Election

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'"

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry known as Hey Haters across the country, bringing holiday cheer.

Happy holiday. My name's Mike Abendroth, and today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to continue our series on election.

Oh, I can hear people now saying, here he goes again. People are turning off their radios.

If they had a dial, they'd press the other preset. Remember those presets that you'd have in the car? Years ago, my first car was a 1967

Nova II, two -door, and I bought that in 1975, and no, 1976, and I bought it when

I was 15 years old, got it all ready, and then the day I turned 16 in May, I drove that thing off.

A Nova II, it was yellow, and it had preset little buttons there, and you'd have to, you'd get the thing turned to the right

AM station, didn't have FM, of course, and then I would pull it out and then push it back in, and that's how you would set it.

And so, I hope you do that to 760 AM, WVNE.

I learned the other day that the Mississippi, I believe it is, it could be the Missouri, but I'm guessing it's the

Mississippi. Everything east of the Mississippi, you have W's, like WVNE, and west of the

Mississippi, you have K's, like KTLA, but there are two exceptions at least, and so you can look up those exceptions if you'd like.

So today, we're talking about election, that God is God by action, not just by name.

You could probably call this the godness of God, and of course, many of us don't like God, picking and choosing.

If you add an S to election, selection, some people don't like that, but they themselves like to choose.

I always thought that was kind of interesting. People these days, especially in America, with love marriages, in contrast to arranged marriages, in the east, you get to pick your spouse.

People like that. They wouldn't want to have somebody pick their spouse for them. You get to pick your job.

They wouldn't like it if they were indentured, or enslaved, or having some forced labor camp.

They wouldn't want that. They want to be able to pick and choose their jobs as they please, start one, leave another, have two jobs, have three jobs, moonlight.

They want that choice. They want the choice in where to live. Now, maybe you can't pick the ultimate house where you'd like to live, but you want to pick the city where you'd like to live in.

You want to pick the car that you drive. You want to pick the church that you go to. Oh yes, choice is very big there in terms of the church that you want to go to.

You couldn't go to any of those wild, crazy, charismatic Calvinist churches. Are we charismatic?

No, I don't think so. That just slipped out. Sometimes I had a charismatic experience the other day that I told the congregation

I walked into Walmart. No, that wasn't the charismatic experience. It's not the best

Walmart, and the shelves are usually just discombobulated.

The people aren't friendly at all. It's probably the most unfriendly Walmart in the country, maybe the world here in West Boylston.

Now, there are a few people that are exceptions. See how you always have to do that? Well, there's a couple of people who are exceptions, but typically the people there are rude and crabby to me, maybe just because I'm rude and crabby.

You never know. But anyway, I walked in the other day and I was thinking about election and my salvation and forgiveness and Christ Jesus and what he's done for me.

I was thinking about how bad I've been in the past and how I even sin now, but before I got saved,

I was really wicked. And I was just reflecting upon the goodness of God and how kind he is and how

Isaiah 55 talks about how he abundantly pardons. And I was reflecting about those things.

And I thought, A, I'm one of the few born again people in the store, most likely, I don't really know, but most likely just in general.

And it's New England after all. And then I thought, God has revealed his mind to me in the scripture, not just his great power and wisdom as he creates the moon and the stars and the sun, and now

I get to see his handiwork, but special revelation, things that were mysteries that were never to be figured out until God said, let me disclose it, let me reveal it, let me uncover it.

And I know those things because they're in scripture. And I just felt so blessed. And I thought, what's the difference between me and all these crabby

New Englanders and these crabby people who are in Walmart just looking like they hate life.

Maybe there's a few smiles here or there, but anyway, the only difference between those people and me is

God chose freely, sovereignly, distinguishingly me.

He chose me. He opened my eyes to see these great things in scripture. And I walked around like I had some special knowledge.

Now, maybe on the outside, I still looked crabby, but on the inside, I had a lot of joy. I needed to send a missionary to my face.

Hey, smile. No, I think I was probably smiling. I was probably beaming.

I probably had the Shekinah glory. My kids always give me a major hassle for sitting in my studio on the church campus and laughing.

