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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
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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.
Chosen by God, Part 1B
Series Chosen for Eternity
Some folks 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 would God save anyone? Stay here for a revealing look at God's sovereignty...
| Sermon ID | 823111346245 |
| Duration | 28:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 1:1 |
| Language | English |
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