I use that title, of course,
on purpose because the only thing that matters when studying anything,
any subject of spiritual and eternal significance, is what
does the Word of God say? And we have to be very careful
that in consulting the Word of God that we take the scripture
in its context. We don't want to lift a verse
out and try to build a doctrine on one verse. All of the scriptures
magnify the God of grace. All of the scriptures testify
that salvation is all of our Lord. All of the scriptures exalt
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners. And all of
the scriptures inform us and teach us that if anybody is saved,
saved in the biblical usage of the word, saved not only from
punishment, but saved from sin and all the effects of sin, if
anybody is saved, they're saved by the grace of God. The scripture
says salvation is of the Lord. And it's of him only. We make
no contribution. This is not a work in which we
have a part. Our God has done the work of
salvation. He purposed it in old eternity. And our Lord Jesus came and He
fulfilled all of the law of God for His people. And then He,
bearing our sins in His own body, faced the wrath of God. and the
vengeance of God. And God opened up the fury, the
fury of his wrath and poured it into the soul of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And therefore, who can condemn
those for whom Christ died? There is no judgment, there is
no condemnation to those in whose stead Christ died. Now, where
did all of this salvation begin? Well, it began with God, because
He's the beginning of all things. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. But before He began the, before
He created the heaven and the earth, and before the beginning
of what we would call time, God did something eternally. He chose
a people unto salvation. And he predestinated the end
of those people. Now, in speaking about biblical
predestination, I'm not going to read various confessions of
faith, and there are many confessions of faith that are quite good. But I'm only going to consult
the Word of God. God Almighty, the one true and
living God, the God of the Bible, the God of purpose, the God of
sovereignty, the God of eternality, the God of unalterable purpose,
He ordained salvation. He chose a people and then predestinated
those people to the end that He has designed. All things according
to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 11, all things are according
to the eternal purpose of God which He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord. This eternal purpose of God is
labeled in the scriptures as predestination. It's not a word
to be fearful of. A lot of people hate to use it. A lot of people don't believe. Predestination. But predestination,
and I'll try to condense it, it is that eternal degree or
decree of God whereby He hath for His own glory foreordained
everything that will ever come to pass. You see, that's the
only way that Romans chapter 8 verse 28 can be true. If there's something God doesn't
have control over, even the devil let's say, if he doesn't have
control over the devil, if he doesn't have control over the
principalities of darkness, then how could we ever have any real
comfort? How could we know? that all things
are working together for our good unless God Himself controls
all things and makes all things work together Himself. This is
the greatness of our God. This sets in an exalted fashion
His infinite wisdom and in His amazing omnipotence, His power,
that He makes all things work together for our good. Now, predestination. It's one of the most abused,
misused, and misunderstood doctrines of the Word of God. And I'll
tell you a tragic part. It's not only misrepresented
by the enemies of God, but it's misrepresented sometimes even
by the friends of the Lord. Not intentionally, I don't think.
But people wind up abusing it, misusing it, misunderstanding
it, or misrepresenting predestination. Now, let me make four or five
statements here as to the way a good many people speak of predestination. There are some people who define
predestination, and of course, pre indicates ahead of time,
and then destination is the destiny. But some say that predestination is what
will be, will be. Well, in a sense, in a sense,
that is true. But that's not all the truth.
There are two problems. Two problems with the logic of
fatalism. We're not fatalists. You must
not be a fatalist. To say you're a predestinarian
is to believe the Word of God, is to believe that all things
are of God, which it says in the Scriptures. But to say I'm
a fatalist and what will be, will be, well, first of all,
that leaves God out of it altogether. You notice here in verse 29,
for whom He did foreknow. Who did the foreknowing? That's our God. And the foreknowing
is really the foreordination of a people unto salvation. And then He is the one who predestinated. This is not an impersonal salvation. This is our God who saved us
and His has been a hands-on approach to the matter of salvation. It
isn't that God created all things and then backed off and says,
now, let's see how this all turns out. The Lord has always sat
upon His throne of absolute sovereignty. exercising his will, even sin. Sin, I know it's a mystery, but
sin could not have entered into this world if the Lord had decreed
that Lucifer, first of all, not sin, and then Adam, not sin. If the Lord hadn't willed for
this to happen, it wouldn't have happened. Surely you would agree
with that. Neither Satan, nor Adam, nor
any other power in heaven, earth, or hell, as far as that goes,
can frustrate that which God has purposed. From the beginning,
from before the beginning, God has ordained that, number one,
He be glorified in all things. That's Father, Son, and Spirit.
