The Decree of God Determines All

The Birth of Jesus and the Decree of Caesar Augustus

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today we're going to be in Luke chapter 2. While you're opening up your Bibles, I want to make a little announcement.

I want to thank everyone who has been watching these videos daily. I appreciate all the feedback and all the encouragement, and I've gotten a few remarks about my backgrounds that I use. A lot of people have said they enjoy seeing the different pictures that I've chosen in the different backgrounds, and today is special because today the background that I'm using is actually one that has been given to me by a friend and a photographer by the name of Micah Burke, and I've decided to use this beautiful picture.

This is a picture of Mount Shasta in California, and I've decided to use this picture all week this week for Coffee with a Calvinist, and I want to thank Micah for providing this photograph, and I want to point you to Micah's portfolio, which is available online, and if you'll look in the links below, you'll see the links to his portfolio, and if you would like to go there and see the photos that he has, you're welcome to do that by clicking on the link below, and I thank him for being a sponsor of this week's Coffee with a Calvinist videos.

God's Decree and the Fulfillment of Prophecy

So again, we're going to move on with our episode today. Today's topic is The Decree of God Determines All, and we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 2 verse 1. Luke 2 verse 1 says this, In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Now, we know that this particular decree of Caesar was very important in the bringing about of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. We know that Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem because that is where Joseph's parents and family were from, and so Jesus being still not born, they traveled to Bethlehem, and when they traveled to Bethlehem, Jesus was born there, and so this decree of Caesar actually was used by God, if you will, to bring about the fulfillment of a prophecy.

The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and so Jesus, to be born in Bethlehem, there had to been a reason for his parents to go there, and the reason that God used to bring them to Bethlehem was this decree of Caesar, and so years ago as I was reading this text, I got to thinking, you know, the decree of Caesar went out in time because God had made a decree from all eternity that his son was going to be born in Bethlehem.

A decree went out from Caesar, but a much more powerful and a much more important decree went out from Almighty God. This reminds me of Proverbs 21 .1 that says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hands of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he will.

God's Sovereignty Over Kings, Events, and Human Choices

God is sovereign. God is sovereign over everything, and God is sovereign even over the hearts of men. Kings may have certain forms of authority. They may even have a certain form of sovereignty in this world, but the one who is sovereign over all is Almighty God, and when Almighty God decrees that a thing will be, there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can thwart his decree.

One of the most important things to recognize, especially if you are someone who considers yourself a Calvinist or you're studying Calvinism or you're learning, is that the sovereignty of God is his act of decreeing all things that will come to pass.

God is the one who determines everything that is going to happen, and in our confessions, the traditional Reformed confessions, and there are different ones. I'm going to use the 1689 London Baptist Confession, and I want to read to you what it says about the sovereignty of God in his decree.

Listen to this. This is from chapter 3 of the Confession. It says, God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever come to pass.

Right there. It's confessing. This is a confession of faith that everything that comes to pass is because of the decree of Almighty God. Nothing is outside of his control. As Dr. R .C. Sproul used to be famous for saying, there is not one rogue molecule that can thwart God's purpose.

There's nothing that is outside of his control. I've had this conversation with people many times, and they often get very confused because they start thinking, well, God can't certainly be in, he certainly can't be decreeing everything.

He certainly can't be decreeing all of the minor things, the minutiae of this world, and I would ask them, I would say, what things in this world are so small that they don't have consequences on other things?

And again, looking back to Dr. Sproul, he always used the example of the horse who throws a shoe in battle. He says one nail can cause a horse to throw a shoe. One shoe can cause a horse to fall in battle.

One horse can cause the battle to be lost. One battle can cause a war to be lost, and one war can cause a nation to fall, and therefore one nail in the shoe of one horse can ultimately be the deciding factor in one nation standing or falling.

And so the question becomes, is God sovereign over the nail? And the answer is, he must be. God is sovereign over all things. He has decreed all things, and this becomes very uncomfortable for people because they begin to think, well, does that mean God's in control of even the bad things?

And the Bible says yes. The Bible says God causes all things, good and bad, to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We have to remember that even though men are exercising their own desires, they're exercising their ability to make choices, that God is sovereign, and ultimately no one can thwart what his plan is.

The Decree of God in the 1689 London Baptist Confession

And one of the great theologians of the early Southern Baptist movement was a man by the name of James Pettigrew Boyce. James Pettigrew Boyce wrote a systematic theology, it's called the Abstract of Systematic Theology, I would recommend it to you, and his writing, it's one paragraph in this book, I've quoted this so many times I can't even remember how many times I've used this, but this passage, this paragraph just speaks to me because it helps make sense of this question of the decree of God.

And I want to just read it to you, I'm gonna try to read it in one shot because it's rather long, and I'm gonna read it rather slow because I want to make sure that you understand what he's saying. And this is what he says, this is from James Pettigrew Boyce, this is from the Abstract of Systematic Theology.

The term decree is liable to some misapprehension and objection because it conveys the idea of an edict or of some compulsory determination. Purpose has been suggested as a better word. Plan will sometimes be still more suitable.

The mere use of these words will remove from many some difficulties and prejudices which make them unwilling to accept this doctrine. They perceive that in the creation, preservation, and government of the world, God must have had a plan, and that that plan must have been just, wise, and holy, tending both to his own glory and the happiness of his creatures.

They recognize that a man who has no purpose nor aim, especially in important matters, and who cannot or does not devise the means by which to carry out his purpose is without wisdom and capacity and unworthy of his nature.

Consequently, they readily believe and admit that the more comprehensive and at the same time the more definite is the plan of God, the more worthy it is of infinite wisdom. Indeed, they are compelled to the conclusion that God cannot be what he is without forming such a purpose or plan.

Hear that last sentence again. God cannot be what he is without forming such a purpose or plan. That's wisdom. That is powerful, and that is what I commend to you today. Understand that God is sovereign over everything that happens, and ultimately the decree of God is what causes all things to come to pass.

God is sovereign. And remember, when we talk about the decree of God, if somebody has trouble with that, just use different language as James Pettigrew Boyce did. Say, well, what about the plan of God?

Do you believe that God has a plan? Do you believe he has the power to work his plan out, and do you believe that his plan ultimately will succeed? If you believe that, then ultimately you believe that God has a sovereign decree.

Announcing the Summer Bible Conference

And speaking of God's sovereign decree, I want to take a moment as I close this episode to remind you of one other thing. Coming up later this month at Sovereign Grace Family Church, we are hosting our summer Bible conference.

This was supposed to be a spring conference, but because of everything that happened with the health crisis, we have moved it to a summer conference, and we want to invite you to participate with us. The title of this summer conference is The Sovereignty of God.

There's going to be three messages with one theme, and that theme is this, Our God Reigns. We want to encourage you to participate. I'm going to have some information in the links below on how to sign up on our website, and if you have any questions, please send us a message.

We would love to have you participate in this one-day Bible conference at Sovereign Grace Family Church in the Oceanway area of Jacksonville, Florida. I hope this lesson has been helpful. If you would, please take a moment to like, comment, subscribe, thumbs up, share, comment, do all the things that we would ask you to do every day, because this helps us to reach a wider audience, whether it's on Facebook, whether it's on YouTube, or however else you found our video.

Please share it with others so that we can reach others with the message of God's glorious, sovereign grace. And again, I thank you for watching. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. God bless you.