Turn in your Bibles this morning
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. What the Apostle Paul speaks
of as knowing is little known of in our day, little talked
about in our day. And it is an indictment against
the preachers of our day that one of the most essential God-glorifying
and saint-comforting doctrines of Scripture is little known
of by most of their hearers. And if they hear anything about
the doctrine of God's unconditional election of a people that He
chose to save, it's usually in a warning. It's usually as something
non-essential. It's usually said to be something
controversial, or irrelevant, or merely historical, or confined
to the nation of Israel, or not really profitable, and even dangerous. Dangerous. So when you know these
things, you have to ask yourself, or at least I have to ask myself,
why preach it? That's the title of my message.
Why preach electing grace? You see, actually, there are
very many reasons to do so. But before I ever open my mouth
to say a word about it, every person in this world will practice
the doctrine, they will in their doing preach the doctrine, and
it will one day, all that they have done, will stand as a witness
and a judgment against them because they have not in their minds
permitted God to do it. They have set themselves up as
wiser than God, wiser than His Word, They have set themselves
up as those who will defy and rebel against God. And so in
their own choices that we everyone have demonstrated and will demonstrate
many times in each day of our lives, they've condemned themselves
before God. When you ate breakfast this morning,
who chose what you ate. When you got dressed for the
service today, who chose what it was that you wanted to wear? And again and again, in multiplied
billions of times and ways, we exercise this choice that we
will not in our minds allow with God. Why preach this doctrine
of election? Well, because it is clearly found
in the Bible. It is both a Bible word or words,
and it is a Bible doctrine. The word elect is used in Scripture
at least 20 times, the word election at least 6 times, and the words
choose or chosen in this same sense too many times to number. Because these words mean to pick
out to choose, to make a selection. And these words refer to an act
of God's grace and also to the objects of that grace. He chooses and therefore they
are chosen. It is a Bible word. It is demonstrated
by God Himself in His choice of a nation apart from every
other nation. And it is unconditional, saying
as He did of that nation and all He chooses, that the Lord
did not set His love upon them, the Lord did not choose them
because they were greater than any other nation, they were the
least of them, but the Lord chose them Because He loved them, and
He loved them in a sovereign love for no reason in themselves. He loved them, and He chose them. And not only that, but we have
to preach electing grace, this doctrine of election, because
it is the fountainhead, the spring of God's grace to sinners. It is the beginning, it is the
source of that stream of grace that flowed out of eternity past,
out of the Godhead, appearing and surfacing again and again
with such as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Noah, bringing
grace to them, and flooding out at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And all throughout the New Testament,
and right down to individual sinners in our very day. In other words, this doctrine
shows God to be the initiator. God Himself is the chooser. And this is the reason why He
gets all the glory in the salvation of His chosen. And also because it is something
God does. Election is always set forth
in the Scripture as that which God does. It's not like you do
it, or I do it, or any other sinner does it. This is something
that is done by the Most High God, the only true and wise God. This is something done by the
absolutely sovereign God. He is the one who says, as He
did to Moses, I will make my goodness pass before thee, and
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy." It all lies in God. And the amazing thing
is that we in our blindness, we in our enmity against Him,
we in our ignorance, we fight at the very right of God to be
God. And it is His right to be God
that is our only hope. Our only hope. Men and women
practice what they will not allow God to do. They say God cannot
do this. He cannot choose some to save
and bypass the others. But the truth of the matter is
that no one of them, not one of Adam's race, would ever of
themselves choose Him. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. And so the very thing that men
fight against and rebel against and try to prove wrong is really
our only hope, because there is nothing in us or ever done
by us to draw out what God would do for us in mercy. There's never
any merit on our part, there's never any deserving. It just
rests in this, he says, is it not lawful for me to do what
I will with mine own? And then he says, is thine eye
evil because I am good? You're going to talk in this
way, you're going to act in this way, you're going to believe
in this way that is so contrary to me and what I do, when it's
lawful, it's my right as God to do what I will with my own. And yet you look upon it as evil,
he says. But not only is this something
that God does as the holy and wise and sovereign God, really
when you think about it, it's something that He's already done. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1, and listen
to the apostle as he writes here in this letter to the church
at Ephesus. And he says in verse 3, in the
very opening of this letter, He says, "...blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him." chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. So before any get their high
horses up, before any talk about what God can do and can't do,
the Bible sets this forth as that which God does, but that
which He has already done. Too late to protest it. He writes
about it here in the past tense. He tells us that this was something
