S. PREDESTINATION

PREDESTINATION Dr. W. A. Criswell Acts 27:20-34 05-23-54 In our preaching through the Word, we are in Acts 27:1-44. And, as I preach the message tonight, if you have your Book, you can turn with me as we look at some of these verses in God’s Word. The sermon tonight is entitled, Predestination: The sovereign, fore-ordaining decrees of Almighty God. The reading of the Word will begin at the twentieth verse and we’ll follow through to about the thirty-fourth.

Acts 27:1-44, beginning at Acts 27:1-20 : And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, `Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. And now 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;” and lo, God hath given them-all two hundred seventy-six souls-God hath given thee all thee that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it will be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms, and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day. And as the shipmen-the sailors-were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea-another little boat, a lifeboat-under color 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. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off-and be dashed against the shore. They were all in there to live or to die together now-And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat saying, “This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take the meat, for this is for your health-you will need it to get to the shore-for there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all... .

"And they were all full of cheer" and good bread: Two hundred three score and sixteen souls; two hundred and seventy-six souls. And then the rest of the story: How the ship was run aground. The violence of the sea broke it in pieces. Those who swam, and those who couldn’t, clung to pieces of wreckage and debris. And, thus, they all got to land. And it came to pass they all escaped safe to land, according to the decree of God.

Now, we’re going to take a look at a mountain. We’re going to look at it. I didn’t say we were going to explain it or say where it came from. We’re going to look at it. We’re going to take a journey and look at one of God’s works, what God does. I don’t propose to explain it. We are just going to look at it: What God does. An old woman went to the zoo and she looked at a giraffe. It was the first long-necked specimen of an animal like that she had ever seen. And she looked at that giraffe and she said, "There just ain’t no such animal." She didn’t believe it, looking at it.

Now we’re going to look at a work of God. God’s works are many and manifold. There is no man that can explain any of them. You just can’t. No man. You just look at it and describe it and delineate it and say how it is. But you don’t know why or wherefore. No man. No man.

One of the most silly things that you will ever try to follow in your life will be when you pick up a magazine and the scientist there is going to tell you where the world came from. He’s going to tell you where life came from. And he spews and he sputters and he stutters and he hesitates and he writes sentences and he says words and then, finally, has to break down and confess he is just an ignoramus like all of the rest of us. He has no idea. No idea.

We just look at it. We just look at it. We just look and see what God does and that’s all. I went to the World’s Fair in Chicago. And while I was there, I went to the planetarium and looked on the inside of that planetarium and they had all of the stars and heavens up there. Little specks of light, you know. And they changed them and they showed us how the heavens were at seasons of the year and how at that season of the year. And they showed how far it was here and how far it was there. But all you can do, all any astronomer can do, is just look at the firmament to see what God has done. There is not any astronomer who can explain to you how it was done and how those stars got there and who made them and where they came from. And man, you’ve got one of two alternatives: Either this matter in this universe, these stars and this firmament and this earth, is eternal or God is eternal. One or the other. One or the other. Either it came here itself and made itself and produced you or God made it. It is one or the other. You take your choice. The only thing for me is, I never saw matter make anything at all, did you? Did you ever see a rock make anything? Did you ever see a rock produce life? Did you ever see anything born of life out of something dead and inanimate? That’s God’s world and all we do is just look at it and marvel at it.

I studied botany when I was in school. Botany. And we took a microscope and looked at a little leaf. That little leaf was made up out of cells and, on the inside of those cells, there is protoplasm. And on the inside of those little protoplasmic cells were little chlorophyll bodies.

Chlorophyll, green-colored bodies, chlorophyll, green colored. That’s what makes the earth green. And the little chlorophyll bodies were going around and around and around and around and they were making tree plant sugar, glucose you call it. They were making sugar. And, sometimes, when it goes into the roots of a tree, it will turn into starch, like in a potato. And all of our life is dependent upon little chlorophyll bodies. And when you watch them work, they just go around and around and around and around. And they take energy out of the sunlight: Photosynthesis. They take energy out of the sunlight. And they take a little molecule and they store that energy in a little molecule.

