Sovereign Election - [John 1:9-13ff]

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I want to invite you to take God's Word and turn with me again to John chapter 1.
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And I want to read the very same verses because we will begin by looking at verse 13 in just a moment.
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But I want to read the text again and set it before your eyes and before your hearts. And as we come now to the second session, we are going to look at sovereign election.
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And we will spend our time in John's gospel, John chapter 1 verse 9.
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There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.
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He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him.
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He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born...
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Now watch this. Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of God, of man, but of God.
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Sorry for that Arminian translation. I was using the living
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Bible there for a moment and I got my picture upside down in it, so excuse me.
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Well, we come now to our second session on the sovereignty of God's grace and salvation.
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And we noted last time together the first of the five doctrines of grace, total depravity, sometimes called radical corruption, that has brought about the spiritual death of the entire human race.
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And to restate what we said last time, we are spiritually blind, cannot see, human race is spiritually deaf, cannot hear, spiritually dead and cannot believe.
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Not only can lost sinners not save themselves and neither can they even want to be saved nor can they believe upon Christ apart from divine intervention.
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So the question is, well, if it's this bad, then how can anyone be saved?
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And the answer is, but God. Martin Lloyd -Jones once said, praise
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God for the buts in the Bible. But God. The doctrines of grace emphasize the saving grace of each member of the
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Godhead. The first doctrine of grace is total depravity, which is our contribution to our salvation.
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
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And now as we begin to look at the remaining four of the doctrines of grace, you know how this lays out, the second is sovereign election and that focuses upon God the
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Father. The third doctrine of grace is definite atonement, our particular redemption, and that emphasizes
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God the Son. And then the fourth doctrine of grace is irresistible grace, and that emphasizes
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God the Holy Spirit. So the doctrines of grace are Trinitarian, each member of the
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Godhead working in one saving enterprise. And one reason
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I am committed to the doctrines of grace or biblical Calvinism, because it is the only theology that does not fracture the
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Godhead. It is the only theology that can give credence to I and the
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Father are one, one in our nature but one in our purpose, one in our saving enterprise.
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What the Arminian does is, as I said, they fracture the
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Godhead. God the Father will save only those whom he looks down the tunnel of time and sees will believe
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Jesus Christ, right? So the Father is only going to save those who believe.
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But they say God the Son will lay down his life for everyone, totally different group than God the
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Father. The Father will only save those whom he looks down the tunnel of time and sees believe in his
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Son. So the Father will only save believers, but the Son, the
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Arminian says, will save everyone. Fracture in the
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Godhead. But then God the Holy Spirit works with a group that is halfway in between those two and he woos and he tugs on the hearts of those who hear the gospel.
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Now not everyone hears the gospel, right? So the Holy Spirit only seeks to save those who actually hear the gospel or read the gospel.
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So you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in essence going in polar opposite directions.
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The Father only working with believers, the Son working with the whole world, and God the
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Holy Spirit only working with those who hear the gospel. But it is only those who are committed to the doctrines of grace, biblical
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Calvinism, sovereign grace, have a theology that preserves the unity of the
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Godhead. A couple of years ago I was in London and I spent the night at London Theological Seminary, which is the seminary that Martin Lloyd -Jones founded before his death.
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And I spent the night on campus and the next morning I woke up and went to breakfast and there were the students there and I asked them, so tell me about your class from yesterday,
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I'd love to learn. And it just so happened that it was John Owen week at London Theological Seminary.
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So I thought, wow, this is about as good as it gets. And I said, what are the lectures on?
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And they said, the lectures are on definite atonement, the death of death and the death of Christ.
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I said, give me your number one reason from John Owen for limited atonement, definite atonement, particular redemption.
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They said, well, that would be easy. The number one reason is the unity of the Godhead, that God the
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Son seeks to save the exact same group that God the
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Father has chosen to save. And then God the Holy Spirit regenerates, convicts, calls, draws, and regenerates the very same group that the
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Father has chosen before the foundation of the world and gave to the Son to die for their sins upon the cross.
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Christ now sends the Spirit with the Father to call out of the world that very same group.
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And so, what we are looking at actually is the only theology that biblically
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I think is true to the Godhead, that preserves the unity of the saving enterprise of the
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Trinity. So, in this message now, I want us to look at the doctrine of sovereign election.
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What is the doctrine of election? It is the sovereign choice of God before time began whereby
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He elected by Himself and for Himself a people whom
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He would give to His Son to be His bride. This divine choice was based upon nothing good foreseen in man.
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In fact, the choice was made in spite of man, not because of man.
