If God Has Decreed the Next President, Why Should Christians Vote?

If God's already decreed who's going to be the president, why should Christians even bother voting? That's what we're going to talk about today on Your Calvinist Podcast, which begins.

Right now.

Sometimes I feel all down on me, and I need a friendly voice with some good shoe polish, and I hit the YouTube link. Don't say hit, that sounds violent. And I feel my troubles on my cast wheel.

Your Calvinist Podcast is filmed before a live studio audience. And welcome back to Your Calvinist Podcast. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am Your Calvinist. I want to thank you for joining me today. And we're going to get to our topic in just a moment, and today's podcast is going to be a little bit different, because I am going to actually play some audio from a recent lesson that I gave at Beryl Baptist Church, when I was there giving a conference on the sovereignty of God.

Last week, I gave four messages on the sovereignty of God. I talked about the sovereignty of God over the nations, the sovereignty of God over our circumstances, the sovereignty of God over prayer, and the sovereignty of God over salvation.

I did that over four days, and I was so encouraged by the welcome that I received at the church. Pastor Wade and his elders were such an encouragement to me, and I want to continue to thank them for the blessing that it was to be among them.

Well, while I was there, I gave the people an opportunity to ask questions about my messages, and during the Sunday school hour, I answered their questions. And so today, I want to play the question and answer period that we did during the Sunday school class.

We had three major questions, all dealing with the question of, okay, if God is sovereign, or since God is sovereign, because we know that he is, how does that affect our choices, and how do our choices affect what's going to happen?

Do they affect what's going to happen? And so I spent about a 40 to 45-minute lesson answering those questions, and I thought it would be an encouragement to let you listen to that today for the podcast.

And I wanted to also mention that we've got a lot going on here in Florida. I'm recording this on Tuesday, October the 8th, and in just a few days, by tomorrow night or Thursday, Hurricane Milton is going to be hitting Florida, it looks like, and I have no idea what level of devastation we are going to see, but we have a good idea that the people down in Tampa and the St. Petersburg area are going to be taking the brunt of this storm, and it does seem to be a very severe storm.

So I want to ask you to pray for that area. I know we're already praying for the Carolinas and all of the things that are going on there because of Hurricane Helene. Seems to be just a massive amount of devastation and lives lost up there, and it looks like we're about to see some more devastation in South Florida.

So we want to pray for them, praying for specific pastors. I want to ask that you pray for Pastor Jonathan Bush of Southside Baptist Church in Winter Haven. I preached down there last month. His church is right in the path of the storm.

I want to pray for Pastor Steve Kreloff, who is down in that area. Pastor Travis Van Meter, who is also down there. Pastor Tucker, who is down there. I preached at his church. And, of course, the Founders Ministries, which is Pastor Tom Askell.

His church is down there. So all of these churches, all the people surrounding them, want to pray for them, ask God to be merciful on them, and just ask you to join with us in prayer over this situation, that this storm would break apart, would not have the impact that we know that it is possible to have.

So, again, those are just some things I wanted to bring up. I'm going to be bringing the audio in from my lesson here in just a moment. But before I do that, I have just a couple things I want to remind you of.

One, we are a ministry of Sovereign Grace Family Church. So if you're in the Jacksville area, come visit us at sgfcjacks .org. You can learn all about the church. If you are interested in getting the smallest Bible, printed Bible, on the market, you can go to tinybibles .com.

They are a partner with the show, and right now they've also produced a tiny Gospel of John. It's small enough to fit just about anywhere, take just about anywhere. And this one is readable without an eyepiece.

The tiny Bible, you need an eyepiece, but the tiny Gospel of John, you don't. I can just open it up and read it. I want to also mention, too, that we are now doing a new weekly show called Friday Night Live.

It comes every Friday night, and we're doing it around 930. The only thing that will keep us from doing it is if the weather is so bad we don't have internet. If that's the case, then we won't do live.

But that show is answering emails from you. So if you have an email question that you'd like me to answer on a live show, you can send it to keithfoskey .com. Just go to the website. There's a place to send me an email right there.

