Election (Conf. msg.)

Opening Prayer and Introduction to Election

0:01 Before we once again seek the face of God in prayer, there are two verses from the book of the prophecy of Isaiah that I wish to read in seeking to direct our minds to the God whom we will seek in our prayer together. In the last chapter of Isaiah, the declaration goes forth in verses 1 and 2.

0:50 But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my work. A poor man is one who has nothing. A contrite man is one who knows that he is nothing left to himself but a sinner.

1:17 And in the light of our native impoverishment and our native state of sin, if God should condescend to speak, then surely our posture should be one of trembling in holy expectancy, in holy gratitude, and in holy fear before the God who speaks to us in his word. Let us plead that something of that spirit will pervade our hearts as his word comes to us this night. Let us all unite our hearts in prayer. Our Father, we would...

1:59 Acknowledge afresh that you are the God who fills heaven and earth, that there is no structure made by man that can contain you, nor any structure set apart for public worship that can be the assurance of your presence. But we thank you for this word of promise that you will look upon the man, upon the woman, the boy or the girl, who is of a poor and a contrite spirit, and who trembles before your word. We pray that you would grant us a fresh sense of what we are as creatures, dependent upon you for life and breath and all things. Give us a renewed awareness of what we are as sinners. And even though many of us have been redeemed by your grace and transformed by the power of your spirit, we acknowledge that darkness and...

3:01 ...indisposition to truth yet cling to us.

3:05 O Lord, overcome the darkness and the indisposition. Take away the veil from our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your law. We pray that you would humble us, that all arrogance and pride, all creature confidence, all preconceived notions of you and of your ways would be utterly swept aside, that we would tremble before your word, speak, Lord. O, we ask that your spirit will so attend the word that each one gathered in this place tonight will know that he has heard your voice.

3:47 O God, grant us the longing of our hearts as together we bring this corporate plea into your very presence in the name of your own and dearly beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I'm sure that the vast majority of you are aware of the fact that the subject assigned to me for our evening meditation tonight is the subject of election. Now as I take up this subject with you, I'm very conscious that there is perhaps no single word or concept in all of the word of God, which is the word of God. Which more quickly draws forth more intense and varied reactions from professing Christians as well as sinners who have any acquaintance with the word and concept than does this word, election. These reactions run the full spectrum from warm, grateful, adoring worship all the way to the most unbridled, antipathy

5:11 giving birth to bitter and vicious, acrimonious, invective.

5:19 Such as some of us have recently heard in a recorded message of evangelist Jimmy Swaggart who pours upon this doctrine of election that which can only be described as vicious and bitter invective. Furthermore, biblical concepts have been subjected to more misunderstanding, to more imbalanced statement, unwarranted deductions, and gross caricature than has the doctrine of election. This doctrine has suffered both from its friends and from its enemies. Well, in the light of the varied reactions to the doctrine and the manifold abuses of the doctrine, why in the world does it still stay around to be cussed, discussed, and abused on the one hand, as well as known, loved, and preached on the other hand? Well, the answer to that question is a very simple answer, and it is this, that no serious, comprehensive study of the word of God, God, as the Word of God, can be undertaken without confronting the doctrine of election.

6:44 If we believe that 2 Timothy 3.16 is true, that all Scripture is breathed out of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and if that view of Scripture leads us to serious, reverent study of all of the words of God, then we cannot long avoid confronting the doctrine of election. It is only when Bible study is deliberately selective that the doctrine of election can be avoided, or when Bible study is conducted in such a way that men may, we make the Bible mean to them what they think it ought to mean, that they can avoid the doctrine of election. The old statement is true that the meaning of the Bible is the Bible itself. And as long as men approach the Scriptures believing that they are the revelation of the mind of God and a self-interpreting body of revelation, the doctrine of election will be with us. And those who plan this conference share such a view of Scripture

The Biblical Setting: God's Sovereignty and Man's Depravity

8:09 and seek to promote such an honest and a comprehensive study of Scripture, and therefore the doctrine of election is thrust upon us in this conference. And what I will attempt to do in the time allotted to me, and possibly stealing a little that is not allotted, is, is to trace out some of the major dimensions of this biblical doctrine under four distinct headings. First of all, I would direct your attention to what I am calling the biblical setting of the doctrine of election. The biblical setting of the doctrine of election.

