Today on Real Life Radio, God has determined all of this beforehand that we should be holy. Yes, that we should be blameless. Yes, but also this we know from Romans eight twenty nine that we are adopted into the family of God. That's one of His purposes for predestination that we've all been adopted. That's good news.
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibs. I'm David J. Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Hey, I'm very excited to promote this new book by Dr.
Tim LaHaye, not only a mentor of mine but a precious friend. He has written a book, How to Study Bible Prophecy for Yourself. Remember, Dr. Tim LaHaye is the one that brought you the remarkable Left Behind series. I bet with all of your knowledge of Bible prophecy, there's still a hole somewhere, and this book is going to help you as he walks you through how to study Bible prophecy for yourself.
How to study Bible prophecy for yourself. Get it for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now in his series called "The Book of Ephesians" and a message titled "We Have Been Chosen in Christ, Part Two." Ephesians is, of course, a letter the Apostle Paul wrote from prison to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And here, Paul reveals that long before we ever chose God, God in His love had already chosen us. You see, before the world was ever formed, God knew you, and He set His love upon you.
That means that you're not an accident or an afterthought. You're chosen. You're accepted, and you belong to Him.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that God's foreknowledge is a gift meant to bring us peace, not fear. He knew every choice we'd make, and in His love, He knew those who would come to Christ or reject Him.
Now, with His message called "We Have Been Chosen in Christ," Part Two, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. We come before You in Jesus' name, and Lord, we would ask. Lord, that you would inhabit the praises of your people, and God, that you would open forth your word to our hearts. That Lord, out of your truth, we would behold sweet and precious and holy things. And so, Father, we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.
All right, why don't you grab your Bibles this evening and open them to the Book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one tonight, and we're studying really what is called part two of "We Have Been Chosen in Christ." Ephesians chapter one, and we're in verses five and six tonight, and we are talking about having been chosen in Christ and what it means and the security that it can bring to us. And so Paul tells us here, he says, "Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself." According to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has made us accepted in the beloved, that is Jesus Christ. And here we're talking about the doctrine of predestination. You mention that word, and people begin to get a little uneasy.
I can't begin to imagine why that's the case when the Bible. Clearly reveals to us that it is a doctrine that God has revealed in the Word. It's throughout various portions of Scripture. Here in Ephesians, it's in the Book of Romans that we saw last week, and we'll see again. And in fact, in Romans chapter eight, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine.
Paul says there, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. And why is that the case? Because verse twenty nine says, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined." And by the way, it is a prerogative of God. Foreknowledge is only of God. God holds that capacity.
Jesus exercised foreknowledge in John chapter fourteen, verse twenty-nine. Jesus there says, "I have now told you these things before they come to pass, that when they do come to pass, you might believe." And that is Jesus there in the things that He had told the disciples, what were just about to happen. Jesus said these things in advance, knowing what they were, and knowing that by people knowing something in advance with great detail. They would come to believe. In fact, that's one of the strong arguments for prophecy.
But what if I were to tell you right now that, in a matter of moments, an airplane's going to come landing down on the roof of this building, and it would be a terrible event? You might say, "Well, you're crazy, Jack." Well, hopefully, I wouldn't be crazy. Yes, we wouldn't want to be here. But if I had a tendency to be accurate, maybe 100 as the Bible is, because God, knowing what's coming, tells us in advance. You might get a little nervous.
What if I were to tell you that a guy's going to come running through the church or walking into the church, and he would. Have a Russian hat on, or or and a Hebrew prayer shawl, and a he'd be a big man, a Hawaiian man. That's foreknowledge. What would you think if such a thing happened? Oh, and look now, a big Hawaiian.
Just walked in wearing a prayer shawl and a Russian hat.
Now, how did I know that that was going to happen? I had something that you didn't have. I had foreknowledge. I knew it was coming. And you are shaking your head, going, "I can't believe he did this in the middle of a church service." He knows what's going to happen before it happens, and when He says to us, "I am the God that inhabits eternity.
