Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1. We're going to look at various
texts today. We're going to do some turning
here this hour. We had our fourth Friday class
this past Friday because I'm going to be traveling next week.
So we began studying TULIP the first time we had the class. We covered total depravity. So this time we're covering unconditional
election. Now, to put it simply, before
the foundation of the world, God chose His people in Christ
by His grace. That means it was apart from
anything in us. He chose His people sovereignly,
freely, by His grace. And He chose us in Christ. Now
for true believers, God's Word is the final authority. When
we see it in God's Word, we bow to what it says. We don't pick
and choose what we're going to believe and believe some things
and leave other things out and just ignore other things. We
don't hold our experience up to the Word of God and try to
make the Word of God fit our experience. We hold our experience
up to the Word of God and if our experience doesn't line up
with it, then something is wrong with our experience. We bow to
the Word of God. So we believe what the Word says. And the Word of God teaches election
almost on every page. Now, what do we mean by unconditional? We mean that God chose His people
without a cause in us. That's what we see here in Ephesians
1 verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ and here's how He did it. According as He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. And this is why
He did it, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now, what caused God to choose
us? Look down at the end of verse
5. 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. God elected his people according
to the good pleasure of his will. God does as he will. This is why the doctrine of election
is so hated by natural man. Natural man especially when he
becomes religious, even before he's religious, when he hears
this doctrine, and he hears all true doctrine concerning our
God, one of the first things he defends is his will. One of
the first things he wants to defend is his own will. Well,
this is where we have to be brought. We have to be brought to understand
God is the only one who is doing His will. He may let us have
our will. But if it's not His will, He
won't. God doing what He will. And He
can do as He will and we can't question Him for doing as He
will. He chose His people according
to His will. He chose His people by His grace. God's grace is His free favor. And He bestows that free favor
on whomever He chooses. He doesn't have to look to us
and find something in us. It's free. It's grace. He bestows
it on whomever He will. If we add any condition to grace,
then it ceases to be grace. It ceases to be grace. So many
people say, well, God foresaw something in us. That's why He
chose us. If that were the case, it wouldn't
be by grace. It would be a reward for our
work. for something we did. It wouldn't
be grace. God chose His people without
any cause in us. Freely by His grace. If it's
by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. It's all of grace. Now secondly,
God's purpose. Go to Romans chapter 9. What
was God's purpose in election? Why did He choose a people in
Christ without any regard toward us or without any cause in us? Why did He do this? The number
one reason was to glorify His calling and His mercy. It was
so that it would be of His calling and His mercy and not of our
works. Look at Romans 9 verse 10. It
says, When Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born. And you can look at us
when God chose His people before the foundation of the world.
This applies to us. We were not yet born. And here
you have twins, 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. There's the number one purpose.
It's not of works, it's of God that calleth. Look down at verse
15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, here's what we learn
by election. The way salvation begins is God
choosing who He will save. And that tells us then about
everything else concerning salvation. It's not of Him that willeth.
It's not of our will. Men want to boast about their
will. Salvation, election, nothing about our salvation is of our
will. It's not of Him that runneth.
That means it's not of our work. but it's of God that shows mercy. It's of God that shows mercy.
That's just so clear, brethren. You know why men don't bow to
that? Because of a hard, rebellious
heart that will not bow to God. A hard heart that says, I will
not have this man reign over me. That's it. Here's the second
reason he saves by choosing whom he will, is to glorify God's
power and God's name. He says in verse 17, For the
scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, Therefore,
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
does he yet find fault for who has resisted his will? Nay, but,
O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Had not the potter power over
the clay? Had not the potter power over
the clay? Of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? You see here,
election, God electing some to salvation and passing by others,
hardening others, is to the glory of His power. and the glory of
His name. It's so that His power and His
name is declared throughout all the earth. That's what we're
declaring when we declare the doctrine of election. We're declaring
God's name and God's power. Remember, this is what He showed
Moses when He declared His glory. When He showed Moses His glory,
that's His power, that's His name, His glory. And He said,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll harden who
I'll harden. That's God's name. And that's
what sinners hate about this. It declares God's name and God's
power to be far above our name and our power. We're reputed
as nothing before God. It's His power and His name that's
going to be glorified in this earth, not you and I. And this
is humbling to a sinner. And that's the purpose of election.
You and I have to be brought down. We have to be humbled.
