Let your faith be invigorated by the assurance that this is settled beyond dispute by God's eternal purpose. It is decreed. "To him that overcometh will I give to sit down with me on my throne." "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Nor has this measure been forced upon Jehovah. It is sometimes the case that sovereigns are compelled to yield privileges to restless and revolted subjects. Sometimes contemporary sovereignties combine to force a reluctant ruler into arrangements contrary to his preconceived and preferred policy. Sometimes potent rulers yield their preferences to the sway of sage and influential counsellors, and find themselves committed to a policy which they execute with reluctance, and with exceptions. It is not so with any of the decrees of the Most High. Who, being his counsellor, hath taught him? He "worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will." "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." It is no less the pleasure of the Son: "Father, I will that they also that thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." And he has power to carry out his purposes to their entire fulfilment. O, how precious is this doctrine of Divine predestination! You may have enemies. There may be those who would deny you a place in the church on earth. You may have been excommunicated and cursed for worshipping the God of your fathers after the manner which some call heresy. Your enemies would fain keep you out of heaven. They profess to be able to do so. But they are mistaken. God has not left it to them to determine who shall enter heaven and who shall not. He has fixed the conditions of salvation independently of their counsels--long before they existed--before the sun began his course. "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy." To accomplish their end, they must be able to go behind all human arrangements to the decrees, the purposes of heaven, and revoke them. Will they be able to do that? Or, if unable to revoke, or induce him to revoke his decrees, will they be able to defeat them by machinations or physical resistance? Surely not. He will show them "the immutability of his counsels." He will say to them, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." "There is no wisdom, or understanding, or counsel, against the Lord." "He will make the devices of the people of none effect." "The Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it." "Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!"