If you will, let us open our
Bibles this evening to Ephesians chapter one. Before we read the scripture
tonight, I mentioned this morning that I had a good story. I think
it's a good story. It speaks to us of God's word
and God's providence. But when many of us here tonight
were growing up, there was a man in this world by the name of
Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin, and he was a very cruel, cruel
dictator of Russia. In the 1930s, the late 1930s, in a city named Stravopol, Russia. He had all the Bibles confiscated,
and their owner sent out to prison camps. After the Soviet Union
fell in the 1980s, a missionary group from the United States
was allowed into this town, and they were having trouble. In
fact, they could not get any Bibles shipped there from Moscow. And someone told them that story,
how that years before, all the Bibles in the city had been confiscated
and they'd been stored in a warehouse all this time. That was amazing. And they got up someone to go
and ask the keeper of the warehouse if they could have those Bibles. And they said, sure, we'd like
to get rid of them. And so they hired some young
workers there, young men. One man in particular, college
age, was an agnostic. And as he was working, helping
to unload, unpack those Bibles out of that warehouse, he thought
he'd help himself to one. He'd never seen a Bible. He'd
heard of them. And so he chose out one to take
to himself, and when he opened it up on the front cover, there
was the name of his grandmother written in her own handwriting. This lady, her Bible had been
confiscated and she had been sent off to a prison camp that
suffered over the years greatly for her Christian witness. And
of course she died there in that prison camp. But that was the
beginning of God working in this young man's life. And what a
blessing it is to see how God uses His Word and how God's providence
is over everything, over everything. God's providence is what He has
ordained to come to pass from before the foundation of the
world. Now, if you will, in Ephesians
1, let's begin reading in verse 3. That is a good story, isn't
it? A true story. I like it. Blessed, verse three,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him 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 to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. I want to speak
to us tonight on the subject of election. The title is The
Blessings of Election. And this is one of the truths
in the word of God, which is precious to all of God's children,
the word election, the truth of God's eternal election. Arthur Pink, and I quote, said,
the doctrine of election means that God left nothing to chance. The accomplishment of his purpose,
the success of Christ undertaking, The peopling of heaven is not
contingent upon the fickle caprice of the creature. God's children
rejoice in this wonderful truth because they are made to see,
that is God's children, we are made to see that our fallen Adam
left us spiritually dead. Man was not wounded. Man was
killed, if I could use that terminology, in the fall recorded there in
Genesis chapter 3. He doesn't need a crutch. He needs life. He needs life. It's obvious to us that if the
Lord had never come to us, if he had not first chosen us, not
first loved us, We would never have loved him and never have
chosen him, never have come to him. He said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. The religious people who deny
election and cry out man's free will should get them a new Bible,
for it's obvious they do not believe this one. The Lord Jesus
Christ, and I want us to turn to a few passages of scripture
before we come back here and look at these four blessings
of election. But the Lord Jesus Christ chose
election. to illustrate the first message. He chose election as an illustration,
I should say, in his first message after being baptized and entering
into what we call his public ministry. If you turn back to
Luke chapter four, Luke chapter four, our Lord was
baptized. And then he was in the wilderness
for 40 days, being tempted of Satan. And then he returned to
the city of Nazareth, where he had lived as a young boy, young
man, and entered into the synagogue. And they handed him the Word
of God, the written Word of God. And he found the place where
it is written. And beginning in verse 18, this is him reading,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. And I would just remind
us it is the spiritually poor, blessed are the poor in spirit,
to whom the gospel comes as good news. He hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. And only God, only God the Holy
Spirit, will ever make a proud, boastful, self-righteous sinner
poor, poor in spirit. I love that scripture where the
psalmist said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh
on me. The Lord thinketh on me. He hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart, a contrite spirit, to preach deliverance to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
You know that refers to that Jubilee year, the acceptable
year of the Lord, that 50th year when men who were in debt were
set free and people had their land restored unto them that
had sold their land because of their poverty. It was a great,
great year, great year of rejoicing, the acceptable year of the Lord.
And you and I, since the coming of Christ, we have lived in this
jubilee year. This is the acceptable year of
the Lord and has been. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all
of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on them. And they
knew exactly what he meant when he said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your hearing. They knew. And he began to say,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, you will
surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I will tell you a truth. Now he's going to illustrate.
This is his illustration, and it is an illustration of God's
sovereign election. I tell you a truth. Many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elias or Elijah, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. There was many widows in Israel. The famine was universal as far
as the nation of Israel was concerned. And there were many widows and
God passed over all of them. God passed over all of them and
sent his servant to a Gentile woman. That's election. That's choice. It can't be anything
else. But to none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow." And then he gives this second
illustration of many lepers. Leprosy, that awful disease.
