Transcript

Well, as you’re being seated, get your Bibles and let’s go to John 15. John 15. We are in our series. Occasionally I’ll break from the expositional preaching through a book of the Bible to do a series of messages that I think are important. Some time ago, I’d say 2, 2 ½ decades ago there was a strong revival, awakening if you will, to the doctrines of sovereign grace, that is, that God is fully sovereign over all aspects of man’s salvation, and I preached that very very clearly, our former pastor, Bob Pittman, preached that very very clearly, but there has been a lot of resistance and I think a lot of the resistance is because we’re shallow and we don’t understand what we mean by sovereign grace, sometimes nicknamed Calvinism. I didn’t agree with John Calvin, I do not agree with John Calvin on everything but the major doctrines of the faith when it comes to salvation, he did a great job exegeting the biblical text and so I thought I just want to put all this together. Let me say this as I’ve said to some brothers recently, if you’re a young preacher, you don’t need to tackle a series like this until you have at least 15 if not 20 years of strong expositional study and preaching under your belt. Don’t tackle this just right off the bat early on. You just don’t need to do that.

We’ve called this the “Unbreakable Eight-Strand Cable of Sovereign Grace.” I wanted to picture and emphasize that it’s absolutely fixed, firm, settled, cannot be severed. When God saves us, his way, by his means, for his glory, it’s done and it’s all through sovereign grace. We’ve mentioned something about the great glory of God and that the glory of God is the purpose behind everything God does. You have to grasp, you need to hold to, you need to walk in the reality that you’re not the end, your salvation is not the end, man’s salvation is not the end, God’s glory is the end of all things. We talked about this irreparable fallen condition of man, that mankind has fallen into sin, into willful depravity, and in and of himself apart from a divine miracle, he is unable to fix his state. He’s in an irreparable fallen condition. Then we talked about the invincible love of God, that God has this type of love and this capacity of love that is beyond our comprehension. We have to accept the love of God by faith because it’s outside the realm of what you and I can grasp or walk in in our own abilities and strength. He has this invincible love. Now we come to the message today that I’ve entitled “God’s Bold Choice to Show Favor Toward Man.” God did something he did not have to do, he chose to exercise special favor toward men.

Let’s read this text and this will not be just, I was going to say careful but an exclusive exposition of this text even though I think it’s a good exposition of the truth that’s here, but we’ll look at other things also as we want to get a balance of biblical truth on this great theme of God’s bold choice to show favor to men. John 15, beginning in verse 15. He says to his disciples,

15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.

I. An abundance of favor. Now here the Lord talking to his disciples says, “I chose you.” You could amplify that out and say, “I have cast special favor on you.” Now in this particular context, this is believers. These are his disciples. We’ll talk about that a lot more in just a moment but for a moment I want to step back and think just for a moment, clear your minds of other stuff and think about how God has in abundant ways and in various ways cast favor to man. Think about creation itself. God says, “I will make man in my own image.” What a marvelous statement of abundant favor. God made all the creatures of the air, creatures of the land, the creatures of the sea, then he makes one particular creature, it’s his creation, and he calls him man and he says, “I’m going to favor him so wonderfully, I’m going to make him in my own image.” God could not do a more wonderful favor for anyone than say, “I’m going to make you like me.” That’s a favor. He did not have to do that. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and God covers them with skins, picturing a covering of their guilt and shame. What a favor he cast toward Adam and Eve. When the earth was full of nothing but wickedness and every thought and intent of men’s hearts was wicked continually, God said he was going to judge the earth with a flood and he preserves Noah and his family and preserves the human race. He shows favor to man. As a matter of fact, in Genesis 6:8, the Bible states, “Noah found favor in the eyes of God.” God promised after that that he would never judge the earth again like that and he hung a bow in the heavens and that’s the picture of a battle bow, it’s the emblem of of a warrior’s bow. He said, “Look, I’ve hung my bow up in the heavens. I’ll never again judge the earth like I have this time.” A favor, a great favor toward man. God called this pagan man named Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to become the father of a great nation that would be his special unique people Israel. What a favor. Abram is just another pagan out of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of pagans living in this day and God just cast favor upon him. God chooses Jacob, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.” What a favor he cast on Jacob and the lineage of Jacob. When Jesus was on the earth out of all the disciples, he chose 12 that they might be with him, that he might teach them and train them. What a special favor was cast upon them. We have what we call common grace as God lets the sun rise on the just and the unjust, God brings the rain on the crops of the just and the unjust, all these manifold multiplied benefits we have every day in our lives, that’s God’s favor to man. God calls some men to preach the Gospel, other men he does not. He cast a special favor, not that they are more special but he has a special role for them. He favors them for that assignment, others he does not. There is the universal call of God to all sinners everywhere, and don’t ever let go of the universal call of God. The Spirit of God works, the revelation of God is evident from nature, from the witness of the law in our hearts, from the witness of conscience, from the bearing witness of preachers and Gospel witnesses, the universal call of God to all men everywhere is, “If you will repent and put your faith in Christ, I will forgive you, I will save you, I will make you my child.” That universal call is a great favor God cast toward men. He doesn’t have to do that.

