Road Trip Radio Free Geneva: Only the Apostles were Predestined!

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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You constantly hear people that are Calvinist harp on this. Baa, baa, God's suffering, God's suffering, baa, suffering, suffering, suffering.

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They just keep repeating it, and they repeat it so much you start to think it's a Biblical truth. ♪ I'll help others ♪

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Jesus stands outside the tomb of Lazarus. He says, Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus said, I can't,

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I'm dead. That's not what he did. Lazarus came out. Do you mean to tell me a dead person can respond to the command of Christ?

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♪ For still our ancient foe does sing to us ♪

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And then you take lessons from Judas White and Jeff Durbin. It shows in this kind of sequential format.

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And... ♪ His praise...

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♪ Do you really believe that it parallels the method of exegesis that we utilize to demonstrate those other things?

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Um, no. ♪ All earth is God's... ♪ Some new

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Calvinists, even pastors, very openly smoke pipes and cigars just as they drink beer and wine.

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♪ And we are... ♪ Even Jesus cannot override your unbelief.

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I'd like to ask him, you know what it would sound like if he were listening to it?

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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It wouldn't make any sense to him. A self -righteous, legalistic, deceived jerk.

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♪ You are stupid, baby... ♪

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And you need to realize that he's gone from predeterminism. Now he's speaking of some kind of middle knowledge that God now has to...

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I deny and categorically deny middle knowledge. Then don't beg the question that would demand me to force you to embrace it.

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♪ Lord said my hope is made... ♪ You're not always talking about necessarily

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God choosing something for no apparent reason, but you're choosing that meat because it's a favorable meat. There's a reason to have the choice of that meat.

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♪ From maids to intercessors... ♪ Cafeteria at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Safe from all those moderate Calvinists, Dave Hunt fans, and those who have read and re -read George Bryson's book, we are

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Radio Free Geneva. Broadcasting the truth about God's freedom to say for his own eternal glory.

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I'm still, honestly... It still takes me time to get past the

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Steve Tassi thing. It really does. I'm sorry. Hey, just so you know,

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Tim Beauchamp is working on a video version of the opening.

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So instead of just the splash screen, this thing, we will have video.

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And so he's tracking down the video from these clips and he's recording music. I guess they record all the music stuff already.

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And I need to let you know, I hate moving. I really hate moving.

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We moved into the house we're in right now in 1998. And I told my wife then, we're gonna bury me in the backyard because I hate moving.

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But we're moving the bunker. The lease is up under the

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New Orleans cafeteria. And we've found a new location. And I think you're going to enjoy the new location.

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For those of you wondering, welcome to Radio Free Geneva. Radio Free Geneva is a feature of The Dividing Line that we began many, many, many, many, many years ago.

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You know, I do need to, before we get into it, I encountered a young man in the

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Kansas City area just a couple of days ago.

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And, you know, again, when I get to go out and do this, you meet with people and you hear from folks.

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Oh, by the way, I'm in an RV park. So if you hear the dog barking outside, that's why at least a few other people showed up.

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When I showed up here today, there was nobody here. So I was sort of feeling a little walking dead type vibes going on out here.

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But anyway, you get to talk to people. And again, let me just say very quickly, thanks so much to the folks in Amarillo, St.

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Charles, and then Sedalia, and then the two churches in the

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Kansas City area, both of which were actually not in Kansas, weren't in Missouri, I don't believe.

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Anyway, had a wonderful time with all of them. They were very welcoming, very friendly. Got to talk to a bunch of folks.

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It's always encouraging. One fellow was talking about how lonely he had felt until he found the dividing line that helped him find like -minded churches, things like that.

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Had a young man come up to me on Saturday, I believe it was, and he just looked so excited. And he shakes my hand and he said,

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I was baptized six days ago, and you and Jeff were important in having that happen. And I just,

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I don't even know what to say in situations like that other than, you know,

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I've never met the man before. So what a day to live in where you can have that kind of influence.

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It's exciting. It's wonderful, it's awesome, it's great.

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And I'm very, very thankful to have those opportunities. So we're on our way home.

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Prayer's appreciated. Today was seven hours, a little over seven hours. Yeah, maybe eight today.

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I'm not sure, I'd have to go back through. But anyway, uneventful. I didn't get really tired at any point in time.

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And if I can get through the diesel lines with the big trucks without having to wait in line, it's a good trip.

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And I did that twice today, just straight into an open bay and you're out the other side so fast.

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Those diesel pumps will fill you up really quick. Anyway, got to listen to a bunch of stuff today and had some time to listen, re -listen to a video that we're gonna be summarizing and responding to on Radio Free Geneva today.

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On the way home and we'll be preaching, Lord willing, next

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Lord's Day at Apologia. And I think

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I know what I'm gonna be doing, but I gotta check to see if I've ever done it before. That's the rough part there.

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There's a certain collocation of texts

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I like to go over that's exciting in regards to the Advent season and Christmas and stuff like that.

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And so we'll see. But that's this coming Sunday, which will be my birthday, by the way. So I'll be preaching on my birthday.

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What else, what more would you like to do on your birthday than to get to preach the word of God to wonderful people in a church that loves

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Christmas? So it's gonna be great. And maybe I'll wear a Coogee while preaching on Sunday.

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Why not? It's Apologia, we do things our own way. All right, so months ago,

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I don't remember exactly when it was, I was sent a link to a video and I started to look at it and I was sort of like, yeah, okay.

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And then this guy started showing up on Twitter. And so I downloaded it and I listened to it on the trip out.

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And then today I listened to it again and then voice recorded some notes so that we can make it worthwhile.

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The fellow who's doing this has

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John 17 Apologetics Ministry, I guess is what it's called. And his name,

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I guess, is Nick Craig. There's a screenshot from the video that we're gonna be looking at from Ephesians 1.

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Nick Craig is his name. I thought he might be some guy on Twitter.

