This morning as we consider the third in a series of sermons on the doctrines of grace, we read Holy Scripture from Acts chapter 13. The text that we will consider is verse 48, especially the last half of that verse. We begin reading at Acts 13 verse 14. And this is the Word of God. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and, beckoning with his hands, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manors in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king. And God gave unto them Saul the son of Kiss, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, and as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he, But behold, there cometh one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, and that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore, he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts. but they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." We are not basing Our sermon's on the canons of Dort, but we are following through the first head of doctrine. And this morning, I'm going to read page 57 in the back of the Psalter, Articles 4, 5, and 6 of Head 1. Article 4, this is our confession. The wrath of God abideth upon those who believe not this gospel. but such as receive it and embrace Jesus, the Savior, by a true and living faith, are by Him delivered from the wrath of God and from destruction and have the gift of eternal life conferred upon them." Article 5, the cause or guilt of this unbelief as well as of all other sins is no wise in God, but in man himself. Whereas faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the free gift of God, as it is written, by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, and so on. Philippians 1 verse 29. And then article 6. That some receive the gift of faith from God and others do not receive it proceeds from God's eternal decree. For known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts 15 verse 18, who worketh all things after the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1 verse 11, according to which decree he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect in his judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination between men equally involved in ruin. For that decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the word of God, which though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds rest to their own destruction, Yet to the holy and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation." As you can see, the canons in those articles speaks of the relationship between the decree of election and reprobation and faith. And in connection with that, we consider this morning Verse 48 of Acts 13, which I'll read again. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do consider an important subject this morning. That is the connection between the eternal decree of God and faith. The connection between election and faith, or to use the language of the text before us, between ordination and believing. As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. In connection with that subject, the relationship between election and faith, we also consider the important question of the necessity of faith. And I hope that you recognize right away that this text, as well as the Canons of Dort articles which we read, sets before us very clearly an answer to the question, Is faith necessary for salvation? The answer, the clear answer to that question is yes. For both the canons, and more importantly the scriptures and then the canons on the basis of scripture, teach us that salvation and eternal life is for those who believe. Those who do not believe do not have eternal life, but perish and experience eternal death. In connection with the importance of and the necessity of faith, this text also holds before us the importance and the necessity of the preaching of the gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ must be heard. That Gospel, when it is heard, must be responded to. And so we have in this text three very important questions and three very important answers to those questions. The first question is, who are saved? The text, and this is also true of the canons, answer that question this way. They are saved who hear the preaching of the gospel. And then the next question is, are all who hear the preaching of the gospel saved? And the answer of the text and of the canons is no. Only those who respond in faith, only those who believe the preaching of the gospel are saved. And then comes the third question. Who are those? who believe, how do we explain that they believe and are saved unto eternal life? And that's where that question of the connection or the relationship between election and faith is so important. We receive here in this text then basic instruction Basic instruction about truths that are not deep and far into the weeds, as it were, in the Reformed faith, but very basic truths. What is the connection between election and faith? What is the connection between election and the preaching of the gospel? And what is the connection between election, faith, the preaching of the gospel, and salvation and eternal life? All of that is right here before us in this text we consider this morning. These truths are basic, I say, and important for four reasons. First of all, for the sake of the glory of God. If we do not understand these truths, especially the connection between election and faith rightly, We will not do justice to but will deny the glory of God. Secondly, these truths are basic and important for the sake of the truth. When it comes to the relationship between election and reprobation, this is precisely the point where there is a difference between the truth of Scripture as confessed by the Reformed faith and our Reformed confessions, including the canons of Dort, the difference between that and the lie of Arminianism. We do not believe the same thing and we must defend the truth of the Reformed faith over against Arminianism. Thirdly, what we confess, what we're taught here, and therefore what we confess about these things, especially now election and faith, is important for our comfort. We are dealing with the doctrines of grace that is the doctrines of salvation. If we don't understand clearly these things, well then, the gospel that we hear will not be the glad