Being Eternally Known (11/10/2002)

This morning, we're moving into new territory in our doctrinal studies.

We're going to move into an area that the theologians call soteriology.

We call it salvation.

And so we're going to talk about God's marvelous grace and

all the things that happen in our lives because of his grace.

And there are many things we can talk about along these lines.

So this part of our study will last for some time as we go through the themes of salvation

and study them together.

I don't think we could start with any other than the theme of being

eternally known.

And secondly, the theme of redemption.

So being eternally known and the theme of redemption, I won't spend as much time

on the aspect of the eternal nature of our salvation as I would if I were in another church where

people weren't fairly schooled on this issue, but you study this much

and you seem to have a good, very good understanding of it.

So I will just briefly outline this section and then we'll move into

the second section, which is on redemption and that really will be the first major theme that we

cover.

Because the truth is on the eternal nature of our salvation, we see that on every page in every study that

we do.

It's throughout the Bible.

The sovereignty of God is everywhere throughout the Bible.

It's even the definition of his name if you think about it, God.

He is sovereign.

It's almost redundant to say he is a sovereign God.

You could just say he is God.

But today in our society people lack understanding and so it's so important to study it.

So let's don't leave it out.

Let's at least hit the high points before we move into what we really want to cover, the marvelous theme

of our redemption.

I want to quote Louis Barry Schaeffer.

He said, to be in the eternal plan of God is a position of surpassing

importance, both with regard to the reality itself and its timeless

character.

The human mind cannot grasp what it means to be in the divine purpose from

all eternity, nor what is indicated when it is declared that the same divine purpose

extends into eternity to come.

Whom he predestinated, he also glorified.

As we just take a quick look at the terminology, let me give you the terms that are

that have to do with the eternal nature of our salvation.

The first one we'll look at is the word foreknowledge, or to be foreknown.

And this is a bit of a topical study this morning, so we don't have a passage that we're going to go through until we get

to the theme of redemption.

And then we'll be for some time in the book of Ruth, as you can imagine.

But for now, let's look at a couple of the verses that have to do with the foreknowledge of God as it

as it deals with our salvation.

First of all, you can be turning to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1.

While you do that, I'm going to read Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, because it has more to do just with the

fact of the foreknowledge of God more than it does with our to do with our salvation.

So let me read that while you're turning to the other.

Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye

have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

The reason I read that verse is because there aren't a lot of verses that deal with

the foreknowledge of God, but a couple of them seem to place foreknowledge

before predestination.

However, Acts chapter 2 verse 23 places the determinate counsel of God in

front of foreknowledge.

What that teaches us is that with God there is no order in this sequence because you

can't say that one happens before the other with God.

Now from a human viewpoint, for the sake of studying, perhaps we study them in a specific order, but I will

say this, it would not matter which order we studied them in.

Because one would be inappropriate if he said that God has to foreknow something before he can

determine it.

As a matter of fact, if you were going to use human logic, you would say he would have to determine it before he could foreknow it.

But the truth is with God, he doesn't have to do either one first because it all just is.

So as God teaches us, a little thimble full of information

about his incredible nature.

We as men and women have to study sometimes in order.

Most will study foreknowledge first.

Unfortunately, many, especially the Armenians, will take foreknowledge

to be the very most important aspect and say that it limits God's determination, which is

ridiculous.

And I know no one here believes that, but I thought I would just let you know some others do believe that.

I've had debates with friends before who didn't really believe

too strongly in the sovereignty of God.

Brother Otis would say, well, why would they be your friend?

But I've had such debates before and they would say, well, God doesn't determine

this or that or the other.

He just foreknows it.

And I always respond, well, if he has foreknown it, and in fact he has seen it, isn't it sure

that it's going to happen?

So what's the difference?

And they always go, could we change the subject?

So people that don't study this a lot can easily be confused by it.

Even those of us who do like the topic and studied a lot, we still know that we only know this much

about this aspect of the nature of God.

But isn't it wonderful that he gave us what he did?

Because our rest and our peace is in knowing that God is sovereign.

Knowing that God has everything in his hand, every detail of our lives, not just the big things.

Let me think who it was that was sharing with, I don't remember, might have been, I

can't remember who it was.

If it was you, you can raise your hand.

But one of my buddies was talking to me this week about one of the talk show hosts in

Dallas and how that a Christian called in and said,

you know, we can just thank the Lord that the Republicans won the

whole Congress.