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So I asked the guy on Twitter. He said, no, that's not me. We'll be looking at some of his stuff. He has a thing called, because Nick Craig does have a

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Twitter thing, but it's a couple of times it almost seemed like the

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Calvinism is a lie guy said stuff that sounded like he was claiming that what he was posting was his own.

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So maybe I just may have just misunderstood him. But anyway, that's why I asked the question. So Nick Craig will pop into some of my threads and say things like, yeah, well, you don't know what election means because you haven't responded to what

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I said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so he's posted a few videos, not many. It's not like late in flowers where you've got, you know,

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Google has had to build three or four server farms just to keep up with all the stuff that Leighton puts up saying the same things over and over again.

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And so, but he'll pop in once in a while. And so I thought, all right, well, we'll listen to it.

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Thankfully, it wasn't three and a half hours long. Give him credit on that one.

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It does start off with, everybody wants to try to make themselves look really fancy, by throwing in stuff from, you know, movies and things like that.

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And, you know, having a little fun. Okay, fine. I don't really get into all that stuff. We've got too much stuff to cover.

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So anyway, in essence, the argument we're gonna be looking at, and then

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I'm gonna look at some other stuff. I won't look at the Calvinism is a lie guy on Twitter. Make a few comments on the

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X1348 stuff. We've covered a lot of that before. There's a whole section of discussion of that, if I recall correctly.

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I know I covered it in the Potter's Freedom, but I'm pretty sure I also covered it with Dave Hunt, many, many, many moons ago on that subject too.

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But the essence of the video, and of course I can't do video editing and indexing and stuff like that at 65 to 70 miles per hour, 18 ,000 pounds, 51 feet long, playing tag with trucks.

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Or today I was just trying to stay in the draft of trucks to get the best gas mileage I could. It's just such a long day in the saddle.

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Anyway, here's the essence of the argument that Nick is presenting to us.

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First of all, he begins, he literally claims at the beginning of his comments, he has not found anyone that goes into the depths on Ephesians that he's going to go into.

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He hasn't found anyone in the past 180 years. And he says, no one has gone as in depth as he's about to go in covering

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Ephesians since the invention of the internet. How do you even respond to that?

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Okay. I don't get the feeling that our dear brother, for example, is

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Greek literate. And so maybe what he means is no one on the internet has done something like this since it was invented or something.

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I don't know. But obviously his commentary can't go nearly as deep as the vast majority of critical commentaries and things like that, because he's just not aware of what the issues are.

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But he starts off, you can listen to it yourself. I will link to it when I blog this after we get done.

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He claims he has used this argument with Calvinists for years and they cannot overcome it. So this is, without this, there must not be anything else.

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He does put up some other videos where he sort of piggybacks on this, but I haven't even bothered to listen to it because this is woefully deficient, exegetically speaking.

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So if that's what it's all based on, then why even waste the time with what comes afterwards, basically.

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Here's the thesis. It's not the standard class interpretation of Ephesians 1 where you have a class of people, an impersonal group of people.

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He says, I'm right about that. His argument is that Ephesians chapter one, verses three through 12 is only about the apostles.

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It's only about the apostles. It's not about the Ephesians. They come in down in 13, 14, down that area.

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But all the stuff about eternity past and predestination and all of this is only about the apostles.

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And then he spends the vast majority of his time demonstrating that in some of Paul's epistles, he, for example, talks about the apostles as a group or the apostolic band or the individuals ministering with him who weren't all apostles, by the way.

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I mean, you have Demas and the sad story that that is.

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And so there were people that were associated with Paul that were not apostles. And so there isn't anything that I heard in this first video anyways, where he seriously defines what apostle means, how apostle was determined, when was the last apostle, would this include

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Peter and people that aren't with him while he's writing, but does it include Luke?

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Does it include Timothy? Is Timothy an apostle? If it's the apostolic band, then if this is, if Ephesians one, two through, three through 12 is only about the apostles, what about Timothy?

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What about Demas? Epaphras, other people that Paul mentions as a part of his apostolic group, but are they apostles?

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There is some discussion of how you even define that term as it's used, for example, in Acts, or does

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Paul use it in more than one way depending on what he's addressing? So those are some of the issues.

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And so it's pretty easy to go into places, the

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Corinthian correspondence, Paul's having to deal with the super apostles, he's having to defend his apostolic authority, certainly in Galatians, same type of situation.

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And then in other epistles, he's writing to the Philippians or the Thessalonians and he's commending their faith and so he'll make a distinction.

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And so he spends a lot of time proving something that isn't really relevant, because if the issue in Ephesians 1 is that the only ones who are predestined are the apostles, then what we should see in Ephesians 1, three through 12 is the apostolic ministry and what makes the apostolic ministry unique, different from what anyone else would have.

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The things that are said in that section should be unique to the apostles.

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That would demonstrate his point, but the reality is that that's not the case.

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And then I should say he makes a huge deal out of we who were the first to believe in Christ and he spends time going about, well, it's the

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Jews first and then the Gentiles and Ephesians are way down the road and they couldn't have been included in all this stuff. And he goes on and on and on and on and seemingly feels that that's the sort of the ace in the hole that demonstrates, yes, this first section only about evidently the

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Jewish apostles. And even though Paul comes later, he's one of the 12 and so we'll include him in there.

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And he sort of, he does deal with that as well. He sort of, he recognizes that's very clearly there were believers in Christ who were not apostles, who were believers before Paul was.

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So this whole chronological thing, we'll look at it and we get to verse 12 and I will suggest a little more obvious meaning to it when we get there.

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But so the whole thing is all this election stuff, later on, I'm sure, because he mentioned it somewhere else, it's election under service and these are all partial truths.

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God does elect, what does Ephesians 2 say? That foreordination of God is unto good works, which includes service.

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And so sure, election is under service, but that doesn't mean that it's not unto, the other things that it said, inheritance, adoption, all the things associated with salvation itself.

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And so there's the thesis in a nutshell.

