My Assurance – God is in Control – Part 4 – Dr. Charles Stanley

God allows us the choice to follow or ignore Him. But that doesn’t mean He gives up and lets us wander aimlessly through life. Dr. Stanley unfolds how God is the One who calls us, enlightens us, and gives us the faith to trust in Him. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to https://intouch.org/watch

Start your day off right with

the Free In-Touch Devotional.

Subscribe today.

male announcer: In Touch,
the teaching ministry of

Dr. Charles Stanley.

announcer: Next on
“In Touch,” part four of

“My Assurance –
God Is in Control.”

Dr. Charles Stanley: When is the
last time you stopped and just

meditated about your life and
just thanked God for saving you?

Or have you taken that for
granted all these years?

And let me ask you a question.

Were you saved because you first
approached God and told Him you

wanted to be saved?

How do we reconcile the
fact that the Bible says,

“Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord

shall be saved,”

then we turn right
around and read,

“Chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world”?

How do you reconcile that?

Likewise, if God already
knows who’s going to be saved,

why should we be sending
missionaries and having a

missionary enterprise?

Why should we be trying to send
missionaries all over the world

to preach the gospel if God
already knows who’s gonna be

saved anyway?

Well, I want you to
turn, if you will,

to Psalm one-o-three.

And this is our fourth
message in the series,

“My Assurance:
God is in Control.”

And we’ve talked about His
being in control of all the

difficulties and hardships
and troubles and trials and

suffering and death and all the
rest and answered prayer and so

many ways He promises us in His
Word and shows us

that He’s in control.

What about our salvation?

“Is God in control of that or
how much rights or how much

privilege do I
have in all of that?”

So, I want you to
turn, if you will,

to Psalm one-o-three.

And this is the passage that we
read just to remind us over and

over and over again
of who is in charge.

In Psalm one-o-three
verse nineteen says,

“The LORD has established
His throne in the heavens;

and His sovereignty
rules over all.

Bless the LORD, you His
angels, mighty in strength,

who perform His word,
obeying the voice of His word!

Bless the LORD,
all you His hosts,

you who serve
Him, doing His will.

Bless the LORD, all
you works of His,

in all the places
of His dominion;

bless the LORD, O my soul!”

When he says that He has
established His throne in the

heavens and His
sovereignty rules over all,

what do we mean by
His Sovereignty?

Simply this:

It means that God exercises His
supreme authority and power and

control over all the universe
and over every single person who

is in it,

that every single thing and
every person’s in His mind,

before His eyes, in His
grasp, in His presence,

in His power and
under His control.

God is in absolute
control of every single thing.

So, when we think
in terms of that,

we ask the question, “Well, how
does this relate to the whole

idea of my salvation?

Was this something that God
thought up or was it that I came

to a point in my life where I
realized that I needed God and

so it was my idea to come to
Him and ask Him to save me and

forgive me of my sins?”

Well, first of all, what I’d
like to do is to define clearly

salvation because many
people who will listen,

because many people who will
see this program are not really

clear about what
salvation’s all about.

You hear people
talking about it.

You hear people–you hear
pastors talking about it but

what is it that we talk about
when we talk about salvation?

Salvation is that experience
whereby God rescues us from the

guilt of our sin, the penalty
of our sin, and the

punishment of our sin.

That is, He deals with and
rescues us from the penalty,

the guilt, and the
power of sin in our life,

the alienation from God that
is a result of all of that,

the wrath of God which is
a result of all of that,

and eternal death which is the
lot and the ultimate destination

of every single person who
recei–or who refuses to receive

Jesus Christ as their savior.

Think about this.

Salvation is rescue.

Salvation is deliverance from
the guilt of sin and the penalty

and the punishment that involves
our alienation from God,

and all the rest that
goes with the wrath of God,

and eternal death.

But it’s rescue from
that and rescue to what?

It’s rescuing us,
listen, to what?

Rescuing us to a relationship
with God the Father,

rescuing us with a relationship
that whereas we have become–we

were enemies, we’ve
become the children of God,

rescuing us to begin to
experience the love of God,

to begin to experience the
help and the hope of God,

and most of all, to have
the gift of eternal life.

So, if you’ve never trusted
Jesus Christ as your savior,

do you understand where you are?

Living under the guilt and the
penalty and the punishment of

sin, the wrath and the
alienation and eternal death,

when you can have hope and
love and life everlasting.

That is the
promise of Almighty God.

Well, you say, “How do I
know that God would save me?

Because maybe I’ve
been a bad person,

maybe I’ve not been so bad.

