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Especially for Amanda pt III

ESPECIALLY FOR AMANDA PT. 3
Mike Cunningham
June 8, 2014

I know that I couldn’t have endured any of my divinely ordained challenges, especially my latest one’s, if several years ago the Lord hadn’t revealed certain facts to me about the doctrines of the Providence of God, the Sovereignty of God and the Doctrine of Election.

Unless the Lord had given me the strength to endure each of the seemingly never-ending painful physical and/or emotional trials I have been subjected to during my lifetime. I would have given up my faith in Him a long time ago. I will be forever grateful that;

Ephesians 1:4 (TLB)
4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love.

Romans 8:28-30 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Commenting on these doctrines over a hundred years ago Pastor C. H. Spurgeon in his book on “Election” said that, “If a handful of us stand alone in an unflinching maintenance of the Sovereignty of God, if we are beset by enemies, and even by our own brothers in Christ, men who ought to be our friends and helpers, it doesn’t matter when we think about the noble army of martyrs, that glorious host of confessors, when we think of them as our friends who went before us we can exclaim, “Lo God hath reserved unto Himself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal!” But the best of all is God is with us.

The great truth is always the Bible, and the Bible alone.

I have selected a few texts to read to you. I love to give you a whole volley of texts whenever I suspect that you don’t trust a certain truth, that you doubt it and that in reality you don’t really believe it. Just let me run through a catalog of passages where the people of God are called elect. Of course, if the people are called elect there must be election. If Jesus and His apostles were accustomed to refer to believers by the title of elect, we obviously must believe that they were, otherwise the term does not mean anything.

Jesus Christ says, “Except that the Lord hath shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, He shortened it.” “False Christ’s and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” “Then shall He send His angels, and shall gather together His elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of Heaven.” (Mark, 13: 20, 22, 27.” “Shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?” (Luke 18:7). Many other passages might be selected, wherein the word “elect” or “chosen,” or “foreordained,” or “appointed,” is mentioned; or the phrase”My sheep,” or some similar designation, showing that Christ’s people are distinguished from the rest of mankind.

But you have concordances, and I will not trouble you with texts. Throughout the epistles, the saints are constantly called “the elect.” In Colossians we find Paul saying “Put on therefor, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies.” When he writes to Titus, he calls himself, “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect.”Peter says, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Then if you turn to John, you will find he is very fond of the word. He says, “The elder to the elect lady;” and he speaks of our elect sister.” And we know where it is written, “The church that is a Babylon, elected together with you. They were not ashamed of the word in those days; they were not afraid to talk about it.”

“If you will read many of the epistles of the ancient Fathers, you will find them always writing to the people of God as “the elect.” Indeed the common conversational term used among many of the churches by the primitive Christians to one another, showing that it was generally believed that all God’s people were manifestly “elect.”

“But now for the verses that will positively prove the doctrine. Open your Bibles and turn to John 15:16, and there you will see that Jesus Christ has chosen His people; for he says, “You have not chose me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” Then in the 19th verse, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefor the world hated you.”

Then in the 17th chapter and the 8th and 9th verses, “For I have given the words which you gave me, and they have received them, and have known that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them you have given me; for they are yours. Turn to Acts 13:48: “And when the gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained the eternal life believed.” They may try to split that passage into hairs if they like: but it says, “ordained to eternal life,” in the original as plainly as it possibly can; and we do not care about all the different commentaries thereupon.

You scarcely need to be reminded of Romans 8, because I trust you are well acquainted with that chapter, and understand it by this time. In the 29th, and following verses, it says: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, those he did predestinate, them he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?

It would also be unnecessary to repeat the whole of the 9th chapter of Romans,

The most violent contortions of the passage will never be able to exterminate the doctrine of election from the Scriptures. Let’s read the following verses,

Romans 9:11 (KJV)
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Then read the 22nd verse:

Romans 9:22-23 (ESV)
22 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,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

Then go to Romans 11:7

Romans 11:7 (ESV)
7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,

In the 5th verse of the same chapter we read:

Romans 11:5 (KJV)
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

No doubt all of you recollect the passage in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29:

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (TLB)
26 Notice among yourselves, dear brothers, that few of you who follow Christ have big names or power or wealth.
27 Instead, God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great.
28 He has chosen a plan despised by the world, counted as nothing at all, and used it to bring down to nothing those the world considers great,
29 so that no one anywhere can ever brag in the presence of God.

