Dale Partridge - March 22, 2024


PART ONE： Romans 8_29 - The Golden Chain of Salvation with Dale Partridge


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49 minutes

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6,499

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419

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Transcript

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00:00:00.960 Amen. Well, that story that Corbin shared, I actually own a few first edition sermons printed
00:00:09.060 in 1540 from Hugh Latimer. And it's wonderful to look at those sermons and go, wow, that was a real
00:00:18.320 person with a real scenario that really suffered for Christ. So what a blessing to hear that story.
00:00:26.060 Romans 8.29, this is part one on what we're calling the golden chain of salvation.
00:00:36.960 By God's grace, we have moved on from 8.28.
00:00:41.320 I was there for three straight weeks, breaking down that beautiful passage of scripture.
00:00:46.120 Romans 8.28 was such a foundational doctrine for what we will be discussing today.
00:00:56.700 We talked about the fallacy of free will. We talked about the possession of free agency,
00:01:02.780 the doctrines of sovereignty and providence. We touched on the significance of calling in
00:01:09.160 salvation. If you haven't listened to those, go back on our Kingsway Sermons podcast and you can
00:01:14.180 listen to those. But we spent so much time on verse 28 because understanding the doctrine of
00:01:20.600 sovereignty and providence is crucial to understanding verses 29 and 30. It's hard for
00:01:28.600 you to grasp, I should say, if it's hard for you to grasp the biblical truth that God chose you
00:01:37.100 and that you didn't choose God, your redemption is going to have this sense of flatness.
00:01:47.500 It's going to have a sense of synergism where God did his part and you did your part.
00:01:55.180 But if you struggle to yield to the reality of providence in the work of salvation,
00:02:00.640 this text will stumble you.
00:02:02.860 In fact, if you don't submit your emotions to the doctrine of providence,
00:02:05.880 you're going to be forced to engage in what I call exegetical gymnastics, where you start molding
00:02:12.460 your own ideas of salvation and projecting them upon the text. We see this quite often.
00:02:19.320 But if you surrender your desires and you put aside philosophy and you allow the text
00:02:24.940 of scripture to shape how you think and feel around the doctrine of salvation,
00:02:32.600 you're going to love this passage of scripture. Now, to remind you of the context of chapter 8,
00:02:40.380 Paul is telling Christians about the various forms of divine assistance that the Christians
00:02:46.320 receive in this present time of sufferings. But all of these supports that we talked about in
00:02:52.700 previous weeks, the greatest help, the greatest divine assistance is that we have benevolent
00:02:59.180 providence, controlling and causing all things to work together for our good. In the verses ahead,
00:03:07.240 we're going to uncover how this benevolent providence that we saw in verses 28 reaches
00:03:13.220 into the heart of your actual personal salvation. And it's more than just justification through
00:03:21.280 faith. We're going beyond that reality. It encompasses divine love, electing grace,
00:03:28.800 predestination, effectual calling, eternal security. These are some of the core elements
00:03:34.020 that we're going to be discussing over the next few weeks. We're going to see that this entire
00:03:39.300 process of redemption was divinely orchestrated before the foundation of the world.
00:03:47.300 now none of this should shock you because you read your Bible and if you
00:03:53.400 look at verse 28 the very end it says and it says that we were called
00:03:58.740 according to whose purpose that we were called according to his purpose so when
00:04:06.020 we think about divine orchestration we shouldn't be shocked because we already
00:04:09.560 saw last week that we are called according to his purposes our salvation
00:04:14.360 Salvation is His purpose, not our purpose.
00:04:18.440 When you embrace this concept of God being divinely purposing your own salvation, you're
00:04:26.080 going to begin to feel the personal touch of God's undeserved love.
00:04:31.240 And that I think is missing in many circles in Christendom.
00:04:37.320 You're going to retire the notion that salvation is somehow your own initiative and you're
00:04:45.400 going to rejoice in divine intervention.
00:04:48.920 You're going to feel grateful, astonished, indebted, overwhelmed by God's love.
00:04:57.420 Romans 29 and 30 are often called the golden chain of salvation.
00:05:01.800 Many theologians have named it this.
00:05:03.940 I'm not sure who the first person was to give it that title, but it's the outline of the
00:05:08.100 process of redemption according to scripture.
00:05:12.380 Now you cannot escape, as you will see, the implication that from beginning to end, salvation
00:05:20.140 is a work of God.
00:05:22.800 It's not dependent upon human decision.
00:05:25.280 It's not dependent upon human effort or human maintenance.
00:05:29.980 R.C. Sproul says of this, he says, quote, this is called the golden chain because there is a chain
00:05:35.180 of redemptive actions listed in the text. It is shorthand for what theologians call
00:05:41.000 the ordo salutis, which is Latin for the order of salvation. Ultimately, these verses help us
00:05:47.580 understand what logically comes first in the process of redemption, end quote. All right,
00:05:54.080 so if you're going to look down in your Bibles for a second, look down to verses 28, 29, and 30,
00:05:57.460 you're going to see five redemptive actions. Number one, foreknowing. Number two, predestining.