8:52 The doctrine of election does not come down to us hung upon a sky hook. When I was in, when I was doing construction work one of our standard jokes was whenever there was a piece of equipment or a piece of building material that we didn't know what to do with we would say go hang it on the nearest sky hook. Well you children who are here you know there's no such thing as a sky hook. A hook that simply is embedded on the nearest cloud and on which you can hang anything you desire to hang.

9:23 Well the doctrine of election does not come down to us from God hanging on a sky hook. Or to change the imagery this tremendous massive tree of doctrine does not come to us sitting upon the surface of the ground. It has some very deep and profound tap roots. And we must never give serious consideration to the doctrine of election without at least pointing in the direction of the setting in which the doctrine of election is being practiced.

9:59 The doctrine of election is being practiced. And we must never give serious consideration to the doctrine of election without at least pointing in the direction of the setting in which the doctrine of election is being practiced. That doctrine comes to us. Hugh Martin the very perceptive and eloquent Scottish theologian of another generation.

10:08 In writing on the doctrine of the atonement said some things that are very much applicable to the subject of election. He said, And assigned to themselves a greater difficulty in defending it than Scripture assigns to them. They rob it of the illustration and rob it of the protection which the higher and the larger categories afford. They deprive it of the benefit of scriptural considerations in the light of which their defense might be comparatively easy and would be found indeed presentable. And by the isolated position to which they have consigned it, they give advantage to the enemy, which the abler and more acute of their number are not slow to seize.

11:32 Moreover, by this unwise and unscientific procedure, theologians place themselves under the necessity, or at least subject themselves to the strong temptation, of betaking themselves to general and absolute, abstract reasoning to an extent that is extremely riskful and for which the doctrine themselves are not responsible. In other words, if we are to approach the doctrine of election as it comes to us in Scripture, we must see it embedded within larger categories of biblical revelation. And we do that not for the sake of neatness or of simplicity, or for the sake of systematizing, but for the sake of accuracy in handling a biblical doctrine, biblically. And the doctrine of election comes to us in Scripture already embedded in at least two other very vital doctrines. Those doctrines, or tap-roots, of the doctrine of election are, first of all, on the one hand, the absolute sovereignty of God.

12:47 And on the other hand, the horrible, yet tragic reality of man's total depravity as a result of the intrusion of sin upon the human race. And it is not my purpose tonight to give anything that would even approach a systematic treatment of those two doctrines, but simply to place the spotlight upon them for a moment, and then to keep them in our minds, consciously, as we come to discuss together the essence or the substance of the doctrine of election. In this matter of the setting of the doctrine of election, we must continually remind ourselves that it is but one dimension of God upon His throne, exercising the rights of that throne. The Scriptures say of our God, that our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Psalm 115 and verse 3.

13:57 Our God is the God described in Daniel 4.35, who does according to His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand and say unto Him, What are you doing? Our God is the God described in Ephesians 1.11, as the God who is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

14:28 Our God is the God of whom Paul writes in that rapturous conclusion to the section dealing with this subject, Romans 11.36, For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, few Christians have any problem with the fact that God is utterly enthroned when He chooses to create.

15:00 They are familiar with such passages as Revelation 4.11. For by Thy will all things were and are created. Creation was the activity of an enthroned God.

15:15 God did not vacate His throne to create. Most Christians, at least in general, have some appreciation of the fact that God is upon His throne in providence. They do believe what Acts 17 tells us, that it is God who sets the boundaries of the nations, the God who gives to us life and breath and all things, the God of whom it is said, not a sparrow falls to the ground without His will. And furthermore, most Christians have no problem with the fact that God will be an enthroned God in the final day of judgment.

15:56 The very picture of that day is permeated, it oozes with the concept of the enthronement of God. You remember the vision of John in Revelation 20 and verse 15, I saw a grey, white throne, and the whole judgment scene flows out of the vision of the throne. Now you see, the matter of election is simply this, the God who is sovereign in creation, who is an enthroned God when He makes what He makes, the God who is sovereign in providence, that is, He is an enthroned God in governing all that He makes, and in the last days, He will be an enthroned God holding all moral creatures accountable for their actions, as the enthroned God. When He decides to save, He neither steps off His throne with another, nor moves aside to share it with another. And the root of the doctrine of election is nothing more or less than the Godhood of God, enthroned in fulfillment of His purposes of mercy. Now you see,

