Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 34 – Jun 1982

Election

Sermon by Rev. B. Gillard on Ephesians 1:4-5

Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-14

Hymnal Psalter: 318, 7, 116, 387, 398

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, sisters and young people;

when people discuss the doctrine of God's sovereign election, they can do so in a very heated and argumentative atmosphere, because they disagree so intensely about this doctrine.  When the Apostle Paul thought of this doctrine however, it filled him with an overwhelming feeling of wonder, adoration and praise.  Just as we read in verse three, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight”.

What did the apostle see in this teaching that filled him with such a spirit of praise to God?  That is what we would like to consider together (this morning/evening).

I would suggest that he was thinking about three things.

First of all – the kind of people whom God has chosen and the reason for His choice.

Secondly – the end and ultimate purpose of God's election.

Third: - the absolute sense of security that this teaching gave him concerning his everlasting salvation.

Let us consider these three things, but before we do, let us be sure that we understand what this doctrine of election is all about.  Our text in Chapter 1:4 tells us, "He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight".  This means, beloved, our salvation is not our own doing.  It is the work of God.  We did not choose Him but he chose us, just as we so often sing in the hymn:

"Tis not that I did choose thee,
 For Lord, that could not be;
 This heart would still refuse thee,
 hadst Thou not chosen me."

The doctrine of election is so clear in the Bible that only a misguided zeal for God's honour or some lesser motive keeps certain well-meaning Christians from seeing it.  Perhaps there are still some in our own midst who have not yet quite come to fully embrace this doctrine as yet.  Well, if so, I hope what I have to say this morning might be of some help towards that end.

One commentator summed it up fairly well I thought when he said, "There can only be two choices.  Either God chose us, or we chose Him."  Either God has chosen us unconditionally, that is there was no reason in us what- soever for His choice of us, or else he foresaw some reason in us for His choice, whether it was foreseen faith or whatever.

Now, if we look closely at our text I believe we will see that it rules out both merit of any kind and foreseen faith.  God did not choose us because we were holy, but He chose us in order to make us holy and blameless in His sight.  Therefore, there was nothing good in us.  Indeed, it is implied that the very opposite is true about us.  We will come back to this in a minute.

When we also take into consideration verse 5, it is clear that there is no foreseen faith in the picture.  Rather, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.  This means that God was not only pleased to elect us, but it means He was absolutely sovereign in His action and was not governed or conditioned by anything foreseen in those whom He chose.  It was according to the good pleasure of His will and nothing else.  It is therefore free and unmerited grace which He has freely given us in the beloved one.  Now this, you see, was one of the reasons why the Apostle Paul almost leaped out of his skin praising God.  When this truth really took hold of him, and he realised that he was an elect child of God and that there was nothing in him, or nothing that he did to account for it, but it was all, one hundred percent God's choice, God's doing and God's love that put him in Christ, he could do nothing else but burst forth in a eulogy of praise to God.

When you stop and think about it beloved, it's even more than that.  Not only is there nothing in us for which God should choose us to be His, the very opposite is true.  There is every reason for Him to reject us and pass us by.

I already drew your attention to that in verse four where it says, "He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight."  Does not that imply that we are just the very opposite?  We are unholy, blameworthy and unloving towards God and others.  You see it every day in our lives and in the lives of little children who argue, fight, bicker.  Apart from God's grace, this is the truth about us all, even the Apostle Paul.  Here he was a Christ hating persecutor of the church.  He was an arrogant, proud, self-righteous Pharisee.  He was totally blind to see his own sin and need of Christ.  And what happened to Paul?  One day on his way to Damascus to arrest some more Christians, and while Paul was in blind hatred and fury, the Lord intervenes and knocks him from his horse, renews his heart, opens his eyes, and changes his life.

Why did Jesus do this?  Was it because there was something worthy in Paul?  Was it because Paul suddenly came to his senses and decided he wanted to be a Christian?  No, it was just the opposite.  Just as another line of that hymn would have it:

"’Twas sovereign mercy called me
 And taught me opening mind;
 The world had else enthralled me,
 To heavenly glories blind.
 My heart owns none before thee,
 For thy rich grace I thirst;
 This knowing if I love thee,
 Thou must have loved me first."

This is why Paul could hardly contain himself.  He let this amazing thought that God had set His electing love upon him even – before time began – sink down into his soul.

Just as we sing in another of our hymns:

"I find, I walk, I love but O the whole
 Of love, is but my answer, Lord to Thee!
 For thou wert long beforehand with my soul.
 Always, always Thou lovedst me.
 For thou wert long before hand with my soul.
 Always, always Thou lovedst me.'

Sometimes beloved, we might complain that our worship services are a little on the cold and dead side.  We might even think we need a pentecostal experience or a special service or two to liven things up a bit.  But that is not the answer.  The answer is to know our doctrine.  Let it seep down and grip us.  Let us contemplate the wonder and the glory of it all.  Let us be a little more like the apostle Paul, and we too will find ourselves doing what he was doing.  We will be almost leaping out of our skin praising God for His greatness and His grace.  This then covers the first point I wanted to mention, and that is the nature and the objects of this doctrine.  When Paul thought about it, it filled him with an overwhelming sense of praise and adoration.

