Well, again, welcome. We're going
to be in the Gospel here this morning in 1 Peter 1. And from time to time, as Norm's
been gone, and as we've done often through time and take a
step back from our exegetical approach through the scriptures
in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and then occasionally
we bring messages on grace. And the last times Norm's been
gone, I brought a lesson on election in Romans. Today, the message
is titled, Elect According to Foreknowledge, and that comes
from 1 Peter Chapter 1. So we kind of went through this
many years ago when we did a study here in 1 Peter, and we covered
this in some detail, but we're just going to highlight just
a little bit of it here this morning. And as Peter writes
to the churches that are in this area, which now modern-day Turkey,
here in the Scriptures called Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, Those were places where the brothers had
been driven, driven away because of Christianity. They'd been
driven out by the Romans, they'd been driven out by the Jews,
and they'd been dispersed. They call it the Great Dispersion,
and they'd been driven up into this northern area. And they
were kind of abused. They'd kind of lost their livelihood. They'd lost connection with a
lot of family, as we mentioned in our Bible class then. and
society had kind of rejected them, and the things of commerce
had kind of been done away with because the
Jews would have no dealings with them. So they had a lot of obstacles,
and they were in a new country. I don't know if many of you have
been to move to a new area that you're not familiar with, and
learning new things, and lay of the land, and what to watch
out for, and all those things they were up against, and people
generally didn't care for them. So he writes in 1 Peter chapter
1, verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers,
or that word translated pilgrims in many editions, scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And then
he calls them elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. He brings out the entire gospel
there. He has the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit all actively engaged. for the church there,
and he's trying to give them some comfort here that they recognize
the circumstances that they're in now spiritually versus the
physical circumstances that they're in, and they're not to be kind
of confused there. And in verse 3, it says, "...Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." And wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're
in heaviness through manifold temptations." So he's kind of
making a comparison there that here's what you have that's been
done for you spiritually by God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit, versus these things that they're faced with
in the physical world. And the same could be applied
to any group of the church at any age. They're always up against
the same thing. Anyway, he gives them great comfort
in saying, here's the good things. I know you're in a bad spot,
and things are not everything that you would like them to be,
but here are some things to rejoice in. You're elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto the obedience of Christ, and sprinkling of
His blood, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. So it's just a wonderful verse
that tells us that the three persons of the Trinity, the three
persons of the triune Godhead were, and they were completely
united and personally involved in the effectual redemption of
the church. Christ and the Father and the
Spirit had an interest in them before the foundation of the
world. And, you know, the foreknowledge
of God is a, As we discussed many times as we're talking about
God's attributes, all of His attributes are eternal and immutable. That means they're always and
they're unchangeable. His foreknowledge is an eternal,
immutable attribute. based solely and entirely in
his sovereign purpose and grace in electing love. And the very
kind of words election and elect are kind of distasteful to religion
because they take away from man his ability and Put it all in God, which is where
it is. So, you know, it's interesting
that it's interesting the different applications that people will
make of the same terminology. You know, when we define electing
as it is in the scripture, it means to select, choose or make
choice. Now, the electee is merely a
recipient of the action of the elector. And that's a principle that we
all engage in here. Coming up next November, we're
all going to engage in electing a president and various senators
and congressmen and local officials and stuff. We all elect them. But the electee is merely a recipient
of that action of other people, external action of other people. And then we have this word in
the middle of this, elect according to foreknowledge. Well, as defined,
according is rendered from a translation of this specific Greek word kata,
which means it's a primary particle, a preposition, which joins and
associates the previous term or subject, which was elect,
and connects that to the next word specifically
as it pertains to and with regards to concerning the foreknowledge
of God the Father. So, those two words are connected
rather strongly with this Greek term, according. So we're elect as it pertains
to, as it regards to, as it concerns foreknowledge of God the Father. And if we looked at the word
foreknowledge, we would see that it's two Greek words connected
together. One is pro, which means before,
and gnosis, which means to know, and generally in the scripture,
it's used in an intimate, absolute sense. Like Adam knew his wife,
or Mary knew not her husband until she brought forth the,
So we find those applications of it. And it's usually used
in cases of intimate, absolute knowledge. And to see the truth
of this, that God actually foreknew a people. And one thing, as we
probably stressed this a couple times, we always find when it's
talking about foreknowledge in the Scripture, it's always talking
about a whom. Not a what. And so, as we see
this demonstrated throughout the scriptures and in the Old
Testament, sometimes we find this election and foreknowledge,
not a lot of the religions say, well, there's only five verses
that talks about election and predestination. But we find that
principle applied everywhere in the Scripture. And we'll look
at a couple of them right now, but the fact that God foreknew
a people and elected or chose them based on that eternal love
and sovereignty, we don't have to go any further than the Word
of God Himself. as he issued this commentary
on what he caused to be written aforetime. We'll look at a couple of examples
from 1 and 2 King, but in Luke chapter 4, and we were in Luke
chapter 4 several years ago here, in Luke chapter 4, verse 25,
Jesus is explaining some things and he says, but I tell you a
truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, and when great famine was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. That comes to us from
1 Kings 17, verse 9. In the Hebrew, that word is Zarephath. The widow of Zarephath is called. The Lord said to his prophet,
I want you to go down to Zarephath. I have commanded a widow there
to sustain thee. Isn't that an interesting verse?
