Mark 3, let's start at verse number 13. And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanegus, which is the sons of thunder. and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him. And they went into a house." And we'll just stop there. Go with me to Luke chapter number 6. Luke chapter 6 is a sister verse. the same things being said, but it says it slightly different, gives a little more insight to it. Luke 6, starting in verse number 12. We're going to read down to verse 16. It came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Now, that's a little bit extra information that Mark did not tell us. Verse 13, when it was day, he called unto his disciples, and of them he chose 12. So again, that's a little additional information. That would make us tend to believe that he didn't simply call the 12 up, he called a group, and out of that group that he called up, then he chose 12 of them. whom also he named apostles. Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zealotes, and Judas, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor." Now, here we go. We're going to play Fine Waldo. You ready? You ever play Fine Waldo, the book? You ever do that? OK, we're going to play Fine Waldo. There is a name, at least one name that is different. There is one name that is different in Mark 3 and Luke 6. Only one that I noticed. Anyone catch what the name is that's different? There's Thaddeus. In Mark 3, get my books right, in Mark 3, he's called Thaddeus. And in Luke 6, he's called, anyone knows which one he is? The one that's not in Mark 3. Judas, the brother of James. There's two Judases. Now, in Mark, for whatever reason, he goes by, that Judas goes by the name of Thaddeus. In Luke, he goes by the name of, so it's Thaddeus in Mark. In Luke, it's Judas. Now, that doesn't really mean anything because sometimes Peter is Peter, sometimes Peter is Simon, sometimes Peter is Simon Peter. And so that's just the way the names were back then. But anyways, I thought that was interesting that there is that difference and kind of gives us a little insight into some of their names. All right. Let's kind of back up a little bit. I'm going to talk kind of in a big spectrum about the lessons we've been going over and then move into what we're going to talk to tonight. Now, typically, when we study the Bible, we study the what of what Jesus did. We say, here's what he did. That's typically how we do Bible study. Nothing, there's no negative implied there. That's just typically how we do it. And so as you think about that, Some of you have seen, I'm sure all of us have seen those bands or those little bumper stickers, WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? Well, really, there's not a slight against him. I'm not attacking that. There's nothing wrong with that. But the bigger question is this, not what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do? Because it's more than a question of, well, what would he do in your situation? Which is a good question. But really, we ought to say, well, what did he do? And when he was here on earth, what did he do? And that's an important way to study the Bible. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our example. He is He left us a pattern that we live our lives after, correct? He is our pattern. We're not, I'm not your pattern, you're not my pattern, together the Lord is our pattern that we're trying to follow. Now hopefully, as more mature Christians live for Christ, they can kind of point the way, but we're still not, it's like this, Paul the Apostle was a great man, was he not? But I'm not trying to grow up and be like Paul. I want to grow up and be like Jesus. Okay, Paul's good, but Paul's only pointing me to the greater good, which is Jesus. And so often when we study the Bible, we say, well, what did Jesus do? What was the what of Jesus's life? And that's important. And then sometimes after we study the what, we will study the why. Well, okay, here's what he did, but why did he do that? Now, the problem is the Bible doesn't always tell us the why. And we don't always know why. But sometimes we do, and that helps us understand. Sometimes the Lord explains things, gives us some insight, helps us do some things in that way. So the why is not always clearly explained, but when it is, it can be helpful to understand some of the what's if we understand the why's behind it. Now, that's really the basis of most of our studies. What he did, and when we can, why did he do it? The when is seldom studied. The reason is, the when is pretty much understood. He had a three and a half year ministry. When did he do it in those three and a half years? That's when he did it. Now, with that set in mind, you may say then, Okay, Pastor White, this is a Bible study based on when, and you just basically threw your whole Bible study under the bus. Well, no, I'm just trying to explain to you something about why we're studying it this way. The whole idea of looking at when he did it, and we're talking about in this when is a chronological order of when. Okay, we know it was in three and a half years, but when in those three and a half years? So it's a chronological, we're trying to look at the details of Jesus' life, put them in some type of chronological order. So the reason we're focusing on the when in this situation is this, where it's still the what, but as to a filter of when. In other words, there are some things about the what that Jesus did that we understand better if we understand when he did it in his lifetime. Does that make sense to you? Did he do this when he first started the ministry? Was this in the end of his ministry? What events surrounded it? And so sometimes it enlightens us to help us understand. Now, all that to say is that we're not putting the win above the what. We're using the win to understand the what, because the what is the most important. Now, I want you to notice with me and give you a little graphic here to get our minds back on where we are in this Bible study. Here is how we've looked at the overview so far of his life. Now, not every event's here, because we haven't studied every event through this period of time. And some things we studied, there's not enough room to put up. It would just be too crowded here. Like over here, we'd have Jesus being confronted about the Sabbath, but we didn't put that in there. These are basically big events that we're covering that kind of helps us understand the flow of his life. For example, Nicodemus, that's kind of important. The imprisonment of John the Baptist, that's kind of important. Where he was, whether he was in Galilee or whether he was in the Passovers when he's in Jerusalem. The Passovers separate his life. You look at Jesus's life, there's four Passovers. That's how you look at the events in his life. But now the event we're looking at tonight is this choosing of the apostles, those 12 apostles. Now, one thing that I noticed when I look at this is we're looking almost halfway into his ministry. I don't know if that ever occurred to you. