to return back in your Bibles
to Ephesians 1. We'll be looking at Ephesians
1 as well as Deuteronomy 7 today as we work on the next important
head of doctrine which constitutes the gospel of your salvation
and mine for everyone who ever comes to believe the gospel.
That is the doctrine of election. of God's electing love in Jesus
Christ, a doctrine that must be understood in order for you
to enjoy the security that is yours in Jesus. The gospel of
your salvation, part six, he chose us in him. There are four
questions, children of God, that you must be able to raise and
answer adequately in order to properly represent the gospel. There are four questions that
you must be able to raise and answer adequately in order for
you to properly represent the gospel. The first question that
you have to be able to raise and answer is the question of
who? Who? Who is it that saves us? Who does the saving? That's a critical question because
as I have shared with many of you for years, much of our religious
world operates under a whole set of assumptions already. And we often enter into dialogue
and conversation around Christian things. under the assumption
that people have a right understanding of the gospel, only to come to
find out that often they don't. And that's because the premise
upon which their understanding of the gospel is given is flawed. And so we must, when addressing
the issue of what actually constitutes our salvation, raise four questions. Who does the saving? And the answer is God. God saved
us. That's a very important truth
that you must get a handle on. The salvation that you and I
experience by the grace of God, if we are saved, is God's salvation. It's not yours. And it's not
mine. And it's not ours. It's God's. So you have to be able to answer
that question. And the first verse that I would have you to
grapple with and comprehend is 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8 and
9 where the Apostle Paul is speaking to Timothy. about being afraid
and fearful of the consequences of preaching the truth, because
when you preach the truth of the gospel, you suffer for it.
But the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 verse 8, he says,
Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. The
concept of testimony of our Lord is the same as the gospel. Do
not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the blessings of the gospel." Is
that what it says? Be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. As our Master said, if you suffer
with me, you will reign with me. That's the only way you reign
with Christ is to suffer with Him. If you avert suffering,
you have failed to comprehend the manner in which God glorifies
Himself in your salvation as He did with your master. Be thou
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Do you know it takes grace to
suffer for Christ? Do you know that? Do you know
it takes grace to take hits for Jesus? It takes a lot of grace
for you to be able to stand In the stead of your master when
people who don't like your master begin to hurl Assaults against
him and you got to take him for him Well, he took him for you
And then he gave you the power to take him for him And so every
true believer that's properly taught the gospel realizes. Hey
christ called me to suffering He called me to take hits for
him as he took hits for me She's mutual, isn't it? And so it goes
on to say to be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of what? The subject is God Mark the next
verse who? saved us Do you see it who? saved us God saved us God saved
us and God called us with a holy calling and Not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace Which was
gifted to us in Christ Jesus Before the world began who saved
us God saved us Titus chapter 3 verse 5 Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. Have you been persuaded of that
child of God? I Have you been persuaded that your works will
never work? They didn't before you were saved.
They didn't after you were saved. That your works doesn't cleanse
your conscience and make you guilt-free before God? That the
only thing that can make you comfortable in the presence of
a holy God is the work that he did for you in Jesus? Thus, without
faith, it's impossible what? And that's a work of God in your
life. Listen to what he says. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his what? We're going to come
back to that because there are a lot of folks think that they
deserve to be saved because of something they did. Are you guys
following me? Do you know, however, that if
you really believe that God must do something for you because
you did something for him, it's no longer mercy. Mercy is when
you lay your naked soul abandoned to the presence of God. asking
him to do something for you that you don't deserve. So when you
bring your works to God and say, God, save me, because the whole
condition of your salvation changes from mercy to merit. And this is why we deny the idea
that man can be saved by his action, saved by his decision,
saved by his deeds, saved by his work. We deny it because
it destroys mercy. Now God saved us according to
his mercy. Who saved us? God did. By the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The net consequence
of him saving us is that we were born again. And so the Bible
is clear, ladies and gentlemen. We've got to be able to answer
that question. Answer that question. Who saved us? God saved us. Romans
chapter 9 verse 16, I'll be coming back to that too. But the Apostle
Paul explaining in chapter 9 the doctrine of election that we're
going to be dealing with today and next week, this one chapter
that he lays out very clearly as to what election is, he says,
so then, after drawing his conclusion, so then, it is not of him that
run it, nor of him that will it, but of God that showeth mercy. Is that what the text say? Y'all
better pull your Bibles out and read it because our folks up
there are slow on that. Romans chapter 9 verse 16 tells us,
so then it is not of him that run it, nor of him that will
it. And these two components are
critical in your salvation, running and willing. We're going to talk
about that in a minute. But your salvation in mind has
its origin in the God who shows mercy. Are you hearing me ladies
and gentlemen, so the first question to be answered is the question
of who? The next question to be answered is the question of
how? If I am sure that God saved me now the question I want to
answer is how did he save me? And he saved you and I by the
death burial and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ. That
was the means God the father is the one who saves us and God
the son is the one by whom the father saves us and he saves
us by the death burial and resurrection of Christ Christ becomes the
means of our salvation. Do you guys see that the how
of our salvation is Jesus father? How did you save us? I saved
you by my son's sacrifice on Calvary Street Y'all got that
I want to make sure you got it now because you got to be able
to witness to people in this generation of ignorance. You
gotta know who saved you. You gotta know how he saved you.