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And so let's, and I did try to, I'm hoping that I was successful here.

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I tried to fix our little window with a little help from my friend,

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Rich. And so let's see what we can do here.

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There's that and a little bigger, a little easier to see.

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Now realize I have to look down here to see it. And so if I'm scrolling and some of it ends up on the wrong side there, please forgive me as far as covering over the

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Greek. And I'm a little scared to touch the button to move it around, so it's not broke at the moment.

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I'm not gonna fix it. So let's just go with it where it is there. So Ephesians chapter one is where we're gonna be going.

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And so let's just think about, let's walk through the text and let's take the thesis as it has been offered and let's see how it works, okay?

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This is a gentleman who, by the way, is I, in my opinion, is not balanced in his criticism of Calvinism.

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And in fact, sort of what we're doing on the program today by looking at this and then looking at some of the responses that were given to brother

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Ron on Twitter, when he wrote a fine thread going through the

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Acts 1348 middle passive issues, he went through Dan Wallace who lays out criteria for how you determine whether something's to be taken as a middle or passive and none of which works for Acts 1348, some of the responses.

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There are sadly lots and lots of people on Twitter who are marked by what they're against more than what they're for.

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Some people say, well, you're an apologist, that's all you do, except fair -minded people, even on the other side will admit that I'm much more clearly for what

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I'm for than against what I'm against. I will be very clear into being against what I'm against when it's against what

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I'm for. But I give a positive presentation of an orthodox

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Trinitarian reformed understanding of salvation and the inspiration of scripture and resurrection and so on and so forth.

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And I'm much more focused on that. There are people on the internet, sadly, whose lives are marked by their detestation of reformed theology.

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The Calvinism is a lie, guys. Oof, there's just no balance. There can't be joy in that.

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There can't be fulfillment in that. I really feel sorry for people like that.

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And our friend here is not overly balanced in his analysis.

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And I think that's what leads to this kind of interpretation. So let's keep in mind,

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and there are some early manuscripts, by the way,

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I'm not gonna expand on this too much, that omit at Ephesus. And I think that's reflective of the fact that, and this is one of the things that our friend misses here, that Nick misses.

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Ephesians, you know, Paul spent years at Ephesus, and yet there's nothing personal in Ephesians.

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I firmly believe that Ephesians is the letter referred to in Colossians 4 .16, coming from the Odyssey. It was a circular letter.

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And that's why it doesn't have the specific personal address to the many, many, many, many people that he could have named there at Ephesus.

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You can tell from Acts 20, how deep his relationship was with that particular church.

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But that impacts the nature of the address and the audience in Ephesians, is that this is meant to be circulated around the churches.

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To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I would just ask, I mean, that's standard introduction, but when it says grace to you and peace from God our

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Father, is it our Father as in the apostles' Father, or is it our

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Father as in all of our Father? Or is it all of us who are saints?

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Is God the Father of all who are saints? That's what I would say. If you're in Christ and you have

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God as your Father, but there's no distinction there, right? Is God Father of the apostles in a way that he is not of everyone else?

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Or in a special way, or in a predestined way? I wonder if this has been thought through.

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So, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, if three through 12 is only about the apostles, so evidently they have a special relationship to our

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Lord Jesus Christ that the Ephesians don't have. Right? I mean, it's supposed to have a distinction here, right?

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But it's our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. So, if you're gonna say, oh no, no, it's all of us are included in our

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Lord Jesus Christ, but who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven and places in Christ, yeah, that's just the apostles.

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That's just the apostles. That's the perspective that would have to be presented here because this is every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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So, what are the heavenly, what's every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place?

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And remember, Ephesians 2 gonna say, we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ. And that's everybody, or at least

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I thought it was everybody but maybe he would say it's that they're more special or they have a better place in heaven,

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I don't know. But the idea is who has blessed the apostles with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose the apostles in him before the foundation of the world, that we, the apostles, would be holy and blameless before him.

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Now, I think in love should go with the next verse, but that's not something to argue about here. But so you hear what's being said.

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So, God chose the apostles in Christ before the foundation of the world.

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So, let's just stop for a second. What is actually accomplished in taking this perspective when in reality, what you're fundamentally saying is, yes,

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Calvinism is true, but it's only true for the apostles.

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So, the apostles didn't have free will. How did

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God choose the apostles, but not the

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Ephesians? Because that's what's being said. The predestination, all this stuff, it's about the apostles.

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It's not about a regular believer in Christ such as the people at Ephesus would be.

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And so, this creates a two -class system. So, evidently, you're free to get into Christ by your free will choice, but the apostles weren't.

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Did the apostles have free will? Ask Paul about that. As he's laying blinded on the ground, talk to him about his free will.

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But, so the apostles are denied free will. And how did the apostles come into existence?

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So, remember, soteriology, your soteriology, your doctrine of salvation is going to be dependent upon previous commitments, whether you recognize that or not.

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Most evangelicals, I will confess, don't get that part. They don't see that part.

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And what I mean by that is most evangelicals have a doctrine of salvation over here, then they've got their doctrine of God over here, and they never bring them close enough to see if they're actually connected to one another.

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And so, if we're going to say that God predestined certain people to an office of service, in this case, every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, and here, to be holy and blameless before him.

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So, holy and blameless, that's soteriology. That includes atonement, that includes removal of sin.

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There's gonna be adoption as sons, verse five. This is all soteriology.

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This is what it means to be saved. And so, that doctrine of salvation has to have a foundation to lay on in regards to theology proper.

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Does your God have an eternal decree? Does your God have perfect knowledge of future events? If God can predestine certain people, then you need to realize each one of us is the result of literally millions of, quote -unquote, free will creaturely choices that came before us.

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All of our ancestors might have made decisions. All of our ancestors may have done things that would have changed who we are.

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So, you can't just simply say, God predestined such and such a person to do such and such a thing at such and such a time, but then say, but everything else beforehand was just a free -for -all.

