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[0:00] I've got to open up your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. It's on page 944. Page 944. Normally, my practice is we would preach through a book. Sometimes we do that more quickly than other times. Isaiah, I think quite a while, it's just Jonah to me a chapter at a time. If you remember, I preached on Genesis for about 25 years, it felt like. And I think there's merit in approaching Scripture and actually having different types of series.

[0:38] So at lunchtime talks, I'm preaching through Romans, basically trying to do a chapter at a time. But I also think there's merit in sometimes taking a theme. We looked at the theme of corporate worship some of the years ago. And as I preach through Romans, there's lots of bits of Romans that I just wish that I could go back to and spend more time in.

[1:00] Well, I noticed in chapter 8 and verse 30, there's this just beautiful verse that cracks open like a chocolate orange. And you're in chocolate orange, you tap it and it just falls apart, doesn't it? And if you look at verse 30, there are these four big truths that Paul wants and the people of Rome to know. It's as if, verse 29, the purpose of the Christian life is that you would be conformed to the image of his son. And then these four words that help us on the way to godliness. Progestined, called, justified and glorified. And they are all four wonderful achievements by God. And if you and I can get clear on these four words, I want to promise you that you will grow in your appreciation for God, and you will grow in your security in the Christian, and you will be stronger in the face of suffering. And so let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can be together tonight. And we thank you for the words that you have given from Romans chapter 8 and verse 30. We thank you that you've given the Holy Spirit our teacher. And we pray that as we work through this verse over the next four weeks, you would so clear our minds and prepare our hearts that things we read and things we think of would be pleasing to you and helpful to us. Please work by your word, for your glory, and for our good. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

[2:46] And so I want to try and look really at the first word, predestined. I want to try and look at the context of Romans, and then what it is, then some objections, and then how it helps us.

[2:58] Now I hope that I'm not going to put these four words out of context. And so I teach you my system, my view of predestination, and my view of calling and justification and glorification. I hope we're not going to do it. And what we're going to try and do is we're going to see them in the context of the book of Romans, and to think of their significance. And when I was a teenager, something happened in our family, and someone in the youth group wrote this card to me. It said, Dear Paul, Romans 8, 28, yours, dot, dot, dot. And I remember at the time, when I got that card, I was about 50. I remember that I think that's quite a cold and heartless card, isn't it?

[3:42] It seemed to be a bit of a throwaway verse. It was as if that person was saying, sometimes bad things happen. It's all part of a big plan. All you just got to get over it and get on with it and accept it. Now of course that verse is much bigger and better than that. And I should have been far more mature. It is possible, isn't it, to throw texts of the Bible around and not mean what they say. But Romans chapter 8, as you know, is a very personal chapter and a very powerful chapter and a very wonderful chapter. And it's not an accident, is it, that it's the favourite chapter of many, many Christians. It may be your favourite chapter.

[4:27] And we discover in chapter 8 and verse 29 that Christians are loved people. That is what is behind the word foreknew. Do you remember, Bible words have Bible meanings. Those whom God foreknew. And so you'll know, if you know your Bible at all, that Adam knew Eve, didn't be. He loved her. He intimately loved her. And God foreloved his people. He loved his people from the beginning. And he decided he would love his people to the end. And I don't think we'll ever get to the end of that. You've been loved with an everlasting love. So when did God stop, start loving? How do you know God will not stop loving you? Ghanous Voss says.

[5:15] You know that God will not stop loving you because he never started loving you. Because you have been loved with an everlasting love. 4 says in Ephesians 3, you can go for as long as you like, thinking about the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of the love of Christ. And you'll never get it. And I presume that in the new creation we will just keep on exploring the love of God for us.

[5:38] And then we discover, don't we, that in chapter 8 verse 28, that we've begun to love him. We've begun to love him. Now we know, don't we, we know we don't do this very well. And we don't do this as we wish we did. But our hearts tonight have been drawn to God. And the reason it is because God has put his love in our hearts. And so here we are. He loves his people and we have begun to love him. And he has a plan for his people, which is not a kind of machine love. It is personal. It's more personal than parents have for their children. Because do you remember Jesus taught the disciples that the father's love outdoes the love of any human father? And we're not just caught up in some random process. But God is organising everything lovingly and supremely. But before we look at the word predestined, which we'll come to in a minute or two, we need to see that it comes in a letter and it comes in an argument.