17:21 if you have defective thinking about the more general category of an enthroned God, you'll have tremendous difficulties with the doctrine of election. And so we must think of this doctrine in terms of its biblical setting, seeing it flanked, as it were, on the left hand, with an enthroned God, and on the right hand, with the tragic reality, the awesome, frightening reality, of man's tragic lapse into sin, having rendered himself a creature who is totally depraved, that is, one in whom sin has radically affected all of the faculties of his humanity, rendering him both utterly guilty before God, totally impotent to do anything about that state of guilt, and yet completely culpable in responsibility for both his guilt, and his pollution, and the subsequent state of his inability. And like it or not, that's the teaching of the Bible concerning the tragic effects of sin upon the human race. And that teaching is summarized in such text as 1 Corinthians 2.14.

18:50 The natural man, man as he's found coming from his mother's womb, with nothing more than what he had from his conception, the natural man, a stranger to the mighty intrusions of the dynamics of grace, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. And the word can is a word of ability. Neither can he know them. Romans 8.7.

19:25 The carnal mind, that is, the internal mindset, the disposition of the inner life, of a man, a woman who has never been made spiritual by the regenerative work of the Spirit, and the subsequent impartiality, of the spirit of adoption, not subsequent in time, but as regeneration is given unto faith, and the spirit of adoption given to faith, it's in that sense that I speak in this way. A person who knows nothing of that has nothing but a carnal mind, and the Scripture says the carnal mind not is at enmity with God, but the carnal mind is enmity itself against God. It is not subject to the Lord, the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Another word of ability. It cannot be subject to the law of God. And then to me the most tragic text.

20:26 In the face of all of God's gracious provision of a remedy for sinners, God says our condition is such that we can't even get to the remedy unless God who provided it gets us there. John 6.44. For no man can, no man can, no man can come except the Father which hath sent me draw him.

20:55 And man's condition in guilt, in spiritual inability, coupled with undiminished culpability and responsibility is the other aspect of Biblical truth within which the Biblical doctrine of election comes to us. Now in summary of this first heading let me say this. If you're sitting here tonight, a man, a woman, a boy or a girl, who has never come to this blessed book and seriously asked the question, who runs the universe? God, the devil, or man?

21:37 Or God, the devil, and man? Who runs the universe? Now if you've never come to your Bible, concerned to find out the Bible's answer to that question, may I urge you not to tune me out and not hear me tonight, but in a sense, you should not be concerned to come directly to the question of election, but come to the broader category of this more fundamental question. Is God a God upon His throne?

22:09 Not only in creation, providence and judgment, but when He would exercise grace to sinners. And if you've never come to this Bible with the prayer, O God, teach me what I am. I love that little hymn, holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach me what I am. You want to know what you are?

22:38 Don't listen to your own heart. It'll flatter you into hell. It'll whisper sweet lie nothings into your ear, for the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And if you want to know what you are, for sure don't listen to Dr. Robert Shuler.

22:55 And I don't say that to elicit a laugh, because millions are listening to him and going into many earnest preachers who selectively take portions of the word of God to tell you what you are. Go to the word of God and plead with the God of this book. O God, you show me what I am. When you begin to have some understanding of an enthroned God and the sinner that you are, then I believe you'll be in a position, by God's grace, to have the soil of your heart conditioned to receive this exotic plant of the doctrine of election. And my dear preacher, brethren, may I take upon myself, at least to entreat you, if not to exhort you, when you come into a congregation that's poorly taught on these two doctrines that constitute the setting of the doctrine of election, don't plunge into the doctrine of election. Hammer out by careful exposition, vivid illustration from the Bible itself, these twin truths of God's absolute sovereignty and the tragic experience of man's defection

24:22 and his terrible plunge into sin until something of the felt reality of these truths begins to be evident in the mindset of your people and then begin to teach them this glorious doctrine of election. Well, as I seek to preach on the doctrine tonight, that setting is consciously before my mind and I want you to make every effort to keep it before yours. Now then, in the second place, having considered briefly and in mere outline form the setting of the doctrine of election, now we'll take up what will constitute the heart of our study, the substance of the doctrine of election. The substance of the doctrine of election. Now, if I were giving a biblical theological lecture and had two to three hours to do it, or, and follow closely, if I were preaching a series of sermons to my own people, any responsible treatment would have to start with demonstrating that the words used in the Old Testament, the Hebrew words, and in the New Testament, the Greek words for choose, elect, election and its various families,

The Substance of Election: A Divine Choice of Individuals

25:52 the family of words, I would have to demonstrate from the Scriptures that those words in their plain and ordinary sense mean, again and again, a choice, a selection of people or things for special functions, privileges, or status. For just one example, the word used to describe David's activity when he went to the brook and he selected five stones. That's the word that is used for election. It is an activity of selection.

