Divine Election
Roger Henderson · Mar 2, 2003
Major Bible Themes (2002-03), No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262253197588

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

In preparing for this lesson, I was reading through some different authors and things, and one author kind of stated what he felt was what people mistakenly have kind of concluded about divine election. And he stated it this way, in three aspects. God votes for you, the devil votes against you, and your vote determines the election.

Hopefully, I'm going to totally disprove that today. If I don't, we've missed the point. But this is one of these things where people get kind of wrapped up and they're so focused on divine election to the exclusion of many other things. That's not good. And I'd like to have a look at the verse here. And what we're going to find here, and hey, I may not increase your knowledge in divine election one molecule, But hopefully maybe you'll see some things that maybe you hadn't in a different way.

Let's look at Deuteronomy 29. I'd like to read one verse for you here. This verse was pointed out by the same author that talked about the three aspects of divine election, the improper aspects of divine election. And I'd like to read verse 29 in chapter 29 of Deuteronomy. And it says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. Now, of course, we're not under law, we're under grace.

But I thought it kind of gave an interesting aspect. There are things that are unknown by us. We can't know them. But on the flip side of that, there are things that he's revealed to us. And that's his word. He's revealed his word to us. So what we have in his word, we can hang our hat on. We can trust it with our lives. Things that he hasn't revealed to us, I think there's some caution we need to exercise in terms of speculating on what he might have said, what he should have said, or whatever, in our view of it. So with that kind of as a beginning point, let's go ahead and look at Let's start here.

Divine election. Dr. Schaeffer, in one of his other writings, defines divine election as follows. Designates a sovereign divine purpose so formulated to be independent of human merit, descent, or cooperation. So divine election is really God's doing.

It's His work. It's really not man's work. And as we're going to see, just like in His grace, He has adopted us as His sons. There's a whole tremendous list of blessings a believer has in Jesus Christ. And that's God's doing, not man's doing. So I think as we start out here, we want to see kind of two aspects.

What is God's message to the saints? those who put their faith and trust in Christ, and what is God's message to the unbeliever or the sinner. And I think that's going to help in terms of not confusing the issue and saying this is a message. The message of divine election really is not a message for the sinner. In fact, actually, I think it can be confusing because he can get so focused on that that he can miss Jesus Christ because he's so focused on divine election.

So that's what I'm trying to do in these two little windows here, if you will. God's message for the saint, and this is interesting, as you go through Scripture and you look at, in terms of, and we're going to look at the word chosen, elect, we're going to look at that word quite a bit, and they're synonymous in Scripture. Many, many times it talks about those aspects being in Him, in Christ.

We have that blessing in Christ. We are elected in Him, in Christ. So, apart from being in Him, That idea of chosen elect doesn't have meaning. It's because we're in Him that we're chosen and elected. That's one of the aspects of being in Christ. So that's one point to remember. What's the motivation for God's election? It's His wonderful, marvelous grace. As with all the wonderful blessings we have, they're out of His grace because He loves us. And the message of election is to be comforting. It's not to be one where we're all entangled with, well, let's see, if he elected some, he's not elected some others, and we can get all wrapped up in that.

That's not the message. I think in many, many verses, we're going to look at some of those, the message is we'll be encouraged, and it's God's wonderful grace that's the issue. And then lastly, I think I mentioned already that the doctrine of election is for the saint, not for the sinner. It's really not – the sinner's message is the other half of this chart.

It's the gospel, it's the good news. You know, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, was buried and rose again on the third day. That's a message that's to be proclaimed to the world for the sinner. And as it says, it's the power of God for salvation. And basically it's whosoever will come, it's the one who desires to come, who desires to know Christ. So that's kind of the contrast there between the message for the saint and the message for the sinner. And we're going to see that as we go through and in some pictorial forms too. Any thoughts before we move on here about this kind of where I'm heading here? Okay. And actually, this is a chart that we've had back several lessons ago.

And the reason I put it back up here again was because I wanted to kind of show you that being chosen or He chooses you is part of our position in Christ. This is one of the many blessings we have in Christ. And I just kind of walk through this again. He's called us to share Christ's glory. He's chosen us, or He's elected us, that's what we're going to be talking about today. He's regenerated us, we've been born again.

