige Patterson once said that whatever your views are regarding the subject of God's sovereignty, I pray you'll join me in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Amen. When it comes to talking about God's sovereignty, or predestination, or who the elect are, I do not believe this is cause for division. Many brothers of mine, and even members of my own congregation, do not view these subjects the same way that I do. I don't often invest so many words in talking about God's sovereign election, except where it comes up in the text. Since Romans 9 is where we are in our study of Romans, it is the topic of discussion this week.

I hold the view that before the foundation of the world, God has predestined who will be saved and who will be the objects of his wrath. I see that Romans 9 clearly teaches it. In verses 22 and 23, "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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory."

Today, what I would like to do is present the viewpoint of someone who does not view Romans 9 this way. What do the arguments sound like from the opposing position? And the sermon that I have chosen to share is from Dr. Adrian Rogers, entitled, "Predestined for Hell? No!" I believe that this sermon best encapsulates how a person who does not accept the doctrine of predestination exegetes Romans 9.

Dr. Adrian Rogers passed away a little over 10 years ago. He was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention beginning in 1979 and served three terms. Rogers was a staunch advocate of biblical inerrancy. Under his presidency, all liberal and moderate seminary professors in the SBC were removed from their positions if they could not sign a statement on biblical inerrancy. Rogers also chaired the committee that re-fashioned the Baptist Faith and Message, a statement of beliefs my church clings to, into the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

While Dr. Rogers did many great things for the southern baptist church, he was aggressively opposed to Calvinism. Though he spoke passionately on sin and God's judgment of sin, he hated the doctrine of total depravity. I believe that Rogers's influence is still felt in the SBC today. He's one of the reasons for the soundness in our seminaries, and unfortunately he's also one of the reasons there is such a disparity between those who ascribe to Calvinism and its doctrines, and those who do not.

Rogers's statements regarding predestination were frankly divisive, and you're going to recognize that in the message that you're going to hear. I will be playing this message in full in two parts, split between today and tomorrow. This has not been edited for content. I will be breaking in periodically to explain why Rogers is incorrect, but I also express my agreement as well. I consider Rogers a brother in Christ with whom I will share glory.

Presenting his exposition of Romans 9, here is Dr. Adrian Rogers.

Would you take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 9, and when you've found Romans chapter 9, would you look up here. Let me ask you a very serious and a very somber question. Has God created, has God predestined, has God ordained that some people are born to go to hell? That there's nothing they can do about it -- it is all settled. They are a pawn on the chessboard of faith. Is that what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not. The title of our message today: "Predestined for Hell? No!" Predestined for hell, question mark, answer, no, exclamation point. You're not predestined to hell.

Rogers is using some loaded language here, and it's the way he's wording things that causes division among brothers over this issue. "Pawn on a chessboard of faith." See, that's what he thinks of the view of the doctrine of predestination that I hold -- that I think of people as pawns. I rejoice in Christ Jesus my Lord that he saves me (see Psalm 71:1-6), and I pray that everyone I preach to would be saved (see 1 Timothy 2:1-4). Everyone I share the gospel with whether it's from the pulpit or just walking up to a person on the street: I pray that their hearts would be broken and by the will of God, they would know Christ Jesus as Lord. Because of his love and mercy. Because of him who wills it to be done.

The Bible tells us not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers (2 Timothy 2:14). So while Rogers is going to say things like, "No, exclamation point!" and put a divisive emphasis on some of his language, I'm not going to respond that way. At least I hope not. I want to be as even about this as possible, but still emphatic, still passionate about the word of God with a desire to proclaim his glory. I think Adrian Rogers wanted to do that, too. I think he was a faithful and passionate man of God who wanted to see people get saved. From what I know of him I believe him to have been faithful to his ministry, and I have personally encountered people who call themselves Christians today because of the teaching of Adrian Rogers.

But on this particular subject, he was wrong. And I wish to respectfully disagree with the way that he exegetes Romans 9. You will find that there are places where Rogers and I are in agreement, but we will be in mostly disagreement.

Does God will to save some and destroy others? Yes, he does. Does God desire that the whole world hear his gospel and come to repentance? Yes, he does. And these two ideas do not contradict one another, nor do they perpetuate a belief in a schizophrenic God. There is what God wills to have happen, and then there is what God will do.

God uses even evil and the destruction of the wicked for his sovereign plan. The betrayal of Judas in Luke 22:3, Herod's contempt for Jesus in Luke 23:11, the Jews shouting "Crucify him! Crucify him!" in Luke 23:21, Pilate handing over Jesus to death in Luke 23:24, and the Roman soldiers mocking Christ in Luke 23:26. These were all prophesied. These evil acts God foreordained so we might be delivered from evil. The two things do not contradict.

Luke displays an understanding of this sovereign will where as he would write later in Acts 2:23, "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." And in Acts 4:27-28, "Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontus Pilate, along with the Gentiles and people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."

Did Judas, Herod, Pilate, and all the people of Israel and Rome, could they have rejected God's will and done the opposite of what God had predestined, foreordained, had even spoken about through his prophets in the Old Testament? They could not. It was predetermined by God, yet they are held accountable for their actions, and yet no one can find fault with God. That is what we're going to understand and look at further as we continue.

Let's read here in Romans 9, the first three verses: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

May I say this, friend: that ours is the greatest mission on the face of this earth. That is the salvation of lost souls. Our message is the greatest message, that is the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And our master is the greatest master, that is Jesus Christ himself. The church that's not interested in evangelism and soul winning is not worthy of the ground that it occupies. We are to evangelize or we will fossilize. Our mandate is to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature.

The Bible says of that early church in those days the number of the disciples was multipled. In many churches in doesn't even make good addition. We do so little with so much. They did so much with so little. They didn't have any colleges, they didn't have seminaries, they didn't have radio and television stations, they didn't have printing presses, they didn't have finances, they didn't have prestige. They went out to tell the message of a Galilean peasent, a carpenter's son who was crucified. They went out against the imperial might of Rome. They went out against the intellectual sophestry of Greece. They went out against the stiff-necked bigotry of the Jewish religion. And it was said of them that they turned that world upside down.

What a great way he put that: "They did so much with so little, and we do so little with so much." That should be convicting, that we should desire to do all that we can to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, without prejudice or bigotry because Christ has commanded us to. Matthew 28:19-20 reads, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Now, one of the leaders of the crew was a little Jew named Paul. And what you have here in the Scripture that I just read to you is the heartbeat of a soul-winner. The heartbeat of a man who's interested in evangelism and getting souls saved. And I want you to notice the concern that he had. Look at verse one of this chapter. "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost."