How do I know that
God will save me?”

What I’d like to do is I’d
like to give you two sets of

scriptures and I
want you to show–

I want to show you something.

And I want to begin, if you
will, with Matthew chapter

eleven verses twenty-eight
through thirty there and here’s

what Jesus said.

He gives a general call.

And all through the scriptures
there is that general call to

lost people and to those who
are going through

difficulty and hardship.

But here’s what He says in
the twenty-eighth verse.

He says, “Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon
you, and learn of Me,

for ye shall find
rest unto your souls.”

Then if you’ll
notice what Jesus said,

He said in the twelfth chapter
of John the thirty-second verse,

He said, “And I,
if I be lifted up,

I will draw all men to Me.”

In First Timothy, which may not
be quite as familiar a passage,

if you’ll look in First
Timothy, for example,

in chapter two,

and you’ll recall when Paul
is writing to Timothy here and

encouraging him to pray for
rulers and those

who have authority.

Then he moves into
saying this, in verse three,

“This is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior,

who desires all men or all
peoples to be saved and to come

to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God, one
mediator between God and men,

and that’s the man Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself as a ransom

instead of, a ransom for
all, the testimony borne at the

proper time.”

Then of course there’s that
passage in Second Peter chapter

three verse nine that says, now
he says that it is not My will

that anyone should perish.

So, when I look at all these
passages of scripture and ask

myself the question,
well, now, Lord,

here are all
these general calls.

And then of course in Ezekiel
chapter thirty-three he says God

takes no pleasure in
the death of the wicked.

So here are these
calls that He sends out.

“If I be lifted up,
I’ll draw all men to Me.”

He says, “Come unto Me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden,

I’ll give you rest.”

Paul says, “Whosoever shall call
upon the name of

the Lord shall be saved.”

So it’s clear in scripture that
God is continually issuing a

call to salvation.

And so that’s very clear–and
stating very clearly that He

takes no pleasure in
the death of the wicked.

Now you and I could think about
some historical characters whose

wickedness and whose vileness
and whose absolute inhumane

attitudes and
actions and behavior,

we would say, “Well, why
wouldn’t God take pleasure in

the death of those people?”

Because that’s not
the character of God.

He says He takes no death–no
pleasure in the death of the

wicked and issues these calls.

Now, I want to do something
that looks like it’s absolutely

opposite and then we want to
talk about it for a moment.

Let’s start, if you will,
in Ephesians chapter one.

Ephesians chapter one, I want
us to look at the beginning

in verse three.

We’ve just read these
verses, “Come unto Me,

Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord,

whosoever shall call
upon Him and

these invitations, so to speak,
I be lifted up

I’ll draw all men.

Now look at this passage, if you
will, in Ephesians chapter one

verse three, “Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, who has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places in
Christ,” watch this:

“Just as He chose
us in Him, that is,

in Christ, before the
foundation of the world,

that we should be holy
and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus

Christ to Himself, according to
the kind intention of His will,

to the praise of the
glory of His grace,

which He freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

Now, we may come to ask the
question, “All right now, I see

exactly what He’s saying here.

He says that He’s in control of
our salvation and that all these

verses indicate that this is
soemthing God has chosen.”

Now, so here
comes the question.

How do we bring these two ideas
together and reconcile them?

First of all, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved.

“Come unto Me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and I’ll

give you rest.”

How can we say, when
Jesus says, “And I,

if I be lifted up I
shall draw all men to Me,”

and then we turn
right around and He says,

“Before the
foundation of the world,

I chose to save you
in Christ Jesus”?

Chosen in Christ,
chosen in Christ.

How do you think Paul
reconciles those two things?

He doesn’t.

Now, there are some solutions
that people oftentime give,

one of which would be this:

There are those who would
say that here’s what God did–

And you know, this could
possibly be true in some life–

that God looked down
through the corridors of time,

even before you and I were born,
knowing that we were gonna be

born knowing our circumstances,
knowing how we would respond,

being omniscient,
knowing all things,

past, present, and future,

and looking at us in
our future circumstances,

and saw what we would do
in certain circumstances,

that some of us would choose
Jesus Christ as our savior.

And looking at what we would
do, then He chose to save us.

Well, the only problem with
that is on the one hand that can

imply that God saw something
good about what we were gonna do

and therefore He chose us.

That would make our salvation
to some degree based on what we

were gonna do.

On the other hand, we can also
say that God can also foreknow

what we’re going to do without
making us or causing

us to do it.

But he said He chose us in Him
before the foundation

of the world.