26:36 And in that selection, some are bypassed in the very act of selecting. We would then proceed to demonstrate that this activity of God's selection falls into four broad categories, and I'll only mention them, and then we're going to focus on the fourth. There is what the theologians call theocratic election, and that's just a big word to describe the election of the nation of Israel for special privilege and position in the history of redemption. And then there is vocational election, the selection of specific individuals or classes of individuals for specific functions. Jesus elected twelve to be with him, the standard word for election pertaining to the vocation of an apostle. And then there is thirdly messianic election. Jesus Christ is called God's chosen one, the one selected to fulfill the functions and responsibilities of Redeemer.

27:48 But then the fourth category is the category of our concern tonight, and it's what the theologians call soteric election, and that simply means the selective activity of God that has to do with the purpose and ultimate impartation of saving grace. This election is God's gracious, sovereign, inscrutable action. In selecting unto life and salvation an innumerable multitude of Adam's fallen race. What I propose to do in the next few moments is to go through two key texts under each of these headings which give at least the heart of the biblical doctrine of election. First of all, we understand from Scripture that election is a divine act, is a divine choice of individuals. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 13 and verse 20, we read these words. Mark 13 and verse 20.

29:03 And except the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved. But for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. The language could not be clearer. That whatever election is, it involves a divine choice.

29:28 The elect are the elect whom He has chosen. They are not people who elected themselves and whose election has been ratified by God. Every child knows the difference between election and ratification. And so the whole concept that God sees who will choose Him, that's election.

29:50 And then He ratifies it. No, it simply doesn't fit the plain, simple, ordinary use of the word both in its secular usage and in its theological usage. Election is a divine choice. This is why Paul can write in Romans 8, 34, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect.

30:17 They are the elect, of God. And it is the divine choice of specific individuals. There have been some so-called theologians and some of them not lightweights by any means, who have tried to spin out a theory that election pertains simply to the church in some kind of generic nebulous sense. Frankly, I don't know how one can conceive of the church apart from the individuals who comprise it.

30:47 But in the face of a text, such as Romans 16, 13, we see how unthinkable such a concept is. Here, where Paul is giving greetings to various Christian friends in the church at Rome, he writes, Romans 16, 13, Salute Rufus, be chosen in the Lord. Now, can you get much more individual than that? Here's a specific individual at Rome with the name Rufus.

31:18 Paul says greet him and greet him as one who is chosen in the Lord. In other words, as Rufus would live out his life from the day this epistle was read in the assembly at Rome, he had every reason to think of himself in the most sanctified kind of individualism as an individual who was individually chosen of God in Jesus Christ. And surely this comes out so clearly in Romans 9, verses 11 through 13, where the whole principle of the concept of election is taught in the setting of God's dealings with two individuals. Romans 9, 10, and not only so, but Rebekah also, having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children, being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that is, in their own life history, not in the life history of Adam in whom they both fell, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls. It was said unto her, The elder, a specific individual, shall serve the younger, a specific individual, even as I have written, Jacob, the younger,

32:44 a specific individual, I have loved. But Esau, a specific individual, I have hated. And so the Bible clearly teaches us that the substance of the doctrine of election must begin with this statement that election is a divine choice of individuals. But secondly, election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation.

The Substance of Election: Unto Salvation and In Christ

33:16 This dimension of election, soteric election, with which we are dealing, is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation. Two texts again. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. As Paul thinks of that church there at Thessalonica that brought him not only some measure of pastoral concern and apprehension, but in many ways great joy.

33:49 He writes in verse 13 of chapter 2 of his second letter, we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation. And that this was no temporal deliverance is clear from the following language, in sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, where unto he called you through our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has chosen you unto salvation. And we need to have this truth clearly embedded in our minds. Election is not salvation. It is a dimension of the saving purpose and plan of God. Election is unto salvation.

34:49 Let me state it in a way that I hope it will have a bit of a shock effect. Bare election would save no one. If there were only an election and nothing more in the scheme of redemption, there would be no salvation. Election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation.