[6:49] And the doctrine of predestination is not meant to be lifted out and just talked about in a kind of proud way or even some anxious way. Predestination is meant to make us thankful and secure. Now the context, if you know the book of Romans at all, is that in the first four chapters of Romans, Paul explains the human need for Jesus. He says, if you bring anyone in the world into the courtroom of God, and everyone will one day be in the courtroom of God, God will be able to point to anyone in the world and say, you have the information and you turn your back on it. You're a natural runner. A natural runner from the information.

[7:40] But when God works on people, he turns them and he draws them and they begin to seek. Everybody needs Jesus. Everybody needs to be brought to Jesus. In Romans chapter 1 to 4, he describes the work of Jesus through the crucifixion. And he asks that people respond by simply having faith. So you know the acronym, don't you? Forsaking all, I take him. It's quite good.

[8:16] Forget achievements. I trust him. That is faith. In chapter 5 to 8, the apostle describes the journey of the Christian. The Christian moves from being accepted by God, which is at the hands of the day that they believe, to the day when they will come face to face with him in glory. And that journey, says the apostle Paul, begins by being justified. By being put into the right with God and being glorified face to face, no barriers with God. And that journey is described in chapters 5 to 8. It goes through two serious dangers, doesn't it?

[8:57] The first is carelessness. That's chapter 6. I'm a believer, so I'll do what I want. I can sleep with whoever I want. I can see the stuff I want. I can look at what I want.

[9:08] I can say what I want to. And I can train up a church and nobody will know any of that. God is merciful. So, I'm forgiven. I can do what I want. And Paul says that carelessness in Romans chapter 6 is a killer. It's a killer because it's a sign that something is very, very wrong. Either you don't know how good God is or you're mistaken about your whole idea of salvation. And the other danger is legalism in chapter 7. Suddenly everything is based on performance and it's got nothing to do with grace and joy. And that's so easy, isn't it, in the Christian church? It's so easy in the Christian journey on the one hand to fall into carelessness or legalism. And the apostle Paul says God will take his people through.

[9:55] And through all the suffering to the very end of the journey. And now he uses the struggles that we find so difficult. In Romans chapter 8, verse 28, God works all things for good.

[10:10] And he does that because he's working in us. And he's working for his good. And his good in verse 29 is that we would be like Jesus. My problem is, I keep thinking that if God worked for my good, everybody would be happy. And my good is that I'll be comfortable and popular and successful. And if God would just work for that, I would be the most charming person and everyone would be happy. But God is too smart for that, doesn't he? And God knows that the circumstances that I need are the sort of circumstances which will keep me repenting and keep me praying and keep me trusting and keep me obeying. And so God in your life and in my life, he works through a whole series of circumstances to transform you and I. And to conform you and I to the likeness of Christ. And that's what he does for his people. That is what God is doing in your life, to conform you to the image of his son. And he works all things, even the tragic list at the end of chapter 8. Things like tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword. You couldn't summarise better the great struggles and the sadnesses of our world than at the end of Romans 8. Non-Christians, non-Christians I know and you know, they throw around the face, the phrase, well everything has got a plan. They say that sort of thing. Everything has got a purpose. Or I believe the best is yet to come. The problem is with the non-Christian is that they've picked up the truth that there is a plan, but they've turned their back on the planet. They've worked out that there is some kind of framework. But they've rebelled against the one who organises the framework. And so what they're doing is living temporarily in the world, picking up clues that there is a plan. But they've missed the planet. And they've missed the kingdom. And they've missed the plan. And it's just a matter of time, isn't it, until they tragically come to the end of their days in the world and they discover they've missed the planet because the plan revolts around Jesus. But the believer has been brought by the goodness of God to Jesus.

[12:44] And we've been predestined to believe. So let's look at chapter 8 and verse 30 and the first word, predestination. I hope you like thinking. Because we find here that God is a God who predestines. That means that he plans the destiny of his people from the beginning. He works out where we will finish. And you can see from this that the plan of God outspans the world.

[13:17] Here's this lectern for us. Look at this lectern. And my right hand goes beyond the lectern. Okay? My right hand goes beyond the lectern. And my left hand also goes beyond the lectern.

[13:32] And the plan of God begins before this world. And it will go on after this world. So it starts before the world. He thinks. He forms this world in his mind. And then he creates. And then one day he will come again. And his plan will go on. It's a massive plan. It's a bit like when London hosted the Olympics. Do you remember? They had this plan. The organisers had this kind of thought in their minds. And they made their plans for the Olympics. And they set the space aside for it. And they set the time aside for it. And they set the buildings aside for it. And it was put together. And the Olympics happens. And then it is history. The plan of the Olympics spans the Olympics. The plan of God spans the world. He organised it before creation. And God will complete it after creation. And we are there in the middle of history.

