Chosen (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Dead in Sin and the Meaning of “But God”

Can you imagine? You're dead in trespasses and sins, you follow the world, Satan is your father, by nature you're children of wrath, and God, then how do you think you'd fill that in? And God, therefore, judged righteously and according to his holy law.

But here, it's different. The sense of the gospel, almost, in these two words, but God. Let me give you five reasons why God chose us, they're all right here. One, he's merciful, do you see it in verse four?

Why would God do it? We only figure this out because he tells us. This is the goodness of God, his mercy. Verse four, but God being rich in mercy. Not just merciful, but rich in merciful. If you're a bankrupt sinner, he's got lots of riches for you.

Not just a little mercy, but he's having mercy that's inexhaustible, an inexhaustible treasure. This is right where we have the word from the Hebrew language, loving kindness. His steadfast love, he abounds in it.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his what? Mercy, Titus 3. Blessed be God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again.

We would never choose God because of our sin. God would have to choose us. What would motivate God to choose rebels and people who would crucify the Son if they could? Well, one, he's merciful too. The second reason is he's loving.

Look at in verse four, because of his great love, first rich in mercy, now great love with which he loved us. If God looked into my soul before I was a Christian, what was there to love? There's nothing in me to love, only to hate.

Yet God is loving and he loves us. The Son of God loved me, Galatians 2, and gave himself for me. First John 4 .19, we love because he first loved us. That's staggering to think that God would see through his holy glaze, gaze rather, he'd see a love for me.

He'd have a love for me. God demonstrates his own love towards us that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Well, not only that, thirdly, God's gracious. Look at verse five. Why would God ever choose anyone?

Because he's merciful, because he's loving, because he's gracious. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he's repeating what verse one says, he made us alive. He made us born again. We were dead, so he has to make us alive spiritually.

He made us alive together with Christ. And then we see parenthetically, by grace, you have been saved. God's generous, unselfish grace given to us. Goodwin said, grace is attributed to princes. They are said to be gracious to their subjects, whereas subjects cannot be gracious to princes.

Now, God, who is an infinite sovereign, who might have just chosen whether ever he would love us or not, for to him is love, this is grace. Well, that's not all. If that wasn't enough, verse seven, God is kind.

Here's a fourth reason God chooses people, because he's kind. In order that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God is merciful, God's gracious, God's loving, God's kind, but that's not all.

Final motivation is found, final reason is found in verse seven as well, to display his own glory, because it shows off how great he is when he saves people. How can you uphold God's holy law yet still forgive people?

God has this worked out to show his surpassing riches. See that in verse seven, of this grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Man would never choose God. Therefore, God has to choose. But why would God choose?

He doesn't choose because of what's in us, he chooses because of what's in him. He's merciful. He's gracious. He's loving. He's kind. He shows himself. Question number three. Question number three this morning, when did God elect?

Election Before the Foundation of the World

When did God elect? Now, most people think that God is a God who's outside of time and at the beginning of time, he looks down the corridors of time. You've probably heard that phrase, the corridors of time.

And God looks in time, even though he's outside of this time, and he sees and he says, well, Michael believed in 1989, and he'll kind of be down on his luck, and he'll believe, and so since he believed in me, I choose him.

Now, we're gonna find out here just very quickly that in eternity past, if God were to look down the corridors of time and see in 1989 what Mike would do, Mike wouldn't do anything because Mike is dead in trespasses and sins.

If God looks down the corridors of the time and sees you, he's going to see someone who's enslaved to sin, who's fallen, who can't get up spiritually, and he's going to see someone who is left to themselves in some kind of quagmire, in some kind of quicksand.

I can't extricate myself. I think I've told the story before that the day shortly after I was married, I wasn't a Christian, and the day that I was just very foolish and I was thinking about my sin, I thought to myself, here's the woman that I love, and I'm just a foolish sinner the way I don't treat her like I ought to.

And then I thought this, I thought, I don't have a problem. My problem's not anger, my problem's not I'm not patient, my problem's not I'm unloving, I don't have a problem. The day that I realized I am the problem, that was what set me free, that God used that.

