Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Three Things Regarding the Elect. Now, if you read the
pages of scripture, you're going to come across this word, elect,
or election. It means chosen. Actually, when
you see the word chosen, it's the same word, elected. These
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says in Matthew
chapter 13, verse 20, And except that the Lord had shortened their
days, there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's sake,
whom he hath chosen. And then in verse 22, in this
same message, he says, for false Christs and false prophets shall
rise. and show signs and wonders to
seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. And then he says, a few verses
down, and they shall see, he's talking about his second coming,
and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with
great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
Now here are three things concerning the elect. Number one, the elect
are the people God has chosen. Not everybody's elect. The elect
are the people that God has chosen. Number two, the elect cannot
be deceived. He said if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. Thank God it is not possible. And when Christ returns in power
and glory in the clouds of the heaven, He will come together
in His elect. They are the people who shall
be saved." Now, after reading that passage of Scripture, is
there any doubt whatsoever that Christ did in fact teach Election. Not only did he teach it, he's
the one who does the electing. And somebody says, I thought
the Father did. Well, he does. According as he had chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, the Father elects.
But the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, you did not choose
me, but I chose you. And there the word is elect.
You did not elect me. but I elected you. The 12, he said, have I not chosen
you 12? He chose them. He speaks of God
avenging his own elect, which cry unto him day and night. Now, if you would have said to
someone in the early church, If someone would have come up
to somebody in the early church and said, I don't believe in
election, they'd say, what? What rock did you crawl out from
under? This was the common understanding of all of those in the early
church. Election, God's eternal choice
of his people, is clearly and unmistakably taught in the scriptures. And election is God being God. I love that definition of election,
and it's so. Election is God being God. Now, the devil, Satan, and his followers,
the demons, at one time were angels. At one time they were
obedient to God. And we read of their fall, the
Lord said, I saw Lucifer falling from heaven. And the ones who
did not fall are called in 1 Timothy 5.21, the elect angels. The only reason they didn't fall
and follow Lucifer was because they were elect. Now you read
the pages of the Old Testament, without question, God made a
difference between Israel and everybody else. God said against
the children of Israel, shall not a dog move his tongue? against
man or beast, so that you may know how that the Lord doth put
a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." And throughout the
New Testament, it's taught that if you're saved, You're saved
because God chose you to be saved before time began. Second Thessalonians
2.13, Paul said, we're bound to thank God always for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now,
the Lord ended the parable of the 11th hour workers and the
parable of the man without a wedding garment with these words, many
are called, few are chosen or elected He said, shall not God
avenge his own elect? Paul said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's almost as if he said, I
double dare you. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? put on, therefore, as the elect of God. And Paul wrote
of the faith of God's elect. In Peter's first general epistle,
he addresses them as those who are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. And when he closes that epistle,
he says, the church that's at Babylon elected together with
you, salute you. When John writes a personal letter
to a woman, he says, the elder to the elect lady. That's how he referred to her.
Now, if somebody says that's referring to the church, it may be, but
it's teaching the same thing. The elder unto the elect lady. The children of thy elect sister
greeteth thee. Paul wrote in Romans 11.5 of
the election of grace. I love that. praise, the election
of grace. Indeed, it's impossible to believe
in salvation by grace and not believe in election. Those two things cannot be separated. Somebody says, well, I don't
believe in election. Then you do not believe in salvation by
grace. The only way you can believe in salvation by free grace is
to know it begins with God's electing grace. Election, I repeat,
is God being God. And if I ever think of election
without all and praise and thanksgiving, it's because I'm either in a
hardened and backslidden condition or I've never been saved in the
first place. You see, election is a doctrine
of divine praise. Now, what is amazing though,
well, it's not amazing because of the fallen nature of man,
but as clearly as this is taught in the scriptures, Most institutions
that call themselves churches and most people who profess to
be Christians would say, I don't believe in election. It was interesting. I was visiting
or I was in a place of business and the person working there
asked me, what do you believe? They knew I was a pastor. They
told me where they went to church and they said, what do you believe?
And I said, well, I believe what your church says in its, confession,
it believes. Because in its confession, it
believed that God elected who would be saved before time began.
That's what is in the confession. And I said, I believe what your
church confesses, it believes. And I told him that I believed
in God's absolute sovereignty. He elected a people and Christ
died for the elect. And the guy looked at me like
I was from Mars. He thought, I've never heard
anything like that, and he hadn't. He had it in the church document,
but it was not what was preached. Even churches who claim to believe
election do not preach it. Now, question, why would someone
not believe in God's electing grace? Now, remember election
is God, before time began, choosing who would be saved before the
foundation of the world. It's not him looking down through
the telescope of time and saying, who will believe in making his
choice on that? Not at all, that is foolishness.