And then they have the presidency and the talk show host comes across as a real conservative politically.

But he was very quick to come back and say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We can't say, we cannot attribute that to God.

He said, God is neither Republican nor Democrat.

Now that confused me.

No, I'm kidding.

He said, he said, God has the universe and all the stars and the rocks

and the asteroids and all that to take care of.

He does good care less about the little details of human life.

And this guy claims to be, you know, a Christian and conservative and so forth.

He missed on that a little bit, didn't he?

God doesn't deal with the issues, you know, the details of life, such as an election.

And yet the Bible says that God is the one who moves the leaders in the world, the kings around his palms on a chessboard.

But he's not interested.

The people are so ignorant today.

And this man goes to church every Sunday.

What does he hear?

Maybe it's not the preacher's fault.

And maybe he doesn't have ears.

I don't know.

But it's our nation is just, as you know, moving towards more and more ignorance with respect to

God.

Well, maybe Brother Raymond can get some of these tapes out across the country and people can

learn about the foreknowledge of God.

Now, you're in First Peter, chapter one, verse one.

Let's read this.

I brought this these two verses, verse one and two, up with a friend of mine who who is

not only a theologian, but also has spent a great deal of time studying the biblical languages.

And I asked him about this, let me show you, let's read it first and then I'll show you what I asked him.

And he couldn't answer it, but he said, I'll give it further study.

But it says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,

Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect according to the

foreknowledge of God, the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and

sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace unto you.

Peace be multiplied.

Many have taken verse two without regard to verse one and tried to show

that election is according to foreknowledge.

As I said in the introduction a few moments ago, man wants to think that man is in control.

So any way that he can minimize God's control, it makes him feel better.

So one of the ways that man tries to do this is to say, well, God's election had to be

according to his foreknowledge.

In other words, he just had the ability to look out and see who was going to receive him.

And so then he chose that person.

Then he determined that that person would be saved, or many of them will say he didn't.

What he did was he looked out and he saw that that person would receive Jesus.

So then he determined that that person would do good works.

They will not even go so far as to say that he determined he would be saved.

So as you can go farther and farther out towards the Arminian view, the Arminian view means that man is in

control and that our choices are what run the universe.

However, what's fascinating to me in the Greek is as you read this verse, let me read it again and you

watch here.

Some of you may have already penciled this in because I've taught this before in a class.

But when you read this word for word in the Greek language.

It comes across this way.

And I want you to focus on you see the very first word in verse two.

What is the word?

All right, in the Greek language, that word is not found anywhere in verse two.

That word is in verse one, and it reads this way, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ

to the elect strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,

Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God, the father, et

cetera, et cetera.

And I asked my Greek scholar friend, why is it that every version of the Bible in English

that I can find places the word elect at the first of verse two, rather than before the

word scattered in verse one where it's found in the Greek?

And he said, you know, I have no idea.

I said, well, is there some grammatical reason or some idiomatic expression

in Greek that we don't know?

Or some reason why the scholars always move that word from being in front of the word

scattered where it is in the Greek to start verse two.

And he said, no, there is no no reason that I can see in the Greek to do that.

He said, I want to study that further.

I haven't heard back from you, but I thought I would just point out that the word really is

the elect strangers.

I said it comes before scattered.

I'm sorry.

It comes before the word stranger.

The elect strangers scattered according to the foreknowledge of God.

So it is the scattering that the Bible teaches according to foreknowledge, not election.

Now, it really is a moot point because, as I said, with God, neither happened before the other.

It wouldn't make sense to say that the foreknowledge happened before he determined the end of all things any more than

it would say that the determination happened before he knew how it would happen.

You just can't really separate them in time.

But theologians attempt to, especially the Armenians, because they want to take away the election and they want to

emphasize the foreknowledge.

It makes them feel better.

Why?

I don't know.

Because if you can understand, as I do, that if God has already foreknown it, it's just as sure to happen as if he predetermined it.

Even if you said he didn't, if you just agreed with me that he foreknew it, then it

is determined.

I don't know why that makes them feel better, but it does.

So I thought I would bring that point out.

But truly, as the Bible teaches foreknowledge, it is mostly

human expression for us to try to understand God a little bit.

Because the truth is, God really does not foreknow.

It's just all now to him.

And you know that.

