I have a message this morning
that I want to bring on predestination. And we'll be looking at several
passages of Scripture. But I want you to know that this
is a doctrine, even though it's only mentioned three times in
the New Testament where the actual word is used, but it's talked
about in Scripture. And if you'd like, I can give
you a list of places in the Old Testament. Daniel 4, many places
in the Old Testament. But here in Isaiah 14, turn with
me over there and let me read you something. He says in Isaiah 14, verse 24, The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand, that I break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains
tread him underfoot. Then shalt his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This
is the purpose that's purposed upon the whole earth, and this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations. For the
Lord of hosts hath purposed And who shall disanother? And his
hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? As I said, my subject this morning
is the predestination of God's saints, and my title is conformed,
adopted, and claimed. This is what predestination is
all about. I have three texts of scripture
I want us to look at this morning, the first of which is in Romans
chapter 8. I want to say some things before
we get into the message. The predestination of God's elect
is a very controversial doctrine to this unbelieving world and
a misunderstood doctrine by many who do believe. And the reason
for this is twofold. Concerning the world, because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for there are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know. because they're spiritually discerned.
You can't spiritually discern anything unless you submit to
the means of the Spirit. You never will. You never will. But when you reject those things,
you're rejecting the things of the Spirit of God. So the natural
man, it'll always be a controversial doctrine to him. He reads these
things and he tries to reason them out with his natural reasoning,
with his natural wisdom. And then the second reason, and
this has to do with God's saints, is because how this doctrine
is misrepresented from the pulpit. There are four common misrepresentations
which my dear friend and brother Henry Mahan had this to say.
I'll never forget this, it was in a Bible study and he said,
it's difficult to say who has done the most damage, it's friends
or it's enemies. It's misrepresented. Now the
first misrepresentation of this doctrine teaches that whatever
will be, will be. That's not predestination. They may have meant it to emphasize
the power and sovereignty of God, but it also lays a cloak
over the responsibility of men. We're responsible creatures. Because God has purposed the
thing, doesn't relieve us of our responsibility. Man is responsible to God, and
every person here this morning is responsible for their own
soul. You want to lose your soul, just let it lay. Just don't do
anything about it. The scripture said, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be
damned. Does that sound like whatever will be, will be? Nope. Scripture said, except you repent,
you shall likewise perish. And nowhere is the preaching
of God's sovereign grace in Christ, is a sinner relieved of his responsibility
to God. Nowhere. Not in any doctrine,
anywhere in the gospel. Then the second misrepresentation
of predestination is very similar. That predestination means that
God's elect to be saved no matter what. That's not true. That's not true. In other words, when you say
that, what you're saying is, well, I can absence myself from
worship any time I want to, but I'm going to be saved because
I'm predestinated. Basically, I can do what I want
and what I will and be saved in spite of it. What Paul says to that kind of
a doctrine, he said, God forbid. God forbid. Now I'm going to
give you just a few things. No one will ever be saved without
hearing the gospel. Not going to happen. It never
has happened. How shall you hear without a
preacher? That's what the Holy Ghost said
to us. No one will ever be saved. You
can read that over in Romans 10 and 17. No one will ever be
saved apart from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He made
that clear just before his resurrection in the glory when he gave the
Great Commission to the apostles. Thirdly, no one will ever be
saved apart from acknowledging their sin and being led to repentance. You don't want to be sad. You don't want to be sad. If
you can live any way you want to live and still find comfort
in predestination, you don't understand predestination. You look at what he says over
in 1 John 1 now. And then fourthly, no one will
ever be saved who does not persevere in the faith. You read Matthew
10 verse 22, and the list goes on. It goes on and on. We're responsible. Responsible to God. And it's
nothing but religious fatalism to believe that men and women
are going to be saved no matter what. And then the third misrepresentation
of predestination is that God has arbitrarily chosen some to
salvation and some to damnation, some to heaven and some to hell.
You won't find that in scripture. Look it up. Every time he talks
about predestination, he's talking about his elect. God never does anything without
purpose. Arbitrarily means to leave it
up to chance and circumstance. And God never does anything arbitrarily. God always has a purpose in what
he does. And what this misrepresentation
does is make salvation what is predestinated and the people
left to chance. Now, you read about predestination,
you'll find out predestination is not a thing, it has to do
with the people. Everywhere it's used, it has
to do with people. And then the fourth representation
is that God's predestination is based upon His foreknowledge
of what men will or will not do in the future. Armenians like
to use that God looked down through the telescope of time and saw
who would and wouldn't choose Him. Predestination is not God being
subject to what could come to pass, but His determination of
what must come to pass. And the reason it must come to
pass is because He purposed it. That was in that very scripture.