How did he save me? By the death, burial, and resurrection
of his darling son, Jesus Christ, when he died on Calvary's tree
as my substitute, representative, and surety, taking the place
of my sin-bound soul as a sacrifice. And by his death, he set me free,
justified me before the bar of justice, and brought me into
the presence of God. Can you say that? 1st Peter chapter
3 verse 18 the just for the unjust That he might bring us to God
now. Let's just find out who the just
is It's Christ For the unjust now, who are they? The just for
that's called the doctrine of representation or substitution
the just for me Just for me in order to bring me to God The
death of Christ brought me to God. How did I get into the presence
of God? How did I come into a Coram Dale
state? How did my mind become awakened to the reality of this
glorious true God? Christ brought me there. He went
a long way to find a dead soul, quickened him and put him on
his shoulders and brought him to the Father and said, Father,
here he is. Open his eyes and give him life
and faith in me and cause him to live for my glory. That's
how God does it. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses
1 through 4. The Apostle Paul makes it very
clear what our salvation is. He says it over in 1 Corinthians
15. And you might as well learn some of these verses so that
you can explain the gospel carefully to men and women. After all,
you say you are a child of God. The thing you must know is the
gospel. Don't tell somebody that you're
a child of God and you can't explain the gospel. You better
sit down and learn it. You better get the gospel right.
The gospel is your life. It's your message. It's the purpose
for your existence. God has saved you to tell somebody
about Christ, and you better be able to do it according to
the book. You know what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15
verses 1 through 4, dealing with a church that was getting all
jacked up in their theology. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the what? Which I have preached unto you
before which also you have received in wherein you stand See we stand
only on the claims of the gospel verse 2 by which also you are
what? How did God save me by the gospel? If you ever stop being excited
about the gospel kick yourself Kick yourself Kick yourself. Now, I know that's hard to do,
but we'll pray for you. Kick yourself. Because the gospel
is the reason for which heaven celebrates sinners who come to
know God. You and I are saved by the gospel,
and then Paul explains that. Here he says, by which also you
are saved if you keep in memory, that is, retain by believing
what I have preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
The warning in verse 2 is, there are a lot of people who start
off hearing the gospel, rejoicing in the gospel, but over time
they leave the gospel. Have you ever met those folks?
Verse three, for I deliver unto you first of all that which also
I received. And now I want you to mark the
next word. It's in the King James. It should be in your Bibles because
this is the instrumental means by which God the Father actually
delivered our souls from his wrath. How? That Christ died
for our sins. How did God save us? By the death
of Christ. for our sins according to the
what? That means from Genesis to Revelation,
the whole Bible is about how God saved us. How he saved us? By the death of Christ according
to the scriptures. Now watch this. And that he was buried
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We answer the question who God
saved us. We answer the question how he saved us by the death
of Jesus Christ. Christ becomes for us the instrumental
means by which God actually secures our salvation in the whole scope
of our redemption. We see it here. I close out with
Matthew chapter 121 again, and they shall call his name Jesus. Not because it's a cute Hebrew
name, but because inherent in the name Jesus is salvation. And I told you last week, salvation
is not just what God does, it's who he is. Salvation is not just
what God does. Salvation is who he is. You know
how you are who you are? And people sometimes want you
to be something else, but you are who you are. Is that right? And you know what you got to
tell the world? This is who I am. Accept it. I get on with your
life. God is who he is. And the reason why people are
saved is because it's in his nature to save. It's part of
his essence to save. It's part of his attribute and
characteristic. He is Jehovah, our salvation. He saves because it's intrinsic
to His nature. Just as we learned atonement
was intrinsic to His nature, right? God is a God who is just
and also forgiving at the same time. That's His glory. We'll
be going back there again today. And what I'm saying to you, ladies
and gentlemen, is that when God saves people, He is manifesting
an aspect of His own ontological nature. He's investing himself
in the salvation of those he brings to himself. This is not
an issue of God simply doing something. It's totally consistent
with who he is by nature. Who saves us? God saves us. How
does he save us? He saves us by his sons, Jesus
Christ, and the atoning work of which Christ accomplished
at Calvary. Here's the next question you must answer. When did he
save us? Now, this one is important. You've
been hearing this over the series. You've been hearing these things
over the series. I've broken them up in the pattern in which
I have broken them up is so that you don't get locked up into
systems. When did God actually save us? When did we experientially
experience the salvation of the Lord? When did the dynamic occur
where God brought you from death to life, where he opened your
eyes, opened your ears, where God changed your heart, where
he raised you from the dead, where he caused you to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, when he made you born
again. That's when you were actually
experientially saved. When God quickened you through
the preaching of the gospel and you saw Christ like you never
saw him before. When God broke your heart over
your sin and you begin to feel the weight of your guilt before
God and you had come to know that the only way this guilt
can be removed is by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how you
went to church all those years and played church and the Word
of God never penetrated your heart and you still live like
hell? and there was no guilt in your
conscience until one day. Isn't that what we said a few
weeks ago? And the hour is coming and now
is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear shall what? Live. There was a day when you
couldn't hear God. You just planned church. Or running the street like many
of us. Running from God. But in his mercy, he hunted you
down, found you in that dark hole like Osama bin Laden. Running from God, I told you,
you are a fugitive. You can run, but you can't hide.