The Apostle Paul had a sincere concern for souls. He said, "I'm telling you the truth. I am not telling a lie." If I were to ask, "Lift up your hands, how many of you have a concern for souls?" almost every one of you would lift up your hand. But you would have a twinge of conscience because your conscience would not bear you witness. He had a sincere concern for souls.

Look if you will -- he had a steadfast concern for souls. Verse 2: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." The Apostle Paul didn't blow hot and then blow cold. He wasn't up and then down. He didn't get under conviction when the preacher preached about it and then forgot about it when he got home and turned on the television. He had a steadfast concern for souls, and he had a sacrificial concern for souls.

Look if you will at verse 3: "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." If I understand plain English, what the Apostle Paul was saying was this: "I would be willing to die and go to hell if my Jewish brothers and sisters would get saved." That's sacrifice. I don't believe I could say that. I don't believe I've come to that place. But I believe Paul was so full of Jesus, that's what Paul said. Paul said, "I'd be willing to take their hell if they could take my heaven." That exactly what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus had a sacrificial concern for souls and Paul is so full of Jesus, he has a concern for lost souls. 

All of that is right on point. And again I reiterate that we must have that same passion to reach the lost for Christ. All people. A sacrificial concern for lost souls. If we are filled with Christ, we should desire for all men to be saved.

But notice as we tighten the focus, he's talking about his bretheren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. He's talking about the Jewish nation. Because the Jews, when they heard about God saving the Gentiles, they were saying, "What happened? What happened to all the promises to the Jews? We're the chosen people! Has God forgotten us? Or has God failed to keep his word and his covenant?" And Paul is going to address that.

But when Paul addresses this message to the Jew, he has a great message to those of us who are Gentiles and to the church of the living God. Because in this, we learn something of the character and the nature of God. All true theology has to learn something about the nature of God. So that's what we're going to learn today as we look in this passage of Scripture: three things about God. And when you learn those three things about God, your theology will come into a focus.

Number 1: You need to recognize that God is the God of sovereign choices. Beginning now in verses 3-5: "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever."

Now what Paul is simply saying is the Jews are the chosen people. God chose the Jews. Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, it is absolutely true. There is a special people, chosen and blessed of almighty God, they were chosen for a purpose and they were given privilege, and I want you to see the nine special privileges that they had. 

Okay, before we get to these 9 special privileges. God chose Israel because it was through Israel that the Messiah would come into the world. Jesus Christ is that promise. Jesus then fulfilled all that Israel could not do. Just as the Israelites were called out of Egypt, so Jesus was called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15). Just as the Israelites passed through the Jordan river, so did Jesus (Matthew 3:16). Just as the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days (Matthew 4:1-2). But when Israel was tempted, they sinned and fell away from God. Yet when Christ was tempted he remained faithful and perfect. Jesus fulfilled all that Israel could not. He became the faithful witness when Israel was not (Revelation 1:5). Now all who are in Christ Jesus are Israel. Branches have been cut off and other branches have been grafted in, which is an illustration Paul uses in Romans 11.

Israel is still God's chosen people, because we Christians are Israel. God has no plan to redeem any particular race or ethnicity on planet earth. You will find that no where in the Bible. Our only redemption is in Jesus Christ our Lord. We are no longer marked by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God (Philippians 3:3). Now, that point deserves a sermon in and of itself, but for the sake of time, that's as far as I'm going to go. Paul has been unfolding this theology all throughout Romans, not just in Romans 9. It was stated at the start of Romans 3 that no one gets special privilege. Everyone, Jews and Gentiles, we all stand condemned before God and are delivered into righteousness only through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now here's Rogers' 9 special privileges.

Number one, he called them Israelites. That's a name of honor. Israel means "Prince." Then it says they have the adoption. God spoke of Israel as a Son. Then it says they had the glory. That's speaking of the shekinah glory of God that led them out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan, and the shekinah glory that dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple. They had the covenants, the special agreements that God made with Abraham and Isaac and David. God has made solemn promises to the Jews.

Then they were given the law, the Old Testament law, that today is still the standard of juris prudence and the foundation of all true law. Then they were given the service, the service of God, the levitical rituals and all of this that pointed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were given the promises. God and made glorious and wonderful promises to the Jews. Then, last of all, as he saves the best for last, they were given the Messiah. Christ came, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

But, as Paul said earlier in Romans 2:28-29, "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God." What Paul was basically saying was this: If you have the Spirit of God in you, you're a Jew. You are the chosen people of God. He's laid that out previously in Paul's letter to the Romans. He expounds on the theology more in Romans 9, 10, and 11. Rogers is confused in assuming that the chosen people of God are an ethnic group of people rather than a spiritual group of a people.

I want to tell you the Jews are God's chosen people. If you want to know what God is doing in the world today, just put your eyes on Israel. The Jew is God's yard stick, blueprint, program, God's prophesy of what he is doing in the world.

Now, they are the ones who gave us the Messiah. I was talking to some Jewish rabbis and they said, "We don't believe that you ought to be trying to win Jews to Jesus Christ." I said, "Wait a minute. My Savior has commanded me to witness. Are you telling me I can't practice my religion? That's religious persecution. By the way, I'm not trying to proseltyze you. The Jews proselytized me. I worship a Jewish Messiah. He is the one who came into the world. He is the Messiah, Israel's Messiah that I love and worship." So God chose the Jew.

Here's one of the dangerous things about this theology that Rogers is sharing. Whether or not he meant to say it this way, he just said he is not trying to convert Jews. He should be trying to convert Jews to Christianity, because an orthodox Jew, a Jewish Rabbi, does not know Christ as the Son of God. So Rogers incorrect theology would lead a person to withhold telling a Jew to repent and follow Christ. I have met people with similar theological views who do not think Jews need to be witnessed to with the gospel.

The ethnic nation of Israel is not some kind of yard stick for what God is doing in the world. They do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God. God's favor is not upon them. Jesus said in Matthew 8:11-12, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

And this is what has Paul so vexed at the start of Romans 9. For the sake of his fellow ethnic Jews, who were the first to receive the oracles of God (Romans 3:2), he would go to hell for them if it meant their salvation. And so we should desire the salvation of the Jews. The orthodox Jew does not know Christ.

