Study the Canons of Dort, which speaks about where God sends the Gospel. Acts 16, Electory, verses 6 through 15. At the beginning of chapter 16, the Apostle Paul wants Timothy to join them on the missionary journey. And then we read what ends up being the Macedonian call. Acts 16 at verse 6. Acts 16, verse 6. God's holy word we give attention to. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in the city some days, and on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and our household as well, she urged us saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. God's word. If you turn in the Forms and Prayers book to page 272, 272, we're in the third and fourth heads of doctrine, and we're up to article seven. Article 7 says, in the Old Testament, God revealed the secret of his will to a small number. In the New Testament, now without any distinction between peoples, he discloses it to a large number. The reason for this difference was not to be ascribed to the greater worth of one nation over another or to the better use of the light of nature, but to the free and good pleasure and undeserved love of God Therefore, those who receive so much grace, beyond and in spite of all they deserve, ought to acknowledge it with humble and thankful hearts. On the other hand, with the apostle, they ought to adore, but certainly not inquisitively search into, the severity and justice of God's judgments on the others who do not receive this grace. People of God, we've been studying the Canons of Dort, very deep and profound truths, often mysterious to us. Tonight we continue that. And as we think about these things of the Lord, which all really center around the doctrine of election, that God, before the creation of the world, chose out of the fallen human race, some to be saved and others to not be saved. Well, sometimes we In our sinful human nature, we want to pass judgment on God. We want to sit and judge on what He's done and declare to Him what would be fair, what would be loving, what would be right. Sometimes we feel like we're able to criticize God. But of course, if what we confess in the Canons of Dort is not just man's opinion, but it's a summary of God's Word, then we have no right to do that. We have to let God be God. Whatever He declared, that's right because God by definition is right. He's always right. He's the righteous God. He's holy and we by nature are not. And it's humbling when God has to show us and remind us who He is and who we are. The end of the book of Job, of course, is a crash course in that reality. Job, who had done so well, but began to quarrel with God about what God was doing in his life, found God at the end of the book calling Job to dress and stand before God and be questioned by God. Job had been questioning God so much. And then we read that the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man, I will question you and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. He goes on to say, or who shut in the sea with doors, prescribed limits for it and said, thus far you shall come and no farther. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? He asks Job, can you lift up your voice to the clouds that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are? God even humorously speaks of the ostrich, which he's made to be stupid on purpose for his own reasons, for his own glory. God comes again at Job, answering Job out of the whirlwind, dressed for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? The Lord brings Job along until Job acknowledges again that God is God. As we study these things in the canons and in God's word, time and again, we're brought back to that, aren't we? That God is God and we're not. He's the sovereign one. God will do what God will do and God is right. that I would see that as we consider God's sending of the gospel. Notice where the gospel is sent, first of all, and then why the gospel is sent, secondly, and then how we should respond as those who receive the gospel. You know, when you meet someone who doesn't believe in election, and they take hold of all the scriptures that speak of election, and they do something with them to avoid the reality that God before time has actually chosen who to save and not save, You could point out to them that they haven't escaped the issue yet of the discrimination of God. They haven't escaped it. Because even if they're able by way of talking about God's foreknowledge and trying to believe that God was choosing those who would believe in Him and all of that, they haven't escaped the reality that God's discrimination is not just in the area of election before time, and not just in the future when God sends the Spirit where He will and works in the hearts that He will, but God's discrimination is seen even where He sends the gospel. I mean, anybody who reads the Old Testament has to confess that God discriminated among peoples. He chose one nation out of the world, as we sang in Psalm 147 tonight. He gave to Israel his law and no other nation. The only way of knowing God and being saved is by God's revelation. You have to hear the gospel. You have to know the good news. And God chose to send the good news to one nation in the Old Testament. And to be sure, Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations, and all were supposed to be attracted by