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, Election in the Old Testament. Now, what we're
looking at is the first recorded sermon of the Apostle Paul. Now, he had preached before this,
but his first recorded sermon where the actual content is mentioned
is in Acts chapter 13, and here is the way he introduces his
message. We read in verse 16, then Paul
stood up and beckoning with his hand said, men of Israel, and
ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel
chose, it's the same word that's translated elected, chose our
fathers. There isn't any question that
God made a difference between Israel and the rest of the world. God chose our fathers. And I think it's very interesting
that Paul begins, and I don't know if this is the right word
to use, but I'll try it. He begins his message to get
everybody on board with the concept of election. God chose our fathers. Now, election tells us that God
is in absolute control. He is the cause of all things. He exercises absolute sovereignty. And election tells us that salvation
is out of our hands. It's totally in His hand, and
that's a good place to begin any gospel message with the true
character of God and the true character of man. This doesn't
surprise me that Paul began here because when Ananias came to
him, what's the first thing Ananias said to Paul after God knocked
him off his horse and Christ spoke to him and then he sent
Ananias to speak to him in Acts chapter nine and the first thing
Ananias says to Paul is the God of our fathers hath chosen thee. That is a good place to begin. Now, in true preaching, this
is very similar to the way Peter began his sermon on the day of
Pentecost, where 3,000 people were converted. He began with
these words, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Same thing really, it's just
saying God is God and the reason Christ was delivered into the
hands of sinful men was because it was the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. Everything begins with God. Now, people like to think of
a God they can control, but let me tell you something. There's
no such thing as a God you can control. God has absolute control,
and me and you have no control over anything. That's just stating
the facts. And this is the way Paul begins
this message. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers. Now, over the years, I've been
preaching, I'm amazed to say this, but I've been preaching
over 40 years now. And over the years, I've been
criticized several times for preaching too much on election. Question, is that possible? Now, if I preached election to
the exclusion of some other doctrine, Actually, I would not be preaching
election at all. I'd be preaching some kind of
caricature of election that's not even true. It is impossible
to preach God to sovereign. It's impossible to preach the
gospel and not frequently. deal with God's electing love. You see, election says God really
is God. He chooses who would be saved.
Ephesians 1-4 says, according as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. The elect have always been known,
always been loved by God. You can't really understand the
work of Christ on the cross without some understanding of election.
Christ wasn't making salvation available for men. He was saving. He was saving the elect. He was
saving his sheep. He was actually putting away
their sins. He wasn't dying for all men,
a big roll of the dice, and hoping someone would end up believing
on him. No, he was dying for his people. You can't really
understand the work of God the Holy Spirit apart from election.
God the Holy Spirit isn't knocking on men's doors trying to get
them to respond. He begets. He gives life to those
the Father elected and those the Son redeemed. He gives life
to them and they live and they believe the gospel. You can't
really understand the true character of man without election. You
see, man is so dead in sins, so wicked, so unable to save
himself that he cannot be saved unless God chooses him and Christ
dies for him and God the Holy Spirit gives him life. He's dead
in sins. You can't really preach grace.
without preaching electing love. All election says is salvation
is all of grace. Do you believe salvation is all
of grace? Well, if you do, you must believe in the election
of grace, as Paul calls it in Romans 11, verse 5. You can't really worship God
unless you're worshiping the God of election, the God of absolute
sovereign control. You've all been around people
who are control freaks. You might be one of them, and
it's kind of humorous when a man is a control freak trying to
control everything, but the fact of the matter is we really don't
have any control of anything. But God has absolute control
because He's God. And you'll only worship a God
that you can't control, that you can't manipulate. You're
in His hands for Him to do with you whatever He's pleased to
do. That's the only God who is worshiped. And, oh, election
gives such a motive for thanksgiving and obedience. Listen to this
scripture from 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. 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, I've heard people try to be dismissive
with regard to election by saying, well, that's about nations and
not individuals. Well, it's true, God did choose
the nation of Israel, and He passed by the other nations,
but what are nations but conglomerations of individuals? Listen to the
words of David, the man after God's own heart. He said in Psalm
65, verse 4, blessed is the man, not merely the nation, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach. unto thee. Now, I would like
to look in Deuteronomy chapter 7, and this is what Paul was
referring to when he said God chose Israel. We read in verse
6 of Deuteronomy chapter 7, for thou, God speaking to Israel
through Moses, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy
God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee. to be a special people
unto himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you
because you were more in number than any people, for you were
the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you."
That's why. Because he loved you. His own
sovereign will. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house
of bondman from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now this is the
scripture. There are many scriptures which
refer to the Lord choosing his people. Charles Spurgeon tells
the story of a man who said he got on his knees three times
and read the Bible three times with his knees and he said, I've
never seen election in it. And Spurgeon said, perhaps if
you get in a more comfortable chair, you could see what's being
read. This is obvious in the scriptures. You can't deny it
from the scriptures. But let's look at this passage in Deuteronomy
chapter seven. This is a very important passage.
