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The Blessing of Election (Note: The following message contains much help from an audio sermon I listened to that was delivered by Dr. Mark Minnick of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.) Introduction: There was a group of Christians discussing election and free will. An argument erupted and the Christians split into two groups. One man, unable to make up his mind, went to the election crowd. He was challenged by those holding to election, "Why are you here?" He said, "I have come of my own free will." "Free will? You don’t belong here!" So he retreated and went to the free will group. When asked why he switched, he said, "I was sent here." The free will crowd stormed, "Get out of here. You cannot join us unless you come of your own free will!"" And so the controversy rages, and some of us feel left out in the cold, not being comfortable in either extreme! Do not fear the expressions "chosen," "predestination," or "according to the good pleasure of His will." Ephesians 1:3-14 is the expression of a hymn about the Blessings that come from God our FATHER. These blessing are SPIRITUAL. Spiritual blessings do not mean that they come to us by the Holy Spirit, although they do, but that they are spiritual rather than material blessings. They relate to heaven rather than earth, and to things eternal rather than things temporal. Material provisions and blessings are relatively unimportant in comparison to eternal, spiritual blessings. These blessings are for those IN CHRIST. The spiritual blessings described in this hymn of praise are for those who have experienced the saving grace of God. A hymn has God as its subject and is praising him for something He has done. It is best to see this hymn in three ways: The Work of God the Father, v.3-6 The Work of God the Son, v.7-12 The Work of God the Holy Spirit, v.13-14 Verse 6, 12, and 14 conclude three stanzas, praising Him for all that He has done by the Holy Spirit. Do you view election as a blessing? Are we frightened by election or blessed by it? Are we suspicious of those who relish and rejoice in this doctrine? Are we confused by this doctrine because we cannot understand it? It ought to be pleasant, bright, and sweet! Would we rather debate this subject or praise God that we are His elect? Oh, this truth of election should comfort us and encourage us immeasurably! The word "elect" or one of its forms appears 27 times in the Bible. It means to pick out or to choose. It appears as "elect" in 17 verses in the Bible. The first is Isaiah 42:1. See also Luke 18:7, Colossians 3:12. This same word is also translated "chosen" in Ephesians 1:4. In 1 Corinthians 1:27,28 the word appears three times. The word "elect’s" appears three times, Matthew 24:22,24. The word "election" appears six times, Romans 9:11. The word "elected" appears once, 1 Peter 5:13 The first thing to consider regarding election is The HISTORY of the debate: This is probably the most hotly debated doctrine in the entire Bible throughout the history of the Christian church! It is an important debate, and Christians ought to be informed regarding the Bible teaching and also the historical context of this debate. Martin Luther said that if you are not interested in this issue that you "shall know nothing whatever of Christian matters and shall be far behind all the people of the earth." In Romans, Paul waits for 9 chapters before getting into election. In Ephesians, Paul leaps directly into the mountaintop of this doctrine! Let us seek to say no more and no less than what all the Scripture says. We have to be careful with this in that we can easily take "logic steps" and soon find ourselves out of the confines of Scripture and into the realm of human reason! Let’s consider three historical periods when key theologians debated the doctrine of election. Augustine and Pelagius Most would trace this debate to the Augustine. He was a bishop in North Africa. Augustine argued that we have no power within ourselves to obey God and keep His commands; Augustine recognized that he was too bound by sin to keep even the most basic of God’s commands. Pelagius, a British monk, took great difference to Augustine. He taught that Adam’s sin affected only himself. Pelagius believed that our nature at birth was the same as Adam’s was at creation. He believed that at birth we are all born without sin and are brought into the world in a state of innocence. The issue at stake between Augustine and Pelagius was the nature of man. Pelagius is certainly incorrect in teaching Adam’s sin affected only himself. Luther and Erasmus Erasmus (1524) published a book, Diatribe Concerning Free Will. He set forth the proposition that the human will is free and unaffected by the fall. This aroused opposition from Martin Luther and he wrote The Bondage of the Will as an answer to Erasmus. Luther asked Erasmus; “If the human will is free, how can you account for the fact that throughout all the years of human history, then there ought to have been one person who obeyed perfectly the Word of God and one who sought God perfectly.” At stake is the question of whether man can, on his own, turn away from sin to God. Does an unsaved man have the will power, on his own, to turn to God? Erasmus cited dozens of passages where God commanded people to turn to Him. Luther countered that man "would not" do what God commands, Matthew 23:37. Calvin and Arminius In the later part of the 1500’s, John Calvin wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion. After he died, his followers got into a debate with Jacob Arminius about this issue. Calvin, like Augustine and Luther, believed that man’s will was in bondage to sin and that only God can rescue him from this slavery. The