MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT PREDESTINATION

Ephesians 1:5-15 (KJV)

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

It has been on my mind to preach through the book of Ephesians for some time now.

In the process of preparing for this series I realized that Ephesians chapter one is one of those passages that the younger pastors have been having some trouble with.

Otherwise good men have been led astray into Protestant Reformation thinking. I think part of the reason for their error has been

The restless nature of youth

We probably encourage men who are still novices to enter the ministry before they are ready

The rebellious nature of mankind

We tend to like doing things differently than those who were authorities over us because we resist authority

One of the more [infamous] young, restless and reformed pastors built a huge church largely by attracting young people who were tired of the legalism of their parents’ churches.

He billed himself as “theologically conservative but socially liberal.”

He became a superstar preacher all over the world, leading pastors to start churches just like his with just the same success he had.

All of a sudden, his own church members began complaining that he was legalistic.

• He held rallies where men would go get tattoos together, but preached that yoga was witchcraft.
• He taught classes on how to make your own beer at his church, but preached against women in the pulpit

First, 

• There were complaints, then, before long, 
• There were scandals, finally
• There was his dismissal from the ministry

It turned out his socially liberal church membership didn’t like his conservative theology either!

One of the things these young men, leaving Baptist churches, or else changing their Baptist church’s doctrine and practice have complained about, is that they have never heard preaching on the hard passages like Ephesians chapter one.

The doctrine they refer to is that of election.

Specifically from Ephesians, is the doctrine of predestination.

The two Protestant Reformation extremes are from what are labeled

The Calvinist position 

That God has predetermined or predestined from the foundation of the world, some people to be saved and, by implication, others to be eternally condemned.

Or the Arminian position

That before the foundation of the world, God looked into the future, saw who would believe in Jesus Christ, and determined or predestined those people to be saved.

A true Baptist position is neither Calvinist nor Arminian. It is Biblical.

I mean to try to explain the Biblical position by teaching Ephesians chapter one.

I will begin by giving 

I. THE OPTIONS OF PREDESTINATION

Let’s look quickly at the two verses where the word predestination is found in Ephesians one:

Ephesians 1:5 (KJV)

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Ephesians 1:11 (KJV)

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

You’ve picked up that the word is not predestination but predestinated.

It's a trivial difference but I want to use it to point out what happens with Bible preaching and teaching.

A Bible truth can be pointed to in the Bible, tweaked just a little and be different than the Bible teaches without our really seeing it, unless we are careful.

Calvinism and Arminianism both claim to teach the Bible. 

They both use the Bible to prove their doctrines.

But in both cases they tweak the Bible ever so slightly, to come up with their doctrines.

There are three basic options what the Bible teaches about predestination:

A. That God has predetermined who would and would not be saved

The word determined is important here because it is what the Calvinists and Arminians argue over and because it more clearly paints the picture of the Calvinist doctrine.

The Calvinist teaches that God has determined, decided, chosen irrevocably who will and won’t be saved.

Some of them will deny the second half of that and say in effect, God has elected who will be saved but man’s sin has determined that the rest will be condemned to hell.

B. That God foreknew who would be saved and determined they would be saved

The idea comes from, among other passages, 

Romans 8:28-30 (KJV)

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

See the word foreknow, there, in connection with predestinate?

The problem with this position is that it makes God appear to be impotent.

According to this option, the only powerful attribute of God is the ability to see into the future.

• He has no authority
• He has no sovereignty

He is like the sport’s announcer sitting in his stand calling the plays as he sees them.

• Sports announcers can be popular.
• Sometimes they become celebrities in their own right.

But they are not the athletes on the field. Those guys are the ones making everything happen.

Extreme Arminianism says in effect, that human beings are the real athletes making everything happen while God from the vantage of foreknowledge, just calls the plays as they happen.

