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The Mystery and the Blessing of Predestination

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress
The Truth Network Radio
September 4, 2024 3:00 am

The Mystery and the Blessing of Predestination

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress

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September 4, 2024 3:00 am

For centuries, Christians have debated the complex doctrine of predestination. How can we reconcile God’s sovereign choice with human free will? Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why we should celebrate God’s mysterious yet loving selection of believers before the foundation of the world.

 

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Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. There are some people who teach double predestination. They teach God has chosen some people for the purpose of saving them. God has created other people for the sole purpose of destruction. Does the Bible teach that?

I don't believe so. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, for centuries, Christians have debated the complex doctrine of predestination.

How can we reconcile God's sovereign choice with human free will? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why we should celebrate God's mysterious yet loving selection of believers before the foundation of the world. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When I leave the house to run some errands, it's not uncommon for me to bring some reading material along with me.

I like to carry something with me that feeds my own soul throughout the day. Well, over the past few years, we've developed one of our best kept secrets at Pathway to Victory. It's called Pathway Magazine. This uplifting publication is designed just for you to provide brief moments of spiritual encouragement to your busy life. You'll love the daily devotional readings and the feature articles about your Christian walk. And right now, to help you get started, I'm prepared to send you the first three issues at no cost to you just by getting in touch at ptv.org. And then I've also written a brand new book for you, and it's the one I crafted while preparing our teaching series on Ephesians. My book is titled Holy Living in an Unholy World.

You can be among the first to own a copy by getting in touch with us today. My book is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Today's hotly debated topic is included in my book. You see, over the centuries, churches have been united and divided over the topic of predestination. How could it be fair that God has chosen some people to become his children, but not others? Today, we're turning to Ephesians chapter one to unravel one of the biggest conundrums in theology, the tension between God's sovereignty and our responsibility.

I titled today's message The Mystery and the Blessing of Predestination. You're probably familiar with the name William Randolph Hearst. He was the newspaper mogul who was the basis for Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane. Hearst was also known for having a vast art collection filled with treasures. In fact, it took a whole warehouse to contain them. There was a catalog that described every item that he owned. One day, Hearst was reading in the newspaper about a particular art treasure that he really wanted. So he told his agent to scour the earth and pay any price necessary to obtain this work of art.

After a few months, the agent returned and told William Randolph Hearst he had located the treasure. It was in his own warehouse. He'd taken a moment to look at the catalog that detailed all of the things that he owned.

He could have saved a lot of effort. That's a great analogy for what is true of us as Christians. The book of Ephesians is an inventory. It's a catalog of all the spiritual blessings we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The theme of the book of Ephesians is in light of all that we already have, not the new things we need, but in light of everything we have already, we should walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Now, this section, verses 3 to 14 in Greek are actually one long sentence.

Let's see how it starts. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Verse 4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. Now, I don't understand all the implications of that verse. I can't explain predestination and an election to you, and neither can you. Somebody said, try to explain predestination and you may lose your mind.

Try to explain it away and you may lose your soul. We need to understand, though, that God did choose us. What I do know it means is this, my salvation did not begin with me. My salvation began with God.

It wasn't only before I was born, it was before the foundation of the world. Verse 4 says that God chose us. He chose to set his affection upon us.

I like what John Stott says about this. He says, the doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not human speculation. Now, why do people fight and feud and debate this whole area of predestination and election?

It's because in our finite minds, we take a truth and come to a wrong conclusion. We say, well, if God has already chosen who is gonna be saved, why do I even need to bother to trust in Christ? Why bother if God has already chosen? If God has already elected who's going to be saved, then why preach the gospel to anybody?

God's gonna do it anyway. Why do we preach? Why do we accept the gospel?

Simple reason, because God told us to. You see, God has not only ordained the end, he has ordained the means to the end. And there is nobody who has ever been saved without hearing the gospel from somebody else or from the pages of scripture or from choosing to believe in the gospel. Let me show you where Paul says that right in this passage.

Skip down to verse 13. In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. It wasn't enough that God chose the Christians at Ephesus to be saved. They had to hear the message. They heard it from Paul during the two years he was preaching to them. But it wasn't enough just to hear the gospel. They had to believe in the gospel.

John 1 12 says, as many as received him, Jesus, to them he gave the power to become the children of God to those who believe on his name. Election, choosing, does not eliminate the responsibility we have to trust in the gospel, receive the gospel, and believe the gospel. Our attitude is not to unravel the mystery of election and predestination.

Our duty is to receive the gospel ourselves and to tell others, as many as we can, about Christ. It's a mystery. We can't understand it.

Both are true. God chooses, but we must accept. If the doctrine of election means anything, it means that God chose us according to his grace. In John 15 16, Jesus said, you did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you. If this means anything, it means our salvation did not begin with us.

It began with God. 1 John 4 10 says, herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and he gave himself as a propitiation, a satisfaction for our sins. The late preacher J. Burnham McGee used to say, God did not choose us because we were good. He didn't choose us because we would do good. He chose us that we might do some good. Look again at verse four. That's what Paul is saying. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, he chose us that we would become holy and blameless before him.