35:14 2 Timothy 2 and verse 10. The apostle says, with reference to his own ministry, Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake. Why? In order that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.

35:36 They are elect, but they are not saved. And he said, I am prepared to endure all things for their sake that they may be saved. And so the teaching is clear. Election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation.

35:54 Now we pick up the third strand of biblical teaching, and it's this. Election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ the Redeemer. Election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ the Redeemer. Ephesians 1 and verse 4.

36:23 A verse that has perplexed the mind of every reverent exegete who has sought to plummet depths as Paul theologizes in the midst of eulogy. And there is no better way to theologize. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He's the great reservoir of all the blessing with which God has blessed us.

37:00 And that blessing which forms, as it were, the fountainhead of all others is election, even as He chose us. But you see, it was not bare choice. It was a choice in connection with Him before the foundation of the world. Election is that divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ the Redeemer.

37:34 And what is the precise meaning of that phrase, chosen in Christ? Someday I hope to know the answer to that when I see Him coming face to face. But surely this much is clear. If we may speak of first motions in the heart of God without being irreverent.

37:56 The first motions of God's heart with reference to the salvation of men were motions that were found in connection with the selected and appointed Redeemer of sinners so that there never was a choice divorced from Him. Those in whom, those for whom God purposes salvation have a salvation purposed for them in connection with the only Redeemer. And even when we trace that redemption back to its pre-temporal dimensions and God, as it were, pulls back the veil and lets us go as far back as He's determined we shall go, there is Christ who is the Redeemer. There is Christ at the center of the whole scheme and purpose of redemption. And we are chosen in Him. And then that text, 2 Timothy 1 in verse 9 that points in the same direction.

The Substance of Election: In Eternity and Based on God's Will

38:59 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which were given us in Christ Jesus. His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus and given before times eternal. And then we learn from Scripture in the fourth place that election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ in eternity. You see the dimension we're adding now? Made in connection with Christ in eternity. Not an election that awaits our choice in time of the Redeemer but our choice in time to embrace the Redeemer is but the unfolding of God's choice in eternity to place us in the Redeemer. And so the language of Ephesians 1 again is relevant.

40:17 He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Before time as we now know it existed we were chosen in Him and then of course the emphasis of the text quoted under the previous heading points in the same direction before times eternal. And then those two texts in the book of the Revelation Revelation 13.8 there's a translational problem there.

40:47 Some versions render the terminology before the foundation of the world with reference to the land slain or to the name written but in Revelation 17.8 there is no translational problem and the text is clear. Revelation 17 and verse 8 speaks of those whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. And so election is a divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ in eternity and the fifth dimension of biblical truth is this it is that divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ in eternity based upon the mere good pleasure of God's will. Based upon the mere good pleasure of God's will. In Ephesians 1 and verse 5 where the parallel or the attendant purposed grace of election in Christ is predestination unto sonship these are attributed

42:14 to the good pleasure of His will. In verse 9 the same thought comes through in Ephesians chapter 1 and surely it is not foreseen goodness in us. We are not chosen in Christ because we should be made holy by some other forces or influences but we are chosen in Him that we might be made holy and without blemish. And we need to understand my brethren that when the scripture tells us that it was the good pleasure of His will that is to inform us that the actings of God's will are not the actings of an arbitrary and detached divine being. It is the good pleasure of His will. And the actings of the divine will are the actings of the will of God in the entirety of His being. His infinite wisdom His boundless love His the mystery the inscrutability of divine mind as well as the unfathomed heights and depths and breadth and length of divine love go into the actings of divine will.

43:38 This is why when the apostle comes to the conclusion of that section in Romans where he has plumbed the depths of these mysteries of the divine will and its interaction with human will and he takes up the anticipated problems how does he end up in that tremendous song of praise? Oh the depths both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. You see he doesn't think of this matter of election divorced from the other attributes of God. It is a divine choice based upon the mere pleasure of His will but Jehovah is not of Israel of our Lord. Well I submit to you that that's the heart it's not exhaustive but that's the heart of the biblical teaching of the substance of election. A divine choice of individuals unto salvation made in connection with Christ in eternity based upon the mere good pleasure

Implications: Humility and Love

45:01 of His will. Now if we could not conceive of one practical implication of the doctrine we should still receive it upon divine testimony and believe that it is in some way though we cannot fathom it in the interest of God's glory in our edification. But one does not need to read long in scripture to see that there are some major as well as many minor implications and uses of this great doctrine and now having pointed at least in the direction of the setting of the doctrine and sketched in the broad outlines of the substance of the doctrine consider in the third place some of the major implications and uses of this doctrine. And the first is this the doctrine of election is a major ingredient in the most dominant graces of vital Christianity. It is a major I didn't say the major but neither did I say it's a minor. It is a major ingredient in the most dominant graces of vital Christianity.

