Jesus Saves! But How? PART 9 Predestination

Andrew Grey continues with the adult Sunday School series on salvation with Part 9 - Predestination.

This is from Sunday 8th February 2026

Transcript

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We've been thinking about our great salvation, Jesus saves, but how? And we thought firstly about salvation accomplished, all that our Redeemer did in his life, death, resurrection, his ascension. And we're now thinking about the application of redemption. So Christ has all of these wonderful things. How do they then get applied and made effective to and for people like you and me? And we thought last week about the foundation of it all, namely union with Christ. So He possesses all of those blessings, and it's in union with Him that we receive. You know, every spiritual blessing is in Christ. And we're now going to start thinking for the next few weeks about the different dimensions of the salvation that we have and receive in union with Christ. And we're going to think today about predestination. So if you've got your Bibles, please would you turn to John chapter 6? So we're going to read a passage from John 6, then I'm going to pray, and then we will get stuck in. So John 6 and verse 35. Let's listen to God's word. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jake the Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. So let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the great salvation which you have prepared and worked for us. As we think about your greatness and your goodness, we pray that you would encourage our hearts, teach our minds, and help us to think your thoughts after you for our encouragement and our holiness, and that we might better praise and exalt you. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's think about God's work then in predestination and election. What are we talking about? Here's a definition. Before the foundation of the world, God chose to save a fixed number of individuals. He chose them purely for his own glory, because of his loving mercy, and not because of their foreknown faith, good works or perseverance. And that's what we're going to be trying to unpack during our minutes together this morning. The words election and predestination they have to do with choosing, with God choosing. And it's an outworking of the sovereignty of God, so the in-controlness or the power of God. That is, he works out all things in conformity with the counsel of his will. That's Ephesians 1, verse 11. And there are no holes in the sovereignty of God. There are no holes in the power of God. So when we think about this particular aspect of the power of God, it's within a bigger picture of who God is and what he is like. So let's think about the what of predestination. That is, before the foundation of the world, God chose a people and he gave them to his son. So those verses we just read from John 6, they're so helpful. And if you just look at verses 37, 38, 39, do you see how Christian people are described? They, we, are described as gifts. So the Father, God the Father, gives a people to the Son. So we are a gift from the Father to the Son. This is within the what's sometimes called the covenant of redemption between the persons of the Trinity. We are gifts from the Father to the Son, who in time the Son will redeem, and the Holy Spirit will bring them to know God, and the Son will win glory. So that's the end point. We'll see that in just a minute. But at this point, just simply see the status of Christian people. We are actually given by God the Father to God the Son. I don't know how you feel about that. That's a strange thought. It's actually a wonderful thought. Or in Ephesians chapter 1, those verses you might have read when we began this morning, I'll put them on the handout, Ephesians 1, 3 to 5. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For, and this is, then he starts to list the spiritual blessings we have in Christ, and this is where he begins. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. So there we can see predestination, God's choice of people, and we see the purpose there. It's for salvation, isn't it? Predestined for adoption as his sons. And in a few weeks we're going to spend a morning on adoption. That's the most wonderful aspect of the salvation we have in Christ. Chosen to be brought into the family of God. If you just turn over to the second side of the handout. Couple of other scriptures that help us here. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. Paul writes. But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He's talking about the Thessalonian church and he thanks God for them, and he kind of recounts their salvation story, and it begins in the beginning. God chose you from the beginning to be saved through the Spirit and through faith. Acts 13, verse 48. So in the story of the church as it goes out, Paul and Barnabas, they're preaching the gospel. Some Gentiles become Christians, and this is how it's described. Acts 13, 48. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord. And all who were appointed for eternal life believed. So they receive eternal life. They believe. How? Well, because they were appointed for eternal life. They didn't appoint themselves. It was the plan of God, the will of God. But on that particular day, in that particular moment of time, those men, women, boys, and girls who were appointed for eternal life would be brought to life through the work of the Holy Spirit. So before the foundation of the world, God chose a people and he gave them to his son and he saved them. Why? What is the purpose that lies behind this? Why? Well, for his own glory and because of his love. In Ephesians chapter 1, when Paul puts predestination before the Ephesian church and before us, he does it in the context of praise. So Ephesians 1, verse 3 is this outpouring of praise. It's one single sentence all the way from verse 3 to the end of the paragraph. Praise be. Verse 6, specifically, he is praised for his glorious grace. So he chooses people and he saves people that he might be praised. And in a God-centered universe, that's absolutely right, isn't it? That all of the glory goes to him. It's his work for his glory. And specifically, he's praised for his work in choosing people. Another angle on that, again, we're still in Ephesians, among other places, praise is not due to us. So we're explicitly told that God's way of saving excludes boasting. So one thing that will keep a person from Christ completely and permanently is boasting. That is, there is something about me that is praiseworthy. There is something that I can contribute or bring to God to contribute to contribute towards my salvation. And it's absolutely inimical to salvation and the gospel. There's no room for boasting because all of the work is God's and all of the glory is God's. So he does this for his own glory, but he also does so out of love. And you can see God's love, the father's love at work in two slightly different ways. And you can probably see them already. You know, the father's love for the son. We spoke about that in John chapter 6. He wants to give this gift to his son in order that his son might be glorified. The father loves the son. The father also loves us. People who don't deserve it. We'll see that much more in just a moment. But he chooses to reach out and choose people in mercy and grace. I mean, those are the two great words that are associated with God's character when he saves. And they are at work in his choosing of those he chooses to save. It's Romans 9, Ephesians 1. You know, his mercy, you know, I will show mercy to whom I have mercy. He's a merciful God. Why do you do it? Well, because I'm merciful. He will show grace to the praise of his glorious grace. It's all for his own glory and because of his love. Negatively, go on, next side of the handout. God chooses not because of anything in us. And the Bible shows us this in many different ways. And it's actually quite important we wrap our heads around this. We're explicitly told that God saves people not because they are, for example, numerous or wise or influential or noble. It is one of the strange and wonderful things about our God that the kinds of people he seems to like to choose are the opposite of all of those things. And it's really wonderful. He chooses people not because they are holy. He doesn't look for people who have a kind of natural holiness about them, a kind of a predisposition towards Christ, and then choose to save them. The Bible tells us really clearly that election causes holiness, not the other way around. So Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, we are chosen to be holy. And it's really important you get the arrow the right way round. God's choice, he sets his love upon someone, he chooses them, and as a result, they will be made holy. It's not the other way around. It's not here is a holy person, or a holy-ish person, and therefore God chooses them. It's completely the other way round. Similar, it is not that God chooses people because he knew that we would have faith in him. Now, a really key point here is a doctrinal point, and it has to do with the nature of sin. Where we began at the very beginning of this course, the Bible says that our natures, we are totally depraved, total depravity. That is to say, every single part of us is affected by and under the dominion of sin. It's not that we're as bad as we could be, we are not by the kindness of God, but every single bit of us is affected by sin, such that on our own we would not and could not exercise faith in Christ. The phrase used in doctrine and church history to describe this is the bondage of the will. Until a person becomes a Christian, their wills are actually enslaved to sin, the world, and the devil. And until God the Holy Spirit does something, steps in, regenerates them, that person becomes born again and frees their will, until that point, that person is very happy in rejecting Jesus. And actually, in that happiness in rejecting Jesus lies moral responsibility. You need the Holy Spirit to free this enslaved will and then enable a person to most freely choose Christ. The really simple way of putting it is that sin is so deep and so gripping that without a sovereign work of God we would never have faith in him. Now, I'm not going to say masses about this, ask questions if you want to, but this would be the key difference between Calvinism and Arminianism within the history of the church. What about those, though, who God purposes not to save? The word used of this is sometimes reprobation, meaning God's eternal decision concerning those sinners whom he has not chosen for life. And it's a decision not to change them, but to leave them to sin as they already want to. Now, in your Bibles, would you please turn to Romans chapter 9? We're going to read a few verses here which help us. So Romans chapter 9. What page is that? Yeah, if you've got a black church Bible, shout a page number out. 945. 