Unconditional Election - Seethe or sooth?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour ,î 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 isnít for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. Itís January 4th today, 2022, and this is going to play in a few days, or maybe in about, give me a week. My health is good. I have a frog in my throat. I donít know why, but itís fine.

What I Would Take If I Died in the Hospital

Sitting in the hospital for 16 daysóit felt like 16 weeks, 16 yearsóI kept asking them, ìDo you think I can go home tomorrow ?î No, you canít. You can go home and die, I guess, but you canít go home. And I thought, all right, if I do die here in the hospital, which was a possibility, what would I die with?

Now, in the little clothes closet, I had some gym pants, long pants, tennis shoes, socks, and a t-shirt. I donít know if I had a jacket. Maybe there was a jacket, a small little jacket or something. And a bunch of cards, right, get well cards.

And then I had a little hospital gown on and some hospital socks, and I had my phone. Thatís it. Thatís all I had. And of course, none of those things I could have taken with me. I guess some people want to take their phones with them when they die.

My son just picked up a book called How to Break Up with Your Phone. And I read the first chapter, and Iím like, ìOh, Iím such an idiot. This phone knows how to addict me. This is bad .î But all that to say, if I could have had only one other thing, right, you go to a desert island, what do you want to bring with you?

I should have brought this, and maybe this would have got me through my time during COVID isolation for those 16 days. And itís just, Iíll just let you hear it, and maybe youíll understand why I probably could have used it so much.

I declare you are blessed, you are prosperous, you are redeemed, forgiven, talented, creative, disciplined, focused, confident, secure, prepared, qualified, motivated, valuable, determined, equipped, empowered, anointed, accepted, and approved.

Not average, not mediocre, you are a child of the Most High God, a victor, and never a victim.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Insert Smokerís Coffee here. Oh, brother. That would have topped it off. Can you imagine the nurses walking in and the doctors walking in, and Iím playing that garbage scoob-a-lon?

Iíve had this for quite some time, and I want you to know so far, I have not had to charge it. Iíve probably not used it very much, so I havenít charged it in some time. Itís just as appalling as, you know, people that give me like the little lucky angel pins to wear or something.

There was one in my car when I bought it. I bought a 2010, is it a 2010, 2010 Volvo, and itís got 225 ,000 miles on it or something. But when I bought it a few years ago, it had like a little guardian angel in there, and I just left it up on, not the dash, but on the Visor.

And uh, Visor. Does beer make you smart? Itís your made-bud Visor. So stupid. Thatís why Iím not a comedian, by the way. Anyway, my nameís Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and today I want to talk to you about election.

Unconditional Election and Why It Makes Some People Seethe

Not a presidential election. Not a game. Not a game. Iím talking about practice. But I want to talk to you about unconditional election. I want to talk to you about Ephesians chapter 1 and the doctrine that makes some people praise the Lord and it makes some people seethe.

Seethe! Now what happens when you go to the book of Ephesians before God is to be praised, before Paul praises God for Jesusí redemptive work, He, the ransom, pulling us out of the slave pit of sin at His own detriment, before the sealing work of the Spirit of God is praised for making sure we donít lose our salvation, which we would left to ourselves.

The Father is praised for election. So to start the show, after a bad joke, I ask you the question, when was the last time you said, ìHeavenly Father, thank you for choosing me .î I mean, this is like a second blessing.

The Charismatics have their second blessing with tongues and, I donít know, gold fillings or something. But we have ours, or at least I have mine. And you first get saved and you realize youíre right with God based on the work of another.

Your sins are forgiven. You donít have to go to hell. And the list goes on. And then you study a little bit more and youíre like, ìAnd He chose me .î God chose me. He didnít have to choose anybody, and yet He chose me.

And the question really is not, why didnít He choose everybody, but the question is, why did He choose anyone? Because even our show last time with the Beza briefing on how bad man is and how corrupt and how holy depraved he is, W-H-O-L-L-Y.

That would be bad if it was H-O-L-Y depraved, holy depraved, something that would be incongruous. Here Paul writes in Ephesians 1, ìBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved .î Itís all about praise, praising the Father, blessing Him.

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thatís where we get the word ìeulogy .î E-U means well, W-E-L-L, or good maybe, and ìlogyî it means word, like Lagos. You might think Logos, but Lagos. ÌTheologyî, itís a word about God.

Biology, itís a word about our study, our doctrine about living things, zoology. But here we have God choosing us, and Heís to be blessed, eulogy, eulogos, to speak well of. And some people canít stand the doctrine of election, and Paul, the apostle, praises God for this.

It had been, I donít know, 20 to 25 years since God, the Son, met Paul on that road to Damascus. Paul, a murderer, Paul, a blasphemer, Paul, a man wreaking havoc on the Lord Jesusí church. And he was interrupted that day, and it was a massive interruption.

It was what we call intervention. You have those shows, you know, you have the intervention, and you have the people, and they come alongside. This was intervention time. And Paul has not forgotten that.

