God’s Foreknowledge vs. Free Will: How Salvation Works

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody back, and we're going to get right into the book and use every second that we've got today. So if you'll turn with me, for starters, to Romans chapter 15, and then we're going to go back to Genesis chapter 24. And again, we'd like to welcome all of those that are watching on television. We've been appreciating your letters and your phone calls, and we just ask now that you would find a Bible and a notebook and just become part of the class with us. All right, in Romans chapter 15, verse 4, the apostle Paul writes to us Gentiles in particular, and he says, "...for whatsoever things were written aforetime..." Now naturally he's referring back to the Old Testament. So he says, "...what things were written aforetime were written for our..." What's the word? "...learning." See? And that's why we study in the Old Testament to pick up the background for all the doctrines that are going to come, especially from the pen of the apostle Paul. "...all these things were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." And I think you've been realizing, those of you who've been with me over the years, and for those of you who've been watching on television, that I like to bring out the intrinsicness of Scripture, of how miraculously it all fits, so that we have no doubt that we can trust this as the eternal, supernatural, miraculously written Word of God. Now then, if you'll come back to Genesis chapter 24, and you'll remember in our last few weeks of lessons we were dealing, of course, with Isaac and Ishmael, and how Isaac is by type a picture of grace. He was the son of promise, whereas Ishmael was the son of the flesh, and he was depicted by Paul in the book of Galatians as a picture of law. Now we'll go back to chapter 24, and here is another chapter. I'm a little reluctant to call it a type, simply because there's one part of the account that kind of would break down with regard to a perfect type. Now I think most of you know what a type is out of the Old Testament. It is a perfect illustration of a New Testament truth. For example, we know that Abraham is so typical of the man of faith, and we can call him a man of type. And Joseph is in so many ways experiencing the same things that were experienced in the life of Christ, and so we can almost picture Joseph as a type of Christ in that Old Testament setting. And the same way here. I think chapter 24 comes close to being a type, but because of one little detail, I'm going to shrink back from calling it that. So I'm going to call it just a good illustration, and that is that as Abraham is going to send out his servant to get a bride for his son Isaac, it is a perfect parallel at least of what the Holy Spirit is doing today to call out the bride for Christ. And this is the lesson that I like to pull out of this chapter, but the only small point that breaks down is that the Gentiles as such have not really been isolated yet in Scripture, because Abraham is only the father of the Hebrew race, and he's going to send his servant back to his own kinfolk for a bride for Isaac, so it isn't like he's actually going to the Gentiles as we know the Lord is doing today with regard to the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, which is for the most part Gentile. But nevertheless, we're going to look at this chapter with that parallel, and for sake of illustration again, let's just put it on the board for a moment that the parallel of God the Father, of course, will be Abraham himself, who is the father in this case, and the parallel of the Son is Isaac, the Son, and then the parallel of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, will be Abraham's servant. And the role of the servant here is going to be so in line with the role of the Holy Spirit working today. And I want you to just be aware of these things as we come through the chapter. Now we're not going to take the whole chapter verse by verse, because so much of it is repetition, but we'll try to hit the highlights. Now in chapter 24, verse 1, Abraham was old, well stricken in age. Well indeed, because he was how old when Isaac was born? Well, he was a hundred. And now Isaac is already up in a good number of years, and so indeed Abraham is getting well along in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. Now verse 2, "...and Abraham said unto his eldest servant," now the servant isn't named here, but the servant that is named back early in Genesis, of course, was Eliezer. Remember that one? And no doubt it's the same one. But whatever, he says to this servant that ruled over all that he had, in other words he was the manager of his household, he said, "...put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear." Now this language kind of throws a curve at us, and we think, well now what in the world? Well all they're doing is practicing old ancient customs that were really written out by old Hammurabi. Now Hammurabi, I've referred to more than once, was more or less the philosopher and sort of a lawgiver in ancient Babylon. And until God calls the nation of Israel out and really begins dealing with them and gives His intrinsic instructions, much of the then known world operated according to the laws of Hammurabi. And they were good. They were good moral laws for the most part, but they certainly were not God inspired as we now find here in the Scriptures. So some of these things that we think, well now that's odd. What in the world? Well that's all it is. It was just simply the custom of those days. So verse 3, "...Abram now to his servant says, I will make thee swear by Jehovah the Lord, the God of heaven, the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country, unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac." Now I suppose this is a good place to stop. I was hoping I wouldn't have to stop and take time to erase, but I'm going to have to, because in order to understand what Abraham is really talking about when he says, go back to my kindred, let's just draw again a little makeshift map up here, the Mediterranean sea coast, and you always have to identify our eastern geography with the city of Jerusalem, and then the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River, and come on down. But way out here to the east, the Euphrates River, and clear down here in Ur, you remember way back in Genesis when God first talked to Abraham, or Abram as he was then, that Abram and his father Terah made their way up along the Euphrates River, and I'm really out of scale here, but they come all the way up into this area that presently is known as Syria. Damascus would be somewhere around in here, but old Terah and his three sons had made their way from Ur, way down there on the Gulf, where