In some attention, next Lord's Day, as we continue in the series that has been entitled, The Doctrine of Grace. And in light of that, before I get started, I would like to please make three brief comments. The first is, last Lord's Day, Garrett and Beverly Brown mentioned that they had a stack of these books at their home called The Five Points of Calvinism. I stumbled across this book, probably nearly 20 years ago, and found it to be a tool of incredible benefit to my heart and soul. And Garrett and Beverly said, we've got a stack of them at home. We would like to make them available to people in the church free of charge. So they're in the book room back there. If you would just take one per family, we would appreciate it because we'd like everybody who wants one to be able to get one, but you will find this to be a resource of great value. The other thing I want to let you know is that in your bulletin, you probably saw a card like this. There is one in there, I think. The ushers included one this morning. The reason why this is in your bulletin is so that if there are questions that emerge in your mind over the next five weeks as we talk about the doctrines of grace, we would very much like it if you would put those down on paper for us because the sixth week in this series, I would just like to be able to take the time and answer all of those questions for you during the time in which we typically would have the sermon. There was a lot of controversy and unfortunately a lot of confusion related to these particular doctrines. And so if you would like to phrase some of those questions specifically for me, I would love to be able to respond to them and be as helpful to you as I can. So you can fill this out and hand it to me or put it on my desk or drop it in the offering at some point in time, but please be thinking along those lines. And lastly, just to say, by way of encouragement beloved, as we now turn our attention to the second of these five critical points, it's imperative that you understand that what we say today and what we say for the next four weeks grows out of the foundation that was established last Lord's day. And therefore, if you were not here last Lord's day, and I certainly understand with vacations and other things that people are away during the summers, I would very strongly encourage you to get that first tape and listen to it because a great deal of what we will say from this point on will not make sense as fully as it can in its proper context of what we said last week. So having said that now, beloved, then I would like to just read the first couple of verses of John 17, this glorious text that Martin Luther himself has referred to as the Holy of Holies in all of the Bible. It is the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus. John chapter 17, after Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Our Father, we are mindful, painfully so of our limitations, mindful of our weaknesses, mindful of the fact that we're prone to error, we're mindful of the fact that on our best days this word will not impact us and transform us apart from the immediate operation of your Holy Spirit. And so we ask for the sake of Christ and for the good of your people that your Holy Spirit would come and be at work among us in union with the Word of God and that you would affect within us that which needs to be affected within us. Lord, perhaps it's, perhaps it's comfort, perhaps it's just right information. Maybe correction. Perhaps there's a place for conviction. And Lord, we pray for conversion. O Lord and God, from beginning to end, we need your help. We stand at this place and we have our Bibles open and our notes here and we remember, O Lord and God, the response to the five loaves and two fish. What are these among so many? We realize our insufficiency and inadequacy, O Lord and God come and take over for your own glory, say in Jesus name I pray. Amen. George Mueller is one of the great bright spots in the history of the Christian Church. I don't know anybody who would doubt that claim. He was a contemporary of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, if that kind of puts him in a bit of historical context for you. He was a man that Spurgeon himself regarded as a great model of faith and prayer. He was the founder of orphanages in England that provided for thousands of children and to this day around the world, Christians still recognize his name. It is unfortunate, however, that very few of these same people who identify his name, very few of such people are mindful of the theological underpinnings that sustained his great work of faith. In 1829, when he was just 24 years old, he had an experience that profoundly changed his life. In his autobiography, he recounts it as the occasion when he quote, came to prize the Bible alone as my standard of judgment. I'd like you to listen for a minute to the words of his own testimony. Before this period I had been much opposed to the doctrines of election, particular redemption and final persevering grace. But now I was brought to examine these precious truths by the Word of God. Being made willing to have no glory of my own in the conversion of sinners, but to consider myself merely an instrument, and being made willing to receive what the Scriptures said, I went to the Word, reading the New Testament from the beginning, with a particular