“CHOSEN!”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES

It was sixteen years ago. I was teaching The Book of Romans to an adult Sunday School class of about sixty-five people. Everything was going well – especially by the time I had come to the last nine verses of Romans 8. Let’s begin there this morning.
*Romans 8:31-39
31 What then shall we say to these things? (“These things” being Romans 1:1 through 8:30) If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? (Since) God is the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written (in Psalm 44:22), “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principali-ties (demons), nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separ-ate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This whole passage is a doxology, a shout of praise, if you will. And why not? You are eternally saved. You are eternally secure in the love of Christ. No matter how high the waves or how strong the wind, the Christian is firmly anchored in God’s own safe harbor of salvation.

Those people I was teaching sixteen years ago were comforted by this passage. In hind-sight, most of them would have been happy if the Apostle Paul’s great NT doctrinal treat-ise known as The Book of Romans would have ended right there. But, of course, it does not. Rather, it moves on to chapters 9, 10, 11. And it is in those three chapters that com-fort often turns to anger and even to the refusal to believe what the Scriptures plainly, and I might add, forcefully teach.

Romans 9-11 has divided the Church of Jesus Christ for two thousand years. Those three chapters bring us face-to-face with massive controversy over the Doctrine of Elec-tion and God’s ultimate plan for Israel and the Jewish people.
Sixteen years ago, in that class on Romans, the Scriptures did what they so often do. They divided. They did what the writer of Hebrews said they would do.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

They did what Jesus said they would do when He said…
Luke 12:51-53
51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant piece on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; (Matthew 10:34 Jesus came to bring not peace, but “…a sword.”)
52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three.
53 “They will be divided father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

In that Romans class, by the time we got into chapters 9-11, some people did get angry – very angry! One woman was so angry that she stayed after class to confront me on what I’d said. But I hadn’t said it, the Bible had said it. That day I learned a lesson about why the Doctrine of Election is the most hated of all doctrines. Go to Romans 9:10 where Paul speaks of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau. This is the passage that “set her off.”
*Romans 9:10-18
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;
11 for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
(Jacocb’s descendants became Israel, recipients of divine blessing, while Esau’s descendants because the Edomites, recipients of divine judgment.)
14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Exodus 33:19)
(But God says, “I decide, it is up to Me.”)
16 So it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
(But God says, “I decide, it is up to Me.”)
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
(But God says, “I decide, it is up to Me.”)

Back to that Romans class sixteen years ago… After the morning’s session was over the woman was actually crying and began screaming at me. When she calmed down I asked her why this passage bothered her so. She finally admitted it was because Romans 9:10-18 made it abundantly clear to her that many in her family were not saved as she had wanted them to be. Many of them had assumed that they were Christians because they had been following the dictates of most modern-day evangelists and pastors. They had all been busy going through the motions of “making decisions for Christ.”

But if Romans 9:10-18 were true, those so-called decisions could mean virtually nothing. The question was not, “Have you made a decision for Christ?” Rather, the question was, “Had God made a decision for you?” She immediately understood what the Scripture said. Furthermore, she immediately understood what the Scripture meant by what it said. She “got it,” and she immediately hated it. The Doctrine of Election, the most hated of all Christian doctrines, meant that she wasn’t “in charge” of her salvation. God was!

He does the choosing. In fact, He did that choosing in eternity past.
Ephesians 1:4-5
4 …He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will…

Regardless of the modern-day evangelism that implores you to accept Christ or make a decision for Christ, the Bible teaches the polar opposite. But why is that so controversi-al? Why is it even important? You’re saved or you are not, right? It is no secret that we talk about that a lot here at LBC. But that is deliberate. The reason we do so is because our understanding of the Doctrine of Election not only informs but also colors our under-standing of virtually everything that is important to biblical Christianity itself. If you misunderstand, or go so far as to reject the Doctrine of Election (as too many professing Christians regularly do), you will never understand your Bible.

I am not overstating the case! You will never understand God. You will never under-stand yourself, either before or after you were saved. You will never understand salva-tion. You will never understand the Person of Christ, the Deity of Christ, or the Lord-ship of Christ. Furthermore, you will never understand His work on the cross, or the ultimate purpose of His soon return for His Bride, the Church. In short, you will mis-
understand the very Scriptures themselves, from Genesis to Revelation.

Therefore, over the next weeks – the Lord permitting – the Deity of Christ, the Lordship of Christ, and the Absolute Sovereignty of God will be our subject matter.
Listen again, please. It is the desire of my heart that you not only know what is true, but that you know why it is true, and how it is true. Only then can you defend your faith in this increasingly godless world in which we now find ourselves.

Men and women are fallible. Any honest person knows that, but it doesn’t keep us from demanding our right to make choices about everything we think pertains to our happiness and well-being. If someone else makes a choice for us, we tend to rebel. We don’t like it. But we quickly forget that some of our choices have led us into errors, mistakes, and various and sundry problems for ourselves and our families. The simple fact is that there are times when we’d be a lot better off if someone else did make a choice or two for us.