Let's continue to read here. We're talking about God's sovereign choices. Notice how God chose the Jew. Verse 7: "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." 

Now notice something here: Rogers skipped Romans 9:6! The verse he skipped says, "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel." Why did he skip that? Why did he go from verse 5 to verse 7? I don't want to presume that he meant to be intentionally deceiving, but it's really odd that he omitted the verses that says not all who are called Israel are ethnically descended from Israel. Might it be because he knows how difficult it would be to explain his theological position about who Israel is in light of that verse?

Now what he's saying is that, uh, not all the children of Abraham, uh, were chosen because Abraham had, uh, Ishmael and he had Isaac. What he's saying is that God sovereignly chose Isaac. Uh, God did not choose Ishmael. And then, uh, go on, uh, God did not choose all the sons of Isaac, uh, but, uh, Isaac, uh, had two sons, Jacob and Esau, and God chose Jacob.

He's really stammering here. I try not to question a person's intentions by their stammering because I stammer sometimes just trying to find my words or get back on track. But this is Dr. Adrian Rogers. He knew his stuff. He was a seasoned preacher. He was smooth all the way up to this point and he will smooth out again. But right here he's really fighting to try and explain something having skipped a key verse. Bare with me, I'm going to play bad cop here for a second, but I think he deliberately skipped verse 6, he knows he did it, he's timid about getting caught, and now he's stammering through verses 7-9.

There's my psychoanalysis for today. Perhaps I'm being too critical. If I were talking with Rogers though, if this were he and I right here having a conversation, I would certainly question him for why he skipped verse 6, especially given the version of Israel he was presenting. On that question I am not overstepping my bounds. Let's move on to Romans 9:10-13.

Look if you will as we continue to read, uh, in this passage of Scripture. Look in verses 10-13: "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

So God, uh, didn't choose all the sons of Abraham. He chose one son, Isaac. God didn't choose all the sons of Isaac, he chose one son, that was, uh, Jacob. Now, let's just pause right here because some people are going to be blown out of the water right here. When God says before these children were born, having done neither good nor evil, God chose one of them, and God says, "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated."

Now somebody says, "Now wait a minute, Pastor. You're telling me when these little babies before they were born, God said I love this one and I hate that one, and that God chose one to go to heaven and one to go to hell?" No, that isn't what it says. Listen very carefully and pay attention: What we're talking about here is national and not personal.

God, when he's talking about Jacob and Esau, God is not talking about one boy, and another boy. God is talking about two whole nations. Put this in the margin of your Bible: Genesis 25:23. "And the Lord said unto her, 'Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.'" That is those descendents of Esau are going to be one nation that will serve another nation, the descendents of Jacob, which is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

He's not talking about two little babies. God here is talking not personal but national. And God here is not talking about salvation. God is talking about service. In verse 12, "It was said unto her, 'The elder shall serve the younger.'" It doesn't say anything about saved or lost, one going to heaven and one going to hell. It is national and not personal. It is service and not salvation.

He's already misinterpreted who is Israel and who is not, so it follows that the rest of his theology on Romans 9 is shaky. His argument here is that God choosing one over the other is national, not personal. But here's the problem: If God were to choose one nation over the other, doesn't that affect every individual person in that nation?

If God chose the United States over Canada, doesn't that have very specific ramifications for every individual person in Canada? If God chose Mexico over the United States, doesn't that affect every individual person in the U.S.? The point I'm simply making is this: Even if I conceded to Rogers' argument that "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated," is national and not personal, that still would not argue away the affect God's choosing has on every individual person.

God does not save nations for being that nation. He doesn't save the United States or condemn the United States for being the United States. He will bless a people because the hearts of its individual persons are worshipful toward God. Or he will abandon a people and remove his presence from them because the hearts of its individual persons are far from God. That is why in the Old Testament God either blessed or cursed Israel, not because they were Israel. Joshua 11:20 says this: "For it was the Lord's doing to harden the hearts of the Canaanites that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses." Did God harden a nation? No, he hardened the hearts of individuals in that nation so that he could show his love and affection on his people Israel made up of individuals who feared God.

God does not choose one and disregard another, whether we're talking about nations or individual people. As C.S. Lewis wrote about in his book A Grief Observed, and I'm not going to say this quite like Lewis does, but God would not allow one set of events to happen to one person and disregard a completely separate set of events that happens to another person. God doesn't just work in the macro, he also works in the micro. He works in little, tiny details far more intimate than we can dare to summarize with the word "personal." In the whats and wheres and whys and hows that we don't even ask because we think of them as so minutely insignificant, God is working his will to his glory. In each person, and in each grouping of persons.

I remember Spurgeon saying that every dust mote that floats in the air doesn't move an atom to the left or to the right except by God's ordination. Matthew 10:29-31, "Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." God knows and has fashioned even the littlest, tiniest details. Even your DNA the importance of which we only discovered in 1943. God's cared about the microscopic details of you since before the foundation of the world according to Ephesians 1:4. And according to Psalm 139:16, every single one of your days was written before one of them came to be. Are we actually going to say that our choices were not considered on those pages?

You say, "Well what about that part where it says he hates one and loves the other." Well I want you to pay attention to that also. Look in verse 13: "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated." Now folks, the way we use the word hate today is completely different than the way they used hate in Bible times. What he's saying is "I have preferred one," not that "I abhor the other."

In Luke 14, Jesus is talking about us being disciples of himself. He says, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

Now, do you think that Jesus is teaching us to despise our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters? Do you think that Jesus is telling us to despise our little children in order to be his disciples? Heh, no! Listen, I love Joyce more than I could ever love Joyce because I love Jesus. I love Joyce with a love I could not love her with if I did not love Jesus. The word hate as it is used in the Bible simply means preference! 

Now, the way Rogers uses Luke 14:26 is correct, but his usage of Romans 9:13 is out of context. Luke 14:26 does not help us understand the use of the word "hate" here because there are times in the Bible when hate is meant to sound as harsh as it does. For example, when we read Proverbs 6:16, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him," the list that follows is not merely preference. God hates haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises evil, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and the seventh thing an abomination, one who sows discord among brothers. Do you hear God saying, "I would prefer that you not do those things." No, he hates them, with all of the disgust that word can muster.

So how do we understand the right usage of Romans 9:13? We need to go back to the passage Paul is actually quoting from, and that's Malachi 1:2-3. Rogers went back to Genesis 25 to try and establish a context of nations in Rebecca's womb. So why doesn't he go back to Malachi to understand the context of what Paul is actually quoting?

