Opening Scripture: Romans 8:29-9:18

Reading the Word
Turn now to the New Testament, if you would, to Ephesians. I’m sorry, Romans, Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, I’ll begin reading at verse 29. Romans 8, 29 to 9, 18. Please give your full attention. Once more, this is the word of our God.

Romans 8:29-39
For those whom he knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are gathered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 9:1-18
I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscious bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish in my heart, for I can wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God had failed. 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 children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls. She was told, the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassionosia for compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and hardens whomever he wills.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen, you may be seated.

The Glorious Prologue: Ephesians 1:3-14

Prayer for Illumination
I’m going to read for our sermon text, Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, verses three to 14, this glorious prologue or this introduction that Paul gives in the book of Ephesians. And then we’ll be visiting a number of texts after that. But before we hear God’s word once more read, let’s pray for His mercy and His accomplishment that He would have through that word on the reception of it and on the preaching and the reception of His word preached.

Our Heavenly Father, we come again before you. We give you thanks for the light of this, your word, and we pray indeed that you would shine the light of this word, your word, into the darkness of our hearts, and that you would reveal those things that are displeasing in your sight, and that you would shine the light of the gospel, dear Lord, and that you would cause the fruit of holiness to grow up within our hearts by the work of your Spirit, and that that fruit would bring you glory. And we pray, Father, all of these things in the mighty name of Christ and all God’s people said, amen. Amen.

Ephesians 1:3-14
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us.

In the Beloved, in Him we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things, according to the counsel of His will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with a promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but this word of our Lord indeed endures forever.

The Doctrines of Grace: TULIP

Introduction to TULIP
Last Sunday, we began to look at these doctrines, these teachings, doctrines of grace, as they’ve been called, these five teachings, these five points known in our time by the acronym TULIP, T-U-L-I-P. I’ve referred to it as the flower of grace, right, the tulip. And these teachings, these five points that were originally articulated in 1619 in Holland at the Senate of Dort, this meeting in this area, as a response to the five points that were brought as challenges to the church, these five points of Arminianism, they are called after the man who kind of spearheaded this teaching.

Historical Context

These teachings, these points were not new in 1619. It’s not as though the church got together and decided, here are some new things that we think. No, indeed, they were a counterpunch, if you will, a response, a reaction to challenges brought by this group of individuals following Arminius. This Council of Dort was simply a reaffirmation or a restatement of what the church believed and taught throughout.

One of John Calvin’s students was a man named Theodore Beza, and one of Theodore Beza’s students was Jacob Arminius, from whom these teachings come from that needed to be responded to. Jacob Arminius rejected the idea that salvation was entirely a bestowal of God’s sovereign grace.

He argued that God provided grace for man to possibly be saved, but that the ultimate decision of man’s salvation fully rested with man himself within man. And according to Arminius, man’s will was free and was capable of deciding for or against God. They taught that God did not determine man’s salvation, but only provided for its possibility, its potential salvation, and that the decision to be saved or lost rested with the individual’s free will.

Each person had the capacity within himself, Arminius taught, because of his or her free will to decide either for Christ or against Christ. According to this theology, it was the exercise of free will that determined the eternal destiny of every human being.

The Fundamental Question

And you can see that these are two very different formulations of the grounds of salvation and God’s work. And when we condense this discussion, we see the line behind these five teachings, these five points. These five points that there were reaction to, these five assertions of Arminius, his followers, Arminianism, behind this is a more basic and fundamental question.

And the question is this, who will ultimately determine the eternal destiny of each human being? Who is it? Or in other words, am I saved because God willed it or because I willed it? Is my salvation due completely to the sovereign grace of God in Christ, or is it due to my decision to cooperate with the grace that’s possible of God out there?

And the answer to this basic question has tremendous ramifications. There are serious consequences to the way that we answer this question. And how you answer it, indeed, will show you which of the two theological understandings that you hold.

Total Depravity: The Foundation

The First Petal of TULIP
Last week we condensed the first letter, right? We considered the first letter, the T of the tulip, in that famous acrostic for the five points of the Doctrines of Grace. And we saw that man, that first petal teaches, Well, we see that all of the points of the teaching, all these five points flow logically from one to the next. They flow necessarily together, logically and necessarily.