Even the darkness is light with God. He made the hole you hid
in. And he hunted you down on time.
And he caught up with you at the right time. God's never late
or early. He's right on time. You better rejoice. How great
the day of salvation was when God got a hold of your soul and
brought you to life. The first time you really felt
your sin, the first time you really felt your sin, cried out
to God for real. That was the first day you prayed
in your life. You never had prayed before,
hooping and hollering and going on. And then one day the Spirit
of God reached down and said, pray, sinner, pray. You remember that, don't you?
You remember and you remember how good it was to actually be
honest with God. Because He showed up in the mediator
of your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the glorious grace
and mercy of His redemption and overtures, and all you could
do was say yes to Christ. Then you're like a little baby,
said, Lord, help a brother, help a sister. I can't do it on my
own. I need you, God. I need you,
God. Here, I'll tell you, God will
extract the confession out of you. God will get you to glorify His
name. and every one of his know how to do it, don't we? We don't
mind telling the world I'm a sinner, a hell-bound sinner, but God
had mercy on me. All these religious folks want
to kind of clean themselves up, put fig leaves on. I told you
those fig leaves going to dry up. Then what you going to do? When the fig leaves dry up, now
your tail hanging out again. I thank God he clothed me in
his righteousness, filled me with his spirit, Secured me for
eternity any good any good The who is God the how is the
death of Christ the wind is when the gospel came in power It pleased
God through the foolishness of preaching to save those that
are believing He uses the means of preaching by the way, those
of you who've gotten so smart and your intellectualism and
Don't forget he uses the same means by which he saved you long
ago today. Because see, we get saved and
we get to thinking something else. We get stupider sometimes
when we get saved. But the very power of the gospel
that raised you from the dead and caused you to realize your
hopeless condition many years ago is what God is using today
to save people. That's why daily you pray for
the gospel to be successful. You pray for the success of the
gospel because God must enter into his own message and cause
it to penetrate the soul. He alone can enter into the rim
of a man's being and bring life to them. No human being can do
it. No amount of preaching, teaching, articulation, giftedness can
actually reach the soul. Only God can save the soul. Only God can save the soul. Listen
to me, ladies and gentlemen. Only God can save the soul. And when he saves it, you know
it. You know it. This is a new day when he saves
you. This is a new day. You still got troubles, but your
troubles today are way better than your troubles before being
saved. Am I telling the truth? You still got troubles because
you got a little ways to go. But you've got to be able to
communicate biblical truth in a way that represents God, honors
his word, because only truth can save people. Okay? It's very
important. Who saved us? God saved us. How
did he save us? By the death of his son, Jesus Christ. When
did he save us? When the gospel came and power
and raised us from the dead and we began to see God's glory very
clearly. But now the question is why?
Which is going to bring us into our seven points for today. Okay? That's where we are. So now,
why did God save you? Be careful. Why did he save you? Because
God's not saving everybody. I don't care what you think. Everyone's not going to be in
glory. See now, if you get there, if
you get there, When you show up in glory, there are going
to be folks there that you thought for sure wasn't going to make
it. I promise you. I promise you. There are going to be folks there
that you thought for sure weren't going to make it, and you don't
even want them to be there. Oh, pastor, I want everybody
to be there. You better stop right there. Stop right there.
Now remember, you're saved by grace. You say that so you don't
have to lie anymore. You know, we get religious and
you know, I hear people say this. Do you know I hear people actually
say, pastor, I love everybody. Do y'all hear folks say that?
And I say, now you better stop. You better stop. See, the older
I get, I like dealing with honest people. I'm smarter than, I'm
smart enough to know when you're lying and you don't even know
it. So I'm patient with you. But if you're lying and I know
you know you're lying, I'm going to tell you right there to your
face because I'm getting old. And it don't you know, you get
a certain age and it just, you know, we already know human nature,
don't we? We already know human nature.
Men are liars from the womb. You get ready to learn that about
yourself in a minute. But but see here, listen. So, you know,
you better get the gospel right so you can tell people. If you
offend them today, they may shake your hand a year from now say
my brother my sister I'm so glad you told me the truth, even though
I hated you for it. It's the means by which God brought
me to himself Better start telling folk the truth. You don't love
people if you let them go to hell because you agree with them You listen you do not love people
if you let them go to hell because you agree with them and God didn't
make you that way when he made you born again and When God made
you born again, He didn't make you to go around like a silly
little, what we call, play-doh. You know that little play-doh
stuff? Where people can shape you and mold you into their own
image. Today this, tomorrow that, the
next day. No, God made you in His image and His likeness. And
you know what that is? He made you a man, a woman of
God, who is called to tell people the truth. And see, you're not
happy until you're telling people the truth. Isn't that so? Even though it hurts and it caused
you to cry because folk get mad at you, still inside you know
this is what you know. I was made to do this. I was
made to tell people the truth. That's what we meant earlier
when Paul said to Timothy, be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Because God knows that the end of a thing is better
than the beginning thereof. You know how you make people
mad today, but a year from now you guys may be very good friends?
