Romans chapter 9, let me give
you my subject. I plan to speak this morning
on the question, did God ordain the fall? Did God ordain the
fall of Adam and of the race? I intended to bring this in last
Sunday on the end of the works of Jesus. It's just too much
there. It needed to be treated by itself,
so we'll do that this morning. And before I read, I'm not planning
on a second service today. Some are missing. I've got Dorothy
at home sick. Some are having to leave after
the first service. It may rain, it may not. But
anyway, if you'll excuse me for that for today. I think this
will load our wagons this morning when we look at this. So if you
have your Bibles, Romans chapter 9, we begin our reading in verse
10 and read down through verse 24 for our text of the morning. Romans 9, beginning at verse
10. You might know that Paul is right
along in here explaining why there are so many Jews who did
not believe on Messiah, why so many Jews were perishing, and
he's taking up that subject now, and we'll pick it up in the 10th
verse, please. that we don't want to take time
to read it all, but here's another argument that he adds to the
sovereignty of God in this matter of election and reprobation. He says, 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. That's in the book
of Malachi. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he said 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
wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, that my name might be declared
throughout all of the earth. Another conclusion in verse 18.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom
he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt then say unto me, Why
doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Now watch the last part of verse
20 and 21. Shall the thing form 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 under
honour, And another under dishonour? What if God, willing to show
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 hath before prepared unto glory. even us, whom he
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
So you cannot restrict that to either the Gentile or the Jew,
both are included. Now I want you to look in verse
21 again, in the middle of the verse, of the same lump, to make
one vessel under honor and another under dishonor, and particularly
the words of the same lump. Now, our subject today is exceedingly
deep and yet exceedingly biblical. And it might be good right up
front if we clarify the question that is before us, and also expand
upon it so that there be no misunderstanding what we are intending to look
at and to discuss today. I know there are some who would
answer already and answer mostly in the negative. But our question
and our subject today is this. Did God ordain the fall? Or was it against or was it not
the will and the purpose of God? Did the fall of Adam catch God
by surprise? Did Adam sin and fall throw the
will of God off course as he went along his way? was it something
that God never intended to do, but that it happened contrary
to his will and therefore required a great adjustment. And he had
to conceive a remedy, therefore, because Adam sinned and fell. And yet we do know that Adam
sinned and that Adam fell. And we do know that the whole
race became depraved out of or in association with Adam, and
that by nature they are enemies and they are haters of God, and
they are dead in trespassing and in sin, and they walk after
the flesh, unless God quickens them and changes them drastically,
and they're after the fashion of the world, and walk according
to the prints of the power of the air or of darkness, so that
everyone has turned their own way, there is none that are righteous,
There are none that seek after God, but yet some are saved by
the grace of God in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. How be it these are small in
comparison to the totality of the number of the race. So that
brings us again back around under the question. was the fall of
Adam and the fall of the race in accordance with the will of
God or not? Was it part of the purpose of
God or was it not? Is there a connection between
the fall and the purpose, the eternal purpose of God? And did
this eternal purpose of God include the fall and all that ensued
and all that is a result of it? Was it a part of God's eternal
decree that Adam should sin and the race should fall? And back
there before the foundation of the world when God formed his
great and eternal purpose or when he declared the decree,
as we read in Psalm chapter two and verse seven. In Ephesians
chapter one, and we'll be here later on, but Paul writes repeatedly
in Ephesians one and sometime in chapter two, using such terms
and phrases as the, in the fifth verse of chapter one, he says,
according to the good pleasure of his will. Down in verse 9
he said, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to the good purpose, a pleasure which he had purposed in himself. In verse 11 we read again, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him that works all
things after the counsel of his own will. Now let's look at some
of those individual words that Paul employs here in this great
chapter. You find the word pleasure, the
word pleasure meaning desire, or satisfaction, or delight,
or wish, according to the delight, and the wish, and the satisfaction,
and the pleasure of God. And then you have the word will
here, that is the determination, the volition, the decree of God,
the will of God, that which He will. We have the word purpose.
