Gospel Ripples - [1 Thessalonians 1:5-10]

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Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 tonight as we continue going verse by verse.
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But tonight's not necessarily verse by verse because I want to talk a little bit more about the subject of election, unconditional election.
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But I want you to see where this came from. Election's not one of these esoteric doctrines where we just debate things and try to cause problems and you're this kind of Arminian and we're not
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Arminians and the list goes on. When you see the doctrine of election, it's for a practical reason.
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It's put there on purpose to try to help or to try to comfort or to try to give assurance to God's people, to try to extol
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God and His sovereign distinguishing grace. And so we've been going through 1
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Thessalonians and when we came up to verse 4 last time, I thought this would be a good place to just stop and then do a little systematic theology if you would, if you will, regarding the doctrine of election.
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And so let me just read you the first several verses of 1 Thessalonians and have in mind as I read this that in the day letters were very common.
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This was a very commonly written letter style rather and you would have a prayer to a deity and then some request to said deity.
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Now here it's not a deity, small d, we know it's the Lord, the only God, but the convention of how to write a letter was the same and Paul says,
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Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God, the
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. We give thanks, remember that's the key verb there, controlling everything else.
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We give thanks to God always for you, for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our
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God and Father your work of labor, excuse me, work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our
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Lord Jesus Christ. And then the ESV doesn't give us an ING participle, something modifying thanks, but it does in fact do that.
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So I'll translate it that way out loud. For we knowing brothers loved by God that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the
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Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
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So verses 2, 3, 4 and 5, all one sentence in the original language. And our focus last
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Sunday night was at the end of verse 4, knowing brothers loved by God that He has chosen you.
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And so we talked a little bit about the doctrine of election, unconditional election.
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So I'd like to talk about that a little bit more tonight. Everywhere you go, the
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Bible talks about election. And by the way, the more you study it, it seems the more you find it.
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When you first come to grips with the doctrine of God's sovereign choice, you begin to read the
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Bible differently I think, but you also spot it everywhere. You say to yourself, I didn't think it was that many places.
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I just put a quick list together. What's the common phrase in every one of these verses?
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And except those days should be shortened, there should have no flesh be saved, but for God's elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
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If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. And they shall gather together
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His elect from the four winds, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect.
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But as touching election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. Put on therefore as the elect of God.
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Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, according to the faith of God's elect.
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Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Everywhere you turn, the
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Bible talks about election. Let alone predestination. Daniel Telanus basically said in reaction to the canons of Dort, he said,
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If in hell a council of evil spirits came together to ask advice of their fellow angels as to what fabrication could best inspire and draw out the most hatred of man against God, no one could imagine or invent anything better suited to this purpose than the decree of predestination.
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Wow. MacDonald wrote in his anthology, from all copies of Jonathan Edwards' Portrait of God, however faded by time, however softened by the use of less glaring pigments,
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I turn with loathing. If God is on the throne and He picks some and He passes over others,
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I can't worship such a God. Thomas Talbot said, I will not worship such a
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God. And if such a God can't send me to hell for not worshiping Him, then to hell
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I will go. There's something in us, and I know what it is,
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I know what it is in me, that recoils against election, and it's called pride. Spurgeon said,
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Saith one, I do not like divine election. Spurgeon responds, Well, I thought you would not.
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Whoever dreamed you would. Because God is on the throne and high and lifted up, and then we are nothing.
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D. James Kennedy, who died not that long ago, said the reason people today are opposed to predestination is because they will have
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God to be anything but God. He can be a cosmic psychiatrist, a helpful shepherd, a leader, a teacher, anything at all, only not
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God. For a very simple reason, they want to be God themselves.
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We are wholly disposed to the work of another. We want to belong to ourselves,
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Warfield said. We want to control ourselves. Yet, predestination makes us admit that we aren't.
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Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick as a reaction to God is on the throne, sovereignly choosing.
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Fall of the House of Usher is a metaphor for the fall of the doctrine of sovereign grace.
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Spurgeon said, Whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there's no getting rid of it.
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To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of Revelation. And those who are afraid of it are so because they do not understand it.