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It was just all, you know, God let everybody do whatever anybody wanted to do. No, if he's gonna bring you into existence, then everything that came before you has to be ordered just as much as your existence is.

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And so, if you're going to say, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, there is a huge theology behind that.

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It's Paul's theology. It's Romans 8 and 9 theology. It's Ephesians 1 theology.

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It's Isaiah theology. It's John theology. It's reformed theology.

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It's God's decree theology. It's what, unfortunately,

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Nick detests, but he doesn't seem to realize that if he's gonna say, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, and you're going to say the us is specific people.

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Okay, you're gonna say it's not the elect. It's nobody today. It's just the apostles. You haven't gotten anywhere.

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You still have the same, you still have to have the same reformed theology behind all that.

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You can't escape it. So, and then that we would be holy and blameless before him.

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He provides that which is necessary to accomplish that.

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So before the foundation of the world, before time, in Christ, so the role of Christ, his incarnation, the sacrificial death, the result of that sacrificial death, that's all certain.

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That requires a decree. That requires the meticulous sovereignty that brings about the existence of certain individuals at certain times.

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You can't escape it. So he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

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And so everything that is necessary to make us holy and blameless is a part of that decree that results in this choice before the foundation of the world.

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And simply saying, but it's just for the disciples, it's just for the apostles, doesn't change anything. It's still the fact that the only way to be holy and blameless before him is made by God, unless you're gonna say they are holy and blameless in a special way that we are not.

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And I don't see how you could avoid ending up with a bit of a two -level salvation system here.

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Because if the apostles needed God's eternal choice to make them holy and blameless, we don't,

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I don't know. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons.

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Oops, I didn't keep the Greek scrolling, forgive me.

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He predestined us, I'm sorry, I've got to read it the way that Nick says to, by predestining the apostles to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise, the glory of his grace, which he graciously bestowed on the apostles in the beloved one.

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So the apostles are chosen, the apostles in love are predestined unto sonship.

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Now, have you noticed one thing that's totally missing here? None of this is specifically and only about the apostles.

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There's nothing here about apostleship. There's nothing that is defining apostles over against anyone else.

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And in fact, the reality is if you just step back and go, Paul, is there anything you describe here about adoption as sons, receiving inheritance, forgiveness of sins, is there anything here that is not the common experience of all who are in Christ Jesus?

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The answer is nope, nope, there's not. So what is gained here?

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Absolutely, positively, nothing. Because the predestination is to adoption as sons.

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So you have people who from time immemorial were predestined to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.

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That's what he's affirming. Now, he's just simply saying it's a small group. And evidently other people can be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, but evidently it is that by their own free will.

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The apostles couldn't do that, but we can. So there's two different groups that are adopted.

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Those that were eternally predestined and those that were not predestined.

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Did the apostles need this because they were particularly stiff -necked or something like that? Or is this just a special blessing that no one else has?

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And so they're the super Christians. They're better Christians than anyone else will ever be. And they're just be closer to the throne of God or whatever because they were eternally predestined to adoption while the rest of us weren't.

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This is according to the good pleasure of his will, the praise of the glory of his grace.

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And vast majority of Christians down through the ages have recognized that all of our salvation is to the praise of the glory of his grace.

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But this has to be limited to just the apostles. We can't have that anymore because this is just about the apostles.

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Which he graciously bestowed on the apostles in the beloved. So the apostles are in Christ seemingly in a way that the rest of us are not.

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Even though the results are the same. There's no distinction being made.

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In him, we have redemption through his blood. So the apostles have redemption in Christ through his blood.

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Now that's a true statement. But has anyone ever dreamed that what's actually being said here is in him, the apostles have redemption through his blood.

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In a way you don't, because they were chosen to receive this, but you weren't chosen to receive this.

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Again, redemption through his blood is how the church is formed. And the point of Ephesians, by the way, in Orthodox interpretation, one of the primary elements of focus in Paul's epistle to the

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Ephesians is the doing away of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. And so the unity of the body of Christ is emphasized.

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And the foundation really is here in Ephesians one, that anyone who has redemption through his blood, forgives our sins, has been chosen from eternity past.

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And that destroys all the self -made man -made distinctions that we might try to introduce into the body of Christ.

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So you can't have, one of the clearest dangers that the apostle was very, very concerned about was a

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Jewish Christian church and a Gentile Christian church. That's self -evident

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Romans, it's here as well. And so the destruction of that dividing wall is yet to be mentioned in Ephesians, but the grounding is found in that all of us, stepping aside from this forced interpretation, in Christ, we all believers have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of his grace.

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And so we all stand on the same ground, Jew and Gentile. We all have the same imputed righteousness.

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We were all dead in our transgressions and sins, but God made us alive together with him in Christ Jesus.

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That's the experience of everybody, not just the apostles, but everybody.

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But that also then means that since adoption and all these things are the common reality of all believers, then it was all of us were predestined.

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And that predestination shows itself in time as God calls his people unto himself.

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So in Christ, so these are all in Christ. And as soon as you try to then introduce distinctions as to how people are in Christ, you're going directly against the apostle because that was again, his whole point.

41:00

He fought against the divisions that people are trying to introduce by pointing to the fact that we all stand on the exact same level ground,

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Jew or Gentile. That's what the beginning of Romans is all about. Ephesians is just wrapping it up faster and putting it back in eternity.

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And Paul does that in Romans 8 and 9. But we all stand on level ground.

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Our equality before God is due to the fact that we had nothing to do.

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It was not something we contributed. We are totally the recipients of grace since this was given to us long before we took our first breath, even though God knew exactly what we're gonna be like.

41:48

And again, there's a theology behind that that non -reformed people just don't wanna even accept or even consider, but it's there.

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So he has forgiven our transgressions and the level of that forgiveness, katata, plutas, tes, karatas, autu.

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The standard of that forgiveness is according to the riches of his grace, can never be exhausted.

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That's how perfect forgiveness is. Which he caused to abound to us.

