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CALVARY HANFORD PODCASTS

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Does God’s Sovereignty Cancel Out Free Will?

July 2, 2024

Does the Biblical illustration of the potter and the clay prove that God’s sovereignty cancels out human free will?

Does God create some humans for salvation and others for damnation?

What are we to make of this word picture when we read passages like Romans 9?

You may be surprised to learn that every instance of this illustration concerns nations, not individuals.

Pastor Gene Pensiero shares some thoughts on this issue.

Find many more Q&A’s and send in your own question at https://calvaryhanford.com/questions

Find dozens of podcasts and thousands of studies through the Bible at https://calvaryhanford.com/podcast

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Romans 1:1-7 – Let’s Get Ready To Romans

December 10, 2018

Itʼs been said that no other single book of the Bible is so responsible for transforming the lives of men than Paul’s letter to the Romans. We canʼt really know if thatʼs true but we can say that Romans has been responsible for transforming the lives of certain men God used mightily through the centuries. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 3:9-18 – Now You Seek Him, Now You Don’t

December 10, 2018

God looks down from Heaven upon the righteousness of men. Even if your righteousness was like that of Mt. Everest, reaching high above that of your fellow men, and you were one of the few standing on the summit of good works, you would still be level with the rest of the human race. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 3:19-31 – I Sought The Law And The Law Condemned

December 10, 2018

The Jews were proud that they had Godʼs law. It made them feel special. It should, however, have made them feel guilty! The “law” wasnʼt a get-out-of-jail free card. It wasnʼt a talisman or a goodluck charm. The Jews, and Paul included himself saying “we,” were “under” it, they were subject to its standards. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 5:1-11 – God Shed His Love On Thee

December 10, 2018

“To gush,” “to run greedily out,” “to spill.” Itʼs the word the KJV translates “shed abroad” and the NKJV translates “poured out” in Romans 5:5. J.B. Phillips translates it, “Already we have the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.” (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 5:12-21 – I DO Know You From Adam

December 10, 2018

The importance of Adam being a real person is clearly seen in Romans five. You are regarded by God and treated by God based on the actions of another person who acted on your behalf. When your representative acted, God says that you acted. He says that you were “in” that person. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 6:1-2 – You’re Better Off Dead

December 10, 2018

There are three terms you should be somewhat familiar with as you read and study the Bible: justification, sanctification, and glorification. They describe the various stages of salvation from the moment you accept Jesus Christ until you see Him face-to-face. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 7:1-4 – Life After Dead Husband

December 10, 2018

In this text, we need to decide when was Paul describing. What time in his life was he referring to? Was this his current and on-going experience? Or was he referring back to his experience before he was saved? In other words, is this a struggle I will have as a Christian? (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 7:5-12 – I ❤ Exposed

December 10, 2018

The Apostle Paul is going to talk about how Godʼs Law was a spiritual diagnostic to reveal the human heart. If youʼve ever had an x-ray youʼve probably seen the report from the radiologist. After describing what the x-ray shows he or she summarizes the findings. Verse five reads like a summary of the findings. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 7:13-25 – The Corpse Bride Of Christ

December 10, 2018

The apostle Paul, well-read and well-traveled, would have been familiar with this practice of the body of death as a literal torture carried out upon persons. That being the case, we can see that he used it as an illustration in verse twenty-four. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 8:9-11 – I’m Flesh Out

November 13, 2018

Christian, on the other hand, was a name given to believers by nonbelievers. They listened to what believers were saying, then watched their lives, and concluded they were like Christ. To me that indicates that Jesus was doing something in them and through them. The emphasis is on Him, not me. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 8:12-17 – All In The Roman Family

November 13, 2018

While we in America continue to struggle with what legally and morally constitutes the family unit, Paulʼs first century readers understood it very well. The Roman familia, with itʼs pater familias (head of the family), was deeply ingrained in their minds. Weʼre going to see Paul appeal to the Roman family to make an incredible claim to Christians in Godʼs family. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 8:29-30 – The Double Trouble With Predestination

November 13, 2018

One Bible commentator said that the library at his theological seminary contained 10,000 books on the single subject of the Doctrine of Predestination. After centuries of debate, there is no lack of disagreement, even division, regarding predestination and the other major subject of these verses, Godʼs foreknowledge. Thatʼs not to say we can disregard these words, these subjects, these doctrines. It is to say that I will not solve this today or ever in my lifetime. Neither will you. What we can do is adopt a perspective on predestination and foreknowledge that is biblical without becoming so dogmatic that we arrive at awful conclusions about God. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 8:31-39 – My Savior, He Wrote Me A Letter

