Election: Pure and Simple

Ephesians 1:4

Jeff Noblit

Election Pure and Simple, Part 1

Ephesians 1:4

  Look at Ephesians, chapter 1 verse 4.  We’re gonna find our how He works.  We don’t understand how He works.  We don’t understand it all, but we can see something of how he works as we look at Ephesians chapter 1.  Let me just read verses 1 through 4 to get the flow of the context, and then we’ll nestle in on the first part of verse 4 and look at a message that I’m entitling,  “Election Pure and Simple.” 

Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 1:  Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.  Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.

Now in verse 3, the Bible tells us that we are blessed beyond comprehension.  He says we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  One way to view that is we have all the blessing an infinite heaven can contain.  God has bestowed that on us.  And of course that includes salvation, coming to, to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  But the question is how do we get these blessings?

Well, first of all, let’s look at his elaboration on these particular blessings.  And we see that beginning in verse 4.  Let me do something of a, a quick running overview of verses 4 through 14 and look at how he mentions the various aspects of the blessings we have that come from heaven.  All right? First of all, in verse 4 he says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.”  So he says, “First of all, you’re gonna be holy and blameless before a just God.”  Now that’s a blessing, folks. 

All right?  Then he goes to verse 5.  He predestined us to adoption as sons.  God says, “Not only that.  I’m not just gonna make you right.  I’m gonna make you one of My sons who’s right with Me.  Not just a slave, not a, not a, a bond slave.  Not a worker.  Not an employee.  Not a demeaning lower person.  I’m gonna make you one of My sons.  I’m gonna adopt you. That’s a spiritual blessing. 

Verse 7:  In Him we have redemption through His blood.  Now he begins to elaborate on the, uh, the process of bringing about our salvation.  That came through Jesus Christ dying on the cross, pouring out His life’s blood as He received the judgment of God on our behalf.  Now as He died, receiving the judgment of God on our behalf, the Bible says that was a redemption.  Now that word redemption comes from the slave market of this day.  When you could go to the slave market and buy one out of slavery.  You’d purchase their redemption.  So Jesus Christ who has through His blood has purchased our redemption, bought us out of the slave market of Satan and sin and made us a child of God.  Well, that’s another spiritual blessing. 

Now notice how he words it in verse 8.  “Which He lavished on us.”  He’s talking about grace.  “He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.”  So we have a lavishing grace that’s been put on us.  In other words, God didn’t just say, “I’m gonna just bestow some grace on you.”  No, He says, “If you look at what I have done for you, it’s a, it’s a pouring of the full load of grace on you.”  Lavishing grace.

Then he goes on and says in verse 8 that in this, one of these spiritual blessings is wisdom and insight.  When you’re saved, you begin to understand the ways of God and the truth of God as other men cannot understand.  For example as these Gentiles, these non-Jews, were coming to Christ, they began to see that the way to God was not through Judaism and not through the works of the law and not through the ceremonies of religious Judaism, but it was through Christ.  That was wisdom.  That was insight they did not have before.  And though not many of the Jews came to Christ in this day, those who did come what did they do?  They gained wisdom.  It’s not through the works of the law.  It’s not through the ceremonial rites of Judaism.  It’s through Christ that we come to God.  That’s a blessing.

And then he says in verse 11, “Also we have obtained an inheritance.”  That inheritance.  We inherit everything that is Christ’s.  That’s a blessing.  Verse 12, “to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ.”  WE have hope in Christ.  Now remember the biblical concept of hope is not, “I believe it’s going to happen.  I, I hope it happens.  Maybe it’ll happen.”  No, this hope is a full assurance.  WE know that we’re God’s child, and we know that we’re gonna make it all the way.  We’re gonna make it somehow.  Well, to us, it’s somehow.  To God, He knows how.  We just can’t see it all yet. 

Verse 13: “In Him you also after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,” verse 14, “who was given as a pledge of our inheritance.”  He said, “On top of everything else I’ve mentioned, another blessing is the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead lives in your heart.  And that presence and that awareness of God in your life is a seal that God’s gonna finish the work, and a pledge or a down payment that the rest is coming.”  So it’s all ours and it’s all given to us. 

But not here’s the real question.  How do we possess these?  How do we know that these are ours?  Well, here’s some ways some others have tried to possess heaven and its blessings.  Perhaps we could try to possess heaven and its blessings by force.  I mean we’ll just fight our way there.  We’ll just war our way into heaven.  We’ll demand our way into heaven.  Well, that was Satan’s way.  And by the way, that way doesn’t work.  So we’ll not gain heaven and heaven’s blessings by force. 

Well, maybe we can gain heaven and heaven’s blessings by earning them.  We’ll just work, and we’ll just stop doing bad, and we’ll start doing good.  And we’ll dot all of our I’s religiously, and we’ll cross all of our t’s religiously.  And we’ll make sure we take the Lord’s supper, and we’ll make sure we get into the baptism, the baptistery.  And we’ll make sure we join the church.  And we will work our way there. 

Our Church of Christ friends and our Roman Catholic friends, their doctrine teaches that very concept.  You have to merit your way in.  Work your way into heaven.  But, my friend, the problem is if you’re gonna have, if you’re gonna earn your way or work your way into heaven, you have to have heaven’s currency.  I mean heaven’s blessings have to be purchased with heaven’s coin.  And we don’t’ have any of that. 