And when we looked last week at the first petal of the flower of grace, total depravity, right? The Bible’s teaching on the state of man, the state of fallen man before Christ. And we looked at, recall, we saw that Martin Luther was biblically consistent when he wrote, the book, The Bondage of the Will.

The Nature of Fallen Man

And he showed from God’s word that the human nature is totally depraved. It is radically corrupt. The fallen mind of man is darkened in its understanding. The fallen heart actively loves darkness and hates the light. And the will of man makes his choices according to the darkened mind and the sin-loving heart that he has.

And as a result of that, we will never choose what it sees, that the heart in that condition will never choose what it sees as foolish and repulsive to him. There’s no attraction to that, to the Lord.

And so fallen, depraved man will never run to God that he thinks is foolish and revolting and that he seeks to avoid. And remember, we looked at passages. One of them was Jeremiah 13, remember, where the question is asked, can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard change his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

Man cannot change his evil nature and act contrary to it, in and of himself, on his own, dependent from anything else. Totally depraved man, rather, is spiritually dead and cannot move toward God any more than a physically dead man can rise up from his bed and take medicine.

This will is in complete bondage to sin. That will cannot and never will and will not ever seek after the God that it desperately wants to avoid any more than a criminal will seek after a policeman from whom he’s trying to hide.

The Necessity of God’s Intervention

That’s the downer part. That’s the striking truth of man’s condition. And if that is the condition of man, and it is as the Bible describes it, then how can anyone be saved?

And the answer, that he must be saved by God’s intervening sovereign grace upon him. The triune God, remember, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have the roles to play in digging fallen man out of his grave of sin and death by supernatural grace.

The Father in eternity past chose to save a company of sinners, predestining them to everlasting life in Christ. And the Son, Jesus Christ, redeemed those lost sheep by laying down his own life for them on Calvary’s cross, and then rising unto life eternal on their behalf.

The Holy Spirit makes alive those elect sheep, though dead in sin. He gives them a new heart, enables them to believe, to repent, to walk in newness of life with Jesus, even until the day he returns unto glory.

Unconditional Election Defined

The Fountain of Grace
And the fountain from which redeeming grace flows is traced back to eternity past, to the mind and will of God the Father before the creation of the world. And it is from here that the doctrine of eternal election springs.

The U of the acrostic, unconditional election, the second of those five teachings. It places the determination of salvation completely in the hands of God, our powerful, sovereign God.

All Bible-believing Christians say they believe in salvation by grace. Unconditional election truly puts the word amazing back into grace. One of my professors years ago wrote a book entitled, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, and that was the point. What a glorious truth this is.

Our sovereign, good, and holy God is the one that must act if any were to be saved. And so this morning, we’ll begin to look at this wonderful and encouraging biblical truth about God’s unconditional choosing, predetermining.

The Scope of the Doctrine

Next week, we’ll look at some of the other facets of this glorious doctrine. But this morning, let’s get grounded in just what it is we’re talking about, just what was declared in response to those challenges about God’s grace way back when.

So what is unconditional election? We’re gonna look at what is election, and what do we mean by unconditional election? And what does God’s word teach about this very thing?

Again, next week, we’ll look at God’s word and see how the biblical doctrine of election affects actions like prayer and witness and preaching, indeed living. And also that this is a truth for all God’s people, right? It’s not merely something to be contemplated, not merely a stuffy, complex doctrine that has no bearing on normal people in everyday life.

But this morning, let’s look at what the Bible says regarding his electing love.

What is Election?

Ephesians 1:3-6

So what is election? Ephesians 1, 3 to 6 is the chair passage for this doctrine. I’m going to read it again, have it fresh in our minds.

Ephesians 1, 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved right and so that’s That’s like the go-to passage, one of them in regard to this teaching.

God’s Eternal Plan

And what it tells us is that in the beginning, God created, before he created the world, he chose or he elected, he determined a company of people to be in Christ, right? He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He chose us before the foundation of the world, so that at the end of the world, what they should be holy and blameless before him.

Right. That is in eternity in his presence in eternity. And to be holy and blameless is what is to be sinless and without faults. And this will, of course, only fully and finally be real at the end of the world in the resurrection when Jesus returns.

Jude 24 agrees with this when he says, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his presence, in the presence of his glory, blameless, blameless.