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The reason for the choice originated within God Himself. God chose whom
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He would save, not because of what is in man, but because it originated in God.
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For reasons known only to God with infinite grace and infinite wisdom, God chose
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His elect. He did not have to choose any and He could have chosen all, but instead
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God has chosen to save many to be trophies of His grace because it pleased
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Him. That should be sufficient reason for all of us here tonight.
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And so, I want to give you seven headings now as we will walk back through yet a second time the gospel of John.
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And I want you to note first in John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, sovereign election.
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All salvation is rooted and grounded in the sovereign will of God.
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So, note verse 12, which is the human side. We'll work our way to verse 13, which is the divine side.
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This is the heads and tails of the same coin. Verse 12, but as many as received
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Him, referring to Christ, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
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That is the human side of salvation. This is the tip of the iceberg that is seen above water level.
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But what is the root? What is the source? What is the origin of this salvation?
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And verse 13 now gives the explanation, takes us behind the veil and allows us to see the other side of the tapestry.
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How it is that many receive Him and many believe in the name of Christ.
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Verse 13 now tells us that it is not the result of man's heredity and is not the result of man's religious activity, neither is it the result of man's will and he will drive home the point that it is the result of God's activity and God's will.
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So look at verse 13, who, which refers back to the antecedent, those who believe in His name, who were born, born refers to being born from above, born of God, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.
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Now, nothing could be more clear than this, could it? Now, I also want to draw to your attention that this is not hidden by John at the back of the
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Gospel of John. This presupposes what a foundational truth this is, that any
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Christian ought to know this. It's front -loaded at the beginning of this
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Gospel, just like Ephesians 1 is front -loaded at the beginning of Ephesians, just like 1
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Corinthians and Romans, and we could just go through the various books of the Bible, Jeremiah 1, 5, etc.
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These are common truths that were already taught among the believers.
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And as John writes this, this is an assumption that if you are a
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Christian, you know this, who are born not of the will of man, but of God.
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And the contrast is between the will of man and the will of God. And he says, you were born not of the will of man, not of your own will.
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It is the result of the will of God, emphasizing the sovereign, discriminating will of God, that God has made discriminating choices before time began that has brought about the salvation of the people whom
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He has set His heart upon. John MacArthur writes concerning this verse, verse 13, the great truth of election and sovereign grace is here introduced appropriately at the foundation of John's mention of salvation.
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So our salvation is of the will of God, and it brings about the necessary and inevitable new birth of those whom
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He has set His heart upon in eternity past. This is really Romans 11, verse 36, that from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
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To God be the glory forever and ever, amen. Only the one who says from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things can consistently say to God be the glory forever and ever, amen.
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If one does not believe that sovereign election is from God and my salvation is the inevitable result of God's ordaining choice of me before time began, then you cannot in the truest, purest sense say to God be the glory forever and ever, amen.
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Because you will be robbing God of His glory with a lesser theology.
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This is the purity of sovereign grace theology, and it leads to the highest praise to God.
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So, number one, sovereign election. You see it in verse 13. It is abundantly clear, not of the will of man but of God.
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And he does not even repeat the word will for emphasis, to make it emphatic, but of God to leave us with this underscored.
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Second, come to John 6, verse 37. I want you to note, second, not only sovereign election or sovereign choice, but an eternal choice.
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When we come to verse 37, we read, all that the
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Father gives me. Now, you can just, with your pen, draw a box around those five words, all that the
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Father gives me. That designates a certain group of people, or I guess it's six words, sorry.
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All that the Father gives me, notice, will come to me. There will be the inevitable result of their believing in Jesus Christ.
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All that the Father gives to Christ will come to Christ. And then he says, in the one who comes to me,
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I will certainly not cast out. And within time, when they are drawn and brought to Christ, he will receive them with open arms because he has already received them previous to their coming to him.
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And he has received them from the Father before they ever come to faith in Christ.
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Do you see that? The Father gives them to Christ before they come to Christ.
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And we ask, when did the Father give them to Christ before they came to Christ?
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And the answer is, in eternity past. And the rest of the Bible makes this abundantly clear.
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Can I give you some verses that will underscore this? One of the principal rules of interpretation is the analogy of Scripture, that the entire
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Bible speaks with one voice. The Bible never contradicts itself. There is one body of divinity that is taught throughout all of Scripture.
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So, let the rest of Scripture bolster and support this. Jeremiah 1, verse 5, "...before
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I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Now, that is your foreknowledge.
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That is what foreknowledge means. It means whom God previously loved in a distinguishing, redemptive way.