Sometimes God cast special favor in ways that are mysterious. I was sitting on an airplane going into Salt Lake City, Utah just recently and there was a man sitting beside me and I don’t know how to discern this, I’m not a mystic, but I just sensed he was wide open to talk to so I started talking to him and he told me about growing up as a Mormon in Salt Lake City but he didn’t believe the Mormon faith. He was troubled by it. He said, “You’ve got to understand, all my family are deeply committed to Mormonism,” he said, “so I just got away from there and I went into the military and just got away from all of it and I’ve lived a wicked life, I’ve lived an ungodly life,” and he said, “now I’m retired from the military and I’m going back home and only two of my relatives of all,” you know they’ve got a lot of family members, he said, “only two of my relatives even know I’m coming home and I don’t know how they’re going to receive me and I don’t know that I want to go into this Mormon culture and this Mormon faith.” I’m telling you, for about 20 minutes before the plane landed, I just poured the Gospel on him and I kept telling him how it’s Christ and Christ alone and Christ will save you, his death is sufficient for all of your sins. Don’t trust the Mormon faith. Don’t trust a Baptist denomination. Don’t trust anything or anyone but Christ. I just poured that on him. Pray for that man if you think about him sometime. I thought, “What a favor.” I mean, he got to sit by a Gospel preacher and the Spirit just made him open. He was very receptive to everything I was saying. That’s unusual. How does that happen? It’s just God favored him in that moment to hear and others he does not. The Spirit of God working. The patient long-suffering of God in that God for moment by moment, hour by hour, days by days, years by years, countless millions of people never give God a thought of gratitude, honor or respect and he holds back his wrath still. The favor of God. We could go on and on and on.

So I want you to understand this God’s bold choice to favor men and mankind and sometimes individuals in special ways, is throughout Scripture and is thoroughly taught, actually, in nature. As we’re talking about God’s bold choice to favor men, we’re going to talk, of course, about unconditional election, that God chooses to favor some unto salvation and he passes over others. Look, I’m going to tell you right now up front, this is not a new doctrine for us, I know that, but it is a doctrine you cannot wrap your brain around so just accept it now. It’s bigger than you but it is true and the Scriptures bear it out very thoroughly, but be convinced of this, as John Watson says in his book on sovereign grace, “Those who die and perish do so over the grace of God, they do so in spite of the love of God, and the virtues of the death of the Son of God, and the long- suffering patience of God the Father, and the unceasing pleading of the grace through the Holy Spirit.” So those who perish without Christ, perish because of their own choice to not receive Jesus Christ. This abundance of favor.

Now II: God’s bold choice to favor some unto salvation. God makes this bold choice that, “While I sent my Son and I’m long-suffering and I’m patient, and my Son’s arms are outstretched with nail scars in his hands and nail scars in his feet, and any who will come to him I will save, on their own, none will come.” That’s why we called it the irreparable fallen condition of man. Left to himself, he will not come. Even the most hardened Arminian, Arminian means the line of doctrine that says man has a part in it, achieving his salvation, and man also has a part in working and keeping his salvation, but even the most hardened Arminian who holds to works conversion will tell you the Spirit of God must work or a man cannot get saved. All we do is go ahead and look at what the Bible says about that. What does the Spirit do and how does he do it? God makes a bold choice out of the 100% of mankind who will not turn to God and be saved, he makes a bold choice to act on some and turn them. That’s what we mean by unconditional election.

Now, in our text here, Jesus says it’s so simple and so plain you can miss it. Verse 16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you.” Now in the balance of the biblical teaching, you could say, “You could not choose me. You had not to the capacity to treasure me, to love me, to honor me from your natural heart, but I took the initiative and I chose you,” and I’m amplifying it out, “to become one who becomes a learner to treasure God and love God and honor God from his heart.”

