Faithful Followers in a Fearful Future (Part 1)

Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21. I guess you should know that's where we're going to be.

! I'm going to be reading verses 5 through 28.! Actually, I read a long text, and I'll just go ahead and tell you now we're going to spend a couple of Sundays on this passage.

So let me go ahead and read our text, Luke 21, starting with verse 5. Then, as some spoke of the temple, and by the way, the some are the disciples, how it was adorned with beautiful stones, donations, he said, These things which you see, the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.

So they asked him, saying, Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? And he said, Take heed that you do not be deceived.

That you not be deceived. For many will come in my name, saying, I am he. That is, I am Messiah. And the time has drawn near, therefore.

Do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified. For these things must come to pass first.

For the end will not come immediately. Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines, and pestilences.

There will be fearful signs, great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.

You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts, not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer.

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. But your patience possess, by your patience possess your souls.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart.

And let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.

And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. And on the earth distress of nations. With perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.

Men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now when these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads. Because your redemption draws near. Tremendous passage of scripture.

Now there are really two ways, at least two ways, that we could approach this passage in Luke. We could, and you might be thinking of this particular aspect of the passage.

We could approach the text from a, what would be called a purely eschatological perspective. And that is, what I mean is, looking at the prophetic nature of the passage.

Looking at what the passage says about end times. The second coming of Christ. And that's all a part of the passage. There's no doubt about that. And really, this is, after all, Luke's account of what is called the famous Olivet Discourse.

Now, we may not be familiar with all of you here, but very famous passage of scripture in the Bible, the Olivet Discourse. And when we say that term, we're primarily referring to Matthew chapter 24.

But Luke's account is the parallel account to the Olivet Discourse given by Matthew in the 24th chapter of his gospel. In fact, most commentaries that you would consult, at least conservative commentaries, focus on that aspect of the text.

It's prophecy. It's end times, eschatological content. Most commentaries will deal with that.

In fact, MacArthur, I was looking at MacArthur's commentary, and he devoted seven chapters to this passage. Well, that's MacArthur. Actually, that's your pastor sometimes, too.

I'm not going to spend seven sermons. And by the way, I don't know if you know this, but MacArthur's commentaries are really just published sermons. So he spent seven weeks preaching on this passage under the title, Signs of Christ's Return.

So you can tell his focus is to focus upon that aspect of the passage, the end times prophecies that Jesus is giving here in the passage.

Concerning his second coming. Now, the other approach to this text is not so much to disregard that part of the passage, or that aspect of the passage, the end times elements of it.

Not to disregard it, but to focus primarily upon not the future, but the present. The present. Jesus was speaking in the present tense to his disciples, speaking to his disciples, and giving them some very important instructions.

So his intent was for the present even more than it was upon the future. Upon the future. And so this would be a way to look at the passage, to look at it in the present.

And when I refer to the present age, I'm talking about the age in which the disciples were living. As well as the age in which we live.

Because the present age includes all of the time between Jesus' two comings. His first and second coming. Now his first one, of course, has already occurred.

2,015 years ago. So the present age is 2,015 years and counting. Still, because he has not come the second time.

So that's the present age. So when we talk about the present age, this present age, that's the age in which we're speaking. So Jesus' focus is primarily on that. So his chief concern is not our understanding of the great conclusion of all things at his second coming.

Although that's part of the text. Jesus' chief concern is how we conduct our lives in this time until he returns.

So Jesus is not really very interested. In fact, I think sometimes it gets a little bit impatient with us when we have these kind of endless and meaningless debates about the differing views of eschatology.

You know, pre-mill, post-mill, ah-mill, all of those kind of things. And maybe you're familiar with some of that. He's not so much interested in that. Jesus is interested in our conduct as disciples regardless of your end times theology, as long as it's at least orthodox.

Okay? He's interested in how we're living. That's what he is intending to convey to his disciples in this particular passage. And so by extension, he is conveying that to us.

All right. So when the Bible begins to talk about the future, you should know that its chief concern is the present. The present. That's its chief value.

How we live right now. How we're living right now in light of what we know and what has been revealed about the future. And so when you study end times prophecy, I think you're going to discover every time that there is an emphasis on the here and now.

And that's what we have in this particular passage. I'm not going to disregard the future element of the passage. Believe me. We'll be talking about that.