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. But think about this. A lot of times, we look at it this way. These 12 apostles were 12 apostles for 3 1⁄2 years. And that's not the case. They were only apostles for less than two years of his three-and-a-half-year ministry. Now, it does not mean they weren't traveling because they were disciples before they were apostles, but they were not officially apostles until this point in time. Now, there's a reason I'm pointing that out, and hopefully it'll make sense here in a minute. So this choosing takes place almost halfway through Jesus's ministry. Now, it doesn't change who he chose. He's still the same 12. It doesn't change why he chose them. The criteria is still the same, and the people are still the same. But it does, I think, give us insight to the choosing. Now, we may go back and look at these guys again later on, because the Lord identifies them again in Matthew 10 surrounding another event. We may look at it again then. But here's what I want you to do. Look back at Mark 3 in verse 14. And we're going to look at Luke 6, 13. So 3, 14, and 6, 13. Mark 3, verse 14. It says this, and he ordained 12. Now, if you flip over to Luke 6 in verse 13, it says this, and when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 12. So in Mark he says he ordained them, and in Luke it says he chose them. Now, without getting…I don't like to get too caught up in Greek and all that because it just becomes a distraction, but just to say this, there are The word ordained in English that we see has several different Greek words that it's replacing or used in place of. So sometimes ordained has a different, there's several different meanings to ordained. When we think of ordained today, we think of someone who's ordained into the ministry, but that's not the way it's used here in Mark 3. It's used slightly different. And really what it means is in the same way it's used in Luke 6 as choosing. That's the ordaining he's talking about. So let's get into our lesson now. So Mark 3.14 uses the word ordained, while Luke 6.13 uses the word chose. Somewhat redundant. Essentially, when Jesus ordained these 12 disciples, He was making a choice concerning them. Now, this is the direction we're going to go in this Bible study. This is the idea of the choosing that God is making, the Lord is making. Now, interestingly enough, that word used for ordained is used in another place in Mark. So you're in Mark 3, turn back to Mark 1, and look with me in verse 17. Now, I need you to stay with me. I'm giving you a lot of stuff, as I normally do when I start with, but there's a reason. I'm laying a foundation for some things I'm going to say later, so stay with me. I know it's wordy. Mark 1, look with me in verse 17. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. That word make there, is the same word ordained, and it has the idea of choosing. So we could say this, again, without, I don't think hurting scripture, come ye after me and I will ordain you to become fishers of men. That's the same idea of what he's talking about in Mark chapter number three. And so this idea of ordaining means choosing, and that's the idea of making. If you follow me, then my choice then is to make you fishers of men. That's what he's implying. Now, as we consider Jesus choosing his apostles, now this is the, what we call the pivot, okay? We're pivoting around to get to the next, to where we wanna go. As we consider Jesus choosing his apostles, I want us also to consider that God makes many choices concerning us. Now, I want you to think about that. The Lord makes choices concerning you. He doesn't ask you. He doesn't even go to you and say, is it OK about this choice? The Lord makes choices. And that's what you see here. He didn't go to the disciples and say, let's vote on who's going to be the 12 apostles. He didn't have a give and take and say, well, I want you to come in, we'll talk about it, and let's just see if this would be something you're interested in. He prayed about it, called them up, and said, you 12 are the ones I'm choosing. That was it. The only choice they had was to go along with it or not. And so, as we consider Jesus choosing his apostles, we have to consider that God makes choices concerning us. Now, how we respond to those choices determines how God can use us in his work. Now, let's get to the three main points I want to cover. Number one is this. God is sovereign. in his choices. It's important to understand. I have no problem with the sovereignty of God. Does that make you a Calvinist? No, it makes me a biblical believer. The Calvinists get it wrong. God is sovereign. They believe that, but they take it to an extreme that is not biblical. But I do believe God is sovereign, and God is sovereign in his choices. Look with me in Mark 3. Look with me in verse 13. And he goeth unto a mountain, and calleth unto him, watch this, whom he would. And they came unto him. Very much he's making that choice, isn't he? In Mark 6, look at verse 12. And he came to pass in those days, and he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples. And of them, he chose 12, whom also he named apostles." So you see, he's being very sovereign in his choices here. So what we understand is this, that God makes choices concerning us apart from us. No approval, there's no focus group. He says, I'm going to make some choices about your life. And to be honest, sometimes we don't like those choices. In fact, we know this, that God has made choices concerning us before he even created us. So it's not like he's watching us and saying, okay, I'm going to make a decision. No, no, I'm going to make this choice. Really, if you think about it, there is no past, present, future with the Lord. He's the I Am. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He exists outside of time. He's the eternal God. So it's not like God looks into the future to see what's going to happen. Because for the Lord, there is no future, there is no past. There is only what there is, and He sees it all at the same time. He sees creation before it happened. He sees creation. He sees the new heaven, the new earth, even after the millennial reign of Christ. He sees it all at one time. It's one event as far as He's concerned. And so He's made choices apart from us, even before there ever was any part of the creation, He's made choices. Go with me, hold your place in Mark and Luke, and go with me to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians. And go with me to chapter 1. Now, I personally, I enjoy this type of a Bible study when I think about the Lord working in my life apart from me. It doesn't cause me fear. It doesn't cause me anguish. I'm excited. That means the Lord's mind is upon me. His thoughts are upon me. He has plans in my life. I'm not here by mistake. I'm not an uh-oh. I'm not an accident. God has plans for me. He's planned these before I ever was here. So Ephesians 1, look with me in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Part of that means this, that as far as the Lord's concerned, we who are born again people are already in Christ, in heaven, already secure. Our security isn't I'm holding on and hoping that I can make it to the end. My security is I'm already in Christ. I'm already in heavenly places. It's a done deal. As far as the Lord's concerned, I just have to get through the time frame as far as I'm concerned. Now look at verse 4, "...according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us..." Now we'll come back to this thought as well. "...having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." In other words, all this is what He's done, prior, even in him before the foundation of the world, even before there was creation. Now, when it comes to that word election, Bible believers do not have to be afraid of that word. A lot of times we say, I don't know about the word election. I mean, whoa, that's the Calvinist. Almost always time when you see the election, you know that's a Calvinist. That's almost like the clue word of Calvinism. Well, it probably is, but not everyone, because if you believe the Bible, the word election, and we'll see that in a moment, is in the Bible. So you can't simply just throw out the word election and just say, I don't believe it, because then you don't believe the Bible. Election is in the Bible. It means something, because it's there. Now, when we think about that word election, there's a fellow I know. There's more than one Calvinist in the world. But I know this guy who is a Calvinist. I'm not saying he's the only Calvinist, but it's the guy I know who's a very staunch Calvinist. And he likes to send me messages just to tell me he's still a Calvinist. And so he sent me this little, I don't know if it was Facebook or or somebody sent me this little blurb. And this was a guy teaching on Calvinism, and nothing new. I mean, if you know about Calvinism, they pretty much always say the same thing, for the most part. Everyone may have a little, each guy may have a little different twist, but it's Calvinist teaching nonetheless. And so this guy was teaching on Calvinism, and the message, we'll just say my friend's name is Bob, okay? So Bob sends me this message, and he says this, and it was a little poke at me, he said, As you consider rejecting election, I want you to listen to what this guy said. Now, there's an implied insult in that message. He was being nice, but there's an implied insult, which is, I'm rejecting a Bible teaching, because if you know the Bible, you know the election's in there. How do you reject election if it's in the Bible? And so there's a little implied insult. And so I listened to it, because, you know, he was nice enough to send it to me. I listened to it, and I sent him a message back, and I said, I cannot reject election because election is in the Bible. I just reject the false teaching of election by the Calvinist. Little poke back at him. And he did not message me back, so I'm not sure. I may have offended him. But I poked him back a little bit. So this idea of we don't reject election. It means something. Well, what does election mean? Now, I'm going to give you the basic definition, and you're going to go, oh! So I'm already going to tell you, it's going to be a shocker. But the problem is, when I give you the definition, we take the definition and make it mean something that the definition doesn't mean. So I'm going to give you the definition, then explain what the definition means. Here's what election simply means. That God made a choice about who would go to heaven. That's all the election means. That God said, here's the people who's going to heaven. And only these people are going to heaven. Now, our problem is this. The Calvinists say, well, then God is choosing some for heaven and some for hell. That's not what that means. It simply means that God has made a choice. He has said, these are the elect. These are the ones who'll be in heaven. Now, you're saying, but it sounds like you're saying the same thing. And that's how the Calvinists trick people, because it's not the same thing. I want you to go with me to Romans 9. And we're talking about God making choices. So first, we've got to understand that God is sovereign. He has the right to make choices for us. Now, the problem is when we say that, then we go off the rail into Calvinism, which is not what we're saying. So I'll help you understand it. I hope, or that, or