(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (coughing) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - Good morning, Church family.

Happy Lord's Day. As we begin our service, I'd like to read a Bible verse for us. It is from Psalm 20, verse seven. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. What a blessing it is that we serve a God who is faithful, who is faithful to his promises to himself, and he will never fail us.

And so with that, we will begin our service with the song "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." (gentle music) ♪ 'Tis so sweet ♪ ♪ 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Just to take him at his word ♪ ♪ Just to rest upon his promise ♪ ♪ Just to know the saith the Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him ♪ ♪ How I've proved him o'er and o'er ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, for grace to trust him more ♪ (gentle music) Oh, how sweet to trust.

♪ Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Just to trust his cleansing blood ♪ ♪ And in simple faith to plunge me ♪ ♪ 'Neath the healing, cleansing flood ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him ♪ ♪ How I've proved him o'er and o'er ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, for grace to trust him more ♪ (gentle music) Sing Jesus.

♪ Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him ♪ ♪ How I've proved him o'er and o'er ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, for grace to trust him more ♪ (gentle music) Oh, for grace. ♪ Oh, for grace to trust him more ♪ (gentle music) Good morning, everybody.

I wanna extend a warm welcome to all of you, and particularly if you're joining Berean for the very first time, I wanna extend a warm welcome and ask that after the service is done, please visit our welcome booth. You'll see it at the front of the parking lot with the blue canopy, and you'll all see our welcome team members in the blue vest, too.

We love to meet you, provide any information you may need, so please join us there. Likewise, for new visitors, at the end of the month on Sunday, July 30th, we have a special new visitors lunch prepared. We, special time where you can come together to meet some of our church leaders, hear kind of an info session on what our ministry philosophy is, and if you have any questions, that's a great place to ask, too.

So please RSVP for that. You can email the welcome team directly at welcometeam@bereancc, or just visit the welcome booth as well. In line with that, this summer, we have a special seekers group that we've put together. If some of you are here and you're not just simply new to the church, you're new to faith, you're new to what Christianity is, we're going to be going through just simply the four essential elements of the gospel message, and we'll also have our outreach ministry team members there to ask any questions, or answer any questions you may have there.

Please sign up by going on our bereancc.com website, and on the events, we'll have a link there. Also, you can email me directly if you have questions about that at marklim@bereancc.com. I want to make mention of a opportunity for fellowship for family ministry. On Saturday, the 22nd, from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m., at Bolsa Chica State Beach, there's going to be this fellowship opportunity where the families can come together, share in a meal, there'll be activities, et cetera, et cetera. So please be on the lookout for that. We do want to take a head count, so that will also be on our events portion of the app or the website.

As a quick heads up, please note that members meeting is going to take place on the 23rd. Okay, so for all the members, the members meeting starts at 1.30, and because we didn't want people just to have too much, I guess, downtime, but for some of you guys, it may not be enough time to go out and grab, et cetera.

Just plan ahead, and know that the meeting will start promptly at 1.30. Okay, let's take a moment to pray together, and then for those of you who have offering in the check form, you can submit that at the entrance, or otherwise you can give it digitally. Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you and praise you. We thank you, Lord, that to us you grant and give the knowledge from your word, and then even then, we recognize that, Lord, we're hard of hearing. Sometimes our ears, our hearts are dull. Lord, we thank you that you give us illumination, you give us understanding, you give us conviction of faith and growth, and so, Lord, we praise you, and also, today, as we join in worship together, we recognize this is a huge privilege for us to come to you praising and glorifying you, for there is no greater joy, God, than to exalt and lift you up together.

We do also just pray that then our hearts would be so desiring to honor you in every way, not just a set time on Sunday, but in every way that we live our lives, and so, we also pray for the offering to be expressive, God, of our heart's desire for you, our longing to render to you the worship you deserve to give to you, Lord God, and by way of desiring, God, that your kingdom work would continue to go forward.

So, Lord, we pray for the offering, and again, this time that we have now in worship and hearing of your word and singing, may it be pleasing in your sight, in Christ's name, amen. (soft piano music) (whispering) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Let us all rise as we sing these praises.