[14:44] Paul puts it like this in Ephesians chapter 1. He chose us before the foundation of the world. And he predestined us to glory. And the question I want to ask you and for you to think carefully about this is this.

[14:58] Does God predestine that God predestines? Does that mean that he waits to see who believes? And then he takes them to their destiny? Or does it mean that he enables people to believe? And he takes them to their destiny?

[15:17] So to put this very simply and crassly. If God is driving his bus. And I say this reverently. If God is driving his bus through the world. Does he drive his bus and stop regularly hoping that people will get on and then he will take them to glory? Or does he lift dead people onto the bus and take them? The answer is the second, isn't it? He takes people who are dead in their trespasses and sins and couldn't respond if their life depended on it. And he takes them onto the bus and he gives them a brand new life. And they couldn't respond if their life depended on it. And he gives them a brand new way of life and he puts them on the bus and he takes them to their destiny. He predestines by bringing people to brand new life. When Jesus came, as the tomb of his friend Lazarus, remember Lazarus had died? And Lazarus was in the tomb three days. It was no good, was it, a normal person. It was no good a normal person calling, Lazarus come out. If Peter had done that or John had done that, nothing would have happened. Because Lazarus had no faculties. Lazarus could not hear. Lazarus could not respond. Lazarus could not move. There's nothing that Lazarus can do. It took

[16:42] God. Jesus coming to the tomb to call out Lazarus. Come out Lazarus. And giving him the faculties. And giving him the life. And giving him the response. And the ability to come out and be resuscitated. So Jesus comes to sin for men and women and boys and girls like you and I and he finds us helpless to respond. We are dead. We are brick like. And he speaks. He speaks new life. New life. The dead receive. And we become part of the resurrection. We are spiritually raised. We are made alive with Christ. And one day we will be physically raised. And that's very, very comforting. It's very, very comforting because God does what we cannot do. And he begins the salvation. And if he begins the salvation, he will end the salvation. He finishes what he kept beginning. Now so let's think, why does this worry people? Why does this doctrine worry of people? And the answer is, it appears so unjust to people. It looks as if God is choosing some people and not others. It looks even more seriously as though God is leaving certain people and then turning around and judging them saying, well you're not a believer. And

[18:17] I'm not going to be the first person, I won't be the last person to try and tie up the neat ends of predestination and fail. The doctrine of predestination must keep people humble.

[18:27] And it keeps us humble to the very end. But I do want to say this to you that the doctrine of predestination gives, very plainly gives glory to God. Because it tells you and I that salvation is his achievement. And therefore we will never boast from the day we believe to the day we're in heaven. It is he who raises us up and it is he who raises us so that we give glory to God. The other effect of predestination is that it gives security to believers. Because we can go forward, can't we, tonight saying, my salvation is his doing. It wasn't just that I was sleeping. And I was casual. And I was foolish. No, I was dead. I was dead. If you've seen the Princess Bride, there's this great moment in the Princess Bride film where Billy,

[19:29] Billy Crystal, Billy Crystal is Miracle Max. It is a, it is the best theological illustration semi-Pelagianism. Where, by the time I tell you all this, it's going to be about half past seven. But the lead guy, what's the lead guy, what's he called? Wesley. Wesley. Wesley is dead. And he goes to Miracle Max and Miracle Max listens to him and says, no, no, he's not fully dead. He's going to be half dead. And the rest of the film is, Miracle Max gives him this magic pill and he kind of suddenly, gradually comes back to life and fights it around.

[20:03] It's a brilliant film. But it's theologically completely incorrect because we're not half dead. We are fully dead. You don't need a pill. There's nothing that you can make yourself alive. And God has given you, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, struggling tonight, God has given you brand new life and he will keep that life going. And he will get me through to eternity. And it's so gracious, isn't it, that God lets you and I into the secret that it is God who's behind our salvation. And he is committed to his completion. Now let me give you some cautions on the doctrine of predestination. Some cautions on the predestination.