So foreknowledge is kind of from our viewpoint to at least teach us this doctrine that

God knows the end from the beginning.

And that's where, if you want to theologically study the concept of foreknowledge, that's where you have to leave it.

You don't deal with predetermination.

You don't deal with election.

You don't deal with foreordination, although it is more similar than the others to foreknowledge.

But when you teach pure foreknowledge in the Bible, as it is taught, it teaches this very simple fact and this

only.

So don't go anywhere else with it.

It teaches that God knows the end from the beginning.

That is his foreknowledge.

And that's where we should leave that.

Now, as we go into Deuteronomy chapter seven and verse six, you know, I'm not going to spend any time there, but

I'll remind you because I've preached on it probably three times this year.

That's the passage where God talks about why he loves his children.

And he says, I loved you because I've always loved you.

Now, that's profound because man wants him to say, I love you because you do good things

or I love you because you're very religious or I love you because you do good works for me.

But God didn't say that.

God said, I love you because you have been mine

for all eternity.

I've always known you as my own.

So that's another aspect of the foreknowledge of God, it goes further than just our English word

to know it is an intimate relationship of love, that kind of knowledge.

God has always known us that way, even before we knew we were saved, even before we were born, even before

he made this planet.

You were his own.

Now, let's move to the second key word in the study of.

The eternal nature of our salvation, that is the word for ordination,

for ordination is is a powerful concept in the scriptures,

my favorite verse teaching this is Acts 1348.

So I'm going to read you the two other ones first while you're turning there.

Acts two twenty three says him being delivered by the determinant counsel and

foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified

and slain.

The concept of foreknowledge in that verse really deals more with for ordination and then in first Peter

one twenty who verily was for ordained before the foundation of the world, but was

manifest in these last times for you.

Talking about Jesus himself.

It says God for ordained.

Before he made the world.

But that Jesus would come, but in these last days he was manifest for you, so there are a couple of

verses on for a nation, but the main one that deals with our salvation is in Acts 1348.

So please look at that one with me.

This language is so extremely clear.

The grammatical structure of this sentence is so clear.

It is transparently clear.

The Armenian would have to literally remove this from his Bible.

Or minimize it in some way.

But God says, and when the Gentiles heard this talking about, they had heard the gospel.

They were glad, what does gospel mean?

Glad tidings, good news.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified, glorified the

word of the Lord.

Now look at this next phrase.

And as many as were ordained to eternal life.

Believe.

That is so clear.

Many people heard this gospel message preached on this particular day.

Some of them believed, others did not.

Can anyone tell me from what God just told us, which ones believed

those that were ordained unto eternal life?

So we see then that the Bible does teach for ordination.

Now as we move into these words, from foreknowledge on, each word we

move to, we make more enemies.

Because these are hated words in Christian circles across the world.

Especially when we get to the next one, the third one, predestination.

That word is hardly discussed at all anymore in Christian circles.

Many preachers, I've heard them tell me, not that they were giving me advice, but I've just heard them chat with each other.

I don't do that as much anymore.

But when I was younger, I would go to some preacher fellowships and sit and listen to them talk.

And that's why I don't go to them now, now that I'm older, because it's just like a talking head.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And some of the talk you hear, oh, well, you know, we just don't preach predestination because it just divides.

It just divides.

So why is it okay to teach that man's in control?

I mean, that would divide me away, wouldn't it, you?

It's okay to divide in that fashion.

So as you go into these words, the further we go, the stronger the word is and the more hated the word is

among men and men who claim to be Christians.

So look at predestination.

Romans 8, 29 is a good place to look

while you're turning.

I'm going to read you another one in Acts.

Him being delivered by the predeterminate counsel.

And for knowledge of God.

We're turning to Romans 8, 29.

Oh, that was Acts 2, 23.

You see, it says that Jesus was delivered because of the predeterminate counsel of God.

That tells us that God had predetermined or predestinated that Jesus Christ

would die on the cross.

And it also tells us it's one of the very few verses, no more than two or three in the whole Bible

that teach about this counsel that took place.

By the Godhead before anything was created when these things were determined.

It mentions it here gives us just a glimpse.

That there was a time if for lack of other word to use before time.

When the father and Jesus in the Holy Spirit is omnipresent.

So obviously we would include the Holy Spirit.

He is the spirit of Christ.

He is the spirit of the father, but when they came together.

And began to counsel now counsel implies sequence in time.