Let me just give you a couple of texts right quick.  Uh, Romans chapter 3, would you turn back there with me?  Romans chapter 3.  And by the way, if I was witnessing to someone like I did this past week, I would start with Romans chapter 3 and just show them the great truth of sin in the life of all humanity or the lives of all men so that they understand that, and maybe the Holy Spirit will apply that to their understanding. 

Romans chapter 3 beginning in verse 9.  Let’s see if we can work our way there.  Is there some way we can sort of earn or achieve our way into heaven?  Verse 9:  What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.  IN other words, they start in a position whereby everything they are and everything they do is tainted by sin.  Therefore none of what they can achieve is acceptable in God’s economy. 

Verse 10:  As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;”  Well, if there’s none righteous, perhaps there’s some of them that are trying to understand and trying to get to God.  NO.  Look at verse 11.  There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God.  All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is not one who does good, there is not even one.”  Well, wait a minute.  What about all these Jewish Pharisees who lives such upright, moral, religiously consistent, uh, they kept all the laws and even added to the laws of scripture, and they kept all of those.  The Bible says there’s not, none righteous.  There’s not a one of them that’s doing good.  It’s a self-righteousness.  It’s not a true righteousness.

Verse 13:  “Their throat is an open grace, with their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips.”  He says, “Listen to what comes out of their mouths and you will see something of the condition of their hearts.  “Whose mouth if full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths,” verse 17, “and the path of peace they have not known.”  “And there is no fear of God before their eyes.” 

Look at verse 19.  Now we know that whatever the laws says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world become accountable to God.  So that’s what man is.  Can that kind of man merit his way into heaven?  Absolutely not.  But when Jesus was baptizing John the Baptist, Luke 3:22 tells us, what did heaven say about Jesus?  “This is My Son.  In Him I am well pleased.  I’m not pleased at all with man’s effort and man’s works and man’s striving and man’s religion.  I’m only pleased with My Son.”  That’s why you get into heaven in Christ or you don’t get into heaven at all.  You go on in one sense on the coattails of His righteousness. You’ll not get in on your own righteousness.  So we’re not gonna earn our way into heaven and get all of heaven’s blessings. 

Well, a third way maybe that a man would try, and that’s inheriting these.  Maybe we can somehow inherit these blessings.  Well, that won’t work because to inherit something, the owner has to die.  And the owner of heaven and all of heaven’s blessings is God, and He never dies.  You can’t inherit them.

Well, maybe then you can get into heaven by asking for them as a gift.  “God, I have enough good in me that I know that it’s wise to ask You for heaven and for the blessings of heaven and a relationship with You. So I’m just gonna do that.  I’m gonna ask for them as a gift.”  Will that work?  That alone, will that work?  Look at Ephesians chapter 2 just a second.  Back to our original book.  Ephesians chapter 2, and look at verse 1.  Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1:  And you, literally it reads, being dead.  You’re dead and you remain dead, in your trespasses and sins.  Now the question is, how dead are you?

Now that’s what Paul addresses here in Ephesians chapter 1 as you begin in verse 4.  Because in verse 3 he says we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places given to us, but how do we posses that?  Well, here he, here he goes, verse 4, telling us how.  Just, the word just as, or the phrase just as in the New American Standard literally means because or you could amplify it and say, “This is how you obtain them.”  This is how you get in on heaven and the spiritual blessings of heaven.  Just as HE chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.  Paul says, “That’s how you get it.”  You get it if he chooses you before the foundation of the world.

Now does that trouble your soul?  That makes me rejoice.  That gives me peace.  That gives me comfort and assurance.  Well, wait a minute.  What about poor ole God?  Looks like God’s not fair.  Looks like God’s not just.   I’ll deal with that thoroughly.  But listen.  I want to say something to you, Baptist brothers and sisters.  There’s no way on earth you can make that text mean anything other than what it says, unless you interpolate and rape the spirit and the proper interpretation of the text. 

How do you get in on it?  You are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.  Now what does that Greek word “choose” literally mean?  That Greek word in this text that says that He chose us literally means to pick out or select.  It means the exact same thing it means for us today in the English.  To pick out or select, to choose for one’s self.  So Paul says, “The fundamental, first cause of all the benefits and all the blessings of salvation is God’s electing choice.  You might call it His eternal election.  Now the word elect or election is the very same idea of choosing here.  God in eternity past elected or chose to save certain ones, and that’s how they get in on salvation. That’s what Paul is saying.

Now you may say, “I don’t agree with that.”  You don’t have to agree with that, but you can’t make Paul say it any other way.  That’s what Paul is saying.  And by the way, I’ll, we’ll look at this more thoroughly later.  The great majority of all Baptist theologians and scholars through the ages taught and believed these doctrines thoroughly.  It’s just in the last seventy or eighty years that there’s been a drifting away from it, and that is very tragic.

Hodge said it this way.  “Election is the cause or source of all subsequent blessings.”  That’s what Paul is emphasizing.  Paul, in verse 3, “We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”  How do we know we got them?  If you are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, you get them.  They are yours.

Now there’s another text that teaches this very thoroughly.  Turn there with me, if you would. Look at Romans chapter 8.  Would you turn there?  Romans chapter 8, and begin in verse 29.  Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 29.  So this text is emphasizing the same thing and that it’s going to talk about the great blessings that are ours in salvation.  And it’s gonna also emphasize very clearly how you got in on those great blessings of salvation.  You see, now here’s what’s happening in some of our hearts and minds.  Are you listening to me?  That ole wicked, wicked root of pride starts rising up in your heart, and you want to say, “I had something to do with it.  I get some credit.  I did something.  I chose Jesus.  I was smart.  I was wise.  I believed.  I, I, I…”  And God wants to say, “Nope.  God did it all.”  Even the believing was a grace gift that came from God.