(upbeat music) Sing, you are holy. ♪ You are holy ♪ ♪ You are holy, you are mighty ♪ ♪ You are mighty, you are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy, worthy of praise ♪ ♪ Worthy of praise, I will follow ♪ ♪ I will follow, I will listen ♪ ♪ I will listen, I will love you ♪ ♪ I will love you, all of my days ♪ ♪ Now sing ♪ ♪ I will seek to and worship ♪ ♪ The King who is worthy ♪ ♪ And I will love and adore him ♪ ♪ I will bow down before him ♪ ♪ And I will seek to and worship ♪ ♪ The King who is worthy ♪ ♪ And I will love and adore him ♪ ♪ I will bow down before him ♪ ♪ And you're my Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ I will live my life for you ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ You are holy, you are holy ♪ ♪ You are holy, you are mighty ♪ ♪ You are mighty, you are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy, worthy of praise ♪ ♪ Worthy of praise, I will follow ♪ ♪ I will follow, I will listen ♪ ♪ I will listen, I will love you ♪ ♪ I will love you, all of my days ♪ ♪ Now sing ♪ ♪ I will seek to and worship ♪ ♪ The King who is worthy ♪ ♪ And I will love and adore him ♪ ♪ I will bow down before him ♪ ♪ And I will seek to and worship ♪ ♪ The King who is worthy ♪ ♪ And I will love and adore him ♪ ♪ I will bow down before him ♪ ♪ You're my Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ I will live my life for you ♪ Let's all sing, you are Lord.

♪ You are Lord of Lords ♪ ♪ You are King of Kings ♪ ♪ You are mighty God ♪ ♪ Lord of everything ♪ ♪ You're Emmanuel ♪ ♪ You're the great I Am ♪ ♪ You're my Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ Who is the Lamb ♪ ♪ You're my living God ♪ ♪ You're my saving grace ♪ ♪ You will reign forever ♪ ♪ You are ancient of days ♪ ♪ You are Alpha, Omega ♪ ♪ Beginning and end ♪ ♪ You're my Savior, Messiah ♪ ♪ Redeemer and friend ♪ ♪ You're my Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ I will live my life for you ♪ ♪ You're my Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ I will live my life for you ♪ - He became sin.

♪ He became sin ♪ ♪ Who knew no sin ♪ ♪ That we might become ♪ ♪ His righteousness ♪ ♪ He humbled himself ♪ ♪ And carried the cross ♪ ♪ Love so amazing ♪ ♪ Love so amazing ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ The rescue for sinners ♪ ♪ The ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ His body.

♪ His body the bread ♪ ♪ His blood the wine ♪ ♪ Broken and poured out ♪ ♪ All for love ♪ ♪ The whole earth trembled ♪ ♪ And the veil was torn ♪ ♪ Love so amazing ♪ ♪ Love so amazing ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ The rescue for sinners ♪ ♪ The ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ All our hope.

♪ All our hope is in you ♪ ♪ All our hope is in you ♪ ♪ All the glory to you God ♪ ♪ The light of the world ♪ ♪ All our hope is in you ♪ ♪ All our hope is in you ♪ ♪ All the glory to you God ♪ ♪ The light of the world ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer ♪ ♪ Emmanuel ♪ ♪ The rescue for sinners ♪ ♪ The ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ Amen, you may be seated.

- Okay, good morning again, everyone. Please turn your Bible to Romans chapter nine. And as you turn there, just to note again, last Sunday, we hit the first portions of the Romans chapter nine and talking about Paul's heart grieving for the lost, then teaching, the word of God teaching us that salvation is by God's choice because it's a merciful, merciful act of God.

For today, let's take a moment to read verse 22 through 24. And it says, "What if God, "though willing to demonstrate his wrath "and to make his power known, "endured with much patience, "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, "and he did so to make known the riches of his glory "upon vessels of mercy, "which he prepared beforehand for glory, "even us whom he also called, "not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we tackle and hear from your word, we pray, God, that you would grant to us understanding as you have so desired for us to know. We hear in your word that it has been your design to make known your mercy, your power, your glory, and more.

It is our prayer, God, that you would help us see it. It's in Christ's name, amen. So if you were not here with us last week, it was part one of just a two-part series on the doctrines of election, but first seeing God's character and heart of mercy in that election.

That election should be described always with gracious choice of God, okay? And so in that way, because it's really pivotal to understanding election, I'll give like the shortest summary of last week's sermon, which is simply that in terms of who is saved, the question of who can be saved, that answer is simply God's merciful choice, period.

God saves based on his merciful choice, and that's the end of it. There may be those who wonder and have a difficult time, well, what about my free will? And I'm just going to say pretty bluntly, and then hopefully you can look back at the sermon last week to see the description.

He gives no consideration. He doesn't need man's consent. There is no regard for the free will of man when God makes his choice, because it's from eternity past. It's from before the foundation of the world. It's from the intention of his heart. The election is derived from his own character.

It says it's his purpose, and it's a free gift of promise he gives to completely dead people, right? It's something that he gives to individuals who have not the power to exercise something of a, oh, I'll grab that life vest, or I'll jump the fence over. No, no, no, that's, dead people don't jump fences to enter into the next kingdom.

This is God giving all from his accord. And so that's what a lot of the scripture says. When we look at the entirety of Romans chapter nine, we began with God has always done this. It wasn't just because you happen to have the blood of Abraham, but it was always person that God placed his promise on.

