WWUTT 384 God's Sovereign Plan? (Part 2)

Has God predestined all things from before the foundation of the world? The Bible says He has.

Are you responsible for the decisions you make? The Bible says you are. And it's only our folly that leads us to believe these two ideas are incompatible when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website www .wwutt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Let's begin today with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we desire to look today into Your Word and see

You as You want us to see You. Not reading the Scriptures for what we want to see, but wanting to see what the

Holy Spirit truly means to communicate to us through the Word of God. Give us eyes to see and ears that hear and a heart that is able to comprehend so that we may praise

God for Your goodness and Your glory, not exalting ourselves because of our ability to reason our own philosophies.

May this be to the praise of Your glorious grace. And we pray this in Jesus' name,

Amen. The sermon that we're listening to, which I started yesterday, is from Dr. Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, also the current sitting president of the

Southern Baptist Convention. We're listening to this sermon for the purpose of responding to common arguments in opposition to the

Reformed understanding of the sovereignty of God, and also in the process, we learn more about God and His Word as we're responding to some of these arguments.

As we saw yesterday, Dr. Gaines did not begin with a biblical understanding or even a textbook definition of what sovereignty is.

He thinks sovereignty is the way that God works around our choices to accomplish

His ultimate will. But sovereignty is absolute power and authority. Dr.

Gaines believes that to argue that God predestined all things from the foundation of the world means to say that God is at fault for everyone's sin.

But the Bible talks about predestination and it talks about human responsibility, and these two things do not contradict one another.

Dr. Gaines believes that when the Bible talks about predestination, it's talking about a plan that God had predestined, but not people.

But that's silly because predestination is a plan for the people whom God foreordained from the foundation of the world.

We looked at Ephesians 1, 4, and 5. We concluded yesterday with Dr. Gaines reading from Ephesians 1, 11, which says, 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.

Dr. Gaines chose this passage, which he could use to talk about a predestined plan, rather than the specificities of Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, which talks about how

God predestined us. Let's continue where we left off today. This is a sermon entitled

God's Sovereign Plan with Dr. Steve Gaines. If you look at some other translations of this in the

NIV for instance, this gives what I believe is more what Ephesians 1, 11 is saying, in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything.

Who works out everything in conformity with the purposes of His will. It's even more clear in the New Living Translation, furthermore because we are united with Christ we have received an inheritance from God for He chose us in advance and He makes everything work out.

He makes everything work out according to His plan. He doesn't cause everything, but in the end He makes everything work out according to His plan.

Numerous times in the book of Job does it say that God is the one who causes all things to take place.

Remember right from the very beginning God allowed Satan to afflict Job and Job lost his family and all of his property and yet he said, the

Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the

Lord. He didn't say Satan did it nor did he blame God. God is the one who gives and the one who takes away and Job worshipped

God for it. Job's wife would later tell him, curse God and die and Job said, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?

In all this Job did not sin with his lips by blaming God. Jesus in the Sermon on the

Mount, God causes it to rain on the just and on the unjust. May we praise

God in good circumstances and in bad. Now these two translations lend themselves to what

I believe and what I'm convinced most Southern Baptists believe at this point. God does not predestine every minute thing that happens, but He does take everything that does happen even though He did not predestine it all and because He's sovereign,

He works His will in spite of our sin and disobedience.

Now there is a God to follow. And as I mentioned yesterday, Gaines more often than not here, he's defining providence not sovereignty.

Lamentations 3, 37 through 38 says the following, who has spoken and it came to pass unless the

Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

So if God didn't command it, who did? If God did not predestine every minute thing that happens, as Gaines says, who's controlling it?

The Bible mocks what Gaines is teaching. He's arguing that there are choices that we can make that are outside God's sovereign decree.

The scripture says, no, no one can do that. Now again, some of this is

Gaines confusion over what providence means and what sovereignty means. For example, in the way that he uses the following verse,

Romans 8, 28, you ever heard of this verse? We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

God, to those who are called according to His purpose. He didn't cause all things. He causes all things to work together.

He calls, He puts it all together. Romans 8, 28 in the New Living Translation is so beautiful.

We know that God causes everything to work together for good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.

God does not predestine everything that happens because we know God does not predestine sin.

I don't believe that God, for instance, ordained a man going into a movie theater or into an elementary school, taking a gun and shooting innocent children.

I know they were sinners by nature and some people have a hard time saying there are no innocent children.

I understand that. At the same time, I don't believe that you can say God predestined that from the foundation of the world.

