Took a fall and back up again. Amen For those that are new or relatively new on Wednesday nights. We have a course that we're studying called answers We're up to our question number 23 We've previously done 22 questions this year on Wednesday nights and I Would like you to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter number 8 and verse 29 and And our first question is, what is the difference between predestination and foreknowledge? Turn to Romans chapter number 8 and verse number 29. The Bible says this, 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 notice the word predestinate is in verse 29 and 30. It is a Bible word. It's very, very rarely used in the Bible, just a few times, a handful. And here's one here in verse number 29. we need to know the difference between the word predestinate in the scriptures or the doctrine of predestination and the word foreknowledge because there are two different things there's a lot of confusion about this today in the body of christ and uh... some of you might be familiar with the teaching called calvinism calvinism is a teaching that i believe is a miss use or misappropriation of the word predestinate where they teach that God has already predestinated some to go to heaven and others to go to hell and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I have seen this doctrine carried out so far and so extreme in some cases today that one said there's no sense even praying. Your prayer is not going to change a thing. It's already been predestinated by God to happen. And I heard the story of another man who divorced his wife and married a younger woman. He said it doesn't matter. It's all predestinated by God anyway. He said this was going to happen before I ever existed. And it's bordering on bizarre now how extreme the Calvinists have become across the world. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm glad. Because until you're introduced to it, you never think that way by reading the Bible. It's not till somebody twists up your mind and your thoughts that you even start thinking like that. But some people think like that. Some of them are very good people. Some are truly born again Christians. They love the Lord. But I believe they have these words mixed up and the word predestination and foreknowledge. And so there's absolutely no way I can in 15 minutes answer this question. But I can try I think to get you started on what I believe is the proper interpretation of predestination and foreknowledge. Notice verse 29 says, for whom he did foreknow, there's foreknowledge. He also did predestinate, there's predestination. Predestinate to what? It's the verse A, to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So notice in this verse, predestination has nothing to do with salvation. It rather has to do with those who are already saved, that they will be made like Christ someday. They will be conformed to his image. And so what is the difference between predestination and foreknowledge? Well, let's look at our sheet here. Notice the answer. Predestination is God in time present stating what will happen. It's already been determined. Certain things, and we'll study those three things out here in a moment. Foreknowledge is God in eternity future stating what has already happened. All right, now you just got to think about those for a little while and eventually it can become what's called a working definition in your mind. But predestination is God with us in time present. God exists in time and eternity. We exist in time. All right? Right now I have existed up till 737 on June 19th 2019 that's how long I've existed But God's been way ahead of this All right. He has been way ahead of this He God does not just exist up till now. He always has been and always was and always will be and as we'll see he also Has been in future Here's some definitions. What does predestination mean? It means to decide beforehand, to foreordain, to appoint. What does foreknowledge mean? Foreknowledge is a forecast of a likely course or to declare the likely outcome of a situation. It is actually the Greek word prognosis. Pro meaning before, gnosis meaning to know or knowledge. Having knowledge beforehand. for knowledge. Now here's an explanation. Please watch your notes here. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Now what does that mean? It means he has already been to the end and knows the outcome. Now that's obvious just by reading the Bible through once. God already tells us all the events of the tribulation period, which hasn't happened yet. he tells us all about the millennium which hasn't happened yet the thousand-year rule arrayed on christ he tells us about the seven trumpets in the seven vials in the seven seals which haven't happened yet and he tells us about uh... uh... the bottomless pit and and satan being loosed and deceiving all that and so on and everything about eternity future now the reason he tells us all that is because he's already been there uh... he is not He is transcendent to time and to place. They have no control over Him whatsoever. Jesus is the Alpha, that's the first, and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And so He has been way ahead of us. Now that is why His prophecies are all accurate. He already knows. And some of us are looking at the events that are taking place just in New York State over the last six months. And you're saying, how does this happen? But it's all written in the Bible. Everything that's happening is written in the Bible. God knows that it's going to happen because he's already watched it happen. Now, here's an illustration, not a perfect illustration, but here's an illustration. For example, if you watch the replay of a football game, You can announce what will happen with every player and yet not affect their free will. All right? If you have lived