First Things First! - We must be willing to speak where the Scriptures speak.

We must be willing to be silent where the Scriptures are silent.

We must be willing to accept and live with the silence!

Scripture does not given all the answers concerning why some are saved and others are damned.

I. The Basics-

Isa 45:22 "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other."

1 Tim 2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Luke 24:45-47 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Acts 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."

John 3:14-17 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Isa 53:6ff All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Teaching of Scripture - God sent Jesus into the world to save all people of all time. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for everyone and God desires all to be saved!

REMEMBER: Scripture never contradicts itself! & Scripture must be used to interpret Scripture!

II. Eternity

God's Foreknowledge=

A) All time is complete in the mind of God from eternity. God knows all who are His from eternity. God knows them affectionately and effectively from the moment of the inception of faith to death in faith.

B) God also knows about the wicked in advance.

Psa 41:13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Isa 46:9-10 Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';

Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Mat 6:8 So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Note: God's foreknowledge (knowing in advance) is in no way tied to His "will."

"Knowing" does not imply "willing."

Teaching of Scripture: God knows all people from eternity. He knows who will be saved and who will not be saved. But, His knowing in advance does not mean He has made it so.

III. Predestination

The word predestination does not appear in Scripture as a noun! The verb is used 6 times in the following verses.

Acts 4:28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

Used of Christ being predestined to the events of Holy Week and the Cross.

1 Cor 2:7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

Used of God's plan of salvation being predestined.

Rom 8:29-30 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Used of believers being predestined to the image of Christ.

Eph 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

Used of believer becoming God's children through Christ.

Eph 1:912 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

In Christ believers are predestined to glory God - God's working in us gives Him glory.

Expounding Romans 8

Question? What does Paul say we are predestined to?

"to become conformed to the image of His Son"

Question? What is the image of Jesus Christ we are to be a part of?

1 Cor 15:49-52 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Teaching of Scripture: God sent Jesus to die for all people (section I) and God knew before hand all who would believe as well as all who would not believe (section II). God predestined Jesus to be Savior (Acts 4 & I Cor. 2). God predestined believers to be conformed to His image (Rom. 8:28).

Question? How does this image of Christ to which believers are predestined become a reality in us?

Vs. 30 - Called -> Justified -> Glorified

Question? What is the Call? - It is the Call of God in the Gospel.

John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Teaching of Scripture: The Father seeks to draw all men unto Himself, but He has chosen to use "means" to accomplish this and such to give man certainty in his salvation as stated on the Lutheran Confessions;

It is indeed correct and true what Scripture states, that no one comes to Christ unless the Father draw him. But the Father will not do this without means, and he has ordained Word and sacraments as the ordinary means or instruments to accomplish this end. It is not the will of either the Father or the Son that any one should refuse to hear or should despise the preaching of his Word and should wait for the Father to draw him without Word and sacraments.

Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article XI, 76

and again:

The Father wills that all men should hear this proclamation and come to Christ, and according to his own word Christ will not turn them away, "Him who comes to me I will not cast out" (John 6:37). In order that we may come to Christ, the Holy Spirit creates true faith through the hearing of God's Word, as the apostle testifies, "Faith comes from the hearing of God's Word" (Rom. 10:17) when it is preached in sincerity and purity.

Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article XI, 68-69

Having called through the Gospel by the working of the Spirit (Eph. 2:8-9) the Father declares the believer justified.

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Titus 3:5-7 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The full realization of being glorified in Christ comes on the day of Resurrection of all flesh as Paul describes in 1 Cor. 15.

Teaching of Scripture: God wants all to be saved! Jesus died for all on the Cross! God knows those who will believe! Believers are predestined to be conformed to Christ's image! God calls believers into Christ through the Gospel! It is the Holy Spirit who works faith in the heart through the Gospel!

Question? Why then are not all saved?

Mat 23:37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

Mat 13:57-58 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

Rom 3:3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

1 Cor 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

2 Tim 2:12-13 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

All the Scriptures give to answer this question is that a person's unbelief - refusing to believe or rejecting the Gospel- sends them to hell.

In theology this is called the Crux Theologrum (Cross of Theologians).

Crux Theologrum = If a man is saved it is the work of God.

If a man is damned it is his own work.

Reason cannot answer all the questions raised. Scripture is silent and we are never to assume to speak where God has not spoken.

There is great comfort and assurance for the believer in this doctrine. The comfort for believers comes in the fact God has known us from the foundation of the world. If we believe in Gospel then God has worked this great work in us by His Spirit. In all the Means of Grace (Gospel, Baptism, Absolution, & Lord's Supper) God is working to strengthen the faith He created to the end that the day comes when we share in Christ's glory.