you'll think I'm a Calvinist, and you'll run me out of here." Okay? Well, hopefully that's not the case. Romans 9, look with me at verse number 11. Now, Paul is talking about this, well, Romans is basically talking about the gospel, talking about grace. That's at least the first half of Romans, and then he gets more application towards the second half. So there's a gospel teaching here. Look with me in verse 11. for the children," and he's talking about Jacob and Esau, that's the context, "...for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand," now watch this, "...not of works, but of him that calleth." So here's what we find in Romans 9. In fact, Romans 9 is one of those places that Calvinists love to go to, to teach on Calvinism. The problem is They neglect parts of Romans 9 that doesn't agree with them. God uses Jacob and Esau as an example that God has made sovereign choices. For example, the nation of Israel was going to be descended out of Jacob, not out of Esau. Who decided that? God. Jacob didn't decide that. Esau didn't decide that. Isaac didn't decide that. Abraham didn't decide that. What Paul is saying is God, before they ever were born, God said, Jacob will be the nation that I'm going to bless, not Esau. Now Esau was blessed in a and could have been blessed even more, but was blessed in some ways. But the lineage, Jacob, not just a nation that is going to be blessed materialistically, but the idea of the Savior being born through that. So Jacob is going to be in the lineage where the Messiah eventually will come, not Esau. That's the main blessing there. And now, that was God's choice. And what Paul is making an argument is that It wasn't based on works. That's what he's saying. It has nothing to do whether Jacob was better than Esau, or Esau was better than Jacob. God made this choice, and it was before they were born. Now, watch this. God didn't choose based on works, because the choice was made before they were born, and there was no works involved. Now, this is not teaching that God chooses some for heaven and some for hell. What he's teaching is this, that however God chooses, specifically salvation here, that God is not choosing based on works. That's not the criteria. God is making a choice, but the choice is not based on works. Now, we're getting somewhere, but we're not there yet. Let me give you a illustration that makes sense of it today. If we were to make this argument today, now we wouldn't use Jacob and Esau because in Paul's day, the churches were heavy Jewish believers, and Paul was Jewish, so Paul used a lot of Jewish illustrations. That was just a natural thing. Like if in our churches, we're Americans, we use American illustrations, we use American lingo, because that's what we understand. So he was using Jewish terminology, Jewish examples, Jewish illustrations, because that's what they understood. Even a lot of the Gentiles would be, especially in the Israel area, would be influenced by it. But in our day, here's what we'd say. What if we had this unconverted, unsaved Catholic? By their own testimony, they're trusting their sacraments, their works, they're keeping the law. That's what they're trusting in to go to heaven. That's person A. Person B is this Baptist who is, by their testimony, trusting Christ and Christ alone for salvation. Well, we'd say this, the Baptist is going to heaven because he's a Baptist? No, because he's trusting Christ. And the Catholic is not going to heaven. He's going to end up in hell, not because he's Catholic, not because he's not Baptist, but because he hasn't trusted Christ as Savior, correct? That's the difference, okay? If a person is not born again, he's not going to heaven. It doesn't matter what religion you are. If you are born again, you're going to heaven, no matter what religion you are, okay? I mean, you can be a Methodist and be saved. You can be a Presbyterian and be saved. You can be a Baptist and be saved. Now, I know, I'm sure you know, and you probably have heard this argument. What about Catholics who are morally better than that Baptist? They're more honest, they have more integrity, better character. I'm not saying the Baptist is a lowlife, but comparatively speaking, the Catholic is much higher caliber of living and doing right. Does that mean the Catholic is going to go to heaven? No, because it's not of worth. You see, no one can go to heaven other than the way God said, because God has made a choice about who's going to go to heaven. See, the whole argument of election is this, that we cannot dictate who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Only God can. And God made that choice. And that choice is very clear in the Bible. Who are the elect? Who has God chosen? Go with me to John 14. John 14. If you want to understand the election, here's the verse. So the best description of biblical election is found in John 14 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by what? Now, who made that choice? Did I make that choice? No. Did you make that choice? I'm talking about, I'm not saying you're not saved. I mean, did you say, only save people and go to heaven? Was that your choice that you made? No. Okay, is that a choice the Baptist Church made? No. The choice was made by the Lord Himself. So God Himself said, here is election. Here are the elect. Those who put their faith in Christ. That's the only ones going to heaven. That's all election means. That God has narrowed down the group who's going to heaven. These are the only people. Now what people are they? Those who put their trust in Christ. That's all election means. That God has chosen by Himself, apart from everyone else, What would be the criteria of go to heaven or what group would go to heaven? So put it this way, Jesus is the only way to heaven because that is the only way that God chose to make for us. He could have said, and I understand doctrinally, if you start tweaking one doctrine, it's going to mess up all the other doctrines. Just bear with me. Play along at home. Ready? What if God said this? Only those born in Florida can go to heaven. Now, could God have said that? Yes, because God is God. He can make whatever