God made that man. God coerced that man to go in there and do that. I don't believe that.

That's a slippery slope. Now in this sermon, Dr. Gaines is teaching from 2

Kings 8, in case you forgot that. Earlier in 1 Kings 22, King Ahab assembled his 400 prophets and asked them if he'd be successful in battle against the

Syrians at Ramoth Gilead. The prophets falsely told him that he would. But there was one prophet,

Micaiah, who said, Therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left.

And the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?

A spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, I will entice him. And the Lord said,

By what means? And the spirit said, I will go out, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.

God said, You are to entice him, and you shall succeed. Go out and do so. Now therefore behold, the

Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets. The Lord has declared disaster for you.

Then Ahab went out in battle, and he was killed. No other outcome could have taken place. It had already been declared by the

Lord to the spirit, You are to entice him, and you will succeed. Even the angels and Satan and his demons are tools in the hands of the

Lord to bring about the destruction of the ungodly for his glory and to shape and perfect the objects of his mercy, which is us, also for his glory.

That in all things the name of the Lord would be praised. This is what Romans 8 .28

means when it says, God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Then in verse 29, to shape them into the image of Christ. All have sinned against God and deserve to be destroyed.

It is by God's mercy that he has saved some for his glory. Gaines is going to use the passages that he uses in a vacuum to say the

Bible only talks about predestination this way and offers no other perspective or insight on the subject.

It's a false hermeneutic, the way that he uses these proof texts to his own ends.

And specifically, I've had, and you may have had the same thing. I mean, I have face to face dealt with the homosexual crowd.

If you believe this, then I don't see how in the world you can argue with a homosexual who says,

God made me this way. You can't. If you believe that God is responsible for everything that happens and they try to say, no, we're responsible.

Well, you can't have it both ways. If God predestines it, God's responsible. Whether you like it or not.

And you can argue that all you want to. And I'm sure that makes somebody mad that's going to critique this thing.

But hey, oh well. God never made anyone a homosexual.

God never made anybody to be an adulterer. God never made somebody to be a murderer, a rapist, a child molester, a serial killer.

God allowed it. But you can't say just because God allowed it that he predestined it. God gave us free choice.

We are responsible for our sins. Now, I want to show you, and I could give you a lot of examples. I don't want to go off on this because a lot of times when

I talk about this, people say, well, Brother Steve, you know, this is just one of your pet peeves. It is not.

It's not. I don't think about this all that much. But when I do think about it, I think about it the way I'm thinking about it right now.

Jeremiah said three times something that I know proves, it proves, biblically proves that Ephesians 111 could not be saying that everything that happens is the will of God.

And I'm going to read them to you. Jeremiah 731, they have built the high places of Topheth.

Topheth is a word for drums. And what they would do is they would beat the drums so that when they sacrificed the babies, you couldn't hear the babies crying when they died in the valley of, you remember what the word was?

Hinnom. Ben -Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom. And what did Jesus call it?

Gehinnah. That's the word for hell. And it was the garbage dump outside the dung gate.

And that's where the babies were being slaughtered. And he said, they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire.

Now watch this. Which I did not, what? Say it out loud. I did not command.

Now the next part is even more revealing. It didn't even enter my mind. That doesn't mean that God, I'm not an open theist.

You say, I don't know what that is. Give thanks. But it doesn't mean that God doesn't know the future. God does know the future.

But look at me. If language means anything, this means that it was not the will of God, the predestined, preordained will of God for these babies to be killed.

Amen. I mean, what else can you say? Open theism is the idea that though God is omniscient, he reciprocates his love for us by choosing to make his knowledge and plans for the future conditional upon our actions.

In other words, he has chosen not to know the choices that we will make, but will lovingly affect the course of things for our benefit as we make the choices that we make.

This reduces God to the role of an invisible human being, basically, who's an occasional do -gooder.

He's not all powerful. He's not all present. And he's not all knowing. Either God is sovereign or he's not.

If God has relinquished an aspect or a measure of his sovereignty, then he isn't sovereign.

Open theism is a false doctrine, but it is a more consistent doctrine than whatever it is that Steve Gaines espouses.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, the open theist will say that God doesn't foreordain.

So therefore, God doesn't know the future. Gaines is saying that God doesn't foreordain, but he does know the future.

And as I've already pointed out, pointed this out yesterday, if God knows exactly how the future is going to go, then there's no way that we can make any other choice than the one that God has foreseen that we will make.

