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Hopefully it doesn't become too
obvious that maybe I should have reversed the order of what we
heard this morning versus what I'm gonna put on you this afternoon, but
something to think about. You remember maybe as a child,
most likely to be as a child, I suppose it could happen in
your adult life, that you received something that you didn't expect
or even imagine. That you were given something
that, again, you just weren't expecting
at all. You didn't have any expectation
of it. This is not the idea of the bratty type child receiving
something. the situation where you just
were given a gift and that gift was completely unexpected and
it was nothing that you ever imagined. I imagine you can draw a parallel
where I'm going with that. Now because the fall of mankind
and Adam all of Adam's race, all of us everyone with the exception of
the Lord Jesus Christ, were born completely in bondage
to sin, a deadly moral defect. We're all born with a nature
corrupted with guilt, and that guilt that we have comes from
the sin, which is an offense to God. being alienated from
God, there is a resulting emptiness in the heart, in the soul. There's a moral guilt that must
be forgiven. There's a distorted outlook that
needs to be corrected. To complicate this even further,
human beings are unable to repair their broken fellowship with
God on their own, or at all. people can't help
but sense that there is a serious problem any of us that have witnessed
to others we know that many if not most all people will acknowledge
that there is a serious problem and since that problem involves
inability to understand their condition fallen humans have
invented a most impossible and man-centered idea of salvation
This has been termed, before I've heard it said that God created
man and man creates God and man creates a God of his own making. But people can't help but sense
a serious problem. this man-centered idea of salvation,
they imagine that God lays out conditions which, if met, will
save them. How many of you have witnessed
to someone, you've preached the gospel to someone, you've done
your best, you've preached the gospel the best that you can,
and the person wants to tell you about their goodness, how
good that they are, the good things that they do. These people
imagine They picture God waiting helplessly to see what each person
will do. They see heaven as some kind of a reward of those who
earn it by doing right things, by doing good things. They see
hell as populated by those who just fall a little short in that
effort. They don't know exactly where
the line is at. However, salvation, as it's presented in the Bible,
is absolutely not conditional. No passage of scripture supports
the idea that we contribute anything to our salvation. To justify
this humanist view, it's necessary to twist the scriptures all around,
to take verses out of context and use them in ways that they
were never intended. What we hear today all around
us is a doctrine of salvation by human efforts and good works.
Now before we go on, two false ideas about salvation from our
condemnation should be set aside. First, people are not judged
by their good works. Many people believe that moral
obedience is a condition that must be met for salvation from
the consequences of our sins. They often will quote passages
of scripture which seem to support that idea. Turn to Revelation
20. Revelation 20. Revelation 20
in verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another
book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged according to their works, and by the things which were
written in the books. The sea gave up the dead and who were
in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them,
and they were judged, each one according to his works. Yes,
indeed, all will be judged according to their works. But our works
are not the cause of our salvation. Rather, our salvation is the
cause of our good works. Works are the evidences of a
soul made alive by Christ. Those chosen by God are credited
with righteousness by the obedience of Jesus Christ and enabled by
the Holy Spirit to actually do the things for the glory of God. And you may determine how a child
a loved one is ill by taking their temperature. It'd be foolish,
however, then to say that the temperature is what caused the
illness. God likewise judges by works. There are evidences
that we have been saved by, they are evidences that we have been
saved by grace. The deeds and the choices we
make are not the causes of salvation. The Lord reveals his eternal
determinations by showing the changes produced by Christ in
each person's life. Second, belief on the Lord, repentance
and confession of sin are not the causes of salvation. Clearly,
these are good things to do. They are works. They are works
in that we do them. It is what we are to call people
to do when we present the gospel. However, these are neither the
conditions of salvation, nor are they its cause. God regenerating
the person upon the merits of Christ alone is the cause of
these acts of faith. By this instilled faith, we are
prepared for that day when the Creator pronounces His judgment.