He tells a lot. I have commanded a widow there
to sustain me. And when he gets there, she doesn't
have anything. She says, I can't even sustain myself. We got like
one morsel of bread left and teaspoon oil. And after that,
we die. We starve. And what happens is
the Lords ends up sustaining her after he said, I've commanded
a woman there to sustain you. And another side note there is
that Zarephath was a Phoenician city, a seaport Phoenician city. They worshipped some Phoenician
gods there. But God had declared that there
was a woman there that he was going to have mercy upon whom
he would have mercy. And there was a Gentile woman
there that was part of his elect, people whose names were written
in heaven from before the foundation of the world. And then he goes
on to say, and in verse Luke 4, 27, there were many lepers
in Israel, a whole ton of lepers in his hometown of Israel, home
country, in the time of Lysias the prophet. And none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Well, Naaman was a Syrian. And the interesting thing, if
we go back to 2 Kings chapter 5, verse 1 through 27, we'd find
out that the Syrians had just sent the army down south to raid
Israel. And they went down there and
raided and pillaged, and they kidnapped this young woman, this
young maiden, as she's called. Kidnapped her and brought her
back as a slave in the household of Naaman. And of course, you
know, Naaman was a leper. And she said, would God that
my Lord would go to the prophet that's in Samaria. And he would
be healed of his leprosy by him. And so they, of course, you know
that story, they all took the wrong approach. And the king,
the Naaman, the general was a favorite of the king. And so the king
sent this letter and a bunch of treasure and stuff with Naaman
and wrote to the king and said, hey, I'm sending my guy down
there. I know we just pillaged you, but here's some money back.
And would you please heal my servant? Because I really like
him. And the king going, I have no ability to do that. I cannot
do that. And so, anyway, he ends up going
to the prophet there, and the prophet says, okay, why don't
you go down to the Jordan River and dip yourself seven times?
And he didn't even come out, he just had a servant go out,
and just a preacher of the gospel came out and said, here's what
the word of the Lord said, go dip yourself in the river seven
times and you'll be healed. And he just got so angry that
the scripture said he was in a rage about that. And isn't
that what we find about when we talk about election and stuff,
when we talk about the Lord's grace, that generally in religion,
they just go into a rage about that. That's just not fair. That's
just not right. But you know, what makes you
to differ from another? We'd all be in the same boat
if it weren't for grace. And that's why the church loves
it so much, because he pulled us out of the miry clay, pulled
us out of that pit of corruption that we're in, and had mercy
on us, and we wouldn't have pulled ourselves out. So, here we have
this example that we just read from Luke about both Gentile
countries, and grace being limited to those whom God directed grace,
mercy to whom he would have mercy, and no obligation to the rest. It doesn't say one word about
the rest. They were just left to go on worshiping whatever
Phoenician god or Syrian god they wanted to, but the grace that was exhibited
was specific. And you know, many, if not most
of the commentary writers have defined, actually they've redefined
four knowledges of what? And I was just reading one yesterday.
