I invite your attention this
morning to Romans chapter 9, Romans the 9th chapter. Don't ever let me pass up an
opportunity to tell you what a joy it is to be with you, to
worship together, how much I value your fellowship and our love
over all these years. Before I begin, let me bring
up a matter of prayer, hope all of y'all could be in much prayer
about. Pastor Dan Culver, the Grace
Fellowship Church in Wheelersburg, Ohio, unbeknownst to him, he
found out Wednesday night after he preached was having some difficulty,
they took him to the hospital, and he is scheduled for quadruple,
maybe five bypasses early Tuesday morning. So as the Lord brings
him to your mind, I hope we all could pray for him and for that
congregation during this time. Now the title of the message
this morning is, What Does the Bible Teach About Election? You know, the doctrine of election,
men hate it, despise it, try to deny it, but the doctrine
of election is clearly taught in the scripture. This is not
an obscure doctrine, the doctrine of election. The word elect or
election is used 27 times in the Bible, and the Hebrew or
Greek word for elect is translated chosen 19 more times. So this is not an obscure doctrine. The early church didn't call
one another believers like we do today. They called each other
elect. The Apostle John wrote to the
elect lady. Peter wrote the church, which
is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you. So this
is a biblical term. But this is my question. What
does election really mean? Now, I'm not interested in what
men say election means because they're always wrong. You know,
they say election means that people who want to be saved will
be kept out of heaven. That's hogwash, couldn't be further
from the truth. They say election means God sends
babies to hell. That's hogwash, could not be
further from the truth. You'll notice it's only the enemies
of the gospel that make such statements. No one who believes
and loves God's election, God's electing grace ever believed
such a thing. If we would know what election
means, we need to find out what God says it means. Because whatever
God says it means in his word, that's what it means. And that's
what I pray the Holy Spirit will teach us this morning. What does
the Bible teach about election? Now election simply means this,
that God chose a people to save. So election is God being God. First, election is God being
merciful. If God didn't choose a people
to save, no one would be saved. Because left to our own nature,
we'd never choose God. But God's merciful. So God chose
a people to save. Romans 9 verse 10. And not only
this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our
father Isaac, 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. Now salvation
is not by merit. Salvation can't be earned by
something we do. Salvation is by God's mercy. God chose to save Jacob before
Jacob ever did one thing. So Jacob's works could never
have contributed to his salvation, could they? Jacob's works never
could have contributed or done anything to make God choose him. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Now
we all know who Jacob was. Jacob was a chief. His name means
a planter or chief, and that's who he was. He lived up to that
name. Jacob was born second. He was a twin with his brother
Esau, but Jacob was born second, and he was born hanging onto
that heel of Esau. He wanted to be born first. He's
trying to pull Esau back. Jacob didn't have the birthright,
so he schemed and he connived and he cheated his whole life
long to get it. He even cheated his own brother. He took advantage of Esau when
Esau was hungry and got him to trade the birthright for a bowl
of beans. I mean, this is how he cheated
his brother. If you make a trade with Jacob, I promise you this,
you're always gonna come out on the losing end of that deal.
Esau did. And if that wasn't enough, then
Jacob turned around and cheated his own father. He tricked his
own father, deceived his father into thinking that he was Esau.
So his father would give him the blessing. Then Jacob had
to run away from home before Esau killed him. And he ran and
he found him a couple of wives. He got him a father-in-law. When
you get married, you get a father-in-law. Jacob's relationship with his
father-in-law was one of cheating and deception on both sides,
as long as they knew each other. They both cheated and deceived
each other. They finally had to build him
a pillar of stone and said, neither one of us are going to cross
this pillar to come back to the other one because their relationship
was just toxic. Jacob just cheated his father-in-law
every chance he did. And Jacob rubbed off on his wives.