We have to be brought down to look up to God instead of looking
down on God. We need to be humbled. We need
to be brought down. He has the power. He can take... He made one lump in the beginning
out of dirt, out of clay. He made a man. He breathed in
his nostrils the breath of life. And he can from the same lump
make some vessels of honor and some to dishonor. Brother Cyril's
a potter. Brother Cyril, you ever had any
vessel you made stand up and say, why'd you make me like this? Isn't it humbling that he just
compares you and me to dirt? Just to dirt. I used to hate
it that my mama named me Clay. I used to make fun of it. But
after I found out about the potter and the clay, I don't mind it
so much anymore, because that's how it is. He's the potter, I'm
the clay. And here's the third reason,
purpose for election. It glorifies the riches of His
glory to us who are His vessels of mercy. Look here in verse
22. What if God willing to show His
wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering.
There you got wrath, power, longsuffering. We've seen His name. We've seen
His mercy, His grace. All of these things are on display
as He puts up with the vessels of wrath that are fit for destruction,
so that He might make known the riches of this, all this His
glory. He makes known these riches to
you who are the vessels of mercy, to you who He afford prepared
unto glory. All a man has to, all God has
to do to make a man fit for destruction, He's leaving them alone. We fell
at Adam. We're sinners. We're fit for
destruction from our mother's womb. All He has to do is leave
us to ourselves. But before He ever made anything,
afore, before He made anything, He prepared all His people for
glory. when He chose us in Christ and
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. And so everything
God's working in this earth right now, everything He's doing, everything
He's been doing since the first moment time began till right
now, He's doing it for His elect to show you the riches of His
glory, the riches of His mercy and His grace and His longsuffering
and His His patience, all these things, His justice, His faithfulness,
His truth, all this is His glory. And He's doing everything to
show you this. And when you behold how He's
prepared you and had mercy on you because He loved you and
He chose you, and yet you see so many that He passed by, it
makes you behold what unsearchable riches He's given you freely. and makes you bow, makes you
rejoice, makes you thankful for what He's done. And that's the
purpose brethren, is to bring us to glorify Him. In all of
this, that's the number one thing. Remember He said, you're a chosen
generation. You're an elect generation. Why? That you should show forth the
praises of Him that called you. So you brought to glory and praise
and give Him all the glory and Him alone. That's the purpose.
Now thirdly, it was for God's elect alone that Christ laid
down His life. You go to Luke 4, and I'll say
a few things before I get there. Before God chose anybody, God
first elected His Son. He first chose His Son. He said
in Isaiah 42.1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in
whom my soul delighteth. He said he shall not fail. He's
going to set judgment in the earth. He said he shall go forth
as a mighty man and he shall prevail against his enemies.
And he said I'll be well pleased for his righteousness sake because
he's going to magnify the law and make it honorable. He was
God's first elect. God chose Him first. So if a
man wants to get mad about election and hate election, you're going
to have to hate God's first elect first. Because He chose His Son
first. He put the whole work in His
Son's hand. And in fact, election is only for His Son. He said
whom He foreknew, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, so that His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Everything about election is for His Son. So His Son might
be the elder brother among all those that God chose. So when
Christ came, when He walked this earth, one of His first messages,
He preached the doctrine of election. He says there in Luke 4.18, He
first declared that He was the first elect of God. He said,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Luke 4.18, The Spirit of
the Lord is upon Me. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to set at liberty them that are bruised. And He closed the book,
verse 21, and He said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears. He read that out of Isaiah and He said, I'm the one
this is written about. God chose me. I'm His elect.
I'm the one that's come forth to work the works of God. And
they didn't believe Him. They didn't believe him. And
he said, I'll tell you why you don't believe me. Look at Luke
4 in verse 25. He said, I'll tell you why you
don't believe me. He said, it's because you're
not my elect. Look here in chapter 4 verse 25. But I tell you of
a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias.
