We are broadcasting live to the internet. Today is Thursday, January 30, 2020. The time is 6.30 PM. And I know we got some folks out there in the Facebook chat. So I don't know if you're not familiar with my new format here. I've got a pre-chat chat, a pre-podcast chat. I'm hanging out there. All right. Hope everybody's doing well today. I'm doing fine right here in St. Louis. The Lou as they call it. And welcome to the Pristine Grace podcast. And I started numbering these. So this is episode number 21. Okay. And I'm your host, Brandon Kraft. And we are broadcasting to Facebook and Sermon Audio. And as I said, if you're looking for a good chat to go along with this broadcast, head on over to the Facebook page, because that's where the action's at. That's where it's at. There's lots of running commentary over there. Well, not yet, but there soon will be. And when I read through the comments in the Facebook chat, I'm usually encouraged. So I thank you all. Keep it up, guys. I do love to read your thoughts and comments. Also, I just wanted to let everyone know that these podcasts are taking me a lot of time to prepare. And now having done several of these, I really do appreciate all the work and preparation that goes into a sermon. I appreciate greatly gospel preachers out there like Jim Byrd. He preaches sometimes over three 40 plus minute sermons every week. That takes a lot of time to repair. I now realize that and I don't know how he does it I'm so impressed with the the ability that God's given him and the amount of work he puts into his ministry And I hope that maybe one when I retire I can put that kind of time into the ministry as well That's my that's my desire. Anyway, it's my earnest desire That's what I want to do when I retire I want to devote all my time to providing food for God's sheep. And Lord willing, I will do so. But you know, there's something else I've noticed in these last few months of doing these podcasts. I'm not getting a lot of the other work done that I've intended to do. Stuff for the website. There aren't a lot of website improvements that have been made. And I have a whole list of the things that I'd like to do. So I made tight time off from podcasting to get back into programming, as I have some things I'd like to work on. And if I do this, it won't be until this current series on hypercalvinism is complete, which should be about six or seven more podcast episodes. So I'm just giving you a heads up there. I'm just going to let you know a couple of things that I'd like to do. One, I'd like to get better pictures for the social media previews. When you share an article from Christine Grace onto Facebook or your instant message, it shows the stock Christine Grace logo, and I'd like to have it display maybe the author's face, or if you're sharing a sermon from Pristine Grace, you'd go out there to Sermon Audio and get the image from Sermon Audio and make that a little bit nicer. I'd also like to work on some of the Sermon Audio features of the website, making the code that I have more robust and also more dynamic. Currently it scans the Sermon Audio page when the sermon is added as a record into the database and that's it. That's all it does. It scans it, saves it, and you're done. If the sermon is changed on Sermon Audio, the sermon on Pristine Grace does not get updated. So my database isn't keeping everything up to date and I'd kind of like to get that fixed. That I run a monthly job or a weekly job where it goes out to sermon audio Finds anything that needs to be changed and corrects it so that's what I'd like to work on I can't really do that though when I'm preparing these podcasts So improvements to the site have been kind of lacking for the last six months so when I do if or when I do, specifically. When I take time off, I'm gonna let you know, but I have no intention of permanently stopping the podcast. It's just that I have a lot of work on my plate, and what with taking care of my family, working a full-time job, and maintaining all the things in my life, it can be difficult. My life is dedicated, though, to service in the gospel, and I do intend to keep providing sheik food for as long as I can. And that's my introduction. Let's move into the pre-message part of the podcast, okay? The part where I've been known to go on my rants. We're just gonna call this the ranting part, maybe. And as you already know, as you may already know, I've been dealing with a lot of grief online lately from those who pretend to be fellow believers in the gospel. They make it a point, some of these guys, they make it a point to post non-stop on their Facebook wall their newly, and I mean newly discovered, gospel propositions. They discovered these because they even claim themselves that they've been, they're new believers within the last year. Some of them are a lot older, but not all. And if you didn't know anybody or you think they were zealous believers, people who really love the gospel and love the truth. But I fear, this is my opinion now, I fear many of them don't really know or really love the truth. And you know why I think that? I'll tell you why. I think that it's because they show almost zero love. They show no love for the brethren. They show zero regard for anyone that disagrees with them on even minor points. They have the my way or the highway attitude, and it's wrong. And I say that with all seriousness. Facebook is really kind of a digital