Second Thessalonians, Chapter
2. I want to bring a message on election,
unconditional election, unconditional election. And Paul talks about in verse 7,
here's 2 Thessalonians 2, about the mystery of iniquity. It's
working, working in this world now, the mystery of iniquity.
And that word, let, that only he who now let us will let until
he be taken out of the way, that word let means to hinder, to
keep from happening. And only Christ, only God now
lets, until he, or the Holy Spirit lets, and he'll be taken out
of the way. And then that wickedness shall be revealed. Satan and
all of his wickedness and all of his evilness shall be revealed,
whom the Lord, when he comes, shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and will destroy him with the brightness of his
coming. There he is with all of his wickedness, Christ comes
in his great power and glory and brightness just cowers him
down. And this wicked one is whose
coming is after the working of Satan with all power, signs and
lying wonders. And they come with all the things
that they say and they do and they say, talk about healings
and multitudes being saved and laying hands on people and people
one leg getting, you know, evened out and people getting out of
their wheelchairs and all that, just signs and lying wonders.
And it's a lying wonder whenever, you know, people can say anything
they want to and fill a building up. You have to keep building
bigger and bigger buildings, even while they're lying on God.
And then it says, with all deceivableness, this one who's after the coming
of Satan, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, he deceives them. And he deceives them in their
unrighteousness. And here's how he does it, and
why he does it. Because they receive not the
love of the truth. Now, there's a difference in
receiving the truth and the love of the truth. When you receive
the love of the truth, you're saved by it. And the love of
the truth. We love the truth. We love the
Gospel. We love the Word. We love those
three books that Gary talked about tonight. We look up to
heavens and we see the glory of God standing in awe. Stand
utterly and absolutely in awe of God's power and glory. Look
in this blessed book, and I see myself, and I see this world,
and I see God's will, and I see God's revelation, and I see God's
salvation, and I see myself and how desperately I need Him. And
that's why we cry out, O Lord, who can understand these ways
except You tell us and teach us? And so they don't receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved. And watch this.
And for this cause, because they do not receive the love of the
truth, God shall send them a strong delusion. He'll just send them
a delusion. You want to believe a lion be
damned? Have at it. You want to believe that speaking
in tongues is the greatest thing there ever was? Have at it. You
want to believe that the Pope has the power to forgive your
sins? Have at it. You want to believe that you've
got power over your free will and your will's got power over
God? Have at it! That they should believe a lie.
That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but
they have more pleasure in the unrighteousness of their own
self and their own preachers and their own ways. than they
did in the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Christ.
Now watch what happens now. But, thank God for these buts. But, we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren. He makes a great distinction
here. You're beloved of the Lord. God loves you. and your brethren, and we give
thanks to God for you, because God has 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 our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, I want to talk
about this here, being chosen from the beginning unto sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. God has chosen us. And
I want to talk about unconditional election. I preached this up
at Todd's a few weeks ago. I maintain, I maintain without
fear of compromise, without fear of contradiction, I maintain
that the gospel cannot be preached without certain elements. The
gospel has elements to it. And it can't be a priest without
those elements. Certain truths must be presented
to the minds of men. And without these truths, the
gospel is not preached. Truths have to be consistently
and constantly presented to the minds of men. And if these truths
are not there, then the gospel is not preached. Now, we preach
the gospel may not use these terms, but let me give you what
I mean. If the truth of man's total ruin is not preached, then
you've not preached the gospel. And what I mean by man's total
ruin, I mean that man has no part about him that's good. He has no righteousness, that
he's dead in trespasses and sins, he's never thought a good thought,
he's never done a good deed, he has no merit in the sight
of God, he's as bad off as he possibly can be outside of Christ. And he can do nothing He's totally
ruined, he's totally powerless, he has no ability to do anything
to change his situation in the sight of God. Second, unconditional
election. If you don't preach unconditional
commandments, like I just described, powerless, dead in trespass,
sin, ruined, no power, no ability. no goodness, no merit, no righteousness,
then if that's the condition he is, then there has to be,
if he's going to be saved, then God's got to elect him, and that
election has to be unconditional, because there's nothing about
the man that would get, the man has a condition that would cause
God to elect him. It has to be unconditional. And
the third thing that must be presented to the minds of men,
that's an element in the gospel, is limited atonement. Limited
atonement. Now, when I talk about limited
atonement, I'm not talking about it's limited in its power. The
power of Christ, the power of Christ's atonement, it covers
all the sins and redeems all the sins of all the people of
all time and eternity that were given to Him. I mean, it's powerful
enough to save me and cleanse me from my sin. Powerful enough
to cleanse you and save you from your sin. Powerful enough to
satisfy God. But it's limited in its extent.
