Richard Morgan - Class 2 - Predestination

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day two of the 2021 Idlewild Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Richard Morgan. His general subject is Ephesians, the manifold wisdom of God. Today's topic is predestination. Brother Richard. Well, thanks Brad, and good morning everyone. I slept really well last night, much better than the first night, so feeling good today.

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   And looking at what I find is an absolutely fascinating topic of predestination. And I want to begin our remarks this morning by turning to the very first verse of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1, where the Apostle Paul uses some language here, which is easy to bypass when you read it, because often when we're reading the epistles, we read these little introductions, Paul to the ecclesia, and so and so.

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   And we can miss sometimes something very important. And in the very first breath of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says the following. Think about how profound this statement is. He says in verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Now think about that significance, brothers and sisters. He was an apostle by the will of God.

4. 1:23

   And this really illustrates the theme that we ended with last night. When we looked at Romans chapter 9, and that chapter which Paul tackles the problem that we have with God choosing some people and not choosing others. Well, isn't the Apostle Paul a prime example of that? I mean, he was going in completely the opposite direction.

5. 1:44

   And there was absolutely no way on earth that he would ever become the Apostle Paul without divine intervention, without that Damascus experience. And Paul asked the question in Romans chapter 9, where he talks about things like God hardening the heart of Pharaoh. And he says, who then can resist the will of God?

6. 2:12

   And when we think about the immeasurable power of God, the manifold wisdom of God, it's a good question, isn't it? Who can resist the will of God? So there's no way that Paul was going to have a part in God's purpose without that will coming into his life. Without God deciding that Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, would become an Apostle.

7. 2:38

   And Paul says a similar thing in Galatians. This is at the beginning of his epistle to the Ecclesiastes in Galatia. He says, Paul, an Apostle, not from men or through man. He wasn't one of those in Acts chapter 1 even, where they cast lots and decided Matthias should replace Judas. There were no lots cast or anything.

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   There's no decision making by the Ecclesia. This was purely an act of God through his Son to call Saul from going in completely the opposite direction. And so he says that, I'm an Apostle through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. He was at the complete mercy of the grace of God.

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   And he talks about his former way of life. In Judaism, he persecuted the Ecclesia of God violently, tried to destroy it. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was on God's side. And no amount of discussion with the Apostles was ever going to change his mind. This had to be God working in his life.

10. 3:46

    And so verse 15 says, When he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace. And that matches what Paul says in Ephesians, doesn't it? Well, we looked at yesterday that we have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Apostle Paul is a good example of that.

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    Set apart before he was born. Think about that. Think about the wisdom of God. How he allowed this boy to be born to Jewish parents in a Gentile world and become a Roman citizen and then grow up at the feet of Gamaliel, knowing the law inside out and preparing him for 30 or so years to become the Apostle Paul.

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    And that's how God works in all of our lives, brothers and sisters, as he calls us to his purpose. So Paul himself is an example of a power of God's will. And God's will becomes a theme in Ephesians. It's one of those key words that we find throughout. And Paul is going to exhort us later in Ephesians to know the will of God, to understand the will of God, and most importantly to do the will of God.

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    Now if you turn over to chapter 3 of Ephesians, this is what God was preparing the Apostle Paul to do. Having been taken from going in one direction, turned 180 degrees in the other direction, Paul was called to preach the gospel to a group of people who were very similar. The Gentiles, who through hundreds and thousands of years had been separated from the gospel, were not part of God's purpose, was not part of God intimately working as he did with the Jews, going in their own direction, developing this pagan culture, diametrically opposed to the will of God.

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    And through the Apostle Paul, God was going to turn the Gentiles around 180 degrees. And Paul calls this in chapter 3, the mystery of the gospel. He says in verse 1, For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

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    And this call of the Gentiles, Paul calls a mystery. That word means a secret, something that's hidden away. And it was hidden away in what we had as our analogy yesterday, the seed, that in the Word of God, which is like a seed, hidden away in there, already was the call of the Gentiles.