Oh, what a great word this is in the New Testament. The setting
forth, the intention, the setting forth is the purpose of God. We know that this word is some
dozen times in the New Testament. four times translated showbread,
that is the setting forth of the showbread, and was a favorite
word of the apostle as he uses it six times in his epistle,
that is the word purpose. Here they are, Romans 8, 28,
Romans 9, 11, Ephesians 1, 11, and 3, 11, 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 9
and again in chapter 3 and verse 10. Then there's the word mystery
that we keep running across here in this passage of the scripture
and Paul uses that word six times in Ephesians. It may be the word
musterion, a secret that which is not known unless it is revealed,
unless the scale or taken off of the eye, or unless it is uncovered
so that we may see it and know it. Now all of this in Ephesians
chapter 1 has to do with those spiritual blessings which are
in and through Christ. And Paul is clear, these were
before the foundation of the world. Blessings such as election,
chosen in him, foreordained or predestinated, ordained to the
adoption of children. Now these words and phrases together
collectively declare that these things are according to the determinate
will and the purpose and the pleasure and even the mystery
of God. They are not an afterthought. They were in God's mind before
he laid the foundation of the world. They're not a stopgap.
emergency measure, not at all. They were in God's mind before
the foundation of the world. They're not an emergency measure
put in place by God, but they are according to a designed purpose
that God ordained and set forth in his mind, purpose, and decree
before the foundation of the world. Now, in moving along,
consider another thing concerning Christ as the one sacrifice and
Redeemer for sin and for sinner. And that is, and this is important
to our subject today, that Christ as the sacrifice is called the
Lamb slain before or from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13 and verse 8. Peter says the same thing in
1st Peter chapter 1 and verse 20. Speaking of Christ the Lamb
who redeemed with his blood, he writes this, who was foreordained
before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ,
in the decree of God, was foreordained to the death of the cross to
be a sacrifice before the foundation of the world. Remember what Peter
said to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, You have it in Acts
chapter 2 and verse 23. Him being delivered, that is
Christ, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Now, these last two thoughts
show beyond question that God made preparation for the redemption
from sin from before the world, from before Adam's sin, from
before Adam was created or the world was created by God. This
means that he knew that sin would enter into the world, that Adam
would fall, and that he would provide a savior that he had
ready and at hand before the foundation of the world. Now
I guess almost any Arminian would have to admit this to be the
truth of God. But then the question that would
stick in their craw would be, did God will the fall of man? Was it a part of his decree?
Was it a part of his eternal and everlasting purpose? Did God ordain the fall? Was it according to the purpose
of God? Was it his will that sin enter
into the world? Now this most Armenians would
deny. This they would not go along
with. They would attribute it in some
way or manner unto free will. Most of them would admit this
way, that God, quote, permitted the man to fall, that God permitted,
quote, unquote, the fall even that we would say God permits. If God permits to will something
to come to pass, then that means that God willed to permit this
or that to come to pass. Then there is the standard argument. that if God ordained the fall,
that if he ordained and decreed and purposed the fall, then that
would, quote, make God the author of sin, unquote. We've heard
that a lot of times. If that should be the case, then
it would make God the author of sin. And at one time, this
satisfied me a long, long time ago. That if God ordained sin,
then it would somehow be a stain upon His holy character. So they dismissed the matter. upon the ground that it is impossible
that God should will the fall or ordain sin because it would
make him the author of sin in their mind. That's their strongest
argument. A man named Jerome Zacchaeus
wrote sometime in the 15th century, mind you, In the 15th century,
he wrote, Arminianism is atheism, quote unquote. There are several
passages in the scripture in the Bible. that deal with our
question and our subject today, that show that God ordained to
accomplish His will and to bring to pass certain things by a particular
purpose, and sin was a part of that plan and purpose. that in
some way the sin of man was instrumental in bringing to pass the purposes
of God and some part of divine providence included the sin or
sin of men or of mankind. Now I want to mention two and
just two so that we can go into them a little bit Here are two
examples, I believe, from the scripture that sin formed a part
of the purpose and the bringing to pass of the purpose and the
will of God. The first one I'll mention is
from the Old Testament, and it concerns Joseph, one of my favorite
characters in the Old Testament. Joseph and the incident where
his brothers Hated him could not speak peaceably unto him
and they sold him away into slavery Now the Bible said what they
did was an act of envy and they had murder in their heart or
they were at the point of actually putting their brother to death
and they lied to and they deceived their father about what they
had done with Joseph and You see that in Genesis chapter 37. And yet all these things concurred
together to raise Joseph to be the second in command down in
the land of Egypt and therefore saving much people of life. And
all these things, the acts of his brother, their hate and their
envy, They're selling him their intention and willingness to
murder him. And even down in Egypt, the amorous
lust of Potiphar's wife all played a part in bringing Joseph to
be the second in command. And yet, as time passed, Joseph
assigned these things to the secret providence of God. And listen to this, Genesis 45
and verse 7. He said unto his brothers, God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth
and to save your lives by a great deliverance, unquote. God, he
said, sent me before you in order to be, as it were, a savior unto
you. And in verse 8 he says to them,
it was not you that sent me here, but God. It was not you, even
though they put their hands upon him and put him into the hands
of the Midianite merchant men It was not you but God that sent
me here. Now if you want to flip over
to Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20, we have him stating it one
more time. You thought evil against me,
but God meant it unto good. Now we need to hang on to that.