Israel, but God didn't send out foreign missionaries to the nations. Not very often. God sent the prophets to his people. God made a sovereign choice. Acts 14 verse 16, we have Paul and Barnabas at Lystra and they say, in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Acts 14, 16. Now something has changed, hasn't it, in the New Testament? Talked about it in high school, the catechism this morning. In the Old Testament, people, if they wanted to be saved, sort of had to come to Israel, to Jerusalem. But now, the Spirit's poured out in the New Testament, and missionaries are sent out from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. There's a marked difference. There's a new development. And yet, and yet even now, the gospel's not sent everywhere, but God discriminates. Acts 16 is a clear example of that. The Apostle Paul and company on this missionary journey have ideas about where they'd like to preach the gospel. Verse six, the spirit forbids them to speak it in Asia. So they head north. They want to go to Bithynia, below the Black Sea there, and the spirit of Jesus doesn't allow them. God doesn't just send the gospel everywhere. Now I went to an Arminian type high school, non-reformed high school, non-denominational. It was mainly Arminian type pastors and such that spoke in our chapels. And sometimes got the impression that we were to feel very guilty for anyone who died without the Lord. It was our fault that we didn't bring the gospel to them. And what are you going to say on the last day to all these people going to hell when they look back at you and say, why didn't you tell me? It's a very Arminian view, right, of salvation, all depends on man. But here, Paul can't be faulted for his effort, he can't be faulted for lack of love, he can't be faulted for lack of compassion, and still he can't bring the gospel to everywhere he wants to go. God stops him. How he stops him, we're not told. Don't know if it's a revelation they had, we don't know if it's a legal ban on preaching in the area, we don't know if it's some sickness, we don't know. But we know the spirit of Christ was stopping them. God chooses where the gospel go. The Lord is the Lord of missions. The Lord is the Lord of his gospel. The Lord is the Lord of preaching, and he sends it where he wants to send it. Now, actually, these places will receive the gospel later, but at this point in time, God was pressing Paul onward towards the coast so he could receive that Macedonian call and the vision and could go over to what would become Europe, the gospel spreading. God sets the agenda. God has his plan. God is God. And that's the way it's been, not just in the Old Testament, even now in the New Testament, and even in the course of modern missions. John Stott, in his commentary, lists a few important missionaries who were blocked in one direction to be led by God in another. He writes, Livingston tried to go to China, but God sent him to Africa instead. Before him, Cary planned to go to Polynesia and the South Seas, but God guided him to India. Judson went to India first, but then was driven on to Burma. Isn't that interesting? the Lord's movement, the Lord doing what the Lord will do. God is sovereign and God has always restricted his grace in various ways. God has always sent the gospel to some and not to everyone. That's the way it's been since the beginning. Does it mean that we can sit back and be idle? Does it mean that we don't pray for the salvation of all? Does it mean that we ought not to try to take the gospel everywhere? But in the end, the gospel's gonna go where God has appointed the gospel to go. The Lord is the Lord of missions. That's the first thing we see tonight, where the gospel's sent. But then the question why? If God discriminates and sends it to some places and not other places, what's the reason for that? Why is the gospel preached to Israel and not to other nations? Why does the gospel go to Macedonia this time and not to Bithynia? Why does the gospel come to us and not to some jungle in Africa? Is it because we're better? Is it because we're entitled? Is it because we've made a better use of the revelation in nature that was around us? We were more prepared to receive the gospel. Arminian theology runs along those lines with the emphasis on man's ability to choose. The reason one person is saved and not the other is simply owing to the one who decided to make use of the revelation he had, decided to reach out to God, decided to seek the Lord. And essentially then one person is simply more spiritual than another. One person is more wise than another. It really comes down to the people. I don't know how that would lead to pride if that were true. What is the reason? Do we have ourselves a hidden prejudice? A sinful discrimination in our minds? When you study history and see the spread of the gospel and see how it heads up into Europe, Instead of immediately to a number of Muslim lands or to the east, do you assume that Europeans are a better people, a wiser people, a more fit people to be Christians? In the canons, if you turn back to page 266 and 267, in a different section, under the rejection of heirs, under the first head of doctrine. Remember after each head of doctrine there's the positive sections we've been reading, but afterwards there's a negative section, a rejection of