16. 6:43

    This wasn't just something that God decided to do on a whim. His people have rejected their Messiah. So God thinks, well, what should we do now? Oh, I'll call the Gentiles. No, this was a mystery hidden away in the Old Testament Scriptures. Verse 4, When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and in other generations, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

17. 7:20

    And by using that term mystery, what Paul, in effect, is saying is that this was always part of God's plan. He always intended this to happen. If you go back to chapter 2, Paul explains what this mystery of the Gospel is. That it was hidden away in the Old Testament. And what Paul is talking about here is nothing new.

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    It was already there in the design, in the seed that was planted. So he says in chapter 2, verse 11, Remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. And Paul is outlining here the antagonism between Jew and Gentile, which is made in the flesh by hands.

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    Verse 12, Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. I mean, phrase after phrase after phrase, Paul is emphasizing this point, isn't he? That the Gentiles were completely distant from the Gospel.

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    Like Saul of Tarsus. But now, verse 13, In Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Now that language there that Paul uses, he's borrowing the terminology from the Old Testament. And Paul is illustrating here this mystery of the Gospel. The language in verse 13 about being far off and then being brought near.

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    And then in verse 14, you can see there that this creates peace. And this becomes a key theme in this passage that through Christ, there is now peace between Jew and Gentile. And they can become one body in Christ. Now all of that language comes from the prophet Isaiah. So, on the screen there, you can see Isaiah chapter 57, verse 19.

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    Paul is alluding to this. Creating the fruit of the lips, peace, peace, to the far, the Gentile, and to the near. And I will heal him. You can see how Paul picks up on that language, can't you? So, this is the mystery of the Gospel. Paul isn't describing some new thing. He's describing something that God already wrote about hundreds of years before.

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    And then we can look at the context, chapter 56, the previous chapter. Let not the foreigner or the stranger, remember what Paul said, you were strangers to the covenants of promise. But let not the stranger, God said this hundreds of years before it ever happened. You should not say, the Lord will surely separate me from His people.

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    And the strangers who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him to love the name of the Lord to be His servants, for my house shall be called a house of prayer, not just for the Jews, but for all peoples. So, that's how the call of the Gentiles was hidden away in the Old Testament.

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    Now, for us today, brothers and sisters, this is obvious. House of prayer for all peoples. Of course, it was never intended just for the Jews. But for the Jews, they were blinkered in their thinking. Very nationalistic, very xenophobic, calling the Gentiles the uncircumcision, unclean dogs. And yet, in their Scriptures, it was already told them that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs.

26. 11:05

    Now, let's have a look at Romans chapter 11 where the Apostle Paul talks about this mystery. Romans chapter 11. So, this follows on from what he said in chapter 9 about God choosing certain people and not choosing others. And he expands this out to talk about the call of the Gentiles. But he asks the question at the beginning of chapter 11, well, what about the Jews?

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    Did God's purpose with the Jews fail? Has God cast away his people? You know these words very well. So, he says in verse 1, I ask then, has God rejected his people? And the quick answer from Paul is no, by no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

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    God has not rejected his people. Paul, and here's the main point, which he foreknew. Of course, we understand that, don't we? God knew this was going to happen. This rejection of their Messiah.

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    And now, the gospel going to the Gentiles. God already wrote about this in his design, in his seed. Hundreds, thousands of years before, he caused it to be written down. But I believe, brothers and sisters, this was all conceived in God's mind from the foundation of the world. So, God foreknew what would happen.

30. 12:36

    He knew that the Jews would reject his son. It was all part of the plan. And look what Paul calls this in verse 25. He says, lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

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    So, one of the lessons that comes from this concept is that God is in control. He doesn't make things up. He doesn't change his mind on a whim. He doesn't, he's not blindsided by situations. He doesn't have to scramble to figure things out. God is in control and he has an eternal purpose.

32. 13:28

    Now, the Apostle Paul at the end of this section, he writes another doxology. Remember, we looked at that yesterday in Ephesians. At the end of Ephesians chapter 3 where Paul is so overcome by the immeasurable, unsearchable, eternal things of God that he erupts in praise. Well, he does the same thing at the end of this section.