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To us, the apostles? Oh, that's what we're being told. Which he caused to abound to the apostles in all wisdom and insight.

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And this is exactly where he goes. Because he says, making known to the apostles the mystery of his will.

42:48

Well, there you go. He made known to the apostles. And didn't he do that?

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And he did. But of course he's done that to every single believer because to believe in Christ is to have at least some knowledge of what the will of God is.

43:08

And where that leads. I need to make sure that we, I'm seeing everything.

43:14

I'm not seeing anything coming from, okay. If I, when

43:22

I, I do have a second monitor. I can set up when I have the time to do it. But when you're only at a place for one night, you don't necessarily want to put.

43:30

I did, by the way, I should mention, I did, I do have the other camera up tonight.

43:36

So maybe once I get off of this thingy here, I'll use it again. All right, back to the text, sorry.

43:44

He did make known to the apostles the mystery of his will. But he makes known to all of us the mystery of his will.

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According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him for administration of the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on earth in him.

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There are many believers who will read that text and don't have any idea what it's talking about.

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And maybe he would say, see, but all the apostles did. Okay, even though, even

44:17

Peter says there are things in some of Paul's letters that are difficult to understand. The reality is 1, 10, and 11 is an overarching statement of the theology of reformed

44:35

Christianity. This is sovereign decree.

44:42

This is a actively sovereign God. He sums up all things in Christ, things in the heaven and things on the earth.

44:51

In him, an administration of the fullness of the times, the times are under his hand, they're under his control.

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He is administering them. He's summing all things up in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth.

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In him, we also have been made 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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Now, if you translate it that way, okay, we also have been made an inheritance or we have obtained an inheritance.

45:28

Oh, I'm sorry, I got it. Again, it's hard to see that stuff up there. It's right here in front of me, so it's easier for me to look down here.

45:37

I apologize for that. But in whom also we have, and the

45:47

LSB says, been made an inheritance. If it's made an inheritance, what does that remind you of?

45:55

Maybe the promise of the father to the son, ask and I'll make the nations your inheritance. If it's obtained an inheritance, then that would take us down to verse 14 because inheritance is used down here in verse 14 as well as in verse 11.

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So how exactly are they related together? According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

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So even if you say, well, this is just the apostles, you still have in these verses starting at the end of nine through 11, the entire reformed theology of God.

46:46

He is the one working all things according to the counsel of his will. And the only way that he can predestine even a small number of people, instead of a big number of people, instead of as many as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky, even if you wanna limit to a small number of people and not gain anything by so doing, but even if you wanna do that, it doesn't change anything because the theology that has to exist to bring them into existence and to make certain they take their roles and they do the things they are to do in this decree of the one, the purpose of the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will, he's still sovereign over all this stuff.

47:33

And so if you're gonna say, yeah, but everybody else it's their free will or something like that, you're not accomplishing anything. You still have the decree as the necessary element of bringing all this about.

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But in him, we also have a made an inheritance, we have obtained that inheritance. We know that this inheritance language is common throughout

47:55

Paul's letters in reference to what believers receive in the fullness of their salvation and the presence of the

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Holy Spirit and their participation in the body of Christ. So he works things, all things according to the counsel of his will, and then here's his key, to the end that we, the apostles, who first have hope in Christ to be the praise of his glory in him, you also, see there it is.

48:25

There for him is the smoking gun.

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We the apostles believe first, and you then afterwards, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the

48:44

Holy Spirit promise who has given a pledge of our inheritance under the redemption of God's own possession of the praise of his glory.

48:50

Now, let's leave aside the fact that clearly, you look at verse 14 and that hearkens back to what's before that, but this is now about the

49:01

Ephesians and it's God's own possession, the praise of his glory, that praise of his glory came earlier.

49:07

It's not like there's this clean break. It actually is a unified text. Let's leave all that aside because it obviously shows that Nick's position isn't being drawn from scripture, but for a moment, let the strongest part of the argument.

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So the idea is we who first have hoped in Christ. So this is supposed to be, the idea is, well, you can draw a chronological line.

49:43

And since the Ephesians are way down in like Acts chapter 18, well, actually, you think about that, there were already believers there in some sense, the people of John the

49:55

Baptist, but the point is there was at least one apostle that comes later.

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And so that has to be sort of a special case and I'm not gonna really even waste my time on that.

50:14

There is a really more natural way of looking at this.

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And unfortunately, I think a lot of people miss this because we do tend to,

50:28

I don't know, we put ourselves into the same timeline as the apostles.

50:36

Here's how I understand it. To the end that we who have first hoped in Christ, that is this first generation of Christians, the apostles, the

50:44

Ephesians, this is still the very first generation of believers. The apostles are still alive.

50:50

This is the apostolic age. So we are the first who have hoped in Christ.

50:58

And what is that then communicating? We're not gonna be the last. We are this foundation, we are the beginning.

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There's gonna be a discussion, a foundation of apostles and prophets and later in Ephesians, but we are at the start and God isn't done yet.

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And you want the example of that? In him you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the

51:23

Holy Spirit of promise. So it's ongoing. And that's gonna happen with the next generation, the next generation, the next generation, and God's gonna keep doing this.

51:32

That's how he builds the church. So we tend to miss seeing places that should be encouraging to us, that despite the fact that the early church was gonna be persecuted for hundreds of years, the worst persecution wasn't even gonna hit until 303

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AD, 10 years, 303 to 313, the worst persecution in the history of the church at that time.

51:57

This was all still yet future. And amidst of all this, you still have the promise. God's building his church.

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And even though we're at the beginning, even though we are the first ones, this is a new message, we get it, we know.

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It was probably one of the accusations that was made against the early church. What is this new message? Well, it was at Athens, remember?

52:18

What's this new message? What's this new stuff going on here? And of course, the

52:24

Jewish opposition reflected in Hebrews. Come back to the old ways, this new stuff, what is this?