We read in verse one, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee
into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast
out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites,
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly
destroy them, and thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor
show any mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,
nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn
away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.
So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy
you suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them,
these seven nations. Ye shall destroy their altars,
break down their images, cut down their groves, and burn their
graven images with fire." Now think about what's being said.
He's bringing Israel out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, their
seven nations. and God's gonna drive them all
out. Dispossess them from their land
and put Israel there. Now, on the surface, why should
that be? The land was theirs. Why is God
making this special distinction with Israel and driving these
other people out? Well, let me read a passage of
scripture from Deuteronomy 9 that answers that question. Here,
O Israel, Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go into the
possessed nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities
great and fenced up to heaven, and people great and tall, the
children of the Anacoms, whom thou knowest and of whom thou
hast heard, who can stand before the children of Anak. Understand
therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over
before thee as a consuming fire. He shall destroy them, and he
shall bring them down. But before thy face, so shalt
thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has
said unto thee. Now listen real carefully. Speak
not in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them
out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord
hath brought me in to possess this land. But for the wickedness
of these nations, the Lord doth drive them out from before thee."
He's not giving you this land because of your righteousness.
He's driving them out because of their wickedness. Oh, the
wicked practices, the perverted practices of these nations. He
goes on to say, Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine
heart dost thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness
of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from
before thee, that he may perform the word which the Lord sware
unto the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore
that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess,
but for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.
Now, there's never been a more wicked people than the children
of Israel. But God gave them his favor because he's gracious. These other nations were driven
out because of their wickedness. I mean, they were burning their
children alive, offering them up as sacrifice, all the moral
perversions of these nations. God drives them out. He dispossesses. He sends hornets into the land,
drives them out, and gives the land to Israel. And he says,
don't make any covenant with them. If you do, it'll be a snare
to you. It'll bring you trouble. Don't
make marriages between your people. Destroy all their images, all
their graven images, all their idols. Burn them with fire. Now, let me make this comment.
This is the attitude every believer should have towards works or
religion. Now, I want to treat every man alive with respect. I really do. And dignity. Men are created in God's image,
and I don't want to be unkind and judgmental and harsh toward
anybody. But I do want to show no respect
for any kind of religion that teaches salvation by works. It's
idolatry, it's to be burned up and not even accepted in any
way. Now, let's look in verse six
of our text in Deuteronomy. Chapter seven, verse six, four.
Thou, you destroy these false images. These nations are gonna
be driven out. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord God hath chosen thee
to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are
on the face of the earth. Now this is true of every believer.
Thou art an holy people. unto the Lord thy God. Every
believer has been made holy. I was set apart to be holy in
eternal election. I was declared to be holy when
Jesus Christ put away my sin and I had no sin because of what
he did in my place. I was made holy when the Spirit
of God gave me a holy nature, a new nature. That's what the
new birth is. Thou, he says this to every believer, you may not
feel holy, but you are holy. Colossians 1.22 says every believer
is holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. That's how glorious
the work of Christ is in you. He's made it so God says they're
holy. They're holy. Thou art a holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. to be a special people unto himself. Now before time began, he chose
you in Christ. What is more humbling than that?
That he would choose you. This is what the Bible refers
to is grace. Let me say this about God's grace.
God's grace is discriminating grace. When we think of the word
discrimination, we generally think of it as an evil word. Indeed, discrimination between
men is intolerably evil. You see, there's really no difference
in men, in the sense that we all came out of Adam. And for
one race to discriminate against another race, for one class to
discriminate against another class, is atrocious. It's evil. And we would not say discrimination
is okay in any sense, giving somebody favor. But if God doesn't
discriminate, nobody will be saved. If God doesn't do something
for you, if He doesn't pick you out, if He doesn't select you
and do something for you, if He just leaves me and you to
ourselves, we'll never be saved. Now understand, election does
not prevent people from being saved who may have otherwise
been saved. Election saves people who would have most certainly
come under the judgment wrath of God had not God, in discriminating
grace, made a difference for them. God chose you. Now, if someone says, I think
that's unfair, let me tell you two things. Number one, you're
blinded by your own self-righteousness. And number two, you are completely
ignorant of your own sinfulness. Because if you dealt with these
two things, the fallacy of my self-righteousness, that it's
nothing but filthy rags, and I'm nothing in and of myself
but sin, you couldn't call God unfair in anything He did with
you. But it's, I'll tell you what,
anybody who sees they have no righteousness and that they're
nothing but sin, that's the person Christ died for. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now, it says he chose you to
be a special people unto himself. Now, I've heard people argue
against the truth of election, say, well, it's an elitist doctrine.
