Romans chapter nine, and I want
to read from verse 11, please. Romans chapter nine and verse
11. So we're talking about Jacob
and Esau here. 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 have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted
his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay Of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour And another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show his wrath And to make his power known, Endured, with
much long-suffering, The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading. Last time we looked at the Bible's
teaching concerning man's fallen nature. and we reflected on the
fact that sin has separated between God and man, that when the first
sin was committed, when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, it
initiated a death upon them, a spiritual death, a moral death
if you like. It initiated a separation from
the presence of God and they were cast out from his presence
who once had communed with him and fellowshiped with him in
the cool of the garden walking together. And we saw that scripture
hath concluded All under sin. That's the conclusion. That's
what the Bible says. Everyone is under sin. Everyone that ever was born from
Adam and Eve by natural procreation, down through the generations
of the history of this world, Scripture hath concluded all
under sin. And indeed, we're told later
that God hath concluded all in unbelief. So here is the nature
of the fall. It has caused us to be dead in
our nature towards God, separated us from him, and brought us into
this state of unbelief. That's just the reality. We cannot,
we do not, we never will believe naturally. And just as Lydia
must have those bars of her heart opened, so everyone who believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ needs an equally powerful personal
work of God the Holy Spirit in our lives if we are going to
be changed from our unbelief into that place of being able
to believe. Because our condition is evil,
our conduct is sinful. The one flows from the other. Because our condition is evil,
our conduct is sinful, and the problem of our sin is that it comes from within
us, not from the things that are outside and around us. You
know, people talk about this question, is it nurture or is
it nature? And the big thing that goes on
about whether or not if we just put these morally neutral people
into a nice environment, then they'll all turn out nice. But
of course, we understand from the word of God, from the double
conclusions that have been arrived at here by the testimony of God
himself, that the problem is internal. It's nature, not nurture. It's a deep down defilement that
we get from our lineage. It just comes down to us in our
human nature. Mark, Mark's gospel, chapter
seven and verse 21 says, for from within, out of the heart
of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceitfulness, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Big long list. All these things come from within. All these things are what defile
a man. I think it's interesting to see
there how there's that interspersion, is that a real word? Of the sins
that are listed here, in a real mix, in a real mix, you know? Oh well, I wouldn't commit adultery,
I wouldn't be unfaithful to my wife, but it's, Bumps right up
against deceit. Or I wouldn't murder anybody. But it's right up there beside
an evil eye. And pride. Oh, I wouldn't be
a fornicator. But what about foolishness? and wickedness. You see, all
of these things emanate from the heart. And sometimes we look
and we imagine that we can see a spread of wickedness where
there's extremes at each end. And as long as we keep ourselves
to the bottom end, well, things will be okay. Thou fool. God looks for holiness. He looks for purity. And we become
so self-righteous that we judge others, imagining that they're
worse than us in some way. Not because we haven't done those
things, either physically or in our minds. and all of us are guilty before
a holy God and all of us are rendered dead in our trespasses
and in our sins. We also learned last week that
because of this fallen sinful nature, We are rebels against
God. It's not even that we're neutral
towards him in any way. We are at enmity with him. We are implacably opposed to
God. We are antagonistic. Well, there's
a hatred within us. And we are wholeheartedly resolved
not to bow our knee to God. That's the nature of our unbelief. That's the nature of our wickedness.
We will not bow to God. And so we cry with Christ's murderers,
away with him, away with him. Crucify him. or as the Lord himself
likens it, we will not have this man to reign over us. We will not. Not my will. I will not have Christ to reign
over me. And I want to stress that point.
I did, I shouted it. But as far as The Bible is concerned. As far as the Word of God is
concerned, there is an inherent inability in all men and women. Man will not worship God because
his sinful nature prohibits him from doing so. And he cannot
worship God because his sinful state prevents him from doing
so. It's not just that we want to
if we could. We don't want to and we can't. And this is a picture of that
bondage that we are in in our soul and in our nature. Now last
week we called it total depravity and if you don't remember my
little story about the tulip and where it originated then
have a listen back to last week's sermon and you'll see that we
are following through a little a little mnemonic here based
on the word tulip, which was used in the days of the Reformation
to describe two different theologies and doctrines that were circulating
amongst the universities and the theologians and the ministers
and religious scholars of that time. And it's come down to us
in this little acrostic or this little mnemonic called tulip.
