Predestination?

Good evening, so today we truly start on our journey through the book of Ephesians. Now, I want to remind everyone that at the end of this sermon, we have that time to ask questions, last month I gave the challenge to read chapter 1, to form questions you might have, and to ask them at the end of our time tonight, I also want to reemphasize that if we do not agree on something that is okay. I encourage you if there is something you don’t agree with to write it down and we can have a chat about it one on one if you would like. My hope is that through the study of scriptures and as well walk through the different books that we will go over that you will all be able to better study, understand, and apply scripture into you daily lives and that ultimately your faith will become stronger because of it. So without further ado let’s pray and then we will get into this weeks sermon.

Pray

Chapter 1, I have always struggled whenever preaching from a Chapter 1 of a book of the Bible because typically this is the introduction, this is the part of the book that really tells you what the rest will be about, and so the first few scriptures are just that, a greeting. It is Paul as he does in all of His letters greeting the people of Ephesus in which this letter was written. Now if you have your Bibles with you I want you to open it up to Ephesians chapter 1 and we will be going over verses 3-14. So if you have your Bible with you follow along with me.

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time – to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

Now this scripture you will find is often times used by those who are from a theological camp called Calvinist. You will find that most people will say that they fit in to one of two primary viewpoints when it comes to the thought process of Salvation and that is either Arminianism or Calvinism, how many of you guys have heard of these two terms? (Allow them to have time to explain what they know and what they believe on it). So just to go over quickly an overview of these two viewpoints we will start with Calvinism. Now there are people who do not agree totally with either one of these camps and they very in the interpretation and teaching of them, however, most people will assign the acronym TULIP when it comes to Calvinism which has five points.

T- Total Depravity, in short this means that Man, in his fallen state, is completely incapable of doing any good that is acceptable to God.

U- Unconditional Election- As a result of man’s total depravity, he is unable (and unwilling) to come to God for salvation. Therefore, God must sovereignly choose those who will be saved. His decision to elect individuals for salvation is unconditional. It is not based on anything that man is or does but solely on God’s grace.

L- Limited Atonement- In order to save those whom God has unconditionally elected, atonement for their sin had to be made. God the Father sent His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of the elect and secure their pardon by His death on the cross.

I- Irresistible Grace- The Holy Spirit applies the finished work of salvation to the elect by irresistibly drawing them to faith and repentance. This saving call of the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted and is referred to as an efficacious call.

P- Perseverance of the Saints- Those whom God has elected, atone for, and efficaciously called are preserved in faith until the last day. They will never fall away because God has secured them with the seal of the Holy Spirit. The saints persevere because God preserves them.

Now on the other end of the spectrum you have Arminianism now although they do not have the same exact five points I have done my best to accurately reflect their viewpoints while putting it into the same style of a five point break down. Theirs would look like this:

P- Partial Depravity- Humanity is depraved but still able to seek God. We are fallen and tainted by sin but not to the extent that we cannot chose to come to God and accept salvation, with the help of prevenient grace from God (which is just a fancy way of saying resistible grace something that we as humans can resist against and turn against). Given such grace, human will is free and has the power to yield to the influence of the Spirit.

C- Conditional Election- God only “chooses” those whom He knows will choose to believe. No one is predetermined for either heaven or hell. Admittedly this is hard to put into a good representation, the main point is that they do not believe in predestination in the sense of some being predetermined for heaven or hell, but rather in man’s part in answering the call to salvation.

U- Unlimited Atonement- Jesus died for everyone, even those who are not chosen and will not believe. Jesus’ death was for all of humanity, and anyone can be saved by belief in Him.

R-Resistible Grace- We spoke about this briefly before but it is that God’s call to be saved can be resisted and/or rejected. We can resist God’s pull toward salvation if we choose to.

C-Conditional Salvation- Christians can lose their salvation if they actively reject the Holy Spirits influence in their lives. The maintenance of salvation is required for a Christian to retain it.

