Seventh Sunday after Pentecost 7/15/12 Predestination

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost 7/22/12 Text: Ephesians 1:3-14 Title: Living a Joyful Life in a Joyless World. This morning my dear disciples in Christ I want to share with you some good news; no, it is better than that, some great news, God has picked you to be his, as our Epistle reading for this morning tells us, “Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Think about that for a moment. God picked you to be his before he even made anything. That is fantastic news, the best news of all. There are a couple of terms that describe that picking you to be his before time started. It is important to understand both of them, so that you will have a clear understanding of God’s love toward you. First of all let’s look at what “foreknowledge” means. Foreknowledge is simply nothing more than God knows all things before they happen. It does not mean, as many believe that because God knows all things before they happen that every action we do is controlled by God. It just means that since God is outside of time; he is timeless, so he knows, at the same time all things that happen, including all things that will happen in the future. God knows all we have done, are doing, and will do, good and bad, as he lets us in our free will live our lives here on earth. His foreknowledge extends to all people, good and evil. It is not the cause of evil or sins when people act wrongly, for sin and evil proceed from Satan and our wicked perverted human will, for which each of us are responsible. This foreknowledge of God is important for in his knowing what his human creation was going to do, even before he created them he was able to set in motion his plan of salvation, limit evil, and encourage good. Predestination, the other word we need to understand, is God’s eternal election which unlike God’s foreknowledge which extends to Christian and non-Christian alike only extends to the righteous God pleasing children of God. This predestination or eternal election; both words mean the same is the cause of salvation which God brings about in Jesus Christ. It is so firmly grounded in God’s will that according to Matthew 16:18 “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” That is fantastic news for us, as we struggle in our faith and life. It is what gives us the sure hope of our salvation. It is the Good News of Jesus’ life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. The good news that God keeps his word that was promised to Adam and Eve and all their descendants before they had even been booted out of the Garden of Eden. God has arranged and given us everything that belongs to our being predestined to be his. We have nothing to do with our salvation except to have faith in his saving act. And even then the faith we have he gives to those who believe. Now that is a God you can trust in. We by nature want to take the love of God that predestines us to be his children apart, so that we can include our actions in it. We like to add other meanings to God’s word of predestination instead of just taking it as it is. And in doing so we lose the comfort and joy that it is meant to give the children of God. We need to quit adding our own meaning to what God tells us about our predestination and accept it for what it is, God in Christ calling all sinners to himself promising them comfort and joy and eternal peace in him. God is utterly serious in his desire that all people should come to him and seek help for themselves , as we are told in Matthew 11:28 and 29, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” God does this through the Word of God in his Bible and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. God wants all people to hear the Word of God, so that they can be saved from hell. He knows that by nature we really don’t want to listen to him, but delight in listening to the voices of the world. He knows that, so he has given us the power and activity of the Holy Spirit’s divine assistance, so that we will remain faithful to his Word, thus attaining eternal salvation. We therefore are not to make judgments concerning our predestination or election, whichever word you prefer to use, to eternal life based on our reason or God’s Law. For, when you use human reason to help understand predestination you will find that it will lead a person to live a life away from God, for it reasons; once saved always saved, so I can live my life, as I want. Eat, drink, and be merry, for I am saved. This reasoning is false, and as I said earlier it leads you away from God and his salvation. Or it will lead to a life of doubt and despair which will eventually cause you to turn away from God, or, if you think you are pretty good at keeping God’s Law, a self-righteousness which will also cause you to turn away from God even as you believe you are follow God’s will. We must, my dear fellow disciples of Jesus, depend on only the Word of God for a true and joyful understanding of this doctrine of predestination. For, God’s Word clearly states in Romans, 11:32, 1 Timothy 2:4, Ezekiel 33:11 and 18:23 that God imprisoned all in unbelief, that is let us remain in our sin, that he may be merciful to all, and that he wants no one to be lost but rather that everyone repent and believe on the Lord Christ. Don’t dwell on, as I said earlier, human reason or God’s Law to help you understand this wonderfully comforting and joyous doctrine of predestination. Those things will always let you down. Stay with the simple and clear statements of God’s Word, for God’s Word is Christ, the “Book of Life.” He has decreed in his eternal, divine counsel that he will save no one apart from those who acknowledge his Son Christ and truly believe in him. We should set aside other thoughts, for they do not come from God but rather from the imagination of the evil foe Satan. Through such thoughts he approaches us to weaken this glorious comfort for us or to take it away completely. We have a glorious comfort in this beneficial teaching, that we know how we have been chosen for eternal life in Christ out of sheer grace, without any merit of our own, and that no one can tear us out of his hand, as he has told us in John 10: 28–29. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." You see, God has assured us that he has graciously chosen us not only with mere words, but with his life. He has confirmed this with an oath and sealed it with the holy sacraments. In the midst of our greatest trials we can remind ourselves of them, comfort ourselves with them, and thereby stop the attacks of Satan who wants to extinguish our faith and thus our joy. While what I told you this morning is certainly true and to be trusted, for it has all come from God’s Word and the Lutheran Confessions of that Word we should still make every effort to live according to God’s will and to, as Saint Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:3-11, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Therefore my fellow disciples of Jesus, “Be diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fail.” It is my prayer that this short explanation of God’s eternal predestination or election, which ever word you prefer, for they both mean the same thing has given God honor and glory. You are his, not based on anything you have done or will do, but on the basis of his pure mercy alone, without any merit of yours at all, he has saved you, as he says in Ephesians 1:9-12, “In making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 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, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” Go, beloved disciples of God. Live your life in peace and joy, even as you live in a world that has very little peace or joy, knowing that you have been picked by God to be his before the beginning of time. Amen.