So, it’s not my purpose to
reconcile something that the

Apostle Paul, who had a greater
insight in the scripture than

any man who’s ever lived,
did not chose to reconcile.

He said chosen before, and
the–before the foundation of

the world,
whosoever will may come.

What was he doing?

He was extending God’s awesome
invitation to all men because

Christ Jesus, Christ,
died for all men.

And at the same time saying,
“Listen, you know what?

The truth is your redemption
and my redemption is the

work of Almighty God.”

There’s not a single one of
us who can take

any credit whatsoever.

For by grace are ye
saved through faith,

that not of yourselves.

Listen, not even
our faith is of ourselves.

That is the gift of God.

Not works only but not even
our faith is of ourselves,

it’s the gift of God.

Listen, if God didn’t
give you the faith,

you couldn’t trust Him.

If the Spirit of God
didn’t convict you,

you wouldn’t even know what
kind of position you were in.

If the Spirit of God didn’t work
in your heart and absolutely

crack through that hardness,
you wouldn’t even recognize the

sinfulness and the
wickedness of your heart.

And proof of that
is when a man says,

“I don’t–do not need God,” it
says he is absolutely so totally

blind to the worst sin
of all which is pride,

he doesn’t even
realize he needs God.

Well, look, if you will,
in Matthew chapter seven.

Here’s somebody who
says, “Now wait a minute.

I do not believe that if I’m a
good moral person and I serve

the Lord and I do good
works in the church and I give

my money and I
help the church along

and I try to be a good person,

you mean to tell
me that I’ve gotta–

that I’ve got to receive Jesus
Christ as my personal savior?”

Well, let’s just
see what Jesus said.

Here’s what He said.

In the seventh chapter
and beginning, if you will,

in verse twenty-one,

“Not everyone who
says to Me, ‘Lord,

Lord,’ will enter
the kingdom of heaven;

but he who does the will of My
Father, who is in heaven.”

And Jesus said on
another occasion

“the will of My Father.”

What’s the will of the Father?
To believe in Him.

“Many will say to
Me on that day,

‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name,

and in Your–
listen, prophesy, preach,

declare–in Your name
cast out demons,

and in Your name perform
many miracles?'”

You know what Jesus’s
response to that was?

“Then I will declare to
them, ‘I never knew you;

depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness.’

You see, He says,
“I never knew you.”

What does He mean by that?

It doesn’t mean that He
was not aware of a person,

but it means, He says, “I
never knew you as one of Mine.

I never knew you
as a child of God.

I–you were never one of Mine.”

Because the only way to
be a child of the Father

as He says, listen, back
in Ephesians chapter one,

He says “chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world,

predestined to–” what?

Predestined to adoption.

That is, that God the Father
took us out of as it were Adam

in our old sinful nature
and placed us as it were into

Christ, a new relationship.

And it’s because we
have been adopted,

listen, adopted sons
and daughters of God,

adopted into the kingdom,
transformed by the grace of God,

transformed by the love of God,
the work of the Holy Spirit.

Listen, salvation is of
God from top to bottom,

inside out, beginning to end.

There is no glory for man
and all the glory is of God.

You and I cannot reconcile
whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord shall be
saved, chosen in Him before the

foundation of the world.

Listen, that’s a mystery that
nobody will ever be able to

fully understand.

And yet there are all
kinds of explanations,

and the truth is, when you
analyze all the explanations,

they come up with this question:

“Well, what about, what about,
what about, what about?”

And theologians can take all
kinds of views and prove

all kind of things.

The truth is that the Apostle
Paul didn’t reconcile it.

It he didn’t I’m
not gonna try to.

The only thing that matters is
we’re saved by the grace of God,

eternally secure in Him, know we
are and have a responsibility to

get that message
to the whole world.

That is our responsibility.

And so when it looks–
when it comes to salvation,

just like everything
else in our life,

He is in absolute control.

If you’re saved today, you
can rejoice in the Lord.

You can thank God.

You certainly should have a
sense of humility in your own

heart and thanksgiving and
praise to Him because you can’t

take–you cannot take any credit
whatsoever, not one bit.

And if you’ll notice
in all these verses,

our salvation is
always related to Jesus.

Chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world.

And Paul says, “I’m preaching
that you may obtain the

salvation in Christ Jesus.

For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son

that whosoever believes in
Him should not perish but have

everlasting life.”

And so this is the
work of Almighty God.

And so somebody says,
“Well, why should we

go out there and do that?”

Well, here’s the reme–let me
give you four reasons.

And they’re all the same in
one essence and you know most of

these by heart.