And that's our chief end, is to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever. I know we naturally, most people
naturally think that they're the center of their universe.
You know, it's all about me. It's not all about you. It's
not all about me. It's all about God. And we need
to learn that. And in a worship service, really,
we gather together the first And most important meaning of
worship or the purpose of coming together for worship is to glorify
the Lord. We glorify the Father who chose
the Son who died for us. We had to have a Redeemer. God
ordained the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God ordained
that He shed His blood to save us. Only way sin could be put
away was satisfaction of divine justice. God didn't just create
everything and then, okay, well, let's see how things go. He was
hands-on the whole time. He still is. And the Holy Spirit
is the one who quickens people, who causes sinners to be regenerated. You must be born again is what
the Savior said to Nicodemus. So it's the Lord himself. This
is not fatalism. This is not, well, you know,
what will be, will be. Here's what it is. What God has
willed will be. Let's put the Lord in there. This is not an impersonal salvation. This is the salvation that's
of God. Jonah learned that in the belly
of the great fish. He realized if he's going to
get out of there, he said, salvation is of the Lord. The psalmist
said the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. At no point in
the Scriptures is salvation, the salvation that is of God,
the salvation that He appointed, at no place in the Scriptures
does salvation hinge upon the sinner. If salvation in any way
hinges upon you, then you're due some glory. I
remember when I was in Bible college, had a professor talk
about salvations of the Lord and he used illustration. He
said, there's a door. He said, think of that door as
being salvation. It's all of God. except for the hinges. And he
said, that door turns upon the hinges. And he said, you're the
hinge that your salvation turns upon. Well, that means we get
the glory. And that's just not true. So
what will be, will be is a very poor, very poor, understanding
of predestination, because it leaves God out of it. And secondly,
to say that what will be will be attempts to remove from man
all responsibility for his actions and his condition in life. And while you may not understand,
and I can't understand all of these things, I don't profess
to, The Scriptures set this forth, every person is answerable and
responsible to God. You believe that, don't you?
We're answerable and responsible to God. So some define predestination
as what will be, will be. Secondly, there are some people
who speak of predestination as God has arbitrarily or randomly
elected some to go to heaven and some to go to hell. Salvation
is never spoken of in that way. People chosen unto salvation
were loved by the Lord from old eternity. It wasn't a random
choice. It wasn't, and I use this word,
it wasn't an arbitrary choice. You see, the people God chose
into salvation were a people loved of the Lord. Remember this,
love's behind it all. The people he chose under salvation
and predestinated under the adoption of children and to be conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ were loved with an everlasting
love. Love is indeed behind it all. Another professor in college,
he presented predestination like this. He said, well, what they're
saying is The ones who believe, as I understand the doctrine
of predestination, they believe that God went eeny, meeny, miny,
moe, and that's how He chose the people unto salvation. I
choose this one, you go to heaven, you go to hell. You go to heaven,
you go to hell. The Bible nowhere speaks of salvation
in that way. Our salvation is rooted in the
everlasting covenant love and grace of God. He has always loved
the people. And the flip side of that is
he's always hated another people. And I know people get tangled
up on this. So when God never hated anybody,
I beg your pardon. He hated Esau. You say, well,
that's because God foresaw what he would do. No, no, no. Read
in Romans chapter 9, before the children did anything either
good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. It was said unto her, it was
said unto the mother, the elder shall serve the younger. Predestination was and the election,
they were not arbitrary choices of God. In Romans chapter nine,
the Lord speaks through the apostle Paul, who wrote it by inspiration,
of vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. And you would do good
to read Romans chapter nine again. And then thirdly, Predestination, some say, means
that some will be saved whether they want to be or not. And that they'll be saved whether
they ever believe the gospel or not. There's no truth to that
either. You see, God's determination
to save sinners, His predestination took care
of every facet of our salvation. He chose us unto everlasting
life, ordained us to life eternal. Acts chapter 13 verse 48. The Gentiles were glad when the
Jews said, we don't want to hear this message of grace anymore.
And the Bible says, as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. The ordination was first and
then the belief. The Bible nowhere indicates that
people who don't believe the gospel are going to be saved. No. If you don't believe the
gospel of the grace of God to sinners through the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, I promise you on the authority
of the Word of God, you will perish. You will. But you see, the same God who
ordained salvation ordained the means whereby that salvation
comes to us. Read Romans chapter 10 again. How shall people believe unless
they hear? We've got to have some understanding
by the gift of the Spirit and through a preacher of the way
that God saves sinners. Salvation is not by law-keeping. Salvation is not by keeping the
Ten Commandments. Salvation is not by baptism.
