The title of my message this morning is The Blessings of Election. I want to talk to you about this morning one of the most misunderstood doctrines in the Bible, that being election. In the beginning, I want us to read two very familiar passages of Scripture together. So first, turn with me to Romans 8. The Bibles are probably just open to these two passages, Romans 8 being the first, verse 28. Romans 8, 28.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He, God, did foreknow, God also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified."

Now look at Ephesians chapter 1 with me. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Paul writes here in verse 3 chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."

Now, the doctrine, the teaching, that's what doctrine is, it's teaching of election in the Scriptures, is one that people tend to avoid or argue about. There's nothing probably more in the Scriptures that people avoid or argue over. An election is not presented as a puzzle or debate. It's the foundation for assurance and worship. It doesn't produce arrogance in the believer, and it doesn't cause despair in the weak. It produces humility. It produces gratitude. It produces deep assurance.

And Paul doesn't begin Romans 8.28 or Ephesians 1.3, the passages we just read, with controversy. He begins with assurance and praise.

In Romans 8.28, he begins by saying, and we know. We know some things. God has taught us some things. God has revealed some things to us. We know that all things work together for good. What assurance that is! What comfort we find in that.

And then in Ephesians 1.3, He begins, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a claim of praise and worship. And both these things are immediately grounded in the fact that God chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world. We know these things. And we bless God. We thank God and praise God for these things.

You see, friends, biblical election. And I say qualified biblical election because we have elections in this country and everybody casts their vote and whoever gets the most votes gets that office. But biblical election, there's only one vote. It's the whole one that counts. And it's God's. God is the voter. God alone.

It's the foundation of the believer's confidence. And it's our assurance. And it causes us to praise and worship this God. So let me just talk to you a few minutes this morning about this wonderful doctrine that's much more than a doctrine of election. Election anchors. You know what an anchor is.

It anchors salvation in God, not man. It removes all doubt about who does the saving. One of the first blessings of election is the fact that salvation doesn't begin with man. If salvation began with man's decision, as many today claim it does, it would also depend upon man's endurance to keep himself. That would leave every professing believer one failure away from total collapse and total destruction. But the Bible moves the starting point out of human hands and into God's eternal purpose. That's where it's always been. Those whom He predestinated, those whom He predetermined, He also called. If God called you by His grace, He predetermined to do so. When? Before the foundation of the world. Before you were born.

God's not reacting to human will or human decision. He's initiating saving grace. Salvation is of the Lord. God begins salvation in eternity before the saved sinner was ever born. How can the sinner take any credit for it? So it can't be undone by our weakness in time. If God started it, God's going to finish it. That's the way God does things. And this does not excuse sin. It removes the illusion that our choice or our so-called grip on God is what holds us.

We can't hold ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. It puts salvation where it belongs, entirely in God's hands. It didn't begin with our decision. It didn't begin with our effort. It didn't begin with our goodness. It began with God.

If salvation depended on me, I'd lose it. I'd never had it. Election assures me that it doesn't. I find such comfort in knowing because if I can do something to be saved, I can do something to be lost. Secondly, God's election produces deep humility. Now, I don't care what people say. People say, well, y'all think you're the only ones. God elected you. You think you're special. Election removes any justification for pride whatsoever.

What do we have that we did not receive? Isn't that what Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 4? What do we have we didn't receive? If we received it, why do we glory as if we received it? If we received it, we didn't generate it. If it didn't begin with us, we can't boast as if it didn't.

This is one of the quiet mercies of election. It humbles the arrogant without crushing them, and it lifts the weak without flattering them. Everyone stands on the same ground here. Mercies received, not achieved. And that's what produces true mercy. God out of His own heart of mercy and grace set His affection on sinners. There wasn't anything a sinner did to cause it. No man or woman saved because they're better than anyone else. Salvation's not a reward for man's goodness or man's effort. All of us are dead in trespasses and sin.

Now you think about that for a minute. What can one dead man do in another camp? Huh? They're both dead. Neither can do anything. Well, this dead man has more ability than this dead man. Well, that's pretty dumb, ain't it? Yet that's what men preach. Faith in Christ is a gift. It's always been a gift. Not personal achievement. God's love and forgiveness is free. That makes it even better. It's not just a gift. It's a free gift. Well, that's what a gift is. It's a free gift. It's something freely given.

