Have you ever heard the phrase, the foreknowledge of God, explained this way? God knows the future. He knows in advance all those who will turn to Christ, and he saves those people. Anything wrong with that view? We'll find out next on today's Grace to You. Picture this...a life-long New Yorker travels from Times Square to the Empire State Building... And as he does, a tourist with a map is at his side. If both people reached their destinations, you could say each had the foreknowledge to get there. Though you wouldn't say the tourist had the same intimate understanding of Manhattan's layout as the New York native did. Well, depending on the context, the term foreknowledge can mean quite different things. That's certainly true where the foreknowledge of God is concerned. And you'll see today on Grace To You as John MacArthur continues his compelling look at what it means to be chosen for eternity. Now, I'd encourage you to take some notes as you listen. This lesson may change how you think about your salvation. And now, here's John MacArthur. We're looking at 1 Peter chapter 1. we're considering the first two verses. He begins this wonderful epistle with the words, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure." It seems that in such a small beginning, we would not find ourselves so deeply entrenched in theology. But as soon as Peter says, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, By the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood, He introduces us into a tremendously deep and far-reaching and profound arena of thought, namely, the matter of election, election. Now, we notice from these two verses several things about election. First of all, we noticed last time the nature of our election. The nature of our election, at the end of verse 1, we are chosen. And we talked about the fact that, that is to say, God has chosen us sovereignly by His unaffected divine will, strictly on the basis of His own free sovereign grace. He predetermined to set His love on certain people out of all the world, and they are the elect. That's the nature of our election. Then we discuss the condition of our election. Because we are elect, we are residing as aliens. That is to say, we are strangers. We are foreigners. We are an alien race. We are temporarily living in the earth, but we are citizens of heaven. We are a society within a society. We are ambassadors of Christ, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and has been committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that we are to tell men they can be reconciled to God through Christ. We are sent into the world as witnesses. Jesus said, you are my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. So here we are, this alien society within a society, this supernatural culture within a culture. We are this group of dispossessed people who live by a totally distinct standard. We cannot be friends of the world. We do not love the world. We are enemies of the world. We must speak to the world and we must live in such a way that they are drawn to listen to what we have to say. That's a challenge. It's not easy to be effective in witnessing to the world. In a sense, we tend to retreat into our own little society, don't we? And you can imagine that in a persecuted environment like the readers to this great epistle, the tendency would be to draw more and more and more inward for the sake of protection, support, love, companionship, fellowship, protection, of course, leading it all. And so, Peter, of course, through this epistle will remind the persecuted believers that they must not become ingrown because that's the tendency. We love each other very much. We have so much in common with each other. One of the great threats to Christianity is that the longer you're a Christian, the less you even interchange your life at all with unbelieving people. We get so wrapped up in our own Christian culture, Christian society. Alexander McLaren said, seed in a basket isn't in the right place, but sown over the field, it will be waving wheat in a month or two. And we must resist the temptation because of our condition to become ingrown so that we become a society of people talking to ourselves. rather than evangelizing a lost world. God has helped the process a little. Every time he comes against the church to persecute and scatter believers, starting with Acts 8, the church grew. Every time the seed is emptied out of the basket and thrown over the field, it results in the waving wheat. So we are to remind ourselves, even as we think about our condition as aliens, that we are not simply here to exist, but we are here to reach the world. And see, that's why we don't belong in monasteries. That's why we don't belong holed up in caves somewhere. That's why we don't belong in educational ivory towers all our lives. We have to be scattered. We are alien ambassadors of Christ. We have to take the redemptive message into the world and resist the constant pull inward where we become ingrown. So, that's the condition of our election. Foreigners in the world, we don't expect to be treated like the worldlings. We don't expect the natives to treat us the way they treat the other natives. We're in the world. We're not of the world, and we desire a far better place, a place which is our real home. So that's the condition of our election. Thirdly, we need to talk about the source of our election, and that brings us to a very, very important thought. Verse 2. Here is the source of our election. Now, we know we've been chosen by God, and therefore we have entered into a family which makes us alien in this world. The source of God's choosing, it says in verse 2, is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. It was out of God's foreknowledge that He chose us. Now we have already learned that God the Father is the one doing the choosing. It is God the Father who made the choice. And if I need to remind you ever so briefly about that, I would just call your attention to Romans 11, 5, in the same way then there has also come to be at the present time, says Paul, a remnant according to God's gracious choice. And Ephesians chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, He chose us in Him. He chose us. So it is God who chose us to be saved. He made the choice. He did the choosing. And by the way, God does it independently of any person. He does it independently, are you ready for this, of any circumstances. Now you need to grasp that. There is no person who moves on the will of God to help him make the choice. There is no circumstance which in any way precipitates God's choice. In Daniel 4.35 we read, All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, what have you done? No one can question it. No one is involved in the