So when the father there's a time, by the way, when Jesus said I proceeded forth and came out from God.

He says I've always existed with the father, but there was a time I proceeded forth and came out from God.

And so I believe I visualize it.

This is my opinion.

I'm going to go into opinion just for a moment.

This is not the Bible.

It's my opinion.

I believe that Jesus and the father were one and the father said, well, you know, I think I would like to

have a counselor discussion.

So Jesus came forth out from the father and sat down in the chair and now they can talk now sequence

begins before that is an eternal.

Non time and eternal present tense, but when they begin to plan in our thinking

anyway, you have to have sequence.

If you're going to plan because the plan means this happens first then this then this then this that

happened at some point before our time began on the planet Earth.

The father and the son began to counsel the Holy Spirit always being with them to

counsel and literally determine what would happen in human history.

That happened every detail was determined.

Every detail was planned in this council.

Talks about it in Acts 2 23, where even the crucifixion of

Jesus was predetermined.

Why do you think it was that Jesus in that garden as he sweat blood said father take this

cup from me comma, maybe not even a comma maybe in the very next breath.

Nevertheless, I will be done.

Why do you think he knew the will he was at the council?

And at that council meeting, it was determined that he would be crucified by wicked hands

and slain.

So Acts 2 23 discusses the predeterminate Council Romans 8 29

for whom he did for know.

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

This discusses both for knowledge and predestination.

It does not necessarily teach an order.

It simply teaches that both occurred.

First Peter chapter 1 verse 2.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the spirit and to

obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, which we know was predestinated

grace and do you peace be multiplied.

So God's act of predestination is just as sure as his act of foreknowledge.

And in fact from a human viewpoint, I fail to see how anyone would put for knowledge

before predetermination.

They both happened at the same moment.

They happened in the council.

All things were predetermined.

All things were foreknown by the father and by the son.

Now, let's go to the fourth term.

Now, we're moving into very unpopular territory because if one would concede, yes, since

God is God, he can predetermine things.

Then we move to the term elect.

The elect God can elect who in fact shall be saved.

Well, no, we can't go that far.

They would say I can go so far as to say God predetermined everything, but not who would be saved.

Does that make logical sense?

He predetermined everything, but not who would be saved and who would be lost.

It's very difficult to move to this next step and say God is that sovereign.

That God is that much in control.

Now, why that's difficult for us, I don't know because in Sunday school this morning, we were talking

about some of these things.

And I was sitting back there getting on a mental rabbit trail.

I was thinking about childbirth.

And I think Brother Otis taught something about how God determined who his children would be.

And I'm thinking, well, and his point was that God called us to himself

for himself, not for us.

Now, we benefit, we gain the benefit of it, but he did it for himself.

And I thought that, well, that's perfectly logical to me.

Because how many parents in this room had children for the children's

sake versus because you wanted to have children?

Did you have the children for them or for you?

I know Charlotte and I had them because we wanted some babies.

We wanted children.

You had your children because you wanted children.

The child did not determine to be born.

You determined that the child would be born.

You foreknew that the child would be born in our own limited human way.

But it's just an example that if human parents do the determining and do the choosing and

elect to have children, it's not the children that make those choices.

Why is it so important for the Arminian to believe that we choose our own spiritual

birth?

Or when we would be born or how we would be born into God's family?

Or if we would be born into God's family?

God does that.

It's all of God.

And as we come into beyond foreknowledge, beyond foreordination, beyond predetermination to

this term elect, we see it very clearly.

First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 4 says, knowing brethren beloved your election

of God.

I'm just showing you some places where the term election is used.

Very commonly used in the first century among Christians.

Today you won't hear it.

When's the last time you visited another church?

Now you may hear it around here, but you visit another church and some brother or sister walks up and says, welcome my

fellow elect.

You say, well I'd kind of feel funny if they did say that to me.

But at least in the first century this was common language.

Today, especially among Baptists, it's been removed because it's controversial.

And as we discussed in a recent sermon, even when Jesus talked about it.

It said many of his followers walked with him no more from that day.

Yes, it will cause division, but Jesus created that type of division when he discussed this truth.

So apparently he felt it important enough that as truth we should discuss it rather than

worrying about whether truth would divide.

Now we don't want little picky things or the devil to get involved and cause division in the church over

minor issues ever.

Or over hurt feelings and those sorts of things.

