What is the Decree Of God?

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All right, guys, so here we are. We're going to have a little lesson this morning, and this will tell you exactly what we're going to talk about.

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It's something that we know and love here at Hope Reform Baptist Church. We're going to talk about the eternal decree of God.

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In other words, his purpose. God has a purpose and a plan for every single thing that happens in the world, and today we're going to go through the scriptures and see exactly what it is and how it is that works.

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So, what is God's decree? And I love going through the Keech's Catechism, which we have up on the

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Reform Rookie website, and the questions that we go through every Sunday morning, and this is one of the ones that I'm trying to commit to memory.

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For some reason, it's not sticking, but this is one that I want to commit to memory, and I think you guys should, too.

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And the question is, what are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

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Okay, so now we're going to go through each line of this and show the scripture references that they have.

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So Ephesians 111, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

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Right? So we see God has an eternal purpose. He has a will, and everything, all things, are going to happen in accord with his will.

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Now, as Reformed believers, we recognize we have the prescriptive will of God, which is his moral will, and then his decreed will.

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Obviously, when people sin, that's not God's moral will for them. So there's a differentiation between his moral will, which is broken every day of the week, and then his prescribed or decreed –

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I'm sorry, that is prescribed will – his decreed will, which is never broken. God brings about every single action that we see in the world today.

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Romans 11, 36, for from him, and through him, and to him are some things.

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No, all things. All things are from him, through him, and to him.

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And that all things is going to include some heavy stuff we're going to see as we go through some scriptures.

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We're going to be very heavily scripture saturated this morning. Daniel 4 .35, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?

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Now, I read that verse in another place at a point in time in my life, and a woman was like, that doesn't sound so nice.

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And, you know, what that person didn't recognize was the fact that there's a big differentiation between God, our sovereign creator, and us as his creatures.

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Certainly, we are – we have infinite value because we're created in the image of God, but we don't want to lessen the distinction between creator and creation.

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In fact, when we do that, we minimize the glory of God. When you maximize that distance, you maximize the solution, which is

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Jesus Christ, okay? So you've got to – we have to recognize that God is the creator, okay, but he is not like us.

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We are created in his image, so we are like him, but he is not like us, and Psalm 50 tells us that.

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So let's continue on. The defined decrees, and really it should be decree, are the eternal plans

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God has made for his creation that are now being worked out in the lives of his creatures. So God has a plan before the creation of the earth.

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He puts that plan into place and works it out through our lives. Isaiah 14, 26 says, this is the purpose that is purpose concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

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That's God's hand and God's purpose over who? The whole earth.

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So now let's take a look at our confession. I'm sorry, this is Ketcher's Catechism, next question.

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How does God execute his decrees? Because that's important too. If God has a decree, now how does he work this out?

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The answer is God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. So God's decree and God's providence work hand in hand.

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They're inseparable if God is going to accomplish what he purposes. Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning

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God created the heavens and the earth. Part of God's decree was creating the earth and populating it with his image bearers.

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So this is step one, basically, for God's providence. For him to carry out the decree, he needs a creation.

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Revelation 4, 11, worthy are you, O Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

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So the only reason the creation is here is because it was the will of God. If it was the will of God not for the creation to be here, we wouldn't be here.

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So it's his will that the world was created and that we inhabit it. Matthew 6, 26, look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly

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Father feeds them. God provides even for the animals, the birds, the birds of the air.

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They don't have jobs, their jobs are to tweet and keep us up in the morning, right? And God feeds them anyway.

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Acts 14, 16, in the past he used this verse a couple weeks back with regards to the common grace.

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He says, in past generations he allowed, God allowed, all the nations to walk their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

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So through God's providence, he even provides for the nations that walk their own ways away from God.

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He's even providing for them, so that when they eventually stand before him and tell him, we didn't think you existed, he says, you didn't think

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I existed? Not only did creation provide enough evidence for that, I fed you,

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I satisfied your hearts with food and gladness. Man's gonna be without excuse. So as you can see,

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God's decree is executed or carried out in the works of providence. He feeds the birds, he feeds the nations who go away from him, he creates the world and everything in it.

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That includes us. Divine providence is the outworking of the defined decree, which is the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

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Ephesians 111, that's a verse you're gonna want to park on. Nehemiah 9 .6, you are the

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Lord, you alone, you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all them, and the host of heaven worships you.

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God is preserving every single life. The only reason you live right now is because God has preserved you up to this moment, your every breath, to stay alive.