And I look forward to hearing your questions and hopefully answering them on an upcoming Friday Night Live show. All right, guys, thank you for watching. And now on to the lesson. Every Thursday morning, I go to a men's recovery ministry.

It's called Set Free, and it's men who are coming off of drugs and alcohol, some of them coming out of prison. And it's an old motel that's been converted into a living facility for these men. And they go there, and they have to commit to 150 days of discipleship.

And so they call that phase one. It's six months, basically, almost five months or so of them having to go and do that. So every Thursday morning I sit in a classroom similar to this with a bunch of men who are sometimes a little rough around the edges.

And oftentimes I can't get through a sentence before a hand goes up and they want to ask a new question because a lot of times these guys are so hungry to ask questions and want to know the answers to their questions.

So I am used to answering questions on the fly, and I enjoy doing that. And part of my ministry, as Brother Wade knows, every Friday night I do a show called Friday Night Live where I go on to my YouTube channel and I answer questions that people send in via email.

And while I'm answering those questions, people are typing in questions, just like you guys were on the other night, typing in hello, because it's live. People can write in questions. So again, I enjoy this opportunity to minister to you.

And it is something that I think is important because it's easy to stand on a dais and proclaim something is the truth and then just leave to drop a bomb and then be like, all right, I know you've got a thousand questions, but I'm out.

I'm heading back to Jacksonville. So I'm thankful that Brother Wade has given me the opportunity to do this. I do want to also say one other preliminary thing before we read the questions, and that is I know that we have to do this now because of time and the way everything fell.

I really wish we were able to do this after the sermon this morning because some of what I'm going to say in the sermon will relate to the questions that have been asked because some of it deals with the idea of God's sovereignty and our salvation.

And that's the very subject I'm going to be preaching on in an hour. So if I say in the midst of this, well, hey, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to explore this fully, I will be. But I'll do my best to still give a profitable answer during our time here.

The three questions that were given all, I would say, all fall into the same category because they all fall into the category of, well, if the sovereignty of God is true, how do my actions play into the plan of God?

If God has already determined what's going to happen, if he's already determined what the future is going to be, how then do my actions play? And that's that's that's boiling everything down to a simple question.

But I'm going to now read the three questions and I think you'll see how those three questions relate to that more broad question. The first question was this. If the rise and fall of nations are predetermined by God, elections included, how do human responsibility and free will fit in?

Why vote? That's a great question. And so we're going to address that one. Number two, when I hear preachers say things like I had no part in my salvation, that salvation is all of God, I get confused because I called out to him to save me.

Did I not have a role in my salvation? Again, it comes back to the question of what's my participation? All of these, again, I think fall within the framework. Question number three, it seems to me that the teaching of God's sovereignty, especially when it comes to salvation, is controversial and divisive.

What is the profit then to talk or preach on such things? That's a great question. And I look forward to answering that at the end as our third question, because I think my my answer may surprise you.

So let's let's begin back up at number one. If the rise and fall of nations are predetermined by God, elections included, how do human responsibility and free will fit in? Why vote? Come on in. Have a seat, buddy.

I was going to say you want to you want to you want to share? Good morning. May I use your whiteboard? Is that I was going to put it on. OK, so I want to address, first of all, the idea of the the freedom of the will.

Because that's that's at the heart of the question, if you remember, it says, how do human responsibility and free will fit into God's determining of the future? And right away, I think it's important that we identify what we mean by this term.

Most people will use this term in a generic sense and they will say, OK, I believe in free will, meaning that they believe in the ability to make choices. And if that's all we mean is that people have the ability to make choices, you had you had the choice to come here this morning or or not.

You had a choice to go to Dunkin' Donut this morning or not. You had the choice to be late and you were. So just. So all of these things are choices that we make. And no matter where you fall on the theological spectrum and the theological spectrum tends to be divided by by different words.

There are you know, you'll hear the phrase Arminian and Calvinistic or you'll hear the term reformed and you'll hear the term. Even now, there's a new and provisionist and there's all these different words people use.

