Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 and 6. Ephesians
chapter 1. The Holy Scriptures declare,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
for the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Let's pray together. Our Father, how thankful we are
for this precious time to be able to call upon you. And Lord, I pray, help us this
evening to worship. Help us that we might truly hear. Lord, that we might truly perceive. I pray for these that have been
mentioned. Lord, have mercy according to your perfect holy will. For Christ's sake, we ask these
things. Amen. We started this book a couple
of weeks ago, and we considered last time the
glorious truth of God's electing grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this evening, continuing
on in the Holy Scriptures, I want us to consider the blessed truth set forth in God's Word concerning
predestination. You know, I don't think anyone,
if they were asked, do you think that Almighty God is going to
do what pleases Him? I don't think you'd have a problem
with anybody answering in the affirmative. They'd say, well,
I think, yeah, I think God's gonna do what God has been pleased
to do. Well, if I asked, I said, well,
do you think that the Lord determined what he was going to do? If he's
going to do what he's going to do, do you think he's determined
to do it? Well, I guess he would. I guess he'd, you know. I'm getting
ready, Lord willing, to preach this message. Do you know I decided,
being led of God's Spirit to start this book, I determined
before I got up here to preach that I was going to preach Chuck
out of this passage right here. I determined beforehand. I predetermined
that I was going to preach out of Ephesians 1 verses 5 and 6. Almighty God who does not change
has determined the scriptures set forth eternally. to do that which is his absolute
pleasure and will and counsel. God's will never changes because
God doesn't change. So tonight we want to consider
this blessed truth concerning predestination. Predestination What it means? It means to set the limit in
advance. That's just, that's the definition
of it. To set the limit in advance or to mark out before concerning
a final destination. To mark it out before. Almighty God has determined before the foundation of the
world and has marked out before and has set the boundaries off all that He's everlastingly made. The earth is the Lord's. I could go to Romans 9 and we
could read right now Read concerning the potter and the clay. Does
the potter have the right to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? The problem that men by nature
have with God's electing and predestinating grace is that
they accuse God of not being fair. But I want you to stop
for just a minute and realize something. If God Almighty left
all men to themselves to do what man wanted to do, all men would
perish. In Adam, all died. All men in
Adam, in Adam's loins. All of mankind was in Adam's
loins. And in Adam, as Adam being our
representative. Here's mankind in the garden. And let me tell you what mankind
did. Mankind died. When Adam rebelled against God,
they died spiritually. Sinned against God. The wages
of sin is death. Paul said, if God had not left
us a seed, if there had not been a remnant according to the election
of grace, we'd all been like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd have
perished. So election and predestination
is totally concerning God's mercy and grace. Someone would say, well, why
didn't He elect everyone? The only answer, Mitch, that
I can give is that he wasn't pleased to do so. I have no other
answer. I'm just expounding God's word. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then it's not him that willeth,
not him that runneth. But if God did show us mercy,
all I can say is that Lord have mercy on me. Predestination. Almighty God has been pleased
to show mercy. And the path to glory, to all that God's been
pleased to have mercy and compassion upon, has been set, predestinated,
limited, before the foundation of the world. And it's for this
purpose, it's in Ephesians 2.7, that in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. In the marvelous mystery of Almighty
God's everlasting covenant of grace, the Father had one Son, the eternally begotten Son, the
only begotten, the only set forth, the only one Begotten
means to birth. The only birth of the Father. Conceived by the
Holy Ghost. One Son. And the only begotten
of the Father was full of grace and truth. And this only begotten
of the Father The Word Himself, God Himself, totally God who
never changed, but took upon Himself the nature of humanity,
the Christ. John 1.14 said He was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And John said, and we beheld
His glory. That is, we beheld the glory
of the God-man. John said, we saw Him, the glory,
as the only begotten of the Father. The one that was asleep in the
ship. And the waves were boisterous.
He was asleep. He was a man. He was totally
man. God doesn't sleep. But the Lord
Jesus Christ was asleep. He was asleep. And the waves
were coming in and the disciples called to him, Master, do you
not care that we perish? And he stood up and he spoke
to the wind. He said, be still. perfect calm. And John said we beheld his glory.
We saw God and man in one person. When he wrote the general epistle,
first John, John said that which was from the beginning, which
we've heard which we've seen with our eyes. That means, he
said, we stared at him. We've seen him with our eyes.
