WWUTT 2378 For Such Was His Gracious Will (Luke 10:21-24)

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What is the doctrine of double predestination? That's nothing to be scared of.

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As a matter of fact, Jesus rejoiced in this doctrine of double predestination, giving glory to the

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Father when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and greetings, everyone. We come back to our study in Luke 10, and if we were moving on today, then we would be up to the parable of the

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Good Samaritan, but I'm gonna save that until Monday. Let's come back to that prayer that we read yesterday, that Jesus prays unto the

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Father. This is Luke 10, verses 21 to 24. Hear the word of the

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Lord. In that same hour, He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,

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I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

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Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my

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Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the

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Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the

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Son chooses to reveal Him. Then turning to the disciples, He said privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

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For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

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Now, this prayer, as we read it here in Luke 10, this is not the first time that we've read this prayer.

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It is recorded for us previously in Matthew 11, in just about the same way.

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I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

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Whether we're reading it in Matthew 11, which is the place that I most often reference this prayer from,

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I'm usually referencing it from the context that we have in Matthew 11. So whether we're reading it there, or we read it here in Luke 10, either way, what we read here in this prayer is the doctrine of God's sovereign election, that He has chosen some for salvation and has reserved the rest for destruction.

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God means to show the full range of His glory, both in whom

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He means to save and whom He will destroy. Now, there's another name for this doctrine the way that I've described it, and that is the doctrine of double predestination.

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There are a lot of people that don't like the doctrine of double predestination. Why not? Well, because it means that not only did

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God willfully choose this people to place His affection on and save them, and that for them,

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Christ would die, and over them, His blood would cover, and He would atone for their sins.

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They're the ones who are gonna have everlasting life with Him forever in glory. Not only did God choose them, but it means also that He chose this other group of people to be destroyed.

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He chose them for His wrath, that He would pour out His wrath upon them, and they would be destroyed forever in hell.

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And so with double predestination, it is God's willful choice to save these and His willful choice to not save these others, but to destroy them.

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That is just something that we as human beings just don't like to think of, especially regarding God, that He would choose to destroy these people.

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From eternity past, these were the ones that His wrath was going to be poured out upon. But we have that doctrine of double predestination explained right here in this prayer, in Luke 10.

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I mean, logically, if God is going to choose these people, if He's going to place

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His affection on His elect, whom He is gonna save, then naturally, it's not like the people who are perishing are just people that God forgot about.

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Logically, He's therefore willfully pouring out His wrath on those whom

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He will not save. He has selected, chosen them for destruction.

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Look again at this prayer as Jesus prays it in Luke 10 .21. I thank you,

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Father, Lord of heaven and earth. So He's acknowledging God who is head over all, all things created and all things seen and unseen.

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God the Father reigns over all of it. Now, of course, what we're gonna read at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry is that all authority that belongs to the

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Father is given to the Son. And this is why the Son is referred to as the firstborn.

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Like in Colossians chapter one, where it says He is the firstborn of all creation. There are those who have a very heretical view of God, of the

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Trinity, of Jesus Christ, even maybe denying His deity or that He is eternal with the

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Father, that will take that statement there in Colossians one and will say that means that Jesus was created because Jesus is the firstborn of creation.

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Not what that means at all. David, King David is referred to by God as the firstborn.

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But in what order was David born? Was he the firstborn among his brothers?

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No, he was the youngest, the youngest of his brothers. And yet he's referred to as the firstborn in the

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Psalms. How could that be? Well, that name means something else.

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It doesn't mean that he comes first in the order of birth. It means that his father has made him first to be the recipient of everything that belongs to the

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Father. So what belongs to the Father, typically, typically he passes on to the firstborn.

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So the firstborn son would receive everything that belongs to the Father. But when another son receives everything that belongs to the

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Father, then he gets called the firstborn, even though he was not born first in the order.

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He's still placed first among those who were born. Does that make sense? So when

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Jesus is called the firstborn of creation, it means that the

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Father has given him all the rights of the firstborn. Everything that belongs to the

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Father belongs to the Son. So as Jesus is exalting here, the Father to whom all things belong, that's in the very beginning of his prayer,

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I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Now we understand that God is not just the creator of space, but time.

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He is the creator of time and space. Time has to come from somewhere. God is not governed by time.

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He exists outside the bounds of time because he existed before time.

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Jesus even prays that very thing. We see that in the high priestly prayer in John 17, where he says, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

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That could also be read before time began. With the creation of matter was the creation of time.

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God exists outside the bounds of time. That he exists for all eternity with no beginning or no end, it means time has nothing on God.

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God is over time. He created that. So if God is the creator even of time, then he is the one who has willed what will happen in time.

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We talk about this as God having decreed before the foundation of the world.

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So he has given his sovereign decree. And whatever that decree is, we only get to know it as far as he has revealed it in his word.