[20:50] I think I've got five things. As long as predestination is in your Bible, and it is in your Bible, it does not occupy all of your Bible. There are some preachers that give the impression that it's the only thing talked about, and that's unbalanced. But as long as predestination is in your Bible, it must have a place in your theology. That's the first thing. Because predestination is in your Bible, it must have a place in your theology. Whatever you do, don't kind of mentally say, I'm not going to like this. And so you get the mental scissors out. I've heard people tell me that they don't like the doctrine of predestination. And they don't believe the doctrine. I can think of one person who said that to me, and they are a theological baby. Because what they've done is they've set themselves over the Bible. And they have decided, no, that's inappropriate. And that is unpopular and unattractive. And that person has stayed marking time, because he's put himself in a position he shouldn't be in. We should be under the Bible, shouldn't we? And we acknowledge what God says, and say it is there. So he must believe it. That's the first thing. The second thing is, well look at my hands. This hand represents one line of the train track of salvation. And that runs right the way through the Bible.

[22:24] It represents one line in the Bible, one train line, and it is called the Sovereignty of God. And it goes like this. God is the God who gives salvation. He is the one who predestines people.

[22:39] And that runs right the way through the Bible. So you see that right from the start of the Bible, don't you? You see it with Cain and Abel. You see it with Isaac and Ishmael. You see it most clearly with Jacob and Esau. The sovereignty of God runs right the way through the Bible.

[22:58] But the other line of the track is human responsibility. And that also runs, doesn't it, right the way through the Bible. So you can read your Bible and you will discover that there are two lines to the track of salvation. There is God's sovereignty and there is human responsibility. And both of them run from Genesis to Revelation. And one of them says God is totally and utterly sovereign. And the other one says you are totally and utterly responsible. And we can't join the two. We can't join the two.

[23:35] And we'll never join the two. And it won't be to happen. In fact, of course, I'm not even sure when we get to heaven we'll be able to join the two. But they are there. And they are both there, if you like.

[23:47] Take out the sovereignty of God and you are left just with the responsibility of people. And I want to say to you, you take out the sovereignty of God and, well, things are desperate.

[24:02] And I would want to say to you, give up your job. Stop what you're doing. Let's finish the service now. And we will go through Ealing and we will walk the streets of London and the UK continually pleading with people. To become believers because it's all up to us. And you can't bear that.

[24:20] And if you remove human responsibility and say, well, it's just the sovereignty of God. Well, it's a program, isn't it? And we are robots. And we might as well go home and watch TV.

[24:34] But there is this beautiful twosome in the Bible. God's sovereignty and human responsibility they are the two tracks on which God's salvation runs. And you see this again and again in the Bible.

[24:49] Let me show you something. So Jesus preaching in Matthew 11, it's the best case of it. Nobody's listening to Jesus. And Jesus says, if I'd done this in Sodom and Gomorrah, what I'd done in your town, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah would have believed. But I've done it in your town and you've not believed.

[25:05] And then what does he do? He turns his prayer up to God and he says, I thank you, Heavenly Father, you are completely sovereign. You hide and you reveal. And then he turns to the crowd, doesn't he?

[25:19] And he says some very famous words. He says, come. Come to me, all you who are laboured and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You see those two things? God's sovereignty and human responsibility together.

[25:30] It's the same in John 6. John says, Jesus says to the critics, you would come to me, you know, if my father was drawing you. There's the apostle preaching in the book of Acts, and we read in chapter 13 that as many as were appointed to eternal life, they believed.

[25:50] So there are the apostles and their preaching is like, it's like a magnet going out, going over a rubbish tip. And as that magnet goes over the rubbish tip, up come the believers like iron filings.

[26:06] And so, five verses later in chapter 14 in verse 1 of Acts, it says, Paul and Barnabas preached so effectively that many believed. Without any shame. The Bible sets down the sovereignty of God and human responsibility of people together.

[26:24] Thirdly, don't ever think that God is unjust. We mustn't fall into the trap of thinking, well, if I was doing the plan, I would do it better. I'd be more just.

[26:37] I'd be more merciful. We'll never be as just. Never be as merciful as God. And this teaching is not brought into Romans 8 to confuse you. It is not brought into Romans 8 to make you proud.

[26:50] It's not there to make you depressed. It's a chapter about suffering. And you can't imagine the apostle Paul saying, well, I know everyone's having a tough time. I'm now going to talk to you about predestination, which will really upset you.

[27:03] No, he says, no, things are very, very difficult for you. But God is in charge. Fourthly, when you trace your own Christian faith back, you go back, don't you, eventually, to the mercy of God, don't you?

