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Sunday 01/05/25
Title: Free-willed vessels of Honor Pt.2
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Free-willed vessels of Honor Pt.2
So this week we are continuing our study on who the “elect” are and what is the “election” process. Meaning by means of what criteria is one person an “elect” and another not?
As I told you last week there are MANY words associated with this topic, they include but are most likely not limited to…
- Chosen
- Ordained
- Preordained
- Predestined
- Foreknown
- Foreordained
For today’s teaching I am going to rely heavily on the word predestined or predestination, though not exclusively.
To avoid getting bogged down I am NOT reviewing what we learned last week. For that, you will have to go back and listen to that message ANY read that article. There are things in the article which were NOT in the teaching and they are both necessary!
So I am going to take meaningful samples of each of the words associated with predestination and put them to the test to see in which direction they point.
We will being with…
Foreknow (-known, knowledge…etc.)
Acts 2:22-23, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know.
(23) Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined planAND foreknowledge, YOU USED lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.”
1 Peter 1:1-2,
“(1) Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To the temporary residents of the Dispersion in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, CHOSEN (2) according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of God the Father and SET APART by the Spirit for obedience and for the sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”
This word occurs only in these two places.
It is the compound Greek word prognōsis and means foreknowledge. Prior acknowledgement. Favorable recognition. Consideration beforehand.
It is used to denote the foreordained fellowship of God with the objects of His saving power.
NOTHING about the word addresses sovereign choice, only that God – from eternity past knows these people from eternity past.
Since the word is prognōsis the knowing is personal.
God has proginosko of every human being who has or ever will exist. This is intellectual knowledge. This is the “know all of your ways, all your thoughts before you have them, all your words before you speak them and the number of hairs on your head and days in your future” kind of knowledge.
The type of “knowing” we are talking about in foreknowledge however is personal knowledge.
Therefore, if used in relation to people as it is in 1 Peter 1:2 it means those who God knew in a personal way before they ever came into existence.
The difference is seen more clearly in a statement of Jesus regarding the day of judgment. It is not regarding pre-knowledge but having known someone at all.
There will be many, Jesus said, who did many things USING God’s name and alluding to His power but who did not personally know Him.
This “knowing” is bi-directional.
They did not know God and He did not know them as the saying goes,
“Depart from Me, I never KNEW you.”
Which is to say, I never entered into a relationship of intimacy with you.
In this type of knowing… for one to know the other IS for the other to know the one as well because it involves intimacy.
Paul addressed this once in a way that clarifies something regarding predestination.
It is found in Galatians 4:8-11,
“(8) Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. (9) But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless basic forces?
Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?
(10) You are observing religious days and months and seasons and years. (11) I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain.”
What is Paul saying here?
That before you came to faith in Jesus, you neither knew God intimately nor were you known intimately by God.
HOWEVER – AND THIS IS VERY KEY – Paul asks a question which one would never ask if predestination were true.
He asks,
“Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?”
How could they, if they were saved by irresistible grace and even if they could, what difference would it make?
If salvation is predetermined and every action ordained – this question is both without meaning and useless!
Next Paul goes one step further by openly admitting that their behavior is causing him to wonder if the work accomplished through his ministry which resulted in their faith in Christ and resulting salvation will end up being for nothing!
What does that mean if not that, they could deny Him even after having come into intimate relationship with Him?
If the only ones who are saved are those God predetermined to be saved, then this question and statement make NO sense whatsoever!
It also makes no sense if it is true that once one is saved, they then lose all free will to depart again from God.
Paul says the same thing about the elect and the election in 2 Peter 1:2-12,
“(2) Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (3) as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, (4) by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(5) But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, (6) to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, (7) to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. (8) For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Or you could say you will be a vessel of honor useful for the Master.
“(9) The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.
(10) Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
(11) for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (12) For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.”
The passage which illustrates this whole issue of foreknowledge is Romans 8.