That's our hope when we share the gospel with people. Is that
right? The question why is where we are as we deal with the doctrine
of God's eternal election. A glorious truth critical to
your salvation. Why did God save anyone? Because he chose them in the
person of his son Jesus Christ before the world began in order
that they might glorify him for his grace. Why did God save me? Because He chose me in Christ. Ephesians chapter 1. That's our
first point. The doctrine of election, ladies
and gentlemen, explains for us why God saves us. Why He saves us. It's the why
of our salvation. It's not the how. It's not the
when. but it's the why of our salvation.
And it resolves for us how it is that an individual who in
our own experience, our own observation, may be better than us, but for
some reason God didn't save them, he saved me. And it will cause
you to struggle internally if you try to determine your salvation
based on your own person. But if we've already resolved
that our salvation is not based on works, then we can get past
the idea that God saved you because you were special. Which is the other philosophy
in our present culture that I labor to demolish because it steals
God's glory. Your specialness, as we are going
to see, does not originate in you. Y'all all right with that? She say people don't have a problem
with saying this. I'm not special he is See the
world makes you special The people of God make God special Christ
makes the Father special the Holy Ghost makes Christ special
and we make the Father Son and the Holy Ghost Special and we
make this salvation that we have experienced special I'm only
special because he's special You guys got that? So now let's
read a little bit more on this doctrine of election so that
we can kind of get it into our essence. The apostle Paul says
to the church at Ephesus these words in verses 1 through verse
4, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the will of God
to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now here's the verse. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Do you see that? The blessings come in correspondence
to His having chosen you in Him, hence the title of our message.
He chose us in Him. You guys got that? He, that is
God, chose us, that is the believer, in Him, that's His Son. He, the
Father, chose us, the believer, in Him, that's Christ. I'm gonna
say it one more time for you to get it, so that you don't
steal God's glory in the doctrine of election. He chose us in Him. Isn't that glorious? See, this
is what I meant a little earlier, just in case you got the clouds
going up with the light bulbs and the questions and all that stuff.
The reason why God saved you is because He chose you. But
He didn't choose you for you He chose you for Him. This is
why you gotta learn about Him. Because it's the Him that's the
key to your salvation. Who is the Him? Christ, the Father's
darling Son. He placed you in Christ. And
because He placed you in Christ, all that Christ is, all that
Christ did, all that Christ will ever do accrues to you because
you were in Him. Got that? God before the world
began. What a glorious concept. Do you
see the text? There are three aspects of it
in your outline that fully address this. I briefly address this
in our point number two. He chose us in him. He chose
us in him. Who chose us? God. God is the
source. Where did he choose us? In Christ. That's the sphere
in the rim where God chose us. He chose us in his son. When
did he choose us? Before the world began Do you
guys see that? Is that what the text say? Is
that what your Bible say? I want you to grasp that now
because the implications of that statement mean a lot with regards
to your salvation We're working this through if you believe the
doctrine of election and the doctrine of election is taught
in virtually every book of the Bible The concept of election
is taught in virtually every book of the Bible So while you
are going to churches where there are men and women and churches
and denominations who reject the gospel of God's sovereign
grace and they would redefine election, in ways that make it
ultimately something you do. Let me help you understand something.
That when you read your Bible carefully, ladies and gentlemen,
you discover that God calls whom He wills, saves whom He wills,
and uses whom He wills. And guess what else you discover
in the Scripture? He doesn't explain Himself. Why would He choose Abel and
not Cain? Why would he choose Jacob and
not Esau? Why would he choose Peter and
not Judas Iscariot? Why would he choose the nation
of Israel and none of the other pagan nations of the world? You
only have I known out of all the nations of the earth. Why
would he choose you and not your neighbor? Election based upon
his prerogative to save you in the person of his son Jesus Christ.
Now let me help you understand the motive behind his choosing
you. Are you ready? He chose you in Christ because
he loved you. Because he loved you. Are you
hearing me? He chose you because he loved
you, not because you were lovable. He chose you because he loved
you. Ooh, God loves me. That's great, but understand,
God loving you is not the same as you being lovable. We want
to stay rational in this church. All right? Because you're not. You and I are not lovable. We're
selfish. And we don't think God's thoughts
after him. And we don't wake up doing God's
will. And we don't defer to God when we have issues and struggles
and challenges. We try to work them out ourselves.
We generally wait till the last minute to let God in on a thing.