process in any way. God singled out certain ones in His own mind, both among the angels, the holy and elect angels as they're called in 1 Timothy 5.21, and among men, and He chose them for eternal life and blessedness. Before He created them, He decided their destiny. I might put it this way. The chosen people is made up of the people chosen. The chosen people is made up of the people chosen. But what was the source of God's choosing? Verse 2, now follow, according to the foreknowledge of God. Now some people say, you see, that's it. We're chosen because God knew before what we would do. Have you ever heard that? That's the most common sort of traditional explanation of election. They say, well, see foreknowledge means foresight, or it means, and I've heard it explained many times, God looked down through the eons of history and saw by His future omniscience what you would do and what I would do, and when He saw that we would believe, He chose us, and when we saw that we wouldn't believe, He didn't choose us. Some people think that's what it means, that God, in His omniscience, knew what you would do, knew what everyone would do, so in some supernatural way, He observed history before it was written, and by His observation, elected those that He foresaw would believe. Men love that doctrine. They love that. They want to believe that. Something in me wants to believe that. Something in you wants to believe that. Yeah, that sounds better. You know why you want to believe that? Number one, because in your fallenness, you desperately want some responsibility for your salvation. And secondly, in your fallenness, the other sounds as if it's what? Unfair. But since our minds are polluted by sin, we're not in a position to exalt our own pride and call it virtue or to pull down the justice of God and call it something less than that. That's not what foreknowledge means. You know what's wrong with that view? I'll tell you. I'll give you a few little reasons. You can jot them down. The first thing, if you were to translate the idea here, foreknowledge, as knowing before, and assume that God just looked down history, saw what you do, and wrote it down because He saw you were going to do it. The first thing that does is make man sovereign. Right? We're sovereign. We're doing it, and God's saying, I see, I'll write that down. He was going to do that. So man is sovereign. Now, you're going to have a problem with that in John 15, 16, where Jesus said, you have not chosen me, but, what? I have chosen you. Now, who's sovereign? Is man sovereign? Are you sovereign, and I'm sovereign, and everybody's sovereign? Everybody can choose whatever they want, and God's just up there trying to keep it all in line and get the right guy on the right side of the ledger? No. See, if you believe that, then you've made man sovereign. That view also gives man the credit for his salvation in some way and allows him to share the glory. And as I said, man loves that. I heard a person give a testimony the other night, said, I'm so glad that I had the sense to receive Christ. And I wanted to get up and say, no, you didn't. And I don't even know you, but I know you don't have the sense to receive Christ. Because no one has the sense to receive Christ. That is not an act of human sense. I'm so glad that I had the sense to give my life to Christ. No, you didn't. But we want a little of that glory. God chose us. 1 Corinthians 1 29 says that no man should boast before God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2 9 says the same thing. So if you're going to take foreknowledge and make it God knew before what you were going to do, then you have just made man sovereign, and secondly, you can give man the credit for being smart enough to come to Christ, and therefore he shares in the glory due for the gift of salvation. The third problem with that, it assumes that man can seek after God. It assumes that man in his fallen state can sort through the available data and seek God. Romans 3.11 says, no man seeks after God. The reason you're saved is not because you sought God, but because God sought you. And you never responded to seek until God sought you first and moved your heart toward Him. Fourthly, that view makes salvation a result of a human work. And what is that work? Believing. If you can believe strictly on the basis of your own human ability, then you have appropriated salvation by a human work. You say, well, now wait a minute, don't you have to believe to be saved? Yes, but your believing to be saved was also a gift from God. God granted you the faith. If God is sitting back in eternity looking down the road and just waiting to see what you do, then the faith that you exercise is your faith, not His, it's therefore a human work. It makes salvation a human work, a work of faith, but still a human work, human faith. And fifthly, that perspective makes God a victim of man's choice. It makes God a victim of man's choice. God is sitting up in heaven saying, that's going to make a difference in my plan. Boy, if that guy had only said yes, then I could have done this and I could have worked that, but now it's just not going to work out. That's hardly short of a blasphemous view of God. God does all things by the counsel of His own will. God does all His good pleasure. God is never in any way frustrated by anything, any time done by anyone. That is so very vital for us to understand. I am God, there is no other. I am God, there's no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things which have not been done, listen to this, saying, my purpose will be established, I will accomplish all my good pleasure. God is not a victim. Now if you take the view that God just looks down the road and sees who's going to believe, you've made man sovereign, you give man the credit for a part of his salvation so he gets some of the glory, you assume that man on his own is going to seek after God, not prompted by God himself, you have made salvation a human work of faith, and you have just made God a victim of what men do. That is not what this word means. Now those are theological reasons why that can't be true. Let me go to the text and give you a reason that's inherent in the word itself. The word here, please notice, for knowledge, is the word prognosis. Have you heard that word? Prognosis. It's a very important word. Peter also uses it one more time in the same chapter. Please notice it, verse 20. Verse 19 ends with the word Christ. Then it says of Christ, for He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Same word. Form of prognosco. Same word. Does it mean foresight there? Does it mean God was up in heaven looking down the road and said, oh, I see what Christ is going to do. Oh, I get it. Is it God looking down the path of history