46:19 Now there is much that passes for the name of Christianity that is not vital and it can sustain itself without ever contemplating this grand high and glorious but revealed mystery of the doctrine of election. But where there is vital Christianity it will be found that this is a major ingredient in feeding those dominant graces of Christian experience. What are some of those dominant graces? Well at the head of them is surely the grace of humility.

46:56 And what is more calculated to produce humility than this doctrine? Paul asked the question in 1 Corinthians 4-7 what have you that you did not receive? Who makes you to differ? And I had read that text many times quoted it many times but I shall never forget when I learned it at an experimental depth to which I had never learned it before.

47:26 I received news several years ago that my graduating class at Stamford High School in Stamford, Connecticut was going to have its 25th reunion. I graduated in 52 so that would make it what 77. That's ancient history for some of you kids here. You weren't even a twinkle in your pappy's eye back in 1952 or even 77 some of you.

47:52 And apart from one couple I had seen none of those people for 25 years. The last time I saw them were starry-eyed idealistic graduates from high school who were given the same old pep talk that you probably heard the world's out there go take it by the tail and go with it. It was like being put in a time capsule and there I was suddenly planted in the midst of those people that I played ball with that I laughed with and to my shame that I cursed with and as I saw what sin had done to those people I looked totally out of place. Many of them in their second or third marriage opened bar that night most of them half crocked before the night was half spent. I came home the next morning and my spirit was absolutely crushed with what I saw. Wrecked lives. The last imprint upon memory's screen was those open optimistic faces the back slapping and the handshaking and the good luck and take the world it's there before me.

49:08 25 years later wrecked shattered scarred lives. That morning in my chair in my study and looked at first Corinthians 4-7 and I say unashamedly that I wept uncontrollably for half an hour as the words came home to me who maketh ye to differ. I could look back upon 25 years yes and many shortcomings but God had laid hold of me in grace in that senior year of high school and before many of those young men and women God had given me boldness to bear testimony to his grace and they sneered and they pitied me for wasting my life on this religious kick. Now to think that over those 25 years which they can never recover I could die and say Lord I've lived to see you in my late teens and by your grace my life has at least been one that has brought some measure of help to others and I have no serious regrets in life's choices and as I reflected upon those things the verse came back again and again who made

50:38 you to differ who made you a measure of understanding that I hoped was deeper than I had ever before the mere pleasure of your own will you marked me out in Christ and gave me to him before the world the humbling influence of the doctrine of election writes I know nothing nothing again that is more humbling for us than this doctrine of election I have sometimes fallen prostrate before it when endeavoring to understand it I have been like I have soared toward the sun steady has been my eye and true my wing for a season but when I came near it and the one thought possessed me God has from the beginning chosen you unto salvation I was lost in its luster I was staggered with the mighty thought and from the dizzy elevation down came my soul prostrate and broken saying Lord I am nothing I am less than nothing why me why me friend if you would be humble

52:07 study election for it will make you humble under the influence of God's spirit he who is proud of his election is not elect and he who is humbled under a sense of it may believe that he is he has every reason to believe one of the most blessed effects of election that it helps us to humble ourselves before God what is vital Christianity without the grace of humility what is it without love and what is the source of that grace of love first John 419 we love because he first loved us and when he allows us by his word and under the teaching of the spirit to perceive that that love has its tap roots in eternity and God says to his own I've loved you with an everlasting love there is nothing more calculated to beget the response of love in our hearts to him what is the Christian life without hope and what is hope without the doctrine of election who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is Christ that died it is Christ that has been raised Christ who is seated Christ who intercedes

Implications: Antidote to Presumption

53:36 and the hope in which we are saved and the hope by which we are sustained in our pilgrimage is in great measure fed by this glorious truth that having marked us out unto salvation God is committed in all the plenitude of triune power and in every dimension of that salvation realized in everyone upon whom he has set his love the first major implication of this doctrine is that it is a major ingredient of the most vital and dominant graces or dominant graces of vital Christianity now it is a powerful antidote to deluding presumption it is a powerful antidote to deluding presumption one of the most frightening characteristics of the human heart is its susceptibility to delusive presumption the human heart left to itself will always make its bloodlines in relationship to the holy Spirit the Lord of the earth is

