Introduction – Salvation is ‘sola
gratia’. It is by grace alone. As simple as that gospel message is, its
implications affect our understanding of every part of the work of God upon His
creation to His glory. One of the most
important aspects of biblical theology is that it turns us back to God; to a
God-centered and God-glorifying mindset that brings true rest, true joy, true
comfort, because we are studying God, the source of all these things.
To get to a discussion of God’s plan in the salvation of mankind, we ought to begin with a discussion of how God works in His creation generally. We will use the story of Ahab and the prophet he hated, Micaiah (1 Kings 22), to guide our study.
A Future Someone Knows (vv5-8) – In
all times, men have tried to know the future.
In this passage we see that Jehoshaphat assumed that God did know the
future. There is a belief system today
that claims that God does not know the future because there is no future to be
known. Scripture declares quite the
opposite. God knows all His works from
eternity (Acts
God’s Relation
to Time – God’s dwelling is eternity (Is 57:15). His house is forever. This is saying more than simply He has lived
there a long time. The scriptures do not
teach that from everlasting to everlasting He was and will be
God, but that He is God (Ps 90:2).
This is why God’s prophecies are perfect. Trying to grasp this is too high for us
(Psalm 139:6), and we are warned that we cannot exhaustively comprehend it
(Eccl
The Things God Knows – In the midst of
this story, we see the exhaustive knowledge and providence of God.
Evil Men and
Wicked Angels (vv 19-23) – God directed the evil spirits and
used them to direct the actions and words of the false prophets. Notice that He does this without taking from
them their own free actions. They are
doing precisely what they want. God does
the same thing with the wicked nation of
Random Actions
(v 34) – God knew what that arrow was going to do as well as the stone with
which David slew Goliath. He controls
the gambling casinos (Prov
The Seemingly
Trivial (v 38) – God decreed dogs to be somewhere doing
something at a particular time. He
controls the sparrows and the hairs on your head (Matt
The Gospel Before the World Began
– The story of Micaiah illustrates the exhaustive sovereignty of God in His
knowledge, decrees, and providence of all things. Micaiah’s story is just a part of the larger
story – the story of the gospel which was written before the foundations of the
world.
Before
Time Began (2 Tim 1:8-10, Titus 1:1-3) – God promised
eternal life through the preaching of the gospel to sinners “before times
eternal”. Grace
was extended to sinners before time began in the mind and purpose of God –
before there ever was a sinner. This was
not done because God looked down the corridors of time, saw the future, and
then made choices (Rom
The Purpose of Predestination
– God, the Creator of all things, knows all things, decreed all things, directs all things – the seemingly small, to the most
significant. What is His purpose in
ordering His Creation in such a way?
To Give Himself
a Glorious Name (Is 63:14).
To
Allow His Church to Declare That Glory (Eph
To
Declare His Power over Everything (Rom
To
Preserve a People According to His Promises to Abraham
(Gen 45:7).
That We Might
Sing of His Righteousness and Goodness (Ps 145:7).
Part of modern man’s problem with the doctrine of God’s exhaustive sovereignty, knowledge and providence, is that it puts all the importance on God and not us. But God did not create the heavens and the earth to declare their glory. He didn’t create us to declare our glory. He created everything and orders all things for His glory. And this means our chief reason for existence is to glorify God, enjoying His wisdom, His goodness, His grace and mercy, and doing so forever.
Dave
Hatcher – May 25, 2002