All right. Good morning. I didn't. I have to confess, I did not anticipate. Do I need this up here? I don't need this, right? OK. I didn't anticipate having the auditorium and this size of a crowd typically when you talk about the gospel and election. Gospel's good news, election, not so good news, it seems with a lot of our churches and things. And so I think it's a great pairing. And the problem that we're facing with this topic, And me leading this workshop is, I don't know you and you don't know me. And so I don't know if this is going to end up in disputation or it's going to end up in preaching to the choir. My assumption, I've been teaching and preaching on election for quite some time. My guess is in every audience, no matter how large or small it is, there is someone that really that really comes up against the doctrine of unconditional election and just has difficulty with it. If that is you, then I hope that what you hear from me is a kindred spirit, because I was a Christian for 20 years before I yielded to what the Bible said about the doctrine of unconditional election. Please notice I didn't say I was a Christian for 20 years before I saw the light of the doctrine of election. I think that that's a very arrogant way to say that. The doctrine of election has been there all along, and there are good and godly people, as you all know, people who love Jesus Christ, who embrace the gospel exactly the way that Milton delivered it earlier in that previous hour, and they differ on this issue. I say that not to minimize that, because that's what happens, right? What happens many times is you will have parishioners, and maybe you're one of them, I've had them, that says, listen, there are good people. You've got your verses. This guy's got his verses. And so you guys just duke it out and we'll deal with it. I don't think we should do that. I think that that's very dangerous for us to do. Can I bend this microphone? I just did. Sorry. OK. So anyway, here we go with the doctrine of unconditional election, and my task this morning is to pair that with the Gospel. I don't think that's a very difficult task. In fact, I love what Milton said earlier about staring into the Gospel. I believe that the doctrine of election is just something that we can stare at. I think it's something that we can absolutely gaze at. and never really fully understand, and never really get it, never truly come to grips with what it is. I've got a working definition for you in your notes. I'm not all that happy with it, but it's there. God has chosen unconditionally whom He will bring to faith and salvation. I think in the quoting part section of the of the notes there. Wayne Grudem has a much more concise definition. Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen work in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure. That's probably a better definition. And for those of you who may be somewhat new to this doctrine and the word election, predestination, you feel the beads of sweat on your eyebrow, you get these hives and you're wondering what's going on here. Election is something that fits in that circle that Milton was talking about. It fits in that circle, and strangely enough, in many of our churches, I don't know, maybe it's yours, it certainly has been at Arcade Church, it is something that has been drastically neglected. And I think that's one of the reasons why we fight over that, why we have a difficult time, is every once in a while a preacher comes into town and preaches on it and the people just go ballistic because this is something that has not been covered. I think the more that you cover these doctrines and these issues, the better off we are. I think that the contemporary church today, and I'm speaking in very broad brush strokes, I believe that the contemporary church today is allergic to doctrinal preaching and teaching. And we guise it under the umbrella of verse-by-verse expositional preaching. You can be an expositional preacher and neglect the doctrines. And I think that's what's happened is we have all kinds of people in our churches today who know their Bibles well. They know the books in order. They know salvation by grace. They know all those different kinds of things. But the moment that you become precise, the moment that you begin to start breaking things down and using terms that are biblical, like election or predestination, all of a sudden, many times people just hit the panic button because they're not familiar with that. I mean, to give you a case in point, I've been at Arcade Church in Sacramento, and I've been there for almost three years, and so I'm still a newbie. And coincidentally enough, by God's sovereign care, I preached the first sermon on election that I've preached there two weeks ago. I had people coming up to me after the service who have been at Arcade Church since day one, and that's going back into the mid-50s, and they said, that's the first sermon I've ever heard on the doctrine of election. A couple of them weren't happy about it. And I totally understand that. I mean, it feels like for many people that you give them Jesus, and you give them grace, and you give them justification, you give them all these things, and all of a sudden, somewhere in the midst of their sanctification, someone throws in the word election or predestination, and they feel like they've been sucker-punched. And I think one of the reasons for that is because we just have de-emphasized any form of doctrinal preaching or teaching that we have. And it becomes very difficult. We should never run from doctrine. All doctrine is, right? A working definition of doctrine is just a way to say things that expresses or defines a bulk of biblical teaching. That's all it is. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's a doctrinal, coherent statement that the bulk of Scripture validates. It's a coherent doctrine that we embrace. The Trinity. God is one God in three persons. There are different ways to say that, but that is a coherent doctrine that nowhere in Scripture does it say just that. But we have looked at what the whole of Bible says, and we have found a concise way to define what the doctrine of the Trinity is. Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man. We embrace that, we love that, we'll go to the mat, we'll wrestle anybody over that. But scripture doesn't say that Jesus is fully God, fully man, but we have found that this is a way that we say a bulk of what it says about Jesus Christ in the Bible. The doctrine of election many times is just that, it is a coherent doctrine. It is easy to understand. And the reason why it's so easy to understand, it can be very difficult to believe. And that was my story. In fact, that's why I've got some, just in case you guys like to fill in blanks, I will probably unapologetically use election and predestination interchangeably. All right, the difference from a biblical standpoint, I believe, is election is the act of God choosing us, and predestination is the process of God carrying out that choice that He's made. And perhaps we'll look at some text here in a second. We've got some different quotes there by men that you might recognize. The one that has confronted me in my pastorate over the years is that one by James Dane. Sermons on election are so rare that even a regular churchgoer may never hear one. No other doctrine has been so central in theology and so ignored in the pulpit. I agree with that statement. I really believe it is possible to be faithful verse by verse expositor on the pulpit or the lectern and never once bring up the doctrine of election. It's very possible to do that and it's done in numerous different ways. There are some quotes there by some people telling their story. George Mueller who started out not believing in the doctrine of election and by the end of his life he did. Charles Spurgeon as well, R.C. Sproul, a very good book I think if you're looking for a book that talks about or teaches about the doctrine of election. I think a good one would be R.C. Sproul's Chosen by God. I think he writes well. He puts the theological cookies on the bottom shelf for all of us to enjoy. And so I think that you'd be beneficial at that. The reason why I mention these kinds of things, and I'm taking some time to get into the doctrine itself, is that I believe that all doctrine is autobiographical. Each one of us, as we come to belief in a doctrine, there is a story that we have about that. There's a story that goes into that. And that's definitely true for me. I was raised in a Bible-believing, godly home. My mother and my father were very aggressive in their love for Jesus Christ. I was raised Plymouth Brethren, if you know. That's kind of the buckle of the dispensational belt. You know, James Darby. We had posters of James Darby. Anyway. And so I was taught the Bible well. Taught the Bible well. I went to a Bible college, a Baptist college in Salem, Oregon, Corbin University. Went to a Southern Baptist Seminary, Golden Gate Theological Seminary in Mill Valley. And then I got my first church just two hours north of here in Corning, beautiful downtown Corning. I'm sure you've driven by it. And my first, I was 28 years old and I hit the ground running. I decided I'm going to preach through Ephesians. I hadn't preached through Ephesians yet, so I was going to preach through Ephesians. Some very wonderful people in my fellowship, they saw how depleted my library was and how weak it was, and so they purchased for me a David Martin Lloyd-Jones set on Ephesians. It's a six-volume set on six chapters of Ephesians. It's huge. And they bought this for me and gave it to me. Up to that point, I had been a believer for 20 years. I had been in formal Bible training for 8 of those 20 years and I had never once heard of David Martin Lloyd-Jones. Not one time. Now maybe I missed that lecture or I wasn't hearing or listening but I had never heard of him. And I just began to read his sermons on Ephesians and I began to prepare sermons on Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 and God absolutely Demolished my view of him in ways that I never thought possible I can remember it was one one summer afternoon when I was preparing in Ephesians chapter 1 and I came to Ephesians 1 the first 10 verses 12 verses and and it dawned on me what he was talking about with the doctrine of election and predestination. And I pushed away from my desk and I just breathed out a heavy sigh. And that was one of the most watershed moments in my entire life. But I wish I could say that that's when I yielded to what the Bible taught about election. It wasn't. I fought it. I argued with it. In fact, my wife Debbie came to believe in the doctrine of election. We went through this pilgrimage together. She believed in it far quicker than I did. I wrestled with that and it dawned on me what I was... I had to ask myself the question because I could no longer argue with Scripture. I just couldn't. I mean, I didn't have to... You don't have to delve into the Greek to see what God says about election and predestination. And so there I was, and I figured out through preaching the gospel to myself that I was trying to protect some things. I was first of all trying to protect my own sense of self-determination. It offended me that all these years I was believing in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. At the same time, my will has something to do with that. And it does, but not what I thought it did. And then also, I found