Malachi 1:2, "I have loved you," says the Lord, "But you say, How have you loved us?" And the Lord says, "Is not Esau Jacob'e brother? Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the Lord of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the Lord is angry forever." Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!"

Now then, does that sound like God merely prefers one over the other? No, he has prospered one and destroyed the other. And he has made an example of them to show his power, and he is worshiped because of it. God has predestined some for mercy and some for wrath for the same purpose: to display the full range of his glory. Those who are destroyed, his glory is shown in his righteous and just wrath. Those who are saved, his glory is shown in his mercy and love. The reason why Rogers does not actually go to the Scripture that Paul is quoting in Romans 9:13, I believe, is because he knows it does not fit his point. Continuing on.

God had a preference, God had a sovereign choice, for this man Jacob, and he did not have a preference for Esau. It doesn't mean he despised Esau. It doesn't he says, "Esau! I created you to go to hell! I hate you!" That's not what it means at all.

Friend, number 1, this is national and not personal; number 2, it deals with service and not salvation; number 3, it deals with preference not despite. If you don't understand that, you're going to get all mixed up and all confused. But God is a sovereign God and God loves lost sinners. You just read in Romans 5:8, "But God hath commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God loves sinners. 

Don't get the idea that Esau was predestined for hell or anyone else is predestined for hell. God chooses individuals. God has preferences for nations -- and it deals in the realm of service. I have two brothers. God called me to preach. God did not call, so far as I know, either one of my two brothers to preach. God said, "I want Adrian to preach!" And that's God's choice. 

God chose me. I didn't choose to preach, I've been called to preach. Does that mean because God called me to preach that he's going to send my two brothers to hell? No. He called me into his service. He said, "You've not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit." 

Yeah, that's an unfair generalization. I would not ever claim, and I don't know any preacher that does claim, that just because I'm a preacher one who isn't called to be a preacher must be going to hell. It's wrong-headed generalizations like that that split people instead of uniting people over this issue. When one side is mis-represented.

Now, this goes both ways. For those that agree with my view of predestination, we must understand and represent the opposing viewpoint in a right way, and never mischaracterize a person who has a different viewpoint. We can love one another, encourage and support one another, and be humble even through our differing points of view. The Bible says that God allows these differing viewpoints to exist in a body so that those who are genuine, those who are able to love one another through these differences, might be recognized (1 Corinthians 11:19).

What we're talking about here, friend, I want to tell you, is national not personal, it is service and not salvation, it is preference and not despite. If you don't understand that, you're going to get mixed up. What we're talking about here is God's sovereign choices. Got it? That's the first thing.

The second thing is God's spotless character. Begin reading in verse 14: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 

"Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory."

Well let's just pause right there and talk about God's character. Somebody might not like God's choices in any realm, and the Jews might say, "What right does God have to break his promises to us? We're the chosen nation!" And what Paul's saying is, as one preacher said, "Your arms are too short to box with God." Who are you, that replies to God? Now listen to me, folks: God is sovereign. 

I want to stop it right there for a second just to define this word. Sovereignty is a term that is used to describe a supreme ruler. It means they have absolute authority and absolute power. In Colossians 1:18, Paul uses the word preeminent. It means God is top and above him there is no other. It means that he is the ultimate decision-maker, and nothing is done that he has not ordained. Lamentations 3:37, "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?" Job 14:5, God has appointed the limits of every person and they cannot pass them. There is not a decision that is made that God has not ordained. Because he is sovereign.

God does as he pleases. God answers to no one. Respect this that God is God. And also remember this: God is not fair. God is just. If you think that God has to be fair, you think that God owes you something. If you don't get it, you're all upset if you don't get it, and if someone gets it before you do or gets more than you do, then you're upset because you think God owes you something. God doesn't owe us anything but judgment. God is not fair, God is just. When you realize that God is just, then mercy is going to mean something to you. 

Yes. On this point, Rogers and I are in complete agreement. Preach it, brother.

Now what is he saying here? He's saying, "Listen, I am free to pardon and I am free to punish. I am God, and I will pardon whom I will pardon, and I will punish whom I will punish." Now does that mean that God does that arbitrarily? No. God does as he pleases, but God always pleases to do right. There is no unrighteousness with God. 

Now God pardons according to his sovereign will. Look again if you will at verses 15-16: "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." 

Now what is he saying here? Does that mean that God says, "I'm not going to have mercy if you ask for mercy"? No. Does that mean, "If you ask me for mercy, I'll not give you mercy." No, not at all. God is just simply saying that, "If you're saved, you're going to be saved by grace. It's not because you will that I should be merciful to you. It's because I will it." It's not to him that willeth but of God that has mercy.

This sermon from Dr. Adrian Rogers was part of his TV program "Love Worth Finding." So the music you starting hearing there was the end of this half of the sermon, and that's where we are going to break as well. We will pick up the rest of the message tomorrow. By the way, I might also add that a complete transcript of Rogers's sermon and my commentary will be available on my blog this weekend. The address is pastorgabehughes.blogspot.com.

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Welcome back to part two of a sermon we began yesterday with Dr. Adrian Rogers. Over the course of the week, we've been studying Romans chapter 9. I've presented the sound biblical case for God's sovereign election: that according to Romans 9:22-23, God has predestined from the foundation of the world those who will be saved and those who will be the objects of his wrath.

How can a biblical expositor, a person who studies verse by verse through the Scriptures, see that Romans 9 draws any other conclusion? Well, yesterday and today, we've heard what I believe to be the most common arguments against predestination, and that in the sermon of the late Adrian Rogers. Rogers is pulling together a three-point sermon from Romans 9, and so far his first two points have been God is a God of sovereign choices, and God's spotless character.

Regarding the statement in verse 13, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated," Rogers has said, "It is national, not personal; it's about service, not salvation; it's about preference, not despite." But I have shown how much Rogers has had to play with the text  and what he's had to leave out, even skipping a verse in Romans 9 in order to draw shape the theology that he holds. He is reading these things into the Scriptures, not drawing them out from the Scriptures.

We're up to verse 17 now and we'll start talking today about God's purpose for Pharoah. I want to reiterate again that I respect the ministry of Dr. Adrian Rogers and consider him a brother in Christ. But on this particular subject and the way he understands Romans 9, he is wrong. While there was much I agreed with him on yesterday, our differences will become more apparent today.