reference to these truths. To my great astonishment I found that the passages which speak decidedly for election and persevering grace were about four times as many as those which speak apparently against these truths. And even those few, shortly after, when I had examined and understood them, served to confirm me in the above doctrines. As to the effect which my belief in these doctrines had on me, I am constrained to state for God's glory that though I am still exceedingly weak, and by no means dead to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as I might be, and as I ought to be, yet by the grace of God, I have walked more closely with him since that period. My life has not been so variable, and I may say that I have lived much more for God than before. My dear friends, as I begin this morning, I realize from the very outset that not every Christian will agree with what I say about the doctrine of election. It is a doctrine that carries with it the baggage of controversy to be sure, and for that reason alone, some Christians think it's a better part of wisdom to avoid it altogether. But let me ask you, are there any significant biblical teachings that have remained untainted by controversy? If you have any acquaintance with the history of the Christian church whatsoever, the neuromediate answer will be of course not. Whether we're talking about the triune nature of the Godhead, or justification by faith alone, or the personhood of the Holy Spirit, or the deity of Jesus Christ, or the content of the canonical scriptures, as Christians, we have never had the luxury of living in a world where the most nourishing of biblical truths have existed without opposition. And so when someone expresses a sentiment such as the following, I don't like to talk about a particular doctrine because it is controversial, we're not confronted at that point with an expression of great piety or godliness, but rather in most cases a display of biblical laziness and in all cases a manifestation of immaturity and ignorance. If your commitment is to feed your soul on only those spiritual truths that have been or are presently non-controversial, then you'll find yourself staring at an empty plate. I readily acknowledge that controversy surrounds the doctrine of election. I readily acknowledge that it is possible for a Christian not to embrace the doctrine of election. I readily acknowledge that John Calvin will not be at heaven's gate to determine your fitness for entrance into that place by means of your ability to adequately articulate the doctrine of election. And yet, dear friends, directly upon the heels of those genuine concessions, let me say this, the doctrine of election is to be sure one of the most foundational truths in all of the sacred scriptures. And for the very reason that that is so, you can be absolutely certain of one thing to either ignore this truth or to disagree with it is to inevitably impede the ongoing maturity of your spiritual life. That is true with any significant doctrine in the scriptures, my friends, you ignore it, you disagree with it, and you will suffer the consequences of that. It is never wise to assume that there is no cost associated with the neglect of the truth of the Word of God. Whether that neglect is intentional or inadvertent, there was a price to be paid when we distance ourselves from God's truth. And this beloved, quite frankly, is the very thing that fuels my passion on your behalf. I have no burden to get you to pass a theological examination on the Westminster Confession of Faith. My burden for you was far more rudimentary. I shared with the first service last Lord's Day, the illustration of Jack Nicholas, who at one point in time up until the last few years was regarded as the greatest golfer that the golfing world had ever known. And every year before golf season began, Nicholas would return to his original golf instructor, handed his golf club and said, teach me to play golf, take me back to the basics, take me back to those things which are rudimentary to be sure but without which all advancement is compromised. Well, my dear friends, that's all I'm saying to you. This is the very thing that we have to repeatedly do as Christians. We have to return to our teacher, the spirit of truth. We have to place the word of God into his hands as it were and say to him, teach me again to think like a Christian. I need the most rudimentary things. Now that's my burden, beloved. It's to help you think like a Christian, which means allowing the plain and simple truths of the scripture to have their way with you. And this is what the doctrine of election is. It is not a piece of technical, theological apparatus that you can afford to live without. It is a plain and simple truth of the scriptures apart from which the most well-intentioned Christian will remain stilted, stunted in spiritual adolescence. This is why I began this idea. Reading you the very experiential testimony of George Mueller. And for that matter, it's been the repeated testimony of Christians throughout the history of the church. It's been my own testimony. I mean, you've heard it said that there was nothing more obnoxious than a converted drunk. Try a converted Armenian. Converted Armenians become flaming Calvinists. And why is this the case? Because they come to discover, not just that the doctrine of election is the plain