Salvation is by the grace of God given to sinners in, through,
and by Christ Jesus. Be careful that you always exalt
the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. There is
no salvation apart from Christ's death, burial and resurrection. And there is no reception of
Christ gospel apart from faith. And there will be no faith unless
God gives it to us. It's a reason I read there to
begin with in Ephesians chapter two. For by grace he is saved
through faith. What's those next words? And
that not of yourselves. I believe that's what it says
in it. That not of yourselves. It is not true to tell somebody
now you have the ability to believe. You have faith inside of you,
you just have to have to fan it a little bit. That is contrary
to the word of God. Because the scripture says, there's
none that doeth good, no not one. Is believing doing good?
That's doing good. But you can't do that. What is our problem? Our problem
is we're dead in trespasses and sins. We have no spiritual abilities. Therefore the Lord has to do
the work. You see the Lord's determination to save included
included the death of Christ Jesus, all that he suffered,
that was what was predestinated for him. Look over at Acts chapter four.
Let me show you this. This is what was predestinated
for the Lord. You surely don't believe that
those things that happened to him were, you know, Beyond the
control of God? After all, Revelation says that
Christ is a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
Look here in Acts chapter 4. This is when the apostles have
been released. Verse 23, Peter and John, they've
been let go. They went to their own company,
to their own people. and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard that,
the people lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said,
Lord, thou art God, which hath made heaven and earth and the
sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said," and this is Psalm 2, "'Why did the heathen
rage?' And the people imagined vain things. The kings of the
earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed," because he's the Christ, he was
anointed as prophet, priest, and king, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered
together for to do whatever they wanted to do. Well, let me tell
you something. They did what they wanted to
do. But in doing what they wanted to do, they were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before. And if we were Greek students
in here this evening, we could see that determined before is
predestinated. There you have before, there's
the pre. and determined the determination
of God, that's the destination. Even when Judas betrayed Him
for 30 pieces of silver, it says in Luke 22, 22, the Son of Man
goeth as it was determined, as it was predestinated. There was
nothing accidental about that. Who orchestrated Calvary? Who was in charge at the cross? Who saw to it that Jesus of Nazareth
was betrayed and then denied by Peter? Who's behind all of
that? God was behind all of it. Because
it was the only way that God could, in justice, save sinners
like you and me. Not at the expense of justice
and law. with the full approval of justice
and law. This was determined for him.
And just as surely as the life and death and the exaltation
of our Lord Jesus Christ was predestinated, so everything
pertaining to our salvation and our ultimate exaltation, to be
with Christ in glory, it's all been determined by God before. It's predestinated. And then, I'll say this. Some people say
predestination means some people can't be saved even if they want
to be. I've got news for you. Nobody
wants to be saved God's way. Not by nature. Because to be
saved God's way requires God performing a miracle in you. That's what's necessary. It's
not about you deciding. It's not about you raising your
hands. It's not about you walking the
aisle. Our only hope for our friends
and our neighbors, our loved ones, our families, our only
hope is that the God of grace will show grace. Why did God show grace to me? Why did he show grace to you?
Because he would, because he willed to do it. But he didn't
show grace to Judas. Didn't show grace to Esau. In
Psalm 5.5 it says, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. All
the people who are in hell now, Cain. Cain. Where is Cain? He's in hell,
he's separated from God. God didn't choose him under life,
he chose Abel. You see, the favors of God, the
spiritual favors of God, eternal life and everlasting salvation,
they come from the very sovereign throne of God. And He dispenses
His favors as He will. He says, cannot I do what I will
with my own? Doesn't God have the right to
do what He wants to with His property? Well, the whole world
and everybody in it is His property. And He can do with you according
to His will. And not only He can do, He will
do. He will do. And if we have any
sense whatsoever in our hearts, we'll bow before this great God
and say, Lord, I know I don't deserve it, but show me mercy
for Christ's sake. He came to save sinners, and
I'm one. Show me mercy for Christ's sake. People don't naturally want to
be saved God's way. Here's the way the gospel comes
to us. First of all, you hear it. You
hear it. You hear the gospel, Romans 10,
17. And then the Spirit of God does
a work within you, a miracle, and he quickens you. And in that
quickening, in that new birth, that's what it's called, regeneration,
regenerate, made alive again. We were alive in Adam, but then
we died. In that regeneration, God grants
us repentance toward the Lord. and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're unable to acknowledge and
confess our sinfulness. We repent and bow to Christ. We look to Him, we believe Him,
and by the grace of God, we keep on looking and believing Him
all the days of our life. You see, God who predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of Christ, in Ephesians 1 says,
we're predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. He, from the beginning, who chose
us unto salvation, predestinated everything all the way to the
end. And that gives us great comfort. Because, you see, to know that
the Lord is in charge of salvation means it's not dependent upon
me. And it's not dependent upon me to maintain my salvation. Now, will the righteous hold
on their way? Oh, yes. If God's done a work
in you, you won't quit. You may stumble, you may fall,
you may get discouraged along the way, you might even seem
to leave for a little bit, but you'll come back because the
work that God does is an everlasting work in the heart. He does a good job. Let me leave you with five thoughts
on this subject. Number one, and I'm gonna ask
you to turn to the Old Testament, and we'll get into this again
next Wednesday because I'm not really finished. But look in
Isaiah 23. Isaiah 23. So let me leave you with five thoughts. on this subject of predestination.