00:06:07.880 Number three, calling. Number four, justifying. And number five, glorifying. We're going to make
00:06:15.760 it through the entire chain over the next several weeks. Today in verse 29, I'm going to be covering
00:06:22.200 the first two links of that chain. Today's text says, for those whom he foreknew, he also
00:06:29.780 predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn
00:06:35.720 among many brethren. Now, again, to preface my exposition, Paul just said that at the end of
00:06:43.640 verse 28, that our calling and our election was according to his purpose. Remember, we're looking
00:06:50.840 at this piece of text in isolation from the rest of the text around it. We don't do that. That's
00:06:57.960 proof texting. I say this often all the time. I go, imagine walking into just a 30-second clip
00:07:04.640 of Lord of the Rings and you see a ring and you go, oh man, he must be on his way to a wedding.
00:07:11.240 You have no clue of the context of the reality of the story. And so we need to make sure that
00:07:17.620 we look at, okay, what did the verse before say? Well, it's according to his purpose. And here in
00:07:23.900 verse 29, he's explaining the substance and the extent of that purpose. He's communicating how
00:07:31.660 God carries us from the pre-born state all the way to that glory that will be revealed in us,
00:07:39.860 mentioned in Romans 8, 18. Now, I want you to notice, okay, we're going to be grammarians today.
00:07:47.120 you're gonna pay attention to grammar notice that he continues to use the
00:07:51.620 demonstrative pronoun those those okay which maintains the language of what a
00:07:58.320 specific group or a limited group of people okay he said it twice in verse
00:08:04.000 28 those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose here he
00:08:09.520 continues by saying for those whom he foreknew so he's still talking about a
00:08:15.000 unique, select group of people. Not everybody, but a particular group of people. And this is
00:08:22.480 important because if we interpret the term foreknew to be just a simple, preexistent
00:08:29.600 knowledge of reality, it clashes with the idea of God's all-knowing nature. Now stay with me here,
00:08:37.120 okay? Stay with me. We are smart people. This is very important for you to grasp because it'll be
00:08:42.220 a way that you can defend this against people who have different interpretations. Okay, since God
00:08:48.080 knows everything, God knows everything. He's omniscient. Every single Christian on earth is
00:08:52.920 going to affirm that reality. He would know everyone, not just those whom he foreknew.
00:09:00.660 If he was talking about a simple foreknowing of information,
00:09:04.800 then the word foreknew would have to be just about everyone because he foreknew everyone
00:09:13.180 but if the word foreknew is not talking about information but is talking about relationship
00:09:22.140 with particular people then we have a problem
00:09:27.220 the apostles use of those forces us to see that this foreknowing is not speaking
00:09:35.180 to the omniscient foreknowing of knowledge that's not what he's talking about he's not
00:09:41.640 talking about God knew information he's talking about a foreknowing of relationship
00:09:48.560 and that is the same type of knowing that we see in first Corinthians 8 3
00:09:53.560 that says, but if anyone loves God, he is known by him. He is known by him.
00:10:01.680 Romans 11, two, just two chapters later or three chapters later, Paul writes,
00:10:08.080 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Okay, pay attention. He has not rejected his
00:10:15.700 people who he foreknew. Again, if it's speaking to God's general omniscience, we have a problem,
00:10:21.920 But because we know that he's talking about a relational reality, we can see that he's saying God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
00:10:36.620 He's not talking about everyone.
00:10:38.900 He's talking about a select group of people that he had a relationship with.
00:10:47.040 So no matter what, we have to acknowledge that the term foreknew grammatically.
00:10:51.920 God, logically, is not speaking to the foreknowledge of information, but the relational foreknowing of a particular people.
00:11:02.980 Amen?
00:11:04.620 Matthew 7, 21 through 23, Jesus speaks to the relational reality of knowing.
00:11:11.920 He says,
00:11:13.100 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
00:11:16.340 But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.
00:11:19.860 Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons
00:11:23.900 in your name and perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
00:11:32.460 Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. This is the type of knowing that we're talking
00:11:38.080 about. Did Jesus not know those people that they existed? Certainly he did. Jesus is omniscient.
00:11:47.620 Jesus knows every single person.
00:11:52.100 Jesus in his deity of God knows the number of every person's hairs on their head.
00:12:02.520 In the Old Testament, we see a similar word to the Greek word for new.
00:12:08.760 The Hebrew word is yada.
00:12:11.680 It means to know by experience.