He did not die. His atonement was not for every
man. It was for those that were given
to him. And then, the third thing, if man is totally ruined, there
has to be an unconditional election. If there is a limited atonement,
then those who were elected Christ died for it. He atoned for them
and Him alone. And then there has to be an irresistible
grace or an effectual call. Now how are these people that
are totally ruined, dead in trespasses and sin, going to know their
election, going to have the redemption, the atonement of Christ applied
to them, and come to understand what Christ has done? They must
be effectually, irresistibly called to Christ. Make that right? Where does a man get his will?
If a man can't come to Christ, where is he going to get the
will? In the day of His power! Power of His atonement, the power
of His word, the power of the Holy Spirit, in the day of His
power, His people, those that are atoned for, those that are
chosen, those that were ruined in the day of His power, His
people, and they willed it. Blessed is the man, he says this,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest, now watch this, and causes to
approach everything. It's God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now, since the
man couldn't save himself, since he didn't elect himself, since
he didn't do anything for his atonement, and since he was irresistibly
and affectionately called, how do you know he's going to get
to the end of the way? Same one who called him. Same one who
saved him. Same one who atoned for him.
He's going to keep him. He's going to persevere to the
end. Now, some people say that the gospel is the death and the
burial and the resurrection of Christ. That's not so. That's
facts. That's facts. The Gospel says,
and the Scripture says, and you can look at yourself, I won't
have you turn there, but the Gospel says, that which I've
received I've delivered unto you, how that Christ died according
to the Scriptures. Now you've got to figure out
how did he die according to the Scriptures. And that he was buried
and that he rose again from the dead, what? According to the
Scriptures. Now you can talk about the death
and burial and resurrection, but you've got to do it according
to Christ's style. What do these burials signify? What do these resurrections signify? What do these ascensions to glory
signify? So you've got to deal with all
of it, not facts with the person and what he accomplished. So
let's look at this unconditional election. What's the cause of
election? What's the cause of it? What's
the cause of God electing certain individuals? Well, the will of
God. That's the cause of election.
Ain't that what 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. God did it.
It's the will of God. It was God's will that chose
us. It's God's will that's the cause
of election. Look over in Romans chapter 9. Like I told you this morning,
make your point and enforce it with Scripture. But according
as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God hath from the beginning chosen you. When was the beginning? When God said it was. There was
no beginning until God said there's a beginning. This is it. This
is the start. God in heaven's eternity. And eternity has no
end and no beginning. But God said there's a beginning
and there's an end. He decided the end from what? The beginning. So the beginning and the end
is for us. It's not for God, it's for us. So when we're from
the beginning, from the beginning of His purpose of redemption,
from the beginning of His purpose of salvation, from the beginning
of His purpose of sending His Son into this world, He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now look here in
Romans 9. Now, not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac. Isaac is
Abraham's son, son by promise. And watch what happens. For the
children being 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." It was said, "...Unto her the elder shall
serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob hath I loved, beloved of
the Lord, he hath from the beginning chosen me. And Esau hath I saved."
And here's what people said, what shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? No. You know, election comes first,
and then comes predestination. For whom he is foreknown, chosen
in Christ for the foundation of the world. And predestination,
I want you to understand this, election comes first, unto salvation. And then predestination is always
to a certain thing. Predestination to be conformed
to the image of God. of God's Son, predestinated to
be to the adoption of children. It has nothing to do with heaven
and hell. It has something to do with what God's purpose for
us in the final, ultimate salvation. How are we going to become sons
of God? We're adopted into His family. How are we going to know
we're going to be conformed to the image of Christ? God predestinated
us to do that. At the end of our conversion,
salvation is to be conformed to the image of Christ. And oh
beloved, God done this. First election and then predestination.
I want to show you this. Let's look at Isaiah 42. Here's
the head of election. And listen, I want us to really
truly understand this. I want us to understand this
clearly. I know that we believe election. I know that I've preached on
it many times over the years and deal with it in lots of ways.