God’s Sovereign Decree

Right? So in this Ephesians passage, we see that God as the alpha and omega of his people. He is the planner and the consummator of his elect, his chosen, those whom he called out. That’s what the world means, the called out ones.

And from eternity past, the father determines the future of his elect. And this is the case we see all along. Think back to Isaiah, right, the prophet Isaiah. He says in chapter 46, right, which gives us the framework of God’s sovereign decree in Ephesians 1.

Isaiah 46 says this. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there’s none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it.

The Certainty of God’s Plan

Notice the emphasis, notice the repetition and emphasis of God’s plan and the execution of his plans. His counsel shall stand. His good pleasure shall be accomplished. What he has spoken, he will bring to pass. What he has planned and purposed, he will do.

God’s plans will not fail. What he intends, he does. And why? Because he alone is sovereign. He is the sovereign God, and there is no other, Isaiah emphatically tells us.

Predestination and Adoption

And so going back to Ephesians 1 verse 5, it says, those the father elected, he predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, right? So it begins with the father and he returns to him.

So foreordination, the words will be here, predetermination or predestination is destiny ahead of time. It is the predetermining of what will happen with certainty. It is predestiny, right?

And so you see that word there in verse five, predestined. Some deny this very doctrine, right? Some have a big problem with this, but there it is, right? Right on the page of scripture.

The Father does this work of predestination, it says, according to the kind intentions of his will or according to his good pleasure. And that’s a better way of translating that word. It is determination that’s good, right? Good pleasure, goodwill, and favor is the word.

To the Praise of His Glory

And so the people he has elected and predestined according to his good pleasure in eternity past will in eternity future be what he says in verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Election and predestination are to be realized in eternity future in giving glory to God’s grace. The Holy Spirit says in Ephesians 2, 7, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ, right?

And so it highlights, it emphasizes, election does the grace of God and his goodness. Election is the choice of God the Father to place sinners into Jesus Christ from eternity past. It highlights the glorious grace of God.

Predestination secures the destinies of those he elected to adoption as sons and their eternal consummation of being holy and blameless. Right? And so that in and of itself, if we stop there, is wonderful.

That is a glorious teaching. It’s a glorious proclamation from God’s Word about the grace and goodness and glory of God. It’s reason for thanks and awe and praise for God. Indeed, this is the case, and so we’re to praise him, give thanks to him, and delight that he is good and merciful and sovereign to his people.

What Does Unconditional Mean?

Defining Unconditional Election
So if that’s election, what does unconditional mean, right? This is kind of where the rub is for some of the disagreements that we see in the family Christian tree historically.

What is meant by unconditional election? Unconditional election means that God’s sovereign choice is not conditioned by anything in the creature.

An Illustration of Unconditional Grace

I know a man who was willed, left in his will an endowment to send him to seminary. This man knew nothing about it before he was given the wonderful news. He didn’t do anything for it. He didn’t merit it. He didn’t work for it. It was simply a gift given out of love to the man.

Unconditional election is this kind of election. It’s the kind of election that the Bible teaches, unconditional. It states that election is not according to some attitude or action or anything else in the creature that contribute to his or her election.

Rather, the election of the Father was simply according to His purpose, His own purpose, or as I said, some Bibles translate this as according to the good pleasure of His will, the good pleasure.

Conditional vs. Unconditional Election

On the other hand, if we look at conditional election, which was the challenge brought to the church in 1619 formally and explained that the election was conditioned upon what? Upon the faith in the creature.

They thought that God chose on the condition of foreseen faith. You may have heard this attempted solution or this attempted explanation at some point in your Christian life.

Arminius and his students taught that God would look down the mythical corridors of time and see who would believe, and then he chose them, whom he knew would, on their own free will, believe in him. That’s conditional election.

They say that God elects a person conditioned on foreseen faith in the future, which leaves you with what? It leaves you with man’s will being the determining factor, ultimately, of his salvation, right?

The Problem with Conditional Election

Think of that man I mentioned earlier who was given this gift of sending him to seminary. Imagine if it was left to him with instructions, right? You must do these certain things and accomplish this and that and so on.

And if you do these things, an endowment will be gifted to you to send you for your education, right? That is a big if. That would be a conditional gift.

And a conditional gift based on merit is no gift at all. That’s not how God gives the gift of salvation. The gift is not conditioned. Grace is not conditioned either.

