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PREDESTINATION Dr. W. A. Criswell Acts 27:22-31 07-22-79
On the radio and on television, to the thousands and thousands of you who are
watching—many of you on cable television in New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and Louisiana,
and throughout the northern part of Texas—this is the First Baptist Church.
And this is the pastor bringing the message entitled, Predestination.
In our preaching through the book of Acts, we are in chapter 27. And in
this chapter is one of the finest illustrations of this great and meaningful
doctrine that you will find in the Word of God. I'm going to read the two
parts of it: the first one, God's decree; and the second one, man's volitional
effort.
First, God's decree in Acts 27, beginning at verse 20: And
when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small storm lay upon
us, all hope that we should be saved was taken away (They fell into despair). But
after long abstinence (after long praying and fasting) Paul stood forth in the
midst of them, and says… I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be
no loss of any man's life among you, only of the ship. For
there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, whom I serve, Saying,
Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar (carried to Rome): and, lo,
God hath given thee all them that sail with thee (275 other souls).
"Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God…" And that will
be my message tonight, Facing The Future With God. "For I
believe God even as it was told me." That is up there in the
elective purpose and predestination of God. Now, down here where we
are—beginning at verse 30: And as
the sailors were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat
under colors, as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul
said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye
cannot be saved. A contingency, a
possibility, a volitional response: "Except these abide in the ship, ye
cannot be saved."
This morning, we're going to look at God's spiritual government. We're
going to look at it. Not that we can explain it or understand it.
We don't explain, we don't understand anything. All we do is just observe
it; and write it down. We just look at it. But we don't understand
or explain.
An old woman looked at a giraffe and said, "There just ain't no such
animal." I can understand her response. All of God's creation
is packed with infinitude and mystery is His signature. I stood in a
planetarium and looked at the sweep of the vast infinite heavens. We
don't explain it. We just look at it. Under
a powerful microscope, I looked at God's microcosm. As God's macrocosm is
infinite above us, no less is His microcosm infinitesimal below us—and the same
hand creating it all. Under a powerful microscope, I looked at a leaf.
The leaf: with cells, and protoplasm, and chlorophyll, and has the mysterious
gift of photosynthesis, without which there would be no life. The ability
of a little cell in a leaf with his chlorophyll to take the light, and power,
and strength of the sunlight, and turn it into sugar, and send it to an orange
or to starch, and send it down to a potato.
A mystery—but God's hand—the whole world is like that. When I studied
anatomy, a frog, a cat—inexplicable, just look at it—or the world of nuclear
science, molecules, protons, electrons—the whole earth is infinitesimal orbit.
We don't explain these things; no one can or ever shall. We just look at
them and write them down, experience them.
So it is with God's infinite spiritual government: we look at it and observe
it, experience it. We don't explain it. There are two sets of words;
there are two vocabularies that describe God's spiritual government. One
set of words refers to the great infinitude of God in heaven; up there where He
is. The words up there that refer to God and God's infinite
sovereignty—these words are “foreknowledge,” “election,” “predestination,”
“sovereignty,” “certainty,” “omnipotence” and “omniscience”—these things apply
to God in heaven.
He sees the end from beginning. All history is present tense before Him.
He’s never surprised or caught unawares. Every development He sees—even
you, before the foundation of the world. He is the alpha (the beginning)
and the omega (the ending). And that is God's sovereign decree, guiding
history, moving in infinite wonder and power through His whole created
universe. That's the language of heaven. All of these things of
God's elective purpose and sovereign choice is predestinating grace—that's up
there.
Then there's another set of the words that describe us who live in the dust of
death down here. Those words are “freedom of choice,” “free moral
agency,” “contingency,” “possibility,” “striving,” “working.”—those words apply
to us. And as long as we keep them separate—these words apply to God and
these words apply to us—as long as we keep them separate, we'll never have any
trouble. It is only when we mix them up that we fall into confusion and
un-understanding.
You see both of them are here. I now speak of God in
heaven—“predestination,” “foreknowledge”—using God's language now. For
there stood by me this night the angel of God... saying, Don't be afraid, Paul,
you must be brought (to Rome) before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all
that sail with thee. That's God! That's
the elective decree and predestinary purpose of God. That's God's
language. That's up there in heaven.
Down here, in this earth, where we are Paul said to the centurion and to the
soldiers, "If you let these sailors escape, and leave this ship without a
guide, you cannot be saved." “Contingency,” “possibility,” that is
language down here. So we
look at both of them: first of all, the decrees of God; the sovereign purpose
of God; the elective choice of the Lord—God's language. He will say in
the twenty-third chapter of Acts, in verse 11, He will say to Paul, in a
conspiracy by which they sought to murder him, by night: The
Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: as thou has testified of
me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also of Me at Rome. God says
that—whatever the providence or the turn of fortune, whatever apparent
interdiction. God says, "Paul you shall testify of Me in Rome."
God says that, and he repeats that in the passage that I just read: There
stood by me this night the angel of God… saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be
brought before Caesar. God says that: and
not only does God say that, not only does He announce that, but the Lord also
said other details that follow after. Here's one, "Not only shall
you be brought before Caesar in Rome, but there shall not be the loss of any
man's life among you." Not one! And that’s repeated three times: In verse 22,
"There shall not be a man's life that is lost;" number 24,
"Lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee;" and verse 34,
"There shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you."
