I want to thank you all for your
kindness and fellowship and generosity. It's a blessing to be here. John
chapter 15, the title of my message this morning is Because I Chose
You. John chapter 15, verse 18 and 19. These are the words that our
Lord was speaking to his disciples Preparing them from chapter 13
through chapter 15 and 16 hips leaving this world and going
to be at the right hand of the father And the guarantee of the
Spirit coming and the guarantee that they can expect certain
things to take place surely because of the gospel they preached He
said in verse 18 if the world hate you You know that it hated
me before it hated you and If you were of the world, the world
would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. I remember many years ago when
God gave me ears to hear the gospel. At that time, I was already
a Calvinistic preacher. I had embraced the doctrine of
grace. But they meant little more to me than some kind of
proverbial blunt instrument to bludgeon people over the head
with and stir up trouble, and I stirred up my share of it.
And I remember when I heard the gospel, the night I heard the
gospel, and how completely overwhelmed I was to know for assurance that
God had chosen me unto salvation before the foundation of the
world, and that my sin debt, all of it, past, present, and
future, had been settled by my surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. I felt blessed beyond imagination
because I knew in my soul that I was selected. I couldn't believe
it, that I was selected before the foundation of the world by
sovereign grace alone. I knew somewhere down where whomever
I was lived that my election could not benefit God at all.
couldn't benefit got it all in any favor shown to me must be
found in him alone and not in myself and i knew that i would
that it was not banner nor could ever be favor of god because i was something
because i was anything i knew it for a surety when i found
out the truth about god's election i was so enthralled with the
notion, so overwhelmed by the idea of it, that I thought my
friends would be delighted to share my joy. I found that my
friends were not so enthralled with my newfound happiness, and
many of these same friends had wept like babies when I repeatedly
sauntered down the aisle of some church, gone to the church altar,
while they sang, Just As I Am, and guilt-ridden confessions
to make my countless reformations in religion and rededications
of my false profession ad nauseam. Now, they seemed utterly at a
loss for words when I spoke of God's electing love. They looked
at me as if I were an escapee from the insane asylum. I soon
found that my friends found unique ways to distance themselves from
me. And upon rehearsing some of these
experiences in my mind, this passage came to mind. What our Lord said to his disciples,
if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not out of
the world, because I've chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. Now our Lord here truly makes
an amazing and very instructive statement to his disciples. He
tells his disciples of the attitude they can expect from the world
when he ascends to the Father. The fact of the hatred of the
world is not foreign to those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord has alerted them and assured them of this fact and
will continue to do so throughout his word. In other places he
said the world cannot hate you but it hated me because I testify
of it, that its works are evil. In 1 John, he said, Marvel not,
brethren, if the world hates you. In John 15, he said, But
this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that
is written in the law. They hated me without a cause. So he prepared his disciples
many times in many ways. And I found this one passage,
this one passage speaks along the same line as our text, but
reveals the hatred of the world as a kind of election in reverse. In Luke chapter 6 and verse 22,
the word is, blessed are ye when men shall hate you. Blessed are
you when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you
from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your
name as evil for the son of man's sake. For the son of man's sake.
You're blessed if that happens. But they perform a kind of reverse
election. They say, we don't want anything
to do with you. They separate you and they call you evil for
the gospel that you preach. This hatred of men is revealed
in the fact that they do not choose you. They un-choose you. It's kind of like in the modern
day they'd unfriend you or whatever on Facebook. They will separate
you from their company. They won't invite you out anymore
and they'll speak out your name as if you were evil because you
tell the truth about God's electing love. To some degree, every believer
has experienced this in his life. And this passage speaks volumes
about the affections of the world. Our Lord does not say that the
world hates election because religion doesn't hate election. It doesn't like it. But what
it does do is try to explain it away in some form or another. The intimation here is that if
you were not elected, however, the world would choose you. Doesn't
say that they hate election, but they hate you. And they hate
you because you were elected. That's what our Lord says. That's
what our Lord says in verse 19. Because you're not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world because I've chosen
you out of the world. That's why they hate you. The
manner in which our Lord speaks is personal. He says that the
world hates the believer because Christ has chosen him. And the
haster is not directed toward election, but toward the individual.
Toward the individual. Our Lord said the world hates
you because he chose you out of this world. This is important.