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Romans 9, verse 13, "...Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
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You say, I can't understand why you would hate Jacob. I can't understand why he would hate
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Esau. I can't understand why he would love Jacob. I can understand why he would hate
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Esau. I cannot understand why he would love Jacob. There is a distinguishing foreknowledge that God has of His own people.
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Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. I'd already entered into a relationship with you. I had entered into a love relationship with you.
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I had already set my heart upon you with distinguishing affection. And before you were born,
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I consecrated you. I've appointed you a prophet to the nations. Romans 9, verse 11, "...for
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though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand."
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Not because of works, but because of Him who calls. So, God's choice was made whom
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He would save even before human birth. Ephesians 1, verse 4, makes it abundantly clear.
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You knew I would quote that one next. "...just as He chose us in Him."
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And this word chose, eklegomai, means to choose out from among many possibilities.
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Just as He chose us in Him. It's also in the middle voice, which means He chose us by Himself.
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There was no external or outside influence brought to bear upon God that would govern the choice that He would make.
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He chose us by Himself. It's in the middle voice and for Himself.
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And then comes, before the foundation of the world. Spurgeon said,
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God would have had to have chosen Him before the foundation of the world or He would have never chosen me within time once He saw me.
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Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. 1 Thessalonians 1, 4,
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Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, His choice of you. 2
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Timothy 1, 9, He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
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He granted us in Christ Jesus, here it is, from all eternity.
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God chose His elect before the foundation of the world from all eternity.
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And when He made that choice and eternity passed, He gave His chosen ones to His Son to become
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His inheritance, to become His people, to become His bride, that these whom
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He has chosen would praise the Son forever and ever and ever.
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It has very little to do with us. It has everything to do with inner Trinitarian love, that there would be a people who would sing the praises of the
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Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever. Titus 1, verse 1, identifies us as those chosen of God.
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1 Peter 1, verse 1, to those who reside as aliens who are chosen.
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2 Peter 1, 10, Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.
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So, back to John 6, verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and we'll talk tomorrow morning under irresistible grace about this verse.
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But what we need to know is that the Father has separated out of the human race by His own sovereign will a people whom
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He has given to Christ to be His possession before they ever within time come to believe upon Jesus Christ.
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Implied in this statement of verse 37 is the doctrine of sovereign election.
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James Montgomery Boyce, writing on this passage, asks this question, who are these who have been given by God the
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Father to Jesus Christ? Boyce answers, they are those about whom
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Paul writes in Ephesians, for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, close quote.
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Or, excuse me, Boyce says, these are the elect of God, close quote. And so, there is the inevitability and there is the certainty of our coming to saving faith in Christ, but the root of it is sovereign election, eternal choice of God of a people.
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Then in verse 39, he said, this is the will of Him who sent me that of all that He has given me, there's that same group, those who are the chosen ones,
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I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. So, we see that God's choice was made long before anyone would ever come to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Number three, I want you to come to John chapter 10 and verse 26 and 30.
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Number three is loving choice. All God's chosen ones are represented as sheep, and sheep are dumb, and defenseless, and disobedient.
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We all, like sheep, have gone astray. There's no compliment to be called a sheep. It means we can't do anything for ourselves.
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We're dirty. We're in constant need of protection, guidance, direction, help.
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And so, for God to choose us to be His sheep means that God must have extraordinary love for us that He exercised in this sovereign choice.
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Do not think that this was simply a cognitive choice that God has made independent of His deep love for those whom
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He has chosen. No, it is in love He predestined us to the adoption as sons.
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It is the deep, great, eternal, saving love of God that stands behind the doctrine of election.
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It is not a cruel doctrine. It is a gloriously loving doctrine that God has chosen to love such despicable sinners as you and me.
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And John 10 and verse 26 to 30, please note in verse 26,
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Jesus speaking to the unbelievers there says, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
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Now, the Arminian puts it the other way around. And says, the reason you're not one of my sheep is because you don't believe.
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But Jesus was not an Arminian. And Jesus did not have His theology upside down.
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Jesus said, you do not believe. Let me tell you why you don't believe. It's because you are a goat.
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You do not believe because you're one of my sheep. If you were one of my sheep, then
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I would call you by name and you would hear my voice and you would come to me and you would follow me and I would give you eternal life.
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And so, Jesus makes this very distinguishing comment here. Now, in verse 27,
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He says, my sheep hear my voice. Now, we know who these sheep are.
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These are the chosen ones whom the Father set His heart upon and gave to Christ to be in His flock before time began.
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In fact, verse 29, not to get ahead of myself, but verse 29 makes this abundantly clear, my
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Father who has given them to me, who is the them, it points back, the antecedent is my sheep in verse 27.