Rather, God’s grace is more like what happened to the man I described. For nothing he had done, nothing, merely from the love and generosity and joy of another, that man received the gift given to him.

God’s Lavish Love

And that’s what God does for his people, for you and for me, brothers and sisters, if you belong to him. For nothing in you at all, merely from his lavish love, his great generosity, his delights, God calls out, he chooses for his own to be his unconditionally.

And if we think about and feel the full weight of that, it is awesome, and it is wonderful, and it is overwhelming to think that his love was set upon you while rebels, while sons of disobedient, still in your sin.

The Holy Spirit applies that chosen election accomplished by Christ to you individually in time.

The Biblical View

And so the biblical view of election is unconditional. This unconditional election is God’s determination to save the people for his own glory. It is a powerful statement of God’s grace, not only his power, but his sovereign grace in salvation.

The view of conditional election is God ratifying our own decision to believe. The sovereignty of this election resides in the creature, since God must first gain permission from the creature before he can save them.

And I don’t need to explain the diminished doxology, the diminished glory, the robbing of God’s power and grace if it’s conditioned upon man as the ultimate authority and determining factor.

That view says God must first check to see if the creature has voted yes before God can then ratify it with his election. There is nothing particularly sovereign about this perspective at all, nor is there anything especially amazing or glorifying of God in this view.

The Wonder of Unconditional Election

But in unconditional election, amazing is truly put back into grace. Grace, which means unmerited favor or better, demerited favor.

By saying that election is unconditional, we highlight that we have done absolutely nothing to affect our salvation. And we highlight that God, in sovereign grace, determined to save us before the foundation of the world, even though we had merited only what? His wrath.

For we are by nature, again, as Ephesians 2 says, children of wrath. And this deeply should move us to stand in wonder and awe and to shout out, why should I? Why should God ever choose a wretch like me?

But praise be to the sovereign Lord of heaven. He did choose me according to his own purposes, to the glory of his amazing grace. Oh, what wonderful grace and mercy and love and power of our good God, what sovereign grace of our wonderful Lord.

Biblical Evidence for Unconditional Election

Scriptural Support
And so what of the so what of all of this, right? Let’s take some time to look, to begin to look at least at just a few passages from God’s word regarding this wonderful truth of God’s choosing the people for himself for his own good pleasure and glory.

John 6: Jesus’ Teaching

First, let’s turn to the words of Jesus during his earthly ministry from John chapter six. John chapter six and verse 37.

Jesus says this, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and I will never cast them out.

The Father has given certain ones to Jesus, and every one of them shall come to Jesus, and he will never cast them out is the declaration of his own word. And the people that God, that the father gives to Jesus is none other than those whom he chose before the foundation of the world.

Further Confirmation

Notice again, as we go on in verse 39 of John chapter six, and this is the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Raise it up on the last day, nothing shall be lost. And then notice again, towards the end of his discourse, in verse 65 of John 6, he says this, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father, right?

And those who he grants to come shall come, he says. The Father has to grant it for anyone to truly come to Christ. The passage is saying that apart from this granting from the Father, no one will come to Christ. They will be left in their sins.

The Response to Jesus’ Teaching

So you see, the teaching of election shines brightly here from these passages. And notice the response of the disciples in verse 66 of John chapter 6 to this teaching.

The response to this teaching is this. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Turned back and no longer walked with him.

This has been referred to Jesus’s great church reduction program, right? Many turned and no longer walked with him. It’s a difficult teaching for many to accept.

We want so much, we’re wired to do something, to take a part in our salvation, our condition, our standing before God.

Acts 13: The Gentiles’ Response

And then we look at the writings of Luke. We look at the book of Acts, chapter 13, verse 46. Acts 13, verse 46.

And Luke records this, it says, And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Appointment Precedes Belief

Right? So the response, as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Why did they believe? Because they were appointed by God to do so. They were appointed by God to believe.

But this is exactly what those challengers to the church, it’s the opposite of what they were saying. They wanna say that the verse says, as many as believed were appointed to eternal life, right?

The teaching reverses this. That’s not what the verse says. Verse 48 is totally against the conditional election of the Armenians. It says, many were appointed, believe, not as many who believe were appointed.

