There are some things that we want to keep in mind.
1) God can know the future actions of a free moral agent (by definition of omniscience).
2) God knows all contingencies but He knows nothing contingently (by definition of omniscience).
Don't forget that omniscience and omnipotence are necessary attributes of God. God, in order to be God, has these as part of His nature. If you want a God that you can surprise then you don’t understand the term “God”. In His mercy and grace He interacts with us as we live in time but He is not limited in that way with the exception of the human nature of Jesus (Emmanuel) who is fully God and fully man without mixture, confusion, separation, or division.
3) Our future is known by God but not fixed from our point of view since we are in the moment (it is fragile).
4) We can pray and/or act in a way that changes the way things would otherwise be.
5) God (in His Grace) will even show mercy and change what He would otherwise do in response to our cries for mercy.
Matthew 7:7-11Jesus wasn’t misinformed or trying to mislead us. This verse if from the Sermon on the Mount and a careful reading will show you that He was speaking to His disciples when he gave the sermon. Another comfort I have in God’s transcendence is that He will not give me a stone or serpent if I ask for one in my ignorance. As a disciple of Jesus you are commanded to ask, seek, and knock and it will be fitting for your Father to respond to your requests. Remember the father’s response to the “non-prodigal” son in the parable of the prodigal son? When the “non-prodigal” whined to his father about the blessing of the prodigal the father said that he could have asked for blessing at anytime and he would have given it. It is right and just for the Father to respond in blessing to His children as they ask for what they need.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
6) You must not think in deterministic or fatalistic ways (it is sin).
Luke 18:1-8If you give up on your ability to change the way things will be and lose heart then when the Son of Man comes He will not be looking at faith. The future is not fixed but God is Sovereign over it. The enemy of your soul wants to surrender to determinism and fatalism.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? , Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
7) God told us these things about election so that;
a. we would understand how deep our fall was (salvation is not a random process),
b. how great was His mercy toward us (salvation is not a random process),
c. we can trust Him to keep us (salvation is not a random process), and
d. we can minister in His power and see results (salvation is not a random process).
The message with regard to the means of your salvation is to be a blessing. Arguably the greatest Baptist evangelist that has lived was Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). He was known as the “Prince of Preachers” and these things motivated him to excellence in preaching and evangelism. There were 14,692 baptized during the approximately 35 years of his pastorate at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. That was without tapes, CDs, DVDs, or even amplification he averaged 35 baptisms a week. But the reason why people still love to read him is because he had such a fidelity to the Word. He taught meat to his congregation for 35 years.
“How shall those who are the subjects of divine election sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord’s will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it.” – Charles Spurgeon
"If the Lord sent me to preach the gospel to the devil himself, I should believe that God was able to convert even him. I know that he never will do so; but if there be any man who is as bad as the devil, and the gospel is sent to him, I shall never despair of the possibility of that man being reclaimed, and made to stand among the redeemed at the last.” – Charles Spurgeon
Amen. Soli Deo Gloria.
Paul continues to discuss his “kinsmen after the flesh” in Chapter 10.
Romans 10:1-4
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
A commitment to establishing our own righteousness in our own strength is poison to real spiritual growth. Only God by His Grace can break through when we start building these walls. Our sin nature loves the feeling that God owes us something. It is a strong drug. We begin to judge our actions as deserving of God’s reward instead of depending on Christ’s righteousness. On the other hand we also begin to think that God should pass over our sins and disobedience because of some action that, in our mind, makes up for our failure. The Cross alone brings forgiveness and righteousness.
Romans 10:5-8Our righteousness is based on faith and doesn’t ask who has been good enough to get into heaven thereby neglecting the righteousness imputed to us because of the excellencies of Christ (to bring Christ down). In addition or righteousness based on faith doesn’t ask who has been bad enough to be sent to hell neglecting the necessary forgiveness required for our own sin and the penalty paid by Christ on the Cross that only He could pay (to bring Christ up from the dead). But as we minister, the word is near those to whom we share and as we share in the power of Christ … people respond to the word of faith.
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
We are to have tremendous confidence and freedom when we are involved in evangelism because of the promises of God. We realize that evangelism is not dependant on some sort of a sales process but is rather our participation with the Holy Spirit in God’s activity.
Romans 10:9-13
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
God is active in salvation for all those who confess and call on the Lord. Remember that calling Him Lord has content and consequences. It is important to remember that God doesn’t place barriers and on the contrary He saves those upon whose hearts He moves. We don’t trust in ourselves do we? If you thought that we were responsible for keeping ourselves in the Body of Christ can you imagine what nonsense “with the mouth one confesses and is saved” or “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” would be. If we kept ourselves in the Body of Christ what comfort or assurance would our confession or calling on God be? Our current position would be no assurance or comfort at all. This would just be some dry piece of Scripture that meant nothing to us. Instead we know that God is promising as He promised in Romans 8 that He is the one who keeps us in the Body of Christ and I don’t wake up every morning wondering if today is the day that I’ll lose my salvation. What kind of a salvation would it be if God only paid for my sins up through 2007?
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