Justification comes by grace through faith. Grace brings life
and enables a true faith. The newly regenerated soul will
believe, repent, and confess. These are the results of a changed
heart. They're not the cause of the
changed heart. With these issues clarified,
we come to this main question. Why are some saved while others
remain lost? And the Bible gives us the answer.
And it is what we call, and it certainly is, good news. the
creator himself God has determined has eternally determined to redeem
for himself a people he has done everything that is necessary
to save them in him alone they are saved and there's nothing
left undone John 1 13 tells us they are born not of blood nor
the will the flesh nor the will of man but of God And then Ephesians
chapter one, let's turn there to Ephesians. Beginning in verse three. Ephesians
one, beginning in verse three. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace, which He made abundant towards us in all wisdom and
prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according
to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, Him in him also we have obtained inheritance
being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works
all things according to the counsel of his will That we who first
trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory God is declared to be blessed
in verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole point of this, the
main point of this whole passage is the blessedness of God amongst
those who are blessed by Him. Predestination, also election,
is introduced, but not as an isolated, impersonal, or harsh
doctrine, but as a central reason moving us to see the wonders
of God. there's a cycle, there's a structure
that's like a cycle that ties these verses together. God is
worthy to be blessed. He blesses us by loving and choosing
some freely in Christ. And when those chosen understand
the blessedness of grace, they turn back to God with praise
and a blessing. This blessed God actively blesses
his children. The actions of God are the basis
for his blessedness. Notice the things that God does
in this passage. God has blessed us, his redeemed
children, with every spiritual blessing, verse three. He bestows
goodness upon us. He causes us to benefit spiritually.
We are not the cause of our blessing, God is. God has chosen us in
Christ, verse four. The word here, it means to elect. It's the word chosen, the word
chosen to elect, to select, to choose out, to bring out. God
has picked us out to be in Christ. The context shows that Paul means
he predestined us to salvation. He elected us. The choosing of
some from among the rest of humanity is then repeated throughout the
passage. Verse 4, He chose us in Christ.
Verse 5, He predestined us for adoption as sons. Verse 11, having
been predestined to inheritance. Now, we see in here that God
blesses by His grace in the beginning. this word is sometimes translated
as blessed, sometimes it could be translated, I believe, accurately
as honors. It is that God graciously bestows
his blessing upon those who has chosen the favor of the word
is that he heaps special honors upon them. The same concept appears
in verse eight when God lavishes or heaps bountifully upon his
children the riches of his grace. God brought to completion his
redemptive work of grace in verses six and seven. God fulfilled
the promises of grace completely His blood secured our redemption,
and by grace alone He forgives us for our trespasses against
Him. God has made known to us the
mystery of His will in verse 9. Yet, we do not yet know all
the details of that mystery. Here He assures us that what
happens is in accordance with what God has willed. And this passage shows that God's
blessedness arises from his own intentions, verses 5, 9, 11.
God always acts according to his own desires. He's not driven
by external things to him, and he's not limited by the choices
of his creature. A very important concept, very
easily summed up. Turn to Psalm. I know you're familiar with this
psalm. Turn to Psalm 115. Psalm 115, verse 3. We should memorize this. It should
be one of the first things we think of when we think of God.