You see the point there? You see the clarity of Scripture? There’s absolutely no hint of God looking down, right, these corridors of time, as they say, to see the response of the creature, the response that these Gentiles would give to the gospel, and then, electing on that basis. There’s no hint of that.

Romans 9: God’s Sovereign Choice

So we’ve heard from Paul, and we’ve heard from Jesus, and now from Luke, right? He gives the same view as taught by Paul and by our Lord. Those who were appointed to eternal life believe.

They believe because they were appointed, not they were appointed because they believed, right? The difference is pretty clear.

And so we have to think these truths, we hear these truths, we embrace these truths, we hear what God has said, and we think, what about you here this morning, right? What about you? Do you believe in Christ?

The Response of the Believer

If that is you, if you love and live for Christ, you look to God with thanksgiving, you come into his courts with praise, right? That should be our response.

Nothing in my hand I bring to the whole endeavor, right? Except my sin. Because it was his sovereign decree, his election, his plan, his appointment, granted to you, given to you from all eternity that caused you to believe in his son for life.

If not for his sovereign grace of unconditional election, you could not believe, you would not believe based on your radically corrupt nature. And this means that worship and thanksgiving and praise for God’s amazing grace in electing a people from all eternity.

And you, dear Christian, owe it all to him. For those who may be appointed to eternal life, believe. And this should cause us praise, praise to God, praise indeed.

Romans 9:9-23

And so let’s wrap up this brief survey of this biblical testimony, going back to Romans, Romans chapter nine this time. And we’ll read beyond what we read for our New Testament reading. Romans 9, starting at verse 9, and I’ll be reading to verse 23.

Romans 9, chapter 9, please hear once more the testimony of God. For this is what the promise said. About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall give a son.

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had not yet done either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, She was told the older shall serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I shall have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy for the scriptures The scripture says to Pharaoh, for this purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then, he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Addressing Objections

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what is molded? Say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

God’s Sovereign Right

Right? He seems quite emphatic about these things. Quite emphatic, right? So you might say, that for God to choose Jacob and reject Esau, for God to have mercy upon whom he will and harden whom he wills, for God to take the same lump of sinful humanity and mold some vessel to display his wrath and to mold other vessels to display his mercy is simply unfair. It’s not fair.

And perhaps if you have talked to any about the gospel or answered challenges to the gospel, you’ve heard this, this bold declaration, it’s not fair.

But of course, Paul has already answered that question in verse 20. He responds to this objection, who are you to answer back to God? God is sovereign and has a perfect right to give people what they deserve.

And what they deserve, what they have merited, what they have earned is not glory in heaven. It is wrath. And if God just so happens to have mercy on some, he’s saying, well, what is that to you?

God doesn’t know anyone, anything other than the wrath for their sins and judgment for their rebellion.

The Wonder of God’s Mercy

It’s a sad state of man, but after the fall, that is the state of man, as we saw so emphatically last week. And the reply is, that’s just not fair. Not fair.

But if God in his sovereign wisdom decides to lavish his love and grace upon some, upon his elect, what should wonder and amaze us is not that he didn’t save everyone, What you’d wonder and amaze us is that he has saved anyone at all.

Notice very clearly from this text, the unconditionality of election. Again, in verse nine, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

God distinguishes them based on his own purposes. It was not in any sense of the word on the basis of something in them or something that they would do. Election is unconditional.

God’s Will, Not Man’s

And then secondly, we see the distinguishing factor between the two destinies is not the will of man, but the will of God. God is supreme. God is omnipotent.

Again, he says, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but it depends on God who has mercy, right?

And then he goes on, so then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills, right? And then that question comes, right? He anticipates it. Why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will?

Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?

The Impact of Unconditional Election

Right, so we’ve seen the unconditional election is God’s sovereign choice of a people whom he would save in history through Jesus Christ. Though undeserving, he casts his love upon them in his love, in his care for his own purposes.

The people whom he will one day bring into his glorious presence as his own children, as sons, as daughters. Holy and blameless to the praise of his glorious grace.

What an incredible thing, right? What a wonderful thing that the God of all creation was set his love upon you or upon me. It’s amazing, right?

So the song says, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, it is sovereign grace. It is sovereign grace which works completely apart from the will of man.

