Let's open our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians
chapter one. 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Now
my main text in this chapter are verses four and five, talking
about this subject, election and evangelism. Let's read this
chapter before we begin the message. Paul, that's the Apostle Paul,
and Silvanus and Timotheus, under the Church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention
of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith your labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ in the sight of God our Father. Verse four, knowing
brethren, beloved, beloved of God, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake, And you became followers of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy
Ghost, so that you were in samples or examples, either way, to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to Godward. is spread abroad,
so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for his Son from heaven. whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. May the
Lord bless his word to our hearts. I learned a long time ago that
in preaching, wherever I preach, whenever I preach, and I know
you men who preach for us here when I'm gone, you've learned
this too. Now, whatever we find in the
word of God, much of which upsets people, steps on their toes,
as you might say, goes against their grain. Of course, we know
the grain of the natural man is in opposition to God and his
word and his way of salvation. But in preaching the word, number
one, we want to be honest. I don't want to find a portion
of the word of God and say, well, I'm not going to preach that.
I'm just going to leave that out. Because I know there's going
to be some people out there that get upset and all that. I can't
do that. If the word of God is what you
love, you love Christ. But you love Christ as he's identified
and distinguished in his word. And that's what we must preach.
And the truth, as it is in God, is to the glory of God. It glorifies
Him. Whatever's in this book that's
true, it glorifies God. Now, why would I want to keep
that from you? Why would I want to hold that back? You say, well,
it offends me. Well, that's your problem. My commission as a preacher
of the gospel is to preach it, and God's gonna get, he's gonna
get the glory for whatever result happens. The second thing I need
to learn is that when we do get on these doctrines that go against
the grain of the natural man, I don't have to apologize for
God. I don't have to make excuses
for him. The apostle Paul didn't do that, neither did any other
evangelist or apostle. This is true, and we try to be
encouraging, which is what I want to do. I want to encourage you
to believe God's word. I can't make you believe, I can't
even make myself believe it. God has to do that. Faith is
the gift of God. If I had that gift to give to
you, I'd mess it up. It's the gift of God. And that
faith is accompanied by repentance of dead works and idolatry. Most people don't even know what
repentance is. You all know that. Most people say, well, we repent
of our sin. The problem with that is man
by nature doesn't even know what sin really is. I mean, he knows
about immorality. He knows that guys that go out
here and rob a bank and sell drugs, they know their sin. But
what about that preacher standing behind the pulpit, those people
sitting in the pew where a false gospel is preached? That's sinful. I had a lady ask me one time,
she had a granddaughter who started reading the Harry Potter books.
You all know that Harry Potter? And somebody, some religious
highfalutin woman told her that Harry Potter was of the devil.
And she asked me, she said, do you think, because it's got witchcraft
and all that stuff in it. She asked me if I believed Harry
Potter was of the devil. And I said, well, no, I look
at Harry Potter like I look at Mickey Mouse and Goofy. It's
like a cartoon. It's just a play thing. I know
people can get involved in junk like that and go too far. I'm
not making light of that. But I tell you, I told her, I
said, if you want to know where the devil is, he's down the street
there preaching in the Free Will Baptist Church, leading people
in a false message. And that may sound harsh, but
it's the truth. And you say, well, I don't believe
that. That's OK. It's a free country. But my friend,
the truth of God stands the same. And I wanna talk to you today
about election. What is election? Look at verse
four again. Paul writes to these Thessalonians
in the church at Thessalonica where he had preached. And he
said, no, and I know brethren, beloved, your election of God. I know God has chosen you. Somebody told me one time, says,
you think you know who God's elect are and who they're not?
