Predestined for Hell? Absolutely Not! | Part 2

What happens when we harden our hearts to the Gospel?

Here's Adrian Rogers. God never made anybody to go to hell. God wants people saved.

He wants you saved. And if you harden your heart, God may harden it also. The Bible speaks of those who are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. God does not create a man in order to damn him.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring real truth that never changes from Adrian Rogers. There are three things we need to know about the character and nature of God that will bring our theology into sharp focus. In part one of today's message we learned of God's sovereign choices and spotless character. God does not create people in order to destroy them. If we want mercy, God will give us mercy. But if we harden our hearts, God will further harden our hearts. In chapter nine, as Adrian Rogers concludes a powerful message titled, Predestined for Hell, Absolutely Not.

Now, there are three things I want you to learn today as we think about this. Is man predestined for hell? And all three deal really with the character of God. Because until you understand the character of God, you don't know really anything about salvation or anything else. I didn't say understand God. None of us understand God.

We understand some things that God has chosen to reveal to us about his character. Now, God loves lost sinners. We're in the book of Romans. Put down Romans chapter five and verse eight. If you think that God hates you, let me tell you, God doesn't hate you. You say, well, I'm a sinner.

He still loves you. Romans chapter five, verse eight, but God committed his love, his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loves the lost. God loves sinners. Don't get the idea that God predestined Esau to go to hell and God predestined Jacob to go to heaven. Now, Esau may have gone to hell, but he wasn't predestined to go to hell. But you can be sure that God is a God who makes sovereign choices. So the very first thing I want you to do is that you need to recognize God's sovereign choice. God chooses whom he will, when he will, for what he will. He's God.

You might as well admit it. He's God. God's sovereign choice and God is working in the nations of the world and here God is talking about nations. God is talking about service and God is talking about preference.

Now, here's the second thing I want you to see. Not only God's sovereign choice, but I want you to notice God's spotless character. God's spotless character. There's some who might want to argue with God and say, well, God, you don't have a right to do it that way. Maybe you're a little unrighteous if you just choose one.

You choose one person above another. Look in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? For he says 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 showeth mercy. Now, who decides whether or not God's going to have mercy?

You want to know? God. God. God says, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Well, does that mean God won't have mercy upon you?

No. If you want mercy, you may have it. The Bible says in Titus 3.5, it's not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. The Bible says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

God does as he pleases, but he always pleases to do right, and there's no unrighteousness with God. And I'm telling you that anybody who will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and any mother's child who says, God, have mercy upon me. God says, I will have mercy on him. God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. And he will have mercy upon him who uncovers his sin that God might cover it. He will have mercy upon the man that comes unto him in faith, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Yes, listen to me, folks. Pardon. Pardon is according to God's sovereign will. God always wants to be merciful, but punishment, punishment is according to God's sovereign will. It's according to man's sinful wickedness. You have God's sovereign will.

You have man's sinful wickedness. Look at the illustration he gives here beginning in verse 17 of this chapter. He was raised up upon the face of the earth, and he was raised up to sit upon that throne. Now, here's not talking about God raising him up for childhood. It's talking about God raising him up in power and authority. Sometimes we get all upset when we see powerful people in high places who are not doing right.

Isn't that right? Let me tell you something. God is sovereign. This is one of the great verses in the Bible right now, and you need to pay attention to it. Now watch this. Now, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and then God judged Pharaoh, and God made Pharaoh an example. You remember the story of Pharaoh pursuing the Israelites, and they came to the Red Sea, and the Red Sea 48-lane super highway opened up, and that Red Sea and Israel went through, and then when Pharaoh and his chariots began to go through, it all closed in on them.

Remember that? Yeah, I haven't read the book, but you've seen the movie, I know. All right. Now listen. God said that all the world, everybody in the world knows this story of Moses going through the Red Sea and then God judging Pharaoh. And it is an example, a picture of God's righteousness and God's Jesus. And judgment, just as God is good, God is righteous. And God says, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and whom I will, I will harden.

Now, this is a very interesting thing. We say, well, pastor, what hope did old Pharaoh have? I mean, if God just simply set him up on the throne and hardened his heart and then judged him and cast him into hell, what chance did he have?

Now listen carefully. God did not say, I have chosen to send him to hell. God said, I'm going to get glory and my judgment upon him. You see, God makes even the wrath of man to praise him. There was an example that was needed of God's righteousness and God's judgment, and God said, I'm going to use Pharaoh. Now, God is going to be glorified.