The second thing I mentioned was the end and ultimate purpose of election.  What do you think that is beloved?  What is God's purpose in election for us?  Is it so that we can be saved and have a perfect righteousness and go heaven when we die?  Yes, it is that.  This is part of it.  But it is even more than this.  It is something even more wonderful.  We are told what God's purpose is in our text.  For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him.

This is God's purpose in choosing us.  He is going to make us perfect, blameless, and holy, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.  We will be like the Lord Jesus himself, and we will be fit to live in heaven with Him.  How isn't that the most wonderful thing you can contemplate?  Think of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7.  Can you hear him groaning out his terrible complaint, "O wretched man that I am.  The things that I don't want to do I keep on doing, and the things I want to do I do not"?  Don't you often feel like that?  There are things in your life that you wished you could stop doing but no matter how hard you try, there it goes again.  One day you will be perfect, and those things will be gone forever.

You know, the commentators have a bit of a disagreement amongst themselves as to exactly where verse 4 should end, and if you look closely you will see that the translators of the NIV were not too sure where to end it either.  Do the words 'in love' belong to verse 4 or verse 5?  You see, they put the full stop behind ‘holy and blameless in His sight’.  But they put the number 5, indicating the beginning of the next verse after the words 'in love'.  The question is, "Do the words 'in love' also belong to the words, holy and blameless in His sight in love, or does it belong to verse 5 so that it reads, 'In love He predestined us?'  I rather believe that the words 'in love' belong to verse 4.  He chose us to be holy and blameless in His sight in love.  You see, love is the fulfilling of the law.  Remember the greatest commandment in the summary of the law.  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength.”  The second one is like it, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."

Remember what Paul says about love in Romans 13.  Love does no harm to its neighbour.  Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.

Remember what it says in 1Cor.13 about love?  "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast.  It is not proud.  It is not rude.  It is not self-seeking.  It is not easily angered.  It keeps no wrongs.   Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  This is what we are destined for – we who have been chosen in Him before the creation of the world.  We are chosen and destined to be made perfect in love.

When the apostle Paul really thought about this, this was one more reason why he nearly leapt out of his skin praising God.  He didn't need to go to a pentecostal group.  He would have left them way behind.  And the things that filled him with praise are unchanging.  They are the solid foundation of our doctrine and the solid foundation of God's unchanging electing love.  But there was one other thing that the doctrine of election did for the apostle Paul.  It made all of this absolutely certain.

Does it not say in our text that He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love?  If God has chosen us to be holy and blameless before Him in love, beloved, then that is exactly what is going to happen.  There is nothing in all this world that can prevent it.  If our election and salvation depended upon us and our own doing, if it were based upon our merit or our faith or anything else, there would be room for doubt.  But the apostle Paul could see that God was the author of His salvation.  He was the one who planned it from beginning to end, and He is the one who will see to it that He does present us before His presence holy and blameless in love.  This is the eternal security of the saints.  The apostle Paul gives expression to this in that great 8th chapter of Romans, and the basis and ground of his certainty was this cardinal doctrine of God's unconditional, sovereign election.  Yes, come what may.  Let sickness come, let pain and suffering come, let persecution come, let all the devils in hell come.  They will never get their hands on the one who has been chosen in Him before the foundations of the world.  That one belongs to God not because he is good but because God has chosen him.  It has been the Fathers very deep pleasure to set His love upon man, and in sovereign might and power He will keep him and bring him home to glory.

Yes, when the Apostle Paul thought of that, there was only one thing he could do.  He could praise God for His wonderful and glorious grace.  It would make him want to shout from the roof tops to everybody in the world.  When we let these wonderful truths of God's word get a hold of us, we will want to do the same.

Well, then, beloved, there is only one question I want to ask you in conclusion this morning.  That question is, "Are you sure about your election?" The Bible tells us that we should be all the more eager to make our calling and election sure.  How do we know if we are one of God's elect or not?

It seems to me that there are two things that we have to ask ourselves.  The first one is this.  Do we also feel a little bit like the Apostle Paul when we really contemplate these things?  Do we feel like the  Apostle Paul when we really think about God's amazing unmerited grace towards us in Christ?  Do we feel like the Apostle Paul when we think of all the blessings that He has bestowed upon us?  Do we also feel like jumping out of our skin and say with Paul, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ"?

If something of that really lives in our hearts, then I would say you are undoubtedly one of God's elect.  If on the other hand, beloved, you can only yawn in boredom when you hear these precious things or look at your watch and wonder how long will the sermon last, then you had better examine yourself and ask if there is any evidence of his electing love in you.

The other thing I would mention is this.  Is there some real evidence of holiness, is there a sincere and growing love for God and His Word, for His Law and His Church and His people?  Remember, our election is unto holiness and blamelessness before Him in love.  If we are His, then God is at work, knocking the rough edges off us and bringing us more and more into conformity with His Son.  If these things are in us and increasing, we may be sure that His love has been with us long before the foundation of the earth and will never leave us.

May He grant it to each one of us.  And to Him be all the praise the honour and the glory now and forever.

Amen.