And if I can solve it before letting God in, I will. And if
I have to give him credit for it, I might do that. That's not
love. So don't go around telling people
how much you love God. That's a carnal, earthly love,
and most of us say it's not worth five cents. I'm telling the truth. Am I telling the truth? See,
listen, an honest person is not going to hell. We go to church,
boy, and we end up being so deceitful and hypocritical and saying stuff
that don't work. He loved us. Greater love hath
no man than this, than that he lays down his life for his friend. Earthly relationships are hard
when you are seeking reciprocation from the person you love and
you don't get it. And because we are sinners, we
are inclined not to love them back. You don't love me, I don't
love you back. Aren't you glad that human beings
did not define love. And if I had time, I would develop
the concept of love from a biblical perspective to help you understand
that the vast majority of the love you hear defined or and
demonstrated in the world is not biblical love at all. But
if you want a short order definition of love, God is love. God is love. And because God
is love, when he sets his love on you, he does not wait for
you to love him back before he loves you with an everlasting
love and then exercises all the powers of that love to deliver
your soul from a hateful condition and bring you into the bosom
of his presence. He loved us. We didn't love him. Am I making some sense? Listen
to the text. It's very important for you to
get this. Election is the reason why God saved us. He, the Father,
chose us in the Son before the world began. That means there
was nothing here, not even us. Man, that's a huge God to choose
you in Christ before you existed. I'm going to tell you in a moment
why. According as he chose us in him
before the world began From the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame Before him where in love
go with me now back to Deuteronomy 7. I want you to see it very
clearly there Why did he choose us? Because he loved us For many of us the love of God
is really only defined by in terms of his saving mercy and
grace. For many of us, ladies and gentlemen,
we really don't, as it were, spread God's love all around
to every human being and every individual. I know a lot of you
do. I love you still. But I know y'all tell God loves
everybody. I know I hear you say it. God
loves everybody. He loves you. He loves you. But now if God loved you, and
let you go to hell. And then he loved the next person
and saw to it that they made it to glory. Wouldn't you have
a problem with God's love towards you? Give me the answer. Be honest. Be honest. Stay with me for a moment. Will
you hear me? Here you are burning in a devil's
hell under the wrath of God for your sin. But God loved you Christ
died for you, but God didn't make all the necessary resources
available to snatch you out of your eternal damnation You inhale
an object of God's love Other folks are in heaven objects of
God's love That's absurd It makes no rational sense What good was
God's love to you? I? If God's love didn't actually
deliver you from a situation you couldn't deliver yourself
from, what good is that love? Will somebody help me understand
why we would assert that God's love is the same for everybody,
though multitudes go to hell? Well, pastor, because they didn't
choose God. You didn't either. Well, pastor, they didn't come
to God. You didn't either. They didn't receive Jesus as
their Lord and Savior. You didn't either? Yes, I did. No, you didn't. He chose you. He received you. He quickened
you. He called you. He filled your
heart with faith. He filled your heart with love.
He filled your heart with believing. And then he opened your mouth
and made you say yes. Am I telling the truth? See, what we're doing as we are
teaching the gospel appropriately is making sure that the people
at grace do not ever compromise it or steal His glory. It's all
of God's grace. All of His grace. Here's how
God says it in Deuteronomy 7, and this is going to make it
even a little bit more plain. And you can apply this to yourself
because what applied to the Old Testament Church applies to the
New Testament Church. What applied to the Saints in
the Old Testament applies to the Saints in the New Testament.
Your Old Testament Bible is a foreshadow of the New Testament. New Testament
is reality of the old. Are y'all hearing me? God saves
all his people alike. From the beginning of time to
the end of time, God has saved us all alike. Abraham's salvation
was no different than mine. You understand that? The last
person to be saved on planet Earth was saved the same way
God saved Adam. covered his naked soul with coats
of skin because he had killed a lamb and told Adam to trust
in the blood of the lamb that he killed until your master comes.
His name is Jesus. Adam had to walk by faith. Abel
had to walk by faith. Noah had to walk by faith. Methuselah
had to walk by faith. Abraham had to walk by faith.
Jacob, Isaac, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, all of them had to walk
by faith. The revelation of God's glory
in Christ. Are you guys hearing me? Have to walk by faith. Here's what God says. I want
you to get this is beautiful Now see only true believers can take
the Word of God unadulterated and raw So I'm trusting that
you children of God good God getting ready to hit you upside
your head. I Mean, that's what he does. Sometimes it hurts doesn't
it? I But I'm like Peter and I'm
like John and I'm like James in John chapter 6. Lord, where
should we go? You have the words of life. You
can hit us upside the head, just don't let us go. Listen to it. This is what he told Israel in
Deuteronomy chapter 7 so that they could get it. He told them
in verse 6, you are a holy people unto the Lord. Are we? That means
he set us apart. The Lord your God hath what?
Chosen you. There's the doctrine of election.
Here's the purpose for which he chose you to be a special
people unto himself got that So don't any longer go around
being a common person You are special to the Lord because he
chose you he called you the word special there doesn't mean 5150 It means precious precious You
know, you need that in the day of your infirmity, don't you?
Because most people in the world don't care much about you. But
you can handle life's difficulties when you remember that God has
saw you as special in his eyes. That's because he has a purpose
for you. Hang in there with me. Learn some things. Watch it now.