God did, an act of His grace, a demonstration of His sovereignty
before the foundation of the world. Now I know what some say. They say that election is simply
a matter of votes. They say that God has voted for
you and the devil has voted against you and now it's left up to you
to cast the deciding vote. My friend, you certainly and
I certainly, we were not there before the foundation of the
world. And not only that, the devil was not there, and if he
had been or was, he has no vote or say in the matter of anything
that pertains to God's salvation. So that just leaves one, and
that is God. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
and listen to what Paul says when he writes here in this 2nd
epistle in chapter 2. And he says this after he has
talked about so many. defying God, rejecting Christ,
worshiping idols. And he says, God sent them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie rather than the truth. But look at what he says in chapter
2 of 2 Thessalonians, that 13th verse. He says, We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because He hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation." He had from the
beginning chosen these Thessalonian believers to salvation, not just
an opportunity. He had not just simply given
them a chance to be saved, it says that He is to be blessed
and thanked because He had from the beginning chosen them unto
salvation. Salvation. And because this is
how God was pleased to give all the blessings of his salvation,
all the blessings of his grace, by choosing this people and joining
them in what some old writers used to call a grace union or
the grace union. He joined them in divine election,
choosing them and conferring to them all spiritual blessings
when He chose them in Christ Jesus. Somebody said, well, I don't
want anything to do with the doctrine of election. Well, the
truth is then, you don't want anything to do with Jesus Christ. Because this act of God's grace
before the foundation of the world wherein He gives to His
people every spiritual blessing, He does it by uniting them and
giving these things to them by virtue of them being united to
Jesus Christ. That's why He's called the covenant
head. That's why he's called the surety. That's why he's called the Savior. And he puts them in union with
Christ. And listen to what Peter writes.
He says that it is contained in the Scripture. And this is
a number of times. Behold, God says, I lay in Zion
a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded." Like a building that is joined and
becomes one with the foundation. That's how he views him. as being
altogether built upon and joined to and resting upon that first,
that only, that elect and precious cornerstone. And that's why he
sells us when he writes to the church at Corinth in that first
chapter and the thirtieth verse, he says to these Corinthian believers,
he says, but of him, but of him, Are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption? How did we get in Christ? He chose us and put us in Christ
and made Christ to be to all He chose their wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. That means He made Christ to
be to them their everything. He said by the prophet Isaiah. Behold My servant, whom I uphold,
Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth, I have put My Spirit upon him,
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." You see, God
views His own Son as His first elect. There's an old hymn written
by Isaac Watson. One of the verses in that hymn
just simply displays just what I'm talking about. It's called,
Jesus We Bless Thy Father's Name. And here's one of the verses.
Christ be my first elect, He said, then chose our souls in
Christ our Head, before He gave the mountains birth, or laid
foundations for the earth." That's exactly what He did. Let me read
you a hymn out of the old Gatsby hymnal. And this is a hymn that
doesn't... Written and was just found in
the Gospel magazine in 1777. Doesn't even have the author's
name with it. But it goes like this. Sons we
are, through God's election, who in Jesus Christ believe,
by eternal destination saving grace we here receive. Our Redeemer does both grace
and glory give. Sons, we are by God's election. And God has declared this in
the Old Testament so many times, in so many different ways, oftentimes
in the verses found in Isaiah 65. Listen to this, "...and I
will bring forth a seed out of Jacob." and out of Judah, an
inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect shall inherit it,
and my servants shall dwell there." Now, if he was only talking about
the nation of Israel, that wouldn't be true. Listen to this verse,
same chapter, "...they shall not build, and another inhabit,
they shall not plant, and another eat. For as the days of a tree
are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the
works of their hands." So many times God giving these prophecies
in the Old Testament. And then not only that, but this
is to be preached because Christ Himself preached it. In other
words, men in our day think they're better preachers and more perfect
preachers than He who was the preacher of preachers Himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Luke's Gospel. Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, and
look down in verse 14, or rather verse 16, and look at what happens
when he goes back home, or as we say, to his hometown. And
he came to Nazareth, verse 16, where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance and the captives and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book, and he
sat down, And he gave it again to the minister. And the eyes
of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. They said, What preaching is
this? What gracious words! What a preacher! Amazingly, they
said, is this not Joseph's son? How can somebody like Joseph's
son be preaching such as he is and saying that the Scripture
is fulfilled in our ears today? And he said unto them, You will
surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country."
