ETERNAL ELECTION
Titus 1:1
Does anyone here know what November 2nd is. That’s right it is election day! That day when we get to exercise our right to vote for the man or women of our choice for certain offices. It is a right that many American hold near to their hearts, and that is rightfully so. Now while we may think we are in charge of who gets into office when we look at the big picture we should realize that in the end every government on this planet is there because God allows them to be.
Regardless of what we think of our Governor, congressmen, Representative, or our own president, each on of those people hold that office because God, for one reason or another, (reasons that I cannot always figure out), has placed them in that position.
But anyway the election of our government is something that is important to many of us.
Today I would like to talk to you about another kind of election. This is the doctrine of election, which is an eternal election, also known as the doctrine of predestination.
While there was a lot of controversy surrounding the our earthy elections there is a lot of controversy surrounding the doctrine of election.
There will be some of you today who will not agree with me concerning this teaching and that is ok. But I would urge those who do not to look over the scripture for yourselves and see what the word of God teaches.
I believe that even though this doctrine is plainly taught in scripture, it is one of the most disregarded doctrines. Yet a doctrine that has been taught since the early church.
Before I begin I would also like to say one more thing. Of all the sermons I have preached I have to say that I have put perhaps more hours of study into this one doctrine then any other. Because it is a controversial doctrine, I wanted to be sure that what I will present to you today is the truth from the word of God.
Please turn with me to our passage today. We are continuing our study into the book of Titus. Please turn to Titus chapter 1 verse 1. That is page 1032 in your pew Bibles.
"Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,"
We noted a couple weeks ago how Paul begins his letter by describing himself as a "bondservant" to God, or as being in bondage to God, a slave to God. We make note of how that is how it ought to be in our own lives.
Paul goes on to say that he is an "apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s elect". Last week we discussed what kind of faith Paul was speaking of here, that is a sound faith, a healthy faith. A faith that seeps into our intellect side, our emotion side, and our physical side, that is it displays itself through the works we do. Today I want to attempt to answer the question of "What does Paul mean by God’s elect?"
The Greek word that Paul uses here is "EK-LEK-TOS" it literally means to "pick out", "to chose". This word is also translated "chosen" in some cases.
It is used by our Lord Jesus on less then 7 times when speaking of the saints, By Paul at least 7 times, by Peter at least 5 times and John at least 3.
When something is mentioned that much within the scripture is should cause us to want to know what these men and our Lord meant when that call the saints of God the elect of God.
I believe that we can see this type of election, or choosing in three ways within the scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments.
First we have chosen to an office. In 1 Samuel 10:24 scripture states that Saul was "chosen" or elected by God for the office of King.
It reads "And Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?" So all the people shouted and said, "Long live the king!""
David is also said to be chosen to be king by God. 1 King 8:16 God states "but I chose David to be over My people Israel."
Now none of us have any problems with that, we think it is ok for God to choose who ever he wanted to be king of Israel.
The second way in which we see God’s election is the choosing of a certain people to a special privilege. In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses tell the people of Israel, "The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face the earth to be his people, his treasured possession."
Here God chooses the people of Israel to be a chosen or elected people. They were picked form all the other people on the earth to have special privileges from God.
Now we may be starting to think, gee that doesn’t seem fair. Why did God pick the Jewish people over every one else? Why should they get all the breaks? Why should they get the promised land and the other nations get the boot? Why do those people get the benefits of God’s blessings and protection while the others get God’s wrath?
But this still doesn’t really hit home. After all we don’t live in the promise land anyway. No body took my home, so if God wanted to give the Israelis special privileges I guess that’s OK with me.
The third way in which we see the election of God is the doctrine of election and that is that some people are chosen to eternal salvation.
2 Thess 2:13 tells us; "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the
truth,"
Also 1 Thess. 1:4, "knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God."
And also Eph. 1:4-5; "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,"
Simply put, everyone here who knows Jesus Christ as their Saviour knows him as Saviour because you were chosen or elected by God.
It was from "the beginning" Scripture tells us which God choose you. This is not speaking of the beginning of time but for all eternity. John 1:1 states "In the beginning the Word was with God," Meaning that there was never a time when the Word was not with God, because the "Word was God". That is the beginning spoken in 2 Thess. 2:13. There was never a time when God did not know you have salvation.
He choose you from all eternity. Now we hit home. Now some would say that just isn’t fair. You mean God created some people knowing full well they would go to hell. NO NOT MY GOD. It is one thing for him the choose kings and nations it is quite another for him to choose who will and will not go to heaven. That just is not right. Boy that just rubs our sense of justice the wrong way.
