Things We Can Depend On.

 

All In All

 

Excerpt- E.J. Waggoner-

God had a purpose. Can it be changed? No, the thing is fixed. Those that are called are justified; in Christ, therefore, we have justification. But those that are justified are also glorified. Can we believe that? If we can, we have got hold of a wonderful amount of strength. We have the glory of Christ? Yes, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." John 17:22.

Mark, it is past tense. The glory that God has given to Christ is ours today. 

It is true that that glory doth not yet appear and the world knoweth us not, because it knew not Christ. But it is ours, and it will appear and even now it appears in the form of grace. 

Inwardly we have it, for says Paul, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." Ephesians 3:10.

For the same reason for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory." Jeremiah 10:21.

"The Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Peter says that, believing, we may "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:8.

The glory is all ours; we have it now. By and by when we have accepted this grace according to the riches of His glory and worked out in us His purpose, then we will step out of grace into glory on the same level.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" 

Take this verse and read it and commit it to memory; and then remember to say, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Revelation 12:11. 

And remember that Christ gave the example of defeating Satan by the word of the testimony; every time the temptation came He said, "It is written." So when the clouds of darkness come and the thick darkness gathers around, just say, "If God be for us, who can be against us!" And God is for us, as is shown in that He gave Christ to die for us and raised Him again for our justification.

There is peace in the thought that God works out all things after the counsel of His own will and that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Then it does not matter what comes against us, for in that it comes against us, it comes against the purpose of God, and that is as sure and firm as the existence of the Almighty can make it.

Now who is against us? Satan is against us. That does not make any difference if he is. Satan has tried his power with Christ, and it has proved itself to be nothing. "All power in heaven and earth is given to me," says Christ. Then if all power has been given to Christ in heaven and in earth and it has been given, where is there any left for Satan? there is none. In a contest with Christ, Satan has no power; so if we have Christ for us, nothing can be against us.

Some of us have been talking about the power of Satan in the past; but he has none, there is none left for him. Technically speaking, Satan is against us. Who is he? "The prince of the power of the air." He brings pestilence; he brings disease; he puts things in our way and arrays them against us. But the very things which he arrays against us to work our ruin, God takes and makes them for us. They are all good. We often sing: Let good or ill befall, It must be good for me, Secure of having Thee in all, Of having all in thee.

But we very often sing things that we do not believe at all. Now I would not have anyone sing these things any less, but I would have you believe them more. It is often the case that if you took the words from the music and put them into plain prose, there would not be anyone in a whole congregation who would believe or dare to say them. Let us believe them not because they are in the hymn, but because they are Bible truth.

We are like the people who are represented by the prophet Ezekiel: "Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against [about] thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord." That is it--they say, Come, let us go to meeting and hear the sermon. "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not." Ezekiel 33:30-32.

I say that a great many of these truths are just a song to many people. They hear them and are interested in them and then pass on but they do not believe or do them. But the Lord has given them for us to both believe and to do, and they will be our strength. So everything works for good to them that love God. We cannot always see how or tell how, but God has said it and we know it is so. There are many things that we cannot tell why we believe and to our very senses they do not appear to be so, but the very fact that God has promised that if we do believe them they will be so, makes them so, when we take hold and believe them. We can never know this till we do believe, but when we do believe, then we will know. So if God be for us, who can be against us?

Think of that lone prophet of God, Elisha. He was down in Samaria; the mountains were all around him. A whole host of armed men had come to take him. He stood alone with his servant, and that servant was afraid. He did not think in that moment, nor did he say, that the King of Israel ought to send a troop of horse or some infantry to defend him. The young man came to him and said, "Alas, my master! How shall we do?" Elisha prayed, "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes." and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw and behold the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about.

The whole mountain and plain was filled with chariots and horses, and only one of them was stronger than the whole host of the enemy. It is as true in our case as in that of Elisha, that "they that be for us are more than they that be against us," and the only thing for us to do is to get our eyes open so that we may see that this is so. What opens our eyes? The word; it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path, and if we believe it, we will know that they that are for us are more than they that are against us.