God in his omniscience looked down from heaven and he saw who,
he foresaw who would respond positively to the gospel. And
then he elected them. Isn't that kind of ridiculous
or backwards? It's just crazy, but it changes
it from what God did. for knowledge and election, it
takes it away from one who will positively respond to the gospel
and renders the final aspect of salvation to an action on
the part of one who's dead, that the scripture says. Like Lazarus. He was just laying there dead.
He was not able to respond positively or otherwise. He wasn't in a
position to say, sorry God, if I don't come under my own terms,
I'm not coming. When Jesus had come forth, he
came forth. There's kind of a partly hidden
truth in that God, through His omniscience, knew who would respond. Well, He knew who would respond
because He foreordained who would respond, who would be called,
who would be attracted to the Gospel. Acts 13.48 says, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Well, what about the
ones that weren't ordained to eternal life? They didn't. It
doesn't mention them. We have to keep the horse in
front of the cart here, as it were. Romans is very clear, and
we kind of covered this in our last section on Romans, election
in Romans, but as has to do with foreknowledge, in Romans 8, 29,
it says, for whom, and that would be an important word to underline.
for whom He did foreknow, He also predestinated to be conformed
to the image of His Son." So we have two actions of God. He
foreknew a people and then He predestinated them to a certain
outcome that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And then in verse 30, He says, and more than that, moreover,
whom He did predestinate them, He also called. And whom he called,
them he justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified.
So he has kind of a sequence of events here from a divine
perspective. And man just sort of reverses
all that and puts the onus all on man to be the impetus for
salvation. And again, we find like Naaman
in our natural condition, we rage about that. We don't like
it because it takes away our ability in our minds that we
have some say about our outcome here. So in 1 Peter in our text,
the opening words, designed to let the church there be secure
in the knowledge of their relationship with God, not based, In religion,
they'd be saying, oh, man, all these bad things happened to
us. Who did sin, either this man or his father, that they
got sent off to Turkey, and they got banished from their home,
and thrown out, and they lost all their... home and savings
and blah, blah, blah. And we find that their circumstances
were due to God and not a judgment or punishment, but entirely based
on God's sovereign choosing and according to foreknowledge and
not of works, merit, or performance. And they were there where they
were at, for some purpose of God, and that purpose would be
the furtherance of the gospel. They would go up into that region
and they would be preachers of the gospel in that area. So when we look at election or
terms which precisely declare that God has sovereignly chosen
or made a choice and elected persons, just as we hold elections
to choose representatives of government, And the electing
choice is based on his sovereign love and determinant foreknowledge
and not any works. You know, Norm read a verse here
the other day, the king's heart is in the hand. of God, and like
a river, he turneth whatsoever way that he wants it. He commands
that, and that's what happens. Or, I commanded this widow in
Zarephath to sustain you. He commanded, and that's what
happened. One of the great things that
we always find in the scriptures, whatever God demands, he supplies.
So he says, I've commanded this woman to sustain you. And she
didn't have nothing to sustain him with. So God supplied everything
that she needed to sustain him and herself. So that's what we
always find in the scripture. It's not of their own works or
their own responses and the children not having yet been born. neither having done any good
or evil, for that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
to her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So there we have
a reference back to the Old Testament where God made a choice, made
an election, made a decision on loving a certain people and
foreknew them. And before they were born, it
says, before they were born, and that was recorded for us
in Micah, that that occurred, and it's being quoted here in
Romans. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Before they were born. And, you know, Jesus declared
in John, I like that verse that Mike brought out in the Bible
class today when he's talking to those disciples. You did not
choose me. It's the same word as elect.
It comes from the same root word. You've not chosen me. And that's our natural condition.
You've not chosen me, but I have chosen you. elected you." And then he says,
more than that, it's just like Romans, the golden chain of redemption. He says, I've chosen you and
ordained you. That means to be placed or appointed
or purposed. That you should go forth and
bring forth fruit. And that your fruit should remain
and whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you. But all those that were external actions on
those guys that he called, he was going down to meet them.
He says, follow me. And they dropped what they were
doing, and they did follow him. So, it's just adamantly stated
in this election of God is just based entirely in his sovereign
right and will and power. And to the religious folks, they
say, well, that's not fair. Why doesn't it just go out equally?