We don't want that, but we can never say that we're afraid to teach what we know is truth.

For fear that it might cause division because truth will not bring division among those who are the Lord's and who are studying his

word and who love to study.

That's kind of who I want to hang out with anyway, how about you?

Romans 8 .33

It is God that justifies.

Colossians 3 .12 As the elect of

God, holy and beloved, put on bowels of mercies,

kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and long -suffering.

Why?

Because you are the elect of God.

Titus 1 .1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

according to the faith of God's elect.

And the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness.

Now those are places where the actual term elect are used.

There is a very similar term in the Greek and it's the word to be chosen.

Let me show you that one.

Ephesians 1 .4 Actually elect means to be chosen, to be elected.

It means the same thing as it does in our common language.

Isn't it funny how the Armenian will take a word like elect and totally destroy its meaning?

When you go to the elections that we recently had, what do we mean when we say that some Republican

senators were elected?

Does that mean that we foreknew who they would be and after they became senators, we then voted

for them?

That's the way it is in some countries, the Soviet Union perhaps.

So in other words, we knew who they would be and they just took office and so then we chose them.

Is that how it works?

Or did we choose them and therefore they are now in the office?

That's what elect means.

We elected them.

That's what it means towards salvation as well.

It does not mean that God looked down and saw who the good people were and then later he chose them to be his.

It doesn't mean that at all.

Chosen Ephesians 1 .4 According as he

hath chosen us, elected us, in him,

in Christ in other words, before the foundation of the world, that we

should be holy and without blame before him in love.

So it tells the time period when this took place from our human viewpoint.

It happened before the world was formed.

At that time, sometime before that, God chose us to be in Christ.

Now many of these folks who hate these doctrines will tell you, well,

I'll grant you that God determined things, but what he determined was that if you got saved, you

would do good works.

So predetermination and election and the choosing all has only to do with the good works you do, not the salvation.

That's what they'll say.

But as I read this very carefully, it says to me that I was chosen in Christ.

It does not say that I was chosen to do good works.

There are verses that say that.

Ephesians 2 .10 says that.

The one we read about predestination a while ago,

Romans 8 .29 says we were predetermined or predestinated to be conformed into his image.

But that's not really the same thing as saying we're predestinated to do good works.

If you think about that verse in Romans, to be conformed into his image means simply to be in Christ,

which is what this verse says in Ephesians 1 .4.

He chose us before the world was made, long before we were ever born,

to be in Christ.

Does that speak, does being in Christ speak primarily of salvation or does it speak of just

doing good things?

Well, doing good things may be part of our overall salvation or a result of it.

But you couldn't say this is not dealing with salvation, could you?

When it says we're chosen to be in Christ.

And we know these things, but I'm putting them on the tape for Brother Raymond's crowd out there across America.

Some people don't know these things.

They haven't heard them preached in a hundred years, some of these very simple truths.

So we have foreknowledge, we have foreordination, we have predestination, we have election,

we have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be in Christ.

And then the next word is the word called.

I think we discussed this in Sunday school this morning as well.

Let me briefly mention two forms of calling among theologians as they study this

concept in the Bible.

One, sometimes they call a universal call, and the other they call the effectual call.

If you want to see a verse that might have to do with what they call a universal call, you might turn to Matthew chapter

22 and verse 14.

I am not as comfortable calling it a universal call as I am saying that

God has given forth a universal message

called the gospel.

God gave the gospel to all men, women, boys, and girls.

It is given to the whole world, meaning all men and women and boys and girls.

The gospel is given in that sense, and in that sense it is a universal call.

Strictly from the human viewpoint, it is true that God calls everyone as he

gave forth the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everyone who hears that, if it falls on their ears, in a sense God called them.

But that is not the same type of calling that is used in most verses in the Bible.

So we have to divide the word called into those two meanings, two definitions if you will.

It depends on which word you are talking about to determine the definition.

It must be determined by the context.

Matthew 22, 14 says many are called but few are chosen.

It seems to show a difference between the number of people who are chosen to be saved and the number of people

who are called.

That is only true if what you mean by called is that they all

heard the gospel.

It is used in that sense.

Now I think it is funny that the Arminians will use Matthew 22, 14 to try to prove that the calling

is not effectual.

But to me it is strange that they leave out the fact that it teaches choosing.

It teaches that few are chosen.

It teaches election, but they do not mention that part.

