Divine Foreknowledge Series

DIVINE FOREKNOWLEDGE

Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:4

INTRODUCTION: The God Who Knew You First

Church, I want you to turn with me to Jeremiah 1:5. Read it aloud with me:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Somebody shout, "He knew me!"

This morning, we begin a journey. A five-week expedition into the most sobering contrast in all of Scripture.

On one side, you have Jeremiah 1:5, where God declares, "I knew you."

On the other side, you have Matthew 7:23, where Jesus pronounces the most terrifying words a human being will ever hear: "I never knew you. Depart from Me."

Two statements. Same word. Opposite eternities.

One leads to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

The other leads to outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30).

The question that hangs over this series, beloved, is not whether God knows about you. The demons know about Jesus (James 2:19).

The question is whether God knows you in a covenant relationship. Whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Revelation 21:27), or whether you have built your house on the rock of obedience or on the sand of religious performance (Matthew 7:24-27).

This morning, we start at the beginning. Not your beginning. God's beginning.

• Because before your mother held you, God held you in His eternal mind.

• Before your father named you, the Father had already written your name.

• Before your first heartbeat echoed in your mother's womb, the heartbeat of God was already beating for you.

Psalm 139:16 says, "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Glory to God!

• You are not an accident.

• You are not a mistake.

• You are not a random collection of cells that happened to survive.

• You were chosen before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

• You were known before you were knit together.

• You were purposed before you were placed in your mother's womb.

Let's stand on this Word together.

I. GOD'S ETERNAL PLAN

"Before I Formed You, I Knew You"

(Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:4; Psalm 139:13-16)

The first thing I need you to understand is this: God's knowledge of you is not reactive. It is not responsive. God did not discover you when you were born. He designed you before time began.

In Jeremiah 1:5, the Hebrew word for "knew" is yada. This is not casual awareness. This is intimate, covenantal, experiential knowledge. This is the same word used in Genesis 4:1 when Adam knew Eve, and she conceived. It speaks of deep, personal union.

When God says, "Before I formed you, I knew you," He is saying, "Before I shaped your body, I had already entered into relationship with your soul. Before I gave you lungs to breathe, I had already breathed purpose into your existence."

A. The Eternal Election of the Saints

Ephesians 1:4 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

Church, you need to wrestle with this. Before God said, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), He had already said, "Let there be you." Before the stars were hung in the heavens, your name was hung in the heart of God. Before the mountains were formed, your destiny was formed.

This is what theologians call "divine foreknowledge." But I want you to hear it in plain language: God loved you first. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us." Your love for God is a response. His love for you is an origin.

You did not find God. He found you. You did not choose Him first. He chose you first. Jesus said in John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit."

Shout if you know you've been chosen!

B. The Divine Craftsmanship of Your Being

Now look at Psalm 139:13-14: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

The word "knit" here is the Hebrew word sakak. It means to weave together, to interlock, to cover protectively. God did not mass-produce you on an assembly line. He hand-crafted you like a master weaver creating a tapestry.

• Every strand of your DNA was a decision.

• Every feature of your face was a choice.

• Every talent,

• Every temperament,

• Every tendency was woven into you with intentionality.

Psalm 139:16 continues: "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."