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He's the one who sustains us, okay? So now what

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I wanted to do was show you kind of like a diagram of what this looks like, and it's an illustration that Millard Erickson did in one of his systematic theologies.

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He basically likens God to an architect. And what does an architect do?

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He designs. He has a vision in mind, he thinks about that vision, and what does he do?

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Then he creates a plan according to his purpose. So God is like an architect.

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Now God doesn't think the way we think, we think linearly, we have to go through facts and start putting things together.

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God knows all things at the same time. So I don't want to say that God thinks, because right away we liken that to our thinking, but God doesn't think like we think.

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His ways are not always, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, okay? So God knows all things. He knows what he wants to do.

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This is God's decree according to his will and his purpose. His will, his purpose, is the decree.

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It's basically like the blueprint that he has for the universe. Now, what does he do?

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He's got to work that out. What does he do? He creates the universe. That's step one.

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Part of his decree is creating the universe and then populating it. Now how is he going to accomplish that?

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What's he going to use? He's going to use people, contractors, right? The contractor is the one who takes the blueprints, they read the blueprints, and then they start putting the things together and building the building that the architect has designed.

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Now, this group of people is different than regular contractors because they're

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God's people. They're his church. God works by providence through his church to bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

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So we go by what blueprint? The Word of God. Now we take the

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Word of God and what God told us to do, and we do it. We put it into action. And if we're successful, what happens?

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We build the kingdom, right? And that kingdom is built over time, step by step, slowly, in order to accomplish

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God's plan. And it all happens through the works of providence. So God provides each one of us here with life.

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He provides each one of us here with talents, gifts, and abilities. He commands us what to do with those talents, gifts, and abilities in the scriptures, to congregate as his people, to go out into the neighborhoods, to bring the kingdom, to pray for our leaders, and on and on and on.

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And that's how we build a kingdom here on earth. We're to evangelize, we're to proclaim Jesus as Lord.

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Long Island is Christ's island, okay? And this is how he brings the kingdom to earth, through his people, by the power of his

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Spirit. It's not by might, nor by our power, but by God's power. So through the

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Spirit of God that inhabits God's people, he carries us along to carry out this plan.

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So we have God as the architect, he has his eternal plan and decree, blueprints it out with the scriptures, carries it out by the power of his

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Spirit through his people. Make sense? Is that an easy way for you guys to understand?

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Okay, that's what I was hoping for. I wanted to get the fact that God has a plan, he's an architect, we're like the contractors.

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Obviously the GC is Jesus, he's the one subbing it all out to us.

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We're a suitable helpmate to the GC, in figurative terms, I don't mean that literally, okay?

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So we're co -laboring with Christ to bring the kingdom here on earth, and accomplishing

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God's decree. All right, so now our confession, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith has a lot to say about this too.

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This is a little bit more detailed than the Keech's Catechism. So it says, God hath decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass.

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So as yet thereby God is neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of secondary causes taken away, but rather established, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things and power and faithfulness in accomplishing his decree.

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That's a mouthful, okay? So we'll start right from the first line.

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God had decreed in himself. Why is it in himself? Yeah, not only is there no one else to bounce this off of, no one else has all knowledge but God, right?

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God is not counseling with somebody saying, hey, what do you think? You think this will work? No. God is doing this within himself, and it happens before creation starts, because it says, from all eternity.

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Now, when we talk about eternity, we always use time language.

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You can't use time language in eternity because it's eternity. It's not time. God is outside of time.

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God doesn't grow old. Time began when creation began. So when we talk about eternity, it's before time started.

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God is eternal, and it's by the most wise holy counsel of his own will.

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Again, he's not consulting anybody on this. He's not the architect who has to go to the town and say, hey, listen, you're okay we build a two -story building or three?

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No, you can't do it? All right, we'll only build a one -story building. God's not petitioning the town board of what he can and can't build.

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He is the town board. He's building whatever he wants by his own will, freely and unchangeably.

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Now, that's important because this is God's decision, and it's unchangeable. God, before eternity, as he starts to create, has an unchangeable will.

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If his will changed, well, then God's not perfect. Did he change his will because, oh, this is a better plan, and he didn't know that at first?

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Once God puts that decree in place, it can't change, right?

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And we don't want it to change. Remember what Malachi 4 says? I am the Lord your God who does not change.

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If I changed, I would consume you, okay? If God's will and decree could change, he could say,

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Jesus is no longer the Savior. I'm not providing a Savior. Now what do we do? We're in trouble.

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So God's decree is representative of his nature, derivative from his nature, which is unchangeable.