You're special people above all the people that are upon the
face of the earth. Here it is. And I want you to get these three
verses. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose
you, because you were more in number than any people. See,
in other words, God doesn't set his approval on numbers. Yeah,
you see these folks with these big 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 congregations. Look at all those people that
God loves. No, stop short of that. Look at all those people. Got
that? Look at all those people. Look
at all those people. You must understand that God
doesn't love people according to numbers. For God, one is just
as special as a billion. Are you hearing me? One is just
as special as a billion. The whole heavens rejoice at
one sinner that repents. I'm talking about the whole of
heaven. The whole place rocks, starting with the Father and
the Son and the Spirit of God. And all the angels just go off
in absolute bliss at one sinner that repents. See, that's God's
economy. He's not into numbers. He ain't
get no interest on more souls that he gets. That's how we do
it in our U.S. economy. God doesn't get compound
interest in the saving of souls It's just one Here one there
one in the other place and God loves one as he loves them all
Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Because they were all placed
in his son Whom he really loves and Here's the point God's love
towards you. It's not a direct love. I Know that hurts But I want
to teach this doctrine so thoroughly to you that you can articulate
it to anybody else. There are three things we try
to achieve at Grace when we teach and preach the gospel. First
and foremost, we try to achieve helping you get a really good
handle on your Bible. Because people can learn doctrine
and actually not know how to communicate it biblically. You
go to church and they can teach you doctrine, but you can't actually
execute the development of that doctrine through the scriptures
because you really didn't learn the scriptures. So we seek to teach
people how to understand the Word of God, how to see it in
its continuum, how to understand it in its breadth and scope,
how to see the unity of biblical truth running through the whole
of scripture so that you can handle the Word of God carefully
as you tell men and women, thus saith the Lord. Y'all got that?
The second thing that we want to do when we teach is to make
sure that you understand that the centrality of our message
is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Lo, I come and the volume
of the book is written of who? That means this book is not about
you and me. So when you come to a gospel church, you are learning
about what Jesus did. That's what we're doing. We're
teaching you how to handle the Word of God, how to understand
the Gospel, and therefore, finally, to be able to communicate it
to others passionately and effectively because of its impact in your
own life. Most of us know that one of the difficulties we have
is communicating the Gospel to people because we don't understand
it well. That's what we labor to do at
this church. Help you understand that the
gospel is everything to God because it reveals his glory in Jesus
Christ to those who will believe on him. So here's my point. God
loves you, but he only loves you in a secondary way. He loves
you through Christ. He loves you through his darling
son. The love of God for you, child of God, who have experienced
the grace of God, is because he loved his son. Is that okay?
That's why he chose you in Christ before the world began. Let me
help you understand something. He loves Christ because Christ
is lovable. There go the lovable one. There
goes the lovable one. There's the one for which the
father says I am well pleased in whom I am delighted My soul
is happy because of him and it just so happens to be that you
were in him So the love of the father towards his son pours
off on you Boy, you are a blessed soul You are a blessed soul You
are blessed because the father loves you for Christ's sake Got
that? Listen to it. Watch how the language
goes. He says, the Lord did not set his love on you because you
were more in number than any people for you were the fewest
of all people. I love that. Because again, in our American
Western thinking, we often think that God needs great numbers
to get lots of things done. He almost always does the opposite. He can save with few or many.
He can save with one. Am I making some sense to you?
So you and I have to divest ourselves of all of these false refuges
and these false methods and these false assurances that are propped
up in our culture because they really don't have a gospel that
comes down from heaven. Now this is important for you
to know because when you actually begin to see God work, you can
thank him for the way he works, because he works one by one.
God is not so insecure in his nature that he needs to do big
old things in order for him to feel good. If you read the Lord
Jesus Christ carefully through the Gospels when he did ministry,
here's what you will know. Very seldom did Jesus do any
fantastic things in the presence of the crowd. He would heal people
by taking them away from the crowd. He would minister the
Gospel to people personally and privately. He would admonish
the whole group. But see, he wasn't there for
personal aggrandizement, and neither is the father. That's
why he says, if you pray in secret, I will manifest your prayers
in secret in public. Because God's different than
you and I. You and I want some kind of glory and some kind of
acknowledgment every time we sneeze. Watch this. That's why I never
do it. When I'm out in public and somebody
goes, I never, ever, ever say, God bless you. Now watch this. You don't have
to be like me. I know I'm mean. You don't have
to be like me. You don't have to be like me.
But when I don't respond to their sneezing, they look like, aren't
you going to say God bless you? No. No. Why should I bless you? Because you sneezed. Are you
that special? Make sure my brother don't get
out of hand over there. When we use the term God's blessing,
God bless you, do you understand how important that term is? We
just flip it around. God bless you. God bless you.
God bless you. God bless you. Stop saying all that. Just stop saying
it. Just start thinking. Because
religious folk don't think. They just act. Are you hearing
me? Religious folk don't think. They
just act. They have no idea where the term
God bless you come from and why they're saying it. God bless
you. God bless you. Listen, be careful when you use it. If it's
an evangelical tool, OK. If it's really meant with sincerity
upon a situation that corresponds to the necessity of saying, God
bless you, OK. But don't just let it come out
your mouth. That means you addicted to religious phraseology. That's
just another addictive behavior pattern. You know how folks just
go, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. What you saying amen
to? What's all that about? I'm telling some truth today.