Because this is really where the whole thing hangs in what
our Lord is saying here. Because the world does not outrightly
deny election, lest they be found to deny no less than 140 different
passages in scripture that speak of election, or chosen, or severed,
or picked out. And before I go any further,
let me make it clear that in this context, and in all others,
that the word world is used, it's used in relationship between
men and God. That's how it's used. And it's
referring to the world of false religion. Our Lord is not here
talking about the world in general. He's talking about the world
of false religion, defining this great gulf fixed between you
and that world, between you and whom he has chosen. It is those
who claim to love and worship God that despise those whom Christ
has chosen. Worldliness can mean a lot of
things, and it does. It can mean a materialistic lifestyle,
and it does in some passages. Our Lord deals with that. But
in the most part, when you see the word world and worldly in
Scripture, it's not referring to accumulating wealth and all
its shiny trinkets. It's referring to the religion
of the world. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
8, Paul speaks of the rudiments or the elements of the world.
And he tells the believer, beware of them because they are empty
philosophical teachings that flow from tradition and not from
Christ. And you know what tradition is.
Ernie Lucas, a preacher at Appomattox, Virginia, gave the best definition
of tradition I ever heard. He said one day he walked in
and his wife had a ham on the chopping block and she was taking
a bone saw and sawing the hock off of it. And he says, why are
you doing that? She said, she said, well, that's
what my mama did. She always cut the hock off.
So her mother was living and so he called her mother and says,
how come you cut the hock off the ham before you put it in
the pot? And she said, that's why my mother did it. And her
mother was living also, so he called his wife's great-grandmother
and said, how come you cut the hock off the ham before you put
it in the pot? She said, that's the only way
to fit in the pot. Now, she had a reason for it,
and that's how tradition is. It starts out maybe with a good
reason, but after a while, people do it just because that's the
way it's been done. And that's what religion is. That old song,
give me that old time religion, you know that song? It's good
enough for mama. It's good enough for me. That's
tradition. That's tradition. Something that
has been passed down and has no real value if you don't know
the meaning of it. He tells the believer to watch
out for these things. Worldliness. What it is in scripture
is that former religion that speaks well of Christ but diminishes
him and his work. by adding man to it in some form
or another. The Bible makes it clear that
Christ alone is the acceptable merit before God. However, religion
does believe in merit. Everybody does. Everybody knows. The Beatles knew it. They said
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. All good children go to heaven,
you know. People understand that if you're
going to stand before God, you've got to merit it. There has to
be merit involved. God's not going to accept you
if you don't merit salvation. And you and I both know that
we don't merit it. But our substitute did. Our Lord Jesus Christ merited
salvation. Everybody believes in merit.
The issue is this, whose merit do you believe in? Everybody
believes that you've got to be righteous to stand before God. The issue is whose righteousness
you're talking about. And the world says it's my righteousness,
and the believer says it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Paul goes on in Colossians 2 to explain worldliness, and he does
so, he says, all the things that are in the world satisfy the
flesh, they make a person feel good about themselves, and they
are of the world. Flesh, as it is referred to And
the scripture is not the epidermis. It is the epitome of self-will
and the matter of merit before God. Paul, the apostle, said
that he had some merit before God. He said, in fact, if you're
going to merit something in the flesh, I can do better than any
of you. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised
the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. The Pharisee touched
the law, I was blameless. Man, that's something. He says,
you know what that is? Manure. That's what he said. That's that's done. And that's
the dung heap from which the maggots are plucked from and
saved by God's grace. It's intruding in these. It is
intruding in the things which man has nothing to do with and
can only be seen by faith being puffed up by freshly fleshly
merit manufacturing mine. Our Lord makes it plain that
if you embrace such teaching, then the world would love you.