He said it twice in the verse that I read to you in Isaiah
14. I want you to just listen to me
for a minute. If God is our Savior, if salvation
be of the Lord, then know this, that God in the harmony of His
whole character is engaged to save your soul. not the least
of which is his power and his wisdom. Unto them which are called, Paul
said, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and he is
the wisdom of God. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. If you would understand anything
at all about predestination, you're going to have to understand
that the center point of predestination is Christ. I hope I haven't left you in
a daze, but you need to know and understand these things are
right. All right, this morning I want
us to look at three texts of scripture where the word predestinate
or predestinated is used and see it as it's set forth in the
scriptures as a gospel doctrine. Now I remember years ago I was
in the church, I wasn't a preacher or anything, but I was asking
the elders, the pastor, anybody I could get my hands on, what
these things, what is this predestination that he's talking about? And
the one preacher there in the church. He wasn't a pastor, but
the preacher there in the church, he called me aside and he said,
young fellow, he said, if you go to seminary, get your master's
degrees, and then study this thing for about a half a lifetime,
he said, you may be qualified to stand up and teach it. But
he said, if I were you, now listen, this is how they think. We just
talked about that in James, the Here's what's in that article.
He said, if I were you, I'd stick to the gospel. You can't preach the gospel apart
from predestination. Somebody appointed a Savior back
yonder in eternity. Somebody made provision for saints
back yonder in eternity. Somebody ordained the means whereby
these saints gonna be saved. Somebody set the way. You see
what I'm saying? Predestination is a gospel doctrine. The first time the Word appears
in Scripture is here in Romans chapter 8. Now I want to begin
in the verse before because it has a lot to do with it. He said
in verse 28, Romans chapter 8, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Now I want you to just think
about what you've just read. Is there any way on earth that all the evil that you've
experienced in your life, all the stuff that you've done, the
fall of Satan into this world, the influence that this world
had on you, Is there any way that all of that could work together
for your good apart from predestination? How can you make any sense out
of that verse apart from it? You can't. It just, without that,
it's just wishful thinking. And that's what, when I first
brought the subject up, I wasn't even a believer. I just read
it and it was Not like anything I'd ever seen in my life. And
I was hungry to know what it meant. Well, here's the reason behind
what he just said. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So here's the
first thing I know about predestination. It has to do with being conformed
to the image of His Son. What on earth does that mean? If you'd like to follow along,
I want you to read some things concerning the image of Christ. In Colossians chapter 1 verse
14, look over there at this. This is that passage where he's
thanking God that He's made us meet to be partakers with the
enlightened saints, and to know some things that this world don't
know, and to be translated into the Kingdom of God. And then
he goes on to say in verse 14, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Now I'm just going to ask you,
I think commonly, I'm not a brain surgeon, I just think very simply. How on earth can you be an image
of something you can't see? Huh? Is he talking about a cloning
here? Is he talking about he appeared Is this Jewish man and
all of his children going to look just like him? Is he going
to clone a bunch of children? I don't know what he's talking
about. Who is this man? This is God
coming into the flesh. The invisible God in the person
of a man. And what's he going to do as
God in this man? He's going to reveal God to you.
He's the image of God. So what he's talking about here
is God's character. He's the very image of God's
character. We grow up in life and I don't
know what everybody I talk to has a different idea about who
God is and what God is and all this kind of... My God wouldn't
do like that. God's who he says he is. That's
who God is. And God is who he revealed himself
to be in his son. He's the image of the invisible
God. And when Paul's talking about
a people being conformed to the image of his son, he's not implying
some physical cloning or appearance. He's the image of something you
can't see, the invisible God. And what he reveals is God's
character, his attributes, God's will and God's way. All of God's
elect will be conformed to this image. They'll all be conformed in their
minds. We have, Paul said, the mind
of Christ. That's what it means to be conformed
to Christ. To have the mind of Christ. They'll
all be conformed to the way. Christ said, I am the way. We'll come to God by His death,
His righteousness, and His reign, or we won't come to God at all. They shall all be conformed in
their message. Paul said, I determine there's
no nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Conformed. We're not going to
talk about being better citizens, although you will be if God doesn't
work in you. But he'll have to do that work
in you first. We'll all be conformed in our
worship. All true worship is centered
upon Christ, because He is the revelation of God. We worship Him in spirit and
truth. And He's not worshipped, He said,
with men's hands as though He needed anything. And worship
is when we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and
our hearts begin to burn within it. Now the scripture begins
to jump off the page. Now grace begins to mean something. Mercy begins to mean something.
