05. God's Sovereignty Over Time and Election
Chapter 5 God’s Sovereignty Over Time and Election
I have declared the former things from old; yea, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass (Isaiah 48:3).
Predict means to tell the future in advance. What the world calls predictions, rarely come to pass. It seems they have a warped idea of what a prediction is. When God predicts the future, He declares it and then does it. Not only does God’s Word show the future but also it brings it to pass. The “worlds (Greek:“ages”) have been framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). The word “framed” in this verse means “to make complete.” The history (or His-story) of all ages was completed before the beginning. (Isaiah 48:4-5) Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; (5) therefore I have declared it to thee from of old; before it came to pass I showed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. He is a “jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). He will not share His glory with the idol of self or an idol of man’s creation (Isaiah 42:8). God receives glory from telling of His works hundreds or thousands of years beforehand. His “works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3). Because His works were finished from the foundation of the world, no one can say, “My might, my power, my god has done this.”
It is important to God that we know He is sovereign. Our God has done something that no other “god” has done; He accurately tells the future long before it comes to pass. It is hard to live the Christian life without knowing that God is sovereign. Without this knowledge, we will not have the peace, rest, and the fear of God that we need in the midst of trials. We will always be wrestling with people and circumstances and trusting in our own strength, instead of seeing God’s hand and trusting in His strength. (Hosea 4:6) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Isaiah 46:8-10) Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. (9) Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; (10) declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God does all of His pleasure so that only His counsel comes to pass. The proof, that God is the only God, is that He declares the end from the beginning. All the prognosticators, psychics, seers, and stargazers of the devil have only come up with slightly better than random accuracy on the future because their lord is not sovereign. The devil does have an edge. He knows the prophetic Word better than we do, and he predicts what he plans to do, but God is sovereign and often overrules him.
(Isaiah 46:11) …I have spoken,I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it. God is very self-willed. He has a right to be. His self is not corrupt, but ours is. He brings to pass what He desires because it is right. In the text, God is speaking of Cyrus, the pagan king of the Media-Persian Empire. God raised up Cyrus to destroy Babylon in order to set His people free from bondage. At that time, Cyrus had no idea that the Lord had put the desire in him to do exactly what He wanted. (Isaiah 44:28) That saith of Cyrus, [He is] my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. How can God be so sure that a man who has been a pagan all his life will do everything that will please Him? We see here that nothing or no one can resist God’s good purpose for His people. God is sovereign over the future of the great empires of the world in order to deliver and prepare His people.
(Isaiah 45:1-4) Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut: (2) I will go before thee, and make the rough places smooth; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; (3) and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that it is I, the Lord, who call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. (4) For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. The Euphrates River passed through the city of Babylon. One of the gates spoken of here crossed in the Euphrates River to keep the enemy out. Cyrus by the help of God performed a monumental feat in diverting the Euphrates so that his army could enter the city beneath this gate. After they had entered the city, they discovered that the gates on either bank leading into the city had been left unlocked (by God, verses 1 and 2), which was strange, considering that the Babylonians were at war. After Cyrus conquered Babylon, the high priest showed him these prophecies and more that were written about him hundreds of years before he was born. The Jews say Cyrus was very impressed to see his name and works written in prophecy before the fact and became a believer in the God of Israel. God stated clearly that He was going to open those gates for Cyrus to do His Will. After hearing these revelations, Cyrus knew that God had empowered, planned, and made his way.
Christian leaders have turned God into a mere prophet, claiming God sees into the future and then reveals it. Every type and shadow in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament to prove that God sits on the throne and One Mind rules over time and the future. One loose canon would change everything. According to the law of geometric progression, one change at the beginning makes an immense change at the end. Chance or more than one in control could not possibly bring to pass what we see. The Arminian thinkers teach that God predestines and predicts by seeing into the future then tells us how the dice rolled. “Predestine” means “to determine destiny before it happens.” “Foreordain,” which is the same Greek word, means “to ordain an event before it takes place.” (Ephesians 1:4-5) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: (5) having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. You who are manifesting sonship by bearing fruit have been chosen and are being drawn by God.