And at certain points, it happened to even be counter-cultural, counter-intuitive. I gave it to the younger brother. I gave it to the weak. I gave it to whom I desired. Why? He says, because it's my choice. God says, I choose graciously whom I will have mercy on and whom I will have compassion on.

In order to highlight this gracious nature of God's election, or the election that God exercises, I am going to read a couple passages for you. One is from Ephesians chapter two, very famous passage on the whole of the summary of the fact that salvation is by grace, right? Reading to you starting from about verse eight.

Ephesians two, verse eight says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. "It's not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. "Not as a result of works so that no one may boast." When it says no one may boast, you can't even boast like, oh, I'm so glad I made this choice, okay?

I'm gonna explain that a little bit later, but let's say we find ourselves on the side of the kingdom of Christ, and we see across the way those individuals who are in the kingdom of darkness. There is no way that we will find ourselves there, look at each other and say, aren't you glad you chose this kingdom?

Because that's not the way the scriptures describes it. He says in verse 10, "We are his workmanship, "created in Christ Jesus for good works, "which God prepared beforehand." Another way to look at it is Romans chapter 11, verse five and six. Apostle Paul says, "In the same way then, "there has also come to be at the present time "a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on basis of works, "otherwise grace is no longer grace." If we use the paradigm and the analogy that salvation is simply a gift, an incredible treasure given to you, we have to think of it as purely then it's God and his initiative giving it to again dead people.

Another way to look at this is 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 through 14. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, for love by God because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit, faith in the truth. It was for this he called you through the gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Last week what I said was that the election and sovereign choice God exercises is an all-inclusive choice of God. And what I meant by that was in this passage in 2 Thessalonians, you notice that it's an error for us to think of election as God long, long time ago just saying, "Okay, you can come in." That is not election.

Election is God choosing you for glory. Election is God choosing you to embed his Spirit. Election is God choosing to sanctify you. He is involved, he is planning, executing every single portion of your salvation. And we believe that all of it is of God's mercy. If salvation is God's to give, then even the decision, so to speak, even the election part of it, that too is all gracious.

And the reason why I'm talking about this is because I still, I think we have, obviously, a difficulty thinking and perceiving that. And in some sense, I kind of just jokingly said, "Hey, election's simple. "Let me just summarize this to you in one sentence." In one sense, election is very simple.

When God tells us in his word very clearly who is saved and he says, "It's by my choice. "My choice stands," is what God says, then that's the end of the discussion. The election's true. However, obviously, we have questions and we have difficulties. And some of these difficulties pretty much have been already anticipated within this passage.

Those difficulties are like, "Wait a minute. "Some of that just sounds very unfair." And I try to reiterate that it is not just some kind of arbitrary decision God does like the way we would. We would just pick some numbers. We would just do a, "Well, in order to be fair, "I'm not gonna look, I'm just gonna," you know?

That is not what God is doing. But what's more, another question that Apostle Paul anticipated, or the scripture anticipates, is that philosophically, verse 19, Romans 9, 19, he says, "Well, wait a minute. "You're saying this is your choice. "Then that means it's not my fault. "If I don't choose God, if I reject Christ, "then that's not my fault.

"How is it my fault if you're that sovereign? "You've already determined who's in heaven. "You've already determined the end of the game. "How in the world do you still hold me "responsible for that?" But scripture is very, very clear. "You are responsible." I will say it in kind of, I guess, some really, what sounds a bit harsh, but just true and blunt true statements.

Every individual who's going to receive the punishment of hell, damnation, or condemnation, they thoroughly deserve it. Any individual who's being punished by God is because they deserve it. There is no individual who should have received, who should have received grace but never did, who should have received mercies but they never did, meaning there is no punishment that God is giving out, no retribution, no vengeance that is unfair or undeserved.

But interestingly enough, this passage strikes us as very, very difficult because again, remember the last time, when God says something like, "But Jacob I loved and Esau I hated," it just seems so unfair. And then if you tell us, "Well, it's my choice "and it's not God regarding my future decision, "but it's all God and his own initiative," then it's fair to ask.

And I wanna say that I too join with you in thinking, man, that's weird because I feel like I'm making a decision. I know I made a decision. I went to the floor and cried when I received Christ. I responded to the gospel. Isn't it me? And then what about my, the genuineness about my response, my emotions, my volition?

Isn't that real? As you guys probably know of John Piper, what's really interesting is upon this topic, he said, "Romans chapter nine is his most studied passage." The reason why is because really interestingly enough, this individual by John Piper, when he was 22, graduated college and decided to go into seminary, he said he was 100% on the side.

No, we make decisions. God doesn't touch this place because he wants this to be a real reaction, right? And so he said he actually challenged his professor. He grabbed his book and said, "Look at me. "I am a free agent making my choices." And he dropped this book and said, "I dropped it." And he was defiant towards his professor saying, "If you're trying to tell me that God "predetermines these choices in me, "then show me because I make decisions today.