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If they could but know that the Lord has chosen them, it would make their hearts dance with joy.
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I don't know about you, but if you believe in the doctrine of election, remember back to when you first were shown by God in Scriptures, that that was in fact true.
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What happened to you when that happened? When you first realized God probably shouldn't have chosen you, certainly didn't have anything in you that was worthy of His choice, and yet God set
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His love on you anyway, what were you thinking? I've said it many times before. To me, it was my second blessing.
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Some people want a second blessing and speak in tongues or have gold fillings in their mouth renewed or whatever happens to them.
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For me, I thought to know that God chose me. Especially when I grew up, and I don't want to go all psycho on you, psychologist on you, but I grew up in a household where my father couldn't say the words.
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He couldn't look at me in the eye and say, Son, I love you. First time
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I heard my dad say anything close to it was when I was moving to Los Angeles in 1983 in January, and he stood on the porch and he cried and we hugged each other and then he said,
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Love you. Because you know what? I love you is like this. Love you is a little farther down here.
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Love you. It's almost like you're just punching your buddy in the shoulder. Love you, buddy. And so then to think,
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I mean, my mom, she expressed her love to me and I love you and all that, but then to think, certainly
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I'm glad to be loved by anyone. Glad to be loved by my mother. My mother wept the day
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I told her I was in Los Angeles. I said, Mom, there's 10 million people in Los Angeles. I'm fine from Omaha back to Los Angeles.
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I don't know one person well enough after five years to ask them to pick me up from the airport. She's like, find me somebody to love, to quote a singer.
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So then to think that God loves us, that God wanted our best, that before time began,
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God said essentially, and I don't mean Mother's Day sentimentality kind of love, but a real love
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He said in eternity past, I love you and will love you.
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To me, it's a pretty amazing thing. It's second only to when I asked him to marry me. I couldn't believe she said yes.
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So I said, now let's just stop right now. I want to ask you one more time because maybe I misheard the first time.
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Will you marry me? And for the second time, she said yes. Steve, you ever heard that story before?
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Just once. Steve's a new numbers guy. Baptized 25 times. Heard this story only once.
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25 or 6 to 4. I mean, whatever you want. You've got numbers. I've got numbers. In the year 2929, a famous evangelist was quoted saying that Calvin sent more people to hell based on his doctrine of predestination than anyone else in the history of the church.
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Now, I get it that it's a tough doctrine. I get it that early on when you're not looking at Scripture properly, you don't see the panorama, you don't see it systematically.
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I get it that it's difficult. And if you're here tonight and you don't embrace unconditional election,
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I understand because I've been there. I get it. But I think as time goes on, you begin to read the
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Scriptures and think about the nature of God, you'll say to yourself, God in fact, like He chose
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Israel, like He chose some of the angels, is sovereign and He chooses
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Christians as well. So tonight I think we'll do this for an outline. Let me give you some practical ways to think about election to help you understand it better.
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No rhyme or reason in terms of an unfolding outline, not exegesis. If you want exegesis,
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I guess you'll have to get this morning's message on tape. How to understand election better?
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And this is good if you're a Christian who knows about this doctrine or you're brand new to the doctrine and you don't quite get it.
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How to understand election better? Number one, make sure you understand grace.
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Make sure you understand grace. Who could give me a definition? Sunday night's a little less formal than Sunday morning.
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Who could tell me a definition of grace? Okay, Barry? Okay, that's a good acronym.
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God's riches at Christ's expense. Who else could give me something?
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Carol? Okay, undeserved favor, unmerited favor.
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Excellent. That's probably the most common. Very good definition. Demerited favor, that's from Sinclair Ferguson that takes it a little bit farther than unmerited.
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Although it certainly is unmerited, it's actually better than unmerited favor because we've earned demerits and we have still received favor.
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So I like that one as well. Who else can give me some definition of grace? Yes, I'm sorry
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I don't know your name. Roger. Okay, I like that.
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Let me give you a couple that I found and it's easier for me because I have them written down. You have to use your memory and I have them written down.