wasteland. It's kind of a double-edged sword. I get so much out of it, so much beautiful edification from the brethren, but some of them not so much. You've got folks that basically figuratively slobber all over each other when they post a proposition they agree with. And even if the proposition is true, I like it much of the time, but All the rah-rah is getting in my nerves. Because these same people that are going rah-rah-rah, they're going to jab the knife into you if you dare post something they might disagree with. They're going to jab the knife in and twist. There's no tolerance. There's no patience with others. There's no patience with the weaker brethren. They just cheer each other on with their rah-rah fan clubs. All saying the same thing. They're good at quoting gospel propositions, but they don't seem to show that they love anyone other than themselves and those that cheer them on. And the worst ones are the ones that write rebukes of such and such on their wall. And I've seen them. They write their little Facebook posts like, I rebuke John MacArthur. I rebuke Paul Washer. Which, by the way, they do deserve a rebuke. I rebuke Renat. I rebuke Brandon. Blah blah blah blah blah. And all they're doing though is they're boasting, they're bragging about how they're right and others are wrong. They want you to see that they are good, they are righteous, but in reality there is no love for God or the truth in some of these folks. And I know this because I've seen them leave the gospel over time. I've seen some of the biggest cheerleaders out there. I'm telling you, some that were so close, you would be surprised. And they were the biggest cheerleaders you saw, and they were the biggest gospel defenders. And they wielded that sword, and they would slice to pieces so many people. But there was no love in them. There was no love for God or the truth in them. And when they disagree with you, there is no desire to enter into sincere dialogue with you. No, you're dead to them. They don't love you or care for you. They defriend you, they block you, and then they slander you all over the place. And they do all this under the guise of defending the gospel. Friends, that's not how we're to be in this life. When someone disagrees with us, it's okay for them to disagree with us. Even on the gospel. You and I, we all have people in our lives that disagree with us on the gospel. Even family members, for example. Let us be gentle with them. We should be meek. We should be kind. And we should be patient. But most of all, we should be loving. And don't use that old excuse I often hear. Brandon, it is loving when we tell the truth and then use that as an excuse to shun and mistreat people on social media. It's really loving for me to bash that person to pieces. Friends, we want to win over our brother or sister to the truth. Our elect brothers and sisters who may not believe. We don't know who they are out there, but we do have brothers and sisters out there that have not yet believed. And we want to win them over because we love the truth. And we love those that God has redeemed. But when we use the truth to figuratively bash people over the head, and use that as an excuse to be cruel, well, that's such an abuse of the truth and the gospel that it causes me to think that these people who regularly do this, they may not be believers. Frankly, I'm sick of these so-called gospel defenders and their combative rhetoric. They aren't acting like believers, but Pharisees. Their actions aren't God-honoring, and now I try to avoid them. Because I'm a sensitive guy. I know, I know. I'm ruining my image here. But if you're sensitive like me, if you're a sensitive soul like me, I'd advise you to do the same. It grieves me greatly to see the gospel abused in this way. It grieves me greatly to see all this done in the name of Christ. Let's get back to edifying one another, to caring for one another, to be kind to one another. Yes, we can be kind to the free willer. I'm not saying we have to enter into a fellowship with them, but we should be kind and loving toward all men, and we should pray for our enemies. And that's about all I have for the pre-message. The pre-message warm-up message, if you will. And I apologize also for ranting about this for several weeks in a row. I know I've hit this one week after another. And I just want folks out there to hear, because not everybody listens to all these messages. But I promise you, I'm done. I'm done with this rant. On the next podcast, I'm going to do my best to move on. So let's move on into today's message, the meat, if you will. We've been going through this series on hyper-Calvinism, or more specifically, doctrines that will get you labeled as a hyper-Calvinist. And within this series of podcasts, there sort of is a smaller two or three part series on the will of God. We'll see where this one goes. We're going to go with this next week. But last week we kicked it off, and when we were discussing it, we focused on the unitary will of God. That is, God is one in mind, purpose, and desire. And if you state that God's will is unitary, or in other words, that God gets what it is that he desires or wants, well, some are going to probably label you a hyper-Calvinist because of that. But I'd ask that you don't let that bother you. We worship the one who has ordered all things and then gets all that it is he desires. But last week's message was incomplete, and