Well, if it went out equally without any divine intervention,
none of us would be there because the scripture says there's none
that seek God. It says that a couple times in
Psalms and different places, but there's none that understandeth,
none that seeketh God on our own. We'd be like Adam. We'd
be busy about sewing our aprons of fig leaves, and we'd be like
Cain trying to bring our watermelon and our cantaloupe, and our zucchini,
and leeks, and whatever else he built up in his garden there,
and trying to satisfy God with that. On the human side, there's
just none that chooses God. And not only does man not choose
God, because having lost that ability, that capacity in the
fall, We're actively engaged against Him, and as it says in
Isaiah, He's despised. That's the natural man's reaction
to God in His sovereign truth, in His right as the sovereign
King and Creator and Lord. He's despised and rejected of
men. A man of sorrows acquainted with
grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not." Boy, there's
just a lot said there about our natural condition. Corinthians
says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them. That word speaks to ability.
They have no ability because they're spiritually discerned.
And that's why Jesus said in 644 of John, no man can come
to me. They have no ability to come
to me like Lazarus. They have no ability to come
to me except for one thing, the Father which sent me, draw them. An external application there
again where there's no ability based on his electing love according
to his foreknowledge. Again, foreknowledge based on
whom and not what. And foreknowledge is not random. It's based specifically on His
purpose. The whom in our text from Romans
8 specifically defines the whom as the ones whom God foreknew,
whom He called according to His purpose. We can read that in
Romans 8, 28. We have time, we'll just read
that real quick, Romans 8, 28 through 30. that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. And there again we have the proper
order of things, and we find that we love Him because He first
loved us, who are the called to them that love God. Well,
there's nobody that loves God until He has loved them first.
And even they don't understand that until the rebirth, because
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then we find
out that he died for us, and then we say, hmm, it's because
he first loved us that he gave his life for us. So, for whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. I like that scripture
we read here a couple weeks ago. I know my thoughts towards you,
thoughts of love, to give you an expected end. That's predestination,
my friends, to give you an expected end. And them who He did predestinate,
them He also called. That's why He said, you know,
God chose by the foolishness of preaching the gospel of His
Son to save them which believe. And then we don't even do that
by ourselves. We find out from Ephesians that
we believe according to the working of His mighty power. So we can't
even muster that little portion of it up and make a right call. So, whom he called them he justified,
rendered innocent, without spot or wrinkled, through the blood of Christ were
rendered completely innocent. And whom he justified them he
also glorified. The election or choosing of God
is based solely in his own purpose in doing so, and for no other
reason, because he has that right to do it. So, the elect then,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. The elect then are what
is referred to in Romans chapter 9 as we looked last time. The
vessels of mercy of four prepared unto glory. So that's an important
phrase to kind of get from Romans 9, 22 and 23. Vessels of mercy
of four prepared unto glory. You know, a vessel only contains
what's put in it. A vessel is not capable of self-pouring, not able to fill itself up with
anything. You know, religion has kind of
developed the gospel into a sort of a self-licking lollipop kind
of a thing. as being facetious there because
everyone knows a lollipop does not have the ability to lick
itself. Well, if we take that and make it a spiritual application,
we'd find that someone who's dead and trespasses in sin does
not have the ability to raise themselves from the dead and
to believe or to do anything unless some external force is
applied to them to cause that to be. And then the flip side
of that verse in Romans 9, chapter 23, the non-elect, the ones that
God sovereignly decided to just let go on in their own merry
way in this world, they're the rest who are in their natural
condition, who apart from the mercy of God reject Him. They
reject God. They reject the true God. They
reject all these things that we've brought out about Him,
His nature and His sovereignty and His righteousness and His
holiness and His immutability. They don't like any of that.