I'm here by myself, Steve's not here today. It's actually the Saturday after Thanksgiving. And I went in to print out my sermon and do a couple of things and see if anybody sent any money to No Compromise Radio.

Oh, we did get a gift a while ago. Maybe a listener in Ohio. I can't really remember, but somebody sent a very nice, very generous gift into No Compromise Radio.

And I was very, speaking of the adverb very, I was very thankful.

I just thought, you know what, Lord, you're sure good. We don't have to beg for money. We don't have to ask for money. We don't have to appeal for money.

We don't have to say it's a busy time of the year. We don't have to do any of that.

I was very, very thankful just to receive that. And so God has blessed the ministry here. And we have,

I think, I don't know, 600 or so shows that we've been able to put over the air and God has blessed it.

And so anyway, spiritual experience in Walmart. But I was very, very happy. And I wonder if you have some of those.

So this all leads back to charismatic. Charis means grace. And so I had a grace experience where God reminded me of his grace and his goodness.

And it was an experience. I felt the joy. I don't mean I felt some weird presence of God or something.

That would probably knock me down on the ground and I'd be crying out. But I did experience with the fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace.

And it was really neat. And so I walked around and went and bought some ammo. Do you have any .45

caliber Smith and Wesson? Went and bought some

BBs and went and bought some .40 Cal ammo. Excuse me, sir, do you have your license to carry?

Yes, I do. Why are you smiling? Oh, it's the joy of the Lord is my strength. If you want to write us, you can.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I read everyone that comes in. And if you're nice, you can say

I disagree with you and who do you think you are. But if you start name calling, I'll probably just delete it.

But short of that, I'll probably respond or have somebody else respond. I used to have about three guys that would help me respond to the emails, but we don't get any emails anymore.

So it's pretty easy for me to say, hey, thanks for listening. John out in Idaho, send me a recipe.

I'd say about John in Idaho, John Dawson is a listener, a faithful listener. John, have you sent any money in lately?

But he doesn't send money in, he just sends in recipes and he cooks. And if I had his website, what is he called?

Patio Daddy, I think he's called. So there's a free shout out right there. I think now this is, he's underwritten by me.

Patio Daddy. And I just don't know why he's not at Bethlehem Bible Church. See, I want guys like this, these great cooks, these great grill kings.

I want them to be where I am. And so he keeps sending me recipes all the time, no compromise recipes, and thinking that I'd actually put one together or do one.

I almost did where he tells you how to gourmet up one of those cheap ramen noodle boxes or whatever they're called.

And then you can make it really good just using those ingredients and adding some extra. But I still couldn't even get that done.

Maybe if I was in college. When I was in college, I had a dorm room and had a small little refrigerator and I had some special hot dog cooker.

And you could put a hot dog between these two currents and then you could fry the hot dog that way or something.

I mean, only in Nebraska. Who does these things? Back to the topic at hand, election.

We've gone through the first six things about election. Six things. What's a thing?

I don't know what a thing is. I'm looking here in my notes here and can't find the other thing because I lost that one thing.

Let's see. The ground... Oh, I had number four. The ground of his election. Salvation is a good pleasure of God.

Number five. Election took place before time began. But I don't have one, two, three, and four. So that's all right. Number seven.

Election is based on God's foreknowledge of our faith. True or false? Election is based on God's foreknowledge of our faith.

That is false. It's an error to think God votes yes for salvation,

Satan votes no for salvation, and you cast the deciding vote.

That is wrong. Satan has voted no. You have voted no.

The world has voted no. And unless God votes yes, nobody's getting saved.

And if God votes yes, all three members of the

Trinity vote yes, because there's only one God, and you will be saved no matter what

Satan does, no matter what sin does, no matter what you do. God wins.

Election is not of Satan. It is not of man, but of God. 1 Thessalonians 1 .4.

Of God. John 10 .16. Of God. 1 John 4 .10 and 19. It's of God.

There are three votes that count, and only three votes count when it comes to your salvation, the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How about that? Romans 9 .11. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, not because of works, not because of works, but because of Him who calls.

So when it comes to God's foreknowledge of our faith, of course God will know who believes.

God could look down the quarters of time, because He knows everything, He's never going to learn anything, and say, oh yes, Mike will believe.