He who is with us is the living God of Israel, who has power to turn darkness into light and weakness into strength; and every evil thing that comes against us, He turns into a blessing to help us on our way.

"He that spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" Why will He with Christ also give us all things? Because all things are in Him. Note Ephesians 1:23. "Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."

He that hath put on Christ is "strengthened with all might!" Why? Because God has placed Christ "far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come, 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 fullness of him that filleth all in all." 

Therefore everything is in Christ. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He has all power given him in heaven and in earth. Don't you see that this being the case, it is a foregone conclusion that when God gave Christ for us and freely delivered Him up for us all, that in Him He does give us all things.

Here's My Heart, Lord.

 

All Knowing God.

 The following is a small study on predestination, foreordination, God in (or as the case may be out of) time. I've put together a few excerpts from various sources to read, to study right there along with the WORD of GOD.  Does the following have all the answers we'll ever need? No. We have to ultimately trust God, put our faith in God even when we have no evidence. We have to trust that some things are secret with God, and that's okay, we trust Him and He knows our limitations.

Deu_29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever…

Job 11:7  Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? 

Act 1:7  And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

 Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 

I hope this study helps a little bit and doesn't add to the confusion of things. Our God is an awesome God who only ever desires our good!

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'9. But if God foreknows that I will be lost, must I not be lost despite all contingencies? -

In this case you are to be lost, of course, but not because God foreknows it, nor by any personal decree of his. It would be the same if God did not foreknow it. 

To illustrate: A young man moves into the society of evil companions and the atmosphere of the saloon. He is perfectly free to resist if he will; but he yields to temptation, goes down, and is lost. You felt morally certain it would be so in the beginning. Suppose you had foreknown it absolutely; would your foreknowledge have compelled him to that course? - Not at all. Neither does God’s foreknowledge, in any case.

 Events transpire, not because God foreknows them; but he foreknows them because they are to transpire. 

In this we speak only of events connected with free moral agency. Such agents he leaves free to decide their own destiny.'

Synopsis of the Present Truth  - Uriah Smith

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'God is the High and Holy One "that inhabiteth eternity." Isa_57:15   

Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

He dwells in eternity. What is eternity? It is something that has neither beginning nor ending. It may be represented by a circle, at every point of which God dwells at the same time. He is self-existent. That is, the millions of ages that have been in the past and the millions that are to be in the future are all "just now" with God. Past, present, and future are all present with God. He lives in an eternal now. We cannot understand how that can be but that does not matter; He says it is so, and we believe Him. '

1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner

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'3. Time And Beyond Time…

In the last chapter I had to touch on the subject of prayer, and while that is

still fresh in your mind and my own, I should like to deal with a difficulty that some people find about the whole idea of prayer. A man put it to me by saying "I can believe in God all right, but what I cannot swallow is the idea of Him attending to several hundred million human beings who are all addressing Him at the same moment." And I have found that quite a lot of people feel this.

Now, the first thing to notice is that the whole sting of it comes in the words

at the same moment. Most of us can imagine God attending to any number of applicants if only they came one by one and He had an endless time to do it in. So what  is really at the back of this difficulty is the idea of God having to fit too many things into one moment of time.

Well that is of course what happens to us. Our life comes to us moment by

moment One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is

room for very little in each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and

I tend to take it for granted that this Time series — this arrangement of past,

present and future — is not simply the way life comes to us but the way all

things really exist We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many learned men do not agree with that. It was the Theologians who first started the idea that some things are not in Time at all: later the Philosophers took it over: and now some of the scientists are doing the same.

Almost certainly God is not in Time.

His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty-and every other moment from the beginning of the world — is always the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.

That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write "Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!" For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I  pleased, and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary's time (the time inside the story) at all.

This is not a perfect illustration, of course. But it may give just a glimpse of

what I believe to be the truth. God is not hurried along in the Time — stream

of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary 

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time of his own novel He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.  The way in which my illustration breaks down is this. In it the author gets out of one Time-series (that of the novel) only by going into another Timeseries (the real one). But God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all.

His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is, so to speak, still 1920 and already 1960. For His life is Himself.

