Turn back to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. The doctrines
that assure that God gets all the glory, they are the most
despised by man. The carnal mind is enmity against
all that exalts God alone. But they are essential. They
are absolutely essential. Not only for God's glory, but
also for our salvation. I don't want to preach anything
that is not essential. And I find every word and every
doctrine in Scripture to be essential. I find it to be the truth that
alone, Christ said, can make us free. And I find that as the
whole, they are absolutely the doctrine of grace, grace in Christ. And one aspect of this doctrine
of Christ or doctrine of grace is most clearly stated in this
15th chapter. You see, believers, like all
these disciples that were present, are said to be, in that ninth
verse, loved by Christ. They have been loved. With an
everlasting love, if you look in John 17, Christ says that
the Father has loved them as He has loved Him. That's an everlasting love. And they are commanded in verse
10, they are commanded some things by Christ, not just suggested,
but they are commanded as they are in every place, first and
not only, to believe Christ. What is the commandment? That
you believe on Him whom God hath sent and love one another. Love one another. And this love
is to be a love like the love of Christ, certainly not in degree,
but by example, a love of sacrifice. I'm afraid if you love Me, you're
going to have to sacrifice something. You're going to have to look
over some things. You're going to have to sacrifice
some things. He loved us and gave Himself
for us. And the relationship of friends
that he describes here, he says, is evidenced by obedience in
that 14th and 15th verse. You are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knows not what his Lord does, but I called you
friends. For all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you." I've made known these
things unto you for you to believe them. and rest in them and trust
in them. And then our Lord tells us what
is the first cause for anyone being a friend of Christ. What is the evidence of Christ's
love for them, and He describes it in this way, it is because
of His choice of them. What old Robert Hawker called
an act of special grace in Jehovah. And that act of special grace
in Jehovah God, in Jehovah Jesus, is described here in many places
as His making a choice. Look at what He says in verse
16. He speaks of this sovereign choice,
this election of God, of these people out of Adam's race to
be the objects of His grace and mercy. You have not chosen me. But I have chosen you and ordained
you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
should remain." What he says in that one verse and statement, does so very much go against
all that is based upon everything that man exalts. It is a death blow to this modern
decisionism. Are you a Christian? I made my
decision. That's Billy Graham's language.
I made my decision. I like what one man said when
somebody asked him about when he made his decision. He said, I didn't. I was decided
upon. And it deals a death blow to
so-called man's free will. You see, man's will is really
a want when it comes to God. And it is a death blow against
so-called just easy believism. It's all you've got to do when
you want to, if you decide to, is just believe. And it is also
against all of this man-centered, man-exalting works religion that
most everybody is identified with in our day. You see, it boils down to this. Do we have a real hope of salvation? And if we say we have a hope
of salvation, is that hope based on something that we did? Or is it based on something that
we are doing? Or is it based on something God
has done? And the reason that this is so
important, the reason it's so essential to the gospel of God
is because the answer to that question determines who gets
the glory. Does God share His glory? He says He doesn't. And how can
we know the God of the Bible and not know Him as He reveals
Himself in many places such as this as the electing, choosing
God? And yet nothing seems to stir
the rebellion. in our self-righteous hearts,
like being confronted with God's right to do with His own what
He will. God's right to save whom He will,
or damn who He will, if He does it on a just basis, and His right
to choose whom He will to salvation. Now this book says that God has
an elect people. As a matter of fact, He describes
them by that name. He says in such places as Matthew's
gospel, the very last part of that gospel, that in this age,
the deception would be so great and so clever that if it were
possible, even the elect would be deceived. Thank goodness,
he says, if it were possible. And then he goes on to speak
of how, at the end of this age, all his elect will be gathered
from the four winds. That's his people. That's those
he chose in Christ. And Paul, if you turn to 2 Timothy,
the apostle Paul, giving the reason for his enduring imprisonment
and suffering and all that hardship he endured because he preached
this truth and all the truths of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, in that 10th verse, listen to what he
says as a man imprisoned at that very hour for preaching the truth. Verse 10, Therefore I endure
all things for the elect's sakes. that they, obviously this is
a people, is it not, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. God chose a people. Christ came into this world and
died for that people to save them, and Paul says, I'm enduring
all this for preaching the gospel so that God might call them and
make this known. I endure all this, even this
imprisonment, for the elect's sake. In Psalm 135, He says, "...for the Lord hath
chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure."