So free will is an illusion in Gaines's theological paradigm. The Bible says that we have the will to sin against God.

That's our sinful nature. That's what we do. We are dead in our sins and our trespasses,

Ephesians 2, 1, and we are enslaved to the passions of our flesh, Titus 3, 3, until the

Holy Spirit gives us new life and frees us from bondage, which you read about in Ephesians 2, 5 and Titus 3, 5.

Then and only then are we able to worship God in a way that is right and acceptable to him.

As Lorraine Bettner pointed out in his work, The Reform Doctrine of Predestination, man is able to exercise volition.

In other words, man is able to make choices and decisions and even make decisions that are morally acceptable, but he cannot willfully exercise holy volition.

It is God who makes holy. We can do no such thing with our dead, filthy hands.

He said, well, that's only one. Oh, no, no, no. Got two more in the same book. Jeremiah 19, 5 and 6, they have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons.

In the fires, burn offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.

Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topeth or the Valley of Ben -Hinnom, but rather the

Valley of Slaughter. Jeremiah 32, 35, they built the high places of Baal that are in the

Valley of Ben -Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which

I had not commanded them, nor had it entered my mind that they should do such an abomination to cause

Judah to sin. Look at me. When you say that God predestined everything, including sin, you've left the

Bible and you have turned a philosophy into a theology.

You've reasoned in your mind and it's reason gone awry. Dr. Gaines is using the word commanded here, the way that God commanded all creation to come into existence.

God said, let there be, and there was. That's a command resulting in an immediate response. Commanded as it's being used here in Jeremiah is according to what is decreed in the law of God or what is instructed by God.

These are two completely different uses of the word. Again, Lamentations 337, who has spoken and it came to pass unless the

Lord has commanded it, Jeremiah 731. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the

Valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command.

These are two different uses of the word. And many scholars believe Lamentations and Jeremiah were written by the same person.

By the way, Gaines is trying to say that because God did not command

Israel to sin at Ben -Hinnom, therefore God does not foreordain all things.

It's a false conclusion derived from a false premise. Again, as I talked about this yesterday, he's trying to weld two concepts that run parallel to one another, but are not the same.

James, the brother of Jesus tells us not to blame God for our own sin. James 1, 13 through 15, let no one say when he is tempted,

I'm being tempted by God. God cannot be tempted by evil. Now here it is.

He himself does not tempt anyone. That pretty much says it, doesn't it? He doesn't tempt anyone.

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. When sin is accomplished, it gives forth death. If you want to know who is to blame for your sin, don't look at God.

Look in a mirror. It is me. It is me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

Amen. Sin is your fault. You are responsible. You are responsible to hear the gospel, turn from sin, and follow

Christ. And if you don't, you and you alone will be held accountable for the choices that you made.

Romans 14, 12, Revelation 20, 12 through 13. Neither I nor any other true

Bible teacher will preach anything to the contrary. In the full context of James 1, the point that he was making was this.

God does not put evil desires into our hearts, but he will bring us into the presence of temptation to test us.

See Matthew 4, 1 on that, where it says that the spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.

In James 1, 12, it says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which

God has promised to those who love him. Then James goes into talking about temptation. If we resist, we pass the test.

If we give in, it's because of the evil within us that gave birth to sin, which results in death.

Now, I'm going to come back to something that I talked about yesterday. God judges mankind based on the decisions that we make in this realm, not based on his ultimate decree from everlasting to everlasting, because he has not revealed that to us.

But Dr. Gaines wants you to believe that if God predestined all things from the foundation of the world, that means

God has ordained sin. Again, he's welding on his own anvil the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

It cannot be done. He is attempting to simplify with human reasoning something that is divinely complex and using a lot of fallacious arguments in the process.

God does not ordain sin. God does not predestine sin. God is not a rapist. God is not a murderer.

God is not a child molester. God is not an adulterer. God does not ordain abortion. God did not kill the

Jews in genocide. God is not gassing those people in Syria right now. God is not telling a lie.

God is holy. He hates sin. He does not predestine everything that occurs on earth. And even though he does allow sin to occur,

God is not responsible. This woman and her family had a choice. They had a free will.

They could decide where they would go and how long they'd be there and what they would do. Now, we're 20 minutes into this now, and we're just getting back to his root text, which is 2

Kings 8. Some of that is my fault, I know. But he went all the way around the world, made a few stops in human history to make a connection between this text and people getting gassed in Syria.

2 Kings 8 has nothing to do with any of that. Now, go back to verse 3, and I'll try to move a little faster.

At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. She went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field.