A Call to Praise

Being reminded this morning of this second letter of the acrostic, this teaching of unconditional election, grace becomes a hymn of thanks and of praise to our sovereign triune God.

And so let us always remember and delight in our Savior Jesus, who gave his life for his people, his perfect life, indeed, He gives it to those whom the Father gave to him, the chosen of God in Jesus.

For it is our dear, loving, and powerful Savior who accomplished redemption decreed by the Father from eternity.

Practical Implications

And again, these aren’t things that just engineer types like to contemplate and figure out in their minds. This has radical impact on your lives, whomever you might be.

And the reality is, when you hear these things, chosen us to be blameless and holy, right, the natural consequence, the natural reflex to this is, I don’t deserve to be chosen. I’m not holy and blameless before Him.

Like, do you really know how bad I am and how black my heart is? I’ve made a mess of my life, and my dark and dirty heart isn’t worth being chosen, not worthy.

Freedom from Guilt

And when we think these things, we think them because it’s an accurate description about our sin and about our hearts. But don’t you see that when we believe God for what he says, that his loving and his choosing takes place before the real messes that we’ve made of our lives, before any of that he chose us, before we ever were.

It frees us from the crushing weight of our sin and our guilt, and we can believe and trust and truly be free, and we can begin therein to walk in holiness.

Living in Holiness

He saved us from the guilt and the power and the punishment of our sins, and he also saved us to live new lives, to live in holiness, all because Jesus gave his perfect life for us sinners to deal with the guilt of our sins, to kill the power of sin within us, and to suffer the punishment of our sins that we truly deserve.

And so if you are His this morning, do you see who you are in Him? Do you see the reality of this? Now you are free to be who you are in Him with confidence, with assurance, with hope, and with true peace, the kind of peace that comes from nowhere else.

Jesus said, I give you peace, my peace, not as the world gives.

A Call to Remember

And so knowing this, as we leave and go back from meeting with the Lord together as his people into our worlds, remember these things. Remember the power and grace and love of God the Father.

May we praise our merciful and beautiful Redeemer and King for all that he’s done to make this so. And may we be afresh, put in our place by this wonderful truth.

And may we render thanks and honor to our wonderful Lord, all to the praise of his glory. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Our almighty and loving God, we come once again before you as your people on your day, gathered as your body, and we delight to give you praise.

We thank you for your providence in our lives, and we thank and praise you for our beloved Savior, who gave his life for our sins and who rose again for our justification.

We praise you that our standing before you is secure and sure because of the work of Christ, because of your sovereign grace. We thank you that your work in our lives indeed is unconditional in that.

Lord, we thank you that it cannot be thwarted or molested or destroyed by anything that we do. And we pray that as we remember and believe and trust these things, that your spirit will continue to work in us that these truths will pierce our hearts and we’ll begin to walk in new ways, Lord, that are according to your character and your will.

We pray, Lord, that you would continue to strengthen us and to protect us. We pray, help us to walk in Christ in this pilgrim land that is not our own. Help us to know and believe and trust in your strength.

Help us to know that you are working in us your will, your sovereign will, and that you are transforming us and conforming us as you have promised evermore to the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We ask, Father, that you would continue to bless this church. Lord, place in our hearts a longing for your name to be spread, to delight in your way, and to live true and faithful lives, Lord, that match the profession of our lips and the desire of our hearts.

Strengthen all of us to show the love and grace that we’ve been shown in Christ and to invite people to hear of your mercy and holiness, to hear the gospel and to be confronted with Christ, who’s the only hope for life in this world and the next.

Lord, we pray for this congregation of your people this morning as we encounter various struggles in life. Lord, we remember Don Dorman as he recovers, as he is rehabilitating. Lord, this issue with his heart and otherwise, Lord, strengthen him.

Be with Jean as she walks by his side through this and his whole family. We pray for all of us that we would fight to live in such a way that truly is in accord with what we say with our mouths that we believe and who we are.

We pray for the upcoming General Assembly, OPCA. Pray that the deliberations and discussions would honor Jesus, that they would lead to his glory and the good of his people.

Lord, we pray for fidelity to your word and to the mission of the greater church. Dear Lord, we praise you and thank you that we can come boldly before you because of Jesus, his work and his mediation before us, Lord, and for us.

We thank you and praise you that he ever lives to intercede for us. Lord, we ask all of these things in the name of your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.