And it's just words to try to identify camps or thoughts or schools of ideas. And so everybody, whether you're Calvinist or Arminian, provisionist or whatever, everyone would say that men have the ability to make choices.

We all make choices and those choices are legitimate choices that affect our lives. If I choose to exercise and eat more healthy, I might lose a little weight. If I choose not to, I might continue to look like I look.

Now, that was a little negative. But, you know, I mean, you know, there are things I can do to change my life. There are things I can do not change my life. There's things I can do and I can make choices.

And those choices do affect my life. Right. But there are certain things that I had no choice in. I had no choice that I was going to be born in Jacksonville, Florida on April 2nd, 1980. I had no choice that nine months earlier my parents were going to come together and procreate to bring about my birth on April 2nd, 1980.

And I like to point that part out because most people who believe the Bible will say, well, God ordains the birth of children. Right. We'll say the birth of a child is ordained of God, not an accident.

Right. This child is here by the miraculous purpose and will of God. God is the one who brings about the birth of a child. I mean, didn't we just read that last night? What was it? Psalm 139. He formed us in the womb.

He established us, created us, all those things. But was there not a physical act that was required between two people? And was that physical act not necessary in every aspect of a person's birth, for every birth that's happened in the last however many thousand years the earth has been here?

I'm a young earth guy, so I can say that if you think it's a billion. But for however long the earth's been here, every birth that's ever come about has come about by two people coming together and entering into a physical relationship.

And you say, well, why are you bringing that up? Well, this is the way I explain evangelism. Because people ask the question, well, if God is sovereign over somebody's salvation, why should I have to share the gospel?

Well, if God was sovereign over my birth, why did my parents have to have sex? It was a part of the process of bringing about what God had planned. It was a means to an end. And it is part of the necessary means of bringing about God's will.

And my parents participated by their choice and action in that while at the same time being under the sovereign authority of God because he had planned from the foundation of the world that I was going to be born on April 2nd, 1980.

And this is where we hold that intention. And it's like when you take a rubber band and you pull a rubber band apart and you hold it out on both ends, the tension is not at the ends. The tension's in the middle.

If you let go on this end, it's going to smack that side. If you let go on this side, it's going to smack that side. The tension is in the middle. And so I can say man has the ability to make choices.

God is still sovereign. And there's a tension in the middle that I have to deal with because the Bible teaches both. The Bible teaches that both man is able to make choices. And God is sovereign in bringing about his will.

Nothing can thwart his will. He does what he will in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth. He is sovereign over all those things. So we can trust that. But at the same time, we say men make.

And I like this phrase. I say men make choices as moral agents rather than the idea of free will. When people say, do you believe in free will? I say, well, I actually believe in something called moral agency.

They say, well, what's the difference? Are you just being fancy pants with your words? Why you got to make it more difficult than it is?

I'm not.

I'm trying to make a point because in the issue of free will, we have a word that is problem. And the word is free. Because if you read what the Bible says about the human condition. Ever since the fall, there's one thing that is very clear.

And that is men are not free. We are. The language that's used is multifaceted. But the key words that are used is slavery.

And deadness.

Right.

Jesus said he who sins as a what? Slave to sin.

Right.

So the term slavery is used by Jesus. Paul says you were dead and trespasses and sins. Now that doesn't mean you were absolutely incapable of making choices. Sometimes I think those on the reform side or my, maybe my camp, if you will.

Those who would fall more into that side. I think sometimes we overexpress the deadness to the point that we say man can do nothing.

Make no choice.

And we compare ourselves to Lazarus in the tomb. And there's a certain spiritual benefit to understanding ourselves as being dead in sin. And being unable to do certain things. But it doesn't mean we can't do anything.

We can have thoughts.

We can, we can make choices.

And we do.

In fact, this is why we do apologetics and evangelism. Apologetics is defending the faith. And evangelism is sharing the faith. Right. And we often go together. Because if I share the faith with somebody and they want to argue, then I got to defend the faith.

