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“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” (Jeremiah 3:14) |
Many Golden Chains: The Golden Chains Throughout History
The PURPOSE & INTENT for Salvation NT Intercessions & NT Repentances Called - Elect - Chosen - Foreknown "Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen" The Marriage & The Called, Chosen, and Faithful The Epistles: A Commentary, Echo, and Practical Application of the Parables of Jesus Christ A Pastor's Sermons to Make Sure Biblical Mercy |
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Answering “The Golden Chain”
Answering “The Golden Chain”
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The Sovereign Exaltation -->
The Scarce Salvation --> The Pastoral Burden --> |
"Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." (Romans 8:30)
"For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:14) “Make your calling and election sure.” (2 Peter 1) |
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Studying history, we can see that there were many golden chains of the promises of God, but was there ever an exception, a breach, a break of those golden chains? That is the question. If there was never any break of the golden chains throughout history, then we can expect there will be no breaks in the NT golden chain, and if there are no breaks, then many are called and many are chosen, but Christ says many are called and few are chosen. There can be exceptions WITHIN TIME, but in eternity, in the arena upward in heaven where God dwells in His Sovereign loft, the decrees of His golden chains never break, even if God has to do the impossible and illogical outside of the realm of our understanding.
Many Golden Chains: The Golden Chains Throughout History
In Genesis 15:13-16, God swore the Canaanite land (Gen. 15:18-21) unto the fourth generation after Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16), called the Exodus generation, and this generation fulfilled the number which God promised them to be (Gen. 15:5); they were as the stars of heaven (Deut. 10:22, Neh. 9:23). This generation came “short” (Heb. 4:1) of their gospel promise and were cast away, forsaken, and rejected by God (Num. 14:34) through a holy breach of the Covenant promise; a holy broken promise. Now, this was to no fault or error in the integrity and faithfulness of God to perform His word. Intercessors, recognizing that the promises had been broken, cried out for their fulfillment (Ps. 77). All of the thousands of years leading up to the day of Christ, men were still pleading for and looking after the fulfillment of those promises (Luke 1:54-55, 72-73), and we, like them, are also waiting for those promises to consummate in Christ’s rulership of the Land. We await their final, mysterious fulfillment, but there is no fault upon God because His former word was breached. The Abrahamic Covenant was a “golden chain” which cannot be broken, and though those persons who were called in its promise fell short of it, and though many generations in its call also fell short of it, it was the mercy of God that He did not entirely and utterly consume the whole seed of Abraham so as to make void the Covenant’s final fulfillment altogether (Neh. 9:17, 19, 27, 31). It was God’s mercy that He did not throw out the golden chain altogether but rather disintegrated some links to the chain, and with no flaw in the promise, for somehow the higher righteousness of God is able to take a just and righteous occasion to damn saved men because of their sin (Neh. 9:33). Rising up to vindicate God’s faultlessness, God’s people, the holy angels, and God’s scripture still affirm that God kept His word perfectly, faithfully, and righteously (Neh. 9:7-8, 15, 23-25, 32, Psalm 105:8-11, 42), but the breach of promise upon those saved men/generations is never disannulled, disaffirmed, or denied at the same time. I say again, they recognized that God’s faithfulness to perform the Covenant was magnified in that He kept the Covenant alive at all. They understood that God desired, thought to, and moved to destroy it altogether, many times, and therefore, to think that God would keep it alive for any further, partial, or a final mysterious fulfillment in Christ for all eternity – this is God’s great faithfulness (Num. 9:31-32, Lam. 3:21). Had it not been for intercessors in every age standing against the wrathful mind of God to destroy the Covenant and His people, then it, and they, would not be alive today (Exodus 32:13). God hears their prayers and still affirms, the New Covenant is arisen to fulfill the age-old, first Covenant to the fathers’ – or Abraham as the first father (Deut. 9:5, 26-29, 10:15-16, Micah 7:20, Lk. 1:54-55, 72-73, Rom. 11:28-29, Jer. 33:22-26).
Many persons and generations were participants in the promises of these Covenants, but they were damned, fell short of their calling, were not finally chosen, and how? God repented of His purpose to save them (as we have addressed with so great an exhaustiveness thus far unto this chapter), and when it says that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, it is meant to say that just as Nehemiah articulates Church history (Nehemiah 9) – though many perished and fell from the Covenant through God’s holy repentances – nevertheless, it is alive and will finally be fulfilled with a single generation in the END, and that for all time, because this purpose is established without repentance, and all those who died having not seen the final fulfillment of it, but did look for and wait for it until death, will be resurrected to its fulfillment in the END of time. They were saved by these very promises in their life and in the life to come. In the end it shall be said – “this is My Covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:27). In the END “repentance shall be hid from [His] eyes” (Hos. 13:14), but that does not negate all those generations and persons who perished because God did repent.
