Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 2 Timothy 1:9 | Date: April 14, 2013 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Before I begin, I was just thinking up here. You can turn, if you would like, to 2 Timothy 1. There are a few things more disheartening for a preacher than to prepare all week, excited about the things of God, come to church, and preach to people who really don’t care. I’ve been there. I’ve been in congregations where I’ve preached where, because of the subject matter, you just shut down partway into the sermon. It’s quite an experience.

If you’ve preached for very long at all, you begin to read a congregation. You know things that are happening and whatnot. In all of that to say, there are few things as encouraging for a preacher than to spend that time excited about things of God, come to a congregation to share it, only to find the congregation just loves it and responds, and their hearts resonate with it as well. There’s just nothing more encouraging like that. And one of the many, many signs and one of the chief signs of God’s work in the hearts of the congregation of Reformed Baptist churches is your desire and your love for the things of God and the things of His Word. And it seems like the deeper we go, the more you love it, the more you appreciate it. And that’s just wonderfully encouraging for a preacher.

And in particular, with this series, this is not like the first time you’ve heard these truths, these doctrines expounded for more than 40 years now. These doctrines have been preached here faithfully. And to see your heart and to hear the encouragement that I’ve had in pursuing this series has really been an encouraging thing. I thank you for it.

2 Timothy chapter 1. If you’ll turn back, keep your hand there, turn back just a couple of pages to 1 Timothy 1. And I’ll begin with verse 12. 1 Timothy 1, verse 12:

“I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, an insolent opponent. But I received mercy, because I had acted ignorantly in an unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost. But I receive mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, to the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

In 2 Timothy 1, I’ll read beginning at verse 8:

“Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we’re thankful for Your Word. We’re thankful for the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What other message is there that could compare to this? That our God has come to our rescue. The God against whom we have sinned has in mercy sent His own Son to bear the punishment, the guilt, the curse of our sin in our place so that we may be restored to fellowship with Him. We’re thankful for these truths that illumine the Gospel so for us. We learned last week what a dreadful, helpless condition is ours. We look forward to the rest of this series as we see how you have, in grace, acted on our behalf to our salvation. Father, we thank You for these truths. We thank You for revealing them to us. We pray that You will make us better worshipers because of them. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The title of the message this morning is, “Who Chose Whom?” Who Chose Whom? Or, The Doctrine of Unconditional Election. Scripture speaks often of the truth of God’s election, God choosing whom he would save. It’s not something that’s found in an obscure corner of the Bible here or there. It’s something we find frequently on the pages of Scripture. And the first reading of those passages that speak of God’s choice, God’s election, seems pretty clear that it’s telling us that God chose those whom He would save. And so we have words given to us in the Bible referring to that: election, predestination, foreordained, appointed to salvation, things like that.

And as I say, the first reading of all of these passages seems pretty clear to say God chose whom he would save. Now because of the rather instinctive human perception that such a thing is just fundamentally unfair, as you can imagine, if you’re not already aware, much discussion has arisen over these doctrines. And it’s not just in our day, but for centuries past as well, this has been quite the discussion among many Christians. And so we have alternative explanations of election that have been offered. The most common of which is, “Well, God looked ahead, and he saw who would believe. And seeing who would believe, he chose them.” Which, of course, if you think about it very long, begins to resemble not election being God’s choice, but after all, our choice. God looked ahead, saw who chose him, so he chose them. And that’s, without question, the prevailing sentiment today among broad Christendom.

And so we have some terminology that has developed over the doctrine. It used to be enough simply to use the biblical word, election. God chose whom he would save. It used to be enough just to say, “I believe in election.” But because of these various alternatives that have been offered, we’ve had some new vocabulary that’s come into the church over the recent centuries. And the most common of those is conditional or unconditional election. We attach an adjective to it to describe exactly what we mean when we say we believe in election.

