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Well, I do want to invite you
to take your Bibles open them to John chapter 17 where we will
be beginning this morning. And if you have been with us
before, you know that over the last few weeks, we have been
considering the doctrine of election. And if you have not been with
us before, that is what we are currently considering as we see
it addressed by Jesus in John chapter 17. And from that, we
have been having sort of an extended meditation on this matter of
God's electing grace. And I want to just acknowledge
again as we get into this that obviously at this point I'm not
doing actual exposition through John chapter 17. We've been working
our way through the gospel of John and that's the intent to
just move verse by verse through this great gospel and of course
most recently we're here in John chapter 17. But at this point
I'm sort of taking, as I mentioned, an extended meditation upon these
matters of God's electing grace. And doing this because this is
one of the clear foundational truths that we see very clearly
in scripture. And I'm spending extended time
on this, I've been constrained to do so because of the conviction,
the perspective that understanding these truths of God's electing
grace, these truths are so central to living a joyful, peaceful,
fruit-bearing Christian life to the glory of God. Now, I recognize,
as we've been in this for a few weeks now and considering these
matters, that at some point, or at this point, some of you
may be thinking, you know, I'm just not really all that concerned
about or interested in these matters of God's sovereignty
and election. You might be thinking it's confusing,
it's hard to think about, it's something that people have been
debating about throughout the history of the church. And in
light of that, can we really come to any biblically solid
conclusions anyway? And you might be thinking that
you're really quite content in your Christian life. You're really
not all that concerned about how much joy and how much peace
you may experience. You may not be all that concerned
about how much fruit you bear. And so for some of you, there
may be that thought of, you know, at this point, I'm just going
to go ahead and kind of tune out and think about other things
that are going on in my life right now. Well, may I encourage
you, if indeed that's the case, or if indeed there's even a hint
of maybe being tempted in that direction, Let me encourage you
and perhaps provoke you with the thought that the motivating
factor governing why you or I or any believer for that matter
should be passionately interested in these truths, as we should
be with all of God's truth, is that the motivating factor must
not be our subjective experience and opinion about how important
we think these things are. That shouldn't be the ultimate
motivating factor, but rather the motivating factor governing
your interest and my interest must be that God has created,
redeemed, and thus owns you and I, if indeed we have come to
faith in Him, and that He has entrusted His truth to us. And again, this must be the primary
motivating factor. In other words, the significance
of these truths and the reason that they're important for every
believer to know and understand, again, as is with all of God's
truth as revealed in His Word, is that the primary issue in
these matters is not about your experience in light of these
truths, but rather your accountability and my accountability to the
God who has called us and entrusted these truths to us. And in reality,
your experience and my experience of these truths ultimately become
an indicator of our faithfulness with these truths. So in other
words, what I'm trying to encourage all of us with, with regard to
the importance and the significance of these matters, is that what
is ultimately at stake regarding the quality of our Christian
life is not primarily our experience, but rather God's glory. In other words, as we come to
His Word, our starting point should not ultimately be what's
in it for me, but if you will, what's in it for God. If indeed
God is God and if indeed God has given His Word and has called
us to live for His glory. Now, having said all of that,
let me also say that at the same time, the brightness of God's
glory is seen in the display of His immeasurable love, His
immeasurable mercy, His immeasurable grace poured out upon those who
deserve His wrath. And this is what goes to the
heart of these matters of God's electing grace. And so our experience
of His love, as we grow in the knowledge of that love and the
security of that love, grounded in God's eternal saving purposes
in election, our experience of those things are directly connected
with the display of His glory. And so there's this relationship
between our growing understanding of what God has done in salvation
and of the wonder of His electing grace and how we live to His
glory. To say it another way is we cannot
live to the fullness of His glory if we don't grow in our knowledge
of these matters that we might walk worthy, as I've mentioned
so many times, of the calling that He's given us as His children. Now, if you're thinking about
these matters at all, if you're considering these matters at
all, whether this matter of God's electing grace is a newer reality
to you, or perhaps you've been a Christian for some time and
have engaged with these matters and tried to seek to understand
what God says concerning these matters from His Word, wherever
you may be in that, you probably are acknowledging these are puzzling,
mysterious things. And if that's the case, praise
God. It ought to be that way. I took a walk last night in our
neighborhood and just walking and praying and thinking about
these things and was thinking to myself, Lord, the more I know
and understand of what your word says, and I certainly don't know
and understand everything that there is there, but the more
puzzling it is in many ways and the more mysterious it is, and
yet the more true it is as God has revealed it in his word.