And so therefore, Paul, in this Trinitarian praise in chapter 1, verses 3 through 14, which is 202 words, one sentence, the first sections on the Father choosing, 4 to 6, the second section, the Son redeeming, 7 to 12, and the final section, the Spirit sealing, 13 and 14.

And they all end with verse 6, ìTo the praise of His glory ,î or something similar, verse 12, ìTo the praise of His glory ,î and number, verse 14, ìTo the praise of His glory .î. This doctrine is meant to praise God, and it's front-loaded in the book of Ephesians before there's any call to obedience or call to faithfulness, call to love God, call to love neighbor.

These great doctrines are the fuel for that kind of obedience. In Hamilton writes, ìThe cross is the great incentive and encouragement to obedience. If Christians are reluctant or half-hearted in their obedience to Christ, the answer is not to press them with a flood of exhortations, but to speak of Christ, His cross, His salvation.

The root reason our faithfulness and obedience are so often less than they should be is because we are disconnected from our Savior .î. And that's what's happening in the book of Ephesians. This Christological epistle, over and over and over, you see in that sentence in verses 13, verses 3 through 14, ìIn Him, in Him, in Christ, in the Beloved, it's all about the Lord Jesus .î.

And there's this praise. It's a Trinitarian praise. It's ìCome thou fount of every blessingî praise. It's ìPraise God from whom all blessings flow .î. It is praising God in a God-centered way. And that's one of the best things about election.

It's God-centered, and I am man-centered. You are woman-centered if you're a lady. And we need to start thinking about life not through our own eyes and through our own lens and like we are the focal point and the end point and the telos, but we need to start thinking about who God is.

We need theocentrism, not anthro-centrism, anthropocentric, theocentric. You know what I'm talking about. John Stott said of these verses, ìNobody can read it without being moved to wonder and worship and challenged to consistency of life .î.

This great God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and He wants to, as Calvin said, ìRouse our hearts to gratitude .î. And it's done first by talking about the Father choosing. I ask again, when's the last time you said, ìGod, thanks for electing me.

Thanks for choosing me. Thanks for selecting me. He chose us .î. I could ask you another question, ìWhen's the last time you heard a sermon on election ?î. You say, ìWell, it's divisive. It's like inner circle stuff.

We talk about other things in the pulpit, and then like Wednesday night studies at church, the doctrine class, then we talk about that .î Michael Horton said, regarding why nobody really preaches on election like they should, ìAt least one reason is that this doctrine is unsettling to our feelings, impressions, and presuppositions about who God is and who we are, and about what God can do without our permission .î.

Ouch. That's ouch. Paul praises God for election. He doesn't hate it. It's been said that Herman Melville writes Moby Dick because he hates Calvinism. It's been said that the fall of the House of Usher is a metaphor for Calvinism collapsing.

At least, thankfully, when you think of literary output, Daniel Defoe writes Robinson Crusoe pro this doctrine that we might call Calvinism. One thing's for certain for Paul, this is not a family secret to be buried in the annals of the closet.

This is to be praised. This is praiseworthy, rather. God is to be praised because of this very doctrine. I don't want to hide something that God has exposed. Do you? No. Okay, well, there's lots of things in Scripture that are hard to take, especially for prideful people.

But it is what it is. He chose us. He predestined us. Calvin said, ìScripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted, that is both necessary and useful to know. So nothing is taught but what is expedient to know.

Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God, or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress.

But for those who are so cautious or fearful that they desire to bury predestination in order not to disturb weak souls, with what color will they cloak their arrogance when they accuse God indirectly of stupid thoughtlessness, as if He had not foreseen the peril that they feel they have wisely met?

Whoever then heaps odium upon the doctrine of predestination openly reproaches God, as if he had unadvisably let slip something hurtful to the Church .î. And I know if you listen to No Compromise Radio, that's probably what you believe.

And good for you. Because it's right there. How are you going to argue? The only way you can argue it, in my opinion, I mean, it could be ignorance because you don't know these verses exist, or you might redefine the terms.

So for instance, He chose us based on a foreseen faith, right, foreknowledge, not understanding the word knowledge is to know or to love, and God foreloves a person ahead of time. It's never talked about what He does.

But the one that I think they do more often is God looks down the course of time, He sees us repent and believe, and then He destines us. But that's not predestination, that's post-destination. Based on what we've done, He now declares our destiny.

That's not predestination, that's post-destination. He chose us before the foundation of the world, in love, He predestined us to adoption. And to make it very clear, if you're a Christian today, listening, God chose you.

That's pretty amazing. Why are you a Christian and your best friend growing up isn't? Why are you a Christian and your twin sister isn't? Why are you a Christian and your parents aren't? Why are you a Christian and some of your kids aren't?

Why are you a Christian and the best football player, the cheerleader, whatever? Why aren't they? Why aren't you Judas? God chose you. God loved you. In love, He predestined you, dear listener. He chose you before the foundation of the world.

Does not the potter have right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? God chooses for Himself. That's just the nature of being God, the essence of being God, to choose.