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you

must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to

the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all.

The idea is worth trying to grasp because it removes some apparent difficulties in Christianity. Before I became a Christian one of my objections was as follows. The Christians said that the eternal God who is everywhere and keeps the whole universe going, once became a human being. Well then, said I, how did the whole universe keep going while He was a baby, or while He was asleep? How could He at the same time be God who knows everything and also a man asking his disciples "Who touched me?" You will notice that the sting lay in the time words: "While He was a baby" — "How could He at the same time?" In other words I was assuming that Christ's life as God was in time, and that His life as the man Jesus in Palestine was a shorter period taken out of that time — just as my service in the army was a shorter period taken out of my total life. And that is how most of us perhaps tend to think about it.

We picture God living through a period when His human life was still in the

future: then coming to a period when it was present: then going on to a period when He could look back on it as something in the past. But probably these ideas correspond to nothing in the actual facts. You cannot fit Christ's earthly life in Palestine into any time-relations with His life as God beyond all space and time. It is really, I suggest, a timeless truth about God that human nature, and the human experience of weakness and sleep and ignorance, are somehow included in His whole divine life. This human life in God is from our point of view a particular period in the history of our world (from the year A.D. one till the Crucifixion). We therefore imagine it is also a period in the history of God's own existence. But God has no history. He is too completely and utterly real to have one. For, of course, to have a history means losing part of your reality (because it had already slipped away into the past) and not yet having another part (because it is still in the future): in fact having nothing but the tiny little present, which has gone before you can speak about it. God forbid we should think God was like that. Even we may hope not to be always rationed in that way.

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Another difficulty we get if we believe God to be in time is this. Everyone

who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? 

Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. 

Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call "tomorrow" is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call "today." All the days are "Now" for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday. He has not. He does not "foresee" you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. 

Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way — because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already "Now" for Him.

This idea has helped me a good deal. If it does not help you, leave it alone.

It is a "Christian idea" in the sense that great and wise Christians have held it

and there is nothing in it contrary to Christianity. But it is not in the Bible or

any of the creeds. You can be a perfectly good Christian without accepting it, or indeed without thinking of the matter at all '

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'Deu 30:15  See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 

Deu 30:16  In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 

Deu 30:17  But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 

Deu 30:18  I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 

Deu 30:19  I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name

1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. '

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'Once Saved, Always Saved?

A battle has raged in theological circles in the last few decades about the eternal security of the believer, sometimes called "once saved, always saved." Let's examine this issue, as usual, only on the basis of what Scripture says and nothing else. To find and know the truth, we must cast aside whatever preconceptions we have, whatever teachings we have heard from men, and be prepared to accept God's word for what it says.

Why should we bother to consider this subject? Isn't it sufficient to simply have a close relationship with Christ, as a servant of the Lord Jesus, and seek to obey him in all things? For those who have that, of course that is sufficient. But there are teachings, such as the "once saved, always saved" doctrine that cause people to claim to be Christians, pointing with conviction to the day on which they confessed their faith, but thereafter living as the world, indistinguishable from the world. In many communities there is a high level of hypocrisy with "Christians" attending church but throughout the week living lives which rival in wickedness the worst of unbelievers.

Two teachings come immediately to mind which stress the spiritual danger of such beliefs and actions. Jesus limited entrance into the kingdom when he said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Paul narrowed the passage into the kingdom even further when he said, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29). This is not a scripture which states that certain people are predestined to be saved. It is a scripture which states that God predestined the qualification for those who will be saved. There is no salvation for those who do not do the will of God they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Salvation is limited to those who are conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, God's Son. The likeness to which all believers can be conformed is the commitment to do the will of God.

It does not matter if someone made a sincere confession of faith at some earlier time if he later does not do the will of God and is not conformed to the likeness of his Son. God predestined this qualification for all who would be saved. Only those who satisfy this qualification will be the brothers (and sisters) of the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:48 50). . .'

From <http://www.adventistlaymen.com/END_TIME_PROPHETIC_EVENTS/A_TIME_OF_BOUNDLESS_DELUSIONS.html> 

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'Foreknowledge and Foreordination

E. J. Waggoner

"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." The word

"predestinate" is the same as "foreordain," which is found in the Revised Version.