Talking about some of that this morning. But again, the Lord's focus is not primarily on the conclusion of history. As much as it is on the conduct of his disciples in this interim time before the conclusion.

Before his second coming. All right. So the two always come together. And you should discover that. You should know that. Anytime you're studying passages of scripture in the Bible that deal with future.

The end times. Both come together. The prophetic and the practical. And the primary focus being on the practical. The practical. How we're living.

How we are to live. In light of what we know about the future. Now with that said, there are two subjects that stand out in this passage. Two kind of broad subjects.

Though yet I would say, you know, really there is a specific element here. Two subjects. Two subjects. The first one. And this will be our focus this morning. Would be what I would call the perfection and power of our God.

Working his eternal purposes in the history of mankind. That's one thing we see in this passage. In fact, you see that all the time. When you deal with those passages that are eschatological.

Those passages view the future. That take us to the end of all things. We see the perfection and power of God working. Constantly working his eternal purposes in the history of mankind.

That's what we're going to be seeing this morning. The second thing that we see in the passage. And this will be our subject next week. And that is the passion of our God.

That his beloved children would stay faithful to the end. That we would stay faithful to the end. Even though there are fearful times ahead.

Well, not just ahead, but even in the present. That we would stay faithful. God has a great passion for that. And his son Jesus Christ has a great passion for that.

And we see that in this passage. So faithful followers in a fearful future. Faithful followers in a fearful future.

Alright, so getting to the text then. The thing we want to see this morning is the Lord's foreordaining the future. The Lord Jesus Christ foreordaining the future.

If you take notes, that's point number one. That's the point we're going to be discussing this morning. And so let's just kind of immerse ourselves in the story.

I've been trying to do that as we've been. Especially in this portion of the text. Because we're in Jesus last week on planet earth. Very soon he's going to be crucified. And buried.

And then he will be raised from the dead. But this is the last week. This is the passion week. And we're at the close of the middle of the week. At the close of Wednesday.

That final week. And so according to Matthew's account. We didn't read that a moment ago. But let me read verse 1 of it. In Matthew 24 verse 1. According to Matthew.

Then Jesus went out. And departed from the temple. So he's leaving the temple. And he's with his disciples. Because it says. And his disciples came up to show him.

Show Jesus. The buildings of the temple. The temple complex. So they're kind of directing Jesus' attention. To the beautiful temple complex.

And it was beautiful. That's how Matthew begins this portion of the passage. This narration. Luke just simply says in verse 5. Then as some spoke of the temple.

And we understand that this is the disciples are speaking of it. They spoke of the temple. How it was adorned. With beautiful stones.

And donations. So they're pointing out the structure of the temple. And the donations. We'll get to what that means here in just a minute.

So they're pointing to the temple. They're calling Jesus' attention to it. But it's not just that. They are enamored by it. They are overwhelmed by the temple. And here's what we're to understand.

This is what's happening here. Because this is the beginning of the Olivet Discourse. And we know that discourse took place on the top of the Mount of Olives. Right next to Mount Moriah.

Upon which the temple was built. And so they... Jesus decided to leave the temple. It's the end of the day on Wednesday at some point. And he's been teaching through the bulk of the day.

And so now he's leaving the temple. And his disciples are with him. And they are leaving and crossing down through the Kidron Valley. And eventually up the Mount of Olives.

And there Jesus will be teaching. In fact, I think he's been teaching every step of the way. Just kind of as they're going. He is teaching them a number of things. And we have the bulk of it recorded in Matthew's Gospel in Matthew 24.

But as they are walking through the Kidron Valley. Disciples are looking back at the temple complex. You can kind of imagine that.

Because it would be an awesome view. The temple complex would be towering some 200 feet above the Kidron Valley. So they're looking back and they're seeing this incredible edifice.

The temple there in Jerusalem. And we have to remember that the disciples were Galileans. They were not Judeans. So they were from Galilee. Not Judea.

And perhaps they'd only seen the temple maybe a few times in their lives. In fact, maybe some of the disciples. It's conceivable to think that some of his disciples had never before that week actually seen the temple.

Maybe they were not able to come during the Passover week in their lives. And so forth. And so this was somewhat new to them. And so it was awe-inspiring to them.