Isaiah 23, verse 9. The Lord of hosts hath purposed
it to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth. The doctrine of predestination,
I'll tell you what it does. It stains the glory of man. And that simply means it kills
the pride of men. What do you have to be proud
of? You can't take credit for anything
spiritually. You can't take credit for your
salvation. You're going along your merry
way. on the broad road that leads to destruction. Deceived? Perhaps religious? I was. Very involved in religion. Thought
I was right. Found out I was wrong. The Lord
showed me I was wrong. And He showed me that I had to
be humbled and brought down. And I'll tell you what, He will
bring you down to the bottom, because He's going to stain the
pride of all flesh. And He'll do it, listen, He'll
stain the pride of all flesh. He'll stain your pride either
by grace or in judgment. He's going to
break you. He is going to, everybody's going
to be broken. Every knee's gonna bow to King
Jesus, right? That's what scripture says. And the second observation I
wanna make is this, the doctrine of predestination eliminates,
eliminates the possibility of chance. There's no such thing as chance.
There's no such thing as luck. 2 Corinthians 5 says, all things
are of God. Well, if all things are of God,
then zero things are of luck. And I don't jump on people. A
lot of times I hear people say, you know, boy, that was really
lucky. A lot of times it's just a saying,
but really, you need to avoid talking like that. to say, well,
you know, if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck
at all. Things like that. There is no such thing as luck.
Well then, what do you say? There's God. How's that? Isn't that better? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. It's like when
the Lord told Samuel, that he was gonna kill Eli's two sons. And Eli said, what'd the Lord
tell you, Samuel? And he said, well, I'd rather
not say. He said, well, the Lord do to you and more if you don't
tell me. He said, the Lord said he's gonna
kill your boys. Evil priests. He said, it's the
Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. No such thing as chance. If you leave the service tonight
and you go down the road and somebody runs a stoplight and
T-bones you, that's not bad luck. God appointed that. That's right. God doesn't just appoint the
pleasant things. He appoints all things. That's
the reason they all work together for good. Thirdly, this doctrine
exalts the greatness of God. Any doctrine that brings God
down is wrong. You can put that down. And any
doctrine that lifts man up, that's wrong too. Martin Luther said to his friend
Erasmus, Your thoughts of God are way too low. And that's the
accusation I bring against religion today. Their ideas of God are
way too low. They think very little of God
and very much of self. And this doctrine makes salvation
certain. If salvation is dependent upon
me, boy, that's not good. But if it's dependent upon God,
That is good. And this doctrine of predestination,
the biblical doctrine of predestination, gives great comfort to the children
of the Lord. He is guiding, he is directing
in all things in your life. Sickness, as Brother Pemberton
tonight in St. Mary's Hospital, suffering, Is that all of God? It certainly
is. My wife's at home sick. She has
a disease that is very rough on her. But we both acknowledged years
ago when she was diagnosed, this is of God. And as best we can, we give thanks
for the disease. Most likely the way that God'll
take her into glory. To perceive and to believe, and
I realize, listen folks, let's just be honest. We don't believe
like we ought to. We don't believe like we want
to, but if God would give us Grace and more faith. I believe, help thou mine unbelief. If it'd give us grace to see
all things are of God, that'll give you some peace there. It's
no use laying in bed at night and worrying and all that sort
of stuff like we tend to do more often than probably we want to
admit. But all things are of God. You're
one of His children. You've been bought. You've been
bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are royally
robed in His righteousness. You stand accepted in the Beloved. God holds nothing against you,
never has and never will. There is therefore now no condemnation
of them which are in Christ Jesus. So I say to you who are the people
of God, just rest in this God's grace. We'd be a more contented
people, a happier people if we would. Well, hope that helps
you a little bit. Grab Samba.