Just put it down. God is going to be glorified, and God's love is magnified in heaven, and God's justice is manifest in heaven. But whether it be love or justice, God is going to be glorified in his love. He's going to be glorified in his justice. People say, well, God is too good to punish sin.

No, friend, God is too good not to punish sin. God is a holy God. Now, the reason that God hardened Pharaoh's heart is very simple. Pharaoh first hardened his own heart. Now, you read about 17 to 20 times in the Exodus passage where Pharaoh's heart was hardened. About half of those times, Pharaoh's heart was hardened by Pharaoh before it was ever hardened by God. God did not take a little tender child and say, now, from childhood, I'm going to make your heart hard, and you're going to get harder and harder and harder and harder, and then I'm going to cast you into hell.

No. First of all, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Let me give you a couple of scriptures. Put down Exodus chapter 8 and verse 15. When Pharaoh was respite, he hardened his heart. Put down Exodus 8, verse 32. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also. Now, before God ever hardened Pharaoh's heart, his will was set. All God did was to crystallize the sin that was already in him.

The Bible says to the froward, God will show himself froward. When a man has a hard heart against God, all he does is rebel against God, and what happens is that his heart gets harder. The Bible says beware, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and in the day of provocation, harden not your heart. And the Bible speaks of those whose hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. First of all, Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and as a righteous judgment, and in order to make an example of this man whose will was already set against God, God crystallized the thing. God brought him to judgment, and God used him as an example. But Pharaoh was already a wicked sinner. He had murderous ways. He had killed thousands of people. He blasphemed the God of heaven, and God had warned him, and God had entreated him, and God had sent his word to him, and God had sent his messenger to him, and this man stubbornly, arrogantly said no to God. It was then that God hardened the heart of a man whose heart was already hardened. Now, don't get the idea that God just raised up Pharaoh to send him to heaven.

No. God warned Pharaoh. He wouldn't take the warning.

Here's another example that some people wrongly use. Begin in verse 19. It's a classic passage about the potter and the clay.

Paul, you know, is a great, a very logical man, so he can just hear the wheels turning in the minds of people. Look in verse 19. How can he blame me for sinning? And what Paul is going to say here in just a moment, as one preacher said somewhere, your arms are too short to box with God. Why don't you start arguing with God about that? Why don't you make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

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 aforeprepared unto glory? Somebody says, well, there it is, pastor. Here's God. He just takes a lump of clay.

He takes humanity. He says, this one is for heaven. This one's for hell. This one's for heaven. This one's for hell. This one's for heaven.

This one's for hell. These I'm going to keep. These I'm going to destroy.

Now, use a little sense. What potter, in his right mind, would be making vessels so he could turn around and destroy them? And who, what potter is going to sit there and say, I'm making this one. I'm going to get a whole stack of them over here on the wall, and then I'm going to take a bunch of them. I'm going to get a broomstick, and I'm going to break them all. It sounds more like a madman.

No, no, no, no, no. The Bible says God formed these vessels. It doesn't say he created them. Now, God is the Creator, but that's not what he's saying here.

It's not the idea that God is creating some for honor and some for destruction. The Bible says that he is forming them. God has a plan.

God has a purpose. The Bible says that God is molding these, that he is longsuffering with them. Look, if you will, in this passage of Scripture here. Look in verse 22. He's a loving, longsuffering God. Not an arbitrary God. A longsuffering God. 1 Peter 3, verse 9. For the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is what? He's longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. But that all should come to repentance.

Here's the potter, longsuffering with ease. But you say, but wait a minute. It says the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Well, this is an adjectival use. He's saying here vessels of wrath that are ripe, ready for destruction. Doesn't mean that he made them fit for destruction. It is that they are ready for destruction.

Well, how did they get ready? Vincent in his word study says this, and I want you to listen. I don't want to get too involved, but this is a very important part. This is the middle voice. What does it mean? It means simply this, that they fitted themselves for destruction. It is not the potter that fits them for destruction. It is not the potter who makes them for destruction. It is the potter who is longsuffering. It is the vessels of wrath. Who fit themselves for destruction.

Friend, I want to tell you something. God never made anybody to go to hell. God never made anybody to go to hell. God wants people saved. He wants you saved. Put down 1 Timothy 2 verse 4.

It speaks of God who will have all men to be saved in coming to the knowledge of the truth. Now, you can harden your heart. And if you harden your heart, God may harden it also. That's the reason the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 15, today if you'll hear God's voice, harden not your heart.

There may be somebody here today. You're listening to this sermon. You say, I don't want that. You become stiff recalcitrant clay. You will not yield yourself to the potter's hand.