You thought evil and your evil intention and your evil work
brought me to this place and it was really the work of the
providence of God. Now let's go to the New Testament,
one even closer. Stronger and that would be the
ordination by God of the death of Christ Upon the cross no one
would deny would they that God ordained Christ to the death
of the cross That he sent him into the world that he might
endure the death of the cross Now those who crucified the Lord
were guilty in what they did it was a sin on their part Peter
says to them you have by wicked hands taken and crucified the
Lord of glory. And yet, as was typical in the
life of Joseph, the will and the providence of God carried
the matter. I read it, Acts 2 23, him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Now they did some awful things
to our Lord. They beat him to the crown of
thorns, the mocking, the nails, and all of that. But we read
in Acts chapter 4, And verse 28, that what they did to Christ
was, quote, whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done, unquote. As with Joseph, they meant evil,
but God meant it for the salvation of many, even of the elect. Those who insisted that our Lord
be put unto death did so not from any desire that He accomplish
salvation or glorify God or save any, but it fulfilled the will
of God that Christ was set forth as a perpetuation to effect reconciliation. Now, it would not be righteous
men who put our Lord upon the cross but sinful men and their
sin." Now before we move on, let's reflect upon these two
things which we have considered, that of Joseph and of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I think when we look at them
together and separately, we can conclude two things from what
we have read. Number one, again, that both
events were ordained and that they accomplished the will of
God and the providence of God. Joseph said again, don't weary
of hearing it, it was not you that sent me, but God. Genesis chapter 45 the Lord Jesus
Christ said to his disciple that he must go unto Jerusalem and
there be crucified Matthew chapter 20 verse 18 and 19 God will yes
God ordained that Christ die upon the cross and That was his
purpose and plan to save the elect. Now, the second thing
that they both have in common is that they involved the commission
of sin to bring them to pass. The sin of Joseph's brethren,
the sin of the Jew, and of the Gentile. But the sin is chargeable
to the evil men who carried them out. It was not a sin for God
to use their sin to accomplish his will and purpose, or that
he punish them for their evil doing and transgression, even
though it played a part in the fulfilling of God's will. Because in both cases, the men
themselves had no regard and no intention of fulfilling the
will or the purpose or the pleasure of Almighty God. It was not they
said, look, the scripture said this and we must fulfill them. No, it was in blind, ignorant
rage that they went forth in their intention and in their
deeds. Now, I can imagine someone hearing
up to now and concluding, well, this does not prove that God
ordained the fall, for these men were already fallen and under
depravity, so God only, there's that word again, quote, permitted
unquote, their sin, to help fulfill his will, that he permitted it,
but that he did not ordain it. And we might concede those men
who did these things freely acted, freely acted out of the deliberately
willingness of their own heart and mind and desire. They did
these things out of their own heart and willingly, giving free
reign to their sinful feelings and depravity, and being not
restrained by God, as it were, he lay the reins upon the neck.
A good example, I think, is Judas' betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was to be betrayed, and
Judas was that vessel, and it was a sin on his part. But now we come to the question
full bore. Did God ordain the fall? Did
he will and intend that Adam fall? And if the answer is yes,
as I believe it is, and as soon as this is established, then
another question must be raised in our mind. Why? Why did God
ordain the fall? What did he will by? What did
he intend to accomplish by it? What was to be the end? And not
why, as calling God into question for it. No, not at all. For he
gives no account of any of his matter as we read in Job chapter
33 and verse 13. Then we must understand that
God's ways are past finding out. Paul writes that in Romans 11
and verse 33. His ways are not our ways. His
thoughts are not our ways. They are too high for us to take
it in. And then coming to Romans 9.
