All right, well, turn with me
this morning, if you would, over to 1 Timothy. And we're just gonna make a brief
observation on this before we move on to 2 Timothy. But I just wanted to make one
observation that When you study the scriptures
and you look for the term elect, you're gonna find that just like
other words in the Bible, that it's gonna have different contexts
and it's gonna have different sayings. We can't take the word
elect and apply that across the board and mean all of God's spiritual
people, okay? There is an elect that was God's,
as far as physical elect, for a certain period of time, and
that was the people of Israel. They were the elect nation of
God that God chose to display Himself among. He give the law, He give the
ordinances, the priesthood. He give all these things to national
Israel. And as we learned in the New
Testament, those things were given that we might learn and
that we might know. And so they were given for us. as an example, as a type, as
a foreshadow, so that we might know and understand Christ. Now,
I'm sure everybody here has probably heard this, but they've heard
that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the
New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, or some variation to
that. The old is in the new and the
new is in the old, or something to that effect. And while that
is true, the Old Testament has the new testament concealed in
it uh it doesn't show it fully and with that being said a lot
of times some people will go and they will say well uh you
can't learn anything then about new testament things in the old
testament because they're concealed And that's not true. Matter of
fact, whenever we go to the Old Testament, sometimes, and I've
almost gotten to the point where I don't like to say that anymore,
the Old Testament is the New Testament, concealed. It's all
the word of God, and God has chosen to write it the way he's
written it. But, I've kind of gotten to the
place where I almost don't want to say that anymore because I
have learned more fully some of the things that are taught
in the New Testament by going to the Old Testament type in
foreshadow and seeing some things there and whenever I've seen
that it makes fuller a little bit of what I see in the New
Testament. So I think the Old Testament and the New Testament
both compliment each other in giving us the revelation of God
and his salvation. So I don't relegate the Old Testament
as that's just old stuff and we don't ever have to look at
that or go back to that anymore, or that doesn't give us enough
stuff. No, brethren, it's a beautiful
thing to go back and see these things. to know how redemption
works, to know how propitiation works, to see how that is. You
know, whenever it talks about Jesus is the propitiation for
our sins, but not our sins only, but the sins of the whole world,
that's a New Testament teaching. But unless you go back to the
Old Testament, you'll see that that propitiation was done by
a sacrifice, and that sacrifice was for a certain people. And
of course, we'll talk about that when we get into talking about
atonement. But you see that you learn more fully about propitiation
when you go to the Old Testament and see how was the propitiation
made and who was it for? And so anyway, those are my thoughts
on that. But long story short, We look
at these words and sometimes we try to apply a blanket meaning
across the board, especially whenever context doesn't lend
to that. And here in Timothy chapter five,
1 Timothy chapter five, we see that the word elect is used not
in talking about Israel as a physical nation and not talking about
the spiritual people of God, but here we see that the term
elect refers to angels. And so now we see that God, not
only does he elect certain nations or makes a choice among nations,
to serve His purposes. Now, let me just say this, and
I may, I don't know, maybe I could be corrected in this area or
not, if anybody has that, but whenever we talk about Israel
being God's elect, We talk about it from that standpoint of God's
elect as far as the law and the ordinances are concerned. But
was not other nations chosen by God for specific things? Wasn't God, didn't God choose
a specific nation and elected them to be raised up, the Chaldeans,
to be raised up specifically for the purpose of coming and
defeating Israel so that they might learn some things of God. So that nation, the Chaldeans,
was an elect nation, but they were elected unto God's purpose
of bringing defeat upon Israel. So, we can look at election and
see that it has to do with choice, right? God's choosing. And this
is the underlying thing of unconditional election is that election, whether
it be national, whether it be spiritual, or whether it be if
you'll allow me this word, ontological, having to do with physicality,
nature, being humans, or whether being angels, or what kind of
angels, that that's up to God's choice, that all of those are
at the choice of God. So the fundamental thing of unconditional
election is to strike at the root of the false notion that
man's free will determines anything. That God is the determiner of
all things. And so here in 1 Timothy chapter
5 and verse 21, We read, I charge thee before God. Again, Paul
is writing this, this is a letter to Timothy. I charge thee before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou
observe these things without preferring one before another,
doing nothing by partiality. So here we have a category given
to us, a precept, uh, something of God's teaching us that there
are angels that were elect. So if there were angels that
were elect and there were angels that were non-elect, okay, uh,
then, uh, we must accept that if Jesus is, through Paul writing
to Timothy here has written down that there are elect angels. That means there was specific
angels that God chose. Now, what are we talking about?