Now, the king was talking with Gehazi. The servant of the man of God saying, please relate to me all the great things that Elisha has done.

And he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead. Behold, as he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead.

Behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and for her field.

And Gehazi said, my lord, O king, this is the woman, this is her son whom

Elisha restored to life. When the king asked the woman, she related it to him. So the king appointed for her a certain officer saying, restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.

And what you see is, it's hard not to see the sovereign plan of God for this woman being worked out as she submits herself to his will for her life.

You see that she comes back, she's been gone seven years, and it just so happens that Gehazi is talking with the king about this woman when she walks in and says, hey,

I need my land back. He said, that's the woman I've been telling you about. And all the king wanted to say, tell me some of the great things

Elisha did. He happens to tell the story about this woman and she walks in. How many of you know that that was not just coincidence?

How many of you know that was God? The sovereign plan of God, she walks in, she gets her land back.

She even gets all the produce and the money that was taken for it for the last seven years.

God is a God of abundance, is he not? Yes, we do behold the sovereignty of God in this story.

But I want to specify again, this is an example of providence, which is a subset of God's sovereignty.

God used secondary means to carry out his will, all being guided by his sovereign hand.

God will do the same for each of us if we obey him. If you obey God, you can experience

God's will being done in your life. If you disobey God, you'll be experiencing what it's like to be out of the will of God.

That's the way God works. God's will is not automatically done. God's will is just not always done.

You said, wait a minute, what did you mean by that? I mean this in the Greek, God's will is not always done.

Some things are done that are not the will of God. Mean what in the Greek? His arguments are so broken, they're difficult to make sense of sometimes.

Again, here Gaines is totally missing that there's two different definitions of will. There's God's decreed will, according to his law.

And then there's God's sovereign will or what he executes to take place. There are plenty of things that happen outside of God's decreed will.

We go outside the will of God every day. This is why we must be faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins.

And he has promised he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1, 9. But nothing happens.

Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will. Absolutely nothing happens that God has not foreordained.

Augustine rightly taught that nothing in the universe happens apart from the will of God. God has relinquished his control, his authority, his glory to no one.

Isaiah 42, 8, I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory

I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things

I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Next chapter, starting in verse 9, all the nations gather together and the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right.

And let them hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, declares the

Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the

Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange

God among you. And you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God. Also henceforth

I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can turn it back?

Skipping down to verse 25, I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Put me in remembrance. Let us argue together. Set forth your case that you may be proved right.

Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary and deliver

Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. God does bring about destruction, and oftentimes he uses secondary causes to make that happen.

When he judged the land of Canaan, he did so through the Israelites. See Deuteronomy 9, 4, and 5.

When he brought judgment upon Israel, he used the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the

Edomites, the Philistines, the Romans, and so on. Through Isaiah, God says, you want to argue about the way

I do things? Make your case. I'm the one who delivers. I'm the one who tears down for my namesake.

Who can turn it back? Who can change it? As it says in Ecclesiastes 7, 13, consider the work of God.

Who can make straight what he has made crooked? Rich young ruler. Mark 10.

Yes, I'm sorry. This is another rabbit trail. We're going to jump into Mark 10 as Steve Gaines is going to give an example from the story of the rich young ruler.

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him, knelt before him, asked him, good teacher, what shall

I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one's good except God alone. You know the commandments.

Don't murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, don't defraud, honor your father and mother. He said, teacher,

I've kept all these things from my youth up. Looking at him, are you ready for this? Jesus felt a love for him.

How many of you see that on the screen? Only four of you. Would you look on the screen?

Okay. Jesus felt a love for him. That means if language means anything, he wanted to save him.

He said, one thing you lack, here it is, and this is not a command for everybody, this is a command for this man.

Because there are a lot of people that didn't sell everything. And yet we've got people nowadays that say, oh, because Jesus said this to the man, then nobody needs to own property the rest of their life.

I'm sorry, that's an overemphasis and a false application of Scripture.

One thing you lack, talking to the rich young ruler, go and sell all you possess, give to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, come follow me.

But at these words, he was saddened, he went away grieving because or for he was one who owned much property.

Jesus, looking around, said to the disciples, how hard, not impossible, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

That's something we don't think about much in our day, do we? And by the way, if you have food in your refrigerator, a roof over your head, and a car to drive, you are more wealthy than 75 % of the people in the world.

So don't just think we're talking about certain people that live in certain parts of Memphis. We're all wealthy compared to what he's talking about here.