Those little green chlorophyll molecules just go around and around and around and around. What makes them go around and around and around? Nobody knows. God does that. He makes them go around and around and around and around. And He puts energy in them. And you eat them and that’s the way you live. No man explains that. You just look at it, that’s all. You just watch it. When I was in school, I took several pre-med courses. I ran down a cat and killed him and skinned him and put him in a barrel of formaldehyde. That was the cat course. And I started at the tip of his nose and went clear down to the end of his tail and I dissected that cat. And I drew all of its parts and all of his organs: Its arterial system and its venous system and all of its works and all of its organs, all the way through.

But, there is nobody in the earth that can tell you why its tail grows there and its ears grow there and its eyes grow there. Nobody can. Why don’t his eyes grow on the end of his tail? Why don’t they? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. That’s God. That’s the Lord. That’s God.

Now, God not only has a material nuclear molecular world-not only has that kind of a world-and He not only has an animated world, a world of life, physical life, animal life. He not only has that. He has another world. He has a spiritual world. And the same Lord God that makes and governs the stars in their courses and the development of life that you see-the same Lord God-has great sovereign decrees that He pronounces in our spiritual world and here is one of them in this chapter tonight. That’s the reason I’m preaching about it tonight. We run across it again in the Bible.

And, I say, I’m not going to explain anything to you tonight. I can’t. All I can do is just say, “There’s the star and it shines and it is a glorious sight and God made it. There it is, just look and worship.” That’s all I’m going to do tonight. I can’t explain these things to you. We are just going to look at them. The Lord God made a decree in His sovereign will. He said, "My chief apostle must preach before Caesar in Rome." God made a decree: "My Apostle Paul shall go to Rome and preach the gospel in the city of Rome." And that decree was repeated. And what do we read? The Lord God made that decree and everything under high heaven, everything under the shining sun and everything in the blackness of night arose up to defy and to defeat and to deflect and to deter and to delay and to deny that decree. Everything did. And upon one of those occasions, there were two hundred seventy-five souls along with Paul. And all of them faced certain and inevitable death. And the Lord God said to Paul, "Paul, you’re going to be saved. You’re going to be safe. And not only you, but I have given the rest of those two hundred seventy-five souls, I have given to you also." And the Lord God told Paul, "You’re going to lose the ship. The ship is going it sink." And the Lord God told Paul, "You’re going to be cast upon a certain island. But there is not a hair of any man’s head that is going to fall or to fall or to perish. Every man will escape." God said so. All of that zig-zagging of the ship-it went this way and that way and that way and that way-that didn’t defeat the purposes of God. God said, "They will all be saved” and that Paul would stand before Caesar in Rome. And the wind blew fiercely. And it beat on that ship. And they even cast out the tackle of the ship and downed the rudders and let her ride, let her drive before the tempestuous storm. That didn’t matter. Whether that ship was driven to Adramyttium. Whether it was driven beyond the Gates of Hercules. Whether it was driven back up into the Black Sea. That didn’t matter.

God said, "They will all be saved," and that of Paul-to preach in Rome. And there is not anything that can defy or deflect or decry or delineate that decree is going to happen. God said so. The Lord said so.

Now, every kind of a death here seems to fall upon Paul. There was the death here of drowning in that awful storm. There was the death here threatened by the sailors-“Except these men stay in the ship to guide it as it shifts on the ground, we all perish"-There was death here threatened by the soldiers. The soldiers said to the centurion, "We must slay all of these prisoners lest they escape."

And, finally, in this next chapter we come to the next Sunday. There was a snake that fastened on Paul’s hand, a poisonous snake. And when the people saw it, they said, "He will immediately convulse, swell and die."

He didn’t convulse. He didn’t swell up. He didn’t die. Why? God said, "He is to preach My name before Caesar." And there is not anything that can happen to change the decree of Almighty God.

