Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The true and living God freely
testifies of himself. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou
hast not known me, that they may know from the rising of the
sun and from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord,
and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness.
I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
He is clearly the first cause of all events and is limited
by nothing except himself. He further declares the complete
fulfillment of his will in the occurrence of all events by saying,
Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is
none else. I am God and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from
the east the man that executeth my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it." Those who
would oppose the view of God as the predestinator or determiner
of all events are those who ultimately think it possible for men to
establish their own righteousness before God. They would try to
make the scripture references to God's foreknowledge to be
speaking of a mere ability to know ahead of time what things
will occur, like some two-bit gypsy fortune teller. They find
some odd comfort in thinking that any sort of event may randomly
happen without God directing that course, but rather sitting
idly by as a mere observer of what does occur. Such a view
is quite comfortable to the natural mind, but is diametrically opposed
to the revelation of the God of the Bible, who testified to
John, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last. Those who go about to establish
their own righteousness consider that men are in some kind of
a probationary state before God, wherein their own actions can
either fulfill the will of God or thwart it. They view God as
hoping all men will follow a certain path, but absolutely uncertain
what men will do, except that he can look into the future like
some superhero of the comic books and merely twiddle his thumbs
as men do whatever they determine to be done. They usually rise
in anger when confronted with such scriptures that indicate
the elective grace of God, such as those Paul mentions. For the
children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Some will even admit that God
elects men unto salvation, but balk at the plain truth that
He also ordains some unto damnation according to His purpose. The
revelation of this truth strips men naked and bare before God,
and manifests the fact that apart from His mercy they shall surely
perish. They have no remedy of their
own. It is impossible that a man could be lifted up with pride
or strut about with some false sense of his own righteousness
when he has been convinced by the Holy Ghost of the same truth
that Nebuchadnezzar was brought to. And at the end of the days
I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that
liveth forever. whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou? Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride
he is able to abase. The One who has revealed Himself
as the Savior of sinners has plainly demonstrated that He
has fully accomplished the exact purpose which He came into this
world to perform. Were he not that living God who
predestinates the beginning and the end, he could not have assured
the salvation of his people, nor proclaimed that all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Just as the Aaronic high
priest went into the Holy of Holies with the names of the
twelve tribes of Israel emblazoned on his breastplate, so did our
great high priest enter into the very presence of his Father
with the names of all of his elect written upon his breast,
yea, graven upon his heart. Just as surely as our substitute
offered himself without spot to God in order to fulfill his
own predestined purpose, so does he order the application of that
salvation which he has purchased and ordained for his people to
receive. Even as Luke tells us in the
book of Acts, And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Has he begun a work in you?