The Doctrine Of Election - Part 2 — John Piper

Humility Before God’s Unanswered Purposes

Americans are very pragmatic people. We are demanding, arrogant people. And when something doesn't signify to us quickly its payoff value, we generally neglect it. We want payoff now or we're on to Wal-Mart or wherever.

Now, that's very foolish. And you all know it's foolish because there's a lot of parents in the room. And parents have learned something about children and the distance between an adult and a child as far as teaching goes.

And one of the things we've learned is we must teach our children early things they don't have a clue why they're learning. Table manners is a controversial one at the Piper household. Was anyway, once upon a time.

Why? Why? Why? Why can't I hold it like this? That's the way I hold my handlebar. Why must I take my elbows off the table? Daddy does it sometimes. And it's all about navigating the world with social graces when it matters to them.

You try to explain that to them now? Not a clue. They take our word for it that the sun is standing still. They take our word for it that the earth is a ball. They take our word for it that green vegetables are good for them.

Maybe they take our word for it. The little bag of rat poison in the cupboard will kill you. Children have to know many things before they can know why it's good for them to know. If that's true, with the little bit of difference between an adult and a child, picture the distance between us and God as He endeavors to communicate with us.

Things that are good for us to know, but we'll raise questions that He does not think are good to answer now. So I just commend to us humility in regard to these things. With the doctrine of election, I know some of the ways it is good for us, but I'm sure I do not know all of the ways it is good for us.

Election and Doctrinal Rigor

Which leads me to my second pastoral observation. And it's one of the ways that the doctrine is good for us. It goes like this. The doctrine of election has a strong tendency to make a church rigorous about the truth and about doctrine.

The scriptures. And so to keep us from drifting into doctrinal indifference and cultural conformity. Let me say that again. The doctrine of election, when it lands on a people, is faithfully biblically taught in right proportions, has the tendency, I don't want to overstate it, to make a church more rigorous in its thinking about the Bible and about doctrine.

And thus keep us from becoming doctrinally indifferent and conformity to culture. The doctrine of election gives a firmness, kind of backbone, to flabby minds. It tends to produce robust, thoughtful Christians who are not swept away by trendy, man-centered ideas.

Election’s Preservative Power in Church History

It has, and history has proved this, I'd love to tell you stories from Spurgeon's day and Edward's day and other days. It has a preservative power that works to keep other doctrines from being diluted.

Postmodernism and the Loss of Transcendent Truth

It's a remarkable story in history about what this doctrine is able to do and what happens when it is forsaken. It has the tendency to press on our minds a God-centered worldview. Now I want to give you an illustration of the relevance of this, this very hour in our history in America, from Charles Coulson.

Chuck Coulson. He just wrote in the December issue of Christianity Today, the closing article, which he usually writes once a month or so, I think. And it's about post-modernity. He defines it like this, the philosophy that claims there is no transcendent truth, which is the governing philosophy in American intellectual life and a lot of cultural life.

And he gives signs, about four or five of them in this article, about why he thinks it's on life support and is becoming disillusioning to many Americans, especially young people, who after 9 -11 are not at all inclined to think there's no such thing as right and wrong.

He gives evidences. Go to it. Find it. Find it on the web. And read it. It's very helpful. But then, after giving evidences that post-modernism may be dead, hasten the day, he said, is the church at that very moment going exactly the opposite direction?

The Church’s Need for a Biblical Worldview

Let me read you what he wrote. I can't think of a more critical time for pastors, scholars, and laypeople to be grounded in a biblical worldview and to defend it clearly to those hungering for truth. But are we prepared for such a challenge?

George Barna recently completed a tour of American churches and came back with a dismaying report that most church and lay leaders, 90 according to one survey, have no understanding of worldview. How are we going to contend with competing philosophies if we're not even rooted in our own truth system?

Ironically, just as there seem to be encouraging signs in the culture, there are also signs that the church is dumbing down, moving from a word-driven message to an image and emotion-driven message.

Parenthesis, he says. I didn't write this. He did. Note how many Christian radio stations have recently converted from talk and preaching to all music. Close parenthesis. It would be the supreme irony and a terrible tragedy if we found ourselves slipping into post-modernity just when the broader culture has figured out it's a dead end.

Election and a God-Centered Way of Thinking

My contention here in this point in the message is the doctrine of election has an effect in a body of people to waken them from drifting in the river of inherited, unthought-out assumptions with no engagement of the mind.

Suddenly, I've documented this for years and years, suddenly they are jarred by the radical God-centeredness of the Bible and the frightening man-centeredness of their own hearts. And they're put on a quest to build a way of thinking biblically about God, about the world, about salvation, and to avoid the tragedy that Colson says it looks like we might experience any year now, the tragedy that the church, suddenly in the name of cultural relevance and attractiveness,.