And so these are indeed mysterious and wonderful realities, but
they are realities. We need to wrestle with these
things again that we might grow in the knowledge of His grace.
I like what John Piper has said about this in an excellent recent
little book called, This Momentary Marriage, which I would certainly
commend to you. But reflecting upon this matter
of eternal security, the eternal security that is ours in the
fullness of God's electing grace and the security that we know
there. And even as this is expressed by Paul in Romans chapter 8,
John Piper says this, quote, Paul wants us to feel the wonder
of being elect as being invincibly loved. He says, if you resist
the truth of election, you resist being loved in the fullness and
sweetness of God's love. End quote. And I think all of
us, ultimately owing to pride, have a tendency to resist these
things. Because this truth, this reality
of God's sovereign, free, eternal, electing grace means that all
of salvation is grounded in Him and His purposes and what He
has done. And we can take no credit and
we can take no boast for any aspect of our salvation. And
often we grate against that because we want to have some sense of
maybe something that we can boast in, something that we can say
we've contributed to it. No, even as we read in Ephesians
chapter 2, we're dead in our trespasses and sin. And that
couldn't be a more descriptive picture of what it means to be
alienated from God. and that God must do a miracle
of rebirth in making us alive. And so to resist these doctrines
is to resist, as Piper says, being loved in the fullness and
the sweetness of God's love. And so I want to encourage you
as we re-engage with these matters this morning, don't resist taking
in these glorious truths of God's electing grace and love. Don't
resist these truths any more than you would resist taking
in the oxygen that you need to breathe. If you held your breath,
you could only do so for so long before you would expire. You
need oxygen. And in the same way, we need
the oxygen, if you will, of God's truth. And so why don't we take
a deep breath as we re-engage with these matters? Now, I want
to just give your reference point again for why we've engaged with
this in John chapter 17 in verses 6 through 19. In this prayer
of Jesus, He is praying specifically in verses 6 through 19 for His
disciples. And he's praying for God's eternal
purposes in and through his disciples and so he says in verse 6, I
have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out
of the world. They were yours and you gave
them to me. And in that phrase, when He speaks
of His disciples as those whom the Lord had given to Him, and
as He echoes that same phrase in verse 2, also again in verse
9, and also again down in verse 24, He is speaking of this reality
of God's electing grace. He's identifying His disciples,
and in verses 6 through 19, He's talking about the 11 disciples,
and then beyond there, He's going to be talking about all of those
who will come to faith in Him. He refers to them as those whom
the Father has given. And this, again, speaks of this
matter of God's electing grace. Now, over the last couple of
weeks, we've taken some time to consider, first of all, the
fact of God's election. And we've taken some time to
look at some of the other passages in Scripture that speak of the
reality of God's electing grace. And I won't take time to review
all of that this morning. Suffice it to say that we've
addressed that. Again, you can find these messages online if
you're interested in going back and listening to those things.
But the election, as we understand it, as it's referenced by Jesus
here in John 17, spoken of many other places in Scripture, is,
as Louis Burkhoff defines it, it may be said to be God's eternal
purpose to save some of the human race in and by Jesus Christ. And that's a clear, explicit
fact as revealed in Scripture. It's not to say it's easy to
understand. It's not to say that there are not mysterious, puzzling
elements concerning it. We're not denying any of that.
But the fact of it, even as it is spoken so explicitly and clearly
by Jesus as elsewhere in Scripture, is a reality. And then following,
looking at the fact of election, we have begun to consider some
of the significance of the doctrine of election. And again, these
are the matters that I'm offering by way of application and thinking
through what is the significance of understanding these matters
as it relates to our lives and as it relates to the things that
God has called us to. And so I introduced this last
week and we considered the truth that the essence of how believers
are to respond to these truths of God's electing grace, the
essence of the significance that is to be produced in our lives
is radical humility. Radical humility. This must be
the very essence of our disposition before God. If we're to be rightly
related to God, if we're to be rightly growing in our understanding
of His supreme righteousness, holiness, and authority, in light
of our complete, sinful, unholy accountability to Him. As we
grow in our knowledge of His electing grace, there must be
radical humility as the increasingly significant truth that is increasingly
evident in our lives. I shared with you last week one
definition of humility from C.J. Mahaney in his little book of
the same title, Humility. He defines humility this way.