I felt it deserved two parts, at least two parts for it to be complete. I felt today's part was kind of pointless to even discuss without having discussed God's unitary will. So last week's message is the setup, if you will. The understanding of God's will and His singleness of mind, His purpose and desire being one, being unitary. That, to me, is a super important foundational doctrine. to understand before we can even get into today's message, which I looked up just before we got on this call. This is episode 8 of the Hyper-Calvinism is the Truth series. So, yeah, so we've got 8 and we're going to do a lot more. So this message isn't for those who scoff at the sovereignty of God. This message isn't for the atheists out there. This is not for the free willers out there that flat out deny God's sovereignty in salvation. This message is for believers. And this is for God's elect, whether they believe or not. This is for those that God has redeemed. And believers already know that God is sovereign and that he's predestinated all the things of this world. At least, as far as they're concerned, no believer will deny that their salvation in Christ was predestinated. But there are a lot of folks out there, many of them are very unclear as to the extent of the things that are predestinated. Some haven't really given it much thought. They just know that their salvation was predestinated and they are content to live in that realm and never venture out of it. They are like happy peas in a pod. They know and love that they are saved and they look to Christ for all of their salvation and then when they lay their heads down at night to sleep, They lay their heads down knowing that they're content to know that God takes care of them like a loving father takes care of all of his children. However, they never really ponder to think how he does this. How does God care for us? How does he love us? They don't think about that. They just know that he does and they're content to live in that realm. But there is so much more to know about God and His amazing attributes. There is so much more to know and to ponder. There is so much to rejoice in. So if you are one of those happy little Christians in your happy little peapod, this message is for you. So I invite you, if you will, to crack open your shell a little bit. and to be amazed. I invite you to ponder the riches of his mercy and grace and to be amazed at his wonders in Christ. To be amazed at his wonders and predestination. So to repeat myself, I know I'm a broken record today. Last week's message was on the interior will of God. The understanding that God's will is unitary is foundational to answering the question and the title of today's message. I had thought of titling today's message, Does God Predestinate or Predestine All Things? But I decided to phrase the question in a different way. I thought maybe a different perspective was a better way to go about it. I didn't want folks to think, I want folks to think about this message when they click on the podcast for listening. So when you go to Sermon Audio, you click on the podcast. I've been titling these in questions because I want people to think. So today's message is titled, Do Some Things Happen That Aren't Predestined? As I said before, all believers out there know that they were saved by God and their salvation was positively predestinated. But many just stop there. They are content to rest in that. They never forge ahead in their studies or address the extent of God's predestination. I don't know how they do this, but I'm not going to go out and question everybody what they believe about God's predestination. That's not my job. But there are a lot of scoffers out there as well. And there are many scoffers that have addressed this question. Does God predestinate the bad things? Are there some things, do some things happen that God did not predestinate? And usually when we answer that question, it's the bad things. Does God predestinate the bad things? And the answer for those scholars out there is, it's a resounding no. They say no, that would make God a monster. That'd make Him the author of sin. That'd make Him the creator of evil. They often, say they could never worship a God that is sovereign to that extent. So they dream up the multiple wills of God theory, which I addressed on last week's message. They use anthropomorphic passages in scripture as proof texts and all but ignore the rest of the scriptures. And they do this to their peril because it ends up affecting their soteriology or their doctrine of salvation, which is what soteriology means. And when it affects salvation, that's never a good thing, alright? That's never good. But anyway, let's go ahead and dig in, okay? This message might go a little bit longer than any of the others in the series on Hyper-Calvinism, but we'll see. So what does it mean to predestinate? That's a question I want you to think about. What does it mean when the scriptures say that God predestinated? Let's go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, and I'm gonna start in verse three here. Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." What does it mean that God predestinated us? Well, in my opinion, and based on reading the scriptures here, quite simply it means that He planned and declared what we would be. That's what it means when He said He predestinated us. He planned and declared what we would be, saved in Christ and even adopted as His children to the praise and glory of His grace. And he did all this from before the foundation of the world. He declared what we would be. And to me that is great news. That is good news. And if you're a believer listening tonight, I know that's good news to you as well. You all need to study TULIP. I might dedicate a whole series of podcasts to just the reformed doctrine of predestination as it's found in the TULIP acronym. We might go through all of TULIP. That's referencing predestination concerning salvation. Did God stop there with his predestination? Did God stop with predestination at salvation? Did he only predestinate us to salvation? Is that where he stopped his planning and his declaring? What about all the other things that happen in this world? Those things that seemingly have nothing to do with our salvation? When I say that, they seemingly have nothing to do. What about that plane that falls out of the sky, or that earthquake, and the subsequent tsunami that wipes out a coastal city? What about all the seemingly bad things that happen in this world? What about the sinful things that men do, like bank robbery or murder? Have you ever thought about all those millions of baby murders in that satanic ritual known as abortion? Were those predestinated by God? Were all those baby murders predestinated? What about our fall in Adam? What about Adam's fall into sin? What about our fall into sin? What about our own personal sins that we commit every day, even after coming to a knowledge of the Lord and his gospel? What about the sins you committed today, the sin you committed tonight? Were all these things predestinated? Or was only salvation predestinated? What do you think? Let's see if we can answer that question in a logical and scriptural way. And I thought about this, and I thought there's really only four possible ways we can categorize all these bad things that happen in this world. And I'd like to go through these categories with you so that you can think about them and maybe come to your own conclusion. The first category is God predestinated that these bad things shall not happen, but they happened anyway. I find that kind of ridiculous. Another way to phrase that category is to say, God determined for sin not to happen, but it happened anyway. This is like saying God is completely powerless. It's like saying God has no control over His creation. And I only bring this up because it is a category. All right, but I like to think that I have near universal agreement out there on my opinion of this category with everyone I know who calls themselves a Christian. I don't even think a freewheeler would even say that. Okay, freewheeler falls into this next category, the second category, and that is God didn't even consider these bad things. They just kind of happened. It is like saying God is surprised that these bad things happened and that there is no such thing as predestination. to be considered in his predestination. But the freewheeler will deny all predestination because they redefine predestination. They deny even the predestination of good things. They'll talk of the telescope of time and the predestination that's supposedly based upon the choice or actions of an individual. But that's not predestination. That's That's a scheme. So that's a free will or scheme of things. But maybe the dispensation of those beliefs that God chooses things, but that's not even predestination. That's selection, not election. The dispensation would say God chose Israel, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's not election, that's selection. So there are only two more categories left, and we're going to focus the rest of the message on these two categories. So the third category, you know, the first two categories we can ignore. It's bunk. It's stupid. I don't even want to waste my time with them. But the third category is the most popular one. God did not predestinate these bad things, but they happened anyway. This is what I call partial predestination. In other words, God predestinated only the good things. He didn't predestinate the bad things, but the bad things happened anyway. This is the overwhelming position of most Sovereign Grace Calvinists. They will affirm that yes, God did indeed predestinate the salvation of the elect, but that the reprobation of individuals and even the bad things that happened in this world weren't predestinated by Him. They were considered by him, and he wasn't surprised by them, but he allowed them to happen, they would say. They happened even though he did not predestinate them. Keep in mind that's third position on mine. And this is another scheme. In this scheme, there are all kinds of predestinated things out there, and all kinds of non-predestinated things. You got all these predestinated things out there in this world doing their thing. And then you've got the non-predestinated things out there in the world doing their thing. And then you have these non-predestinated things interacting with the predestinated things. That's what the typical Calvinist believes. And it can be pretty complicated. It gets pretty hairy when you kind of think about it. Hurts my brain to think about it. But the typical Calvinist does hold to this position. And the reason it doesn't hurt their brain is because they haven't really thought it through. If they did, they'd run in horror. But they don't think these