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So once God starts to plan, this is an unchangeable decree, okay? And it's for all things whatsoever come to pass.

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So now that brings up a real difficult issue. So are you saying that God willingly brought bad things to take place?

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The Scripture's answer is yes. Yes. God brings, he says, I create light and darkness.

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I bring forth calamity, and I bring forth evil. So how is it that God brings forth evil without, the confession says, yet so is thereby is

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God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures.

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So if God brings forth human beings, what's a big difference between human beings and God?

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I just said God is what? Unchangeable. He's immutable.

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When he brings forth creatures, are creatures changeable? Yes. Are creatures mutable?

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Yes. So God, in his plan, brings forth creatures who he knows are going to sin, right?

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Part of God's plan includes sending his son Jesus into the world to save them.

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So God's decree includes the Savior, but you need a Savior because there's sin in the world.

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Sin happens because creatures are changeable. We hear the words of God, we obey maybe for a period, and then go our own way.

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So that's contemplated in this, but God isn't the one causing the sin. As a responsible creature,

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I'm the one sinning, answerable to God, because he's let me know what is right or wrong.

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He gives us the commandments. He gives us the top ten. We know what's right or wrong, but he also gives us a

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Savior, granted to us by repentance and faith in Jesus. So God is not the one sinning, we are, but God knows that we're going to sin because that's part of his decree.

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We sin freely. So God decreed that we would freely choose what our hearts want and we choose to sin.

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So God's not the cause of sin, but he brings about creatures who bring sin into the world. Now, a lot of times people will push back at that and say, well, then that means

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God's the author of sin. And the question I have for them is, well, did

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God know that Hitler was going to do what he did before he created Hitler? Well, yes, but he couldn't stop it.

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If he knew Hitler was going to do these things, why didn't he just not create Hitler? Well, Hitler's got free will.

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I know that's not what I'm asking you. If God knew that Hitler was going to do what he did, why did he create

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Hitler in the first place? And the answer is, it was part of his decree. Hitler will be punished for what he's done and he's going to receive full justice.

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But that is part of God's decree. Everything good and bad is part of God's decree because what?

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It ultimately glorifies his son, Jesus. His son, Jesus, takes the penalty of God's wrath upon himself for sinners who freely sin.

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And God displays his mercy and his love for his people in his son, Jesus, that he would save any.

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The problem is the human heart flips this around and says, why doesn't

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God save everyone? When the real question is, why does God save anyone? None of us deserve it.

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None. We've all rebelled against our creator. Did you have a question, Jerry? No. Okay. Okay. So everything that happens is included in God's decree.

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And there are two arguments for this assertion. First, the Bible states generally that God's decree is universal.

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And that comes right out of Sam Waldron's exposition of the 1689. So let me just go through Daniel 434, which we touched a little bit upon before.

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At the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon at that time, he says,

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I lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever.

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For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

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All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, which is offensive to some people. And he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven, among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?

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In our limited finite knowledge, we would look and say, Lord, why did you let

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Hitler do that? Why didn't you stop him? But we're working on limited finite knowledge.

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None of us can say to God, why did you do that? Yes. I just realized this right now.

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Is Nebuchadnezzar, he's quoting scripture here. Is this, you had read this earlier. Yeah, this, this is part of that scripture.

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Yeah, yeah, this is part, this is when King Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, this is when King Nebuchadnezzar is ruling and he says, and he brags, he says, look what

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I've done. And God says, really, look what you've done. Now look what you get. And he sent them into the grass, you know, eating and his nails grew.

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Yes, Jerry. You used the example of Hitler, right? And wouldn't

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Satan also fit that picture in a bigger, broader sense? Absolutely. Absolutely.

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God created Satan, knowing that Satan was going to fall, decreeing that Satan would freely rebel against God and freely fall.

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And what happens? God uses that. He has an intent and a purpose for Satan's fall to bring about the salvation of his people.

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Right? So Satan tempts people. Did he, do you think he tempted Herod, Pontius Pilate, the

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Jews and the Romans to put Jesus up on the cross? Surely. Right?

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And what did that do? That played right into God's decree to save people through his son,

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Jesus on the cross. Who was also tempted, but resisted the temptation. Right?

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So Satan is the tempter. God doesn't tempt anyone. Right? So Satan is the one who freely tempts people.

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And again, this is part of our sanctification as believers. When we're tempted, we have a way of escape.

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Okay. And that strengthens us in our faith and God keeps us from falling. And then there are other people who he lets go.

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You want to go? You freely want to sin? I'm going to let you. And again, that's also part of his decree.