That awful disease that caused a man or a woman to be put out
of the camp, to have no fellowship with the people of God, with
their own family. separated because they were judged
to be unclean. What a picture that is of all
of us by sin when we come into this world. But God passed over
all the lepers in Israel and cleansed Assyrians. a leper from
Syria. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisaias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. Now these
were religious people. They were in a place of worship.
They went there every Sabbath day. They heard the Old Testament
read week after week after week. But when they heard Our Lord,
Him reading this scripture and illustrating it by the truth
of God's sovereign election, they all were filled with wrath. The natural man hates the things
of the Spirit of God. I dare say there's a person here
tonight, when you first heard of election, your hair didn't
kind of stand up on the back of your neck too. That's not
right. That's not, that can't be fair.
Until God brought you down from your high horse, just like he
did Saul of Tarsus, in the dust before him, and you cried out,
Jesus, who art thou? Or who art thou, O Lord? I am
Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And God taught you something
of his sovereignty, of his grace. And now, as a child of God, we
rejoice in the election because it's something, first of all,
that our father did. And if it had not been for his
election, none of us would be here tonight, unless we would
have been like these people in the synagogue that day, just
a bunch of self-righteous religious hypocrites. They were filled
with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and
led him unto the brow of the city whereon their city was built,
that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through
the midst of them went his way. His hour was not yet come. His hour was not yet come. They
would have destroyed him that very day, that time. but until
it was his hour, the time that God had appointed from old eternity
for his son to be taken and crucified and slain. They couldn't touch
him. They tried to on several occasions. The Lord illustrated in his first
message this truth. Let me show you something else,
the Lord rejoiced And he thanked God for this truth of election.
Look with me in Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, verses 25
and 26. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. The Lord Jesus thanked the Lord
for His sovereign election, and then In his high priestly prayers,
we refer to it in John chapter 17, you remember he said, I pray
not for the world, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me. Now before we go back to our
text, one other place in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and I would like to
remind us and always try to say this, anytime that I speak on
the subject of election, that election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 13 and 14, the apostle said, 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 to salvation chosen
you to salvation election is not salvation election is unto
salvation now that the end is salvation and God has ordained
the end but he's also ordained the means to the end Notice what
he continues to say there. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through and never apart, never apart from
sanctification of the spirit. That is the new birth. Our Lord
said ye must be born again. Why? Because the natural man
The man that's only born once, born of the flesh, is flesh,
and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. He cannot know them, Paul tells
us in 1 Corinthians. Setting apart by God the Holy
Spirit in the new birth in what we call God's effectual call,
and notice that's not all, and belief of the truth. Belief of the truth. A person
must believe in Jesus Christ. We have no problem in preaching
the gospel and telling men and women, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is His commandment that
we believe on Him whom He has sent. That is, the Savior. But notice, that's not all. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. Well, maybe they're not any of
God's elect. Well, that doesn't concern you,
preacher. You just preach. You just preach
the gospel. It's like Ezekiel was told, you
just preach to this valley of dry bones. Whether they move
or they don't move, that's not your business. What I'm telling
you to do is preach. You obey me. God is chosen by the foolishness
of preaching. That's the most foolish thing
in the world, what you're talking about. You say man is spiritually
dead and yet you preach and you call upon him to believe. Yes. Someone one time said, that's
like going out here in the graveyard and waving your handkerchief
up and saying, come out of the grave, come out of the grave.
I think it was Charles Spurgeon who gave an illustration like
this. He said, no. He said, if God
commanded me to go out in the graveyard and wave my handkerchief
and command the bodies to come out of the grave, I would do
it. But that's not his command. His command is to go into all
the world, preach the gospel to every creature, whosoever
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. God calls his people,
those that he's chosen, through the gospel. It's a shame, isn't
it, that so many Over the years, so many so-called churches have
tried to improve on God's method. They've got another way. And,
you know, one of the most ridiculous things I think I've heard of
is this so-called dancing. Dancing unto the Lord. You think
anybody's ever been saved by seeing someone dance? I don't
think so. No, that's not what God has chosen. God has chosen through the preaching
of his gospel to save them that believe. Now back in our text,
I want to point out four blessings that flow out of God's election.
