"As I Have Purposed, So Shall It
Stand"
Isaiah 14:24
Throughout the Scriptures we are assured
that the Lord our God has a purpose of grace, according to which he sovereignly
rules the world (Rom. 8:28-31; Eph. 1:3-6, 9, 11, 12).
James declared, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of
the world" (Acts 15:18). If all God's works were known to him
from the beginning, then all were certain to be accomplished from the
beginning. If they were certain, it must be because God purposed and ordained
them. And if he ordained them, he ordained them from the beginning, before ever
the world was made.
GOD'S PURPOSE OF GRACE IS HIS SOVEREIGN,
ETERNAL WORK OF PREDESTINATION. In predestination God acted in total
sovereignty, moved and constrained by nothing but the good pleasure of his own
will. We are plainly taught, by the apostle Paul, that all who are finally
saved and obtain the inheritance of heavenly glory in Christ have been
"predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his
glory."
THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN PREDESTINATION IS
THE GLORY OF HIS OWN GREAT NAME IN THE SALVATION OF HIS ELECT. When the Jews
were captives in Babylon their plight seemed hopeless. Deliverance appeared to be
impossible. But God promised that he would do it. Their deliverance was
irreversibly decreed.The same thing is true regard- ing the deliverance and
salvation of God's elect in every age, out of every part of the world. As the
Jews were his elect among the nations in the Old Testament, so there is now
"a remnant according to the election of grace" (Rom. 11:6), a people
whom God has given to his Son from eternity (John 17:2,6, 9), a multitude to
whom God promised eternal life before the world began (Tit. 1:2). This elect
remnant God will search out from the four corners of the earth and save (Isa.
43:5-7; John 10:16). In
due time he will call them by his irresist- ible grace (Ezek. 34:11-13) and
bring them into a saving knowledge of Christ (Isa. 65:1; II Pet. 3:9). He will
also keep them unto everlasting, so that not one of his elect can ever be lost
(John 17:12).
God's purpose cannot fail! "The LORD
of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass; as I have purposed, so shall it stand."
Don Fortner