And so they were struck by its beauty and magnificence and size and all of that. They had now spent the better part of a week inside the temple.

In its massive structure. In walking around, following Jesus. And being there while Jesus was teaching for several days. They had been in the temple. And so they were just amazed by it. Just awe-struck by it.

And the size of it. And also the beauty of it. The architecture. The Roman architecture, by the way. It was magnificent. And in portions of the interior part.

The part that they could see. Much of it was overlaid by gold. And it was incredible. The artwork. And the engravings. And sculpting.

And so forth. And also the many pieces of artwork that had been donated by wealthy worshipers over the years. That's the donations that Luke refers to here.

It was incredible. And so this was somewhat new to them. And it's pretty easy to understand. That they would be excited about that. And enamored by it. But also you need to remember that their messianic theology was still somewhat flawed at this point.

They had the right theology. But they just didn't understand the timing of it. See, in their view, they were expecting the Messiah to come. And to rule the nations in their lifetime.

Right now. And they were pretty much convinced that Jesus was their Messiah. And that, you know, they would be kind of on the inner circle. Of his rulership.

His kingdom. And from where would he rule? From Jerusalem. The capital city of his kingdom. The holy capital of his kingdom.

And where would his throne be located? In the temple. In the temple. And so it makes perfect sense that the disciples would be enamored by the site of the temple.

And not just its beauty and incredible architecture. And great wealth of material used on the inside. The gold and other precious metals and all of that.

And the craftsmanship. Not only enamored by that. But also dreaming, you know, of the day very soon. When they would be ruling with Jesus. And this would be where they would live.

Basically. And so they had all that going on in their mind. And so they could not have been more caught off guard. Than when Jesus told them about the future of this temple.

See, Jesus knew what they were thinking. Of course he did. He knew what they were thinking. And so what did he say? Verse 6. He said, these things which you see.

These things you're pointing out. These things you're so enamored by. The temple. The temple. The temple complex. He said, the days will come.

In which not one stone. Shall be left upon another. That shall not be thrown down. What a revelation.

I mean, you know. Try to put yourselves. In place of these disciples. What they were awed by.

Their expectation. And so forth. Put yourself in their place. What a troubling revelation this would be.

And they're thinking, what? I mean, they've just been pointing it out. To Jesus. You know, look. This is incredible. They're probably talking to one another. They're looking up at this temple. They've never.

Maybe possibly. They've never really looked at it. From this perspective. And they've been inside of it. For this entire week. And it's so incredible. And so they're thinking, what? Destroyed?

How? And more importantly. When? When? In fact, that's basically what they asked. Didn't they? Verse 7. Teacher. But when will these things be?

And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? That's a pretty important question. Because they don't want to be there when it happens. Right? I mean, you wouldn't want to be.

And so this is a great shock to them. That this beautiful temple. The only one they had ever known. Would be destroyed. Now, we need to understand that Jesus is telling them about something that will happen in the future.

And yet, in their immediate future. We're not talking about something that is way out there centuries to come. But something that is coming very soon.

When the temple would be destroyed. Totally destroyed. Let me just give you a little history. A little brief history of the temple.

Actually, this temple was the second temple. Israel has only had two temples in their history. First temple was built by who?

King Solomon. Remember, David wanted to build a house for God. For Yahweh God. To that point, he'd been living, so to speak, in a tent.

You know, in a tabernacle. This portable temple. And so David had it in his heart to build God a temple. But God would not allow it. Too much blood on his hands. And so forth.

And so he said, your son will build it. Solomon. David's son did build the first temple. In 957 B.C. 1 Kings chapters 5 through 8.

2 Chronicles chapters 1 through 7 are the biblical sources that where we can know about Solomon's temple. It was called Solomon's temple. And in those chapters and those references we can learn about how it was built and the materials that were used to build it.

And how elaborate and beautiful and expensive was it. Most of the interior of Solomon's temple was overlaid with gold. Pure gold.

Not just the walls and pillars and different things, but even the floor itself overlaid with gold. It was incredible. And you can read about that as it's described there in those passages.

The other source comes from Josephus. Josephus, a Jewish historian who lived in the first century. Lived after Christ, but still in that first century and wrote a great deal.

Not only about Jesus, but some of the history, immediate history, but also past history. Going all the way back through Israel's history. And so Josephus wrote a great deal about that.