And as I've said many times on this show, we like to choose. We like to choose our spouses. We like to choose what food we like, where we want to live. We like to choose our favorite football teams, soccer teams.

Why do you like to choose? Why do you like to win a board game? Why do you like to do things like a little king? Man's king of his own castle. I always say, Kim's not the boss of this house, but she is the queen.

It's like one of my all-time pet peeves. Well, I'll have to ask the boss. Bro, what are you talking about? You're an image bearer. I'm an image bearer. Therefore, since God's sovereign, we're little sovereigns.

You go back to the garden and what God's mandate was for Adam in terms of the garden and the earth and subduing. What we like in ourselves, choice, we don't want in God, but that's how sin has affected us.

If you study the Bible, you're going to find God chooses. He chooses Israel. He doesn't choose any other nation. He chooses certain angels. He doesn't choose the rest of the angels. He chooses certain men to be Levitical priests.

All the rest of the men and all the children and women can be Levitical priests. He chooses certain prophets. He doesn't choose other people. He chooses believers. As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

He appoints people to eternal life. Augustine didn't invent this. Calvin didn't invent this. Paul didn't invent this. This is who God is. Did you notice in Ephesians 1, as Lloyd-Jones says, this is a statement, not an argument.

There's a difference. See the difference? Now I do. That's Brian Reagan. This is a statement, not an argument. He's not trying to say why this is true. He's just saying it is true. And when did he choose us?

Before the foundation of the world. That's why election is unconditional. No conditions. Because it's an eternity past. That's why election is free. Because there's nothing that we've done. Because we didn't even exist yet.

God is sovereign. God chooses from the foundation of the world. You say, well, yeah, yeah, but foreknowledge, foreknowledge, foreknowledge. If you think foreknowledge, if you think all Greek words then translated to English are the equivalent of that English word by definition and its etymology, foreknowledge, to know ahead, then this is not going to work out well for you.

Don't do that. What do you know about prognosco, the word for foreknowledge? This man's delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God doesn't base our election on foreknowing our faith, foreknowing what we think, foreknowing about our conviction of sin.

Then we're going to have no real election, no real predestination. Because remember, we're depraved. God's going to see people slaves to sin. He's going to see Ephesians chapter 2, 1 to 3. I've said it, and I'll say it again, if you have a problem with unconditional election, you need to go back to study depravity, study the fall, study the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin as a public representative, a federal covenantal head, and how that sin is then imputed to everyone except the Lord Jesus.

All Adam's posterity gets that, except for the divine operation of the Holy Spirit, making sure that Jesus is not corrupted in any way, shape, or form in Mary's womb. Foreknew, he just knows ahead of time.

That doesn't mean to know in advance. If you think foreknow means he knew in advance, he knows everything in advance. Israel, I foreknew you. He knew you in advance. No, no, I loved you ahead of time.

That's the point. Before I formed you in the womb, Jeremiah 1, I knew you. This is to love before. This is to set your heart on someone. It's not because of works. It's because of God's purpose according to his choice.

It's because of him who calls. Churchans said, if election is on the basis of foreseeing faith, then God does not choose men, but man chooses God, and predestination ought to be called post-destination.

That's exactly right. And if you keep reading in verse 4, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. Not that we were holy and blameless. Not that we were repentant and believing.

No, it's the opposite. God knows all about you, all your skeletons in the closet. He knows the good, the bad, the ugly about you, and he chooses you. That's amazing. Before I was saved, I was not holy and blameless.

I was unholy and yucky and vile and wicked. But he chose us that we might be something. That's why when people say, well, election makes everybody just live whatever ways they want, and there's no morality, and it's just, like I said, just loose living, well, look at the text.

You look at the text and go, hmm. The chosen ones want to live a life commensurate with their calling. The chosen ones don't say, well, we're just going to live in sin. No. You're predestined to become conformed to the image of a son.

That's Romans 8, 29. He gave himself for us, Titus 2, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Election spurs on holy living.

It doesn't stifle it. It doesn't snuff it out. It has a goal. Once again, if you think you're really not that sinful as an unbeliever, then maybe you cooperate. But if you're dead in sin, not just sick in sin.

If you're slaves to sin, not just kind of limping in sin. If you are blind to truth, not just, you know, it's kind of hazy, I need my readers on. Then you're going to need God's election, God's predestination.

The song goes, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me.'". He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us, and Paul praises God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, for that very thing. God chose me. How does that make you feel? What does that make you think about? God chose you because he loves you.

Michael Horton said, "'He is more love than you are sin.'". Motivated by love, God chooses. Motivated by delight, God chooses. All my compassions are kindled, Hosea chapter 11. God demonstrates his own love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That's present tense. To him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, Revelation chapter 1 verse 5. Why do people misrepresent this doctrine of election? Why do they say bad things about it?

Well, we'll talk more about that next week, next time on No Compromise Radio. My name is Mike Abendroth. Twenty-four and a half minutes go by fast, especially when you're talking about election. What a great topic, what a great subject.

You can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Make sure you give us five stars on iTunes. Everybody says that so you get higher ratings.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.