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1) God's Omnipotence and Sovereignty
Bible
Facts:
Job 42:2 - God can do all things, no purpose of His
can be thwarted.
Psalm 135:6 -
God does whatever He pleases (in heaven,
earth, and sea - everywhere!).
Isaiah 14:24,27 - Just as God
intends, so it happens, just as He plans, so it stands. No one can frustrate
His plans or turn back His stretched-out hand.
Matthew 19:26b - With God all things are possible.
Ephesians 1:11b - God works all things after the counsel of
His will.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God is omnipotent
(all-powerful) and sovereign (in rule), doing whatever He wants.
Do
you believe this? Yes!
Think
About It:
This is how God reveals Himself in His
Word -
He is all-powerful and absolutely
sovereign.
And since this is true and God does whatever He
pleases… man can never thwart any of God's plans.
Further
Study:
Job 34:23-24; Psalm 103:19b; Isaiah 43:13;
Isaiah 46:10,11b; Daniel 4:35; 1 Timothy 6:15;
Revelation 3:7b; Revelation 19:6b
2) God's Omniscience, Understanding, Perfect
Foreknowledge
Bible
Facts:
Psalm 139:1-5 (esp. 4) - Before
you speak, God already
knows what you'll say.
Psalm 147:5b -
God's understanding is infinite.
Isaiah
48:3,5 - God declares things before they take place
(lest anyone should say some idol did it).
John
14:29
- Jesus told
them things before they came to pass so when they did, they would believe.
Romans 8:29a - Those whom He foreknew (He also
predestined).
1
Peter 1:2a - Believers are chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God.
1
John 3:20c
- God knows all things.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God is omniscient, knowing everything. His
understanding is all encompassing.
He knows everything perfectly and fully before it happens.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
God says He knows everything. So then there is
nothing lacking in what He knows. He has perfect foreknowledge,
knowing everything before it even happens.
Further
Study:
Psalm 44:21;
Matthew 6:8b; Acts 3:18
3) God's Sustaining Hand
Bible
Facts:
Job 12:10
- The life of every living thing is in His hand, and the breath
of all mankind.
Job 34:14-15 - If God chooses to gather His Spirit
and His breath to Himself, all flesh
would perish and turn to dust.
Psalm 139:16b - All
your days are ordained before you have
any of them.
Daniel 5:23c - In His hand are
your life breath and your
ways.
Acts
17:25b,28a - He gives to all life and breath and
all things. In Him you live and move
and exist.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God sustains you. He gives you life and each and
every breath you take.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
In other words… God holds every single
molecule of yours together! He must
sustain you or you cease to exist - instantly. He must
allow you to continue to live - or you will not. What kind
of autonomy (ability to live and think and do all things on your
own) then does the Bible picture for man? It doesn't.
Further
Study:
Genesis 6:7; Numbers 16:30-33; Job 9:12; Psalm
104:29b; Isaiah 42:5
4) God Initiates Your Salvation - God's Work in
Your Salvation
Bible
Facts:
John 6:29
- It is the
work of God that you believe.
Romans
3:11
- There are
none who seek God.
1 Corinthians 1:30a - It is by God's doing that
anyone is in
Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 - He who began the good work in
you promises
to perfect (complete) it.
Philippians 2:13a - God is at work in
you.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God begins / initiates your salvation. It is His
work. He will also complete it.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
If God initiated this work of salvation in
you, then you are not the one who first
seeks after God or reaches out to Him. God must initiate
your salvation.
Further
Study:
Colossians
1:12
(qualifies us);
2 Corinthians 5:18a, Colossians
1:20,22 (reconciles
us to Himself); Romans 8:30b (He predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies us)
5) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Chooses /
Appoints
Bible
Facts:
John 15:16a - God chooses
a person; they do not choose Him.
Acts 13:48b - Those
who are appointed to eternal life (will) believe.
Ephesians 1:4a - God chose
you in Him before the foundation
of the world.