Right.

So now apologetics and evangelism go together. And so when we talk about deadness, why would I do evangelism and apologetics if a guy has no ability to even think.

Right.

If he's so dead he can't even think at all. And so there are, there are things, there are ways that I can overcome certain objections to a person who is objecting to the faith. For instance, when a person has an intellectual objection.

Well, I don't know if I believe in God because I can't see him. Or I don't know if I believe in God. I believe in evolution. I don't know if I believe in God. I believe in the Big Bang. Whatever, whatever.

Those are intellectual objections. And I can say to that person, okay, well here's my answer to the evolution question. I don't think it answers the question of where we came from. It doesn't make sense mathematically, biologically, or even evolutionarily.

It doesn't, it doesn't work. And the time frame and all these different things. I can make that argument. And I'm overcoming his intellectual objections. Or he might have a moral objection. He might say, I can't believe in God because my wife was injured.

Or I can't believe in God because my child was born sick. Or I can't believe in God because of the hurricane that hit the Carolinas. I can't believe in God because of these things. That's a moral objection that I can help him overcome.

By simply pointing to God's goodness in scripture and talking to him about the truth. And how God uses the bad things of this world to bring about his will. I can overcome those moral objections. But what I cannot do for a man who is dead in sin.

Is I cannot give him life. I can't do that. I can overcome his objections.

And I should.

I should give him no reason to be able to continue to stand against the truth. And that's why I study apologetics. That's why I preach the way I do. I tend to preach like an apologist. I'm always giving a defense of what I believe.

Because it's just the way God made me. And I can do that. But I cannot reach into his soul. Take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. And by the way that's the analogy that the Old Testament gives us.

It says God is going to take out the heart of stone. And he's going to put in a heart of flesh. What's the difference? The heart of stone doesn't beat.

It's dead.

But the heart of flesh beats and it's alive. So God is going to give life to the dead soul. So I can bring a person to the point. But I cannot give them life. And neither can they. They can't give themselves life.

God is the only one who can take the dead heart and replace it with a living heart. In fact I want to show you a scripture. This one I think is very helpful. If you have your Bibles turn to John chapter 1.

I'm going to be preaching through the gospel of John as soon as I finish 2 Corinthians at our church. And I'm looking forward to preaching. I preached through Luke and I preached through Mark to a portion of Matthew.

But I've never preached through John. So I'm excited about this opportunity.

Alright.

So in John chapter 1 verse 11. It says, He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him. To them he gave the right. And the word right there if you have a New King James it has a little superscript above it.

It's actually the word power. He gave them the power to become children of God. To those who believe in his name.

Who were born.

This is the key. Verse 13. Who were born not of blood. Nor of the will of the flesh. Nor of the will of man. But of God. The new birth. He says is not. From three things. He says first. It is not of blood.

By that it means. You are not born again. Because your mom and daddy were born again. In fact this is a passage I use when I'm debating my Presbyterian friends. And I wore my Presbyterian bow tie today.

Presbyterians believe. That a child born into a Christian family. Is brought into the covenant by virtue of having at least one believing parent. And that they are made part of the new covenant by birth.

And that's why they baptize them at birth. Now they still believe a person has to believe. They still believe a person has to come to faith to be saved. But they believe they enter into the covenant by birth.

But this text says that's not the case. You don't enter into the new covenant. You are not born again by blood. That's number one. It's not by blood. But notice the second thing it says. Nor of the will of the flesh.

This I believe is referring to the will of the individual. Again going back up to this word here. It is not being born again by my will.

I'm not.

I can't will myself to have new life. The new birth doesn't come by my mom and daddy. And it don't come by me. And the third one it says. Nor of the will of man. And you say well what's the difference between the will of the flesh and the will of man.

Well the answer is this one is referring to other people. I can't will you again as much as I would want to. You know what I mean. And I pray and hope that you are saved. But if you're not I can't make you saved.

I can't change your heart. I can't go and take out your heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. So the three ways that you're not born again. Is you're not born again by blood. Meaning by your birth.