As we left off yesterday, Romans 9:16 says, "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. That is a key passage to understanding the doctrine unfolding in Romans 9. Here once again is Dr. Adrian Rogers.

God's mercy is not rooted in man's merit. God's mercy is found in God because God is a merciful God. Write these verses down, Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." That's what he's talking about here. Psalm 32:10, "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." If you trust God, he'll give you mercy. Now look at this one, Proverbs 28:13, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."

If you want mercy, you can have it. You say, "Well, it's according to God who wills to show mercy." That's right! And God wills to show you mercy. God is a merciful God. Listen, pardon is according to God's sovereign will. God has decided that he will show us mercy when we don't deserve it. It doesn't root in our merit but in his mercy. But punishment is according to man's stubborn wickedness.

Okay, notice how Rogers has worded that now. Do you want to have mercy? Then you can have it, because God wills for you to have mercy. Just ask for it, and God will show you mercy. But there's an incomplete understanding there. When a person is genuinely repentant of their sin and asks for mercy, they do so because the Holy Spirit has made them repentant. Acts 5:31 and 2 Timothy 2:25 tell us repentance is given by God. I'll come back to this point later, too.

Rogers referenced Titus 3:5, "God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." He didn't include that last part of the verse. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us able to hear the word of Christ and respond to it. Before the Spirit intervenes, we can do nothing good before God. That's also Romans 3:10-11, and Romans 8:6-8. So if no one can do good, how would we be able to repent, which would be a good thing? It's because the Spirit has made us to repent.

And not just repent, but repent in such a way that your offering is pleasing to the Lord. David prayed in Psalm 51:16-17, "For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." So the act of service in and of itself is not enough. It must come from a heart that is made right before God. And how is the heart made right? By Christ. You can pray a prayer of repentance, but it means nothing if the Spirit of God is not there.

Lorraine Boettner in his classic work the Reformed Doctrine of Predestination said that it's not that we are unable to exercise volition, but we are unable to exercise holy volition. Meaning that, sure, you can will yourself to repent. You can stop doing what the Bible says is evil and start doing what the Bible says is good. But you are unable to do that in any genuine way, a way that is pleasing to the Lord, unless the Spirit of God dwells within you.

My friends, be not confused: the regeneration of the Holy Spirit happens first, making you able to hear the words of God and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is good in the eyes of God. This is what Jesus meant when he said unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). The water and Spirit are also the descriptors Paul uses in Titus 3:5, which again, Rogers did not give the full passage. Let's keep going.

Begin to read now in verse 17: "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh--" Now you know who Pharaoh was. Pharaoh was the vile, wicked king of Egypt. And God now is speaking to Pharoah: "Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."

Now people have raced their theological motors on this. They say, "Uh oh, God made Pharoah so he could raise him up and then knock him down. God created him so he could send him to hell." No, that's not what this says at all. Now listen, when the Bible says God raised up Pharoah, it doens't mean that God grew him from a child. It means God put him on the highest throne. God gave him place and power and prestige that he might bring him down. God set him up in order to bring him down. God raised him up to the very highest throne.

Boy, that sure sounds personal, doesn't it? That doesn't sound like preference. That sounds like God specifically used Pharoah to achieve some ultimate purpose. I just point that out because Rogers is inconsistent with his application of national not personal.

Now what he's talking about is that he's going to be glorified by his judgment on this man. Put in your margin Exodus 9:16, and here's what God says to Pharoah: "And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." 

Yes, absolutely. Same with Jacob and Esau. Again, Rogers' theology is inconsistent here. He doesn't want to acknowledge that God used Esau to show his power. But Rogers acknowledges God used Pharoah for that purpose. And Pharoah was not a descendant of Jacob or Esau, which really hurts Rogers's case that it's national, not personal.

By the way, Cecil B. DeMile made a movie of this called the Ten Commandments and God judging Pharoah, and it's been seen all over the world. Many people who haven't read the book have seen the movie. Now God did not override Pharoah's will. Eighteen times in Exodus we find this phrase: "and Pharoah hardened his heart," or "Pharoah's heart was hardened." About half of those times Pharoah hardened his own heart. Now you have to understand this: Pharoah first hardened his own heart before God hardened his heart. 

Actually no. That's not correct. And it's 19 times, not 18 times. The very first time we see the mentioning of Pharoah's heart being hardened is Exodus 4:21, and it is God saying, "I will harden Pharoah's heart." The next time is Exodus 7:3, God saying, "I will harden Pharoah's heart." The next three occasions are all in Exodus 7, and it says that Pharoah's heart was hardened. It's not until Exodus 8:15 where it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And there are only three occurrences where it says Pharaoh hardened his heart. Nine of those 19 times it specifically says God hardened Pharoah's heart.

Now, I'll bend a little bit on this. It could be argued that Pharoah hardened his heart before Exodus 4:21. In other words, Pharoah had already hardened his heart before we pick it up in the narrative, and then God hardened it further according to the narrative. I can give on that one. But, well, before I make the point I want to make with this, I will let Rogers finish his references...

Put these verses down for example. Exodus 8:15, "But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them." Or Exodus 8:32, "And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go."

See, the understanding one should arrive at here, by the time you get to Exodus 8:15 and 32, is that God did the hardening. Rogers wants to say that because Pharoah hardened his own heart, then God further hardened his heart. But really the opposite is true. Because God first hardened Pharoah's heart, Pharoah further hardened his own heart. Pharoah is not doing anything or is making any decision that God did not intend to be made.

Even if I wanted to concede to Rogers's point, he's still arguing that God acts against the human will. If God hardened Pharoah's heart after Pharoah had hardened his own heart, that means that God hardened Pharoah to a point where he could not repent, right? Tell me, is that not God acting over the human will? No matter how hard Rogers and others who shares his views try to argue for the freedom of the human will, there will still be in their own arguments examples of God sovereignly enacting his will over the human will.

Now what happened is this: That Pharoah was already lost. God didn't make him lost. Pharoah was vile, wicked, cruel. He was a despot. He had murdered thousands of people. He had a heart set against God. All the judgments of God upon Pharoah, all they did was to crystallize Pharoah in his sin. Listen: God did not harden his heart when he was young and tender, when he was a child. God witnessed to him. God warned him. God sent a messenger to him. God sent the plagues, but Pharoah himself hardened his own heart.