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Nothing falls outside of God's eternal decree. And we're going to see that in a couple of more scriptures.

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Okay. Romans 8, 27 and 28. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

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Right? So according to the will of God, saints are saved. Saints' prayers are sanctified.

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He intercedes and sanctifies our prayers so that when they get to God, they're what God wants.

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Right? And they're called according to God's purpose. So the prayers of the saints are sanctified.

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And even us being saints is according to his will and purpose. He has a will and a purpose in that.

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Romans 11, 36, four, from him and through him into immoral things to him be the glory forever. We went over that one already.

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Ephesians 1, 11, we had gone over that one too. That's part of the confessions scriptures.

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There's a couple more. Secondly, the Bible teaches specifically that all classes of events are included in God's decree.

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All classes, good and evil events. Isaiah 45, 7, Amos, Job, and here we're going to go through them.

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Isaiah, this is the one I told you about before. I form light and create darkness. I make well -being and create calamity.

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I am the Lord who does all these things. You're going to like this one. This is one of my favorites.

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Is a trumpet blown in the city and the people not afraid? Does disaster come to a city unless the

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Lord has done it? So the floods that happened this week in New York City, random, accident, or part of the decree of God?

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Climate change. Climate change? Is climate change part of God's decree? Right?

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So everything happens according to the decree of God. Now for some people, that's going to be judgment.

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For other people, that's going to be their deliverance. How could I say that? When somebody's scared, okay, of a flood coming, right, they may say, you know what?

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My life can be cut short right now. God help me.

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And in their fear of this natural disaster, they cry out to God. God uses that disaster as an impetus to push them closer to God so that he answers that prayer and draws them to him.

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Right? So the very same event can be used to judge people and it could be used as grace to bring them to him.

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God has an intent and purpose in each and every event that happens here on earth. Job 121, the

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Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Right? In my

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Bible study, I misquoted the verse on purpose. I said, yeah, the Lord gave and Satan takes away. Doesn't that stink?

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And a couple of guys are like, wait, wait, that's not what the verse said. I said, well, what does it say? The Lord gives and the

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Lord takes away. I said, exactly. The Lord takes away. He takes away from us things that are going to pull us away from him.

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He takes those things away for our benefit. He's not being a Scrooge. I don't want him to play baseball.

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So I'm just going to take away his bat and ball. He takes things away and pulls them out of our hands because they're going to lead us astray.

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Right? And sometimes we attribute, or a lot of people attribute, take Satan. Oh, I didn't get the car that I wanted.

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Oh, Satan got in the way and didn't allow me to get it. Satan may have played a part in it, but it was

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God's decree and his will that you don't get that car for his purposes and his reasons.

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Is this making sense? Okay. Jeremiah 15, two, and when they ask you, where shall we go?

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You shall say to them, thus says the Lord, those who are for pestilence to pestilence and those who are for the sword to the sword, those who are for famine to famine, and those who are for captivity to captivity.

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That's, you know, that's not tough to understand. That's tough to swallow. God's basically saying, look, there's going to be people

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I'm going to give over to pestilence. I'm going to give them over to the sword. I'm going to give them over to famine. I'm going to give them over for captivity as a form of discipline, as a form of judgment for some.

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But for others, it's going to be a form of repentance where they fall to their knees and they beg

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God for mercy. They may still have to endure whatever the consequence is, but it draws them closer to God.

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Okay? All right. So God's decree is comprehensive. It includes sinful acts.

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We're going to go through all these, and this is the one, you know, we tap from the pulpit consistently. Genesis 50, 20, as for you, meaning this is

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Joseph speaking, talking to his brothers who sold him into slavery. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.

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Right? Because Joseph being sold into slavery ends up bringing him to Egypt, where he ends up getting out of the prison, becoming

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Pharaoh's number two guy in charge of all the storehouses of all the food, and it ends up calling his family out from where they were to Egypt to feed them.

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So now most people say, when they quote this verse, they say, God, they meant it for evil, but God used it for good.

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And that's not what the verse says. It says God meant it for good. In other words, he decreed that that event would happen, but he decreed it for good.

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All of God's decree is for good. He never does anything evil or bad.

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It's the people who have ill motives or improper motives selling

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Joseph into slavery. They didn't think that was a good thing. They wanted him gone.

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They hated him, right? So they did it with wrong motives. God knew their motives, right?

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God had a motive in that. I want David, uh, uh, Joseph to be sold into slavery, dropped in a pit, and become the number two guy in Egypt, and end up feeding the very people who put him in the pit.