We stared at him and we've looked upon. I used to read that and
I thought, is he not saying the same thing? He says, we've seen
him with our eyes and we've looked upon him. First one means we
stared upon him. Second one means we perceived
him. A lot of them looked at him. Only His enlightened people,
His sheep, called out of darkness, perceived Him. But Peter said,
and the Lord said, will you go away also? Peter said, where
are we going to go? We're sure you're the Christ. The Son of the living God, that
which was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've
seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon. Our hands have handled
of the Word of life, the life was manifested. We've seen it
and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was
with the Father and was manifested unto us. God came in the flesh,
John said. Well, concerning the Father's
beloved Son, this is what the Scripture says concerning Him
as being our Federal Head and our Savior. A scripture says
in Ephesians 1.5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Almighty God eternally purposed
to adopt sons of Adam. Sons that were his sons chosen
in Christ from before the foundation of the world, who in time fell
in Adam, sinned in Adam, rebelled in Adam. As I said last week, The eternal
purpose of God has never been thwarted by Adam's rebellion. The love of God, the electing
grace of God is not done away with because of God's purpose
to show mercy, man chosen of God as a hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now predestination, according
to this scripture, has to do with this, the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ himself. That's what predestination is
all about. God has determined that he's
going to adopt children. into his family, adopt them. Now I want to ask a few questions
about adoption. Number one, what is that? What is adoption? Here's what it is. It is the
taking of a person out of one family and placing them in another
family, in one's own family, if you're doing the adopting,
is to take a person out of one family and place them in your
own family with all legal obligations met by the one doing the adopting. No obligations met on the child
that is being adopted. The child is the adopted one. The parents that's doing the
adopting has all the responsibility to meet all the regulations required
by law. The one doing the adopting. Nothing
on the part of the adopted one is required. He's the recipient
of the adoption. It is the taking out of one family,
placing one into another family, all legal obligations met, whereby
that adopted person, with all obligations met, is truly the
child of the adopting parent and no more the child of the
family in which he was born. No more. No more. I had a, my daughter and her husband Jimmy
adopted Amber and Clara. They're actually Sarah's girls. Sarah remarried, married Jimmy,
Jimmy Jennings. And Jimmy Jennings adopted those
two girls. And those two girls' names is
Jennings. New birth certificate. New birth
certificate. Those two girls born to Jimmy
Jennings. Jimmy's girls. Adopted them. He's responsible. taken out of one family and placed
into another family and they adopted one now are truly, legally
children of the parent that has done the adopting and no more,
no more children of the family that they came out of. The father
eternally purposed and predestinated that His chosen would be delivered
from the power of darkness and Satan and translated into the
kingdom of His dear Son. That's what adoption is. You
take them out of the family in which they were born, you put
them into another family and they are now truly, legally children
of that adopting parent. Secondly, What is the merit? I won't go into the merit of
the natural adoption, but I'll just talk about the adoption
into the family of God. What is the merit of being adopted
into God's family? Well, I can tell you this. Whatever
the merit is, whatever the requirements are to be adopted into the family
of God, You write this down, we'll never meet them. Not by
works of righteousness that we've done. To be sons of God, adopted into
God's family, God's children must be holy, without blame. Righteous. That's what it said in verse
4. Ephesians 1, 4. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. We need a righteousness to be
in God's family that we can't produce. To be adopted into the
family of God. There was one way. One way that
we would have that which was absolutely required to be chosen
in Christ and that the Father, having chosen us in Christ, would
accept us in Christ. You think that the Father from
before the foundation of the world, having chosen us in Christ,
in Him. Do you think the Father justified
the one in whom we were chosen? That Christ is God's servant,
His chosen, His elect, that's what He said. Consider, you know,
my elect, my servant, my holy one. You think the Father justified
Him as being the accepted substitute for God's people? He said, absolutely. Well, I can tell you this, he
accepted all in him too. All that Christ represented.
In Adam we were born depraved, dead, trespasses and sins, but
being found in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do for
us what we cannot do for ourselves. Born dead, I can't make myself
alive. I cannot birth myself. When a windmill blows, when a
windmill blows, what makes the windmill turn? You say the wind. That's right, the wind. Where did the wind come from?
Now if you say that, or believe like men say that men have a
will, have a free will to cause that effect to come to them. You'd have to say, well the windmill
made the wind. It was the windmill that made
the wind. You said, no, no, no, no. No, the windmill turned because
the wind blew it, but God sent the wind. You cannot give credit
to the object that's being worked upon to be the source of life. Almighty God chose us in Christ,
the one who everlastingly stood and answered for all of God's
people for holiness. And listen to this, if I'd ask
you, why did Christ come into this world? Why did Christ come
into this world? I know what you're doing. You're
thinking of every scripture that you've ever heard. You've sat
here for years and years and years and you think, well he
came to seek and to save that which was lost. That's right. Turn to Galatians. Just turn
back, you know, turn back two or three pages here. Galatians
4, 4 to 5. Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5. Why did Christ come into this
world? Here it is, Galatians 4, 4 and
5. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. God had predestinated His people,
us, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And in the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son, made of woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that they might
receive the adoption of sons. He came here on purpose. Adoption. The translating of
one out of one family into another family. What's the merit of it? That they should be holy and
without blame before Him in love. To be adopted into the family
of God, we must have no sin. No sin to answer for. He hath
made Him sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. There is there, Romans 8, 1,
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus.
Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Be adopted into God's family.
We must be righteous. 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of Him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Rode in His righteousness,
we stand before God Almighty righteous, found in Him holy. No blame. What is adoption? Translation.
What's the merit? Christ. Christ. He's our righteousness. Thirdly,
how is this unknown? How is adoption manifested? There's a sense in which you'd
have to say that adoption is eternal because God is eternal
because God has ordained it. The counsel of God, and therefore
it has always been. But there's also a sense in which
it's going to be manifested and brought forth in time. And the
bringing forth in time is not what caused it to be. God's purpose,
God's will is what caused it to be. God manifested it in time. I was talking about eternal justification. When is a man justified? Well,
you're going to have to say that a man was justified freely by
God's grace eternally because God purposed it. As I said a moment ago, as He
accepted the one in whom we're justified, He accepted us. But
then the Scripture also said that we were justified by His
blood. You can say this, when He died, we were justified. They were justified when he grants
us faith. The faith didn't justify us.
Justification was the evidence to each one of us. I can't see
what's in your heart. I can't see. I can't see faith
in your heart except as the way it's manifested. So James said,
we're justified by works. Not justified because of them,
but works evidences our justification. So we're justified freely by
His grace, we're justified by His blood, we're justified by
faith, we're justified by works, and the Lord said by a man's
words, you'll be justified. At the bottom of his heart, I
always say, well, I don't see how all those, they stand to
fall together. How about adoption? God ordained. God predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ Himself. God purposed it. But He's going
to accomplish it. He's going to accomplish it in
time. He accomplished it. How was it
manifested? Well, turn back to Galatians
4 again. I'm going to look at this one
more time. Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6. Verse 5 says that this is the
reason He came into the world, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Look at
verse 6. And because you are sons, because
you were sons before, because you are already sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. When is this adoption? manifested. It's openly manifested in regeneration. That's when it's manifested.
Look over Ezekiel 37. This is the passage where God
sent Ezekiel up, preached in the valley of dry bones. There
was a bunch of bones around there and they were very, very dry,
Scripture says. And the Lord told Ezekiel to
preach to them. Look at Ezekiel 37. Now spiritually
speaking, the grave is being spoken of here as calling out
of darkness, out of death of our nature. Ezekiel 37 verse
11 to 14, Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel. Not Israel, natural Israel, but
spiritual Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried, and our hope is lost, and we're cut off of our parts.
Therefore prophesy, saying to them, thus saith the Lord God,
behold, O my people, I will open your graves. This is the way God regenerates
a man. Here's the way he does it. I will open your graves and cause
you to come up out of your graves. bring you into the land of Israel,
spiritual. And you shall know that I am
the Lord. When I have opened your graves, O my people, and
brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you,
and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. I'll take you out of where you
were, and I'll put you in what I've said you're gonna have.
Then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed
it, saith the Lord." In regenerating grace, turn to James 1.18. In
regenerating grace, Almighty God, having predestinated
His people unto the adoption of sons, He determined it. Christ is the merit of it. And
in time, the Spirit of God brings it forth. Look at James 1.18. The Scripture says, "...of His
own will begat, birthed He us with or by the word of truth,
through the preaching of the gospel, that we should be a kind
of first fruits of His creatures. I jotted this down today. I read
that scripture and I wrote this down. Being born of God, we are
actually the offspring of God Almighty. God has birthed His
people in regenerating grace. Dear brethren, adoption by Jesus
Christ to the Father Himself is a miracle of God's grace.
In adoption, you have a new name. You have a new name. Isaiah 64, 62 verse 4 says, Thou
shalt no more be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more
be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. That is, my delight is in her.
In thy land, Beulah are married, for the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married." When the Lord was wrestling with
Jacob, you know the story. He wrestled all night with Jacob.
The Lord said, turn me loose. The only reason Jacob held on
to him was because the Lord wouldn't let Jacob go. And the Lord asked
Jacob, he said, what's your name? Jacob said, my name's Jacob. He said, not anymore. He said,
thy name shall be called Israel. a prince with God. He got a new
name. In election, God has chosen to
show mercy and has predestinated his people to adopt them into
his family. He's going to give them a new
name. This is your new name. Your new name is married. Your new name is My delight is
with her. That's your name. Sons of God,
you got a new name. Secondly, in adoption, we have
a new nature. Ezekiel 36, 26 says, A new spirit
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
Now listen, you know, humanly speaking, we
can adopt a child And you can give them a new name. But I tell
you what you can't do. You can't give them a new nature.