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God's utter generosity, unselfish, spontaneous, recklessly prodigal generosity which acts wholly, with a
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W, out of loving concern for His people, even if they are completely unworthy of His love and help which
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He offers to them. Mitten wrote that. Let me give you another one. Goodwin said,
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Grace is attributed to princes. They are said to be gracious to their subjects, whereas subjects cannot be gracious to princes.
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Now God, who is an infinite sovereign, who might have chosen whether ever He would love us or no, for Him to love us, this is grace.
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And think about where we live. God helps those who help themselves. That's the culture we live in.
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Turn if you would to Ephesians chapter 1 for a moment. We keep going back there but it's just such a great chapter.
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I have the privilege to go to the Czech Republic here in just a few weeks to teach some preachers how to preach
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Ephesians and so I can't get out of Ephesians 1. I want you to see this spontaneous, as it were, burst of praise that comes to play in Ephesians chapter 1 because of election and it's tied to grace.
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God's sovereign grace. You see the praise there in verse 3,
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now why is God to be praised?
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Verse 4, Just as He chose us in Him, you know the verse as well, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.
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He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will.
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And here we have the praise here. It's found in verse 6. It's found in verse 12. It's found in verse 14.
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Here is the stanza of praise. To the praise of the glory of His grace which
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He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. By God's gracious will, by His own pleasure.
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The reason you're a Christian is because God chose you, because God made you one, because God favored you.
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One of the things I'd like to stress today is that grace is voluntary. Grace is voluntary.
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God voluntarily gives grace. It's not under compulsion.
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It's grace alone. R .C. Sproul. Now think about this for a second.
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It really hits home as far as I'm concerned. It still seems that if God gives grace to one person, in the interest of fairness,
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He ought to give grace equally to another. It is precisely this oughtness that is foreign to the biblical concept of grace.
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Did you get that? He ought to do it. And ought means it's not involuntary.
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It's voluntary. He ought to give grace. If God gives mercy to some, is
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He required to give it to all? The answer is no. Paul was given grace by the voluntary nature of God, but Pilate was not.
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See, when you think oughtness, then you aren't thinking about grace. That's why election harms no one, because it's gracious.
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It's also, let me give you something else, unmerited, as Carol said earlier. Unmerited.
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I could add something else. It's unearned. What we deserve and what we get are two separate things.
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Number two. First of all, it's good to understand grace because, oh, I have to say this. It's Sunday night.
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I'm allowed to do it. Grace is sovereign grace.
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Why do you think there's a denomination that's sovereign grace churches? There's a sovereign grace seminary overseas.
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Why do you think they call it that? Here's what Jonathan Gershner would say. Jonathan Gershner was R .C. Sproul's mentor. And Jonathan Gershner had a gravelly voice.
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I don't know if he smoked or not, but it sure sounded like he did. And it made his voice very powerful and he was very gravelly.
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Is that a word? Gravelly. All right. And he would say, oh, grace is a sovereign grace.
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It's a blessed redundancy. Sovereign grace. And it's true.
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When you say sovereign grace, it is redundant because grace is sovereign. If you say to yourself,
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I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around election, then number one, think carefully what grace really is.
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Grace says my, God speaking, my goodness and kindness is poured out at my good pleasure voluntarily.
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You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. You don't have foreseen faith. It's all because of what I do. That is grace.
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And by the way, if you have one part of works and you add that to 99 million parts grace, what is the outcome?
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Works. That's exactly what Romans 11 .6 says.
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Number two, how can I help you grab the doctrine of election? Number two, which is true, embrace the transcendency of this doctrine.
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Embrace the transcendency of this doctrine. John Calvin said, if we're talking election, you have to quote
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John Calvin, I guess, better than Geisler. Of those things which is neither given nor lawful to know, ignorance is learned.
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The craving to know a kind of madness. Those who seek to know more than God has revealed are madmen.
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Therefore, let us delight ourselves more in wise ignorance than in an immoderate and intoxicated curiosity to know more than God permits.
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There's only so far you can go. You walk up to the precipice of election and if you want to see the bottom, it's going to cause problems because you're looking actually into the character and nature of God and you just have to say, some things are over me, some things are above me.