we've had the recent conflict, and they made their way up here into Syria, and the name of the place later becomes Haran. And then from Haran, after Terah dies, you remember Abraham came down into the land of Canaan, wherein of course the Canaanites dwelt. Now I think too, in order to get a good picture of this whole setting, we almost have to go clear back to the three sons of Noah. And I wouldn't do it if it weren't that the whole Middle East is front-page news almost every day. And if only more people could understand that Middle East setting, according to even biblical history, I think we'd have a lot less confusion than we've got even amongst our men in high places. So let's again go back to Noah coming out of the ark, and remember Noah had three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Now Japheth we'll take care of first, because he becomes the progenitors of what the Bible referred to as the Goyim, and we have now put the term Gentile on that. And until later on in history, the Goyim were predominantly the Japhethites, or what I remember I told you way back in Genesis chapter 10, they were predominantly the Caucasian people, the Indo-Europeans as they're often referred to now, especially if you've been reading articles on Columbus, and they're getting ready to either chastise his history or elevate it, but they're referring so often now to the Indo-Europeans. Well they were the Japhethites, they were predominantly the Caucasians. But as you come down through history and even into the Bible, it finally gets to the place that a Gentile is anybody who is a non-Jew. But early on this was the Gentile. Now over here at Ham you remember, he was the one on whom Noah had placed the curse, and so he was the progenitor then of the Canaanites. Now the Canaanites in Scripture, we normally picture them as living there on the shores of the Mediterranean in the present day land of Palestine or Israel and so forth, but the Canaanite was then in the land when Abraham came. But here's the one we are predominantly interested in. Out of this line of Shem comes the man Terah. Terah came from Ur of the Chaldees, remember, and Terah had three sons. The one of course was Abram or Abraham as we now know him, and on over on this side we had Haran, and over here on this side the other son of Abram, I'll erase this, and then the other son of Terah rather was the gentleman by the name of Nahor. Now all these names aren't all that important except I want you to see how that in our own present day with all the problems in the Middle East, it all goes back to these families. Haran of course, the one we know best, was the father of Lot. Lot in turn had two sons by his own daughters, you remember back there in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot's offspring from the two daughters were Moabites, you know them in Scripture, and the Ammonites. Now just in case you wonder what I'm talking about, what's the present day capital of Transjordan? Ammon, see. And so it comes right back to these same roots. They're still all part and parcel of this line of families. Now over here Nahor, and I'm going to come back to Abram in a minute. Over here Nahor, he has a son whose name is Bethuel. Bethuel has a daughter whose name of course is Rebekah, and that's the one we're going to come to now in chapter 24. Bethuel has Rebekah, and he also has a son by the name of Laban. Laban in turn has two daughters, and their names were Leah and Rachel. Now is it starting to fall into place? Now here comes Abraham's family. First of course he had the Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, from whom he had Ishmael. Then he has the son by his own legal wife, Sarah, and that of course is Isaac. And then after Sarah dies, he takes to wife a gal by the name of Keturah, and Keturah has a son besides others, but from whom the Midianites come on the scene. Now if you know your Bible, you remember the Midianites? Well those were the people to the east when Moses fled to the desert. Do you remember? And he married a daughter of the priest of Midian. Now I'm pointing all this out to show how that all of these families are intertwined, with the exception of course we're going to keep the Canaanites out, because God had distinctly said that they were not to marry a Canaanite. Now let's move on down. Ishmael goes right back, and his mother was an Egyptian, and Ishmael in turn marries an Egyptian. And the Egyptians of course came from Ham. So we've got a connection between this line of the offspring of Ishmael with the Canaanites and the Egyptians, and then they marry back. And that's why I mentioned here several weeks ago that even though the Egyptians are not true Arabs, yet the Egyptians and the Arabs are always acting like next of kin. But now let's move on down. From Isaac then, we know that he has two sons, and again I'll put this over here, and that's Esau, and over here he has Jacob. Esau in turn goes right back, and he marries a Canaanite, or knights, he marries two of them, which the Scripture says were a grief of mine to Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob now goes out, and he's going to marry Leah and Rachel, and from that union we get the twelve sons, which become the twelve tribes. Out of the twelve tribes we come all the way down to King David. Well, let's start with Judah. Judah is one of the twelve tribes, and then Judah comes down to the line of David. David has Solomon. Now if I had a little more board, I'll just have to draw this in your mind. From Solomon, the genealogy split. On the one side we come down and we have the genealogy of Mary, which is the bloodline that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, and on the other side of the genealogy we have the line that leads to Joseph. Now Joseph of course was not the blood father, but he was the legal father. So you see everything just fits perfectly all the way down through it, and God is in such complete sovereign control. All right, now then let's move on in Genesis 24, remembering that all of these families now in the Middle East, except for Japheth over here, all these families from here on are all interrelated. And that's why they have such a hatred for one another, is because they're blood relatives. They're just no denying it. All right, chapter 24 now then again, dropping down to where we just left off, where he says, "...thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of Canaan." Verse 4, "...but thou shalt go to my own country, and back to my kindred," that is up to Syria, "...to take a wife for my son Isaac." Then verse 5, "...and the servant said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be..." What's the word? "...willing." Now I said that this is going to be, I think, a picture, an illustration or parallel of God calling out the body of