Well, if you remember, there was a point in time where
Lucifer rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven
and we read in the scriptures that whenever he was thrown out
of heaven that he took a number of angels with him okay and we
also read in scripture that the bible talks about that there
are some angels that are already in prison and that there are
some angels that at the point determined by God in the end,
that those angels will also be those that are not in prison,
that there will be some that will be in prison. Do you remember
whenever Jesus, I think it was whenever he went to heal the
demoniac, and whenever he approached him, the demons inside the man
said, what would you have to do with us? Now, Jesus of Nazareth,
have you come here to punish us, to judge us, to imprison
us before our time? Paraphrasing that, you know,
but anyway, Jesus, or those demons knew there was a time coming
that they were going to be cast out. But yet they weren't at that
time. But yet we also know that there are angels that are already
imprisoned. So some of these angels that
were not elect are imprisoned already. Some will be cast out
at the end. And we, of course, we know that
Satan and all of his angels and all of the wicked are going to
be cast into the lake of fire and that's where their end is
going to be. And so, We look at that and we see there was
elect angels. And God even elected some of
the non-elect angels to be in prison and some to not be in
prison. So we see that God's election has its course over
everything. We can say that God has elected
us to be here in Joplin meeting together. So God's election is
closely tied to his predestination. That's why we preach predestination
and election. That's why we preach these things
and they're so tightly knit together. You can't preach God's predestination
without talking. If someone believes firmly in
God's predestination but rejects election, that's a very confused
person. If someone believes in election
but doesn't believe in predestination, which is usually the case, that
person is a confused person. God cannot elect unless he predestinates. And so it's very closely tied
together. And so here we see that there
is an elect angel. People don't have a problem with
that though, you know that? The free will people does not have
a problem with God electing angels saying, those angels are non-elect,
these angels are elect. He doesn't have a problem with
that. You know what? Matter of fact, the free will
world, and I would even say probably the majority of the Calvinistic
world, has no problem with God saying, Satan and all these angels
here, there is no chance of redemption whatsoever. You know, you don't
see people getting wound up because God isn't merciful and loving
towards the fallen angels. But if you say, God is not merciful
and loving to all people. Oh man, that draws a snare across
their face. That draws an argument. How dare
you say that God is a God of love? Have you ever thought about
the fallacy in that argument? Well, if God's the God of love,
he has to love everybody. Well, if that's the case, then
he has to love all of his creation, which is also the fallen angels.
Why doesn't he set his love upon them? Has he extended that love
to the fallen angels? The elect angels here have received
a beneficence from God, but the fallen angels have not received
a beneficence from God. The angels that did not fall,
with Lucifer, they're not extended any grace whatsoever. We fail
in Adam. Why does God have any right to
extend us grace and mercy? Now the freewheeler will also
say, well, we don't deserve God's mercy. We don't deserve God's
grace. but God owes it to us because
he's a loving God to give us that option, right? Ain't that
what they say? Well, if that's the case with
us, then why not the elect, or why not the fallen angels? If
it's predicated upon the fact that God's character is love.
Are you following what I'm saying? If everything is predicated upon
the fact that God's character is love, thus he must extend
an option. Otherwise, there is no free will.