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Is that not a picture of Jesus? The very people who put him on the cross, which includes all of us here, all of our sin, put

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Jesus on the cross. He now comes and saves. Unbelievable. The gospel is the only story where the hero dies for the, for the victim, for the guilty party.

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Yes, Jerry. I think from humanly speaking, it's difficult for us as humans to look at the big picture.

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We always see the immediate picture in front of us. And we have this idea that everything is supposed to go smooth and, and play out the way we think it should play out in the way, maybe it plays out for other people, right?

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You know, we, we work each day, we earn a paycheck, we build a house, we build a family, blah, blah, blah.

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But when these difficult situations arise, sometimes more difficult than we can even imagine, we don't, we don't look at the big picture all the time and say, well,

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God has a plan for this. He has a reason for this. We unfortunately look at it and say, where is this going to lead me?

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What's going to happen to me now? What's going to happen to my family? You know, so it's because of our human failures, we don't always see it.

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Right. I think part of our depravity includes self -centeredness. So our first reaction or question is, well, how is this going to affect me?

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This is going to be bad for me. We don't look at from God's perspective in the sense that he decreed this to happen.

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This, all things work together for good. We're going to learn that in the Bible study coming up on Wednesday. He's going to work this together for my good.

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I love what Daniel put up on Facebook after he got walked out of his job for not getting a vaccine.

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He put up what the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He understands that God has a sovereign purpose in this happening.

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And we're going to trust in God, in the midst of seemingly bad things happening, that he means this for our good.

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This is how he's maybe going to shake the church out, purify his people, and eventually do away with the evildoers.

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Right. We pray the imprecatory Psalms. Lord, save them if it's your will to save them or remove them.

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Scatter your enemies from before you. Yes, brother. Just one further comment to go along with that.

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The responsibility we have as Christians, though, is to make sure that we search Scripture and the negative situation did not occur because of our sin.

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Although God uses that, but that we make sure that the way we respond to it, the way we've lived up to it, is as much to God's scriptures as we can.

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Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, here's where the book of Job comes in. Job teaches, the book of Job teaches us how to suffer as Christians.

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Right. Job, arguably, is probably one of the most difficult situations in all the

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Bible. Right. And as Job's possessions are taken away, and his land is taken away, and his children are taken from him, he looks and says, the

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Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He's the one who said that. And he says, though he slay me, meaning

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God, yet I will praise him. In the midst of this trial, he's praising

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God. And aren't we also told to do that? Romans chapter five, James chapter one, rejoice in your trials.

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Right. Be joyful. Always pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances. You mean

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I should give thanks that I lost my job? Yes, you should. And when you think about where other people are in this world, you have a lot to be grateful for.

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Right. We look at what's going on overseas and in different parts of the world, and we still live a charmed life.

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But that's not the point. Our point isn't to live a charmed life.

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Our point is to live a faithful, holy, and righteous life and reflect our Savior to the world around us.

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I mean, our Savior, it wasn't beyond suffering himself. He suffered and learned obedience through suffering,

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Hebrews chapter five tells us. Our Savior learned obedience through suffering. Second Peter says, if it's

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God's will that you suffer, do it for good. Do it for the good and the glory of God.

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When we measure the length of our years, let's say God blesses us and gives us a hundred years on earth.

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What is a hundred years in the scope of eternity? Nothing. Nothing. If we don't suffer and we don't give glory to God, we're going to regret it on the other side.

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We're going to lose rewards for what we could have done here. That's why

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I'm trying to move, you know, get things going in the right direction momentum -wise for the

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Spurgeon Fellowship and get things happening here on Long Island. Long Island is Christ's island. We just have to do what he's told us to do.

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Okay. I was preaching, wasn't I? Anyway, second Samuel 16. But the king said, what have

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I to do with you, you sons of Zariah? If he is cursing, because the

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Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? Right?

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So the king is recognizing that the Lord commissioned a prophet to curse

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David. And he says, who are you to say why is this being done? If the

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Lord says it, he said it. He has a plan and a purpose and an intent in saying that to David.

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Job 1, 11 and 12. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, this is Satan speaking, and he will curse you to your face.

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And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand, only against him do not stretch out your hand.

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So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. So here you have Satan, God offering

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Job up. It's kind of amazing when you read that first chapter. God says to Satan, what about my servant

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Job? Be like, Lord, don't, you know, don't just volunteer me for this.

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What about my servant Job? And he says, I'll get him. He says, yeah, go ahead, try. All to show, number one, that this is all part of God's decree.

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And ultimately Job's faith is a gift from God that God sustains in the midst of that.