"Remember, the truths that God is revealing to us, "these are precious mysteries of God "we would never come to conclusions on our own. "They're precious mysteries of God trying to show to us. "Do you have any idea," and I'm gonna rephrase it, "how secure your salvation really is? "When you say, 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' "Do you have any idea what you're saying "when you say that statement?

"Do you have any idea how deeply I love you? "Do you have any idea how vast are my thoughts of you? "Do you have any idea," you know, parents will say this certain times, right? "Do you have any idea what it did for you "when you were younger, you know?

"When you were just a toddler, "when you were just growing up "and you were that rebellious teen, "do you remember when God can say to us, "Do you have any idea how from long ago, "before your form, before your structure was even made, "I already knew you?" God's sovereign election and sovereign choice to us was given to us to show us, when you worship me, this is how powerful I am.

When you trust me, this is how trustworthy I am. You would never know because you were never there. Let me tell you, your salvation I prepared from long ago. That's what you should hear. The doctrine of election is not a harsh reality by which we're supposed to just, oh, woe is me, then maybe I'm not one of them.

Oh, woe is me, maybe then I just sit back and let things happen. We have people out in Korea sacrificing time, money, energy, putting all of their efforts just to plead with somebody, be reconciled to God, why? I don't know, that's not why God gave us this truth. This truth was introduced from Romans 8.

Your salvation is so secure. Apostle Paul says, "I am convinced nothing will separate me "from the love of God." Why? It's because God in his sovereign choice gave it to you. So with that said, today from Romans chapter nine, there's a second theme. This passage to us presented the truth of election from the standpoint of mercy.

And all through chapter nine, if you read it, you'll just see it again and again. You don't understand. You keep thinking of it as like, I'm not being fair to policy. I'm exercising mercy. Chapter 11 will say the same thing. You don't understand. You think these people are just lost and these people are done and these people will never ever make it and you guys are better.

They'll squash all that. None of you would have ever come to this conclusion because I'm exercising mercy. But then there's a second theme that God embedded into this portion of questions and rationale and reasons, which is the election shows God's power. And so today, there isn't a whole lot of practical, you know what you need to do this week?

You know what you need to say to unbelievers? Today is just gonna be a whole lot of like, I know God is powerful. I've heard it before. I know he's majestic. I know he's up here. But I'm gonna try to challenge you. How high, truly how majestic is God in your perspective?

How powerful do you really think he is? Let's take a look at the very first point I want to highlight to you. And the very first point is we must appreciate God's infinite power in his authority. First point, you must appreciate God's infinite power in his authority. Power and authority go hand in hand, pretty much very synonymous.

But authority is something more unique and we can describe it, especially just from the passage that we were looking at. We take a look at this passage and it says, well, verse 19, you will say to me, why does he still find fault? Like, why is he treating me like it's my fault then if he's so sovereign, right?

And then it asks this question, who resists his will? The answer to that is kind of interesting because we would answer, yeah, we believe from Scripture when there is sin, when there is rejection, it is your fault. If there's hardening of heart, it is your responsibility. But the other side of that question, who can resist his will, is nobody.

And then so they're stuck in a hard place and you're like, then what gives? How do you reconcile this? And to that question, how can you reconcile this? God gives this interesting answer, which is not really an answer. He doesn't give us a reconciliation of those two thoughts. He just asked the question, who are you?

You know how sometimes throughout the Scriptures, there are moments when there's questions asked, but rather than getting an answer, you get questioned back? And this question back, we can describe it as a kind of like radical wake-up call. Before you ask even your question, there is so much ignorance bound up into the question, I have to have you think about your entire paradigm.

Within our worldview, in a box, if you think about our mind, there are big, big pieces. The biggest piece should be God, what you know about him. The next piece is how this world works and its laws, right, and its pattern. How the world works, there's principles of life.

And then in your picture in your mind, there should be you understanding yourself within this world, within how this world turns, you place yourself. Well, by the perversion of the sin of man, one of the greatest things that we do in our sin is we become so huge in the box and God continues to diminish, right?

That's a perversion and sin in our minds. This question asks, who do you think you are? How big did you make yourself in this picture that you are now questioning God, right? How big do you think you are? Do you find yourself maybe thinking like you're one of the senators and he happens to be another senator and you wanna reason with him and be like, hey, let's make some bipartisan, dual, mutually, like synergistic policies here.

Why is it just all you, right? Maybe. I don't think any of us would talk to God that way. But by the questions itself, God says, wait a minute. Who do you think you are, old man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it?

Or does not the potter have a right? Right there is where I meditated and thought, man, to us in our minds, we have to challenge ourselves to ask and think. I know God has authority, he's God. I know God has his right over us to do as he pleases.