Before we get into the objections of election,
let us look at some other aspects of it.
We need to realize that election is not based on birthright. It is a personal thing. God does not choose someone because of the parents, or country, or their nationality or religion.
Paul makes this very clear in Romans chapter 9 where he states "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children".
In other words just because one was born a Jew did not make one a Jew in the spiritual sense. Just because a person was born a Jew, a descendant of Abraham does not mean they will be blessed.
Paul goes onto state in that chapter that God will have mercy on whom ever he chooses, regardless of whether you are Jew or Gentile, it is up to God.
Election is also not based on works. Nothing we can or ever have done will influence God to make us one of his elect. This is true in all areas of the election of God, weather it be choosing a King, or nation, our choosing one to salvation, God does by his grace and mercy not
because they deserved it over another.
God choose the Jewish people not because they were Holy, but he choose them to make them Holy, to purify them from idols. To use them as a vehicle for His plan of redemption. Deuteronomy 9:6 states; "Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
God certainly does not choose us because we deserve it. Nothing I have ever done warrants God choosing me to salvation.
An old woman stated upon hearing a sermon on election, "Ah, I have long settled that point, for if God had not chosen me before I was born, I am sure He would have seen nothing in me to have chosen me afterward."
Just like the Nation of Israel, God chooses his elect not because they are holy and righteous , but he chooses them to make them holy and righteous. God’s election is to sanctification and to faith. God chooses his people to be holy and be believers. I know for a fact that there was nothing in me that God should choose me. That is true with us all.
While election is not based on birthright or works it is based on the Sovereignty of God. In Romans chapter 9: 15-16 quotes God as saying, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens."
In others words God is in charge and we as his creation have no right what so ever to question his actions or motives. Paul asks in that same chapter of Romans, "but who are you O man to talk back to God." God not only has the right to do whatever he wants with his creation but he exercise that right!
He is the potter, we are the clay. And as our verse states He makes some for noble purposes and some for common purposes. Some he chooses to salvation and some he does not. It is his chose and we have no right to question it.
The doctrine of election is based on the fact that God is Sovereign, He is in charge he controls ALL things and if God was not sovereign he would not be God.
Now that we have taken a look at what Election is and what it is not I am sure that there is more them one of you out there who can think of some objections to this doctrine. I would like to deal with some of those now.
I have found that there are two ways to which people object to the doctrine of election. First they say it takes away from the free will of man. Second they say it is not fair. It is unjust, and our God is a just God.
Lets deal with the first one, man’s free will. When we say that election takes away from the free will of man, I think we misunderstand what true freedom is. That is something we talked about last week.
The term "man’s free will" is not found in the Bible. No where in scripture does it talk about freedom or moral ability of the sinner, on the contrary it speaks of their moral inability.
Let me read to you Eph. 2:1-2, 4-5; Paul here is speaking to the saints,
"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),"
One of the most popular illustrations of mans lost state is a man drowning in the ocean of his sin, and God throws to him a life saver. It is our responsibility to grab that life saver. It is our choice to grab that life saver.
But that is not what the Bible teaches. We are already dead in our sins. We are not drowning in our sea of sin, we are on the bottom of the ocean. We can’t grab that life saver because we are already dead in our sins.
Man according to the Bible must be made alive buy God before He can come to God. Man does not have the moral or spiritual ability to choose to come to God, that is why the Bible teaches that God choose man, not man choose God.
Some are under the assumption that God cannot control man in the least or it would make man nothing more the a machine, that it would rob man of his freedom. While this sound reasonable it is refuted in the scriptures.
In Genesis 20:6 God tells Abimelech "Yes I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me."
It is not impossible for God to exert his power upon man without destroying his responsibility. Here is a case where God did exert His power, were he did restrict man’s so called freedom, and prevent him from doing something he other wise would have done.
So God can and does exert his power on man causing them to do things they normally would not have done or not do things they would have done.
So the question is not how can God exert his power on men without robbing them of their freedom or responsibility, but what is true freedom?
What was one of the verse we looked at last week. Christ told us in the Gospel of John, "So if the Son set you free, you will be free indeed." Freedom is obeying God. Freedom is being righteous and Holy. God did not step on Aimelech’s freedom, he gave him freedom from that sin.
The unsaved are not free, they are under the bondage of sin. There is no such thing as freedom to sin, freedom to do what ever you want in spite of God’s commandments. Freedom to murder, etc.
That is bondage not freedom. They are not under the freedom of sin but the bondage of sin. So when God chooses some to salvation, he does not destroy their liberty, or their freedom, in fact he gives to them real freedom, freedom to serve him and bring him glory.
