Dock Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 13 July 2025
Summary
This week, Michael spoke to us about predestination and the sovereignty of God, drawing on Romans 9 to explore the mystery of divine election. Rather than avoiding the difficult sections of Scripture, he helped us see how Paul’s teaching flows from a place of anguish and deep love for his people — and how God’s sovereign choice is always rooted in mercy, not merit. We were reminded that God’s justice and grace are far beyond our understanding, and that predestination does not cancel human response but sits alongside it. These truths invite us into humility, trust, and worship, even in the midst of mystery.
Key Points & Takeways
Paul’s grief shows God’s heart.
Romans 9 begins with Paul’s sorrow for Israel, reminding us that election should never be discussed without compassion.
God’s promises never fail.
True belonging in God’s family comes through faith, not ancestry.
Election is by mercy, not merit.
God chooses freely, not based on works — a truth that humbles and reassures.
God’s justice may stretch us.
His ways are higher than ours. What seems unfair may be perfect justice from a divine perspective.
You are stardust — and chosen.
Though small in the universe, you are known and called by a God who exists beyond time.
Sovereignty and response go together.
God chooses, and yet we are invited to come. These truths sit side by side.
Chosen to act.
Being elect isn’t passive. We’re called to live lives of trust, love, and obedience under God’s sovereign care.
Dock Discussion Questions
What do you find most challenging or comforting about the idea that God chooses whom he saves? Why?
How does Paul’s sorrow for his fellow Israelites in Romans 9 shape the way we talk about predestination?
Michael described God’s sovereignty and human response as two parallel tracks. How might that image help us hold the tension of divine election and personal faith?
In what areas of your life is it hardest to trust that God is sovereign — and how might today’s message help you grow in that trust?
Long-form, editted transcript
Romans Revisited.
Chosen and Scattered: Predestination and the Sovereignty of God
Introduction
It’s my very great pleasure to get to share with you this morning the next instalment in our series of Romans Revisited. If you haven’t been journeying with us, we went through Romans kind of chronologically, thematically, and now we’ve gone back to deal with some of the more tricky moral and ethical questions — some of the more difficult theological considerations. And it’s my very great pleasure and challenge to speak to you today about predestination — or election.
We could spend the next six weeks doing four hours a day together on predestination and still probably wouldn’t cover everything. So before we get started, I just want to talk about what we’re going to do today — and what we’re not going to do.
What We Are and Aren’t Doing Today
The concept of predestination within Romans is largely found at the end of Romans 8, and then in chapters 9, 10, and 11. I always say I can’t unpack three whole chapters of Romans within a single morning. But in reality, many of us have this instinct — to read Romans 8 and just skip ahead to Romans 12, because chapters 9 to 11 can be tricky stuff.
What I want to do today is to give you a foundation, some tools, and a way of thinking that will help you not fear these passages. We’re not going to answer every question. We’re not going to solve a millennia-old debate. We’re not going to have a lecture comparing Augustinian, Arminian, and Calvinist doctrines of predestination. We’re not going to talk about symmetric and asymmetric double predestination.
If you’d like to talk about any of those things, I’m around after the service. As many of you know who’ve heard me preach before, I almost always say, “You won’t believe what they made me take out of this preach.” This one is wild. There are so many things I’m not going to say. So if you have questions — or if you don’t even know what any of those words mean and want to come and speak to me — I’d genuinely love to talk with you.
Last week’s preach on atonement was absolutely fantastic. She gave us four wonderful ways of thinking about atonement — all of which pointed to aspects of the truth, like facets of a diamond. Predestination is more like: here are twenty things people disagree about. So it’s difficult to do that well on a Sunday morning. But I’d love to do that with you in conversation.
Our Passage: Romans 9:1–15
We’re going to unpack Romans 9, verses 1 to 15. And as we do, we’re going to think about God’s sovereignty — and how that’s actually good news. It’s not a scary theological concept, but something intrinsic and essential to the gospel of grace.
Then I’m going to very briefly consider three extra things to think about: the way that God’s sovereignty is worked out in our lives.
We’ll begin by unpacking these verses, giving us an understanding of the context of why Paul teaches this doctrine of predestination. Then we’ll consider the practical implications.
Audience Participation
It’s going to be a bit heavier going at times, so if you’ve heard me preach before, you’ll know I like to keep you involved.