We've been baptized, we've been immersed into the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I mentioned last, never to be taken out, never, that's a permanent union, never to be, it's unreversible. We're justified, we're sanctified, we're set apart for His purpose. How can I, this is Hal's chart, we're co-enlifed, We're alive together with Christ. He's freed you. He indwells you forever and you're sealed.

So I think as we look at election and being chosen, it's part of God's total plan of salvation for the believer. And I think if we start trying to put that out separately and we're trying to call God into question, well, wait a minute, how can you choose? I think we miss the point of being chosen or elected. And we're going to see the words As we get a little bit into the original language, we're going to see that it really has a focus more on his great love for us.

As I mentioned, the word election in scripture is synonymous with chosen. And as you look at the variety of passages in scripture, there are many passages that talk about, in terms of a corporate or a nation or a group of people. And Israel and the church are examples of that. And then there's also scriptures that talk about personal election. And there's some examples of that I like to look at, where it's personal for a particular purpose that God has in mind.

So let's look at some of these passages here in the Nation of Israel. And let's just turn to Deuteronomy. If you're already in Deuteronomy, turn to Deuteronomy 7 here for a second. Deuteronomy 7. And maybe I'll get someone to read 6 through 8 in Deuteronomy 7.

Great, thanks for that. So, as we read, you know, the Lord God chose you to be a people for his own possession, or it's either a treasure or a prize. He chose you with a purpose. You're a treasure and you're a prized possession. He didn't look at you and say, hey, there's something you have really going for you. In fact, actually, he says there's sort of the opposite. You weren't a vast number of people, you were very few. It says the Lord, he set his love on you. That phrase kind of sticks out. He said his love on you, but because he loved you and kept his oath.

His focus is not so much on I'm picking A but not B, A but not B. No, it's focused on a desire, a people for his own possession. So the view of choosing is this people, I have a plan for this people. It's not on I'm picking A and not B. And we're going to see that theme kind of repeated many times as we go through here. He's choosing them because of His great love and care for them, not choosing them. I want some yes, some no. That's not His plan or His purpose. And for His glory. Right. And actually, thank you. Thank you. That's good. Thank you very much. To glorify Him. Right. Thanks, Bonnie. That's great. That's great.

And we're going to see the same thing again as we get down. You know, and Jacob sort of as the head of the nation of Israel in a sense of the originator, but out of him came From his line came all of Israel. Let's look at Psalm 135 for a second. In this passage we'll see some other interesting things. Psalm 135. Okay. Could someone read, excuse me, 3 through 7 in Psalm 135? Thanks, Marilyn.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession. I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is greater than all the gods. The Lord does whatever He wills. Great, okay. So here again we see the fact that he makes a sovereign choice. It's for his possession or for his treasure. And it talks about his, you know, that he's great and he's above all gods. his omniscience, he's powerful, and he does things based upon his own character, who he is.

And we really can't call that into question. I mean, we can't say, well, why did you choose Israel? Maybe you should have chosen some other nation. We can't, you know, God is God, and it says whatever, in verse 6, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in the heavens and the earth, the seas and all the depths.

So I think as we look into election, we have to think it with that in mind. We've got to think, well, can I really call into question God's elective Can I really do that? I mean, you can do that. I mean, you can say that. But is that, as a believer in the Lord, are we going to call it into question? Now, we should try to understand. I'm not saying we say, well, okay, blind faith, don't forget about it, I don't have a clue.

But we should think, he is sovereign, his choices. At some point, it comes back to that. He's sovereign, and we have to trust him for that. We need to understand that as we can, but he's sovereign, He does things for his own purpose and for his own glory.

And that kind of continues on in the next one, in Isaiah 45. And this has an interesting – let's look at Isaiah 45 for a second. This is an interesting aspect that we need to remember here. Isaiah 45. I'll just go ahead and read this one. Isaiah 45, verse 4.

It says, And that idea, you have not known me. We didn't initiate the relationship with God. God initiated the relationship. He took the first step. We didn't take the first step. Man, in his pride, he always is thinking, well, I took the first step. I reached out to God. No, no, God reached out to you. Scripture teaches that over and over again.

These people didn't know God. They didn't want Him, but He sovereignly chose them, sovereignly interacted in their lives. So that's another aspect. They didn't know Him, and we're going to see that in the New Testament as well. They didn't really understand Him or know Him. He took the initiative. You know, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Okay.