We can understand about the first temple through him. But you put both of those sources together. And you realize that really the first temple in Israel was a wonder, one of the wonders of the world.

People would come from all parts of the world just to see it. It was magnificent. And the wealth of the riches of the materials that were used.

The gold and silver and other precious metals and all of the artwork and craftsmanship. It was a wonder of the world. And yet, eventually, it was destroyed.

Completely. Now, throughout its history, some 400-year history, it had been sacked and looted a few times. First, by Shishank I.

You probably never heard of him. He was an Egyptian pharaoh who sacked the temple. Second, most notably, by Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, sacked it and stole from it and so forth.

But it was in 700 B.C. when the temple, Solomon's temple, was utterly destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jews were taken into captivity.

It was the fall of the southern kingdom called Judea. The northern kingdom called Israel had already been conquered and taken into captivity long before this.

And now, finally, Judea was conquered and Jews were taken into captivity. And that really brought an end to the nation of Israel. And the temple was totally destroyed by the Babylonians.

The second temple was authorized by the king of Persia, Cyrus, in 538 B.C. So, it's quite a bit of time elapsed from Solomon's, the destruction of Solomon's temple to this new temple in 538 B.C.

It was completed 23 years later by Darius and some of those names you're familiar with from Scripture. The biblical record is found in Esra and Nehemiah and the temple.

This second temple escaped a number of destructions or threats of destruction over the years by some pretty notable people like Alexander the Great, who threatened to destroy the temple and then changed his mind about that.

A little bit later by Antiochus Epiphanes, who actually erected a statue of Zeus there on the altar. And he threatened also to destroy it, but it was not destroyed.

This was during the Greek dominance of the world and then later by Pompey, Roman, and Crassus, also Roman during the Roman period of domination, which extended on into the New Testament.

And then about 20 B.C., Herod the Great, I know you've heard of him, Herod the Great got it in his mind to renovate the temple because really the second temple was really but a shadow of Solomon's temple, really not all that elaborate and, you know, couldn't hardly even compare the two temples.

And so Herod the Great began to renovate it and he greatly expanded the temple and it became known as Herod's Temple. Herod's Temple. And so this is the temple the disciples were looking at and admiring and awestruck about and they were commenting on this particular temple.

It was a temple that was there in the days of Christ. And in those days, it had been under construction for about 46 years. So it wasn't completed even in Jesus' day.

46 years. And we can learn a great deal about Herod's Temple from the Jewish historian Josephus. Herod's Temple was magnificent, yet it still came quite short of Solomon's Temple, but it still was quite magnificent.

The Roman architecture and the wealth of materials that were used inside the craftsmanship, all of that was there in Herod's Temple. And Josephus tells us a great deal about it.

In fact, according to Josephus, some of the stones used in the temple measured 35 feet long, 12 feet high, and 18 feet wide.

That's a pretty good size stone. And they used a number of stones that size. In fact, some of the foundation for the temple still exists today. The Wailing Wall. Huge stones.

And magnificent masonry that was used to build the temple. The courtyard in the temple. I've commented on this before. Courtyard for the temple, that part that surrounded the temple proper.

The courtyard was some 400 by 500 square yards. Now you can picture that, can't you? I mean, you can think of four football fields wide and five football fields long.

This huge courtyard could accommodate many, many thousands of worshippers during the Passover feast. And so you can just kind of imagine the size of the thing.

And also we know the interior of the temple. Again, overlaid, much of it overlaid with gold and the craftsmanship and the carvings on the gates. And it was a magnificent work done by or ordered by Herod the Great.

A rabbi of that day wrote this. He said, He who has not seen the temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life. So he thought quite a bit of it.

Beautiful structure. Herod even had a thousand priests trained to do the work so that the Jews could not accuse him of having the temple built by unclean hands.

And so he's very deliberate on this. And Herod's temple, as I said, took a long time to complete. It had been in construction for 46 years by the time of Christ.

But it would be another 30 years before it would be complete. In fact, it wasn't complete until 63 A.D. And if you know your dates here, that's about seven years before it was utterly destroyed by the Romans.

So 60, you know, by 63 A.D., some 90 years of construction and destroyed by the Roman army in 70 A.D.