Romans chapter 8, verse, look at verse 29.  For those whom He foreknew, and that means more than just knew beforehand what they would do.  That, that foreknow there literally means selection or choice.  It has the idea of election in it.  And if that, if that were not true, he makes it clear by the next phrase in verse 29.  He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. 

Now Acts 2:23 gives an insight on foreknowing and predestined and how they go together.  Acts 2:23 says, “This man, delivered over,” listen now, “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”  Preaching on the day of Pentecost, Peter says, “You guys crucified Jesus, but let me tell you something.  You didn’t just do it.  God predetermined and foreordained that you would crucify Jesus.  God chose that for His Son.  His Son wasn’t helpless to save Himself or, or forbid this tragedy from happening.  No.  God Almighty orchestrated these events.  He used your hands to carry them out.”  All the sudden God’s getting big, isn’t He?  Also he says, not only in verse 29 in Acts chapter 8, “whom He foreknew, He also predestined.”  The word predestined can’t mean anything else other than to mark out or to determine beforehand.  To mark out or determine beforehand. 

Well, He foreknew and He predestined to what end?  Well, look at verse 29 as we continue.  “To become conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Now get this in your mind.  To be conformed to the image of the Son so that He, the Son, Jesus, would be the firstborn among many brethren.  In  other words, God made a covenant with His Son, Jesus Christ. And God says to His Son, “God the Son, Jesus Christ, I am going to give you a people who will be with You and be like You and bring You glory for all eternity.”  So God foreknew certain ones and He predestined certain ones that they would belong to Jesus and Jesus would be the first of that type for all eternity.  The firstborn among many brethren. 

Jesus was the first one to go to heaven and be glorified forever after being on the earth, and all those that are His, those that are foreknown and predestined, will also be glorified and spend eternity with Him in heaven.  They’ll be conformed to the image of His Son.  Well, now how does that take place, Paul?  Give me some help here.  Well, verse 30.  And these whom HE marked out before hand, predestined, He also called.  There was a point and time in history when those whom God foreknew and marked out, chose or elected, use your own word, HE called them to come to Jesus.  Now calling here means effectual call.  It’s an efficacious call, which simply means it accomplishes what it sets out to perform.  When God calls one of His elect to saving faith, it accomplishes what He sets it out to perform.  That’s what the Lord Jesus meant, uh, in John 6:44 when He said this.  “Now one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  Jesus says, “You can’t just come if and when you chose.  It’s not of man.  You can’t come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws you, and the Father who sent Me calls,”  that’s the text in Romans chapter 8, “or draws those who are foreknown and predestined.  There’s no way you can make the text mean anything else. 

Now don’t get mixed up between God’s effectual call and our universal call.  WE are commanded in scripture to give the universal call of the gospel to everyone everywhere all that we can.  Amen?  We don’t go around choosing who the elect are.  WE urge all men to come to Christ.  But when they come to Christ, then we begin to teach them how glorious their salvation is.  Why?  Because our God deserves glory from their lives, and they need to glorify Him according to the knowledge of who He is and what He’s really done.  And He is the almighty sovereign God who absolutely dictated every element of their conversion, even foreknowing and predestining and calling them to that salvation.  And when they begin to understand that, they come into the song service ready to sing ‘cause God’s big and wonderful and glorious.  This little ole pitiful God of the Armenian, this little ole anemic, impotent little God that sits in heaven and rings His hands and hopes somebody might receive Him and accept Him somehow and make poor little ole Jesus feel better about dying on the cross.  Hogwash!  That’s not what God teaches.  God teaches that all of those whom Jesus Christ paid for on the cross who were foreknown and predestined will be called, will be saved, will be glorified, and Christ’s holy bride will be complete in heaven for all eternity just as God designed from the foundation of the world. 

“I don’t understand all of that.”  Well, you just be glad you got in on it, brother.  I’m telling you.  God’s a big God.  I wouldn’t have done it this way.  And you say, “Yeah, I know.  I’ll let everybody in on it.”  NO, I’d send everybody to hell, probably.  I mean if you’re a just and holy God.  You see, that’s the problem.  We don’t have any understanding of how abhorrent and how abominable our sin is before a holy God.  If you were God, you’d probably send them all to hell, not save an elect few, but send them all into just, a just condemnation, which they deserve.

Well, there’s a point in time when God calls you to salvation, upon which you believe and trust in Christ.  But notice something else here in verse 30.  Those whom He predestined, these He also called.  And whom he called, He also justified.  Now the word justified is a legal term of the day.  It means a declaration of being just.  God declares that one who is called just in His sight, righteous or having a right standing before Him in heaven.  And these whom he justified, He also glorified.  IN other words, God says, “All the way from eternity past when I foreknew them and chose and elected them and I predetermined, I marked out beforehand that they were, they belonged to Jesus and they would be with Him for all eternity.  And then at a point in time, I sent Jesus to pay for their sins on the cross.  Then another point in time, individually I drew them.  I called them to salvation.  And as I called them to salvation, I declared in heaven, ‘Another one’s justified.  Another one’s justified.  Another one’s justified.’ And I predetermined, and it cannot be altered that those very ones would be glorified with Me for all eternity. 