And this is four things that cause God's children to rejoice. First, to be holy. to be holy flows out of God's
election. That's the first thing that is
mentioned in verse four. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. You see, the holiness that
is spoken of in this text is that which will allow Someone
like you and someone like me, yea, those of us who trust in
Christ one day to appear in the very presence of God Almighty,
to stand in the presence of the thrice holy God and be without
blame. Be without blame. I mean, there's
no flaw whatsoever to be found in us. Why? Because he chose
us in Christ to be holy, to be holy. A holiness to which we
are elected is one that God himself can find no fault with, to stand
before him without blame. Seeing that holiness is the first
thing that is mentioned here as the end of our election, so
this should be our highest priority as we go through this world.
We will never in this world attain such holiness because we know
we still have a sinful nature. But we are admonished follow
after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Holiness, this is a definition
I came upon just recently and I really like this. Holiness
is defined as the image of God upon the soul. holiness, the
image of God upon the soul, a likeness to him that enables us to have
communion with him. And this reveals to us what the
bliss of heaven is going to be for God's children. It is perfect
holiness in God's presence. perfect love to Him, and perfect
enjoyment of Him forever and ever. The second blessing that
we see flows out of election to be adopted. To be adopted
flows out of God's election. Most every commentator respected
man that I've ever read after, they all say that those last
two words in verse four, in love, really should have been the beginning
of verse five. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Someone pointed out that holiness
is what makes us fit for heaven, while adoption is what gives
us a right to be in heaven. You know, the scripture in 1
John 3 says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. What kind of
love is that? That's love inexpressible, isn't
it? Unfathomable. God's love. It
is because men are chosen in Christ that they become the sons
of God. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
the true, real, essential Son of the Father, and you and I
being chosen in Him, who is the Son of God by nature, then we
become God's sons by adoption. Election, or the adoption flows
out of God's election. And third, to be accepted in
the beloved flows out of God's election. Verse six. And I read
this many years ago. I think it is true. Everyone
wants to be accepted. All people. We all do, don't
we? We want to be accepted. We want to be accepted. Sometimes
that can be bad because sometimes people will do things they shouldn't
do in order to be accepted by a crowd or by a group. But all
of us, we want to be accepted. But here, the scripture tells
us that we are accepted in the Beloved, verse six. To the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He, He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. His acceptance of our worship
That's what we're doing here tonight, trying to worship the
Lord. Do you think the Lord will accept our worship when we go
out preaching or witnessing or just living life daily in your
daily routine? Do you think God will accept
our service, our worship? Yes. but it's only in and through
Jesus Christ. We're accepted in the beloved. When the Lord God spoke from
heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The only way that God may say
the same about you or me, find any complacency in us is because
we are accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the beloved. There's a scripture in the book,
in the Old Testament, the book of Zephaniah. And this scripture
says, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will
save. Now listen, he will rejoice over
thee with joy. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. The Lord will rejoice over us.
Yes. Why? Because we are accepted
in the Beloved. And just as the Father rejoices
over His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so He rejoices over those
of us who are in His Son, one with His Son, accepted in the
Beloved. And the fourth and last, to be
redeemed through the blood of His Son, flows out of God's election,
verse 7. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. This results in the forgiveness
of sins, that is, our redemption through the blood of his son.
The word which is here translated redeemed, according to Vine's
expository dictionary of New Testament words means liberated. liberated from both guilt and
the doom of sin, and the introduction into a life of liberty. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Is it any wonder, when you think
about what flows out of God's election, being made holy, being
adopted, being accepted in the beloved, being redeemed through
the blood of his son. Is there any wonder that God's
children love and rejoice in God's election? I've never met a person who ever
objected to the fact that God did not elect any of the fallen
angels. I've never met a person who objects
to that, but he did. We read of the elect angels. And because they were chosen, Christ was constituted their
head and they did not rebel and fall. The others, he did not
elect as Christ being their head and they did rebel and fall. But I've never met anyone object
to that, that God passed over many of the angels, didn't elect
them. But yet people find fault with God for choosing his people. Every man wants to choose his
own bride, and rightly so, but no one wants, or many, I shouldn't
say no one, many do not want to give Christ the same privilege,
the same right to choose his bride. But he did. He did. I love election. I do. There was a time I didn't. I'll
just tell you that. First time I started hearing
about this, I didn't care for it at all. But I tell you, through
God's grace, he brought me down. I'm like Scott Richardson. Someone
told him one time after he had preached a message, I guess something,
maybe on election. They told Scott, well, that'll
take all the starch out of a man, all the pride out of a man. And he said, not all. Not every bit. And that's just
the truth. But I love God's sovereign election. I love the God of election. Don't
you? Amen. Being chosen in Christ. David,
come lay this into him.