God did not create Pharoah and say, "I have chosen you that I am going to send you to hell." No. God said, "I am going to make an example out of you. I am going to show my power in you. You hardened your own heart, now as a reciprocal action, I'm going to send plagues that will even further harden your heart, will crystalize you in sin, and I'm going to use you as an example for my punishment."

There's a difference between saying that God created Pharoah to go to hell and that God used Pharoah to show his mighty power through him. Throughout Romans, Paul has carefully been laying out a theology of justification, that we are justified before God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He starts out in the first three chapters bringing all men into condemnation before God: "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), but then says we've been justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).

In chapter 4, he talks about that we receive this justification by faith. In chapter 5, he lays out the doctrine of original sin. In chapter 6, he talks about how if we are in Christ we are to no longer be slaves to sin, but we are slaves to righteousness. In chapter 7, he talks about how just as justification cannot be attained by our obedience to the law, so sanctification is not acquired that way either, but justification is the work of God and sanctification is also the continual work of God. In chapter 8, he talks about how the Spirit drew us to Christ and keeps us secure in Christ, and no one can separate us from the love of Christ. And here we are in chapter 9 where Paul is saying that God's plan of redemption is not according to human will or exertion, but God who has mercy.

God has created all things and all people for his glory. Everything in the Garden of Eden was in a perfect, glorious state. But then when Adam sinned, mankind fell from grace and God subjected all things to futility. All who are born in the line of Adam are born into sin. This is called the doctrine of original sin -- it's a very important doctrine given previously in Romans 5. That means that all who are born in the line of Adam are hell-bound. It is God who by his Sovereign choosing, to borrow form a term that Rogers has been using, called some out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). And he predetermined that before the foundation of the world who would be chosen according for the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace (Ephesians 1:4-6).

This is why hermeneutics are important. Hermeneutics are a method or a theory of interpretation, in this case the way one interprets the Bible. Romans 9 is not some stand-alone chapter. We must be looking at it in light everything we've studied in Romans up to this point, and everything that comes after it as well. God predetermining a person for hell is not the argument being made in Romans 9. It's God being glorified in all ways through all things. Some he has chosen that he might display his glory through mercy, some he has chosen that he might display his glory through wrath.

Now listen to me, folks: God is in the business of getting glory to himself. God is in the business of getting glory to himself. God's love will be magnified in heaven, and God's justice will be manifest in hell. God said, "I raised you up that I may show my power in you." 

Amen. That's where we would agree.

But the only reason God had hardened Pharoah's heart is because Pharoah had hardened his own heart. 

And that's where we would disagree. Rogers's conclusion does not fit the narrative of Exodus, nor does it fit the rest of Scripture, nor does it fit the context of Romans 9.

Now, God has every right to punish sin. God says, "I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and, uh, whom I will I will harden." Of course he does. Because he is the God who will give to us. If we want mercy, God will give us mercy. If we harden our hearts, God will further harden our hearts.

So Rogers says that God doesn't initially harden our hearts by the power of his will, but he will "further" harden our hearts by the power of his will. As if God is saying, "Fine, you don't want to repent? I'll make it impossible for you to repent." So, like it or not, using Rogers's own reasoning, God sovereignly reigns over the human will. The reason why a person repents is because God showed mercy to that person. He doesn't show mercy because they were repentant. They're repentant because God showed mercy.

Now let's give another illustration here beginning in verse 19. This is one that has caused many people to have difficulty: "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?" If God is sovereign, we're just victims! There's nothing we can do about it! 

Notice verse 20: "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory?"

Now here's the idea. Some people have the idea that God says, "I'm going to make two vessels. I'm going to make a vessel and send that vessel to heaven, and I'm going to make another vessel and sent it to hell. People are just like clay: weak, helpless, insensible clay. And I'm the potter, so I'll just take a lump of clay and I'm going to make a vessel." God made Adrian for heaven, God made you for hell. Nothing you can do about it.

Is that the kind of a God that is displayed in the Bible or in the book of Romans? Listen carefully, folks, and understand what the Apostle Paul is saying here. God did not ordain some for hell. What potter would ever make a vessel just so he could destroy it? Can you imagine a potter in a potter shop making a bunch of vessels and setting them on a shelf and then taking a stick and just breaking them all to pieces? He set out to do that? Of course not!

There are two problems with the way Rogers is expounding upon this example. First of all, he's excluding an important part of the metaphor. Romans 9:22-23, "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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." Rogers is focusing on one side of the word picture and ignoring the context.

Secondly, Rogers is not trying to understand Paul's metaphor as Paul understood it, or as the Christians in Rome receiving this letter would have understood it. We're not talking about just a bunch of pots on a shelf in a pottery store. Some vessels are made for glory, meaning that they are fashioned, decorated, covered with gold, intricately painted and crafted. Other vessels are just dirt and clay, used for daily tasks but have no lasting value. When they're broken and done, they just get thrown into the fire and destroyed. There's no reason to preserve any part of them because they have no value. The potter decides with his lump of clay which vessels he will make for honor and which will not receive the honor. The vessels don't choose. The potter chooses. That's the analogy.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:20, "There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable." So Paul's question in Romans 9:22-23 is then this -- which is not a hypothetical question. A hypothetical question is a hypothesis or a guess. Paul is not guessing. He is presenting truth to the Roman Christians in such a way that they are made to think about what is being said. These are infinite concepts that are being presented here, that we in our finite minds cannot grasp, which is why he's gently proposing them in the form of this question:

"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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory."

As I've stated before and I will state again: We do not know who the elect are. It is not our place to know who the elect are. God knows that. Our responsibility is to hear the gospel, respond to it, and then take that gospel to the world "for the sake of the faith of God's elect" (Titus 1:1). You still must obey the commands of Christ. No one is exempt from that.

Uh, God did not ordain some people to hell. No! Listen, the reason that some vessels were destroyed is they did not realize the purpose of the potter. Look in verse 20 if you will of this same chapter: "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" It doesn't say the thing created but the thing formed. Here God is shaping and some will not take the shaping.

Look at verse 22: "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath." God who was longsuffering! God is forming, working, forming, but these vessels of wrath are not yielding to the hands of the potter. Put down this verse, 2 Peter 3:9. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering," same word that's used over here in Romans 9, "longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Well, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:8 that those who stumble on the word of God do as they were destined to do. So this idea of predestination isn't absent to Peter's letters either.

In 2 Peter 3, the apostle said that scoffers would come in the last days following their own sinful desires. They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." They deliberately overlook that the heavens were formed by the word of God, and then the world that then existed was brought to destruction by God, judged because of their wickedness. That's in verse 6.