So what is the whole summarizing general truth of this?  Well, look at verse 31 of Romans chapter 8.  What then shall we say to these things?  Well, now let’s just stop there.  Now what are you gonna say about these things?  That’s when you ought to say amen and hallelujah.  Some folks were tending to debate with Paul as he taught these things.  In chapter 9 he says, “Well, who are you, ole man, to answer back to God?  Who are you to trouble God about the way God did His certain things such as building His church?  What are you gonna say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  Who can possibly defeat us?  Who can possibly thwart us?  Who can possibly bring us to an end?”

So he says we’re conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  We’re gonna be called.  We’re, we’re  justified after we’re called.  He’s gonna glorify us.  And then in verse 31 he says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Well, how does all those blessings take place, or how do you possess all of those wonderful blessings?  One way.  You have to be foreknown and predestined.  Or back in Ephesians chapter 1, you have to be one who is chosen from the foundation of the world.  That’s how you get in on, that’s how you possess those blessings.  And that’s the flow of Paul’s thinking as he writes this letter to the believers at Ephesus. 

Now two things I want to mention, as far as the body of the message.  Number one is some various views of election.  We’re gonna look at that.  And then secondly, some objections to election.  We’ll look at that next.  But under the various views of election, number one, first of all, there’s denial.  Just flat denial.  There are those folks who simply say, “I just don’t believe that’s right.  I just don’t believe God did that.  Uh, in my intellect I can’t put that together so I just reject that.  I just deny it.  What I believe is is that God sent His Son, and His Son died on the cross for the sins of the world.”  That’s true.  But then they’ll tell us, “Well, He told us to spread the good news.  And then after that God’s sort of out of the way and it’s just however good we are at spreading the news and however thorough we are at spreading the news and however good we are at preaching the gospel and reaching our friends, that’s who gets in and the rest don’t get in.  That’s it.”  So it’s just a denial of God’s sovereign electing choice.  But when we just looked at Romans 8:28 through 31 it didn’t seem like God just sort of set back and lets it happen does it?  Those whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.  And those whom He predestined, these HE also called.  Sounds like God’s active in this.  And those whom he called, He justified; and those whom He justified, He glorified. 

Then Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, sounds like God is initiating something here.  Verse 4:  He chose us in Him from the foundation of the world.  God didn’t just send His Son.  He did that, but He didn’t just do that.  He took some initiative.  He took some action in working out our salvation. 

John 6:44 Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  That sounds like God’s active in this thing.  And, uh, just to be honest, it’s taken me years of growth in the Word to realize that the souls of men are not up to me.  I get to be God’s agent in the process of bringing the elect into God’s kingdom, but their not up to me.  Now I want to ask you something.  Do you really think that God in heaven is gonna leave the souls of men up to us?  I mean, think about that for a moment.  We fail and falter and slip and slide and are unfaithful and inconsistent.  No, my friend. 

Well, another view of election is that God just knew beforehand.  God is omniscient, so He just knew beforehand who would be saved.  And since He knew who before the fact who would believe, then He went ahead and elected those as His children.  So what they’re saying is that God foresees a future response of faith, and so He elects those whom He saw would in the future respond in faith.  Now this is the, uh, Palagian or the Armenian view.  The Palagian or the Armenian view simply teaches that man fell in the Garden of Eden.  You know when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, all, all of mankind fell with them.  They fell into spiritual darkness.  They fell in, out rather, out of the family of God.  They fell into condemnation and sin.  But all the posterity of Adam inherits that fallen nature. 

But the Palagian Armenian says, “Man fell, but he didn’t fall all the way.  Right before rock bottom, man sort of stopped.”  So in one sense the Armenian or the Palagian view is that there is a spark of goodness there in man.  There’s an element of goodness there.  And so man has something in him that is inherently good, and that inherent goodness in man enables him to choose Christ, which is a good thing. 

And so what we’ve got to do is convince these people to choose Jesus.   But I think this is what’s led to some of the ridiculous, extreme shenanigans in the name of evangelism that we see in the world today.  Everything from muscle bound men breaking ice over their heads to extreme, uh, dramatic presentations to sort of stir the emotions and scare people and all kinds of stuff.  Not all of which is evil, but all this extreme stuff.  Why?  Because man has a spark of goodness.  Man is able to believe on his own, so if we can be creative enough, charismatic enough, dynamic enough, witty enough, we can somehow get these people to decide for Jesus and get into heaven.  That’s the Armenian-Palagian view.  And God, in His omniscience, they would say, knows who these are going to be.  AND so those are the ones He elects.

But turn again if you will to Ephesians chapter 2.  And as you’re turning to Ephesians chapter 2, let me ask you something.  What good could God see in this crowd?  What good is there in this group that’s being described before us in Ephesians chapter 2?  And you being dead in trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.  Now you could stop in verse 1 with you’re dead in trespasses and sins.  A dead man can’t choose.  A dead man can’t decide.  A dead man can’t come.  A dead man can’t receive anything. 

Romans chapter 3 verse 11:  There is none who understands…  And he’s talking in the context of the gospel here.  He’s saying, “If you show these people Christ and His salvation, in and of themselves without any divine intervention, they won’t get it.  They won’t choose Christ on their own.  They’re incapable.  There’s no good there.”  There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God.  Again, John 6:44:  “No man can come to Me,” Jesus says, “unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  Why?  Because there’s no good there.