He said, it's hard for wealthy people to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at his words. Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard it is, not impossible, but how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. I've heard people try to do all kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics with that, trying to say, well, it was a door.

Look, just go home, if you even know what sewing still is, and take a needle and look at it, and then look at a camel and just figure it out.

That's what he's saying. Try to shove the camel's nose through the needle. It doesn't work.

Jesus is saying, it's an impossible thing. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

They were even more astonished. And they said, then who can be saved? Looking at them, he said, with people, with men, it's impossible, but not with God.

All things are possible with God. Gaines really tried to make an emphasis that it's hard, not impossible, but when it comes down to it, it's impossible.

That's the point. The Jews considered wealth as a sign of God's blessing. If a person was rich, that must mean

God really liked them, or they did something that earned the favor of God. But here it was being said of this rich young ruler that it was impossible for him to get to heaven.

No one who thinks that they are worthy of eternal life can get into the kingdom of God.

It's impossible. You can't get a camel through the eye of a needle and have it survive the trip.

Likewise, no one trying to earn their way into heaven by their possessions or according to their own merit will get through the gates of heaven alive.

Look at the reaction from the disciples. Then who can be saved? If a wealthy and moral man can't be saved, then what hope does anyone have?

And Jesus said, with man, salvation is impossible. With God, all things are possible.

It is by God that we are saved. That's the point of the story in Mark 10. But Gaines is going to twist it into something else here.

Now, it's obvious. It seems obvious. Jesus loved the man, wanted him to be saved, gave him the clause.

He said, look, for you, you've got an idol of money. You've got an idol of possessions. This is your problem.

It's not everybody's problem. It's your problem. I'm dealing with you. I want you to give it all away.

And if you do give it to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven. Follow me. And the man could have said yes.

If he could not have said yes, then we have to say to Jesus, you're giving him a false hope.

If you have already predestined him to hell, then you're toying with him. Now, that's the hard facts.

But Jesus doesn't toy with people. Jesus gave the man a legitimate option.

And the man chose not to receive Jesus. And it says he turned away.

His face fell. His countenance fell. He owned much property. Really, he was owned by much property.

But Jesus wanted to save him. He felt a love for him. He gave him—look, what does it say about Jesus if it wasn't a legitimate offer?

If he was just toying with the man. If he was just saying, I'm just offering this. I know you can't do it because you're not the elect.

I know that you can't receive it because you're not predestined. If that's the case, what does that say about God?

What does that say about Jesus giving a false hope? Giving a false invitation?

That's the reality of what we're dealing with. Do you understand how wicked that would be?

And look at me. Jesus is not wicked. Jesus said, come to me.

Come to me. Come to me. Gaines is really playing with fire here. Because if it's true that the rich young ruler wasn't predestined for salvation, we don't know the outcome of his soul, but the indications are that he was not saved.

Then Gaines is calling Jesus wicked. Go back to the story that I mentioned earlier in 1

Kings 22. Was God wicked for revealing to Ahab that he was being manipulated by an evil spirit and that he was about to die without giving him the option of making another choice?

Was God wicked for telling Pharaoh to let his people go after he had already told

Moses in Exodus 4 that he was going to harden Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh wouldn't let God's people go? Was God toying with Pharaoh?

Gaines' argument is futile here. He has already said that God knows the choices that we will make, but he doesn't make those choices for us.

So if Jesus knew that the rich young ruler was not going to repent and follow him, why did he bother offering him that option at all?

Here, I'm going to offer this to you even though I know you're not going to be able to accept it. As Gaines just said, is that not a false hope and a false invitation, giving the man an option that he can't accept?

I'm only using Gaines' reason against himself. Again, Gaines needs to be really, really careful here because logically, though it may not be the intention of his heart, he just called

God wicked. I would pray for Gaines and ask the Lord, God, please forgive him because he does not know what he's talking about.

Jesus can have a love for this rich young ruler as he had compassion for all that he taught and healed, whether or not they are elect.

Jesus stepped into our realm and became like us in every respect.

Therefore, we are supposed to model our behavior after Christ. We as Christians, as imitators of Jesus, are told to show love for everyone, whether they are

Christians or not. Again, Gaines is foolishly trying to draw conclusions to his theology that are simply not in the text that he is drawing from.

Another example, Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth, Mark 6, 1 -6,

Jesus went out from there, came into his hometown, his disciples followed him. Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue.