You’ve been sitting for a while listening to lots of amazing things. So if there’s someone in front of you, behind you, or next to you that you don’t know — or if you’re sitting as an island somewhere — just scooch at least one seat closer to someone. We’re going to talk later, so find out the name of the person next to you. Go on — 30 seconds.
(Laughter)
Okay, okay. Let’s bring it back together. We’re just finding out names — not life histories.
Romans 9:1–5 — Paul’s Anguish for Israel
I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people… the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises… and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Paul is in anguish. His fellow Israelites are cut off from Christ. These are the people who were given everything: the adoption to sonship, divine glory, covenant, law, worship, promises, patriarchs — and even the human ancestry of Jesus himself.
Remember Jesus’ teaching? In Matthew 10:5–6, he tells the disciples, “Do not go among the Gentiles… go to the lost sheep of Israel.” In Matthew 15:24, he says to the Canaanite woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Spoiler alert: he does heal her daughter.)
So we have a nation chosen in every way by God. And yet, many are rejecting Christ. Paul, who refers to himself as the apostle to the Gentiles, tells us in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes — first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
And this is the tension at the heart of predestination. If Israel was chosen, why are so many refusing Jesus?
Romans 9:6–9 — The Children of the Promise
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel… It is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise.
Paul starts to make a distinction. Not all Israelites are part of the spiritual Israel. Being physically descended from Abraham doesn’t make someone a child of the promise.
Quick Quiz: How Many Sons Did Abraham Have?
Let’s have a quick break. How many sons did Abraham have?
Think of the song: “Father Abraham had many sons…”
Any guesses?
In the Bible, Abraham has eight named sons. Isaac and Ishmael, yes. But after Sarah dies, he marries Keturah and has six more.
They are all physical descendants. But only Isaac is the child of promise. That’s Paul’s point. Election is not based on lineage. It’s based on God’s promise.
Romans 9:10–13 — Jacob and Esau
Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad — in order that God’s purpose in election might stand… she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Now we’re into the difficult section.
Jacob and Esau had the same parents. They were twins. But before they were born — before they had done anything — God chose Jacob.
And if you’ve read Genesis, Jacob doesn’t exactly earn it. He manipulates Esau. He lies to his father. He steals the blessing.
Esau, by comparison, comes across pretty well. He’s chill.
So why is Jacob chosen?
That’s precisely the point. It’s not because of works. It’s God’s sovereign will. Election is not based on merit.
A Picture of Election: The Candle
Let’s picture it like this.
Someone is walking through the church with a lit candle. The goal is to get to the back without the flame going out. Everyone else is gently trying to blow it out.
God knows who is best suited to carry that candle. He knows which way the draughts come. He knows which floorboards are loose, where the ceiling leaks.
That’s what divine election is like. God, in his sovereignty, chooses people to carry the light — not randomly, but with purpose.
No One Seeks God
Paul writes in Romans 5, quoting Psalms and Ecclesiastes:
“There is no one righteous, not even one… no one who understands… no one who seeks God.”
God’s purpose in history is fulfilled because God elects people — not because people choose God. Because no one does.
A Quick Group Exercise
Turn to someone near you. Think of three people in the Bible chosen by God for something.
Ready? Go.
[Pause, sharing.]
Let’s hear a few: Mary? Yes. Judas? Interesting — chosen to be a disciple… to betray Jesus? Jonah? Pharaoh? Paul?
The list goes on: Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, the apostles…
Why were these people chosen?
Sometimes we know. Often we don’t. But they were the ones who carried the candle in their time — to advance God’s sovereign purposes.
God’s Thoughts Are Higher
Isaiah 55 says:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts… neither are your ways my ways… As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways…”
You are chosen. And that’s not about who you are or what you’ve done. It’s grace.
1. God’s Sovereign Grace and Justice
Paul knows this is difficult. He anticipates the objection:
“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” (Romans 9:14–15)
It feels unjust to us. If God chooses some and not others, doesn’t that undermine his justice?
But Paul is clear: all have sinned (Romans 3:23), the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and no one seeks God (Romans 5). The only two things God gives in response to sin are justice and mercy.
And mercy is never owed.
The fact that anyone is chosen should astonish us. It’s not unfairness — it’s grace. It’s God choosing to show compassion when he is under no obligation to do so.