52:31

This is just a cult, this Jesus guy isn't what he claims to be, so on and so forth. So we don't put ourselves in that context and listen to what these words would have understood, that would have been understood.

52:44

We, who are the first, this is, yeah, this is new. It's only a few years old, but we have hoped in Christ and we are to the praise of his glory.

52:57

And look how it's worked out amongst you. In him, so continuing the phrase, because the beauty is, when you actually interpret

53:06

Ephesians 1 and don't do this artificial limitation thing and recognize that Paul's own theology precludes it.

53:14

There isn't a special people that have been predestined to adoption and then everybody else gets adoption, but they get it in a different way.

53:24

Utterly bogus and absurd, which is maybe why nobody in 180 years had done anything like that,

53:30

I suppose, because they go, oh, that didn't work and just moved on from there. But when you don't do that, what you see is the beginning of the development of certain themes that are going to be used throughout the rest of the book of Ephesians.

53:44

And so in him, so in Christ, well, what was everything else before this?

53:50

In him, in him, in Christ, in the beloved one. In him, you also, after hearing the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him.

54:03

So notice the in him continues. So where did we receive all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places?

54:12

In him. Where do we receive adoption? In him. Where was that decree that we were going to be made sons of God make?

54:22

In eternity past, in him, in Christ. But now we transition into, that's all the eternal stuff.

54:29

He's summing everything up in Christ, but now we have to see how this happens in time. So now you're writing to the

54:36

Ephesians, okay? In him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the

54:44

Holy Spirit of promise. That becomes the true experience of everyone. Every believer in Jesus Christ.

54:51

It's in him, you hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believe and you're sealed in him with the

55:00

Holy Spirit of promise. So in him, Christ, Holy Spirit, God's in there too.

55:07

You've got a Trinitarian thing going on, who is given the spirit. And by the way, there's a fascinating textual variant there for those of you, the geeks in the audience,

55:17

Has and Ha. Ha is the one that matches with the neuter.

55:24

Has would emphasize the personality of the spirit, if that's the reading, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.

55:34

Well, that inheritance goes back up to the apostles only, but now is it our inheritance that we receive or that we are going to be the inheritance for Christ and that we are made that way by the work of the

55:48

Holy Spirit unto the redemption of God's own possession.

55:55

Who's God's own possession? Well, we are, that's sovereignty, that's election, that's predestination.

56:02

Yeah, that's what just came before. And if you don't introduce some kind of wild eyed distinction to try to get around this, then you see that because the break is only in, this is an eternity, this is now how eternity breaks into time.

56:22

This is how we experience it. And so, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance on the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

56:31

Back to verse six. So verse six, in eternity, it's all gonna result in the praise of his glory.

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Now in time, the redemption of God's own possession, which are you, the elect of God, results in the praise of his glory, same thing.

56:45

Perfect consistency, as long as you don't try to, as long as you don't have Calvinist Arrangement Syndrome and you're just trying to get around what's there.

56:56

And so then, he talks about giving thanks. And by the way,

57:03

Arthur W. Pink, Moody Press years ago published a number of books from Pink and one of them was

57:12

Gleanings, was it Gleanings and the Godhead or Gleanings and Paul? They're both great books.

57:17

I'd recommend both of them. But one of those two,

57:23

I think it's Gleanings and Paul, focused on the prayers of the apostle. And man, Ephesians contains some of the real gold of that.

57:35

So Paul's praying for them and the prayer that he prays for them is that the

57:44

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom of revelation, the full knowledge of him.

57:49

Now, this is another one of the arguments he makes is, well, the apostles already had that. Again, sometimes it's frustrating.

58:02

I desire that. I desire that for my children. I desire that for my grandchildren. I desire that for all the members of my church.

58:09

And it's something that you continue expressing the desire for because it's never finished.

58:16

It's not like, well, the apostles had all that. And so they just, you know, they just check that box off.

58:22

No, they continue to need the ministry of the spirit of God amongst them, just as among anyone else. So when it says may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, the full knowledge of him, that's ongoing.

58:38

That's what the Christian life is to be like. Are we to believe that the apostles were perfect in this life?

58:44

Is that why Paul and Peter had that little disagreement in Antioch because they were both perfect? No, of course not.

58:52

That's not what this is talking about. He's talking about the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of him.

58:59

Oh, I keep forgetting to do this. Forgive me. Epinosus, full knowledge of him.

59:10

And that's something you grow in. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a true believer, you have knowledge, but you're to grow in that knowledge.

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And that knowledge is to grow. And there's a lot to grow in. I don't know about you.

59:28

There's a lot to remember that I've already forgotten. So that you, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened will know what is the hope of his calling.

59:38

So the eyes of your heart have been enlightened. There's regeneration, but you will know what is the hope of his calling.

59:44

And I'm going to guarantee you one thing. That should be something that's growing and deepening constantly.

59:53

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And you get to participate in that, having been predestined before eternity.

01:00:04

So on and so forth. Let's just really quickly, I just want to point something out. Ephesians 2, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

01:00:16

Were the apostles dead in their transgressions and sins too? Of course they were. In which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the rule of the power of the air.

01:00:23

The spirit is now working the sons of disobedience among whom we all also formally conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh.

01:00:34

This is all believers, including the apostles. Doing the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

01:00:43

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

01:00:53

Is that the apostles? Is that the apostles? No, it's all of us.

01:01:01

It's all of us. Even when we were dead and our transgressions made us alive together with Christ.

01:01:09

Made us alive. Apostles, Jews, Gentiles, everybody.

01:01:14

By grace you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

01:01:21

You want to know what the spiritual blessings are? There they are. Who has them? All believers. So in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

01:01:31

It's all in Christ. It's all in Christ and all is Christ. And the point of Ephesians is not apostles, special super Christians, everybody else, not predestined, less super Christians.

01:01:41

It's Jews and Gentiles all in one body, all in Christ Jesus. One way of relationship to God.