00:12:14.240 to know by experience. It's also the same word that's used when it says that Adam
00:12:22.440 knew his wife. It's an intimate knowing. It's not an erotic or sexual knowing. It's really
00:12:30.620 just an intimate knowing. It's a knowing of that portion. It's also the word in Jeremiah 1.5 that
00:12:38.500 It says, God said to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
00:12:45.700 I knew you.
00:12:47.140 And before you were born, I consecrated you.
00:12:49.720 I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.
00:12:53.660 Exodus 33, 17 includes this word again, shows this relational element.
00:12:58.160 It says, quote, the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing of which you have spoken,
00:13:02.540 for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name.
00:13:08.500 I have known you by name.
00:13:11.300 There's so many more.
00:13:13.800 What is John 10?
00:13:16.840 My sheep know me and they follow me.
00:13:20.520 You know, John 6, I call them by name.
00:13:23.820 There is a relational knowing that we must recognize.
00:13:29.980 Now, the relational interpretation of foreknowing is vital because we live in an age where people want to reduce this word to just a foreknowledge of information.
00:13:38.500 About 15 years ago, I remember driving on the 10 freeway in Southern California, listening
00:13:43.580 to Pastor's Perspective, which is the Calvary Chapel radio program with Pastor Chuck Smith
00:13:50.060 and Brian Broderson.
00:13:51.480 And I remember someone calling in asking the specific question about Romans 8.29.
00:13:56.860 What does it mean to foreknow?
00:13:59.000 How does God foreknow us?
00:14:02.360 And Chuck answered with something along the lines of, quote, God looked into the future
00:14:08.280 to observe how each person would respond
00:14:11.780 to the gospel during their lifetime.
00:14:14.340 Based on this divine foresight,
00:14:16.580 he predestined for salvation those individuals
00:14:19.160 whom he foreknew would respond faithfully
00:14:21.880 to the gospel's call.
00:14:23.860 That was his answer, and I totally bought it.
00:14:27.520 That was the view that I held for many, many years.
00:14:32.060 First, let me give you several problems with this view.
00:14:35.480 this view puts man as the decisive catalyst for salvation. It puts man as the decisive
00:14:45.080 catalyst for salvation. It reduces God to a bystander. He becomes a bystander who can only
00:14:52.540 do so much and must wait and see if we make the right decision. Because God's a gentleman, right?
00:15:00.320 That's what they say. He's not going to violate your free will, right? That's what they say.
00:15:05.480 In other words, God makes salvation possible, but man is ultimately sovereign over the consummation
00:15:13.400 of that salvation.
00:15:14.680 This is false thinking.
00:15:16.480 This is how they view the redemption of humanity.
00:15:19.700 They believe that God makes a way, but that's it.
00:15:27.200 You have to make the decision.
00:15:29.720 Now we know the problem with that
00:15:31.360 is that you become the decisive catalyst
00:15:35.320 for your own salvation.
00:15:37.340 You become essentially sovereign over your redemption.
00:15:40.520 If you're going to be saved, it's up to you.
00:15:42.840 And what that does is that if you compare
00:15:45.520 two individuals who heard the gospel,
00:15:48.900 if you have two individuals that heard the gospel,
00:15:53.420 one person follows Jesus and the other person doesn't.
00:15:59.220 One person says, well, I follow Jesus because I believed and he didn't.
00:16:06.820 Well, I would say, well, why did you believe and he didn't?
00:16:11.080 No matter what you say, you get yourself into a boast.
00:16:15.340 Well, because I guess I was smarter.
00:16:18.260 Because I guess I was wiser.
00:16:20.440 Because I guess I was more sensitive to my sinful reality.
00:16:23.500 No matter what you do, if salvation is dependent upon you, then you have room to boast in comparison
00:16:32.240 to the next person who also heard the gospel, but did not make the right decision.
00:16:39.300 Number two, this view stands in complete opposition to the overwhelming number of scriptures we
00:16:46.140 discussed in the previous three sermons, as well as the substance of the previous verse.
00:16:51.260 Verse 28 claims that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
00:17:03.560 God and are called according to his purpose.
00:17:06.480 They're called according to his purpose.
00:17:12.380 That degree of sovereignty cannot coexist with a viewpoint that restricts God from causing
00:17:16.820 salvation.
00:17:17.260 how can God control all things yet not control the saving of his own people
00:17:24.820 how can he work everything together if he's waiting and dependent upon the decisions of men
00:17:34.020 if God's purpose is dependent upon man's free choice you have a massive illogical contradiction
00:17:43.000 that are incompatible ideas on so many dimensions.
00:17:48.900 It's easy to look at the front and go, oh, it's not that bad.
00:17:51.780 But when you take that down and you deduce it to its logical theological conclusions,
00:17:58.220 you realize that there is a massive root problem with that reality.
00:18:03.240 Third, this view injures the doctrine of omniscience because it creates a learning God.
00:18:09.140 It creates a God that learns.
