Let me start that again. This is June 6, 2010, the year of our Lord at Zion Baptist Church, and we're continuing our sermon on the eternal predestination of God, or the eternal predestination of all things by God. You may want to put it that way because I want to be sure that you understand we're just not talking about the eternal predestination of God's elect. Which is certainly true if you cannot read 2 Thessalonians 2 12 and Romans 8 28 and 29, scriptures like that, Matthew 1 21 and not realize that salvation of God's elect is by predestination by God, then there is something wrong with your thinking. But this is the predestination or the decree of God concerning all things. everything that happens, that He is Governor, Ruler over all things. That nothing ever happened by chance. Nothing ever happens by chance. Sin did not come into the world by chance. It didn't catch God by surprise. Was God the author of sin? Of course He was not the author of sin. Read the Bible. It's plain and it's true. Did God make Adam in such a way that he could sin? Sure He did. Did He make Lucifer in such a way? And a third of the host of the angels in such a way so that they could sin? Sure He did. Did He keep the two thirds of angels that did not sin such that they could not sin? Sure He did. He's God. Daniel 4.35 says, turn with me and read it. This is what Nebuchadnezzar said about God after he had eaten grass and his fingernails grew long like the animals. And he comes to his senses again. Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4 verse 34, and he says, And at the end of the days after Nebuchadnezzar had gotten through with his being a wild man and God removing His kingdom from him, At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lift up mine eyes unto the heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? That's our God. I'm sorry if lying, ignorant preachers have put into your head that the God that is the God of all the universe is a weak, stupid God that does not control all things. I'm sorry if some ignorant The lying preacher has convinced you in your mind because you're too lazy to read the Scriptures yourself and depend on some lying preacher to teach you the Word of God if he's taught you that God loves everybody and that everybody's going to heaven. That's a lie! Psalm 2 and Psalm 5, God hates all liars and He hates all workers of iniquity. That's the truth. The truth is that our God reputes as nothing all the inhabitants of the earth. And He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and in the inhabitants of the earth. And none can say unto Him, What doest Thou? And none can stay His hand and keep Him from doing His own will. He's God. He doeth as He pleases, David said. Our God sitteth in the heavens and doeth as He pleases. That's our God. That's the God of the Scriptures. Now you listen to these noodle backbone preachers and they'll tell you that God disloves everybody and God would never do anything so that it might hinder you from going to heaven. Preacher, are you saying that God might do something that would hinder you from going to heaven? Well, let me ask you this. Who is going to heaven? Who is going to heaven? All those that were ordained unto eternal life, Acts 13.48, believed. Who is going to heaven? All those that He chose before the foundation of the world. Turn with me to Romans the 9th chapter. Romans chapter 9. And we're not just talking about the people that are going to heaven, but we're talking about God preordained all things. Everything that happens, God predetermined. He predestinated all things. He is in heaven, He set His throne. He set His throne above the heavens so that He, as God, ruleth over all of His creation at all times. You say, well, preacher, God just rules over the major things. The little bitty things He don't get involved in. Oh, you think so? Jesus says He knows the number of hairs that you have in your head and not one of them falls to the ground. without Him knowing it. Not one hair from your head. Are you telling me God don't get involved in the details? I think so. You cannot explain away the government of God being controlled by Him in all ways at all times. Romans, the ninth chapter, Verse 9 says, for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also hath conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. When, before either one had done good or evil, how they were both still yet in the womb. And guess what? Even before that, even before man was created, our an angel was created. When their name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life, Jacob's was, Esau's wasn't. Jacob he loved, Esau he hated. Why would that be? Why would God do such a thing? Preacher, you're telling me that God will leave some men to themselves and not enlighten them to the truth and birth them and make them alive so that they continue on their road to hell and not stop them? That's exactly what the Scriptures say, not me. That's what the Bible says. That's what He says right there about Jacob and Esau. Is God doing an injustice? No, He's not doing an injustice. If God wanted to do justice, we would all go to hell. He would leave us all in our sins. He would not intervene and birth some of us and make us spiritually alive because the Bible says in Romans the third chapter, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth and there is none that seeketh after God. They have all gone astray. And we're all going to hell. And except God birthed you and make you alive, you too are going to hell. And so it is only by His mercy that He chose some to eternal life and others to eternal damnation. And the preacher, that's just not fair. You're right. Fair would be us all going to hell. Mercy is that He chose some of us for eternal salvation, others to eternal perdition. Why? Well, I just read to you why. You say, well, preacher, I don't understand. Guess what? You don't have to understand. Just read the words. Just because some lying preacher, an ignorant preacher in his Ignorance himself tries to explain away because in his own lost state he cannot reason in his mind how God would do such a thing, doesn't make it true or false. The Word of God is true. And what I'm preaching to you has been believed through the generations and through the ages and was preached and believed by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Peter, James, John, Paul, and all the apostles and all the way down through the ages except for those that call themselves Christians and were not! They were false teachers and false prophets. And they wanted big congregations. And