that as I began to ask myself, why am I fighting this? Why am I against this? And first of all, it's because it violated this idea of self-ness. But also, I had this temptation. I wanted to get God off the hook, too. Because at first blush, it looks as if God is not as good as I thought He was. It looks as if God is not as merciful or fair as I thought He was. Now obviously I was wrong about those two defense mechanisms that kept me from the doctrine and so when I got rid of those things in my own life and confessed them I began to embrace and I began to stare at the doctrine of election along with the other doctrines of grace and I was just overwhelmed with grace and I wanted to explode in praise and I loved it. I absolutely loved it and I do to this day. I do not believe that believing in doctrinal election is a point of separation. I know that some churches believe that. I do not. Our church does not have election in their bylaws, nor will we. And the reason why is if it took me 20 years, I think we need to shed the same grace on those that it might take another 20 for them to see these things. So I think we need to be patient when it comes to those kinds of things. Again, I don't know where you are with this and where we are. If we have time, we can certainly deal with some questions and some problem texts. What I would like to do is quickly go through the witness of Scripture. not because I think it's sporadic or because it's shallow, but because my sense is here that this is the choir, is that most of us we have wrestled with, perhaps you're in the midst of wrestling with this and you have looked at these texts and you have seen what these are. But I would like to just kind of go through and look at a couple of passages really quick. So if you have your Bibles ready, whether they're electronic or the pages, it doesn't matter, and respond to a couple of these questions and look at a couple of different texts that talk about these things. Question number one, does the Old Testament teach unconditional election? Yes, number one. In terms of God's overall sovereign rule, and one of the passages I like to look at is in Daniel chapter 4. This is Nebuchadnezzar's confession. Daniel chapter 4, verse 35. And this is after he has been humbled of the seven years of insanity, gone nuts, primarily because God was using that to humble him. He'd taken pride in himself, look at what he's done, look at how he's built. He is considering himself as a God, all these things. And then verse 34, we'll get a run at verse 35. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? We cannot stop God for what he wants to do, nor can we hold him accountable. And it was a painful lesson from Nebuchadnezzar, but it was a worthwhile lesson. And there are other texts there that certainly that First Chronicles 29 is a very powerful text. I know of a lot of pastors that quote that to their congregations every Sunday. Psalm 115 is a very powerful one. Another one that I use often is Isaiah 46, 9 through 11. A very good passage to be able to just talk about God's overall sovereign rule. God's in charge. God's in charge. Number two, yes, in terms of God specifically choosing people. If you flip over to Deuteronomy, we see where God chooses. Why did God choose Israel? Why did He choose Abraham? Why did He make Israel a great nation? Well, the response to that question is in Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are in the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewer of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." So why did God choose Israel? Because God loves Israel. The reason why God chose Israel was not because of anything He saw in Israel. God chose Israel because God loves Israel. The Pharisees forgot that as they were talking to Jesus. They were puffing their chests out saying, hey, listen, Messiah wannabe, we are the children of Abraham. We are the sons of Abraham. What did Jesus say? You bozos, listen, if God wanted to choose a people, He could have these stones cry out. You forgot who you are, chosen by God. Question number two, and those texts are there for you to look at and enjoy, I hope. Question number two, does the New Testament teach unconditional election? And my response is yes, it does. Romans 8, would you look at that real quick? Very familiar text. This is the passage of Scripture that I turn to quite often. In fact, I'll probably refer to it when we get to the application side of things. Romans 8, and we'll probably just stay in Romans. The Ephesians 1 passage that I referred to earlier in my story is listed there in your notes, and you can look at that. And this is just kind of a chain of going through the New Testament, seeing things. I've left out some of the Gospels, but we can perhaps look at that if you want. Romans chapter 8, we love verse 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. I would just stop there and just say this, unless election is true, Romans 8.28 isn't true. Unless election is true, Romans 8 isn't true. And I think that Paul is anticipating that. So he writes verse 29, for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified." That word for know there, I know a lot of opponents of election would say that this is information. God knew information about you. He looked through the quarter of time and He saw that you would choose Christ. And so therefore, based upon that choice, He then chooses you and predestines you. Have you heard that? That's a very popular argument. I would say that most of your parishioners, and certainly mine, would believe that. They would say that's how we make heads or tails of this. And the reason why is because of what I just talked about earlier. It involves your sense of self-determination. It puts me in it somehow. But my question is on that foreknowledge, if that's information, then according to the text, what is it that God foreknows? What is it that He knows? And Paul doesn't answer that. He doesn't answer. If foreknow in Romans 8, 29 is future knowledge or future information, then what is the information that God would foreknow? And someone would say, well, he foreknew that I would choose him. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that he foreknew that you would choose him. So what is the knowledge? Is there knowledge out there that God doesn't know? Well, obviously, I mean, you can get into a dialogue about those kinds of things and really be at odds with that. But when you look at Scripture, you find out going all the way back to Genesis 4, Genesis 18, Micah 3, Jeremiah 1, that really the word no there is just an insinuation of relationship. It's actually for love. It's loving. It's setting His love on you. That's what Paul is saying. is that before the foundations of the world, God set His love upon you, not based upon any condition in you. And Paul calls that foreknow. He foreloved you. He knew you by name. Just as he knew Jeremiah in his mother's womb. Just as Adam knew Eve. There is this intimacy. For example, and this is borderline inappropriate, so I need to be careful. If I were to come up to you, and if we knew each other well enough, if I were to come up to you and say, hey, I know your wife. And then I say, I know my wife. Are you assuming that I know your wife the same way I know my wife? If you did, we're all in deep weeds. Your marriage is on the rocks and I'm dead. Because the reality is, I might know your wife. I might know if she works inside the home or outside the home. I might know her name. I might know how many children she has. Whatever I know is probably filtered through you because I know you. But for me to say I know my wife, you automatically know. I'm using the word know in the same kind of sentence, but you know that the meaning is different. When I say I know my wife, I'm going well beyond information about her. I know her. I know her sexually. I know her spiritually. I know her socially. I know her psychologically. I know things about her and I'm still knowing her. So I think that that's kind of what Paul is talking about in that. And I mention that because the Romans 8 passage is very, very important for those that would refute the doctrine of election, and they will continue to do that. I recognize that. Since we're already in Romans, look at chapter 9. Paul is really just addressing, and like this consummate teacher, he is anticipating the questions and the disputation of his listeners. He's anticipating this. Pick it up at verse 9. For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah will have a son. Talking about Abraham and Sarah. And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac. Verse 11. Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of him who calls. We do a Q&A after the second service at Arcade Church where folks who want to stick around, they can come and gather in the front and they can ask questions about anything, about the church, about the Bible, about the sermon. And we had our Q&A about the sermon on election last Sunday. And typically, you know, maybe 20, 30 people will come to those kinds of things and most of them are students. This time we had about 200 people. So, don't tell me people don't care about doctrine, right? About 200 people stayed for an hour, hour and a half afterwards. You can text questions in and then they show up on the wall. And we got through half of the questions. So tomorrow we'll deal with the other half of these questions. And one of the questions had to do with Romans 9. And I got to Romans 9 and I read verse 11. and got to that part where, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls. I just ask, how many of you, that's the first time you've ever read that verse? I mean, you could hear crickets. An archaic church has been a well-taught church. They are not biblically illiterate. But then we went on, and a lot of them who knew where I was going wished I'd stopped. Verse 12, she was told, the older will serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? This is where that fairness comes in. It's not fair of God. It's not fair that He chose Jacob over Esau. And I asked them, who would you rather hang out with, Jacob or Esau? Oh, Esau, hands down. Jacob, I want to just punch. And so it doesn't seem fair. And Paul, this consummate teacher, is anticipating, you think that's unjust? He doesn't, Paul doesn't, he says, oh, hey, let me soften this for you. He doesn't do that. I love him. Verse 15, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion. You may want to underline that. It does not depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Then he goes in and talks about Pharaoh, verse 18. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. And then Paul anticipates another question, verse 19. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? The first question is, is it really fair of God to choose some and not others? And then the second question is almost this, then how in the world can he hold us accountable, how can he hold us responsible for sins if we're not chosen? It's a great question. I mean, never minimize that question. I mean, if somebody asks you that question, that is to tell that they're really thinking through this. They're really wrestling through this. And Paul anticipates this. But again, he doesn't soften the blow. Verse 19, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? I really wish Paul hadn't said that. I was hoping he'd kind of unpack this God's sovereignty, man's responsibility. But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? And the thing is about God's fairness, and we can wrestle with this probably in private conversation if you want, but God can't catch a break. Because without election, no one is saved. Without God intervening into our hearts, into our wills, because our hearts are far from Him, and our wills do not want Him. We are dead, we are slaves. We're not robots, we're not puppets, we are slaves. We are dead. Dead people do not have wills. Slaves do not have wills. Slaves have wills. It's called the will of the master. And so when we're wrestling with this, and we're fighting with this, and we're dealing with these kinds of things, it's very, very important. for us to see what exactly are we protecting, because if without election, no one is saved, and we'd be shaking our fist at God saying, how dare you? We're doing the best we can, and God sends us all to eternal flames in hell. He has every right to do that, and he could if he wanted to. But he chooses not to. But we shake our fists at him anyway. And so God comes in His grace before the foundations of the world and He sets His love on people. And we still shake our fists at Him. How dare you leave others out? He can't catch a break, even in His grace, even in His mercy. So Paul wrestles with this. He goes with this. Why have you made me like this? Verse 21, has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? And then it doesn't get any better. What if God, desiring to show his wrath, what? God desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory. If we were to play cut and paste Bible study, we would probably cut Romans 9 out and paste it elsewhere. Romans 11, since we're already there. You know, Paul cites the story of Elijah where he's lamenting that he feels as if he is the only one left in the land who has not bowed the knee. And Paul cites that example, verse 3. Lord, they have killed your prophets, Elijah said, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left and they seek my life. But what is God's reply to him? Relax. I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. I have kept 7,000. I have kept them. I have kept 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee. So Paul goes on and comments, so too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. In other words, there is a remnant that is kept by God. They're not keeping themselves, God has kept them. Verse 6, he lands this plane. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Well, we've just looked at a few passages there in Romans and Ephesians and Thessalonians, Timothy, Revelation. They're there as well, and I encourage you. Have you ever bought a car? It doesn't have to be a new car, but you've bought a car. And you're convinced it's really super unique. It's a color that you're convinced nobody else has. And the moment you buy it, all of a sudden you see all kinds of cars out there with the same color. That was my story with the doctrine of election as I was wrestling with these truths. I did not believe that they were truths at that one time, but like many of you, I read through the Bible from beginning to end. That's how I do my Bible reading, my devotions. And I began to see everywhere, almost to the point where, oh my goodness, where have I been? I learned Greek, I learned Hebrew, I majored in church history, I know all these things, where have I been? And it was very, very humbling to me and very exciting at the same time to see these. And that's why I want to get to the third question. How does the New Testament present the teaching of the doctrine of election? I've got a quote by John Frame. I don't know if you've ever read any of his work. I respect his writing. I'm reading his Doctrine of God book right now. I would rather wait for the movie, but I don't think the movie's going to come out anytime soon. It's a large work, but it's worth it. It's great. He said in a lecture that I heard, and I don't remember the lecture, but he said in a lecture, you never really understand a passage of Scripture until you're able to use it. And I would say that that's true of doctrinal thinking as well. You'll never be able to truly understand a doctrine until you're able to use it. Doctrine is meant to be used. If you believe something, and you're not using that in your life, in your marriage, in your business, if you're not using that in how you live out your life, it's probably not worth believing. And election is within that circle that Milton wanted us to draw earlier. Election is in there. It's meant to be stared at, but then it's meant to be employed in our life and brought into our life. And so how do we do that? This is the part that's autobiographical. Number one, it provides a reason to trust. And I would cite again that Romans 8, 28 passage. What is Paul saying? He's making the assertion, all things that happen in life work together for good for those who are called by God. But then in verses 29 and 30, he goes into why it works out that way. And it's almost as if Paul is saying, I want you to look into the distant past and see the love of God upon you. He has set his love upon you unconditionally before the foundation of the world. That's in the distant past. And now I want you to look at the near past, and I want you to see His justification. I want you to see the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. And now I want you to look at the distant future, and I want you to see future glory that will be yours. If it began in the distant past and it continued in the near past, it will continue in the distant future in glorification. And so therefore, in the present, all things work together for good. All things. I find that a great reason to trust God is that right now, it all began before the foundation of the