Am I telling truth? Because religious folk get all jacked up, don't
they? And then I watch this. And after it's over with, you
really are struggling on the inside. Now, why did I say that?
They didn't even respond appropriately. And I'll tell you why they don't
respond appropriately. It's because we have done so
much exhibitional religion, so much churchianity, so much of
the external religiosity that come out of our mouth and our
actions. And we aren't living half right. So they see how you
live and then they watch what you do and they go, I don't want
to hear it. So don't tell it to them. Start being authentic. The door may open up when you
keep your mouth shut when they sneeze. Sir, I noticed that you didn't
say anything when I sneezed. Could you tell me what that's
about? You don't believe in God? Oh, I do believe in God. And
I'm glad you asked me. So here's what our Lord says. And I want you to grasp this.
I got about 10 more minutes. The Lord didn't set his love
upon you, nor choose you. And I want you to tie love and
election together. Because you were more in number,
are better than other people, are larger than other people.
But you were few, small in God's eyes. But because the Lord loved
you. But that's the answer. Lord, how come you love me? Because
he loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he swore unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Do you mark, ladies
and gentlemen, that when he says he loved you, his love always
does something for you? Did you mark that? See, love
is always active. This is what I'm talking about
in this present generation of this psychobabble love. Love
is not emotional in the biblical theological sense. Love is always
active. Love does stuff. Love never just
sits around and say, oh, how I love you. You can make a lot
of money in R&B songs by using that kind of definition of love,
but it don't get the job done. And I know a lot of ladies are
frustrated with that kind of love. If God ever loved you like
that, you'd be in trouble. Oh, I love you, but not do something
for you. Biblical love knows nothing of
just talking love. It always acts. Love is a verb
and it always responds to the object of that love with its
highest good, exercising all the powers that are at its disposal
to demonstrate and prove to the object of his love, I love you.
God loved you and he chose you and he called you out. He brought
you out. That's how you know. You know
God loves you because you are saved. You know God loves you
because he's keeping you today. You know God loves you because
Christ rose again from the dead for your sins. This is how you
know. Am I making some sense? You know how you have those days
where you don't know if God loves you? That's because you have
taken the point and premise of his love off of Christ, which
is a once for all eternal act for which God sealed his love
towards us and you placed his love now on your circumstances
and how you feel and how you're doing and what you're going through.
You know, life will make you feel like everybody hates you.
And God's love will have never changed. He will have always
consistently loved you the same way He did before He made the
worlds. He'll love you when eternity passed, when eternity future
has ushered in the new heavens and the new earth. His love is
immutable, it's unchangeable, it can't be diminished, it can't
be, as it were, abounding, it can't go beyond that which is
already manifested in the person of His Son. You can settle it
on this, that if Christ died for me, And that is affirmed
by your believing that God's love for you secures you for
all eternity. All you have to do is continue
to grow in that love. With the children of Israel, he made it
clear to them that he didn't choose them for them, but he
chose them for their fathers. Listen. Know therefore that the
Lord thy God, he is God, a faithful God, which keeps covenant and
mercy with them that what? Love him and keep his commandments
to a thousand generations. I looked at that verse and said,
Lord, but look at those knuckleheads, the very people that he's talking
to. They're not keeping his commandments, but the Lord loved them. But
that verse is not talking about his love for them because of
what they did. It's talking about his love for
them because of what Abraham did and what Isaac did and what
Jacob did. The love that the Father has
for these children of Israel at the brink of crossing over
Jordan is because he kept faithful covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And in the same fashion, the
reason why God loves us is because Christ kept all God's commandments. And therefore, God loves us to
the thousandth generation. Did you get that? Did you get
that God is responding to the perfect obedience and commandment
keeping of his son Jesus Christ as Abraham obeyed God Isaac obeyed
God Jacob obeyed God by going into the land of promise and
holding on to the gospel so that he blessed their children So
our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed all the will of his father and
because of that God keeps covenant mercy He saves us according to
his covenant purpose Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? That'll
get you out of a lot of trouble. Let's look at one more point
and we'll close. Come back here later. In our outline, point
number three, this is very important. The whole concept of election
can be wrapped up in this one truth. Although there are many
things to be said about election, ladies and gentlemen. Election
simply means that God chose you out. from among. He selected you specifically.
You were chosen by God. You were selected out of a group
of people. It's not election if God saves
everybody. You cannot speak of being chosen
if God chooses everybody that's born into the world. Are y'all
hearing what I'm saying? That's a sleight of hands. That's
tricanery in the realm of theology. If theologians or pastors would
tell you, well, yeah, God chooses and God chooses everybody. Now,
all they have to do is choose him. That's not election. Election
is when God does what he did with Israel, when he does what
he did as the Lord Jesus chose 12 apostles out of all those
people. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Choosing you out, calling you out. Election is a Greek term
which means to be called out. The church is the ecclesia, called
out. That's why when you get saved,
listen to me, your life changes and you are no longer hanging
with some of the friends you used to. When God saves you by
his electing love, he calls you out of Egypt. He doesn't save
Egypt. He saves Israel. He calls you
out of the kingdom of darkness. He doesn't save the kingdom of
darkness. He saves the children of light. He brings you out of
the dark kingdom into the kingdom of light. Now you have a whole
new set of friends and enemies. I just got to keep telling the
truth why I started telling the truth. Because we got enemies
in the church too. The Lord had 12 disciples. One
of them was a devil. So we got issues here too, right?