Yet our human pride doesn’t want to admit that. We don’t want to admit that we often pick the wrong course for our lives, or make mistakes or poor choices about all sorts of things. Then after we have done so, there are even times when we refuse to turn back or alter our course, even when we know full well we’ve made a mistake. We simply don’t want to admit we are fallible. We like to think that we are wise and fully capable of always choosing the best options for ourselves.

Another thing that fallen man doesn’t want to admit is that he is a sinner in need of salva-tion. Such an admission is the ultimate blow to our egos. I believe that pride, more than any-thing else, is at the heart of the struggle to come to grips with the biblical Doctrine of Election. It’s the same human pride that causes so many professing believers to reject the Absolute Sovereignty of God in the affairs of men. I am convinced that the failure to recognize God’s sovereignty is at the center of the demise of biblical Christianity today.

Theologian after theologian, denomination after denomination, church after church, and pastor after pastor continually drift further and further away from these fundamental and essential truths. Why? It’s because man has such an inflated view of himself that he really believes he is in control. It isn’t hard to see why such thinking is polluting and weakening the Church of Jesus Christ today.

Church goers are too often told just what they want to hear. They are told that just as they make their own choices and decisions about everyday things, so too they can make their own decision about becoming a Christian. In other words, they can choose Christ. Again, people are told precisely what they want to hear. “You’re in control, you decide, you choose. You walk this aisle, you say that prayer, you come to this altar, you say these words, and, voila, you’re a Christian. It’s all up to you.”

So the modern gospel feeds the ego, massages the pride, and makes each individual per-son the final arbiter, the final determining factor, as to whether or not they will be saved. In this most important event in which human beings could ever be involved, the salvation of their eternal souls, far too many churches teach that, God is not sovereign in the affairs of men. On the contrary, when it comes to an individual’s salvation, too many in the modern church teach that man is sovereign in the affairs of God!
In doing so modern-day evangelism feeds the ego at the exact moment in a person’s life when the ego must be starved. It constructs pride at the exact moment in a person’s life when pride must be torn down. People are told that since they decide and they choose, they need to “make a decision for Christ.” But there is a serious problem here.

The Bible teaches that man in his natural state, that is, unsaved, is completely incapable of making a choice for, or “deciding” for Christ. There are a number of reasons for this.
• The unsaved person is spiritually dead in his or her sin.
Ephesians 2:1-2a
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2a in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world…

• Because the unsaved person is spiritually dead, he is utterly helpless and cannot come to God of his own volition.
John 6:44a, 65
44a “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him…
65 “…I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.

• Because the unsaved person cannot come to God of his own volition, neither can the unsaved person please God.
*Romans 8:7-8
7 …the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

• Because the unsaved person is unable to come to God, it logically follows that no one can. It’s a decision, a lost person cannot make. Therefore, no one does.
*Romans 3:10-12
10 “There is none righteous, not even one;
11 there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”

• Because of all of that, when unsaved people hear the gospel, they reject it. Why? Because left to their own devices, they possess no ability to accept it.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 …a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Because of all these things, it has been said rightly, that asking a non-Christian to make a decision for Christ is like asking a corpse to dance. Divine intervention is necessary or no one could ever be saved. But despite these clear biblical truths, people are still told that they must decide, they must choose, they must “make a decision for Christ.”
And even though there is no scriptural command to “make a decision for Christ,” mil-lions of people are convinced that that is how to be saved. They’re told to walk the aisle, go to the altar, say the prescribed prayer, and they will be Christians. And then we won-der why churches are filled with people who think they are Christians, but are not. After all, haven’t they “made a decision” to accept Christ?

But what about God’s decisions? What about God’s choices? Are they irrelevant? If you and I are the final arbiters, and if you and I make the final decisions about our salva-tion, then God’s choices are irrelevant. In every area of life today we are encouraged to believe and to say, “It’s my right, it’s my decision, it’s my choice. This is the problem with today’s popular evangelism.

When we are left to our own devices and told that we decide, our pride takes over and we forget just how fallible we truly are. Listen again carefully, please. It is why, when an infallible God, incapable of sin, error, or mistake of any kind, makes His choices, when He elects those whom He chooses to save and use for His purposes, fallible men and women don’t like it. They have the audacity to question the decisions of their Creator.