the way to get that is by telling everybody, you just come accept Jesus as your personal Savior. You'll be saved. That's not what the Bible says. Now, why does God do this? That, verse 11, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. So, it is God's will, God, that the purpose of election, what is election? It's those who were foreordained. to be saved. It was those who were in Romans 8 and 29. He says, Romans 8 and 29 says, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. So, God predetermined who would and who would not. You say, well, preachers, does that mean I don't have a chance? Yes, that's exactly what that means. You don't have a chance. Whoever said you do? Can you show me anywhere in the Scriptures where it says you have a chance? The Scriptures does say that He'll not turn away one that comes to Him. Sincerely. Honestly. Seeking Him. Why is that? Because no man sincerely comes to Him except He birth and birth, regenerate his lost dead soul, and give him a desire in his heart to come to Christ. He will not come to Him. Jesus told them Himself, Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life! I didn't say that, Jesus said that. And why would they not come to Him? Because they were dead in their spirit, they were dead in their soul, and they only loved self. And any good deeds that they've done were only human good deeds that they did, and not spiritual good deeds, because except a man believe that he is, he cannot please God. For without faith, it is impossible to please him. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And only a person who's been regenerated from his dead, lifeless spirit to a living soul will not do that, cannot do that. It is impossible. So, we know that God foreordained or predestinated all of His elect that the purpose of God, that's the point I want to make to you today, that the purpose of God might stand. That the purpose of God according to election might stand. But the purpose of God has always been It was not like God makes up rules as He goes. God didn't decide after Adam failed that then He had to make a way of salvation. Everything in the Scriptures is about the Lord Jesus Christ redeeming God's people from their sin. God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Everything in the Old Testament is about God leading His people by the law that He gave Moses to Christ. Not leading the whole world, not even leading all of the Jewish people, but His people. Those that He's written their name in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Those. So, it is for His purpose. according to election, that might stand." That's the reason he loved Jacob and he hated Esau, that the purpose of God might stand. So that ought to convince you, that ought to be enough Scripture in itself to show you that everything is done for the purpose of God and according to the purpose of God. Now, we didn't even read our opening Scripture, did we? Ephesians, the first chapter, we should have read this again. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at 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. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before Him in love. Please don't read that so fast that you miss what he says. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, meaning God the Father, 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. Now for you people, And by the way, those people in China and Cambodia and places that I've never even heard of before that God uses via sermon audio for these messages to go out and those people there and God's people all over the world that hear these messages, may the Lord richly bless you people that listen to the sermons and the Lord blesses by them. For you people who I've been getting flack even here lately from Armenians, people who believe that Christ made a way of salvation for every human that's ever lived and it's up to your free will to accept or reject that plan of salvation. Which means that utterly he failed in what he attempted to do. If people believe that Jesus Christ wanted everybody in the world to be saved, but He was unable to do it, then He failed. But Matthew 1.21 says, He shall save His people from their sins. And so He does, He did on the cross, and in the process of time, we'll call them, we'll regenerate them, call them, convert them, and make them into the image of His dear Son day by day as they grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. And for those people who have aught and do not understand and want to talk about the preachers that preach election and predestination of God's people by Him, what are you going to do with Ephesians verse 4? 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." Talking about God the Father. According to the good pleasure of His will. It's not Him that will it, nor Him that run it, the Bible says. but of Him that called. To the praise of the glory of His grace. Now that's why He called us. He called us according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's the reason He called us. Wherein He hath made us accepted in the blood, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself. 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." Now that's His purpose throughout everything that He does. All of the law that He gave Moses and all the ages that's come down through and all the work that Christ did and the apostles did and the martyrs of all the Christian people and those that are yet to come, or according to his plan and purpose, according to his own good pleasure. Why? That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, in other words, when everything is full and said and done that God preordained to be done, he might gather together in one all things in Christ. God will gather all things together. In one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, meaning Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. What did He say there? He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Everything works according to the plan and purpose of God, and He sees to it that it does. All the evil in the world, all the good in the world, both saved and lost people, everything works according to His purpose, according to His plan, that He might be able to, in the dispensation of the fullness of time, gather together in one all things in Christ. have obtained Him, have been predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things at the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ." That we should be to the praise of His glory. He's done all of this, and all that He does, to the praise that it might be to the praise of His glory. He's a glorious God. He's a holy God and a mighty God. He's omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. He is God. There's none like unto Him. He is invisible. He is so holy. And all of these things that He's done is done to the praise of His glory. that everything in the universe and everything is created might praise Him. And everything will praise Him. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's not an if they will, they will! Every tongue! Some of us do it now, willingly, gladly, Some at the end will do it because they have been conquered by the king himself and they will bow their knee to him. Just like people do in a city when a king come and besieged it and said all about it and then tore the walls down and went in and killed all the men except the ones who were on their knees and faces giving the king praise before they had their heads taken off. And so will they do at the end. Every knee and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God, and He does rule and reign over all of His universe. Now, that was my introduction. Let's pray. Our God, we thank Thee for the reading of Thy Word now, and I pray, Lord, that You'll help us and bless us today as we expand upon Your Word. Preach Your Word, O Lord. Please help us. Please open the eyes and the ears of those that are here to hear and those by way of sermon audio and CD. Lord, that this goes out. Please, may the Spirit of God enlighten us to the truth of Thy Word. Please help us, O God. We need Thee. Change our hearts, we pray. Draw us nigh unto Thee and cause us to be pleasing unto Thee in all things. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Are you pleasing to the Lord in all that you do and say, Are there times when you say and do things and act or look in ways that you're not pleasing to Him? Do you spend your time doing things that are pleasing unto God? Do you spend your time wisely as a good steward over what God's given you so that the time that you use every day is to His honor and to His glory? Something that you might ought to think about and remember. Now, in Acts the third chapter, People, especially those who believe in the doctrines of grace, believe in election, believe the scriptures, I should say, they don't have too hard of a time understanding What we just read there in Romans 8 and 29 where it says, Whom He did foreknow, then He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. But there's a lot of people that have a problem. They don't have such a problem believing that God predetermined those that would be saved. But a lot of them have a problem believing that God delivered the Holy Child, or His Holy Son Jesus, the Only Begotten, that He delivered Him into the hands of the wicked hands of evil men to be crucified and slain. But in Acts the 3rd chapter, we see just that. In Acts 2, Let me get my notes here. Acts 3, 17 and 18, and now brethren, he says, I know, or I want, W-O-T, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Now all of the prophets, even from the time of Abel and Adam on down, all of those prophets who prophesied about the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, prophesied by the Word of God by saying, Thus saith the Lord. This was the Spirit of God speaking through men about what the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, would suffer and die and be resurrected from the dead, and ascend up to the Father. Those things were told hundreds and thousands of years before Christ died, and that's what Peter is saying here in Acts chapter 3. And now, brother, I know that through Enrich, You did it! You crucified Jesus for ignorance! You didn't know He was the Son of God! But God knew that He was, and the prophets before knew that He was, when they prophesied by God what would happen to Him. And He says, that those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer, He, God, has also fulfilled. God fulfilled the things that He said would happen to Christ. He delivered Him into the hands, the wicked hands of evil men, that He might be slain and crucified and beaten to a pulp and a crown of thorns put upon His head, that He might suffer all the wrath That he was supposed to suffer according to what God said he would. God did it. Now you can't deny that. Let me look what he says. All those things that the prophet has said he, the he there means God hath fulfilled. And people have a problem believing that. They have a problem understanding that. And the reason is, it goes against our nature. It goes against our lost nature. It goes against... We don't have control. And we don't like to think that we're not in control. We devise ways in our hearts, but God directs our steps, the Bible says. You might as well get that settled. Now, look at chapter 4, over at about verse 27. I'll start at verse 26. The kings of the earth stood up, excuse me, The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." How can you deny that? How can any man not read that and understand that by the counsel of God, He before determined by who and by what and how Christ would suffer all the things that the prophets said He would suffer, and He did. God is in control. You say, well, preacher, if God is in control, and everything is happening according to His will, How can He find me guilty and condemn me when it's all happening according to His own purpose? I've got a water bottle up here now. Let's turn back to Romans the ninth chapter. How can He condemn me? if all things work according to His will, according to His purpose, if He's controlling all things. And listen, there are people that will use that theory or that fact, that fault, to justify their sinning. They will justify the sin that they do because they have convinced themselves in their mind that God controls all things. Therefore, He must be controlling when I sin and when I don't. And so, therefore, there's nothing I can do about it. I just might as well go ahead and sin. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Ye have been bought with a price. Hold your place there at Romans 9 and turn with me to Titus 2. Turn with me over to Titus, the second chapter. And let's put that little bit of nonsense out of the way. Titus comes just before you get to the book of Hebrews, before Philemon, Titus 2. Verse 11 says, "...for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Teaching us, so that you'll know who he's talking about there, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us. that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority that no man despise thee." Now that's what you're supposed to be doing. If you'll read the first chapter of Titus and the first part of the second chapter, it will tell you to be self-controlled. Control yourself. Control your sin! Control your emotions! Control yourself! That's what he says. When he says, be sober-minded and temperate, he means control yourself. Abstain from fleshly lust and the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Abstain from those things. Control yourself. Refuse to do those things that you know are a sin and a shame to God. Now, go back to Romans 9. Verse 13 says, and it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, because that's what some people are saying. Well, preacher, if God chose some, He didn't choose others. Isn't that unrighteous? Isn't that wrong? And what does Paul say? You think Paul didn't know what people were going to say? He's being led by the Spirit of God here to write what he's writing. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that will it, nor of him that run it, but God that showeth mercy. He's telling you. Paul's telling you. God's telling you. in his own words. He hated Jacob, he loved Esau. And he told Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will. And he says, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Is there any children here? When Pharaoh came about from his mother and dad, for those of you who understand how an egg is fertilized, and there's millions of those things that fertilize the egg swimming upstream, millions of them, but only one! The one that was Pharaoh! God determined who he would be before the foundation of the world. Which seed would make it? And that was Pharaoh. Why that one? Because he raised him up, he needed the personality, he needed one that he would harden, and he would harden his heart and he would not let his people go. And that was Pharaoh. And God said, for this selfsame purpose, have I raised thee up? I controlled the whole thing from the beginning! And I did it all in the very beginning before man or angel or anybody else was ever created. That's right. That I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. That was his purpose for raising Pharaoh up. Therefore have he mercy on whom he will have mercy and on whom he will, he hardened it. So he has mercy on some, and he hardens those. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will, his God? Why would he find fault? If God's controlling everything, why would he find fault? Paul wouldn't even answer it. He said, but nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God? You're nothing! You're a worm! Who do you think you are? to judge what God does! He made you! And you're such a great creature of God that you would judge your Creator by what He does and does not? Is He coming down to your court and you're going to sit on the throne and judge God? Paul wouldn't even answer the question. He says, but who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Lest thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel into honour, and another into dishonour? Aren't we gods? Can he do with us as he pleases? What if God willing to show his wrath Okay? God wants to show His wrath to all in His creation. What if He's willing to show His wrath and to make His power known? Endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. He made them for that. The very purpose, like He did with Pharaoh. He made Pharaoh. He raised him up for that very thing. And are you going to judge God? Who do you think you are? That's what Paul is saying. "...and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath aforeprepared unto glory, which He hath aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Now, go with me to Romans 8 and 28, and we'll close with this verse. I can't convince you with reasoning, even though I try. It must be by the Spirit of God. The Bible says, that was one of my scriptures that I have. God told Isaiah, while you're turning, well you ain't got to turn, you're already there. The Bible says, God told Isaiah, go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed. This is in Isaiah the 6th chapter. You stay where you're at. I'm going to read it. Isaiah 6, 9 and 10. Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed, or be saved. That's our God. That's our God. Thus saith the Lord, Go and tell this people, God told Isaiah, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye, and perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. He had a purpose for them people. Them being saved was not one of them. Lorraine Botner summed it up this way, everything was infallibly determined and immutably, that means unchangeably, fixed by God from the beginning. And all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity. That's good. And Martin Luther said, This mightily offends our rational nature that God should of His own mere unbiased will leave some men to themselves, harden them, and then condemn them. But He has given abundant demonstration and does continually that this is really the case, namely that the soul calls while some are saved and others perish, proceeds from his willing the salvation of the former and the perdition of the latter." Martin Luther. Romans 8 and 28 says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are be called according to his purpose. We have much to be thankful for. We have much to be thankful for because all things work together for good. Answer me this, if all things, that means everything that happens, every atom that splits, every cell that grows, if all things work together for good, is not God controlling every one of them? and yet without sin. And God did not create sin, nor does God tempt man with sin or to sin, but He made him in such a way that Adam chose to sin. And after Adam chose to sin, he fell from grace And now he is in bondage to Satan. All of mankind are in bondage to Satan. Their will is in bondage to Satan, the Bible says. Do you have a will to choose butter, beans, and peas? Yes, you do. Do you have a free will where you can choose to do good and evil? Only human good and evil. You cannot do spiritually good and evil except you first be regenerated by the mercy and the grace of God. He birthed you and make you alive. The Lord Jesus Christ came that we, His people, I just read to you in Titus, that He might secure or redeem us from our iniquity and make to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. And so we should be. May the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon our soul and help us to understand and know the God of all grace. you