Forgiveness all of a sudden becomes important. It's not just a byword. Not just something I confess
when I walk down to the front of the church. becomes a part
of my life, it becomes my hope. We shall all be conformed in
our hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I used to hope in my attitude. Boy, I'm glad I don't hope in
that anymore. Used to hope in my daily walk. I used to hope in my prayers
and my study. I used to hope in my aisle walking.
and experiences and there's no end to it. It's something different
every time. Here's hope, Christ in you. There's no other hope. We're talking about being conformed
to the image of God's Son. But I cannot be conformed to
something if I don't know what the something is. Listen to what
John says over here in 1 John 5.20. He said, and we know that the
Son of God hath come, and given to us an understanding that we
may know Him that's true. What else? That we're in Him
that's true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. You see what Paul's talking about
here? He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of
His Son. And I told you a while ago, this
is not God looking down through the telescope of time, seeing
who would and who wouldn't and all this. He said whom He did
for, no, He's not talking about looking down through the telescope
of time. If you go over to 1 Peter, you'll see that word, the very
same word. You can look it up in your Stonestone
Course. You look up that word, the same word as foreordained.
God foreknows a thing because he foreordains a thing. So you
could very easily put that word in there, whom he did foreordain,
he also did predestinate. Every child of God is predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son, and whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, he did also justify,
and whom he justified, them he did also glorify. When did he
do this? From the beginning. From the
beginning. Well, then it don't matter if
they do anyhow, yeah? It matters. Everything God did
from the beginning is going to be done and done. Everything.
So here's the first thing I know about predestination. It's God's
sovereign purpose and will that all His elect be conformed to
the image of His Son. Now, look with me at my second
text in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. The second thing I know about
God's predestination is that it has to do with all His elect
being adopted of God. Let's read a few verses here
in Ephesians 1 and I'll make some comments. We'll begin here
in Ephesians 1-3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. This is why you're blessed. This
is why He chose you and put you in Christ, because you're predestinated
to the adoption of children. God purposed it from the beginning. God has purposed from all eternity
to have sons and daughters by way of His Son. And somebody
said, well, this is God's predestination of adoption. No, sir. It says,
having predestinated us. He didn't predestinate adoption.
He predestinated us to adoption. And predestination, as I read
it here, is a particular doctrine. It has nothing to do with the
damned. It has everything to do with
God's elect. And it makes provision for their
adoption. Well, how does that work? It
works by an act of eternal, unchangeable, sovereign election. God chose
a people, blessed them with all spiritual blessing, made full
provision for them and his son, ordained all the means to bring
them to Christ, set in action a providence and personally attends
it. And then comes down and personally
attends the work done in the believers. It's God that worketh
in you both to will and to do His good things. His son become our representative,
our federal head. His son become our substitute.
And this covenant become David's hope because Christ is the surety
of it. It's what the old times called
this a covenant, the covenant of grace. He's the guarantor of it. And
I know that Satan has his ministers out there and that they are capable
of arresting the Scriptures, is the word he uses, twisting
the Scriptures, explaining away the certainties of Scripture. And Peter said, many shall follow
their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of. Boy, the first time I thought
about predestination, my mind went to war. Huh? Ain't nothing to go to war with.
It's for you. Predestination doesn't carry
a spear. Huh? Oh, my. That way shall be evil spoken
of. But listen to me, with even a
child's understanding of words, you can see in these verses that
God chose a people in His Son before the world began, made
provision for them that we could be holy and without blame before
Him being loved, and then predestinated their sonship and adoption by
Jesus Christ to Himself. That's what those verses say. I remember that old deacon questioning
Henry. Boy, he was mad. Henry said his face was glowing
a dark red. He stood up, and boy, he was
just shaking all over. And he said, you need to stop
what you're doing. Henry said, what am I doing?
Well, he said, I know what you're doing. He said, you're trying
to teach a lesson. He said, no, sir, I ain't trying
to teach a lesson. Oh, yes, you are. Henry said, no, I'm not
teaching anything. He said, I'm reading to you Ephesians
chapter 1. He said, is election what you
got out of it? Because that's what I got out
of it, what it says. Everything God has for sinners
is purposed and secured in his Son. When God created the world,
he created a kind of an orphanage. An orphanage is an institution
put in place by the powers that be for wayward children. And
we're all wayward. We've become wayward in our father
Adam. Sin entered and death passed.