Now, if you don't think leadership is important, Jacob rubbed off
on his wives. They constantly schemed and connived
against each other, didn't they? And Jacob's sons, just like their
daddy, they deceived their father to make him think Joseph was
dead. Jacob was a scoundrel. If God's gonna save Jacob, it's
gotta be by mercy, doesn't it? Because Jacob could never earn
it. If God's gonna save Jacob, it's got to be by God's electing
grace. You see, election is natural
to God. Election is God being God. Electing
love, electing mercy and grace is natural to the character of
God. And men don't understand that by nature. You know why? Because love and grace and mercy
doesn't come natural to our dead hearts, that's why. God does
things upside down of the way men would do them every time,
just like waiting 80 years to call Moses. I heard Brother Henry
say one time, you imagine Moses, 80 years old, goes to his father-in-law,
said, well, I'm taking your daughter and we're walking back across
the mountain, across the desert with this stick. And his father-in-law
said, what are you gonna do? He said, well, I'm gonna go tell
Pharaoh, let my people go, and I'm gonna lead Israel out of
Egypt. Henry said, his father-in-law said, you're getting kind of
old for that kind of work, aren't you, Moses? God does things upside down from
everything the way we would do it. It was natural in those days,
Jacob and Esau were born, for the firstborn to receive the
birthright. The firstborn would be the king. The priest of the
family and the rest of the children would serve the firstborn. But
God turns everything upside down. God said, in this case, the elder
is going to serve the younger. You know why? because I've chosen
Jacob. This is the way I've chosen for
it to be. God does things upside down the
way we do it. God does not choose the people
you and I would choose. We would choose the best people,
the most moral people, the most kind people, the most gracious
and generous people. But God chose sinners to save,
and he chose the worst of sinners. You and I never would have chosen
Jacob. We would have chosen Esau every
time. Esau was a man's man. He went out and worked hard to
provide for his family. He hunted, he was just a man's
man. If Esau was your neighbor and
you needed some help on your farm with a project, Esau knew
how to do it and he'd be willing and able to help you. If Jacob
volunteered to come out and help you, you're gonna end up on a
losing end of that deal somehow. We would choose Esau every time. But God chose to save Jacob.
That's God being God. It's God being merciful. All
right, second. What does the Bible teach about
election? Election is God being love. Verse
13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved. Now election is not a mean, hard,
hateful doctrine. Election always has to do with
electing love. God elected to save some sinners
because Almighty God loved them. He set his affection upon them. God's election of sinners is
so loving. How can you put it into words?
Only God could love sinners. Only God could do that. And God
chose to save those sinners. And then he sent his son to die
in their place. He sent his son to take on him
flesh and blood, to suffer and die, bearing all of their sin,
to put it away by the sacrifice of himself. God chose a people
to save, and then he sacrificed his son to save them. Now brethren,
that's love. What love? Now the amazing truth
in this verse is this. Almighty God loved Jacob. Now
Jacob is just not a lovable man. He's not. Jacob was a boy only
his mama could love. Jacob was a dishonest person.
He was a weak man. He always took the path of least
resistance. Jacob was a coward. You remember
the story, Jacob, He's left Bethel, and he's coming back home, and
he hears that Esau's coming to meet him with a large band of
men. You know what Jacob did? Jacob had this large family with
him. He divided them up, and he sent his wives and his children
ahead of him to go meet Esau, and he came last, hoping, well,
if Esau's gonna take out his pound of flesh, maybe he'll get
tired of it before he gets to me. What a despicable man. Yet God loved him because only
God could love sinners. And that gives hope to sinners
like you and me. By nature, don't make any mistake
about this, by nature, you and I are just as despicable in God's
sight as Jacob. That's right. Election gives
hope of salvation to sinners. Election never takes away the
hope of salvation of a sinner. It always gives hope of salvation
to sinners. Election is God being loved.
Third, election is God being God, is God being just. Verse
13, as it's written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, like I said, I'm not really
interested in what people have to say about elections, but I've
got to deal with this, because this is what you'll hear. People
who don't know the scripture, don't know God, they try to say,
well, this means that God loved Jacob, and he loved Esau too,
he just loved Esau less. Yeah, I wish people would think,
just for two seconds before they opened their mouth. I wish people
would think about what they say they believe. If God loves Esau
less, That means God can do something imperfectly, doesn't it? Well,
that's not possible. God's perfect. Everything God
does is perfect. The word hated here that Paul
uses, it means to detest and to persecute. Now, there's no
love in that. There's no love in detesting
or persecuting someone. Here's a good clue about scripture. Scripture means exactly what
it says. It just means exactly what it says. God hated Esau. And Brother Lindsey already dealt
with this so well in the lesson. But there is an important teaching
in scripture that we need to understand. It's the doctrine
of reprobation. And reprobation simply means
this, that God chose to leave some people alone. He just chose
to leave them alone. He didn't do anything to them.
God didn't have to do anything to make them reprobate. God just
left them alone. In the Day of Judgment, He'll
give them exactly what they deserve. It won't be God's fault, it'll
be their fault. God just left them alone and He's gonna give
them exactly what they earn, no more, no less. God hated Esau
because Esau deserved it. Esau deserved to be hated. Look
at Psalm 11. Hebrews 12 says that Esau was
a profane man. And that word profane means wicked.