The third position is

C. That God has predestinated both Jews and Gentiles that either may be saved

• He has elected (chosen) that the Gospel message be delivered to the world through the Jews.
• He has elected (chosen) that both Jews and Gentiles be saved by the power of that Gospel message and

He has predestinated that those who are saved be united together in the same body (a church) for their spiritual growth.

D. The fourth option is to ignore doctrine and all and just rejoice that, “We all love Jesus.” 

This is the option that the young preachers of our day are revolting against and choosing Reformation doctrine over.

Let me move on to my second point,

II. THE OBSTACLE OF PREDESTINATION

Which is prejudice.

Let’s review the context of the passage as I gave it last week:

A. Paul has a mystery which he desires his audience to understand.

Ephesians 1:16-18 (KJV)

…. making mention of you in my prayers;

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

B. The secret being revealed is the church of which Jesus Christ is the head

Ephesians 1:22-23 (KJV)

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

C. The kicker is that this church is to be made up of both Jews and Gentiles

Ephesians 2:11-19 (KJV)

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

God determined before the foundation of the world to use the Jews as: 

• the carriers of His Word and
• the curriers of Christ.

The Jews were so prejudiced against the Gentiles that, they would not have allowed the Gentiles into the plan of God.

God hardened their hearts to remove them (cut them out of the vine) until the Gentiles were grafted in.

But God chose (elected) certain of those Jews to carry the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Paul and the other apostles)

I heard an illustration that might help us understand the difficulty Paul would have had preaching this mystery of election:

We have in America the unfortunate history of slavery.

I imagine that in this room none of us question that both white people and black people can be saved and even members of the same church.

That hasn’t always been the case.

More than 20 years before the Civil War, Baptist churches in America fought their own civil war. 

It wasn’t bloody, but it was difficult and painful nonetheless.

In the early 1840’s a white man was presented before the Baptists Association of the time to be supported as a missionary.

He was denied support because he was a slave owner.

• Baptists in the North believed it to be immoral.
• Baptists in the South did not.

The disagreement resulted in the division between the Northern Baptist Association and the Southern Baptist Convention.

I said that the Baptists in the South did not believe owning slaves was immoral.

That is only partly true.

There were Baptist preachers in the Southern states that were opposed to slavery.

One of them a pastor in Missouri, could not refrain from preaching against slavery, even as the Civil War was being fought around him.

• His life was threatened
• His building was vandalized
• His congregation dwindled

Still, he kept preaching against the sin of slavery

You see, the Jews of Paul’s day thought of the Gentiles as dogs and only sort of human.

They did not believe it was possible for God to love them

They would never have considered uniting together with them

Paul’s message was that: 

• God had in fact chosen both Jews and Gentiles before the foundation of the world and that 
• God had predestinated that both would be united in a common body, the local church.

My final point is,

III. THE OBJECTIVE OF PREDESTINATION

Ephesians 1:4-6 (KJV)

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Notice in verse 4 the words, “we should be.”

That’s the determination or predestination of God.

It’s what He wants to happen to 

those of us, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, who get saved.

We should be…

A. Holy

This is the doctrine of,

Sanctification – progressive, over the lifetime.

The moment you get saved God set you apart holy to Himself. You belong to Him.

But you are far from perfect.

His will is your perfection – something that is accomplished through your participation in your local church and through the ministry of your pastor.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (KJV)

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

We should be…

B. Without Blame

This is the doctrine of,

Justification – immediate at the moment of salvation

The very moment of your salvation God imputes to your account the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

• Your condemnation is removed
• Your wages of sin is forgiven

You are completely righteous in the eyes of God.

We should be…

C. Adopted

When we get saved we are “born again” as children of God AND adopted into God’s family.

The adoption has to do with our heavenly future.

Notice what the Bible says of us who are saved:

We are,

Accepted

Vs 6

We are,

Redeemed

Vs 7

We are

Forgiven

Vs 7

We are

United

Vs 10

We are

Sealed

Vs 13-14

Conclusion

Predestination has nothing do with who is or isn’t saved and everything to do with what happens to us after we are saved.