But I want us to understand this right here. The head of election. The head of election, the beginning
of election, where does election start at? Now you see, that's
why Scripture says God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. We were quickened in Christ. So if we were chosen
in Christ, then our election has something to do with being
in Him and knowing Him. Is that not right? That's why
we're until he calls you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch here in Isaiah 42.
God says, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my direct, my
soul delights in him. I put my spirit upon him. He'll
bring forth judgment. He'll bring forth truth to the
Gentiles. He'll not cry, he'll not lift
up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. He'll make
himself of no reputation. A bruised reed shall he not break,
smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He'll bring truth and lay it
to the plummet and say, this is it. And he shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he set the judgment in the earth and
the isle shall wait for his Lord. Now, beloved, here's the head
of election. Here's God's first elect. Christ was God's first
elect, and thus chosen in Christ. And what do I mean by that? Well,
beloved, He was chosen to be the Redeemer. He was chosen to
be the Mediator. He was chosen to be the Savior.
God passed by angels and chose Christ, His Son. Of all the beings
in this universe, God had one Son. He said, this is the one
I'm going to give. I choose Him. I elect Him. I appoint Him to
be the Redeemer, to be the Mediator, to be the Savior. To be the only
hope, to be their righteousness, to be the Lamb slain, to be everything
to them that they need for time and eternity. I choose Him and
elect Him to be everything in the whole of prediction, in the
whole of this universe. God giving Him power over all
things. Now ain't that right? And you
know, He's the head of the church. That's what I'm talking about.
He's the head of the church. He's the head of the body. He
fills with the fullness of Him. We're chosen in Him as members
of His body. Members of His bone of His bone,
flesh of His flesh. chosen in Him as the pattern
that we're going to be conformed to. I heard Don Fortner say this
the other day, God looked at His Son, loved Him so much, He's
so glorious in His being, so precious in His person, so holy
in His virtue, that God said He is so perfect, so glorious,
so big, that I'm going to make a multitude just like Him. That's the pattern that God's
going to conform us to. Not to the pattern of Gabriel.
Not to the pattern of Paul. Not to the pattern of Simon Peter.
The pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh my, that's why
I heard a story. Old Barnard told this one time.
He says that he was preaching, and he was preaching along these
lines, and this fellow was riding along with him, and they got
talking about predestination. And this guy says, well, if I
understand it right, You know, if God predestinates people that
we just have to wait on, if we want to predestinate, He'll predestinate
us enough. And Barber began to tell him
what predestination was. That God takes a man and begins
to whittle on him and work on him, and begins to make him holy,
and begins to make him conformed to the image of Christ, and works
on his heart, works on his will, and works on his mind, and begins
to conform him until he's changed into the very image of Christ.
And He makes him one of His children, brings him into His family. And
that old fella started crying. And he says, you reckon, you
reckon God would do that for me? You reckon he'd take me in
his hands and make me like his son? That's where we're ended up.
That's where we're ended up. And then we're chosen in him
to the glory of Christ. Oh, that's the reason. Chosen
in him to the glory of Christ. We're vessels aforeprepared unto
glory. Huh? Look over here in Ephesians
1 and verse 12. Back to your left a couple of
books. We're chosen in Him to the glory of Christ. Christ is
going to get all the glory in this business of being the head
of the body, the head of His people, the first chosen, the
elect. We're chosen in Him. Ephesians
1.12 says this, that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. Or when we first trusted in Christ,
in whom he also trusted. After that you heard the word
of the truth, the gospel. There's that gospel again. You've
got to hear it. You've got to hear it. And then our Lord Jesus
Christ, he was chosen over angels. And you can see election all
the way down through the scriptures. Hey, the Lord was chosen. Then
you find Abel. Then you find Enoch. Then you
find Seth. Then you find Noah. Then you
find Abraham. Then you have Isaac. Then you
have Jacob. And out of Jacob he had twelve
sons. And out of Jacob there was Judah
that was chosen. And guess where Christ come from?
Through Judah! And so you can see, he's God's
first elect. And we're chosen in Him. And
so why does God, why does God elect certain individuals to
salvation? Why does He do this? The cause
of it is God. It's God that does this. God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Why does God
elect certain individuals? Well, first of all, 1 Samuel
12, 23 says, It pleased the Lord to make you His people. It pleased
Him to do it. Secondly, He chose us in Christ
through the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the middle of it, to the praise of His glory.