Look at Paul. He’s just as serene as he can be, there in the midst of that awful storm, fourteen days and fourteen nights. No light at night. No light in the day. No sun, no stars. Yet, just as serene as he can be, standing there in the midst of those wretches, all of whom think they are inevitably, certainly, to die.

Paul stands there and he says, "I pray you eat. Eat! Eat! Restore your strength. You will need it. Eat, for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." And he took bread and he thanked God and he gave to them all and they all were persuaded by the great optimism of the preacher. In a vessel that was certainly going down, in a storm incomparable… . Usually those tempests are brief in the Mediterranean. This thing lasted, apparently, for two solid weeks. Now, in the midst of it is this preacher of God, unperturbed, undisturbed, with a smile on his face, with hope in his heart, with an assurance from heaven. "Come," he says, "Break bread with me." And he gave thanks to God, serene, undisturbed, there in the midst of the howling wind and the fierce tempestuous sea.

That’s the reason God writes over here in this Book all about the future of the church and the future of His people. I tried to preach to you this morning that this sea of life, this ocean upon which we sail will never be altogether placid, mirror-like. It is going to be tempestuous. It is going to be terrible.

We have had our Tamerlane and our Genghis Khan. And we’ve had our terrible Hitlers and our unspeakable Tojos and Mussolinis. And we’ll have them again. They are coming, God’s Book says: fierce adversaries, false prophets and false beasts and false teachers and false leaders and false teachers, preachers. And God says that the end of this world is going to be in a flame of fire. Armageddon lies ahead. Tribulation lies ahead. The days of “Jacob’s Trouble” lie ahead. Terrible things like ahead. But God says, "Don’t you be disturbed. Don’t let it come to mind. Don’t you tremble, because the rock on which you stand will never move. You, His people and His church, are coming out triumphant." Whether the sun shines or not, whether the stars appear or not, God says we shall have an ultimate victory. That is for our day and predetermined and predestinated. God says it. And, like Paul in the midst of a world of conflict and tension and darkness, we’re to lift up our voices and sing. We’re to praise God. The victory is ours.

Now, I want us to look again at this predetermined, foreordained decree of Almighty God: "Paul, the boat is going down and you’re going to be cast on a certain island. But not a single life is going to be lost." God said so: The foreordination of God, the decree of Almighty God.

Now, I want you to look at the human response to a sovereign decree of Almighty God. You look at these. They were saved in the most commonplace sort of way that could imagine. And they labored and they toiled and they worked as though there was no such thing as the decree from Almighty God.

Look here in this Book. It says that, when they got to land, some of them swam. And, Brother, to swim in an ocean-those swells and breakers, if you have ever tried it-to swim in the ocean is a hard job, anyway. Think of swimming in an ocean where there is a terrible driving wind and the mountainous waves are pounding against the sea. It would take all of the strength and energy that a man could command. The Lord decreed they were going to be saved. But they swam with all their hearts and all of the strength of their bodies, those that could swim. And those that couldn’t swim, some of them got a piece of the mast. And some of them got a great big timber. And some of them got a great big plank, anything that they could find that was loose as the ship began to break up.

They got everything they could. They hung on to it. And they did all of their might to get to the shore, even though Paul had said, "Every last one of you is going to be saved." Yet they toiled and they labored, as though there was no such a thing as a decree, a sovereign decree from Almighty God. When Paul made that announcement, why, they did everything that the skill of the sailors could command. They sounded after Paul said that, took the sound. And then they hoisted the mainsail and they unloosed the rudders. And those sailors did all of the things that only a seafaring man would know to do in order to guide the ship, even though God said, "You are certainly going to be saved."

Now, that, I think is an ultimate answer for our hearts and our lives about the sovereign, foreordaining, predestinating decrees of Almighty God. He does it and He runs it and He chooses and He elects and He guides and He says certain things and they inevitably come to pass, just like it is written here in the Book. And yet, and yet, with us, down here in this world, there’s no violation of our moral integrity or our free choice or the sovereignty of our own lives. The two go together. The great decree of Almighty God leaves me absolutely and perfectly free. I am not bound. I’m at liberty. The decree of God has in it my own free choice, and the two are not antagonistic. They go together in the will of God.