He's God, right? And what's more, in synonymous terms, God's the creator. He has so much power, he's so powerful. He spoke and then it was. He spoke and then it wasn't. Like, he has so much power, he can execute things just by the word of his voice. And then we're gonna talk back to God?

No way. And a way to think about this is, we know synonymously scripture talks about God as both maker, designer. Here, he's saying potter, he is author. And so in a kind of silly analogy, think about an author writing his novel. He has a beautiful kind of interplay in his plot and he has obviously the villain, he has his hero, he even has the damsel in distress.

He has people in crisis moments and he has a peak in the drama, but all of a sudden, the villain's like, "Hey, wait a minute, I don't like this role. Why do I always have to be the villain?" Right? And nowadays you have people trying to make different spoofs of movies.

In order to make sense of this, I'm trying to ask you this question. In your mind, when it comes to authority, there are different types of authority that comes. God has so much authority, he has every authority just from who he is, just from his abilities. You know how we use the kind of term authority like this?

If you happen to be the PhD holding expert in the room, you are the authority just based upon your knowledge. Yes? God has that kind of authority. You know, one of my favorite analogies to try to help us understand the chasm between creator, maker, author versus the creature trying to ask, "Why did you make me like this?" Right?

Was a famous individual named Amos that Pastor Peter Chung likes to use. Pastor Peter Chung likes to bring up this individual Amos and his last name is Amos Kitto. So this is a little mosquito that he has and then I took it from his office. It's a mosquito, okay?

And I remember the reason why I love this because all of the analogies were spot on to spiritual reality. A mosquito is already despised. It's already condemned. What do I mean by that? By the audacity of a mosquito entering into my presence, he must die. If he comes into my room, right?

Just his venture into my room deserves his death. And nobody would tell me like, "What did you do? Why did you do that?" You know what you guys would do? You guys would be like, "Thank you so much." Right? If you were my family member and you were in my house, you would thank me for killing the mosquito because it becomes hostile to me.

And imagine if this mosquito had a voice and it says, "No." Right? You don't understand. I'm so poor. I have no money. I have no place to stay. And I'm like, "Oh, really?" And I would kill it as it's begging me for mercy. Why? Because it's a mosquito. Okay.

But this analogy still fails to highlight the chasm between creator and creature. Because this analogy is just between me, a human being, who is but one of billions, to a mosquito. Right? The analogy that the scripture gives to us here is an inanimate object of clay. And yes, that should automatically make us feel kind of like, "He's calling us dirt." You know?

He's... We are. We are but dust that returns to dust. He formed us from the earth. He formed us from the dust. And he talks about... He talks about creation. He talks about inhabitants. You have no idea that God, when He sees inhabitants, it is but His creatures. Yet at the same time, because of Him, because of who He is, He's graciously embedded on it value.

He's graciously embedded onto us, created us in His image. And so it would be like me taking this mosquito and then saying, "I know I could kill you, but instead I will house you in my home. I want you to dwell with me. And then I'll give you a name, Amos." Right?

"And I will love you. And you'll be with me forever and ever." Right? It's just so weird. And so likewise, last week I said, "The question to us should be strikingly and painfully in our hearts, why does He choose even one? It's like saying, 'I know I have dust on my feet.' Naturally speaking, He should have wiped it off.

But He saves the remnant. He saves the few. How dare we say, "How can you not save everybody? Why don't you make your grace for everyone? How come these people are dying? Are you as gracious as you say you are?" You know? And He's saying, "You cannot do that because you don't understand the height of God and the lowness of man." And that's why God is able to say, even of us, just as a reference, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 2, "Do not be quick with your mouth.

Do not even be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Does that shock you as offensive? Definitely if you said that in our current culture, you're going to have somebody with sass, you know, sorry, I can't move my head like that.

You know, somebody who does, "Uh-uh, I will not be silent." You know, "You're going to hear me." I feel like that's our modern culture right now. I have freedom of speech. You know, "You can't silence me. I have rights, you know." And God's in there, "Okay, yeah. You and your wicked generation, you and your, you know, American culture, sure.

But when you come in my presence, I am in heaven." Like, we have to remember that. You know what I'm saying? We have to remember and appreciate His power. And so what's more, what I'm saying, related to this idea of election then is, election is showing us this authority and this power that He's exercising and He's revealing to us.

We dare not try to even challenge that authority with words that I don't even know what I'm really talking about. Because truthfully speaking, just the element of timing election, I don't fully comprehend. You do realize that when God talks about your election, He says, "He seated you in the heavenlies in Christ.

He's glorified you already." He talks about it like it's already done. That's the power of God and His sovereign choice of you. It's mind-blowingly powerful. That's what I'm trying to say. Point two, we must appreciate God's infinite power in His dominion, okay? We don't really use the term dominion a lot.

But the reason why I chose that term is because again, if you go back to our text, let's take a look. It says, "So what if," okay? "What if," it's a hypothetical question, but He's using it to tell you, "Do you have any idea what God's trying to do?

