God Hath Chosen

Q: What does the Bible say about God choosing His people?

The Bible affirms that God sovereignly chooses His people before the foundation of the world, as exemplified in Ephesians 1:4-5. The concept of God's sovereign choice is prominently highlighted in Scripture, particularly in 1 Corinthians 1:27 where it states, 'But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.' This underlines the principle that God selects individuals based on His grace and purpose, not on their merit. Ephesians 1:4-5 further elaborates on this, indicating that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, emphasizing that this selection is solely a result of God's will and mercy, not of human effort or understanding. Through this, we see that our election is intimately tied with our calling; those who are chosen by God are called to faith in Him, revealing the assurance of His sovereign plan for salvation.

Q: How do we know God's choice is true?

We can trust God's choice because it is grounded in His sovereign will, as seen in Romans 9:11-13. God's choice is affirmed through various Scriptures that illustrate His sovereignty and purpose in salvation. In Romans 9:11-13, we see the illustration of Jacob and Esau, where God states, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,' before they had done any good or evil. This clearly shows that God's election does not depend on human actions but is part of His divine will. The Apostle Paul often reassures believers that God’s choosing is not arbitrary but is rooted in His eternal plan and loving purpose. Furthermore, the consistency of God’s promises across the Scriptures bolsters our confidence in His sovereign choice that extends to all aspects of our lives, including our calling and inheritance.

Q: Why is God's sovereignty in choosing important for Christians?

God's sovereignty reassures Christians that their salvation and life circumstances are under His control, allowing for peace and security. Understanding God's sovereignty in choosing is crucial for Christians as it provides a foundation for their faith and assurance. When we recognize that God is in control of who is saved and how individuals are led, as laid out in passages like 1 Corinthians 1:27 and Ephesians 1:4, we find comfort in the fact that our salvation is not dependent on our works or understanding, but solely on God's grace. This divine sovereignty also extends to our daily lives, guiding our decisions and circumstances in accordance with His will. It cultivates a humble reliance on God, knowing that neither our choices nor our abilities can thwart His purposes. Ultimately, this knowledge fosters a deeper trust in God's overall plan and instills a sense of peace amidst life's uncertainties.

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the portion that we read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and reading for our text verse 27. Verse 27, but really it is only three words in the beginning that I want to really speak on. God hath chosen. The whole verse reads, But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 27 God hath chosen and the thought not only his people sovereignly chosen but also all the aspects of their lives which I want to look at those things that will be a comfort and help to us to see that this is God's choice of us and for us.

But firstly, I do want to look at the whole verse, look at it in context, because this is, of course, the first epistle to the Corinthian church, and the Apostle, he begins by acknowledging them truly, as a church of God and that they are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints and we need to remember that whatever is spoken in reproof or critical of them they are the church of God and we need to remember that looking at ourselves as well and other brethren that we may think, well, they're not really walking according to the Church of God or the Word of God.

Remember, many of Paul's epistles to the churches were reproving them, teaching them. There is no perfect church to be on earth. But then the Apostle, he highlights that there are divisions that are among them. Some were saying that they were of Paul, and of Apollos, some of Cephas, and some of Christ.

And this ever will be so, that men will follow men, they will follow sex, they will follow a certain path of teaching and say that we are the people, and Paul notices, even in one church, even in one church, and so the Apostle brings all under Christ. He says, God sent me not to baptise, but to preach the Gospel. And then he goes on to the preaching of the gospel and how God has actually ordered that as well. And he says in verse 18 that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

And he leads on to show how that in God's wisdom, God has given much wisdom to man, he can make wonderful inventions, he can do wonderful things in medical, in science, and yet there is a great contrast when it comes to the things of God, that man then is inignorant and he cannot find out the things of God. The natural man knoweth not the things of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And so God has used this to again to really humble man to lay man really low, that here is something, yes, and many men think they can understand it and think they can achieve the things of God, but God says, no, here is something you cannot achieve without the power of God, without the will of God, without the appointment of God. For a person then to feel utterly dependent upon God is a very humbling experience.

Really, to be dependent upon any, those that have afflictions, whether physical or mentally, and they are totally dependent upon someone else, that is a very humbling path to walk. and this is what the Lord will set before us and so he says of the gospel that is designed in that way that as we preach Christ crucified it is the Lord that applies it and Lord that makes it effectual and to be with power and to be a blessing and then he leads on to to illustrate and to notice in verse 26 who are those that are actually called of course the world and Satan will turn it around they did in Christ's day They said of Christ, they said, look, all these publicans, these sinners, these ignorant people, they're going after Him.