Now, John 6:44. Jesus in the context of some grumbling about his claim to be one sent from heaven, they thought, “What do you mean, you’re sent from heaven? We don’t grasp this. We don’t understand this. We reject your teaching that you’re this special one out of heaven.” Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” There is a reason why you can’t grasp that I am God’s Son, Jesus Christ, that’s because the Father has not drawn you to be able to see it and receive it.

John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Once again, Jesus makes it clear it’s the Father’s initiative to turn the heart and then they will come. Again, this was in the context of some who were not believing and Jesus is saying, “The impulse of faith comes from God the Father and I’m not worried about those of you who reject me, that means my Father has not drawn you to receive me.” That’s the context. You can’t make it mean anything else.

John 10:26 through 30, “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.” Now in the Greek that’s the only way you can say that. He was not saying, “You’re not my sheep because you won’t believe.” No, he says, “You won’t believe because you’re not already marked out as one of my sheep.” “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Now let me stop for just a moment and talk about contemporary Baptists and contemporary Baptists, particularly Southern Baptists, we have strong and long-held to the doctrine of eternal security and no one can snatch us out of God’s hand, no one can snatch us out of Jesus’ hand. Once we’re saved, we’re truly saved, but from the very beginning, our Baptist forefathers took both wonderful truths. The reason why once you are saved you can never lose your salvation is because God marked you out for that salvation before you were born. You don’t get one, eternal security, without the other, unconditional election. They always have gone together. Somehow in the last century, century and a half, we lost unconditional election but we ain’t gonna let up on eternal security, we like that one. We like the fact that God sovereignly keeps us saved, we just want to be sovereign on the front end and get us saved. Baptist history and church history and scholarship do not bear that out as the teaching and belief of our forefathers. I’m not talking about Presbyterians, I’m not talking about Anglicans, I’m talking about Baptist doctrine. We’ve just become poor expositors over the last 20-30 years and skipped over things that the Bible is very clear upon.

Now in Acts 15:22, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.” Let me stop right there. I’m using this verse because the word “choose” here is the exact same word Jesus uses in John 15:16 when he says, “I chose you.” It means from among the people, these guys chose some men to go with Paul and Barnabas, and what it means when Jesus is saying it, “Among all the people on the earth, I’m choosing some who will be my true disciples.” God says, “I’m in back of all of it.” So God has made a bold choice to favor some unto salvation.

III. God’s bold choice to favor some unto salvation stands despite man’s contrary will. Now I’ll elaborate on this in a message or two from now when we talk about irresistible grace, overcoming grace, that God is able as if there’s anything too hard for God, there certainly is not, God is able to reach his own, draw them to himself, bring them to the place where from their own heart they choose Christ even if their will naturally is contrary to that and contrary to God.

On another occasion when the Pharisees were rejecting Jesus, the high-up learned scholars of the day were saying, “You’re a false teacher. You’re not of God. You didn’t come down from heaven. You’re not the promised Messiah.” Jesus looks toward heaven and says in Luke 10:21, “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit.” He’s rejoicing over all of this and says, “I praise thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well pleasing in thy sight.” He says, “I want you guys to know something, you’re rejecting me but in back of that my Father is either allowing you to see me or not allowing you to see who I truly am.” Unconditional election and it doesn’t matter where you are naturally, what your pre-disposition is, what your personality type is, it doesn’t matter what your learning is, God can overcome that and bring his children safely to himself.

Now a little bit of history here. There’s been a debate, of course, going on in the church for many many years about freewill, about the will of man and is man’s will free. As a matter of fact, we have now created a whole separate Baptist denomination called Freewill Baptist. Now why do you think they are called Freewill Baptist and we’re not?

Why do you think there is a Freewill Baptist? Because they, their forefathers, adopted a doctrinal belief that was contrary to what our Baptist forefathers have held to for centuries. The first Freewill Confession of Faith was adopted in 1834 and the reason they adopted it was there were some of the Baptists who began to teach that man has a role in obtaining his salvation and man must work faithfully to keep his salvation or he can lose it. We believe man’s will is free, man is free to believe on Jesus, it’s within him, he has the natural virtue to do that, and then he must work to keep his salvation. Our forefathers said, “No. No, we’ve never believed that. We’re not going down that road. We don’t embrace that belief. We believe God saves us through sovereign grace, he keeps us through sovereign grace. He decided it beforehand. He keeps us through time and he will keep us all the way through eternity. Now our lives will reflect a difference, we will work for him, we will serve him, we will love his church, but that’s because he changed us, not because we’re trying to achieve his blessing and acceptance.”