00:18:10.980 if foreknew really means to foresee which is what chuck smith messes with the grammar
00:18:20.600 he really it's not about foreknowing and relationally it's about foreseeing information
00:18:24.740 it creates a god who looks to discover the actions of men and then adjusts his plan accordingly
00:18:33.020 he literally is having to adjust his plan according to
00:18:39.200 the actions that he cannot see because he cannot violate their free will. He is waiting
00:18:46.060 to find out what they will do according to that view. One pastor said of this view,
00:18:54.140 it seems to me that the prescient view, which is what this is called, must deny the doctrine of
00:18:59.140 omniscient because it demands that God at some point does not know something about a person,
00:19:05.940 Namely, the choice they may or may not make regarding the gospel.
00:19:11.660 He doesn't know, according to the prescient view.
00:19:15.220 Ultimately, what we're seeing is that the prescient view is that men are so unwilling
00:19:20.680 to let go of this concept of free will that they force an emotional philosophy upon the Bible.
00:19:29.540 And my preaching professor, Dr. Steve Lawson, once said to me,
00:19:33.560 he said it many, many, many times, but the free will is the pagan goddess that the church has
00:19:41.160 worshiped for far too long, end quote. And we should not be shocked by this, right? We live
00:19:47.100 in a self-actualized culture. We are the cause of our own destiny, according to humanism.
00:19:58.680 Okay, we worship autonomy. We worship individualization. We worship independence.
00:20:09.460 It should not shock us that we are obsessed with free will.
00:20:13.920 I mean, if you go back through church history, this conversation about free will
00:20:18.000 was in many senses non-existent. It wasn't really until the Enlightenment era of 16,
00:20:26.780 1700s, this started to become a greater and greater discussion. So when Paul says,
00:20:34.900 for those whom he foreknew, he predestined. He's demonstrating how divine affection,
00:20:44.020 divine foreknowing, divine desire for relationship must precede divine action.
00:20:55.920 That relationship comes before predestination.
00:21:00.860 That relationship precedes these actions that will work together for your good.
00:21:09.920 The reason God predestines a person is because he has set his love upon that person.
00:21:15.780 In the same way that he set his love upon Israel.
00:21:18.680 He did not set his love upon the Philistines.
00:21:21.680 He set his love upon Israel.
00:21:23.460 Jeremiah 31 3 shows this divine and logical progression when God says to Israel quote I have
00:21:32.160 loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness
00:21:39.180 relationship and affection precede action fundamental reality right that we start to see
00:21:47.560 here. Loving relationship produces these benevolent actions that uphold that love.
00:21:57.560 And that is what we're seeing in this text, which leads us to the next section of our passage. If
00:22:01.220 you look to verse 29b, it says, he also predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son.
00:22:08.800 He also predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son. Okay, the word predestined,
00:22:15.080 it means to predetermine the destiny or end of individuals or events before the creation of the
00:22:23.160 world the word in of itself requires you to believe that god is sovereign over salvation
00:22:29.520 to predetermine the destiny that's what it means predetermine the end before the creation of that
00:22:40.560 particular event or person. That's what God does. He's a predestining God. You get to deal with that
00:22:47.100 fact. God doesn't go and learn something about you and then comes back and then predestines you.
00:22:53.380 That's stupid. That's false thinking. It's folly. The word predestined is six times used in the New 1.00
00:23:02.000 Testament, two of which are here in Romans 8, 29 and 30, but it's also used in Luke,
00:23:07.620 speaking to the predestination of Christ's crucifixion, Acts 4, 27 through 29.
00:23:13.980 It talks about God preordaining and predetermining the events of His crucifixion and His very death.
00:23:20.560 We see the same word in 1 Corinthians 2, 7,
00:23:22.780 speaking to the predestination of the kingdom of Christ coming through the gospel.
00:23:26.020 We see the term used twice again in Ephesians 1, 1 chapter, sorry,
00:23:30.740 chapter 1, verse 5, and chapter 1, verse 11.
00:23:33.960 And it speaks to the predestination of God's people to adoption.
00:23:37.620 He predetermined their adoption into his family.
00:23:40.360 He predetermined, in verse 11, God's people to a divine purpose.
00:23:48.880 We cannot escape the reality of predestination.
00:23:52.280 We cannot contort it to mean something, to do this exegetical gymnastics,
00:23:57.260 instead of just letting the text be the text.
00:24:02.520 But the predestination before us, sorry, this thing is moving here,
00:24:06.900 The predestination before us is defined.
00:24:11.860 Look at verse 29.
00:24:13.340 It says, those whom God has relationally foreknown,
00:24:16.580 he has predestined to a particular end.
00:24:20.000 He predestined them to what?
00:24:22.700 To be conformed to the image of his son.
00:24:28.160 If you're saved, you have been predestined
00:24:32.180 to be conformed to the image of his son.
00:24:37.380 Just think about that statement for a second.