And would choose you. the world would love it only
see what i found interesting in our case was that the lord
did not refer to the fact that the believer embraces the truth
of election as the cause of the world's hatred but but rather
it makes it very clear that because shows you and think about that
because and shows you that's where men get their hatred for
christ this is a hatred of a person not a teaching not a teaching. This is a personal, not doctrinal,
though believers love the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
know that the root of the world's hatred is for Christ, but the
words of our Lord are about the reaction, the reaction of the
world toward you because He chose you. Now, that's an interesting
way of putting it. It's a unique way of putting
it in the Scriptures. The outset, this has to do with
the proclamation of the That's what it has to do with. How many
times has it been suggested that those who oppose the gospel,
or by those who oppose the gospel, that if believers wouldn't say
anything about election, they'd get along fine with their relatives
and acquaintances? How many people, well, just don't
talk about it. Just don't talk about it. And
it'll be all right. we'll get along relatives and
acquaintance say would not say anything they would remain mute
they would not even know that you were chosen if the believer
had kept his mouth shut because you see that's the only way they
find out that you know you were chosen isn't that right? that's the
only way they're going to find out If you keep your mouth shut
about it, you can go along with a religious world and they'll
love you like you're their own. But they'll never find out about
it unless you open your cotton-picking mouth and tell them. And just
blow the whole scenario wide open. That's what happens. So
when our Lord says this, the world hates you because I have
chosen you. They'll never know that unless
you tell them the gospel. They'll never know that unless
you say, the Lord chose me. And if you preach the gospel
and believe the gospel, that's what you know to be true. So
they could read the scriptures and agree with election. To a
degree, they could say, God chose his people, you know, and they're
probably attributed to Judaism. But if you say, or when you say,
God chose me, that's how they know. And that's when the hate
starts. That's how it always works. Election cannot remain
a secret. It cannot remain a secret to
the believer. It can't. Not if he preaches
the gospel. not if he tells the truth. It's
not some precious treasure to be secret away or shrouded in
a confusing language or spoken of in a manner that would only
be spoken of in the halls of theological academia. We can't
sneak up on somebody with the truth. You can't do it and have
them believing it without even knowing it. It's not going to
happen. It's not going to happen. We don't go in the back door
with election. We kick the door down with election. That's the
truth. It's the word of God. It's the sweetest thing in the
world to find out that God did not leave you to yourself, did
not leave you on your road to hell. And oh, Barnard, you say
you'll go to hell if you can. And you will, if you can. And
the only thing that's going to stop you is the sovereign grace
of God that He elected you or chose you before the sound foundation
of the world to save your soul. That's the only thing that's
going to stop you. God doesn't have to do anything to keep you
out of hell. Or cause you to go to hell, rather. God doesn't
have to cause you to go to hell. He'll just leave you alone. You'll do a
good job of it yourself. Pray God He'll interrupt your
wretched career and show you these shows in you. You can't
sneak up on people. I wish I had a nickel for everybody
I've known who said they embraced the truth but refused to leave
their church, even though their preacher and the people hated
the truth. I've heard them say, well, I'm going to stick around
and try to teach them. I've heard that a lot. No, you're
not. What you're going to do is be
silently censured over a period of time where you can't say anything.
That's what you're going to be. That's what's going to happen.
The believer cannot speak of election in generic language.
That would not cause a personal response toward anybody. Christ
says, because I chose you. And they can't know that unless
you say it. They can't know it. And they won't hate you unless
you do. The Word of God is clear. The Lord speaks of a personal
response here to something you say. To something you tell out. The world will hate you because
election is in you. and it'll leak out on you if
it's in you. The world hates you because you
declare that Christ has chosen you. And think of the responses
you get when you declare the fact that Christ chose you. You
know what they are. The world says, and I'm talking
about religion, well, what makes you so special? That's what they
say. What makes you so special? Well,
they say, oh, you and your little group. You're a cult, they say. Had one fella call our group
a cult. And I went, a cult? He wanted to say cult, he just
didn't have the right word. Folks will hear you say, God
chose me. And they'll say, you're just
full of pride. You're just full of pride. But the believer cannot
keep his mouth shut because he is chosen and to him is the sweetest
of things. It's the absolute opposite of
pride. It's the utter persuasion that there is nothing special
about you. It is to say, like the old poet, tis not that I
did choose thee. O Lord, that could not be, for
I would still refuse thee, had thou not chosen me. Rest assured
that to be chosen by Christ does not put you in the cone of silence.