You're not born again by your will. Meaning your own choice. And you're not born again by the choices of others. But you are born again by what?

By God.

But consider this. It still has a result. And what is the result?

You believe.

The new birth results in receiving Christ. How do you know the difference between someone who is born again and someone who is not?

They believe in Jesus.

Notice again going back to the text. It says to as many as received him. To them he gave the power to become the children of God.

Who were born.

Not of the will of flesh. Not of the will of man. But of God.

They were born.

That's what brought about their willingness to receive Christ. You would not receive Christ. If he did not give you that ability. Jesus Christ says in John chapter 6. One of the most important passages on this subject.

Jesus is talking to a group that had followed him. Because he had fed them. And they wanted to be fed again. And Jesus told them. He said you don't come to me because you believe. You come because you had your bellies full.

I mean that's not exactly. That's the key standard version. But that's basically what he said. I like that version sometimes. The KSV. Key standard version. But Jesus said you come to me to have your bellies full.

You come because of what I can give you. But all the father gives me. Will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will in no way cast out. I've always loved that passage. And I believe that's John 6 .27 or 30.

I have to go back and look. But that passage right there. To me. Fully satisfies the issue of sovereignty and freedom. Because hear it again. All the father comes to me. Excuse me. All the father gives me will come to me.

That's sovereignty. All the father gives me will come to me. That's sovereignty. And the one who comes to me I will not cast out. That's the will of the man.

He's coming. Right.

Nobody is coming unwillingly. In fact the Old Testament there's a passage where it says. They will be made willing in the day of my power. God is the one who makes us willing. We who were unwilling. We who didn't desire.

We who were dead in our trespasses and sin. Didn't want to come. God overcame that. And gave us the desire. To come. So when we talk about salvation. I'm going to preach on this again in a little while.

When we talk about free will. We have to understand our will is limited by sin. Slavery and deadness. God by his mercy overcomes that. And gives us the ability to come. Now you might be saying. You didn't answer the question about voting.

I'm getting there.

I thought all this.

I wanted to address the issue of free will. Because I think it's important. Now let's talk about the issue of voting. And the issue of participation. Because God is sovereign. Does that mean I shouldn't participate.

In elections. Or any of that. Because God's going to do what he's going to do anyway.

No.

And here's why. We should participate. Because we are the means. By which God is bringing about his will. For instance. Let's say I see a person sitting on the side of the road.

And they are hungry.

If I took the hyper-Calvinistic approach. Which is not good. And I'm not hyper-Calvinist. Even though I had coffee this morning. But if I take a hyper-Calvinist approach. I say. God's going to feed that man regardless of what I do.

So I don't care. That would be wrong. And that would be a fatalistic understanding. Which the Bible does not provide us. We do not have a fatalism. We would see that man and his need.

And we would say.

God has placed me. In this moment. To take care of that man. And therefore I am the means. By which God is going to bring about his will. And so I submit to the Lord. And I do what the Lord has called me to do.

Just like he calls us all to love people. So when it comes to voting. When it comes to the rise and the fall of nations. I am fully convinced. Remember the rubber band. I am fully convinced. That God already knows.

On November 2nd. Who's going to be the next president. I know who I hope it ain't.

But I'm convinced.

That God already knows. Who it's going to be. And I'm also convinced. That he's going to use. His people to bring about his will. One way or another. He's going to use. And sometimes you know what God does do.

This is the hard part. Sometimes God uses wicked people. To judge his people. If you read the Old Testament man. You'll see where God brings in the Babylonians. God brings in the different people. From the different lands.

Canaanites and other people. To bring judgment on God's people. And I will quote Calvin. Don't hold it against me. But Calvin did say this. He said when God wants to judge. A nation he gives them wicked rulers.

And I hate sometimes. To think that that may be. Because we have certainly. Had to deal with wickedness.

In the leadership.

And I. Shudder for what my kids.

Are going to have to deal with.