That's what God says; that's what God has decreed. Not only that, not
only does God say, "Paul you're going to stand before Caesar in
Rome," and not only does God say, "There shall not be a one that is
on the boat that is lost (276 of you,) not one!" But God also says
that the ship will be destroyed. In verse 22,
"You'll lose the ship," and not only that, but in verse 26
God says, "You will be cast upon a certain island."
That's what God says. And those are the decrees of the Almighty.
And they cannot be interdicted or changed. That's predestination!
That's election! That’s God ruling the universe up there in the
infinitude of His glory in heaven.
So when God says that you are going to stand before Caesar and all of these are
going to be saved, there is no providence that will interdict it. The
storm rages for two solid weeks, fourteen days and fourteen nights, the sun and
the stars are blotted out, and the storm takes that little vessel and drives it
up and down the Sea of Adria; but God said, "They will all be saved.
You, Paul, will stand before Caesar in Rome, however the storm rages.”
Seemingly death was impatient of its prey. Not only did the storm rage,
but the sailors, panic-stricken, sought to flee out of the ship in a little
boat, in a little lifeboat, and go to the shore of the island. Not
only that, but the sailors said to the centurion, "Let us kill all of
these prisoners lest they escape and we’re responsible for their lives.”
Seemingly death was on every hand, but God had said, "You're all going to
be saved. And you, Paul, are going to stand before Caesar." So
Paul says—and look at him, in the midst of the fury of the storm and certain
death that awaited them—Paul says: Be of
good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me… And he
took bread, and gave thanks… and began to eat. And he said,
"All of you be of good cheer and break bread with me."
And in quiet, and in confidence, in the raging storm, the apostle is quiet in
the word and the promise of God. That is predestination! That is
election! That is the foreknowledge and the sovereign grace of the Lord.
That's up there in heaven.
Now, we're going to look at the other side of God's government. We are
going to look at the strivings of man; at the volitional choice of man.
And it is very plainly set forth here in this story of the raging storm on the
Mediterranean Sea. For God's decrees, God's predestinated purpose for us,
includes our efforts. It includes us.
So when God said to Paul, "You're going to be saved and everybody in the
ship with you. And you're going to stand before Caesar," God said
that to him. Then, when Paul sees those sailors about to forsake the
ship, and nobody to run it, nobody to guide it, Paul said to the centurion,
"Except these sailors abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved."
That's contingency! That's possibility! That's down here in this
world, talking to the centurion and to the soldiers. So the
whole thing follows after a tremendous effort on the part of those men who are
on that ship, 276 of them; God says they're going to be saved. Not a one
of them is going to be lost. But dear me—how they strive and how they
work down here in the earth where we live. When the ship was broken up,
all of those that could swim swam with all of their might and power in that raging
storm; they swam to the shore. And those that couldn't swim, some of them
seized a board and some of them other parts of the broken pieces of the ship.
And in great effort, and in great striving, they finally found themselves safe
on the shore of the land.
Isn’t that amazing? God said, "You are going to be saved."
God said, "Not a one of you is going to be lost." God said,
"Not a hair of your head shall fall to the ground from anyone of
you." That's what God says—and yet they are striving for all that they can
to reach that shore. I'm amazed at the effort they put forth. Those
sailors sensed that, in the fury of that storm, they were drawing near to some
country. So they sounded; they let down a plumb line and found it 120
feet deep. And when they were further, they sound it again and found it
ninety feet deep.
And then, fearing lest they should be driven against rocks that were hidden,
they cast four anchors out of the stern of the ship. You always cast your
anchor in the foreship; they cast it out of the stern of the ship. They
anchored the thing and let it drive—let it fold itself out before the wind.
And then Paul says, when those sailors were trying to escape, "Except these
abide in the ship you'll not be saved.” Then Paul said to them,
"Listen, you're going to have a great strenuous ordeal tomorrow, eat a
good meal so you will be strengthened for it." And he encouraged
them to eat.
And so they took up the anchors and they loosed the rudder bands that held the
rudders so that the ship should somehow be guided. And they hoisted the
mainsail to the wind and they made for the shore.
Then when the ship broke up, as it was caught in the violence of the waves on
the shore, those that could swim, they swam. And those that couldn't
swim, took broken pieces of the ship and so they came to the land.
And isn't that amazing, the decree of God, plainly announced by the Apostle
Paul: "Not a one of you will be lost. Not a hair of your head will
fall. All of us are going to be saved." But, when the time
came, they struggled, and they swam, and they clung to broken pieces of the
ship. They poured their utmost strength into that effort to reach the
land.
Now, those two always go together—always! The decree of God, the elective
purpose of God, the predestinated announcement of God always carries with it
the effort of man—they go together—God's decree and purpose, and man's volition
and choice. The Lord's elective predestinary announcement and our
volitional decision to follow after the will of God, both of them go together.