So our forefathers said, “We can’t go along with this,” so they break off in the early part of the twentieth century, there were about 300,000 Freewill Baptists who broke off from our forefathers who became Southern Baptist, but then if you back up even bigger and look in a broad sense over 2,000 years of church history, you have two poles or two main lines of thought. The one is the sovereign grace, Calvinism or unconditional election viewpoint. That was adopted by the Puritans, the Protestant movement of the last 500 years, early Baptist forefathers, Father Augustine, John Bunyan, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, all were of that line of sovereign grace. The other pole or the other line was the Roman Catholic line. Roman Catholics rejected our forefathers and the Protestant Reformers’ view of sovereign grace because if you hold to sovereign grace, it plucks up the roots of Catholic doctrine. If you hold to sovereign grace, then you don’t need a particular church, you don’t need the priestcraft of the Roman church, you don’t need their sacraments or their ordinances, you just need Christ. And so there has been the Roman Catholic line that held to man is responsible and he is ultimately enabled to believe on God by himself with no aid from God but he’s got to go through all these hoops jumps in the church, and then the line that our forefathers come from, that’s the line of sovereign grace.

Now let me talk about man’s will for just a moment. I’ve said this many times to you. I believe man’s will is free within his nature. Think about the things that are outside of our nature. You cannot jump off of a high building and survive because it’s not in your nature to fly. You just can’t do it no matter how much you will it. It’s outside of your nature. You’re not able to abstain from eating indefinitely and not grow weak. You don’t have the nature to do that. You’re not God. You’ll grow weak and die eventually if you don’t eat. You’re not free to live at the bottom of the ocean, at least not without some aid to give you oxygen because you can’t develop gills like a fish and bring oxygen out of water. It’s outside of your nature. And man is fallen, man is in an irreparable, fallen, depraved condition. He does not have it within his nature. If God leaves him completely alone, he does not have it in his nature to choose to love God, to treasure God, to trust God and believe in God’s Son Jesus Christ. It’s just not there. That’s why Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray.” Each of us. It means every single one has turned his own way. In other words, the point is, the converse is true too. None of us have chosen to turn to God. None of us have chosen to go God’s way, at least by ourselves. We all go our own way. We all do our own thing. Now you can become a good Baptist doing your own thing, you can become a good evangelical doing your own thing, you can memorize the Bible, you can become very religious but it’s your version of it. It’s your own way. To really love and treasure God and trust him and trust his Son requires God to do something to you.

Romans 3:9-11, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks,” that’s everybody, “are all under sin.” So what is our condition now, what are we capable of under sin? Verse 10, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands and none who seeks for God.” He says, “You can take all the Jews and all the Gentiles, that’s everybody in this day, that’s everybody, and none of them understands what they need to do and how to do it, and none of them seeks God.” That’s where they are. Men of their own natural capacity are unable to recognize their sinful corruption, they are unable to see and understand their offensiveness before God, and that they of their own natural capacities are unable to repent of sin, repent of their willful condition, and put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So here’s the point: thank God he is able to save his own despite our contrary will. He can reach us when we don’t even know we need to be reached.

IV. The freewill of God. You’ve heard of Freewill Baptists, I serve a freewill God. It’s funny, who was it, Luther wrote “The Bondage of the Will,” a great great book on how man’s will under sin is in bondage to sin and it’s not free. It’s funny, a lot of people would put God in bondage. “Now God, we’re going to do fine. This is the way you are, this is the way you must act because I’m comfortable with that. You can’t be free to do what you want. I want to be free to do what I want and choose you the way I like but you’ve got to be in bondage.” But he’s not that kind of God. The freewill of God. So as you’re considering these questions, as you wrestle with, “Well, is man’s will free? Can men choose God on his own or is he in bondage and God has to act on man first or man will never choose God? What is it, which one is true?” Well, really the real question here as you’re considering God’s freewill, the more vital and fundamental question, that is, is does God have a free will? Do you believe God is God? Do you believe he’s holy? We sang about that a lot this morning. Do you believe that he is in every respect appears to you that he is vastly unique from you and different from you? When you think of logical things, God may think that’s crazy because he doesn’t think like you think because he’s different than you. He’s bigger than you.