Here’s what Jesus said.
Now listen to what He said.

He said, “Those whom the Father
gives to Me, they’re Mine.

I’m gonna raise
them up the last day.

Absolutely Mine.”

What did He say
to His disciples?

“As you go, make
disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the
name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe

all the things that I’ve
commanded you, and lo,

I’ll be with you all the way,
even to the end of this age.”

Then He said in Mark, “Go into
all the world and preach the

gospel to the entire creation,”
the whole creation.

He said in Luke
chapter twenty-four

that repentance and the
forgiveness of sin shall be

preached in all the earth.

Jesus said, “As the
Father has sent Me,

I’m sending you.”

He said in Acts chapter
one, “You shall receive power,

after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you

equipping you to do–” what?

“Equipping you to be my
witnesses in Jerusalem,

Judea, Samaria, the
uttermost parts of the earth.”

Why did Jesus Christ
send–why did He give,

listen, why did He say to His
disciples over and over and over

again, in a different
way, the same thing?

Proclaim the gospel,
preach the gospel,

proclaim the truth.

Not proclaim sinners,
not talk about sin.

Proclaim the gospel.

Listen, tell the whole creation
about the good news

of the saving grace
of the Son of God.

Jesus didn’t die for
a handful or some,

He died for the whole world.

He died to make it possible
for all men to come to a saving

knowledge of Christ.

And so He sent them out.

And that’s the
commission He gave the church.

He gave the church the
commission to go and share the

gospel to the whole world.

Now, somebody says–well, look,
if you will, back to Second

Timothy for a moment.

We looked at this passage
a few moments ago and

I want you to notice something
that Paul says here and the way

he says this.

Here he’s talking
about his own hardship,

trials, and difficulties.

Now, this is the Paul who said,
“Whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord
shall be saved.”

This is the Paul who
said, “Chosen in Him

before the foundation
of the world.”

Now look at this.

Verse nine of Second
Timothy chapter two.

He says, for which, speaking
of the gospel in verse eight,

the gospel, “For which I suffer
hardship even to imprisonment as

a criminal; but the word
of God is not imprisoned.

“For this reason I’m
suffering,” he says,

“for this reason, I endure all
these things for the sake of

those who are chosen, that they
also may obtain the salvation

which is in Christ Jesus
and with it eternal glory.”

Here’s a man who said
“chosen in Him before

the foundation of the world.

Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.

Why am I undergoing hardship?

Why am I suffering
as a prisoner?

Why am I going
through all these things?

For the sake of those who are
chosen that they may obtain the

salvation which is
in Christ Jesus

and with it eternal glory.”

What is my
responsibility and yours?

You say, “Well, you
know, I’m saved.”

Right, you say, “Well,
you know, if God’s already

chosen to save some
folks how do I know

who’s gonna be saved
and who’s not?”

That’s not our business.

That’s not my business to figure
out who is and who is not.

It is our business to proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ

person-to-person where
you live, where you work,

where you play.

It is our responsibility to
proclaim the gospel of Jesus

Christ as far and wide as God
will give us the privilege.

And as a fellowship,
this is our mission:

to learn His truths, to be
encouraged and challenged and

stimulated in our own hearts.

In order to do what?

To be equipped to walk into a
world of lost people and say to

them, “I want you to know that
you need Jesus Christ as your

personal savior, and I want
you to know you can be saved.

And I want you to know
that Christ died for you,

and I want you to know that you
have the awesome privilege of

becoming a child of God,
your sins being forgiven,

the alienation that
you’re experiencing,

the punishment that
you’re going to experience,

the wrath of God, eternal death.

You can escape that by simply
placing your trust in the living

Son of God.”

That is our responsibility,
that’s our privilege.

There’s not a single
verse in the Bible,

not one single shred
of a verse that says,

“Because God
already knows, relax.”

But rather what?
He’s saying, “Go!

As you go, make
disciples, spread the Word,

repentance, and
faith to all mankind.”

“As the Father had
sent Me,” Jesus said,

“I’m sending you out,
proclaiming the gospel.”

And Paul said, “I’m not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ,”

he says, “because
here’s what I’ve learned.

It’s the power of God
unto salvation

to everyone who believes.”

He says, “Listen,
the Jew, the Greek,

no matter who they are, Gentile,

the gospel of Jesus Christ
is powerful enough

to save them all.”

Here’s what I want you to see:
God’s in absolute control.