past it. All right? If there's a football game, nobody else has ever seen it, but you've lived in the future and you've seen it. and you turn around and you start talking to the people who are about ready to watch it, you can say something to them like this, the kicker is going to miss this field goal. Now that does not mean you have predestinated it. That's not predestination, that's for now, it's because you saw it happen. And because you saw it happen, you can tell people this is what's going to happen, but you have not affected the free will of the field goal kicker. God knows who's going to get saved without ever affecting the free will of one person on earth because he's already lived to the end. He knows every single person that's going to be saved. We don't, but he does. And so God is able to say, this person is going to be saved and this person is not going to be saved. Not by predestinating that, but just by knowing it because he's already observed it. Now, such knowledge, you know, that's why the apostle said, if you turn over to chapter 11, as he tried to explain all of these things, and we get down to verse number 33, He says this, oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Without a doubt, the Apostle Paul confessed, look, you know, he taught these things in chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11 in Romans. Some of it's hard to understand. And even he admitted, oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. So if I were God and I said now the quarterback's going to get sacked on this play and he's going to throw an interception on this play and the punter's going to get the punt blocked on this play and the receiver's going to run all the way for a touchdown on this play, that would be God simply reporting it by his foreknowledge, because he's already seen it. It's not him predestinating the punter getting his punt blocked. It's just that God knows because he's already seen it already. So that's the difference, but there are some things that he has predestinated us to in time with us. They're already determined. There's not a thing we can do to change it. And they're all a blessing, and these are the three that I can find in scripture at the bottom. Now, if you can find others, let me know. But these are the three where by looking at words like predestination that we know absolutely 100% for sure we are predestined to. And it's not salvation. But it's things that happen after salvation, number one. those who accept Christ as Savior will eventually be conformed to the image of God's Son now we just saw that in a verse we read earlier in Romans 8 29 it says here again if I could read it and we know that all things work together for I'm sorry that's the one before verse 29 for whom he did foreknow that's that salvation he knew we were gonna get saved he didn't interfere with our free will, but he knew we were going to get saved. Praise the Lord. Those whom he did foreknow, that's those who get saved, he also did predestinate. Now notice this is after salvation. He predestinated them, what? To be conformed to the image of his Son that we might be the firstborn among many brethren. You and I are going to be just like Jesus Christ someday. All right? We're gonna be just like the Lord Jesus Christ someday. Now what does that mean? We're gonna have a couple sword drills here now so that you can read verses besides Romans 8.29 and maybe write these on your notes, okay? Draw swords and the first one is this, 1 Corinthians 15.49. Go, 1 Corinthians 15.49. Okay, as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We are conformed. We will be conformed to his image. It's predestinated. In other words, praise the Lord, we're not going to be like this forever. You know, we're not going to be getting older and slower and we're not going to be sinning anymore. Our nature is going to be changed. It's sown a natural man. It's raised a spiritual man. Just like you have to get up and you just naturally are inclined to do the sinful, for all of eternity we'll be naturally inclined to do the spiritual. We're going to bear the image of the heavenly. We're going to be like Him. We are predestinated to be like Christ. Could you read, Brother Kelly, Ephesians 1 and verse number 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 Okay According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. That's by foreknowledge That we should be what holy and without blame before him in love we are predestinated To be with him forever and to be like Christ and to be holy Probably a lot of us would admit tonight. We're not really holy But we're going to be let's do one more on this first point draw swords first John 3 verse 2 Go All right, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. That's predestination. Every person who has ever accepted Christ as their Savior, number one, has also been predestinated to become like Christ forever. And so, praise the Lord, we shall be changed. There's other scriptures that say that too. We shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trump alright number two what else are we predestinated to number two those who have accepted Christ as Savior will be adopted by Jesus Christ to himself again Kelly could you read Ephesians 1 verse 5 having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will alright we are adopted unto him by Jesus Christ It's, I don't know, I was never an orphan, but sometimes orphans hope somebody adapts them. Well, we don't have to hope. We know. It is predestinated that we are going to be God's children forever. Let's draw swords. Romans 8.23. Go. Romans 8.23. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption To wit the redemption of our body, so he's coming for our body someday That's predestinated the dead in Christ shall rise Be with the Lord forever So predestination is number one that we will become like Christ someday forever number two. He's going to adopt us unto himself In other words, he's going to redeem the body and take us to go and live with him just like some little orphan living in the orphanage. And finally, the parents who are going to adopt him come and literally physically take him now out of the orphanage to live with them. Same thing with us, to wit the redemption of the body. Galatians, let's do another one. Galatians chapter 4, draw swords. Galatians 4 verses 5 and 6. Go. Chapter 4 verses 5 and 6. Galatians chapter 4. What are you reading? To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Remember God only has one begotten son. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, it says that four times in the New Testament. His only begotten Son, Jesus born of a Virgin Mary by the seed of God. The rest of us are adopted, okay? But it talks about that in these verses, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So that's something we're predestinated to. In other words Jesus is coming for us someday to take us to his home forever It's predestinated. He's not going to leave any of us behind. There's no partial rapture All right number three Those who have accepted Christ as Savior have been predestinated to obtain an inheritance That's neat again, brother Kelly Ephesians chapter 1 verse This time verse number 11 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 Okay So we have been predestinated to receive an inheritance. That's pretty neat It's kind of like your parents filling out their will and going to the lawyer and get it notarized All right, that will is in their filing cabinet somewhere But you have been predestinated by that will when they die to receive an inheritance of course God's never going to die But these are the things that predestination is talking about Now again, I haven't done a good job. It's hard to do this in 15 minutes But please understand that the word predestination in its context is never talking about the salvation of our soul Or who goes to heaven or who goes to hell? It's talking about those who are saved that they will someday be like Christ. They will someday be adopted into Christ's house, taken to be with Him, redeemed, the body redeemed, and receive an inheritance, predestinated to receive an inheritance. I want all of you to look at the verse at the bottom. Turn your Bibles to 1 Peter 1 and verse 2. 1 Peter 1 and verse 2 says this, Are you there yet? 1 Peter 1 verse 2, elect according to the predestination of God. Is that what it says? No. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge. How are we elect? They say we're the elect or the chosen. How? According to the foreknowledge of God. Now again, God, remember what foreknowledge is. It's God. already been in the future, and he's already looked back, and he's already seen what people did of their own free will. All right? Just like I cannot predestinate the events of a football game, but if I have seen it, I can tell you what every single player is going to do on every single play. That's foreknowledge. And God can look back and say, I know this person is going to get saved, this person is going to get saved, and he can say that, and that person thus is my elect, that person's my elect, that person's my elect according to his foreknowledge, not predestination, but according to his foreknowledge, and according to their free will. All right? Just like football players have a free will during the game on every single play. But if you've seen the game, you can say, oh, this guy's going to drop the ball right here. Watch this. And then somebody says, wow, you know everything. Well, I've seen it. I didn't predestinate it. I didn't interfere with that person's free will. But I can tell you what they're going to do. That's a tough question, but we got you started. that you don't get those words predestination and foreknowledge mixed up in your thinking because boy, does that get crazy. I got a lot of good booklets on Calvinism if you need to, you know, read up on that if that has been a confusion to you. Now, it hasn't been if you grew up in this church because we've never taught it. Why not? Because it's not biblical. That's why we don't teach it. But if you've been listening to someone else or something and I've got some great stuff you can really study more deeply. Our last question tonight, turn to the next page, is this, why is there suffering? Now here's another question that is not possible really to answer in 15 minutes, but this is a huge question. And this is a question that you and I need to have a good answer for. We're trying to study answers so we can help people. There are a lot of people that will not come to God because they blame Him for the suffering that they see all over the world. Why doesn't God stop this? All right, He didn't even start it. That's what we're going to see tonight. What is the origin of suffering? Why is there suffering in the world? It's not because of God. You know, one of the men that walked this earth back in the 1800s, who probably has confused more people than anyone, was a guy named Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was a theologian. He only had one degree, and that was in theology, and that was from Christ College in London. But he had his faith rattled, if he had any faith. It was rattled by all the suffering he saw in the world and among the human race. And he was affected by the teachings of prior men like Charles Lyell and others who were starting to teach evolution or coming up with some theory of origins. Everybody's got to deal with that. Every human being's got to say, we came from somewhere. How'd we get here? Just a question we all have to grapple with. I'm here. How did I get here? How did everything get here? This planet is unique. It is so