The preacher has to preach—Paul plants, Apollos waters—The preacher has to
preach, but it is God that gives the increase. If anybody's saved; if
anybody responds; if anybody comes down that aisle, it is because of the moving
Spirit of the grace of the Lord Jesus.
And it takes both of them, and both of them are in God's will, His elective
purpose for us. He knew us before we were born. He called our names
before the foundation of the world. He knows all about us. He knows
how our lives shall end. He knows when I shall die, and how.
All in the elective purpose of God, but at the same time, things happen to me,
a day at a time, a moment at a time. And I strive and work, and all of it
is in the will and circumference of God's good pleasure. Thus it is in
the doctrine of election in our salvation. In the first chapter of
Ephesians, verses four and five: According
as God 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 aim. What
an astonishing statement: "Before the foundation of the world."
Before God flung this planet into orbit, God chose us, called us, knew us,
adopted us. He knew all about our salvation before we were born.
That's called election and predestination. And yet, at the same time, at
the same time, God says, as in Luke 13:3, "Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish." Or in [Acts] 16, verse 30, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
God elects, and God knows, before the world is made, but I must repent and I
must believe. In one instance, I'm
talking about the language of God in heaven—when I talk about election and
predestination. When I am talking about repentance and belief, I'm
talking about language down here in the earth—about us.
It is like our eternal salvation and security: Jesus says in chapter 10 of
John, verses 27-29: I know
my sheep… I call them by name… I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My
Father, Who gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Secure, saved
forever in the decree and elective purpose of God. No one is able to
pluck us out of the hand of the almighty, omnipotent God.
And yet, in Hebrews 10:38, "The just shall live by faith: and if he draws
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Or the tenth chapter
of Matthew, "He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved."
They are together: God's grace and elective purpose—In my volitional choice and
decision. All of them are in God's infinite government. That's His
spiritual world.
It is a strange thing how it works out in our lives. In this story here,
in the raging storm, "all hope that we should be saved was taken
away." They expected to die. Fourteen days, they were in that
terrible storm, fourteen days. God said every one of them is going to
live, everyone of them. And after great trial, and terror, and striving,
they finally landed on the shore—all of them, every one of them—276 of them.
Now you look—I can just see those 276 sailors, soldiers and prisoners. I
can just see them standing up there then, with all of those natives on the
island of Malta, and gathering around, and telling them about that awesome
storm, and how the ship was broken up, and how finally they came to land.
And there they are drenched with water, shivering with cold, exhausted with the
effort. I can just see them, each man telling his story to a wide-eyed
amazed native. But all of the time, it was God Who said, "You are
going to be saved; all of you."
I can just see that. And you know what? I can see it in my life and
yours. I can't see it this way—living a day at a time, moment at a time—I
can't see it that way. I can't see it before me. I don't know.
How shall I die? Will it be a heart attack? Will it be a heavy
cancer? Will it be after long days, maybe years of agony? Will it
be like my old mother, having a terrible cerebral hemorrhage? She lived
without her mind almost seventy years. It will be like that? Or
will I just fall asleep in Jesus? Will it be in old, old age? Will
it be tomorrow? Will God wonderfully bless us in these days that lie
ahead here in the church?
You see I just live that moment at a time, day at a time, because I'm down here
in the dust of death. And I'm circumscribed and I can't see. That's
before me, that way. But when I look back of me, that way, oh, I can just
preach to you almost forever about the hand of God that I can see that way—back
yonder, looking down through those years, almost sixty years ago now—I can tell
you all about how God saved me. Just a boy, ten years of age, I can tell
you all about that; how God saved me sixty years ago. And I can tell you
how I felt as a little boy, called of God to be a pastor. And all through
those years, even as a little boy, going to elementary school and then to high
school, how I was preparing to be a preacher and a pastor.
I can tell you all about that; that's back there—the hand of God. I can
tell you all about those days against the day when Bob Coleman called me on
Wednesday night and he said, "We've had a conference here in the church
and they have unanimously asked you to be their pastor and
under-shepherd." I can tell you all about that.
The things that are past, I can see God's hand in a thousand ways. I can
see that. This way, I can't see. But my brother, the same gracious
hand that guided in those years that are past, will be the same gracious hand
that guides in these years, or days, that lie ahead. God's infinite
purpose: some of which I see; some of which I can't see. But like
Paul—quiet and assured in it all—my brother, my sister, that's a wonderful way
to live. “That in all things God works together for good to them that
love the Lord.” That He purposes some better thing for us; that He is
guiding us to some ultimate, and final, and glorious home. It is
a pilgrimage filled with song. It is a life overflowing with praise and
gratitude. It is the joy of the Christian life. And, it is ours in
the love and mercy of our blessed Jesus.
Now, I want us all to stand together with our heads bowed in quietness before
the Lord. “Our wonderful sovereign Savior, how infinitely good Thou art.
Ah Lord, before we were born you called us by name; chose us before the
foundation of the world. And now Thou hast brought us to this present
gracious moment. And Thy Holy Spirit moving in our souls fills us with
praise and gladness to God for His wonderful goodnesses to us. And our Lord,
these today, who have heard God's call, may they answer with their lives in the
saving name of our wonderful blessed Christ Jesus. Amen. “
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