Psalm 11, verse five. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. The very soul of the Lord hated
Esau because Esau was a wicked man. And Esau hated God. Genesis 25 verse 34 says Esau
despised the birthright. Now despising the birthright
is the same thing as despising God. The birthright was a symbol
of a relationship with God. It was to be the priest of the
family before God. And Esau didn't care one thing
about that relationship with God. He sold his birthright. He sold that relationship with
God for a bowl of beans. A bowl of beans. There wasn't
any meat even involved. I've got a dear friend, Brother
Jeff Vandal from Millsite, Jeff says, if you're gonna have a
good meal, meat must be involved, and I wholeheartedly agree. This
wasn't even a good meal. There was no meat involved, just
a bowl of beans. That's all Jacob or all Esau
thought that the birthright was worth. And no wonder God hated
Esau. Esau hated God, and God should
hate Esau. We should not be amazed to hear
God hated Esau. We should be amazed to hear God
loved Jacob. If God loved Jacob, that gives
me hope. There's hope for this Jacob.
There's hope for this cheat, this scoundrel, this coward.
We should be utterly amazed that God would choose to make Jacob
righteous through the obedience of God's darling son. We should
be amazed that God chose to take all of Jacob's sin and put it
away through the sacrifice of God's precious son, his only
begotten son. There's the amazing truth in
this verse. God loved Jacob. And as I said
a minute ago, God's just. At the judgment, God will give
everyone, without exception, everyone, exactly what they've
earned, what they deserve. God's gonna give his elect eternal
glory. He's gonna tell them, well done,
my good and faithful servant. Not because, as Lindsay said,
God's an old fuddy-duddy grandfather that just is gonna overlook the
sins of his children, no. God's gonna give them eternal
glory because they deserve it. That's right, they deserve it.
Because Christ earned it for them. Because Christ made them
righteous through his obedience and his sacrifice. And God will
damn all those who refuse to believe on him. And it won't
be unfair. Nobody can say it's unfair. God
will give them exactly what they've earned. And it'll be exactly
what they wanted to. They didn't want Christ. They
would not submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ.
They don't want him. So they won't have him. Election is just
God being just. Right, here's the fourth thing.
Election is God being sovereign. I sat yesterday afternoon at
the bedside of a dear brother, he and his wife. He's going to
face quadruple bypass surgery Tuesday morning. And you can
understand his wife being a little concerned about this. She said
it would be far better for him if Lord just take him home. But
she said it wouldn't be better for me And she's right, it wouldn't. And she said, but I could rest
in this. God's offering. Whatever he does
will be right. It'll be good. Now we believe
that. By God's grace, we believe that,
don't we? But Paul knew how the natural
man would object to this truth of God's election. They're gonna
say, that's not fair. When our children were little,
My wife taught our girls you can never say that. They were
never allowed to say that's not fair for this reason. So they learned you don't say
that to God either. That's what the natural man will
say, that's not fair. Is that true? Is God not fair? Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid, God forbid we'd say that. Is God not fair to
choose to save some and pass others by? Now, my friend, if
you think that, you don't know yourself and you don't know God.
If you think it's not fair for God to pass you by, then you
think somehow, some way, you've earned mercy from God. And by
definition, you can't earn mercy. If you think it's not fair for
God to pass you by, you think you've got some rights. You don't
understand that you forfeited all those rights in Adam. If
we think it's not fair for God to pass us by, we don't know
ourselves or God. We just can't say that God is
not fair to choose who he will to be saved. You know why we
can't say it's not fair? Because God is God. Because God's
sovereign, verse 15. For he said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Now we need to learn this. Oh, I pray God to teach us this,
that God is God. He's sovereign. God answers to
no man. God does not have to give an
account of his matters to you and me. Nobody has the right
to ask God, what are you doing? God does as he pleases. Now it
is the character of God to be merciful. It's the character
of God to be loving. But don't ever forget this, it's
the character of God to be sovereign. It's the character of God to
be holy. He'll do what's right. If God shows mercy, it must be
sovereign mercy. If God shows mercy to the likes
of you and me, it must be because he satisfied his justice in the
person of his son. God will show mercy to whom he
will, and that can never be unfair. Now let me give you just a, you
try to give an example of what God's doing, and it's never up
to par. It's a very trite example, but
let me give you this example. Suppose You're taking a walk
one day after a summer rain, and you're going down the sidewalk,
and you see five earthworms out in that sidewalk. Now the sun's
getting ready to come out, and you know what's gonna happen.