criteria he wants. How many people in the room tonight was born in Florida? We'd all go to hell then. Could God do that? If he wanted to, sure. But he didn't do that. What if God said, only those who have an IQ over 200. I don't even know what the top IQ is. What is it? 176. OK. What if God said, only those who have an IQ over 175? Now, I have no idea what my IQ is, but if 176 is the top, I'm sure I'm not 175. Pretty sure about that. Now, God could have set any criteria he want. But the idea of God being sovereign simply means this, that God said, here is... Now, we understand the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ because of our sin and his shed blood. We understand the why of it. But we're not talking about the why right now. We're talking about what he did. What he did is he chose who would go to heaven. And that means the election that God made, the choice that God made, was only those people who would trust Christ as Savior. That's all that election means. The reason the Calvinists get wrong, because then they try to make it into, well, God not just simply chose those who would trust Christ, but then He chose the ones who would trust Christ, and that's not what the Bible teaches. It just simply teaches that God made a choice, and that choice is only those who trust Christ. Now, He could have made all kinds of other choices, but He did not. Now, here's what we're trying to get right before we get to point two. Here's what I'm trying to get you to understand. That there are choices that God makes. And those choices are sovereign to him. He gets to make it. Why is it that this Baptist with less character and less integrity goes to heaven, and this Catholic who has more integrity, more character, why doesn't he go to heaven? Because God made a choice. The Catholic didn't make the choice. The Baptist didn't make the choice of who it would be. God said, only ones going to heaven are those who put their faith in Christ. Now, the whole world can beat their head against a brick wall and get mad about it, but it ain't going to change. God made that choice. There's no one ever going to be in heaven who has not trusted Christ as Savior. I don't care if you're talking Old Testament, New Testament, it does not matter. The only ones who ever will be in heaven are those who have trusted Christ personally as Savior. That's why we tell the story. That's why we go soul-winding. That's why we send missionaries around the world, because that is the only means of getting to heaven. Again, it's not because that's what the Baptists say. It's not because that's just what we think. It's because that's the choice God made. God is sovereign. That's the choice He made. Now, that's not the only choice He made, but we're using that to illustrate that He made the choice, and the whole world is bound by that choice. Now, number two. So when we're looking at this idea that God making choices and how those choices impact us, how we're supposed to respond to them. So here brings us to thought two to build on that. we still must choose to submit to God's choices. Just because His choices are sovereign does not mean that His choice is going to cause us to make a certain choice. We have to choose to submit. Can you choose not to be saved? How many of you have ever witnessed someone and you went through the whole plan and they told you no? I've had people like that. No, not really, don't want to do it. Now, that's their choice. Now, God's choice is only through Christ, but they have to choose to submit to that choice. Now, go back with me to Mark 3. Now at this point, we want to apply it in a more broad way, not just salvation, but just our life in general. We're saved, God still makes choices, and we still need to respond to those choices He's making. Just like if you reject Christ as Savior, you'll end up in hell because God has already made a choice that only those who receive Christ go to heaven. So God makes other choices in our life that we have to respond to. We can get mad about it, we can fuss about it, we can argue about it, but God has made choices and we have to submit to those choices. Mark 3, look with me in verse 13. And he, talking about Jesus, go up into a mountain, And he calleth unto him whom he would, now notice what it says next, and they came unto him. In other words, he did the calling, but then they had to make a choice to come up, right? They could have sat there and say, nah, maybe later, but they had to make a choice. They came unto him. Now think about this statement. God's sovereignty is not lessened by our rejection of his choice. When we talk about God being sovereign, he makes sovereign choices, then here's the thinking. Here is the argument that has been thrown at me. If God can make a choice and you can reject it, then you're stronger than God. That's what they say. If God can make a choice and you can reject it, then you must be stronger than God. Well, the problem with that is this. They misunderstand meekness for weakness. He is a meek God. That's what the Bible tells us. Jesus was meek, but it doesn't mean He was weak. Just because you're not forcing your choice to happen does not mean that the person who's rejecting is stronger than you. It simply means you're being gracious or you're being meek or you're allowing them to reject it, but it doesn't mean they're stronger than you. So God's sovereignty is not lessened by our rejection of His choice. God's sovereignty means that we cannot overthrow His choice. but we can still reject it. So the answer when they say, well, if God makes a choice and you can reject it, are you not stronger than God? No, because all you're doing is you're rejecting to submit to the choice. You're not changing the choice. What can you do to go to heaven outside of Christ? Can you do anything? Can you force God? Is anyone going to die and walk up before God and say, God, I don't care. I'm bigger than you. I'm stronger than you. And I'm coming in here. You think that's going to happen? No. You're never going to overthrow God. So just because God allows you to reject Christ and go to hell doesn't mean that you're stronger than God. It simply means you're not submitting. Now, if we apply it to ourselves beyond salvation, it would mean this. that God has choices in our life even after we're saved, but you can still push Him away, you can still reject it. It doesn't mean God isn't making choices. It doesn't mean God doesn't have a will. It doesn't mean God's not trying to do something. It means you are purposely pushing Him away. It doesn't mean you're stronger than Him. It just means that God gives you that opportunity to reject it. Go with me to Isaiah 1. Let me see if I can use the scripture to help understand that. Isaiah chapter 1. Look with me in verse 18. In other words, He's making this invitation to them. Now watch this. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord is spoken." In other words, God has set up the criteria. God has made, this is how the end result's going to be. I'm telling you what my choice is. Now, you need to decide, are you going to choose to go along with it or reject it? You can reject the choice, but God's sovereign choice is still going to come about, either the blessing or the punishment here. Let me see if I can apply it a little different. is you think about children as they get older. When you start with your child, how old is your son? Three? How old is your son? Two, okay. So you have a two-year-old and you have a three-year-old. Now, my guess is this, okay, if these, maybe I might put my foot in my mouth, but my guess is this, at two and three, you don't go to them and say, okay, we'll go to the store and you, I got some money here, you just tell me what clothes you wanna buy. You just tell me what shoes you wanna buy. Let's just go, whatever food you pick out, that's what we're gonna buy. No. As I tell you, if I'm two or three, I'm going to pick out the candy bar, and I'm going to pick out the chocolate milk, and I'm going to go back and pick out another candy bar, because that first one may not last. And then maybe a little bit more chocolate milk. You don't, but as they get older, they're 10, 11, 12, whatever, 15, 16, 21, 30, whatever. As they get older, okay, then you give them more choices. If you had a kid, let's just say he's 10, 10's probably good. You could say, you could take him to the store and say, let's say his name's, again, Bob. And say, Bob, you know, we could, would you want this shirt or could you buy this shirt or we can buy you this shirt? And he might say, well, you know, oh, I want that. No, no, we're not getting that shirt. You can have this shirt, this shirt, or this shirt, and you can give them a choice. Now, they're making a choice, but notice you're eliminating the choices, aren't you? See, you're still sovereign in what the choice is, but they can make choices within that. That's really what the Lord does in our life. He says, I'm sovereign. I have a choice. But even within the choice that God has for us, He gives us some opportunity to make some decisions and some free will. We can either accept some things. He gives us some parameters we can live within. But it doesn't throw away God's sovereignty. It simply means that we as believers submit to His will, submit to His choice, and that's where the blessing is. So we still must choose to submit to God's choices. In other words, let me put it this way, God's choices, God's sovereignty means God has chosen the limits and the consequences to our choices. That's what His sovereignty means. We have limits and we have consequences. Who set the limits? God did. Who set the consequences? God did. So it doesn't take away your free will. But your free will is not going to overcome or overthrow the ultimate parameters He has set up. Now, let's see if we can tie the two together now. So we talked about Him being sovereign. in His choices. We talked about we have to choose to submit then to His choices, whether we're talking about salvation or even after being saved and living for Him and surrendering our will to Him, like Romans 12 talks about, and yielding ourself to Him. So God's choice is sovereign. God makes sovereign choices. We have to choose to submit to those choices. And then that brings us to the third thought, which is this. Our choices allows God's choice to be accomplished in our life. So really what we're doing is this. We want to make choices so that his big choice can be accomplished. That's what we're looking to do. How can I live my life today so that God's will is accomplished in my life? God has a will for you. God has something. I mean, you're not just here. It's not like Horst Kuhner is 82, right? Going to be 83 next month. in January. In January, it's going to be 83. Now, you know, not one moment of your life God has not known about you. His eyes have been on you every second of your life. Now, if you know His testimony, there's parts of your life you probably could have said, I don't see where the Lord was in those sections of my life. But the Lord was there. He was involved. And He has brought you through a journey. Now, a year ago, basically, you received Christ as Savior. what the Lord was doing for 81 plus years, almost 82 years, was bringing you to that point so you could be saved. Now, if you know Horace, Horace lived during World War II, was in Germany, and lived for part of his life in a concentration camp, right? Now, you think about that type of testimony. And no matter how, and I'm not trying to gloss it over, I'm not trying to be flipping about it, but no matter what happened in those 82 plus years of your life, heaven's going to be much more than make up for it. I mean, heaven's going to be glorious. Heaven's going to be wonderful. And you're not going to look back and get to heaven and say, boy, Lord, you ruined those years. You're just going to look at heaven and say, boy, look at all that the Lord has provided for me. Now, in the will of God that he has for us, God is trying to direct our paths, trying to lead us to a certain way. And we're supposed to make choices so that the big choice is accomplished. Every day we say, Lord, how do I live for you today? Lord, what should I do today? Lord, what should I do about this? I'm trying to make choices so the big choice that God has for me is accomplished. I know God has choices for me. I know before I was ever created, God had a will for me. God had purpose for me. God had a reason for my life. And I'm just trying to every day make choices so that big choice that God has for me is accomplished. That's what we see. So back to Mark chapter 3. And look with me in verse 14. Let's start in verse 13. Let's see the flow of it. And he goeth unto a mountain and calleth unto him whom he would. OK, so that's his choice. And they came unto him. Now they're responding to that choice. Now look at verse 14. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with them, that he might send them forth to preach, and have power to heal sickness and cast out devils. Three big things there. Now, how are they going to be with them, be sent forth to preach, and have power to heal sickness and cast out devils? When he said, I'm making a choice And they're responding and saying, OK, that's it. You want us to be an apostle? We'll be an apostle. Now, because they submitted to his big choice, choosing to submit, now the Lord can use them the way the Lord wants to use them. That's really what we're talking about. Our choices allow God's choice to be accomplished in our life. Now, I want to talk about this for a few moments. What they accomplished as his apostles occurred because they chose to submit to God's choice of them. If any one of them had said, he went to the mountain and prayed, and he called on them, let's say Philip. What if Philip had said, I ain't going up there. I ain't going up there to see what he wants. You guys, you 11 or whoever, 20, 30, you guys go up there, and you fill me in when you come down. He could have done that, but Philip would never have been one of the 12. He would never have accomplished the big purpose that God had in his life. So it was this daily submission, this willingness to submit to God's big choices. So his choice was submitting to God's choice, and that now allowed God to accomplish what God's wanting to accomplish in his life. Let me put it this way. God's choice has a planned outcome in our life as we submit to that choice. So we're not trying to negate God's sovereignty. We accept God's sovereignty. But we also accept that we have a part in this, and that is by our own choice to submit to Him. Now, let's look at it in a more practical way as a believer. I want you to look at it with me in three places. Go with me to Romans 8. Romans 8. Look with me in verse 29. I told you we'd come back to that idea of predestination, because predestination simply means this. Here's sovereignty. Sovereignty means that God made a choice. Election is that God said, here's the box, only those who trust Christ. Now, what's the ultimate goal of election? Well, heaven, but as far as earth is concerned, what's the ultimate goal of election? Well, God has predestinated or chosen certain things now also to accomplish, to be accomplished in our life. Well, go with me to Romans 8, verse 29, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Now, here's what He wants to do. If we submit to His will, here's what He wants to do, predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he called, and whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified." A lot of being taught in there, and we've taught these verses before, but I'm just focused on that idea. He predestinated, he conformed to the image of his Son. Now, go with me to Ephesians 1. Let's look at it another way. So God's choice is designed to make us more like Christ. So God has a choice, I want you to be like Christ, so we make choices every day to submit to that choice and become more and more molded, conformed to the image of Christ. Ephesians 1, look with me in verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained inheritance," and now watch this, "...being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." That's what we're talking about. that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trust in Christ. So God's choice is that we bring Him praise. In other words, God is praised because of His grace, not because of our works. In other words, they don't look at us and think we're great people. They look at us and say, look what God has done, and they give God praise. So we make choices every day to try to live so the Lord is honored and praised. So people look at us and the Lord gets praised for our life. So this is what we're talking about. We're making choices every day based on what the big choice God has made so that God's will is being accomplished in our life. Let me show you one more, Ephesians 2. Hopefully, as you think about this, and we're just kind of just barely breaking the surface of it, as you think about this, Hopefully you understand that we can both believe in the sovereignty of God and the free will of man, and they go hand in glove with each other. We don't have to go free will of man that you can get saved, unsaved, saved, unsaved, saved, unsaved, saved, unsaved. Today I choose to be saved, tomorrow I choose not to be. Today I'm saved. You don't go, that's not, you're forgetting the God's sovereignty. And God's sovereignty is, once we're saved, His sovereign will is to preserve us, to secure us in Christ. And so these work together. We don't want to be so much in a sovereign will of God that, well, God saved me. I didn't want to get saved. He forced me to get saved, and I'm going to heaven. Well, like it or not, that's not. You made a choice. You received Christ for yourself. And anyone can be saved if they would choose Christ for themselves. Now, Ephesians 2, look with me, verse 8. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should boast." Now watch this. For we are his what? Now here's what's interesting. That word workmanship is basically the same word, just a slightly different, I think, word ending, as ordained is in Mark chapter 3. That's what he's saying. For we are his workmanship. What it means is this, we are the product of God's choice, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That's what he's trying to do. Which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. That's a slightly different ordained word there. So what he's saying is here, what he's saying is that God's choice is that we should be busy serving him every day. Lord, what can I do for you? Lord, how can I serve you? Lord, how can my life be used in the service of God? Now, I'm going to give you a conclusion. I want you to turn with me, because I just realized I skipped a verse, and I want to go back to it. We've got time. It's not 10 o'clock yet. Romans 9. Romans 9. This is just maybe for your future study, because I alluded to it and didn't say it, and I feel like I've shortchanged you. Back to Romans 9, look at verse 11. where it says, for the children be not yet born, neither have done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Well, the Calvinists like to say, see, it's the purpose of God according to election. God chooses some for heaven, some for hell. Well, they're leaving out the verse where it says, not of works, which is really what the illustration of Jacob and Esau is. You're missing that. But notice this, he's using all of this teaching in Romans 9 to help him understand that the choice that only through Christ and Christ alone is salvation, that's really what he's teaching there. But notice how he sums it up. Look at verse 30. Now, I'm telling you this because Romans 9, if you ever deal with a Calvinist, they almost always go to Romans 9. It's like, no matter what they say to you, and they'll say, well, let's look at Romans 9. I mean, they make a beat path to it. Notice, look at verse 30. What shall we say, then, that the Gentiles, which fought... Now, in other words, he's saying, here's the conclusion. I said all this to tell you this, that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained to the law of righteousness. In other words, this is his conclusion. He's saying that God has chosen to save people through faith in Christ, not through works. That's where the Jews messed up. Verse 32, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now look at verse 33. As it is written, behold, I lay and sigh in a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence. Now notice the last thing he says in Romans 9. And what's the next word? Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Back to that word, whosoever, it means anyone. All right, now let me give you the conclusion, the takeaways from this. Ready? The takeaway from the understanding when this choosing of apostles occurred is that Jesus made multiple choices concerning his disciples. The reason I showed you it happened almost in the middle is this is not the first time he made a choice about Now, it's the first time he made a choice about who his apostles were going to be, but he made other choices concerning his disciples. This choice was who's going to be the apostle, but he's made many choices. Now, understand this. Not all his choices were the same for all the disciples. It's interesting to note, it seems from Luke 6, that he pulled more than 12 up there. Hopefully, there's more than 13. 13 would be weird, wouldn't it? Think about this, if he pulled 13 guys up and chose 12, how would you like to be number 13? You're like... I mean, it would be kind of odd. But maybe, let's say there's 20. Now, in other words, not every disciple was chosen to be apostle. You know why? Do you know why? I don't know why. Except God made a choice. Now, we sit here and fret all we want to and say, why did God choose that for them and he didn't choose that for me? I don't know. Or better yet, you might say, well, look what God has chosen for me. And man, He didn't choose that for them. And boy, I think God chose this for me, some things about my life that He's blessed me with. So God makes choices. He makes different choices. That's His sovereignty. He chooses different places with different people that live in different places, different jobs, and different spouses, and different health issues, and different financial situations. God, some of it is our own, issues that we've created, sometimes it's God's sovereign choices He's made in our life. So not all His choices were the same for all the disciples. Understand this, not all the disciples were faithful to His choices, to Jesus' choices. Not all the disciples stayed faithful. Some of them said, okay, we're going to follow you, but then they quit following Him. Even some of His apostles were not faithful, correct? They arrest Jesus. They haul Jesus away. And remember, all the apostles, all 12 were right there with him, right? All for Sickleman's flag. So that's another thing we understand. So we want to be faithful in our choices. Now this, I think, is interesting. Not all his apostles were honest about their choices. Some people lie about their choices. Yeah, every day, Pastor White. Every day I read the Bible and pray and say, Lord, may thy will be done in my life. Every day I pray that. Some people do. Some people lie about it. Can you tell me any of these 12 who are lying about it? Judas Iscariot. He was lying the whole time, wasn't he? He was a liar and a thief. Now, the sad thing is this. For 2,000 years, he's regretted it. every moment for 2,000 years. We need to be honest about the choices we're making. Be honest. If you are a born-again believer, great. If you're not, you need to get saved and quit lying about it. If you are trying to follow the Lord and serve him, great. If you're not, you need to be honest and just start doing it. So not all of his choices were the same. Not all of the disciples were faithful. Not all of his apostles were honest. But here's what I find encouraging. But Jesus continued to faithfully call them unto himself and his choice. That's an amazing thing. He's constantly working to bring you to that place, because God has a purpose and God has a will. His choice isn't going to change, but he constantly works at getting you to submit to that choice. And so we can end with a question to challenge us, and that would be this. How are you, how am I, responding to God's choices in our life? How are we responding to God's choices? Some people get mad, some people get angry, some people get rebellious, but the place of blessing is submission, by your own choice to submit to His choice.