These wayward children, they live in this institution until
such time as somebody, somebody is willing to take responsibility
for it. And we're all just orphans waiting
on the adoption. Listen to this over in Galatians
chapter 4. Paul tells us that the heirs
of God as children, or in the first part of their life, were
no different than servants. But were under tutors, governors,
until the time appointed. Galatians 4 verse 3. Even so,
We, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world. We're in bondage. In bondage
to our inability, in bondage to sin, in bondage to our nature. And then this brings me to the
third thing, just hold your place there in Galatians. The claiming of God's sons. God has some sons. He predestinated. He secured it in Christ. He ordained
all the men that have come to pass. And here's all these little
children out here in Northridge. But he knows which one are his.
And when he comes, he lays claim to them. You, you come with me. Come with me. Galatians 4.4. 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. We were adopted back
yonder in God's predestination. He purposed it to be. Now He's
going to bring it to pass. He sent down His Son. And He
redeemed them that were under the law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. And because you're sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Predestination determined our
adoption. Predestination set in order the
purpose behind it. And predestination fulfilled,
satisfied, and accomplished all that God demanded concerning
us. Now look here at my final text over here in Ephesians 1
verses 9 through 11. Ephesians chapter 1 beginning
with verse 9. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. Verses 3 through 7 he tells you
about all that. Verse 10, that in the dispensation
or stewardship of the fullness of times, talking about his sons,
he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, which are on earth, even in him. In whom, verse 11,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, we took it into
possession, called us out of this world, translated us into
his kingdom. We have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. By way of gospel
preaching, God's predestination makes the way for him Claim those
he chose in Christ and determined to adopt. And he did it, verse
12, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ, that God our Father. Now watch this, verse 13. In
whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. Not only has our adoption been
predestinated in Christ, purchased at Calvary, but it is secured,
arranged, and manifested in the providence of God. It says, to
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to do what? Become
sons of God. But now wait a minute, preacher.
Aren't you afraid that the preaching of such things will just destroy
evangelism? Let me ask you something. Suppose God didn't predestinate
people. Suppose God didn't choose people.
Suppose God didn't make arrangements concerning them. Suppose God
didn't have an intervention on their behalf. Would that inspire
you to preach? Knowing that all is sin and come
short of the glory of God. Knowing that there is none righteous,
none that understandeth, and none that seeketh after God.
Knowing that men and women are all helpless, hopeless sinners.
Does that encourage somebody to preach? Let me tell you something. Without the eternal intervention
of God in Christ, I'd pack my bags and get on the train. Why would you preach? Now when he says, whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate. Back over in Romans 8, verse
29. He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called whom he called, then he also justified, and whom
he justified he glorified. So he said, let's just go sit
in the corner. What should we say to these things? Oh, now, if God be for us, who
can be against us? And every man who really understands
what predestination is about says that. If God be for us,
let's go pray. Our Lord appeared to those disciples
about to give them the Great Commission, and here's what he
told them. All power in heaven and earth getting under me. So you can go sit in the corner.
He said, now you go preach. Woo, you talking about motivated.
Motivated. Oh, if we just believed a little
bit of this, just a little bit of this, how motivated would
we be? What shall we say to these things? The success of this thing of
salvation is not in the sinner. It's in the sinner's God and
in his Savior. And there's nothing worse than
a religious man appealing to dead men to do what a perfect
man couldn't do in the garden. That don't even make sense. Where's
the hope in that? Where's the motivation in that?
But if God has predestinated a people to adoption, ordained
all the means, accomplished it, personally attends the means
to make them effectual, then I'm confident and I'm motivated. That's predestination. That's
predestination. God's going to have a people. And they're all going to be willing
in the day of His power. They're all going to repent,
every one of them. They're all going to repent.
It's going to be a real repentance. You're going to feel it in your
heart as though God didn't do anything. But when it comes to
pass, you're going to give Him all the glory for it. That's
right. You're going to believe just
like God didn't have anything to do with it. But when you believe,
you're going to say this is the gift of God, not of work. And when this thing's done, you're
going to bless God for his predestination. And it didn't take one iota away
from your responsibility. Be careful. Be careful when men
talk to you and tell you things about this, and they don't show
it to you in the scripture light. It'll always lead you astray,
every time. It'll leave you with some kind
of false confidence. No need for me to do anything.
Oh, my. Be careful.