00:24:39.600 If you are a born-again believer,
00:24:41.700 you were predetermined to be conformed to the image of his son.
00:24:52.080 How can that work with the prescient view that God is waiting for you,
00:24:57.240 waiting to find out if you would choose him?
00:25:02.180 It cannot work.
00:25:04.380 It is illogical.
00:25:08.780 Now, this is a very important section of the sermon, and it's very short, but I want you guys to grasp this.
00:25:16.040 We are to be conformed to the image of his son.
00:25:18.180 Why is that important?
00:25:20.380 In creation, humanity was made in the image of God.
00:25:26.080 Humanity was made in the image of God.
00:25:27.820 But when sin entered, humanity lost the pureness of that image.
00:25:38.300 I'm going to give you an explanation for that.
00:25:40.960 In Genesis 5, 3, when Adam lived 130 years, it says,
00:25:47.080 he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.
00:25:52.060 That's interesting.
00:25:53.880 It's very interesting.
00:25:56.260 That God creates Adam in his own image, but then Adam falls and he has a son that he produces
00:26:05.400 in his likeness of fallenness and his own image of fallen humanity.
00:26:10.800 And he named him Seth.
00:26:13.580 In other words, the reason we need to be conformed to the image of Christ, the second Adam,
00:26:20.740 is because we are born in the likeness and the image of the first Adam.
00:26:27.140 I'm going to say that one more time because I want you to really grasp this.
00:26:31.180 The reason we need to be conformed to the image of Christ, the second Adam,
00:26:37.580 is because we are born in the likeness and in the image of the first Adam.
00:26:45.640 What this really means is it's not just a predestination of grace.
00:26:51.440 This is a predestination of restoration of image.
00:26:57.380 We are no longer in the image of Adam.
00:27:00.860 We are in the image of Christ.
00:27:03.660 Romans 5 spends an entire chapter talking about that.
00:27:09.820 This was part of the reason for the incarnation.
00:27:13.620 It's the reintroduction of sinless humanity to redeem a portion of fallen humanity.
00:27:19.120 there's so much to talk there so much to discuss there i almost wanted to turn this into another
00:27:30.880 sermon but we got to keep moving there is also another form of predestination that we will hear
00:27:38.340 in reform circles especially it's the predestination of justice and desolation
00:27:43.380 now i will say before we talk about this because i felt like i couldn't get around
00:27:48.220 not dealing with this particular topic as we get through the sermon.
00:27:54.500 Scripture does not speak of the predestination of the wicked in the same way that it speaks
00:28:00.360 of the predestination of the elect.
00:28:02.900 So we have to be clear there.
00:28:04.240 But I do believe it's a logical deduction that if God predestines some to salvation,
00:28:10.260 if he decides to save some, as he has always done throughout the Old Testament,
00:28:16.440 and we are grafted into Israel,
00:28:18.720 we should not expect that to be different.
00:28:20.820 If he decides to save some and pass over others
00:28:23.960 and leave them to justice,
00:28:26.940 he is in some way exercising sovereignty
00:28:29.540 over the ultimate destinies of the wicked.
00:28:32.360 We have to admit that fact.
00:28:35.340 So some people call this double predestination.
00:28:39.220 Others call it election and reprobation.
00:28:42.920 You might just call it, you know,
00:28:44.900 grace and justice. There's no injustice. There's just grace and mercy, and there's justice and
00:28:56.500 wrath. 1 Peter 2.8, and speaking of those who rejected Christ, says, they stumble because they
00:29:05.940 disobey the word as they were destined to do. Romans 9.21-22 speaks of the potter,
00:29:14.900 talking about God who out of the clay makes some people for honorable use and some for
00:29:23.500 dishonorable use. In verse 22, it says, what if God desiring to show his wrath and to make his
00:29:31.260 power known has endured with much patience, the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.
00:29:37.660 it. Proverbs 16.4 says, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked
00:29:48.240 for the day of trouble. Jesus in John 3.18 alludes to this predetermined judgment of the wicked when
00:29:56.260 he says, quote, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged
00:30:03.480 already. You got to think about this. Jesus says, I'm not coming here to judge.
00:30:11.100 That'll come in the future. So he's talking about future events that have already been done.
00:30:16.700 You've been judged already.
00:30:21.280 Jesus is projecting an eternal mindset on a world that lives within time.
00:30:28.440 so understanding predestination is essential to understanding the sovereignty and the grace of god
00:30:35.440 there is a great book if you're still struggling and wrestling through this doctrine which
00:30:40.460 honestly i wouldn't expect anything less this is a very difficult doctrine
00:30:45.380 a great book is the reformed doctrine of predestination by dr lorraine bettner lorraine
00:30:53.520 as a man, I know, it's unfortunate. But he was B.B. Warfield's protege, went to the Princeton
00:31:00.960 Theological Seminary back in the early 1900s. He died, I think, in 1997. It's actually available
00:31:08.740 in our app, the ReLearn app. You can listen to it in audio, you can buy it, you can read it in
00:31:13.000 there as an e-book. But I highly suggest that you spend some time reading that book. It is a
00:31:19.220 massively comprehensive argument
00:31:22.660 that it's just impossible to get around the facts.