tidings, the joyful comforting tidings, that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas preached in the church in Antioch, but it will be no gospel, no joy, no comfort. But fourthly, what we consider this morning is basic and important for the unity of the church of Jesus Christ. This is important for me, And for all of us right now in the Protestant Reformed churches, the Canons of Dort, as I pointed out in the very first sermon, is one of our three forms of unity. And how important that is now at this time when we as churches are experiencing some disruption of our unity. It has been said by others, and I have repeated it often in sermons, that the believers, the members of the church, especially see the importance of unity, treasure unity, value unity in the truth when that unity is disrupted. And they experience the pain and the misery of schism. I submit to you that when ministers publicly disagree with one another, and disagree with one another in such a way that they even question each other's orthodoxy, and even go beyond that, and in some instances charges of heterodoxy, false doctrine are made, That's not peaceful. That's not a state of unity. That's sad. That's disunity. And maybe if you're like me, you've experienced the misery of that, and you can say it's sinful. I'll admit that, that it's probably sinful. But you probably experienced that in hours during the day where you think about and are anxiously worrying about how to bring about an end to this situation. Or maybe you've had nights where you've laid awake, sleepless, because you're anxious about this situation. And just to give, and I don't mean to exaggerate at all, but just to give some expression to how miserable disunity is, because you love the church of Jesus Christ, you might even say sometimes, you love her more than your own life, I'd rather die than see the church of Jesus Christ bothered, rent, torn with schism. But now, Where's their hope? Beloved, in our current controversy, which does have to do with some of the subjects that are covered by this text, we need to rally around the truth of Scripture set forth in the canons of Dort. And we do need to say, as we stand underneath that truth as our banner, This is where our unity is and we need to say, and if you're not here under this banner of the truth with us, we don't have unity with you. But then let us say to all of those who agree with us, we're one. We're brothers. We're sisters. in Jesus Christ and may God grant us the joy of unity and peace in the truth that we consider this morning as we consider this text under the theme, Elected Unto Faith. Noticing three things. That this is an ordered relationship and the order is very important. Secondly, the certain knowledge, and then thirdly, the blessed assurance. In Acts chapter 13, we have a very beautiful explanation of the fruit of the preaching of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey in Antioch of Pisidia. Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue to preach on a Sunday the glad tidings of salvation, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. They preach, that means, the truth of universal sin. To everyone in that audience, they preach the truth that there is no man who stands before God righteous. Everyone is sinful. Everyone is guilty. They also preached the truth of salvation or the truth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. They laid before the members or the people in that audience, they laid before them this truth, no man is justified by the law of Moses. That means no man can say, now I am a sinner, but I'm going to deal with the problem of my sin on my own by applying the law of God to my heart and my life. I'm going to keep that law and make myself right before God. No man can do that. The law of Moses does not justify anyone. The law of God given to Moses only condemns. If you do this this morning, You take hold of the Law of Moses and you compare yourself to it. There's only one thing that Law of Moses is going to say to you. You're guilty. You're not justified. But Paul and Barnabas preach justification through Jesus Christ. God's Son, who is sent in the fulfillment of all of the promises that He gave in the Old Testament. God's Son who died on the cross in the place of His people. In Him there is the forgiveness of sins. In Him there is the declaration of righteousness before God. The salvation, though, they declared. when they preach the gospel, is not for all men. This salvation through Jesus Christ is for those who believe in Jesus Christ. And so, Paul and Barnabas issued the call of the gospel, calling, commanding the men, the women, and the children in that audience, repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Now, they issued this call to a large audience, almost the whole city, of both Jews and Gentiles. They did not discriminate. Paul and Barnabas were not, to use a word that they wouldn't have known, but to use a word today that is known today, they were not hyper-Calvinists. They did not discriminate. They did not say, we're going to preach the gospel only to these people because We think that the gospel is only for the saving of the elect, and we think this is more likely where the elect are, and these people seem to us to be rejected by God. We're not going to preach the gospel to them. No, Paul and Barnabas didn't know who the elect and reprobate were. And even though they knew this may be a mixed multitude, there may be reprobate among, they didn't know who they were, but there may be reprobate among the people in this audience, they nevertheless preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in the ears of all the hearers there in the synagogue in Antioch. They preached the gospel, the canons use this word later on, promiscuously. To all men. This is the way that it is today, too. When an audience gathers on the mission field, or when a congregation gathers together on the Lord's Day for worship. The minister does not discriminate. He preaches to all who gather to hear the gospel, even though he trembles when he thinks about this. Even though that preaching comes to some who are elect and some who are reprobate. Some who will hear that preaching as a sweet savor for their salvation. Some will hear that preaching for their hardening and to leave them without excuse. Sin is preached to all. Jesus Christ as the Savior is presented to all. The call, repent, believe is preached to all. And the fruit, the fruit is some. Some only. Some only believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the mission field and even in the congregation. Why? The answer is given clearly in the text. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Ordained. That is, appointed to eternal life. This is an act of God. This appointment to eternal life is God. choosing whom he will and saying, I appoint him, I appoint her, I appoint that one unto eternal life. It should be obvious that the ordained do not appoint themselves unto eternal life. We examine the text here and it's talking to us especially about Gentiles who hear the preaching of the gospel and believed as the ordained. It stands to reason that these are people who before hadn't heard the preaching of the gospel. These are people who never believed the gospel before, therefore, because they hadn't heard. And these are people who, if you talk to them as those who were dead in trespasses and sins, And you said to them now, what if God did give to you the right to appoint yourselves unto something? What would you appoint yourself unto? And there's only one answer to that. They would appoint themselves not to eternal life in heaven with God, but they would choose to appoint themselves to eternal damnation. This is true of all men everywhere, you and me by nature. If, notice I say if, God said it's up to you to appoint yourself to an end, we would choose sin and condemnation. But if, if these Gentiles are appointed to eternal life that must be an act of God. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9 confirms this for us where the Apostle Paul writes, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. It's God who has not appointed us to wrath, but then what has he appointed us unto? 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9 says, to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God has appointed us to that. Or now in the language of our text, he's appointed us unto eternal life. Now the fact that 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9 mentions Jesus Christ is very important. This eternal life is not ours by right naturally. It's ours only through Jesus Christ. He gives us the right. Jesus Christ must be incarnate. He must be born of a woman. He must sacrifice himself on the cross. God's only begotten Son. That's necessary for us to be appointed unto eternal life. And the question there then is, who does that? The answer is, again, only God can, only God has the right to appoint Jesus Christ as the Savior for those whom He has appointed to eternal life. So this ordination is an act of God. And about this act of God, we notice four things. First of all, this is an eternal decree of God. Here in the text, we see that in time and history, there are people who hear the gospel and believe. But before that can happen, there's an ordination that takes place. And we know from the rest of Scripture that that Appointment unto eternal life takes place in the eternal decree of God. Secondly, this ordaining, this choosing, election, is not general. It's not the case that God said about that group of people, I choose this group in general to hear the gospel, And I choose to give unto whoever will believe, even though I don't really know who that might be, to give to them eternal life. No, this election is definite. It's the choice of individuals in love. According to God's knowledge of them, I choose these people in this audience unto eternal life. Thirdly, this election is God's appointment to eternal life. For the Arminian, that's always in doubt. The Arminian has many, and if you read the canons and study them carefully, you're going to find out that there's a maze of definitions of election from the Arminian point of view. And for the Arminian, election isn't unto eternal life. No, no. Election is a determination of certain conditions that a man must fulfill in order to have eternal life. He must hear the preaching. He must believe the preaching. He must persevere in faith. He must persevere in obedience and living a holy life. And then maybe at the end of his life, he may have eternal life. That's not the truth of the text. God chooses the end, the goal. And if God says of you, I've chosen you unto eternal life, that's not in doubt, but it's certain. You must have and reach the goal of eternal life. And then fourthly, this election is entirely gracious and sovereign. God does not set a condition. I will appoint you unto eternal life if you believe. No. It doesn't depend on faith. And that means it cannot depend on persevering in faith, on doing good works, or anything else. The whole Christian life proceeds from faith. And the point here is if faith itself is not a condition, then the rest of our Christian life that comes from faith cannot be a condition for this election, this ordination of God. It's not deserved. In fact, I'll say it again. We deserve the opposite of eternal life. We deserve eternal condemnation. It's God who graciously in eternity says, I choose, I appoint these certain people unto eternal life. And so we see very clearly that election is first, and therefore faith depends upon election. Notice that when the text says, and as many were ordained to eternal life believed, that the text is doing two things. First of all, the text is putting election, ordination, before believing, before faith. But in doing that, the text is doing the second thing. The text is pointing out the cause and the result, or the cause and the effect. There's not just this chronological sequence of unrelated things happening, and you can't even really talk about chronology, when we talk about God's eternal decree, that's before time. But these are not unrelated things. The point is, election is first as the cause of faith. That's why the theme of the sermon is not merely election and faith, but election unto faith. If believing is first, then we have to say faith causes election. But if election is first, we have to say that election causes faith. And you can see the importance right away, I hope. If faith is first and causes election, then that means that God depends upon man. And the glory goes to man. It means that salvation depends