If you hold to God as God, then three things you must hold. First of all, that he is omniscient, he is all-wise. If he’s God, he’s all-wise. He doesn’t need to learn anything. He doesn’t need to know anything. He’s all-wise. Secondly, he’s sovereign. Sovereign. No one, nobody, no time can influence him. He makes his own decisions as it pleases him. Period. You can form a committee, you can take a vote, you can do what you want to do, it doesn’t affect God. He’s all-wise and he’s completely sovereign and, thirdly, he’s all- powerful or omnipotent. He can perform whatever he in his wisdom decides to do and his sovereignty declares to bring forth, his power can achieve it. Oh, thank God he cast a special favor on his children to save them. In his wisdom he found a way to do it, in his sovereignty he determined it will be done, and his power through his Son Jesus Christ got the job done. If God is God, then he is all of those things and as God, he made that bold choice to show unique favor to men.

Romans 9:16 reminds us, “So then it does not depend,” notice it does not depend “on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” The all-wise, sovereign, all-powerful God, it depends on him. Sir, if you believe you played a role in securing your salvation, how can you go to your deathbed calculating out examining your past life and feeling like, “Okay, I checked all the boxes off, I’m good”? How can you have any peace? How can you have any security? None of us can look back and say, “Hey, I did it right. I did my part. It’s all done.” But boy, we want that in our flesh. So preachers have succumbed to the fear of man and they started giving church members little hoop jumps, little boxes to check, “Now if you did these things, then you’re in.” I’m sorry, I don’t have a chapter on hoop jumps. I don’t have a chapter on check boxes. That’s not the way you gain, you gain security by trusting in the God from eternity to eternity is your Savior, and certainly through time he keeps us as his own.

V. A river of revelation showing God’s favor to some unto salvation. There is so much Scripture to support this doctrine of God’s special favor to those whom he would save and securing their salvation, or the doctrine of unconditional election. Now Romans 9 is the most thorough place where this doctrine is taught. You can turn there if you want, we’re going to look at it in a moment. In Romans 9, we have those bold clear statements of how Israel, though the vast nation of Israel did not receive Christ but the elect within Israel would receive Christ, and he amplifies that on out, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.” His point is, “I chose a line within Israel but I didn’t choose all of Israel.” He is saying that in saving folks, God has always cast his favor on some and not cast that same saving favor on all. But as you consider that challenging text, it’s not challenging to me, it would have been 37 years ago, but once the Spirit of God gave me a peace about it, I was settled and I’ve been rejoicing in it ever since. But if you’re struggling with that, that’s okay, just don’t stop struggling. Don’t make you a little McDonald’s God in the box that you’re comfortable with. Keep stretching yourself to look at the God of Scripture, but as you’re considering like Romans 9, again we’re going to look at it in just a moment, the question in Romans 9 is not really what does that text teach, the text is very clear, it teaches the unconditional election of God for his children. I mean, it’s just clear. Here’s what the question is: how can God do this and be fair? That’s the question. How can God show special favor to some but not to all? But let me turn the cannon around and fire back at you. You must learn that you have to approach Romans 9 the same way you approach all of the Bible, that is, not with a proud and contentious spirit to God but with a humble submission to God to say, “Whatever your will is, whatever your word reveals, my response is, ‘Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.'”

Do you remember when Jesus had first told his disciples as recorded in Matthew 16 that he was going to build his church and he was going to build his church by dying on the cross, and Peter, his mind was blown, “You can’t do it that way! That’s not the way it’s supposed to work!” Peter was all upset. He takes Jesus aside privately and the biblical text says he begins to rebuke Jesus saying, “This is never going to happen! You’re not going to go die on a cross!” Jesus turns right around and rebukes Peter and says, “Get behind me, Satan. You’re setting your mind on man’s interest and not God’s interest. You’re trying to think about this the way a man would logically think, Peter. You’ve got to stop that.” And that’s what some of you are doing with Romans 9 and all those passages about God’s sovereign unconditional election of some unto salvation. You’re approaching it like man would think and not like God thinks and you’ve got to quit doing what Peter did when he said, “No, Lord, this will not happen!” You’ve got to humbly say, “Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.” Because you can never ever ever ever ever say, “No, Lord.” Those two can never go together. If he’s Lord, it’s always, “Yes, Lord.”

So as we come to Romans 9, that’s the spirit we must have. It’s always, “Yes, Lord.” Remember God’s reminder of the way his mind works in Isaiah 55:8 and 9 where God says, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD.” “You would figure out how you think it ought to work but I don’t think the way you think. You would tell me how you would do it,” but God says, “I don’t do things the way you do them,” and aren’t you glad of that? “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

So we think about another verse, Ephesians 1:11. In Ephesians 1:11, notice what he says here, “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” Wow, what a verse. This God predestining some to be the objects of his special favor to bring them to salvation, this all happened after the counsel of his will for his own purposes. His ways are not your ways. His thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so his thoughts are higher than your thoughts and his ways are higher than your ways. Humble yourself before this true and Almighty God.