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So when you go through these situations, they're sanctifying and they're evidence of God's work in your heart that you remain faithful to him.

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It's not a work of man. It's a work of the spirit in the heart that generates this, that generates this faith that we can rely on God and trust that even in the midst of this horrible situation, he has a good intent and purpose in it for me so that I glorify him.

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Okay, let's keep going. Continuing on with the sinful acts, Luke 22, 22, for the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man whom he is betrayed.

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Right? So it's determined ahead of time that Jesus is going to be betrayed, but it says, woe to that man who betrays him.

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It's Judas, right? But who is the most important apostle out of all of them, out of all 12 at the time?

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Who is the most important? I'll give you the answer. Judas.

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Without Judas betraying Jesus, we don't have a savior. We don't have a crucifixion. You think we needed

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Judas? Yes, we did. Do you think Judas was cursed for what he did and responsible for what he did?

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Absolutely. He was judged. But if he didn't betray him as part of God's decree, Jesus might never have gone to the cross.

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Now, I use that term, might never have gone to the cross, but there is no might nevers in God's decree, right?

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It's all going to happen according to his purpose. So even God, did God have a good intent or a bad intent with Judas's betrayal?

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He had a good intent. This is going to bring about the salvation of my people. Now, Judas, in his heart, had a bad intent.

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So we have God's intent always going towards the good. Let's say it's this way. Let's say good is that way.

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You have man's heart that is always looking to go the opposite way. And God is using these things to advance his plan, okay?

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And I'm going to show you a quick little video at the end that'll kind of codify this whole situation, okay?

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Acts 2 23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

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It was predestined, foreordained by God for this to happen. Did God have a good intent in that situation or bad?

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He had a good intent. What was man's intent in that situation? To kill

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Jesus. Evil intent, right? Acts 4 27, for truly in this city were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan predestined to take place.

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So we can rejoice even in the bad, evil actions of mankind that take place in this world.

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Why? Because God has a good intent for it somewhere along the lines. In our finite minds, we might not be able to put all the pieces together to see what the good intent is, but we know who

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God is and his nature is always good all the time. We can trust in God.

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It's so comforting to know that when you're going through a trial, that this is not to hurt you.

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It may be discipline and get you to change some of the things you're doing, but it's for your good.

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The same way a parent will give a consequence or punish his child, he doesn't do it to intentionally hurt him and cause him harm.

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He's doing it so that they get the point. Hey, listen, if you do this, there's a corresponding ramification.

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Don't do this. This is going to hurt you. So you inflict those consequences so that the child learns.

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It's the same thing for us. Okay, the free acts of men are also part of the decree of God.

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Proverbs 16 .1, the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Interesting, right?

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Proverbs 16 .9, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. You've heard the term, we make plans and man makes plans and God laughs.

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Well, God is the one establishing the steps of that person for his decree and for his purpose.

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Proverbs 21 .1, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wills. God has the king's hearts in his hands and he could turn them on a dime.

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We just have to remain faithful to the word of God and do what he told us to do and leave the results to him.

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We're not in the results business, we're in the obedience business. We obey, the results belong to him.

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Okay, chance occurrences. This is real interesting too.

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This is a long passage. 1 Kings 22, and Micaiah said, if you return in peace, the

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Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, hear all you people. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into battle.

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He's going to try to get around what Micaiah said to him. And the king of Israel said, okay, into battle, but you wear your robes.

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And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the 32 captains of his chariots, fight with neither the small nor the great, but only with the king of Israel.

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And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, it is surely the king of Israel.

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So they turned to fight against him and Jehoshaphat cried out. And when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.

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But a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate.

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They didn't even know they were shooting at the king of Israel because he was disguised as a soldier.

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So one of the enemies just shot a random arrow into the air.

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And who does it hit? It hits the king, just like Micaiah has said. Even random chance events are all according to the plan and the decree of God.

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Right? Okay. Continuing on. Job 5 -6, for affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.

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Affliction comes to us from God. Job 36, he covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike its mark.

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Its crashing declares his presence. The cattle also declare that he rises. Again, natural events, storms, natural disasters, all part of God's plan.

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It's all part of, it's all controlled by his hand. Proverbs 16 -33, the lot, like the dice, is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the

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Lord. See, even what seems to be a random chance thing is actually ordained to happen by God.

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John 1 -7, he came as a witness to bear witness about the that all might believe through him.

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Right? So here it is, Jesus comes and this happens to be the Messiah, which obviously we know.

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Okay. Besides chance occurrences, all the details of our lives are part of God's decree.