It is, quote, honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness
and our sinfulness. An honest assessment of ourselves
in light of God's supreme, blazing holiness and our utter sinfulness. And the Greek term that is used
for humility or for being humble in a number of places in scripture
has to do simply with the concept of making oneself low. It means that we see ourselves
accurately in light of all that God is and in light of all that
we are as his created ones and as his redeemed ones if indeed
we belong to him. And humility ultimately is foundational
to coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Only a humble person can come
to faith in Jesus Christ as they recognize God's holiness in their
sinfulness. So it's foundational to our justification
in that sense. And humility is also essential
to our ongoing sanctification before the Lord. As we're told
in numerous places in scripture, in James chapter 4, in 1 Peter
chapter 5, that we are to humble ourselves before God. And so
this matter of humility is foundational and essential to genuine Christian
life and experience. And my argument, my thesis as
we address these matters is that nothing so encourages and deepens
our humility as understanding the truth of God's electing grace. And so the significance of understanding
these matters of election has to do with the humility that
God intends to produce in our lives. Now, last week, we looked
at the first area of how this humility should work itself out
in our lives. And there are essentially four
key areas of significance that I would suggest for you. And
last week, we looked at the first of these. This morning, Lord
willing, we'll look at the remaining three areas. The first area that
we looked with, with regard to this humility and its significance
in our lives, has to do with how we view ourselves in relationship
to God. How we view ourselves in relationship
to God. That's the first key area or
the first key relationship in which this humility is significant.
The second area is how we view ourselves in relationship to
other believers, how we view ourselves in relationship to
other believers. The third area is how we view
ourselves in relationship to the world, And then the fourth
area is how we view ourselves in relationship to the lost,
to those who are outside of Christ, those who are unbelievers. And
so again, last week we looked at the first of these, how we
view ourselves in relationship to God. And I suggested to you
there a key phrase, an operative phrase by which to remember this
point, and that is simply humble security. As we consider all
that God is, all that God has given, all that God has revealed,
and all that God has done for us through His electing grace,
it should promote in us humble security. And this really hits
at the very core of our identity, our sense of understanding who
we are and why God created us. As Paul speaks about these matters
in Ephesians chapter 1, and in that great chapter he recounts
all of the fullness of the blessings that are ours in Christ, he says
on multiple occasions that all of this is to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And our lives, as we have been
created by Him, redeemed by Him, are thus to be lived to the praise
of the glory of His grace. And there is security in that
as we understand that God's purposes in electing those whom would
be saved, His purposes will be fulfilled. He is faithful and
able to bring to pass what He purposes. Nothing can thwart
His purposes. And it's that very reason that
Paul is able to declare in Romans chapter 8 that nothing can separate
us from his love. And it's so critical for us to
understand as believers that there is absolute, total security
in the love of God because no true believer can lose their
salvation any more than God can be unfaithful to his purposes.
And again, that is the magnitude of what is revealed through Paul
in Romans chapter 8, Ephesians chapter 1, and many other places
in Scripture as well. And as Jesus, even in John chapter
10, testifies of the permanent grip that He holds those who
belong to Him in, and that the Father holds those who belong
to Him in, nothing can separate us from His love. I was talking
with somebody this morning, Sean Wallentine, one of our elders,
who came from more of an Arminian background in the earlier days
of his being a Christian and that background being one that
did not believe in eternal security. And he just spoke of the reality,
as is true for so many people, that if you don't understand
the reality of God's electing grace and the absolute security
that is there, what does it produce in your life? It produces fear
every single day that you're going to lose your salvation.