I have written the end from the beginning, the beginning from the end," so that when these things come to pass, you might believe. He is doing that for us, for our comfort, for our peace. He has given us, as the Bible says, great and precious promises. Why? Because promises are for future events in our lives.
What good is it if I give you a promise, or you give me a promise, but it never is dependent upon the very structure to a promise presupposes I might need it. Are you with me? If you make somebody a promise, they're going to be hanging on in hope that they can lean on you, or they can expect you to be there. God says, "I know what's going to come, and in fact, I have fore in my foreknowledge. I have predestined you to become sons of God." You can fight with that.
You can kick your heels and get all wiggy about that, and think, "Well, if he's predestined some for heaven, that means he must have prepared some for hell." And that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, "In God's foreknowledge, and exclusively in His foreknowledge, that is before time ever began, God knew those that would be His, and those that choose not to follow God, unfortunately." Have chosen their own destiny. It is not to the blame of God. God creates no one for destruction, and yet there's a lot of people going around talking about that. And we'll touch on that lightly a little bit as we get into this.
But the word foreknowledge, very important. In fact, in your notes or in your Bible, you got to move up back to verse four just a moment. And we are going to heavenlyly on verse four, the last two words at the very end, anyway. It says there, just as He chose us in Him, that is Jesus, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Now, most Greek scholars believe that verse five actually starts like this: "In love, having predestined us," isn't that great?
So, you got to put a parenthesis around there because a lot of people struggle with it, and I love it. In love, He has predestined us, and that is absolutely biblically accurate. It's true because God does it in love. Predestination, based upon foreknowledge, the word foreknowledge meaning that God knew beforehand, having a knowledge of the event prior to its happening. It means to ordain based upon foreknowledge, and this fantastic word of predestination is based upon God's foreknowledge or the election of His own.
And he's to make them holy. In verse four, it says that he's chosen us in him, that is Jesus, before the world was ever formed. Number one, that we should be holy. Isn't that encouraging? Are you struggling with sin?
Are you in a Christian battle or warfare?
Well, number one, God has chosen you. If you're a Christian tonight and you can say that, the number one victory already had is that you are holy. You have been taken from the world and set apart to God. That's what that word holy means—set aside—and you have been ordained for God's purposes. You are holy.
Doesn't mean you glow at night. Doesn't mean you glow in the daytime. Doesn't mean there's a little halo or there's an aura about you. You ever have somebody come up and say, "You know, there's such a strong aura around you." Well, that has nothing to do with being holy. Holy is God says you're holy, and you're just as holy.
If you gave your heart to the Lord last Sunday, as Billy Graham is tonight, isn't that amazing? He's not more holy. He's just as holy as you are. Isn't that great? I love that.
I need that bad. The second thing in verse four is that that we are without blame before Him in love. That means nobody can bring anything against us. Man, do we believe this? If we believe this, we would get Pentecostal on the spot.
How many people in your life pick, pick, pick, pick, pick on you? Man, you know what? You're overweight. Oh man, now you're too skinny. You're too short.
You're too tall. Can't you do a good job? Come on, you're always late. No, you always stay late. And it's just forget it.
It's nuts. It's crazy. And God says, "You're blameless before me, all because of Christ Jesus." And we're going to see what kind of effect that should have upon our lives in a moment. God has determined all of this beforehand that we should be holy. Yes, that we should be blameless.
Yes. But also, this we know from Romans eight twenty nine that we are adopted into the family of God. That's one of His purposes for predestination—that we've all been adopted. That's good news. And the second thing is, is Romans eight twenty nine and thirty.
It says that we're to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's why you're having a rough time today. That's why you're having a rough Christian experience, possibly. We used to warn people. When they used to come to the home Bible study, oh, nice to meet you.
What's your name, John? Oh, nice to meet you, John. Hey, I'm not kidding. Ask somebody who was there. We'd pull people aside and say, "You sure you want to come to this home fellowship?" Then when we started across the street in the in Unit 14, you sure you want to come to this church?
Because every time somebody would say, "Oh man, we found our home," their life would explode. And the reason why that's true—it's not because we're jinxed. It's because if you open the Bible and read the Bible, God is going to be molding and shaping you into the image of His Son. But Satan, the enemy, will not let that go unchallenged. That's why.