What were the angels created for? Does anybody know? Brother,
what's your thoughts on that? What was the angels created for?
I don't mean to put you on the spot. I'm actually looking just for
a different vantage point because I can only think of one thing. to exalt God, to praise Him,
to glorify Him. They were created to be servants
of God, messengers of God. They're going from God and being
messengers. They were messengers of God.
They are there for the sole purpose of God. And so whenever we look
at that, that creation, it was made as a so, Were they made
with free will? Well, the free willer will say
yes, because Lucifer, by his free will, chose. God didn't
create him with no free will. He chose himself, okay? So again, what makes him then
different than us? Now, there are differences between
angels and us. people, but what makes that different
as far as the character of God? If God is a God who cannot change,
he's immutable, he doesn't change, his nature doesn't change. If
God's character is love and we have to preach a gospel that's
predicated upon the love of God and that gospel of love says Because God loves us and because
He wants us to love Him freely, not coerced. God doesn't want
robots. He doesn't want to force us to
love Him. That's not true love. Anybody
heard that? I've said that, I've preached
that in times past. I've said that and preached that
and that's incorrect. But they say, does not God love? If God loves, He wants to be
loved also. And so the only way that genuine
love can be reciprocated to God is if that comes freely. And
so we have to have free will. So the whole basis of free will
comes on the notion that someone thinks that God wants to be loved
freely and the only way that love can be done is through free
will. So free will has to be there before there's ever a true
loving relationship back to God. Well, if that's the case, why
is there no relationship to God and the fallen angels? Why are
there elect angels and non-elect angels if the fact that God is
a loving God and that determines choice? God's a loving God and
love needs to be reciprocated by non-coercion, then there has
to be to the fallen angels a choice given. Otherwise, they didn't
have a choice. They didn't have a choice. You mean to tell me
that because Lucifer fell, then The rest of us that, I mean,
it sounded like a good idea at the time, and we just kind of
followed him. You know, it never does talk
about they made a choice to rebel against God too. It just said
that Satan fell and he took with him. And again, this may be in a place
where I'm ignorant of some scripture, but I never have seen anywhere
where it says that the rest of those angels made a cognitive
decision to say, hey, we agree with him, we're going with him.
No, it just says that whenever he was kicked out of heaven,
that he took a portion of heaven of those angels with him. And
here we see the Bible says that there were elect angels. And
that then there were angels that whose end was for destruction.
Now, I'm not seeing a difference in the scenarios between that
and us. So why is it accepted that God's
okay doing that to angels, but not to us? especially among those who say
God has no partiality. You see, whenever you get down
to the scriptures and you begin to open them up, brethren, you
begin to easily see the fallacy of man's religion. That's why
Paul makes statements all the time saying that we speak not
in the wisdom of men, but in the wisdom of God. Why? Because
the wisdom of men has their fallacies. They always have their fallacies.
And here again, listen, I thought that argument against election
was the greatest arguments that I'd ever heard. Well, God couldn't
have done that because he's a loving God. And how can he choose one
and not another and never do that? Then whenever they get
in front of his throne, they can say, well, hey, you didn't
love me and you didn't give me a choice. So why are you throwing
me into the lake of fire? That was, hey, who are thou,
old man? That didn't have any resonance
with me because I thought, hey, I have the right to say that.
I mean, that logic seems, reasonable but here again we got to realize
who art thou oh man that's the point that paul was making in
romans is the argument is going to come up the question is going
to come up who has the right to choose anything whether it
be angels whether it be nations or whether it be people individually
who has the right to say You're going to be for this, and you're
going to be for this, and you don't have a choice in the matter,
you don't have a choice in the matter. That's the point that Paul was
getting at whenever he quoted the Old Testament about the potter
and the clay. His point was to derive from
that the argument from God that you are my creation, I am the
sovereign creator. I can do with my creation whatever
I wish to do. And if I say you're gonna be
this vessel and I create you as that vessel and as, the creation
of that vessel entails the nature for which it acts, then you don't
have a right at the end for me to bring destruction upon you
because that's my choice to display that way. Our mentality is so skewed by
our human reasoning and understanding that we can't accept the things
of God unless they are spiritually revealed to us. That's why Paul
was very clear when we talked about inability. He said that
the natural man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God.
because it goes against his flesh. It goes against his reasoning.