Because if I got a problem, I'll work on it. I'll go to anger management, and I'll go to this, and I'll do that. I'll try better. I got a budget problem, I just have to make the ends meet. But when I'm the problem, how do I get myself out of me?

I am the problem. So if God were to choose, he's not going to choose after I believe. That's not predestination, giving me my destiny pre-time. If God chooses based on what I do, that's post-destination.

That's God chooses in a reaction to us, but we've already seen. We're not gonna do anything. We're sinful, we're dead, we're unable, we're depraved, we're corrupt. And so because of Adam's fall and God crediting Adam's sin to us, and then by nature we are now sinful, God's going to wait for a long, long time.

So God chooses when? When did God choose? Before time began. Let's go back to chapter one. When did God choose? By the way, I just even like talking about this. I'm so stuck in time. Let's talk about before there was time.

That's a good concept. God chose us while he was in eternity past. Blessed be the God and Father, Ephesians 1, 3. It's been 25 years since Paul got saved and he's still wild about praising God. Why does he praise God?

Blessed be God and Father for Lord Jesus Christ. To extol, to give like a eulogy is where we get the word blessing. I'm just gonna praise God. When I was younger, I always met people and they were church kind of people.

And every time I met them, they'd say, praise the Lord. It's just this kind of thing that they'd say, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I don't think they really meant it, but I didn't even know what it meant.

Paul knows what he's saying, and I do know what he means here. I'm blessing God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He's blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And what's the first thing he says? Why am I praising God? Even as he chose us in him, when? After I believed? No, I'm too depraved to believe. I would never respond. People say, well, I don't believe in election.

I don't believe in predestination. It's right here in the Bible. It's everywhere in the Bible. You just have to give it a different definition. But it's right here. Even, see it again, verse four. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Not because we were holy and blameless. Oh, I picked the holy and blameless ones. But that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.

According to the purpose of, not my will, my will was bound. According to the purpose of his will. And if he saves, he gets all the praise. To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved.

When did God choose people? God chose people before time began. Because if he chose in time, he's a reactionary God. But our God is a God who is the initiator, who causes. Who's the author, who's the alpha.

Reformers said the very time of election shows it to be free. For what could we have deserved or in what did we merit, did our merit consist before the world began? How many people here before the world began earned their salvation?

Before the world began, did you get baptized? Did you get catechized? Did you do good? Did you help people? Did you join the church? Did you not do certain sins? Of course you didn't do anything because you weren't even born.

Second Timothy 1 .9 says that God saved us, not according to works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. You wanna know when God chooses people?

Before time began. And if you're sitting here today as a Christian, you ought to think to yourself, I can't believe God chose me. I get the same feeling when I think of the day that I asked Kim to marry me.

Kim, will you marry me? And I already had tried a little trial balloon ahead of time, because I didn't wanna get shut down. So you have these kind of little trial balloons. If I were to, or I don't know how I'd said it.

And when she said yes, you know what I said? Praise the Lord. No, I didn't say that. If I would have been a Christian, I would have said it and meant it. When she said that, I just thought, I can't believe she said yes.

I can't believe she said yes. This is the most amazing thing, that I would ask someone and they would say yes. This is unbelievable. And to think, and she didn't even know all my sins, and will never know all my sins.

God knows all my sins that I would ever commit. And he says, I'm still going to choose you because I'm gracious. I'm kind. I'm merciful. Yes, for those who don't respond to the gospel, I'm wrathful. And I have vengeance for the wicked.

But I choose people. That's just who I am by nature. I'm a saving God. I show my glory off by saving. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, Revelation 13. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world and the book of the life of the lamb who has been slain.

Before time begin, God says, I choose some, and they're written down. God knows who we are. He loves us ahead of time. The song goes, tis not that I did choose thee for Lord. That could not be. This heart would still refuse thee.

If you didn't choose me. In love, he predestined us. Michael Horton said, God is more love than you are sin. Just as a grandpa loves imparting gifts to his grandchildren or a grandma to her grandchildren, so God loves to give to his children.

It pleases God. Look at verse six again, to the praise of his glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. It just pleased God to do it. And who is that beloved? Verse seven, in him we have redemption.