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So, He says, my sheep hear my voice. And we will look at this again tomorrow morning when we will consider the effectual call, the irresistible call of God.
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And I know them, meaning I have a relationship with them.
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I love them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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And now, in verse 29, Jesus traces this stream all the way back to its origin.
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Jesus goes all the way back to the beginning of the plan of God to save sinners.
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With this, He goes back throughout all of the ages of time.
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He goes back to eternity past. And in verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all.
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These given ones are the elect of God. They are the sheep. They are those that follow. They are those who hear the voice of the shepherd.
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They are those who receive eternal life. They are those who believe upon Christ. They are those who will never perish.
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Now, not all mankind is given to Christ, but many are.
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And it is the loving choice of God to choose such defenseless ones who are dirty and disobedient to be given to the
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Son, that the Son would come and die for them, that they would be purged and purified and cleansed.
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Come to John 13, verse 18. I want you to note forth a distinguishing choice.
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Jesus taught that He had made a sovereign choice of certain individuals to whom
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He would bestow salvation, and this choice was not all.
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There is a smaller group within the all who are those who are chosen of God.
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This is abundantly clear in verse 13. Jesus says, I do not speak of all of you.
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I know the ones I have chosen. Now, just think of two circles.
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One is concentric circles. One is inside the other. The larger circle is all of you.
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The smaller circle is those whom I have chosen. Christ and the
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Father have not chosen all to be saved. I've heard people say, well, this is what the doctrine of election is.
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God votes for you, the devil votes against you, and you have the deciding vote.
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Well, let me tell you, salvation is not a matter of democracy. All that matters is what has
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God decided to do. Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. It's not like this is a tug -of -war between God and Satan, and God needs some help, so let's come around to the other side and help
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God with all that we have to contribute so that there will be certain people who will be saved. No, God has made this distinguishing choice within the all, and those whom
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He has chosen, He knows them, and He has set His heart upon them. This word chosen, again, is the
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Greek word, eklegomai, which means to choose out of many possibilities.
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It is in the middle voice, as I've already told you, meaning God has and Christ has chosen by Himself and for Himself.
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It is God and Christ's own independent choice, not based upon any foreseen merit, not based upon any foreseen good works, but based upon God's own reasons known only to Himself.
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It is the idea of picking out or selecting out something or someone from a number of available alternatives such that those who are not chosen are passed over and, in that sense, rejected.
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For example, this same word is used in the Septuagint of the Old Testament in 1
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Samuel 17, verse 40. David, before he went out to fight
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Goliath, went down into the brook and chose out five stones out of the brook to fight
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Goliath by putting them in his slingshot. You certainly don't believe that those were the only five stones in the entire brook, do you?
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That if there had been six, David would have picked six. No, he chose five out of the entire riverbed that were fitted for his purposes to go forth and to slay
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Goliath. Same word that's used here, that God has reached down into the mass of fallen humanity and has chosen a people that fit
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His purpose, and He has intentionally chosen not many mighty, not many noble, that all praise would go to Him when
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He builds His church and they rise up with great strength so that no one would be able to say, well, look how rich they are, look how brilliant they are, look how handsome they are, look how beautiful they are, look how gifted they are, such that all praise would go to God.
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God has chosen with infinite wisdom to reach down to the bottom of the barrel to choose you and me.
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He has passed over the Phi Beta Kappas. He has passed over the Miss Americas.
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He has passed over the billionaires and the trillionaires. He has passed over the rich, the mighty, the brilliant.
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On the whole, there are some out of this who are chosen.
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But on the whole, 1 Corinthians 1, 26 to 31 says that God's distinguishing choice has been to choose out of the riverbed of humanity a people that He will fashion and fit into His slingshot, that He will go forth into this world and do battle against the kingdom of darkness.
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The same word is used in Deuteronomy 23 and verse 16 to describe the runaway slave selecting a dwelling place where it pleases
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Him to hide. There are any number of places that the runaway slave could go, to this cave, to that house, to this mountain, to this pasture, behind this tree, yet out of all of these possibilities,
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He has chosen out this place to hide. In Joshua 24, verse 15,
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Joshua stands before the nation Israel, before the panoply of foreign gods as they come into the promised land and all the
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Canaanite deities, and he stands before the nation and says, choose you this day whom you will serve.
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As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Out of all of these many gods, you choose one
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God out of the many and you serve Him. This is the very word used to describe the election of God.
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Out of all of the vast number of multitudes of sinners,
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God has made a discriminating choice according to His infinite wisdom, not based upon anything good seen in us, a choice made in spite of ourselves of what
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He could make of us by which His grace and His glory would shine forth and send us forth to do battle for His kingdom.