It goes against everything. We read here that there are elect
angels. The very fact that there are
elect angels that does not have a choice, whether they're elect
or whether they're fallen, should tell us that God has the right
and that if he can take the right, do you not think that the angels
are as precious of a creation as anything else in this world? Now, do angels have souls? I'll be honest, I don't know.
I don't know what their makeup is and how they're created. I
don't know. But I know this, they are gonna
be cast in the lake of fire forever. I know that they are accountable
unto God for all that they've done and what they are doing. I know that. Are they not a precious thing?
I mean, if they're not, and maybe I'm getting myself confused here. Whenever Gabriel came or whenever the
angel came and spoke to Mary and to Joseph, do you think that
that was a real angel? Whenever all those angels saying
glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to
men, whenever Christ was born of Mary, do you think those were
real angels? Or were they just imaginary visions
that God put up on display, but then they just kind of disappeared
into nothing? They're like aberrations, you
know? Or are they actual beings that
actually are God's creation? whenever Isaiah said that he
saw the Lord, and he's seen these angels, and these angels were
serving God around the throne, whenever John writes in Revelation,
and he says that he sees these creatures, these angels, or whatever,
and they have six wings, whether those are literal wings or whatever,
but he sees these things serving God and praising God and saying,
without stop, night and day, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. I mean, Isaiah's seen it in his day, and that's what
they was being said. John's seen it in his day, and
they were saying the same thing as whenever Isaiah's seen it. Their whole purpose was to give
glory to God. Those were real beings, I believe. They were
real creations of God. Again, are they not important? If God is a God of love, then
why are they not given that choice? So if God can choose among those
angels and say, you don't have a choice, you're a fallen angel,
or you're an elect angel, then does he not have right to do
that over us, who the Bible says, who we are created a little lower
than the angels? To me, the argument for free
will and for God's universal love doesn't hold water whenever
there's any place in scripture that says that God can make a
choice among his creation to keep one from damnation and keep
one out of damnation. And here he's done it among the
elect angels. Any thoughts on that? What do you think about that,
Mark? Think that's true? I can see you back there shaking your
head, smiling. Well, I don't know how any other way to think
of that, brethren. I mean, that to me was a very telling thing
because, again, I was a very strong proponent that God could
not do that from his vantage point of being love not not that
the scripture says god loves although it does say that it
said god is love and that means that's his character that's who
he is and he can't be anything but love but yet it's he's also
wrath and hatred so how do we how do we how do we do that well
we have to submit to what the bible says And that's where,
that was the place that I came to whenever I was studying all
these things, going through all here to see whether these things
be true. Is everything that I've been preaching, is everything
that I've been teaching, everything that I've been reading, this
book by Norman Geisler that I thought was the holy grail of free willism,
that destroyed all Calvinistic thought and mind, you know, whenever
I, pick this book up and put the
other books down and seeing what God said and not what some theologian
with human understanding said, guess what? God's word spoke
loud. That wasn't because I was smarter
than anybody else to get in here and figure it out. No, God finally
revealed it to me. God finally revealed it. And
so my thoughts to you guys is that if you want answers for
these things or anything, anybody listening to this on down the
road or whatever, if you want the answers to whether or not
what we say is true or not, what I'm preaching is true or not,
then you need to go to God's word and spend the time in God's
word. And whenever you go, go saying, Lord, teach me not, Lord,
I'm fixing to prove them wrong and show that your word is not
saying that. Now, don't go to that because
the whole time that I always went to God's word to try to
disprove that this was true and everything, you know, I spent
a long time just making up my own stuff, basically, you know.