Volumes of speculation have been written about these terms, but a few words

are sufficient to set forth the facts. With respect to these, as well as the other

attributes of God, it is sufficient for us to know the fact. With the explanation we

have nothing to do.

That God knows all things is plainly set forth in the Scripture. Not only does

he know the things that are past, but he sees the future as well.

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"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18.

"O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting

and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off." Ps. 139:1, 2. Thus

God can tell what people even yet unborn will do and say.

This does not make God responsible for the evil that they do. Some have

foolishly thought it necessary to apologize for the Lord and to relieve him of the

charge that if he is omniscient He is responsible for the evil if he does not prevent

it, by saying that He could know if he wished, but that he chooses not to know

many things. Such a "defense" of God is both foolish and wicked. It assumes that

God would be responsible for the evil if he knew it beforehand and did not

prevent it, and that in order not to be in a position to prevent it, he deliberately

shuts his eyes from it. Thus their "defense" really puts the responsibility for all evil

upon God. Not only so, but it limits Him. It makes him like a man.

God knows all things, not by study and research as man learns the little he

knows, but because he is God. He inhabits eternity. Isa. 57:15. We can not

understand how this can be any more than we can understand eternity. We must

accept the fact and be not only content, but glad, that God is greater than we. All

time, past, present, and future, is the same to Him. It is always "now" with God.

The fact that God knew the evil that men would do, even before the

foundation of the world, does not make him responsible for it, any more than

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the fact that a man can see by means of a telescope what a man is doing ten

miles distant makes him responsible for that other one's actions. God has from

the beginning set before people warnings against sin, and has provided them

with all the necessary means for avoiding it; but he can not interfere with man's

right and freedom of choice without depriving him of his manhood and making

him the same as a stick.

Freedom to do right implies freedom to do wrong. If a man were made so that

he could not do wrong, he would have no freedom at all, not even to do right. He

would be less than the brutes. There is no virtue in forced obedience, nor would 

there be any virtue in doing that which is right if it were impossible to do wrong.

Moreover, there could be no pleasure or satisfaction in the professed friendship

of two persons if one associated with the other just because he could not avoid it.

The joy of the Lord in the companionship of his people is that they of their own

free-will choose him above all others. And that which is the joy of the Lord is the

joy of His people.

The very ones who rail against God for not preventing the ills that he foresees

since he is all-powerful, would be the very first to charge him with cruelty if he did

arbitrarily interfere with their freedom and make them do that which they do not

choose. Such a course would make everybody unhappy and discontented. The

wisest thing for us to do is to stop trying to fathom the ways of the Almighty, and

accept the fact that whatever he does is right. "As for God, His way is perfect."

Ps. 18:30.

Predestination

The text shows that "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be

conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many

brethren." God's thoughts toward men are thoughts of peace, and not of evil. Jer.

29:11. He ordains peace for us. Isa. 26:12. We read nothing about men being

foreordained to destruction; the only thing that God has predestinated is that men

should be conformed to the image of His Son.

But it is only in Christ that we become conformed to His image. It is in him

that we come "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Eph.

4:13. Therefore it is that men are foreordained or predestinated only in Christ.

The whole story is told in the following passage of Scripture:-

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed

us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; 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."

Everything is in Christ. We receive all spiritual blessings in Him; we are

chosen in Him unto holiness; in Him we are predestinated unto the adoption of

children; in Him we are accepted; and in Him we have redemption through His

blood. "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord

Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. 5:9.

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That is God's purpose and foreordination concerning man. Still further, "whom

He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His

Son." Whom did He foreknow? There can be no limit; He must have foreknown

all. If there were any exception, then God would not be infinite in knowledge. If

He foreknows one person, then He foreknows every person. There has not been

a person born into the world whose birth God did not foreknow. "Neither is there

any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened 

unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Therefore, since every person

has been known to God even before the foundation of the world, and those

whom he foreknew He predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, it

follows that God has purposed salvation for every soul that has ever come into

the world. His love embraces all, without respect of persons.