01:01:47

One way that brings glory to God. That's what Ephesians is about. Quit messing with it. Quit playing with it.

01:01:54

How's that? There you go. Okay.

01:02:01

So you say, so that's what you listen to while driving. Does that help you to drive well?

01:02:11

No, not really, honestly. But I managed to get here in one piece and didn't drive anybody off the road or go off the road myself in the process of doing all that.

01:02:22

So there you go. Okay. Okay. See, I do have two cameras.

01:02:33

But this camera, this camera is the one for me to look at you and to speak to you in a special way.

01:02:44

I feel like Mr. Rogers all of a sudden. But I do need to do this once in a while because, you know,

01:02:51

Rich put a lot of effort into this, you know, to have the ANO logo back there.

01:02:57

And then I did, see what I did with the thing here? I just didn't, the mirror, there's too many mirrors in this

01:03:06

RV. I've covered all but one. The one in the bathroom, sort of gonna have that be able to comb the beard.

01:03:15

But there are two big ones in the living space. They're all covered, not necessarily with a colored one like this, but with a frosted one.

01:03:24

It really looks cool. But the main reason I covered that one is because actually it reflects the sink area in the kitchen.

01:03:33

Didn't really want that on the program. But yes, so we do have the other camera to say hello to you.

01:03:40

But see, I have to look over here to see what in the world is going on. So it's sort of strange. So if I'm really wanting to make a point,

01:03:50

I'll switch over to that one and say, you need to listen to what I'm saying. Okay, so, have

01:04:01

I already gone an hour? I have, oh my goodness.

01:04:07

I've gone an hour and five minutes. I don't even know how that happened. Everybody in the audience is going, we know, you do it all the time.

01:04:21

I used to preach shorter sermons now, but so let me just make a few comments.

01:04:31

I do, I am very thankful. Ron Hensel has put together some really neat, lengthy

01:04:39

Twitter threads recently. And I don't think he's driving across the

01:04:46

United States right now speaking at various churches. That gives you a little more time to do so. But he put together a really good thread where he talked about Acts 13, 48.

01:04:56

And for those of you who are not familiar with Acts 13, 48, I think you could go back, obviously

01:05:07

I covered it in the Potter's Freedom, and I give you various translations and discussion of the fact that the term tetogmenoi is a perfect passive participle, but it could also be a middle participle.

01:05:27

But the issue is, is it translated those who were appointed to eternal life belief or those who were disposed or appointed themselves or something along those lines, they believed.

01:05:45

And it's an old canard, it's an old argument that's been around for a long, long time.

01:05:51

And basically how you answer it is going to which material you are going to preference has a lot to do with the biases you bring to it.

01:06:05

But the reality is, I think you can make a very strong argument that a fair reader of Luke's general use to Greek language is going to translate it ordained or appointed.

01:06:25

And of course, if you have any meaningful biblical anthropology, if you're not a full -blown

01:06:35

Pelagian or a semi -Pelagian who's pretending you're not a semi -Pelagian, or you're not running around passing out books saying,

01:06:43

Pelagius didn't believe any of that. Then you're gonna realize that there is no such thing as someone who is predisposed or disposed toward eternal life.

01:06:55

The disposition of the rebel is toward death. Wisdom says in Proverbs, the one who does not love me loves death.

01:07:09

And so you can like, what a lot of people try to do is well, prevenient grace will do this for you, blah, blah, blah.

01:07:17

There is no such thing as prevenient grace. Okay, there's effective grace, there's salvific grace, there's sustaining grace, there's lots of different kinds of grace, but there's no such thing as prevenient grace.

01:07:32

If you are disposed to eternal life is because God has changed your heart. The heart of stone cannot be disposed to eternal life.

01:07:42

And so if you have an even semi -Pauline anthropology, then you know what's going on in Acts 13, 48.

01:07:50

The people that argue against it are the people who do not have a Pauline anthropology, did not have a

01:07:58

Pauline doctrine of God. They do not believe that man is a rebel sinner. They really do believe that man can be good and of himself and he has the capacity to do basically everything that the

01:08:09

Bible says he doesn't have the capacity to do. And so you're gonna deal with Acts 13, 48 on that basis.

01:08:17

Obviously it was not Luke's intention to provide a treatise on the doctrine of election in Acts 13, 48.

01:08:27

So the thread that Ron posted gives you very strong argumentation as to why the vast majority of translations done by committee anyways, render it in the same way and why you should take it that way.

01:08:47

But Acts 13, 48 is just sort of like referring to when Paul says,

01:08:53

I endure all things for the sake of the elect. It wasn't Paul's intention at that point to explain what election is.

01:09:01

But both Acts 13, 48 and Paul's reference there, things from writing to Timothy, indicate the ease with which

01:09:12

Luke in Acts 13, Paul can use this language as a given.

01:09:20

Yeah, those who are appointed to eternal life believe. That's why they did because they were appointed to eternal life. I endure all things for the sake of the elect as an elect people.

01:09:27

And I don't know who they are, but I endure all things so that they will receive the glory of Christ. It's similar to why it is that the

01:09:37

New Testament speaks of the

01:09:42

Trinity in the way that it speaks to the Trinity. Paul can easily speak of the spirit of Christ and the spirit of God in the same context, go back and forth.

01:09:54

He's referring to one spirit, but go back and forth like that because he's a

01:09:59

Trinitarian. And the apostles understand the sovereignty of God. So it just comes out.

01:10:04

It leaks once in a while, just to say something. And those that cling to their own autonomy and will not bow the knee to the sovereignty of grace just rebel at that kind of thing.

01:10:19

And that's what you run into in a text like that. And then just really quickly, just as far as Calvinist derangement syndrome, you have this

01:10:29

Anon account, Bible underscore times underscore

01:10:35

DC. Calvinism is a lie. I feel pity for these folks.

01:10:41

I really do. Even in this thread, he'll talk about, they're always saying we don't understand.