The only thing you and I
can do about salvation,

the only thing you and I can
possibly do about salvation is

to get on our knees before
Almighty God in absolute, total

humility and thank Him and
praise Him for reaching down and

saving us out of our sinfulness
and our vileness and in His

mercy and grace and
goodness and love,

making us one of His children,
writing our name in the Lamb’s

Book of Life, and for so ever,
for so ever and ever and ever

and ever secure us as a
child of the living God.

There’s not a single one of
us who deserves anything and

there’s not a one of us
who can boast of anything.

Our redemption,
the Bible says,

salvation is of God, period.

And what is our responsibility?

To get the message of hope and
forgiveness and the grace and

love of God to as
many people as possible,

as quickly as possible,
as clearly as possible,

listen, as
irrefutably as possible,

as irresistibly as possible,
so that when they hear it the

Spirit of God
can attach

Himself to their
heart,

bring them
conviction with

the realization
they, too,

can be forgiven
of their sin.

Now let me ask you
a question.

How many of you know,

without a shadow
of a doubt,

you can look back
at a time

in your life and
you say,

“I know that at
a point in

my life I realized
that I was

separated from God,

that I was a sinner.

And the Spirit of God
convicted me of my sin,

and I understood that Jesus
Christ went to the cross and

died for my sins, and I
placed my trust in Him

as my Savior and my Lord.

And I know that I’m
forgiven and I’m heaven-bound”?

How many of you
really and truly can say,

“I know that’s happened”?

You say, “Well, how do I know
that God would save me even if I

wanted to be saved?”

Try it, just try it.

Remember what Jesus said?

“He that cometh to Me I
will in no wise cast out.”

Do you think that God the Father
would send His only begotten Son

and have Him nailed to a tree
and suffer the awful judgement

and pain and hurt of persecution
in order to save you and then

you come to Him and
ask for salvation,

and He says no?

That is not the
God of the Bible.

That’s not the God I
know anything at all about.

And when I look at the
scriptures from Genesis to

Revelation, here’s
what I discover:

this awesome,
wonderful, indescribable,

infinite God who is
absolutely a god of love,

who has done
everything in His, listen,

in His omnipotent
power to save this world,

other than to ultimately
override a man’s free will to

some degree, with exception.

Do you think that He’s
going to reject you

when that’s what He died for?

Oh no.

You say, “Well, but
you just don’t know

what I’ve done in life.”

Let me ask you this: Have you
tried to destroy the church,

persecute the church, murder?

Have you tried to do all
the things equal to

what the Apostle Paul’s done?

No, you have not.

And you know what?
God didn’t ask him anything.

He just struck
him down and said,

“I’ve chosen you.

I’m going to getcha, I gotcha,
and I’m gonna use you, and I’m

gonna make you a chosen vessel.”

What did He say to Ananias?

He said, “I want you
to go see this man.

He is a chosen vessel,

chosen before the
foundation of the world,

chosen from his mother’s womb,

heh, chosen to preach the gospel
and give us the most awesome

explanation of truth that
we will ever discover

as long as we live.”

When I think about that, I just
want to get on my face in the

mud and say, “God, I’m unworthy
to even think about grace and

love and mercy and
goodness and forgiveness.”

But that’s what
kind of God we have.

Therefore, when you
reject the Lord Jesus Christ,

you reject His Son,
His love, His attempts,

His pleas, and His awesome
preparation of heaven for you.

That’s what you reject.

You will never be able to
stand before Him and say,

“Well, now let me
tell You what–

tell You the reason I didn’t.”

No, not gonna be any
excuses in the judgment.

You’ve heard enough gospel in
this message alone to save you

and it doesn’t take
but one experience

of salvation to
save you forever.

You say, “Well, but
suppose I sin again?”

Yes!

Every single one of us has.
That’s what grace is all about.

Grace is God’s–listen.

Not only does He forgive me–not
only does He forgive us of our

sin once and for all and pardon
our iniquity and our guilt,

listen, but the
forgiveness of God is

ever flowing toward
His children.

He doesn’t call us adults, He
calls us His children because

we’re still growing, still
growing up in the Christian

life, still learning
to walk His ways.

Therefore, you are inexcusable
to reject the Son of the living

God who chooses and
offers and provides

and loves you all the way.

Father, I pray the Holy Spirit
will use this message to bring

such deep conviction,
such penetrating,

irresistible conviction that
every single person who sees it,

every single person who
hears this message would sense

immediately a need of
Christ, a desire for Christ,

a need for forgiveness and a
willingness to ask for it,

placing their trust in Jesus for
the forgiveness of their sins,

for we ask it in
Christ’s name, amen.

CC by Aberdeen Captioning
1-800-688-6621 www.aberdeen.io