And that is the destruction that Jesus is referring to and predicting here in our passage in Luke. What did he say? Again, he said in verse 6, The days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.

Literally torn down. And that is exactly what happened to the temple. The disciples were so enthralled by. And Jesus really is being very specific here.

He said specifically, Not one stone, not one stone shall be left upon another. Not one. He said not one stone shall not be thrown down or literally torn down.

That is the idea here there is a hand-by-hand, block-by-block, purposeful dismantling and deconstruction of the entire temple.

That's what Jesus is saying in these words. Not one stone left upon another. Not one stone that is not thrown down. Not one. And that is exactly what happened. In 70 A.D., Titus, and I know you know part of this story, maybe you've heard all of this, but Titus, the Roman general, laid siege on Jerusalem because of the constant, kind of the perpetual rebellion of the Jews.

The Romans had just had enough of it. And so they besieged the city of Jerusalem, eventually conquering the city. And according to Josephus, and we get a lot of this from Josephus, both Vespasian, who was the emperor at the time, and his son, Titus, so Titus was the son of the Caesar, they were against the total destruction of the temple.

They were against that. In fact, they ordered that it not be destroyed. That is the temple, the architecture, the building itself. And the reason was because of its magnificent Roman architecture.

They wanted to honor the Roman architecture. And so they did not want the thing destroyed. And so they ordered that it be gutted out by fire, burned out, all of its interior.

A bunch of it would be wood, of course. So they ordered it to be gutted out. So the Roman soldiers put wood inside, filled many of the rooms with wood, and lit it on fire, and burned the inside of the temple.

But because much of it was overlaid with gold, it melted the gold. And this molten gold then went down into the cracks between the stone blocks of the temple.

And the soldiers became so, so greedy, mad with greed over the gold that they then to get to the gold then literally unstack every block in the temple.

not one stone was left standing upon another. Not one stone was not thrown down just as Jesus predicted.

Just as he foretold, he prophesied. All right, now all of that to get to this, here's what we need to see. In fact, really two things we need to see. First of all, how did Jesus know this?

It may seem like a silly question for Christians to ask and for anyone in this group to ask. You know, how did Jesus know? Well, of course, the simple answer is Jesus is God.

And as God, he knows in advance all things that will take place in the history of the world. That's the first thing we just must admit.

we see from the text. God knows in advance all things that will take place in the history of the world, in the history of mankind.

He knows all, he's omniscient. We know that about God, don't we? He's omniscient. That is, he knows all things. There's anything he doesn't know. Past, present, future, he knows all things.

He knows what will happen before it happens. And we get it from the text very clearly, not just from this passage, but in so many places in the Bible. But look right here.

What did he say? In verse 6, he said, the days will come. See, sometimes the smallest of words in the Bible carry the largest meaning, the most incredible meaning.

The days will come, he said. Not might come, or potentially will come, but will come. In fact, that runs throughout the entire passage.

In verse 6, the destruction of the temple will come, he said. Do you see that? Verse 8, the deceivers that are coming in my name will come.

They will come. This is going to happen. In verse 10, nation will rise against nation. Not may, will.

Verse 11, there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. Do you see it? It just runs throughout. It's almost redundant. Verse 12, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you.

You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. Verse 17, you will be hated by all for my name's sake. Verse 24, Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles, initially by the Romans, until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.

Verse 25, there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on earth distress of nations and perplexity, with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring.

And best of all, verse 27, then they will see the Son of Man coming in the cloud with power and great glory. You see, will.

Will. God knows in advance all things that will take place in the history of the world, in the history of mankind.

Not what might take place, but what will take place. Not potentiality in history, but actuality in history, in the future.

but did you know, I mean, we say amen to that, but did you know that there are a number of people who don't believe that about God? Yeah, I mean those who profess to be Christians.

In fact, there are a number of people who believe and teach against this truth, even among some Southern Baptists. And those who are in places of leadership, not as much today as a century or two before, ago, but I'll give you an example.

Clark Pinnock. I don't know if you've ever heard that guy. Clark Pinnock was a professor of theology for a number of years at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

That is, he was teaching there until they kicked him out because he got too liberal. But for some time he was teaching this. It's what's called open theism.

You need to understand this particular heresy. open theism, which teaches basically that since God has granted to humanity free will, in order for the free will to be truly free, they say, the future free will choices of individuals cannot be known ahead of time by God.