Those earthworms are gonna dry up and die on that sidewalk,
aren't they? And you're on your walk, maybe you're walking fast,
trying to keep your heart rate up, you know, and exercise, but
you stop, and you scoop up three of those earthworms and throw
them back in the grass, and you keep walking. Those three earthworms
you picked up did everything they could to get away from you,
but you imposed your will upon them, and you picked them up
and put them in the grass to save their life. Now, there's
two left there on the sidewalk. Were you unfair? Well, no. They're just earthworms. None
of them deserved anything from you. None of them deserved for
you to save their worthless life. You didn't owe any of them anything,
did you? but you save three of them, put them back here in the
grass. Now you magnify that a million times and you'll begin to start
to understand God being merciful to the likes of you and me. God's
not unfair to show mercy to whom he will and give everyone else
the justice they deserve. Nobody can say that's unfair
because nobody deserves God's mercy. Now this is God's purpose. His purpose is the redemption
of His elect people, and those people shall be saved. They shall
be brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God will see to
it. God's sovereign over everything
in His creation. He's sovereign over all men,
and God will use men to accomplish His purpose of the redemption
of His elect. He'll even use wicked men to accomplish His
purpose. And when he deals with them,
he's always just and fair with those vessels of mercy and the
vessels of wrath. Verse 17. For the scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show my power in thee, 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. Now God raised this wicked man
Pharaoh. He raised him up to be the most
powerful man on the planet for one reason. So God's name would
be glorified when God killed him at the Red Sea. That's why
God raised him up to power. Now that was God's purpose. Was
God unfair to Pharaoh? Huh, was he? You've just been
studying it. How many times did Pharaoh hear
from God? I mean, this thing didn't just
come out of the wild blue, did it? How many times did Pharaoh
hear from God? And every time he heard from
God, what does Scripture say Pharaoh did? Pharaoh hardened
his heart. He refused to bow. He refused
to obey. He refused to let God's people
go. Then Scripture says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God
wasn't unfair, was he? God just left Pharaoh alone and
gave him what he wanted. And when God gave Pharaoh what
he wanted, he killed his firstborn and then killed Pharaoh at the
Red Sea. God gave Pharaoh just exactly what he deserved. Can
anybody say God was unfair? No, no. See, election is God
being God. Now I wanna show you in just
a few minutes here, let me give you a few other things that the
Bible teaches about election. First election is God's greatest
glory. You remember after Moses led
the children of Israel out of Egypt, he led them there in the
wilderness, he went up to the mountain, he was with God, and
after everything Moses, all the plagues, everything that happened
at the Red Sea, all how God provided for his people, he'd seen all
those things. Pharaoh asked, God show me your
glory. Would you show me, yeah, these
things were impressive, but show me your glory, your true glory. What did God say? He said the
verse that the Apostle Paul quotes here in Romans 9. Moses, I'm
gonna show you my glory. I'm gonna make my name pass before
you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'll show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. Sovereign electing mercy. is
God's greatest glory. Then it's election that guarantees
the salvation of God's people. Our Lord said in Matthew 24 verse
31, he shall send his angels with a great sound of trumpet
and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds. The only way anybody will ever
be in heaven is if God chose to save them and then sent his
son to do it. and everyone that God elected
to salvation shall be saved. They will be in heaven. Then
election guarantees justification. Romans 8, 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who? It's God that justifieth. Now we can't make ourselves without
sin. That's what justified means. It means to be without sin. But
we can't make ourselves without sin, because all we are is sin.
If we would be made without sin, God's got to choose to make us
that way. And God didn't choose a people
because they were good. No, he chose a people who were
sinful and evil. He chose to make them good. Ephesians
1 says, God chose a people, not because they were holy, but that
they should be holy and without blame before him in love. Election
guarantees justification. The intellection guarantees,
it produces, a kind, humble, forgiving attitude. Colossians
3, verse 12, put on, therefore, as the elect of God. If you're
the elect of God, you put this on. Bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. If God shows me
anything about his amazing kindness, that God would choose to save
someone like me, I believe I'd be kind to you. I believe I can. Then election produces a missionary,
evangelical spirit. Paul told Timothy in 2 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." Believing
in election did not kill Paul's evangelical spirit, did it? The
Apostle Paul believed in God's electing love, and it didn't
make him say, oh, well, you know, whoever can be saved, be saved,
because God elected them, so there's nothing I need to do
about it. No believing in election made the apostle willing to go
preach the gospel anywhere, to endure, he says, all things,
to endure hatred and beatings and shipwreck, ultimately getting
his life taken from him because he knew this. Brethren, we cannot
fail in preaching the gospel. If we preach God's gospel, we
can never fail because God is going to save his people. Now, as clearly as I can, that's
what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of election. Now, let me ask you this. There's
always a response to the gospel. How should we react to hearing
about what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of election?