and simple teaching of the word of God, they come to experience in a first-hand way that this doctrine feeds the soul. It expands the mind. It strengthens the heart. It fuels our worship. It intensifies our courage. And it motivates our efforts. Now, as we begin to speak about the doctrine of election, beloved, we need to do so this morning with a measure of precision. What do I mean by this? In a very real sense, every Christian believes that God chooses some people to be saved. I mean, unless a person is a universalist believing that all people everywhere will be eternally saved, in which case I wonder if a person could be a Christian, unless a person is a universalist, he believes the testimony of the word of God which indicates that not all people will be saved. Moreover, as he gives himself to reading the word of God, he can't help but notice the frequency with which certain words appear over and over and over again. For example, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word Bahaar translated to choose, to elect, to decide. It's used nearly a hundred times with clear reference to God's sovereign choice. God's divine initiative, it used to express a choosing that carries with it ultimate eternal significance. And the same person when he comes to the New Testament finds the word eclaGo in its related terms used nearly 50 times translated to elect, to choose, the elect, election. And so is this person thinks about all of these things? Though every bias in his being might incline him to the contrary, he can't bring himself to deny the obvious language of the Bible. The question then, for the honest reader of the scriptures is not, does God choose some and not others but rather on what basis? Does God choose some and not others? In 1610, the followers of James Arminius set forth a novel answer. God has chosen certain individuals to be saved on the basis of his foreknowledge of what they will do by their own powers of self-determination. That is to say, God's choice of a particular person is conditioned upon that person's prior choice of him. Listen to the explanation of a more contemporary Arminian, a former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. He writes, by election, we mean that sovereign act of God in grace whereby he chose in Christ Jesus for salvation, all those whom he forenew would accept him. That is classic Arminianism. But of course, dear friends, even apart from what the Bible says specifically about the doctrine of election, this view is irreparably flawed at two obvious points. Firstly, it fails to recognize the implications of what we talked about last Lord's day. The doctrine of total depravity, namely that sin has rendered people unable to respond to God in any kind of positive fashion. This is why Arminianism must always direct its first assault on the doctrine of total depravity. But also secondly, such a view makes a mockery of plain and simple language. And my friends, I'm not saying that in any way to be unduly harsh this morning, but there is no other way of saying it. Though the Bible clearly and repeatedly uses words of choosing to speak of the saving action of God in the Arminian understanding God in the end does no real choosing at all. He simply ratifies the sinner's pre-known choice. The most we can say is that God places his stamp of approval. God lends his agreement to what he foresees will happen. In other words, God looks into the future and he sees that I will believe the gospel. And in response to this foreknown decision, God then says, that's great art because of your choice to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. I now have a basis upon which to choose you to be saved. Does this reflect the teaching of the word of God? We need to be very precise, my friends, concerning the real question to be answered. The state of the question itself is very important. It is not, does God choose some sinners to be saved, but rather is God's choice conditioned upon the foreseen faith of a sinner or to state it more simply? On what basis does God choose to save some? Is it something in the sinner? A virtue of some kind? An expression of faith that ultimately proves to be meritorious? Or is this choice of God altogether unconditional? That is determined by nothing other than his own good pleasure and purpose and will. Allow me this morning to make a stab at answering this question for you, beginning with a gospel of John. In part, because often the claim is made that like no other book in the Bible, the gospel of John presents the free will of man in the clearest possible terms. And I must say, beloved, at the outset, I find this to be a bit amusing because it is the gospel of John that made me a Calvinist. I mean like no other book in the entire Bible, the gospel of John speaks about the electing purposes of God. We're at the burden of a person to cut out of the Bible, every word that touched on the theme of sovereign election, while he'd need to cut and paste on just about every page of the Bible, the one book that would need to be most radically altered would be the gospel of John. And yet at that point, you need to understand something very significant. And that is, the doctrine of sovereign election is not John's axe to grind. All of these words about sovereign election come at us from the lips of Jesus himself. Now you know the setting of John 17. The public ministry of the Son of God has come to a close. His much more intimate and private ministry with the disciples has also come to an end. They leave the upper room and by the light of the Judean moonlight make their way to a familiar spot, the Garden of Gethsemane. But before Jesus crosses the Kidron Brook into the Garden of Gethsemane, he stops to pray. John tells us why. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the Kidron Brook was at this moment running red with lambs blood. It was Passover week don't forget thousands upon thousands of lambs were being sacrificed and the Kidron Brook was the dump site for all of that residual blood. It may be that the sudden sight of that blood stopped Jesus cold in his tracks. A graphic vision of a violent death that foreshadowed his own is the ultimate sacrificial lamb. And so he turns to pray and he says, Father the time, the hour has come. On the calendar of redemptive history, the role of Jesus in the saving purpose of God had arrived at its predetermined moment. My dear friends, I tell you this morning for every event in the mighty drama of redemption there is a stipulated moment. And here the hour of atonement had arrived and so Jesus stops to pray. And for all of its magnificence, the heart of this prayer at its very heart is one all-consuming burden, a request that comes in two parts, an immediate part and an ultimate part. Here's the immediate part of this request, glorify your sun. Why? For what reason? Here's the ultimate part of the request that your sun may glorify you. What does Jesus mean when he says, glorify your sun? He is saying quite simply put my glory on display. Reveal my glory. Expose my glory. Display my glory. Manifest my glory. What does he mean by this? Well, whatever it means, you'll notice that it has direct relationship to this hour that had now come. The hour of his death. Can you think of how it was that the father glorified Jesus Christ in relationship to his sacrificial death? What happened just a few hours after Jesus prayed this prayer? The Pharisees in a Roman cohort led by Judas Iscariot came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What happened? He speaks one phrase, I am and down they go. It was a revelation of his glory. What was the repeated testimony of Pontius Pilate to the giring crowds in relationship to Jesus? I find no fault in this man. It was a revelation of his glory. What was the repeated word of Pilate's wife after that nightmare? Have nothing to do with this righteous man. It was a revelation of his glory. Though the original intention of Pilate was to take a shot at the Jewish religious leaders, what did the sign above the head of Jesus placard to the world? The king of the Jews. It was a revelation of his glory. What was the testimony of the thief on the cross? We are receiving what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong. It was a revelation of his glory. And then that same thief turns to Jesus and says, remember me when you come into your kingdom and how does Jesus respond to that most simple expression of faith? Today you will be with me in paradise. It was a revelation of his glory. And finally, when all was finished, John tells us that he pillowed his head and gave up his spirit. But then what happened? The temple veil was rent in two, signifying that the old way to God was now obsolete. That one man's limited access to God through the sacrifice of an animal had now given way to a universal and unending intimacy with God through the sacrifice of his own son, Jesus Christ. It was a revelation of his glory. And to all of this, what was the conclusion of the Roman centurion? Truly, this man was the son of God. It was a revelation of his glory. Father, the hour of atonement has come. Glorify me. Did his father respond to his prayer? Everything that surrounded the cross served to reveal the glory of Jesus Christ. But of all that I have reminded you, does this reflect the totality of the father's glorification of his beloved son? No. The greatest revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ came three days later when his father raised him from the dead, signifying what that the father had accepted, his redemptive work. He raised his son from the dead for the next 40 days, put him on display for thousands, hundreds of witnesses to see, took him into heaven, set him at the place of supreme dignity in all of the universe, from which place he then poured forth the purchase gift of the new covenant, the indwelling Holy Spirit. And what was it that John told us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit back in John chapter 7? In relationship to the ministry of Jesus, Jesus spoke about these rivers of water that would flow from within a person. And John says, by this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Glorify me. Reveal my glory by raising me from the dead as proof that you have accepted the merits of my redeeming work. Put my glory on display. But we hear that and you know we're kind of inclined to think about our own motivations and we wonder, is this a bit self-serving on the part of Jesus? Glorify me. There's some hubris there. Self-promotion, not hardly. The answer to this request is a means to accomplishing a far greater objective, the ultimate concern of Jesus. Glorify your son. Now look at this purpose clause. So that your son may glorify