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Or we can look back in the past and see those things that have happened, and we know God willed that to happen.

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Whatever is happening in the present, God has ordained for those things to take place. What's gonna happen in the future?

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We don't know outside of what's revealed to us in scripture. So this is God's sovereign decree that he has purpose from before time began.

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And that's his sovereignty. He has the sovereign right to rule over all that he has created, even time itself, because he made it all.

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Now, the way that God works in his creation, in the midst of creation. Now, just because we say that God started all these things from the very beginning, and he has set all this in motion by his sovereign hand, it doesn't mean that he then took his hands off of it and just kind of let it run its course, because God is even working through what he has made to bring about the desired end that he decreed from before the foundation of the world.

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And we refer to that as his providence. As God is working in the midst of our circumstances to bring to that end that he purposed from the very beginning.

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God is with us even now, working those things out ultimately to his glory, for our good and to his glory.

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As said in Romans 8 .28, for those who love God, he works all things together for good.

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For those who are called according to his purpose. So he is working in the midst of everything that is happening right now.

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And this is his providence. I teach a Bible class at a Christian school, Monday to Thursday.

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And we were just recently talking about sovereignty and providence. And so I said, what's the difference between these two things?

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What's sovereignty and what's providence? Sovereignty is God's rule. It is his right to rule over what he has made, however he has chosen.

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Providence is the way he rules. So working in the midst of those things that he has made to bring about what he has purposed from the very beginning.

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We don't worship a deist God. The deists believe that God is just so far above us and out there that we can't possibly even fathom who he is, which is instantly a self -defeating argument.

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Like if God is so out there that you can't possibly conceive of who he is, then how could you conceive even that much?

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You obviously have some concept of God because you're even making this statement of him being a

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God who is just so out there and above us that we can't possibly reach him or anything else. And it is true that God is so far above us, we could not reach him if he had not condescended himself to us.

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That would certainly be true. But the deists believe that God is not interacting with those things that he has made.

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He just set it in motion, took his hands off of it, and he's just standing back and kind of watching all of it take place. So it doesn't matter whether you pray to him or not or any of those things because he's not even listening.

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He's too far away from us. That's not the kind of God we worship. That is not at all the kind of God that is demonstrated for us in the

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Bible because right here, we're reading the words of the son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us.

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So God is very clearly in the midst of his creation because he loves us and is working these things out, not just to his glory, but even to our good.

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And so his sovereignty is his rule. His providence is the way he rules.

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And he is ruling even in the midst of time and space to bring about what he has purposed from the very beginning.

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And all of that is bound up in Jesus' address to the father as Lord of heaven and earth.

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And he goes on to say, you have hidden these things. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, as we were kind of exegeting here the text in the way that we did yesterday, these things are all the things that the disciples have been privileged to see.

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They have seen these evil spirits cast out, but even more than this, they have heard the words of Jesus and they believe them.

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It wasn't that long before this that Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ that was at the end of chapter nine.

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And so they have come to know that Jesus himself is the Messiah. He's the son of God who was sent from God.

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And so these things have been revealed by the father as we understand it, as Jesus had replied to Peter, at least in Matthew 16, we didn't have this in Luke nine, but in Matthew 16, he says to Peter, blessed are you,

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Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you that you are the Christ, the son of the living

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God, but my father who is in heaven. It is the father who has revealed these truths, even the deity of Christ to his disciples.

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I thank you, father, that you have revealed these things to little children. You've hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children, those who are of less regard, that the rest of the culture doesn't pay that much attention to, that people think are mostly dumb and immature and inexperienced, they haven't been educated yet, they don't know these things.

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So you have the wise and the learning, they look down on the children because the children don't know much, but the wise and the understanding are the ones that lack wisdom and understanding.

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When Jesus refers to them as the wise and the understanding, that's by human perception. That's even by whom they would boastfully claim themselves to be.

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We are so wise and so learned and we have all of the knowledge that you need to know in order to be pleasing to God and Lord themselves over those people that are under them.

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But it's not these who have come to understand who Jesus is and what he means to accomplish in fulfillment of the scriptures.

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These things have instead been revealed to these disciples, the less educated men, those whom

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Christ had chosen to follow him and accomplish this mission even that he had just sent them out to do, the 72, the sending out of the 72 or the sending out of the 70, however, whichever your translation reads.

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Like I said, I made an argument for the 70, but your Bible still may say the 72. So anyway,

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Jesus goes on to say, yes, father, for such was your gracious will. I read this passage with my students, with my

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Bible class. And I said to them, the things that God has revealed to little children and the things that he has hidden from the wise and understanding are these salvific truths.

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I asked this to the students and they paused for a long time.

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And then one of the students finally said, yes. And I said, okay, so you believe that what

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God has revealed is salvific truth by believing it, you would be saved. And he said, yes.