But you see, us, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the scribes, those well-learned in religion, we know better than to follow this Jesus of Nazareth. And you'll find that still today. Those that are learned, those that have got degrees, those that are wise in this world, they say, you know, all of these ignorant people, and where it stumbles them is where they get high up scientists, or those that are very learned, and they are Christians, and they can't work that out. Because they think, well surely if they had that knowledge, they would see the foolishness of this.

But that is not how God works, and I remember reading regarding, I think it was the Countess of Huntington, how they said regarding this portion that is before us how thankful she was that the word didn't say that he had not chosen any. but not many and so in verse 26 you see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called and she was of nobility so if it had said not any that would have cut her out and she was thankful that it said not many But for the most part, it is those that are countered the foolish things in this world. Salvation, by grace, by the Lord's way, does not need a degree, it does not need pre-known knowledge and understanding It does not need those things.

It needs the Holy Spirit to take that Word and make it a power to the soul. But who decides? Which one who decides? Who shall be saved? And so the Apostle here, he closes this chapter with really what is a name, a covering over it all and over all the Scriptures that He that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Or in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

Going back to the very beginning, why were there contentions? Because of pride. Pride is one of our chief sins, and it rises up even the heart, it uplifts, even with the grace of God, the blessings of God, and makes even grace a snare. It's proud of its, its grace, proud of what we actually are. And no man that doeth good and sinneth not, because there's pride so often mixed with it. And the thought of our first parents being tempted with Satan was pride.

If ye take this fruit, ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil. Something to make them great, something to make them be as God. And the thought that God was withholding something from them, and if they could only attain to this, they would have it, independent of God. That God won't have His people independent of Himself.

He will bring us dependent upon Him. And really in this very dependence, there is a real comfort, assurance of being the Lord's people. Some of you may have been concerned, and often we may be, that our religion is just of our own, sparks of our own kindling, of our own work. But when the Lord brings us dependent for every breath of prayer, for all that we have, then we have that evidence day by day it is God that worketh in us and that what we are we are by the grace of God God is a sovereign and he does the choosing for us and that is what is upon my spirit. And so I want to look with the Lord's help at seven ways that the Lord chooses for us.

He does the choosing and not us. And then lastly just to think how the knowledge of that is to be a help and is to be a comfort to us. We would remember when David had sinned in numbering Israel, and God said to him, I offer thee three things, choose thou. And David was in a great strait, he did not know what to choose. Let me now fall into the hand of the Lord, let Him make His choice, let Him decide, let it be His mercies and His grace. That is a good position for us to be in. So I want to look firstly at God choosing his people.

This is in the text and in the primary part of it, and it is inseparably joined with calling. In verse 26 it says, for ye see your calling, and then in verse 27, but God hath chosen. Our election is known by our calling. Those that are with Him are chosen, they're called, they're faithful, the things are joined together.

Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, and that ye might bring forth fruit. And Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians, he says that we are chosen in him, that is chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Why did the Lord choose some and not others? We are told regarding Esau and Jacob. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, the children not having done any good or evil, that the purposes according to election might stand, not of him that willeth, but of God. It is God that makes the choice, sovereignly, freely, of mercy alone.

You always must remember what this comes from, because by nature all of us are under the sentence of death. We all deserve eternal death. We deserve nothing at all. God is not under any obligation to save any, to show mercy to any, to do anything at all to redeem or save mankind. We know that there is a sovereign choice of God and that lies at the root of all that God does for a people here below. It's important for us though to remember that the secret things belong unto God, the things that are revealed belong unto us and our children.

And when the word is preached, we do not just preach to the elect because we do not know who the elect are. It is going out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And we read of the apostles that some believe the word spoken, some believe not. Another time, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. And it is in that way, under the preaching of the Word, that the Lord separates His people. May we always remember that, how separating, and that's very evident in this chapter here, separating is the preaching of the Word. There were those that the Jews, they were wanting a sign.

The Greeks were seeking after wisdom and the preaching of the cross, well that was just a stumbling block to the Jews, or the Greeks it was foolishness, and this will be mirrored in this world. You will come across friends, perhaps loved ones, you want to serve the Lord, you want to follow Him, but they think you're foolish, they think the things of God don't make sense, they don't add up, and in their eyes they despise them. Others, to make it make sense, they undermine the Word of God, change it. Those are the Jehovah's Witnesses that I've spoken to, ridicule the Trinity because they cannot understand it.