Now although, I do not want to get into specifically where I fall on all of it, we will see that I take pieces from both, as I don’t think that we should focus solely on falling into any particular camp of theology but rather aligning with scripture itself. The reason, that I did want to go over this though, is because this scripture deals with one of the central points in the argument which is election or most notably termed as predestination. Many, who read this verse will say aha He predestined us to adoption before the creation of the world and as such that means that we really had no part (partially true) and our fate was decided since before we were ever even born. However, to go to this extreme and fall into the trap of limited atonement or that Unconditional Election meaning that somehow only a select few will be able to achieve salvation, is not at all what scripture even this one is speaking to. Rather, I want to share with you what I believe this scripture is actually saying. Now remember when we are looking at scripture and trying to interpret and apply it, it is extremely important that we place it in it’s proper context and hold it up to the entirety of scripture. So, what do we know about salvation from scripture. (Allow them some time to answer).

What we know is that God created the world, man fell and sin entered, because of this there had to be a sacrifice to atone for or correct that issue. In the Old Testament this meant sacrificing animals, however, that was always a foreshadow (something that is pointing to something greater to come) for Jesus and what He would accomplish on our behalf. So Jesus came, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross, rose from the grave, and allowed us a way to become right in standing with God once again. When you read the gospels we find that this was not for a select few individuals but for the entirety of humanity (John 3:16-17). So now the question lies to what does this scripture speak to when it talks about predestination. When it say that since before ethe foundation of the world…. Well, let’s put this in perspective. Is God sovereign, does God know everything and is He in control of everything? (Allow them to answer). Ensure that the answer come to yes.

So now that we know that God is sovereign and in control over all things, do you think that the fall of men, that is Adam and Eve eating from the tree of good and evil came as a surprise to God? (Allow to answer) ensure that the answer is no.

Exactly, so knowing this, God knew from the very beginning from the very offset that man was going to fall, that man was incapable in of themselves to serve God completely in obedience and without fault, that pride would indeed be an issue, so from the very beginning he already had a plan in place. This is also where the Trinity is an important aspect, because it show’s us how this played out. God knew that He would have to come to this earth to redeem his creation, and so from day 1 the plan was always from Him to come to the earth as a man (Jesus) fully God and fully man, live a sinless life, and die on our behalf as the substitute for our own sins. This is the predestined plan for adoption, this is the predestined plan for salvation. That all who accept the free gift of God through belief in Jesus Christ, on His atoning work on calvary would be saved. It has nothing to do with what we have to offer, it has nothing to do with as we will get into next month the works that we try to accomplish or participate no matter how good intended they’re but everything to do with what He did on our behalf. You see it is by His grace that we are able to respond in faith and receive salvation, once we do that, once we receive that salvation we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and secure in that until we return home to him.

So how do I know that this is right? How do I know that this is the predestination that scripture is speaking of. Well if you would go back to the scripture that we read over and you will see it especially made clear in vs 7-12 which states “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he proposed in Christ as a plan for the right time- to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and on earth in him. IN him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.” Everything that is, was, and ever will be has already been planned out by God. Do we have free will absolutely because God designed it that way, are we robots not at all, however, the sovereignty of God and the free-will of humanity are not at odds with one another, they beautifully work together and fulfilling the will and plan that the Father has already laid out. Nothing catches Him by surprise, and through the working of Christ on the cross and His blood we are able to have the predestined plan of salvation. That all who would through the grace of God call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

At this time I want to open it up to questions, I know that there was a lot in this sermon, there were a lot of big words even that you guy’s may not be used to but it is important that I preach and teach you what scripture says utilizing the words that go with it. My hope is that through this message you’re able to see the intentionality of how scripture is woven together, that you cannot just take one section of scripture and one book and interpret it in and of itself. It takes understanding the whole of scripture from Genesis to Revelation to form a truly strong and Biblical theology, that you do not have to fall into any one particular thought process, but rather we should all strive to fall into the beliefs and thoughts that are communicated throughout scripture.

Allow questions and answers and then close in prayer.

Next month we will be jumping into chapter 2.