I feel bad whenever someone isn’t able to follow along as I share the message the Lord has laid on my heart to bring to you folks on Sundays. Sometimes I don’t express myself as clearly as I should, (A)). Often it’s annoying noises, an illness or wandering thoughts and similar distractions which have a way of depriving God’s children of all the spiritual nourishment He wants His preachers and teachers to feed His sheep, (John 21:15-17). A recent case in point was my Christmas message, “The Secret,” which some of you told me you had a little difficulty following while others who also heard it preached assured me they didn’t have a problem at all. Among the folks who read it, the feedback was pretty much the same. Some had difficulty understanding certain parts and others didn’t. I believe that of those who read it, and providing they weren’t distracted and were able to take the time to really ponder my story, they wouldn’t have any difficulty whatsoever. For instance, judging from the feedback it seemed obvious that one of our young Navigator friends from last summer had a clear understanding of a particular teaching I elaborated on which she described as being “so encouraging” and “amazing,” as perhaps most of us also do. However, I believe all non-Christians as well as many, who truly are, believe the same teaching is something which could have been “belched out of the bowels of Hell,” and that’s putting it mildly. To non-Christians, this teaching is right up there in the repulsiveness of Jesus insisting that people must be reborn and believe in Him in order to enter heaven.

I crafted “The Secret” with the intention of addressing that difference of opinion this morning.  Before I share the young student’s comments and tackle that particular issue, and since the snowstorm prevented some of you folks from being here to listen to what I hoped would become a “spiritual banquet,” I thought it would be helpful this morning if I shared some of my prayerful rational that went into creating The Secret and then briefly summarize it in order to help you connect the dots. Incidentally, in case you haven’t noticed, it wasn’t a quick read.

Knowing we were very likely to have non-Christians join us that Sunday before Christmas, I deliberately preached it in the form of a parable in an attempt to capture their attention. I wanted to keep them and the rest of you with me and give everyone lots of spiritual food for thought. It was saturated with biblical truth. For instance, I touched upon Gods Creation and the uniqueness of man, especially of how man alone possesses both a body and a spirit. I spoke of the necessity of man being in a proper relationship with his or her Creator. The fall and its awful consequences were addressed together with man’s absolute helplessness to rectify his plight, and his total dependence upon the merciful love of the One who was born to die, that poor lost sinners such as you and me might live–forever.

Sprinkled throughout my message were numerous allusions to God’s absolute Sovereignty and how He orchestrates all the events which back in eternity past He planned to unfold in the course of human history. My message was designed to stimulate your thinking about His infinite wisdom and power as well as His foreknowledge of everything that had been planned, ordained and predestined to take place in time, right down to the minutest detail. On that blustery snowy Sunday before Christmas I hoped every Christian who heard it would think about His awesome love and incredible patience and mercy towards His human creatures and leave our worship service with hearts full of joyous gratitude. As for the others, I prayed and asked Him to water the seeds I had just planted so that none of them or their loved ones would be eternally lost.

The Secret also addressed the Christian’s need to sincerely struggle to become more and more Christ-like just as one of my backslidden characters did. With God’s help, the mother of the kidnapped little girl in my story finally had a sincere desire to, and was eventually able to stop her sinful expressions of anger with all its bitterness, resentment and throwing fits of rage, and also ridding herself of harboring an unforgiving spirit. In other words, we should have seen that He wants His followers to strive to become holy just as He is holy, and that without holiness, no one will be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven regardless of their profession of faith. To incline His children to take this command seriously God sometimes allows them to suffer painful afflictions such as the characters in my parable had to endure. It also should have been quite apparent that the often painful challenges you and I have been ordained and predestined to deal with have been individually customized for each of us and are sent by God for our ultimate good and His glory. If you weren’t distracted, you couldn’t help but notice the severity and duration of each of those often painful afflictions had been predetermined by Him back in eternity past and would continue until His purpose in sending them is achieved; just as we saw when Charlie experienced a new birth and when the backslidden mother returned to traveling on the only road which leads to God’s heaven.

The Secret also illustrated how parents, Christians included, can have a profound positive or negative influence on their children. For instance, some children go on to become the most Christ like people despite being taught to believe erroneous biblical teachings. Others become a chip-off-the-old-block and follow in their parents footsteps. It isn’t unusual; in fact, as we saw in my Christmas message, it’s rather common to witness children developing an increasingly close resemblance to one or both of their parents. By the time he arrived at the final days of his life in this world, my fictional character Charlie had blossomed and even eclipsed the despicable sinful characteristics of his father and grandfather. Quite frankly, among his other flaws, Charlie had become a full grown chronically argumentative, in-your-face, angry, unforgiving, impatient, judgmental, holier-than-thou, know-it all, obnoxious, self-deluded phony Christian jerk.