55:05 the maker of the creation the result is the power that God gives to mankind and to all living beings all living creatures to the God nation but not them and so john says do not think to say within yourselves we have abraham to our father we're part of the elect nation and because we're included in that theocratic election we're all right respect to soteric election we don't need radical transformation of our nations and i tell you that one of the most damny of the reformed church is the doctrine of presumptive regeneration of the communions which have been most loud actions say unconditional free and

56:25 sovereign except with the fruit bait on the issue of whether or not in scripture sprinkling that's

57:47 not my concern because i know many of you my dear pedo-baptist brethren will say amen to what i'm affirming from this pulpit whatever your view of the significance of the sprinkling of your infants may be the waters the beginning of salvation for some of you is to begin to ask to assume i'm elect and then you'd be a little more concerned to do what peter says make your calling and your election sure not by checking your bloodlines and your baptismal record being if indeed whether his righteousness is your only plea and before him look and though blessed be your name and your glory and your glory and your glory and your glory and your glory and your

59:05 glory and it's seen you know stranger to what it is feet upon your s you've said hit to make you up first because he made you about it back to best friends s2 vessel of mercy yes i know that the history of redemption demonstrates in scripture that god's election has often fallen out in family lines i know that and i know in the history of the church

Implications: Spur to Evangelism

60:17 that biblical principle is clearly demonstrated i'm fully aware of it but what i'm saying is this presume that because you have the right bloodlines you stand in the line of grace and i have known no doctrine like the doctrine of election cut the nerve of that kind of deluding presumption but then the third major implication of this doctrine is this it's an encouraging spur to faithful god-centered evangelism it is an encouraging spur to faithful god-centered evangelism you remember what jesus said all all that the father giveth me shall come all blessed words all that the father has given me shall come other sheep i have they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold one shepherd you remember the experience of the apostle time is getting away and i cannot turn to read it in acts 18 when things got hot and the going was rushed and hanging in there at corinth was beginning to be risky business what did the lord do he came

61:46 and spurred his servant with what a new gimmick a new program he didn't come down and say paul i've got a new program this will do the trick this will do it paul paul i've come with a new wrinkle in the message the one you've been preaching is too offensive to the jews of course you're going to get knocked around and kicked out of synagogues you go telling those jews that that imposter that they think it was an imposter hanging on a roman gibbet is god incarnate paul we've got to we've got to find a new approach to no what did the lord do he said don't be afraid speak i have much people and what did paul do no new method no new message it says he continued there doing what the old message in the old method a year and a half teaching and preaching the word of god what was the spur in his side to press on it was this doctrine of election paul i've marked them out but i'm not going to do it again i'm going to do it again i'm going to do it again i'm going to do it here if you want an explanation what else do we get to hear from paul зн here you go read the sign of hope hallelujah veeny

63:10 red and again and again and again in the confidence that God has a people and He'll draw them. God has a people and He'll draw them. That's why He could say, I endure all things for the elect's sake. I know they're out there, and I know God's going to get them, and He's going to get some of them through me, so I can plot on.

63:35 Let the Jews stone me, let them kick me out of the city, let them throw me in jail, but as long as God puts breath in my lungs, most of the inhaling and the exhaling is going to be in the job of preaching. I count not my life dear to myself. I have one ambition to finish my course, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Why? God's going to call every last elect sinner that He purposed to call through me.

63:58 And when He's through doing that, I don't want to be around anyway. That's what Paul said. He said, that's why I don't count my life dear. One thing is dear to me, to complete my ministry.

64:09 To make that pass with the gospel magnet, until God says, that's enough. And when it was, off went his head into a basket. And then he looked with joy upon the face of his Savior. Which, as you know, those of you who studied that passage in the original, it's atrocious English, but it's wonderful Greek. It's very far much better.

Implications: Ray of Hope to Helpless Sinners

64:30 To depart and to be with Christ, which is exceedingly better. Well then, in the last place, it is a glorious, ray of hope to helpless sinners. That's the last practical use I'd like to set before you. I was going to give you some warnings, but that'll have to wait another time.