Someone asks, “But how does God decide whom He will save?” Listen to Jesus.
John 5:21
21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”

And, despite any and all arguments to the contrary, God’s choices are absolutely holy, righteous, perfect, and eternal. Look with me at just a few of the many verses and pas-sages that teach these truths. See if you can find any hint of “making a decision for Christ” in any of them.
John 13:18a (Jesus speaking)
13a I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen…
Colossians 3:12
12 …so, as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…
2 Thessalonians 2:13a
13a But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation…
Take a moment to consider the following truths. Even those who insist that our salvation is based on our decisions would rarely argue against these biblical truths.
• God chose the holy angels.
In 1 Timothy 5:21 God calls them “…His chosen angels…”
• Then God chose Abraham.
Genesis 18:19a
19a “For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children (Isaac) and his household after him (Jacob) to keep the way of the Lord…”
• Then God chose the nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8a
6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peo-ples, (Why then?)
8a but because the LORD loved you…”
• Then God chose Moses.
Psalm 106:21-23 (speaking of Israel)
21 They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them.
• Then God chose David.
1 Kings 8:16b
16b “… but I chose David to be over My people Israel.”
• Then God (The Lord Jesus Himself) chose the twelve apostles.
John 15:16a
16a “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…”
• Then God chose the church itself.
1 Peter 2:9a
9a But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…

But after all of that divine choosing, modern-day evangelism still tells us that we have to “make a decision for Christ.” We have to accept Him. We have to choose. But we won’t choose Him – we cannot choose Him – unless God had already chosen us. Whe-ther God chose an angel, or a nation, or an apostle, or He chose to save you, His choice is not only perfect, it is infallible, and it is right. And just as Jesus made His choice for the apostles completely independent of their personal choices, so also did He make His choice for you completely independent of your personal choice.

Does that “go against your grain”? It sure goes against human pride. Listen, please. If you are not a Christian, it is not because you haven’t chosen Jesus. It is because you have not received Him. If you are a Christian it is not because you have chosen Him either. It is because you have received Him. (repeat)

*John 1:12-13
12 But as many as (accepted? chose? decided?) received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

When we first come to saving faith, we just naturally think it is a decision we made our-selves. We only have our eyes opened to the truth of election as we begin to study God’s Word. It is only then that we realize that it was the Holy Spirit who prepared the minds and hearts of God’s chosen ones in advance to receive Christ when, at the precise time and predetermined moment, He chose to call us. But Christians who are never taught these truths will never understand them, will they? They will always think that they “made a decision for Christ,” and that is how they were saved.

The tragedy of that is that they will just naturally think that they’re entitled to take some of the credit for their own salvation. So just like in that Romans class sixteen years ago, when someone is confronted with the Doctrine of Election, and are forced to consider just “Who chose whom,” his or her ego is bruised and he does not like it.

They find out that their own so-called freewill, was never free at all. They were in com-plete bondage to Satan. They were never free at all. On the contrary, they were slaves of sin. And no slave has a freewill, does he? In fact, Jesus said…
John 8:34, 36 (speaking to the Pharisees)
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin (practices sin habitually) is the slave of sin.”
36 “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Therefore, the eternal salvation of God’s chosen ones is only possible because… God planned it. God designed it. God provided it. God made it possible for His chosen ones to hear it and to believe it. God predestined His chosen ones to receive it. God called them to it. God justified those whom He called. God prepared them for heaven. And God, in His own good time, will take them there.

In His infinite wisdom and masterful plan for the salvation of lost sinners, those whom He has chosen from eternity past, must hear the gospel. Why? Because our sovereign God has designed it that way. It is His choice, but it’s our job. (repeat)
*Romans 10:13-14
13 “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

So the chosen must hear. They must believe. And, when He calls, they must receive Him. Only then the Lord will save the soul of each and every one He has chosen.
What marvelous and awesome truth! But, you say, “I don’t understand.” That’s all right. I don’t either. We need to humble ourselves and concede that we, finite creatures that we are, cannot plumb the depths of the mind and the wisdom of our infinite God.
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

God has chosen them, but we must tell them. That may defy human logic. But God’s ways and thoughts are not rooted in human logic. They are infinitely higher than ours.
*Romans 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the LORD, or who became His counselor?
35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?
36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

He did it all. Then He made it so that you and I must tell people about His Son. You say, “Well, that’s a real good plan right up until the last part. What if we don’t tell them?”

There’s an old legend that is certainly not found in the Bible. I don’t know if the story comes out of the Protestant Reformation or if it goes even further back in time than that. But wherever it comes from, it does illustrate a biblical truth about God’s plan for those whom He has chosen, and how they must hear the gospel.

The story says there was a conversation between the angel Gabriel and Jesus after the Lord’s ascension into heaven. They talked about what Jesus had done on the earth – His birth, His life, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection.

Gabriel took it all in and asked, “Lord, how will the people of earth get to know all about you and what you have done?” Jesus answered, “There is a little company of twelve men whom I have chosen and taught. They are My friends. I have asked them to tell others.”
Gabriel thought for another moment and then asked, “But Lord, what if they let you down and fail to do it?” Jesus answered him, “I do not have any other plan.”

That’s just a story. But here is the truth. At LBC Jesus has a little company of Christians whom He has chosen, and is now teaching. They are His friends. He has no other plan.

Let me close the words of Joseph Hart, an 18th century preacher and hymn writer. He wrote, “Why so offensive in their eyes does God’s election seem? Because they think themselves so wise that they have chosen Him…. ‘Election!’ ‘tis a word divine; for, Lord I plainly see had not Thy choice preceded mine, I’d ne’er have chosen Thee.” ~ Pray ~