(Romans 8:29) For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained (predestined) [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. God foreknew and decreed all who come to the likeness of Jesus, but not the apostate. “Foreknew” here does not mean He looked into the future and saw what would be. “Foreknew” here means, “to know before” and is not connected with actions or events, but persons. God knew these people before the foundation of the world because He does not dwell in time. God knows what He creates before He speaks it into existence just as we conceive and design something first in our mind before we make it. “Knew” speaks of intimate knowledge, for instance, Adam knew Eve. Jesus will say to those who called Him Lord but do not do the Will of the Father, (Matthew 7:23) “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you (from the foundation of the world): depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” To the foolish virgins without the oil of the Spirit, Jesus said, “I know you not” (Matthew 25:12). The ones that God intimately knew He “foreordained” before the creation to be conformed to the image of Jesus. God creates us through His gift of faith and the Word in us; His people who are on the narrow road. This is grace.
(Romans 8:30) And whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. This says all who are foreordained will be called, justified, and glorified. They will not fall away but will bear the fruit of Christ. Are there others who are called but not foreordained? (2 Timothy 1:9) Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling. Notice that only the saved are called. Called is from the Greek word kaleo, which means, “to invite.” Called is an invitation given only to God’s people (more proof: Hebrews 3:1; Hosea 11:1; 1 Timothy 6:11-12; Matthew 25:14; Romans 1:6-7) to partake of his heavenly benefits in Christ in order to bear fruit. Those who bear fruit 30, 60, or 100-fold will be proven to be the chosen or picked. If at harvest time you have no fruit, rotten fruit, or unripe fruit, you will not be picked. The called are the vineyard of God (Isaiah 5:7). The chosen are the smaller percentage who bear fruit (Isaiah 5:10). (Matthew 22:14)Formany are called, but few chosen (Greek: eklektos, “elect”). The called can fall, but the elect or chosen will not. (Hosea 11:1-2) When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (2) The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them…. The Lord saved those that ate the lamb and were baptized in the Red Sea. He then tried them in the wilderness to see who would be a believer in the midst of trials, and only those entered the Promised Land. Jude warned the called of this very thing. (Jude 1:1) Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called… (Jude 1:5) Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Notice that the called were saved, but some did not continue in faith and were destroyed. Friends, God is not looking for what we loosely call “Christians,” but believers or disciples, as they were called.
Jesus gave us very clear examples of His servants who are called but do not come and partake in order to bear fruit. Jesus shared a parable in which a king made a marriage feast for His son. (Matthew 22:3) And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden (Greek:“called”) to the marriage feast: and they would not come. They were full of excuses (a farm, merchandise, etc.). (Matthew 22:8) Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Even one who appeared to come did not have on a wedding garment which implies putting on Christ (Romans 13:14) or putting on righteousness (Revelation 19:8). (Matthew 22:13-14) Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. (14) For many are called, but few chosen. A few of the called are chosen or elect because they bear fruit.
(Matthew 25:14-15) For [it is] as [when] a man, going into another country,called his own servants (Greek: “bondservants”), and delivered unto them his goods. (15) And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability; and he went on his journey. Obviously, the man who went away was the Lord, and His bondservants are His people. Two of these example servants brought forth fruit of the talent given them (Matthew 25:20-22), but one buried his in the earth (used his talent for the earthly, Matthew 25:24-25). When our Lord returns, He will say, “And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). The apostle Paul, who said of himself that he was called in Galatians 1:6, also said, “But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (Greek: “reprobated”) (1 Corinthians 9:27). There is much more proof that the saved and the called can fall (2 Peter 1:9-11; 1 Timothy 6:11-12; Hebrews 3:1, Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 3:12, Hebrews 3:14; Romans 11:1-7, Romans 11:19-23).
