{"id":6155,"date":"2017-02-25T22:17:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T04:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=6155"},"modified":"2017-02-25T22:44:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T04:44:59","slug":"session-6-recap-mark-dever-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/session-6-recap-mark-dever-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Session 6 Recap: Mark Dever, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Election\u00e2\u20ac\u009d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<em>Ethan Hester is the Preaching Pastor at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gracelascruces.org\/\">Grace Bible Church, Las Cruces, NM<\/a>. He is a member of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tgcalbuquerque.com\/\">Albuquerque Chapter of The Gospel Coalition<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0This post is a summary of Mark Dever\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s message from Saturday afternoon at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clarusabq.com\/\">Clarus<\/a>, February 25, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Election,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from <a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/books\/esv\/Ro9\">Romans 9<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Session 6 this afternoon Pastor Mark Dever preached on election as presented in Romans 9. \u00c2\u00a0He recognized the fact that while there is no subject as controversial as election, this chapter and the doctrine of election specifically have been the greatest agent of change for how many believers think about God. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After coming to the climax of his gospel presentation in Chapter 8, Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind is moved to the truth that not all will take part in God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glorious salvation. \u00c2\u00a0In his mind the possibility of an objection arises. \u00c2\u00a0He is struck with the question of whether Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rejection of Jesus means that God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word has failed. \u00c2\u00a0It could easily seem that way, given that Israel has received so many blessings in being God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chosen people, and yet they have not believed in Christ as the Messiah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the answer to this problem? \u00c2\u00a0It is to remember that God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t failed and that Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to Christ as the Messiah is due to God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s electing purpose of choosing some for belief and salvation and some for unbelief. \u00c2\u00a0There are seven things that we should remember about God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is not simply physical (vv. 6-7).\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b>Election doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t extend to all of Abraham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s physical descendants. God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is not the same as an outward calling. The Israelites had an outward calling, but many did not receive the promised Messiah in faith. You cannot inherit a good relationship with God.<\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is based on himself (vv.8-13).\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice of some for salvation has nothing to do with any man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foreseen works or faith, but rather on God and his love.<\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is just (vv. 14-18).\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul anticipates that a human may be tempted to question whether or not God is just. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we are reminded that God told Moses that He has the right to show mercy and <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">compassion on whomever he chooses (Exodus 33:19) and that He hardens whomever He will. He ironically gives the example of Pharaoh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart being hardened in comparison with unbelieving Jews.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is not relieving humans of our responsibility (v. 19)\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just because God chooses some, it does not mean that those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe are off<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the hook for their sin. \u00c2\u00a0On the contrary, because we sin we are all guilty before God and rightly deserve hell, though some of us are saved in spite of that fact.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is revealing (vv.20-23)\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election reveals God and His place as Creator, who has the right to make vessels <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for honorable and dishonorable uses as He sees fit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election is international (vv.24-29)\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just tribal, but it is for some inside of Israel and for some outside of <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel, the Gentiles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><b>God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election was predicted (vv.30-33)\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t elect those in and out of Israel because he needed a new plan after his <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">original one failed. \u00c2\u00a0Instead it was always his plan that Christ, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stumbling block\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, would come and cause many inside of Israel to stumble by lacking faith in Him as the Messiah.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For those of us who may struggle with the doctrine of election, we should aim to lay down our judgment of God and His choice, and remember that He is the one who will be judging us. \u00c2\u00a0For those who are convinced, remember that the doctrine of election shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring an air of superiority because of our knowledge, but instead it should lead to a heart of love for the lost as we remember that we too were once slaves to sin and that we did nothing to earn our place in God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note:\u00c2\u00a0Ethan Hester is the Preaching Pastor at Grace Bible Church, Las Cruces, NM. He is a member&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/session-6-recap-mark-dever-election\/\">Continue Reading &rsaquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[71],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6155"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6171,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions\/6171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}