you. Glorify me father. Raise me from the dead so that in turn I will be able to glorify you. But how will the raising of Jesus from the dead be a means of glorifying his father? Because as a consequence of his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ would grant God's gift of eternal life to a particular group of people. Look at it. Glorify your son. That your son may glorify you. Even as here is the analogical parallel, even as you granted him authority over all people, so that purpose statement, he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. In eternity past, as the triune God had designed the plan of salvation and anticipated its accomplishment, God the Father gave to his son authority over all flesh. And Jesus pronounces this most embatically at the end of Matthew, chapter 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This exucia, this authority means absolute power, the full right to control. It speaks of absolute authority. But why has Jesus been given absolute authority over all flesh? That's the word that's used. Why has Jesus been given authority over all flesh? He might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now beloved look with, look with a measure of precision here. Two gifts from the Father to the Son are mentioned in this verse. Did you notice these two gifts? What's the first gift? Authority. Authority. For you granted him authority. First gift, authority, authority over whom? He tells us authority over all flesh. To be precise at this point, Jesus Christ has not been given all flesh. He has been given authority over all flesh. But then notice a second gift from the Father to the Son is mentioned. And what is this gift? A group of people. A subset of people from the all flesh mentioned in the prior phrase. They are referred to specifically as all those you have given him. So we have these two groups. All flesh, those you have given him, all flesh, those you have given him. Now let me ask you, what is the distinct relationship of Jesus Christ to each of these two groups? The group defined as all flesh and the group defined as those whom the Father has given him? What is the relationship of the resurrected Christ to all flesh? Over them, he has been granted authority. What's the relationship of the resurrected Christ to the group defined as those whom the Father has given him? To them, Jesus grants the gift of eternal life. The logical structure of this thing could not be any more simplistic. God is granted to Jesus Christ authority over all flesh so that in turn, Jesus could grant eternal life to all those the Father had given him to save. There is an authority that is universal in order to affect the salvation that is particular. A group that the Father had given his son to save those whom you have given me and all through this prayer we see the same idea emerge. Look at verse six. Jesus says, I have revealed you and that is I've revealed you in a saving way to those whom you gave me out of the world. Notice larger group, smaller group, larger group, the world, those whom you gave me out of the world, smaller group. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were the yours. You gave them to me. Verse nine, I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. Look at verse 24, Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am. I put all this together, beloved, and it's as clear as can be. In verse two, Jesus says that there was a smaller group taken out of a larger group to whom he gives the gift of eternal life. Verse six, Jesus says that there was a smaller group taken out of a larger group to whom he reveals the Father. Verse nine, Jesus says that there was a smaller group taken out of a larger group for whom he exercises his priestly ministry. Verse 24, Jesus says that there was a smaller group taken out of a larger group for whom he secures their entrance into heaven. I want them to be where I am. Who are these people? In every case it's the same. Those whom the Father has given to the Son. Is this conditioned upon the foreknowledge of their faith? You don't see it here by any stretch of the imagination. It is very much like Ephesians chapter one. 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 foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace. Now my friends I want to tell you something the most elementary teacher of the Bible can devise an outline from that text. The source of election he chose us, that is the Father. The sphere of election he chose us in him that is in Christ Jesus. The time of this election before the foundation of the world. The intention of this election that we should be holy and blameless. The basis for this election in accordance with his pleasure and will not anything within us. The ultimate consequence of this election to the praise of his glorious grace. It is an election conditioned upon nothing but the pleasure of God himself. Here in John 17 the Father gives to his son authority over all flesh for any reason in particular most certainly so that Jesus might give eternal life to a group of people given to him by his Father. Does anything we do factor in to this arrangement? Beloved I would submit to you that what we have going on here is an inner-ternitarian transaction. Our faith is not a factor at all. Turn back to John chapter 5. John chapter 5. Let us be persuaded by the text shall we John