Now, you know that name Jacob and that name Israel was given
to one man, and that was given to him as one of God's elect
to show exactly who it is that God chooses in themselves. They are by nature Jacob's, but
they are by grace Israel. He chose them. for his own particular
and peculiar treasure. And so the gospel that Paul preached,
he described also as the very faith of God's elect. And our Lord here, in speaking
to these men that were with Him at this particular time, He begins
in the negative in order to rebuke that natural sinful tendency
of every one of us. He begins by saying, you have
not chosen me. Now, there are three things here.
that I want us to notice in what he says. The first is that Jesus
Christ, here and everywhere in Scripture, He shows us what all
men do by nature. What will we do? What will every
person, man or woman, do if left to themselves? That is, no one
naturally chooses Christ. No one of themselves believes
God, and you cannot reduce or explain away this choosing of
God, this divine election, with some kind of false definition
of foreknowledge. Some say it like this, God saw
who would choose Him, and therefore, based on what He saw their choice
would be, He made His choice. That is the most blasphemous,
That is the most ungodly, and it is absolutely, if we had no
other text than this one, it is the most unbiblical, unscriptural
definition of what foreknowledge is or election is that can be
found. He said, you have not chosen
me. God did not look down ahead of
time and see that you do something that moved Him or provoked Him
in doing something for us. We lay in ourselves, we lay in
our father Adam, dead, lifeless, hopeless, faithless, choiceless
in our sin. And what was true to these disciples? It's true to everyone. It's true
to all natural people. Everyone being dead in trespasses
and sin, everyone described and pictured as blind and deaf and
lifeless and unable to do anything, move one inch toward God because
we of ourselves are lifeless sinners. He said, you didn't
choose me. And all who finally do choose
the Lord Jesus Christ, they only do so because it was Christ who
first chose them. What he's actually saying is,
you would never have chosen me if I hadn't chosen you. Why? Because a lost man never sees
his condition or sees any need. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ
who is described as the Great Physician. And sick people have
a need, but a blind man, a dead man spiritually, has no sight
or understanding, no felt need of such a Savior as Christ. He said, you wouldn't choose
me. Because by the natural eye, as the prophet said, there is
no comeliness, there is no beauty in Christ that the natural man
or woman can see in Christ. Oh, when men stand up and they
describe Him as somebody who can heal your body, or they describe
Him as somebody who can make you happy, or somebody who can
fill your cupboards, or somebody who can give you a house, or
something like that, men find appeal in those things, but not
in this One who's the Savior from sin. He said, you wouldn't
choose Me because you don't want to be made holy. You don't want
to be made the righteousness of God in me. You don't want
these things that I came to do. You don't want these things by
nature. You don't want spiritual things,
you see. That's why the gospel goes begging
in our day. Well, we'll have a big this,
or we'll have a big that, or we'll entertain, or we'll do
something like that, and people come gather and flock around
that. But the gospel has to do with our souls. The gospel has
to do with eternity. The gospel has to do with our
standing before God. The gospel has to do with Christ
who is not physically present right now. And here is our Lord,
He stands before these men and He stands before us in this Word. He says, I created all things,
I came into this world, I died on the cross, I would, But you
would not. You'd never choose me." That's
why it's so stupid, so deadly, so foolish for men and women
to be left by preachers with this notion, which is just what
flesh wants to believe, that they can choose Him whenever
they will, and however they want Him to be, they can make that
choice. But Christ said, You would not
choose me. You have not chosen me. And the only man that ever in
this world, such as we are, and him before his fall was our father
Adam, and he in the exercise of his choice, what did he choose? He chose sin, He chose death,
He chose that which was forbidden of God, He chose everything but
God. Christ said, you have not chosen
It's not anything that you did or you think or you didn't do. It's not by any action in you
that you can have any hope of salvation whatsoever. You have
not chosen me. Well, I chose so-and-so. You can choose another Jesus.