01:10:49

And that's because you don't. When you burn straw men, when you make things up, when you refuse to listen to clear distinctions that are made, there was one.

01:11:01

Let me just mention one here that I ran into. Yeah, here we go.

01:11:07

This was from December 6th, so five days ago. Calvin was just 27 when he wrote his

01:11:13

Institutes. He killed his opponents, full stop. What?

01:11:21

You mean Servetus that was convicted by the Inquisition?

01:11:27

Servetus that Calvin risked his life to witness to? Right after his conversion?

01:11:33

You mean that guy? Who else are you talking about? I do get upset when these people just engage in outright, either they're just liars, they don't even care about truth, or they're so ignorant of history that they'll repeat the same idiocy that the

01:11:52

Catholics threw at Calvin back then as if it was true. Whatever it is, it drives me nuts.

01:12:03

Because especially in the Servetus situation, not only did Calvin risk his life to try to reach

01:12:09

Servetus early on, but for years he kept his identity a secret until he was convinced by friends that by doing so could truly damage the cause of Christ because the

01:12:21

Inquisition was gonna burn him. So these people don't read history, they don't care about history, they don't care about being accurate, they don't care about being honest.

01:12:30

It's just reprehensible. If you're gonna attack Calvinism, get a brain and get some integrity in the process.

01:12:44

And according to biographers, wanna name them? He had a celibate marriage.

01:12:54

Really, that's why his son died a few days after birth? Really? It was well known that he was just not interested in romantic love.

01:13:08

Right, and y 'all actually follow his teachings? And then there's a quote from some who knows what.

01:13:17

See, this is derangement. These people, some of us say, don't even respond to them. Look, I'm just exposing this stupidity, okay?

01:13:26

The lies, the incoherence, the derangement that this particular individual has and so many other people have.

01:13:38

And you ask the question, why? And for some, I mean, they're cultic.

01:13:45

For others, it is a visceral commitment to their own sovereignty and salvation.

01:13:54

Don't tell me that I'm dependent totally on God. I'm the one that found

01:13:59

God. And that means so much to them that to be challenged on that drives people right over the edge.

01:14:10

And so they're willing to repeat anything as long as it's quote unquote against Calvinism.

01:14:17

It can be just a wholesale lie, but they'll repeat it anyways. And it's a sad thing to see, but they are out there.

01:14:26

Okay. My German friend just sent me a picture of the family and no one is smiling.

01:14:39

And he says, Germans don't smile. Smiling could be interpreted as weakness. My brother,

01:14:48

I have seen you smile and you have a beautiful smile. And I happen to know you have a big heart and I know you smile all the time with your kids.

01:14:58

So don't give me that. No, I feel like saying something in German right now, but I won't.

01:15:06

Anyway, so right now my guess is that my hope right now,

01:15:24

I have traveling mercies, is to do an in -studio, as in in Phoenix, plain old studio, swords in the back,

01:15:35

P45 on the wall, warp core going, dividing line,

01:15:41

Lord willing on Thursday. Thursday or Friday, but probably Thursday.

01:15:47

And that's the goal right now. If I make it home in one piece anyways.

01:15:54

So we'll Lord willing be able to do that. Once again, sincere thanks to everyone who makes these kinds of trips possible to the churches

01:16:06

I've had a chance to go to. I will just mention, you know, the travel fund is really important to be able to continue to do this.

01:16:17

We have found a way, by the way, I should mention this. Rich found a,

01:16:22

I have a fleet card now and it is a little bit easier for me.

01:16:29

I now go through the truck lanes in certain locations and you get an amazing discount.

01:16:38

I have gotten as much as a dollar a gallon off by going through those lanes.

01:16:44

And I need to go through those lanes. They fill up my truck much faster. I need to get DEF, diesel exhaust fluid and they have

01:16:50

DEF pumps there. Always makes a mess, but I've got, my engine is about 70 % the size of the big rigs.

01:17:01

I asked a guy and I did the calculations and I've got a big honking engine in my truck.

01:17:08

It runs on the same fuel, has the same needs as the big boys do. And so we have found ways to do that, but I should mention just in passing, soon as I get back, we're gonna be putting the unit here in for getting that roof finally done under warranty.

01:17:27

But I think I mentioned to you, I've been fighting with, I have no refrigerator. I have one of the little office fridges.

01:17:34

In the outside part, but the fridge went down and we need to find a way for me to be able to fix that on the road if it happened again.

01:17:42

And that may be stuff that's outside of warranty to try to make it possible for me to maintain stuff.

01:17:49

So point is when you support us in the travel fund that allows us not only to buy the discounted diesel fuel, but also to make the repairs of things because this poor little house gets 20 earthquakes a day every time it's moving.

01:18:08

And the amazing thing, you know what the amazing thing is? You know, the one thing that hasn't moved a bit is everything

01:18:15

Rich put in here for the studio. Now we don't leave the cameras up obviously. The cameras, the lights, microphone, they all go into drawers with the big padding stuff in them and stuff like that.

01:18:29

But Rich had to put stuff up here, the big old flat panel up here that has all the different screens on it that I'm looking at with the switcher down here and stuff like that.

01:18:42

All the stuff that lights hang on and stuff like that. It's the desk immovable, it's a rock.

01:18:49

And Rich put all this stuff in here. So I had somebody tell me I need to be nicer to Rich again on this trip.

01:18:56

People, you just don't understand. You just don't get it.

01:19:01

But I did have a couple of people gave me cards to give to Rich. And, you know, so I do feel for him.

01:19:07

He doesn't have a Rich cam right now. He can't get to, you know, do the comments and stuff like that.

01:19:13

So he's probably looking forward to Thursday when he'll have the Rich cam again and maybe he'll need to make up for all the time he's missed.

01:19:21

We'll be getting lots of comments or something like that. I don't know. But anyways, thanks for listening to the program, folks.

01:19:27

And thanks for watching Radio Free Geneva. We will see you next time.