"Then everybody will be saved, no matter what He does," some one will say.

Not by any means. Remember that the purpose of God is in Christ. It is only in

Him that we are predestinated. And we are free to choose for ourselves whether

we will accept Him or not. Man's will has been forever set free, and God Himself

will not presume to interfere with it. He holds sacred the choice and will of each

individual. He will not carry out His own purpose contrary to man's will. His will is

to give man whatever man decides will best please Him. So he sets before man

life and death, good and evil, and tells Him to choose which He will have. God

knows what is best, and has chosen and prepared

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that for man. He has gone so far as to fix it beyond all possibility of failure, that

man shall have that good thing if he chooses it. But the wonderful kindness and

courteousness of the great God is seen in this, that He defers in everything to

man's wishes. If man, in his turn, will but defer to God's wishes, there will be the

most delightful and loving companionship between them.

Called, Justified, Glorified

"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."

This is completed action. We need not stumble over it, if we will but remember

that everything is in Christ. In Christ we have already been blessed with all

spiritual blessings. All men are called to that which God has prepared for them,

but none are "the called according to His purpose" unless they have made their

calling and election sure by submitting to his will. Such ones are predestinated to

be saved. Nothing in the universe can hinder the salvation of any soul that

accepts and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ.

And all such are justified. The death of Christ reconciles us to God. "He is the

propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole

world." 1 John 2:2. His death has secured pardon and life for all. Nothing can

keep them from salvation except their own perverse will. Men must take

themselves out of the hand of God, in order to be lost. Much more, then, those

who accept the sacrifice, are justified. "God commendeth His love toward us, in

that,

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while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now

justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we

were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more

being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

"And whom He justified, them He also glorified." Have we not read in the

prayer of Christ for His disciples, not only for those who were with Him in the 

garden, but also for all them that should believe on Him through their word and

therefore for us, "The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them"? Peter

said that he was a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. God has left

nothing undone. Everything that Christ has we have if we accept him. All that

remains is that it should be revealed. "The earnest expectation of the creature

waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." When God asks concerning His

people, "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done

in it?" who shall presume to say that there is something that he has overlooked?

All Things Ours

But we have anticipated the apostle. Hear him: "He that spared not His own

Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us

all things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own

Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us

all things?"

How shall He not? That is, How can He avoid giving us all things? In giving

Christ for and to us, God could not do otherwise than give us

8

all things, "for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth,

things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities

or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is

before all things, and in Him all things consist." Col. 1:16, 17, R.V.

"Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or

Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to

come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 3:21-23.

This, then, answers the question, "Who can be against us?" Everything is for us.

"All things are for your sakes." 2 Cor. 4:15.

A general once telegraphed to the seat of government, "We have met the

enemy, and they are ours." This is what every child of God is privileged to say.

"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1

Cor. 15:57. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 1

John 5:4, R.V. This is what makes us know that all things work together for good

to them that love God. No matter how dark and forbidding the things may seem,

if we are in Christ, they are for us, and not against us.'

Free to Have Salvation.

 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Rom 8:29 

Just a few words on "foreknowledge." Sometimes the position is taken that God did not know what man was coming to when He made him, and if He did know, then He ought not to have made him at all or He ought to have stopped him from going in the way he has gone.

God does know, and He foreknows, and He knows the end from the beginning. "Known unto God from the beginning are all his works." Act_15:18  

God has not changed a hair's breadth from the plan which He knew before the world began. And there is no power in all the universe that could make Him change.

"Did God know that Adam was going to sin, and does He know whether we will be saved or not?" Yes, He knows all about it--who will be saved and who will be lost. "Then how can it be that we are free?"

I do not know, and it does not make any difference. I know from His word that I am perfectly free to have salvation and to have it when I want it. I know at the same time that God knows whether I will take it or not. I cannot understand how these two things can be, but God knows and He is not unjust, so it is all right. There is not an angel in heaven who knows how it can be, but they know that it is so.