There was a whole bunch of widows that needed help in Israel. They were Jews. When the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent,
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon. He was sent to an elect
Gentile woman who was a widow. Not to these These natural sons
of Abraham who prided themselves that we're the elect because
we're children of Abraham. Our Lord says He didn't even
send His prophet to them. He sent them to an elect Gentile. Look here. He says there were,
verse 27, many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elias the
prophet and none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian,
an elect Gentile. He's telling them the reason
you don't believe me, the reason that you're refusing to hear
that I'm the Messiah is because I wasn't sent to you. You're
not my elect. Just because you're natural sons
of Abraham does not mean you're God's elect. How do you know
that's what He was telling them? Because they heard it loud and
clear. Look at what they did next. Verse 28, All they in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the
brow of the hill whereupon the city was built, that they might
cast him down headlong. You ever had that reaction when
you preach the doctrine of election to somebody? I have. Men hate it. Men hate it. I told you, it's like Will when
he was a boy. Sometimes Emma would want some
time alone and I would tell him, you can't go in her room. And
boy, he'd just get sideways because he couldn't go in her room. And
I said, Will, do you really want to go in her room? There's nothing
in there but girls' stuff. He goes, no, I don't really want
to go in, but I don't want to be told I can't go in. And that's
most people. But see, election's not telling
us we can't go in. Election's telling us if God
hadn't chosen us, there wouldn't be any way in. Election opens
the door for His people to go in. But until God makes you see
you're a sinner and makes you see that unless He chose you,
you would have chosen Him, until He makes you see that, you'll
never rejoice in the doctrine of election. Because until then,
you think you deserve the right to go in. Though you don't really
want to go in. So time and again, we hear Christ
declare, I lay down my life for the sheep. And that high priestly
prayer, He said, Father, You've given me glory so that I can
glorify You. And He said, You've given me
power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. That's election. That's who He's
given eternal life to. So when He laid down His life
on the cross, our Lord Jesus laid down His life only for the
elect. Now let me be clear on this,
because some men will say, well there's some sense in which Christ
died for everybody. No it isn't. There's no sense
in which Christ died for everybody. Christ laid down His life for
the elect, for those God gave Him. That's who He laid down
His life for. And He accomplished our justification. That's why
those that He calls have this blessed good news. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Because it's God
that justified us. It's Christ that died for the
elect. and it's risen again for the
elect, and it's making intercession for the elect. So no charge can
be laid against us. Nothing can ever separate us
from the love of God in Christ. The justice of God will not allow
it. Because He laid down His life
for the elect. Now, fourthly, All who God elected
shall be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and shall be brought to
believe on Christ. Every one of them. Every one
of them. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. Very familiar passage. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. He says, We're bound to give
thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of Christ. All gods elect, And listen to
this carefully, only God's elect are sanctified by the Spirit
and given faith to believe the truth. There's a host of people
in the visible church. The visible church takes in everybody
that confesses that they believe Christ, but there's a ton of
people in the visible church that haven't been sanctified
by the Holy Spirit and haven't been brought to believe the truth
because they're not God's elect. Only those that He ordained. Remember when they preached the
gospel and the Gentiles heard it and they rejoiced and it said,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. And that's who's going to believe.
As many as God ordained to eternal life. God's elect, for this reason,
they'll never be deceived by false preachers. Never. Never. He said, there's going to come
false Christs and false preachers. And they're going to be so deceitful
and so cunning and so crafty that if it were possible, they
would deceive the very elect. But they can't deceive the elect.
Because God's election takes in the sanctification accomplished
in His people by the Holy Spirit, which irresistibly gives us an
understanding and brings us to faith and to belief of the truth.
And so, He's not going to allow one of His elect to be deceived.
It just is not possible. Our great shepherd said this,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life. When He calls you, we are not
waiting to get eternal life. When He called you and gave you
a new heart, He gave you eternal life. That new spirit He puts
in you is a new eternal life He has put in you. Now everybody
is going to live eternally but those that He hasn't given eternal
life, it's going to be a living eternal death, suffering. But for you that He's called,
He's given eternal life. Eternal life. It'll never be
taken away. It'll never be changed. And He
said, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which
gave them to Me in divine election, He's greater than all and no
man is able to pluck them out of His hand. I and my Father
are one. So that's security. See the things
that people miss out on not preaching the doctrine of election, not
believing the doctrine of election? You miss the glory of God? You
miss who it is Christ died for and you miss the fact that He
actually accomplished our redemption? You miss out on the security
that every believer has and the assurance we have that he's going
to call his elect and they're going to believe the truth and
he's not going to lose one of them. You miss all that. Religion puts it all in the sinner's
hand. I don't want it in my hand. I
don't want to be trusted with that. And you know what? Here's something
else. Even the fruit that God's people
produce, that the believer produces, that comes from the believer,
even that fruit is because God elected us and ordained for that
fruit to be brought forth. He brings it forth and He ordained
it. He determined before the world
was made that we would bring forth that fruit. What did Christ
say? You've not chosen Me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit. and that your fruit should remain.
And whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may
give it to you. That doesn't just apply to his
apostles, that applies to all his people. We didn't choose
him, he chose us. And he's ordained the fruit that's
going to be brought forth by us. Remember Ephesians 2 talks
about we're His workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works
which He has before ordained that shall come forth. They shall be produced. So we
can't even boast in our fruit, brethren. That's because of His
electing, ordaining grace. Here's what believers say, brethren.
You have men hear this and they hate it. They hate this doctrine. They hate to hear the doctrine
of election. But when you're made to see that
you wouldn't choose Him, you would not choose Him. We did
not love Him first. He loved His people first. We
didn't choose Him first. He chose us first. And that's
the reason because He chose us because He loved us. That's why
He sent the Spirit and brings us to believe Him. That's why. And when believers hear this,
we don't get angry about it because we know what we are by His grace. But we say this, blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Aren't
you thankful He chose you and made you come to Him? I'm thankful
for that. He said that you may dwell in
His courts and be satisfied with the goodness of His house I'm
satisfied, aren't you? I'm satisfied. I was listening
to a story Brother Paul Mahan was telling about Brother David
Pledger. David Pledger is a pastor down in Houston. And he was talking
about a young man came to Brother David and he was wanting to preach.