In the very same manner as the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant is eternally fulfilled in Christ. Like the Abrahamic Covenant, it was, in its time and still today, a golden chain, though many generations and persons came short of the Covenant promises when they were participants in them as saved men. The Davidic Covenant’s golden chain is altogether like unto Romans 8:28-32, but as was thoroughly addressed already, Solomon fell short of the final promise of that chain, and in subsequent generations God sought to fulfill the Covenant so as to give David’s seed an eternal throne...nevertheless, David’s throne was utterly cast down to the ground. For this reason the intercessors did arise and cry (Psalms 89, 132), and God did respond and speak to show the eternality of the Davidic Covenant’s final fulfillment (Psalm 110:1), but this does not negate the holy breaches of the Covenant in the former, present, and future generations to come. The time of its fulfillment has partially begun with the ascension of Christ to the throne of David in heaven (Lk. 1:31-33, Acts 2:25-36), and yet remember, it is not fulfilled finally, eternally, without breachability until God makes all of Christ’s enemies His footstool (Acts 2:35, 1 Cor. 15:24-28, 54-57). This is the end of our gospel-Covenant as well, because we are now links in the chain of the golden promises of the Davidic Covenant, and for its fulfillment in Christ do we wait, but God can break us off and raise up others to be saved by these promises, just like He did with those of times past (Rom. 11:18-22). They fell short of their calling, which, in Christ, is also our calling.
What is golden about the golden chain of Romans 8:28-32, what is faithful about the faithfulness of God, and what is merciful about the ever-enduring mercies of God to keep His Covenant? These acclamations do not mean that no one ever came short of and perished under a holy breach of those words of promise, but it is that all did not, are not, and will not come short of them, even though God desired, desires, and will desire to destroy all of His people in His holy, righteous anger against the sinfulness of the saints. Faithfulness and mercy do exclaim the wonder that a small amount, even that some of the people, are saved which are altogether just a FEW of the MANY that were called. That is a biblical explanation of the faithfulness and mercy of God! But oh! How many people just abuse the words of God!
What will you so fervently plead? That God says that He will “never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5, Deut. 31:6), and therefore HE CANNOT ever leave you or forsake you and that is FINAL? Then why did God say, “I will never break My Covenant” (Judges 2:2), and yet He breached the promises for the rebellious generations? Will you plead that Christ said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20), and therefore He means to say that it is impossible for Him to leave you, or ever forsake you, but to ALWAYS be with you? Will you just stand so fervently upon that word ALWAYS, as if there is no answer to you? Then why did God say to Joshua, “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Josh. 1:6), and then later, “neither will I be with you any more” (Josh. 7:12)? Why did God say to Jacob, “I will not leave thee” (Gen. 28:15), and at the dark night of Jacob’s soul God sought to leave him to destruction, and He said to Jacob, “let Me go” (Gen. 32:26)? Yea verily, at this time Jacob made his election sure instead of vainly trusting in election – he wrestled, clave, and cried, “I will not let Thee go”, to God (Gen. 32:26)!
What else will you say? God says that He will, in the New Covenant, “put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me” (Jer. 32:40), and therefore that means that NT Christians cannot depart from God? Then why does Hebrews 3:12 use the very same word and language to declare that a man can depart from God, and that we should fear and take heed to this, saying, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God” (Heb. 3:12)? Or will you say that God cannot remember our sins anymore because He says, “their sins and iniquities I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17), but then why does God say later in that chapter that He will remember men’s sins if they begin to willfully sin against Him (Heb. 10:26-29)? Did not God say “their sins and iniquities I will remember no more” in Hebrews 10:17, which is in the same context as when He said, “all his righteousness shall not be remembered” (Ezek. 33:13)? And again, if the wicked turns from his wickedness then “none of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him” (Ezek. 33:16). Do you see? The sin and righteousness which was not remembered in the OT was able to be remembered again, and the promise quoted in Hebrews 10:17 is also quoted from the OT in Jeremiah 31:34, thus would not Jeremiah’s preaching be parallel to Ezekiel’s? In the NT and OT there is a fear of falling short of the promises of God, because men understand that they can fall short of them!