Friend, you probably know if you are called, but are you chosen? You must be diligent in your walk of faith to prove this. (2 Peter 1:10-11) Wherefore, brethren,give the more diligence to make your calling and election (choosing) sure:for if ye do these things (the attributes of Christ, verses 5-7), ye shall never stumble: (11) forthus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God at the cross has already given us everything that we need to bear fruit through faith. (2 Peter 1:3) seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue. Faith in the promises in the midst of trials will give us the fruit. (2 Peter 1:4) Whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. The called have the power and the opportunity. The called and the chosen, or foreordained, use the power by faith and take the opportunity. The only ones who will ultimately be with the Lord are identified in this verse. (Revelation 17:14) These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they [also shall overcome] that arewith him, called and chosen and faithful. Notice that the called that are chosen will be faithful. I did not make these verses up; they are the Word of God. Those who have eyes and ears will see and understand, but the rest will justify their religion and ignore the Scriptures. Before time and the future, God sovereignly spoke the end from the beginning, bringing these things into existence in time.
Some would argue, “How could God make a promise to all of His called and then not keep it for those who do not bear fruit?” Every promise in the Bible is useless until someone walks by faith in it. Our part of the covenant is faith; God’s part is power and salvation. We can break the covenant through unbelief. (Numbers 14:11-12) And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? andhow long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? (12) I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. Notice that God is saying to His own people who did not believe that He would disinherit them. Lest any believe that God cannot make a promise and then take it back when they do not walk in faith, pay attention to this: (Numbers 14:23) Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it. (Numbers 14:30) surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. (Numbers 14:34) ...and ye shall know my alienation (Hebrew: “revoking of my promise”). Unless we mix faith with God’s promises, they are void. (Hebrews 4:2) For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they (God’s people): but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. The Israelites who walked in sin were disinherited and blotted out of God’s book. (Exodus 32:33) And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. The same is true of the Christians who do not overcome sin. Notice what the Lord said to the Church. (Revelation 3:5) He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life…. Those who do not overcome will be rejected from the body of Christ. (Revelation 3:16) So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. God’s people Israel were broken off because of unbelief, and Christians who were grafted in but do not walk by faith will be, too. (Romans 11:20-22) Well, by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, but fear: (21) for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. (22) Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Those who are still grafted in at the end are called “all Israel.”(Romans 11:26) and so all Israel shall be saved. Those who are still in the book of life, still grafted in, are the elect (Greek: “chosen”). (Romans 11:2) God did not cast off his people, which he foreknew... (Romans 11:5) Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election (chosen) of grace. A remnant is those who are left. Notice they are foreknown and chosen. Sovereign God will have those who are truly His.
Abiding in Christ is where salvation is. Some say God gave us the gift of eternal life so He cannot take it back. In Galatians 3:16, we are told, “To Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” So the promises were given to Christ, not to us individually. The only way the promises are ours is if we abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is bearing fruit (John 15:1-6), walking as He walked (1 John 2:3-6), believing the same teachings given by Jesus and the apostles (1 John 2:24; Jude 1:3; Matthew 28:20), not adding to or subtracting from the Word (Revelation 22:18-19), not walking in sin (1 John 3:5-6), and keeping His commandments (1 John 3:24). In Christ is the only place we can claim the gift of eternal life. (1 John 5:11) … God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. God does not have to take His gift back; His people walk out of it. (1 Corinthians 6:18) … Every sin that a man doeth is without the body…. When you walk in willful sin, you are not abiding in His body for “…in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not” (1 John 3:5-6). For instance, fornication, spiritual or physical, takes away the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot (1 Corinthians 6:15, 1 Corinthians 6:18). Only Christ and those abiding in Him are chosen.
(Ephesians 1:4) Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…. Only Christ and those abiding in Him are going to heaven. (John 3:13) And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven…. The manna from heaven, the Word Jesus Christ, who takes up residence in those who love Him, is the fruit that God is coming to choose. By this time, I am sure some are thinking that they do not measure up. We must first abide in Christ by faith accepting the Gospel report that “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). Those who walk by faith that they are dead to sin and Christ now lives in them are accounted as righteous until God uses that faith to manifest righteousness in them. (Galatians 3:6) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. We will discuss this good news and its fruit more fully in later chapters.