Conditional election, of course, means that God chose us on the condition that he looked ahead and saw that we would believe, and so he chose us. It’s conditioned upon us. The more historic view is what we now call unconditional election. That is, we have to clarify this: no, there were no conditions attached at all, but the choice was God’s. He chose whom he would save for reasons of his own.

I remember I attended the same school that Pastor Greg attended, an undergraduate that he was talking about earlier. I remember one time sitting in chapel, and the vice president of the school got up to speak. And he came across a passage that dealt with this doctrine of election. The word was there. He had to deal with it. And there it was. And so he told us in very plain terms that the Calvinist understanding of election was clearly mistaken. The Calvinist understanding of election, he said, is like a stuffed ballot box, which, of course, is not fair. He said the biblical doctrine of election is this: The devil casts a vote for you. God casts a vote for you. You must cast the deciding vote.

I think I’ll have more to say than that as we go along. What we insist on here is that the first reading of these passages that deal with the doctrine of election and what seems to be the most obvious understanding of these passages is, in fact, the right one. And that is that God, for his own reasons and according to his own purpose—now that’s something that I’ll emphasize as we go along, too—God, according to his own reasons and according to his own purpose, not on condition of a pre-understanding of our faith, and in fact, despite our unbelief, God, for his own reasons and for his own purpose, chose out from among the mass of fallen and rebellious and unbelieving humanity those whom he would save.

And so we call this unconditional election. There were no conditions attached because the conditions were only in God’s mind. What His decision, what His reasons were, were up to Him. And so we call this a sovereign choice of God. It was up to Him to determine whom He would save. Well, if you fall asleep, there you have the whole doctrine stated in a nutshell. But as you can imagine, because I’m a preacher, I have a longer answer to give than just that one. And so we’re going to take a little bit. Pastor Boyd said that He would like to have all of these positions for VBS filled by noon today. That means, by the way, that you will have to make those decisions while I’m preaching, because you won’t have that meeting before.

As I mentioned last time, I want to try to approach each of these points of doctrine in one sermon each. To do that, we’re, for most of these sermons, going to treat it in a topical fashion. You will need to have your Bibles handy today. We will have something of a Bible drill this morning. You’ll be going back and forth to several different kinds of passages. But the Bible does approach this doctrine of election in several different ways. And I want to highlight for you what I think are the most prominent ones.

The Sinfulness Of The Human Heart

Number one, it approaches the doctrine of election from the standpoint of the sinfulness of the human heart. That is, we believe in unconditional election because of the sinfulness of the human heart. Now this takes us back to what we saw last time, and that’s why we so often begin this whole discussion with the topic of total depravity. And what we saw last time is that the heart of man in his natural condition is disinclined from God. It’s summarized well for us in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, where the apostle says the things of God are foolishness to the natural mind. The natural mind cannot understand the things of God. They’re foolishness to it. Neither can he know them. And there’s that statement of ability: neither can he know them.

We find it in Romans 8. The natural mind is at enmity with God. It cannot be subject to the law of God. It cannot be. And we saw several passages to this effect, I think most telling of which is what we saw in John chapter 8, where Jesus says to those who heard him, “Because I tell you the truth, you will not believe me.” The reason you don’t believe is because I have this saving message which is true. If I could teach any other message, you would believe that. But not this one. Because it is true. Because it is true, you do not believe me.

And so we find statements like this all through the Bible about the natural condition of the human heart. And so the Bible has quite a vocabulary about it: a stony heart, a sinful heart, an uncircumcised heart, a hard heart, a seared conscience, stiff-necked, rebellious people. God holding out His arms to receive, if only they will, but they won’t. Jesus saying to Jerusalem, “How often I would have, but you would not.” And there’s this constant refrain running all through the Scriptures of the natural rebelliousness of the human heart when it comes to the things of God.

And so the Bible describes us in our natural condition as at enmity with God, enemies of God, dead in trespasses and sin, loving darkness rather than light, and so on. All of that to say, given that condition of the human heart, the initiative must belong to God. Election must begin with Him because of the universal rejection of God from humanity. There’s a demand for divine initiative.