But whenever I came and said, Lord, I truly want to know, is
this what this is saying or is this is what some man in his
theological system has interjected into the gospel that's been here
forever. And now there's this Calvinistic
viewpoint, you know, I don't want to follow. a system. I don't want to follow a religion. I want to know the truth. I want
to know that whenever I'm standing up in that pulpit and I'm preaching,
that I'm not preaching lies to these people. I want to know
that whenever I'm raising my family and teaching my family,
that I'm not leading them in an error. I'm not leading them
into the ditch. The blind leading the blind.
I don't want to be that. Well listen, only God can even
give you the desire to want to do that. But see, that was my
desire. My desire wasn't I want to, you
know, hey, I want to be on the side of the best theological
sound debate team, you know. Because I soon found that the
debate team on that side also has its problems. I found that
out quick. I had to abandon their books
and writings and found that let God be true and every man a liar.
Only this is true right here. And so I looked at this verse,
these verses that talked about the elect angels, and just like
in Acts 13, 48, when it said, and as many as ordained were
eternal life believed, I looked at this and I said, if there
are elect angels and the rest of those angels that God has
imprisoned and will destroy at the end, they don't have a choice. There's no way, there's no extension.
Several years ago, when we were still living in Oklahoma, I don't
know if you guys know this guy or not, but there was a pastor
in Oklahoma of a really big charismatic church, his name's Carlton Pearson,
and he was even on TV, and I don't know if he was on TV nationwide,
but he had a few stints on TBN, which would have been national,
but he had a TV program down around the Tulsa area. Anyway,
his name was Carlton Pearson. Probably one of his big claims
to fame was one of the members of his church was the Christian
artist, Carmen. He was one of the members of
Carlton Pearson's church. But anyway, Carlton Pearson was
a Pentecostal black preacher in Tulsa, and he pastored the
Higher Dimensions Church there. and was on the radio, on the
TV around that area for a long time. Well, eventually he began
to fall into universalism. His theology, as he began going
on and on and on and on, led him into universalism. And he
fell into universalism so bad that he even came out and made
a statement that because God is love, then even Satan has
opportunity to become saved and that his day in the lake of fire
is not necessarily sealed until that day because he still has
opportunity God's love can save him and so that salvation is
extended to Satan and all the fallen angels well at that point
and I got to hand it to the Pentecostals even even as wrong as they are
and so much stuff that They disowned him over that. Even they realized
that that was grotesque error, according to the scriptures.
And he went on to, and his universalism got extremely bad. And so they
all kind of left him on that. But he, that was, see, that was
the, that was where his theology was taking him, that if you are
going to be a proponent of God is love. And see, he was being
consistent. If God is love and that love,
because of who He is, has to give opportunity to every person,
then that extends also to all of His creation that has any
cognitive, choice and the minute that they say that lucifer had
a choice to rebel against god that makes that that makes them
different than the beast of the field and the fish of the sea
and the foul of the air that has no choice nobody says that
the cow has a choice whether to be saved or not okay maybe
they're prejudiced because they can't talk you know maybe because
somebody can't talk they don't have a choice in their i don't
know But the minute they say Lucifer has a free will, then
if they're gonna be consistent with their theology, God is bound
by his character of love to give him a free choice to accept Jesus
Christ. But they'll say, but that's not
the point. Jesus didn't die for the fallen angels and Satan.
Oh, so now you're telling me there is a particular redemption.
there is a limited atonement. Ah, so if there is a limited
atonement or a particular redemption in this case, then what keeps
it from being the same case with everything else? And so the fallacy continues
in their camps and the contradictory theology continues. because they
just can't put it in their mind that God has a choice. Well, let's stop and we'll take
a break and we'll meet back in here and read a few more verses.
And I promised that I'd be short today since we were so long last
week. And so we'll come back and look
at a few more verses before we dismiss.