I heard a man say one time, I preached election last night and nobody
even knew it. Well, you didn't preach election. Our Lord knew
fully that his disciples would go out and tell people that they
had been chosen personally by Christ alone. And so he said,
they're going to hate you for it. They're going to hate you
for it. That'll gain the indignant enmity of the world for you to
tell the truth about how God saved your soul. They ain't going
to be happy with you. And by their words, they tell
something. By their hatred, they tell some. By their response
to the declaration of your election, they reveal the source and reason
for their hatred. If they think you believe that
you are special, and therefore are chosen, it reveals that their
religion is a religion of personal merit. They have no concept of grace.
They despise grace. They may laud it and applaud
it and sing of its amazingness, but they know nothing of it.
They, after all, were not chosen by God. That's just the gist. They despised grace. They chose
God. They'll tell you that. They chose
God. And at the root of that choice
they made was the notion that they were special. They were
special, having made a good and right and righteous choice. It
is the ultimate self-righteous act. to say that you chose God. It's the ultimate self-righteous
act. Also, their choice was made for
benefit and regained. Listen to them talk. They say,
let Jesus in your life and things will be better. Let Jesus in
your life? Why would he want any to start
with? Invite him into your heart. Why would he want to go into
that dark cesspool? Can you imagine? but they believe
they get something out of it and they believe often that it's
a mutual benefit. They benefit God and he benefits them. They benefit him by letting him
save them. You know, he's trying and he
can't bless his old sorry heart. So won't you give him a break?
Won't you let him off the hook? Won't you have him stop crying
over the banisters of heaven weeping that you'd let him do
something. Won't you just do that? Help
him out, poor old God. He's not God. That's not God. And if you think it's God, you're
plum wrong. You're plum wrong. Men choose God for business reasons.
I've heard, actually heard men say, well, you know, it's good
to be in church because you meet people and you sell more life
insurance or something. They do it for networking. for
socialization and insurance policy against hell and future happiness
in a cabin in a little corner of glory, they believe. This
is what they understand about choosing someone. They understand
this is why you choose someone. That it's meritorious wisdom
to do so and it's done because they will receive benefit from
it and will be a benefit to the God they choose. They believe
that. That's why they say it. If they didn't believe it, they
wouldn't say it. Thus, when they hear a believer
speak of being chosen of God, they automatically translate
that to mean that the believer thinks he'll benefit God. They think it because they believe
they benefit God. They do. Oh, they wouldn't. They don't say it openly, but
listen to what they say. Listen to their words. Their
language betrays them. What do they say about God? The
only hands God has is your hand. The only feet God
has is your feet. The only mouth God has is your
mouth. Well, David described a God like
that in Psalm 115, didn't he? He did. They come to him and
they showed him their God. It was probably some beautiful
silver idol that they had molded out and it was gorgeous to look
at. I've seen some of those false
gods around the world. I've been in 14 different countries.
Some of them false gods are nice looking. They are pretty. Some of them got jewels in them,
and they make gorgeous things. Works of art. Works of art. And
they were holding up their God, and they said, David, here's
our God. Where's your God? Isn't our God beautiful? David
said, well, our God's in the heavens. And he's done exactly
what he wanted to every time. Does exactly as he pleases. Well,
our God wants you to let him save you. Our God does as he
pleases. People stand up and say, God
wants this for you, and God wants that for you. If God wants that
for you, you're going to have it. Trust me. Because he always
does as he pleases in heaven and earth and all the deep places,
and even under the sea. He says, our God's beautiful.
Where's your God? He said, our God's in heaven.
He's done what he's been. You're kind of like your God. He got hands that don't hold
anything, and a mouth that don't speak, and eyes that don't see,
and ears that don't hear, and feet that don't walk. So I guess
if he's going to survive, you're going to have to carry him somewhere.
