THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD IN ELECTION

 

Rom 9:6-33

  

R C Sproul once joked with his church family with this question. “What am I doing here? Why do I bother to expound the Word of God to people who can’t remember the sermon three weeks later?” He goes on to say in his commentary, “This didn’t bother him because my job is to open the Scriptures and expound them as carefully, accurately, and persuasively as I know how.  The efficacy of that preaching, the power of the exposition, never lies with me. I am not responsible for the effect that the Word of God has upon the hearer. God takes His Word and applies it to people.” This doesn’t bother R C Sproul, as it doesn’t bother me either. Why? “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:6-11

 

It’s not about me and my abilities to change the heart. This is why Paul says here in (v6) “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” (v6)…Paul says, although the people of his generation and those of old who would not listen to the prophets and rejected the Word, in no way reverse the Word of God or the power of the gospel. The word of God is powerful and shaper than any two edged sword. And according to Isaiah it “it shall not return to Me empty.” Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Matt 24:35. Just because the word of God has fallen on deaf ears, doesn’t in any way reveal that the Word of God has no power to save a sinner. Why? Your sitting here today reveals the power of God over your life. And it also reveals the elephant in the room by what Paul says next! “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” (v7-v9)

 

Ishmael was a child of Abraham, but Ishmael was not the child of promise. It’s in Abraham’s son Isaac, that the seed was called, and the children of promise are counted as the seed. (v9) But God said to Abraham, "…. for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” Gen 22:11. This same principle applies to the church! Not everybody in the church is numbered amoung the elect of God. R C Sproul calls the elect the “Invisible church”. He said, “It’s only seen in the invisible church, because we cannot read the hearts of the congregation.” We cannot read people’s hearts, but we can hear their words and observe their lives. The only one who knows the heart truly is? God. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jer 17:9-10. Psalm 44:21 reveals that nothing is hidden from Him. “Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” Paul makes a point just because one is a Jew and of the commonwealth of Israel…. doesn’t mean you’re saved. Just because you go to church and sing, pray on occasion or live in a Christian home…. doesn’t mean you’re saved.

 

NOW! Don’t get me wrong there are a peace and a security

by being in a home that is faithful to God.

 

Psalm 127:3 proclaims that "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him." As believers we are called to recognize that children belong first and foremost to God. Paul said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." Eph 6:1-3. But this doesn’t secure your eternal future, it’s only by God’ drawing you to Himself through faith and repentance in Christ, for what He did on the cross of Calvary. Not by who is your earthly father. The Pharisee’s fell into that trap and Jesus rebuked them for it, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.” John 8:37-40

 

God’s faithfulness in calling sinners to Himself

is consistent with Holy Scripture.

 

The doctrine of God’s sovereign election is not a secret item found rarely in obscure passages of Scripture. But seen throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. This doctrine is not just for scholars to uncover, but for God’s children to study and find rest, comfort, and eternal hope in the saving and keeping work of God. As the believer ponders this great supernatural work of God in salvation that saves sinners from eternal judgment and destruction. Steve Lawson said “In the broad sense, election refers to the fact that God chooses (or elects) to do everything that He does in whatever way He sees fit. When He acts, He does so only because He willfully and independently chooses to act. According to His own nature, predetermined plan, and good pleasure, He decides to do whatever He desires, without pressure or constraint from any outside influence.”  If God has outside influence and constraints that effect things, He isn’t sovereign, but a God who can be manipulated by His creation.  The Bible makes this point repeatedly. In the act of Creation, God made precisely what He wanted to create in the way He wanted to create it. Ever since Creation, God has sovereignly prescribed or permitted everything in human history. Why? In order that He might accomplish the redemptive plan that He previously had designed. (Isa. 25:1; 46:10; 55:11)

 

That is a comforting truth considered the polarized

climate with live in right now! Think about it! God calls believers….

Gen 1:31 – called Creation to be in the book of Beginnings.

Gen 6:8-9, 13-14 – called Noah & his family and sealed the door behind them.

Gen 15:13-16 – called Abraham and gave him a covenant for the future.

Exodus 3:1-10 – called Moses to lead God’s people.

Deut 7:6 – called Israel as His people.

Judges 6:11-12, 14 – called Gideon to defeat the Midianites.

Judges 13:1-24 - called Samson to defeat the Philistines.

1 Sam 3:1-11 called Samuel to be a prophet of the LORD.

1 Sam 16:1-13 – called David to be king.

Jonah 1:1-2 – called Jonah to preach repentance.

Luke 1:13-16 – called John the Baptist to pave the way for Christ.

Luke 1:26-33 – called Mary to be the mother of Christ.

John 15:16 – Jesus calling His disciples to preach the gospel.

Acts 9:15 – Paul was called to lead and build the church.

Acts 13:48 – the covenant promise opened to the Gentiles as they 

were appointed to eternal life. 

Acts 16:12-14 – called Lydia to saving grace.