We're trying to get our mind, our thoughts on God. But our
God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. God does what brings the most
glory to him. The choosing of Jacob over Esau
is used to give us an example of how God's choice, not the
acts, but the choice of humans determine blessings. In Romans
9, verse 11, turn there again, Romans 9, for the children not being born
nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according
to election might stand not the works of him not of works but
of him who calls Romans 9 verse 11 fallen man is not able to
restore himself to God. He cannot come to Christ by faith
since that is a gift of God only given to those chosen by the
Father. We saw earlier in John chapter
six, verse 65, no one can come to me unless it is given him
by the Father or granted him by the Father. Our salvation
is always credited, always credited to God's free choice 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. Who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling not according to our works but according to
his own purpose in grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before time began. always credited. Salvation is
always accredited to God in the Scriptures. In Ephesians 2, 8,
9, For grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of
your own works, but is the gift of God, not of works that no
one may boast. Believing in Christ is not the
cause, but the evidence of salvation. Acts 13, 48, when the Gentiles
heard this, they began rejoicing, glorifying the word of the Lord,
and as many as appointed to eternal life believe. We're not chosen
because of anything foreseen in us, foreseen in us by God. John 15, 16, you did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear
fruit and that your few should abide, so that whatever you ask
in the Father's name, He may give to you. Comparing these
passages is clear that our election by God was determined before
we had done any good or bad. It takes a strange reasoning,
a strange logic to make our yet future actions the basis of God's
decision to elect us. The argument that God looked
into the future to see what we do and then elected us doesn't hold any water. It doesn't
stand up to the test of scripture. Again, it's clearly the meaning
of foreknew. In passages like Romans 8, 29,
it assures us that all those foreknown will be glorified in
the end. It doesn't say because of what he foreknew, but of whom
he foreknew. The word there means God knew
them specially in advance. all those he foreknew, then he
predestined, he called and justified, and then will glorify." Romans
8, 29, and 30. The Bible shows that no one is
able or even willing to come in repentance and saving faith
unless God first brings that person to life. They're born again to spiritual
life. It does nothing to solve the
imagined problem by saying that God based his past determinations
upon a future independent of his past determinations. If it
wasn't so self-contrary, the best it could do is add another
loop into some kind of circular reasoning that imagined the problem
to begin with. And this should bring us, again, this is great
news. Our hope does not rest on what we could do, what we
would do if we could. If it did, then we would be the
pitiful, all of us would be the most pitiful, because all of
us know how unfaithful we can be. If we could earn it, if we
could grab it, we couldn't hold on to it. It has to be God. God has to release us, to remove
us from our bondage and sin, and then to enable us to be able
to be His bondservant. God, as we see in verses four
and five here in Ephesians, God has acted in love towards us.
Undeserved love was his motive. And explain election to the believers
in the Old Testament. The Lord said his own purpose
was love and said his own purpose and love was the cause. Turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse
7. The Lord did not set His love
on you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But
because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath
which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage,
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Our benefits flow from our restoration
into fellowship with God by His grace. It again is God's blessedness
that is the foundation for our blessings and the motives behind
our offering up our blessings of gratitude to our Redeemer. We're just giving things back
to God that we received from God. That's why we have nothing
to boast on. When we are declared innocent
by the sacrifice of Christ in our place, we are said to be,
quote, in him, identify with him through the promise of God's
covenant that he paid the debt for all who evidence regeneration. This evidence is sincere repentance
in faith. Being forgiven, we are clothed
in Christ's own righteousness and made ever alive by His living
presence in us. Our position in Christ is referenced
in this passage in Ephesians, verses 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11,
and 12. Because of this undeserved electing
grace, which we have brought, which we have through Christ,
we have every spiritual blessing. We are restored in holiness and
declared blameless in verse four. We are adopted into God's spiritual
family, verse five. We have redemption and forgiveness,
verse seven. Spiritual wisdom and insight, verse eight. And
an inheritance of glory, verse 11. Because of our undeserved blessings,
we live to praise our blessed God. Verse 12 of Ephesians 1
turns back our blessings to their source. Our salvation is entirely
work of our saving God, of our sovereign God, enabling and striving
our otherwise dead, stirring our dead and uncaring hearts. It is his work of grace that
causes every good thing that comes to us and what we do. God's grace brings his word to
the sinner. God's grace gives us our spiritual
understanding and conviction of sin. God's grace stirs godly
fear and concern in the convicted sinner. God's grace brings us
in humble repentance before our offended creator. God's grace
stirs the heart to cry out for mercy. God's grace brings the
flood of joy over the work of Jesus on the cross. God's grace
instills an unquestioning trust that he paid it all in our place. God's grace brings relief to
the soul that we are secure forever as a child of God. Do we ask, why did I respond
to the message of grace while so many others did not? Setting
aside all human pride and foolishness imagination, we are left with
the simple and direct words of scripture in verse 4, Ephesians
1 verse 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world. God did not choose the best,
the most worthy, because we're all completely and totally unworthy.