world, before I was even a light in my mother's eye, before I was even conceived. Before I was even on this planet, God set His love upon me, and He set it upon all who believe. And then He justified us by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and imputed Christ's righteousness to us, so that now His smile is upon us, not because of our performance, but because of Christ's work. And then He has guaranteed the future. He has guaranteed that we will be with Him, that we will fellowship with Him, that we will sup with Him, that we will enjoy Him forever. And so, in the in-between time, in the now, here, all things work together. I think that's a good reason to trust Him. As a reason to worship. As a reason to worship. I have to tell you, when my wife and I, when my wife yielded to the doctrine of election far before me, I'd say about a month before me, and then I yielded that. And I have to tell you, the experience for us was like we got saved. And I know that that may not be the experience of many people. I would never expect other people to have that same experience, but that was our experience. We were both church kids. My wife grew up in Woodland. Her dad was a pastor there for a bazillion years. We were both well-taught. And I'll tell you this, the first, I'll say this, the first sermon I ever heard preached on election was the one I preached. That was the first one out of Romans 9, or Ephesians 1. But for us, all of a sudden our worship was amped up and we no longer had to rely on the band. We no longer had to rely on our preferences when it came to worship music because worship to us was no longer limited to just the music. Worship for us became every breath that we take is a gift from God. Every breath that we take is kindness from God. and it changed how we worship. I think it's interesting, with the exception of Romans 9, every time, and I could be wrong about this, but every time I think in the epistles when Paul or Peter or John in the Gospel, when they mention election or predestination, there is worship that's very, very close by. Ephesians chapter 1, to the praise of His glory, right? And then even, I catch myself, even in Romans 9, you know, Paul, he's got this three-chapter work on divine election from 9, 10, and 11. And so how does chapter 11 end, right? Look at that, since we're already there. Chapter 11 ends with this doxology. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. How inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or 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 glory forever. Amen. This was the first text that I used at Arcade Church three years ago. And the sermon title was Oh. If you don't have the word, oh, at the beginning of verse 33 in your translation, you have a faulty translation. Oh, it's what you say. It's what you say when you're at the Grand Canyon. It's what you say when you see your daughter being walked down the aisle at her wedding and she's so beautiful. It's what you see when you first met your wife. It incites worship. I want my congregation to worship God that way. I do not want them to be reliant on the song selection or the particular mood or the lights. And we have all those things, but I don't want them to be reliant upon that. I want them to be so infatuated with God that they naturally, when they gather together as a congregation, they naturally reflexively explode in praise. And part of the reason for that is because they know the doctrine of election. What's interesting to me, and I don't know how much time I have, not much, what's interesting to me is that we in the American church, I believe, we have this mindset, and I got this even last week in talking with folks, Craig, I mean, you know, it's just not that big of a deal. Really? I mean, churches have split over this stuff. Christians divide over doctrine, and my response is always, doctrine never divides. People divide. Doctrine sifts. Not for us to determine who is in and who is out, but it sifts for us. What am I actually believing about who God is? And I don't know about you, but there is this mindset in the American church that it's possible to love God more by knowing the Bible less. And that's a strange thing for me. If I were to tell my wife, Debbie, honey, I want to love you more. And the way I got to do that is to know you less. That would be the dumbest thing any husband could ever say to his wife. I believe it's equally dumb for a believer to say, I know that this is what the Bible says. I choose not to because quite frankly, it doesn't fit in my paradigm. So it's a reason to praise. I think it's also a reason to witness. One of the strawman arguments against those who believe in election is that we don't like evangelism. And that's just a big fat lie. And when you look through history, you look at the great evangelist. I got to know David Martin Lloyd-Jones. He's dead now, but he's been dead since 1980, but I read his biography. I got to stand in his pulpit at Westminster Chapel, and that was a pretty cool thing. And so I think I've read everything he's written and heard all of his sermons and things. There was revival in Sandfeld's in a mining community a blue-collar mining community. Here's this scrawny Welsh Pastor who all he has is the gospel and an entire community was transformed by the gospel simply because of his preaching on election Charles Spurgeon John Piper all these wonderful, where evangelism has been the forefront of everything. I would say this, believing the doctrine of election does not prohibit evangelism, it guarantees evangelism. Is that not what kept William Carey in India? I forget, I mean, Jerry, was he seven years, 12 years before he had a convert in India? It was a long time, longer than I would have stayed. If I