945. Thank you, that's really helpful. Page 945. Romans 9 and verse 14. So Paul is talking to the Roman church, and in this chapter he's talking about the sovereignty of God in choosing. And yeah, we'll pick pick it up in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then, he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to its moulder, Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honourable use and another for dishonourable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory, for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. You can see in those verses how Paul is putting before us God's sovereign mercy. And he's also talking about the likes of Pharaoh. It's not a random example he picks here. So back in the story of the gospel in the Old Testament, God's people were enslaved in Egypt, and he rescued them by mighty acts of judgment. And he rescued them from and against Pharaoh, who stands in the Bible as perhaps the classic anti-God, God hating, God's people-hating figure. But the Bible would say it is not a clash of equals, you know, the Lord and Pharaoh. Even Pharaoh, the great king of Egypt, is in the hands of God. Paul says here, and he echoes what is said in the book of Exodus, that God actually raised Pharaoh for this purpose, that he would oppose God. He even hardened his heart that he would oppose God. Now, Pharaoh delighted in his opposition to the true God. But we're reminded here that he is the creator and we are creatures. He makes, we are made. And I guess it's as we come to this reality of predestination, it's not just a doctrine on the page, it's also a reality in this universe in which we live. He is the creator and we are creatures. Paul uses this really humbling analogy of a potter. The potter makes, he shapes clay. It would be a somewhat ludicrous thing for a pot to answer back to the one who made him. Now, the Bible obviously has many other things to say about God's human creatures and the dignity that he bestows upon us. But all that we have and are gifts. They come from God, and he is the sovereign God, and he is the God who shapes, he even shapes destinies. So he can talk about people who are prepared for glory, verse 23, and verse 22. He can talk about people prepared for destruction. Now, there are hard things about that, but there also are just humbling things about that. And as we wrestle with this, and probably different ones of us may wrestle in slightly different ways, the truth is we all deserve to go to hell with Pharaoh. I mean, that is just the bottom line. The amazing thing is not that some are condemned, but that any are saved. Now, just over to the top of the next side, there's a really helpful paragraph which I've quoted from that's J.I. Packer. I forgot to put his name down there. So that's J.I. Packer's concise theology. This divine choice is an expression of free and sovereign grace, for it is unconstrained and unconditional, not merited by anything in those who are its subjects. God owes sinners no mercy of any kind, only condemnation. So it's a wonder and matter for endless praise that he should choose to save any of us, and doubly so, when his choice involved the giving his own son to suffer as sin bearer for the elect. Now, what do we do with this? Uh, how should we apply the reality, the doctrine of predestination? It actually runs through uh the scripture a bit like a bedrock, and as with you know, bedrock in our earth's geology, sometimes it's largely hidden, sometimes it it pokes its head well up above the surface, but it's always there because the sovereign God is always there. That's the the reality that we live in, and this is the God we live with. These are the kinds of applications from the whole of Scripture that I think God would have us draw from the truth of predestination. First, it gives hope to the evangelist. That is to say, we don't know who in this world is among the elect. The gospel is offered freely. Um who places their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, and therefore we keep on holding out the gospel. A great example of that in Acts 18 9 and 10. So one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent, for I am with you and not. No one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city. That is to say, there are many chosen people in this town. You don't know who they are, but they're there. And so Paul doesn't leave, even despite persecution. Rather, he stays put and he preaches the word. So God's people are out there, so we can talk about Jesus. Second, predestination is a basis for godly living. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with godliness. Why? Because you are God's chosen people. You are holy and you are dearly loved. So if you are chosen and you're brought into the family of God, now live like it. That's one of the kind of impetuses behind holiness. Third, we are humbled and God is exalted. And we've seen that already, haven't we? This shows me that God is God and I am not. And election, actually, like every single work of grace, attacks this idea that you know that I can achieve, work, earn, it undermines it. God is God, I am not. Salvation has nothing to do with me, it is all of God. And that that humbles me. But it's also in a really wonderful place. It is a good thing to realize your place before God in this universe. Deuteronomy 29 is a helpful scripture. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. So when we come to God's predestination, his decree of election, we're in the territory of secret things. So he tells us that he does this. The nitty-gritty, the details, the whos, the whys, the wherefores. Well that's that's his business. So we're reminded, you know, God is God, I am not God, but he has revealed what we need to know, and to us and to our children, that we may walk in the ways of his law. Lastly, uh, the doctrine of election is actually an enormously comforting doctrine. Just listen again to those words of the Lord Jesus, John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. So, Christian people, we we sometimes feel insecure. And we will spend a whole session actually thinking about that uh in a few weeks' time, God willing. We do sometimes feel insecure, but we are safe in the hands of sovereign grace. And it's wonderful, it's both of those words, both of those realities, sovereign grace. You know, all who God the Father gives to the Son will be saved and held by Christ. It's a wonderful thing. Why don't we just take a couple of minutes to talk with a neighbor? Perhaps share an encouragement, share any questions, then we'll come back together and take uh six, seven minutes for questions. Yeah, that's really that's really helpful. So when you're I mean we don't we don't have special glasses, do we? I mean God has chosen to conceal secret things from us. Okay, so who in the world are elect? His business, not our business. You're absolutely right. So we you know we we approach everyone with you know love and grace with the gospel and leave everything else to God. Yeah, you're absolutely a good way of putting it. We cannot discriminate because of election. That's such a good and honest question, and I'm sure numbers of us do or have felt like that. So here's a here's a here's something we want to love because we love the Lord, but we find it hard to love. What what do we do about that? I do observe that I think just just some people find it easier and some people find it harder than others. I'm not sure I particularly know why. I do think that some things take longer to settle in the hearts, in our hearts, than others. Again, you can't quite predict why and how. I mean I'm helped that the Lord Jesus talks quite unabashedly about this. So if you just have a look in your Bibles at Matthew 11, 25 to 30, wouldn't I just read those verses? Um, at that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So, in the same, literally in the same breath, Jesus can talk about the work of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in both revealing and concealing, and it's his good pleasure, it's his good will to do so. And he can issue a general invitation. Come to me. So I guess that these things are in the mind and speech and the prayers of the Saviour is helpful. Does that resolve all of the things that we find hard? No, I don't think it does. But I think I'm helped if I can put this in a holy way. Uh Jesus didn't have a problem with it, he more than didn't have a problem with it. Um, and okay, therefore, I want to be in a place where I think and feel about these things as much as I can, like the Lord did. So, you know, please, Lord, get me there. Don't know if that's very helpful or not. Um, last question before we stop. I think that's I think that's probably the key bit, isn't it? And it it is hard. We all have people we love and we either want to become Christians or they appear not to have become Christians in their lifetime. And what do you do with that? Well, will not the judge of all the earth do right? So again, that's this is something that's not my business, this is his business, and just trying to get a place of I guess mental rest, but also heart rest. Yeah. Let me pray. Uh Heavenly Father, please help us to think your thoughts about all we've been discussing this morning. We thank you for your heart, which is gracious and wise and strong, for those words we just read of your delight in hiding things from the wise and understanding and revealing them to little children. Well, we thank you for what that reveals about you. Uh please teach us, uh, instruct us in these things, uh, help us to worship you, trust you with things that we find hard, uh, live out what it means to be a chosen and elect person in the world. And we ask that for Jesus' name's sake. Amen.