And that stands, the T stands for total depravity. And this
is what we're speaking about today. We're speaking about the
fact that men and women, boys and girls, in their hearts, in
their nature, are incapable of trusting Christ, believing in
Christ, doing anything good to please God. And then we're thinking
about the next stage. So there's no ability, no will,
no desire to please God. And we might wonder, in a sense,
if this is what occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and
Eve fell, that they plunged themselves and all their children to multiple
generations under this condemnation of judgment. This condemnation which the Bible,
for good reason, characterises as being dead in sin. We wonder, why did God not just
wrap up the whole thing there and then? Just wipe it out, just blot it
out. They've messed up. I gave them the opportunity.
I gave them their free will. I gave them a beautiful garden.
I gave them all of the trees that they could eat. I gave them
the dominion over the whole of creation. A sinless creation,
a beautiful place. And they messed it up. Forget
it. We're done. And wiped it out. No one would ever have written
that story. We wouldn't have known anything about that history. It would just have existed in
a brief moment of time and been gone. And we might genuinely wonder,
why not? Had justice alone prevailed in the mind of God? then sin
must be punished. It must be blotted out. And every
sinner be brought under that condemnation, that indignation,
that righteous holiness of God and the wrath that comes against
sin because of it. But God who is holy and God who
is just is also God who is gracious and God who is merciful. And
while justice demanded retribution for sin, loving kindness found a way of
salvation. Loving kindness devised a way
of escape And though man cries against God away with him, God
purposed a way of peace. And in a beautiful balance of
the perfection of the character of our Lord God in his three
persons, he unfolded his covenant purpose of grace. when he could
have said to Adam and Eve, enough, it's done, it's over. He unfolded
a beautiful purpose of covenant, grace and peace. He resolved that he would save
sinners, that he would gather to himself a people redeemed
out of this fallen mass of humanity that would stretch out like the volcano spewing out its lava. And in the midst of that fiery
opposition to God, God would gather to himself a people. He would satisfy his own justice,
but he would have his mercy justified. He would have his holiness upheld,
but he would have his love vindicated. And out of that fallen mass of
humanity, our Lord God chose a people for himself. Upon whom
he set his love in eternity. A people to whom he would show
grace and mercy. Upon whom he would shower his
love. A people who despite their sin,
he would save. Who despite their rebellion,
he would redeem. notwithstanding the fall and
the death and the separation and the inability into which
they had been brought by Adam and in Adam, he would convert,
he would change, he would transform, he would make willing, he would
reconcile to himself by the sovereign, powerful, efficacious grace that
he alone was able to enact. and he would choose to whom and
upon whom these blessings would be bestowed. Paul calls this
revelation, the revelation of the divine will of the triune
God. The revelation of the divine
will of the triune God. Or, to put it another way, the
purpose of God according to election. The purpose of God according
to election. And he presents it by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit to us here in very clear terms in Romans
chapter 9. We can see it in Romans 9, 10,
8, 9 and 10, these truths being set before us. But here in Romans
9, we have a particularly clear presentation of this teaching. And he shows us that it is the
purpose of God to save particular designated individuals, people
that he has chosen. And the way in which the apostle
describes this is to show us two brothers, twins, Jacob and
Esau, and how that even before these two twins had been born,
God had laid his sovereign choice upon the one and passed over
the other. He had brought his love to bear
upon one, and he had said he would leave the other one in
that natural Adamic condition, and he would not recover that
one, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand. that it was his purpose to save
these particular individuals. His chosen, they are called.