And then, remember the passage in 1 Thessalonians 5:9:

1 Thessalonians 5:9 (ESV)
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

And then you have my text, which I think would be quite enough. But if you need any more, you can find them at your leisure, if I have not quite removed your suspicions as to the doctrine of election not being true.

My friends, I think that this overwhelming mass of Scripture testimony must stagger those who dare to laugh at this doctrine. What shall we say of those who have so often despised it, and denied its divinity, who have railed at its justice and dared to defy God and call Him an Almighty tyrant, when they have heard of His having elected so many to eternal life? Can you, O rejecter cast it out of the Bible? Can you take the penknife of Jehudi and cut it out of the Word of God? Would you be like the woman at the feet of Solomon, and have the child cut in half, that you might have your half? Is it not here in Scripture? And is it not your duty to bow before it, and meekly acknowledge what you don’t understand, to receive the truth even though you don’t understand its meaning?” pgs. 6-11

Pastor Ernie Reisinger, in his very insightful book, “God’s Will, Man’s Will And Free Will” says that,

“Man is a free agent and is responsible for his actions;
Man’s actions are foreknown by an omniscient God.

Both of these truths are clearly set out in the Holy Scripture-many times in the same verse. For example, in Acts 2:23 we read, “Him [Christ], being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.

This verse clearly teaches that the crucifixion of our Lord was planned, and all the devils in Hell, or men on earth could not keep Jesus from the cross. It was determined by an absolute sovereign God. Yet at the same time, wicked men-acting freely-were charged with this wicked act.

“In Acts: 24-30, God puts these two truths side without apology or explanation. Here this apparent contradiction and seeming conflict is expressed in prayer.

Acts 4:24-30 (TLB)
24 Then all the believers united in this prayer: “O Lord, Creator of heaven and earth and of the sea and everything in them—
25 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor King David, your servant, saying,
26 ’Why do the heathen rage against the Lord, and the foolish nations plan their little plots against Almighty God? The kings of the earth unite to fight against him and against the anointed Son of God!’
27 “That is what is happening here in this city today! For Herod the king, and Pontius Pilate the governor, and all the Romans—as well as the people of Israel—are united against Jesus, your anointed Son, your holy servant.
28 They won’t stop at anything that you in your wise power will let them do.
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and grant to your servants great boldness in their preaching,
30 and send your healing power, and may miracles and wonders be done by the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Peter and John were in prison when they prayed this prayer. Herod and Pontius Pilot, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were said to be carrying out what God had proposed and determined was to be done before it was actually done.

In the first truth we see that God is one hundred percent sovereign in planning and determining. At the same time the verse teaches that wicked men are one hundred percent responsible for their wicked deeds.

If we examine these two truths separately, we will conclude that from Genesis to Revelation the Bible teaches that the God of the Bible is one hundred percent sovereign-sovereign in creation, sovereign in redemption, and sovereign in providence-and that from Genesis to Revelation the Bible teaches that man is one hundred percent responsible for his sin. Therefor, we have no alternative but to believe both are true, even though with our finite minds we cannot reconcile them or harmonize them.” Pgs. 38-39

At this point in today’s sermon I’m going to quote J. I. Packer who asks: “What is an antinomy and then quotes The Shorter Oxford Dictionary which defines it as ‘a contradiction between conclusions which seen equally logical, reasonable or necessary.’ Packer adds, “For our purposes, however, this definition is not quite so accurate; the opening words should read ‘an appearance of contradiction’. For the whole point of a antinomy-in theology, at any rate-is that it is not a real contradiction, though it looks like one. It is an apparent incompatibility between two apparent truths. An antinomy exists when a pair of principles stand side by side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both undeniable. There are cogent reasons for believing each of them; each rests on clear and solid evidence; but it is a mystery to you how they can be squared with each other. You see that each must be true on their own, but you do not see how they can both be true together. Let me give you an example. Modern physics faces a antinomy, in this sense, in its study of light. There is cogent evidence to show that light consists of waves, and equally cogent evidence to show that it consists of particles. It is not apparent how light can be both waves and particles, but the evidence is there, and so neither view can be ruled out in favor of the other. Neither, however, can it be reduced to the other or explained in terms of the other; the two seemingly incompatible positions must be held together, and both must be treated as true. Such a necessity scandalizes our tidy minds, no doubt, but there is no help for it if we are to be loyal to the facts.” (Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J. I. Packer, ©1961 by Inter- Varsity Fellowship, England, p. 18-19.

I’ll end my sermon at this point hoping that I’ve given you folk’s lots of food for thought. Please let me know if it’s been helpful.

Lord willing, next week….

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