The Most Controversial Parable
Let me share the most controversial teaching of Jesus — at least, the one that always causes a stir when I teach it.
It’s the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Matthew 20.
A landowner hires workers throughout the day — some work twelve hours, some one hour — and at the end of the day, he pays them all the same.
And everyone is furious.
It’s outrageously unfair!
But it’s also beautifully just.
It’s not about merit. It’s about the generosity of the landowner — and the nature of grace.
That’s what the kingdom of heaven is like. It doesn’t operate on our notions of fairness. It operates on God’s generosity and sovereign mercy.
2. God’s Eternal Sovereignty
I spoke to a friend who said they struggle with the idea that some people — who’ve done truly evil things — might be in heaven.
We talked about Nazi Germany, war criminals, and other atrocities.
And I get it. That’s hard.
But then I think about the cross.
Jesus died not just to forgive, but to recreate. To make people new.
“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The eternal consequences of sin are paid by Christ. The person you’re struggling with is not who they were — they are a new creation. Metaphysically and spiritually transformed.
God’s justice and mercy are more complete, more perfect, than we can ever grasp.
3. God’s Sovereignty and Our Action
Romans 8:29–30 gives us what’s often called the golden chain:
“Those God foreknew, he also predestined… called… justified… glorified.”
This reads like a timeline. But it only looks that way because we live in linear time.
God does not.
God doesn’t “look down the corridor of time” to see what you will choose. He already knows — because he exists outside of time.
Time is something he created.
God’s knowledge is infinite and eternal. He sees every moment, all at once. Everything you’ve done, everything you will do — he already knows it, eternally.
Sidebar: You Are Stardust
Let’s make that more tangible.
At the start of the universe, there were only two elements: hydrogen and helium.
Heavier elements — carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium — are made inside stars through nuclear fusion. When those stars go supernova, they scatter those elements across the universe.
Everything on Earth is made from star remnants.
Including you.
Here’s what you’re made of:
• 65% oxygen
• 18% carbon
• 10% hydrogen
• 3% nitrogen
• 1.5% calcium
Say to the person next to you: You are stardust.
It’s extraordinary. But it’s true.
God’s knowledge is more expansive and intricate than we could ever imagine. And we — made from the elements of the stars — are known by him. Chosen by him. Loved by him.
So What Do We Do With That?
We cannot know who is elect.
We cannot know when — or how — someone might come to Christ.
We don’t even operate on the same scale of time that God does.
So the real question is: how comfortable are we with that?
How willing are we to let God be God?
If your understanding of God fits neatly into a diagram or system or theological flowchart, then I promise — it’s not God. Because the real God will always be bigger than your understanding.
The Parallel Tracks of Election and Invitation
Let me restate what we’ve covered:
You are chosen.
That’s encouraging.
God is sovereign — in grace and in justice — and sometimes that feels unsettling. But it’s also good news. Because if our salvation depended on us, none of us would make it.
God is eternally sovereign — infinitely beyond us — and yet deeply personal.
But his sovereignty doesn’t remove our responsibility.
Look at Matthew 11.
“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son — and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Election)
And yet, in the same breath:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Invitation)
Election and invitation.
Not in tension — but in parallel.
Two tracks on the same railway line.
God calls — and we are called to respond. To act. To love others. To love God.
Thank you for staying with it — and for engaging with some tricky theology.
Let’s take a moment now to let that all sink in and pray together.
Concluding Prayer
Father, I thank you that your thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and your ways are higher than our ways.
I thank you that you are a God who is able, through your sovereignty, to hold all things together — in peace, in unity, in perfection. And that this is your desire.
We trust that we will be glorified in that peace.
And in the meantime, Father, I ask that you would expand our understanding of who you are.
That we would realise that we are chosen.
That you are able to hold all the parts of our lives.
Help us to expand our vision of you — and of who we are too.
You are outside our understanding, and that’s not something to fear — but something to rejoice in.
As we come to the Lord’s table, and declare, “Great is the mystery of faith,” help us to accept the mystery of who you are and all you’ve done — and go forth by your Spirit, to love others and to love you.
And finally, Lord — for the questions, challenges, or doubts that may have been raised — I pray that you would either take those away or hold them gently, so that we can explore them in discussion and community.
Give us the boldness to ask.
And the grace to live with mystery.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.