Thirdly, according to the good pleasure of His will. It's just
pleasing to do it. Now, we're going to get down
to it here. Let's talk about the justice
of election. The cause of election is the will of God. God's purpose,
God's will, God did this. He loved us and chose us in Christ
for the foundation of the world, for the justice of it. You know,
when I just read there in Romans 9, when they said, Jacob hath
a loved, he shall have a hated, Paul automatically said, well,
there's unrighteousness with God. God's unrighteous. It's not right for Him to do
that. It's not fair. Paul says, God forbid, who art thou that
replies against God? You know, let the postures of
the earth strive with the postures. Over in Isaiah forty-five, let
the postures of the earth strive with the postures, but woe unto
him that striveth with his maker. Huh? Oh, God asks a question. Did you think I was altogether
one like yourself? In Psalm 1521, did you think
I was like you? And that's what a lot of people
think, they think he's like them. Here they dot him, you know,
they carry him around on crosses. This Easter here, everybody's
going, doing all these pilgrimages, and going all over the world,
and you see all these big parades and everything, holding up all
these Jesuses, and plastic ones, and rubber ones, and flags, and
crying, and weeping, and carrying crosses, and going through all
this rigmarole. God said, do you think I'm like
you? That I think like you, I do like you,
I act like you? Now let me give you, there's
lots and lots of objection to God's electing grace. Let's just
look at some of them. First of all, the first thing
people say, it's unjust. It's just not just. It's not
right for him to do that. He's got to give everybody a
chance. That's true. Salvation is by chance. Everybody
ought to have one. But salvation is by electing
grace. And secondly, they say that makes
him a respecter of persons. Thirdly, they say it's not fair.
The fourth objection they have is, well, what about the good
we've done? What about the good we've done?
We've done some good things in our life. And then, Lord, one
of the last refuge they have is they'll say, I don't know
about your God, but my God's a lot of love. And, oh, beloved,
we must be careful. Not to set God's attributes against
each other. His love against His justice.
His wrath against His mercy. His holiness against His grace. Don't set these against one another.
They all work together. And if you set His love against
His justice, it ain't gonna come out right. You got to understand
the love of God, and the justice of God, and the wrath of God,
and the mercy of God, and the longsuffering of God, the holiness
of God, the righteousness of God, the eternal... You got...
I mean, God is more than just... He's God, and that's what makes
His Lord like us. Huh? Oh my, let me look at Psalm
115. This is one of my favorite scriptures,
and I'm sure it is yours. But that's what people do. They'll
start setting, you know, they'll start setting, they'll say, my
God's a God of love. Right? My God's different than
your God. And they're right. There is lots
of people whose God is way different than the God of the Bible. You know, there's a guy, a real
famous guy, and I don't want to mention his name, but he's
writing a book and he wants it out by Easter. And what it is,
is he says that the God of the Old Testament is such a bloodthirsty,
vindictive, malicious God that He could not pardon. He's just
horrible. That's one of the strong delusions
God sent a man, to believe a lie and let it be damned. Huh? Oh, if that had been so,
Abel wouldn't have been saved. There'd be no Lamb provided.
There'd be no Passover. There'd be no election. Christ would have not come. And
you know where we'd be? Just like a bunch of beasts.
Just like a bunch of beasts. Look here at Psalm 115. This
is what I'm talking about. Not under us, O Lord. not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory." Watch this, for thy mercy and
for thy truth sake. Mercy and truth go together.
You can't take mercy away from truth. Mercy is not given at
the expense of justice and truth. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? My God's a God of love. My God
don't respect persons. My God's fair. My God gives everybody
a chance. Where now is their God? Oh, here's
what David said. Our God's in the heavens. And I'll tell you what he's doing.