You harden your heart. God will just put you in the kiln and harden you further, and then you'll be destroyed. But you can be saved. The Bible speaks of those who are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. God does not create a man in order to damn him. Now, if you go to hell, you'll take all the blame.

If you go to heaven, you'll give him all the glory. God shows mercy to whom he will show mercy. And whom he will, he hardens. But he did not harden Pharaoh until Pharaoh first hardened himself. And God did not destroy that vessel until that vessel made itself fitted for destruction.

Now, here's the third thing I want you to notice. What we're talking about is the nature of God. We're talking about God's sovereign choice. God is sovereign.

He's absolutely God. We're talking about God's spotless righteousness. Is God unrighteous?

No. You know, God is not fair. He's just. When we talk about God being fair, we think we're owed something.

We don't get it. We're dissatisfied, further dissatisfied if somebody else gets it for what we do if they get more than we got. No, God is just. God doesn't owe us anything, but God is just. But it's not until you see the justice of God that you cry out for the mercy of God, that God will give mercy to whom he will give mercy.

Now, here it is. Look, there's God's sovereign choice. God chose Israel.

They're his chosen people and he's not forgotten his promise. There's God's sovereign choice. There is God's spotless character. And the third thing, and here's what I want you to notice, there's God's steadfast concern. What is the book of Romans all about? It's about redemption. It's about salvation.

It's about getting people saved. Notice in verse 23, God is making us, friend, ready for glory. Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but thank God also of the Gentiles, as he saith also in Osea, that's Hosea, and call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. Old hell-bound sinners like we were.

Gentiles, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. God has taken both Jew and Gentile, and God has called them with his mighty love that we might be saved. God wants you saved. God wants me saved. I'll give you some scriptures quickly. You just jot them down in case you think that God ordained some people to hell.

Listen to these scriptures. John chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. It doesn't say God just loved a certain portion of it. He loved the world that whosoever, not a few, but whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Isaiah 53 verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. I tell you, the iniquity of my sin was laid on the Lord Jesus. He didn't just die for some elect. He died for every person. The Bible says in Romans 8 verse 32, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up freely for us all.

He died for you, my friend. He wants you saved. 1 Timothy 2, 4, it speaks of God who will have all men to be saved. 1 John 4 verse 14, And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And then that classic passage in 1 John chapter 2, and he is the propitiation. That means he's the satisfaction for our sin, and not for ours only, but also for the sin of the whole world. And then the way God just wraps up the final invitation in the Bible over there in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 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 of the water of life freely.

Whosoever will. You want to be saved, just come ahead. You want to see if you are the elect, just come on to Jesus.

You are, my friend. God so loved the world, and that's the reason Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. God says, Yes, I'll have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy, and I'll tell you upon whom he'll have mercy, that one who'll come to Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no eyes cast out. That's the reason I'm glad to be a gospel preacher. You show me any time, any place, anywhere where anybody ever came to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, and he didn't save them, I'll close my Bible and never preach again. I'll promise you on the authority of the word of God, he'll save you.

Now he's a sovereign God, and he's a righteous God, but he's also a loving God. And when you're saved, you're predestined to heaven, but when you're born, you're never predestined to hell. And God sent you here today to be saved.

Do you believe that? Friend, if you want Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you might pray this prayer, dear God. Just pray it out of your heart. I know that you love me. I'm a sinner. My sin deserves judgment, but I need mercy. I'm not going to harden my heart against you, Lord.

I open my heart. Come into my heart, into my life now. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Pray that from your heart. Precious friend, just say, save me, Jesus, and mean it.

Then pray this. Thank you for saving me, Lord. I'll not be ashamed of you.

Give me the courage now to make it public. Don't let me deny you because you died for me. In your name I pray.

Amen. And if you prayed and gave your life to Jesus Christ just now, would you let us celebrate with you? We invite you to our Discover Jesus page on our website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith.

We have a response section as well. You can share your testimony or how this message has made a difference in your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus.

We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD and mention the title, Predestined for Hell, Absolutely Not. This message is also part of the insightful series, Foundations for Our Faith, Volume 2. For the complete collection, all 27 powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVE-GOD or go to lwf.org slash radio. Or you can order by writing us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. As you meditate on Romans 9 today, ask God to reveal his heart to you.

Let the Holy Spirit affirm God's sovereign choice, his spotless character and steadfast concern in you. And we hope you'll join us next time for more from Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's what a listener wrote to us on our website not long ago.

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