We won’t take time to expand on this passage that we’ve read from Paul’s own testimony, both in 1 Timothy 1 and 2 Timothy chapter 1. But I wanted to read through them just to point out that this was the Apostle Paul’s own testimony. This was his experience. He tells us here in so many words, very plainly, “I had my plans. And they were exactly contrary to God. And my conversion is due to the fact that God had other plans for me.” That’s the whole testimony that he gives. I was running headlong, foolishly, in a spiritual insanity, running against God. That was my plan. But God had other plans. And according to that plan, I was saved. And there we have Paul’s own testimony stating for us exactly this doctrine of unconditional election.

I’m afraid to take too much time to look at all of these, but let’s look at Romans chapter 3. For those of you who are taking notes, you’ll want to jot down Psalm 14 here as well, because the Apostle Paul is quoting the 14th Psalm here in Romans chapter 3. But he adds one very important interpretive comment to the psalm, and that’s why I’m having us go here. Romans chapter 3. I’ll begin reading in verse 9:

“Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written,” and here he offers his Old Testament passages as proof for this doctrine of universal sinfulness. Here he quotes Psalm 14: “None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one.”

And so on he goes through this litany of descriptions of man in his natural condition. Now, notice again in verse 10, “As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.” And here’s where he offers this interpretive comment: “No one seeks God.” Now all that is is a summary statement of the psalm itself because it goes along and says, “All have sinned, all have turned aside, all have become worthless.”

So we have to understand the situation rightly. The situation is not as the doctrine of unconditional election is often misrepresented. The situation is not that God looks down upon humanity, and he sees some who are inclined, some who are not inclined. And those who are inclined, well, it really doesn’t make a difference, because he’s going to choose who he wants to. And even if you want to be saved, you can’t, because I didn’t have to choose you. And yet these people say, “I want to be saved,” and God won’t let me. It’s not it at all.

The biblical characterization of the situation is, God looked down and says, “Is there anyone who will come? Anyone who will come? I’ll have anyone who comes. Anyone.” And to a man, we have said, “No.” None seek after God. And at that point, God can say, “All right, have it your way. Have it your way.” And having it your way, we would have had universal condemnation. Not one person would be saved. Universal rejection.

But instead, what we find is that in spite of the universal rejection of God by all of humanity, God has said, “I’m not going to let it go at that. I will choose out for myself among all of these lost humanity, those who in their insane rebellion are rejecting me in my offer of grace. I’ll choose men and women from all over the globe, from every kindred and tribe and tongue and nation. I’ll choose for myself men and women who will be saved, and by that reclaim the world for myself.”

So the point here is that we believe in this doctrine of unconditional election, if for no other reason, simply because of this fact of total depravity. Once you’ve said total depravity, you’ve given away the store, and you’re locked in to this doctrine of unconditional election. And so we have the many passages throughout the Bible—we could look at this for week after week to explore these many passages that speak of human rebellion, universal human rebellion, and in contrast to that, divine initiative, God choosing whom he would save.

To bring it back to the illustration of the chapel message that I heard when I was in school, my only hope and your only hope is that God will stuff the ballot box. Because the reality is not that the devil had cast a vote and God had cast a vote and I cast a deciding vote. The reality is the devil had cast a vote and I had cast my vote with him. And if God had not stuffed the ballot box in that sense, if God had not overruled my choice, that would have been my end. And the Bible everywhere presents the doctrine of election from this standpoint. It is a necessary thing that God acts sovereignly in choosing whom he will save simply because there are no conditions that fallen humanity would have met.

Now again, that should be explored at great length, but we can’t because I want to do all of this in one sermon, and I’d like to have you go home for lunch before this evening’s message.

The Sovereignty Of God Over All Things

Number two, we believe this doctrine of election, number one, because of the sinfulness of the human heart. Number two, because of the sovereignty of God over all things. The sovereignty of God over all things. All I’m going to do here is simply point out the larger presentation of the sovereignty of God in Scripture and present, then, the doctrine of election within that perspective. And the point here is that God is always prior to. God always maintains the initiative. God is never contingent on his creation.