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Job 14 -5, since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.

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Right? There's certain things we can and cannot do according to God's decree. And our days, the number of our days are ordained for us.

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No one can say, oh, I'm definitely going to be here tomorrow. You'll be here tomorrow, James says, if the Lord wills. Then you do this or that.

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Psalm 139, your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when yet there was none of them.

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Our days are ordained for us. The time we have here on earth has been ordained previously by God. Matthew 10 -29, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the crown apart from your father.

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But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. I take great comfort in that because my hairs are less than most other people.

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So he's got time to concentrate on other things in my life. Right? You guys with heavy, thick heads of hair, he's all, you know, worried about your hair, but you know, the other things.

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All right, it's a joke, a bad one, but it was a joke. James 4 -15, you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

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What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

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Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we live and do this or that. Every breath that you take is because the

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Lord has willed it. Don't ever take for granted the life that God has given you. Use your time wisely.

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Lately, in my prayer life, in my mornings, I said, Lord, you've given me today to spend this time you've given me wisely.

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Because you could lose money, right, and gain it back. Right? Once you lose time, you cannot get that time back.

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It's expired. There's no moving backwards. It's very important that we redeem the time.

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All right, so besides the details of our lives, the affairs of the nations. Kings, 2

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Kings 5, naming commander of the army of the king of Syria was a great man with his master and in high favor because by him the

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Lord had given him victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

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Right? So God was the one who gave him victory and to become the commander of Syria. Proverbs 21 -31, the horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the

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Lord. How many times do nations send out their armies for battle, thinking, oh, we're going to win? The victory belongs to God.

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Whether they're regenerate nations or unregenerate nations, the victory is all for God.

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Daniel 2 -21, he changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings.

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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Right? God is the one who brings people into power and God is the one who takes them out of power.

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That's something we need to reinforce to our politicians and hopefully we're going to do that as part of the

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Spurgeon Fellowship. Okay, Psalm 75, one through seven. We give thanks to you,

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O God. We give thanks for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. At the set time that I appoint,

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I will judge with equity. When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps steady its pillars.

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I say to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck.

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For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is

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God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting another. Again, it's

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God who raises nations up and brings nations down. The destruction of the wicked.

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This is all part of God's, also part of God's decree. Second Samuel 2 .25, if someone sins against a man,

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God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the

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Lord to put them to death. This was Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, right?

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It was the Lord's will to put them to death because of what they did with regards to the ritual and taking the food, sticking the fork in the pot, okay?

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Proverbs 16 .4, the Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

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That causes people all kinds of issues. You mean God brings about the wicked for a purpose?

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Yes, he brings about the wicked for the day of trouble, and that day of trouble is used to sanctify us.

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That day of trouble may be the very thing that causes us to fall to our knees and cry out to God to save us.

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So all these things were ordained by God for good, for his eternal purpose. Romans 9 .17,

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for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

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Our hearts are in God's hand. He can soften them, he can harden them, he can raise leaders up so that he would display his power over Pharaoh.

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He did it with the 10 plagues, and this was a witness to his people Israel who were brought out into the wilderness by this

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God who rescued them, and now what do they know? They know that this is the God who can put these plagues on any one of our enemies.

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Now if they just would have remembered that when they were brought into the land of Canaan, they would have been successful.

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But like sinful human beings like us, they forget too easily. You got to be reminded by God over and over and over.

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The final destruction of the wicked is in God's hands. Jude 4, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who were long ago designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our master and Lord Jesus Christ.

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They were designated for that in times past by God. Second Peter 2 .8,

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and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

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Again, without the illumination of God, God giving you eyes to see and ears to hear, you're going to reject the message and you're going to stumble the way you were destined to.

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Second Peter 2 .9 -10, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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It is God, it is in God's hands to give mercy to whom? Whomever he wills.

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We don't deserve mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, right?

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So when you say, well, I deserve it. No, what you deserve is justice, and along with justice will come condemnation and penalty.

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You don't deserve mercy. It's the graciousness of our God who extends mercy to us that we should concentrate on.

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We got to get our eyes off self. We're too self -centered. We got to be God -centered. Psalm 33, the counsel of the

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Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. God's counsel as part of his decree, the architect who put this plan in place, his counsel is going to stand.

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He doesn't consult anyone. He doesn't ask for advice. He doesn't solicit anybody's opinion.

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He's perfect. He's all -knowing. This is his counsel forever. Isaiah 46 .10,

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declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

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Now that is great comfort for us as his children, because even in the midst of what we see going on in society, we know that this is all part of God's plan and purpose and he's going to accomplish it.