November 13, 2018

We have the love letter of Jesus to us in the form of the Bible. Reading and re-reading it ought to assure us that He loves us with an everlasting and unconditional love. Still there are things that try to intercept our appreciation of His love for us. Some of them are listed for us as we end Romans eight. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:1-5 – Isreality

October 30, 2018

Did God hate Esau? Did God harden Pharaohʼs heart so that he could not believe? Is God a Potter Who routinely rejects the majority of the human clay He created, rendering them lost and damned? These are all found in Romans chapter nine. Your first inclination – and itʼs a good one – is to say, “No.” But then what are we to make of incredible statements, like “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated”? (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:6-13 – Don’t Call Me Ishmael

October 30, 2018

Letʼs say you were a first century Jew who had been born-again. And letʼs say you were a gracious individual who understood that Gentiles could be saved without conforming to Jewish rites and rituals. Still you would look out at what was happening spiritually and be confused. Israel was Godʼs “firstborn,” but they no longer had the birthright. God seemed to have set aside Israel as His firstborn nation in favor of the Gentiles. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:14-18 – Know Mercy

October 30, 2018

Has anyone ever broken a promise they made to you? Of course they have! Had God ever broken a promise He has made to you? Of course He hasnʼt! It seemed, however, to the first century Jews in Rome and throughout the empire that God had indeed broken His promise, specifically His promise to Abraham. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:19-24 – Clay Nation

October 30, 2018

Our text introduces us to a clay-nation, as it were. God is the Potter and Israel, in His sovereign hands, is like clay. Letʼs keep in mind the context of Romans nine, ten and eleven. Jewish believers were trying to reconcile Godʼs Old Testament prophecies and promises to Israel with their current circumstances in which Israel had been set aside while the Gospel was going out to the Gentiles. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:25-29 – The Remnants Of The Day

October 30, 2018

Why should it be so strange that Gentiles would be saved? In fact, the Jews were charged with spreading the knowledge of God to the surrounding nations. It was always God’s will that none should perish. He has always been a whosoever will believe God of salvation. It should therefore come as no shock to the Jews of the first century that God was saving Gentiles. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 9:30-33 – Stumble Thyself In The Sight Of The Lord

October 30, 2018

If the apostle Paul had a radio program, Iʼm pretty sure it would have been called, What Shall We Say Then? Those are the opening words of verse thirty, but itʼs now the fifth time heʼs used the phrase in Romans. It indicates he is about to draw a conclusion but, more than that, an inevitable conclusion. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 10:14-21 – O Sinner, Where Art Thou?

October 29, 2018

God is evangelistic. From the beginning He has been revealing His salvation to the human race. Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God came to them in the Garden of Eden and offered them what Iraneaus, in the second century after Jesus, called the proto-evangel, meaning the ʻfirst Gospel.ʼ He was referring to Genesis 3:15. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 11:25-32 – Apostle Paul: International Manifester Of Mysteries

October 29, 2018

The mystery here is the identification of the fullness of the Gentiles which was not a subject of revelation in the Old Testament. Paul seemed extremely concerned that Gentiles would “be wise in [their] own opinion” about God setting aside Israel and bringing the Gospel directly to the other nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. Looking back over history, he was wise to be concerned as you see the prevalence in every generation of anti-semitism. There is no place for it in the church! (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 12:2 – Make Up Your Mindset

October 29, 2018

When it says, “do not be conformed,” it means “stop being conformed.” It is a definite possibility that after youʼve been regenerated and have a new inner heart life you can still choose the values of this present evil age and go on being conformed by them. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 12:14-21 – Avengers Don’t Resemble The Lord

October 29, 2018

Some have likened the church to a hospital for those needing help and healing. A new, popular name for churches utilizes the word “refuge,” which promotes the idea that the church is a spiritual shelter from pursuit, danger, or trouble. The church is those things, and more. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 13:1-7 – Conscientious Subjectors

October 29, 2018

I want to tell you I have what I consider to be a control belief through which I approach the text. It is this. Christians all over the world, in every nation, hold a dual citizenship, but one citizenship takes priority over the other. We are citizens of Heaven first, then citizens of our nation, in our case the United States. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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Romans 16:25-27 – Proestablishmentarianism

October 29, 2018

We talk about getting established in a home or in a business. We mean that there is a lot of work especially in the beginning but, afterwards, we can enjoy the benefits. Paul ends his letter to the Romans telling them God “is able to establish” them. Notice it is a work God does, not something you do. It’s like a father turning over his successful business to his son. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

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