Left to our own devices, ladies and gentlemen, you and I would never choose God on our own. Let me illustrate that for you. I want everybody to stand up where you are right now. Everybody stand up. Now, did I force you to stand up?

Did I put a gun to your head? I simply said stand up. You chose to stand up, but would you have stood up without me saying stand up, without calling you to stand up?

It's a simple illustration, but it's true. We don't choose God. God begins by choosing us.

You can be seated. Now, some people say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. God just chooses some to be saved? That is unfair. It is unfair that God would only choose some and not choose everybody.

We live in a democracy. God ought to choose everybody. That's unfair. Paul had a lot to say about that in Romans chapter nine. Go back and listen to our sermons on Romans nine. He said, don't ever say God is unfair or unjust. First of all, God can do whatever he wants to do. But no piece of clay says to the potter, this isn't right.

I don't like what you're doing. Shall we say the same thing to God? But the truth is, it's fair.

It's more than fair. You see, the people who complain about God not being fair are people who really don't understand their own sinfulness or the sinfulness of humanity. When you really understand your sin and everybody else's sin, the question is no longer, why doesn't God save everybody? The question is, why does God save anybody?

And it's because of his mercy, his grace. You and I are sinners. If we're Christians, we deserve to die eternally in hell. We were like prisoners.

The judgment had already been pronounced. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We're like prisoners on death row waiting for our final execution in hell forever and ever. And yet God in his mercy walked down that long corridor of spiritual death row. He passed by cell after cell, but he stopped in front of your cell.

He looked at you in the eyes and he said, I choose you. That's what grace is all about. Our salvation has nothing to do with any good thing we did.

It's not because we merited it. It's not because God knew we would do good things if we were saved. God's choice is based on his grace. God has chosen us. That's what Paul says.

It's right there in the book. But he's chosen us for a purpose. He has also adopted us. He has adopted us. Look at verses five and six. God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us and the beloved. Now, some people use the words elect and chosen and predestination interchangeably, but they're really not the same thing.

The way to remember it is this. Election has to do with people. People are elected. Predestination has to do with the purpose for which they are chosen. Election emphasizes the who of salvation and predestination emphasizes the why of salvation.

Election emphasizes people. Predestination emphasizes purpose. God elected Noah, Abraham, Isaac.

He elected them, but he elected them for a purpose. And you find purpose throughout the Bible. In Acts 4, it says Jesus was predestined to die on the cross for our sins.

That was his purpose. The Bible says in Romans 8, 28 through 30, we have been predestined to become conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. And in this passage, Paul says we have been predestined to be adopted as sons.

Now, let me stop here and answer a question that a lot of people have. There are some people who teach double predestination. They teach God has chosen some people for the purpose of saving them. God has created other people for the sole purpose of damning them. Just as there are some people who are chosen for salvation, there are some people who have been chosen for the purpose of destruction. Does the Bible teach that?

I don't believe so. The key verse people use to teach double predestination is Romans 9, 22, where Paul talks about vessels, people who are prepared for wrath. That word prepared doesn't mean they're created for God's wrath.

That word prepared means ripened. They are ready for God's wrath because of their own sin and rejection of the truth. Everybody has enough sin and disobedience on their own to go to hell.

They don't need any extra push from God. The Bible doesn't teach double predestination, but it teaches that some have been predestined for a purpose, and that is for their adoption as sons. Now, what does he mean, adoption? This will help you understand the Bible, if you'll remember this. The Bible uses two metaphors, two illustrations of how we become a part of God's family. Sometimes the Bible uses the birth analogy. We are born into the family of God.

Jesus said in John 3 to Nicodemus, you must be what? Born again to enter into the kingdom of God. So sometimes the Bible refers to our salvation as a new birth, emphasizing the supernatural nature of our entrance into God's family. It also emphasizes our need to grow as Christians. We enter God's family as a baby Christian. All a baby can do is cry and wait for its feeding to come next to satisfy its hunger. Paul says we enter God's family like that. Peter said as newborn babes, we need to long for the pure milk of the word that we may grow and respect our salvation. God doesn't want you to stay a baby Christian.

He wants you to grow. So that birth analogy is an apt one. But sometimes the Bible describes our entrance into God's family as an adoption.

Think about it. A child who is adopted has been chosen by their parent. The parent said no to others so he could adopt that little boy or that girl. And in the same way, God's adoption means he chose to place us into his family. But it's not just adoption, it's adoption as sons.

And that's key to understanding what Paul is getting at here. Now, sons has nothing to do with gender. Men and women are part of the family of God.

No one is superior in the family of God. And the idea of sons isn't about gender, it's about maturity. You see, sometimes families will adopt a little baby.

Sometimes they will adopt, especially in Paul's day, Romans would adopt young adults to be a part of their family. There came a time in a child's life, usually around 19 years of age, in which a son received all of his rights as a member of that family. As a baby and as a little child, he had little to no rights.