00:31:28.680 Once you understand this doctrine of predestination
00:31:31.140 and it settles into your mind,
00:31:32.620 it's going to erupt a series of critical questions.
00:31:40.920 You're gonna ask, if God predestines, why evangelize?
00:31:44.700 If God predestines, are my children elect?
00:31:46.800 if God predestines, how can God rightly judge the reprobate? These are very common 0.99
00:31:55.260 and important questions that needs to be addressed. And I didn't want to address all of them deeply
00:32:04.320 because it would take so much time, but I am going to deal with them shortly just to give you a
00:32:09.680 little bit of an answer so that you can calm your mind of the matter if you're struggling through
00:32:13.960 this. If God predestines, why evangelize? I wrote an article about this available on ReLearn if you
00:32:18.940 want to read it. First, because God commands us to in the Great Commission. Second, God doesn't
00:32:27.560 just predestine the ends, predetermining the ends. God causes all things to work together. He
00:32:33.620 predetermines the means. If God predetermined that a car was to crash through this room,
00:32:39.720 He would also predetermine the driver and the car manufacturer and the man who was living
00:32:52.760 his schedule for the day.
00:32:54.160 He predetermines not just the ends, but also predetermines the means.
00:33:01.900 Romans 10, 14 through 15 says, and how are they to believe in him whom they have never
00:33:07.840 heard?
00:33:08.160 and how are they to hear with someone
00:33:10.520 or without someone preaching?
00:33:13.360 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
00:33:16.260 And so we know that, why do we preach the gospel?
00:33:19.660 Even though we believe that God has an elect,
00:33:21.120 we don't know who the elect is.
00:33:23.720 All we know is that we're called to share the gospel
00:33:25.940 and proclaim the gospel to the whole world.
00:33:28.080 And that God is saving people
00:33:29.400 from every tribe and nation of tongue.
00:33:31.240 And that God doesn't just predetermine the ends,
00:33:33.680 but he predetermines the means
00:33:34.680 of my faithful preaching of that message.
00:33:38.740 Number two, if God predestines, are my children elect?
00:33:43.520 I remember when I came to this conclusion years ago,
00:33:47.560 I had just started a relationship with Doug Wilson.
00:33:52.080 And within an hour of this conclusion,
00:33:57.780 that was the first question I had.
00:34:00.580 And I called him and spent an hour and a half
00:34:02.800 having this discussion with him over the phone.
00:34:05.060 predestination removes the notion that we can secure our children's salvation through
00:34:13.700 intellectual persuasion that when you believe that you're persuaded to God
00:34:19.220 it allows you to think that you can have more sovereignty or control over your children's
00:34:27.080 salvation but when you start to realize that God has to sovereignly do the work
00:34:32.040 that you can't do it, then you have to rely on God and not your own works to save.
00:34:41.020 This is why the megachurch who doesn't believe in the doctrines of reformed theology,
00:34:45.200 this is why they get the lion on the stage and why they have the big lights and why they have
00:34:50.220 the hyper persuasive messages. Because if it's about persuasion, man, bring a lion, man, I'm all
00:34:58.440 in. If it's about persuasion, let's get whatever we possibly can in here to persuade the minds
00:35:04.700 of men. If I need to use PowerPoint, then I'll use PowerPoint. But if it's not about persuasion,
00:35:13.600 and if it's actually just about the faithful proclamation that you are a sinner needing to
00:35:18.540 be redeemed, and that that is the means by which God uses to save his people,
00:35:23.020 then I'll just be faithful. We'll be simple. We'll do what church history has done for two millennia.
00:35:34.760 Now with this question, it's important to understand that unconditional election,
00:35:39.580 unconditional election is not random election. It's not arbitrary election. God doesn't randomly
00:35:48.740 elect people without considering familial relationships. Yeah, God sometimes grafts a
00:35:54.700 person in and then you would expect for his children to be grafted in. But the normative
00:36:01.200 reality, well, I'll say this, God doesn't view us as isolated individuals. That's a very American
00:36:08.200 reality that we just think of ourselves as just isolated. Even in our own families, we think
00:36:13.200 we're just independent people in our own family. We fail to think covenantally around these
00:36:18.380 realities. Genesis 12, three, God says to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you
00:36:26.560 and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth 0.88
00:36:33.780 will be blessed. God's not thinking individually. He's thinking about family covenants.
00:36:42.620 So the normative pattern of election, if you just look throughout history, if you look at your own
00:36:49.740 experience, is that God saves through families. God saves through families. Now, yes, you have
00:36:57.580 first-generation Christians like myself, where God saved me outside of a family.