They like to try to prove that it shows that there is a universal call.

God is calling all men to himself.

He is in the sense that he gave the gospel to all men.

A warning to the elect, a warning to the non -elect.

We do not know who they are anyway, do we?

So we preach the gospel to all men.

And all men hear this warning in a nutshell.

They hear number one, you have fallen short of the glory of God.

God says in the gospel, you have fallen short.

There is no man that understandeth.

There is none that seeketh after me.

You have all gone astray.

You have all gone your own way.

You are lost.

That is number one.

Number two, you cannot be saved by doing anything good.

Because what you do good today does not eliminate the evil you did yesterday.

So a system of doing good works will not save you.

All of the great religions of the world other than biblical Christianity are based on good

works.

I will climb my way to heaven by doing things for God, doing religious things.

All other religions other than biblical Christianity teach that.

But the gospel says that is not true.

In fact, that is why the gospel means good news.

Because it would not be good news if we had to climb our way to heaven.

Because we would slip and fall every time, wouldn't we?

Every rung that we would climb we would lose to.

And we would end up in hell.

So the good news is my system of salvation does not work that way, God says.

The good news is I predetermined in the council before the foundation of the

world that Jesus Christ would be crucified

and would die.

That you not have to die for those sins.

Anyone who will receive Him as their personal Lord and Savior all

of the sins have been paid for by His death on that cross.

Anyone who would receive Him, all of their sins have already been paid for.

That is the good news.

Now listen, that message has gone out to the whole world.

The Bible says even in the first century it went to the whole known world.

By now it's gone in almost every language and dialect that there is on the planet.

That gospel message.

So in that sense there is a universal call.

But now let me talk about the effectual call a moment.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 .24.

And also we'll look at Romans 8 and verse 30.

1 Thessalonians 5 .24 says, Faithful is he that calleth you who

also will do it.

Now, there we have the word call.

But I want you to look up and see what it's talking about.

Where God says who also will do it.

What is He talking about doing?

Well look at verse 23.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the

coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it.

In that sense everyone who is called will have this done to them.

It's passive.

It means God does it.

He preserves you blameless.

Your whole body, soul and spirit.

If you've been called.

That's what we call the effectual call.

You see it even more clearly in Romans chapter 8 verse 30.

Moreover.

Now you'll notice that this is the same number of people throughout this verse.

As it goes into the different things that are talked about.

Whom he did predestinate.

Them he also called.

So the same number that were predestinated were called.

And whom he called.

All of them he also justified.

And whom he justified.

All of them he also glorified.

That's in the future.

That's our future ultimate redemption of the body.

The total salvation.

Even the body is saved at that point.

The same number of people in other words.

That find themselves in heaven glorified at the end of that verse.

Are the same number who were justified while in this life.

And the same number of those were called.

And the same who were called were predestinated.

So we see almost the entire lesson in that one verse this morning.

And I want to close this morning with this quote.

From Louis Barry Schaeffer.

Next Sunday we'll get into this beautiful doctrine of redemption.

And we'll have more of a verse by verse study.

How great then is this characterizing work.

Of distinctive position.

And how immeasurable the opulence of the one who is included.

In the eternal purpose of God.

Let's stand and have prayer together.

Father we cannot comprehend what it means.

To be included in your foreordination.

Which from our vantage point happened in eternity past.

Before our time began.

We were known by you as your children.

We cannot even comprehend our present salvation.

And all that it means in our life.

But we thank you for the revelation that you've given us about it.

But beyond that it is.

Immeasurably difficult for us to comprehend.

What it means that our eternal future with you.

Has been predetermined as well.

You have known us.

Chosen us.

Predetermined that we would be in Christ.

Called us at a point in time.

Where we would look up and see the light.

And say Lord what would you have us to do?

You have placed your spirit within our hearts.

Regenerated our spirits.

Given us the new man that is attached to your spirit.

All of these benefits.

And you did it all for yourself.

Because you wanted children.

Thank you Father that you've called us to yourself.

Lord if there's anyone in the congregation.

Who has not had that calling.

And maybe is having it right now.

Sensing your voice.

And hearing your voice as you call them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

May they simply look up and say.

Lord what would you have me to do this morning?

Father we ask that you go with us.

Into our time of fellowship.

We thank you for the meal we're about to have together.

Our afternoon Bible study.

Thank you for the wonderful time you give us together.

And we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.