It's not because of personal achievement. No saved man or woman has any reason to glory. What are we glorying in? Humility is bowing and acknowledging our dependence on God in Christ every single day. Merit? We didn't earn it. Ability? We don't have any. Superiority? We're all the same. Dead sinners. Independent? One who's 100% needy can't be 1% sufficient. That's a good statistic. Men and women who are void of these things are hard to make proud. If we truly understand who and what we are, we're not going to get puffed up. Not going to do it.

God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, James 4 says. Thirdly, God's election brings peace, security, and assurance in the face of sin and weakness. Listen, when God revealed to me my sin, showed me what I really was, man, oh man, I became fearful. I'm like, I deserve to die. But immediately, God in mercy and compassion and long-suffering said, but, but, I'm rich in mercy. And mercy I have for you in Christ. God has revealed to the elect of God the reason for this internal conflict of ongoing sin. And very often, the child of God feels fragile, and feels their faith is inconsistent?

If our redemption depended on our consistency, any assurance would be impossible. But bless the Lord, it doesn't. It doesn't depend on my faithfulness. It depends on His faithfulness to me. We just read whom He called, then He also justified. What did we have to do with the calling or the justifying? We can have this assurance because of who it is that called and who that it is that justified. Our worst day doesn't erase God's purpose. Do you know that?

I had a bad day today. I had horrible thoughts. I said some horrible things. I'm not based on that. That's not a reason to continue in sin that grace may abound, no. And listen, our best day doesn't secure our salvation. It doesn't have anything to do with it, our worst or our best. Election doesn't give us a license to sin. It's the only ground that we have for repentance.

One who thinks they're hanging on by their strength. One of two things, they'll either become proud if they succeed, or they'll be crushed if they fail. Believers struggle. Election becomes a refuge. And this is not an excuse, it's a comfort. Election enables us to look outside of ourselves. That's our biggest problem. We begin to look within. And Satan's there on your shoulder.

Well, you know, a believer wouldn't do what you do. A believer wouldn't think what you think. A believer wouldn't say what you say. A believer wouldn't act like you act. I am perfect and great. God gave me to Christ before I was ever born, before I ever done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to what?

Election! Might stand. It's not of Him that called. It's of Him that calls. It's of Him that justifies. A person anchored in God's electing mercy can have complete assurance in what Christ has done for them. That's what I'm trying to say. If God didn't initiate it, And God did. And He has to be the One who causes me to endure to the end. How am I going to endure to the end? Christ having loved His own loved them to the end. That's the only way. I endure because He loves me to the end.

And that's why He's called the Author and what? The Finisher of our faith. Author means Founder. God is the origin of our faith. He doesn't respond to our believing. He creates it. He creates faith in us. You say, by grace through faith, it's a gift of God. What is? Grace and faith. The grace and the faith to believe it. Both gifts. Faith is not something that we manufacture. It's something that God creates in us. It's the gift of God. I love that. God's gift to us. Finisher means perfecter. You can look this up in a concordance. God doesn't just start it.

He sees it through to completion. He sustains it. He strengthens it. He completes it. God does. Salvation is of who? The Lord. Our perseverance is His preservation. We persevere because He preserves us. No other reason. He carries it through all the way through. We're kept. Kept by the power of God. None can pluck me from His hand. That's how I'm kept. You're going to pry God's hand open and get me out of it? I believed in luck. I tell you good luck. He ain't going to do it.

That Greek word for kept means to be a watcher. He's watching over me. He's keeping me in His hand. His sovereign hand. It means to mount guard. It means to protect. Our perfecter is our protector. Isn't that comforting? Fourthly, election declares why anyone would come to Christ at all. Our Lord said very plainly. Soul playing.

And yet people just don't see it. Can't see it. Because they're blind, they're dead. You have not chosen me. Anything about that you don't understand? You've not chosen me. But, I have chosen you. Anything about that you don't understand? We didn't choose God. God chose us. John 15, 16. But that does not cancel human responsibility. Now this is where people get in trouble. Sinners must truly believe. They must truly repent. They must truly come. But they can't come unless God draws them. Grace has got to be awakened in one who is dead. Grace has got to be created in one who is dead. Dead hearts don't self-resurrect. Blind eyes don't self-open. Left to our dead selves, we would never come. Christ said Himself, no man can come. No man has the ability to come. Women either.