It's him sovereignly choosing, in Christ, who will be saved,
and that choice was made before time began. Now, why would someone
not believe this? Well, somebody says, well, it's
hard to understand. No, it's not hard to understand. Ephesians
1.4 says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. You hear what that says. You
understand that. It says he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Somebody says, I don't
understand that. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. You understand
exactly. You might not like it, but you understand it. But here's
why people object to election. Number one, They don't like God
having complete control. They do not like having some
control in their salvation. You see, they have no love for
God. If you love God, you love Him having complete control in
all things. I mean, He's God. He's glorious.
He's holy. Whatever He does is right. But
the natural man does not love to think of a God who is in absolute,
complete control. And the second reason men do
not believe elections because they don't need election. They
don't really believe they're sinners. If you believe that
you're a sinful being, an utterly sinful being with no capability
of saving yourself, nothing you can do that would cause God to
save you, you believe you're totally depraved, you're totally
sinful, you're a sinner. If you believe that about yourself,
you need election. You know you won't be saved without
election. Now there are three simple and
powerful things taught in the verses I just read with regard
to election. Number one, the elect are the
ones whom He has chosen. He says, except the Lord had shortened
those days, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake
And he doesn't just say for the elect's sake, he expounds to
us what that means, whom he hath chosen. The elect are the ones
he hath chosen. Ephesians 1, 4, I've quoted it
several times, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. Now, who chose who? He chose
us. You know, this whole idea of
making your decision for Jesus and that's foolishness. He chose us. Second question, when did he
choose us? Before the foundation of the
world. Romans 9, 11 says 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 this choice was made before they were
born, before they had any good works to recommend them or bad
works to disqualify them. This choice was made before time
began. Second Timothy 1.9 says, he saved
us. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, any thoughtful person would
ask, why? Why would he choose? Any safe
person would ask, why me? Why me? They're just amazed at
God's choice of them. Well, let me give you these five
reasons why God chose his people. Number one, if he chose you,
it's because you're in Christ. You see, election is not some
kind of arbitrary choice of God. I'm going to save this one. I'm
just going to pass this one by. God's elect have always been
in Christ. Somebody says, explain that to
me. I can't. I just believe it. It's what
the scripture teaches. According as he had chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Why did he choose
a people? Because he would. Because he would. The Lord said,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you've hid these things. God hid them. You've hid these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. God does what
he does because he wills to do it. Why did he choose a people? Because he loved them. Because
he loved them. We love him because he first
loved us. We read these words in Deuteronomy
chapter 7 verse 7. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more number than any
people for you were the fewest of all people. But because the
Lord loved you. Why did he love you? Because
he did. You see, God's reason for love
is found in his own great heart. He loves because he loves. You see, he didn't love you because
of something in you. He loved you because of something
in himself that put you in Christ and caused him to love you. Now,
it's not unconditional love. I hear people talk about unconditional
love all the time. There's no such thing. Now, I
love my wife. We've been married 39 years.
Love her, and I've got reasons for loving her. She makes my
life a lot better. I have a lot of reasons for loving
her. I don't love her unconditionally. I love her because of what she
does for me. Somebody says, that's selfish.
I know that. You've got the same kind of love. But the point is,
God's love is not unconditional. He sees you in Christ and therefore
you're lovely to him. Oh, how he loves his son. And the scripture said, the Lord
said, thou has loved them as thou has loved me. So there's
no such thing as unconditional love. God loves you because in
Christ you're lovable. And that reason is found in himself. It's not found in you. Why did
God choose a people? Because he loved them. Why did
God choose a people? Well, he did so freely. Behold,
I'll love them freely. Not because of something he saw
in you that you would be able to do for him. He did so freely. Why did he choose us? Well, Ephesians
1, 4 through 6 says he chose us to the praise of the glory
of his grace. You see, Romans 9, 11 says, the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, there's no good thing that you could do to recommend
him. There's no evil that you can
be that would prevent him from saving you. Why? Because he saves
to the praise of the glory of his grace. And every believer
will know when he stands in heaven, I am the greatest example of
salvation by grace. It didn't have anything to do
with my works. He saved me because of his grace. Now, in Mark 13,
verse 22, the Lord says, False Christ and false prophets shall
rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were
possible, even the elect. But it is not possible. The elect cannot be deceived.
They cannot be seduced. Why? Well, God purposed their
salvation. God's purpose can't be thwarted.
Christ paid for their sins. They stand before God justified.