And then in Acts, it says, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. I wanted to look at a verse, and that's kind of the verses I have for the nation of Israel. There's a whole bunch of other ones, but those are the ones I kind of looked at. Let's look at one in terms, let's kind of go back to my little list at the top. We've kind of covered I have some verses for the church, but I'm going to save those, and if we have time, I'll go over those. This term of personal election for individuals, let's look at a verse that talks about that for a second. In the New Testament, let's look in Acts. I didn't really write this one down, so this is Acts 9. Acts 9, and would someone like to read verses 13 through 15? And this is Paul's conversion, at the end of Paul's conversion, 9, 13 through 15.

Harry? Yeah, thank you. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this thing, how much harm he did to you, your sin at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. 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 the sons of Israel. Okay. Thanks. Harry Hallett,

16. And for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Okay. Thank you. So this is basically The Lord's talking, he comes to Ananias in a dream, and then Ananias kind of asks him some questions. He said, well, I've heard about Paul. Paul's not a good guy, basically. And the Lord says, no, I've chosen him.

So here again, did Paul seek the Lord? He sought the Lord in his legalistic Jewish religion. He sought Him very diligently, but he couldn't seek Him on a personal level. The Lord had to unilaterally interact in his life, and he did. And he says in verse 15, he says that the Lord said to him, to Ananias, for he, Paul, is a chosen instrument, a selected out instrument of mine. And there are two things that he wants him to do. To bear his name to the Gentiles, the kings in Israel, and then to suffer for my namesake. So he has two purposes for Paul.

And I was thinking that that applies to believers too. That's a list that could apply to believers as well. And that's a purpose in his election. Salvation is in view in election, but also here's a service that's in view in election as well. To bear my name to the Gentiles, the kings in Israel, and to suffer for my name's sake. So I want to kind of point out an example of a verse that talks about personal election for an individual for service. Any comments, thoughts on this?

Go ahead. Okay. Okay. OK. OK. Well, could we do this? How about if we? I'd like to sort of get and explain what the word means, and I think that I think your verses are great. Can we you want to do it now or we could do it? We could do it. Well, I thought you were going over. Well, I am, but I'm kind of compartmentalized here at the moment.

So we're going to go through Israel, and then we're going to go through the disciples, and through Christ, and then to the believer. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. I don't object to your verses at all. They're fine verses. Can we put them in the believer section there? That'd be great. And remind me when we get there, okay? Okay, so this is a good point.

I'm trying to go through and just look at how we're talking about, this is a nation of Israel, now we're going to look at, I'm going to kind of digress for a bit. I want to look at, when we go into the New Testament, I want to look a little bit at the Word, and then we're going to start in and look at the disciples in terms of being chosen. We're going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we're going to look at believers. Okay, I wanted to just, I thought it would be worthwhile just to look at this just for a little bit and just kind of compare.

If you look at the word elect and chosen, I mentioned they were synonymous with one another, and they really come from the same root in the original language. And it's a root that's kind of a compound root, and there's ek, and it's actually from or out from, and then ligo, together, to pick out. to choose, to single out. So that's kind of the root idea of elect or choose. It's to pick out or choose out from. And actually what's interesting, if you look at the way it's used in the New Testament, chosen, it's used always in this middle voice in the original language. And it has the idea to choose for oneself. And that's really important because we're going to see that Once again, this idea of God choosing it for His own purpose, for His own possession, is in view every time that word is used because it's in the middle voice.

And it doesn't necessarily imply rejection of what is being chosen. He's not rejecting those. He's picking them out for His own purpose and His plan. He really shows kindness or love, or love lavished upon those who are chosen out. And it denotes the relationship to be established between the one God desires this relationship to be established between what He's chosen with Him.

And we see that over and over again in Scripture. And there's a passage actually in Mark, I have it down here on the overhead, that the Lord says, and let's just look at that, Mark 13, Mark 13 and verse 20. So he's talking here about things to come, basically, and he says... Let's go back to verse 19.

It says, For those days there will be times of tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of creation, which God created until now. and never shall. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would be saved. But for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened those days. So in this case, both those words, elect and chosen, are used in the same passage. So you see that they're synonymous in their meaning.

But they are slightly different words. One is a verb and one is an adjective. And they're slightly different. So as you go through, you look at these words. Actually, I found the translators weren't totally consistent in some cases. I just wanted to bring that up. I also wanted to read one additional thing.