God does not dwell in time, but eternity. He sees the beginning and the end at the same time therefore, He can answer a prayer before we pray. We do not have to worry that we have waited too late to pray because He can have the answer coming long before we ask. (Isaiah 65:24) And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
I had a friend, who went to the local trade school, offer to take my broken washer for the students to work on. It was only going to cost me for parts. By faith, I told him to go ahead. He called back in a couple of days to say that he would be bringing it back and the cost was $90. My wife and I accounted that we only had $40. In a moment of inspiration, I pointed my finger at the mailbox and said, “$50 is coming in that box today.” In the mail that day was a letter from a brother in Maryland. (I had absolutely no foreknowledge of this incident.) He wrote, “It is after midnight, and I just cannot get to sleep until I obey God and write this check for $50.” I looked at the post date on the letter and discovered it had been lost in the mail for a whole month! Obviously, God had it found at just the right moment. He had it coming a month before I spoke those words of faith. He merely used me to bring to pass what He had already planned.
I asked God to do something that I believe He may have changed time to accomplish. Many years ago, this very young girl made a mistake and tested pregnant. As I prayed about her situation, a thought came into my head and right out of my mouth. I asked the Lord to make this girl as though she were never pregnant. I believe that this did not come from my mind, but God’s Spirit. Because of the way this prayer came, I received it as a confirmation from the Lord that it was the Will of God. Later, tests proved that she was not pregnant. I do not know what God did with the baby, but I am sure He is taking better care of it than that girl would have. Nothing is beyond God’s ability to help us, unless it is beyond our faith.
How can God change His mind when He knows and speaks the end in the beginning? Then changing your mind makes you a liar. (Isaiah 46:10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. If He sees all from the beginning, why would He ever need to change His mind? God will not change what is written in His Word. (Psalms 119:89) Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. His Word is likened unto a rock, immovable and unchangeable. However, God can change or delay what He speaks to you personally as a warning through prophets, dreams, visions, or His Spirit. When the Word ultimately comes to pass, it will be fulfilled as the Bible says it will.
God gave us an example of this in the book of Jonah. Jonah “Cried and said, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). God told Jonah to “preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee” (Jonah 3:2), so he did. He was not a false prophet. God spared Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, because they repented. This angered Jonah because Assyria was the mortal enemy of Israel and the prophets had already been prophesying that Assyria would conquer rebellious Israel. He wanted them to be destroyed for what he perceived was Israel’s sake. Jonah knew that if he preached to Nineveh and they repented, God would not destroy them, so he fled. (Jonah 4:1-2) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. (2) And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
God spared Nineveh around 752 B.C. so that Assyria could conquer the northern ten tribes of Israel around 720 B.C. and then Judah around 701 B.C. Nineveh ultimately did fall around 612 B.C. God knew before He threatened Nineveh that He was going to spare them for the purpose of using them to chasten Israel. From Nineveh’s perspective, they changed God’s mind by repenting, but from God’s perspective, He changed Nineveh’s mind and fulfilled His plan from the beginning for them, which was to chasten Israel! Jonah’s Hebrew word for “repentest” here is nacham, meaning “to sigh” and by implication “to be sorry”. In itself, nacham does not admit evil doing, or even a change of mind, only sorrow. As Father, God must do many things that He sorrows over. When the Scriptures speak of God repenting, it is for our perspective because it appears to us that He changed His mind and did not do what He threatened. As a parent five times over, I have done this many times. The difference between God and us is, He plans and sees the delays and repentances from the beginning. (Numbers 23:19) God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent. (1 Samuel 15:29) And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent.
Here is another thing that proves the sovereignty of God in time and the future and that God plans delays or “repentances” beforehand. Israel and the United States share a unique identity. Each was entrusted with the Gospel in their respective time. From 887 B.C., Israel was at war every seventeen years for a period of fifteen cycles until 631 B.C. The United States also has been in a war every seventeen years for a period of fifteen cycles from the forming of the thirteen original states to Grenada in l983-l984. For both nations, in the sixth and tenth cycle there was no war. The only possible exceptions to the parallel are that Israel appears to have had a devastating famine in the forth cycle instead of a war and there seems to be no record for a war in their thirteenth cycle. The cycles could be more exact than our knowledge, but no sane person could think that this is chance. The repetitions of history clearly show that one mind is in control of past and future.