I only know what God's word says. I can't, you know, a person individually
and all that, you know, I mean, I preach the gospel and tell
people, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
And that's what I do. But Paul says, I know your election
of God. Well, what is the doctrine of
election? Well, it teaches us that before God created this
world and before he populated it, he chose a people to save
based on his own purpose within himself, no outside influences. and it was his own purpose within
himself to glorify himself by saving them in his free sovereign
grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, his son. Let me read
you some scripture. This is Ephesians 1 and verse
3 and on down. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. What a verse. All
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All conditioned
on him, all founded upon him, his glorious person, God manifest
in the flesh, that's who he is, God-man. And all based upon the
work that he did to bring forth an everlasting righteousness,
His obedience unto death, our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And it says all spiritual blessings
in Him. And look at verse four. Well,
I'll read it to you, you might be there. But verse four says,
according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. There's another word that people
hate, predestinated. In other words, this wasn't a
matter of God looking down through a telescope of time and foreseeing
what you and I would do. That's outside influence, you
see. So according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, you know, election, whenever
you see people described as God's elect, it's always the election
of grace. And it says, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved, the election of grace based upon
the merits of Christ, accepted in the beloved, in whom, in Christ,
we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. That's the election
of grace. You remember in Romans chapter
nine, Paul was talking about Jacob and Esau, those twins.
And their situation. And he made this point in verse
11 of chapter 9, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. This wasn't
done, whatever God says here is not done because of any evil
or good that they did. And it was said to her, that
is their mother, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. That puts people off. What, what? God hated Esau? Well, we all
deserve God's hatred. If you don't believe that, you
don't know what the Bible says about you. We're enemies of God
in our minds by wicked works. You say, well, that's not fair.
Paul deals with that in Romans 9 too. He says don't portray
God as being unfair. Everything he does is just, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated, what shall we say then? Now how
are you gonna respond to that? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is he unjust, is he unfair? God forbid, for he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. God said I'll do it that way,
he's sovereign. I had a fella ask me one time,
he said, well, okay, all that's true, but why preach it? Because
people don't like it, you know? Well, you know, Paul here in
Romans 9, 15, now listen to what he says. He said to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That's what God said to Moses,
because Moses had asked God a question. And what was the question that
he asked him? It's back in Exodus 33 if you
wanna check me out on that. Moses asked God this, please
show me your glory. Now are you here this morning
to glorify God? That's what we're here for, right?
He said, please show me your glory. And this is how God responded
to Moses. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
God said, that's my glory. Now you might say, well, I'm
here to glorify God, but I don't like that part of God's glory.
Huh? You don't have that opportunity
or privilege. Who are you? Paul went on down
there in Romans 9, he said, who do you think you are? Who are
you to reply against God? He's the potter, you're the clay.
And so the conclusion that he came to in verse 16, as Paul
wrote in Romans, so then it's not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation
is not a matter of man's decision or will, or a matter of man's
works or doing. It's a matter of God's sovereign
mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I will.
The election, as I said before, is called the election of grace.
Paul wrote about that in Romans 11, verse five. He said, even
so then at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. You know what a remnant is? Go
into a carpet store and ask them to show you a remnant. A little
old piece of cloth. And what he's talking about in
Israel, because of their unbelief, nationally, the majority of the
country perished in unbelief But God always had a remnant
of people. Now was it a remnant because
they were better than the rest of them? No, it's a remnant according
to the election of grace. Think about Noah. Remember Noah
back in Genesis chapter six? The whole world, he said, was
wicked. But Noah was a better guy. Now is that what he said? No. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now why Noah? The glory of God. Why not everybody? The glory
of God. He has mercy on whom he will.
And God did not choose everyone. If he had, then everyone would
be saved. He appointed some to salvation and appointed some
to wrath. And you say, well, that's mean. Well, listen to
Paul again. Here's your answer, Romans 9,
18. Therefore he hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and
on whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth
he yet find fault for he who hath resisted his will? Nay,
but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made
me like you made me? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and
another under dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforepaired under glory, even us whom he called? It's for the elect remnant that
Christ came into the world to obey unto death and save to the
uttermost as God the Father had given them to him before the
world began. They're known by many names. They're called his
sheep. In his high priestly prayer in John 17 one, he spoke these
words to the father saying, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify
thee as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given to him. And
when did God give him to him? Before the world began. Second
Timothy 1 10 tells us that. Salvation given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. That's who Christ died for. That's who he shed his blood
for, not everybody. He said, I'm the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. His sheep. Now many object to this doctrine
on the grounds that it stifles missionary work and evangelism. After all, if God has chosen
to save some, then they're gonna be saved whether or not they
hear the gospel, so why bother? Why did Christ command us to
go into all the world and preach the gospel to everybody? And
that's everybody who'll listen. And this is where we come to
evangelism. Look back at our text. Verse four, knowing brethren,
beloved of God, your election of God. How do you know, Paul? How are God's elect identified
and distinguished from the reprobate? How can I know if I'm one of
God's elect? Don't you wanna know that? Wouldn't you be interested
in that? I've had people actually go so
far as tell me, no, I'm not interested. If God's like that, then I don't
want him. Well, you're gonna meet him.