The main point, again, is that the Lord is establishing this relationship with who he's elected, who he's chosen. That's the main object. The selection process is not so much in view. It's more the establishing of this relationship. Well, okay. I wish I had Hal here to help me, but in the original language, in Greek, there's an active voice which says the subject is producing the action of the verb. And then there's a, so John hit the ball. So the subject, John, hit the ball. And then if the ball hit John, He's in the passive voice. The ball is acting upon John.

Well, the middle voice, that I understand, is for the benefit of the subject, the person being chosen. So it's for the benefit of. That's my understanding. If someone has a better understanding, I'd be happy to know. The middle voice is for the benefit of the one being chosen. Or it's either choosing for oneself. It's for the benefit of God, basically. Okay, go ahead. That's a good point. That's a good point. Right, right. And as we're going to get to that, that's excellent. We're going to see.

Will there be any in the quote group he passed over that really wanted him, that didn't have a chance? That can't be. I mean, that would be inconsistent with God. There are – there will be none in that group that will say, well, I wanted – no. And we want to see that at the end. I want to show that at the end. And that's tough.

Go ahead, Rachel. And they didn't have the same offices, the same positions, but they still could be part of the military. Yeah. And as you said, when they got to a certain point, they started meeting others outside the group that sometimes was responsible. That's that. That's good, that's good.

No, this is not, you know, hey, I, like I said, I may not increase your, change your view or increase your, you know, one bit, but it is, you know, God is sovereign. He acts sovereign in love and we have to be careful calling it in the, can we call it in the question? Can we really say, well, you've done that, you know, God has provided for the, salvation of all men. That's his plan.

I'm not willing that any should perish. But we're going to find that once we have come to know him as Savior, we find that we've been chosen from the foundation of the world. And you say, in our mind it can't fit. Those things can't go together. But he has no problem with that. So anyway, I'm getting a little bit ahead here. Okay. I want to offer some more other verses here in terms of the disciples and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In terms of the disciples, in Luke 6.13, And when the day came, he called the disciples to him, and chose twelve of them, whom he named as disciples. So in each of these cases, the word is to choose out, to pick out. It's this word that we looked at before in the previous page. So it's that word in the original language, to choose or pick out. So he chose 12 of them, and he named them apostles. Now, the interesting one is in John 6 here. Let's look at that, John 6. Okay. Can I get someone to read, let's see, 66 through 70 here? All right, thank you.

Jesus said, therefore, to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life, and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Okay. Well, what struck me was here, you know, people will offer the approach that, well, you know, God looks ahead and he says, okay, I'm going to choose the ones that trust me.

Well, I'm going to choose them, which I think is an error. This verse kind of says, he even chose one he knew was going to go wrong, right? He says, you know, He chose him, but one of you is the devil, right? He knew in advance, with his four allies, that Judas is not a believer, in a sense. So, he was chosen as a disciple, but he knew in advance what was going to happen.

So, I mean, to me that was interesting. The Lord chose him, so here the God is sovereign, He chose him, and He says later on that the Scriptures in John 13, 18, I do not speak to all of you. I know the ones I've chosen, and that no there is the idea that... Actually, I didn't look at that one. I'm not sure what no that is. I'll have to look it up, but anyway.

Anyway, he knows in advance, but the Scriptures may be fulfilled. So, God's purpose is going to be carried out, and he was chosen even though he knew he was going to do this, and that was God's purpose. So somehow that all fits together, and that's what gets tough. He knew that Judas would go off and betray him, but he was chosen anyway, and that fulfilled God's purpose. So we see God is in the business of choosing unilaterally and sovereignly for his purpose, and at some point you have to stop. and say, okay, it's okay.

Okay, let's look at the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah, he says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. So, it's actually the man of my choice, greatly beloved, it could be rendered, my chosen one. In Luke it says, Even the rulers were sneering, saying, ìHe saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one.î And down in 1 Peter it talks about the fact that ìAnd coming to him as living stones, which have been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God.î All those instances are this word to choose out, to pick out, to select out. Okay, so we've looked at the nation of Israel, we've looked at the disciples, at Christ, Lord Jesus Christ. So now let's look at probably the one of most interest to us and maybe one of the hardest ones. Let's look in terms of the believer.