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Some things I have to know by not brute logic or reason alone, but by divine revelation.
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Does the Scripture teach election? Then we just have to submit to that. We have finite minds.
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Lloyd -Jones says, imagine we can rise on the pinions of our little understanding to a truth of this nature.
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We are simply betraying an outstanding ignorance of the character of truth. These things are from God.
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And not only that, our minds are tainted. There's a reason why Paul says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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So you say, well, this is too big of a doctrine for me to get my arms wrapped around. Agreed. Number three.
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Alright, we're working our way here. Now I feel the momentum. Number three.
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Don't ever forget that election is practical. That's why it was in 1 Thessalonians. We saw that last week. It's practical.
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How many people here have read Calvin's Institutes? One volume or two? A few? I was told in seminary, you haven't graduated from seminary unless you have read the
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Institutes. That was told to me after I graduated seminary, so I quickly read them. Cliff Notes version, no problem.
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Just breeze through them. A little yellow and black book. Just kidding. No, I did read them. He has different sections in his theology book.
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In his early editions of the Institutes, he put predestination or election in his doctrine of God.
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And it seems to make sense because you put election and predestination in the character and nature of God because Romans 9 talks about how
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God has mercy on whom He'll have mercy and compassion on those He'll have compassion on.
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It seems like it's tied to the very nature and essence of God. When Moses was told to go hide behind the rock so God's goodness could pass by him, what passed by him?
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As it were, the very core nature and essence of God, what makes God God is
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He chooses. But Calvin moved it from that section in his later editions.
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And what section do you think he moved it to? Eschatology, soteriology, pneumatology, bibliology.
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What do you think he moved it to? I'm going to wait until somebody has a guess.
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Close. If election is practical, what ology is where we practice what we know in a local church context?
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There you go. Who said that? Nice! Alright, you get a free book too. Ecclesiology.
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How does the church function? Because it was so tied to practical things and praise and adoration of God.
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It's not meant to produce angst. It's meant to elicit something else. Take a look at Romans 11.
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Let's turn there. I want to make sure we have our Bibles open tonight. After all, it's Bethlehem Bible Church. Reminds me of the person who was super mad at me and asked if they could meet with me some night.
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And I said, yes, they could. They were so mad. They were a visitor. And they said, we've got a real problem with this church and what you do.
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And I said, okay. And they said, I send my kid to Awana and you tell them they're sinful.
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I said, sir, see that sign out there on the church? Bethlehem Bible Church.
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I said, we're here to teach the Bible and you don't know you need a Savior until you know you're a great sinner.
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And so while I don't want our people to coerce, I don't want our people to do anything unkind or untoward toward you, but we're going to teach that this place is sinful.
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Well, he said, no, I'm just letting my daughter decide for her own what she's going to believe. And I thought to myself, through your stupidity, the daughter might actually hear the truth.
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So since it's a Bible church, we want to make sure you have your Bibles. I ran into a guy this afternoon at the grocery store.
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It was interesting. And I saw him. I go, he's not at the grocery store. He works someplace else.
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And I said, it's not David's. He said, Steve. I said, you work at Napa Auto Parts.
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And you're the guy who, when I go in and say I don't know anything about cars, you don't treat me like I'm stupid.
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And I am stupid about cars. I have no idea what's going on. And he laughed and all my kids were there.
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I said, well, I'd love to come in another time. I said, I think our relationship's kind of like this.
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It's like my neighbor across the street. My neighbor said, I know I've got a soul and I know it needs saving, but when
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I'm ready for that soul to be saved, Mike, I'll come and talk to you. So don't talk to me about it until that point. And so Steve looked at me today.
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He said, sounds good. I'm still waiting for the guy's call. What does this have to do with anything?
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This is a Bible church. Open your Bibles to Romans 11. Steve, I knew I could stay on track. Romans 11, verses 33 and following.
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This all is at the end of chapter 9. Sovereignty, 10. Responsibility, 11.
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What's going on with the plans of God and how He's carved out Israel? What will be the future of Israel? How do you respond to election?