You're going to meet him. Mark my words. It's not my words,
it's his word. You will meet God. How can I
know if I'm one of God's? Is it even necessary? Is it possible
for me to know? Well, here's where we come to
the biblical doctrine of evangelism. What is evangelism? Well, evangelism
comes from the word evangel, which means good news. There's
good news. You say, well, preacher, you
haven't been telling me anything but bad news up to this point.
No, you're wrong. I've told you some good news
because you want to let you in on a little secret here is if
God hadn't chosen some, nobody would be saved. We'd all, as
brother Richard Wormack says, bust hell wide open. No. Do we deserve salvation? No. Is salvation based upon me
giving my heart to Jesus or making a decision for Christ? No, it's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. We're in the hands of God. So
what is evangelism? It's preaching the good news
of the gospel of God's grace to save his people in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believeth. Not the Jew first and the Greek
also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. That word righteousness
is the justice of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the justified. Well, what is that? Those who
are forgiven of all their sins, those who are declared righteous
in Christ before God, the just shall live by faith. What is
faith? It's the gift of God given to
his people under the preaching of the gospel that causes them
to look to Christ. plead his blood in righteousness.
The Bible teaches that God's elect are known by their new
birth, you must be born again, wherein they are brought by the
Holy Spirit to hear and believe the true gospel and given the
gifts of faith in Christ, repentance of dead works and perseverance
unto the end. That's what Paul's describing
here. Knowing you brethren, your election of God, our gospel came
not unto you in word only. If I preach the gospel to you,
and you walk out the door there not believing it, that means
that the gospel came to you in word only. But he says the gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power. Well, you
remember Paul wrote, Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God. You know that word power, in
the Greek, it's dunamis, dunamis, however you wanna pronounce it.
We get our word dynamite from it. The gospel in the power of
the Holy Spirit will blow us out of the water. It'll blow
our minds. Because everything that we thought
was good, we see as evil, and now everything we thought as
evil is good. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord of whom I've count all things but loss. All things but
dung, he said. The things that I thought were
good and recommended me to God, now I see is a pile of dung.
That's repentance. He told the Thessalonians here,
he says you turn to God from idols to serve the living and
true God. That's what you do in repentance.
You turn from yourself, from your misconceptions of God and
what it takes to atone and please Him, you turn from that to looking
to Christ and His righteousness imputed alone, His blood alone
for your whole salvation. That's repentance that comes
through faith. And faith comes by the revelation
of God as he gives his people ears to hear and eyes to see. How are gods elect identified
and distinguished from the revelation? They believe. They believe this
message. And they believe it so much that
they won't hang on to anything else in the past as recommending
them unto God. They will not perish. It says,
God's not willing that any of them should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. Who are God's elect? Those who
are brought to repentance. That's a gift from God. Through
the knowledge of him who works all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now, one thing you need to understand
though about this, by nature, and whenever I say, I say this
on TV all the time, because I don't think people understand what
I'm saying. When I say by nature, I'm talking about as we are born
naturally in this world, fallen in Adam, in a state of darkness
and depravity, spiritual death. That's how we're all born, even
the elect of God. We fell in Adam. And that's our
state in this world to start off with. And so by nature, the
elect of God are no different than the reprobate. That's what
Paul was writing about in Romans 3, 10, 11. There's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none good, no, not one. That's us by nature. In
fact, he even said it this way in Ephesians chapter two. He
said, we are by nature children of wrath. If you're elect of
God, you're never a child of wrath. You deserve wrath. You
earned that. But God marked you out for mercy. before the world began. We're
loved with an everlasting love. All of that, that's in the Bible. But as we're born naturally in
this world, we're no different in unbelief and darkness and
depravity than the reprobate. And that's why left to ourselves,
all of us would continue in our rebellion and reject Christ and
reject his truth. But for his glory, God has chosen
to seek his sheep Find them, bring them under the gospel and
convict them of their need. What do I need? Oh my, so I need
grace. I need Christ. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. You mean that
same grace that chose some and didn't choose everybody? Yeah,
that's the grace. You mean that grace that is supported
Maintained by the obedience unto death of Christ, didn't the Bible
say, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Who are God's elect? Christ said
in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast down. See, some people look at this
doctrine of election like, well, that means if I want to be saved,
I won't be if I'm not elect. Oh, no. Because if you're one
of God's elect, he's going to bring you to want to be saved
by his grace through Christ. And he does it by revelation. That's what he said, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them and they know me.