Listen, it's much easier to check out, tune out, drop out, and go to a place where the word's not being proclaimed, and you just kind of exist, and it'll be much smoother for you. For now, you're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message.
Once again, here's Pastor Jack. Predestination. He says right here, in love, having predestined us. Jot it down in your notes. Predestination involves a choice on God's part.
It involves a choice on God's part. Number two, it is determined by Him in love. That's what it says in verse five. Technically, at the end of verse four, it's been determined in love. And sneak way ahead, months ahead, to verse thirteen.
And look where it says, "In Him, you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." You know what that verse means? That verse clearly teaches that it involves a choice on man's part. Predestination—that is God's foreknowledge. Him.
Working in the lives of those whom He knew would come to receive Him in your time, in your life. The announcement goes out to the world, come. God knew that you would choose Christ whenever you did. God also knew before time was ever created those who would reject Him. In God's foreknowledge, He predestined those of you who would accept Christ to make that commitment in Him and to believe in Him.
He knew that in advance, and so because that's true, He has been working in your life before you were ever born. It's amazing. Why God's foreknowledge? Why? Because He's predestined us to be transformed or.
Formed into the image, conformed into the image of His Son.
Well, how does that happen? Your whole life, B.C. before Christ and after Christ, He's been working in you. But it depends, in some aspect, upon man's choosing. Why do you say that?
Does that mean we have some power over us getting saved or not? God saves us, but we respond to His invitation. Does that mean we get any credit? No, because in His foreknowledge, in predestinating us, we respond to the opportunity. He knew it, so He brings the invitation to us.
Do you see that? In other words, He could have played hardball and never given us the invitation at all.
Some of you look like you're about ready to have a heart attack. Remember the old, remember the old, the old thing about the parade. You've heard it a thousand times. It works perfect. The guy on the corner.
Remember that? Y'all remember that? Does anybody not remember that?
Okay, for you. Here's it. Here it is. If we go to Pasadena and we stand on the corner of Colorado, and and another street, and what is it? Sierra Madre, and then another street.
As the parade begins, though we may be a mile apart, and I'm waiting for the parade to come, it's just now passing in front of you, and I hear it on the radio. I've got Bob Eubanks on there, and I'm listening to whatever her other name is with the red hair, and they're coming, and they're they're coming, and. You see the parade coming. You see it there, and you see it going. And I'm calling you on your cellular phone.
I'm saying, "Has the McDonald's float been by?" Yeah, I've already seen it. I haven't seen it yet.
Well, keep looking because my past is still your future.
Okay, I'm waiting. Here comes the McDonald's float. It's ancient history to you down the street, but now it's the present moment for me.
Now that's a real problem, because we live in time. But a very poor analogy is God gets over the parade in a helicopter and he sees it in front of you and in front of me. He sees the parade from the beginning to the very end. He sees the guy with the poop scoopers behind the horses. He sees the whole thing and he sees the cleanup crew.
And he saw the guys lay down the tape before the parade ever started. It's all one moment with him. And because that's true, God knew in advance. Because time is all done with Him, who would choose Him, and those who would choose Him, He's predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Now you can freak out about that, or you can just full on receive it and say, "Amen." You go, God, I love it. This is great, and we'll enjoy that in God's sovereignty. Though that be all true, he has provided man with the responsibility of choice. Everybody wants choice. God says, "Well, I've given you choice." But remember, like we mentioned last week, we will be held responsible for our choices.
But God, in His sovereign creative powers, has given man the ability ability to choose, to agree or disagree with God with what God does. And you look at the Garden of Eden; you've got Adam and. Eve, there, and the whole thing about predestination—did God know they were going to fail? Yes. Did God make them fail?
No. But because God knew they were going to blow it, because He gave them the free moral agency of choice, God built in a redemptive factor, and that is He sent two angels. Wasn't it two angels? An angel, at least two. One, two.