2
Thessalonians 2:13b - God chose you from the beginning for
salvation.
1
Peter 1:1c-2a - You are chosen according to God's
foreknowledge.
Ephesians 2:8-9 -
You are saved by grace through faith - the gift of God.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God chose you. You did not choose Him. This is a
Bible fact. God appoints
some to salvation. Do you believe this? Yes!
Biblical definition: appoints
(5021 tasso) - verb to
arrange in an orderly manner, i.e. assign or dispose (to a
certain position or lot).
Think
About It:
Since it is God Who chooses and appoints people
to salvation, what part do you have in it? Yes, you must believe
(verb form of the noun 'faith'), but God Himself even gives you the
faith to believe. So not even the faith / believing originates in you.
Further
Study:
1
Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:9 ('destined' NAS);
2 Timothy
2:10
('elect' NIV); Titus 1:1b
('elect' NIV); 1 Peter 2:9a
6) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Predestines
Bible
Facts:
Romans 8:29-30 - Those God foreknew, He predestined.
Ephesians 1:5 -
God predestines believers to adoption as sons.
Ephesians
1:11
- God predestines according to His purpose.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God predestines
who will receive salvation, according to His purpose. Do
you believe this? Yes!
Biblical definition:
predestine (4309 proorizo) - to limit in advance,
predetermine, determine before [from 4253 pro - before,
prior to + 3724 {from 3725} horizo - to mark out or bound,
("horizon"), i.e. fig to
appoint, decree, specify - declare, determine, limit, ordain.]
Think
About It:
Predestination is
a Bible fact.
Some say it's contingent upon God's
foreknowledge of who would choose Him but that cannot be
true because the Bible clearly
says that man does not choose God. God chooses man.
Further
Study:
Romans 9:23b; 1
Thessalonians 5:9
7) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Calls
Bible
Facts:
Romans 8:28,30 - Those
whom God predestined, He called.
2 Timothy
1:9 - God called you with a holy calling, not according to your
works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
granted you in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
1
Peter
5:10
- God called you to His eternal glory.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God calls you according to
His own purpose.
Do you believe this? Yes!
Biblical definition:
call (kaleo 2564) -
…to call or bid forth
Note:
Spiros Zodhiates in The Complete Word Study Dictionary NT
says of 2564 'kaleo' on pg 813, "With Paul
and also Peter, the calling is more than an invitation. It is an
invitation responded to and accepted."
(See also under 2821 pg 870, "Klesis,
with Paul and Peter, is more than an invitation; it is an
invitation responded to and accepted, and it is so because 'the
called' are already 'the chosen'.")
Think
About It:
Since the calling is from Him and is
according to His own purpose, and it is an invitation
the chosen will with certainty accept, then it's not according to your own desire or
wish.
Further
Study:
Acts
2:39; 1 Corinthians 1:2b; 2 Peter 1:3c;
Revelation 17:14c
8) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Gives You to
Jesus
Bible
Facts:
John 6:37a,39b - All
those the Father gives to Jesus
will come to Him.
John 10:29a - The Father has given
(believers) to Jesus.
John 17:2,6 - The Father has given
(believers) to Jesus.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
Believers are given to Jesus by God the Father.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
Since God the Father gives believers (those He
chose, elected, appointed, predestined, etc.) - to God the Son,
Jesus, there is an absolute certainty and finality to the issue.
It is unthinkable that God (the Father) (omniscient, omnipotent, perfect)
can give something to God (the Son) that is defective, doesn't 'take' or
doesn't actually come to pass or happen, as
if He had no control over it to cause it to happen.
9) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Draws You /
Grants You to Come (Enables You)
Bible
Facts:
John 6:44
- No one comes
to Jesus unless God the Father draws them.
John 6:65
- No one comes to Jesus unless
granted him by God the Father.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God must draw you to Himself, He must grant or enable
you to come to Him.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
This means you
can't come to God unless He draws you to Himself.
10) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Must Give
You Life / Make You Alive / Make You
Born Again
Bible
Facts:
John 1:13
- You are born
of God.
John 5:21
- The Father
gives life to the dead; the Son gives life to whom He wishes.
Ephesians 2:5 - God makes
you alive.
James 1:18
- God brings
you
forth by the exercise of His will.
1
Peter 1:3 - God causes you to be born again.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God
gives you life (makes your dead spirit
alive).
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
How many dead people do you know that can hear
a voice, get up and walk, or do
anything on their own - being dead and all? Understanding
what death entails (in the physical) helps you to begin to
understand its corollary in the spiritual sense. Dead equals
total inability to do something - until made alive. Some
teach that after the fall when man died spiritually (see
Genesis 3), that man still retained some kind of ability to reach
out to God. But dead is dead. Just as Lazarus was totally unable to come out of the tomb until
Jesus made him alive (dead Lazarus
did not come hopping out of the tomb pleading with Jesus to make
him alive), so you, too,
are totally unable to come to God until He first makes you
alive.
11) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Reveals
Himself to You
Bible
Facts:
Matthew 11:27b - No one knows God unless Jesus wills to
reveal Him.
Luke
10:22
- No one knows
who God is unless Jesus wills to reveal Him.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God must reveal Himself to you through
Jesus or you would not know Him.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
Since you
can't know God unless He reveals Himself to you
through Jesus, then how could you ever seek after Him or come to
Him on your own? You couldn't.
12) God Initiates Your Salvation - God Grants You
Repentance / Gives You Grace
Bible
Facts:
Romans 2:4 - God's kindness leads
you to repentance.
Ephesians 1:6 - God freely bestows His grace on
you.
2 Timothy
2:25
- God grants you repentance leading to knowledge of the truth.
2
Peter 1:3a - God's power grants you everything
pertaining to life and godliness.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
It is God who
grants you repentance. Even repentance
is not a work that you can initiate on your own.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
It is
God's kindness that leads you to
repentance. He is benevolent and loving
toward you to grant you repentance.
Further
Study:
Acts 11:18b
13) God Gives You Eternal Life / Salvation Through
Jesus
Bible
Facts:
Acts
4:12
- Jesus is the only name by which men are saved.
Romans 2:6-7 - God gives (renders) eternal life.
Romans 6:23b - The free gift of God is eternal life.
1
John
5:11
- God has given you eternal life in Jesus.
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
God gives eternal life to you through His Son,
Jesus.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
Salvation must come to you from
God Himself. And it
comes through none other than
God the Son, Jesus.
14) God Keeps You Saved
Bible
Facts:
John 6:39
- God's will is
that Jesus lose none (of those given to Him) but that He raises them
(all) up.
John 10:28-29 - Believers
will never perish, nor ever be snatched out of Jesus' hand.
Philippians 1:6 - God begins the work
of salvation in a person and He will perfect
(complete) it.
1
Peter 1:5 - You are protected by God's power.
1
Peter
1:23
- You are born again of imperishable seed.
1
Peter
5:10
- God promises to perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish
you.
Jude 1 -
You are kept ('preserved' KJV) for Christ
Jesus. This means to guard from loss!
Theme
These Bible Verses Teach:
It is God and His power that keeps you saved.
Do you believe this?
Yes!
Think
About It:
God
saves you and keeps you saved. So salvation itself and the
keeping of it is not of your own work or power (not even your
faith, obedience, or perseverance can save you or keep you saved
- and thankfully so, since you could never do these perfectly)!
Salvation, and the believer's security in it, is a work of God - start to finish!
Further
Study:
Romans 8:38-39; 2 Timothy 2:19; Hebrews 7:25
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to 'Secure In Him' Bible Study Directions
Secure In Him © 2003 by
John and Kim Namestnik www.givengrace.com
Permission is granted to copy and distribute this
curriculum - if it's kept intact and not changed in any
way, if it's given without charge, and if this
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