Redemption Through His Blood

The risen savior. The exclusivity of Christ. You don't get saved through Buddha, through Moses, through Mormon, Joseph Smith, it's through him. In him we have redemption. In Christ alone, the risen savior.

No other plans, plan B, plan C, through Christ alone. The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. First Peter one, knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers.

How does God redeem a sinner? If God the Father chooses a sinner, then how does the Son take care of those sins? God just doesn't say, well, waltz into heaven with your sin. Those sins have to be dealt with.

Nobody likes a judge who lets a criminal off. So we want justice. And so what does God do? How does God hold up justice? How does Jesus give us redemption? Well, I think you know the answer. Here's the answer.

Jesus dies for the sins, not that he committed, but that we committed. God says, I've chosen you as an elect one. I'll say your sins are credited to the account of another. I still judge for those sins, but I'll judge them on Christ Jesus.

And now you are free because the debt has been paid. And Jesus lived a perfect life that you were required to live. And you can't live it. So I'll take that and I'll credit it spiritually to your bank account, sinner.

And now when I see you, sinner, even though you've sinned, I treat you like you haven't because justice has been upheld. And when I saw Jesus on Calvary, when it got dark for those three hours, even though he was my son, my beloved son, I didn't judge him because of his sins.

I judged him because he was the sin bearer. And then was that exchange acceptable? We found out three days later as God raised the son from the dead. If Jesus would have had one sin, no resurrection because he would have had to pay for his own sin.

When you look at Ephesians 1, 7, we have redemption through his blood. What we deserved, a vicious death Christ took in our place. Then it says in verse 7, do you see this? I know if you're an unbeliever, you would want this.

You might not want to say no to your sin. You might want to be the Lord of your life, but if you're an unbeliever and you have any sense at all, I know you want this part right here in verse 7. The forgiveness of our trespasses.

Can you imagine not just a few trespasses? Not just the ones that you've committed that were really trifling, but all trespasses. I meet so many unbelievers, and I think what they try to do is fill their day full of so many things.

They never have to sit down at night and say, I've sinned against the God who made me, and soon will be forever. It's very soon I'm going to die, have my last breath, and then it'll be forever. They don't want to deal with all these issues.

The story is told in Spain of a father and a teenage son. Their relationship was strained. Son ran away from home. Father was trying to track down the rebellious son. He put an ad in the newspaper. This was way before Facebook and other things.

The ad said, dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you, your father. And the story goes, I don't know if it's true or not, but the story goes, at noon, in front of the newspaper office, the next day, 800 Pacos showed up, all seeking forgiveness and love from their fathers.

And if you've been made, I know you have a conscience. And that conscience needs rest. You fill it up with hedonism and sports and a thousand other things that are fine in their place. But when they snuff out the knocking conscience, I know there's a problem, and I know you need rest for your soul.

Wouldn't you like to have forgiveness today? I'm telling you about a God who has mercy and grace, kindness, who sent his son to die a death that he didn't even deserve. No wonder Paul says in Ephesians 1, 3, I'm gonna celebrate with praises.

I'm gonna speak well of this God. All the depths and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor?

Or who was first given to him that it might be paid back to him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Well, now we come to the fourth and final question.

How to Know Whether You Are Elect

How do you know if you're elect? How do you know if you're elect? Answer, it's a super simple answer. You know you're elect by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you say, well, that means I believe and God chooses.

No, it means God has chosen you and the certainty of those people, God has chosen people certainly and all those that he has chosen, they will believe. And so how do you know if you're elect? If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today, repent from your sins, trust not in your own works, but Christ's work on Calvary, confirmed by the resurrection, you are elect.

I know I'm elect because the fruit of God's election in eternity past has now manifest itself, I believe. I know I'm a sinner. I know I've trespassed. I know I don't earn anything but God's wrath. Yet I'll trust in what God has said.

Place your trust in the Passover lamb who was slain and raised from the dead and you will have forgiveness. So God initiates and causes election here. And when I respond in faith, I know what's happened there.

I didn't make it happen. I am the fruit of what has happened. Spurgeon said, many people want to know their election before they look to Christ. But they cannot learn it thus. It is only to be discovered by looking unto Jesus.