But great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh. When the Lord opens your eyes, you can see the Trinity right through the Word of God, though the word Trinity doesn't appear in the Word of God, but threes do. the Aaronic Blessing, three times, blessing the people of God, and each time we have the blessings of God mentioned, they're done in threes. And so it is God then that uses that preaching to make His people known, make His choice known. But it is God that makes that actual choice.

In eternity past, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee, or called thee. Some people early in life, some as children, some later in life, Some never leave the place of worship where they've been brought up, some do. Some go to great lengths of sin, others not. Everyone is different, but everyone is the same in that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Immediately one has the work of God begun, there's an assurance the Lord will continue it. But the emphasis here, God hath chosen, may be put over every one of the people of God.

God hath chosen. The second thing to be mindful of is that God has chosen our inheritance, our inheritance for us. We have this in the Psalms, Psalm 47 and verse 4, He shall choose our inheritance for us the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved, Selah. Going back to the 33rd Psalm, we have very similar again in verse 12.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. God's people are Christ's inheritance. given Him because of His death. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the people of God's inheritance, what they shall inherit after their death or after Christ's death as part of His will and testimony.

We think of the children of Israel as atypical people. Did they choose Canaan? Did they choose what would be their promised land? No, God did. God told it to Abraham, the land whereon thou livest, I will give it thee. But they had to go into Egypt. They had to be built up there. They had to be brought out with signs and wonders. But they were brought to that land, which was their inheritance.

And their inheritance, Peter, he speaks of it. to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last times. an inheritance. Paul says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men most miserable. God has chosen that inheritance. In this life we might not have much of the wealth of this world. We might not have been left of much in inheritance when parents or grandparents died.

But to have an inheritance above that flows forth from Christ's death And Christ's last will and testament, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, to have that inheritance that is for ever. I often think with a natural inheritance here.

And the Lord had those that came to him. Lord, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me, who made me a ruler. judging a ruler over you and he reproved them for going after riches but every inheritance so we have need of money we need those means here below but your reminder there is a person related to you that had to leave it they had to leave it they couldn't take it with them they couldn't take it and if that's all they had now they have nothing But if they had that treasure in heaven, if they were the Lord's people, they might not have left much of worthy inheritance. But what a wonderful testimony! May we run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, following that long cloud of witnesses that shows the same path to heaven, valuing that which shall never pass away. There shall not be any moth, nor rust, nor corruption, But it is eternal, it fadeth not away, it is in heaven, and God has chosen that for us. Chosen what shall be our inheritance.

Another thing that the Lord has chosen for us is the way. The children of Israel, when they went through the wilderness, They didn't have any roads, any signposts, any way at all. And yet the Lord sent His fiery, cloudy pillar before them to choose out a way and a place for them. Our Lord Himself says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. God is the one that chooses the way for His people. And may we remember that in every aspect of our lives, that the Lord is He, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye.

How much is involved in that way, really, the plan of all of our lives, every appointment, every twist, every turning, Noah said to the children of Israel, when they dwelt a long time under the law, Mount Sinai, you dwelt long enough in this mount. And then they moved on. And so it is with us. It is with us in providence. It is within us in grace. Some may long remain under the law. Some may be quickly brought to gospel liberty. Others may be long in unregeneracy. And then the Lord quickens them and calls them at last and brings them safe home. But O to see that the Lord has chosen out the way. He's not been left for our choice.

You might say, but don't we have to make choices? Yes, we do. We make them in looking at the Word of God, looking at providence opening, looking at how the Lord opens our spirit to these things. It is a way of understanding, it's not just a blind, a foolish way, or just picking a text from the Scriptures and that's showing us the way without any regard to providence or the Word of God, or to our own spirit. God has brought it so that we do have to make choices, but When we humbly lay it before the Lord, when we ask Him to guide us, to show us, to give us light, to give us understanding, He won't suffer us to do wrong. And when we may think we've gone wrong, we may see His overruling hand overruling our mistakes, our foolishness, to be His way which was better than what we had chosen. And so, it is important for us to see the Lord's hand. We have cases, of course, like Joseph, where, yes, Joseph had to choose whether he obeyed his father or not, and go and see his brethren, how they did.

But from then on in Providence, it was completely taken out of his hands. They threw him into the pit. They sold him. He was sold into Egypt. He was sold to Botaphar. He was falsely accused. He was put into prison. He was forgotten. He was brought out of prison, and he had no say in it.