There is that rebuke of Paul there in Romans 9 and verse 20. O man, who art thou that replyest
against God? Who are you to take up a contention
with God? Who are you to call in question
the way and the will and the providence of God? But then the
why has to do with what is the aim or the purpose of a decree
that Adam fall and with him the whole race fall down under sin
and depravity. When we look at the decree of
God from three aspects, And for now, we confine ourselves to
that part of the decree that concerns election and reprobation. Now, the three aspects of this,
I believe, are evident in Joseph, evident in Christ, and evident
in the overall purpose. Here they are. Number one, the
decree. The decree itself. Made before
the world. Secondly, we have to investigate
the ultimate end or aim or purpose or intention of the decree. What is the intended accomplishment
of man falling and all those things? And then thirdly, the
decree of the means. the decree of the means by which
the decree is to be accomplished and brought to pass, worked out
in its plan, and realized. Now if you'll pardon the digression
while we apply these two things to our early, or these three
things, to our earlier examples again, Joseph and of Christ. In the case of Joseph, Number
one, God ordained that Joseph go down to Egypt and become the
prime minister there. He ordained that. That's what
he said clearly. Secondly, the aim and end of
of that decree and ordination, what was it? It was to save much
people alive, Genesis 50 and verse 20. Number three, the way
that it was to be accomplished. How would this be? St. Joseph
did not reside in Egypt and how will therefore he become just
a peasant? second in command in the land
of Egypt. The way it was accomplished was
by the action of his brothers and the wicked hands of his brothers
and all other related events that concur to make it up. And
then B, the same with the Lord Jesus Christ. God ordained that
he die on the cross. But secondly, What is the aim
and the end of the decree that He die on the cross? And it's
this, that He might bring many sons unto glory. That's part
of the aim and intent of our Lord's death upon the cross.
Then thirdly, how was it accomplished? And it was accomplished in large
part, first by the will and the determinate counsel of God, but
also through the sin and the blindness and the ignorance and
the rage of the Jewish leaders and people who cried, this man
must die. Let him be put to death. let
him be crucified, and using the wicked hands of the Gentile,
just as Joseph's brethren used the hands of the Ishmaelitish
tradesmen to bring Joseph down into the land of Egypt. Now,
to deal with our subject requires that we descend very deep into
the attributes of God. Descend deep into that great
pool of the attributes of our God that are involved in this
matter. I'll name some. The eternality
of God, the sovereignty of God, the will of God, the foreknowledge
of God, the wisdom of God, his immutability, his omnipotence,
and his omnipotent, and that most perverted word of all, predestination
or foreordination. And the subject, I think, also
opens the door for us to pay a visit or to have a close brush
with a question of lapsarianism. And which is it? Lapsarianism. Supralapsarianism or infralapsarianism? We'll say more about that later
if our time will allow. But the question, if God willed
the fall, then the same question as in the case of Joseph, certainly
God had end in mind he had a reason behind it he had a purpose for
it and then what is it what could that be what could God's purpose
be in ordaining the fall when we look out upon the world and
see that multitudes through the fall have fallen down into hell
men have invented every evil and imaginable. Wars have raged
and thousands have died. Pestilence and disease has raged
about in the world and have slain their thousand and their ten
thousand. People have killed one another
without number. Homes are broken and destroyed
by sin all the time. Perverts prey on children. False
prophets abound in the world. and on and on we might go. So the question is this, what
return has God gotten for his having ordained the fall of Adam? Now that leads again to the question,
what did God intend by ordaining such? What is God willing when
he ordains the fall? It is not without reason that
God would ordain the fall, and all of these things that we have
mentioned come to pass. For example, did he do it to
save every last sinner? Well, if so, that has proved
a miserable failure, for in no time, place, or age has every
single individual been saved. In the decree of God, he parted
the human family into the elect and the reprobate. And in the
covenant of grace, the elect and the reprobate, also called
sheep and goats by our Lord, those that are the Lord's and
those that are not the Lord's. And in Romans, Paul makes this
distinction, the elect the rest and I think it's Romans 11 and
verse 5 he appointed or ordained the elect to obtain eternal life
by Jesus Christ Ephesians 1 3 through 5 Romans chapter 8 verse 28 through
verse 30 remember that 1st Peter chapter 1 verse And verse two,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God under sanctification and
such like. Now, the great controversy is