Oh, they're thinking to themselves, if he did all these healings,
all these miracles in such places as Capernaum and other cities,
what will he do here in his own hometown? And he said, Verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, 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 Eli sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow." In other words, this
isn't a matter about need. Salvation, whatever way it comes,
and whatever kind of salvation it is, it is of the Lord, and
it is to those of His own choosing. And what He's doing here is setting
forth how God's grace is electing grace. Here are all these people
dying of hunger, dying of thirst, But he said, God sent His prophet
to one woman in this obscure city, this Gentile city, and
nobody else. And just in case they hadn't
heard that, just in case they don't understand that, which
they will. It says, and many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And they understood what
he was saying then. They understood that he was saying
that God chose only to save Naaman, cleanse Naaman, feed this widow
woman. So that means that God does not
bless us because of who we are in ourselves. He does not bless
us because of something we do. He just blesses whom He will. Now, what was the response to
this doctrine? And all they in the synagogue,
which when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him into the brow
of the hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong." And they would have to. But he, passing
through the midst of them, went his way. This is the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one who said also
concerning the end, he says, "...and except those days should
be shortened, there should be no flesh be saved, but for the
elect's sake." Those days shall be shortened." Again in Matthew
24, "'For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect.'" Those are wonderful words, if
it be or were possible. One day in Matthew 11, our Lord
speaks how God, His Father, had dealt so severely with cities
of Capernaum and such as that, done great miracles in their
midst, and yet left them to be rejecters of Christ. Christ says,
Father, He says, whatever it is, He said, I thank you. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him." A lot of people in our day and every
age, they think they'd really love to hear preacher Jesus,
but they wouldn't. And not only is this the message
of God the Father, not only is it the message of God the Son,
this is also the message of God the Spirit. In other words, He
is the One who brought this message to the minds and hearts of everyone
He used over the course of time to write the Holy Scriptures. This isn't the opinion of John,
or the opinion of Paul, or the opinion of Isaiah, or anybody
else. It says that these men rowed
down as they were moved by the Spirit of God. And the Spirit
of God bears witness in every age as long as this world stands
of these blessed truths of His grace. And surely we should have
seen by now that it's to be preached because the Apostle Paul preached
it. And he preached it as being inseparably
joined to our justification, to our very righteousness. He says in Romans 8, verse 33,
"...who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen from the dead." And he preached it so
clearly in every place, but in no place quite so clearly maybe
as in Romans 9. Romans 9. Now when Paul came
on the scene as being the one God appointed to preach the gospel,
he didn't come with a new message. Look down in Romans 9 and verse
9, because he's all bound up in linking what he's saying then
to what has been said and what had been demonstrated, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, using all these, he says in verse 9, "'For this
is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall
have a son.'" And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived
by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet
born." The children, what's he talking about? He's talking about
a set of twins that was born to her. Now you think about it. Twins. They both had the same
father. They both had the same mother.
They both were born at virtually the same time. They both were
raised up in the same environment. They both had the same nature
of sin from Adam. And he's going to use them as
an illustration. An illustration of what? The
sovereignty of God's grace, of His electing grace. He said, 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."
That was exactly the opposite of tradition. As it is written,
he says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. You know, I keep looking at that
verse from time to time, and though people say there's no
way God could hate, that God hates nobody, it still says the
same thing. You see, the problem is, we don't
know God. And not knowing God, we don't
understand how He could hate Esau. What we need to know is
how He could love Jacob, the scoundrel, electing grace. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy,
has mercy on whom he will have mercy. And what Paul says in
this epistle, in the 11th chapter, it rings true in every age. He
says in chapter 11, "...even so, then at this present time
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it is no more of works, Otherwise grace is
no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it."