Christ from amongst the Gentiles. God the Father has sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is moving amongst the human race, wooing them, presenting them with the plan of salvation. And even though God is sovereign, and we've gone over this so often in our classes, those of you who have been with me now over the years, and it's one of those things that's hard to reconcile. Is God absolute in who He chooses? Does everyone else not have a chance? Or how does it all work? Well, I think what you have to do is put the two thoughts into an awareness that it's not either one or the other. And of course what I'm talking about is, is it totally the sovereign choosing of God, or the word chosen is used, the elect is used, predestinated is used, and over against that we have the free will. Now way back at the time of the Reformers, Calvin, of course, was of the persuasion that we're chosen. And then those who abused Calvin's teaching went so far as to go overboard and say, well, if you're chosen, there's nothing you can do about it. If you're chosen, no one has to do anything to win you. You're in. If you're not chosen, you're out. There's nothing you can do about it. Well, I maintain that that approach is rather ridiculous. But you see, at the time of Luther and Calvin, with that approach up came a fellow by the name of Arminius. And I'm sure you've all heard of the Arminian view. Well, Arminius was of the opposite persuasion, and that was that God has nothing to do with it. It's all up to the free will of the individual. Well, you see, that's the other extreme. And so what you have to see in this verse here, verse 5, there has to be a willingness. But on the other hand, as you go through this chapter, you can see that God definitely had His hands on the whole situation. Everything just kept falling into place, and the servant here was amazed. Boy, he no more than gets up to Syria, and he asks God now, he said, the girl that is to be the one, let her, when I ask for water, say, well, not only can you drink, but I'll water your camels also. And so what happens? The very first girl that comes along is the one. Well, now how are we going to reconcile it? Keep your hand in Genesis, and let's go all the way back to one of Peter's little epistles. 1 Peter, 1 Peter, because see this thing of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man is going to be with us from Genesis through Revelation, and we might as well reconcile it early on. 1 Peter, way back there toward the end of your New Testament, 1 Peter right there in chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, where we read Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, is a stranger scattered throughout Potos, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Now verse 2, elect, see there's that word, elect according to the, what's the next word, foreknowledge. And there's the secret to understanding this whole doctrine. Why can God choose some and not others? Because of His foreknowledge, because He knows what an individual will do with His particular offer of salvation. Way back here, why did Rebekah come to water the livestock and meet Abraham's servant at just the appropriate time? Well, naturally it was the sovereign working of God, no doubt about it, but what was she? She was willing. And why was she willing, or why was she chosen? Because God knew that she would be willing. Why are some of us saved and our friends and loved ones aren't? Not because we were special, not because we were better, but God in His foreknowledge could see what we would do with the offer of salvation. And consequently, as Paul says, now you're back in Peter, just come on back to Ephesians and you'll see what I'm talking about. Just come on back to the left a little bit and you get to Ephesians 1, verse 4. And I know this verse has thrown a curve on a lot of people, but hopefully this will satisfy some of your questions that it isn't that someone is left without a chance, and that God has just put His finger on certain ones, but rather that God in His foreknowledge knew what every individual would do in the exercise of their own free will. And then, of course, He could say, verse 4 of Ephesians 1, according as He hath, past tense, chosen us in Him, when? Before the foundation of the world that we should be holy or set apart and without blame before Him in love. Why could God choose us? Because He knew what we would do. That was His foreknowledge. And maybe this will help a little bit. Now, we're not going to be able to finish chapter 24 in this half hour like I hoped we could, but anyhow, let's come back now then to chapter 24 and we'll go as far as we can, and then we'll, for those of you out in television, we'll pick it right up again next week. But now in chapter 24 of Genesis, continuing in verse 5, He says, Well, peradventure, if the woman not be willing to follow Me in this land, must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? Now, I think the key word in this verse, to understand what the servant was talking about, since this is a, like I said, I still think it's a picture of the calling out of the body of Christ. I think what is being approached here is, well, maybe we should go on to the verse 6. And Abraham said unto Him, Beware thou, that thou bring not my son there again. And the key word is again. Now, all through the book of Hebrews, we find the word once, O-N-C-E, once. This Christ did once. This He did once, over and over. And so what is being implied here? Christ is not going to come back a second time to go to the cross. That was accomplished at one time, and nothing can ever cross that over. So the emphasis here is, beware that you do not take my son back. And the word I said was crucial is the word again. We're not going to repeat something that has been done once before. All right, verse 7 then, The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that swearing unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land, and of course he's speaking of Canaan, he shall send his angel, that is again, remember, the angel of the Lord, who is Christ in His Old Testament personality, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from Thense, that is from Syria, and if the woman will not be willing, then you're cleared from this my oath. And here we come right back again. As the Holy Spirit moves through this age of grace, calling out. Now, in our next program, we're going to explain that in more detail. As the Holy Spirit is moving throughout the human race, particularly amongst the Gentiles, He is calling out, the book tells us, a people for His name. No one is ever forced. It is all based upon the free will of the individual. But never forget, God in His foreknowledge knew what we would do. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.