You know, people say, well, if I believed in election, I wouldn't
bother worshiping. I wouldn't bother asking God
for mercy God's already determined what he's gonna do, so what does
it matter? If God's gonna save me, he's gonna save me. If not,
if not, so I'll just sit here on the front porch and see if
lightning strikes. Well, I understand that that's
the logic of natural man, but you gotta remember this. The
natural man's understanding is darkened. So whatever the natural
man reasons is always gonna be wrong. What does the Bible say
how we should react to the doctrine of election? We'll look at Matthew
chapter 15. This is one of my favorite encounters
that the Lord has with a poor sinner. Matthew 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
in the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came, besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. This poor woman was in great
need, wasn't she? Oh, her daughter was so grievously
vexed, and she came begging the Lord for help. And he didn't
answer her a single word. And when he did answer, finally,
look what he said, verse 24. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent but into the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This
is what the Lord told her. I'm only come to have mercy upon
my elect. The doctrine of election. How did she respond to that?
How would you respond to that? She responded in worship and
begging for mercy, verse 25. Then came she and worshiped him,
saying, Lord, help me, help me. Hearing of the doctrine of election
ought to make us worship, ought to make us bow in worship and
beg God for mercy. God's gonna show mercy to someone.
Then I begged, Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me because
I don't deserve it. Lord, choose me or I'll never
choose you first. Lord, I need you to do something
for me that I cannot do for myself. The only way you and I will ever
bow in true worship is to meet the sovereign who does what he
will. And we can't influence him to
do anything. That is the only way we'll ever
worship and that's the only way we'll ever beg. When she met
the Lord of election, she bowed and worshiped and she begged
him for mercy. But even then, look what the
Lord said, verse 26. But he answered and said, it's
not me. It's not right for me to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. He's saying I should waste my
time on a dog like you. That's pretty insulting, isn't
it? Calling you and me a dog is an
insult to dogs everywhere. By nature, we're just a maggot,
just a worthless maggot. And our Lord tells her, I've
only come for my elect children, and only my elect. She came to
the right place, she came to the right person, she said all
the right things, and the Lord says, I'm only coming for my
elect. And then he called her a dog. Well, does that make her
leave? Does that make her say, well,
you know, I'll just, you know, leave? How did she react to meeting
the sovereign Lord of election? She responded by acknowledging
the truth, the truth of who she is and the truth of who the master
is, verse 27. And she said, truth, Lord, what
you said is truth. Everything you say is true. You
are the truth. Yet the dogs, eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Lord, you are the master,
you're right. You're the master and I'm the
dog, and I'm not asking you for what I deserve. I don't deserve
anything from you, but I'm just begging you for some crumbs.
Lord, you're so rich in mercy and grace. I'm just begging you
for a few crumbs. But you know dogs who eat crumbs
from our master's table at a feast, don't they? Verse 28. Then Jesus
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. You see, election never keeps
anyone from coming to Christ, does it? That's the only way
anyone will come to Christ. God chose them first. And God
draws them always to the Savior, always to the Savior. They don't
come because they know they're one of the elect. If I could stop you from making
the same mistake that I made, would you give me a minute? I
grew up hearing this gospel. From the time I understood language,
I was taught this gospel. Brother Henry said of me one
time, he said, Frank could go down the stairs backwards on
his head at midnight and quote the five points of Calvinism.
And that was true. And I spent years looking in
scripture, trying to find some way, and asking God, show me
I'm one of your elect. No one ever comes to Christ because
they know they're one of the elect. People come to Christ
because they're a sinner. He is the savior of sinners. You come to him. Right now where
you sit, you come to him. You beg him for mercy. You know
what you'll find out? You'll find out, oh, he chose
me long before I chose him. He knew my name long before I
knew his name. He drew me long before I knew
anything about it. I came to him because I was a
sinner. My dad used to tell me, this is the experience of everyone
who ever comes to Christ. It's like going through a doorway.
On this side of the doorway, it says, come unto me all ye
that thirst and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. You say,
that's for me. I'm going through that door.
I'm coming to him. And then you go through it and you turn around
the other side of the door, it says, I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, loving kindness have I drawn you. Sinner, come
to Christ. He's the savior of sinners. All
right, I pray the Lord bless that to you.