October 29, 2009
revised 10/08/2015
EXPLICIT BIBLE TRUTH 
JESUS
Who is he?
What is he?
Why is he?
FOREKNOWLEDGE
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness but He is patient toward you, NOT wishing for any to perish BUT for ALL TO COME TO REPENTANCE.
Repentance:
Acts 3:26 “For you first (the Jew) God raised up His Servant (Jesus) and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you FROM YOUR WICKED WAYS.”
Only the Eternal God has foreknowledge. We do not have foreknowledge and must learn by listening to God through His word and/or observing and/or we learn through personal experience the consequences of immoral living.
Most of us have some training in the âSCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKSâ and those of us who learn would be wise to repent, change our mind and then make changes in our lives as many have done and continue to do in their walk with the Lord.
Walking with the Lord is not about PAGEANTRY, parading before others, 1Corinthians 13:1 as many seem to think but it is about obedience to righteousness rather than obedience to SELF INDULGENCE which is a very boring and unfulfilling existence.
The Holy Spirit who indwells believers is omniscient meaning He has foreknowledge. This is a great advantage to us if we listen to, heed the instructions which are LOVING GOD AND LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR, 1John 5:1-3.
The Holy Spirit is the one and only VICAR, replacement for Christ and no man has a claim to that title, John 14:16-18.
The Holy Spirit is our leader, the one who comes from God and He convicts the world, EVERY ONE of sin, righteousness and judgment, John 16:8. He does not force us to walk by His instructions but does discipline us and if necessary quite severely, Hebrews chapter 12.
We all go through hardship from time to time in our JOB testing so, just hang in there as the saying goes, 1Peter 4:19. If it is for discipline then we will be fully aware of the reason which will be sin as measured by the commandments of God and probably has to do with NOT LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR, 1John 5:1-3 and 1John 1:9.
Our Learning:
Isaiah 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: KJV
Matthew 7:8 For everyone who keeps asking will receive, and the person who keeps searching will find, and the person who keeps knocking will have the door opened, ISV.
Romans 5:19 For as through the one man’s disobedience (the first Adam) the many (his descendants) were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One (man, the second Adam, Jesus) the many will be made righteous.
1Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last MAN JESUS, BECAME A LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT.
Righteousness is the gift of God and comes through the process of God working in our lives, Romans 3:21-24, Ephesians 2:8-10, ISV, KJV.
TODAY’S COMMENTS
“Foreknowledge”
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God (1John 4:19, 5:1-3), to those who are called according to His purpose.
It is important to understand that we do not keep Godâs commandments to perfection or for salvation but we hold them in high esteem and strive to keep them.
1John 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1John 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS, GODâs SON cleanses us from all sin.
1John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth, GODâS WORD THE BIBLE is not in us.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1John 1:10 If we say that we have NOT sinned, we make GOD a liar, and GODâs WORD, THE BIBLE is not in us.
The Two Great Commandments:
Luke10:27 And he answered and said, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
LOVE here is AGAPE meaning our focus is on the Eternal God and NOT on the world and the WAYS of the world.
The commandments give us blessing and freedom in the world and in eternity future as we live our life in the will of God.
The will of God is imperative in our lives as we are a very intricate and complex creation that evil destroys both physically and emotionally.
Predestination:
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined TO become CONFORMED to the IMAGE OF HIS SON, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.
As the eternal God has foreknowledge HE GIVES ADVANTAGE to those who will become His children through regeneration of their spirit.
The Eternal God has provided salvation for the human race as EXPRESSED IN THE GOSPEL but He foreknows who will turn to him through repentance and who will not, Luke 24:47.
Without foreknowledge there would be NO prophecy and God alone has foreknowledge, Deuteronomy 29:29, 1Peter 1:2.
We were all sinners, Ephesians 2:1-3. We will not lose our individuality by being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ but we will be conformed to righteousness as shown in the life of Jesus. We will still have volition and intellect, WE WILL NOT BE ROBOTS.
Jesus had the mind of Christ who is God and so do we, 1Corinthians 2:15-16.
The World we see now is controlled by the unrighteousness and it is headed for total self destruction. Jesus Christ will intervene at Armageddon and He will prevent total destruction of planet earth, Revelation 11:18.
In the âKingdom of Godâ, the final eternal Kingdom there will be NO unrighteousness. This was God’s final goal before the World existed.
Romans 8:30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also GLORIFIED.
GLORIFIED here means we will be conformed to the image of Jesus who is Godâs Christ, the PATTERN FOR THE REDEEMED of God, Romans 8:29 see above.
Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Romans 9:14 What can we say, then? GOD IS NOT UNRIGHTEOUS, IS HE? OF COURSE NOT!
Romans 9:15 For he says to Moses, “I will be merciful to the person I want to be merciful to, and I will be kind to the person I want to be kind to.”
God is not capricious or unrighteous and He is willing that none should perish but many reject His plan of salvation and they will not be saved.
Romans 9:16 Therefore, God’s choice does not depend on a person’s will (self will), or effort (self effort), but on God himself, who SHOWS MERCY.
Romans 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Romans 9:18 Therefore, God has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
Human beings are born with three, 3 input devices which are the eye the ear and the spirit.