that maybe you're going to do one thing too much that is all
of a sudden going to cause God to turn His back on you. No,
if we rightly understand election and we rightly view ourselves
in relationship to God and understand this matter that we were created
and ultimately saved by Him for His glory and that He's faithful
to His purposes, dear brothers and sisters, there is security
in that. And as we spoke to this last
week, I suggested to you that as we grow in our understanding
of this electing grace and our humility before God and that
we're to live to the praise of His glory, that it'll issue forth
in a couple of directions in our life. First, it'll be a safeguard
against pride and presumption because we have a growing recognition
of how small and undeserving we are before this eternal holy
God. And it'll help us to avoid that
danger of pride and presumption. And we'll embrace promises as
we hear in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7, when Paul says rhetorically
to the Corinthians, what do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did
not receive it? If we grow in our knowledge of
God's sovereign, free, electing grace and what He has done in
bringing us to Himself, will be able to recognize with joy,
there's nothing I have that I had anything to do with. It is all
of God. And therefore, I will grow in
being humble before Him and not being swayed by the temptations
toward pride and presumption, even though we battle that so
much because of indwelling sin. And the fruit of this humble
security before God will also be a comfort to us continually
when we're tempted to fear and anxiety and despair and doubt. that often comes into our life
as a result of our own sin, as a result of trials and difficulties. We're so easily tempted that
way, but if we come back to this anchor, to this reality that
God has chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of the
world, and that He'll be faithful to fulfill His purposes, and
that nothing can separate us from His love, there's comfort
in that. There's joy in that, there's
peace in that, there's security in that. Well, we looked at that
more extensively last week, this matter of our view of our relationship
to God, our view of ourselves in relationship to God. But this
morning again, let me continue with three more key areas of
significance as it relates to this matter of humility, this
matter of how these truths of God's electing grace are to work
themselves out in our lives. So the second area that we see
is concerning how we view ourselves in relationship to other believers. not only how we view ourselves
in relationship to God, which is, of course, foundational to
everything else, but as we grow in our knowledge of his electing
grace, it will have an impact in how we view ourselves in relationship
to other believers. And the operative phrase that
I would offer you here would be humble unity, humble unity,
again, humility, is woven throughout all of this, but humble unity. We might also say humble loyalty. As you and I grow, if we have
come to faith in Christ and knowing and understanding that we are
in faith and we have been reconciled to God because of His electing
grace, we're going to grow in understanding and recognizing
that every other person who testifies of faith in Christ represents
a person that God has chosen. And it's going to impact the
way we conduct ourselves in relationship to them with humble unity. And what this means very practically
is the ongoing increasing activity of genuine love toward one another. Genuine love toward one another. Now, in John chapter 17, I want
you to see this because this theme is going to become prominent
in Jesus' prayer. And we will be looking at these
matters in more detail in time when we get there, however long
in the future it may be before we get there. But look, if you
will, in John chapter 17, we'll pick it up in verse 20 and read
to the end of the chapter and just see where this theme of
genuine unity in Christ is expressed by Christ. He says in verse 20,
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who
believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even
as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may
be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. Now,
I would make the observation at the very surface that the
unity that God calls us to and the unity that God has given
us in Christ is inextricably woven together with the unity
of the Father and the Son, and by implication, of course, the
Holy Spirit. And so it is a unity that is
bound up within the fullness of all that God is. So Jesus
goes on to say, verse 22, "...the glory which you have given me
I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity
so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even
as you have loved me." Father, I desire that they also whom
you have given me be with me where I am, so that they may
see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these
have known that you sent me, and I have made your name known
to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you
loved me may be in them, and I in them. Again, we'll be looking
at these matters more earnestly as we move through those particular
verses, but understand for now... that there is eternal, perfect
love that takes place within the Godhead, between the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Perfect love, perfect unity.
For all of those whom God has chosen, whom He has brought into
a saving relationship with Him, according to His eternal sovereign
counsels, we are brought into the fullness of that love and
of that unity that exists within the Trinity. And because of that,
we are to live that out in our lives. And it is a unity that
is more profound and more deep and more real than any other
aspect of unity that we may think of within this world, because
it's a unity that is bound up in the purity and the perfection
and in the glory of the unity of the Trinity. And so there
must be humble unity. And we're to live this out in
our relationship toward one another. And I think every believer understands
implicitly we're to love one another. I mean, we understand
that that is a clear and expressed commandment. Jesus even said
as much, didn't he, during his earthly ministry when he was
asked by a lawyer, what is the greatest commandment? Jesus says
the greatest commandment is what? To love the Lord your God with
your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength and
to love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus made this very explicit
to the disciples even in this upper room farewell discourse.