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It's very, very practical. Calvin knew it was at the right spot. Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
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How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable, untraceable His ways.
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For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who became His counselor? Makes me think of Job 38 and following.
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Who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to Him be the glory forever.
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Amen. Proper praise.
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Why we study the doctrine of election. You say, you know what? But if you study election, you're going to get really lazy because if God has chosen you, you're certainly going to make it in and so it's going to make you lazy.
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True or false? Election promotes laziness among Christians. False.
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Could you give me a verse? It's Bethlehem Bible Church after all.
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Bob? Okay, good.
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Like it? Bruce? I like it.
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That's not where I was going, but I really like it a lot. Good job. Let's turn to 2 Peter 1. It's the exact opposite.
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Contrary to naturalistic fallen logic, God Himself uses election to spur
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Christians on to holy living. It's not just lay back and let God. It's not just, well, God has chosen me.
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God uses election to spur us on. This is exciting.
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2 Peter 1 .10 I should probably read the first nine verses, but you can do that on your own sometime.
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I'm just going to dive in here because I think we're going to have to speed this up because two parts is turning into three pretty fast. 2
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Peter 1 .10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.
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For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. Make your calling and election sure.
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Exert yourselves diligently, appropriating your calling to gain salvation certainty from your perspective.
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And if you do, you will never stumble. You won't stumble, as MacArthur says, into doubt or despair or into fear or into questioning, but you'll enjoy the assurance that you are saved.
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You want sure -footedness that you have been elected? Then walk in light of your election.
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This verse almost to me reminds me of when you go to the store and you give them a $20 bill.
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And then what do they do with the $20 bill if you're not wearing a suit or you don't have a dress on if you're a lady?
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What do they usually do? When I walk in kind of after working on the boat a little bit or something on a motorcycle and I walk in and I hand them the $20, if I go in with a suit on and a tie, they hardly ever do it.
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For a $20, I mean a $100, I see. But what do they do? They hold it up to the light.
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They take that little yellow thing, don't they? And they mark right at a cross there. I thought, you know what?
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Of course these people believe in sin, because they assume everybody's lying. Everybody wants to try to get over on them.
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This godly behavior, one person said, is a warranty deed for himself that Jesus Christ has cleansed him from his past sins and therefore that he was in fact called and elected by God.
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And right there in 2 Peter, I don't want to get too far into this, but the false teachers were doing the exact opposite.
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They're claiming to be elect of God and then living unholy lives. And Peter is saying, you are elected of God and in light of your election, live a holy life.
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And you'll make your election sure. You'll know for sure. Number four.
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Let's keep going. I think we have time for this one for sure. Election is essential to evangelism.
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Kind of practical, but I'll make it into its own point. It is an incentive to evangelism, not a hindrance.
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If you'd like to evangelize better or more, I say study the doctrine of election. Let's turn our Bibles to Acts chapter 18, please.
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Acts chapter 18. I'd like to read you a comment from a well -known theologian.
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And as you're turning to Acts 18, you tell me if you like it or not. This is like thumbs up or thumbs down.
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If I tell you who it is, you're going to say, well, I'll read it. The implication of this, he's going to talk about Acts 18, is that we certainly must preach the
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Gospel and people's eternal destiny hinges on whether we proclaim the
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Gospel or not. Do you like that? Do you like it that people's eternal destiny hinges on whether we proclaim the
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Gospel or not? Well, let's find out if that comment by Wayne Grudem is true or not.
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Acts 18, verse 5. I think you know the passage. Acts 18. We've been in Acts 18 a lot because it ties into Corinthians.
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But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the
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Word. Solemnly testifying, the NASS, to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
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But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads.
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I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. Then he left there and went to the house of a man named
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Titius Justus, a worshiper of God whose house was next to the synagogue.
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Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.
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And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, Do not be afraid any longer but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you.
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Sounds like the Great Commission, doesn't it? And no man will attack you in order to harm you.
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And then the part that I want to get to. For I have many people in this city.
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What does he mean I've got many people in this city? What's going on here? How can this be an encouragement?
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I've just got a lot of people. It's a dense population. Is that what the Lord is saying to Paul? Here's what he's saying theologically.