They're in enmity against Him. And choosing instead their own
ideas of righteousness and works over what God has before determined
would satisfy Him. They are then what the scripture
refers to here in Romans 9.23, vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Norm mentioned this here a while
back. He said those who are in revolt against God. And they're
in opposition to him. Scripture says they're at enmity
with him. It's worse than just, I don't
like that. It's hatred. It's actual, active
hatred toward God. And especially as we get into
these terms that take away from the ability of man to have anything
to do with his own salvation. And God says, well, where is
boasting then? If I take care of it all, there's
no boasting on your part because you didn't have anything to do
with it. It's not of you that runneth, not of you that willeth,
but God that showeth mercy. And that's what we find out after
we've been born again, after we've had the rebirth. We find
out all the things or most of the things He's done to us. Some
of us were just in a... The more we learn about what
he's done for us, the more we learn that we don't know all
the things that he's, it's an endless, endless array of grace
that's from before the foundation of the world that has brought
all his people back to him. So the vessels of wrath are those
who would have God act in accordance with their will and purpose,
which contradicts the almighty, eternal sovereignty of God in
all things. Many of them say, well, God is
sovereign in everything but this. Well, sovereignty is an absolute.
You can't pick and choose sovereignty. You're either sovereign or you're
not sovereign. There's no ambiguity in that
terminology, and a definition that redefines that with a word
but or except is an error. That's just all you can say.
It's wrong. You can't say God is sovereign except. You can't say that. And if you
say that he's not sovereign, that's not right. And you can't
say he's sovereign in everything but, because that's not right. And a simple quick trip to Webster's
Dictionary would alleviate that. And anybody that knew anything
about kings in the Old Testament, we just had lessons in Esther
Wednesday night. The king wrote an edict, and
according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, it cannot be
altered. It's absolute. His Word was sovereign. It could
not be changed. And as Norm alluded to that application
spiritually to God Almighty, His Word is, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's sovereignty is at an absolute. And it's not a concept. It's
just a fact. It's just a truth. You know,
in Romans 9-11 where he says, in electing Jacob and hating
Esau, God had no respect to anything but his own purpose. That's what
Robert Haldane, commentator in the 1800s, wrote. He was only
obligated to his own will and purpose. He had no obligation
to people that hate him. He had no obligation to those
who despise and reject Him and have no use for Him and don't
like anything about Him. He only has an obligation to
those whom He gave to the Son to redeem in the covenant of
grace. So the same was applied in Genesis
regarding the respect to the offering of Abel and not respect
according to the offering of Cain, which was according to
his incorrect will and assumption. I can do whatever I want, and
it ought to be OK. The choice of God was according
to his own purpose and will and decree. And he says, under Abel,
he had respect to his offering, and under Cain, he had not respect. And Cain didn't say, I'm sorry,
let me do that over, get it right. He became frustrated and angry
and killed his brother. That's the natural bent of things
unless we're overcome by divine mercy. So again, when did God
foreknow these people that it talks about in 1 Peter, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God? Well, in Jeremiah 31.3,
it says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, or an eternal love. That's
what that word really means. Norm's always saying eternity
forward and eternity backward, but it's a much broader scope,
really, than that. But eternity means eternity. I've loved thee with an eternal
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." That same
drawing that Jesus mentioned in John 6, 44. No man can come
unto me unless the Father would send me to draw him. In Ephesians
chapter 1, in verse 4 and 5, it says, according, there's that
same word that we find in Peter 1, 2. elect according to foreknowledge. He says in Ephesians 1, 4, according
as he hath chosen us or elected us is the same word in him before
the foundation of the world that or with the result being that
we should be holy and without blame before him. And then we
have further action by God Not only has he chosen us in Christ,
the result is that we'll be holy and without blame before him.
And then he says, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his sovereign will. I put sovereign in there because
that's what that verse implies. His purpose, the good pleasure
of his will. And so, this election is such
a wonderful thing that makes the difference between us and
everything else that hates God. In Matthew 24, 31, he shall send
his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds. from one end
of heaven to the other. And we have a glimpse of that
in the Old Testament that we read in 1st and 2nd Kings with
the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian being Gentiles, not
all Israel who are of Israel. In Isaiah 65, 9, I'll bring forth a seed out of
Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains, and my elect
shall inherit it, and my servant shall dwell there. Matthew 25,
34. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And that's kind of that reference, a New Testament reference from
Isaiah 65, 9. And, of course, Revelation 17,
their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You know, from
a fleshly standpoint, this truth of election, according to foreknowledge,
is just repugnant. They just hate it. Highly offensive,
rejected as unpalatable to human nature, which insists incorrectly
that, to be fair, there has to be some merit or performance
that has to be taken into account regarding salvation. How can
I not work toward my, why doesn't my works count? Well, boasting
is excluded. That's what the scripture says. It's all his work. And in the
natural scheme of things, work then become a substitute for
the true substitute and not a function of eternally electing love and
all the things that God does for us in whom he foreknew, then
he called and justified and so on, as we read in Romans 8. You
know that the actual terms and their clear meanings are just
then disregarded. Haldane said this is what we
call evasion. We can't address these correctly
or even read them out loud, so we just choose to evade them.