Unless, except the Father which sent Me, draw them. And listen, my competence in preaching is not that I might persuade dead sinners to wake themselves up. My hope and competence in preaching is that in proclaiming Christ, God might be pleased to give life to that dead sinner through the preaching of His Word. That's exactly how I got it. That's exactly how you got it. How does God save sinners?

It's in, it's by, and it's through what the world believes to be foolishness. For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching." Now, preaching is not foolishness. What the world thinks it is, just ask them. I had a man tell me one time, do you believe in that foolishness? I'm like, the Lord said you'd say that. Not foolishness. To us, it's the power of God. It's through the foolishness, what the world calls foolishness of preaching, that saves them that believe.

1 Corinthians 1.21. Fifthly, election guarantees that God finishes what He starts. Being confident of this very thing. You know what confidence is? Being sure. being confident, sure of this very thing, that He, God, which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it. That word perform, you know what it means? Finish. That's exactly what it means. He that hath begun a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1.6. God finishes what He starts. What God starts, God finishes. And that's not wishful thinking. That's a promise from God. A promise from God Himself. He's not a man that He should lie. He's not a son of man that He should repent or change His mind. God said it. That settles it.

And that's why the works religionist doesn't have any assurance. That's why the free will decision maker has no comfort. If salvation originated with your decision, You would always wonder if your next decision might undo it. But if salvation originates with God, and it does, it's His electing grace that saves you. And it is. Then you have the promise of a sovereign God that you'll never be lost. Never. Never be lost. Oh, you believe in one Savior to always save?

Yes, I do. I do with my whole heart. Because I know who saved me. God saved me. The God of the Bible. And that's why in the verses we read in Romans 8, Paul there moves from election to glorification. The chain is not broken. who He foreknew, He called who He called, He justified who He justified, He glorified. There's no ifs, ands, and buts in any of those verses. And nothing broken in the chain there. Nothing between the two are left to chance. Election means that evangelism is not a gamble. God has a people. And they will be saved.

I love that passage of Scripture found in John 6. Would you turn there with me? You can let the other places go. John 6. I want to begin in verse 37. Another very familiar passage. All of you know this passage. You've read it. Look at John 6.37. This is our Lord speaking here. And in verse 37, this is what He says.

All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me." Now let me just ask this. When did the Father give them to Him? From the foundation of the world. "...And Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." What does that mean? Once saved, always saved.

Verse 38, "...For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." And He's talking about His Father in heaven. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, not a one, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him..."

That's talking about the elect. may have everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the last day." Now listen, salvation begins with the Father's giving. Coming to Christ is certain and effectual. Christ receives every sinner that comes. Christ came to accomplish the Father's will. None of the given elect ones will be lost. Final salvation is guaranteed. The proof is seeing and believing. You see a man that sees God and believes God and knows God? He's one of God's elect. She's one of God's elect. Who did God so love in the world that He gave His only begotten Son to?

John 3.16. Everybody knows that.

You can find a slug on the street that can quote John 3.16. Who did He give His Son to that they might have everlasting life? Whosoever believeth in Him. If you don't believe in Him, you're not going to have everlasting life. So let's break it down plain and simple. God gave some sinners to Christ. Not every sinner in the world, but those who believe. Not every sinner in the world. No. Christ effectually brings them to Himself, those that believe. He receives them without rejection. He keeps them without loss. He will raise them in glory. And the sinner will come to Christ and believe. Good news.

And no one can say, well, what if I come and He don't receive me? Well, this passage shuts that down completely. Christ doesn't turn away those who come and the elect will come because it's God that draws them. That's a no-lose situation. The issue is not whether He will receive you. The issue is whether or not you'll come. And listen, He just told us there in John 6, all that the Father giveth Me, all the elect will come.

So we don't even have to worry about coming if you're one of God's elect. You'll come. You just said no man can come. No man will come. The Lord said in another place, God's going to make some willing in the day of His power. And they're the elect. No man can come except the Father draw him. No man can come except it be given to him. So all who see, all who believe, and all who come are the elect. You're one of God's elect. The election removes six-ly. The election removes comparison and jealousy. If everything comes down to God's mercy, then there's no room for envy and jealousy among the people of God because election levels the ground.