You can choose religion, you can choose your self-discipline,
you can choose one thing and another." He said, but you've
not chosen me. And then he gives the second
thing, and that is, he tells us exactly what he's done. I've tried to tell you all these
years that the gospel has to do with something that God has
done. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I've chosen you." In other words, I am the first cause
of salvation. I am the only reason for you
to have any hope, and everyone that He will carry to eternal
glory is described in this way, they are His I believe somebody said they
went to a wedding yesterday. You know, most of the weddings
that I have ever been to or been a part of, traditionally anyway,
who knows what it's going to be these days, but traditionally,
that bridegroom made choice of his bride. He asked her to marry
him. Who do you think chooses Christ's
bride? Isn't that how His people are
described as? And then, you and I, I believe
for the most part, we choose our friends, don't we? Who do
you think chooses Christ's friends? Describe their servants. Who
do you think chooses Christ's servants? You see, what men would
never ever allow in themselves, assured this liberty, this sovereignty,
if you will, this right to do what we will, they fight against
it so bad in Christ. All men, therefore, would be
lost because they have not, they do not, and they will not choose
Christ. He says, but I have chosen you. Now, if you even for a minute
go beyond just acknowledging that that is a true doctrine,
and you are enabled to hear and to in your spirit sense the reality
of this, it's the most amazing thing, that Christ would say
to you, or to me, or to any sinner, but I have chosen you. Now, you think about this. We're
not talking about choosing twelve. or 5 out of 10, or even 1 out
of 100. We're talking about a company
that is described in comparison to the masses as few, and before
the world ever was, before they ever existed, He looked and saw
them. knowing that they would never
choose Him, and He chose them. I have chosen you. I'm talking about before they
ever believed. Turn over to Acts, the book of
Acts chapter 18, where we find that Apostle Paul being sent
of God to preach in a city that is thoroughly given over to wickedness
and ungodliness to such a degree, idolatry to such a magnitude,
that it scares Paul. Now, I know we think sometimes
of somebody like the Apostle Paul being absolutely fearless,
but it scared him. How do you know? Because the
Lord spoke to him to encourage him in the night. Look down in
Acts 18 and verse 9. It says, "...then spake the Lord
to Paul in the night by vision, Be not afraid, but speak." and
hold not thy peace, for I am with thee." That's one good thing
right there. I'm with you. The living God,
the risen Christ, I'm with you. "...and no man shall set on thee
to hurt thee." That's another good thing. But look at that
last part. For I have much people in this
city." You've not even preached to most of them yet. They haven't
even believed yet. But I loved them and I chose
them. And they're my people. They can't
get any glory out of it. They can't go around and toot
their horns like this religious world does. And then not only
that, before they had even believed, but look in 2 Thessalonians in
that second chapter. This is such an amazing few statements
here in 2 Thessalonians 2, and look down at verse 13. Go back and look at those he's
just described in verse 12. So many, such a multitude, who
God sends strong delusion on them that they should believe
a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But here's that but again. But? We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you." Now, Paul is writing this letter. to a handful
of people comparatively in a place called Thessalonica." This is
the second letter he's written to that church in Thessalonica. He says, "...contrary and contrasted
to all these others, but we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you." I'm afraid it doesn't do any
good for anybody to say, God can't do that, God wouldn't do
that, when God already says He has done that. He didn't say,
you're beloved of the Lord and He's chosen you to have an opportunity,
or He's chosen to give you a chance. or He's chosen to make something
available for you, if you'll improve on it, or decide on it,
or choose it yourself, it says, He has from the beginning in
love chosen you, what? To salvation. That just simply
means He's chosen to save you. The only choice in salvation
that affects our salvation is the choice of God to save us
from the beginning. And the only choice of God to
save a people is His choosing them in Christ. There are a lot
of people, well I won't say a lot, but there are some people who
talk about election, they hold it, they say as a cardinal doctrine
or what have you, but it's a funny thing, they never get around
to talking about Christ. To people who say they believe
these things and yet nobody ever hears them preach it, I'd say,
how long would a person have to sit and hear you before they
heard something about it? To those who say they believe
it, I'd say this, and they preach it, I'd say this, how long does
a person have to hear you before they hear about this election,
this choice of God as it is in Christ? Listen to the Apostle
when he writes in chapter 1 to the Ephesians, be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according." I love that word,
according. I had a deacon to tell me one
time concerning my preaching. He said, this ain't according
to Hall. Well, Hall may have something
to do with card games. But it doesn't have anything
to do with the gospel. The gospel is according to God. And He says, according as He
hath chosen us in Him, in Christ. This choice, being one of these
spiritual blessings that He's blessed us with, and every other
spiritual blessing, He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. I wasn't present then. You weren't
present then. The devil had no say in this
matter. But His people, He in grace,
free grace, chose them in Christ before the world began. That's what He did. That's exactly
what He did. And you can look, you can look
and try to find some reason You can ask, till you're blue in
the face, that question, why? And the only reason for His love
and for His choice and for His purpose to save, it can never
be found us, it can only be found in Himself. And it will always
be this, because He would. You know how children are. when
you tell them to do something, and the first word they say is,
why? Why? All that is, is the revelation. We get so frustrated with that,
because we'd say things like, I don't have time to tell you
why, you've just got to trust me that I know better than you
in this, that I've been through more than this, and I'm telling
you just because I'm telling you and you better do it. Do
it. Why? Well, there might arrive
at some point a time if that child grows up, and they might
get a little idea as to why you said the things you do. But I
don't expect that we'll ever find out. When we've been with
Him for all eternity, why? Did you say need? Every sinner
has need. The reason is only in Himself. as God. I will be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious." An illustration of this very thing is in Mark's
Gospel when it says that Christ went up into a mountain and He
called unto Him whom He would, and they came. He went up into
a mountain, He called unto him whom he would, and they came."
And that's just a picture of this whole thing. He said, "...in
Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein
hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved." And you can go
to Romans 9 and find out that that was not confined just to
the Old Testament. Paul sets that forth as an essential
part of the gospel. Turn over to Romans chapter 9.