His elect, and the word elect just means that they were the
people of his choice. His church, his sheep, a group
distinguished amongst men by having their names written in
the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world and set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ, their Redeemer. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, According
as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the
world that we, that is, Paul mentions a little later in Ephesians,
we who were dead in trespasses and sin should be holy and without
blame before him in love. So here's the state, the total
depravity of man, people are in this state of inability, the
state of rebellion, the state of opposition, this hand shaking
away with this man, away with this God, we will not be ruled
over. And God says, I am going to choose
a people out of the midst of that. mass of sinful humanity,
and I will make them willing in the day of my power, and I
will bring them into the experience of love and grace and mercy. not by passing over their sin
as if it didn't matter, but in reconciling them to myself through
the sacrifice of an innocent victim. And this was God's purpose. And that was his purpose according
to election. He would choose those that he
would bless. There are three things that I
want to draw your attention to quickly with respect to this
purpose of election. The first one is this. It's scriptural. It's scriptural. We have a lot
of people who gainsay this doctrine, who speak against it, who imagine
that it's all to do with man's free will. So remember, we're
talking about this Calvinist-Arminian debate that went on in the 16th,
17th century and has continued ever since this. Doctrines of
free will are the doctrines of God's sovereignty. Well, the
vast majority of churches today have gone down that doctrinal
cul-de-sac of free will preaching. And you will not find very many
today who take the position that this church takes or that this
pulpit preaches or that we have come to learn and to love. But
here's the point. It is scriptural. It is biblical. It is the testimony of the Word
of God. It was Paul's doctrine. It was John's doctrine. It was
Peter's doctrine. It was Christ's doctrine. It
was the doctrine of the Old Testament. They never knew anything but
that God had chosen Israel from amongst all the nations to bring
His people to Himself. And it is undeniably plain from
Scripture that God's purpose to save is founded in His choice
in election. A divine choice. Now God could
have saved, God could have saved conceivably on the basis of good
works, or the basis of good looks, or the basis of intelligence,
or the basis of wealth. Yeah, yeah, come on, we'll save
the rich folk. He could have saved on the basis
of moral conscience. That's not right, that's wrong. I like that, there's somebody
with a moral conscience. Might not be too smart, might
not be too rich, might not be too good looking, but they know
what's right and wrong. I'll save those ones. What about free will? What about
saving people on the basis of their free will? Well, if you
want it, you can have it. If you don't want it, you don't
need to take it. It could work. I could see how that would work.
I'll tell you what, it'd make my job a lot easier. But that's not how it is. Sin has made that impossible. The finest looking film star,
the superstars. are corrupt inside no matter
how good they look on the outside, no matter how well they put on
their cosmetics in the morning. They are as dirty and as devious
and as adulterous and as full of all the mischievousness as
every single other human being. It's no good to make it good
looks, or it's no good to make it good morals. Or it's no good
to make it free will or moral conscience or anything like that
because everybody is in the same state. Everybody is dead and buried and nailed in
a coffin and all the dirt put in on top. There just isn't anything
in the individual that God could find that would in any way recommend
us to him. So there is no criteria upon
which the choice of God could be made except his sovereign
will to do as he pleases. And why should we deny God the
right to do that? Every single one of us claim
it for ourselves. Don't tell me what to eat. Don't
tell me what to wear. Don't tell me which car to drive. Don't tell me which woman to
marry. Don't tell me how I can live.
We demand freedom. We demand our rights. We demand
free choice. We're going to be celebrating
Independence Day in a couple of weeks time. Well, enjoy your
independence. Tell you what we're independent
to do. We are independent to shake our hands in God's face
all the days of our life. And unless he constrains us,
unless he brings us into that place of salvation, then we will
independently run to hell. Sin has rendered it impossible
that we could ever choose God, because God concludes us all
under sin. And so that choice is not made
upon any external criteria. That choice of God is not made
upon the basis of any external criteria. It is made according
to his will. He chooses and he reserves the
right to choose whomsoever he will. Like the potter making
the pot, he chooses what he wants to do with that lump of clay.