He's trying to show His power and glory." And then so He says, "He is willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known." Earlier He said, "Do you have any idea how powerful God is?" Pharaoh of Egypt thought, "Oh my goodness, I'm Pharaoh. Bow down to me," making statues of himself, like taking slaves, taking, as a ruler, taking slaves and making them his own, making people bow down to his idols and stuff like that.

And he's sitting there saying, "Who is God that I should listen to Him?" Right? And then God says, "You fool, I raised you up." Whoa. "I raised you up to show my power." The term for power is the Greek word kratos, and it has lots of variation. You know when Scripture talks about, "And Christ is the Almighty," it's that word for power.

But what's really interesting is, if you look up the definition, yes, it means strength, it means might, but it says more specifically, this is in the dictionary, more specifically, "manifested power of dominion and control." There are different vocabularies, you know, synonyms, for power that's general power of presence, clout, aura, you know, like strength and might.

There's different synonyms for that, but this specific term is more specifically used to the manifest power to execute. And I want us to appreciate that and say, God is exercising His full control down to the precision, down to such a thoroughness of His salvation. When we think about election, please, please do not think of it as God sat there, and then we were over there going, "Please let us in.

Please let us in." And then He decides, "Okay, is that election?" Or another way, again, I said, "Well, God does not, at least I want to save some." So He told His angels, like, "Go grab a few." Some people think of it that way. They just like, "God is this high being that doesn't want to deal with us, sent His angels, sent His messengers, and says, 'Bring in a few,' especially the poor ones outside." No.

God exercises intricate, precise dominion. He executes His will and purpose. That's the way Scripture talks about it. In this passage, please take a look at Romans 9, 24. When He starts quoting these passages, look at what He's saying. He says, "Even among us whom He has called, not from among the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, He says also in Hosea, 'I will call those who are not My people, My people.'" Okay, so already He is exercising something that is a fulfillment of the promises, dating back all the way when God told Abraham, "I'm going to give you offspring.

I'm going to make you numerous. I'm going to bless you with land. And I'm going to make you a blessing to them." He already told them from long, long time ago, all that He was going to do. And He's executing it down to the T. Starting from verse 27, He says, "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Will the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea?

It is the remnant that will be saved. For the Lord will," what? "Execute His words on earth thoroughly and quickly." I think, I really believe that subtly sometimes, we, because we don't see Him physically and we can't touch Him, and because with our eyes, we only see the day-to-day just moving forward, we see our God kind of like the way we see the King of England.

What do I mean by that? Who here even knows, like, who currently is the King? It's King Charles, okay? We get news on the sons and et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like, "No, I don't like them." You know? But let me ask you a question. In the old days, when it began with, you know, like back in the early thousands or whatever in England about who was like monarch king, their word was like gold.

It was almost as though God was speaking, and whatever they said, it happened, right? If they said, "You died," boom, they would be put to death, okay? But right now, what kind of power does King Charles have? Aside from, you know, the pomp and ceremonial stuff, aside from people gathering together and paying some homage, what kind of say and clout does he have?

He's more representative. He's more ceremonial, right? That's what I'm talking about. For us, we're like, "No, no, no. "He exercises dominion as King "intricately involved in our lives." Yes? And I want us to make sure that if any of us have struggled to think about, "No, where is he?

"Why does he allow this stuff to happen?" And we have these questions. Know that God is a God who exercises intricate dominion. It says here, "Exactingly, thoroughly, swiftly." Point three, we have to appreciate God's power even in His wrath, okay? We have to appreciate and really accept and know God's power even in His wrath.

So one of the things that popped out to us was God saying, "You do realize that I am willing "and I have in the past and I will in the future "exercise my righteous judgment." That's power. There are people right now in our day and age who are mad as can be.

They're raging, they're upset, and they have every right to be. There are a lot of things that are going sour in our day. But do you think that their crazy rants and the speed of their keyboard, brr, you know? That it's really gonna have a deep, deep effect on the trajectory of the way things are going?

We see godlessness happening, we see things that are backwards, so many selfishness, tons of pride, lot of hate, lots of bitterness. There are people who feel righteous but have no power. God, He says, "I am willing to demonstrate my wrath." When He says that, there's a righteous judgment. And for that, we say, "Whoa." That is your power, that is your justice, that is your wrath, that's to your glory.

You know, last week I mentioned, if God, He says, "I have this choice "to make out of clay what I want to." And so from clay, I can make vessels for noble and useful purposes, or I can make it specifically for destruction. If He built clay discs so that He can shoot them and He can take a shotgun and then shoot them, shoot them, shoot them, would we sit there and be like, "What are you doing?" No, we would actually be impressed.