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No, it is a discriminating choice and He knows all.
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He says, I do not speak of all, I know the ones whom I have chosen.
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Come with me, if you would, to John 15 and verse 16, a divine choice.
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Christ declared that His choice of certain individuals is the true determining factor in salvation.
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Now, we are making the case for sovereign election, that our salvation is rooted and grounded in God Himself.
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And out of it will flow, we will look at tomorrow, the work of God the Son and God the
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Holy Spirit. But tonight, what we want to see is the autonomous, independent, free will of God choosing those whom
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He will save by giving them to the Son and sending the Spirit to bring them to Christ.
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But verse 16, Jesus said, you did not choose me, but I chose you.
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Could any text be more clear than this? There is here negative denial and positive assertion.
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If a theologian wants to be crystal clear where there is no wiggle room, where he cannot be misinterpreted, where no one could turn his words on their head and come to any other conclusion, they will give a negative and a positive.
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Negative denial, positive assertion, there is no room for misunderstanding whatsoever.
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This is what I am not saying, this is what I am saying.
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And those of you who are parents know you have to speak this way. You did not choose me, that is negative denial, that salvation is not rooted and grounded in the will of man.
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This did not come to pass by your choosing me, but I chose you.
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And Jesus chooses all those whom the Father has chosen and given to Him and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain.
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There is the perseverance of the saints so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name,
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He may give to you. And how interesting there is prayer and the sovereignty of God.
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And the sovereignty of God in no way negates our responsibility to pray. In fact,
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God works in cooperation in answering our prayers according to His most perfect will.
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And so, the original choice lies not with man, but with God. Romans 9, 15, and 16 certainly must be heard at this point.
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For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
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I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom
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I will have compassion. So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or on the man who runs, but upon God who has mercy.
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God is free to set His grace upon whomever
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He chooses to save. God could choose to save all.
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God could choose to save none. God could choose to save some.
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But none of Adam's fallen race has any claim to the free grace and abounding mercy of our
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God. If I choose to give Steve Cooley a birthday present out of my amazing love, no one here could come up to me and say, well, where's my birthday present?
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Because it would no longer be a gift. But if you had come to my house and mowed my yard and trimmed my hedge so that my wife would not have to do that, then
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I would give you your wages because you have earned it and you would have every reason to demand of me the wages that are due you because you have come and worked and earned what
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I would give to you. But if it is a gift, here tonight,
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I am free, if I so please, to give everyone here tonight a gift. I am free to give no one a gift.
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I am free to give two people a gift. I am free to give some people a gift. I'm free to give many people a gift.
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If it's a gift, then it originates in the giver and his discretion to do what he pleases with what is his, and so it is with God.
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God is free in the exercise of His will to give mercy and compassion redemptively to those who have no claim upon His grace.
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That is why it is grace. That is why John Newton, who was a five -point
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Calvinist, would write a hymn like, Amazing Grace. It's not amazing if you think it is deserving to you.
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It is not amazing if God votes for you and the devil votes against you and you have the deciding vote.
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You need to look in the mirror and sing, How Great Thou Art, if you think that's the way that it is. But if it is all of God and He chooses to set
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His mercy and compassion upon those who have no claim to it simply because it pleases
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Him to put His grace on display, now that is amazing grace.
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That is astonishing grace. That is bewildering grace. That is grace that makes us say,
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Why me, God? His divine choice.
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Let me give you two more. Number six, in John 15 verse 19,
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I want you to see separating choice, a separating choice, that God has chosen
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His people out of the world of lost sinners to be
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His own. Verse 19, if you were of the world...
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Now, to be of the world is to be ensnared in the world system. The world system that is anti -God, anti -Christ, anti -truth, anti -family, anti -everything that is right and decent and wholesome and good.
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If you were of the world, and Satan is the god of this age, he is the prince of this world, and every unbeliever is of the world, is a part of the evil world system, and is held captive and is ensnared in the world.
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John 15, 19 here, if you were of the world, the world would love its own.
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And by the way, that's why he says in 1 John 4, 1 through 6, that the world loves the false teachers, because the false teachers are of the world, and the world comes catering to them.
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And the world wants to buy their books and send their money and put them on television and underwrite their ministry.
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And the false teacher says to them everything that someone in the world and of the world would want to hear, that I can be wealthy and that I can be prosperous and that I can be healthy and I can have my best life now.
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That's why the world comes after them, because they are of the world and they speak of the world.
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And Jesus says, if you are of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world.