errors, and the highlighted part is the part we reject. So on the bottom of page 266 we reject The teaching of those who teach that the cause for God sending the gospel to one people rather than to another is not merely and solely God's good pleasure, but rather that one people is better and worthier than the other to whom the gospel is not communicated. Dr. Robert Godfrey, a book that he recently published on the campus of Dorp, points out that this is a lesson that we need to learn. He writes, this particular rejection of air perhaps deserves special attention. The 17th century would see the rapid expansion of European commercial contacts with Africa, Asia, and the New World, commercial success often led to colonization and sometimes slavery. Much of modern history is about the successes and tragic failures of colonialism. At the heart of European failures was their profound sense of superiority to the peoples they colonized and enslaved. How different that history might have been had those Europeans really grasped the teaching here and understood that they were not more worthy than others in the eyes of God. Then they might have embraced the virtue of humility implied in this teaching. Very regrettably, many Calvinists, very regrettably, many Calvinists were no better than most non-Calvinists in really living out this teaching. It's worth considering, isn't it? It's easy to begin to think, with all the wealth we have in America, with all the education, with all the privilege, that somehow there's something better about us, more worthy about us. If you confess in the canons, it's not because one nation was superior to another. It was not because one people were better. It's not because one was more intellectual, or one was more humble, or one was more ready, or one made better use of what God had given them. That's not the reason. That's not the reason the gospel went to Israel, not the other nations. It's not the reason the gospel went to Macedonia, not Bithynia. It's not the reason the gospel came to Europe instead of to Africa. Those are not the reasons. Israel struggled with that. Israel thought they were a better people, didn't they? Israel often looked down their noses at the nations around them. It wasn't the days of Jesus. They despised the Samaritans. They were only half Jews. Where does that kind of thinking come from? Kind of pride. But God had told Israel in Deuteronomy 7, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasure possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more a number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you. What's the reason? It's not Israel, it's the Lord. It's not Israel's greatness, it's the Lord's love. Israel proved to be, humanly speaking, a rather terrible choice, didn't it? Israel turned to idols. Jeremiah says, you've done what no other nation has done. Other nations don't exchange their gods and betray their own gods, and yet you, Israel, you've done this. What gross ingratitude. Why does God choose to send the gospel to one place and not another? The answer is because God is God, because it pleased God. The answer is God's sovereign pleasure. Jesus, before those famous words in Matthew 11, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Jesus, in Matthew 11, 25 and 26, says, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Why? Why the gospel here and not there? Answer, because this was God's good pleasure. The discrimination of God is not sinful. Remember where we began in the canons, that God would have done no injustice to leave everyone in their sin and condemn all of us to hell. That would have been fair, that would have been just. God's discrimination is not a sinful discrimination. But God does discriminate, he does choose among some. And it's not based on us. Left to ourselves, we are all haters of God. Left to ourselves, we are all unworthy of the Lamb of God, that God should send his son for us. Left to ourselves, not one of us would believe the good news. You see, there's a mysterious providence here, isn't there, in why God sends the gospel one place and not another. There is a mysterious and deep providence here. But if we try to remove the mystery of it all by saying, well, some people are better, some people are more prepared, some people are more willing, then we will fall into the grossest pride. Because in the end, all you can say then is that the reason some get saved and not others is because some people are better than others. And that would be utterly unbiblical. Why is the gospel sent here and not there? Because of the good pleasure of the sovereign God. How do we respond to that then? How do we respond to that? Consider that thirdly tonight. Should we get angry and shake our fist at God? Should we sort of shake our heads that God's not so fair and wise as we are? Should we be a little embarrassed about what kind of a God this is? If only he was as tolerant and loving as American media. No, we should praise God and fall down in worship. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. That's what the canons remind us of. Therefore, those who receive so much grace beyond and in spite of all they deserve ought to acknowledge it with humble and thankful hearts. In all these things we study, the question that should always be popping up in our minds is, why me? Why me, Lord? Who am I that you'd send your Son for me? Who am I that you'd visit me with the Gospel? We should be deeply humble. There's not a thing about you or me that makes us more worthy of the Gospel. We could just as easily Humanly speaking, we've been born into a Muslim home and die a Muslim suicide bombing death. We could just as easily be born into a Buddhist home. We could just as easily be trapped in a secular American home, living that way. Just as easily be in some far off place on this planet where we've never heard the gospel. We don't have the scriptures in our own language. There's nothing about us that decided we wanted the gospel and got ourselves planted here. There's nothing about us that we somehow voted before we were conceived that God, why don't you put me in America, because I'm that kind that wants to be a Christian. Not at all. That kind of thinking sneaks in. But when we hear what the word of God says about our true state, then all we can do is bow our heads and give thanks to God. I deserve nothing. And that humility then should show itself in the way we think about others in the world, the way we deal with unbelieving neighbors and so forth. Our culture is mixed up as to what judgmentalism is, but there is a sinful judgmentalism. which we don't deal graciously with sinners because we shake our heads at them like they're such fools and we're so smart. They're so blind and I have such good vision. What do you have that you did not receive? If grace is grace, if it's undeserved mercy towards undeserving sinners, then we have nothing to boast in except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as we saw from 1 Peter 3.15 this morning in a high school catechism, being ready to give a reason in defense of our hope means being ready to do it with meekness and gentleness. I didn't deserve to be chosen. I didn't deserve the gospel should come to me. I didn't lead myself to see its wisdom. It was all of God. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Do your neighbors and co-workers see that in you? If asked about you by your co-workers, your neighbors, is that the thing they would mark? He's humble. He's gentle. He's meek. Or would they say of you, he's kind of arrogant. He's got an edge to him. His nose is a little bit up in the air. He's always shaking his head at what I do. as true as we're considering if we're hearing them in truth and we're receiving them from the Scriptures, they're humbling, humbling. At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us. Not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. Titus 3, how should we respond to the gospel? Should we get to gather twice on Lord's Day after Lord's Day to hear the gospel proclaimed? Should we get to read it in our homes with all plethora of Bibles? How should we respond to this? With humble thanksgiving to God. And what of God's justice? That there are countless thousands who died in the Old Testament without ever even hearing that there is a Savior. And there's been countless thousands that have died in New Testament times without ever hearing that there is Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior. How should we respond to this? We should adore the severity and justice of God's judgments. We should not inquisitively pry into them. We should not try to go further than the scriptures would have us go. But we should adore the justice of God. Who punishes evil doers. Who destroys those who try to destroy his kingdom. A God who said at the beginning, in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. And a God who brings his severe judgments to pass. We should, in humility, adore, worship, honor the justice of God. The Apostle Paul, after those chapters, Romans 9 through 11, when he speaks of these truths of election and of reprobation, speaks of his sorrow for his kinsmen, praying that they would be turned but says in the end, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever. Amen. And amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we confess that we are by nature proud and we see the ugly head of pride arising in all kinds of areas in our lives. We confess, oh Lord, there's many words we've spoken that do little to reveal a knowledge that we've been saved by grace. There's been reactions that we've had towards unbelievers around us that do not seem to reveal that we know we've been saved by undeserved mercy. We pray, Heavenly Father, that your Holy Word would humble us. Pray that we not sit in judgment of you. You are the awesome and eternal God. Pray that we'd let God be God. that we'd be thankful for what you've done for us, that you've sent us these precious truths of the Lord Jesus. We pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts a compassion for the lost, even as we are glad, oh Lord, that you are righteous to judge the wicked. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that though there are many things about all of this that we cannot begin to comprehend, that we would fall down before your feet, confess that those things belong to you, and you are good, and you are righteous, and you are to be loved and feared. Oh, Heavenly Father, we pray. Send forth your gospel, bless your church and the mission you've given her, and let your church rest in the sovereignty of your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.