He chose according to the good pleasure of His will alone, grace
alone, not the works performed or imagined make us children
of God. So what is our response then
to this amazing grace? What should our response be?
Do we take His blessing but neglect to give thanks? We do. We shouldn't. We often do. How often does God's grace become
a common thing to us? How many of you are here and
can't wait to get out of here? God's grace doesn't mean anything.
It's not special to you. You don't even hear about it.
It isn't even that big of a deal. You don't really care. Do we
take His love for granted without any sense of gratitude? Go back
to the question that I asked about you receiving something
that you had no idea, you had no expectation, you didn't even
imagine it. The gift that something that
your parents gave you or something that someone gave you that you
had no idea was coming. Imagine how you felt about that
person. That's a worldly thing. That's a worldly example. It's
so hard for us to keep our mind focused on the things of the
Lord and for them not to become a common thing to us. Do we push aside our Savior?
Put Him in some minor place to make room for something that's
far more important in our daily lives? Do we compromise what
we know about God's law? About God's will for us? Do we neglect our duties to our
Redeemer? Do we give things to the world
that belongs to God? Do we give admiration to the
world? Do you give place to the world? Things that are rightfully God's?
Do you take God's glory away from Him that He deserves and
you give it to another, you may say, well, I don't do that. That right there alone, that
might be sin. It's easy to do. We don't think
about things. We don't pray. We don't pray
without ceasing. We don't take what we know. We don't pray to
the Lord. When we're making decisions, we don't thank the Lord when
something good happens. We pray, we ask for Him to save us out
of some bad situation, but then when we have a great situation,
we forget about Him. We don't thank Him. We don't
show gratitude. How many of you have done something
for someone and they didn't show you any
gratitude at all? something you made a sacrifice
for and showed you no gratitude, and we're imperfect. Imagine
perfect God. We ought to respond to hearing
these things. We ought to respond. Our hearts
should be turned back to God, back to Him in blessing and in
praise. We should be able to take these
things, we should acknowledge in our minds the things that
have went on, confess them before God and ask Him to help us. Now,
the blessed God blesses us richly and we need to respond by blessing
Him. That is this cycle of sovereign grace that He brings us into,
so richly brings us into, so unconditionally brings us into, There's one thing that I think
that this should do for all of us, no matter what your situation
is, and that is it should bring joy. Because that should provide
us with joy that nothing can take away, no earthly thing can
take away. So the question is, do you have
joy in that thought? When you think about that, does
it bring you joy? No matter what your condition is, doesn't matter
where you think you're at, you're young, you're old, where you
think you're at in life, eventually all these things, no matter what,
all these earthly things are gonna pass away for us. Does
it bring you joy knowing the blessed assurance of this election
of God? If you don't have it, if you
don't have that, Is God working that? Is He working to bring
you to that? If you don't have it, then I
guess you can glory in yourself. I don't know. It's a very hopeless
and helpless situation. We need to thank God for bringing
us out of it. We need to thank God for giving
us the reason to preach His truth to our family, to our friends,
to everybody that we can come with, anybody that we can have
the opportunity, that we have the audience with. We ought to
be thankful to God for that. We ought to be ready to give
an answer for the hope that lies within us, that being that our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for our sins. We need to
make it clear when we're preaching the gospel that I am not better
than you. I am not better than the person
I'm preaching to. that we are all in the same boat
and the only difference between us is God's grace. It's not my
doings. It's not my good works. It's
not those things that make me different. It's God. And preach
that to the lost every time we get the chance. Let's go to the
Lord in prayer.
Unconditional Election
| Sermon ID | 612221957126914 |
| Duration | 32:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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