God's Sovereign Plan: Assurance of Salvation Explained

Now then the first thing that God did in the carrying out of that purpose was that he called me certain people and let me sum up the conclusion at which we arrived last Friday night it comes to this that this means for ordination for off gain I consider the five uses of this word which are found with respect to God himself in the New Testament. [00:03:35]

It means that God set his love upon these people in a very particular and definite way he knows these people as he doesn't know other they are obviously a special people these are the people who love God all people do not love God we are only dealing those who love God because they alone are the ones who are the called according to his purpose. [00:04:09]

So what we're told is that goddess cities love in a very special and unique manner upon these people who ultimately come to loving and who are ultimately going to be glorified and like his own son so that if you prefer other words you can use them you can say that he chose them you can say that he elected all these terms mean exactly the same thing. [00:04:34]

Now let me remind you of this again at this point we are not teaching that the understanding of this doctrine is essential to salvation I'm not saying that you can be a saved Christian without understanding this doctrine there is a difference between salvation and assurance of salvation this is concerned about assurance of salvation. [00:05:32]

You can be a Christian without truly receiving this in your mind and understanding it means I would suggest that you are a defective Christian that your understanding isn't clear but it is not essential to salvation we must never say that what there is only one thing essential to salvation and that is that we trust utterly and absolutely to the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work on our behalf. [00:05:57]

Nowhere in the scripture are you told that you have to believe this before you can be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved what this teaches us is how you ever come to believe in it which is a different thing now let's bear that in mind lest there be any confusion furthermore let me was this at the moment I am simply giving you an exposition of the term. [00:06:20]

Now there's very little difficulty about this word this is really comparatively simple it follows directly of course from the first whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate there was step number 1 well having therefore done that having got them into his mind and half having selected them what does he do well he now predestined it's them what does this mean well it means simply to designate beforehand. [00:10:17]

But as it is a very interesting word let me just open it out a little the word that was actually used by the Apostle the Greek word is a compound word the pro means what we've got here in the three it simply means beforehand but it's the other part that's interesting for it so which means this it's precisely the word from which other word horizon comes horizon now what is what what you mean when you talk about an arrival you mean this the horizon is that which marks often separates what we can see from what we can't see. [00:10:47]

Well the word that is used the other untranslated predestinate just means that now god having total these people puts them within a given horizon he puts them in a certain circle he puts them within a certain limit now that's the meaning of the term or if you look at it the other way around it means that he is not only marked them out for something but he has marked out something for them that's what it really means and no more that he has predestinated for them. [00:11:59]

He has marked them out for this particular purpose in this particular ended object or if you like he has mapped out a particular destiny father now there's a very good exposition of this in the in Festivus Lapita in the second chapter and in the ninth verse yo you see Peter in his way is really saying the same thing he is reminding us now of what we are as Christians and he says you are a chosen generation that your foreknowledge you see a chosen generation well what what for. [00:12:34]

Well we've become a royal priesthood or if you prefer it a kingdom of priests this is a part of what his predestinated us for we become a kingdom of priests or a royal priesthood then another way of describing it is that we've become unholy nation the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was a holy nation though she was one of the nations she was a Cypriot nation a special nation a holy nation a holy nation but then here's the can a peculiar people which means a people for as a peculiar position of God these people are his peculiar possession of God. [00:13:04]

These people are his peculiar possession God owns everything God owns all people God owns the universe is but these people are his special and peculiar possession in other words he puts a ring around them as it were he's mapped out a certain destiny for them there are endless analogies that suggest themselves if you've ever known anything about sheep farming you would have seen a shepherd or the owner of the Sheep doing something like this he's got a great flock of sheep thousands perhaps but the now time comes when he decides that he's going to sell some and keep others so a great that he comes when he goes out with his dogs and he selects out these that he's going to keep for breeding purposes and so on and having taken them out of the great flock he puts them into a pen not into a fold on their ever that's the kind of thing that's said in our text tonight and in 1 Peter 2:9. [00:13:34]

That's the meaning of predestination now you see there's no difficulty about that all we are told by this term is that these people when God does for now he is now destined for this ultimate thing that he's got in his mind for them he's put a ring around them yes but he's also put a ring around what's going to happen to them and what is that well we've already dealt he also did predestinate what for well that to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brother he's called them out he selected them and he has now decided this is his determination that they are ultimately to be brought to that goal to their final position and well this turn tells us in that that is the goal which goddess marked out for us. [00:14:51]