In this verse, Ephesians 1:11 where he says he “works all things after the counsel of His will,” it’s a beautiful picture here. The word “counsel” means “advice.” Here’s what God says, “Do you know what I do? When I want advice on how I’m going to do my work and save my children and build my kingdom, I just counsel with myself. I get advice from me.” Amen? It kind of sounds like Donald Trump. Well, Donald Trump is an arrogant blow-off but I have to give it to him, the guy has some good policies and he gets the job done. Amen? Even with all the things that I don’t dislike about his character and the way he handles himself. You know, there is some virtue in being manly, firm, courageous and not having a backup gear. Our young men can learn something by watching a Donald Trump. Now don’t learn the bad parts but learn the manly parts. Bless God, he doesn’t care. “Boom, here we go.” I’m just glad he got with some good conservatives and got some good policies before he got in office.

Let me get back off of that and get onto what matters. God said, “When I decide what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it, I get advice from me. Period.” After the counsel of whose will? His own will. In the context of unconditional election, here he uses the word “predestination,” the same concept, he said, “When I decide to do it this way, I just counsel with myself and this is the way I thought and this is the way I’m going to do it.” Daniel 4:37, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,” this is a pagan king that’s been humbled by the way God worked through lowly Daniel who was a godly young man in exile there. Nebuchadnezzar says, “I praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” Do you know why? Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled. You can raise your head up and you can strut around and say, “Wait a minute, I’ll tell you what, I’m part of my salvation. I get part of my salvation.” You’d better listen to Nebuchadnezzar. He can bring you down to where your pride is crushed and you’ll say, “Do you know what? His ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts are higher than my thoughts.”

Psalm 33:11, “The counsel of the LORD stands forever.” Counsel, same word that we saw in Colossians, God did those things after his own counsel. How long does God’s way stand? It lasts forever and God does things his way for his own glory.

Now look at Romans 9 if you will. Would you turn there, Romans 9 and look at verse 6. Romans 9:6. Again, I will not spend a lot of time here but this is the most exhaustive, now it’s taught thoroughly throughout the New Testament especially, well throughout the whole Bible but in the New Testament, but it’s really clearly taught in Romans 9 beginning in verse 6. So here Paul is writing to the Romans and it’s in the context of defending the thought or dispelling the argument that, “Well, God has failed because Israel was his people and not all of Israel has come to Jesus. So did God mess up? All Israel is not redeemed, all Israel doesn’t see the truth, all Israel didn’t come to their own Savior, so did God mess up? Israel was his elect.” Paul says, “Well, you misunderstood something. Let me explain it further to you. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” In other words here’s what he’s saying, God didn’t choose to be his people everybody who is of the nation of Israel, everybody who is a blood lineage relative of Abraham. Verse 7, “nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: ‘Through Isaac your descendants will be named.'” So here we have a line within Israel that is the elect of God. Verse 8, “That is, it is not the children of the flesh,” just because you’re born of the blood lineage of Abraham, “who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.” Verse 9, “For this is the word of promise: ‘At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.’ And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.” Verse 11, “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad,” in order that the purpose of God, it was according to his counsel to us that, “His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.'” Verse 13, “Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'” Within Israel, I love the line of Jacob, I passed over the line of Esau. It’s just that simple. I chose to do it that way. I have my purposes. Verse 14, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!” Now he says go all the way back to your forefathers, Moses and Israel, not theirs but to the forefathers in Israel, to Moses. Moses taught you, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” God’s choice to favor some, not favor others. Unconditional election. Verse 16, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” So first we have the choosing of Abraham out of pagan idolatry; Joshua 24, Genesis 31 says he was just a pagan like all the other pagans on the earth and God chooses Abraham to be the father of this great nation. Then you have Isaac chosen, not Ishmael. God chose to favor one, not favor the other. Then we have Jacob, and some will say, “Well, Jacob was chosen because he was connected, Ishmael was not a pure blooded Jew so, therefore, he chose the one and not chose the other one.” But then he says in verse 10, look at it again in verse 10, “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.” They are both from the same father here. You can’t say that that’s some kind of heritage of their parents that gets them out of the line of promise. No. The boys had the same Jewish parents and the choice to favor Jacob and not Esau was against the normal custom of the day because Esau was the firstborn. God just chose to favor one and not favor the other one. Verse 11, he reminds us before either one of them could do any good or any evil, God chose one and not the other one so that his purpose according to his election might stand. God’s choice to cast favor on one and not another is apart from anything a human being might or might not do. Look at verse 16 of the text, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” The teaching is very very clear.

