GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #414
ARE YOU ONE OF GOD’S
ELECT?
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
When Paul wrote to the
church at Thessalonica, he spoke confidently to God’s saints there about the
indisputable fact of their election. He gave thanks to God for them, their
faith in Christ, their love to one another, and the other blessings of God’s
grace upon them, because he knew that all these things were to be traced to
their election unto salvation by God. I know that many have never even heard of
God’s electing love and grace; and many are terribly confused about it. Here
are three practical statements, which may help to clarify some things regarding
this soul-cheering, God honoring, gospel doctrine. Listen carefully.
1.
Election
is not the first thing to be learned.
Precious, delightful,
important as this doctrine is, it is not the first thing to be learned. We
preach this doctrine without apology. I preach it everywhere I go. We teach it
in our Sunday School classes, beginning with the toddlers. We are not, in the
least, bashful about proclaiming God’s electing love. However, it is not our
mission in this world to convince people that the doctrine of election is true.
A person can go to hell believing election as well as he can go to hell denying
it. Our mission is to get sinners to believe, trust, and come to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Any sinner who bows to
Christ as Lord will have no problem with the doctrine of election. Yet, the
first question to be settled in your heart and mind is not, “Am I one of the elect?” It is impossible
for you, me, or anyone else to determine that until the matter of first
importance is settled. “Do I trust the
Lord Jesus Christ?” “Am I a believer?” That is the matter of first
importance. If you trust the Son of God, your faith in him is the proof of your
election. The first thing to be learned is faith in Christ. Where faith is
found in the heart, election is believed and loved.
2. God’s sovereign election of some to salvation and eternal life in
Christ is in no way inconsistent with the promises of God in the gospel.
All the promises of God in
Christ Jesus are yea and amen. You may not be able to see how election can be
true and the promises of the gospel to sinners are also true; but they are!
Hear the promises God makes to sinners in the gospel. Come to Christ, whoever
you are, believe on Christ, whatever you have done, trust the Son of God and
these promises are yours! (Read Matt. 11:28-30; Mk. 16:15-16; John 3:36; 6:37;
7:37-38; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:8-13; Rev. 22:16-17).
3. God’s election, this gospel doctrine of sovereign electing grace, does
not, to any degree or in any way, remove or destroy your responsibility to obey
the gospel.
God commands all men,
everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Our responsibility is not derived from the
decree of God, but from the Word of God. We are not responsible for what God
has purposed; but we are responsible for what he has commanded. We are all
responsible to be perfectly holy, but we can’t! We are responsible to make
complete atonement for our sins, but we can’t! We are responsible to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ as our only righteousness and our only redemption, but we
cannot even do that! We are therefore shut up to God’s sovereign grace in
Christ! When all things are finished, it shall be said, as we read in Romans
11:7, “The election hath obtained it.”
And all those elect ones, all who obtain God’s salvation say,
AMEN.