Never did he ask the Lord, what shall I do? What direction? All he did was to serve the Lord in the place, in the providence where he was found. However difficult, however hard, he hadn't got power to change it. But sometimes that's not the case, and we do, we can choose, we can be like a limelight, we can be like Naomi and choose, well, there's a famine in the Lord's land, let's go into a strange land, let's go to Moab, but there's no church there, there's no people there, it's not the Lord's people. Oh, that doesn't matter, we'll go there anyway. Then they find tribulation and trouble there, but at the end of that account we find, well, God's purpose was that Ruth be brought out of that land brought to Bethlehem and brought to be in the line to Christ. And we see the Lord overruling that bad decision, you might say, for good. And we can look at things in our lives, things in our parents' lives, where you say, they made a wrong decision, or I made a wrong decision. That was not a good move. And yes, we may be guilty in that. It wasn't.

But as time goes on you can look back and you see why the Lord is using it. The Lord is overruling it. Nothing frustrates the Lord's purposes at all. So may that be a help to us that even though we may make mistakes we are very careful in what we choose and the way we go that it be according to the Word of God to realize it is, in the end, the Lord choosing the way for us. Choose thou the way and still lead on, we sung.

The next is the bounds of our habitation. In a way, he closely aligned to the way that Paul, he says this before those at Athens in Acts 17, that it is the Lord that has appointed the bounds of our habitation. If we turn to that portion in Acts 17 and in verse 26, we read there, And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. It goes on that they might should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him. I wonder how many times we have had to thank the Lord for where, where we were born, who were our parents, where we heard the gospel, where we heard the word. Why, we could have been in some other nation, a nation which was so far removed from the gospel where we were not hearing or where we'd not be brought up under it at all. where the Lord has placed us in this world is appointed by Him and many things you might say affect that, influence that and yet in the end we say here is the Lord and He has put these bounds as it were we cannot get out of it, cannot remove from it yes we may, we may remove, have removed from country to country but to feel in the Lord's hands and to be bound by His decrees and His way. The bounds of our habitation. What about afflictions? Our next point. The Lord has said, In the world ye shall have tribulation. That is great trouble.

Who chooses what that trouble shall be? Do we choose? Whether we have trouble in afflictions in our body, or troubles in our families, or troubles in our workplace, or troubles in the church, who chooses that? We spoke of David and the dilemma when he had even just three choices set before him. But if we think of tribulation, you can look round the brethren, you can look at people in the world and all that they have, and you think, which one would you choose? Job, an upright man that feareth God.

Did he choose that he should be in Satan's safe? That his friends should be miserable comforters? That he should go through this dark path where he lost his children, all his wealth, and was humbled and brought down? So Satan chose it? No he didn't. Satan provoked the Lord. But Satan wasn't in control, the Lord was in control and Satan couldn't do anything but the Lord gave him permission. It was the Lord's choice and appointment. It doesn't relieve Satan of the guilt of it.

But we need to remember that as well. That our afflictions, our tribulations are chosen by God and another aspect of that is that He does not delight to crush under, and to put under feet the children of men, to just afflict them for no purpose, no reason at all. We know many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. They work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose. Those afflictions, they are measured, The Lord knows our frame, He remembers that we are but dust, and He lays on us, no more than that is right. In this world of sin, in which we are sinners, and the world is sinners, and Satan is active, and in which there must be, because of that tribulation, the Lord governs it, measures it, orders it, as under His hand, for the eternal good of His people. God has chosen and God will choose the afflictions of his people. But what about our partners in life?

We know, of course, with the case of Abraham and Isaac, Isaac was to be in the line to Christ. It was very important who was to be the wife of Isaac. Rebecca was to be found. And as the servant goes and makes prayer at the well when he is near the family, he's gone where he had been told to go to seek a wife, and his language is that the Lord would show who had been appointed, who he had appointed to be the wife of Isaac.

It's a good thing when we make our prayers Instead of just praying for a wife, praying for a husband, that we pray and ask the Lord for the one that He has appointed for us, giving the acknowledgement that there is God's appointment. It may be in His will we are not to marry. But if we are, it will be His appointment. And He will lead us to that person, even if they be, as in my case, the other side of the world. And He will bring us together and keep us together.

And I know there's difficult cases. You might have many questions over that, perhaps. But it is the Lord. what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, and though man will try and does succeed in some situations, and great trial to the people of God, but even that the Lord overrules and makes to work for good. If we were to say to any of these things, this was all just my choice, this was all my way, This was all my doing.