He can make a good pot or a not good pot. He can make one that's
beautiful or one that is simply utilitarian. But it's his choice
and men can complain. They can say that God's method
of salvation isn't fair. Isn't fair. God says, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And God reserves the right to
be gracious to whom he will be gracious. And he assumes that
right according to his purpose because God's in control and
he is the leader and he is the director and he is the one who
bears and carries all authority. And the choice of God is everywhere
in scripture. It's there when we look at the
life of Abraham called out of Ur of the Chaldees, where all
the people in the world, God called Abraham out of that idolatrous
nation and he placed his covenant purpose upon the shoulders of
that man. He revealed to him what he would
do. He called him righteous. He called him faithful. He called him his own and he
placed his love upon him. Jacob, Jacob received that covenant
promise. Rahab, Samson, Ruth, Samuel,
David, Daniel, Israel throughout its history. It wasn't Sheba. It wasn't Egypt. It wasn't the
Philistines. It wasn't the Midianites. It
wasn't the Amalekites or the nations of this world. It wasn't
the Babylonians. It was Israel. Little Israel. Little, stiff-necked, hard-hearted,
disobedient, rebellious Israel. And the Lord God preserved his
people right down through, according to his grace, according to his
goodness, according to his purpose, according to his choice. Jonah
chapter two, verse nine says, salvation is of the Lord. So
much for the Old Testament. The New Testament is full of
election. Now I could give you loads of
verses, and I'm going to Got you again, didn't I? Matthew 24, 31. And he shall
send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one
end of heaven to the other. Mark 13, 20. And except that
the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved,
but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened
the days. John 13, 18. I speak not of you
all. I know whom I have chosen, but
that the scripture might be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me
hath lifted up his heel against me. John 15, 16. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit, that your fruit and that your fruit should remain.
Acts 13, 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Romans 8, 33,
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Romans 11, 5, Even so then, at
this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. 11, verse 7, What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest
were blinded. Ephesians 1, 4, 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. 1 Thessalonians
5, 9. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians
2, 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief in the truth. 1 Timothy 2, verse 10,
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. Titus 1, 1, Paul, a servant of
God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. 1 Peter 1 verse 2. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit and to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2 verse 9. But ye are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a
peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1
Peter 5, 13, the church that is at Babylon, elected together
with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son. Ordained
of God, chosen of him, set aside by the sanctification of the
Spirit to eternal life, my elect, the purpose of God according
to election. So it's scriptural. It's also
special. It's special in the sense that
it is specific and it is distinct and it is particular and it is
definite and it is discriminating. God chooses individuals. He chooses one and leaves another. One in a family, that can hurt. One in a street, One in a city. But he chooses definitely and
he distinguishes those that he has chosen. Now, free will believers,
they would say God chooses everyone and then he invites everyone
to choose him back. or God knew who would choose
Him and on that basis He chose them. Or that the choice of God isn't
actually to salvation at all, it's to doing a job or filling
an office or accomplishing a particular purpose. And yet the word of
God never suggests or implies any such thing. The word of God
is clear. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
have chosen you out of the world. It's not that everyone is chosen.
So much so, he says, the world hates you because I've chosen
you out of the world. These people who are mine, this
church that is mine, these are the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 again. God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. If election
is based on man choosing God, then who's to get the praise
for that? Rather, the elect are chosen
from eternity before the foundation of the world and the sole reason
for that choice is the everlasting love of God upon them. That's
the sole criteria. Why did he choose me? Because
he loved me. Why did he not choose somebody
else? He didn't love somebody else. He loved me. He loved me. I don't know why he loved me. There's nothing lovable in me,
nothing more lovable than me than there is in another. But
He loved me. We know that, don't we? We know
what that is. We know that sometimes we love
somebody. And we just love them. We just
love them. And so it is with the Lord. He
just loves us. And He, on the basis of that
love, has chosen us in Christ, sanctified us, that means set
us apart, in His eternal purpose. And He has committed us into
the hands of the Saviour Jesus Christ to be preserved, to be
protected, to be redeemed, to be delivered, to be saved, and
to be glorified. And our redemption and our salvation
and that glory flows out of that choice that God has made of a
people. And the measure of Christ's success in the accomplishments
of his purpose is the measure to which he gathers in all whom
God has chosen unto salvation. The names of the elect are written
indelibly in the Lamb's Book of Life and the Lord Jesus Christ
will lose none of them. And it's successful. That's my
third point. It's successful. The work of
God in his purpose of election is successful because God's purpose
prospers. Don't tell me it doesn't. He's
not a God who can't do what he wants to do. God's purpose prospers
in all his good pleasure. If it pleases God to do something,
that something is done. and his will is irresistible. I don't want a God who fails. I don't want a God who can't
deliver. I can't do with a God who can't
deliver. I can't get through my life wondering
whether or not this is actually gonna work out all right in the
end or not because I can't trust the person that I'm supposed
to be looking to. That might work in some businesses.
but it doesn't work as far as our eternal well-being is concerned. God's work is successful and
his glory is certain and sure. And we've seen that our election
is not a lonely, hopeful aspiration. but a step in the everlasting
covenant of peace and its accomplishment. God is going to spend eternity
with the people that he loves, and he is doing everything needful
to secure that end. And our election is part of that
process. We are united to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are united to him in his humanity. We are united to him as a new
creation, a new born people. More of that on another occasion.