You can't change what's inside. But Almighty God does. God Almighty
has given His people a new name. Their name is Israel. Spiritual Israel. A prince with
God. And he said, I'm going to give
you a new nature. I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going
to give you a new will. I'm going to put my spirit in
you. And that which is born of God
doesn't sin. That which is born of God doth
not sin. That's what 1 John 3, 9 says.
I've got an old nature that does nothing but sin. And the Word
of God declares that if He has regenerated me by His grace and
power, He's put a new nature in me, adopted me into His family,
and all the requirements for that adoption Christ has met
is finished. And Almighty God in time comes
in regenerating grace by His Spirit through the preaching
of the Gospel. And he rebirths, born from above,
born again. He said, I opened your grave.
I gave you new nature. I gave you life. I said, live
to you. We're not governed anymore. He
said, I'm going to take away that heart of flesh, a heart
of stone. I'm going to give you a heart
of flesh. I've said before, that heart
of stone, it doesn't govern anymore. I've said, sin shall no more
have dominion over you. But it's there. That old man
is there. And there's a war that's going
on. But there's a new man. I heard Brother Henry say this,
he said, he's the stronger of the two. He's born of God. That old man still wars against
him. But that new man believes God,
worships God. That new man doesn't sin. One day, this old body of flesh,
this old wretched man that we are, is going to be separated. We're going to be changed in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And we're going to see
Him as He is, and be like Him. I still can't get over that. We come out of an old family
of rebellion. Satan comes and he tempts, tries
to draw away, sidetrack. And a believer, led by the Spirit
of God, says, you know what? You're not my father. You're
not my father anymore. I have a new father who has regenerated
me in grace and power. give me a new heart. And I love
him. I love him who first loved me.
A man that is adopted into the family of God, loves God, and
he loves God's people. And he follows after Christ.
He's obedient. He's faithful. He's faithful. He's faithful to hear. He's faithful
to support the ministry. He's faithful to follow after
the ones called him. Got a new name. Got a new nature.
And lastly, we've got a new inheritance. Well, made new to us, made known
to us. It's always been ours in Christ.
Look at Romans 8. Romans 8, 15 to 17. Here's a
new, this is our inheritance. Romans 8, 15 to 17. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. You know, Mitch, you
know that that's your son. Mitchell, you know that's your
dad. You know your dad. God's people know their dad.
They know their father. Abba is my father. I'm a father. I've got children. I am a father,
but I'm not Mitchell's father. Mitchell's friend, but I'm not
his father. We've received the spirit of adoption, and God's
people know their father. and they cry to Him, call to
Him. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that
we're the children of God. And we know that we are what
we are by the grace of God, and we make no claim. We didn't put
ourselves in the family of God, He did. We didn't choose, He
did. We didn't will, He did. We didn't perform, He did. We
didn't answer, He did. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with
Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. Can you imagine the
presumption of a man coming up to someone else? Another father
who has children of his own, this man says, whatever you have
coming to them, that's part of mine too. No, no. No, you're, you're dreaming.
No, this is my kids. This belong to my kids. Can you
imagine me presumptuously thinking I'd, I'd make myself an heir
of God? A joint heir with Christ? Can
you imagine the arrogance of saying that whatever Christ is
due is That's insanity to think what
belongs to Him belongs to me because I said so. But that Almighty God would send
forth the Spirit of His Son and make us heirs of God in joint
heirs with Christ all being His children and adopting grace.
What is the Lord Jesus Christ's Us being chosen in Him, Almighty
God says to us, it's yours. It's all yours. What a humbling
thought. Lord, that you would look upon
such a wretch as I, and by your grace would show
mercy to me, like Oma Febosheth. Who am I that you should show
mercy to a dead dog like I am? Syrophoenician woman, I'm a dog,
but even the dogs lick the crumbs that come from the master's table. Predestinated unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. And then back to Ephesians 1
and verse 6, I'm going to just read this and then I'm going
to close. We're predestinated. God has determined the destination
beforehand. He's going to adopt some children. He's going to adopt them. He's
going to make them what they are by His grace and power through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And let me tell you what else
He's predestinated us to. Look at verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. He
did what He did because He chose to, because it pleased Him to. And He did it that He might receive
all the honor and the glory and the praise in the ages to come. That He might be honored in His
precious Son, predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted, not acceptable, He made us accepted
in the Beloved. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.