IN Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  So I ask you if you hold to the Armenian-Palagian view that there’s some spark of goodness in man and therefore man with that innate goodness has the capacity to do a good thing, that is choose Jesus Christ, from those texts of scripture what good could be there?  There’s nothing good there.  Listen, friend.  God didn’t save you because of some worth you have.  God saved you in order because of the worth He possesses, because of the glorious attribute of grace that He and only He possesses in the entire universe. 

I want to just read this to you as we close,   Okay, I’m gonna have to look it up.  Wait just a second.

“I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me He hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for His own.”  Now listen.  “I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart.”  I didn’t just come up with faith.  He imparted the capacity to have faith.  Guys, our own songwriters sang it for years.  Where you been?  Are you with me?  It’s been there forever.  Two thousand years anyway. 

“I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart, nor how believing in His word brought peace within my heart.  I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin.”  Spirit has to move first.  “Revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in Him.”  Faith has to be created.  It’s not of you.  There’s no good spark in you that will have faith.  It’s created by the working of God.  “I know not when my Lord may come, at night or noonday fair; nor if I’ll walk the veil with Him or meet Him in the air.  But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.”  Isn’t that a great truth? 

“Pastor, why is it some good, sweet, faithful people just don’t get our convictions, just don’t get the truths we stand on?”  I think many times it’s because God hasn’t revealed it to them.  They can’t see it.  Does that make us better?  NO, it ought to put us on our face weeping in humility.  “God, we don’t deserve to have been enlightened, have faith birthed in us, and come into Your family.  But we’re grateful to You for it.”  Well, there’s some glorious truths I want to add to this in the next section, but let’s stop at this time and let’s pray together.  Would you stand? 

Election Pure and Simple, Part 2

Ephesians 1:4

We come to the third view of election and that is what I call election pure and simple.  Election pure and simple, and I want you to hear very clearly this very simple definition.  Uh, you might even want to jot this down.  God chose those whom He would save, and He secured their salvation.  God chose those whom He would save and He secured their salvation.  From before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 4 and other texts, God elected, chose, selected those He would save.  And then in time and space history, He sent His Son to die.  His Son paid for the sins of His people on the cross.  And then also in time and space history, He called those whom He had chosen, whom His Son paid their sin debt to come to Himself and believe in Him and be everlastingly saved.  That’s election.  Pure and simple.

Now let me give you some supporting texts here to show you how prominently this is taught throughout the scripture.  Matthew 22 verse 14, the Bible simply says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”  There’s a call that goes out to everyone.  And by the way, let me reiterate here that that is our job, to call everyone to repentance, to urge everyone to trust Christ.  And if I were to ever hear as your pastor that you’re sitting on your laurels or you’re not passionate or diligent to reach the lost because election’s just gonna save those who re gonna get saved, then I’m gonna rebuke you.  WE are to be passionate about the gospel.  Begging and praying and pleading with God to save souls, but also knowing many are called, but few are chosen.

John 15:16, Jesus says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”  We can just give a side note here.  How, what is a good evidence that one is truly an elect of God, they’re truly a believer, they’re truly saved?  Well, they have fruit that remains.  In the parable of the soils, the Lord talks about seed that’s cast on the ground and some lands on the hard walkways by the field, and that’s just gobbled up by birds. It doesn’t do any good.  And then some soil lands on   the rocky places.  That means there’s a layer  of soil and under that bedrock, so it doesn’t have any deep root.  And it sprouts up and it looks great, but it doesn’t last.  NO abiding fruit.  And Jesus was giving that parable to illustrate to us to be ready and prepared for a lot of things that look like conversion, but they don’t last.  And without any lasting fruit, there is no evidence of true conversion.  I am not talking about perfection, but I am talking about a lifestyle pattern of fruit-bearing. 

John 15:19:  “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” 

Acts chapter 9 verse 15, speaking of the conversion and the ministry of the apostle Paul.  Acts 9:15:  But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel.”  In other words, Paul didn’t have a vote in this.  Paul didn’t get to discuss this.  Paul did not lobby for this position.  God says, “I chose Him, and I didn’t choose some others for this particular conversion and this particular ministry.” 

Romans 11 verse 7, boy, how strong this is.  What then?  That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.”  Is that a clear teaching of election?  Israel thought through keeping the law, laws of Judaism, and Israel thought through the ceremonial rites and rituals that God have given them and in human works and efforts they would somehow find God and find heaven and find spiritual blessing.  But they didn’t obtain it.  But those who were chosen obtained it.  How strong and clear that text is.

First Corinthians 1:27 and 28:  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.  Verse 28: and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are.  He says, “God has a plan whereby it’s common for God to pick those to be His that the world might reject and not want if they were about some grand or glorious task.”  So don’t get any arrogance about being chosen of God.  He usually chooses, usually chooses the lesser so He can show how big and how great and how glorious He is.  Because you see, if He can use me, now that means He’s big.  And if He can use you, that means He’s big and wonderful. 

Colossians 3:12:  And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and blameless, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  And here’s a strong and clear text.  In Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13:  But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you, when?, from the beginning.  Now if the Armenian view was correct and that is that God chose those whom he knew would believe, it could not say, “From the beginning,” because at the beginning there was no one to believe.  God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.  Because you were chosen, God put into work the, the regenerating effects of the Holy Spirit upon your life, and you came to the point of believing by faith in Jesus Christ. 

Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 10:  For this reason, I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.  Now Paul is writing to his young understudy, Timothy, and he says, “Timothy, this keeps me going.  This keeps me preaching though they imprison me.  This keeps me preaching though they try to stone me.  This keeps me preaching though they defame my name and slander me and question my motives and mock me before men. I keep going and here’s why, Timothy: for the sake of the elect.  Are you hearing me?  Because I know in every city I preach in there’s some elect who will respond to God’s message, so I keep on going for that sake.”