upon Really, when you get down to the foundation of it, it depends upon my believing, it depends upon me. And I hasten to say, if that's the way it is, and that's the way the Arminian presents it, it all depends upon man, then our comfort also depends upon ourselves. And the conclusion is this. The man who depends upon himself has no comfort. But if election is first and man depends upon God, salvation depends upon God, our comfort depends upon God, then we have comfort and God receives all the glory. Who believes? I hope that you're ready, and maybe you were before, but are confirmed now in giving the answer. Those who are ordained, eternally appointed, eternally chosen by God unto eternal life. And then you see how this destroys that error that we did make reference to last time, too, of the Arminian who says that God's choice His appointment of men in the decree of election was based on a foreseen faith. See, that would be to put faith again before election. But the truth is, that if God depended upon even a foreseen faith, if he said, this is what I'm going to do, I am going to choose man based on whether or not he will believe, and I'm going to look into the future and see who will believe, God would have seen what? That no one would believe, because without election, no one believes. that some believe is due to God choosing, appointing them, and giving them the gift of faith according to the eternal decree of election. That's what the canons teach us in Head 1-6, which we read. According to the decree, He graciously softens the heart of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe. Now I hope that's basic. I hope that's something that you all say this morning. I've always believed that. And I hope that you understand that this is where we in the Protestant Reformed Churches all stand together. I don't know of any minister or any member in the Protestant Reformed Churches who disagrees with this. Election causes faith. And faith and all the good works that proceed out of faith are merely the fruit of election. In this, we are united. And this election that causes faith is known. Faith is certain knowledge. certain knowledge of election. The text does, as many as were ordained believed. And we could take that this way, must take that this way. All who were ordained, all who were appointed by God unto eternal life, they all, without exception, believed in Jesus Christ. No one who is ordained can be left by God in unbelief. all must come to faith. Why is that? The canons answer that for us. The canons point to the reality that we have hard hearts. The canons point to the reality that we by nature are obstinate. And yet the canons say that doesn't mean that we can resist God. This all has to do with who God is. This has to do with His sovereignty, His power as the Almighty God. God does not in eternity say, these are the people that I choose to bring to heaven. And then in time find that when he sends forth preachers, and he sends them forth with the gospel to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ, and with that preaching he sends forth his Holy Spirit to work upon the hearts of men, God does not find in time There are certain people who are too stubborn for me. I can't break through their stony and hard hearts. I cannot work in them the gift of faith." That would mean that Romans 9 could not say that God's purpose in election stands. That means that nowhere in scripture could the teaching be found that God is sovereign. because God would prove them to be weak and effectual in His will and in His power. The truth is this, that God who is sovereign in eternity and says, these are the people that I am going to save and bring to faith when He sends forth His gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit is also sovereign. and has the ability to say, never mind that you have a stony heart, I'm going to give you a soft, fleshy heart. Never mind that you are an obstinate and stubborn sinner, I'm going to give you faith, and I'm going to make you believe in Jesus Christ. Now this highlights, for us, the necessity of faith. I bring that up this morning because that is an area of controversy. Now, I don't know that it's an area of controversy because there's anyone in the Protestant Reformed churches who denies the necessity of faith. But it is a matter of some suspicion. There are some who question, some ministers who are under the cloud of suspicion. Do they really believe that faith is necessary? And that's important. I point out that that's important in the first place, but pointing out that that was a false charge made by the Armenians. The Arminians said, against the Reformed, because you make salvation a matter of election, and you make faith merely a fruit of election, and faith is not a condition unto salvation, then you teach that faith is not necessary. Well, first of all, let's be clear. We do not teach that faith is necessary as a condition unto salvation. God depends upon our believing to save us. No. We would say, our answer to the Arminians is, your problem is not that you're teaching the necessity of faith, your problem is you're denying the necessity of grace. If salvation is by man's work of believing, then he doesn't need grace. Now, we teach the necessity of grace, but we also teach the necessity of faith. You don't need to teach that faith is a condition that man must fulfill in order to say that faith is necessary. When this text says, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believe, the text is saying, faith isn't necessary for them to be elect. It's not necessary for them to be saved unto eternal life. But faith is necessary because it's the means, it is the instrument God uses to give His people the gift of eternal life. Faith is a gift. It's not produced by man in his own power. God inclines us to believe, the canon said, as the means that He has chosen. This is the means that I'm going to use to give you Jesus Christ and to give you the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Him. Faith is necessary. Without it, You don't have Christ and you don't have eternal life. That comes out, too, in the text. On the one hand, when we confess together, and let's do that together, faith is necessary. We're pointing out the positive. Faith is the instrument that God uses to give me eternal