Everybody in Israel, as a matter of fact, the majority of those
in Israel, they didn't know God. He says, but the election hath
obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Paul writes to these
Gentiles and he says, concerning the gospel, they are enemies
for your sakes, these Jews, but as touching the election, they
are beloved for the Father's sake. We preach this electing
grace because The preaching of this truth is essential to the
preaching of the gospel and the salvation of God's elect. The
gospel itself is called the faith of God's elect. Paul, writing
to Titus, says, "...a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging
of the truth which is after godliness." When he wrote to those Thessalonians,
He says, God is to be thanked and blessed because He has blessed
you with all spiritual blessings according as He 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."
This is an act of God's everlasting love. And not only that, but
because the Spirit of God uses this truth to humble people. He uses the Word and brings us
in contact with the truth, and if He saves us, He humbles us. You see, the reason that it offends
is because we are by nature ignorant and self-righteous and enmity
against God and self-will. But one of the things that He
uses to demonstrate who His elect are is He brings them to bow
and rejoice in this truth. Turn back to our First text there
in 1 Thessalonians, that first chapter. Now listen to what he
says. Go back to that fourth verse.
Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Well, how in
the world could you ever know who it is, who it was that God
chose in Christ before the foundation of the world? Paul says he knows
it. 4. Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. As you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were in samples to all that
believe in Macedonia." and Acacia. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Acacia, but also
in every place your faith to God is spread abroad, so that
we need not to speak anything." When they heard the truth, Just
like Christ said, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. When they heard the truth, part
of which was this truth of electing grace, it came to their hearts
in power. It broke them down, and then
it lifted them up. And because it inspires, inspires
us to true missionary efforts. You see, we know that God has
a people out there, and He will save every one of them. He has
promised it, and He will do it, and He will get them this message
of His electing grace, and He will use those He has already
called to do so. I'd hate to know. that the souls
of men depended on my skill to convince them, my abilities as
an orator, my learning as a scholar, anything that I might do. No, it's all about this message
of God's choice of a people in Jesus Christ and His will and
purpose to give them everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul went out to preach
this gospel, they threw him into prison. They threw him into prison. Well, surely, how will he ever
find God's elect and bring this message to them if he's in prison? Well, evidently, because some
of them were in prison, like old Onesimus. Though he writes
from prison, he says to Timothy, Therefore I endure all things
for the elect's sake. He could have said, well, I'm
in prison because of injustice. That'd be true. I'm in prison
because they don't like me. That'd be true. No. He said, I endure these things
for the elect's sake, that they might obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then one last thing. We preach electing grace because
that is what truly motivates the objects of that grace to
love one another, to do good works, to serve the Lord with
all their heart. Peter writing in 2 Peter, he
uses this very thing to inspire all who read that epistle add
to their faith virtue and all these other things, and to make
their calling and election sure." You wonder why God lets this
world continue in its wickedness and in its sin and continue in
its rebellion against Him. I'll tell you why. Because He
waits to be gracious to His elect. He's not willing that even one
of them should perish, but that every one of them shall have
eternal life. You remember when God sent the
angels down into Sodom to warn Lot and to bring him out. And
Lot, he's like us, he's stumbling around. He's making excuses why
he shouldn't do this. And they take him by the hand.
And they lead him out of Sodom. And they say, we cannot do anything
until we've brought you out. Why? Because Lot was one of God's
elect. Righteous Lot. And that's why Zechariah writes what God has
said, and he says that when the last stone, when the last one
of these elect ones is called out and brought out, when the
last stone is set into this building of which Christ is the foundation,
that it will be with shoutings of grace, grace. It's all God's electing, Grace. Knowing, brethren, your election
of God. Not your choice. Christ said,
you've not chosen me, I've chosen you. That the purpose of God,
according to election, might stand. Father, we ask this day
that you would use your Word to the accomplishment of your
ordained ends and your glory. Use it, we pray, to call out
your people as well as to comfort your people and cause them to
make known to you their thanks for your mercy and your grace
to them. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.