We’re, uh, and I’m going to hit on this later so I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time here, but we are committed to reach the Jaquaru of Peru with the gospel, an unreached mountainous people group.  What should be our motivation for getting in there?  This should be our motivation:  that God in His sovereign purposes has some elect in those mountains.  But in His sovereign purposes He’s designed that they will be saved through the preaching of the gospel.  He did not have to do it that way, but He did, and that motivates us to take the gospel to them.

First Peter chapter 1 verse 1:  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, who are chosen.  So he didn’t say, “Who believed.”  He said, “Who are chosen.”  Now certainly you have to repent and believe.  But the emphasis in the biblical text seems to be on the chosen.  Now I don’t know that we should change our terminology.  That would really stir the community, wouldn’t it?  If we quit calling ourselves believers and started calling ourselves the chosen.  Be a good biblical definition though.  Actually it’s a very humbling and demeaning thing to say that because you’re giving all the credit to God, but the world wouldn’t take it that way, you understand.

First Peter chapter 2 verse 9:  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.  He’s referring to those who believe and come into the church.  He said, “You’re there because you were chosen. 

Revelation 17:14:  These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.  So notice he puts all three aspects here. There’s a time when God calls you to salvation because you are chosen.  And those who are called and chosen are those who are faithful.  They have lasting fruit. 

And then Paul and Barnabas in their preaching in Acts 13 verse 48.  Listen to this text.  And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.  Who believed?  As many as would?  No.  As many as were appointed, chosen, elected from the foundation of the world by God, those believed.  Now the context here is Paul is talking to the Jews, and he tells the Jews, “You’ve hardened your hearts. You won’t receive the gospel.  I’m turning away from you, and I’m turning to the Gentiles.”  AND the Gentiles said, “Hallelujah!  We’ll take it!”  And then Paul qualifies that.  “No, the ones who take it were the ones appointed to receive it.”  I just want you to know that is election pure and simple.  God chose those whom He would save, and He took the initiative to secure their salvation.

Now let’s talk about some objections to election as our second major point. Some objections to election.  Now here’s the first one, and you’ve thought this yourself, and you doubtlessly have heard it if you’ve been saved very long.  They’ll say first of all, “Well, that is beneath the character of a loving God.”  That is beneath His character.  A loving God would not do that.”  And what they mean by that is that this is an arbitrary choice, God choosing one and not choosing another; and God, a loving God, would not do that.  But I want to say to you, it’s not an arbitrary choice because it has a purpose.  God choosing to save some for His own glory is a purpose. 

Verse 6 of Ephesians chapter 1, he says very clearly, “To the praise of the glory of His grace.”  What is God’s ultimate purpose?  It is so He would be glorified.  And as I said to you before, God has a passion to see Himself glorified.  And so He is glorified when we, the ones who are saved, see and experience a part of His attributes, a part of His character that only He possesses, and that is grace.  And grace would only be seen, now listen, if He saves somebody as wretched as you and I.  So when He does that and it’s all Him, that means it’s all grace and it’s not us, what happens?  It’s the praise of the glory of His grace.  It’s not us.  So it’s not arbitrary at all. 

Now we do not know why God chose one and not another.  Certainly it was unmerited favor.  There wasn’t something special in you that made God choose you and something wicked in another one that made God not choose the other one.  No, it was unmerited favor.  It’s favor, but it’s unmerited favor.  But we do know what verse 4 of Ephesians chapter 1 tells us.  I’m sorry, verse 5, the last part of verse 5 rather.  According to the kind intention of His will.  “Pastor, why would God choose to save one and not save another one?”  One simple answer:  that is the intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

So it’s not beneath the character of a loving God because it’s not just some arbitrary thing.  All men are before God as  unworthy, condemned sinners.  And as unworthy, condemned sinners, God in His sovereign purposes saves and chooses to save some out of that group and allow the others to go where they deserve, eternal wrath and punishment, so that He might demonstrate His great love and forgiveness toward those whom He chose, His elect.  And by the way, God will be glorified in expressing just condemnation on those who reject Christ because they choose to reject Christ, and they get what they deserve.  Now listen to me.  The elect and the non-elect choose to reject Christ, but the elect are given the capacity by the working of the Holy Spirit to receive Christ.  The non-elect are not, but they still choose to reject Christ and still deserve judgment. 

Well, the second objection, first of all we said it’s not beneath the character of a loving God because it’s not arbitrary.  It does have a purpose.  But secondly, they’ll say it’s not just, and God is just.  How can God be just and do this?  God choosing to save one, they would say, and not another is not fair because all men deserve an equal choice.  You hear a lot about choice in today’s culture.  God’s not necessarily pro-choice.  But you know what?  Romans chapter 1 teaches us that God has been seen through creation itself, and so through the creation itself God has revealed that He is there.  And men could see from creation itself that they ought to turn from self and humble themselves and choose to serve the living God, but they do not.  They’ve all chosen.  The Bible says the law of God is written in every man’s heart.  And so the man has a moral code in his heart, and he knows he’s lost.  And he knows he’s a sinner, and he could turn from that and turn to God but he does not.  He chooses not to do, do that.

