R.C. Sproul

And knowing that you are going to choose Christ, God then chooses you to be saved.

But he bases that choice on his prior knowledge of Dick's decision.

Is that clear?

so that God is choosing you for salvation, but he's choosing you because of something he foresees in your life.

The Augustinian view, on the contrary, would say that what God foresees in your life has nothing whatsoever to do with his choice of you, that his choice is surely by the good pleasure of his will without any view to anything you may or may not do in the future.

That's basically the heart of the issue of whether or not the choice is with a view to what you do or without a view to what you do or what you will do with respect to the proclamation of the gospel.

Now there are other things that we all hold in common, and then as we agree at certain points, then the divergences come.

And the first thing that every Christian agrees on is that the God that we worship is a sovereign God.

How sovereignty works itself out in matters of salvation is what divides us.

We're not to love God simply for all of the wonderful gifts and benefits that we receive from His hand, but we're to love Him for who He is in Himself.

We don't really progress in the Christian life until we understand that, that to love God is to love Him because He is lovely, He is wonderful, and He is worthy of

of the creature's unqualified affection.

Mark 12, 28 to 34.

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.

This is the first commandment.

And the second, like it, is this.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.