And he was volunteering to preach. And that's always a bad thing.
And he come to Brother David and he said, Brother David, I
want to help you out. And Brother David said, I don't
want out. And that's how I feel. I don't
want out. I'm satisfied. I don't need to be helped out.
I'm satisfied. Here's the last thing. The reason
God leaves His church in this world is because God still has
some elect to call out through this gospel we preach. Romans
11 verse 5, Paul said, Even so, then, at this present time also,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And just like there was a remnant
in Paul's day, there is a remnant in our day. Our Lord, from the
very beginning, has always had an elect remnant in this world.
You know what a remnant is, don't you? A remnant means there's
few. It's just a remnant. But there
are some. There are some. God has some
elect left. And it's knowing that He has
elect in His earth. And it's knowing all these things
about election, knowing He's going to call His people because
Christ redeemed them. That's what makes you and me
want to endure whatever we have to endure to send this gospel
forth. That's right. Paul said, I endure
all things for the elect's sake. That's why. so that they may
obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory. Doesn't the doctrine of election,
you know, some people think, well, if I believed everybody
was elect, I wouldn't preach the gospel. This is the only
reason I would. I know God's going to call His
people and I know He's going to do it through this gospel.
This is why I preach the gospel. Paul said, I endure anything
I have to endure for the elect's sake. I want them to obtain this
salvation, and I know they're going to. God's elect and those
remaining, we're the salt of this earth. We're the salt that's
preserving the world. We're the usward for whom God
hasn't destroyed this world yet. He said in Peter, the Lord's
long-suffering to usward. That's God's elect remnant, the
usward. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Isn't that what we just saw in
Thessalonians? That He said they're going to
all come. He elected them unto salvation
through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the
truth. This is who He's not willing should perish. Those He chose
from the beginning. Because He's not willing, they're
not going to perish. They're going to be brought to
repentance. And it's for them that He's reserving this world
right now. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth to me, all the elect shall come to me. And I won't cast
them out, He said. Why? Because God has not appointed
us to wrath. He's not appointed us to wrath.
He has appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we are going to live together
with Him whether awake or asleep. Whether you are a believer that
has already been called or you are a believer that has already
died and is in the grave, we are going to arise and we are
going to be with Christ and we are going to live together with
Him. All His people are. In the end when Christ returns,
you know who He is going to gather out of this earth from the four
corners of this earth? You know who He is gathering
out? Israel, He said, He's going to come and He's going to gather
out His elect from the four corners of this earth. He said, there
will be two in the field, one will be taken, the other left.
It's His elect He'll gather. So in the end, you know who's
going to obtain every blessing God promised from the beginning?
Just the elect. Scripture says, Israel hath not
obtained that which he seeketh for. Israel here represents the
natural sons of Abraham who were seeking a righteousness by the
works of the law, seeking acceptance with God by the works of the
law. They hadn't attained what they sought for, but the election
hath attained it. All those who were elected in
Israel, they obtained it because God determined before that they
would, and that's why they did, and the rest were blinded. Now
let me remind you of this, brethren. It is not believing the doctrine
of election that's going to save. There will be a host of men in
hell that believe the doctrine of election. That's not what's
going to save you. That's not what's going to save
you. Some people treat doctrine just like they do any other work.
Learn it and all they've done is switch from ten commandments
to five points. It's a little bit easier to remember.
But it's a work. and they are trusting in their
knowledge and trusting in what they have learned just like they
were when they were trusting in their works. Their learning doctrine
is not going to save you. Christ is who is going to save
us through believing on Him. I encourage you brethren to believe
on Him. Here is the fact of the matter.
Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 1. Here is the truth of the matter. Somebody hears this and they
say, how do I know I am elect? How do I know if I'm elect? There's
only one way. There's only one way to know
if you're the elect of God. Here it is right here, 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 4. Our gospel, he says verse 4,
knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. How did you
know? Because our gospel came not unto
you in word only. but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Look at verse 6. And you became
followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. That's the only way you
know you're elect. You believe on Christ. You believe
on Christ. That's the end purpose for election. To bring us to believe on Christ.
So that's where I'm going to leave you. Believe on Him. Trust
Him. Do you see all this was purposed
in Him? And He accomplished all this
and He's risen now and He's the one accomplishing this in His
people through the Gospel. Believe on it. And that's how
you'll know I'm one of God's elect. Alright, let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We pray You bless it now. truly teach us in our heart and
bring us to the feet of Christ. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
It's in His name we pray. Amen.