things through. They just hold up these propositions in their brain, and they move on with their life, never really thinking about it. They say that, this is what the sovereign grace Calvinist, the typical one says, he says, they will say that when God predestinated the good things, he did consider the non-predestinated things, the bad things. And they will affirm that he at least thought about the non-predestinated things when he predestinated the things he wanted or desired. So this is where the two different wills comes from, a will of purpose and a will of desire in their scheme. Okay, this is where they have multiple wills versus what we believe, one will of God. And like I said, it's crazy to think about it, but there's a big, very big flaw in their argument, and I want to address that here. If God thought about these non-predestinated things like they say, these bad things they say that he considered, and even if he thought about them briefly, indeed predestinate these things. Think about it. Think. If he thought about them, he could have stopped these non-predestinated things that he didn't want to happen. But he didn't. So what does that leave us with? Therefore, he predestinated them. Imagine, and here's a scenario that I'd like you to think about. I'd like you to imagine A cute little puppy dog out there. You just got this cute little puppy dog. And I don't know why I thought about this illustration. This is one that I used to teach predestination to my son when he was like three. And the errors of sovereign grace Calvinism out there. Imagine, if you will, putting a cute little puppy dog out in the busy street and then leaving him there. You didn't do anything to help him, but you just let him sit there in the street, watching car after car zip by him. And you're sitting there, oh, you're concerned for this puppy. You want him to make it to the other side of the road to safety, but then bam! A car hits this poor puppy, and it kills him. It's quite horrific. You shriek in horror. Because there's blood and guts all over the highway now. But you're not surprised it happened. You didn't drive that car that hit the puppy, so you're not responsible, right? Well, what do you think would happen in a court of law? You'd probably go to jail for animal abuse. The law would argue that you intended for that puppy dog to be hit by a car. You knew that a car was likely to hit that cute puppy, but you didn't do anything to prevent it. You put that puppy in the middle of the street, and it died. Okay, you allowed it to die, you planned for it to die, what difference does it make? It doesn't matter that you wanted that puppy to survive, your feelings don't matter. You may have not predestinated that actual vehicle that caused that puppy to die, but you didn't do anything to stop the carnage. And indeed, you set the conditions up just right so that puppy would die. And this is exactly what partial predestinarians are claiming when they say that God doesn't predestinate all things. That God only predestinates the so-called good things, but just allows the so-called bad things to happen. They work their best to get God off the hook, so to speak, in that court. But all it does is it makes him look worse. What is worse in your mind? God predestinating sin to fulfill His purposes of a greater good and His greater glory? Or God knowing sin was coming, doing nothing to stop it, and then being upset about it, frustrated that it happened? What is worse for you? For me, it's the latter. And that means that the correct and the final and correct category is that God predestinated these bad things and they did indeed happen. God predestinated the good and the bad. He predestinated all things and he brought them to pass. It is predestination that is absolute. This type of predestination is also known as absolute predestination. And it's the only kind of predestination that there is. That's what Jim Berg told me once over lunch one day. And I don't think I'll ever forget that. And I was so glad to hear him say that. All right, I'm going to read some passages here to you. You don't have to turn with me. But I'm going to go to Isaiah, because he's laid it out. Let's see, we're running low on time here. It's already gone 35 minutes. Do you believe that? Isaiah 14, 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Isaiah 46, 10. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God has declared the end from the beginning. And He has declared all the things that were done from ancient times to those events far into the future. To the things that are not yet done. How far out? Forever. As far as the mind can comprehend. Farther than my mind can comprehend. forever and ever and ever, because time will continue forever and ever and ever. That's what the scriptures say, that God has declared the end from the beginning. And why would we even argue with this? Why do we want to argue against this? I don't know, but people do. The partial predestinarians do. I think they're afraid of what this means. They think it makes God the author or a prover of sin. They talk about the problem of evil, but there is no problem. God is not under any sort of eternal law that says he cannot predestinate bad things. Isaiah 45.7 says, In regards to God, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. God creates evil. And he does so while disapproving of the evil acts that do occur. But he does indeed create evil