In Romans 9, Romans 9, beginning in verse 9, the word of promise
came to Abraham, and he says, at this time will I come, and
Sarah shall have a son. But not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. Now, God discriminated between
the natural sons of Abraham He bypassed Ishmael, he chose Isaac,
made him the recipient of the promise. And he said, not only
that, he did that to Isaac's children. He says, for these
children, who by the way were twins, same parents, born the
same time, same environment, for the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God might stand, the purpose of God according through election,
according to God's choosing, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger, just like it is written in the prophets,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now God, as the
holy just God, He had every reason to hate Esau. The question is,
why did He love Jacob? How did He love Jacob? Because
when he chose Jacob, he chose him in Christ. Christ was the only one and the
only way, by his death on that cross in Jacob's place, he was
the only way that Jacob could ever be lovable, chosen of God. You see, there are two great
falls. There was that fall that took
place when a third of the angels fell. And then there was that
fall when man fell in Adam. But God did not choose, Christ
did not die for any of those angels who redeemed them. But
He chose a people in Christ, sinful men and women. And it
can always be said by Him, You didn't choose me, but I chose
you. The only reason is because he
would have mercy on them. He didn't do this because of
anything that anybody in that race did. He says, hath not God
chosen the poor? Not many noble are called? Has He not, Christ said, hid
these things from the wise and prudent? Revealed them to babe. He said, I chose you. Left to
yourself, you'd never believed on me, you'd never loved me,
you'd certainly never choose me, but I chose you. And then
he says this, not only he says, This is what man won't do. You've not chosen me and this
is what I've done. I've chosen you, he said, and
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and
that your fruit should remain. I have ordained or appointed
you. Well, no. You see, Christ chooses
who and He chooses how they're saved. He chooses when He reveals
Himself to them. He does everything from the beginning
to the end and all that is in between, but the first manifested
– now, I'm going to try to use that word carefully – the first
manifested fruit that He's ordained in His people in their experience
is faith. As a matter of fact, Paul in
Galatians 5 describes the fruit of the Spirit, and when he does,
one of the things he gives as the fruit of the Spirit is faith. They're every one going to be
brought to hear the gospel, In II Thessalonians 2 and verse
13, he said, he has chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. You can't separate election
in Christ from faith in Christ. All the elect will be brought
to hear His Word, to believe these truths that are essential
to His glory, to find out exactly what He did on that cross in
their place and on their behalf when He laid down His life for
the sheep, these elect ones, in order to establish righteousness
in the matter of their sin. And He says, He's chosen you
in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him. That's the ultimate goal
of God, is to make a people like His Son. bring them to be conformed
to His Son, to make them holy and without blame, not in themselves
in this life, but before Him." And so when Paul in Romans 8
asks this question, he says, who shall lay anything to the
charge of who? God's elect. Then he follows
it up immediately with this, "...it is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, and he's presently making intercession
for them." Nobody can condemn the people of Christ. They're
His workmanship. They're His chosen. They've got
lots of names, all of which manifest something that He did for them
and something He brings to pass in them. Believers, the church,
called out assembly, bride, His affectionately loved ones. But mark it down. He says of
them, I have chosen." And that's what the Spirit of God says to
every one of them through this gospel, when He reveals to them
who Christ really is, and what He has done for them in dying
for their sins, and being made sin for them, that they might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. to see that He loved
them and chose them. And He says to them by His Spirit,
I have chosen. Now, I tell you, I don't know
who they are. That's why, as He commanded,
we're to preach the gospel to all. He said, and my sheep will
hear my voice. I can't point my finger to you,
or to you, or to you, or to you, and say, God chose you, or God
chose... There's only one who can say
that, and He'll say it in your heart. I have chosen you. Oh, but Lord, I am the most wretched
of sinners. You just don't know... Oh, yes,
He does. He knew you before you knew Him,
or anything about Him. Well, Lord, this can't be the
way. I have chosen you. Well, what about... This isn't
about so-and-so. It's about you. I have chosen... That's why it's good news. You
haven't chosen me. I've chosen you. Chose you in
Christ. Loved you in Him. Blessed you
with all spiritual blessings in Him. before the foundation
of the world. Father, this day we give you
thanks for the freeness, for the eternality, for the unchangeableness
of your gracious choice. Had you not chosen us, we would
never have chosen you. Therefore, to you belongs all
the praise, all the glory, all our thanks, all our devotion
and loyalty, all our service, and what a sweet delight it is
to hear you say to us, again and again, by your Word and Spirit,
I have chosen you. We thank you and we praise you,
and we look for you through this Word to speak it to all your
people, that praise should arise from them, and thanksgiving that
they might in their hearts say, to God be the glory, great things
He hath done. We thank you and we do praise
you in Christ. Amen.