chapter 5 in the first several verses Jesus performs a great sign. He heals a man who had been paralyzed for many years and he does so on the Sabbath day and that sparks a great controversy with the Pharisees. He says I'm just doing what I see my Father doing and in so doing he puts himself on equal standing with God calling God his Father and this of course elicits great hostility on the part of the Pharisees and verse 19 picks up the scene Jesus gave them this answer. I tell you the truth the Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father does the Son also does for the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these for just as the Father raises the dead and gives life gives them life even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Now my friends in a mind of a Jewish person one of the activities that define God to be God is his ability to raise corpses from the dead and Jesus draws an analogy between that and what he does. Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life how much does the dead participation in this resurrection just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it as corpses depend upon the life giving voice to resurrect them from the dead so to the recipients of eternal life are all together upon the sovereign pleasure of the Son. Sounds very much like Matthew chapter 11 doesn't it? Remember Jesus preaching in the towns throughout Galilee and very few people respond to his miracles and to his preaching and suddenly Jesus stops cold in his in his tracks and it begins to worship. Listen to the content of his worship. I praise you Father Lord of heaven and earth. In other words there is no sphere in all of the created order over which this God does not rule the Lord of heaven and earth because this is the content of his praise. You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes Father for this was your good pleasure. My friends this is astounding. This is amazing. You know people often say to me you may believe in the doctrine of election but you certainly not never to talk about it. You can believe in the doctrine of election but you want never to teach that kind of thing among your congregational people. I want to tell you something for the God-man for Jesus it was a cause for worship and notice beloved both God-sovereign revealing and God-sovereign concealing. Did you hear it? I praise you because you have hidden these things from the wise because you have revealed them to the little children. This was your good pleasure. He gives God worship in response for those God-saves and for those he chooses not to say. I don't want to be more pious than Jesus to you. It seems to me that being a Christian means that we think like he thinks. He goes on to say all things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those two whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Is this election conditioned upon foreign knowledge? How could it be? You can't know the Father unless the Son is pleased to reveal him. Chapter six verse 37. Chapter six verse 37. By the way I find it very interesting that Jesus often speaks of the doctrine of sovereign election in evangelistic contexts. We often think you know you can't talk to unbelievers about the doctrine of election. You can't talk to new Christians about the doctrine of election. Jesus totally blows those ideas out of the water. He says in John chapter 6 verse 37, all that the Father gives to me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. Who will Jesus never drive away? Those who come to him but who comes to him? That is a coming to him for salvation? All that the Father has given to him. There's the language of John 17 again. The love of this isn't rocket science, huh? Which comes first? People coming to Christ in faith or people being given to Christ by the Father. People come to Christ because they have been given to Jesus by the Father. Hence, election cannot be conditioned upon foreseen faith. Verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. You see the necessary precondition? It's introduced by the word unless something must happen to a person before he possesses the ability to come to Christ for salvation. He must be drawn by the Father. And if he is not drawn, the words of Jesus are simple. He cannot come in faith. This eliminates faith as a precondition of election. The initiative is God. Verse 65. He went on to say Jesus did, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. My friends, this is obvious. No one will ever be saved who does not come to Jesus Christ. Please do not misunderstand me. If you are here and you are not a Christian, I appeal to you with the very authority of God Himself. You need to come to Jesus Christ if you're going to accept, if you're going to find the gift of forgiveness of sins in eternal life. No one will ever be saved who does not come to Jesus Christ. The doctrine of unconditional election in no way undermines that unconditional election simply says those who come to Jesus Christ don't come by accident. They come by divine intention. In this case God's enablement triggers the human decision to come to Jesus Christ. And it's what we read about in the book of Acts, beloved. We read in Acts 13 that Gentiles are converted and Luke writes, and all who were appointed for eternal life believe. How different this is from the Armenian argument