Wow, your accuracy is so good. God's wrath is so exacting. He says, "Do you know that every careless word, "everything you thought that nobody saw, "every thought that you raised up against God, "your fellow man, every hatred and bitter thought "that you had this murderous intent in your heart, "maybe you didn't act on it.

"God says, 'Do you have any idea how precise my wrath is?'" And the thing about it is in Scripture, it makes us feel really awkward, but there are lots of portions of Scripture where the saints praise Him and say, "Glory to God, because this God is fully capable "and will be exacting in His punishment of the wicked.

"He won't let things slide. "He's not a respecter of people." That is to God's glory, that is to God's glory, and it shows us His power. But you know what else, what I was thinking about? This passage is interesting because he says, "So God is willing to demonstrate that wrath, "but He endures with patience." And then I asked myself, "What is He enduring?

"Is He suffering at the hands of men? "God is ultra annoyed by the rebellious, "by the pagan people that have existed "all through the generations. "What is He enduring? "In what way is He being patient?" And I remembered, you know, even of us, Scripture says in Proverbs 16 that He who is able to exercise self-control has more power than those who control cities and kingdoms.

Why? Interesting question. Who can stay God's hand? If God's about to come and He's about to exercise His judgment, who can be like, "Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no, no. "He's not ready yet." Something like that. Who can go to God and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you have to wait." The answer is nobody.

God's power is shown in His patience because God is a God of incredible precision and self-control. God is showing us His power through this in His patience, in His endurance, that although He could and He would be willing and although He had designed and had done in the past, that He will exercise His wrath and judgment, that He Himself will show powerful self-restraint.

And so finally, we must appreciate then His glory in all of this. Okay? His glory in all of this. Today was just thinking through the fact that election was not meant to be for us like, "Huh?" "Wait, I don't get it." It's probably not true. I feel like some people approach it like that.

Or, you know, some of us say, "Oh, you dummy, you don't want no election." Or just getting discouraged like, "Oh my gosh, I said today, maybe I'm not elected." That wasn't the purpose of how and why He showed it. The purpose I'm trying to tell you is He wanted to show us His glory.

And so do you have any idea how powerful I am? And so I want us to turn to a passage in Daniel chapter 4. Turn your Bibles there. And we're going to read about Nebuchadnezzar. Because Nebuchadnezzar had a realization. He had one of those, you know, reckonings. He had one of those, "Oh my goodness" moments.

And he had a vision of the power of God. And he realized, "I must appreciate the glory of God because the reality is God is so powerful, I can't even describe it." Okay. So go in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 4 verses 30. And King Nebuchadnezzar, as you know, his kingdom was huge.

King of Babylon, right? And what he says is the king reflected and he said, "Hoh, is not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power for the glory of my majesty." Pause there for a moment. That's some gross arrogance and pride, isn't it?

But I'll tell you what, is that very, very far from what we're susceptible of? You know, I feel like for me, I get humbled. There are times when I'm like, "Yeah, to be a pastor." I did. I took a vow like, "I'm going to be God's slave," for crying out loud.

"I don't need money. I don't need cars. I don't need anything." You know? All I need is Christ and that's it. And then there are moments when God, like prior to becoming a pastor, I worked as a real estate agent. I worked at a sales agent. I worked at a, you know, electronics, excuse me, electronics company down here over at Ben Q.

And when I was a young man and I made my first, like, I guess you can say expendable cash, whatever, my arrogance showed in the way that I spent it. It was my money, I made it. It's like, "Huh, I'm pretty good at this," you know? I actually think I would be pretty good in sales.

I actually thought that, like, "If I put my mind to this, I can make probably a lot." Is it too far from us to say just simply, "This is mine because I did it. I'm the one who put in the time. I'm the one who put in the energy.

I'm the one who put in the blood, sweat, and tears, and I put in my expertise into it." It's not so far. But take a look at this in verse 31. It says, "While the word was in the king's mouth," Whoa, right? "While he was saying that stuff," and he was just murmuring probably to himself, like, "This is great." "The voice came from heaven saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared.

Sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes.' Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled, and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws." Gross.

He looked like a beast, an animal. His nails grew. He had to look like all, got all furry. He was walking around. He went from the highest palace to the field with the beasts. But take a look at this in verse 34. "But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned for me.

I blessed the Lord Most High, praised and honored Him who lives forever." Why? "For His domain is the everlasting domain, and His kingdom is dures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" Amen.

"From the mouth of a wicked king, mouth of a wicked ruler, God received glory for His power." And to us as Christians, this is at the beat of our heart. I want to give glory to God. I want to see His power. And He says, "In your salvation, yes, by the power of God, so many mysteries.

How is it that I live today, but my life is now joined with Christ because of faith? How does two individuals' lives get merged together in such a mysterious and powerful way that the resurrected life is mine? I don't know." Right? How is it that my sins that I commit today, I can lay at the feet of the cross and it gets crucified upon Christ?