And I've heard people say, well, you think you're special. Well,
I hope I say with utter humility and utter amazement, I am special. Every one of God's people are
his special jewels, his special treasure. I was chosen, every
believer was chosen to be a special people unto himself above all
people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not
set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in
number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loved you. Now, the Lord, I can say this
to every believer, the Lord set his love on you. You are the object of his eternal
love. Jeremiah 31.3 says, Behold, I
have loved you with an everlasting love, a love that never had a
beginning, a love that can never end. Somebody says, Explain that
to me. I can't do that, but I stand
amazed. the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Jacob have I loved, God said. Before you start wondering how
he could love you like that, it wasn't because of you. It
wasn't because of any loveliness or merit in me or you. Notice
how he says this. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more a number than any
people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because the
Lord loved you. The reason he loved you is because
he loved you. The reason is not found in you. The reason is found in His own
great heart. God is love. God must love because
God is love. love. The reason is found wholly
in himself. You see, God's love is saving
love. All that he loves, he saves. There will not be one soul in
hell that he loved. All he loves, he saves. I love that scripture Jacob ever
loved. He also said, Esau, have I hated?
But he said, Jacob, have I loved? And don't be amazed at his hatred
of Esau. Esau had no love for God. Esau
was a wicked man. He didn't think God was worth
a bowl of soup. He had no love for God. And God's hatred is
not like our hatred. It's a hatred with regard to
absolute justice. It's one of the perfections of
his nature. Our hatred is evil, but not his. His hatred is perfect. He hated Esau, but oh, aren't
you amazed that he loved Jacob, that sinful, deceitful, weak
man, Jacob. God said, I've loved him. And
God is called the God of Jacob. Now, God set his love on you. Not because of any goodness in
you. If you're a believer. He set His love on you simply
because He would, and He would keep the oath which is sworn
unto your fathers. You see, His love is covenant
love. If He loves you, He always has
loved you. He gave you to His Son in the
eternal covenant of grace. That's what the Lord refers to
when he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I
pray not for the world, but for them which you have given me.
He gave in the everlasting covenant Christ, everybody he loved, and
Christ took full responsibility for their salvation. You can't
separate his love and his covenant. And that's why God can say in
Ephesians 4.32, be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. No reason in you, God hath
for Christ's sake forgiven you. Now, he says in verse 9, know
therefore, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God,
the faithful God. which keepeth covenant mercy
with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand
generations, and repayeth them that hate him to their face.
To destroy them he will not be slack to him that hateth him.
He'll repay him to his face." Now, I love the way he says,
know that the Lord thy God is God. That simply means he controls
everything. The Lord thy God Yours by covenant,
if God be for us, who can be against us? He is God. Not in some kind of empty title,
but the one who rules and reigns. I love what he said, what Nebuchadnezzar
said of him, he doeth according to his will in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He is the God of
glory, and he's called the faithful God. Now what does that mean,
God's faithfulness? Well, faithfulness is utter reliability. You can rely on him. He can be
relied on. He can be trusted. He never changes. Now listen to this scripture.
1 John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It doesn't say He's merciful and gracious. You know, a lot
of people say, well, if you confess your sins, then He'll forgive
you. If you first confess them, then forgiveness is going to
come. It begins first with your confession. If that's what it
meant, he would have said he is merciful and gracious to forgive
us of our sins, but it says he's faithful and just to forgive
our sins. The confession of sin. is agreeing
with God against yourself, against your sin. It's taking sides with
God against yourself. And if you do that, the reason
you do that is because He determined that you would do it and He's
faithful to bring it to pass. He's faithful to cause you to
do that which He determined for you to do. and he's just to forgive
us of our sins. Not merciful, although he is,
but just. Absolute justice. What he does
is Christ put away my sin and now the very justice of God demands
the salvation of everybody for whom Jesus Christ died. He's
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Verse nine, know therefore that
the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth
covenant mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments
unto a thousand generations. Now these people who God chooses,
you know how you can tell they're chosen? They love him. They love
Him as He is, as He's revealed in His Word. They love Him. They
love every attribute of God. All of God's love. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God.
to them who are called according to His purpose, and they keep
His commandments. I've kept the Ten Commandments
in Christ. I kept them. When the Lord obeyed, I did.
But what this is referring to is what John said in 1 John 3,
verse 23, when he said, This is His commandment, that we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another,
as He gave us commandment. Every believer believes the only
reason they're saved They're relying upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's not just talking about
His honorable name, but who He is, all of His attributes. And every
believer loves those who are begotten of Him. They love one
another. Thank God for His choosing of
His people. Yes, the New Testament teaches
election, but the Old Testament just as clearly. Now, we have
this message on CD and DVD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send
your request to todd.neidert at gmail.com, or you may write
or call the church at the information provided on the screen.