1 Tim 5:21 – called Elect angels to minister their duties accordingly.

 

God’s faithfulness in calling sinners to Himself

is consistent with Holy Scripture.

 

This chapter is very important to help us understand the pure blessings and beauty found in doctrine of God’s election. We know that’s true by how Paul starts off this chapter. (v1-v5) This chapter is revealing God working out His sovereign purposes in history. (6-v12). (v13-v33) We will look at these verses (much closer) next week, but to help us here, not everyone of Israel was going to be in heaven. (v27). This is what breaks Paul’s heart! And we see that in the opening of the next chapter as well as he continues in Romans 10:1.

 

Why does this break Paul’s heart?

 

Because we were dead before He brought back to life.  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” Eph 2:1. Tragically as millions of people perished in the Flood and the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. None righteous, all dead in their sins and trespasses.. except Noah and his family, and Lot and his two daughters. Just as Lazarus was dead for 4 days…..John 11. Just as Valley of dry bones laid to waste until Ezekiel spoke the Words of God over them to bring them back to life. Eze 37. Just as you and I were dead until He called you to Himself through the gospel. Eph 1 & 2. As Paul said, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Eph 2:4-7

What we learn through this chapter is that…… We can rest in God’s good grace as He who found you, He will keep you, and He will deliver you into His sovereign arms at the end of this age.  Why? It is not as though “the Word of God has failed. “ God kept His promises with the nation Israel and He has done the same with the church. Understand! Isaac is an excellent illustration of the true child of God because, long before he was even conceived. He was divinely chosen amoung the descendants of Abraham to be the heir of promise. His becoming the child of promise reaffirms the biblical truth found in God’s sovereign election. (v7). Paul said, “just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Gal 3:6-7. Israel’s rejection of Christ reveals that God’s promise has been given to those whom believed like Abraham believe. See what we learn here is that Abraham’s offspring was a result of a miracle not human achievement. Just as salvation is of the Lord and it’s the power of God unto salvation.

But there is a resistance to this doctrinal truth. One of those resistances is the idea of “prescience” . This idea holds that, “God does elect individuals to ultimate salvation, but the ground of that election is rooted in His prescience, His prior awareness of what people will do when they are given the gospel.” This teaching would not only put election as error, but also God’s foreknowledge and sovereignty into question as well. But Paul destroys that idea here in this chapter. (v10-v12) God destroys that by using the example of two unborn brothers. Twin brothers in fact…. that have the same environment, the same parents, and the same birthday. But yet God decreed that the older brother would serve the younger, and this election was settled before they were born. (Will look at closer next week). It’s not that God is good at guessing people’s character; He is the sovereign God of the universe who will fulfill all His purposes. You and I don’t know who the elect for this reason! So that we could be burdened like Paul was, with the gospel for someone to be saved. Spurgeon said, “If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect, I would go around lifting shirts. But since he didn’t, “I must preach “whosoever will”; and when “whosoever” believes, I know he is one of the elect.” He also was quoted when speaking on the doctrine of election, “While all in heaven are there by God's choice, Spurgeon said, those in hell are there by their own choice. He testified: "From the Word of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation is all of grace, from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish; but he that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him." In other words, salvation is possible only when God's will liberates the human will from its bondage.”

 

This why (v6) is so important to understand God’s word never returns void; it only reveals the true sons and daughter of the King. You and I look on the exterior where God looks at the heart, the center of your eternal state. You can’t excuse this doctrine away because you don’t like it; we must be like the Bereans who tested the Scriptures daily to see if things were so. Acts 17

The doctrine of election isn’t a new doctrine to make

people angry and leave churches over in the 21 century.

 

This Biblical truth was the view of William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, the hymn writer Isaac watts and John Newton. This was Paul’s view, Polycarp, Ignatius and Augustine’s view. This was George Whitfield view, one of the greatest evangelists who lived. This was the founder of modern day mission’s Willian Carey view. This was the reformers view of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Hus, Knox and a great number of puritans. It is a basic element of Christian theology, not to frustrate but o find rest in peace over s inners life that has been found and keep by His grace. It’s been here before creation was spoked into existence and it’s not going away. So investigate, study, this wonderful truth that produces an eternal security for those who are in Christ. Because the Word of God will never return void as we are seating here today and tomorrow waiting eternity.

 

God’s just and righteous character does not allow the

possibility of His failing in any of His promises.

 

God’s election is God’s word of promise of declaration to Abraham that His seed shall be named. counted as God’s offspring. Understand as Kent Hughes said, “God is beyond us! If anyone completely understands His ways, the Trinity will have to make room for another member. Despite our frailty, it is of the greatest importance that though we may not fully grasp the doctrine of election, we understand as much as we can what the Scriptures teach and believe it, for it bears heavily on the doctrine of God. In our day of horizontal focus, when so much is being attributed to man, the concept of God has become decadent and vacuous for many. The need for Scriptural teaching on this matter has never been greater."