[27:20] You don't go back to your decision if you made a decision. Your decision, well, it was your decision. To follow Jesus is very real. But behind that decision is the work of God.

[27:32] There are many people out there, they have heard the same message, and they did not decide. Behind your intellectual decision, perhaps, you said, I became a Christian because I read C.S. Lewis, or I read a piece of Christianity, or I went on a Christianity Explored course, and I looked at all the evidence, and I became convinced of the evidence.

[27:56] Well, that is absolutely true, but behind your intellect, God worked. Or perhaps, you said, I came to be a Christian because someone came and preached the gospel, or they talked to me, and it was so persuasive, and they kept coming back at me, and they answered every question that I had, and their love was so persuasive, and their truth was so persuasive.

[28:14] Well, yes, that's absolutely true, but they used that same argument, and that same truth, and same love on other people who have not believed. Because behind your belief is the mercy of God.

[28:25] Fifth, don't pick one text and play it off against another, or set texts against each other. So people say, well, what about God wants all people to be saved?

[28:40] Well, God wants none to perish. What's anything to be to be to be to be? And then people turn around and say, that means the whole of the human population will be saved, because Jesus also said, didn't he?

[28:56] It can't be true, but Jesus also said, there are many on the broad road to destruction, and there are few that fight the road that leads to salvation. So is it that God wants to do something, but he doesn't have the power to do it?

[29:09] Is it that people are so difficult, and so hard, and so worthy, that God just doesn't have the ability, they are beyond him, which is impossible, isn't it? God can turn any person at any second of the day.

[29:20] Or perhaps God is misleading us. He said it, but he doesn't mean it. It's ridiculous and impossible. God speaks the truth. He speaks integrity.

[29:34] Now I think the will of God that is told to us that he wants all people to be saved, he wants none to perish, I think there is a greater will going on, and the smaller bows to the greater.

[29:47] Let me try and explain what I mean by that. That happens all the time. Though we specialise our parents, our will is that our children would not be hurt. But you hurt your children all the time.

[30:01] You take them for injections. And the dentist, and if necessary, you take them for operations. Because the smaller will bows to the greater will.

[30:12] It's the same will, it's not, there aren't two wills in God. The smaller bows to the greater. Jesus was not in the will of God to be dishonoured.

[30:25] And yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. It was the will of the Lord for him to be dishonoured and crucified. Because you see, God calls the smaller will to bow to the greater.

[30:36] It's complex. It's complex. Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian on the triple gender said, God wills what is contrary to excellency, in some particular, for the sake of more general excellency.

[30:53] That's a brilliant quote, but not easy to understand. God wills what is contrary to excellency, in some particular, for the sake of more general excellency.

[31:05] You might want to ask me about that later. How should this impact us? Lastly, how should it impact us? And I think five things again. How should predestination affect you? Well, first of all, the more that we grasp the doctrine that God predestines, the more God astonishes, because we recognise that our salvation is traced 100% to his mercy.

[31:32] And so when you understand something of the doctrine of predestination, you find yourself with nothing to say, but why did you do this? Thank you.

[31:45] And I'm astonished that you did this. My neighbours are nicer than me, but they are blind, and you open my eyes. My work colleagues are kinder than me, but they are spiritually dead, and you have given me spiritual life.

[32:04] When David, in 2 Samuel 7, recognises that God has a plan for him, he said, who am I? Who am I? And when John Newton read those words, from 2 Samuel 7, who am I?

[32:18] it prompted him to write, amazing grace. Secondly, the more we grasp this doctrine of predestination, the more we see our security. We see that God began it in Philippians 1, and we see that he will carry it through to the day of salvation.

[32:32] And that doesn't mean that God won't warn us along the way. The warnings are real, and we need the warnings, but we also need the promises. And God is too clever to give us just promises and not warnings, or just warnings and not promises.

[32:50] And this doctrine of predestination, with the warnings built in, will cause the promises to be very real and wonderful. God will carry it through to the day of completion.

[33:03] Remember Isaiah 25, it says that, when the people of God come through the shroud of death, they turn around and they say, this is our God we trusted in. Let us rejoice in his salvation.

[33:19] And we who sit in church, and I'm exactly the same as you, caught up with things in my brain, full of unbelief and full of doubt, but nevertheless, we've put our faith in Jesus, we will one day go through the valley of the shadow of death.

[33:31] And we will find ourselves in God's salvation glory, and we will turn around, and we will say, we didn't used to sin very well, did we? When we were in the world, it's a very great reality, but we were sluggish, weren't we?