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But think of not being one of God's children, okay? You don't know what's going to happen to this world.

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You don't know where you're going to be. You don't know how this is going to end. This could be tragic for people, right?

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We have the confidence of security in knowing that once we take our last breath, we're going to be in the presence of our

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Heavenly Father. Great joy in that. Proverbs 19 .21, many of the plans in the mind of a man, but it's the purpose of the

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Lord that will stand, right? So even in our sinful desires and actions,

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God has a purpose, a good purpose in mind for them. The bottom line is this, and this is

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Psalm 135, for I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods, whatever the

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Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for rain and brings forth wind from his storehouses.

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He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast, who was in your midst. Oh Egypt, send signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants who struck down many nations and killed many kings.

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Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people

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Israel. The Lord does whatever he pleases in the heavens and the earth, in the seas and all the deeps.

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That includes coming down hard on other nations. In fact, striking down the firstborn of all the

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Egyptians. That's a heavy thing to wrap your head around, but God is holy.

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God is just. We are like him, but he is not like us. His ways are not our ways.

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His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So just as a quick reminder, this is what

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God's kingdom looks like. We have the architect, we have God's decree, we have his kingdom, the building of that kingdom that looks like the city that's coming down out of heaven and in revelation through the works of providence.

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That make sense? Okay, just want to show you a quick little video, and I think this for me,

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I had to edit it, but this for me captures sometimes how God's plan works when we don't really understand everything that's going on in it.

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See how all those gears are meshed together and the planning it takes for that?

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Like all of us are part of God's plan. We're somewhere or one of those gears, and it's amazing because you got these little gears and then these big ones.

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You know, this gear is going in this direction. The big gear is going the opposite direction. The big imposing trial that's going in the opposite direction is actually causing this gear to turn in the right direction.

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And not only do you have the gears working this way, you have them going this way, turning it back, and then you have that one that's going really fast back and forth, and you get this little arm going, right?

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What's it called? A cog, cog in the wheel, right? And it's just allowing you to go a little bit, and then it stops you a little bit, stops you a little bit, stops you.

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And you see how this whole thing comes together to tell time precisely, right?

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This is all what God's decree and plan are doing, and each one of us are a gear in that giant plan that God put forth.

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And we have to recognize sometimes the gears that are going in the opposite direction that we're afraid of are actually the gears that are going to help us move forward, however slow that may be, no matter how much time it takes for us to move in that direction.

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We'll get there because these gears are all designed for a purpose, to tell perfect time.

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God's plan, God's decree through God's providence is going to tell his perfect story in his perfect time and in a perfect way.

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Any questions? We're good? I have a question, but not directly related to this.

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I'm just curious. In Ephesians 1 .11, where the Lord uses the word predestined, how do people that don't believe in election deal with that?

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Well, there's a couple of different ways. One is the foreknowledge view.

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God knows in advance what you're going to do, so he chooses based on that.

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But to me, that leads to open theism. If God has to look down the cards of time, that's because he doesn't know something already.

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There's no need for him to. He knows what's going to happen. Then you have another view called

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Molinism, where everybody has free choice in all these different worlds that God could decree, but he chooses the one where the most people are going to choose him.

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Therefore, it was predestined in that way. And that view brings on a lot of issues because out of all these numerous worlds that God could decree, there is a world in which

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Anthony chooses Jesus and a world in which Anthony doesn't choose Jesus. If God decrees this world, well, then

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I don't choose Jesus. But in another world, I would have. So whose fault does it become?

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God's. He didn't choose the world in which I would choose him, right? Ultimately, in the biblical understanding of it,

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God creates a world. No one will choose him. No one.

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He could create an infinite amount of worlds. No human being is going to choose him, right?

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So in God's plan, he says, okay, you're not going to choose me. I'm going to seek and save you.

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Again, this is the big difference between monogism and synergism between God -centeredness and man -centeredness.

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If God decrees a world in which you would choose Jesus, then ultimately it was your will and your desire for Jesus that saves you, not his will, because he's desiring everybody to be saved.

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But he can only decree one world. Again, you're putting handcuffs on God and no limitations on man.

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Where the Bible says man has all the limitations, God has no limitations. What can

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God do? Psalm 115, Psalm 135, whatever he pleases in the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and the deeps.

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Our God is in complete control. Anyone who loves God, who wants

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Jesus, is because he decreed it as so. And praise God that he did.

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He didn't have to choose anyone. That's why it's mercy. Okay?