The Bible has various ways of emphasizing this as well. It should be taking several weeks, but here we go. The Bible presents this from several different ways. One, just the vocabulary that he has given to the biblical writers. We have words like predestined, foreordained, chosen, decreed, appointed, appointed beforehand, and so on, where the initiative clearly belongs to God.

We also have some all-encompassing kinds of statements in the Bible that show us this truth. God works all things together for good. That is, all things are within his grasp to work and to control and direct according to his own purpose. Paul says that exactly in Ephesians chapter 1 with regards to the doctrine of election. We’ve been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.

We have this brought out in the narrative of scripture in some fascinating kinds of ways. And that is this doctrine of divine initiative, divine sovereignty over all things, is so embedded in the minds of the biblical writers that it leaks out everywhere into all kinds of connections. So for example, we rarely read in the Bible, “It rained.” We read rather, “God sent the rain.” We don’t read so often that it didn’t rain, or there was a famine. We read, “God withheld the rain. God sent a famine.” Or we’ll read, “God hurled a storm at the sea,” when Jonah was out there. God hurled the sea. God throws the lightning so it hits the mark.

And we find things like, if Joseph, for example, prospers in Egypt, it is because God was with him. And on the other hand, if there is calamity that comes to a city, “Have not I, the Lord, done it?” And God is, all things are always traced back to God, the sovereign over all things, including the landing of the sparrow. It’s not just that the sparrow lands, but it doesn’t land—it never lands apart from the will of the Father. Even to the hairs of our head, even to the throwing of the dice: “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

And we find this insisted on in every dimension of this world throughout the scriptures, that God is God over all things, and there is nothing to which he is contingent. But he is directing all things according to his own purpose. And this doctrine of election is simply a subset of that, or one application of it, saying God, who is God over all things, chooses also, of course, whom he will save. Or, turn the question the other direction: does God really choose whom he’s going to save? Well, he chooses everything else. Why wouldn’t he choose that too? And again, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 speaks of the doctrine of election in exactly that connection. We’re predestined according to the will of him who works all things—all things—according to the purpose of His own will.

So, the doctrine of election is simply a subset of this larger truth that God is sovereign over all things. Now, let me pursue that just a little bit deeper, push it a little bit harder. And this one I want you to follow with me in Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. Many of you will remember this passage as one that is wonderfully descriptive of the majesty and the sovereignty of God over all things. But I want you to notice the connection that Isaiah the prophet makes here in this regard. Verses 13 and 14:

“Who has measured the spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult? Who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?”

Now, the question I want to ask then is—well, let’s ask it the sophisticated way first: What is the ground of God’s knowledge? Or simply, how does God know what he knows? Has there ever been anyone who has said, “God, let me tell you something,” and God says, “Oh, OK, thank you”? It’s an experience God has never had. And so the idea of God looking ahead and learning from us who will believe not only involves a real problem with the doctrine of human depravity, and not only a real problem with the doctrine of salvation, it involves a very serious problem with the doctrine of God itself. It makes God contingent, as though he’s learning from us. And that is exactly the denial of this passage. Who has ever taught him? When has God ever looked ahead and learned anything from anyone else? Our point here is simply to say that election must, of necessity, be unconditional because of God Himself—who He is. He is not contingent.

Salvation As The Outworking Of A Divine Purpose

All right. We believe the doctrine of unconditional election because of the depravity of the human heart, because of the sovereignty of God over all things, and then narrowing that just a little bit more, number three: because salvation is presented in Scriptures as the outworking of a divine purpose. Salvation as the outworking of a divine purpose.