Whatever pleases him. Whatever pleases him. All right
now, here we've heard these objections. Now listen to me. Let men, let's
let men make their charge good. If a man says God's unjust, let
him make that charge ungood. If he says God's a respectful
person, let him prove it. If he says that it's not fair
for him to choose one fact by another, let him prove it. If
he says what about the good I've done, let us hear what good he's
done. Let's hear about it. If God is unjust and lets him
sum to salvation, let them show us how he is. Show how unjust it is. Is it unjust if I go out here
and break the law and the man hymns me up and hands me a ticket
and says you broke the law? Am I going to say that's unjust
you gave me a ticket and you didn't give that other fellow
one? Lawbreakers want something good at the hands of the lawgiver. And oh beloved, I'll tell you
God's salvation is not a matter of justice anyway. It's a matter
of grace, pure, free, sovereign grace. And God does what He will
with His own. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with my own? Is this not just His world? Are
I not one of His creatures? Oh, look at Psalm 103, just a
moment. Oh, to whom? To whom? Has God ever refused His mercy
when it was sincerely sought? You ever find in the scriptures
where anybody ever sought God's mercy and God refused it? Did you ever desire God's mercy
and God hold you back and keep it from you? Did you say, oh, ever cry out
for grace and God not give you grace? Did you ever cry out for
forgiveness and you never felt the soothing hand of the forgiving
Spirit of Christ? No, it don't happen. Oh, look
here, Psalm 103, verse 10. Salvation is not a matter of
justice, but pure free grace. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, bless His holy name, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. If He did, where would we be? For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is His mercy. And I fear Him, don't you? Reverence Him. And oh my, to
whom has God ever refused mercy when it was sincerely sought?
Man refuses to lay down his weapons. He don't want to part from his
sin. But you know, when the Civil War ended, when Lee met Grant
up at Appomattox, Virginia, the Appomattox courthouse up there,
He said, stack your arms. Give me your sword. Absolute,
unconditional surrender. You don't ever, ever, man in
the army, I want them stacked right here. Robert E. Lee got off his horse and handed
his sword over to Fred. I mean, it's an unconditional,
in the end of World War II, Well, Hirohito and those fellas
was on the Missouri, if I'm not mistaken, that was the ship they
was on, on the Missouri. He didn't have to say, now these
are the conditions we're going to give if we're going to surrender.
No, no. You're whipped, you're defeated,
you got nothing left, and there's going to be nothing less and
under no condition except you surrender. If you don't surrender,
we're going to keep on fighting until you're utterly destroyed.
And that's the way this business of salvation is. You surrender
or you're going to be destroyed. I surrender. I give up. No conditions. I'll do this Lord
if you'll do that for me. I promise I'll love you if you'll
love you do this for me if you do that. No, no. No conditions. I just come seeking mercy. I
just come seeking grace. Oh, it's unjust, they say. It's
unjust for one to be saved and one to be lost. Well, let me
ask you this question. Who made them to be lost? Who
made them to be lost? Has God ever caused anyone to
sin? It's like adoption. If a king
goes out here, and he goes into an orphanage, And all of them
in the same condition, all of them without parents, all of
them poor, all of them living under the same conditions. And
he goes in there and says, I want to adopt that one, and I want
to adopt that one, and I want this one. And leaves the rest alone, takes
the rest out of them. Has he hurt those? He just left
them where they were. But he's done it. unceasingly
good to those that He took out of them. And that's the way we
were. We were all lost. Not going to
be lost, we're lost. And He's the one, and we would
have stayed lost had He not come and picked us up out of mankind
and sent us over here and said, you're my sons, you're my children,
you're my beloved. God's never, who's never, God's
not made a man to be lost. And all my And if a man wants
justice, if he really wants justice, God
will see that he gets it. And then they'll say he's a respective
person. So I'm going to show you something
about that in Romans chapter 2. They say he's a respective,
you know, that makes God a respective person. Now, when men talk about
respective persons, everybody in this building tonight has
respective persons. We do. I love you all more than
I love somebody out there in the world. I love my wife better
than I love your wife. I love my kids better than I
do yours. We all have respect of persons.
Some people we'd rather be with than be with others. Some folks
we'll do more for than we do for somebody else. We all have respect of persons.
But we respect the persons because of something in the person. There's
something in the person or something in us that draws us out to them
or them to us. But that's not the way God is
a respecter of persons. Because there's nothing in a
human being that would cause God to respect a man. And look
what he says here now. For there is no respect of persons
with God. Now watch this. For as many as
have sinned without law shall also perish without law. And as many as sinned in the
law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law
are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."