Notice the absurdity of the statement that God can know if He wants to but that He does not want to know some things and therefore does not exercise His power to know. Some say that if He did know, He would be responsible for our being saved or lost, so He does not exercise His power to know and therefore releases Himself from that responsibility. That is bringing a fearful charge against God. It really throws all the responsibility of man's ruin upon God and charges Him with trying to shirk it. If He chooses not to know certain things, how is it possible for Him to know what He wants to know and what He does not want to know?

The very statement that He wills not to know certain things proves that He must know them in order to know that He does not want to know them, and this is an utter absurdity. That He wills not to know the things that He does know is a self-evident absurdity. Such an idea as that must necessarily be based on the supposition that God knows that He does know by studying. But God does not have to count and calculate and figure to arrive at conclusions. He is God, and knowledge is in Him and begins and ends in Him.

God is the High and Holy One "that inhabiteth eternity." Isa_57:15   

He dwells in eternity. What is eternity? It is something that has neither beginning nor ending. It may be represented by a circle, at every point of which God dwells at the same time. He is self-existent. That is, the millions of ages that have been in the past and the millions that are to be in the future are all "just now" with God. Past, present, and future are all present with God. He lives in an eternal now. We cannot understand how that can be but that does not matter; He says it is so, and we believe Him.

That He is the eternal God, constitutes the strength of the fact that He is our refuge. It is the eternal God who has had charge of our ways in the past, and we have confidence in His leading. If He had not known the past and the future, how could I have known whether He was leading me right or not? Job says, "He knoweth the way that I take."

He leads us in the way that we should go and looked over the ages and He saw just who would have the inheritance and He is preparing it for him. What would you think of a man, to put the thing on a very low plane, who got a lot of stones together and commenced to build a house. You ask him what kind of house he is going to build. "Why," he says, "I don't know. I am going to put these stones and timbers together and then see what kind of house will come of it." Such talk as that would be foolishness. Before a man starts in to build a house, he knows just how it is coming out; he knows exactly how it will look when it is finished. When God laid His plans in ages past, don't you think that He knew what kind of earth he was going to have? He knew what kind of earth it was going to be and He had a purpose in making it. He created it to be inhabited.

Not only did He know what kind of place it was going to be, but He knew what kind of men were going to dwell in it. He knew every man who would dwell in it and He had every one of them named. Those men whom God saw that He would have to inhabit the earth, when He laid His plans for it in ages past, were to be good and holy men, and that same earth, when this little experiment of sin is worked out, will be inhabited by just exactly the persons that God saw would inhabit it and they will have the names that He gave them in ages past.

In Revelation 2:17 we read, "And I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Now it is not to be supposed that over in the kingdom of God we will not know each other's names, to be able to pronounce them. In the Bible every name signified something. Jacob was the "supplanter"; Israel the "prince of God"; Abraham, the "father of many nations"; Sarai, a "contentious woman"; and Sarah, a "princess." The name signified the character of the individual.

Now while all the redeemed are to have the perfect character of God, yet that character is so perfect and so broad that there is room for each to have a distinct character. Why is it that no one will be able to understand the name of any one else? Because no two persons will have had the same experience in developing character. No two persons have been led in the same way and have had the same experience or trials. "The heart knoweth its own business and the stranger meddleth not therewith."

In Exodus 33:17 the Lord said to Moses, "Thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name." Moses was wonderfully near to the Lord at that time. He walked with God and endured continually "as seeing Him who is invisible." Day by day his character was moulded by the Almighty and had it not been for one sin he would have been translated without seeing death. He was meek above all men, and God knew him by that name which was written in the book.

Man fell, but every man who lived directly after the fall could have accepted the proffered salvation if he had wished and could have been one of those persons who would people the earth--one of those persons whom God saw when he laid the plans for the earth and for its inhabitants. If that had been so, the earth would have been filled and the work closed up long ago. Would that have been unjust to us, for in that case we would have been unborn and therefore left out? No, it would have been no more unjust than it will be unjust to close the work in a few years from now, and leave out possible nations yet unborn.