00:37:03.480 But then I have friends that I can watch their parents being saved, their grandparents being
00:37:08.120 saved their great grandparents being saved and you see this beautiful covenant nurturing
00:37:14.680 of salvation and expectant redemption that's coming through family lines
00:37:21.240 so what i'm saying is that if you're a believer you can be confident that your children are elect
00:37:25.320 because god has placed them in your house god's placed them under your care in a christian home
00:37:33.720 Now, the child of the Hindu family, the child of atheists, does not have the same assurance of
00:37:42.680 election as the baby that has two saved parents. And why do we, why? Well, because God put the 0.80
00:37:51.260 means of salvation. And if he has the means there, we should expect the ends. We should expect the
00:37:59.780 ends are a saved child. So why can you anticipate my nine month baby coming to Christ? Because he's
00:38:10.740 in my house. And because the Lord put him here and not in the Hindu or Muslim family. 0.99
00:38:16.840 Because he is going to be raised hearing the gospel every day of his life. Because he has
00:38:23.600 been put as a grace into the church of God. Now, does this mean that God is going to save every
00:38:28.540 one of these Christian children in a Christian home? No. It does not mean that. Unfortunately, 1.00
00:38:34.020 we have the reality that we live in a fallen world. If you look to this tree, you're going
00:38:38.760 to see a vine. The normative reality is that there's growth from it. But if you look to
00:38:46.200 almost every branch, you're going to see that out of the 40 green leaves, there's a dead
00:38:50.940 leaf. There's a dead twig. And that happens. But the normative reality is that we get to trust
00:39:00.420 that God has saved our children or will save our children because he has saved us. Amen.
00:39:06.340 Amen. And the third question, if God predestines, how can God rightly judge the reprobate?
00:39:16.220 This is the exact matter that Romans 9, 10 through 24 deals with.
00:39:23.320 Verses 19 through 22 anticipates an objection to God hardening the hearts of particular individuals
00:39:34.520 or not extending mercy to someone that wanted mercy or deserved, from the perspective of man, mercy.
00:39:46.220 Paul writes in verses 19 to 22 in chapter 9.
00:39:49.680 He says, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault?
00:39:53.320 He's going, if God is the one that predestines people and hardens hearts,
00:40:00.820 how can he still find fault?
00:40:07.720 The next verse says, for who resists God's will?
00:40:12.920 On the contrary, who are you, O man?
00:40:14.940 to answer back to God?
00:40:18.400 Will the thing formed say to him who formed it,
00:40:21.540 why have you made me like this?
00:40:23.840 Does not the potter have power over the clay
00:40:27.460 from the same lump to make one vessel for honor
00:40:31.680 and another vessel for dishonor?
00:40:35.260 Can God not do that?
00:40:37.580 Can you not let God be God?
00:40:39.480 Now, can God not make one lump of the clay for dishonorable use and one for honorable use?
00:40:53.320 Does that anger you too much?
00:40:58.820 Ultimately, we wrestle with the idea that humans are morally accountable to God,
00:41:02.840 even though they do not have ultimate self-determination.
00:41:06.580 We struggle with that.
00:41:09.480 I like what John Piper said. He said, quote, this is not a logical contradiction. It's a paradox.
00:41:14.840 There is no injustice with God. No one is punished who does not truly deserve to be punished.
00:41:19.840 God's sovereignty and man's accountability are in perfect compatibility. The whole Bible
00:41:23.880 testifies to both truths and we must submit to them even if we cannot fully comprehend them.
00:41:30.700 There's a mystery. There are three great mysteries in the Bible.
00:41:34.300 God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
00:41:39.220 Jesus being fully God and fully man.
00:41:43.200 And the Trinity.
00:41:45.300 How does it work?
00:41:47.400 I don't know.
00:41:48.860 I wish I could tell you exactly how it works.
00:41:51.760 Dr. James White and Doug were having a conversation once about the Trinity.
00:41:56.160 And Doug said, we have to remember that talking about the Trinity is like ants talking about calculus.
00:42:01.920 us. We have to remember the gravity of those discussions. Now remember, no reprobate man or
00:42:12.020 woman wants grace. No reprobate man or woman wants to be restored. They hate God. They hate Christ.
00:42:22.960 1 Corinthians 1.18 says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
00:42:29.600 But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
00:42:36.420 To us, predestination ought to be a sweet doctrine.
00:42:44.140 It should be something to be cherished as a mercy.
00:42:49.100 For without God's benevolent predetermination to conform us to the image of his son,
00:42:54.100 we would remain in the image and likeness of fallen Adam.
00:42:59.600 But then the apostle closes out to the purpose of this foreknowing and the predestining.
00:43:08.220 He says, the very end of that verse, he says, so that he would be the firstborn among many
00:43:13.720 brethren.