This chapter is the answer to questions which arose in previous chapters regarding being recipients of God’s grace and how we should respond to it. How even though we have come to new life and desire to live godly, we often do not do so and that making the free will decision to set our minds on the things of God and follow the inward leading of the Holy Spirit will keep us from being condemned with the world.
Then in Romans 8:28-37 Paul says,
“(28) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
(29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
So we see that the predestination is based upon the foreknowledge of God.
Those who God knew intimately from eternity past, ARE THE ONES He foreordains to bear His image!
So did these come into intimacy with God due to sovereignty alone, or did they choose Him from a free will in response to His grace? Is His grace something they could have set aside?
Well by inspiration Paul said it could!
In Galatians 2:21 Paul said, “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
That has no meaning if grace is irresistible! In fact, it would have Paul taking credit away for God and attributing that credit to himself!
Romans 8 goes on to say…
“(30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
The Election and the Elect
We begin with a warning Jesus offers regarding the time of the Great Tribulation.
Matthew 24:24-26, “(24) For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (25) See, I have told you beforehand. (26) “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.”
The idea is NOT that it is completely beyond the pale that the elect could be deceived, but only that it is not likely.
A similar wording with the same grammatical structure is used of Paul in Acts 20:16 and really means “if possible”.
Acts 20:16, “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, IF POSSIBLE, on the Day of Pentecost.”
So while Paul was trying to hedge his bets to get to Jerusalem by a certain time, these actions did not guarantee that outcome.
So the elect could possibly be deceived which would lead them to accept another person in place of Christ. This would speak AGAINST predestination.
A few verses earlier in Matthew 24:22 Jesus said those days would be shortened for the sake of the elect for the express purpose of lessening the chances of their being deceived but to eliminate that chance!
Mark 13 says the same thing but adds that these elect were chosen. The question is – upon what basis were they chosen – His arbitrary will or their faith?
Well the context implies their faith because otherwise what difference would it make if these chosen elect were deceived or not? Their thinking and choice would have nothing to do with it!
Romans 11:7 says, “What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.”
Again we have to ask, upon what basis did Israel fail to obtain and the elect succeed in obtaining?
Well verses 19-23 tell us…
“(19)You [Gentiles] will say then, “[The Jewish] Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
(20) Well said.
BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF THEY WERE BROKEN OFF, AND YOU STAND BY FAITH.”
Now that alone does not mean anything if their belief was preordained. Perhaps they had no free will part in their own belief!
But the passage makes it clear that they both did and do!
“Do not be haughty, but fear. (21) For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
(22) Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF YOU CONTINUE IN HIS GOODNESS. OTHERWISE YOU ALSO WILL BE CUT OFF. (23) And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
Now lest you think this means that a person or especially a Jew can come back to God after apostasy this is NOT talking about individual Jews, but the Jewish nation as a whole.
Paul also mentions the elect in Colossians but he does it in a context which clearly points out free will and the need for us to make good choices.
Colossians 3:1-17,
“(1) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
(2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
(4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
(5) Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
(6) BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS THE WRATH OF GOD IS COMING UPON THE SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE, (7) IN WHICH YOU YOURSELVES ONCE WALKED WHEN YOU LIVED IN THEM.”
What is the implication here? The same as in other similar places. Do this so that you will not be partakers with them in their condemnation!
“(8) But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. (9) Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, (10) and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (11) where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
(12) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; (13) bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
(14) But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
Here we see our calling, but choice IS involved. We were called to peace, but the calling alone does not force peace – we must choose it!
“(16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
(17) And whatever YOU DO in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Something has to be said about this whole grace business!
We already saw through Paul’s words that grace CAN be set aside and therefore IS able to be resisted!
Romans 11:5 tells us that “at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” But who does grace elect?
Well I believe this is stated in James 4 where it says that God gives grace to the humble.
Now if only those chosen by God CAN be humble, then why did James BY INSPIRATION encourage his readers to humble themselves under God’s mighty hand?
Next week we will finish off this mini-series beginning with who are the chosen.
Blessings!