[33:48] Because this is wonderful. This is real. And God, you see, will secure our salvation. The doctrine of predestination is also a spirit of prayer.

[34:01] It's a spirit of prayer because God has saints. God has saints waiting to save in healing. And without panicking and thinking, well, it's all up to us, or without being careless and saying, it's all up to God, we are invited by God to call on him.

[34:22] And we are invited to ask God to save people. Two nights ago, I spoke evangelistically to a group of young people. And two weeks ago, I spoke at another evangelistic meeting with a lot of people there.

[34:39] As far as I know, no one responded. Though the talks that I gave were very, very good, if I say so myself. But nobody responded.

[34:52] What do I do at the end? God is sovereign. Save your people. Bless your inheritance. I trust you. The doctrine of predestination is a spur to our witness.

[35:06] Paul says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. Because God uses people like you and me, just ordinary, forgiven sinners. He uses people like you and me to say a word in season, which can turn a life around.

[35:24] I read this week, a lady was at the checkout. And she was with someone, she's quite a kind of gregarious woman, in an evangelistic event at the church. And she invited the woman at the checkout, the woman behind the tail, and the woman said, no, I'm not religious, I don't want to come, and handed back the flyer.

[35:42] And the lady said, who knew her, the woman she'd done with the flyer, said, no, of course, I forgot you've got your own God, your God is money. So here's something to say, a little. The woman went home, she was angry, yet she knew the truth of those words.

[35:55] And she's been gloriously converted. And you and I, we can say a word, can't we, which can turn a person around. The last thing, that this doctrine, which I think is the aim of it, in Romans chapter 8, is that this doctrine, of predestination, is a great stronghold in suffering.

[36:20] There's a huge amount of difficulty around us. I think the difficulties in the West are mainly inside of us, rather than outside of us. I think in the non-West, they are more outside of us.

[36:31] Outside of our brothers and sisters there. But there is something about us, about each one of us tonight, that is frail and fragile, and we collapse easily, and we can't cope. And even though our circumstances, we know they've not been quite good, and it shames us, that there are many people in the world, who are more robust, with less than what we have.

[36:49] And we've got so much, and yet often we feel like, we're falling apart. Whether the problems tonight, are inside of us, or outside of us, whether we need the refuge of God, or the strength of God, we can see that in the end, it is the sovereign plan of God, which is going to secure us, through the sufferings.

[37:09] He knows the family, you were brought into. He knows what took place, in your childhood. He knows what you are going through, medically. He knows what you've been through, spiritually.

[37:23] He knows what's on your plate, at the moment. He knows your constitution. And he is sovereign.

[37:37] It's not a mistake, is it? It's not an accident. And you look around this room, and there are people with great struggles, at the moment. And therefore we say, things aren't difficult.

[37:52] But yes, I'm going to keep going. Because the future, outweighs the present. Let me close, by reading from, a biography of John Calvin.

[38:06] For those of you, who think that Calvin, was kind of right wing Nazi, let me assure you, Calvin was a gentle pastor, who was a genius, with the ability, to take the doctrines, of the New Testament, and the Old Testament, and put them into a system, which reflects the Bible's teaching.

[38:22] And all he's saying, is what I've said to you tonight. Calvin wrestled, with the question, how can one person, believe on another not? The difference, Calvin said, must rest on God's choice.

[38:33] For if the choice, were made by humans, God would be dependent, on what they do. And this would leave us, with a weak God, and what may be worse, believers who lack security. If on the other hand, the choice depends, entirely on God, he receives, the greatest degree of glory, and the believer, receives the greatest, degree of certainty.

[38:51] That is the doctrine, of election. And he found, that the notion, of an electing, or decision making, God left people, not only humble, but at peace. And I really hope, that you will think, about this this week.

[39:04] I really hope, that you'll keep, reminding yourself, that God is absolutely, in charge, of all the details, and you can trust him. This was true, of the idea, that God is at work, in all things, but nothing happened, by chance.

[39:16] Everything comes, from his fatherly hand. If however, this is the way, things are, one must also, be willing, to learn something, from the hand of God. If for example, terrible things happen, one can learn, that this world, is passing away.

[39:32] One must seek, true rest, elsewhere. That with God, even setbacks, aim at the good. That one must be humble, and one needs, forgiveness of sin.

[39:44] If God does, nothing randomly, there must always, be something, to learn. God works, with a goal, he would have, destined, let's pray.