Our point here is simply to say that salvation is not presented in Scripture—it is exactly not, in fact, it is denied—that salvation would ever be something that was willy-nilly accomplished. “Oh, he happened to believe. Oh, he happened to believe. She happened to believe. And so they happened to be saved.” But rather, those who believe are continuously presented to us in Scripture as believing as a result of a divine purpose to save them. That’s Paul’s testimony exactly that we saw in 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. He has chosen us according to his own purpose. Or Romans 8, verse 28: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”

And this is what we have all through the scriptures, where we have both the negative—the denial that it was ever because of our initiative—but always and only because God has made the move according to a purpose that he had in eternity past.

So, I’ve mentioned 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9. Let’s look at some more. Look at John 6. We’ll look at a few verses here. Jesus has just been preaching here the Bread of Life discourse, offering Himself as the bread of life. Of course, he’s being refused at this point. Verse 35 and following: “I’m the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, but whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet you do not believe.” For all the privilege they have, there’s still a rejection.

Verse 37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” Notice: all that the Father gives Me. Now, who’s that? “All that the Father gives me shall come to me.” Who are those given? Well, it seems to be pointing back to an eternal purpose that involves the Trinity itself, where the Father for His own purpose, His own reasons, chooses a people whom He will save, gives them to the Son, and the Son says, “Then I will go save them. If you will have them, I will go save them.” And the Son comes then on this saving mission to give Himself a sacrifice for sin to save those who are given to Him by the Father.

If you think that’s reading too much into it, read on as we go. Again, verse 37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” And here’s an explanation of it: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up in the last day.” Here he says, “I’ve come for the purpose of serving the Father’s will. The Father’s will is this: He’s given me a people to save, and I’ve come to save them.” Salvation as the outworking of a divine purpose.

Jesus presses this further if you look over a couple of pages to chapter 10. And here he uses a different metaphor for those who are given to him. John chapter 10, verses 15 and 16. I’ll begin with verse 14: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own. My own. And my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.”

“I come to save my sheep.” Now, “other sheep I have. I have other sheep that are not of this fold.” Now, who’s that? There have been Baptists who have suggested that the other sheep are the Presbyterians. And I think there have been some Calvinists who have suggested the other sheep are the Arminians. But clearly, I think Jesus here is speaking to the Jews, for whom he had come as Israel’s Messiah. And don’t you mistake it. I have not come just for Israel. I have other sheep. And in the end, I will have gathered them all, and there will be one fold and one shepherd. But you see again, salvation is the accomplishment of a divine purpose.

Further down in chapter 10, verse—let’s start with verse 24: “The Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand.'”

Notice that. “You do not believe. Why? Because you’re not one of My sheep.” Now let’s get the thinking straight here. We are accustomed to saying we are a sheep of Christ because we have believed. But you should see that the thinking here is exactly backwards of that. We are not sheep because we believe. We believe because we’re sheep. Because I am one that was given to the Son by the Father, when the shepherd called, I heard his voice and I came.

So we have this in the Gospel of John in several ways. We can see it further in John 17 as well. We have this reference to those whom the Father has given me. I’ve come for them. The sheep. I’ve given my life for them, save them, and so on, all of this pointing to a divine purpose that Christ, the Son of God, has come on a saving mission. And that saving mission is defined as rescuing His elect.

Let’s do a couple of more. Look at Acts 13. Here we have the Apostle Paul with Barnabas conducting their ministry in Antioch of Pisidia. Luke is recording the history of it for us. As you know, the Book of Acts is given to record that first spread of the gospel in the first century through Israel and then beyond to the nations of the Gentiles as well. And once in a while, through the Book of Acts, we have these summary statements that are given that gather up the success of the gospel mission.

And in Acts chapter 13, we have a fascinating expression of it. Acts 13, verse 48: “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying in the Word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” There it is. “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Not one failed. God had chosen whom He would save. He had given a people to the Son. He had now sent the Son to accomplish their redemption. And now he has sent his witnesses to tell the gospel to these. And as these sheep heard the voice of Christ calling in the gospel, they came, every one of them, infallibly. As many as were appointed to eternal life, believed.