that wants to say the converse. All who believe were appointed to eternal life. In Acts chapter 16 when Lydia is converted, Luke says, the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Faith is not the precondition to the divine initiative. The divine initiative is the precondition to faith. Look at chapter 8 in the Gospel of John, verse 46, Jesus has challenged the Pharisees to the very core, suggesting that their ethnic relationship to Abraham is not a basis for their confidence standing before God. In fact, he says, you belong to your father, the devil in verse 44. He says in verse 45, yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? And in the next verse he answers his own question. He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. You know what beloved? From the Armenian perspective, the logic of Jesus is backwards. Jesus should have said, the reason you do not belong to God is because you do not hear and believe. Instead, he says, you do not hear and believe because you don't belong to God. In other words, the human response is the consequence of God's elective grace. Not that God's elective grace is the consequence of human response. Chapter 10, the good shepherd in his sheep. In verse 24, we have Jews surrounding Jesus saying, how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Messiah? Tell us plainly, well, Jesus had been telling them for the last five chapters. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. Notice that Jesus does not say you do not belong to me because you do not believe. It's the other way around. The reason you don't believe is that you don't belong to me. Faith is not the cause of election. Beloved election is the cause of faith. I mean, this is as simple as can be. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. Hear that from John 17 and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me, John 17 is greater than all. There is a group of people who belong to Jesus Christ. How is it that they have come to belong to him? They have been given to him by his father. How do we distinguish who they are? They evidence their election by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is not the cause of election. Faith is the evidence of election. Friends, let's step away from the gospel of John for a moment. This is a thread that weaves its way through the entirety of biblical revelation. You have this very much intertwined to the storyline of the Bible. I mean, we open up to the book of Genesis and what do we see? God chooses a man. In fact, that's the very language that's used. God chose Abraham. Wasn't because Abraham was such a good guy? Wasn't because God foresaw that Abraham would one day exercise his faith in Yahweh? No, we know from Joshua chapter 24 that Abraham and his family were idol worshipers. God chose Abraham unconditionally. But what do we discover is the storyline unfolds that the call of Abraham is not merely the call of an individual, but the sovereign call of a nation through which God would bring salvation to all the people groups of the world. And so over and over again, particularly in the book of Isaiah, Israel is referred to as the chosen of God, the chosen of God, the chosen people, the chosen race. And why did God choose Israel? Because she competed with all of the other nations and she won his favor. Because God anticipated the great faith that she would express poured in. No, Deuteronomy 10 says the Lord sent his affection on your forefathers and loved them. And he chose you over and over again. This testimony gets replayed throughout all of the Old Testament. The reason why God chose Israel had nothing to do with anything good in Israel. It had everything to do with God's own holy heart. Deuteronomy chapter seven, God says, why did I love you? I loved you because I love you. It's a totology. It doesn't say anything new. It just says the same thing over and over again. Well believe it. That's the language of romance. That's the language of love. It doesn't make sense. But expresses the heart. And here is what God is saying. I love you because I love you. And so Israel becomes the chosen of God, the chosen of God. God's chosen son, God's chosen servant. Those are the two things that come at us again and again. Israel is God's chosen son. Israel is God's chosen servant. But as more of the story unfolds, what will we discover? That Israel fails miserably. The elect nation is not characterized by people who genuinely belong to God. Apostasy takes place. Judgment occurs. The nation is taken into captivity with only a remnant of people belonging to God. Finally in his mercy, God brings the exiles home. But as the New Testament opens up, we're very mindful of the fact that there are promises of salvation given to Israel that have not yet been fulfilled. And yet we come to the gospel of Matthew and the light dawns and good news has heralded. There is a man that God has chosen to be his Messiah. And that language is used of Jesus over and over again as the chosen one, the chosen one, the true Son of Abraham and David. He is set forth as God's son and he is set forth as God's servant. He is the true Israel succeeding where the nation had failed. He is the son who has been liberated from Egypt. Matthew chapter 2, he is the one who resist the temptation 40 days in the wilderness. Matthew chapter 4, when his ministry begins, he chooses 