Thirdly, God presents the gospel of Jesus Christ and many even reject that.  So if the choice notion is what you believe God owes everyone, I want to say this to you.  All men have already made a choice, “I reject God.”  And God so purposes in His infinite love to sovereignly choose some that He will intervene in their hearts and regenerate them so that they will choose Christ and be saved.  But all men have already made a choice. 

And secondly, if you want to follow the choice notion all the way through, I want to tell you all do not get an equal choice.  The child born and raised in Muscle Shoals, Alabama gets far more choices or chances if you will than the child raised in New York City.  So that doesn’t hold up as fair either, does it?  So God is just, and every man has made his choice to reject God.  The real problem with our culture is a rejection of the total depravity of man.  We so want to hold onto something good in man.  I want to tell you how bad man is.  Man is so bad it took the bloody death of the Son of God to remedy the sin problem. 

Number three, a third objection to election pure and simple, well, they say it will lead to unholy living.  “If you teach that and you preach that, then people will just decide, ‘Well, look, if I’m an elect person, if I am one of those chosen ones, I am gonna be saved regardless so I can just live like I want and it’s all gonna work out anyway.’”  You know the Bible teaches right the opposite?  The Bible teaches us very clearly in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.” 

Now I’ll look at this more thoroughly in the coming messages, but what he means there we’ll be holy and blameless before Him in love.  Now listen. That pilgrimage of desiring and wanting holiness begins at conversion and is completed at glorification.  I’m telling you the person that teaches and, and pronounces this counterfeit, shallow, unbiblical concept of conversion whereby you go through a little motion, you say a little prayer but it doesn’t change your heart.  There’s not a new passion for God.  There’s not a brokenness over your sin, and there’s not a zeal and yearning for God and His holiness.  That’s not conversion.  True conversion stirs something in you that desires a new life of holiness and purity.  Perfection?  Absolutely not.  But a new pattern and purpose of holiness before God. 

So actually the Bible teaches those who are God’s elect, those who are God’s chosen that are called and come for salvation will model out, will bring forth the fruit of holiness in their lives.  “Well, Brother Jeff, I know people and they were so genuine and they seemed so sincere, and they prayed real tears, and they seemed so broken, and they said they trusted Christ. But for months and years they lived in open rebellion.”  I’m here to tell you, they’re not saved because lasting fruit will be there, and there’ll be an increasing fruit of holiness. 

Now when he gets to the end of verse 4 he says they’ll be holy and blameless before Him in love.  Now there’s a lot of different views on that, but I’m convinced here’s the right view.  Here’s what it means.  From the innermost part of our being, we will desire to be holy and blameless as He is.  IN other words, it won’t be some outward, shallow, superficial, surface righteousness, some going through the motions or jumping through the hoops.  IN the innermost part of the heart in genuine love for God and for His truth, we want to be holy as He is holy.  And I want to say something to you, dear church friend and dear church member.  If you there’s not something of that stirring in your heart, I would challenge you to go home and lock your door and get on your face and say, “Dear God, show me what’s missing in my heart.”  And it may be Christ.  It may be Christ.  “Brother Jeff, you want church members to be afraid of their salvation?”  I’d much rather you be afraid now and seek God and be saved than for somebody to teach you a shallow, unbiblical theory of conversion and you go on in your shallow hoop-jumping experience thinking that’s gonna get you into heaven.  Read First John.  First John is a book that was written to assure us of our salvation.  And what does First John tell us?  We’re assured of our salvation because there’s a new love in our hearts, a love for righteousness and a hatred for sin and a love for the brethren and a diminishing desire for the world.  It’s all in First John.  Those are the marks you look for in the heart.

It won’t lead to unholy living.  Matthew chapter 7 verse 20, Jesus talking about false prophets and those who put on the outward clothing but inward they don’t belong to God, He said, “You’ll know them by their fruits.”  You’ll know them by their fruits. You’ll know.  Give it some time.  You’ll know.  You’ll know.  You’ll know by their fruits.  It’ll not lead to unholy living.  But that’s one of the objections.

And another objection that you will hear is this:  “Well, it’s not Baptist doctrine.”  “That’s not what Baptists teach,” they’ll say.  “That’s not what Baptists believe,” they’ll say.  I’ve got two responses.  My first response is this:  “So What?”  Now don’t misunderstand me.  I am thankful that I’m a Baptist, but not a Baptist in the sense of what Baptists are in this contemporary culture, but Baptists in the sense of what Baptists historically are and what foundationally we were as Baptist people.  You know, for years and years and years our former pastor used to talk about it, I have something of a burden about it, and that is that this church doesn’t fit the image of a First Baptist Church.  Have you realized that?  We’re not a quote, “typical FirstBaptist Church,” end of quote.  Well, the reality is, we would have been pretty typical a hundred and fifty years ago.  But not the way the church has drifted away from God and His truth in today’s culture. 

     So my first one is, “So what?”  Our Baptist forefathers did not start out to fit some particular mold or some contemporary view of what doctrine was.  Our Baptist forefathers literally died because they followed scripture.  And by following scripture, they led one another to Christ and were baptizing adults which offended Roman Catholicism, and the Roman Catholics murdered them by the thousands for it.  they didn’t put a sign up out front and say, “We’re Baptist.”  They’d say, “WE follow the Bible,” and their critics and their persecutors said, “WE hate you baptizers,” and just the name stuck, Baptist.  That’s all it was.  They were called a lot of other things too, but Baptist kind of stuck.  I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter to God what that thing out front says or on the wall says.  What matters is what you teach and believe and practice in your hearts and in the life of your homes and families and your church.  I can say this to you, I believe if some of our Baptist forefathers could rise up out of the grave and look at what we’re calling church life in contemporary America today, they would say, “Please take the name off.  You’re defaming our reputation.” 