But that eternal purpose will culminate in our glory. The giving of grace and the achievement
of glory. And having been chosen of the
Father in election, having been secured by the Holy Spirit in
the Son, having been redeemed by the Son on the cross, having
been gathered by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the
Gospel, the salvation of the elect of God is absolutely assured,
and our eternal well-being is settled. God would not be God if any of
his elect were eternally lost. Christ would not be God if any
that had been committed into his care and keeping went missing. The Holy Spirit would not be
God if the gospel failed, if the new birth failed, if effectual
calls went unheeded. And it is election that assures
the accomplishment of the divine purpose and salvation of those
whom God has loved from all eternity. There is one final question that
I want to ask, because when this subject is addressed, it is often
asked. When election is talked about
and discussed, it is often the question that comes to the fore.
Am I one of the elect? How do I know if I'm one of the
elect or not? And I understand why that question
is asked. I understand that while the Bible doctrine
of election is one of the most comforting truths that a believer
can understand and lay hold upon in the midst of that stormy sea,
that tumultuous thing which is the ups and downs of our life,
having something like the doctrine of election to lay hold upon
is a great comfort and a great blessing. But I understand that
not everybody sees it like that. I know that Satan can take even
the very truth of God and spin it and twist it and contort it
and make it something that is difficult to hear and difficult
to explain. This doctrine reveals the sovereign
power, it reveals the saving love of God, it reveals the purpose
of God in free grace to save sinners. But it can also frighten
the tender-hearted. It can also alarm sensitive souls
who feel that their sin places them beyond redemption. who feel that their destinies
are already settled and it's on the wrong side of heaven, who feel that they are bound
for hell and election means that there's nothing that they can
do about it, who feels that eternal separation
from God is what will be their lot And sometimes it can get
a little bit more sophisticated even than that. And we can find
ourselves weighed down for the eternal state of those that we
love. And we can find ourselves saying,
they've no interest in the things of God. I've no reason to believe
that God will ever save them. It's pretty apparent to me that
they are of the reprobate. They are of the non-elect. and
there's nothing that we can do about it. Let me say a word to
you who hear about election and tremble. You do right to fear for your
soul and you do right to fear for the souls of your children
and your friends and your family. And I wish that more people did
tremble when they heard the word of God spoken. But election is not your enemy. Election is not your foe. Election describes the purpose
of God to save a people for himself. it does not identify the means
of that salvation. The efficient cause of our salvation
is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross and the
precious blood that he shed. The securing cause of our salvation
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel tells sinners how
sins are forgiven. It tells sinners how grace is
to be received. and the call of the gospel as
it is preached goes forth pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ as the
alone source of mercy and grace and peace with God. So I say
to you, sinner that feels the weight of your sin, the Lord
Jesus Christ is a suitable saviour. for needy sinners like you. If you feel a need of salvation,
if you feel a need of forgiveness, Christ can and will supply that
need. The Lord Jesus Christ tells us
two things in John 6, verse 37, and these two things are not
contradictory. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's election. It is the glorious
setting up of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation,
the divine means of salvation for sinners. And it is the sovereign
quickening work of God the Holy Spirit to open the heart of the
sinner and bring that individual to a knowledge of their sins
forgiven and Jesus Christ as their saviour. But the Lord goes on and he says
this, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And that's the gracious call
of the gospel right there. That's the encouragement to come.
That's the warrant to trust in the promise of the Lord Jesus
Christ to save sinners, to receive sinners. There are people who were in
their life convinced of the doctrine of election and they're in hell
today. It's not believing in the doctrine
of election that gets us into heaven. It's trusting in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will never be in hell one
sinner who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the blood
of the crucified Lord. Never. May the Lord comfort our
hearts in this glorious truth of the purpose of God according
to election. Amen.