00:43:15.660 The man Jesus, I'm talking about his humanity, the man Jesus Christ, he is the first elect
00:43:22.600 of humanity.
00:43:24.840 He's the first elect of humanity. 0.62
00:43:27.680 He is the model of our conformity and the head of our new human ancestry.
00:43:34.600 He is the firstborn among many brethren.
00:43:38.920 Christ is not the only born free from death, but the firstborn free from death.
00:43:46.720 God is anticipating that more will be like Him.
00:43:49.440 He's not the only one.
00:43:51.320 He's the beginning.
00:43:54.660 He's the beginning. 0.87
00:43:57.360 And in the same way that the first Adam reproduced his sinful likeness, the second Adam, Christ, 0.70
00:44:07.820 will reproduce his sinless likeness.
00:44:13.660 This is probably at the core part of my eschatology.
00:44:18.340 I believe that the resurrection of Christ will outperform the fallenness of Adam.
00:44:27.360 I believe that Christ will outproduce Adam.
00:44:36.720 And in this whole concept, this whole concept of this,
00:44:40.520 that he would be the firstborn among many brethren,
00:44:43.760 it really gives us this vital truth
00:44:46.140 that God is saving a people for himself.
00:44:52.720 You know what makes marriage special?
00:44:55.040 is because God, or because a man chose a woman for himself.
00:45:02.840 Out of all the women in the world, he chose that one.
00:45:07.860 It's what makes it special.
00:45:10.800 It's what makes it beautiful.
00:45:14.120 I think it was Charles Spurgeon who said something along the lines,
00:45:16.760 many men will allow other men to choose their bride, but will not allow Christ to choose his. 0.99
00:45:29.960 It's a ridiculous notion. God is choosing a people for himself. 0.89
00:45:36.600 First Peter 2.9 says of this corporate congregation of God's elect,
00:45:39.900 but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession
00:45:47.200 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
00:45:54.240 marvelous light. Amen. I'll close with this. This should cause us to step back for a moment
00:46:04.360 and see the grandeur of God's plan.
00:46:09.480 You were foreknown before you were born.
00:46:13.720 God has laid his affection upon you in a way
00:46:16.320 that you had no control over.
00:46:22.420 We should be in awe that we are included in this holy nation.
00:46:29.700 You're included.
00:46:30.780 When you look at the world, God saved you from that and you're included.
00:46:41.400 There is a specialness, a sweetness that comes with that truth.
00:46:48.420 It's the same sweetness that a wife says, I can't believe he chose me.
00:46:52.940 I can't believe he chose me.
00:46:56.220 Of all the women in the world, he chose me.
00:46:59.460 That concept is truly being communicated here.
00:47:06.720 It should cause us to see the beauty of benevolent providence.
00:47:12.260 That God works all things together for those people whom he called, whom he foreknew.
00:47:18.460 And because of that assurance and that relationship and that affection, he predestined us.
00:47:24.200 And he called us with the gospel and he justified us and he glorified us.
00:47:28.660 Past tense, it's an amazing truth that you are resting in this beautiful orchestration
00:47:39.960 that God is putting together for your life.
00:47:43.700 There was a time in which you didn't know that you were going to be saved,
00:47:50.500 but there was no point in history in which you were not God's person.
00:47:58.660 God's elect.
00:48:01.900 While you were lost, tumbling around in sinful reality and drugs
00:48:06.600 and whatever may have been in your past,
00:48:09.740 if you're saved,
00:48:12.560 God was watching for knowing you before the foundation of the world,
00:48:19.180 working out that order salutis in your own life.
00:48:24.420 It is a beautiful thing to rest in the providence of God.
00:48:28.660 and when we rest in that providence,
00:48:33.640 it gives us hope.
00:48:35.540 It gives us hope in these present sufferings
00:48:37.700 because we know that we're not in control.
00:48:41.680 Yeah, we have free agency,
00:48:43.280 but at the end, no matter what happens to us,
00:48:46.720 we will be glorified.
00:48:50.480 Amen?
00:48:51.540 Let's pray.
00:48:53.460 Father, we thank you
00:48:54.600 for this wonderful assurance of salvation.
00:48:58.660 Lord, that you are causing all things to work together.
00:49:03.800 Father, I pray that you would help our hearts yield
00:49:07.160 to these difficult doctrines.
00:49:12.460 Lord, that you would overcome them in our hearts
00:49:15.600 and that you would work these things together.
00:49:20.980 Father, that we would appreciate our salvation
00:49:23.220 and knowing that you are the captain and finisher of our faith.
00:49:28.660 We thank you for not leaving us without understanding,
00:49:34.100 but that you've given us clarity in your word
00:49:36.180 that we might appreciate your purpose in our life.
00:49:41.340 In Jesus' name, amen.
00:49:43.480 Amen.