Look over at Acts chapter 18. This is an interesting passage where the Apostle Paul goes to Corinth with the gospel. Corinth was a famously wicked city. It was a city that had never heard the Gospel prior to the Apostle Paul. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1 that he went there because it was such a wicked city. He went there with fear and trembling. This is one hard case. And then we read in Acts 18, verses 9 and 10:

“The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go on speaking. Don’t be silent. Why? Because one, I am with you. And two, no one will attack you to harm you. And three, I have many people in this city.'”

Isn’t that interesting? People who have not even heard the gospel yet, and yet, God calls them mine. “Go in. Take the Gospel. Why? Because I have my people there and my sheep here. They’ll follow.” Isn’t that interesting?

Well, we’ve already mentioned Romans 8:28. We’re called according to His purpose, not ours. Let me give you just one more sample of this. Titus. Titus chapter 1. I’ll begin reading in verse 1. Titus chapter 1, verse 1:

“Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.”

Isn’t that interesting? Eternal life promised before the ages began. God had made a promise of eternal life, and now in the outworking of that purpose, men and women come to faith in Christ.

So again, then, the larger picture is that we have lost humanity, unanimous in their rejection of God, and God for His own reason, for His own purpose, chooses men and women whom he will save. Lost and rebellious, rejecting him though they do, he chooses against their stupid will whom he will save. Men and women out of every nation under heaven. In fact, Israel itself would have died out entirely because of its rejection and unbelief, but there’s a remnant according to election. God chooses a people whom he will save. And salvation then is presented not simply as a decision that we have made. Of course, we have to believe. And we’ll deal with that in coming messages. Of course, we must believe. But our coming to faith in Christ was not something that was left hanging in neutrality until we finally cast our right vote. It is the outworking of a divine purpose.

Specific Declarations Of Scripture

So one, we believe in unconditional election because of the depravity of the human heart. Number two, we believe in unconditional election because of the sovereignty of God over all things. Number three, we believe in an unconditional election because salvation is presented specifically as the outworking of the divine purpose. Number four, as if that weren’t enough, we believe in unconditional election because of simply the specific declarations of scripture. And here again, we could go endlessly through passages. Let me choose just a couple with you.

Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, beginning with verse 25:

“At that time, Jesus declared, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will, Your pleasure.’ 27. ‘All things have been handed over to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.'”

All authority has been given to Christ over all so that He will accomplish this mission given to Him by the Father to save those who have been given to Him.

John chapter 15. This is a very simple statement of the facts. John chapter 15 and verse 16. Jesus here is speaking to his disciples. He is speaking of their need of him. He is about to expand on the world’s rejection of them because of their message, because of the universal depravity of humanity that they will not find a happy reception to their gospel message. Jesus comforts them in the fact that it is Christ that they hate, not just them. And so there’s this great difference between the disciples and the world.

And He says in verse 16 to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Now here we have a simple statement. “You did not choose Me. I chose you.” A couple of things I suppose should be said here. One, it’s often been said that this verse is not talking about salvation; it’s talking about Christian service. “I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bear fruit.” And of course the simple answer to that is: can you bear fruit and be active in Christian service apart from salvation? Of course this entails salvation, whatever else is involved.

Let’s ask another question here. Jesus says, “You did not choose me.” Did the disciples choose to follow Jesus? That’s a trick question. Oh yeah, they did. Of course they did. Of course they chose to follow Jesus. Well, then what is this? It’s what we call a comparative negative. Comparative negative. Not an absolute negative. It’s a comparative negative. And what Jesus is obviously saying is, “It was not your choice of Me that determined My choice of you. It was My choice of you that determined your choice of Me.” I don’t know how a verse could be any plainer than this one. “You have not chosen Me. I have chosen you.”

We’ve read already this morning through Romans 9. You’ll want to note several verses from that chapter to this doctrine. I’ll put that for another time. Romans 11 and verse 5 is another you could jot down. Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4: “For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.” Isn’t that interesting? “We know that He’s chosen you.” How do we know that? “Because our Gospel came to you successfully.” Isn’t that interesting? I know from the fact that you believe that you’ve been chosen. That is to say, our belief is contingent upon His choice. Our choice is contingent upon His. If you’d like to jot down James 2 and verse 5, we have it again. 1 Corinthians 1, we’ll see in an upcoming message. Paul deals with it at some kind of length.