There's no reason for God to cast them off. And they've been
given a holy new nature by the Spirit of God that cannot be
deceived. They know. They have an unction
from the Holy One and they know. They're kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation. Now unto Him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding Joy. God's elect cannot be deceived. They have the shepherd. They
can go astray. They're just as weak as anybody
else. They can go astray, but they have a shepherd that comes
after them. And they know the shepherd. He said, I give unto
my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Now John
spoke of those who went out from us. He said, they went out from
us, but they were not all of us. For if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. You
see, God's sheep know his voice, and they do not know the voice
of a stranger. They know the difference between
law and gospel, between grace and works, and anything that's
contrary to Christ is all they reject. They do not believe. They know that Christ Jesus is
all in salvation and He gets all the glory. It is impossible
for one of the elect to finally be deceived or to be seduced. The Lord promises that. Now,
if salvation was in their power, yeah, they'd be seduced. If they
could fall away, they would fall away. But because of the shepherd,
they cannot fall away. And then the Lord says in verse
26 of our text, And then shall they see the Son of Man coming
in the clouds with great power and glory. Talking about the
second coming of Christ. And who is it he comes after?
Well, he could have said those who believe, those who endure
to the end, those who persevere, those who love me, and those
would have been true answers. But that is not the word he chooses
to describe the people who will be saved upon his second coming.
Then shall he send his angels and shall gather together his
elect. What a precious word this is
to Christ when he describes his people, his elect. He is chosen
from the four winds from the uttermost parts of the earth
to the uttermost part of heaven. All of the elect shall be saved. When Christ returns, every single
elect sinner shall be saved. You see, God purposed their salvation,
and God's purpose cannot be thwarted. Christ purchased their salvation. You know, you really don't understand
the atonement of Christ apart from election. You see, when
Jesus Christ was dying-listen carefully-when Jesus Christ was
dying, he wasn't making salvation available if you do your part
to take what he did. When he was dying, He was saving
everybody He died for. When He said, it is finished,
they were all saved. He wasn't making salvation available. He was saving His elect. And you don't really understand
what Christ was doing on the cross if you don't believe election.
When He said, Father, forgive them, that wasn't a generic prayer.
Everybody He prayed for was forgiven. He by himself purged our sins. And when he'd done that, he sat
down on the right hand of God. You see, all of God's elect are
now justified. Christ put away my sin. It's
gone. He didn't make an attempt at
it. He put it away. And his righteousness is given
to me. and I stand before God's law justified, without sin, not
guilty, I must be saved. The Lord said, this is the will
of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. Now, a believer belongs in heaven. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Everybody that God chose,
everybody that Christ died for, they're holy and they're without
blame. Now somebody that's not like
that, if they got in heaven, they'd want out of there. They
don't love holiness, but a believer is holy. and without blame, and
he belongs in heaven and will most assuredly spend eternity
in heaven." Now here are three things regarding the elect. They're the ones God chose. They're the ones God chose. Secondly,
they cannot be deceived. They cannot be seduced. They
cannot wander off. They have the shepherd going
after them and preserving them. And number three, when Christ
comes back in power and glory, the elect are the ones he's going
to gather to himself. The elect shall be saved. Now I see these things so clearly
from the scriptures. My question now is, am I elect? Am I elect? Now, one of the objections people
have to election is it's not fair. It's not fair for God to
choose some and not to choose others. And when we make that
objection, what we're saying is it's not God, it's not fair
for God to choose me. And when we make a statement
like that, we're saying I'm a, I'm not a sinner. I mean, I deserve
salvation. Somebody says, well, I'm not
saying that. But yeah, but that's what you're implying. If you say it's not fair for
God to save you, you're saying that you deserve salvation, that
God would be unjust. Now, all of God's elect know
better than that. You see, they've been taught
by God that they're sinners. And if God passed them by, he
would be just in doing it. They're so thankful that God
freely chose a people to be saved. Now, how can I know that I'm
elect? You know, Peter said, give diligence
to make your calling an election. Sure, you can know it. Paul said
to the Thessalonians, knowing, brethren beloved, your election
of God. How can I know that I am elect? You see, there is something
that you've no doubt read in the scriptures called the Lamb's
Book of Life. And in the Lamb's Book of Life, the names of God's
elect are recorded. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God's elect is a number that
can't be added to or subtracted from. And they're all written
in that Lamb's Book of Life. Now, I don't have any access
to the Lamb's Book of Life, so how can I know if my name is
written there? I can't see. Hebrews 11.1 says,
faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now, when the scripture
is speaking of faith, faith is not believing your elect, Faith
is not even believing that you're saved. You know, I have no doubt
there are many people who believe they're the elect of God and
who believe they're saved, but they're not. What is faith? Faith is believing that Jesus
is the Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king,
the Son of the Living God. Faith believes Him. Now listen to me real carefully.
If you believe that Jesus Christ is eternal God, God the Son,
the creator of the universe, the sovereign of all things.
If you believe that He's God's Christ, God's prophet, God's
priest, and God's king, and you're relying upon Him as your prophet,
as your priest to represent you, as your king to cause you to
be saved. you're elect. As many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. You believe the gospel, that's
evidence that you're elect. This is Todd Nybert, praying
that God will be pleased in His mercy to make His electing mercy
known. To receive a copy of the sermon
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