Our attitude to the Sovereignty of God - Part 2

Salvation is of the Lord but He does not save all.

1 Timothy 1:15 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.' If that is so then anyone else could be saved.

Ezekiel 11:19 'I will take the stony heart out of their flesh & give them a heart of flesh.'

1 Corinthians 15:10 'By the grace of God I am what I am.'

Psalm 110:3 'Your people will be willing on the day of Your power.'

1 Corinthians 4:7 'Who makes you to be different from others?' God makes the difference.

1 John 5:20 'The Son of God is come & has given us understanding that we may know Him that is true.'

Faith is God’s gift, but 'not all men have faith' 2 Thessalonians 3:2

Who receive the gift of faith? Acts 13:48 'As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.'

Matthew 20:15 'Do I not have the right to do what I want with my own?'  All were given the same amount when they served the master.

Romans 9:21 'Has not the Potter power over the clay to make one vessel unto honour & another to menial use.' God endured with patience the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of his mercy.

God shapes His vessels for His own purpose for His own pleasure. God singled out people to belong to Him, to be conformed to the image of His Son. God places in people an attitude to trust God. God planned through grace to reach individuals. Grace = unconditional choice finding favour in the sight of God.  Romans 11:5-6 'There is a remnant according to the election of grace. If grace, then not of works.' Promise to Elijah: I have reserved for Myself 7000 who have not bowed to Baal

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 'Not many wise, mighty, noble are called but God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, despised things to confound the wise, mighty, that no one should take the glory that only belongs to God.' God chooses so that His grace will be magnified. God’s ways & thoughts are totally different to ours. Luke 16:15 'That which is highly esteemed by man is hated in the sight of God.'

Ephesians 1:3-5,11 'Blessed be the God & father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy, in love, predestined us to be adopted as kids by Jesus Christ to himself who works out all things according to the counsel of His own will.'

God wanted His elect to be : holy, without blame, adopted, to receive an inheritance out of love.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 'God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.'

Chosen to salvation : through the work of the Holy Spirit who teaches you the truth.

The result? praise because God has chosen you to be saved. It is all God’s doing.

1 Peter 1:2 'Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience & sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.'  Elected before the Holy Spirit enters.

Foreknowledge = regard with love and favour. Know is always linked with love. 1 Corinthians 8:3 'If any man love God the same is known of Him.'

Christ said I never knew you. He never loved them.

Acts 2:23 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel & foreknowledge of God you by wicked hands have crucified'

Romans 8:28 'For those who he foreknew He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.'

Summary:  God has ordained to eternal life certain people. Their salvation is due to grace alone.

God has chosen the most unlikely so that only He is glorified.

Chosen in Christ to be holy & without blame in Him.

Chosen to be saved by grace, in Christ, before they existed. Objects of His love.

Why? Deuteronomy 7:7 'The Lord did not love you and choose you...... but because the Lord loved you & kept the oath to their ancestors.' Not chosen as better than others. None that does good not one.

We believe through grace Acts 18:27. Faith is God’s gift.

God chooses us because He chose to choose us.

For whom did Christ die? Hebrews 9:26 'To put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.'

1 Corinthians 15:3 'Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.'

Isaiah 53:10 'It pleased the Lord to crush Him and cause Him to suffer & though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, He will see his offspring & prolong His days.'

Jesus stated John 6:37 'All that the Father gives to me will come to me. Of all that the Father gives me I should lose nothing.' John 6:44 'No man can come to me except the Father who sent me draws him.'

Psalm 110:3 'Your people will be willing on the day of your power.' Isaiah 53:11 ' He shall see of the travail of his soul & be satisfied.' Matthew 1:21 'You shall call his name Jesus for He shall save his people from their sins.'

Matthew 20:28 'The Son of Man came to serve and give his life a ransom for many.'

John 11:51-52 'Jesus should die for the nation & not only that but also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. .'

Caiaphas prophesied not of himself (2 Peter 1:21) he spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. Christ died for Israel & His body the Church scattered among the nations & they would become one. The members of the church are called children of God even before Christ died. Chosen before the creation of the world. Ephesians 1:4-5 predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. John 10:16 Other Sheep I have that are not of this fold. John 13:1 Jesus having loved His own in the world, loved them to the end. John 17:19 for their sakes I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified through the truth. This applies to those given to Jesus by the Father.

John 17 'I pray not for the world, but those You have given me, for they are yours.' 'I pray that they may be where I am.'

Hebrews 9:24 'Christ entered heaven itself now to appear for us in God’s presence'

Romans 8:33 'It is God that justifies.' Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died that is risen again. Who is at the right hand of God who ever lives to make intercession for us.

2 Corinthians 5:14 'One died for all then they all died.' That those that live should no longer live for themselves.

The work of the Holy Spirit precedes our believing God.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 'God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit* & and belief of the truth, (* new birth).' Maybe one in a meeting believes the good news.

Acts 16:14 The Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she paid close attention to the word of Paul. The Spirit caused her receive & believe and is set apart from others. God chooses, the Spirit works the heart receives & believes.