     But the second thing I’d like to say is what, uh, well, no let me add to this what Spurgeon said about this.  Spurgeon, who was the great, I guess the greatest or most well known Baptist preacher of all times said, “Down, down, down with the name Baptist, and up, up, up with the name of Christ.”  Not that he was ashamed to be a Baptist.  He was just saying that’s not anything to die over or get upset about, but the name of Christ is.

     If you don’t think election pure and simple is a Baptist doctrine, then read the writings of John Bunyun, the seventeenth century pastor in Bedford, England who was literally jailed for much of his life because he preached passionately the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the church rejected him and locked him in jail.  Said, “John, you can get out of here if you’ll just stop preaching the gospel.”  He says, “Keep me locked up.  As soon as you let me out, I’m preaching some more.”  You read his writings, he was a strong proponent of the biblical truth of election. 

     If you don’t believe that election is a Baptist doctrine, read the writings of the early English pastor and theologian and commentary writer John Gill.  Gill said, “This eternal election of particular persons to salvation is absolute and unconditional.” That’s, folks, I’m gonna tell you, this is the rock from which we are hewn.  This is our foundation.

     Read the writings of the great Baptist leader Andrew Fuller.  Read the writings of W.B. Johnson, the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Read the writings of R.B.C. Howell, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1851 t0 1859.  Read the writings of Richard Fuller, the third president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  And to those who would reject election and predestination he said, quote, “It is practical atheism to reject those and it contradicts the express assertions of the Bible.”  Read the writings of John Dagg, an Alabama man, the first writing systematic theologian among Baptists in America who said, and I quote, “God bestows the blessings of His grace not according to the works of the recipient, but according to His own sovereign pleasure.”  John Dagg.  Folks, you can’t get more Baptist foundational than this.

     Read the writings of Basil Manly, Sr., a Baptist leader in the early 1800’s and a leader in the founder of the Furman University.  By the way, he was president of the university of Alabama from 1838 to 1855, and he’s credited to saving the University of Alabama from going under during its difficult years.  He was a staunch believer and teaching of unconditional election.

     Read the writings of James Petigru Boyce, the leader in the founding of the first Southern Baptist theological seminary in America, the seminary that’s now located in Louisville, Kentucky, a strong proponent of election and predestination.  Read the writings of B.H. Care, Carroll, the founder of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.  When Carroll founded that seminary, he said this.  Southwestern is to be founded on, quote, “the rock of predestination,” end of quote. 

     To these men, this wasn’t a good doctrine to remember.  This was foundational and core to what we are as Baptists.  Read the writings of A.H. Strong, one of our great theological professors.  Read the New Hampshire Confession of Faith that is our confession of faith, a strong and clear teaching of the unconditional doctrine of election.

     And actually it wasn’t until the early twentieth century, about 1920 when a couple of good and godly men by the name of E.Y. Mullins and L.R. Scarborough began to teach differently than their forefathers.  And I’m just curious in my heart as I’ve read and studied why, why when the Bible is so clear?  Why with such a long, rich biblical heritage would they begin to veer from this biblical doctrine and put some twists and different interpretations on it?  The only thing I can come up with is this.  If you study church history you’ll see this.  IN the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there was a great push to reach people with the gospel and get immediate results.  Get the results, get the results, get the results.  And I think they felt that they must change the emphasis to get as many people to respond as possible.  But now we in the twenty-first century must ask a question.  What has been the result of that push?  Do we have a large, prosperous, blessed denomination of holiness?  Do we have a solid membership in our churches of people who walk in truth and honor God?  NO, we have just the opposite.  We have large, large membership rolls and very, very few people bearing any fruit of righteousness.       So, my friend, the doctrine of election is very, very, very Baptist.  It’s just that for whatever reason it’s eben greatly de-emphasized or ignored or preached against in the last fifty to eighty years.

     E, a next objection to the doctrine of election would be, it will diminish evangelist fervor.  “It will diminish the passion for winning souls, so we’ve got to stay away from it.”  One of our greatest evangelists, I heard him say it, and I love him, and I, I think he’s a great man.  But he said, “The damnable doctrine of election.”  Well, should we just cut those texts out?  I think I knew what he meant.  He meant the hyper-Calvinist, the guy that gets out there and says, “You shouldn’t witness, you should not do missions, you should not try to win anybody.”  Folks, I want to tell you what that is.  That’s rebellion.  That’s wickedness.  That’s unacceptable.  But we shouldn’t throw out a sound biblical doctrine just because in our pragmatic conclusion it’s not gonna work as well as we think evangelism ought to work.

     But you know, I think it’s right the opposite.  I don’t think election deters evangelism.  I think it encourages evangelism.  Election actually encourages evangelism.  Why is that?  Because we know, now listen, we know that some will be saved.  If you believe in the doctrine of election, you know some will be saved.  I like the way Jerry Falwell put it.  Jerry Falwell said, “The more doors I knock on, the more elect I find.”  There’s a lot of truth there.  That’s a great way to view it.  So, ladies, what are we doing Thursday night?  You ought to be encouraged.  A sovereign, Almighty God has elected some ladies to come and be His.  Let’s have an outreach event.  Let’s invite a lot of ladies.  Let’s pray.  Let’s ask God to use the outreach