But that's not the biblical picture. It is a reality. It is a verity. But that's not the biblical picture, because foreordination, as we've talked about before just recently, just 20 minutes ago for me, foreordination, foreknowledge means in the

Bible, when it's used in the New Testament, it's used of God foreknowing a person.

Study it. Just get your quiddencordance out, study the word foreknowledge, and you'll soon see that the text is never saying,

God foreknew that Mike would believe, therefore He picked him. But God foreknew Mike. God set His love upon to know, yadah in the

Hebrew, where God intimately knows, where it's even used of a husband and wife.

In the marriage bed, where a man would know his wife, this intimate knowledge, and so God ahead of time sets

His love on us, and then He sets His Son to go deliver us. That's what foreknowledge is.

If election, Turretin said, is on the basis of foreseen faith, then God does not choose men, but man chooses

God, and predestination ought to be called postdestination. Now that's pretty good.

Do you believe in postdestination? Now see, that's no compromise. I wanted to make that up, except Turretin several hundred years ago beat me to the punch.

Francis Turretin. Foreknowledge is never said of somebody foreknowing,

God foreknowing faith. God foreknows the people by setting a special love on them.

Read Romans 8. Read 1 Peter. When you look at those words, you'll quickly realize.

Three times the New Testament uses foreknowledge with easy for me to say, salvation.

So, here's the scoop. If you think your salvation is based on you, then you've got to concoct a system.

You've got to soak that turkey in the brine shrimp of man -centered salvation, and then you've got to say,

God's going to know what I'm going to do, then He's going to choose me. That's not biblical. That's not biblical at all, because God looks down the course of time, and He sees you're dead, you're spiritually sunk, you are kaput, you are nil, empty set spiritually, you have no spiritual ability, you're depraved, and therefore you need a

Savior. Yeah, that's right, you need a Savior. That's what you need. And so,

God loves beforehand. Foreknowledge is basically that idiom that God loves you beforehand.

And certainly, if you use one of the Puritan writers, if God would know you in time,

He'd never pick you. But He does know you in time as well. So, imagine God knew all about you, and He still picked you anyway.

Number eight in our Q &A on election. Election Q &A. 2011 election.

By the way, I wonder who the president will be in 2012. And it will be the person that God wants to be leading us, but we'll find out.

Number eight. Election is unconditional, not based on what man's will or will not do.

Well, that's why we believe in unconditional election. True. 1 John 4, 19. We love because He first loved us.

Now, we are not saying that Christians don't believe, repent, trust, follow, love.

Of course Christians believe, but they believe in response to the cause of their salvation.

It is not causing their salvation to believe. No, that's not true. Acts 13, 48.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Unless you've got the Dave Hunt Jehovah's Witnesses Bible, that's the way the text reads. That's the way the text reads.

Number nine. God claims the right to elect people. People that don't like election need to deal with this fact.

God claims the right as Creator to do whatever He wants, to whomever He wants, as often as He wants.

Romans 9, 21. Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

The question yields the answer. Yes, He does have the right. And when the man sets down to make some pots, he makes some for Thanksgiving special china and he makes some to go to the bathroom in.

That's what the potter does. Some waste baskets, some special china, some special dish, some wonderful present to give someone.

And then other times he makes a privy pot. He can do whatever he wants. Can he take a lump of clay and do whatever he wants with the clay?

Of course a potter can. Now, how much more can God do whatever He wants with people? And if He wants to make the decision to save some, then

He can. Number nine, election is not fair. True or false, election is not fair.

Well, my kids say, Dad, that's not fair. They'll say, well, somebody got picked the sports team or the drama team or this, that, or the other at school.

Daddy, that's not fair. And they know what I'm going to say next. Life isn't fair. Fair is a

Pelagian idea. Fair. What do I deserve? What do I get?

What have I earned? Who am I? What do I merit? What have I accomplished? Fair.

I guess if you want to use just, this isn't just. Well, if you want justice, then you get damnation.

But God has a different way of fulfilling justice that also includes His love, and that is, justice is upheld by God's holy law being held up and punishment exacted, but on a substitute.

In Jesus, in our place, on our behalf, in our stead, substitutionary atonement. So people say, election is not fair.