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    When he thinks about the astonishing wisdom of God to formulate this plan that lasts for hundreds and thousands of years. And so he says in verse 33, Oh, the depth. Look at the similar language to Ephesians here. The depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments.

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    How inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor. So that's what we're thinking about this week. This astonishing wisdom of God to work these things out and to formulate his plan. Well, with that introduction in mind, let's go back to Ephesians chapter 1 and have a look at this topic of predestination.

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    That's all connected with this, isn't it? You think about it. God had predestined the failure of the Jews to accept their Messiah and then the call of the Gentiles. And Paul twice in chapter 1 uses this very profound word, difficult word for us to understand, to come to grips with. Predestination. So in the context of what we looked at yesterday in verse 4, that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him, he then says in love He predestined us for adoption of sons through Jesus Christ.

36. 15:25

    And this was according to the purpose of His will. And as you read through Ephesians chapter 1, you see Paul emphasizing this point over and over again. He leaves us without any shadow of doubt this was all planned by God. We have been predestined for adoption of sons. And look what He says down in verse 11.

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    Even more emphatically emphasizes it. In Him we have obtained an inheritance. Now think about that language. And that's in the present tense in the Greek. We have obtained an inheritance and we think well no we haven't. But as far as God is concerned, so sure is His plan. He is so much in control that we have obtained that inheritance already.

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    Because as He says in verse 11, we have been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. So what does all of this mean? For instance, where does this leave free will? If God is so much in control, if everything has been planned out beforehand, if God works all things, not some things, all things according to the counsel of His will, if everything has been predestined, if God simply planted that seed in the beginning and in that seed was the design of eternity, then and who can resist His will, where does that leave our will?

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    The choices we make, are they real? Is free will just an illusion? All sorts of questions like this come to mind. And Ken, beforehand, put me under pressure. He said, oh, I'm looking forward to this talk because all my life I've been wondering about the balance between predestination and free will. Like, oh, well, we're just going to touch on it.

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    I don't promise to have all the answers. What I can represent to you, brothers and sisters in this class, is some of the ideas I have from reading the scriptures and how we can balance free will and predestination. Because after all, does God really want programmed robots in His kingdom? Is that really going to give God pleasure?

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    You know, our lives would be so much easier, wouldn't we, parents, if we could simply program our kids to be obedient? It would make life simpler, but how much pleasure would that give us? The same is for God. God doesn't want people who automatically follow His will. So let's think about that then.

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    How do we balance predestination with free will? Now, verse 11 is another echo back to the prophecy of Isaiah. So there on the left we see those words, in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

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    And you can see on the right-hand side there of the screen how He picks up on Isaiah again. Remember the former things of old. I am God, there is no other. I am God, there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning. And that is saying the same thing, isn't it?

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    The very first words of the Bible are in the beginning. The last word of the Bible, Revelation 22, 21 is Amen. But what this verse tells us is that in the beginning we could have already said Amen. It is as good as done. God who is outside of time wove the tapestry of history in the beginning and there it all was, all mapped out, all complete, including, as Paul says in Ephesians, our inheritance.

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    It is, in God's mind, it is as good as done. And when we view things through the lens that God gives us through His Scriptures, through that eternal lens, through that godly, eternal lens, if we can view our lives in that way, then it gives us comfort that God is in control and our inheritance is guaranteed.

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    And that's what Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 1. But again, where does that leave free will? Let's just finish this verse. It says, say, my counsel shall stand. I will accomplish all my purpose. I have spoken. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed. I will do it. When God says something, it is done.

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    We see this straight off the bat in Genesis chapter 1. God said, let there be light. There was light. It is inevitable. When God says something, it's like a seed being planted and it will grow into what it is designed to produce. will. So, what about free will? Well, we talked about verse 1.

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    Paul, an apostle, by the will of God. The irresistible will of God. Now, at least in verse 9, he says that that will has been made known to us. So, verse 9 says, making known to us the mystery of his will. So, we know what that will is. But even so, verse 11 just keeps nagging at us, doesn't it?