told the Pharisees who continually reject him, he says, you don't
believe because you're not of my sheep. That's the problem. Second Thessalonians 2 13 and
14. Remember what he said there?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he said, we are bound to give thanks to God brethren for you
Beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. And I wanna show you one more
verse. You can look at this one if you want. Give you a little
bit of time. 2 Timothy 2. You know Paul, the
apostle, he preached, well, all the evangelists. This is an evangelistic
message. And when you hear it, It's impending
upon you to believe it. And the results are up to God.
I know when I first heard it, I hated it. I really did. I didn't want it. And no reason
I went back to that church where it was preached because my mother
was there and I wanted to get her out. But I, at some point in time,
and I don't know the exact day and I don't care, The Lord caught
my attention. Y'all have heard me say it, I
call it my two before moment. You know, when the Lord gets
the two before and hits the mule in the head to get his attention.
He got my attention. It was over how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. That was the issue. I never,
just God and a savior. Imputed righteousness, I never
heard that before. I was a second year seminary
student. I never even heard of imputed righteousness. That's
the heart of the gospel. But Paul went out and he preached
that gospel and that's the same light that exposes false religion
and the evil deeds of the best people who are trying to be saved
by their works. And it drives, God uses it to
drive his chosen people to Christ. Has he driven you to Christ?
to look nowhere else for salvation, for righteousness, for forgiveness.
That's the elect of God. And Paul said, because I preach
this gospel, I suffer trouble. Look at verse nine of 2 Timothy,
chapter two. He said, wherein I suffer trouble
as an evildoer. The Jewish unbelievers called
Paul an evil man. because he preached Christ. And
that would not allow them to bring their works into it. You
mean to tell me that all that I've done for the Lord means
nothing as far as making me righteous in God's sight? And Paul would
say, I mean to tell you just that. You're trying to stand before
God in a robe of filthy rags that God hates. That which is
highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. And so
Paul said, because I preach that, I'm always in trouble with people.
As an evildoer, even unto bonds, they arrested him, put him in
chains. But the word of God is not bound. You can't chain up the word of
God. You can chain his preachers up. You can shut down his local
assembly, but you can't chain the word of God. It's going forth.
It's gonna reach every one of his chosen people before he comes
again. And he says in verse 10, now
look at it. Well, Paul, why do you go through that? Why do you
get all that trouble being arrested, being disrespected, being called
evil? Why do you do that? Look at verse 10. He says, therefore
I endure all things. Do you see the next words? For
the Alex's sake. that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It's
because I know God has an elect people out there. I don't know
who all they are. That's not my business. My commission is
to preach to anyone and everyone who will listen. Some get glad,
some get mad, some don't care. I can't, I'm not responsible
for that. Like I said, I can't save you,
I couldn't even save myself. But God saves sinners. And here's
how he does it. By his grace. Through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe? You say, well
preacher, it's hard to believe. Well, I know that, that's why
faith's a gift of God. But I'm telling you, there's
no other way. There's no other way at all. The only way is God's
way. It's God's way or the highways.
It's my prayer that every one of you and everyone who's listening
to this message and everyone who listens to any true gospel
preacher that they'll believe. Paul said, I know your election
of God because the gospel came to you not just in hearing words,
but in power. And that power was shown forth
because You have the gift of faith, you believe, and God brought
you to repentance of dead works, and you continue in him. May
the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Okay.