In the midst of biblical chapters where the scripture is establishing a godly fear that men are able to fall away from grace, the promises of God’s faithfulness and keeping power are inserted, because this leads the people to pray for their performance, seek after their verification and confirmation, and lay hold upon them, for truly, God’s faithfulness is our only hope – but this does not make void and deny that men can come short of them! Such verses like 1 Corinthians 3:15, 10:13, Hebrews 6:9-10, Heb. 10:32-36 do not negate the truth of the surrounding warnings of falling into condemnation. These asserting words of hope are held right there in a good place, as the only beacon of hope for salvation, giving direction for the godly fear of a saint who is taking heed to himself, lest he falls.
Many Golden Chains: The Golden Chains Throughout History
In Genesis 15:13-16, God swore the Canaanite land (Gen. 15:18-21) unto the fourth generation after Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16), called the Exodus generation, and this generation fulfilled the number which God promised them to be (Gen. 15:5); they were as the stars of heaven (Deut. 10:22, Neh. 9:23). This generation came “short” (Heb. 4:1) of their gospel promise and were cast away, forsaken, and rejected by God (Num. 14:34) through a holy breach of the Covenant promise; a holy broken promise. Now, this was to no fault or error in the integrity and faithfulness of God to perform His word. Intercessors, recognizing that the promises had been broken, cried out for their fulfillment (Ps. 77). All of the thousands of years leading up to the day of Christ, men were still pleading for and looking after the fulfillment of those promises (Luke 1:54-55, 72-73), and we, like them, are also waiting for those promises to consummate in Christ’s rulership of the Land. We await their final, mysterious fulfillment, but there is no fault upon God because His former word was breached. The Abrahamic Covenant was a “golden chain” which cannot be broken, and though those persons who were called in its promise fell short of it, and though many generations in its call also fell short of it, it was the mercy of God that He did not entirely and utterly consume the whole seed of Abraham so as to make void the Covenant’s final fulfillment altogether (Neh. 9:17, 19, 27, 31). It was God’s mercy that He did not throw out the golden chain altogether but rather disintegrated some links to the chain, and with no flaw in the promise, for somehow the higher righteousness of God is able to take a just and righteous occasion to damn saved men because of their sin (Neh. 9:33). Rising up to vindicate God’s faultlessness, God’s people, the holy angels, and God’s scripture still affirm that God kept His word perfectly, faithfully, and righteously (Neh. 9:7-8, 15, 23-25, 32, Psalm 105:8-11, 42), but the breach of promise upon those saved men/generations is never disannulled, disaffirmed, or denied at the same time. I say again, they recognized that God’s faithfulness to perform the Covenant was magnified in that He kept the Covenant alive at all. They understood that God desired, thought to, and moved to destroy it altogether, many times, and therefore, to think that God would keep it alive for any further, partial, or a final mysterious fulfillment in Christ for all eternity – this is God’s great faithfulness (Num. 9:31-32, Lam. 3:21). Had it not been for intercessors in every age standing against the wrathful mind of God to destroy the Covenant and His people, then it, and they, would not be alive today (Exodus 32:13). God hears their prayers and still affirms, the New Covenant is arisen to fulfill the age-old, first Covenant to the fathers’ – or Abraham as the first father (Deut. 9:5, 26-29, 10:15-16, Micah 7:20, Lk. 1:54-55, 72-73, Rom. 11:28-29, Jer. 33:22-26).
Many persons and generations were participants in the promises of these Covenants, but they were damned, fell short of their calling, were not finally chosen, and how? God repented of His purpose to save them (as we have addressed with so great an exhaustiveness thus far unto this chapter), and when it says that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, it is meant to say that just as Nehemiah articulates Church history (Nehemiah 9) – though many perished and fell from the Covenant through God’s holy repentances – nevertheless, it is alive and will finally be fulfilled with a single generation in the END, and that for all time, because this purpose is established without repentance, and all those who died having not seen the final fulfillment of it, but did look for and wait for it until death, will be resurrected to its fulfillment in the END of time. They were saved by these very promises in their life and in the life to come. In the end it shall be said – “this is My Covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:27). In the END “repentance shall be hid from [His] eyes” (Hos. 13:14), but that does not negate all those generations and persons who perished because God did repent.
In the very same manner as the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant is eternally fulfilled in Christ. Like the Abrahamic Covenant, it was, in its time and still today, a golden chain, though many generations and persons came short of the Covenant promises when they were participants in them as saved men. The Davidic Covenant’s golden chain is altogether like unto Romans 8:28-32, but as was thoroughly addressed already, Solomon fell short of the final promise of that chain, and in subsequent generations God sought to fulfill the Covenant so as to give David’s seed an eternal throne...nevertheless, David’s throne was utterly cast down to the ground. For this reason the intercessors did arise and cry (Psalms 89, 132), and God did respond and speak to show the eternality of the Davidic Covenant’s final fulfillment (Psalm 110:1), but this does not negate the holy breaches of the Covenant in the former, present, and future generations to come. The time of its fulfillment has partially begun with the ascension of Christ to the throne of David in heaven (Lk. 1:31-33, Acts 2:25-36), and yet remember, it is not fulfilled finally, eternally, without breachability until God makes all of Christ’s enemies His footstool (Acts 2:35, 1 Cor. 15:24-28, 54-57). This is the end of our gospel-Covenant as well, because we are now links in the chain of the golden promises of the Davidic Covenant, and for its fulfillment in Christ do we wait, but God can break us off and raise up others to be saved by these promises, just like He did with those of times past (Rom. 11:18-22). They fell short of their calling, which, in Christ, is also our calling.
What is golden about the golden chain of Romans 8:28-32, what is faithful about the faithfulness of God, and what is merciful about the ever-enduring mercies of God to keep His Covenant? These acclamations do not mean that no one ever came short of and perished under a holy breach of those words of promise, but it is that all did not, are not, and will not come short of them, even though God desired, desires, and will desire to destroy all of His people in His holy, righteous anger against the sinfulness of the saints. Faithfulness and mercy do exclaim the wonder that a small amount, even that some of the people, are saved which are altogether just a FEW of the MANY that were called. That is a biblical explanation of the faithfulness and mercy of God! But oh! How many people just abuse the words of God!
What will you so fervently plead? That God says that He will “never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5, Deut. 31:6), and therefore HE CANNOT ever leave you or forsake you and that is FINAL? Then why did God say, “I will never break My Covenant” (Judges 2:2), and yet He breached the promises for the rebellious generations? Will you plead that Christ said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20), and therefore He means to say that it is impossible for Him to leave you, or ever forsake you, but to ALWAYS be with you? Will you just stand so fervently upon that word ALWAYS, as if there is no answer to you? Then why did God say to Joshua, “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Josh. 1:6), and then later, “neither will I be with you any more” (Josh. 7:12)? Why did God say to Jacob, “I will not leave thee” (Gen. 28:15), and at the dark night of Jacob’s soul God sought to leave him to destruction, and He said to Jacob, “let Me go” (Gen. 32:26)? Yea verily, at this time Jacob made his election sure instead of vainly trusting in election – he wrestled, clave, and cried, “I will not let Thee go”, to God (Gen. 32:26)!
What else will you say? God says that He will, in the New Covenant, “put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me” (Jer. 32:40), and therefore that means that NT Christians cannot depart from God? Then why does Hebrews 3:12 use the very same word and language to declare that a man can depart from God, and that we should fear and take heed to this, saying, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God” (Heb. 3:12)? Or will you say that God cannot remember our sins anymore because He says, “their sins and iniquities I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17), but then why does God say later in that chapter that He will remember men’s sins if they begin to willfully sin against Him (Heb. 10:26-29)? Did not God say “their sins and iniquities I will remember no more” in Hebrews 10:17, which is in the same context as when He said, “all his righteousness shall not be remembered” (Ezek. 33:13)? And again, if the wicked turns from his wickedness then “none of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him” (Ezek. 33:16). Do you see? The sin and righteousness which was not remembered in the OT was able to be remembered again, and the promise quoted in Hebrews 10:17 is also quoted from the OT in Jeremiah 31:34, thus would not Jeremiah’s preaching be parallel to Ezekiel’s? In the NT and OT there is a fear of falling short of the promises of God, because men understand that they can fall short of them!
In the midst of biblical chapters where the scripture is establishing a godly fear that men are able to fall away from grace, the promises of God’s faithfulness and keeping power are inserted, because this leads the people to pray for their performance, seek after their verification and confirmation, and lay hold upon them, for truly, God’s faithfulness is our only hope – but this does not make void and deny that men can come short of them! Such verses like 1 Corinthians 3:15, 10:13, Hebrews 6:9-10, Heb. 10:32-36 do not negate the truth of the surrounding warnings of falling into condemnation. These asserting words of hope are held right there in a good place, as the only beacon of hope for salvation, giving direction for the godly fear of a saint who is taking heed to himself, lest he falls.