Anyway, with a flaming sword to guard the tree of life, after they had fallen, because if they would have gone over there and eaten that fruit, and then they would have run over and said, you know, we've blown the whole day. Let's just go for it all the way and run over and eaten the tree of life. Then you and I never would have been able to been redeemed. That's why God sent an angel to protect that tree. If they would have eaten that.
Fruit. They would have been experiencing an eternal existence of death, spiritual death, and we never would have been born again. We could have never been saved. Why? Because God's engineered choice into the factor, and that's an important thing.
First point. Look at the end, verse four. We'll touch on it for a moment. First point: the believer's peace of mind. It says here in love.
And this is the truth of predestination. It is done in love. It says, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Predestination is accomplished and worked out in God's heart through love. Listen, it was determined before time began.
We've made that clear. It has been based upon God's foreknowledge. You understand that it is not, though, without man's responsibility. Evangelism to be evangelism must have a double-edged sword. People does.
Does the Bible tell us to go out and evangelize? Yes. If the five points of Calvinism, let's say, are true, then why evangelize? The five points of Calvinism basically says, in a nutshell, you know what? God knows those who are coming.
He's foreordained them, and it doesn't matter what you do; they're going to come. They're just going to come. And unfortunately. By the way, I hold to three points of the five-point view. I disagree with two of them, and I'll talk about that in a minute.
But the fact is, Jesus has told us to evangelize. If everything has been set, predetermined, then why evangelize at all? Let's just you know check out and go watch a movie, or you know play golf in the flood, or whatever we do. Why do it? But Jesus says, "Go out into all the world.
Listen." All the world, and preach the gospel to how many creatures? All of them. Charles Spurgeon used to practice preaching to cows, based upon that verse. He would practice stand on the fence and preach to cows, and somebody said, "You're nuts! What are you doing?" He says, "I'm preaching to all creatures.
All, all in the Greek means all in the English. It means all." But there's a responsibility for us to evangelize. God says so, and there is also responsibility to those who hear the message to respond. Billy Graham says that if he presents the true gospel of Christ, he never worries about decisions being made. He said he does not care if a hand goes up or not.
He knows that he. He said he's faithful to preach the gospel. Decisions will be made.
Some yes, some no. Maybe all of them will be no. Maybe all of them will be yes. His responsibility is to preach the gospel. In Second Corinthians two fourteen, you got to jot this down next to your margin.
It's an amazing verse. Strange verse. Second Corinthians two fourteen. Says now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved. Isn't that amazing?
We're we're perfumed to God among those who are being saved. God loves evangelism. And among those who are perishing, verse sixteen says, "To the one we are the aroma of death, leading to death; and to the other we are the aroma of life, leading to life." Isn't that amazing? In other words, the gospel goes out, and some respond to everlasting life; some reject to everlasting destruction. And whose choice is that?
It is not God's. In Hebrews three seven, the apostle says there, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart, as in the day of rebellion. Why does he say that? Because when we give the gospel out to people, because predestination is true and God is sovereign in His love, we have to make it clear that you should not receive the message of the gospel. In vain.
There may be people. In fact, I know that there's people who traffic in and out of this church on Sundays and Wednesdays who are not born again, and yet they're so faithful to come. They don't agree with the gospel. And what they do not know is that every time an opportunity is provided for them to choose Christ, they reject. It becomes harder for them to ever come to faith in Christ.
Now, are they are they predestined by God, or are they not? That's not for me to determine. It's not for me to care. Your responsibility and mine is to give forth the word and let the chips, so to speak, land where they may. God makes the decision on that.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio, and his message called "We Have Been Chosen in Christ Part Two." Thanks for joining us today. You know this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called "The Book of Ephesians," a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians, discovering the riches, the walk, and the warfare of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Everything Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing has a home, jackhibbs dot com. It's the place to catch the latest message, revisit a series, listen to the podcast, stream real life network, or find resources that help you stay steady in God's word.
Whether you have five minutes or an hour, start there. The site keeps it easy to watch and listen, learn and grow. Visit JackHibs.com today and stay connected to what God is doing through this ministry. Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry.
And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace. In mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