So there's three passages and actually, Hal and I were talking about the Vine election before he left, and Hal just loves, his pictures are just great, so he started drawing me a picture and he emailed it to me. Unfortunately, it was one graphic object that I couldn't get it apart, so I had to kind of improvise here a little bit, and I tried to cut and paste it. So anyway, the bottom line is this is the top half of the next page, but there's some little funnies on there, so that's my ineptness. So anyway.

I thought it would be interesting to just look, first of all, just from the believer's perspective. So the little picture here, we'll look at the verses. The picture here shows the believer. It shows an eternity past, God's purpose to share his glory before the foundation of the world. And he elected or he chose people. And then it shows the people exercising faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's kind of look through these verses and kind of ponder these for a second. Okay. In Ephesians it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. So it starts off, I think it's good to look back at verse 3 for a second. Verse 3 talks about the fact that God is to be praised or eulogized, is that word blessed.

And that he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And that word every is the idea of all, sometimes I have all, all spiritual blessings. There's none excluded. He hasn't held back on any spiritual blessing. But what's interesting is those blessings, he's not offering us health and wealth and, you know, the health and wealth gospel. He's offering us blessings in heavenly places in him, in Christ.

So again we see, and verse 4 turns out in my mind to be a subset of verse 3, if you will. It's a further elaboration. It says, just as, he makes a general statement, he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing, none excluded, and they're in Christ. and not in ourselves, but in Christ and our wonderful Savior. And that's our position in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. And then he goes on in verse 4 to say, specifically, just as He chose us in Him, again, it's in Christ, in Him, and he says, that actually occurred before the foundation of the world.

So this is one of these verses that you just, you know, your mind gets... goes crazy with it. He said, well, wait a minute. If he's doing this back in the eternity past or before the foundation of the world, what's going on here? Do I have a choice in this? That's one verse. I want to get down and look at the other.

He's going to talk about our faith. Our faith is involved in this. And we're going to see that that when we come to faith, we realize that we're chosen. Everyone that comes to faith in Christ, according to Scripture, is chosen before the foundation of the world. And, you know, that's an impossibility in our minds.

Well, I like that in the Weiss translation of verse 4 has, He selected us out, and bringing in this middle voice, for Himself, in Him. He selected us out, for himself in him or in Christ. And actually, the verb tense there is a past completed action. It's already completed. It's already done. He chose us in him. It already has occurred before the foundation of the world.

Let me go down to 1 Peter. And in 1 Peter there, it talks about And let's just look at that for a second. 1 Peter chapter 1. Let me just go ahead and read that. It says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia and Biatha, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. So in some renderings, like in the King James, I think it has that rendered elect. you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God our Father, of God the Father.

So in this case, it brings in another aspect here in the first Peter passage. It brings the fact that his foreknowledge, he looks ahead and he knows what's going to happen, he understands that. But, and this is the toughie, people have looked at that and there are passages that that they'll go to that will say, well, okay, he looks ahead in his foreknowledge and he works backwards. And I don't think he can do that. That's my, and I'm one to listen, but I don't think that's the process. God knows that, but his foreknowledge does not influence his choosing. He does that independent of his foreknowledge.

Is there any possible reason why everyone could be chosen? Yeah, people have said that. I don't know, I know what you're saying. I don't know, that's a tough one. I think it's better to look as if God is calling out to... I guess we all would agree that God, from a variety of scriptures, He wants all mankind to come to know Christ as Savior. I think we all could agree on that, right? That wouldn't be a problem. So we know his desire is that none perish, all are saved. So we would agree on that.

Now the question is, but the point is that the word chosen and chosen only is talked of as believers. And that's a key thing as you go through Scripture. God doesn't talk about unbelievers and say, well, these believers aren't, you know, no. He talks about believers being chosen or elected. That's the focus of the Scripture, that the believer is chosen.

It's like we learned in that list that I put up, the list of wonderful things we have in Christ, all those wonderful things. When you first come to Christ, you probably don't know hardly anything about those. You don't understand anything that you see with Christ and the heavenlies, and that you're baptized into the Lord Jesus. You don't have any idea of those. Over time, you come to understand those.

So I think election is one of those things that we should be careful. It fits in with those, but don't get the cart before the horse. It's one of the blessings we have in Christ. I don't know whether that's helpful or not. Well, let's go on to the second Thessalonians passage just for a second here.