And not only that, if he's going to have a move, you're going
to have to be his feet. If he's going to handle anything,
you're going to have to be his hands. If he's going to see anything,
you're going to have to be his eyes. If he's going to say anything,
you're going to have to be his mouth. This is the God they choose. I remember one time many years
ago at a place outside of Asheville where all the Southern Baptists
meet. I can't think of the name. It's right down off Old Fort
Mountain. Ridgecrest. Really got a great
big cross up on a hill. Impressive place. Southern Baptist
preacher stood up and said, the only hope. The only hope. God's last hope. is the southern baptist convention
poor god bless his little art he got much of a hope at all
god's hands are tied who's going to cut him loose? you if his
hands are tied you got to cut him loose he's done all he can do well
if you ain't saved then who's going to do the rest You're going
to have to do the rest. Therefore, if they espouse a
view of election, it goes something like this. God looked down through
history and saw who would choose him. So they chose him, so he
chose them. He chose them. I think it was
A.D. Mews who said, that's highway
robbery. Taking credit. or giving credit to god for something
that you did and god taking credit for something that you did that's
just highway robbery at the heart of this is the real knowledge
that if god has chosen you he has not chosen them now though they won't say it
like that but they'll say it like this when somebody preaches
the gospel and sets forth the truth of god's electing grace
predestinated election, predestinated to be conformed to the image
of Christ, predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto Himself. When He talks about God before
the foundation of the world, before the world was, before
the world was conceived, chose a people out of a fallen race
which did not yet exist, and you tell them the truth about
that, what they say, because of what they have chosen, what
they say, You're saying I'm not saved. That's what they say. I've had
them say it to me. You're saying I'm not saved. I've never said
that to anybody. But the gospel says it to people
over and over again. Because if you're saved by God's
electing grace through the shed blood and perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary Street, then what
I did is not salvation. So they're saying, you're saying
I'm not saying. And let me tell you something
about professions. I made many of them. They're
not easy to let go of. And you can't unlearn them. God
help us. He put this computer in our head.
And if it's ever in there, it ain't never going to go away. It ain't never going to go away.
And it's hard to let go of old stuff. But let me tell you this.
If you hold it on to something, if you're holding on to a salvation
that you believe occurred under the preaching of a God who could
not save you unless you let Him, you are still lost. Because that God is not God. idol. He's false. He's a liar and there's nothing
to him. He's a vapid vapor is what he
is, is all he is. That's what they believe. They
cannot say such a thing because they're not chosen. They cannot
say I'm elected because they believe they elected God. The elect of God sounded out. That's where the trouble starts.
If you just keep your mouth shut, everything will be alright. You
know that. You would. But the Lord says,
because I chose you and the only way they're going to ever know
that is if you tell them. That's the only way. The only
way. That's what it boils down to. Sound it out. and that's what
the believer will do they can't help themselves and the non-elect
cannot speak of it and it boils down to this the only one who
oppose election and hate the elect are those who've not been
chosen just that way if the world hates
you you know that it hated me before it hated you if you were
of the world the world would love his own, but because you're
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. The only way the world could
know that you are chosen by God and respond in hatred towards
you is if you tell them. And how do you do that? By declaring
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ openly plainly, without
fear and without apology. Don't apologize for it. When
I first started preaching, sometimes I'd actually apologize for preaching
election. Shame on me. Because I didn't
know any better. I didn't know any better. Look
with me, it's 2 Samuel chapter 6, just for a second. We'll close
here and get into them vittles. In 2 Samuel, David's coming back
with the Ark of the Covenant. And he's stripped down to an
ephod and he's dancing like a fool. Of course, we know that automatically
says he went to Southern Madness. Because he was dancing, you know. When he comes here in verse 20,
David returned in chapter 6 in verse 20 of 2 Samuel. He returned to bless his household.
Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said,
Well, how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered
himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servant,
as one of the vain fellows, shamelessly uncovering himself. What did
David say? And David said to Michael, It
was before the Lord that I was dancing. It was before the Lord
which chose me before your father. And that word before means instead
of your father. Because the people chose Saul.
God chose David. Instead of all his house to appoint
me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel, therefore I'm
going to play before the Lord. I'm going to be joyous and I'm
going to dance because he chose me instead of your daddy and
all your household. He said, I will be yet more vile
than thus, and it will be based in my own sight. And of the maidservants
which thou hast spoken of them shall I be had in honor. Therefore,
Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of
her death. She mocked him. Now David hadn't dashed for the
ark and he just come on and said, honey, I got the ark. She said,
well, good for you, honey. Great. But he didn't. He come
home happy and joyous. And when he when he was confronted
with it, he said, this is why I'm happy. And it's why I play
before the Lord. So what's the joy in my heart?
That God chose me instead of your daddy. Marvel not. But you don't have to worry about
ever getting in trouble. If you just keep your mouth shut, just be quiet. But if you tell
it, the world's gonna hate you.