Why are you Southern Baptist? Part 6

Baptist Faith and Message: Election

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.”

Election is one of the most debated doctrines in the church. Many confuse election with predestination, but election is not predestination. Election is based upon God’s foreknowledge.

God would never predestine some people to Hell.

Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”

Salvation is for whoever, but in His foreknowledge, God knows those “whoevers”, and those “whoevers” are the ones He elects.

1. ELECTION DEFINED.

Election means selected and chosen by God. The term applies to individuals and the true church.

Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”

Believers have been chosen and elected from time past to be God’s beloved people. Once again, it does not mean that some are predestined to be God’s people. You must understand the foreknowledge of God is in play.

1 Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”

Ephesians 1:4–6 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

As you can plainly see, God elected and chose you, if you are saved, before the world was ever created. He could do so because of His foreknowledge.

Nothing catches God off-guard. He knows who is going to be saved, and He knows who is not going be saved.

Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

We mistakenly say so and so was added to the Lamb’s Book of Life. That is not theologically correct because in His foreknowledge, God has already completed that book. He knows who will accept Christ, and He knows who will reject Christ, but God’s desire is for all to accept Christ.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I want you to think about this. Revelation 13:8 references it. Before the foundation of the world, the blood of Jesus had not been shed, but the blood still applied.

God knew through foreknowledge that Satan was going to tempt Eve.

Genesis 3:4–5 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Through foreknowledge, God knew that Adam and Eve would fall to Satan’s deception.

By falling to Satan’s deception, Adam and Eve would lose their fellowship with God and their perfect state with God.

Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, and the knowledge they gained was of sin. They not only sinned, but they knew their sin which is why they were hiding from God.

God knew we would all inherit the sinful nature of Adam.

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Knowing that, God said before the foundation of the world that He was going to send His Son to die on the Cross.

Romans 5:6 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Jesus Christ died for every man’s sin on the Cross. He redeemed everyone that dreadful day, but not all will be saved as only those who accept Him will be saved, and those who accept Him have been elected or chosen since the foundation of the world.

All have been bought; some have been saved. Every person who is saved was chosen by God. Predestination has nothing to do with it. Some are not predestined to heaven and some to Hell. You cannot find that in the Bible.

1 Timothy 2:3–6 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

God’s intent was for all men, women, boys, and girls to be saved, to go to Heaven, but in His foreknowledge, He knew who would and would not. He knew those who would accept Christ, and those He elected. Predestination plays no role in it.

Take Ike as an example. Before God said, “let there be light” He knew that Ike was going to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. God did not force Ike to accept Jesus. Ike still had the free will to accept or reject Jesus, but God in His foreknowledge elected Ike.

‌Let’s assume Hope has rejected Christ. What does that mean? At the very least, it means she rejected something that was offered. If that were true about Hope, God knew at the same time He knew about Anthony the choice Hope would make. Since before the beginning, Hope’s name has not been written in the Book of Life because God knew the choice she would make.

“Well, Jimmy, the Bible says something about predestination.” Yes, it does, but it is predestination based upon foreknowledge.

Romans 8:29–30 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Let’s use Ike again. Because of His foreknowledge, God knew Ike would accept Christ as a result God elected Ike. As a result of God’s foreknowledge, He predetermined that Ike would be conformed to the image of Christ.

Because of His foreknowledge, God called Ike, justified Ike, and will glorify Ike. As a matter of fact, foreknowledge is so certain, that God can actually see Ike now as if he was already glorified and conformed to the image of Christ.

Before the foundation of the world, God elected me based upon my receiving the blood of Jesus Christ in time. I was not in eternity. I was born in time, March 19, 1966.

God had a plan in eternity for me in time. In His foreknowledge, God knew I would accept Christ in the Spring of 1979 at Mount Vernon Baptist Church while my father was preaching a sermon from Galatians 5.

God foreknew that. He did not predestine it to happen. In His foreknowledge, I was elected before the foundation of the world.

As far as Christ is concerned, I was saved in 29/33 AD when He shed His blood at the Cross of Calvary.

Luke 23:34 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

As far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, I was saved in the Spring of 1979. That’s when I became a child of God even though I was elected before the foundation of the world.

How do you know if you are elected? 1 John 5:12-13

1 John 5:12–13 “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

If you are saved, you are elected. How are you saved?

By admitting that you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23)

By believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for your sins and was resurrected three days after dying. (Romans 10:9-10)

By confessing that before men. (Matthew 10:32-33)

If you have done that, you did so because you were elected. If you have not done that but know the Holy Spirit is drawing you to salvation, you still have hope to be saved. As long as the Holy Spirit draws you to salvation, you can be saved. You being saved will verify your election.

2 Peter 1:10–11 “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Are you sure of your calling and election? Are you saved? It is Jesus Christ who makes your calling and election sure. It is Jesus Christ who made it possible for you to be born again.

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I said at the beginning tonight that both individuals and churches are elected.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”

Paul says that he knew the Church at Thessalonica had been elected by God. How can you know if church has been elected by God?

An elected church is a church full of faith, love, and hope. An elected church is full of people who are sure of their election, and who are chosen to be beloved brothers and sisters.

An elected church is one in which all members are respected as precious and deeply loved.

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Disagreements will arise in a church, but an elected church will not allow those disagreements to fester because of the realization that every member is worthy of respect and deep love, and as a result, an elected church will come together in agreement instead of splitting in disagreement.

An elected church loves the Lord so much and each other so much that they will do as God commanded.

Hebrews 10:24–25 “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

We are living in troublesome times, times that demand strong fellowships in churches. As things worsen, the Bible says that it might be necessary for believers to meet more often. An elected church will relish those opportunities instead of complaining about the opportunity to gather.