The second objection we mentioned is that this doctrine is just not fair. I ask the question who is it not fair to? Those who are not chosen?
Now let me ask another question, Is there anyone here this morning who wished to be made Holy by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is their anyone here who has trusted in the work done on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ. If you say yes, then God has elected you.
If you say no I do not wish to be saved, I do not want to give up my sins, I do not want to repent, I chose to ignore God’s plan of salvation then why should you protest that God has not chosen you.
Why say it is unfair for God to give you something you do not want. If you love this world pleasures more then you love you God, why complain? What right do you have to say to God that he ought to give you something you don’t wish for. Why is that not fair??
A good friend of mine Eric Roselund once stated, "Isn’t it strange that the murmurings of how God administers His wrath is more prevalent in the righteous, (the objects of His mercy), than in the wicked, (the objects of His wrath".
You see all men have the opportunity to come to Christ, yet God does not work in all men to do it. The Bible never says that men will miss heaven because they were not elect, it says they will miss heaven because they have not accepted the gospel. They have rejected Christ the Son of God.
Election does not affect the responsibility of the sinner to the gospel. Man reject Christ on his own, and cannot excuse himself by claiming he was not elected. The unbeliever is offer they same salvation as the elect. And no one but he is responsible for rejecting it.
Another point to be made is that we have a gross misconception as to what is fair. We stand on earth and look up to heaven and proclaim it is not fair. But when God looks down to earth from heaven, it is a whole different ball game.
Was it fair that God commanded the Israelite to conquer the promised land and kill all the nations, was fair for God to sent the flood and destroy almost the whole human race, men, woman and children. Was it fair, yes it was.
The wages of sin is death, if you sin you deserve death. It matter not whether you are a man, women or child. We should not be amazed when God does punish sin, we should be amazed that he give so much mercy. You want fair. Fair is for God to wipe us all off this planet. We must not take God’s mercy and grace for granted like we are so fond of doing.
That what the doctrine of election boils down to, some get mercy some get justice. But no one get injustice, no is treated unfairly. We all deserve Hell.
Suppose ten people sin equally. Suppose God punishes five of them and is merciful to the other five. Is this an injustice. NO!!!! Five got justice, five got mercy, there is nothing unfair about it.
Remember our verses teaches that God is not obligated to give mercy. It is his choice. If he is merciful to five of the five, the other cannot complain, they received justice. God does not have to treat all men equally, his mercy is voluntary. But we so often just take it for granted.
So never ask God for justice, he just might
give it to you.
I could say so much more concerning the objection to the doctrine of election but we have other important things to cover.
We need to very briefly go over Evangelism and election. I know that some will and have said, If God has already chosen some to salvation, why bother to preach the gospel, will not they be saved any way?
The doctrine of election has no bearing on the command of evangelism. We should run our lives by what God has revealed not what is hidden from us. The things God is pleased to keep to himself, the number and identity of the elect for instance or how he plans to convert them has no effect on man’s duty to evangelize.
Listen to what Moses states in Deut. 29:29; "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
God’s law is that we should preach the gospel,
and not worry about the "secret things". Whatever we may believe concerning election, the fact remains that evangelism is necessary, because no man can be saved without the gospel.
My final point is why is the doctrine of
election important. Three reasons.
In the doctrine of election we have security in Christ. If he choose us he will never "unchoose" us. We are his forever, we are secure in the mercy he has given. He will not give us mercy, and say just kidding and then give us justice. Once he has chosen us, we are his forever.
In the doctrine of election we see the awesomeness of God. We see his greatness, his holiness, his power. Why does God choose some and not others, look at Romans chapter 9:22 & 23;
"What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had prepared beforehand for glory,"
God does it to show His glory, to show His mercy. To show he is indeed worthy to be praised.
And finally the doctrine of election should cause us to be humble. Salvation is TOTALLY of God!! Nothing in us causes us to receive salvation NOTHING!!
There was once a man who stood before a crowd sharing with them how God had loved him, called him, saved him, delivered him, and cleansed him. It was a tremendous testimony to the glory of God.
After the meeting a fellow brother in Christ took him aside and stated, "I appreciate all that you said about what God did for you, but you didn’t mention any thing about your part in it. Salvation is really part us and part God, and you should have mentioned something about your part."
The man answered. "I apologize, you are right I really should have mentioned that. My part was running away, and God’s part was running after me until he found me."
That is the doctrine of election in a nut shell, we all run from God, none run towards Him, yet God in His mercy will catch some and wrap them in His eternal grace.
SHALL WE PRAY