That message explained the Gospel and the necessity of man having to confess his or her sins, and ask for forgiveness, and to believe in the Lord Jesus, followed by a sincere desire to struggle hard to become Christ-like. The mother knew she would not succeed perfectly in this world, (A) but, in total dependence upon God for the desire and strength, she was determined to strive toward the goal with all of her being. Such an obvious struggle is evidence that he or she has truly been born again and are delighting themselves in the Lord and seeking first and foremost His kingdom and His righteousness just as the mother in my story finally exhibited. I also stressed the absolute necessity of a supernatural divine intervention resulting in human beings becoming reborn as the only possible solution to avoid being left in their sins and estranged from God throughout eternity. I even offered an example of the potential danger of alter calls, and how they can sometimes lead to self-deception with Charlie being a prime example.

In The Secret I attempted to encourage and convince you folks that as long as there is life, even for someone such as those who are referred to as being “brain dead” and are existing in a so called “vegetative state” there is every reason to have hope and so we ought to be persistent in fervent prayer for those who, as far as we can tell, have not accepted Christ’s love for poor lost sinners. I also had in mind Christians whose loved ones are alcoholics or drug addicts who had really messed up their brain but may not be aware of the fact that their loved ones spirit was unimpaired and as sharp as it formally was. I wanted those Christians to meditate on that encouraging fact and take comfort in it. We saw the results of such efforts by Charlie’s loved ones on his behalf come to fruition when, unbeknownst to them, Charlie finally confessed his sins and pleaded for forgiveness even to the point of crying. And he received it, and became the new creature in Christ at the precise moment in time God had chosen him to be before He spoke His world into existence.

Towards the end of my Christmas story Charlie acknowledged His sins directly to God and pleaded for forgiveness. He described that act as “a piece of cake” and something he did of his own free will. The angel agreed, but also insisted that on the other side of eternity God had chosen, ordained and predestined Charlie to experience a supernatural rebirth at a specific moment in time. In other words, Charlie’s salvation was the result of God’s amazing grace, and there was nothing Charlie could do to bring it about. At this point Charlie became confused and couldn’t understand the mechanics of “this kind of stuff.” The angel told him “neither does anyone else.” “It’s a miracle.”

It is this fact that prompted our young Navigator friend to send the following feedback concerning my Christmas message. “Thanks Pastor Mike! That was a great message and it’s so encouraging to hear that there is nothing that I can do as a human to earn God’s forgiveness. Like you said, He has predestined me and chosen me before the beginning of time. It is such an amazing thing to think about. Thanks again for sending me the sermon. Sacha Memoli.” (B)

As I mentioned earlier, that particular teaching is something which all unbelievers, including many Christians believe could have been “belched out of the bowels of Hell,” and that’s putting it mildly. For instance, “One current Christian website declares that the doctrine is a “falsehood” which results from the “manipulation of Scripture” which leads to the darkness of false doctrines.” In calling it “the doctrine of devils,” another site denounces it as “the most evil doctrine the devil ever came up with.” “Still another deems it “an unspeakable evil doctrine.” “And yet another website boldly declares: “”I believe it is the most evil doctrine ever invented by humankind. If it were true, the Bible, our own lives, the entire creation would be pointless. It is all a game of a sadistic being who enjoys watching us suffer for his amusement. It is an insult to the very nature of a God. I can’t see how anyone can believe in it and have any respect whatsoever for the divine.” “Still another site asserts: “One of the most horrible of all Christian heresies is that everyone’s spiritual destiny has been predestined from the beginning of time-written as in a book of who will go to heaven and who will not,” (C). And folks such as Sacha find the same teaching to be “so encouraging and amazing” that He has chosen and predestined them from before the beginning of time.

But what about our free will? Where does that come in? How is it possible for human beings to be held accountable for every single one of their thoughts, words and actions throughout their entire lifetime, if back in eternity past they were each foreknown and ordained and predestined by our Sovereign Creator to occur at precise moments in human history? And remember, no one can be truly free if he or she is compelled to do or say something which they don’t want to.

“The true solution of this difficult question respecting the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man, is not to be found in the denial of either, but rather in such a reconciliation as gives full weight to each, yet which assigns a preeminence to the divine sovereignty corresponding to the infinite exaltation of the Creator above the sinful creature. The same God who has ordained all events has ordained human liberty in the midst of these events, and this liberty is as surely fixed as is anything else. Man is no mere automation or machine. In the Divine plan, which is infinite in variety and complexity, which reaches from everlasting to everlasting, and which includes millions of free agents who act and inter-act upon each other. God has ordained that human beings shall keep their liberty under His sovereignty. He has made no attempt to give us a formal explanation of these things, and our limited human knowledge is not able fully to solve the problem. Since the Scripture writers did not hesitate to affirm the absolute sway of God over the thoughts and intents of the heart, they felt no embarrassment in including the acts of free agents within His all-embracing plan,” (D).