He wasn't really a lot different than a slave. But Paul says in Galatians 4-5, to be a son means you have full rights and benefits of an adult. And Paul is saying in Ephesians here that when God places us in his family, it's not as little babies with no rights, it's as a full-grown son with all rights. You and I share the same inheritance that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had.

We are joint heirs with Jesus. And that's why he's describing us as being adopted as sons. Whatever this means, it means we praise God the Father because he has chosen us and he has adopted us.

If you don't remember anything else I say, remember this, election and predestination are not ideas to be debated. Instead, they are truths to be celebrated. Aren't you grateful that God chose you and that God has adopted you into his family? And what the Bible says is that yes, we, if we're Christians, are Christians because we have been chosen by God. It's all of grace. But the Bible also says we have a responsibility. The Bible never divorces grace from responsibility. We have a responsibility to accept the gospel and to preach the gospel.

I close today with two principles that come out of this passage about God's selection. First of all, God's selection is rooted in love, not hatred. You know there are some people who go off the deep end on election and predestination and they like to even imagine people being created to go to hell and they get excited about the wrath of God and they picture people burning in hell forever and ever and they get a kick out of that.

Those people are psychologically demented. Now the wrath of God is real. Make no mistake about it. But the doctrine of election is not about God's wrath. It's about his mercy. Isn't that what verse four says? In love, God predestined us according to the kind intention of his will. Election is not about damnation.

It's about salvation. Remember, God's selection is rooted in love, not hatred. Secondly, God's selection is purposeful, not arbitrary. God doesn't say eeny, meeny, miny, moe to heaven or hell you go. It's not arbitrary.

There's a purpose behind it even though we don't understand it. Look at verse 11. Having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will. God has a purpose in electing some, choosing some for salvation.

It's not a plan A and a plan B. God has one will. It's not God's wills. It works things after God's will.

And your choice of salvation is a part of that perfect plan. I love the story that Mary Ann Byrd tells in her book, The Whisper Test, about an experience she had as a little girl that forever changed her life. Listen to this. She said, I grew up knowing I was different and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate. And when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to other people. A little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth and garbled speech. When my schoolmates would ask, what happened to your lip?

I'd tell them that I had fallen or cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me. There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored. Mrs. Leonard was her name.

She was short, round, happy, a sparkling lady. Annually we had our hearing test. Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something and we would have to repeat it back to her.

Things like, the sky is blue or do you have new shoes? I waited there for those words that God must have put in Mrs. Leonard's mouth. Those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said in her whisper, I wish you were my little girl. You know, even though we've been handicapped, deformed by sin in our life, God still whispers, I wish you were my son.

I wish you were my little girl. And the good news of the gospel is we can be a part of the family of God by trusting in Jesus as our savior. As many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believe on his name. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. When today's message was delivered to the church family at First Baptist Dallas, it included far more teaching material than we had time to share with you on today's program.

So in a moment, David will explain how you can receive the unedited version on CD and DVD. In fact, he'll offer the entire collection of studies for this brand new teaching series in Ephesians called Holy Living in an Unholy World. I'm so glad you're along for today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

It's not every day that we get to address these mysterious subjects like predestination. And I hope it's been helpful to you. Maybe you're involved in a small group Bible study or a Sunday school class at your church. Let me suggest that you study the book of Ephesians together by using my book and the companion study guide.

The book is called Holy Living in an Unholy World, and a copy is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'm sure that you, like me, are concerned about this fall's contentious election, and your heart is heavy about the wars taking place in the Middle East and in Ukraine. Meanwhile, we're dealing with cultural issues at home that are shocking and unsettling.

Makes you wonder how we're going to navigate our lives in these dangerous days. Well, that's what motivates Pathway to Victory to remain a beacon of light in the darkness of our times. And I want to thank you for supporting this ministry. Because of your generous giving, we're pushing back the forces of darkness with the light of God's Word.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you Holy Living in an Unholy World.

That's the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress. Simply give us a call, 866-999-2965, or visit online at ptv.org. And when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive the complete Holy Living in an Unholy World teaching series on both DVD video and MP3 format audio discs.

You'll also get the companion study guide. One more time, call 866-999-2965, or visit ptv.org. Now, if you'd prefer to send a letter, we'd be glad to hear from you. P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O.

Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. When someone passes away, we often hear eulogies spoken about their memory. But did you know that eulogies can also be for the living? Discover the Apostle Paul's amazing eulogy to God in his letter to the Ephesians. That's coming up Thursday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Embark on the spiritual journey of a lifetime on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. May 5 through 16, 2025. Enjoy 11 days of fellowship, relaxation, and spiritual refreshment while sailing aboard a luxury cruise ship.

You'll visit sought-after island destinations like Santorini, Mykonos, and Crete. To book your spot on the 2025 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, go to ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in his word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-04 05:27:33 / 2024-09-04 05:37:18 / 10

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