Prayer Service 3-27-24

Supplication

The Family of Glen Carver in their bereavement

Jim Tierney (Trey’s Uncle): Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

Keith Rogers: Recovery from Infection

Pam Cody: Recovery from Head-On Collision

Tammy Orr (Ashlyn’s Grandma): Colon Cancer

Luke Thacker: Second Cancer Diagnosis

Jackson Norris: Recovery from Concussion

Becky Morris: Significant health concerns.

Dan Larsen: Stage Four Brain Cancer

Hope Sanders (Jason): Liver Disease

Iva Lee, Allen, Tony, Peggy, Ty, Little Amber, Big Amber

Pray for “our” local assembly (church):

Increase our faith

Increase our fear of the Lord

Increase our desire for holiness

Decrease our love of sin and self

Increase our love for one another

Give us strength to serve Him faithfully

God would be glorified in our lives.

Doctrines of Grace

Unconditional Election

The Debate is NOT…

“Does God Choose people for Salvation?”

What’s Debated, is...

Does God choose his people...

Conditionally?

Unconditionally?

Does God choose those He saves...

Based on their own merits or actions?

Or...

Based upon his own kind intentions and purposes?

A New Definition:

Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Election: God Chooses His Own)

The biblical doctrine of election is that before Creation God selected out of the human race, foreseen as fallen, those whom he would redeem, bring to faith, justify, and glorify in and through Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28–39; Eph. 1:3–14; 2 Thess. 2:13–14; 2 Tim. 1:9–10).

This divine choice is an expression of free and sovereign grace, for it is unconstrained and unconditional, not merited by anything in those who are its subjects.

God owes sinners no mercy of any kind, only condemnation; so it is a wonder, and matter for endless praise, that he should choose to save any of us; and doubly so when his choice involved the giving of his own Son to suffer as sin-bearer for the elect (Rom. 8:32).

The doctrine of election, like every truth about God, involves mystery and sometimes stirs controversy.

But in Scripture it is a pastoral doctrine, brought in to help Christians see how great is the grace that saves them, and to move them to humility, confidence, joy, praise, faithfulness, and holiness in response.

-We’ve been studying this doctrine categorically:

2. Election NOT Based on Foreseen Responses

A. God did the choosing:

B. God Chose BEFORE Creating Man:

C. God Chose Particular Individuals (By Name):

D. God’s Choice was NOT based on foreseen merit or choice by men:

Romans 9:8–24 (ESV)

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,

11 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—

12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

It is “Jacob, have I loved” that should scandalize us

NOT “Esau, have I hated!”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

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.”

16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

17 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.”

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

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

21 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?

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—

24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Romans 10:17–21 (ESV)

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (ESV)

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

2 Timothy 1:8–9 (ESV)

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

E. Good works are the fruit of Election, Not the grounds for it.

To His Disciples:

John 15:16 (ESV)

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide...

True for ALL Disciples:

Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Election: God Chooses His Own)

The doctrine of election . . . is a pastoral doctrine, brought in to help Christians see how great is the grace that saves them, and to move them to humility, confidence, joy, praise, faithfulness, and holiness in response.

It is the family secret of the children of God. We do not know who else he has chosen among those who do not yet believe, nor why it was his good pleasure to choose us in particular.

What we do know is, first, that had we not been chosen for life we would not be believers now, . . . and, second, that as elect believers we may rely on God to finish in us the good work that he started (1 Cor. 1:8–9; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:23–24; 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:18).

Knowledge of one’s election thus brings comfort and joy.

Ought to humble us

Ought to fill our hearts with...

Gratitude

Adoration

Let’s voice those things now!