Then in verse 7, "But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." That is an intended, purposed day with people being talked about who on that day will be destroyed. Just because that day hasn't come yet doesn't mean that God isn't slow to deliver. That's what Peter is saying. And we've already talked about it in Romans: "Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" That's Romans 2:4. God's patience is meant to lead you to repentance.

Every person has their purpose in the plan of God's glory, some for honor and some for dishonor, and 2 Peter 3:9 in no way says otherwise. On the contrary, it speaks of a specific, planned day when the wrath of God will be poured out on those who have been destined for that day. Proverbs 16:4 says, "The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble."

You say, "But Pastor, it says here that they were fitted for destruction. Look at this verse again and he talks about some vessels of wrath fitted to destruction in verse 22." Let me tell you what W.E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words says. Listen carefully: "The middle voice," I know you've been waiting all morning to hear something about the middle voice, but now listen carefully: "The middle voice indicates that the vessels of wrath fitted themselves for destruction." It is not the potter who fits them for destruction. They fitted themselves for destruction. The potter was longsuffering. He did not create them, he formed them. But they were fitted, that is they made themselves, fit for destruction.

God does not create people in order to damn them. God does not create people in order to destroy them. God is a God of love. Now if you think God wants some to go to hell, just listen to this Scripture. It speaks of God who will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 

That's 1 Timothy 2:4 that he's quoting there. The problem is the way that Rogers sets that up. He says, "If you think God wants some to go to hell, listen to this verse." I believe that God has predestined some for salvation and some for wrath, but that's different than saying God wants people to go to hell. There's what God wills to have happen, and then there's what God will do. God desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. But he's going to save some and destroy the rest. Ezekiel 33:11 says that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Yet Ezekiel 24:13 says that he is satisfied by pouring out his fury on the wicked. Both statements can be true without being a contradiction regarding the nature of God.

Now, you can harden your heart. The Bible warns against people being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Put this verse down, Hebrews 3:15, "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart." I'm telling you, if you harden your heart against God, you will crystallize in your sin and God's judgment upon you will harden your heart even more. But God hardened Pharoah's heart after Pharoah first hardened his heart against the Lord. And God destroyed Pharoah, yes he did, because in the longsuffering of God and the warnings that God sent to Pharoah, Pharoah would not accept those warnings, and yes indeed he was made an example of God's wrath. And remember this: God is going to get glory with those in heaven, and God is going to get glory by judgment and those who go to hell.

I'd put this before you: Pharoah couldn't repent. Because God hardened his heart. And it was the will of the Lord to raise him up as an example. That's something Rogers isn't going to touch on because he doesn't believe God hardened Pharoah's heart. There are some who will argue with this theology and say, "Well then God is being unjust if he hardened Pharoah's heart and Pharoah couldn't repent!" That is exactly the very same argument Paul is putting forward in Romans 9:14. "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" Rogers doesn't realize that he's raising the same objections to predestination that Paul has already said his critics would respond with, and Paul answered them.

Verse 19: "You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' 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?' Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and one for dishonorable use?" Who are you to say what God can and can't do? You see? Paul is responding to the same objections that Rogers is raising against the idea that God ordains some to heaven and some to hell. The answer is there in the Scriptures. Rogers just doesn't want to get past his prejudice and read them the right way.

Now, I've said this before to those who share Rogers's view of explaining predestination, and they will say, "Well, you can't blame me. I just read the Scriptures this way because God ordained me to read them this way." Well, aren't you clever. And that may be true. But here's the thing: Paul goes on to say, in Romans 14:21, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God." You're still going to be responsible for your actions. No one is going to be able to stand before God and say, "Well you made me this way! It's your fault!" That's exactly the argument Paul is responding to when he says, "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" The qualifier "O man" is being addressed to all men! You must hear the word of the Lord, and respond to it. It is still your responsibility to do so.

Now here's the third thing I want you to see today. Remember God's sovereign choices. God is sovereign. God can choose whomever he wants for his service. God chose Abraham, and God chose Isaac over Ismael, and God chose, uh, Jacob over Esau. God chose these for service, not salvation, that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about individuals, per se, he's talking about nations. God is moving. There's God's sovereign choices.

Can Rogers give one single reference that says that God chose these men only for service but not salvation? No, he cannot, because it's not in the Bible. The examples that Rogers is giving -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These men received salvation and their brothers did not! And salvation came through their line, Jesus Christ, who was born as a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yes, my brothers and sisters, this is every bit about salvation, not simply service.

Friend, the second thing I want you to see is God's spotless character. You will never point a finger at God and say God is unrighteous. No, God is not unrighteous. God shows mercy upon whom he will show mercy. To whom will God show mercy? To those who repent of their sin. To those who want mercy. If you want mercy, you can have it. And God gives judgment to those to whom he will give judgment, to those who refuse him. God is a sovereign God. And some people say, "Well God is too good to punish sin." No, God is too good not to punish sin. 

Yeah, I agree with that, God is too good not to punish sin. But again, Rogers presents this as, if you repent of your sin you will receive salvation. Yes, that's true. But I tell you that you cannot repent of your sin unless God intervenes first. Understand this: Before men can be saved, God must act. And I happen to know that if I were sitting across from Adrian Rogers and said that, he'd agree with me. Like I said in yesterday's broadcast, I respect the man and his ministry. But on this subject of God's sovereign election, he simply is not correct.

God is righteous. Now here' the third and the final thing I want you to see: Not only God's sovereign choices, not only God's spotless character, but I want you to see God's steadfast concern. What is God's steadfast concern?

Well notice in verse 23. What is God all about? "And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy," that is the people that are saved, "which he had afore prepared unto glory." That's what he's doing. He's preparing us for glory. All things are working together for good to make us like the Lord Jesus. 

"Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only." He's trying to say to the Jews, look, you've not cornered the market on this thing. "But also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people." He's talking about us Gentiles! "And her beloved, which was not beloved." God is saying, "I'm just going to take a bunch of folks that are not part of the covenant promises of Israel and I'm going to include them in." 

"And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God." He's talking about us, folks. What he's saying is, "I am in the purpose of taking both Jews and Gentiles and making them both children of God. This is God's steadfast purpose! The highest privilege on earth is to be a son or a daughter of God.

Wonderfully said. The highest purpose is to be a son or a daughter of God. So hear the words of the Lord and receive salvation.