had been there, and I believe in election, I would have been, you know what, When Paul wrote Romans 9, he didn't know about India. But William Carey said, the reason why I stayed in India all those years without one single convert was because of the doctrine of election. He believed that God was calling people from every people group, every language group, every tribe, every race. He believed that. He believed what Paul believed. When Paul was in Corinth, he wanted to leave because things got kind of dicey. And people were going after Paul, and so he's getting ready to leave Corinth and go somewhere else. God had raised some people up, and they believed he planted a church, and so he's ready to leave. And God said, no, no, no. Acts 18. No, I want you to stay there because I have more people in the town. More of my people are there. You see, the doctrine of election guarantees that no matter what, all we need to do is speak and live out the gospel. God is the one who does the saving. We do not do the converting, we do the conversing. We simply speak the gospel, we live the gospel. I'll tell you right now, it doesn't fit on a bumper sticker, but the mission statement for Arcade Church, it doesn't look very good on stationery. But the mission statement for Arcade Church is we want to get as many people as possible to hear and see the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our mission statement. And we'll do anything short of sin to do that. We want as many people in the Arden Arcade area in the Sacramento Valley to hear the gospel of Christ spoken from us and to see it in action. so that when they see us, they will know that that is based upon a belief that we have. That guarantees evangelism, that guarantees fruitfulness. And just one more, as a reason to rest. The reason why I love the doctrine of election is because I love the fact it gives me permission to rest. Husbands, suppose your wife were to come up to you and say, honey, can you give me some reasons why you love me? I mean, we go on full alert, right? Because we know we can say some really great things and we can say some really stupid things. And so we go, okay, well, I love you because you're very pretty and that makes me feel better because I'm not very handsome. And so I married up. I love you because of how you raise our children. I love you because you do this. I love you because you do that. And you know what you've done? What you meant for good turned out to be evil. Because all of a sudden when you go to what she does, what happens to her? If you love me because I do those things and the pressure is on me to keep those things done. If you love me because I'm pretty, What happens when I'm not pretty anymore? If you love me because I do this, will you love me if I stop doing that? If you love me because of this, will you stop loving me because I don't do that anymore? The best thing that we can do, men, is to simply go, hey, babe, I love you because I love you. I love you. I love everything about you. I love you. You see, it's those kinds of things, that's why we have all those really sappy love songs. One of my favorite guitarists and singers back in the 70s and 80s was Dan Fogelberg. Remember Dan Fogelberg? Leader of the band. He wrote a song. For those of you who are pastors, you've probably heard it played in a thousand weddings longer. Longer than, I won't sing it for you, you're welcome. Here's the first line of those lyrics. Longer than there have been fishes in the oceans, higher than any bird ever flew, longer than there have been stars up in the heavens, I've been in love with you. Now if I were to sing that to my wife, my wife would know, she has enough social classes, I would sing this, longer than there have been fishes in the oceans, higher than any bird ever flew, longer than there have been stars in the heavens, I've been in love with you. She would say, no, that's not true. That's a big thought. You haven't been, you can't fly higher than the birds. You haven't been around longer than the stars. That's not true. She wouldn't say that because she knows I'm being hyperbolic. I'm exaggerating. I'm embellishing my love for her. You know what the doctrine of election says? The doctrine of election says is that there's one person in the universe who can say longer than there have been fishes in the ocean. Higher than any bird ever flew. Longer than there've been stars up in the heavens, I've been in love with you. There's been one person in the universe that can say that. And it's God, our Father. And He has done everything to make us to this point. And He will continue to do everything. And it all began simply because He loves us. Not because of any works that we have done, but because of His grace. He loves us. And so if we ask God, God, why do you love me? I love you because I love you. I love you. Let's pray. Father, we praise You and we thank You for all Your grace. Lord, I'm thinking about what Milton encourages us to do is just stare at grace. Stare at the gospel. That's what Peter says the angels are doing. They're gazing, they're longing, they're obsessing over it. And if they're obsessing over it, perhaps we should too. Will you help us with that? We so desperately want to be affected by the power of the Word of God. We want to be affected by this beauty of the Gospel that you set your love upon us before the foundations of the world absolutely blows our minds. And Lord God, it does raise more questions than answers. And so for those who struggle, may we struggle with them. May we not arrogantly push them along or pull them along, but may we just simply wrestle with them and love them. As you have loved us, we thank you for all your good gifts in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.