Salvation Is Designed First To Glorify God

One more point quickly before we go. We believe this doctrine of election because of the depravity of the human heart. We believe it because of the sovereignty of God over all things. We believe it because salvation is presented everywhere in the Bible as the outworking of a divine purpose. We believe it because of specific declarations all through the scriptures. And now number five: because salvation is presented in the scriptures as designed first to glorify God. Salvation is designed first to glorify God.

Let’s go to Ephesians chapter 1. In verses 3-14 here we have one long sentence in the original. It’s been broken up for our English reading into several sentences. In the Greek, there’s one sentence running from verse 3 through verse 14. And in this long sentence, the Apostle Paul is outlining for us the reasons why we should praise God, the blessings that we have received from God. And so in the first verses, he talks about blessings from the Father, then blessings from the Son, then blessings from the Spirit.

But let’s just notice verse—let’s begin with verse 3:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.”

You’d like to see verse 11: “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.”

Oh, there’s so much here. One, just the fact that we are chosen. Two, we’re chosen before the foundation of the world, the point of which surely must be it’s apart from considerations that involve us. They predate us. That is, I was not old enough to vote when this election was cast—before the foundation of the world. And it’s done, he says explicitly, according to a divine purpose.

But what I want you to see here is the purpose in it all. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, verse 4. Verse 5, He predestined us for adoption. To what end? Verse 6: “To the praise of His glorious grace.” I love to say this: Your salvation in its first instance has nothing to do with you. Did you know that? I just love that. My salvation in its first instance has nothing to do with me. It is designed, first of all, to honor God. To show off His grace. To show off His mercy.

We find that in chapter 2, verse 7. Paul says that kind of thing again. He’s raised us up, verse 6, raised us up in Christ, seated us with the heavenlies. Why? So that, verse 7, “in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ.” That is, God has an overriding purpose in saving us. It is not simply for our good, but to accomplish by our salvation His own glory. He has done this for the praise of His glorious grace.

As a display of His grace, He has saved sinners who unanimously have rejected Him. That is to say, God saves but only in such a way that He receives all the glory and the credit for it. He won’t have anyone saying, “Boy, I got myself on the back. Glad I made that choice.” He won’t have it. Paul deals with this at length in 1 Corinthians 1. He has done all of this for the sole purpose that “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

In other words, this doctrine drives us. It drives us to see that salvation really is in every dimension, really is by grace. In it we find a display of the goodness of God. And that was its first intention. And all of that is to say, election—this doctrine of election and an understanding of this doctrine of election—ought to serve as a great incentive to worship.

And in fact, it has long struck me as odd how this doctrine has come in our day to be something fought over. In a lot of churches, you find this doctrine presented only to argue against it, to explain it away more than explain it. And I will say in a lot of Calvinist churches, I have seen it where this doctrine of election is used more as a club to beat the Arminians over the head with. What you find in the New Testament is this doctrine is found as the ground of worship. And always, always, you find it mentioned, and then people breaking out in doxology, praise to God for His goodness in choosing me.

For the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1 and 2 Timothy 1, this was singled out as an expression of praise to God. In 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, the Apostle emphasizes this: “Brothers, we ought always to give thanks to God because He has chosen us.” Ephesians 1 here: He has done this to the praise of His glorious grace. The Apostle Peter writes his first letter to those who are exiled from their homeland, the dispersion, people gone, oppressed and suffering. He says, “Cheer up. You’ve been chosen. You’re one of God’s elect.” The Apostle John in 1 John 3 and verse 1 just revels in this: “Beloved, what kind of love has been shown to us that we should be called the children of God? And we are.”