Now I'm going to give you some Scriptures and you write them down in the margin of your bulletin. I'm just going to show you that God wants all people saved, that God didn't create anybody to go to hell. The first one you've known since you were a child, John 3:16. "For God so loved the elect..." There's something wrong there, isn't it? "For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son that if a certain number would believe on Him." No. "That if whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved."

Who gets saved? "Whoever believes." Whoever believes in him will not perish. No matter how you argue it, there's a select number who will be saved. Understanding John 3:16 in context doesn't just mean looking at the verses after it. It also means looking at the verses before it. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, the pharisee that came to him by night. And much of what he said to Nicodemus was a reference to the Old Testament scriptures which Nicodemus should have known. He was a teacher of the law in Israel.

So in verses 14 and 15, Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." That's a reference to the story in Numbers 21 when God sent fiery serpents into the Israelite camp to punish the people for their disobedience. Many died from their snake bites. When the people feared God and repented, Moses put a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. If a serpent bit anyone, they just had to look at the bronze serpent and live.

Jesus said just as this happened for Israel, I will do this also for the whole world. Because here's the thing: Nicodemus and other Jews indeed believed that a Messiah, a Savior, was coming, but they believed that Savior was coming for the Jews. In John 3:16, Jesus was saying, "No, I'm not just coming for Jews only, I'm coming for Jews and Gentiles. The whole world of men, from every tribe and every nation." That was a stunning statement to Nicodemus who considered the Messiah to be exclusive to the Jews.

So when Jesus says, "For God so loved the world that he gave to them his only Son" he's talking about the whole world of men, every tribe and every nation. That's the context. Because as we read in Titus 2:14, Jesus "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." That's a select group, not every single person.

Now, the Scriptures say that God is reconciling all things in heaven and on earth through the person and work of Jesus Christ, making peace by the blood of his cross, Colossians 1:20. So God did more than send Christ for every person. He's working in Christ to restore all of creation. An understanding of Christ in that way is not limited. It is big! It is very big! Reconciling all things in heaven and on earth making peace, not just in people but in all of creation, in the known and unknown universe, and that means removing those who were evil and followed after the devil.

And God does have a definite plan for them in showing his glory, "enduring with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory." Once again, Romans 9:22-23.

Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Jesus died for us all. 

Not everyone's sins have been forgiven or everyone would stand before God as righteous. Only those whom Christ has redeemed, to whom that grace has been given, are righteous. Peter uses Isaiah 53:6 when he says, "For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:15). That's only those whom Christ has called. Repent and believe are not preferences. They are not suggestions. They are commands. Those who are his sheep will follow them. Those who are not his sheep won't. The sheep whom he has rescued from going astray will hear the word of God and answer to it as Jesus talks about in John 10. Even if it takes years to hear it, they will respond because they are his sheep.

Romans 8:32, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

Context! Context is so important! Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Come on. Paul is clearly talking only to believers here.

Some people say Jesus didn't die for everybody. He did! He did! 1 Timothy 2:4, it speaks of God "who will have all men to be saved." 1 John 4:14, "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." 

And then verse 15: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." Like John 3:16, that's only those who believe. (I addressed his usage of 1 Timothy 2:4 earlier.)

1 John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

That's the reason I am glad that I am a gospel preacher. Friend, that is the reason I can say to anybody, anyplace, and anywhere, "If you want mercy, you can have mercy. If you want salvation, you can have salvation. If you want to be saved, I'm telling you on the authority of the word of God that you can be saved and God closes the blessed book, the book of the Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Amen to that. And let us preach it that way. Colossians 1 starting in verse 27: "God chose to make known to the saints," that's all Christians, "how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ." That's our mission. Jesus said go and preach to the whole world. And so we must. God's love is demonstrated in his gospel, and we should desire for the whole world to hear it.

Now friend, whosoever will! 

"Whosoever heareth! Shout, shout the sounds
Send the blessed tidings all the world around!
Tell the joyful news wherever men be found!
Whosoever will may come. 

Whosoever cometh need not delay. 
Now the door is open, enter while you may. 
Jesus is the true, the only Living Way. 
Whosoever will may come! 

Whosoever will! The promise is secure. 
Whosoever will! Forever must endure. 
Whosoever will! Tis life forevermore. 
Whosoever will may come!"

"Whosoever will, whosoever will! 
Send the proclomation over vale and hill
Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home
Whosoever will may come!"

It is a liable to the character of God that God would say to a little baby, never ever having been born, done good nor evil, "You are going to hell! And there's nothing you can do about it."

See, grah! That's the thing that bugs me about this -- not the whosoever will part, he's preaching the gospel there, quoting from a hymn by Philip Bliss -- but when he says that babies are condemned to hell by God. When Rogers says that, he is specifically targeting those who believe God has predestined some for mercy and some for wrath. That's divisive. That does not unify the body of Christ. I don't preach that God condemns babies to hell. Quite the opposite actually.

I don't believe that for one skinny minute. I preach a gospel of "Whosoever will." 

If Rogers thinks that only the "whosoever wills" go to heaven, then babies go to hell because they never had an opportunity to choose. Now, I don't think Rogers actually believed that. I'm just saying, his logic doesn't fit. It doesn't fit the Scriptures, and it doesn't fit his own position. If you believe that God does not predestine who will be saved, "though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad" as it says in Romans 9:11, then you cannot make an argument for God saving the unborn, or for children who cannot choose, or the mentally handicapped. I can make that argument, because I argue for the doctrine of predestination. But a person who rejects that Scriptural interpretation cannot.

God is a sovereign God. And there is God's sovereign choice. There is God's spotless character. But friend, there is God's steadfast concern. He wants people saved. And he wants you saved. And if you want to be saved, I'm telling you he will save you today. And he will keep you and present you spotless before his throne. Would you bow your heads in prayer? Heads are bowed, and eyes are closed. Would you begin to pray for those around you who may not know Jesus? 

That's a very interesting way to put that. Would you pray for those around you who do not know Jesus. Why? Why would you pray for them? Do you not pray, as Adrian Rogers also prays, that God would break the hearts of those who do not know Christ so that they would receive him as Lord and Savior? Are you not praying and asking for God's will to be done over that person's life instead of their own will? Then you understand Romans 9:16, "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." You pray for God to intervene in that person's destructive path as you should. Because it is God's will, not our will, be done. Always.

As Charles Spurgeon has said, "If I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained, that is true. And if I find in another Scripture that man is responsible for all his actions, that is also true. And it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other."