I would just draw your mind to these again. If you go back to
John chapter 13, very foundational passage, John 13 verses 34 and
35. Again, very explicitly, Jesus
says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. And
we understand and we recognize, and again, even as this is reflected
in Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17, the activity and the presence
and the demonstration of this love that believers are to exhibit
with one another. is the most powerful testifying
reality of the presence and the power of Christ that He has given
to us. He says in verse 35, "...by this all men will know that you
are my disciples." And that very thought is echoed as we saw already
in John chapter 17. If you flip over to John chapter
15, Jesus speaks of this commandment again and expands on it a little
bit as He speaks more about the nature of this love in verses
12 through 17. He says, this is my commandment,
that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater
love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No
longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what
his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things
that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You
did not choose me, but I chose you. and appointed you that you
would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that
whatever you ask of the Father in my name He may give to you. This I command you that you love
one another." Again, it's just explicit, and any believer, whether
you've been a believer for a few hours or whether you've been
a believer for many, many, many years, you know and you understand
implicitly, and because of these incredibly explicit commandments
from Scripture, that we are to love one another. Now the question
I want us to just ponder for a little bit is how does that
commandment relate to our understanding of and our response to these
matters of God's sovereign electing grace? The reason this is significant
is because of this. Our understanding of these matters,
and as it concerns this commandment and this obligation that we as
believers have to love one another, hits at the very foundation of
what should motivate us to love one another. What it is that
should motivate us to love one another. Now, I don't know about
you, but I know for me, there's a lot of Christians who name
the name of Christ that are difficult for me to love. Anybody else
have that experience? We all do, and therein lies the
very problem, doesn't it? We know we're supposed to love
others, and we know we're supposed to love God, but come on, in
one sense, that may seem a little bit easier. I mean, God's a perfect
being. God never makes mistakes. God
never says mean things to us. He never is rude. He's never
cruel. He's perfect. So in one sense,
we might think to ourselves, well, that's easy, even though
because of sin, it's not easy to love God, of course, and yet
He gives us grace to do so. But when it comes to loving other
people, we feel like we have a little bit more of a case to
say, I don't really need to love that person because this person
is such and such. Now, I would guess that probably
all of us, as I'm speaking of these things, maybe have the
names and the faces of particular people running through our minds. So the question is, what should
motivate us? What should motivate us is the
reality of God's saving electing purposes. How does this all connect? It's simply this. If we have
been redeemed by God, if we are among His chosen, if He has so
worked in our lives to cause us to be convicted of sin, to
know His holiness, to come to faith in Christ and to rest fully
upon Christ and His righteousness and His bloodshed, and if we
have been given new life and have been brought into His fold,
if we are in that sense one of His sheep, then what should motivate
us to love others is the understanding that the same infinite, eternal,
perfect, sovereign love that God has poured out upon us and
has caused us to know that we are precious to Him, not because
of any merit in ourselves, but because of His merit, that very
same love He has poured out on others as well. And if we love
Him, It's as simple and as profound as this. If we love Him, we will
love what is precious to Him. And so what should motivate us
and drive us in our love to one another is a concern for God
and His glory and His purposes. Now, obviously, this is where
the rubber meets the road, isn't it? We have conflict with one
another. We sin against each other. We
offend each other, sometimes intentionally. I'm convinced
most of the time, not always, but most of the time unintentionally. And often when that occurs, it
is so easy for us to cave in to the temptation to not love
and to not forgive. and to not be patient, and to
not be kind, and to not be gracious. Why? Because we've been hurt. But so often our responses and
our reactions to other brothers and sisters in Christ is completely
devoid of any concern for God and His glory and His purposes. And I dare say that we are so
easily prone to not look at other believers, and we're talking
right now in the context of other believers, those who profess
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're so prone not to look at
them as those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of
the world, those whom God has sovereignly chosen to set His
love and His grace and His mercy upon. and that God is going to
be faithful to his purposes in that person's life just as much
as God is going to be faithful to his purposes in my own life. And so we have a tendency to,
in our hearts, if not in our overt actions, separate ourselves
from those who hurt us, and from those who sin against us, and
from those who are difficult to love within the body of Christ. See, if we're growing in our
recognition that there is so much more going on and so much
more at stake than simply our own little, small perspective
of things, then we're going to be all the more motivated to
be active in doing what Paul tells us, what God tells us through
Paul in Ephesians chapter 4, to be diligent to preserve the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. because we understand
that what's at stake is so much infinitely greater than just
ourselves. And that's why I call this humble
unity, humble loyalty to one another in the body of Christ. You see, in our relationships
with other believers, both within this local assembly, as well
as a regard for the church universal, with anybody anywhere who names
the name of Christ, and as we grow in our relationships, we
often fail to see the bigger picture of God's glory. And the
bigger picture of God's purposes and focus instead on the infinitely
smaller picture of our selfish pride. And that's all it is. It is our selfish pride. And that is why there is division
in relationships. between believers, divisions
in relationships that can occur in marriages, that can occur
in families, that can occur at every level, is ultimately owing
to our selfish pride. Now, this is an incredibly weak
illustration. It doesn't even begin to approximate
the fullness of the unity that we have in Christ and in the
unity of the Godhead that we are brought into. So this illustration
I'm about to mention is incredibly weak in that regard. But imagine
what it would be like if all of the players on a football
team chose not to labor together for a greater purpose than just
their own comfort. What would happen? It would be
absolute chaos. What makes a football team or
any team in any context for that matter work is when all of the
individuals in the team recognize that they are a part of an infinitely
greater purpose than just their own comfort and disposition.