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Now, why are we not of the world? He tells us why we are not of the world, how we have been separated out of the world, but I chose you out of the world.
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Because of this, the world hates you. What a sharp distinction here between the world and those who are chosen out of the world.
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There are only two classes of people in the world. There are those in the world, and those who are in the world are of the world, and then second, there are those who are chosen out of the world.
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And those are the only two categories there are. This evil world system is lost, is headed for destruction, flames of the final judgment, and eternal hell.
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This evil world is doomed for destruction. And you and I deserve to be a part of the world.
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We were born in the world. We walked according to the course of this world.
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We were under the control of the God of this world, small g, the prince of this world.
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We committed all of the sins of the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, that marked our life.
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There was nothing different from us. The only thing that has distinguished us from the world is the sovereign will of God, the sovereign choice of God.
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We're not better than the people of the world. We once were of the world. It is
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God's choice that has made the difference between us and those in the world.
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Now, listen, when you pick up your newspaper tomorrow, and when you go home tonight and you turn on television, and you see what's going on out in the world, it will help us be patient with lost people.
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Because lost people act like what? Lost people.
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And you and I, when we were lost people, how did we act? We acted like lost people.
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The man who married me was an NFL football player.
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And he told me the story once of him and his cousin,
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Bert Jones, who was the number one draft pick in the NFL. Now, one time they went to an orphanage to pass out footballs and sign autographs and to do some acts of kindness for an orphanage.
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He said, they started on the first floor, and he said, it really tugged on our heart to see these children without any mom and dad being cared for here in this orphanage.
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After they spent some time there, he said, they then took us to another room.
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And he said, in this room were the orphans that were blind, that were deaf, and were dumb, could not speak.
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And as he shared this with me, he said, it broke my heart to see these orphans, couldn't see, couldn't hear, and couldn't speak.
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He said, this is the way we should feel towards lost sinners in the world.
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They are orphans from God, and they cannot see, they cannot hear, and they cannot speak the truth of God.
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The only difference between them and us has nothing whatsoever to do with us.
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Were it not for the grace of God in eternity past, we would be in those same activities and dens of iniquity.
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We would still be in those houses of worship where the truth is not taught.
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How we need to be patient with lost sinners who are without Christ.
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Can you toss me the water bottle up here? Just toss it, show you
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I can catch. All right, there's one more
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I want to give you, come to chapter 17. You knew we would end up in John 17.
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This is my favorite chapter in the Bible, John 17. This is as pure as it gets.
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This is not John talking about God, this is not Paul talking about Christ, this is an inner
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Trinitarian communication between God the Father and God the Son.
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This is God the Son praying to God the Father. When I preached through John 17 several years ago,
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I preached 26 sermons on the 26 verses of John 17. And on the very first one,
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God saved my teenage daughter. And it was like the amen out of heaven,
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God validating the preaching of His word out of John 17.
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So, in John 17, we read how God has chosen a people for Himself and that the ultimate reason for this choice is the glory of God.
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So, this heading is a God -glorifying choice. These lines, as John MacArthur says, intersect far above our heads.
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This is way beyond getting us out of hell and into heaven. This is all about the members of the
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Godhead glorifying each other. So, verse 1,
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Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come.
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Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You. There is nothing that glorifies the
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Godhead more than the death of Christ for His elect. There is nothing that brings greater glory to God, and there is nothing that puts on display the attributes of God and the glory of God with a greater shining of light through the prism than when it shines through the cross of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Every attribute of God is most visibly put on display in the cross of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and greatest praise is given to God because of the cross.
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You will never see a greater revelation and manifestation of the holiness of God than to look to the cross.
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You will never see God's righteousness more put on display than in the cross. You will never see a greater display of the wrath of God than in the cross.
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You will never see greater evidences of the power of God, the truth of God, the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the immutability of God, than what we see in the cross.
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And it is the cross that puts the intrinsic glory of God most on display, and it is the cross that brings greatest ascribed glory to God.
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You understand, theologians speak of two aspects of the glory of God. There is the intrinsic glory of God, which is who
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God is and what God is, and there is nothing we can do to add to the intrinsic glory of God. Neither is there anything that we can do to take anything away from the intrinsic glory of God.
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He is the God who was, and who is, and who shall be forever. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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So, God is who He is, and the sum total of all that God is, is His intrinsic glory.
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And that is most put on display in His Son dying upon the cross for His elect.
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The other aspect of the glory of God is the glory that we can give to God, which is ascribed glory.
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It is to ascribe honor, and majesty, and power, and dominion to our
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God, and to sing the praises of our God. Now, here's the deal, the more you see of the intrinsic glory of God, the more you will give ascribed glory to God.