Who are we to receive this? And everywhere in the Scriptures this is presented to us as the ground of praise and worship to God. There’s something profoundly humbling about this doctrine, to learn that it really does have nothing to do with me. This is all about Him. He has chosen whom He will save, and He has chosen men and women from all over the world to rescue them from their unbelief in order that He will display His own goodness and grace for all the ages.

And every time, every time we come across a verse that speaks of God choosing, God predestining, what ought to come to our mind first is not how I can win this argument or that argument. What ought to come to our mind is just the wonder—the wonder that He chose me.

I think I’ve done this before with you probably several times. I just love thinking back and pressing people to think back like this. Why are you saved? Why are you saved? This is the question that my dad presented to me. I was a sophomore in college. Of course, nobody knows more than a sophomore in college, especially if you’ve read a book—and I’ve read a book. My dad said, “Fred, you’re saved, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Our neighbor across the street isn’t, right?”

I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “Why are you saved and he’s not?”

Sophomore, I know the answer to that. “Because I believed.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “Why’d you believe and he didn’t?”

And I was left without an answer. And so he pushed it. “Are you smarter than him?” Oh, sophomore in college. I knew that wasn’t it. “Are you better than him? Are you less depraved? Your heart not as defiled as his?”

In a moment, it occurred to me that I’m saved because God did something for me that He’s withheld from others. Why are you saved? I’m saved because I believe. That’s right. Why did you believe? Oh, because somebody presented the Gospel to me. Good. Okay. Why did someone present the Gospel to you? Well, because God sent a witness. Okay. Why did God send a witness? Well, because He had chosen to save me. Why did He choose to save you? There’s no answer given to that question. That one’s hidden in the mysteries of God. The door of revelation is closed there, and there we learn to worship. God has chosen me for purposes of his own.

Just a word quickly to you who are not saved. You have not yet bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus. This ought to be a frightening doctrine. It ought to be frightening. In your own heart, you know your sin. In your own heart, you know your guilt. And you know you can’t help yourself. And you know because you’ve heard that there is only one Savior who can rescue you from your sin, and that is the Lord Jesus. Don’t dare let that thought form in your heart: “I’ll take care of it some other time. I’ll get saved when I want to get saved.” This is not in your hands. Your only hope is divine mercy. And if hearing this doctrine should cause any reaction at all, any response at all from you, it ought to be to drive you to your knees and beg God for mercy.

For all of us who are saved, we have here the ground of worship. Like a few other places, God has been merciful to me, and for all of eternity will never exhaust the praise of the God who has chosen us. Amen.

Our Father, we have sketched the edges of mystery this morning. And for all of the mystery that is left, still there is so much that has been revealed that causes us to rejoice. Lord, forgive us for any kind of pride. Forgive us ever for thinking that we are what we are because of something about us. We are glad this morning to give praise to the God of grace who has chosen us for purposes of His own, rescued us from our mad rush to hell. We pray that this will be for all of us a new revolution in our devotional life, where every time we bow our head, we’re struck, struck with the awesome thought that we are coming to You because You have come to us. We thank You in Jesus’ name.

I’m sure we have a closer, longer-pointing amount a bit earlier. We do need to have a, what we think will be a brief and speckled vision. We want to just have a courtesy of those of you who are not members of this one faculty or church. the right to aid if you need to aid, to, you know, ask to use a limb if it doesn’t sound like a jerk, if a jerk’s doing his business. And so, let me take into account, first of all, of those members who are 18 years, 20s, and older, how they’ve come back to the community is signified by raising your right hand. We know that they have a motion, so we have explanation, but the chair can grant order here at the board. If you have a brief explanation, then a motion, which we’ll ask for a second, and then we’ll have a vote, but it’s new.

I’m just going to make a motion to authorize the deacon to send the money. And the background that I’d like to give to you is the motion would be to request the authorized deacons to spend up to $15,000 on repair of the outside of the church building plus landscaping. I want to take a quick step backwards. If you remember, at our last business meeting, I said that the deacons would probably be coming before the congregation with constitutions.