Many listeners were astonished saying, where did this man get these things? What is this wisdom given to him?

Such miracles as these performed by his hands. This is Jesus preaching at his hometown.

And they say, you know, we saw this boy grow up and he never acted like this before. He never talked like this before.

He never performed miracles like this before. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, are not his sisters here with us?

And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.

Are you ready for verse five? And he, read those words, he could do no miracle.

Doesn't say he would do no miracle. It said he could do no miracle.

That what it says? Guess what it says in the Greek? He could do no miracle. Why? He could do no miracle except he laid his hands on a few sick people and they healed them.

Here's the problem. He wondered at their what? What is it? Their unbelief. Do you see that faith was the requirement for a miracle?

And what is faith if it's not choice? And he was going around the other villages teaching.

He wanted to do a miracle, but their unbelief caused him to say,

I'm not gonna operate unless you believe. And I'm not, here it is, watch me. I'm not going to make you believe.

Now look, if he had predestined them not believe, then why would he be amazed at their unbelief?

It doesn't even make sense, does it? Does it? I'm gonna make you talk. I mean, why would he be amazed at their unbelief if he had predestined their unbelief?

Makes no sense whatsoever. Because according to Philippians 2, 6 and 7, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Jesus experienced the things that we experienced. He was and is

God incarnate, God in human flesh, God experiencing life as we experience life.

This story is not an evidence of God having given free will to mankind or God being unknowledgeable of the choices that we would make, which by the way is open theism, which

Gaines claimed he doesn't believe. It shows us that Jesus was made like his brothers in every respect,

Hebrews 2, 17, and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, though he himself was without sin,

Hebrews 4, 15. This was to make propitiation for our sins by his death on the cross and stand as a mediator between God and man.

Dr. Gaines is so desperate to make a case against the absolute sovereignty of God that it's like he forgets his formal education.

Why does he not connect this basic understanding to the life and ministry of Jesus? Let's work backward through this story that Gaines shared.

He said, faith is a choice. Well, according to Philippians 2, 8, it is the gift of God.

Hebrews 12, 2, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith.

Jesus gave us our faith and he's growing us in our faith. And how is this faith born in us?

The same way God brought all things into existence by the power of his word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, Romans 10, 17.

Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, James 1, 18. You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God, 1

Peter 1, 23. Dr. Gaines said that Jesus could do no miracle.

Not that he wouldn't do a miracle, but he could do no miracle. Then what is the next text that Gaines read right after that?

He could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

That sounds like miracles to me. The way that Mark 6, 5 reads in the

ESV, it says he could do no mighty work there. In other words, revival wasn't gonna break out.

Their hearts were too hard. Nothing Jesus did was going to seem amazing in the eyes of this people, but he still loved them to teach them and help them.

And we as his disciples should follow his example in service to God. Matthew 23, 37.

Oh, Jerusalem. He's praying over the city. Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, stones,

God's messengers. How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.

I could go on. I just want to say God has a plan for you. Romans 12, 2.

It is good. It is perfect. But that plan being fulfilled is partly conditioned on your obedience and disobedience.

And God has predestined that plan for your life, but God does not predestine either your obedience or your disobedience.

God does not choose for you. He allows you to make choices based on your will and your choices largely determine how your life will go on earth and throughout eternity.

But God does have a plan for individuals. And that's as far as we'll go today. We'll stop there. Remember Ephesians 1, 4.

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Romans 8, 29. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

So yes, God has foreordained your obedience. In 2

Peter 1, 5 through 11, the apostle says that we confirm our calling and election by obedience and maturity.

If we are elect, we will show that we are elect, that we belong to Christ as citizens of his kingdom.

Each tree is known by its own fruit. That's Luke 6, 44. In Colossians 1, starting in verse 10,

Paul said to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

My friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, it is all over the scriptures. We are saved by God, by his power, by his mercy to the praise of his glorious grace.

If we have been saved, we will show that we are saved by growing in love, in knowledge and in the holiness of Christ.

What this does not mean is that God has already chosen and so therefore it's all on him and you have no responsibility.

We cannot fathom what he has done from beginning to end. We are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,

Philippians 2 .12, and so do that. Let's close with prayer. Our great God and father, we thank you for the salvation that we've been given through Christ and help us to look to our savior as our example.

Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourself and growing in an understanding of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Who can fathom what God has done from beginning to end, but we seek you for wisdom. As you have promised in James 1, you give liberally to all without reproach.

Give us the wisdom of Christ, we pray in the name of Christ, amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.