That's kind of twisted reasoning. That's open theism. In fact, Pinnock co-authored a book entitled The Openness of God and in it he wrote this.

He said, the God of the Bible is with us in time and does not know the things, future things in absolute detail. This is a Southern Baptist teaching one of our seminaries.

I'm so glad that we took our denomination back from the liberals back during Adrian Rogers times and some of the others.

Let me give you another example. Greg Boyd, professor of theology at Bethel University and seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and also a pastor.

A Baptist, though not Southern Baptist, a Baptist, also open theist, an open theist. And this is what he wrote. God can't foreknow the good or bad decisions of the people he creates until he creates these people and they in turn create their decisions.

Incredible. I could give many, many other examples. You know, I have to ask the question, how is it even possible to read about any portion of the Bible and not see that God knows in advance all things that will take place in the history of mankind?

How can you read the Bible and not come to that conclusion? And, you know, all of you are with me on that, right? I think so. I don't think anybody would disagree on this.

God knows all, in advance, all things that will take place in the history of the world. He knows all those things. And you're with me on that.

But are you with me on this? Here's the second thing we need to see. God, now listen, God has ordained in advance all things that will take place in the history of the world.

You understand? It's one thing to say God knows all things. It is quite another thing to say God ordains all things.

Ordains them in advance. And that's a little harder to accept, and yet, it is true. it is true. I want you to see two things in this text side by side.

Two very subtle things, but yet very deliberate, very profound. Verse 6, and I've already mentioned this passage, the days will come.

Alright? The days will come. He knows what's going to come. These things will come. Verse 9, these things must come.

That's something a little different. Will come, must come. Now, why must these things come?

Because God has ordained them. God has ordained them. It's much more than just God's foreknowledge. Alright? Alright?

Even some who are not orthodox Christians and some who are not committed Christians, maybe some who profess to be Christians or not, would admit that, that God knows all things.

He knows all things. He's omniscient. But it's much more than that. It is God's foreordination. His foreordination.

It is His sovereign and therefore settled purpose. That's what we have in this text. Not just what He knows is going to happen.

But what He has predetermined will happen. For ordained will happen. Look at verse 22. For these are the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

These are things that have been already preordained and even prophesied centuries before. This is God's determinate will.

His preordination God ordained Israel from all other nations. He chose them from among all the other nations. He chose them. He ordained it.

And God ordained that the Messiah would come out of Israel. For ordained that before it happened. And God ordained that Israel would crucify reject and crucify their Messiah.

I mean you cannot see it any other way because it was prophesied before. So in eternity past God ordained that they would reject their Messiah and that they would put him to death.

They would crucify him pierce him through and God ordained then that he would judge them. These are the times of his vengeance he said.

But also in this text we see that God ordained that some would believe and God ordained that they would suffer for his name's sake. And God ordained that they would be brought before kings and magistrates.

God ordained that they would testify of the name of Christ. And God ordained that they would be hated by all people for his name's sake. God ordained these things.

With God his foreknowledge is the same as his foreordination. Isaiah 46 9 one of my favorite passages out of Isaiah other than those that deal with the birth of Christ.

Isaiah 46 and verse 9 listen to this very carefully. God is speaking. He says for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is no one like me. Declaring now listen to this declaring the end from the beginning.

From ancient times things that have not been done yet been done declaring them from the beginning. My purpose saying my purpose will be established and it will be accomplished all I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

Truly I have spoken. Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it.

Pretty clear. I could wish though that this were only true of all the big things in God's plan for the world.

It's just those big major things. But the truth is God has a purposeful plan for everything He has ordained for my life.

Both easy and hard things. Both from my perspective good and bad things. As one very learned theologian put it so perfectly.

He said this and I quote nothing has a more powerful efficacy or effect to bring us into subjection to God nothing has a more powerful efficacy to bring us into subjection to God than when we acknowledge that those things which appear to be confused to us a lot of things appear to be confused don't they we're confused bad things that happen hard things that happen in the world and in our own lives when we acknowledge there is nothing more powerful efficacy to bring us into subjection to God than when we acknowledge that those things which appear to be confused are actually regulated by the good pleasure of God!

God in advance has ordained all things the history of mankind with our great God