amazingly unique, it's indescribable. What a wonderful planet we live on. Just teeming with life. It's unique. We don't know of anything like it. And there's life everywhere. We've got to grapple with it. Where did it come from? And so he began to doubt his faith because of suffering. Suffering. Darwin, I have one of his quotes. I'm actually writing a little flyer on Darwin's own words. And one of his words, one of the things Darwin says was this, when he was old, he said, I didn't mean to speak so atheistically. He says there's just so much suffering in the world that he couldn't reconcile the suffering he saw in this world with a loving God. And he just said that there must not be a God. And anyone you talk to who is an atheist, And if you say, okay, give me the one or two or three best arguments you have that there's no God, they can't answer you. They can't answer you. They'll just start to attack God. That's what atheists do. They attack the God they say they don't even believe in. And they'll just say, well, there's so much suffering and why are kids allowed to be born with cancer? They die when they're one or two or ten years old, and how can a loving God possibly do that? This loving God must not exist that you talk about. Why is there suffering? Well, fortunately, it's answered for us in the scriptures, and it has nothing to do with God. The answer is very simply, I want to encourage you to memorize this. And here's the answer, because of Satan's selfishness and sin. That's why there's suffering in the world. because of Satan, selfishness and sin and it's all contained in one chapter in the Bible and that's Genesis 3. Genesis chapter 3. You have Satan in verse number 1 and then you have selfishness, the woman when she saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. This is her selfishness because she knew what God said. God said, hey, you got this whole garden here. Every tree of the orchard is yours. Enjoy them for the rest of your existence, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did God plant that? Because there had to be a choice in order for there to be a free will. It's not possible to have a free will if there is no choice. Does that make sense? There had to be a tree that gave them a free will. where they could say, hey, of my own free will, I'm going to obey God, and I'm going to enjoy this paradise. I'm going to enjoy all these other trees that God made in the Garden of Eden. But there was a choice. There was honestly a free choice. And therefore, Adam and Eve became free moral agents. They could obey God or disobey God. And of her selfishness, she looked at this tree. Satan started talking to her. He's the serpent, verse 1. He started lying to her. He said, God's lying to you. You're not going to die if you eat this. If you eat this, you're going to become so smart and so wise, you'll be your own God. You won't have to listen to your husband anymore. You won't have to listen to God or God's word anymore. And she saw that tree, that it was good for the eyes. And verse 5 says, good for food. Pleasant to the eyes a tree to be desired to make one wise and she said you know I could really benefit This is about me. I could really benefit you know I'm disobeying God and she partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and when she disobeyed God that is sin because first John 3 and verse 4 says sin is the transgression of the law Transgression means the breaking of the law The only law she had was don't eat that from that tree She broke God's law, that's sin. Sin entered in the world. Now the rest, if you could, well, no, I think we're gonna skip the rest there, Kelly. I was gonna have Kelly read Genesis 3, verses 14 through 19, and there is now judgment. The serpent would suffer. Eve would suffer. Adam would suffer. The earth would suffer and be contaminated and bring forth weeds and thorns and thistles and all the animals would die and all the trees would get diseased and die and that's just what we see today. The earth was cursed for man's sake and then man was driven out of the Garden of Eden so he never had access to the tree of life and therefore immortality ended and he was sentenced to death. He would die, but before he died, he would suffer because of his sin, because of Satan, because of his selfishness, and because of his sin. So when you're talking to people and they say, why is there so much suffering? Why did, stop them and say this to them. Wait a minute, when God made everything, it was perfect. Straighten this out. Go on the offensive. No, no, no, no wait a minute when God made everything was perfect. God. Did you understand God made Adam and Eve to live forever? He never meant to die He put them in paradise. He put them in the Garden of Eden When when God looked around after his creation he looked around he said everything is good Everything was good It was Satan's selfishness and sin that brought suffering in Genesis 3. Let's blame it on the devil. Let's blame it on man's selfishness. And let's blame it on man's sin. And then you and I, as by one man sinning in the world, death by sin, death passed upon all men for the law of sin, we keep sinning and as a result we keep compounding the curse on earth. So there's more and more and more and more and more suffering, more and more and more degeneracy, more and more and more. The gene pool has been contaminated. So sometimes kids are born with cancer, other diseases, blind, deaf, whatever, Down syndrome, whatever. That's not God. That's from the compounded disobedience to God of man as we continue to sin. Not only do we sin, folks, a lot of us take a lot of pleasure in it. And so it's just the gene pool is getting worse all the time. But you know, we don't have to end there. I want to close with this tonight. Someday paradise is going to be restored. And that's what we need to tell people who are tripping over this question about suffering. He said, no, you know, if you get saved, you have promises of paradise being restored. So let's have a few sword drills just to see some of this stuff here. This is great. Draw swords. Revelation 21.4. Go. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more That's a great verse. Everyone should know that verse if you're talking to somebody who's struggling with suffering. It says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. This is future now. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. Amen. For the former things are wiped away. Draw swords. 1st Corinthians 15 26 Go 1st Corinthians 15 26 Now there's some good news the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death and You know, Jesus one time said about us that are saved, he says, neither can they die anymore but are as the angels of heaven. Once we die, saved, and we go to be with God in heaven, it is impossible to ever die again. Hallelujah. He's going to restore paradise, only it's going to be so much nicer than the new heaven and the new earth. All right, a couple more. What's the score anyway? It's tied. All I've heard is men. You got one? Three of them? Three to three? Draw swords. Isaiah 65, 17. Go. I love this verse. Let me read it. I know you couldn't quite hear faith completely. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Amen. All this pain and suffering, disease and accidents and murders and wars and stuff. Those that are saved are going to be with the Lord forever. God's gonna someday create a new heaven, new earth. This one's gonna melt in a fervent heat. And this one will not be remembered. It'll never come into our minds, the stuff we went through. And of course, time, you know, we're going through this with God in time, but in eternity, the scripture says 1,000 years is like a day to God. So this whole thing's been going for about six days. if we knew time like God does. And, I mean, he's making short work of this earth. When you think of all the eternity past and all the eternity future, what is 6,000 years? Man, it's a, you know, snap of the fingers in time for God. So, let's see. How about one more? Was it tied up now or what? Oh, the girls are winning by one. Yeah. Because this is two verses long, it's worth two points. Hebrews 2, verses 14 and 15. Go. Oh Amen Let me read back just part of that that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage Well, amen, there's we got a great future ahead of us now. We got to educate people. Yeah, go ahead John pass those out So, why is there so much suffering on the earth? What would you say? Remember the three S's, okay? Selfish, Satan, selfishness and sin. And tell people that's where all the curse came. That's where the disease came. It's all in Genesis 3. It's not God's fault, all right? It came from Satan, Eve and Adam's selfishness and their sin. And then by the end of the chapter, all the suffering was pronounced on them. That's where suffering came from. And then try to turn that around and say, but God's going to make this all better. He's going to make it all better. Don't you want to go there? Don't you want to be with Him? Because there are a lot of people that just can't reconcile this idea. of God being love, and yet he lets this stuff happen. It's not his fault. It's not his fault. I don't know about you, sometimes some people, you know the glass is half full, the glass is half empty, you know that? We look at the glass is half full, we say, yeah, they're suffering, but man, I'm having a good time in the Lord. I'm happy in the Lord every day and counting our blessings. I don't know, I think life's been pretty good. Life's been pretty good, so. Especially if you're talking to an American. You know, tell them, what are you whining about? Suffering, brother. In this country? Come on. We have pretty well made compared to others, so. All right, there's a couple pretty deep questions tonight. Predestination, foreknowledge. Okay, we're saved by God's foreknowledge, not by predestination. Keep that word in its context. Why is there so much suffering? Because of Satan. Selfishness and sin. Not just with Adam and Eve, but it's going on to this day. And people are still doing things that bring about a curse. And it's just compounding and compounding and compounding as life goes on. But the Lord's going to come riding on a white horse, going to save us from all this. And there's a pretty neat future ahead of us in the Bible. And as I always say, this ends very well for us. This ends very well for us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray that everybody here will be sure they're saved because we do have the free will to either accept your son as our savior or reject him. And Lord, even though you know who's going to get saved and who isn't, it's still our free will. And so I pray for anybody here that needs a trust in Christ as Savior, that you open their heart and believe Jesus died for them on that cross, paid the penalty, shed his blood to save their souls. Lord, help us to know answers because there's a lot of confusion in the body of Christ today about predestination and foreknowledge. We thank you, Lord, that even through suffering, we learn many good spiritual things through that. We draw closer to Thee. It triggers people to help others and become nurses and doctors and caregivers. And some of the most beautiful people on earth, Lord, are those who minister to the suffering. Lord, it didn't come from You. You made everything perfect. God, give us answers for people who ask these questions. We pray the Holy Spirit would bring them to our memory when the next chance comes up. to maybe help somebody walk in the light of your word. Dismiss us now with thy blessing. We'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen.