God never punishes innocent people, but he does redeem guilty people, but he doesn't redeem them all.

He is under no obligation to redeem any.

The amazing thing is that he redeems some.

When it comes to salvation, we know that not everyone is saved, not everyone becomes a Christian.

So does that mean that God decreed that some wouldn't believe?

Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us for this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

Each Saturday, you're hearing messages from R.C. Sproul's overview of theology series.

This series is called Foundations, and we're currently in a section on the doctrine of salvation.

Since God is sovereign over all things, does that mean he decreed those that would believe and those that wouldn't?

And if so, on what basis did he make those choices?

Here's Dr. Sproul on a controversial yet crucial topic.

When we hear the Christmas story read every year from Luke's gospel, we hear these words from chapter 2.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

And that little historical detail that Luke supplies for us and his narrative of the birth of Jesus calls attention to the authority of Caesar Augustus,

was one of the most powerful rulers of the ancient world.

And when a ruler such as Caesar issues an imperial decree, that is a command that is imposed upon all of those under the dominion of Rome that must be obeyed.

And Luke tells us that because this decree went out from the emperor, that this was the historical reason behind Jesus being born in Bethlehem of Judea.

But we realize as we read the rest of the story that long before Caesar Augustus ever thought about issuing a decree in human history that would lead to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem,

that form all eternity, the Lord God omnipotent had issued a decree that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

And there is a sense as we will look at when we see the doctrine of providence that above and beyond the decree of kings and emperors in this world always stands the decree of all mighty God.

And when we look at theology, one of the things we're concerned about is this whole matter of the divine decrees because we know that God is sovereign.

And his sovereignty has to do with his authority and government over all that he makes, that God rules the universe, the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

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