If you mean it's not just, you're wrong. God is just in all He does. Genesis 18 .25

Shall not the judge of the earth deal justly? Deuteronomy 32 .4

The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness and without injustice.

Righteous and upright is He. The objection, election isn't fair, is rooted in pride.

It is rooted in pride. Did you know election harms no one?

Election is not the cause of anyone going to hell. This is a word used for positively saving people to heaven.

Everybody deserves hell. When you say this isn't fair, your question should be why does not

God destroy all of us? God is sovereign creator. He's Lord of everything and He can do whatever

He wants. We can't judge Him for anything. Matthew 20. Jesus said,

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I'm generous?

You give me the evil eye because I'm generous? Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated. What shall we say then?

There's no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. Number 10.

Election makes people robots. R4 in England, robots. No, no, it doesn't make us robots.

It makes God the potter and we're the clay. The biblical metaphor is not robotics. The biblical metaphor is potter, clay.

Why did you make me like this? Someone will say that. Will they? Well, the technical is, why did you make me like this?

Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay? Our thoughts of God are too human, as Luther would say to Erasmus.

Number 11. Election is an expression of the love of God. Everybody talks about the love of God, God's love,

God's love, God's love. How about God's distinguishing love? How about God's electing love? How about in love,

Ephesians 4 and 5, He predestined us to adoption as sons. When you see humans adopt people and make them sons and daughters and give them their last names,

I always think of love, distinguishing love, sovereign love. I don't say, you know what, they walked into a nursery and only picked one baby.

That's pretty bad they didn't pick a hundred. Well, they picked one and they chose the one for whatever reason they chose the one.

And here, how much more is election an expression of the love of God?

Now, what does election do? Let me give you some practical implications. One, it makes worship and awe.

It produces worship and awe. It shouldn't produce angst, it shouldn't produce bitterness, it shouldn't produce,

I'm angry. No, it should produce, oh the depths and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. For who has known the mind of the

Lord or who became His counselor? Or 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,

Romans 11. Amen. When was the last time you said, God, thank you for my election.

Thank you for choosing me. Thank you that you chose me from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the

Spirit and faith in the truth. Let me tell you something else about election. It does not cause spiritual laziness.

It doesn't cause spiritual laziness. Listen to 2 Peter 1. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.

For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into eternal kingdom of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. Make your election more sure, is the other translation.

How? By fleshing these fruits of the Spirit, as it were, out in your life.

Election should motivate that. It's not lay back and let God, oh, I'm elect, whatever. No, but since I'm elect, let's flesh these things out by the

Spirit's power. Say, well, I know, here's an objection to election. It undermines evangelism. It does?

No, it's essential to evangelism. It's an incentive, not a hindrance. Read Acts chapter 18.

I have much people in this city. Remember when Paul was afraid to go to Corinth? And here's what

God said to Paul. Paul, there's a lot of elect people in that city who are unregenerate. Go preach the gospel.

Elect people are saved through the preaching of the gospel. Election does not exclude means. It uses means.

And so these people are elect, and I have decided to save elect people through the preaching of the gospel. Paul, you're frightened for your safety.

Go to Corinth anywhere because there's elect, unregenerate people who will believe through your preaching. That's encouraging.

Slaves to sin we preach to, unbelievers, and they cannot believe in and of themselves unless God is working.

The Father chose, the Son died for, now the Spirit applies. Man can't repent of his sins on his own.

Man can't love the God whom he hates on his own. This is a work of God. Whitefield, election.

Edwards, election. Kerry, election. Fuller, election. Spurgeon, election. Calvin, election.

And those men either were sent out or sent out missionaries by the hordes.

Show me someone who sends out more missionaries than Calvinists back in those days. Now maybe today the tables have turned.

Those believing in Him should not perish. And they don't perish for lots of reasons.

But one of the reasons is because they are elect. Well, today on No Compromise Radio we talked about election.

Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That's how you determine if you're elect or not. God has already determined that, and you can know you are if you'll simply look to the

Lord with saving faith. Now, trusting in Christ's life, death, and resurrection. Repent of your sins and believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Then, after that happens, you'll know you're elect. ...and

in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE its staff or management.