Way back yonder in 1643, one of our Baptist associations wrote a confession of faith and this is it:

God has decreed in Himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever come to pass… .

Brother, that’s the old-time doctrine: "God has decreed in Himself from all eternity whatever comes to pass." That’s what those old-time Baptists wrote. Yet, now look at the second part of that long sentence:

Yet God has decreed from all eternity everything that comes to pass, yet so is thereby, neither is God the author of sin nor has any fellowship therein. Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature. Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away. But rather established. That contingency of second causes means this: Even though God made the decree that you shall certainly be saved, yet Paul says when those sailors started to get in the boat and escape from the ship-Paul says, "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved."

Now, how do you reconcile both of those? Right up here, Paul says: "There is not a hair of your head that will perish. Everyone of you will be saved."

And, then, right here, Paul says, when those sailors go to get in the boat and flee the ship and leave it to the ignorance and inexperience of men who knew nothing about a boat. Paul said, "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved."

That’s what these old-time Baptists were saying. God has decreed unto Himself from all eternity everything that comes to pass, yet He has done it: Given us liberty and the contingency of second causes. My reckoning to make a thing come to pass is not taken away, but rather established.

Good night alive! I’m over my head! Let’s get in the water real deep now, while we’re in it, way down deep. No need wading out here just a foot. Brother, this water is unfathomable. So let’s go on out. Let’s go on out.

You are elected. You are elected from before the foundation of the world in Christ. You are. I didn’t say that. Brother, if I said that, that wouldn’t amount to anything. I told you we were just going to look at this mountain, that’s all. I can’t explain this thing to you.

All I do is just look at it, in the Book: "according as He hath chosen you in Christ, before the foundation of the world." Now, you look again: "having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ." You, you are elected in Jesus, chosen from before the world was made. "And you are predestinated unto a adoption of the children of Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:4-5). And that’s just one passage. You can multiply them endlessly. You, before the world was made, your name was written in the Book of Life. Before the foundation of the world, you were chosen. You were chosen. And yet, and yet, God also says, "Except ye repent, ye shall in no wise be saved." And God says, "Except ye are born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God." There, God says you are elected from eternity. And then he turns around and says to you, "Brother, you’ve got to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or you can’t be saved." And, there they are, side by side. Just look at them. Just look at them. Just look at them.

Well, let’s take another one here, while we’re at it. The death of the Lord Jesus was foretold, prophesied minutely, a thousand years before Jesus came into the world. A thousand years! God said, “It will be this way. It will be this way.” God delineated minutely. If I had another hour here tonight, we would just follow the minutia that enters into the description of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. A thousand years before Jesus died… and it came to pass just like God said, just like God decreed. That is the sovereign purpose of Almighty God.

Now, when Jesus died, were those who killed Him not responsible, because God said it is going to be that way? You look here and see what Simon Peter says. In Acts 2:23, Him (Jesus) "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” He was crucified by the counsel determined before the foundation of the world. He was "the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world."

"Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands, ye have slain." God said it was going to be that way, and the men who did it, on their hands was the blood of a murderer. And there is both sides: God decreed it and the men who did it were responsible for His death. May I choose one other passage of a like? Listen to them. In the fourth chapter of Acts, in the twenty-seventh verse: For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.

They were doing exactly what God said they were going to do. They were going to take His Son and they were going to drive nails through His hands and His feet and pierce His side and spill out His blood on the ground. God said they were going to do that a thousand years before they did it. And they did whatsoever God, by His counsel, did determine before that they were to do. And Jesus died just like the Lord said a thousand years before.

Well, one more wading into the deep. In the tenth chapter of the Book of John, the twenty-seventh and following verses: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all;-anything in the earth-and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hands. I and my Father are one.

If a man who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been born again, if there is one man that fails of heaven, God is not sovereign. The eternal purposes of God have failed and fallen to the ground, if one of the Lord’s chosen doesn’t make the shores in the storm and the sea of this life.

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them.”