Sovereignty Versus All The Warnings

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Hi J_,
It is good to hear from you. I hope you are doing well.  Thank you for your questions.
You ask:

From the tone of your questions you seem to have accepted the Truth of God’s sovereignty. God would have us all to realize that He is sovereign over all things and is, in the final analysis, the creator of all things both good and evil. In other words, if it has happened, God is the one who caused it to happen. Here is how clear He makes that point:

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Paul condenses all of this into this simple statement:

Eph 1:11 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:

So it is God who is working all things, including your confused state, and this exchange between us is “after the counsel of His own will.” I do hope it helps you to see more clearly what is that will for us all, and to be at peace with what He reveals in His Word.
You ask,

“All those warnings” are what the scriptures call “the foolishness of preaching,” and God Himself has ordained that it is through the foolishness of preaching that we will all be saved:

1Co 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

So as abrupt as it may seem, I cannot “add to” the scriptures or “take away from” the scriptures. “It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching, to [ warn, and] to save them that believe.” Your assumption that “If we are His from the beginning that He would more or less keep us on the straight and narrow…” is in error. The very meaning of being “formed of the dust of the earth,” is that we “were shapen in iniquity,” and the very meaning of Adam and Eve being “naked and were not ashamed” is that they were both conceived in sin.”

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Adam and all of his progeny were never intended to be “kept on the straight and narrow,” but were rather designed specifically to demonstrate the depravity and corruption which is all flesh. That is why we are told that Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world.”

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is all by God’s sovereign design, and the beast within us hates to hear these words and refuses to acknowledge that he is deliberately flawed by His own Creator for the very purpose of coming to understand his need for a Savior. Nevertheless this is the Truth of God’s word concerning all flesh and blood:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

You ask me:

I hate to have to repeat this, but once again, your assumption is in error. The reason it is a “sea of glass” instead of simply a ‘sea’ of unstable water is that we are by this time settled and satisfied with the fact that it is God who is working all things after the counsel of His own will. It is “mingled with fire” because God’s word is always “a fiery sword,” which will always burn away all that will burn up. If His words are in us, then we are at home in that fire and we become that fire:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

“Speaking uprightly” is the “fiery sword” that proceeds out of the mouth of Christ and His Christ. Here is the Old Testament type of the settled state of mind of those who are on that symbolic, spiritual “sea of glass.”

Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver [ us] out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

And that is exactly how we, too, are instructed to face all the trials of this life:

Luk 21:12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute [ you], delivering [ you] up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Luk 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
Luk 21:15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Luk 21:16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and [ some] of you shall they cause to be put to death.
Luk 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all [ men] for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were “settled in their hearts” and refused to bow down to the image of a man, symbolizing the beast and the father of the beast, whose children we all are at first and by design:

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Col 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Col 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

It is through the knowledge of the mind of Christ and His Father that we are made “a new man… after the image of Him that Created Him.”
You said:

We are all His in the long view, but in the short view we are first “blotted out of His book.” Here again is one of those admontions which seem so foolish to our natural man, but which are our very means of being saved:

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Christ said that if we denied Him before men, He would deny us before His father. What that means is that we must live by every one of those words that proceeded out of His mouth:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but [ Man shall live] by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Mat 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

So it was only shortly after this that all of Christ’s discples forsook Him and thereby denied Him:

Mat 26:56 But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

Mar 14:50 And they all forsook him, and fled.

Luk 22:56 But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him.
Luk 22:57 And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not.
Luk 22:58 And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not.
Luk 22:59 And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this [ fellow] also was with him: for he is a Galilaean.
Luk 22:60 And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.
Luk 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Luk 22:62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

Does this mean that Christ will deny Peter before His Father? Yes, this old Peter will be denied, but it is through this blotting out of the old man that the new man will not be blotted out, and Christ will confess the new Peter and the new Mike and the new you, Lord willing.

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

It is all designed to be accomplished “through the foolishness of preaching.” Christ had to tell his disciples what not to do, His disciples had to do what He said, ‘Don’t do,’ and then the old man had to repent and die and be replaced with the new man. It is all God’ s lump of clay, and He is the Potter.

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [ it], Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

I hope this has served to help you to be “renewed in that knowledge” and to be settled and resigned to “God’s will, which is what is being worked in all things.”
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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