Look to Jesus, believe on him and you shall make proof of your election directly. For as surely as you believe, you are elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust him, then you are one of God's chosen ones.

Go to Jesus just as you are. Go straight to Christ, hide in his wounds, and you shall know your election. Christ was at the everlasting council. He can tell you whether you were chosen or not, but you cannot find out in any other way.

Go and put your trust in him. There will be no doubt about him having chosen you when you have chosen him. So if you'd like to know if you're elect or not, then you need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Serge, what must I do to be saved? Act 16, and they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your household. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10, 13, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Revelation 22, 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come, believe. Let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who's thirsty come. Let the one who wishes to take water of life come without cost. And one of my all-time favorite verses, Romans 10, 11, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.

Well, I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking, yeah, but what if somebody who's not chosen wants heaven? What if somebody who's not chosen wants forgiveness? Well, first of all, let's think about it this way.

God gives everyone what they deserve, and he gives them what they deserve, and sinners deserve punishment. Now, sometimes he gives them grace because he gives Jesus what the person deserves and not what Jesus deserves.

But think about it. Is election unfair? The better question is, why did God choose anyone? Why would God choose anyone? We all deserve hell, God chose some. And then your question is, well, why didn't he choose everyone?

That's the wrong question. The right question is, why would he choose anyone? Jesus said, is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? And by the way, if today you hear this message and you're not a Christian, and you walk away saying, I won't believe in such a God, you're going to get exactly what you want.

You can't say, well, God didn't choose me, therefore it's not my fault. And I really wanna be in his presence. I really wanna worship him. I wanna really live for him. Palmer said, let it be firmly stated that everybody gets precisely what he wants.

To put it most bluntly, hellions are glad they are in hell. Nobody's in hell against his will. Everyone there is glad that he is there. They do not want to be in hell, but when they know that the alternative to hell is to go to heaven with a pure heart, they would much rather stay in hell.

You say, I don't see how that can all be fair. R .C. Sproul said, it seems that if God gives grace to one person in the interest of fairness, he ought to give grace equally to another. It is precisely this oughtness that is foreign to the biblical concept of grace.

Among the mass of fallen humanity, all guilty of sin before God and exposed to his justice, no one has any claim or entitlement to God's mercy. If God chooses to grant mercy to some of that group, this does not require that he give it to all.

No one receives punishment at the hands of God that they do not deserve. If I go to Africa and I adopt one baby in an orphanage, I don't think you'll say to me, how wicked and cruel are you because you did not adopt 400 babies?

I didn't have to adopt any. How much more God didn't have to choose any to be saved. Remember, out of all the angels ever created, one third of them fell. And what did God do? He just let them alone. He just let them be judged forever.

He didn't have to give them salvation, but for people, he did. He gave them salvation. And one thing's for sure, judgment's coming. That's what the resurrection teaches us, among many other things. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. So what about you this morning? If you're a Christian, if you've been chosen by God, I've been chosen by God.

He knew my sins, he chose me anyway. That's why I say, you know what, Lord, I'll serve you for the rest of my life. Full-time ministry, part-time ministry, it doesn't matter to me. No-time ministry, I'll still do it on my own.

Lord, you chose me. And if you're not a Christian here today, and you say, well, you know what, I don't know if God chose me, I guess I get what I get. Then I want you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ this morning and know your elect.

You can know your elect if you believe so. Why would you walk out? Donald Gray Barnhouse talked about a little boy, 12 years old, who had a comment to him after he got done preaching a sermon. And what Barnhouse did is he took all the things about forgiveness of sins, put it together in a kind of a Barnhousian slogan, and he loved to say this all the time.

Our sins are forgiven, they are forgotten, cleansed, pardoned, atoned for, remitted, covered. They've been cast into the depths of the sea, blotted out as a thick cloud, removed as far as the east as from the west, cast behind God's back.

So that little 12-year-old comes up to Barnhouse at the end of the sermon and said, good sermon, Doc. Gee, we're sitting pretty, aren't we? Because of what Christ had done, we're sure sitting pretty, aren't we?

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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