How is it that He becomes our unrighteousness? I don't know. But Scripture says, "By the working of His might, by the power of God, your life is secure." And then so He reveals to you even the very conception of it happening. God predestined it. You are chosen. I pray that that would be encouraging to you.

That when you say, "I can't, I can't lose my salvation because that wasn't something I said that would be a great idea." No, God said, "I will give it to you." And so King Nebuchadnezzar in verse 37 says, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true.

His ways are just and is able to humble those who walk in pride." What God desires for us to do, the way that we're going to glorify God is through our humility. Yes? It's through our humility of recognizing, "Lord, in you, everything. In me, nothing. You literally told me verbatim, I can't do anything apart from you.

What am I doing? Why do I keep going to these things and turning to these people and trying to have, you know, cool things that I develop and I produce and I... No, Lord, I want to be humble before you. You have marked out a path for me. I want to be used for your kingdom.

I want to be used for your glory. And the Lord of heaven has told me, He told me to preach because He has elected people. He told me to go because there are people there that are His. Amen. Amen. In humility, then, we're not going to be arrogant about our choices.

We're not even going to be arrogant about what we can produce. Interestingly enough, in Romans chapter 11, when Apostle Paul is like concluding this little section about what about Israel, he tells the Gentiles, "Don't be arrogant." He says, "Don't be arrogant towards the branches. Don't be arrogant as Israelites." We can't look back and say, "You know, these dummies." They're bowing to wood.

They're bowing to Astropole. He says, "Don't be arrogant." This hardening, this partial hardening, I put a stupor over them. You know why? So that you would receive mercy. And then when you receive mercy, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to be faithful to my exacting promise that I will save Israel.

That question of what about Israel is 100% God does not change His mind. It will happen. Therefore, for you today, brothers and sisters, if any of you do struggle with assurance, don't look for answers just by staring at yourself. Be like King Nebuchadnezzar, look up. I looked upon heaven and realized God is the King.

Amen. I want to conclude by saying the doctrine of election, I do not claim to know it all. Huge question marks. If you ask me, I'm just going to be like, "Hmm." You know? But look at this passage in Romans chapter 11, the way he ends it. Oh, the depth and riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are His judgments, unfathomable His ways. In this way, the acceptance of the doctrine of election, 100%, very, very straightforward. Oh, it's His. It's His thought. It's His mind. It's inscrutable. I'm not going to try. He's given it to me. Bless the Lord. For who has known the mind of God or who became His counselor?

Who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. God, I pray that for us as your children, we would be so encouraged to know your power is so beyond our imagination.

Your way is so beyond our counsel. And even if we wanted to hear an explanation from you, we know, God, that you are high in heaven and we are here on earth. And so what we do, God, is to say, God, you're so powerful, we trust you. You knew before that because you were the author, you wrote the end before the middle was even said.

You wrote the beginning and the end, Lord. And so, God, this day, we want to glorify you by saying, we trust you with all our hearts. We trust you with every part of our lives. There is no piece of us where we're wondering, God, what's going to happen? What's going to happen?

But God, because we have you as our sovereign king, we are secure. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. - Let's rise as we sing our closing praise. Just one moment. (gentle music) (gentle music) ♪ Who else commands all the hosts of heaven ♪ ♪ Who else can make every king bow down ♪ ♪ Who else can whisper when darkness trembles ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ What other beauty demands such praises ♪ ♪ What other splendor outshines the sun ♪ ♪ What other majesty rules with justice ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing holy ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ (gentle music) ♪ What other glory consumes like fire ♪ ♪ What other power can raise the dead ♪ ♪ What other name remains undefeated ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing holy ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing holy ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Who else can rescue me from my failing ♪ ♪ Who else would offer his only son ♪ ♪ Who else invites me to call him father ♪ ♪ Only a holy God ♪ ♪ Only my holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing holy ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and behold him ♪ ♪ The one and the only ♪ ♪ Cry out, sing holy ♪ ♪ Forever a holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ ♪ Come and worship the holy God ♪ (gentle music) - Amen, let's pray.

God, truly as we sing just now, there is no one like you. You are uniquely God. And so we praise you and lift you up. I do pray, God, that you will minister to our hearts that through the weak Lord, we'll be so convinced you're the almighty, so that, God, we would not be tempted to do otherwise, where we claim you as king and don't do what you say.

I pray, Father, that we would have deep security and conviction that we will trust you in our everyday walk, that we don't turn to our own devices and turn to the devices of the world. And I pray, Father, God, by us fully coming to you with full confidence and faith, Lord, we will show the world just how satisfying you are.

We thank you and praise you this day. It's in Christ's name, amen. ♪ God sent his Son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ My Savior lives ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ Amen.

♪ Jesus, your mercy ♪