life and the enjoyment of salvation. And then, secondly, let's point out the negative. Without faith, There is only death. We must take notice of the fact that in Antioch, while there were some who believed, as many as who were ordained unto eternal life believed, there were many others who did not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 45 tells us that there were those who were filled with envy. and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And they came under judgment too. That was spoken to them in verse 46. In rejecting the gospel, this is what Paul and Barnabas said. Ye put it from you, you're rejecting it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Do you see the harmony between what Paul and Barnabas said and what the Canons say? Sin and unbelief, rejecting the Gospel, is not the fault of God, but is the fault of the sinner himself. No man is going to be able to say, if he continues in unbelief, resisting the Gospel, hating the truth of Jesus Christ and the preachers of the gospel and the church of Christ. No man is going to be able to say in the judgment day, but it's not my fault. God is going to say to him, you are damned and your damnation is the just judgment for your own sin and guilt. They will not be able to blame God. They will not be able to blame the Gospel. They will not be able to blame Jesus Christ who is presented in the Gospel. But their own consciences will accuse them and testify to them, you're perishing because of your own unbelief. Let's all hear that, all of us, this morning. The Gospel of Jesus Christ warns, all those who do not believe, the just judgment that you deserve for that is eternal death. But now that doesn't change the fact that this text teaches us that unbelief is also in accordance with the sovereign decree and will of God. As many as who were ordained unto eternal life believed. That implies that those who do not believe were not given, were not ordained. They were not chosen. They were not chosen by God to receive the gift of faith and the gift of eternal life. Many don't want to say it this way, but that implies that we can say it this way. That means that God positively appointed them not to faith and to eternal life, but to unbelief and eternal condemnation. God is not Article 5 of the Canons agrees with the teaching of the Apostle Paul that's recorded in Acts 13. He is not responsible for the sin and guilt of the reprobate. And yet, Article 6 points out God is sovereign in determining who will believe and who will not. Now all of this serves to magnify the necessity of faith, to magnify the grace and the mercy of God, in seeing our need as poor sinners, sending forth preachers of the gospel so that through that marvelous means, which also is chosen by God as the means unto giving us eternal life, and His marvelous grace in declaring the glad tidings of Jesus Christ. His marvelous grace in giving us faith. What a great God. We could be those left in unbelief to perish. This is for our joy and for our assurance. I know that the question often arises in the minds even of believers. Isn't this a terrifying? Isn't this a terrifying truth? And in answer to that, let me say yes. But Acts 13 verse 48 in the canons of Dort do not hold forth this truth in order to terrify believers. but unbelievers. Not necessarily to identify them as reprobate, far be it from me or any other preacher of the gospel to presume that he can do that, but rather to say to the unbelievers, this is true. As long as you resist the gospel, as long as you put it from you, The word of God to you is that you will perish, not now to identify you as reprobate, but to bring you to your senses and to say, now believe in Jesus Christ. Don't die in unbelief. But do you believe? Now I'm not asking if you have any doubts. The question is, do you believe? Do you have faith? And I'm not asking how strong that faith is. Is it a weak faith? Is it nevertheless a faith in which you say, I embrace Jesus Christ, He's my Savior. I believe in Him for the forgiveness of my sins. Then the doctrine of this text and of our canons of Dort that we consider is a doctrine of great joy and assurance. If faith is caused by election, then the fact that you can say this morning, I believe in Jesus Christ is evidence to you not only of this, praise God for this, Jesus Christ died on the cross for me. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for my sins. In Jesus Christ, I am righteous before God. Praise God for that. But if you have faith, you can go beyond that and you can say, And my name was written by God in eternity. In heaven, that's the way the book of Luke speaks of it, or in the Lamb's book of life. Never mind that I am a sinner and guilty. That's no reason for me to doubt my salvation. The fact that I have faith is reason for me to say God has surely appointed me unto eternal life. And Jesus Christ has died also according to God's eternal appointment to give me the right to that life. This is true for all who believe. This is something that we are unified in All who believe in the Church of Jesus Christ, and let this be the unity of the Protestant Reformed Churches too, say, the assurance of my salvation is not based on anything in me. It's not because of my faith or the good works I've done. But by faith we look away from ourselves and we find it all in God. His eternal sovereign grace displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ and declared in the preaching of the gospel. Let that be the basis for everything that we may have to say later. And we do have things to say later about faith and good works in connection with assurance of salvation. But let everything we have to say about faith and good works be in harmony with this. All of our assurance rests on God and His sovereign grace in eternity and in Jesus Christ. Amen. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy truth. Use Thy Word to give us a sharper and clearer understanding of that truth for our comfort. Dispel any doubts that we may have. Give to us faith in Jesus Christ to see even into eternity to know that we have been loved by thee from before the foundation of the world. So give us comfort, bring glory to thy name, and use thy truth to give unity and peace to thy church. We pray for Jesus' sake, amen. Seeing now, Psalter number 373.