Yes, there are those ways where we have to confess our sin. Go back to David numbering Israel. He says, I have sinned. But the two accounts that we have, one says that God moved David to do it because Israel was sinning, and the other that Satan stood up against Israel. And so we have many other things that are working. And overall, is God working.

Our way is to confess our sin and confess our foolishness, but in the end to look back and to humbly acknowledge that the Lord has appointed our way and who was our wife, who was our husband, the children that have flowed forth from such marriages, all appointed, all chosen by God, not by chance, not by man, much to humble ourselves again, as in this passage, that no flesh might glory in his presence, but that which glorifies God, that he should so appoint these things.

The last one in these seven I bring before you is how God teaches. You have this in Psalm 25, Psalm 25 and verse 12, where we have concerning the teaching, what man is he that feareth the Lord, him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose." Now if we think of the children at school, the children don't choose how the teacher teaches them, whether they teach with words or pictures or a screen, overhead screen, whether they teach with going outside and learning by practical experiments. It is the teacher that decides how they're going to teach, the method that they teach.

And this is what is set before us as God's choice. And remember God's promise is, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy children. They shall not say every man know the Lord, they shall all know me from the least even unto the greatest. And so it is God Himself that chooses how we are to be taught.

There is that said in the schools, well, some children learn better from just self-study with books, others they need someone to teach them, some learn better by practical, and some learn better in theory, but the Lord knows His people. It chooses how they are to be taught, and sometimes the two things, they go together. Remember when I was in secondary school, we used to do sailing. You take a mirror, a little sailing boat, two people in it, and go down to the beach.

But we did the theory as well, and we had to know the theory. Well, I didn't take much notice of the theory, and they thought I could sail. I thought I could sail, I knew the theory. And so they gave me a lad that didn't know at all how to sail, and we went out to sea at Safety Beach.

And we were going further and further out, so I decided to turn round. Tried to turn the boat round, and it got partway round, and it swung back again out to sea, and it kept going out to sea. and I couldn't turn the boat round. And at last it did turn round. When I got back, the headmaster who was on the shore saw exactly what was happening and he was angry with me because I hadn't learned my lessons, I hadn't learned the theory. But you know, I never ever forgot that lesson because of course I had to bring that boat closer and closer up to the wind, pointing right up to the wind as far as it was, could go and then push the helm over to get at the other side of the wind. But what I was doing, I was running across the wind and trying to turn that boat round a hundred, or say ninety, a hundred degrees. By the time it got round that, it lost its way and just swung back out to sea again.

And I had to learn that lesson hard way but lessons like that you don't forget when the Lord makes gives you to make mistakes it's humbling and in many aspects of our lives we can see well I've been warned I've been foretold and yet I've still done I hadn't learned that well I hadn't taken notice and yet the Lord uses those two things together to teach the way that we should go, to teach us in the school of Christ, to humble us.

Remember what is said in Deuteronomy, Thou shalt remember all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst serve the Lord or no. The Lord used those things in the desert, suffering them to hunger, suffering them to thirst, bringing them so that they knew the bread from heaven, so that they knew the water out of the rock, they knew that bitter waters could be made sweet, they knew that God was a gracious God, and though they murmured again and again and again, the Lord still gave them blessings and still helped them, And they learned these things as they went along, not just theory that God is gracious and merciful, but through time and time again, proving their own rebelliousness and hard heart and how the Lord did not deal with them as their sins deserved.

It is in this way God chooses a way to teach, a way that is effectual, a way that suits that person. And this is what is here, these words upon my spirit here, God hath chosen. And may these words come back to your remembrance and to mine at various times in our lives. Maybe when we're perplexed, when we're in a situation, you think, how did I get here? and then to think overall, God hath chosen. I want to look then at the last main point, is to how knowing this, that God is choosing and God hath chosen, how can it be a help and comfort for us?

Well, one way is to turn it into prayer. When we come into situations where we might say, well, naturally speaking, we do have to make the choice. But to know that over it all is our God, and that we really have this in mind in our prayers, that the Lord would guide us, teach us, and cause us to do that which He has chosen already. And then, when we see the Lord's appointments, we see not that He has chosen and to use us in rebelliousness and foolishness, but that He has made us to be wise in understanding His will and His way and choosing that way that the Lord has appointed. It may also bring us to view our Lord Jesus Christ.