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    Since God works all things according to the purpose of works, all things according to the counsel of his will, it just seems so inevitable that we're carried along on this wave of God's purpose that it questions whether we really do have any free will at all. So, what does predestination mean? Well, to answer that question, we're going to have a look at another word that's related to predestination and it's found in Acts chapter 2.

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    So, in Acts chapter 2, the apostle Peter here is giving his speech on the day of Pentecost and he's going to remind the Jewish people here how they had put their Messiah to death. He says in verse 22, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know, he's saying you're absolutely responsible for this, you weren't left in the dark, this was manifest for you who this man was.

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    Verse 23, this Jesus delivered, one second, I don't want the repeat of 2005, the great laryngitis year, this Jesus, verse 23, delivered up, now look at the language here, delivered up according to, there's that same phrase Paul uses in Ephesians, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. I mean, that's emphatic, isn't it, brothers and sisters?

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    This didn't happen by accident. God wasn't caught off God, this was his definite plan, this was his foreknowledge. And then he says, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Now that makes you scratch your head, because we know from other scriptures and it's intimated here that they were held accountable for this.

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    I mean, in AD 70, there was destruction on the temple in Jerusalem. God judged the world in righteousness at this time, because they rejected his Messiah. But how can they be held accountable if this was all part of God's plan, his definite plan, his foreknowledge, predestination, working all things according to the counsel of his irresistible will?

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    How were they held accountable? I think part of the answer to this question is in this word foreknowledge. And it's a really, really interesting word. It is in the Greek, down the bottom there, the word pro, which means before, gnosis, which means knowledge. And it means to know beforehand. Now you'll recognize that word because it comes through into our English in the word prognosis.

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    And while it would be a mistake to say it means prognosis per se, I think the idea of a prognosis actually helps us understand the foreknowledge of God. Think about a doctor giving a prognosis. He looks at symptoms and he determines how long this illness might last. and he foreknows certain things. That's a prognosis.

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    Now God is the ultimate prognosticator, isn't he? And sometimes I think we have this naive view of foreknowledge of God, that he knows the future, that maybe he has some sort of gigantic crystal ball, he looks into this crystal ball and he says, oh look, what's going to happen in the future? I'd better write that down.

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    That's not foreknowledge at all, is it? It's not just simply that God knows what's going to happen in some sort of magical way. He foreknows things because he determines that it will happen. But in the kind of way that we think of a prognosis, God knows how things are going to turn out because he knows his creation.

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    He knows our frame, as the psalmist says. He knows what we're like. He knows how we're going to act under any given situation. Same sort of thing that we have, we have this limited foreknowledge with our kids. And you know that under any given circumstance that they're going to act in a certain way.

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    That if you promise them candy that they might even do the chore, that sort of thing. You know, you can predict behavior. And so we human beings are predictable.

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    I don't know whether any of you have taken these personality tests. This is from the Myers-Briggs personality test. And it turns out that I am an INFP. And what these personality tests tell us is that this is the sort of behavior we will manifest as our default. It's not saying this is what we will inevitably be like, but this is our default behavior.

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    So you can see for me, over on the left, I can appear illogical. Esther will tell you this is perfectly true. I'm over emotional, but on the good side, I am sensitive, and I have a great deal of insight. So, knowing each other's personalities, and we do this with each other sometimes, don't we?

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    We know how people are going to act under certain situations. So we have a degree of predictability about ourselves. Now, when it comes to God understanding us, and His manifold wisdom, think how well He knows us, His creation. And He knows that if He puts this obstacle in our path, He knows how we're going to react to it.

63. 27:51

    I think this is the beginning of a way to understand how God works in our lives without controlling us as robots, without pushing us around the chessboard like pawns or as if we're puppets on a string, but He knows how to discipline us. He knows how to direct us. He knows how to guide us.

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    And He knows if He puts that obstacle in our path, that we will react in a certain way and we will be diverted. according to His will. We still make the choice, but God knows what choice we're going to make. And we do that again with our kids, don't we? We know we can set up situations where we know what path they will take, but we still find pleasure when they choose that path.