So what he's saying is that there's not anything a man can do in
the law or out of the law that causes God to respect him. Now, what causes us to respect
people here is something about them. But what would cause God
to respect them? When he says he respects no man's
person, that means that he... He don't pay no more attention
to the king or the president than he does the fellow sitting
on the dunnion. That's what it means. That he's no respective
person. That means that God, he's not
like us. And here's how James said it. I'll read it to you
over in James. I think it's in James, yeah. Here's what he says. He says here now in verse 1,
My brethren, James chapter 2, My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of
persons. Don't do them. And this is what
we don't do now. For if thou come into your assembly
a man with a gold ring, goodly apparel, dressed to the, what
do we call, putting on the dog, dressed to the And there come
in also a poor man in violent, and he just got on a pair of
old billboard horses, that's all he's got. Huh? And you have respect to him that
wears the gay clothing, all the wealth and all the riches and
all the gold. You say unto him, come over here
and sit here. You sit up here in a prominent place where everybody
can see you. You're a pure somebody. And you
say over to that other fellow, you go over there, sit over there
where nobody can see you, nobody paying attention to you. You
stand over there under my footstool. Are you then not partial in yourselves
and become judges of evil thoughts? That means, beloved, you're trying
to get on the good side of the wealthy man and mistreat the
poor man. And God doesn't do that. Hearken,
my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world,
rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised
to them that loved him? But you despise the poor. Do
not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment
seat? Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by the which you
are called? And if you fulfill the royal
law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin, are convinced of the law as transgressors. So God don't look at a man and
say, now boy, that's, you know, this is the way people say. He
looked at Paul and said, now Paul is going to make me a fine apostle.
He's going to make me a great preacher. So I'm going to have
respect to him and go ahead and choose him. That's not the way
it works. That's not the way it works.
And that's why they said to our Lord, and I know this, that if
he was a respected person, he sure would have never chosen
me. No, he wouldn't have. They said to our Savior, they
come to him and said, Master, We know that thou art true, that
you teach the way of God in truth, and you neither care for any
man, and you regard not the person of any man. And that's the truth. You don't regard the person of
any man. You tell every man the same. You deal with every man
on the same basis. Well, then why then believe and
preach election? Why believe? We've answered,
tried to answer what few of Gexen's I could think of. Why believe
in a preacher? It's distasteful. It makes enemies for you, you
know. People will make fun of you when
they find out you believe in election. Oh, I couldn't tell
you how many times we've been made fun of. You said today,
chosen, you're one of them chosen. Here comes one in the left. There's another one of them fellow
preachers, he's one of the chosen few. It makes the enemies out
of you. It hurts the church. People say,
I ain't going up there. And those who believe it, they're
made fun of. They're discredited. They're made counted to be fools.
But why believe in the preacher? First of all, it's Scripture.
That's why I believe it. That's why I preach it. Paul
told these things to the Lord. He said, Beloved, knowing your
election of God. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, ordained to it now, ordained to eternal life, they believed. And the scriptures are full of
verses with elect, with chosen, and illustrations of election.
Abraham was chosen, and everybody else was passed by. Noah was
chosen, and the whole world was sent to hell in a flood. Jacob
was chosen. And our Lord says there were
many widows in Syria in the time of Elijah, but Elijah was only
sent to one. There were many lepers in Syria
in the days of Naaman, but Elijah was only sent to one, Naaman. All kinds of lepers, but only
one was cleansed. All kinds of widows, but only
one had got provided for through Elijah. And oh, beloved, when
you look at synonyms of elect and chosen over 100 times in
the scriptures. In the New Testament, let me
give you some statistics. You like statistics? I'll give
you some. We're called believers twice in the New Testament. Called
Christians three times. Called elect 14 times. I like
that, don't you, James? And I tell you, that's why we
preach it and believe it, because it's scriptural. Secondly, it
glorifies God entirely. God gets all the glory. Man has
absolutely nothing to boast in. Ain't that right? What can he boast in? God said,
I will not give my glory to another. What have you got that you didn't
receive? These things are written that you might believe on the
name of the Son of God and believe he might have life through his
name and that is written that no flesh, no flesh, Christ is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. None. Can we give
God too much glory? Huh? And I'll tell you this,
another reason why we believe in preaching is the gospel cannot
scripturally be proclaimed without preaching election. You can't
preach the gospel without preaching election, dealing with election. That's why people sitting around
throwing their thumbs, waiting on God and saying, you know,
whenever God gives me my chance, I just may patronize Him and
join the church and let Him save me. Since God loves me anyway,
what do I have to worry about? Since Jesus died for me anyway,
one of these days, I'm going to make the change. Ain't that right? But when you
find out that salvation's in Christ, and salvation's in God,
and that Christ laid down His life for you, and that God has
an 11 people, and you may not be one of them, you'll shut your
mouth and you'll start paying attention to what God has to
say then. Oh, Christ died for sinners,
yes, but he died for his elect. He laid down his life for his
sheep. He accomplished salvation. God saves on purpose, not by
chance, not by accident. And oh, beloved, the success
of the gospel is not left to chance. It's not left to the
power of men. It's not left to God rolling
the dice to see how many people are going to let Jesus give them
a chance to save them. No, as the Lord said, he saw
the travail of his soul and was satisfied. And by his knowledge,
the knowledge he brings to us, by his knowledge shall he justify
many. Oh, bless his name. He shall
not fail. He shall not be discouraged.