to see what Christ will do? Not hardly. Prognosis means in verse 2, it means in verse 20, Peter's certainly not going to try to confuse us. And if Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, and I was foreknown before the foundation of the world, then I was foreknown in the same way Christ was foreknown, right? How am I to understand that? Look at Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 verse 23. Speaking of Christ, Peter preaching here, he likes this word. This is Peter on the day of Pentecost, talks about Jesus of Nazareth, and he says in verse 23 of Acts 2, this man delivered up...listen to this...by the predetermined plan and...what?...for knowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Now, wait a minute. Christ was delivered up to die by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Beloved, do you understand it? Foreknowledge is linked to the predetermined plan. Foreknowledge is deliberate choice. Deliberate choice. It is a predetermined relationship. a predetermined relationship in the knowledge of God. It doesn't mean He observed before. It means that He planned before. It is knowing, not in the sense of observation, but is knowing in the sense of bringing into reality. For example, let me give you some illustrations so you'll not be confused. Jeremiah 1.5, God says of Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I what? I knew you. That's the kind of knowing. What do you mean? I predetermined a relationship with you. That's what it means. I predetermined a relationship with you." Amos 3, 2, Israel only have I known. What does he mean? Is Israel the only people I know anything about? They're the only ones I'm observing? No. They're the only ones with whom I have an intimate predetermined relationship. I'm thinking of Isaiah. I want you to fully understand this because it confuses so many people. Isaiah 49, 1, "'Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called Me from the womb, from the body of My mother He named Me, and He has made My mouth like a sharp sword.'" This is the prophet Isaiah saying it all happened before he was ever born...before he was ever born. God had the whole thing planned. The Lord knew me. What do you mean? He knew who He was? No. He predetermined a unique relationship of intimacy with that prophet. In Exodus 33, the Scripture says, I have known you by name and you have also found favor in my sight, God speaking to Moses. The Lord spoke to Moses, verse 17. I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in My sight. I have known you by name." In other words, bound up in this knowing is God's predetermined bond, God's predetermined relationship. You see the same thing in Matthew 7. Do you remember what it says there? Many shall say, Lord, Lord, and I will declare to them, verse 23, I never...what?...knew you. I didn't know who you were? No, he knew who they were. I never had a predetermined relationship with you. John 10, verse 14, I am the good shepherd and I know my own. See? I have a bond with them. More than I know who they are, I have a relationship with them bound up in a predetermined choice. Well, that's the idea. The greatness of God is so clear when you realize all things happen by his deliberate design, his predetermined plan. That's John MacArthur's focus today on Grace to You, a study from 1 Peter chapter 1 that he calls Chosen for Eternity. John, you said today that man gets zero credit for salvation, that he can't come to God unless God draws him. It's God who takes action. So how do we balance that truth with other passages that call us to act, to repent, to turn from sin and embrace Christ? Carl, you've just asked me the question that I am asked more often than any other question. How do we harmonize a divine, sovereign election with human responsibility? How can we say that it is God who chooses, it is God who draws, it is God who saves, it is God who is in the power position doing it all, and yet we are responsible to repent and believe and confess Christ? and turn from sin to Him. How does that all balance out? Well, you know, from a human viewpoint, from the perspective of the human mind, I'm not sure we can say that it does. I'm comfortable with that. I am comfortable with things that are beyond me. I hope you are. If I could understand everything in the Bible perfectly and if it all made absolute sense to me, then God would be no better than me. There is a dimension of spiritual understanding that is way beyond me, and this is one of the evidences that a committee didn't put the Bible together or they would have solved all these problems. There is an answer to this in the perfect mind of a perfect and absolutely wise God. But the bottom line is this, there are answers. And I want to tell you about a CD in which we dove into the questions and came out with the right answers. It's called Answering the Key Questions About Election. It is a CD. And along with Phil Johnson, who's an expert in theology, we talk about the doctrine of election. Every angle explored. You'll find it really helpful answering the key questions about election. It's a CD free to anyone who asks. You can give us a call. Use the email or the regular mailing address to get your free copy of the CD. Again, ask for the title, Answering the Key Questions about the Doctrine of Election. Please send your request today. You can do that by phone, calling 1-800-55-GRACE, that's toll free, or send an email to letters at gty.org. Or, use the regular mail, Grace to You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Something else to keep in mind, John has written a one-volume commentary on 1 Peter. The text for this current study on election, the cost of that commentary is $19 and shipping is free. John has also, let's see, 28 other commentaries that span the entire New Testament except the Gospel of Mark and the second half of Luke. To order 1 Peter or any of the other commentaries, call 1-800-55-GRACE or log on to gty.org. Now friend, let me remind you one more time about that interview answering the key questions about election that's free of charge. Simply contact us and tell us you want the interview on CD and we'll send that to you free. Call 1-800-55-GRACE or send an email to letters at gty.org or write to us at Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And now, on behalf of John McArthur and the entire staff, I'm your host, Carl Meller, reminding you that Grace To You Television can be seen Sundays on DirecTV Channel 378 or watch online at gty.org. And join us again tomorrow for another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You. But when you come to Christ, do you choose God or does He choose you? An important question John MacArthur provides the answer on tomorrow's Grace To You. Yeah!