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There are a lot of people in this city who are unregenerate, but they are elect.
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There are people here who I have chosen, but they to get saved, God saves through means, and the means are the preached gospel.
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And so what did Paul do? Chapter 18 verse 11, And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
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And then what happened? Those who are elect and unregenerate hear the word and then become saved.
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I think Grudem is trying to push the envelope rightly. He said also,
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Grudem did, Paul did not simply conclude that the many people who belong to God would be saved whether he stayed there preaching the gospel or not.
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Rather, he stayed there a year and six months. This was longer than Paul stayed in any other city except Ephesus during his three missionary journeys.
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When Paul was told that God had many elect people in Corinth, he stayed a long time and preached in order that those elect people might be saved.
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Paul is quite clear about the fact that unless people preach the gospel, others will not be saved.
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God chooses people and then God chooses the way they hear the gospel and the manner of their salvation is through that preached gospel.
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John Aerosmith said, Election having once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home wherever he be.
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It called Zacchaeus out of a cursed Jericho, Abraham out of an idolatrous ur of the
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Chaldees, Nicodemus and Paul from the college of the Pharisees, Christ's sworn enemies,
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Dionysius and Damaris out of superstitious Athens. In whatsoever dunghills gods elect are hid, election will find them out and bring them home.
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Even you. Even me. You know what I love about election?
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It keeps my job simple. What's our job in election? What's our privilege in preaching?
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In evangelism? To tell people the Bible says. This is what the Bible says.
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I don't have to harangue people. I don't have to concoct faith. My job is, my privilege is to just preach the gospel.
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To sow the word. Aren't you glad conversion isn't your job? I've said a hundred thousand times, maybe not that much, certainly not that much.
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I don't have any tick marks in the front of my Bible how many people I've saved. Remember with William Carey before he went out on his mission?
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The missionary society said to Carey, sit down young man. When God is pleased to convert the heathen,
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He will do it without your aid or mine. Don't go. Well, God chooses people and then
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He chooses for us to preach the gospel because people need to hear the gospel.
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How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
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How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?
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Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
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You know what I love about the doctrine of election? I don't have to water down my presentation of the gospel.
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Think about this for a second. This is important. If you have to tell people about sin and death and hell and grace and God and all these issues and repentance, if you are not careful, you might dilute the gospel, water down the gospel because who in their right mind would ever believe such a gospel?
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Well, if God has chosen them and God is going to draw them through the preaching of the word and then save them,
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I don't have to water anything down. I can just be bold. All the elect will come.
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I don't have to convert anyone. I have a simple job.
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Pray for people's salvation. Preach the gospel. That's what I do. They respond with faith.
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God has granted it. People ask me all the time, why don't you do altar calls? What's the answer?
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Why don't we do altar calls? Well, pardon me? Not biblical.
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I usually say, well, we have no altar. That's the first reason because there is no place to have anything slain.
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The main reason, if you want it theologically, the main reason we don't do altar calls, it's not found in the Bible. We can talk about Finney and those kind of issues.
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But I believe in the doctrine of election. I believe in the doctrine that says God has called people and the means through which
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He regenerates them is the preaching of the gospel. And 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10 says, so we preach, so they believe.
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People just come to faith through preaching. You say, yes, but I got saved because of an altar call.
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Alright, let's do a little no -compromise style. Just for a second. No, you didn't. An altar call didn't save you.
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If you were saved as you were going up, it wasn't because of the altar call. It was in spite of the altar call.
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You got saved because the preacher behind the pulpit was talking about the grace of God found in Christ Jesus and repentance and faith and belief in the substitutionary work of Christ confirmed by the resurrection.
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Altar calls don't save. I kind of think about it like Paul. He doesn't even go around trying to baptize people.
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He's there to preach the gospel. He thinks he baptized a couple. He forgot a couple. He remembered a couple. You say, well, you know what?
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If I do like to evangelize and I do believe in the doctrine of election, maybe
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God turns away sinners because they aren't elect. Maybe God is slandering and slamming salvation's door in their face because they're not elect.