64:49 But this great and glorious doctrine of election is a ray of hope to helpless sinners. And you say, wait a minute, Pastor Martin, have you lost all your sanity? Or at least some of it? What hope can there be in a doctrine that from eternity, God has fixed the number of the vessels of His mercy, though that number is described in the book of the Revelation as a great multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation?

65:24 How can that be a ray of hope to me? Will God allow me somehow to be carried by an angel into His immediate presence and there to go down to the register of the role of His elect and see if my name is present? No, He'll not give you that privilege. You will not be able to see what His name is.

65:43 No, He'll not give you that privilege. You will not be able to see what His name is. You will not be able to see whether your name is present. But there's a flip side to that.

65:48 You can't see whether it isn't either. But one thing you can see, if you're honest before God, you can see that what the Bible says about you is true. You don't love God. By nature, you have no appetite for God.

66:06 You can see by the testimony of your own conscience that death and judgment and hell await you. And try as you may, if you're out of Christ, you're fighting God. You're fighting against your own deepest thunderings of your own spirit. And you try to convince yourself all is well and when I die, I die like a dog.

66:27 You can't convince yourself of that. And this you can know. That God in His Word says that Jesus Christ is an able and a willing and an inviting and an intriguing Savior. And that He's promised that everyone who comes to Him in the posture of what He really is, a needy sinner, He will welcome.

66:46 He will welcome. Now what more do you need to know to have a ray of hope? And the doctrine of election simply affirms that in His coming to men in the Gospel until His second coming, Jesus Christ will never be anything other than an able, a willing, an inviting, an intriguing Savior. And that's what He is to you tonight.

67:11 In the Gospel He says to you, Come unto Me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Him that comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. Ah, but you say, I have no warrant to come if I don't know I'm elect.

67:30 Where did you find that in the Bible? The Bible nowhere says that discovery of the secret will of God is either the rule of our duty or the warrant of faith. All you need to know to come. To know to come is that He is an able and a willing Savior who invites you to come and who promises to receive.

67:55 And that's the Gospel. He died for sinners. He lives to receive sinners and make good every promise to sinners. And I would urge any who sit here tonight who have never fled to Christ, you don't know what it is, to own in the depths of your being God's indictments against you as a sinner.

68:22 And you don't know what it is hitherto to this hour to have forsaken, abandoned from the heart all hope of fixing yourself up and making yourself presentable to God. You don't know what it is to stand naked and stripped and look wholly out of yourself to another. Oh, my friend, take that posture tonight. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

68:45 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Yes, elect sinners. But no elect sinner here tonight ever discovered He was such until He came as a poor needy sinner believing on the Lord Jesus. And if you're not willing to take the posture of a poor needy believing sinner, you'll never discover whether you're an elect sinner.

69:10 That's the only way you're ever going to discover it. That's the way I discovered it. That's the way every true Christian here discovered it. That's God's only prescribed way of discovering.

69:22 Now don't argue with God. Come down off your high horse. Don't argue with God. A God so gracious as to send His Son.

69:33 A God so merciful as to give us warrant to offer Him freely and without discrimination and no tongue in cheek to every last sinner. To whom His word is preached. Don't argue with a God like that. Don't play cutesy with a God like that.

69:51 Don't hide behind philosophical and logical arguments and reservations. Just come to Him. Come to Him as you are. Come to Him in penitence and faith.

70:06 And then you will read your election in your joyful embrace of the willing and the waiting. And the waiting and the inviting Savior. May God be pleased to glorify His own grace as we reflect upon His mighty, gracious purposes of electing mercy to sinners. And may it never be a barrier to anyone in coming to the Savior who welcomes needy sinners.

Closing Prayer

70:39 Let us pray. Our Father, we would bow afresh before You in the acknowledgement that You are God and that You have every right to be God in the exercise of mercy. We pray that Your word will be written upon our hearts. That even this night there would be some who would acknowledge themselves to be what they are and then embrace Your own dear Son as He is so freely offered in the Gospel.

71:19 We pray for each one of Your servants. O God, teach us how to derive proper comfort from this doctrine. How to be humbled again and again before it. How to be determined to stick to Your message and method, knowing that Your purposes of election do not need the carnal aid of man's message and man's methods.

71:43 O God, may the truths we profess to believe, may they mold and shape our ministries. That we may have ministries that glorify You and become the vehicles of the accomplishment of Your saving purposes. Write Your word then upon our hearts. And to Your name and to Your name alone be praise and honor and glory.

72:08 Amen.