1 Peter 1:2 'Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience of faith' Romans 1:5 & sprinkling of the blood of Jesus

A blind must have his eyes opened before he can see. So a person must be born again before he can see the kingdom of God. John 3:3

The work of the Spirit in bringing life to one dead in sins precedes faith in Christ. No sooner is the heart focused on Christ by the Spirit than the Saviour is accepted by the sinner.

The Holy Spirit is in control. He works in the ones God has chosen. He comforts, seals guides into all truth & shows things to come. Men may resist Him Acts 7:51-52; 1 Corinthians 2:14 'The man without the Spirit does not receive the things from the Spirit of God & considers them foolishness & cannot understand them because they are only discerned/understood through the Spirit.'

If the Holy Spirit did not play His part not a soul would be saved even though potentially all could be saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Ephesians 2:3 'By nature all are children of wrath opposed to God.' They are unwilling to respond, the Holy Spirit has not done any work. He works as He chooses. The Father chooses, the Son pays the price the Spirit quickens those chosen.

'For of Him & through Him & to Him are all things to whom be the glory forever! Amen.' Romans 11:36

Ephesians 1:11 God 'who works all things after the counsel of His own will.'

The Cross:

Christ the Lamb whose blood was foreordained before the foundation of the world. 1 Peter 1:20

God knew he would be led to the slaughter. Acts 2:23 'God planned...'

Acts 15:18 Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.

Psalm 33:11 'The counsel of the Lord stands forever.'

Isaiah 46:10 'I am God, there is none like me, I declare the end from the beginning. My counsel shall stand & I will do all my pleasure.'

This present age will end in man’s complete failure to govern without reference to God, turning away from the truth.

Why was this world & mankind created? Proverbs 16:4 'The Lord has made all things for Himself.'

Revelation 4:11 'You have created all things & for Your pleasure they are & were created.'

Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world to be the Saviour of fallen man.

2 Timothy 2:10 'I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain also the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.'

God’s dealing in dealing with the righteous

By nature they are spiritually dead in trespasses & sins. Unless they are born again they cannot see or enter the kingdom of God  John 3:3 By new birth we move from death to life.

From the power of darkness in to the kingdom of His dear Son. Colossians 1:13 we are born of the Spirit. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:17 'If anyone be in Christ he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new.' There is no other way. The new birth is a miracle “born of God”. Once a captive of the Devil now a member of God’s family by adoption. Once hostile now filled with love.

The start of new life Ephesians 1:18 To know the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe.

Ephesians 3:16 To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.

Isaiah 40:29 'He gives power to those who faint & those who have no might He increases strength.'

Acts 1:8 'You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come on you.'

Acts 4:33 'With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus  & great grace was upon them all.'

1 Corinthians 2:4 'My preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit & power.'

God directs His chosen ones

Psalm 48:14 'This God is our God. He will be our guide even unto death.'

Ephesians 2:10 'We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God planned in advance for us to do.'

Isaiah 26:12 'You have ordained peace for us for all that we have accomplished is what You have done.'

Proverbs 16:9 'A man devises his way but the Lord directs his steps.'

God directs His chosen ones preserving them. Psalm 97:10 'He preserves the souls of his saints delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. '

Ephesians 2:10 'We are His workmanship. Good works planned in advance.'

1 Peter 1:5 'Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time'

God’s method in dealing with the wicked:

1. He restrains them. Joseph’s brother restrained from killing him instead sold him.

Genesis 45:8 'It was not you that sent me, it was God'

Balaam restrained from cursing God’s people instead blessed them.

Three times a year males left them homes to celebrate feasts. The Lord promised He would restrain others from doing harm to their property in their absence.

The Lord was with Joseph in the period of slavery. Found favour in the sight of Pharoah.

Child Moses spared by his daughter. Esau wanted to kill Jacob but greeted him with a kiss. Ahab wanted to kill Elijah but obeyed him. Esther feared the king but found favour.

Proverbs 21:1 'The kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, He turns it as He wishes'

2. God directs the wicked resulting in good from intended evil.

Joseph sold as a slave resulted in the preservation of his family

Jesus crucified, an evil act yet a key element in our salvation. God planned it. Evil men carried it out. Psalm 41:9 Betrayed by a friend. Price? 30 pieces of silver. Potter’s field bought.

Isaiah 50:6 spat upon & scourged. Numbered with the transgressors (2 thieves)  Given vinegar & gall. Cast lots for His clothing.  Not a bone broken. All indicate God was in control.

3. God hardens the hearts of wicked men & blinds their minds

Psalm 105:25 He turned their heart to hate his people. Joseph’s family after his death, cried out for deliverance. Exodus 4:21 'I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.'

Why ? To reveal the glory of God. No city in the promised land apart from the Gibeonites made peace. God hardened their hearts so that they would be liquidated for their sinfulness.

John 12:37-40 'Though He had done so many miracles before them yet they did not believe on Him that Isaiah might be fulfilled Lord who has believed our report? They could not believed because He has blinded their eyes & hardened their heart.' (those who deliberately rejected the evidence of His life)