At birth our spirit is conformed to the image of the world which means we are spiritually dead, separated from God making us soulish or natural but regeneration restores us to fellowship with the Eternal God, 1Corinthians chapter 2.
Satan who has âFace to Faceâ meetings with God, Revelation 12:9-10 is also spiritually separated from God and is the source of worldly thinking.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Ephesians 2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the PRINCE, RULER OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, of the SPIRIT that is now working in the SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE.
Ephesians 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were BY NATURE children of wrath, even as the rest.
Although we are spiritually separated from God we do have an active functioning conscience meaning we know right and wrong.
Romans 2:14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,
Romans 2:15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, THEIR CONSCIENCE bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.
The thief at Calvary, a heinous person and Saul of Tarsus, a murderer of Christians, were both saved by God which is a demonstration of God’s extreme Grace and foreknowledge.
The thief at Calvary died that very day and went with Jesus in the Spirit to Paradise, Luke 23:43.
We have a written record of Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul who became a credit to God and the Lord Jesus.
God, who looks upon the heart, who is omniscient, all knowing, FOREKNEW both of them.
As we judge by external means (1John 3:10) very likely we would have considered both of them to be worthy of death.
Capital punishment is legitimate and should be used lawfully by governments.
Carla Faye Tucker was a convicted Pick-Axe murderer but by all appearances she was redeemed by God. She was executed by lethal injection in Texas in 1998. Her execution reminded me of the repentant thief at Calvary.
According to my understanding of Scripture, Carla is currently in Paradise in the Third Heaven which is the Heaven that God occupies, 2Corinthians 5:8 and 12:2-4, John 14:2.
It seemed to me and others that she was a completely changed person. She publicly stated that life or death was acceptable to her, she was not afraid to die. The Texas government was obliged to execute her.
We should be quick to hear and slow to wrath, James 1:19. In God’s foreknowledge He fore-knew who He could save and who was un-savable.
The unrighteous will always destroy and must be dealt with or the creation will continue as it is today until it self-destructs.
God hardens the heart of those who will not be redeemed and even sends lying spirits to deceive them, 2Thessalonians 2:8-12.
He uses people such as Pharaoh who had demonstrated his own hardness by ordering midwives to murder male Jewish infants, Exodus 1:16-17.
When that Pharaoh died, Exodus 2:23, the cruelty continued with other Pharaohs.
Many such people work in world governments today and are in positions of authority including some college professors and some lower grade educators, etc;. God knows about all of them, Romans 9:22-23.
Many may not murder but they live with their evil thoughts. Two that come to mind are Larry Flint and Hugh Hefner as well as despots in Cuba and the East and Washington D.C.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts (plotting evil): and let him return (1Peter 2:24-25) unto the LORD, and He (The Lord) will have mercy upon him and He (The Lord) will abundantly pardon, Matthew 9:6.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
The ways and thoughts of the wicked are not God’s ways or God’s thoughts.
The appeal here is for the wicked to repent of their evil ways and thoughts and to accept and to do God’s ways and God’s thoughts.
God’s ways and thoughts are measured by the 10 commandments not the 10 suggestions.
Having made a commitment to follow God’s ways we strive for perfection but we are never able while in the flesh to reach perfection, Romans 8:5-6, Romans 7:14-25. 1John 1:9 is called the Christians bar of soap.
Romans 9:15 For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
God’s will is stated (Isaiah 55:7, see above) that is; He, the Eternal God will have mercy and abundantly pardon those who forsake their wicked ways and their unrighteous thoughts (plotting evil) and return to Him, THIS IS CALLED REPENTANCE, 2Peter 3:9.
Romans 9:16 So then; it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
“Running and willing are ways that seem right unto men and the way there of results in death, Proverbs 16:25.
Those that will and run have their own plan of salvation.
God will have mercy on any person that comes to Him in repentance but those having a plan of their own to appease God are as blind men, not having the light of God’s Word and they shall fall in a ditch and those who follow their way’s likewise shall fail, Matthew 15:13-14, Romans 10:3. Cain was such a person, Genesis 4:3-5 and likewise many Pharisees, John 8:41-45.
John chapter 8 exposes self-righteousness. After the resurrection of Jesus many of the religious Jews turned to God, 1Peter 1:21, but the hard core religious people died in their sins.
Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God speaking through the Apostle Paul:
Acts 20:20 And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks (Gentiles), REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, and FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
1Timothy 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of ALL mankind,
1Timothy 2:2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
1Timothy 2:3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
1Timothy 2:4 who desires ALL MANKIND TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.
God desires all mankind to be saved BUT many will not be saved due to their negative volition and love of Evil, John 3:19, Romans 1:18-32.
SO THEN; it must be that God has made provision for them to be saved (Isaiah 55:7, see above) but they have rejected God or they will reject God and God in His foreknowledge knows before they are even born but we do not know who will in the future be saved by repentance and so we broadcast the message, the Gospel to the World as God intended.
Many reject God’s authority and His Christ by word and by deed, Romans 10:13-21, Romans 9:11.
2Timothy 2:24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,
2Timothy 2:25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
2Timothy 2:26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus,
1Timothy 2:6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
Ron