Now God foreknew us in Christ and in Him in the beginning we were predestinated to just such a place in the earth in its state of purity as God wants us to have. I am so thankful that we may have Christ if we will and if we will believe Him and trust in Him, we know that we are predestinated to a place in His kingdom. God hath "predestinated us according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Cannot you see that all things work together for good to them that love God?

How do I know that I am a child of God? He loved me and He bought me and I gave myself to Him and therefore I am His. Now I am in Christ, and it matters not what happens to me. There is not a bad thing that can come upon me, for everything that does come, God will work it for my good, and not only will He do it, but He does do it. He does it that He may develop my character and fit me for what He is preparing for me.

Now, Satan concocts some wicked scheme against me--influences some man or government to do something against me, that is calculated to destroy me. Well, that is all right, for God takes those very wicked schemes and out of them He brings good for me. Satan works those wicked schemes to accomplish my ruin, but God takes his schemes and by them carries me along to the desired haven. Therefore the Christian has no business to be complaining.

There is no one who would think of complaining when he was having a good time. But the Christian is having a good time all the time, for all things work together for good to him. These bad things good, that are concocted against us? Yes, for although they are bad when they start and are designed to ruin us, yet by the time they get to us, God transforms them into good. When we look at things in this way, we can praise God no matter what happens.

There was Joseph, his brethren sent him down to Egypt. They did it with no other intention than to destroy him. They first tried to kill him and then when they sold him for a slave, they thought that he would not live long down there as a slave and that they would get rid of him that way. And yet we are told by the psalmist that, "God sent a man to Egypt." Those brethren of his were working out the evil of their hearts and at the same time God sent him down according to His will. We cannot understand how this can be, but we know that it was so.

Caiaphas, that wicked old high priest, asked if it were not better that one man die than that the whole nation perish. There was the sentiment of the worldly-wise scheming politician. Yet at the same time in those very words God was speaking a prophecy. There is not a wicked person, not even the devil himself, but God just takes him and his wickedness as it comes and makes it work out His own eternal purpose. There is a world of comfort in the thought that that is the kind of God that we serve.

So it is that those whom He predestinated He called and whom He called He justified and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Christ says, "and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them: that they may be one, even as we are one." John 17:22. Yes, the Lord does give grace and glory and we have the glory now, only it is in the form of grace. "He will beautify the meek with salvation." Psa_149:4  He has given unto us the riches of His glory and His grace. By and by He will show us the exceeding riches of His grace with the glory that is to be revealed.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom_8:31 

1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner

Accepted In Christ.

 Eph_1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Now it is "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted." In whom? "In the beloved." Not in ourselves, but in the beloved; and every one is called to the fellowship of Christ, if he will accept it. 

Brethren, is it unreasonable that God does not accept those who will not accept Him? No. 

Then is it unreasonable and unjust that God accepts us when we accept His call? Certainly not. Then we are elected in Him, 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. . . . 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 fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in him; in whom we also have obtained an inheritance."

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 

Eph 1:10  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: 

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,

Mark it, when we are in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance--we have the firstfruits of it; we begin to share it now.

(E.J. Waggoner — excerpt)

Blessed In Christ.

 Rom 8:28  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. 

Now we are "called" and "elected." Sometimes we get wonderfully afraid of that word, "elected." Is there any need to be afraid of that term? No. For every individual can be a candidate and every candidate can be elected. Here is something that everybody can have, and the fact that one is elected does not debar everyone else from being elected.

In 2 Timothy 1:9 we read, "Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Mark you, His own purpose is a purpose of grace, and the free gift by grace comes upon all unto justification of life. Now note what the election is:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 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."

"He hath blessed us in all spiritual blessings!" In what? In Christ; therefore just the moment you give up self and take Christ instead, you have everything that Christ has to give. 

Why have all these blessings been lodged in Christ? Because He is able to bless you, "in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:26. 

So since we have given to us by God Himself all the blessings that can be given to deliver us from sin and to turn us from our iniquities, we can have joy and peace in Him. Peter says, "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue." Everything that is necessary for life and godliness is given unto us. In whom? In Christ. Therefore the soul that stands in Christ may stand and does stand as firm and secure as the Rock of ages.

1891 GC Sermon #13 E.J. Waggoner