We just don't go there. We'll just continue to preach
on behavior, and marriage, and blah, blah, blah, and all the
things that they go into, and church history, and church authority,
and all those things. But the actual terms, they're
pretty clear in their meaning, and they've been subjected to
what Paul called the concision. In Philippians chapter 3, verse
2, he said, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision. And that word concision means
mutilation. In verse 3, he says, for we are
the circumcision. So he contrasts those two words,
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Jesus Christ and
have no confidence in the flesh. Now, circumcision was a thing
that God instituted with Abraham in the Old Testament to demonstrate
a casting away of reliance on the flesh. They cut that flesh
off and threw it away. then it was just symbolic, had
no physical effectual property other than it identified them
as a Jew, but spiritually didn't have any effectual consequence. It was just a picture, just like
the baptism, just like the Lord's Supper, just like all the things
that we have that are types and shadows and figures. We cast
that away, and that picture is that we have no confidence in
the flesh, and that's with that circumcision. But he says, beware
of the concision, which is just the mutilation. And he's referring
to the mutilation of the gospel by adding things to it or cutting
away things from it that are actually in there. When you take
away Ephesians, when you take away Romans 8 and 9 and 10 and
11, 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 15 and 16 and 17. When you cut all
that out, that's concision, people. That's just mutilating the truth
of God. He says, beware of that. Don't
let somebody come up to you and say, well, it's all true except
this part here, which we don't like and we don't understand. And as Mike says, we may not
understand everything, but that doesn't diminish the truth of
it. And we trust that if it's written
down in the scripture, then that, of course, must be the final
word on it. And so, you know, it's beyond
our present capability to fully grasp the full import and majestic
operations of God on our behalf. We just can't. grasp that. But, you know, He does give us
grace to believe it. That He's written our name in
the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. That He's effected everything necessary for us to be redeemed.
He sent His Son to die in our place, and not randomly, not
as the notion that he died indiscriminately for every person on the planet.
If he died and his blood was shed for them, then they are
going to be right there next to you in heaven. If he didn't, then that's what
we believe. He laid down his life for ransom
for many, is what the scripture said. And even so, at this present
time, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. Grace
means no merit without merit. And if by grace, if it's without
merit, then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it is by works, then grace is not involved. If you can earn
your way, or do, or say, or whatever, then we don't need grace, if
works were able to supply that. Oh the depths of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out. That means not capable of
being fully explored or searched out, not being able to trace
or track them as they are solely to be found in his sovereign
purpose, will, and person, and not of any human source, motivation,
or impetus. And again, the natural objection,
well, God's not fair if he does that. Well, he's not under obligation
to be fair to us. If he was fair, we'd all be charcoal. So, the truth of election according
to God's foreknowledge, then, is it's a great freedom to the
Church because it's not based on what we do or don't do. It's
based on God. If it was based on our own doing,
then Naaman would still be a dead leper in Syria, and the widow
would have starved to death, and the dead people that Christ
encountered would still be dead, and all those things. It's based on God, and in salvation
He reveals to us His great love and work to bring us to Himself. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. I can't tell you how many times
I've been comforted by that scripture. Because I know that when someone
comes here, they're going to hear the gospel. Maybe they come
once, maybe they come twice, and maybe we never see them again.
But we know that they've heard the Gospel, and that if God is
going to make it effectual, then he will use that. All the Father
giveth to me shall come to me, and no man cometh to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. So, be free and confident
in God. He never fails.