for his purpose, for his desires. He wanted evil because it is a tool for his glory. Okay? And just because these things are in the Bible, and just because you or me or anybody else says it, people cannot be made to believe this. They don't want this. They want a God of their own understanding. They want a God that thinks like they do. But God is clear about his thoughts. Isaiah 55 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. God doesn't say, My thoughts are like your thoughts, and my ways are like your ways. No. He says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. It's clear. And God didn't say He declared the end from the beginning and from ancient times only the good things that are not yet done. He said all things. And that's what I'm going to continue to believe. All things. Not just the supposed good things or the things that I like. Saying that God only predestinated the good things is like saying God predestinated the cars to take us where we want to go, to take us to the good places in this world, like church or to this podcast. But the bad things that these cars produce, like the fumes and the pollution and the car wrecks, these things weren't predestinated. Only the good things about the cars are predestinated. Doesn't that sound stupid? It does to me. But that's what these partial predestinarians are preaching by saying God only predestinated the so-called good things. So let's see if we can wrap this up here. Before I end today's message, let me leave you with a couple of passages. There are far more passages in Scripture I could have pointed you to, but I didn't have time to read everything and I was kind of under the gun to get this podcast together. So, Ephesians 1.11, it says, "...in whom also we have attained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Notice it doesn't say, God worketh only the good things after the counsel of his own will. It says all things. Colossians 1 says, 16 For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him and for him. I mean, you can't get much more clear than that. What is a thing? Well, throne, dominion, principalities, or powers. Thoughts, sin, that's a thing. Actions. Those are things. Everything. Everything's a thing. Hey, that's a new quote. You can put that on your Facebook wall today. Everything's a thing. That's what Brandon said. Notice it doesn't say, again, that for by Him were only the good things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth. No, it says all things. Let us be true to the Scriptures, guys. Let us be true to ourselves. Let us be true to God and His Gospel. And so how does this apply to us? How does this apply to you or me today? Well, if you're one of his people, you can rest knowing that all things are perfectly planned by God for his glory and for your good. But even more so, you can rest knowing that your salvation is perfected. all the events of your life, even the events prior to knowing the gospel, those things were ordered for your benefit. Yeah, everything. Your mom and dad getting together, where you were born, what you believe, your old free will religion, everything that you ever did, thought, that was all ordered for your benefit. Okay, that's amazing. It's a scary thought to think that the things in the future in your life are not ordered for your benefit. Nothing surprises our Lord. Nothing happens that He did not want to happen. Nothing will be done on our heaven or on earth that He did not plan out in perfect detail. His predestination is absolute. And that's about all I have for that today. So let's see, we kept it down to 43 minutes for the message. So thanks for listening today. I would say that a belief in this doctrine will get you labeled as a hyper-Calvinist by someone out there to say that God predestinated everything. But that's okay. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Everything is just confusing and provides no assurance for me. It's like standing in sinking sand. I hope that the message was and was edifying to you and so I'm going to go ahead and end the podcast now and then pack my bags for Ashland, Kentucky. I'm going to go out to 13th Street this weekend and I'm looking forward to worship and fellowship in the gospel and enjoying love and the truth with a bunch of other people that, by the way, believe in God's absolute predestination. I don't want to be standing there either, having to look over my shoulder thinking that someone's ready to bash me over the head. I tell you what, I love offline fellowship so much more than the online stuff that I have to suffer with. I love all of you out there, the ones that I talk to online. I love the online fellowship, but when I'm meeting with believers offline, worry about somebody hopping in the middle of my discussion and calling me a heretic, or bashing me over the head and acting all offended. You know, I don't have that when I meet with the saints offline, when I meet with brothers and sisters in the Lord for worship. I don't have that. I only get that online. So maybe my ranting is a little misplaced because I do spend way too much time on Facebook. Maybe that's my problem. All right, so I apologize for that. But anyway, I hope you all have a good day. I hope that you all enjoy the grace and subsequent peace that can only come from Christ and his gospel of supreme and sovereign grace. And when I say sovereign, I mean sovereign. OK? Good night. Talk to you later.