Now, sir, call his name Jesus. For he shall, shall, shall say,
Who? His people, from their sins. You look at Paul, who became
Paul. Blasphemer, persecutor, injurious. And then he became Paul. Why? God says, I have chosen thee
and ordained you. That you should see the just
one, hear his voice, and do his will. How about Zacchaeus? Not Bartimaeus up the tree, but
Zacchaeus up the tree. Called him down out of that tree.
Went from being a thief to being given his money away. And how you could explain his
coming out of that tree apart from election. Saul apart from
election. That thief on the cross. How
do you explain His salvation on that cross, apart from electing
grace? I'll tell you another reason
why we preach election and believe election. It's because it produces
true humility. It really, truly does. Nothing
so humbles a man as when he looks at election. He says, Oh God,
why me? How could you possibly love me?
Why would you save me? Of all the, why me? Paul says,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. And it's just men and their
boasting and vain confidence in the flesh. It'll strip it
all. Job said, he's taking the crown
off of my head. We're the true circumcision. We worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Our reliance is on Christ alone. And I tell you, the doctrine
of election, the blessed truth of unconditional election, makes
men fearless and bold. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge if God's elect?
It's Christ that died for them. Not only did He die for them,
but yes, He rose again for them. And He says right now, make an
intercession for them. So then, if God be for us, who
can be against us? And it promotes holiness. It
promotes the life that lives to the glory of God. Shall I
sin after God has chosen me, elected me, set His affection
on me, gave His Son for me, chose me from the beginning of the
salvation, called me by His gospel to the eternal glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ? And it promotes praise and thanksgiving. Oh, we don't have to do all this
stuff, get worked up in it. No, from our hearts we say, oh,
Paul said, brethren, we're bound to give thanks to God always
for you, beloved of the Lord. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Believers in scriptures, they
always viewed election as a doctrine of praise and thanksgiving of
love and sanctification and holiness and means. It's the gospel that
God uses to call out His elect and His sovereign mercy. And
last of all, of all the blessed truths of the gospel, all the
blessed truths of the Bible, election is the most hated, most
ridiculed by man. It really is. They hate it, they
despise it, they say they charge God unjust for it. And if the
world and carnal professors hate it, it must be true. You know
why? Satan fights truth, he never
fights error. And he hates it with a passion. He hates it with a passion. And
last of all, the grace of God, you cannot maintain grace without
election. Can you? You can't maintain the
grace of God without election. It can't be done. So it's not of him that will
it. It's not of him that runs it, but it's of God to show his
mercy. The purpose of God according
to election might stand. It's of grace, not of works,
or otherwise grace is really not grace. And if it's of works,
then it's not of grace, or otherwise work really wouldn't be work.
You can't mix them. It's one or the other. And if
God says you're on works, then you don't have any grace, and
you don't have any election. But if you've got grace, then
you've got election. And the reason you were elected
is because God in grace chose you. Ain't that right? I love
it. I rejoice in it. I find great
comfort and assurance in it. Our Father, in the precious,
precious, holy, glorious name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, our Redeemer, our glorious God and Savior, great
God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we bless you for
the day. You give us a day of rejoicing,
a day of truth, but we ask that you forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. All the thoughts, all the feelings,
all the foolishness. Everything is so contrary to
you. God continues to conform us to the image of Christ. Thank
you for the psalms today, scriptures today, prayers today, the messages
today, the fellowship today. And Father, when you let us awake
tomorrow, we'll wake with praise and thanksgiving in our heart
to you for your goodness, for your grace, that you loved us
from the beginning and chose us in Christ as salvation with
the gospel, with the belief of the truth. You've brought us
to believe it, and we bless you for it.