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    Now have a look at Ephesians chapter 2, because here's the flip side. Ephesians chapter 2, now having talked about God's wisdom and His will, and that God does everything according to that will in chapter 1, Paul at the beginning of chapter 2, talks about what we're like in our natural state. He says in verse 1, Now what Paul is talking about there, brothers and sisters, is the inevitability of the will of the flesh.

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    Look at the language here. The words marked in yellow, in your versions it might actually translate it according to, I think in our reading this morning it was according to. It's the exact same phraseology in the Greek. So where Paul says you once walked following, he's saying you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

67. 30:02

    And then when he says there in verse 3, carrying out the desires of the body, that's the exact same word as will that Paul uses of God. So before we come to Christ, we were carried along on a wave of the will of the flesh, inevitably leading to death. And that's why God has condemned this will to death, because it is inevitable all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

68. 30:32

    God knows us, he knows what our choices will be, and that we will carry out the deeds of the body. Now think about that in terms of the lawless men who crucified the Son of God according to the definite plan of God, but they were still held accountable. I think the answer to that conundrum is that God knew exactly what would happen if he placed his son in the crucible of first century Judea and had his son say the things he said and do the things he did.

69. 31:14

    God knew what the reaction would be that they would follow or work their reactions that according to the will of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body. He knew what would happen. He didn't force it to happen. He just predicted it because he is an expert prognosticator. So the word predestination itself, it means pro-orizo, pro meaning before, orizo which is the Greek word for horizon.

70. 31:47

    So it's the idea, the analogy is that you can see to the horizon. You're not actually there, but you know what is coming ahead. So it's connected with foreknowledge. And it means to determine something ahead of time, or to map something out ahead of time. So this is what we did when we left Simi Valley up here to come to Idlewild.

71. 32:13

    We didn't just start driving and think, I wonder which way we'll go. We'll go up here, and we end up up here, and then loop the loop. No, we mapped it out beforehand. We knew what our destination was. We knew where the horizon was, and we figured it out beforehand. Now that's God's purpose.

72. 32:33

    He doesn't sort of go here and there and wonder where He's going to end up. He mapped it all out beforehand. He knows what the final destination is. Now, you can see here, there are these gray parts. So the final destination is always going to be the same. But perhaps we can think of this, that there are times where there might be deviations from the path, but there's still the same end destination.

73. 33:08

    Maybe that's one way we can think about free will. But let's go back to the Acts of the Apostles in chapter four this time. And in our last few minutes, brothers and sisters, I want to have a look at a couple of passages here, which I think help us a little bit more on our road to understanding this balance between predestination, foreknowledge, and free will.

74. 33:37

    In Acts chapter four, the Apostles have been arrested by the authorities and put in prison. And they are let go, and they realize that what they've experienced at the hands of the rulers of the day is exactly what Jesus experienced. In other words, they were the leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, etc.

75. 34:02

    They were exhibiting their default behavior towards the apostles. And they reflect on it in verse 23. And it says in verse 23 of Acts four, that when they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priest and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, now notice how they address God here.

76. 34:28

    They say sovereign Lord, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. They acknowledge the sovereignty of God, that He is in control. But nothing happens outside of His will. And what has happened to them has all been part of His will. And then they say in verse 25, who through the mouth of our father David your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, and now they're going to quote from the Old Testament and they're going to illustrate the principle of predestination here, that God wrote about this before it happened.

77. 35:09

    A thousand years before it happened, God caused David to write down in Psalm 2 that the rulers of the day would come against the anointed, the Christ, the Messiah. So, they quote from Psalm 2, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, against His anointed.

78. 35:36

    So this is part of that mystery, isn't it? Hidden away in Psalm 2 was what was going to happen a thousand years later. And then they say in verse 27, for truly in this city there were gathered together, just as Psalm 2 said, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

79. 36:07

    So there it is. This was bound to happen. It was absolutely 100% inevitable that the rulers would put Jesus to death. So we ask ourselves the question again, well, poor Herod, poor Pontius Pilate, did they have any choice, the people of Israel, the people of the Gentiles? Did they have any free will?