Deuteronomy 7:7, talking of Israel nationally now, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” God chose you and he didn’t choose other nations. Unconditional election.

Acts 13:48, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” Who believed? Those appointed before him by God.

Romans 11:5 and 6, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.” Same word again, God choosing. There is a remnant, who is the remnant? The one God chooses.

Romans 11:7, “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.”

Now we don’t have time for Titus 1:1, Colossians 3:12, Luke 18:7, Romans 8:33, Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20, Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27, 2 Timothy 2:10, Ephesians 1:4 and 5, actually Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Peter 1:1 and 2, and Revelation 17:14, and others. A river of revelation showing that God sovereignly has decreed to cast saving favor unto some and not to others.

The argument is always raised, “Well, God elected, God chose them because God looked at ahead in history and God saw who would believe.” Well, God does look ahead in history and God can see who’s going to believe but that’s not what the text is saying. The concept of foreknowledge, foreknown is the word in our New Testament means he looked ahead in history and saw what his plan would reveal, not who would believe and therefore he decided to elect them after that. When you say, “Well, God just looked ahead in history and he saw what men would do, then he reacted to that and called them the elect and saved them,” then you’re making man sovereign. All of a sudden it’s not God’s choice that stands,, it’s man’s choice that stands. All of a sudden God is not electing man, man is actually electing God. You put man in the place where it’s as if he lines up all the gods and all the idols of all the ages and he chooses the right one. Sovereign man, not sovereign God. If God looks ahead in history, and certainly he can and certainly he does, the only thing he would see as he looks ahead in history is morally bankrupt, spiritually dead sinners incapable of having any virtue or any desire to look to and believe on his Son Jesus. That’s all he would see if he looked forward in history. So God looks forward in history and he rejoices as he looks forward in history and sees what his sovereign dictates are going to perform, and that is he will be saving his children perfectly, permanently, unto his own glory for time and eternity. The church is going to be just fine. Jesus is going to have his brethren. Jesus is going to have his bride. He’s going to do it his way, by his power, and for his glory.

The man by the name of Arthur Custance, Arthur Custance is referred to in Boice and Ryken’s book on sovereign grace, and Arthur took 12 of the top biblical authorities on Romans 9 and he saw how all 12 – now these are biblical language authorities – how did all 12 of these men translate and understand the word “foreknown.” Did they mean it, did they translate it to mean that God looked ahead and saw who would believe and then he foreknew them unto salvation, or did it mean that God knew them beforehand and elected to save those he knew beforehand? All 12 agreed with the last position. Foreknown means God marked them out beforehand and then acted on them in time, bringing them to repentance and faith. You just can’t make God be who your flesh wants him to be. He’s bigger than that. He is greater than that. He’s wiser than that. He’s smarter than that.

VI. Remind yourself that God favors some in order to bless all. In other words, God doesn’t elect some in order to condemn others. That’s not the point. God doesn’t elect some in order to reprobate or bring into reprobation others. God actually elects some to the end that they might be a blessing to others. God elected Israel as his nation but Israel is to be a light and the truth of God to all the nations. From the moment God called Abraham, Genesis 12:3, he says, “You’re going to be the father of a great nation and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. I’ve elected you, Abraham, but to the end that all peoples might find the blessing of knowing God.” It’s not to the end of cursing others, it’s to the end of blessing others. And then when God saves us in the church, what command does he give the church in five books of the New Testament? “Go into all the world and make disciples. Preach the Gospel to all the nations.” He elected us and gave us more responsibility and more accountability to be a blessing to others. Can I get an amen there? We go to the ends of the earth knowing God’s got his elect but knowing he has saved us to be used by him to be a blessing to all. I can’t make them believe but I can bring the blessings of the message of salvation to all the best I possibly can. So Israel under the old covenant and now the elect church under the new covenant is commissioned to take God’s favor and God’s blessing to all the nations.

Now our last one, VII: when God shows this special favor unto salvation on some, it has a deep effect on them. They become different people. As Jesus told his disciples, he said, “You didn’t choose me, I chose you,” and then he says in the very last thing there, “and I command you to love one another.” Why does he say, “I command you to love one another”? Because since I’ve chosen you, I’ve changed you, now you have the capacity to love in a way that you didn’t have before. Now you can love each other because you’re all in the same Christ, you’re all in the same family now that I’ve changed you and drawn you to myself.