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Let's just go through a few more verses and we're done. Turn to John 6. We'd better close here. I wanted to talk about human responsibility and the nature of faith and is faith a gift or is it a cause?
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I don't think we're going to have time. By the way, as you're turning to John 6, thanks for coming out tonight.
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You don't know how encouraging it is for a preacher to show up and have people to preach to. It seems just really like a dumb moment.
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But even today, I'm driving in. I thought, I'm tired. I'm discouraged. I'm driving to church.
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Nobody ever shows up anymore on Sunday night. I mean, of course, the elect do. People don't show up like on Sunday morning.
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The game's on this afternoon and so people are at home watching the game or whatever they're doing. And I was just kind of like, woe is me driving there.
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I'm talking about one of my favorite subjects, election. And I pull up into the church parking lot and then there were all the cars.
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And I was like, yes! So thank you, Lord, for just a little bit of encouragement to just kind of get me over the hump.
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And then I go, oh, that was for free hot dogs. But I'm glad you're here because if no one was here,
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I'd say, well, I guess we aren't going to do Sunday nights anymore. If you want to hear an awesome sermon, by the way, let me just telegraph this for you.
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Next Sunday night, there's going to be heat coming out of this pulpit. I mean heat. By the way, if it's not heat, we're going to string the guy up who's preaching.
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Special guest preacher next Sunday night. He's in the room right now. John 6, we're going to read verse 37, verse 44, and verse 65.
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We're going to see just the absolute grace of God. We talked a lot last week about depravity and how depravity means
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God is going to have to seek and to save the lost. God is going to have to be the initiator. God is going to have to be the
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Savior. Any kind of doctrine that says God slams the door in the face of sinners doesn't know the
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Bible. John 6, verse 37, All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and the one who comes to me
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I will certainly not cast out. Did you get that? The one who comes to me
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I will certainly not cast out. Listen to this man. Some misrepresent the doctrine of election in this way.
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Here I'm sitting down at my table tonight with my family to tea. It's a cold winter's night and on the street are some hungry, starving tramps and children.
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And they come and knock on my door and they say, We're so hungry, sir. We're so hungry and cold.
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Would you give us something to eat? Give you something to eat? No, you do not belong here.
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Get off with you. Now people say, according to Arthur Pink, that is what election means.
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God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners have a deep need to come to the Lord and say,
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Have mercy on us. And the Lord says, No, you are not among my elect. Now my friends,
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Pink said, that is not the teaching of this book nor anything like it. That is absolutely a false representation of God's truth.
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Now then, here is the truth. God has spread the feast, but the fact is nobody is hungry. Nobody wants to come to the feast.
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And everybody makes an excuse to keep away. And when they are bidden to come, they say, No, we do not want to.
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We're not ready yet. Now God knew that from the beginning and if God had done nothing more than spread the feast, every seat at the table would have been vacant for all eternity.
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Sinners slam the door in Christ's face. Not the other way around. So what does God do?
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He chooses them and then He goes and gets them. Verse 37, I will not cast them out.
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Keep reading. Verse 44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent
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Me draws him. And I will raise him up on that last day. Keep reading. Verse 65,
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And He was saying, For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the
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Father. The feast has been spread and God goes and gets those to sit at the table to dine with Him.
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Alright, not enough time. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, thank You for the doctrine of unconditional election.
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And Father, with the Thessalonians, would You help us to be encouraged? We see the evidences of Your election here even at our own church.
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People getting baptized, people learning and maturing and making their election more sure through Gospel -driven diligence.
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Thank You for choosing us. Give us joy. I pray for those that are here tonight that there are some that don't know
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You. They're wondering if they're elect or not. I pray that tonight they would make certain that they're saved by believing on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and have it settled once for all as they repent, cast themselves on Your mercy through faith in Christ Jesus, the risen
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Son. And for Christians tonight, we just say thank You, Lord, for the joy. For those
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Christians who don't believe this doctrine yet, I pray, Father, that Your Spirit would attend to them and that they might experience the same joy that Paul did 25 years later after the
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Damascus Road. He still couldn't contain himself. It's like shouting 349,
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.