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I said, so if God has deliberately and intentionally hidden it from another group of people, what does that mean for them?

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And the students answered, that means they're going to hell.

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And I said, correct. So the father has chosen to whom he is gonna reveal these things that they may believe and from whom he will hide them so that they won't believe and will perish.

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And I said, this is nothing new. You go back to the old Testament, you go back to Isaiah chapter six, where God is sending

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Isaiah to prophesy to this people, but he says, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.

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Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. May the heart of this people be dull, their eyes heavy, their eyes blind, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

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But God did not mean for them to turn and be healed. But even though the prophet would prophesy to them, yet they would not understand it and they would not turn from their sin and so be saved.

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And that was the will of God that their ears would be stopped up in this way so that they would come into judgment and God would demonstrate his glory and power in this way.

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He demonstrates his glory by saving people saving those whom he means to save and destroying those whom he means to destroy.

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And consider the response that the apostle Paul gives in Romans chapter nine to the debater who pushes back on this idea,

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Romans 9, 19. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

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But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

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Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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What if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

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That means you go back to the potter over the clay, right? He makes from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, one vessel for dishonorable use.

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So he has deliberately made from that clump a person that he means to destroy.

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What if God desiring to show his wrath and make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

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Even us whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. Lest anybody want to make that argument for Romans chapter nine, or this is just talking about the

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Jews. Now read on to verse 24, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

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This is what God has purposed. Proverbs 16, four, the

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Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble, all of these things by the sovereign hand of God.

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And in his sovereignty, it is his right to rule and reign over everything the way that he has chosen.

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Now, for anyone who says, oh, this just makes us all robots, does it? Jesus put on flesh and dwelt among us.

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Was he a robot? He became like his brothers in every way, as said in Hebrews, though he was without sin, he was tempted yet without sin.

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So if he became like us, put on flesh and dwelt among us, and he became like his brothers, was Jesus a robot?

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No. So this is not an argument that we've all been made automatons. It's not what that means at all.

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You are still gonna be responsible for your actions. And God has decreed all things from before the foundation of the world.

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And those two ideas, we only think contradict because that's our human folly.

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We can't make sense of that concept, and we won't fully understand it until we get into glory.

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There's still divine mystery behind all of this. You are going to be held responsible for your actions, and you won't be able to point the finger at God and say, why did you make me like this?

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Again, Paul already responded to that argument in Romans chapter nine. You're not saying anything that the

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Bible hasn't already responded to. God has the right to rule and reign in whatever way that he chooses.

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And we don't have any right to say that God owes us anything or that we can do anything that obligates him to have to give something to us.

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That's in Romans chapter 11, who has given him a gift that he might be repaid as though we would do something that would obligate

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God. Okay, God, now I've said the prayer, I've made the decision, now you have to save me. God is gonna show mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he has compassion on whom he has compassion.

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And it's according to his will. Those to whom he has revealed the things that by believing in them, they might be saved, and those from whom he has hidden those things so that continuing in their rebellion, they might be destroyed.

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And God will be glorified in all of this. And Jesus rejoices in that.

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He rejoices right here in the doctrine of double predestination.

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That God has chosen some for salvation and some for destruction. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

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And so what is our response to be to this? Well, consider what Jesus had said previously in verse 20.

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Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. And then what's in verses 23 and 24, blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

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For many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it and hear what you hear and did not hear it.

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So rejoice in God that he has chosen you. We don't know who the elect are.

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God knows who the elect are. Everybody is saved the same way by grace through faith.

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You come to salvation because somebody preached the gospel to you and you believed it and you were saved.

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That's the way that everybody is saved. Everybody who is saved, who is going to be saved is saved that way because they heard the gospel.

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They put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. They're forgiven their sins and have everlasting life.

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So we need to go out with the message of the gospel and continue to proclaim it. But God is the one who ultimately decides who will be saved.

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He has decreed it from before the foundation of the world. So that comes with a guarantee. When you preach the gospel, there are people who will be saved, but there are many who are not going to believe.

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And that is also by the decree of God. So let us be thankful to him for the salvation that we have and faithful to him to continue to preach the word that he has purposed will bring his elect to salvation for all who believe.

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How do you know that you're elect? Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

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That's how you know you're elect. Heavenly father, we thank you that you have revealed these things to us that we might see and believe and know and have faith and be saved.

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This was your gracious will. It was by the grace of God, unmerited favor.

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We did nothing to earn it. We did not deserve it. You gave it to us by your grace. And so in Christ Jesus, may we walk in our days according to your will, in obedience to him, confirming our calling and election, the way that Peter puts it in 2

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Peter 1, by being obedient unto the father, doing the will of the father, following the example of our savior

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Christ who gave his life for us, rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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It's in Jesus name we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.