It says, But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord. God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. So this talks about, and that's where Hal gets his little arrow there, our faith in the truth. A believer is one who's put his faith in the truth. And when he's done that, one of his blessings is that he was chosen before the foundation of the world.

All right, go ahead. Okay. Okay, would you like to read that for us? Okay, well, I'll... Okay, wait a minute. All right. So it was 26 through It says, ìFor considering your calling, brethren, there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, 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, and that no man should boast before God. But by his doing, this is good here, 30, but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Okay. Okay. It says, Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and the heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? Okay. So what would you conclude from that?

Well, in a way it seems consistent with the Nation of Israel. The Nation of Israel had nothing going for them. God says He's not looking for... and also the other passages that talk about the fact that they're not men mighty. We don't have any natural... what's the right word? our abilities are not spectacular for many believers.

That talks about that. I think that's an aspect of his election or choosing. But I still think we have to come and grapple with the fact that it's a sovereign choice that he makes in eternity past, and that that choice, that choosing, is something that's only realized once we become a believer. I mean, that's what's helped me. It's realized that once we're in Christ, we say, oh, I was chosen before the foundation of the world.

Hence the last picture here. And this tries to put it all together, trying to show the sinner and the saint. And the message to the bottom half of the chart, the message to the unbelieving mankind is that the God is calling. He's calling all men to himself.

In Mark there, in Mark 2.17, let me just read that.

In Mark 2.17 it says, And hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. So God is calling sinners. In addition to calling, he's drawing.

The John passage is in John, John 6, let's just look at those briefly, John 6, 44. And this is going to point out that God needs to take the initiative. Once again, God's in control. He's taking the initiative. In John 44, it says, ìNo one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.î So God is drawing men to himself. And then in John 12, look at that just quickly, John 12, 32, The Lord Jesus said, and if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. And he was lifted up, and he is drawing all men to himself. So the picture is, and I'm sure you've heard this before, and this is supposed to be walking into the other side of salvation, if you will. On this side of salvation it says, whosoever will come. Who desires to come? God draws, He calls.

Once you exercise faith in the cross, in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you look back and it says you're chosen before the foundation of the world. I think what happens is people try to put this over here, they try to put that on this side. It's something that you realize after you become a believer, after you come to know Him.

Go ahead. Right. Right. Right. They aren't seeking him. He has to draw them, call them. So I think that the divine election is an aspect that we realize is one of the many blessings, one of a grace gift from God. I mean, that's helped me in understanding it's in Christ. So, I mean... Any last thoughts or... Like I said, I may increase your... Go ahead, Ray. The other thing I'd suggest, because I'm not a divine election... But I'm still safe.

But I think as I've looked at these things, I've taken each one and each passage I take, first off, who's talking? Who's he talking to? And what's he inviting? And some of these verses today, I think, when you use the word electing, John Shea. There's certain times when he elects certain people for certain things. But to put him in a box that says he elects and doesn't elect, I feel uncomfortable with that. So I take each verse, I look at it in its entirety, Okay. Okay. Sure. Sure. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Good. Good. That is key. That is key. Right. Right. Good. That's good. I like that. That's very good.

He will say to me, then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who gets respect to God? The thing molded will not say to the molded, why did you make him like this? But does not the potter have a right over the clay? He makes the same one vessel for honorable use and another for common use.

Right. Right, yeah. No, I know, I... You know... It's one of the things, the more you say, the more the... Yeah, anyway, well... I believe God is to be trusted and that he chooses righteously and I believe there'll be none here they'll ever be able to say, he didn't choose me.

Because choosing is part of salvation. If they want to know him, if when he draws them or calls them, they respond to that, that's basically it. And they see that they're chosen before the foundation of the world. And it's a realization after they're chosen. And it's always, as was pointed out by Crystal and others, that it's always in him. So it has to be, And because it's in him, that's a relationship that only is established once you're a believer. In him. Anyway, okay.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you that you are all-knowing and wise, Lord. And we know that you do everything according to the counsel of your will, Lord. And we know that you're righteous and just in everything, Father. We thank you that you tell us that we're chosen in you before the foundation of the world, Lord. A difficult thing for our mind to grasp, Lord, and we thank You that we can trust You through all things, and we're thankful that we can know that we're in our Lord Jesus Christ, and never to be removed, never to be taken out. We ask it in His name. Amen.