But I'm simply saying you don't want to have the illogical, irrational
kind of reasoning that people do in this present generation
when they say things that are self-contradictory. Biblical
truth is rational, it's cogent, it's coherent, it's consistent.
And you and I want to be able to tell the truth in a consistent
fashion. Am I making some sense? The problem
is when you tell the truth in a consistent fashion, you are
going to necessarily be operating out of a law called the law of
non-contradiction. In our pluralistic culture, and
a lot of us are wrapped up in relativism, you know what that
means? We can embrace, hold intention to diametrically oppose thoughts
and not know that they oppose each other. Like you can say,
there's only one God, and at the same time accept the premise
that there are 300 million gods in the world. So people come
together under a sort of a banner of ecumenism. And there's this
so-called Christian in the midst who say, I believe in the one
and true and living God. And I believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I believe in the Holy Spirit by whom the revelation
of the true and the living God is made known. And then somebody
else will say, well, I believe in Buddha. I believe in this
and I believe in that. And then that same so-called
Christian is willing to say, okay, that's good too. No, it's
not good. The principle of exclusion is
critical in ration and reason. Either he's right and I'm wrong,
or I'm wrong and he's right, or we're both wrong, but we can't
both be right. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So when you hear somebody say something that is diametrically
opposed to what you're holding, you have to determine whether
you're right or wrong, right, right, or they're wrong, or vice
versa. You have to determine that. But
you can't say we both right. We're gonna lose our mind as
soon as we start doing that. Aren't we gonna lose our mind?
But see, the gospel is narrow like that. The gospel comes and
says, are you on my side or what? You know how Jesus put it? This
is how Jesus put it. Are you ready? Jesus says, either
you are with me or against me. He that is for me is not against
me. He made it very plain. And see,
once Christianity once again claims the clarity of biblical
truth in these matters, then we can start speaking clearly
and honestly and let the chips fall where they may. And some
folk will get saved, other people will not like it and they will
perish under the wrath of God. But in this present culture where
everybody is all right with God, our heads are all messed up.
Am I making some sense? So I'm gonna close out this way.
I'm gonna close out this way when we talk about the doctrine
of election We are talking about what God has done for us But
only what God has done for us in Christ Christ is God's elect
You got that Christ is the father's elect Isaiah 42 verse 1 Isaiah
42 verse 1. It's also in Isaiah chapter 49.
It's also in the Gospel of Matthews as well. I just want you to see
this. This is very important for us to comprehend. When we
talk about election, what we are talking about is God's Son
preeminently. And so we read in Isaiah chapter
42 verse 1 these words. Are you there? Behold my servant. Whom I uphold my what elect watch
this in whom my soul what? Delights I have put my spirit
upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles of whom
are we speaking ladies and gentlemen? Christ for the Bible tells us
this in the gospel of Matthew doesn't it the heavens broke
open and the father made it very clear this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased when we think about the doctrine of
election and we have at least one more message to go through
on this what you and I must always understand is when God chose
anyone as He chose them first before the world began. You got
that? Do you know why that is? So that you and I won't boast
that God chose us based on our words. I'll come back next week
and deal with that. But he chose us before the world
began and then he chose us in his son, Jesus Christ. You know
why he did that? So that we won't go around talking
about how special we are because God chose me and didn't choose
somebody else. He chose us in Christ because
Christ is the only lovely person in the universe. And He's lovely
to the Father because of who He is, the Son of God. Are you with me? The Son of God
who is the revelation of the invisible God. He is the glory
of God. He is the expressed image of
the invisible God. He is the exact representation
of His Father by nature. So that the only way you can
know God the father is through God the son It pleased God the
father who is invisible by nature to make himself manifested to
us through his son The reason why God is pleased with his son
is because his son looks just like him and God's glorious Why
not be pleased with your son? Ontologically Christ is pleasing
but Christ is also pleasing by virtue of his sacrifice He chose
to take our place before the world began. He chose to take
on our sin in covenant agreement with the Father and the Holy
Ghost before the world began. He chose to undertake our plight,
our sinfulness, our wickedness, our curse, our damnation before
we had a being. He chose to love us with an everlasting
love and be the object of his Father's wrath in order to deliver
us from a burning hell. He chose to love us like a friend
loves his friend. And that's why the father loves
him. The father loves the son because
the son loved the father enough to undertake all that for those
whom the father had given him. This is the beginning of the
doctrine of election for which our souls are very happy. For
had the Lord not chosen us, we would have never chosen Him.
Had the Lord not called you, we would have never called Him.
Had Christ not come, we would have never come to Him. We would
have remained in our sins and perished under the wrath of God.
God saw that and He did something about it for which our souls
are eternally, eternally, eternally grateful. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. To God be the glory. Great things he has done. Hallelujah. So loved he the world that he
gave us his son. Hallelujah.