Some folks will say, if God is so loving, why doesn't he just save everyone? But really, the better question is, knowing what he knows about us, why should God save anyone? Stay with us for a revealing look at God's sovereignty, next on Grace to You. Why would a loving God allow some people, most people in fact, to spend eternity in hell and let just a few into heaven? Well, if you've struggled with that question, today's lesson on grace to you will be of special interest. It's a part of John MacArthur's study of 1 Peter. It's called Chosen for Eternity. John, before you start that lesson, I want to give you the opportunity to talk about a very special Lord's Day Sunday not long ago. Talk a moment about what amounted to a real milestone for you. Well thank you, Carl. Yeah, there was quite a milestone in my life in recent days. When I began the ministry at Grace Community Church in February of 1969, now in my 43rd year, it was my goal to teach through the New Testament. Not necessarily from Matthew to Revelation in sequence, but to cover every book of the New Testament, and to cover every book in depth. meaning every verse, every phrase, and if need be, every word, because every word of God is pure. And so I set out on a goal to exposit, to explain the meaning of every single verse in the New Testament. Well, it took me 43 years of doing one book on Sunday morning and a different book on Sunday night. Week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, we worked through the New Testament to the point that I was able to finish the whole New Testament. I wrapped it up with a final message on the last portion of the book of Mark, and that was it. I had covered the whole New Testament. It was kind of a It's kind of a surreal experience. I sort of viewed it from the standpoint of a very pragmatic approach. To the left of my study desk in my little study where I worked for all these years on all these messages, there are three shelves, and on those three shelves have always been commentaries, study aids, histories, theologies, whatever I needed to work through the books that I was teaching. And for the first time in 43 years, I cleaned off those three shelves because it was done. It was an amazing moment. Thousands upon thousands of sermons preached through the New Testament. I'm going to spend some time, already been doing it this summer, kind of reinventing myself. seeing what's coming up next. I'm not going to slow down or come close to stopping. I just turn the page. This is one story of ministry completed that I never thought would ever happen, and I thank the Lord for it because of its effect on my own life. We're just so thankful, of course, that all these messages, along with many, many more messages outside the New Testament, on the Old Testament and on themes and subjects, are all available from grace to you. You can check our website and find out how to access that. Forty-two years of John's verse-by-verse preaching. It's available free at gty.org. After the broadcast, I'd encourage you to log on and start downloading. Right now, though, if you have your Bible handy, turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. That's the text for John's study called Chosen for Eternity. And here again is John to continue his look at the doctrine of election. First Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure." Now, catch this, will you please? The term elect or chosen is synonymous with Christian. with saved, with born again. And the rich reality of that term is to remind us that we are the chosen of God. He made the choice, not us. Now, as we look a little more closely at this, I give you a little list of the elements of election. Let's see how far we get. Number one, The nature of our election, and we're just going to take it phrase by phrase. It is so rich. The nature of our election. Verse 1, who are chosen? Who are chosen? Chapter 2, verse 9, please notice it. Peter says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You are a chosen race. Beloved, can you grasp that reality? You are a Christian because you are chosen to be one by God. That's what the Bible says. It is the chosen who are the saved. The term, as I said, means to select, to pick out, to call out from among. And Peter is simply saying that Christians are people God has chosen to belong to Himself. That's the nature of election. The nature of election is God has chosen a people to belong to Him, and we're that people. God chooses people out of all the world to belong to Him. Now, something inside of you resists this, doesn't it? You say, now, wait a minute. You mean we're just chosen? And you fight against that. Your fallenness fights that. Because we would like to think, in part, it depended on us. That's pride. We'd also like to think, well, it sounds unfair. That's pride saying, God, I'll straighten you out when I get to heaven. You don't understand what fair is. You have to retreat to faith, my friend. You have to retreat to faith. What does the Bible teach? Does the Bible teach that we are chosen by God or doesn't it? John 15...John 15, do you remember this verse? Jesus said it to His disciples, you did not...what?...choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. You didn't choose Me, I chose you." You say, well, wait a minute, I chose you, too. No, you didn't choose Me, I chose you, that's what I said. That's how it is. Look at Acts chapter 13, most interesting, most interesting. Acts chapter 13 and verse 48. Here Paul is preaching to the Gentiles, huge crowd on the Sabbath day, and it says, Verse 46, let's pick it up there. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, said, believed. The chosen believed. Those appointed to eternal life believed. Look at Romans chapter 9 and verse 14. Here is the obvious antagonist who's going to reply. God is talking about choosing. He says, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated, God made His choice. Verse 14, what shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be, may genoita in the Greek, no, no, no. It's not injustice, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, which is to say I will do precisely what I want to do. Verse 16, look at this, so then it, salvation, does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy, sovereign mercy. And somebody in verse 19 says, well, and how can He find fault with somebody? Well, who can resist His will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? Keep your mouth shut. It's beyond you. The thing molded will not say to the molder, why do you make me like this, will it? Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? And what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Listen, God has just as much right to use His attribute of destruction and wrath and put that on display against ungodly as He does to put His grace and love and mercy on display for those He elects. Very clear. Don't argue with God. You're only showing your pride and the ignorance of your finite mind. If you can't understand it, believe it. That's what it says. That's exactly what it says. It doesn't depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who will have mercy on whomever He decides to have mercy. Chapter 11 of Romans, verse 5, in the same way then as in the case of the prophet Elijah and 7,000 men who didn't bow the knee to Baal. In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according...listen to this...to God's gracious...what?...choice, God's choice. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Verse 4, you ready? Just as He chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world. When did it happen? When were we chosen? Before we were born. Before anybody was born. Before there was a world, we were chosen. Unbelievable. Chosen. On the basis of His choice, verse 5, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, so that it would be to the praise of the glory of His grace, not ours. He chose us. As long as he's been God, we've been chosen. That's an unbelievable thought. As long as God has existed, John MacArthur was in the plan. I was in his mind. So were you, if you belong to him. That is an intensely thrilling thought. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 9. Here's another one of these mind-bogglers. He talks about God at the end of verse 8, and then he says, God who has saved us. and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. He has known that we were the elect from all eternity. He has granted us in His mind as long as He has existed that we would be saved And it's all according to His plan and His purpose and His grace and not us. Remarkable. Remarkable truth. Revelation chapter 13. In Revelation 13, 8, listen to this. It talks about the beast, the antichrist of the tribulation time in the future. It says, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him. Everybody's going to worship Him. The whole world's going to worship Him, except everyone, it says, will worship Him whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. When was your name written down? From the foundation of the world. When was that? But as long as God has existed, He's had me in His mind. As long as God has existed, He's had you and I who are Christians in His mind and predetermined to love us and to make us like His Son. And He wrote our names in His book before the world began. Chapter 17 of Revelation, verse 8, and here again the beast will be worshiped and adored, and it says, and those who dwell on the earth will wonder whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world." And again, we are told in a backhanded way that Christians are those whose names have been written in the book of life from beginning, from eternity, from the foundation of the world. So when someone says to you, what religion are you? You can say, I'm one of the chosen. Chosen by whom? God. Really? When? Forever? As long as God has been God, He's chosen me, loved me. Why? Certainly had nothing to do with me. I just showed up and I was elect. Well, did you do some good works to deserve it? No, there was no me when God decided it. Verse 14 of Revelation 17, these will wage war against the Lamb, that is the host of the Antichrist, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and...what?...chosen and faithful. We're the chosen. One final mention, chapter 20. This is amazing. Final judgment, great white throne. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was what? Thrown in the lake of fire. When were names put in the book? From before the foundation of the earth. Boy, elect. That's just part of what Scripture says about it. We resist that. Something in us struggles with that. Look at Luke 4. It'll comfort you, you're not alone. Luke 4, interesting. Jesus, in this marvelous synagogue event in Nazareth, opened the book of the prophet Isaiah. Stood up in the synagogue, opened the book, read it. This is what he read, verse 18. And here was a prophecy that he was fulfilling. Right out of Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And He closed the book. and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him, and he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips, and they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son? So far, so good. So far, so good. But watch what happens. Verse 25, I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, no rain, when a great famine came over all the land, there were many widows. And yet Elijah was sent to what? None of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian." You know what he's telling them about? Sovereign grace. Lots of widows and lots of lepers. And God picked none of them but a widow in Zarephath and a leper named Naaman, who wasn't even a Jew. He was a Syrian. And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things. They rose up. They cast him out of the city. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff. Let me tell you something. The respectable religious leaders of Israel despised the doctrine of election, especially when it pointed out that they were not the elect. You can't debate the truth. This is the truth. You can't debate it. They didn't want to hear it. Many today don't want to hear it, but it's the truth. You see, in Revelation 19, 6, we are told, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. God in heaven is the controller and the disposer of all creatures. Scripture says, as the Most High, He rules amid the armies of the heavens and none can stay in His hand and none can say unto Him, what are you doing? He is the Almighty who works all things after the counsel of His own will. He fulfills all His own purposes, makes all His own promises come to pass. He is the heavenly potter who takes the lump of clay, fallen humanity, and fashions it the way He wants to fashion it. He is the decider and the determiner of the destiny of every person. He is the controller of every detail in every individual's life, which is simply another way of saying that God is God. Arthur Pink again said, the only reason anybody believes in election is because he finds it taught in God's Word. No man or number of men ever originated this doctrine. Like the doctrine of eternal punishment, it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind and is repugnant to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart. And like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Savior, the truth of election must be received with simple unquestioning faith. So the nature of election, God's divine will selects some for salvation. Is that hard for you to handle? I confess to you that I struggle with that. I believe it with all my heart because the Bible teaches it. There's something pretty thrilling about it. Don't you feel that way? Something pretty exciting about that reality. There's something immensely humbling about it. Immensely humbling. I mean, it literally destroys pride. I mean, what can we claim? Nothing. You say, but what about the people that aren't elect? Well, the Bible says they go to hell because of their unbelief. And God takes no responsibility for that. You say, I don't understand that. That's right. I don't understand that either. But I understand my God, and I understand what he said in his word. And he said, you're condemned because you believe not on me. So how do you harmonize us? I don't, God does, in perfect justice. The reason God gave us the doctrine of election was to tell us two things. One, he's in charge. Two, he is so gracious. to those of us who could never have earned it, that we ought to spend our eternity praising His glorious name. The doctrine of election is not given to us to confuse us. It is given to us to devastate our pride and to elicit our praise. Let's pray together. Lord, there's so much more to say about this. We have just touched the surface. But Lord, we're beginning to understand what Your Word says, even if we can't fully grasp in our minds all that that implies. Help us to walk in faith, knowing that You're a God who is consistent, perfectly just, perfectly righteous, and that You have absolutely no contradiction in Your person. We who are saved are saved because we were chosen in your mind for as long as you have been God, and we did nothing to contribute. You even produced the faith in us. You even produced and granted us repentance. You produced obedience by your Spirit. And Lord, We also understand that those who go out into eternity and don't know you are responsible for their own unbelief, because that's what Scripture says. And so we cry to the unsaved to believe, and we praise you for choosing us and leave the resolution to you. Thank you, God, for choosing us. Why, oh why? We are so grateful. We pray for those who do not believe. We pray, O God, that men might not turn their back on you. For Jesus said, him that comes to me, I will in no case cast away. We've just begun to study this. We want to understand it as best our finite minds are able. Be with us. Help us that we might fully praise you for your sovereign grace. In the Savior's name, amen. A stunning, humbling thought from John MacArthur's lesson today. As long as God has existed, and he has always existed, he's had you in mind if you're a Christian. He's predetermined to love you and to make you his child. Chosen for eternity, that's what you are if you're a believer. And that's the title of John MacArthur's current study here on Grace To You. Now keep in mind that the study chosen for eternity is available in a four CD album or on four mp3 downloads. To get a copy for yourself to review or to share with a friend, please give us a call or go to our website today. That CD album is a great resource to give to a friend who has questions about the election. Order it by calling our toll-free number anytime, 1-800-55-GRACE or go online to gty.org. The cost for the CDs, $20, and shipping is free. Now, if you'd like to put the study Chosen for Eternity on your iPod or on your computer, you can download the four MP3 files. They're free of charge at gty.org. Our website is home to 3,000 messages, John's entire sermon archive, in MP3 or transcript format. And let me encourage you to log on today and get the messages Chosen for Eternity. Then, if there is a message or a theological concept that you'd like to study, research the lessons that you need and download them right there. Get started today at gty.org. Now, friend, if you're growing because of John's Bible teaching, please consider making a donation. When you give, you have a hands-on role in helping listeners understand God's Word, then apply it and its life-changing truth at work and school, at church and home. Donate as you contact us today. The address here is Grace To You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Or call us at 1-800-55-GRACE. And now, for John MacArthur, I'm your host, Carl Miller. Thanks for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow for another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, here on Grace To You. What exactly does the term foreknowledge of God mean and how does it affect the choices you make? John MacArthur shows you in the next study on Grace To You.