concerning whether in electing them, God first considered them
as fallen or unfallen. And I don't know that this has
to be decided, but there has been that division, especially
among Calvinist and Reformed people down through the ages. Superlapsarians think that God
chose the elect out of the unfallen mass, but as sure to fall, then
to be recovered to God's everlasting glory and grace, and include
both the elect and the reprobate. Infralapsarians seem to think
that the election was out of the lump already. fallen, while both of them view
their position as part of predestination by God before the world, and
both allow for election and reprobation. Now, Armenians will only admit
that the fall was foreseen by God, and therefore was foreknown
by God, upon that ground. Not, they say, that the fall
was decreed, or that it was ordained by God, or that it was part of
his purpose. Now, with regard to that lapsarian
question, it seems to me, and this is my thinking, if one holds
to such doctrine as the eternal, vital union of the elect and
Christ, and If one holds to the doctrine of eternal justification,
then they would favor the supralopsarian view. And by the way, there is
a website called supralopsarian.com. Oh, it has some of those wonderful
books from the 15th and the 16th century. that are available to
be read there. Stocked with many of the works
of the really old timers that really wrote on the deep things
of God. Now, let's go to Romans chapter
9, 20 and 21. They go together. And the end
of verse 21, of the same lump, to make one vessel under honor
and another under dishonor. And he goes on to talk about
vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. And if we look again
at verse 22 and 23, What if God, willing to show his wrath, make
his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath afore
prepared unto glory? Now these two verses may refer
to what God said to Moses and to Pharaoh, respectively, earlier
in the chapter. In verse 15, he said unto Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will, I'll have compassion on whom
I will. To Pharaoh, he said in verse
17, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all of the earth. And then there are two conclusions
in this text. One is in verse 16. So then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. And the other is in verse 18.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he
hardeneth. Now it's always the response
of the Armenian that such a view of reprobation amounts to this. Oh, they say, this means that
God has made some only to damn them or to destroy them. but
verse 17 shows my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all of the earth you see that in exodus 9 16 and in
exodus 15 1 through The people praising God for the destruction
of Pharaoh and his army. Now, I wonder would the Armenian
make the same argument in regard to election. Oh, election said
that God just made some in order to save them. Here's a quote
from the aforementioned Jerome Zacchaeus, born in 1516, quote,
The principle end of the deity is in his formation of all things,
and of mankind in particular was the manifestation and the
display of his own glorious attributes." But he has done all that he has
done for the display of his glorious attribute. Then he went on to
say, quote, his ultimate scope in the creation of the elect
is to evidence by their salvation the unsearchable riches of his
power, wisdom, mercy, love, and the creation of the non-elect
is for the display of his justice, power, sovereignty, holiness,
truth, unquote. Let's visit Paul's very spiritual
Ephesian letter again, if we might, if you want to turn there
in Ephesians, and there are some things here that we'd like to
read in the close of our study of today, where it says that
he makes known the riches of his glory on the vessels which
he hath before prepared unto glory. For example, if you look
at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 6, to the praise of the glory
of his grace. Look at verse 7, in whom we have
redemption. the forgiveness of sin according
to the riches of his grace. Look at chapter 1 verse 11 and
12, in whom we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. Then look in chapter
2, verse 6 and 7. And hath raised us up together,
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might gather, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ
our Lord. The end of election is the manifestation
of God's glory, and the recovery of the elect out of the fall
is a means to manifest God's glory and grace. and reprobation
on the other hand is the means of God displaying another bank
of his attribute. If God saves all, then only part
of his attributes are revealed. If God saves some, and some and
not all, all of his attributes are revealed in that way, and
it allows a display of them. Reprobation shows his wrath,
his justice, his holiness. It makes his power known. And
in election, he shows the riches of his grace, of his mercy, and
of his glory. So he ordained it. There was
an end that he had in mind, the glory of his manifestation of
his attribute, and the accomplishment of it was by, in part, the sinful
hands of men. So I think we have that. Here
it is, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.