12. Reconstituting the nation of Israel. Consequently, the people who belong to him are now referred to by designations that clearly marked them out as the fulfillment of the people of God. Those old Testament names apply to the church. Saints, beloved ones, children of Abraham, the true circumcision, the Israel of God. But perhaps most definitive of all, again and again in the New Testament scriptures, Christians are repeatedly given that one great label from the Old Testament. They are called the chosen ones. It's there if we'll bow our pride to it. Turn to Romans chapter 8. Maybe the most glorious text on this theme, I could have began here this morning, but wanted so much for you to hear this from the very mouth of Jesus himself. That's where we began in John, but let me read to you this glorious text. You know it, huh? Often we miss quote verse 28 or don't miss quote it, but strip it from its context and we miss what it's really trying to say. He says in verse 28, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called literally to those who are the called ones according to his purpose. That's the way the original text reads for. In other words, Paul says in verse 29, let me tell you what I'm talking about in verse 28. You know what we do? We strip verse 28 out of its context, right? Drive down the freeway, get a ticket. We say, well, at least I know that God works all things together for good. That's not what Romans 828 is saying. The verse, right after it begins with the word four. Paul explains what he means. Let me tell you what I mean. God works for the good of those who love him. God works on behalf of those who are the call according to his purpose. Let me tell you what I mean. For those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son. And you say, oh, art, I got you now. There it is. There it is. God's foreknowledge. There's the word right there. My friends, I readily grant you that God knows all things ahead of time. But my friends, you need to appreciate the fact that the reason why God knows all things ahead of time is because he has ordained all things ahead of time. Remember the story of Ruth? One can only foreknow what one himself has predetermined. But beyond all of that, what does the text say for those God for new? Does it say God for new the faith that people would exercise in his son? No, in fact, look very carefully here. I'm not being facetious. I'm not being sarcastic. Notice the text says nothing about what God for new. It only speaks about whom God for new. He knew a group of people. And whoever these people are, it is also said that God predestineates them. God justifies them. God calls them. God glorifies them. In other words, this is a group of people for whom God does everything. So what does the word for know mean? Very often in the scriptures, friends, the word to know, you know, it's going in the New Testament, Yadah in the Old Testament. The word means so much more than mere cognition, it means to know in an intimate way. Think the very first use of this verb in the Old Testament? Adam knew his wife and she conceived him for a son. It's not talking about mere cognition, it's talking about intimacy, intimate relation, intimate intercourse, intimate knowledge. God uses the same word with regard to Israel. He says in Amos, you only have I known among all the families of the earth. Beloved God is omniscient. Of course God has intellectual awareness of every nation, but he's saying something different, you see. He is saying of all the nations on this planet. I've entered into intimate relationship, intimate intercourse with you. And Jesus uses the very idea of this in a different kind of setting in Matthew 7 when he says to those who were workers of theiquity, depart from me. I never knew you. I knew your name. I know where you lived. I know the day you were born and the day you died. I know the numbers of hairs on your head, but we had no intimate relationship. That's the idea behind the word that's here. And so many, you see, have rightly interpreted this for knowledge to mean, to love before time, to love before time. Look at it. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, to those who are the call according to his purpose, for those God loved before time, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. This election is unconditional. Look at the next chapter. Paul says, let me draw upon an illustration of the truth I had just given to you. Abraham had a couple of children. God didn't choose the first born, Ishmael, he chose the second born Isaac. In the same way, Isaac had a couple of children, verse 10. Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one in the same father, our father Isaac, yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, including the exercise of faith, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated. What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Paul is following the tracking, the train of thought on the part of an Armenian who wants to say at this point, that's not fair. Is God unjust? Not at all. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. This election is unconditional, my friend. I can say everything in one sentence, embracing the you in the tulip across it means nothing more than you have come to a basic understanding of one simple biblical frame. Salvation is of the Lord, that's all this.