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So, the church that has the highest view of the intrinsic glory of God will be the church that will give greatest ascribed glory to God, right?
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And that is what verse 1 is talking about, this glorify your
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Son that the Son may glorify you, and the putting on display of the intrinsic glory of God through the cross of Christ for those whom the
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Father has given to the Son. Now, verse 2, even as you gave
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Him authority over all flesh.
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Now, all flesh refers to the entirety of the human race. Every one born of woman, all flesh.
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Jesus Christ has been given all authority in heaven and earth, supreme authority over all flesh, that purpose clause, that to all whom you have given
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Him, that is a group within all flesh, that is the elect of God who are chosen out of all flesh, the elect of God whom the
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Father has chosen, He has given them to the Son so that the
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Son may give eternal life to these given ones, and that was the very intent of the cross, to go to the cross and to die for these given ones so that the
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Son, with perfect economy, without any blood being wasted, gives eternal life for all those for whom
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He died, who have been given to Him by the Father. Now, trace this stream down to verse 6.
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He brings the subject again up of these whom the Father has given to the
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Son. Verse 6, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.
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These are the elect disciples and it will be expanded, beginning in verse 19, to all elect disciples.
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Jesus, by operation of the Holy Spirit, manifests the name of God to all of the elect, to all of the men whom you have given me out of the world.
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He says, they were yours. And the reason they were yours, past tense, is because in eternity past, they became yours by sovereign choice.
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God chose them to be His own possession that He might then give them to the
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Son that they would jointly have them together. They were yours and you gave them to me.
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Before you gave them to me, Jesus says, they were yours. And once they were yours, then you gave them to me.
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And they have kept your word. And the reason they have kept your word is because the Son, by working of the
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Spirit, has manifested the name of the Father to them and them alone, and the
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Spirit continues to work in them, that they will keep your word. Now, this emphasis continues to flow through this prayer.
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And in verse 9, it resurfaces again. And standing behind verses 2, verse 6, verse 9, and we'll see verse 24, standing behind these verses is the truth of the sovereign election of God.
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There is no other way to comprehend these verses than the previous prior choice of God.
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Here's a fundamental principle of theology, God is always previous. God is never in a reactionary mode.
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We react to God, but God does not react to us. God is always previous.
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And that is what we see here in verse 9. I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world.
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What a discriminating choice this is. Between the world and those whom you have given me out of the world, and in verse 9,
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Jesus says, I ask on their behalf, those whom you have given me out of the world,
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I do not ask on behalf of the world. Jesus is saying,
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I've not come to save the world. If I had come to save the world, I would save the world.
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I have come to manifest your name to those whom you have given to me, and I have come to intercede on behalf of these given ones.
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I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me.
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And even in the heart of our Lord, in this prayer, he underscores yet again the doctrine of election at the end of verse 9, when he says yet again what he said in verse 6, for they are yours.
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Present tense. It was in the past tense in verse 6. They became yours in the past, and they remain yours in the present because you chose them to be yours.
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Now, this all flows down to verse 27, and here is the grand crescendo of the orchestra.
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Father, and whenever I write a letter, there will be several paragraphs, and when
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I come to the most personal point, the crescendo of the letter, I will start that paragraph with that person's name, comma, to draw them in, to see the importance of this final paragraph.
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That is what Jesus is doing in verse 24. Father, I desire that they also, and when he says they also, he's referring beyond the 11 whom the
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Father gave to Christ, to all who will believe upon their word.
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Verse 19 opens this up to all of the elect of God who would believe as a result of their word.
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So verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, referring to all the elect, be with me where I am so that, and it has nothing to do with getting out of hell.
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It has nothing to do with getting out of this world. It has as its highest motive, soli deo gloria, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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The Son now joins in with the Father and brings this full circle that all of these whom you have chosen and given to me that they might sing the praises of my name.
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Father, that is what I am now praying as I prepare to go to the cross, that all of these for whom
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I will die and secure their salvation at the cross, and I will go there not for the world, but for those whom you have given me, it is with this greater desire that they may see and behold my glory.
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Because when they see by intrinsic glory, they will burst forth with ascribed glory and they will give honor to me and that will please you because that's the whole reason you chose them in the first place.
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You chose them that they would be a worshiping body and a praising community that throughout all of the ages to come, you chose them that they would give glory and honor to me forever and ever.
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And in verse 24, Jesus joins with the Father in his electing purposes and he is saying that this is my purpose as well that your election of them would find its highest apex and our meeting around the throne of God together when they will stand there in glorified state before the throne, they will see my glory.
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That's what he says in verse 24, so that they may see my glory which you have given me for you love me before the foundation of the world.
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A God -glorifying choice. This really is why we're so passionate about this.
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This is why we become so fervent about the doctrines of grace.
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It has nothing to do with we like to win arguments with people.
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I hate confrontation. I hate argument. I don't think
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I've ever had an argument with my wife. I just become mute.
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I just don't even like to argue. I don't like arguing theology. But what makes me so impassioned and thrusts me forward at times is because I'm jealous and zealous for the glory of God.
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There are hills worth dying on. Wise is the man who knows which hills to die on.
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And let me tell you, we need to major on majors and minor on minors.
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Now, let me tell you what's major. And I'm going to tell you there is nothing more major than what
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I'm about to tell you. It is the apex of heaven. It is the glory of God.
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This is what gives greatest glory to God. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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In love, He predestined us to the adoption of sons according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
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The reason we preach this, the reason we teach this, the reason we sing this, the reason we defend this, the reason we uphold this, is because the glory of our
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God is at stake. And in this hour of history, we are guardians of the glory of God.
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We are seraphim, if you will, on the earth. I don't know how to put this.
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If you come against my wife, you're going to have to answer to me.
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And you're going to have to crawl over me to get to my wife. But infinitely more and greater is the glory of our
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God and how we need to be jealous that He received the praise and the honor that is due
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His name. This has nothing to do about we're right, you're wrong.
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This has everything to do with the unveiled intrinsic glory of our
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God being manifested on the earth and ascribed glory rightly being given to His name.
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And so, our heart and soul is in this. And it is our greatest hope in evangelism that God has a people whom
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He will save. And until someone is buried in the dirt, we do not know but that they are the elect of God and we will pursue people who reject us and reject us and reject us until they are buried in the ground.
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Because when the elect hear at the appointed time, they will come.
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This past fall, I buried my father -in -law.
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He is a man who has rejected me for 30 years, unkind, has yelled, been ungracious every
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Christmas, every Easter. Any family gathering, knots in my stomach, knots in my wife's stomach.
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We have to debrief with the children when we leave, unhappy.
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My wife could put George Whitefield to shame. She has witnessed, she has testified, and he has thrown it back in her face.
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I don't know what cloud you live on, but we have not given up hope because salvation does not rest with his will, it rests with the will of God.
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My father -in -law drew near to death. My wife got in the car and drove down and she would not let him go.
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She read the Bible, she preached the Bible, she preached Christ eight hours, nine hours, 10 hours a day until he came to the point where that proud, self -righteous, arrogant man bowed the knee to Jesus Christ 48 hours before he died.
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If there is one man on the earth that I thought would never be saved, it was my father -in -law.
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And our only hope was the doctrine of election, that God's will is greater than his will.
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And my wife literally pursued him to the gates of hell and clung to his clothes and would not let him go to hell without witnessing to him until the flames of hell were ready to singe his clothes.
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What would have been the saddest day of our life for me to stand in front of his old cronies and say, your friend is in hell, it came the happiest day.
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And I was able to preach the gospel of Christ to a packed church of people who were shocked to hear that this man had become a trophy of God's grace.
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This does not stagnate us. This does not paralyze us.
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This mobilizes us. This energizes us. This makes us crawl over walls, swim across oceans, ascend mountains, and go wherever we need to go to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ because God is a saving
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God. And God in his perfect timing will save all of his elect.
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We would have thought the last person on the face of the earth to be saved was
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Saul of Tarsus. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
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Who is there in your life, in your family? Every family has lost people.
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Who is there at work? Every office has lost people.
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Who is there in your church that God has given you some degree of discernment?
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I don't know that they really know the Lord. Who is there around you who needs your witness because of the doctrine of election?
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Do not ever give up until they're in the grave because none of his sheep will ever perish.
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Let us be encouraged. Our God is a saving who loves to put his glory on display in saving the chief of sinners.
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Father in heaven, just prop up our hearts and thrust us forward into the harvest to do your work, to rescue the perishing, and to care for the dying.
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God, our goal is not to win arguments. It is not to debate.
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Our goal is that your glory would be manifested in the salvation of sinners and that you would receive your full due and full praise from your people, that they would see that from you and through you and to you is all things.
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So, God, strengthen us, encourage us here tonight.
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No doubt there are many of us who are discouraged over people with whom we have given witness after witness and it just comes back in our face.
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God, you're greater than the greatest sinner. You are greater than those who are of the world.
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You are greater than those who are in chains of sin and in bondage to the devil.
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You are far greater. Give us encouragement in this church and among us here tonight to do your work.