issue between them was the nature of God’s grace in salvation. Arminius said that God’s grace is given to a person and it is sufficient to aid him in salvation, but that a man can refuse it. Arminius and his followers drafted five articles that are essentially the view of evangelicalism today. Calvin’s followers met the Arminians remonstrance with a famous church council, called the Synod of Dort and for about six months met until they adopted the now famous five points of Calvinism sometimes remembered by the acrostic, TULIP. The five points were to defend against the articles of Arminius. Calvin said that if God elects, then his grace is irresistible. He will so grace a person, not to drag him kicking and screaming, but to make him willing. Whitfield and Wesley In the 18th Century, this debate came to the forefront again because of a debate between Whitfield and Wesley. By any standard, these two men are two of the greatest preachers and Christian leaders of all time, and yet they disagreed on this issue and had a deep conflict over it. This debate is much older than Augustine and Pelagius. It is at least as old as Paul! Paul is taking up the objections in Romans 9: Romans 9:14, Shall we say there is unrighteousness with God? Does election mean that God is unjust? Of course not! This is the debate that is reflected in Luke 4, in the ministry of our Lord when he reads Isaiah 61. Jesus tells the people of Nazareth that God sovereignly selected the widow of Zarephath and the Syrian Naaman to show His grace. Our second main point as we consider the Blessing of our election is the RIGHT APPROACH in considering this teaching in Scripture. Let us have Reverence! This is holy ground! Moses I have chosen you to deliver this people at this time! Moses had no problem with God saving the people of Israel; he had a problem with God choosing him! We are dealing with something God did before we were around! Let us have Humility! (Deuteronomy 29: 29) There are things about this that are secret that we cannot understand in our finite mind. It is our determination that we will not reject the things revealed because we cannot understand the secret things. Don’t reject the revealed because you cannot understand the secret! Also, do not think that you are alone are right in your understanding of election. Good and godly people have differed in their understanding of this great doctrine. Let us seek to Preserve Scriptural Distinctions! It is like three bases, you have to go to first before you go to second. You cannot confuse the bases or say first base is the same as second base. 1.) Election: to pick out or choose for one’s self. 2.) Predestination: to determine beforehand, pre-determine. 3.) Foreknowledge: God’s intimate knowledge beforehand of someone. This word, ELECTION or CHOSEN is used about 51 times in the NT. What does the word actually mean? It means to select or choose. 29 of the 51 times they are translated choose, make a choice, or chosen. Election talks about choice. Eight times this word is used of the choosing of the apostles. Other times the Lord chooses the apostle Paul, etc. This term is used 30-32 times to refer to the election of sinners to salvation. So we can say that the majority of its uses are for the choosing to salvation. (Matthew 24:24, 31; Luke 18:7; Romans 8:33; Romans 9:11; Romans 11:5, 7, 28; 1 Cor.1:30-31; 1 Thess.1:4; 2 Timothy 2:10; 2 Peter 1:10) We must be careful not to leap into the secret things. The bases sometimes get confused and thrown into one. 1 Peter 1:2. We are elect according to God’s foreknowledge. According to 1 Peter 1:2, foreknowledge was prior to election. Romans 8:29,30: For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestinate…. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called… In Romans 8:29,30 foreknowledge was before predestination and predestination was theologically before our calling or election. We must distinguish between what the words actually say and the logic leaps that people take, they often leap into "never, never, land." In the third place, let us consider The QUESTIONS RELATED to this: Why did God choose me? God does make choices? God chose Abraham to leave the Ur of the Chaldees and make a covenant with him. God chose Elijah to go to the widow of Zarephath. God chose Jonah to go to Nineveh. The Scriptures teach God’s sovereign choice. We want to know WHY? How do you explain that choice? The answer is that the chosen one should be holy and without blame before him in love. He made this choice according to the good pleasure of His will. WHEN were you Elected? God says that He chose us before the foundation of the world. Look at Revelation 17:8. What does that mean? Before God even made the world, God chose me. He knew that I would be a sinner and could never be good enough but He chose me. Like Spurgeon said, "God certainly must have chosen me before I came into this world or He never would have done so afterwards." For WHAT Purpose did God choose me? That we should be … unpunished for our sin? No. He chose us for the ultimate objective not that we should merely be saved from hell, but that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. God’s ultimate objective is that we are holy and without blame before Him, and along the way, God saves me from damnation. Are you willing to be holy? Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Christ loved the church that he might sanctify it and cleanse it by the washing of the water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church! (Eph.5:25, Heb. 12:37). Does any man choose to be holy? No. That is precisely what no man has ever done. Man loves darkness rather than light and no man on his own seek after God because all men love their sin. Unless God determined to do something for us, none of us would have determined it for ourselves. There is none that seek after God! There is none righteous, no, not one. WHY does He elect certain people? Ephesians 1:5: In love having predestinated us… IN LOVE, God elects. We might argue in our human flesh with this and ask; "Well, then why doesn’t God elect MORE? Is He arbitrary or unjust in His election of people?" No, it is not arbitrary for Ephesians 1:6 says, "according to the good pleasure of His will." We were elect according to the will and good pleasure of God. But, why does He love one person rather than another? Why not everyone? Why no one? Well, the fact is, we do not know these things. We do not know why He elected who He wills, and why He does not elect every single person born to salvation (Romans 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:5, 11). We do know that we are not elected because of our works. We are not elected because of our choice, John 15:16. We are elected according to two things: 1. Predestination 2. Foreknowledge, 1 Peter 1:2 How do I know what goes first: either foreknowledge or predestination. Romans 8:29 tells us what is first base, second base, and third base. Finally, let us consider ILLUSTRATIONS Related to Election: The illustration of “Two Train Tracks:” One track is Divine sovereignty and the other is human responsibility. Keep your train on both tracks. There is the track of God’s sovereign grace in electing to himself a remnant. Then there is the track of human responsibility. People are required to repent and believe. Anytime you try to reconcile those tracks, you will derail the theological train. The illustration of “Three Bases:” Dr. Mark Minnick (Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Greenville, SC) uses this helpful illustration of three bases: First base: Foreknowledge Second base: Predestination Third base: Election (or to be called) God chose us because he predestined us and He predestined us because He foreknew us. God’s foreknowledge is first in sequence of time, for God knew all things from the very foundation of the world. Why did God choose us? Because he determined beforehand to do it on the basis of His foreknowledge of us. The illustration of “A Great Oak Tree:” (Again, I borrow this from Dr. Mark Minnick) Imagine that you are standing beside a great big oak tree. You start at a branch, and you identify where it comes into the next limb, and where the limb meets into the trunk. Then your eye goes down the trunk and you come to the ground and you cannot see anything under the ground. First limb: I chose you. Second limb: I did it because I predestined you. Third limb: I determined to choose you because I foreknew you. Then you go under the ground and the Bible never answers why he chooses us on the basis of foreknowledge. The Bible does not tell us explicitly why he chooses us according to His foreknowledge! To answer that question puts one into the realm of speculation and human reason. The illustration of “Heaven’s Gate:” (This is the illustration given by Dr. Harry Ironside in his commentary in Ephesians) Here is a vast host of people hurrying down the broad road with their minds fixed upon their sins, and one stands calling attention to yonder door, the entrance into the narrow way that leads to life eternal. One it is plainly depicted the text, "Whosoever will, let him come." Every man is invited and no one need hesitate in coming to Jesus. No one needs to say, "Well, I am not sure that I am the elect, so it would be useless for me to come, for the door will not open for me." Friends, God’s invitation is for whosoever and it is sincere and honest invitation. "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Like Moody said, "The whosoever wills are the elect and the whosoever won’t are the non-elect!" As he listens to the Spirit of God and becomes saved, he says, "I am going inside. I will accept the invitation; I will enter that door," and he presses his way in and shuts it behind him. As he turns about he finds written on the inside of the door the words, "Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world." What, he says, had God fixed his love on me before ever the world came into being? Yes, but he could not find that out until he got inside. You see, you can pass the door if you will, you can trample the love of God beneath your feet, you can spurn His grace if you are determined to do it, but you will go down to the pit and you will be responsible for your own doom. Does this teaching on election hinder evangelism? It could but it should not. 2 Timothy 2:10: A knowledge of God’s elect caused Paul to endure all things for the sake of those who were the elect. Knowing that God had much people in Corinth motivated Paul to stay in that city and preach the Gospel faithfully, knowing that fruit would be found. We do not have to argue someone into getting saved. God does have a remnant and we can all go after them. We don’t have to be smarter or slicker in our presentation to be used of God. We have to be faithful to go. It is a wonderful thing to have God’s great assurance of our salvation. Have you ever wondered if God is sorry that you became saved? Sometimes we fail so much it is easy to think that God stays angry with us all the time, but unfortunately, God saved us so he cannot damn us! Away with this thinking and find immeasurable comfort in this truth: “I am blessed with this teaching of God’s choosing in my life! It makes so secure.” You don’t think about election before salvation. You run to Christ and come to Him. Once you come to Him, election comforts. Election is not to confuse us, but to bless us. Blessed be our God who has blessed us because He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world! |