80. 36:31

    Was God just dangling Herod and Pontius Pilate on the end of puppet strings and manufacturing situations to work out His will? Well, intriguingly, brothers and sisters, I think the answer to that question comes from the very psalm that they quote, Psalm 2. So let's have a look at it, Psalm 2. So verse 1 and 2 is what they quote.

81. 37:00

    Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. So if you're a ruler a thousand years later, tough luck. You're part of this group, you've been predestined to come against the anointed, the Messiah of God, you're going to put Him to death, nothing you can do to change it, it's going to happen, hard luck.

82. 37:26

    Herod and Pontius Pilate were just born at a bad time. However, let's carry on reading through the psalm, because those same kings and rulers are mentioned at the end of the psalm, in language which would appear to be a little bit redundant if they were absolutely bound as pawns on a chess board to perform God's will.

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    because in verse 10, he says, now therefore, having said this, now therefore, O kings, same people addressed at the beginning of the psalm, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the son lest he be angry. Now, why on earth would you warn these rulers?

84. 38:18

    Why on earth would you exhort them to be wise if it was 100% inevitable that they were going to do what it says in verse 2 and come against the anointed of God? And what I think this tells us, brothers and sisters, is that despite what Herod and Pontius Pilate and the other people, the chief priest and so forth, did, they still had the choice.

85. 38:43

    They still could choose to be wise. They could heed the warning of Psalm 2. And I think this is what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Have a look at this passage. This is the last one we're going to look at. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In the context, the Apostle Paul is contrasting the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God.

86. 39:14

    And look what he says in chapter 2 here and verse 6. He says, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age. So he's talking about the same category of people, the rulers, the Herods, the Pontius Pilates, the chief priests.

87. 39:37

    And he says of those rulers, they are doomed to pass away. There's a strong word, they're doomed to pass away. Same idea, isn't it? This is inevitable. If people are doomed to something, then it brings to mind this whole thing about predestination. But, verse 7, we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God.

88. 40:05

    We've already read a little bit about that in Psalm 2. that's the secret and hidden wisdom of God. Which God decreed, same word predestined, before the ages, he's saying the same thing as in Ephesians, for our glory. Now, verse 8 is the key. And I think for me, at least, brothers and sisters, this answers the whole conundrum.

89. 40:28

    Verse 8 says, none of the rulers of this age understood this, this hidden wisdom of God. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Now, what a thing for the Apostle Paul to say. He knew what Psalm 2 said. He knew that the rulers of the age would put the Lord Jesus Christ to death.

90. 40:54

    He knew they were doomed. He just said it. He knew that it was all predestined. He knew about the definite plan of God. And yet, he says in the same breath that if they had understood, they would not have done it. In other words, Paul tells us, it wasn't inevitable, but it still happened.

91. 41:17

    Now, let's try to piece all of this together. So, where it says in verse 8, none of the rulers of this age understood this. None of the rulers of the age heeded the warning of Psalm 2. That if Peter had gone up to Herod and presented Psalm 2 to him, he could have expounded it to him, explained to Herod, and Herod could have gone, oh, I better not join in.

92. 41:40

    And he could have separated himself from the situation and been wise. Now, where it says none, of course, that's not 100%, is it? Because there were some of the rulers of that age who didn't join in. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, being the two examples that we're told of. So, they were part of that category that were predestined to put Jesus to death, and God knew what the rulers of the age were like.

93. 42:10

    God knew that if he put his son there, that the rulers of the age would put his son to death, because he knew them inside out. But people like Nicodemus and Joseph and Arimathea still have the choice not to follow the course of the prince of the power of the air, not to carry out the desires of the body.

94. 42:31

    And so, they stood apart from that group. And what I think this does for us, brothers and sisters, is allows us to see that, yes, God has predestined things to happen. Yes, God has a definite plan. Yes, God is in control. Yes, that journey to the kingdom has been mapped out beforehand. The end destination, the amen, is 100% inevitable, and we can rejoice in that.

95. 43:01

    But at the same time, God allows free will. So hopefully that's food for thought. It doesn't answer all of the questions, but for me at least, brothers and that begins to enable me to balance these things in my mind. But at the end of the day, brothers and sisters, we're still hopefully in awe at the manifold wisdom of God.