Three thoughts here and I’ll be quick. 1. One change is that you develop a high view of God and the highest praise for God as you wrestle with, as you contemplate. Folks, I’ve been studying like this for 38 years and I’m telling you it still blows my mind. God all of a sudden becomes a lot bigger than this little cookie-cutter God some preachers talk about. You get this high view of this holy God. We sang a lot about the holiness of God, remember what I tell you always about the holiness of God? It means that in every way God made you like himself, he is infinitely superior to you, but he is also radically unique and different from you in more ways than you can comprehend. He’s superior to you in love. He’s superior to you in truth telling. He’s superior to you in every way. He gave you attributes like his, but he has attributes that he is eternal, he’s spiritual, that you can’t even fathom. And as you grasp this doctrine of this sovereign God marked me out as his and wrought the word through his precious Son to make me his child, secure me for time and eternity, all of a sudden God gets greater, more glorious, more wonderful, more worthy of being my treasure than he was before. A high view of God and a high praise for God. I mean, when these truths that you’re God’s chosen elect child, when that gets to the marrow of your bones and you know from start to finish it’s all of God and it’s all of grace, your esteem of God grows.

2. You become stronger. This doctrine of God’s choosing special favor on some or unconditional election, if it’s understood and embraced, it will make you a stronger man because when you grasp this, it crushes your spiritual pride and you’ll begin to fear nothing but sin and tremble before no one but God. You give me a man that fears only sin and trembles only before God, then he’s not a coward in front of anybody else. It makes you stronger. Stronger.

Thirdly, it breeds humility. You can’t grasp these doctrines and be cocky. You can’t grasp these doctrines and be arrogant and proud. You can’t grasp these doctrines and be a know-it-all. I’ve been preaching and studying my brains out for 38 years and I’m more humbled about what I don’t understand and don’t grasp than ever before. It humbles you.

You see, when we begin to grasp that our salvation is not the result of my arbitrary will like it was all hanging in the balance, “Well, I make the decision,” what a way, do you think God would do his children like that? “It’s up to me.” I want to tell you something, I’ve learned something about me and I’m not as faithful as I need to be to gamble my eternal soul on it, but when I know it’s God and that it was the intention of his will that saves me and keeps me saved, that settles it. That humbles me before him.

Now listen carefully and I’m done. Before the worlds were made, you were in the heart of God as his elect child. Before the worlds were made, you were numbered in God’s heart. Before the worlds were made, you were included in the covenant of redemption. Before the worlds were made, you were assigned to the care of God’s Son Jesus Christ. All the events of world history are laid out to fulfill Jesus’ purposes and chief among his purposes is to secure his children. Before the worlds began, divine sovereignty ordained that you would hear and be apprehended by the Gospel and that that you would see the true light and that you would place your faith in Jesus Christ. Before the worlds began, it was ordained that Jesus would be born to seek you, and he would die to redeem you, that he would rise again to justify you. You see, when the lashes tore his flesh, each wound bore your name. When the crown of thorns pierced his brow, each tear bore your name. When the nails were driven through his hands and feet, with each ring of the hammer it called your name. When the spear was thrust through his side and it touched his heart, it was a heart that had written upon it your name. Today as he intercedes at the right hand of the Father, he pleads your name. The death, burial and resurrection and now intercession of Jesus for his children seals and settles their election for time and for eternity. God’s bold choice to cast special favor to men. Thank God it’s in his hands, wrought about in his wisdom, secured forever by his power.

I’ve got one quick question before you get too restless: has it changed you? You can know all this in your mind and not be one of his. Has it changed you? Can you say, “Pastor, there has been a growing higher view of God in my heart and mind. There has been a deepening praise for this God. I’m learning more about him and I can see that. I’m learning that the only thing I really should be fearing is sin and I’m learning that the only one I really should tremble before is Almighty God. And pastor, I sense a humility. I’m no longer sure of myself. I’m no longer sure of my philosophy, my viewpoint. I need to just humble myself before this God and serve him and honor him and treasure him and know him better.”

Jesus said, “No one can snatch them out of my hand and the Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand and I and the Father are one.” Then he said, “And all that the Father gives me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.” You talk about eternal security that’s why our Baptist forefathers gave us the doctrine of eternal security, because of sovereign unconditional election. Somehow Satan got in and got us emphasizing eternal security and got us off of sovereign election. You can’t have one without the other. It’s all in his hands. God’s bold choice to show favor to men. He didn’t have to but thank God he did.