We think of all that he went through, all that he endured, that he chose to be an advocate, chose to be a sacrifice, chose to be his people's near kinsman. He is spoken of as the chosen of the Father, My chosen, Mine elect. And what does He do? He comes, not My will, but Thy will be done. willing to do and to walk in that path though it be sufferings though it be the cross though it be the hiding of a father's face yet he is walking in the way that was chosen for him of God and willing to go that way nevertheless not my will but thy will be done All aspects of salvation are chosen by God, and especially how God's people are redeemed, how they are saved, how their debt must be paid at Calvary, how they must in their time be called by grace, and how they must be brought at last to be with Him in glory. All of that is chosen. God has chosen the means, the preaching, of the Word. Every way that God's people shall be reached, shall be found, shall be brought to Himself, those things are chosen.

And so where we are brought to at first be aware of this, first that we are called, first that we are drawn to the Word, feel the need of a Saviour, feel our sin, feel our ignorance, feel our poverty, then this Word is to be a real comfort for us. I would not be now concerned except I was chosen. I would not now be seeking the Lord unless I was chosen. And that really helped us to pray, to be encouraged, that the Lord who's begun has made himself known, will make known now. I've chosen you when you did not know me. You did not want me. You rejected the things of God. I chose you and in the time appointed, I called you.

So what a thing to rest on then, will the Lord choose in the beginning, and then say to us now, now you choose the rest of the way. You choose your way, and how I will teach you, and where you shall go. And you choose your inheritance, you choose your afflictions, you choose your partners in life. The great key, isn't it, to these secret counsels and purposes of God. millions they think it's in their own hand they think it's in their own power and they say depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy days but thy ways and we are the same and have been the same and can still be the same but by the grace of God to be first like the Apostle Paul when he was called by grace it wasn't just behold he prayeth it was Lord what wilt thou have me to do It was a way chosen by God that He wanted to go.

And the Lord had said, I'll show him what great things he shall suffer for my name's sake. The thorn in the flesh, the message of Satan. Did Paul choose that? No. The wonderful revelation in heaven, did Paul choose that? No. God gave him that. God gave him the thorn, lest he should be exalted above measure. And you see there, again, is the pride of man. The Lord bringing down pride, even when He blesses a soul, He balances it, counterbalances it, so pride doesn't rise up. Even Peter, he says, after the vision on the Mount of Transfiguration, we have a more sure word of prophecy. When ye do well to take heed, the Word of God is more sure than these visions and great appearances.

And so, how can we use it then? It is a way of comfort, isn't it? And help to be submissive to the Lord under afflictions and tribulations. Help to be able to see. when the Lord is using perhaps bitter things to teach us that the Lord has chosen that for a purpose, knowing our frame. And that as we prove through life that the Lord has chosen these things for us and to know that He has chosen our heaven, our inheritance as well. God will not quicken a soul into divine life, bring them to know and feel their sinfulness, be brought then to look to Christ and to trust alone in Him for salvation. and then not have a place for them to go, not have an inheritance. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.

In every step of the path, may we really sing, and say as the hemrider did, choose thou the way, but still lead on. that we cast, and it may be you have things before you, even this week, may be able to take them to the Lord and say, this which has been so perplexing me, it so troubles me, I'm so fearful of making a wrong step, a wrong move. Choose thou the way.

No, the Lord will never put to confusion one that feels that ignorance, fears, and inability, but their eye is upon the Lord. And they neither... This was Jehoshaphat, wasn't it? When Moab, Mount Seir, Ammon came against them. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. He felt they had no mind, no power, but their eyes were upon the Lord.

And may that where your eyes are, and my eyes, and would have the Lord make that choice for us, and where we do have to make a decision, make it in the fear of the Lord, trusting that as we've laid it before Him, that He will not suffer us to do that which is wrong. May we then have this word to remain with us, God, hath chosen, may be we put the first word with it, but God hath chosen and if we can come that God hath chosen us and called us and then every aspect of our lives to see that same choosing, appointing God, he will have all the honour and glory, we will not and our comfort, our that He has chosen to have us with Him forever in eternity, chosen to eternal bliss, eternal happiness, not for any good or works in us, but of His own abounding grace, His sovereign choice, His eternal love. May the Lord bless this word to you. Amen.

God Hath Chosen

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God choosing His people?

How do we know God's choice is true?

Why is God's sovereignty in choosing important for Christians?

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About Rowland Wheatley

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God Hath Chosen

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God choosing His people?

How do we know God's choice is true?

Why is God's sovereignty in choosing important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Rowland Wheatley

Comments

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