One dead man can't say, I'm less dead than you are. All are saved the same way. How? By undeserved mercy. And then lastly, election leads to worship. That's been the theme this morning. That's what the Bible study was about. In Ephesians 1 that we read in the beginning, Paul did not end with questions, he ended with praise.

Speaking of the believer's predestination unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, Paul said, according to the good pleasure of His will, Paul added in verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Grace. Grace. Saved by grace alone. Amazing grace. That's the intended outcome to the worship and praise of God's grace to us. And I use that little three-letter word in the Bible study, the believer is in awe, A-W-E, of undeserved mercy. We get a glimpse of God's undeserved mercy to us and our mouths just drop open.

He saved me? He saved a wretch like me? That's who He came to save. Faithful, sane, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief, the worst of the worst. Why mercy toward me? Oh, that's what a believer thinks. Why me? Well, why not you?

And that's what leads us to worship. The blessings of election are not theoretical. Election gives us assurance in our weakness. It produces humility. When we're proud, it explains what we ourselves cannot explain. It gives us confidence when we're prone to doubt. And we are prone to doubt. And we are prone to wander. It moves our hearts towards praise and worship.

I've heard men and women say that election closes the door to many being saved. That's ridiculous. Election opens the door that any be saved. It's God's grace from beginning to end. We were but recipients of that grace that God freely gave. Someone hands you a gift, you say, I'm sorry, I can't receive that. But if you receive it, it's a free gift.

The child of God just simply falls on their face in gratitude and they walk in repentance and faith toward the One who chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world. And speaking of the twins, Jacob and Esau, we know them well. Paul said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. People say that's not fair. God chose to do that before the foundation of the world. And he wrote, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to what?

Election might stand. Not of works. Not of works. Not of goodness. Not by free will. Not by a decision. But of Him they call it. Salvation of the Lord. Again, salvation doesn't begin with us. Election's not based on works, good or bad. God's purpose is the foundation of salvation. That the purpose of God according to election might stand. Salvation rests totally on God's will and God's purpose. Not our consistency. We don't have any. Not our feelings. They're deceiving. Not our performance.

It's by grace alone in Christ alone. So I said all that to say this. This is the heart of the Gospel. Listen, if you miss this, this last part, if you miss this, then you miss election altogether. Election's not in you. Election's in Christ. Don't miss that. There's a lot of people that say they believe in the doctrine of election. There's a lot of people Cross most of the T's and I's in the doctrines of election. But if you missed this, you missed it all.

God didn't look down the corridor of time and elect, pick, choose, or elect individuals based on something in them. Jesus Christ is the Elect One. God chose a people in His Son. How do I know? He said so in Isaiah 42.1. Behold My servant of whom I uphold, Mine elect. Who's He talking about? Jesus Christ. In whom My soul delighted. This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That's talking about Him. That's not talking about us.

Christ is the elect. We are elect only by our union with Him. Don't miss that. Election is a union, not a decision. To be elect is to be placed and put into Christ. It's to be conformed under His image. It's to be made just like Him. is to be represented by Him just as all humanity was once represented in Adam. So when God chose Christ, He chose everyone that He gave to Christ before the foundation of the world.

Isn't that sweet? Salvation is always spoken of in this way. It's in Christ, it's through Christ, and it's by Christ. An election is not an opportunity for us to be saved. Election is a guarantee that God saved us. Those chosen in Christ will actually be brought to faith, justified, and kept. It's not a possibility, it's a certainty. It's securely grounded in Christ's finished work. The evidence of election is faith in Christ. How do I know if I'm going to elect? Do you believe in Christ? Do you trust in Him? Is He the One who put your sin away? Is it His righteousness you're trusting in to stand before God?

Election is not figured out. You don't look into God's secret will. You look to Christ alone. That's it. If God's choice came by seeing something in you or me, grace would no longer be grace. It would be a response to something we did. But salvation is free. Salvation is sovereign. Salvation is undeserved. God saves sinners because He chooses to. Salvation is not a reward. It's a gift. And that gift is Christ. We're chosen where? In Him. He's God's elect and we're elect in Him. Aren't those precious words in him? In him, by him, through him. It's all about him, isn't it? It's a hymn book.