Many Christians will insist God does indeed foreknow everything with one exception, those acts His creatures will make of their own free will. However, if you search the Bible you will find “that the Scriptures contain predictions of many events, great and small, which were perfectly fulfilled through the actions of free agents. Usually these agents were not even conscious that they were fulfilling divine prophecy. They acted freely, yet exactly as foretold. A few examples are: the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, the parting of Jesus’ garments and the casting lots by the Roman soldiers, Peter’s denial of Jesus, the crowing of the rooster, the spear thrust, the capture of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the Jews into captivity, the destruction of Babylon, etc. It is plain that the writers of Scripture believed these free acts to be fully foreknown by the divine mind and therefore absolutely certain to be accomplished. The foreknowledge of God did not destroy the freedom of Judas and Peter-at least they themselves did not think so, for Judas later came back and said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood;” and when Peter heard the rooster crow and remembered the words of Jesus, he went out and wept bitterly.” “Foreknowledge does not make future acts certain but only assumes them to be so; and it is a contradiction of terms to say that God foreknows as certain an event which in its very nature is uncertain. We must either say that future events are certain and that God knows the future or that they are uncertain and that God does not know the future. The doctrines of God’s foreknowledge and foreordination stand or fall together.”

“Our acts are in accordance with the decrees, but not necessarily so-we can do otherwise and often should. Judas and his accomplices were left to fulfill their purpose and they did as their wicked inclinations prompted them. Hence Peter charged them with a crime, but he at the same time declared that they had acted according to the purpose of God,-“this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men,” Acts 2:23 (ESV).

”The holy angles and redeemed saints are free agents, yet it is certain that they will never sin; otherwise there would be no assurance of their remaining in heaven. On the other hand, it is certain that the Devil, the demons and fallen men will commit sin, although they are free agents.”

“Strictly speaking we may say that man has free will only in the sense that he is not under any outside compulsion which interferes with his freedom of choice or his just accountability. In his fallen state he has only what we may call “the freedom of slavery.” He is in bondage to sin and spontaneously follows Satan. He does not have the ability or incentive to follow God. Now, we ask, is this a thing worthy of the name “free?” No. Not free-will but self-will would more appropriately describe man’s condition since the fall. It is to be remembered that man was not created a captive to sin but that he has come into that condition by his own fault; and a loss which he has brought upon himself does not free him of responsibility. After man’s redemption is complete he will spontaneously fellow God, as do the holy angels; but never will he become his own master.”

“God so governs the inward feelings, external environment, habits, desires, motives, etc., of men that they freely do what He proposes. This operation is inscrutable, but none the less real; and the mere fact that in our present state of knowledge, we are not fully able to explain how this influence is exerted without destroying the free agency of man, certainly does not prove that it cannot be so exerted. We do have enough knowledge, however, to know that God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom are realities, and that they work together in perfect harmony. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase. Paul commanded the Philippians, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” and in the immediately following verse the reason which he assigns to this, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,” (Phil. 2:12-13 ESV), (E).

Salvation is an amazing gift from God, nevertheless man must accept it. Don’t fall into the satanic trap and accept one of these teachings to the exclusion of the other. Both are true. As the angel in my story said “it’s a miracle.” We must honor God and willingly live with this mystery. Lazarus had been lying dead in the tomb for four days when Jesus told them to roll the stone away. The dead man’s sister Martha was concerned about the smell coming from his dead body. Nevertheless, Jesus commanded Lazarus to do something which was impossible-and Lazarus did. Can you imagine the stench of our sins assaulting God’s nostrils after you and I lay helplessly dead in our trespass and sins in our spiritual tomb for many years? And yet, at a precise moment in time which He had previously predestined, we also did the impossible and freely responded to God’s call.

It should have been apparent that up until shortly before drawing his last breath, Charlie had the freedom of choosing to reject the Gospel which he was so familiar with from attending numerous Bible studies and worship services. But, he could have joined the multitudes of those to whom the inspired author of the letter to the Hebrews gave this warning:^{4 “}It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, ⁶ if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace,” Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)

Before I close I want to let you in on another secret. Unknown to Charlie, as his creator, I had other plans for him before I even wrote the first word of my story. I had planned and ordained and predestined Charlie to become a new creature in Christ at the so-called eleventh hour. You could even say; I planned on making Charlie and offer He couldn’t refuse.

(A) I should have been clearer here, thanks Mike Anderson. Guest book entry # 103. http://oldfivepointer.com/5.html

(B) And thank you again, Sacha. I appreciate your feedback.  Guest book entry # 98. http://oldfivepointer.com/5.html

(C) A BIBLICAL DEFENSE OF PREDESTINATION, by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. © 2008 by Gentry Family Trust, Published by    Apologetics Media Group, Draper, Virginia, pages 11 & 12. This is a terrific introduction to the subject of predestination and would be very useful in Bible studies.

(D) The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, by Loraine Boettner, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa. Pages 208-209. This classic is useful for an in-depth study of the subject.

(E) Ibid, pages 210-214.