Now I'm optimistic. That God. Is not going to fail. The gates of hell will not prevail. Against the church. But that don't mean. That this nation will always stand. I mean I'm a patriot. And I love America.

My son serves in the United States Air Force. Has for the last five years. And won't do it until he retires. I support him and I'm thankful to God.

For the many men who served the Lord.

And served it in areas of the military.

In fact.

And this is totally off the subject. But just real quick. If you study Baptist history. One of the things that separated the Baptists. From the Anabaptists. Which were. The ones who came out of the. Out of Switzerland during the time of the Reformation.

They were students of Ulrich Zwingli. And they rose up Conrad Grebel. And many of them rose up and created the Anabaptist movement. That's now the Amish and the Hutterites. And people like that. That's the Anabaptists.

What separated the Baptists. Was Baptists did not.

Deny.

The responsibility of Christians serving in the government. To the Amish. And the Hutterites and the Quakers. They won't serve in the government. But the Baptists said you can. Rightfully serve. And you can serve to the glory of God.

Even in the military.

And that was a big distinction. In fact our church holds to the first. Confession. It was written in 1644. Written in 1644. It was edited in 1646. We hold to the 1646 version. And the last four or five articles.

It's 52 articles. The last four or five articles say. That it is within the realm. Of God's mercy. That a Christian can serve. As a magistrate.

Meaning a police officer.

A governor.

A mayor.

Or even a military man.

And so that's just an interesting. Little bit of Baptist history. That was a distinction. Between us and our Anabaptist cousins. And I do think we have a cousin. Like relationship.

So going back to the question.

If the rise and fall of nations. Are predetermined by God. How do human responsibility and free will fit in? Because God is using. The means of his people. To bring about his will. Whether it is his will to bring us.

Blessing or judgment for a season. Whereby he will raise up. Again for his purpose. Men during judgment. To remind us of his goodness. Think about the time when Israel was in captivity. That's when you had men like Jeremiah.

That's when you had men. Like Ezekiel and Daniel. Who during the time of captivity. Stood for God. We may end up there again. We may have to go through this again. Did I mention to you guys. About the movie.

About the Russian missionary. Was that here?

Okay.

My wife and I were watching a movie. And it was about a Russian pastor missionary. Who was during the time. Where the Soviet Union was. Doing a lot of things. And it was opposing religious freedom. And there was a man.

Who came to this small town. Where this pastor was serving. And everybody come to the town square to hear him. And basically he was standing up in the town square. Saying all religious freedom is gone.

You're not going to be able to preach. His wife said to him. She said someone must say something. And the pastor looked at his wife. He said well if I say something.

You will not have a husband.

And she said I would rather have no husband.

Than have a husband who is a coward.

And I thought.

Wow.

And I think.

First of all.

Thank God for a godly wife.

Thank God for a godly wife.

To remind him. That it's better to be a dead man. Than a coward. And we may have that. God does not promise us. God does not promise us. A smooth sail. God does not promise us that America will always stand.

I pray that it does. I pray that God will save us. I pray that God will bring us good leaders. I pray that God will sanctify us. But sometimes sanctification comes through fire.

So.

That's how I believe human freedom. And human responsibility fit into voting. I do believe he uses us as part of his plan. But he still has a plan. So hopefully that makes sense. Second question. Based on the same concept.

When I hear preachers say things. Like I had no part in my salvation. That salvation is all of God. I get confused. Because I called out to him to save me. Did I not have a role in my salvation? Yes you did.

And that's what I want to be crystal clear. Especially based on what I'm about to preach. When we say.

And we have.

I'm sure I've said this before. I had no part in my salvation. What that means. Is in the instigation. Of my salvation. Not in my response. I do respond. To the gospel. But I respond to the gospel. Having been enabled to respond.

In a way that I could not before. Because my heart did not want to. I love this phrase. My old professor used to say. He said. When God saved me. He gave me a new wanna. And wanna is literally just. Wanna.

Because when I was unsaved. I want to do a lot of things. But now that I'm saved. I want to serve Christ. My desire changed.