So what do they do? They set aside their own personal
interests for the greater good of the team. Now again, when
we're talking about the unity that we share in Christ because
of His sovereign electing grace and what we have been called
into with that, it's so much greater than any earthly analogy
because it is a unity that is grounded in the truth of God's
saving purposes and in the power of the life that we have been
given in Christ. And so our unity is much greater
than simply a uniform, if you will, that might unite us. We
share the life of Christ together. And when we're not committed
as believers to exhibiting humble unity and humble loyalty to one
another in Christ and in the fullness of all that Christ is,
then we're diminishing the display of His glory. We're diminishing
the purposes that He has for us as His church, as His people,
to be testifying of the greatness of His glory and of His goodness.
Now, I want you to see a few places in Scripture where this
love and where this unity that we're to share of is directly
connected with our having been born of God. I don't want you
to miss this. I just want to mention three
passages real quickly. First of all, go to Colossians
chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And we'll
see again how in these passages, how this obligation to love one
another and to pursue the maintenance of the unity that we have been
given in Christ is directly connected with our having been born again,
having been born of God. Look at Colossians 3. I'll start
in verse 12, read down through verse 14. And don't miss this. Look at what Paul says. Holy and beloved. He's speaking
to all believers there. Those who have been chosen of
God. He wants that to be firmly in
the minds of his readers. That if you are a believer, you
are one who has been chosen of God. You're holy, you're beloved. Therefore, which is implied,
put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness,
and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against
anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things, put
on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Do you see how
his exhortation, his commandment here, is grounded in the reality
of those who have been chosen of God? It's about God, it's
about his purpose, it's about his glory. In light of that,
put on these realities. Go over a few pages to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter two. 1 Peter
chapter two. I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter one. Again, just seeing how this obligation,
this commandment to love one another is connected with new
birth. 1 Peter 1, verses 22 and 23. Peter says, Since you have in
obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love
of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, For
you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable,
but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word
of God. Again, the commandment to fervently
love one another. It's not to just be a casual
thing. It's not to just be a when it's
convenient kind of a thing. It's to be an overt, intentional,
purposeful, passionate love that we are to pursue with one another.
In light of the fact that we have been born again, not of
seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through
the living and enduring word of God. And then go over a few
more pages to 1 John 5. 1 John chapter 5. And throughout John's letter,
he brings together these realities of the new birth and of the obligation
to love one another in concert with other commandments that
the Lord has given. But look in 1 John 5. And we'll
look at verses 1 and 2. He says, "...whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the
Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we
love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments."
You see the significance there? Whoever loves the Father loves
the child born of Him. That is to be the motivating
factor that determines our love for one another and that drives
and empowers our love for one another is because of our love
for the Father based upon what He has done in causing us to
be born again. There are so many points of application
with this. It means that there must be loyalty.
It means that there must be a devotion that we have toward one another.
A commitment that we have toward one another because of the glory
of God and His saving purposes. And it means that we are to have
that disposition toward any believer anywhere. That we are to have
that kind of love that recognizes that if they're a believer, if
we're a believer, we belong to the same family, we have the
same father. And even though there may be
differences in the levels of maturity and even in what we
believe, if they're genuinely born again, based upon the gospel
as revealed in God's Word, we have a unity with them and we're
to pursue that. All of this, of course, is grounded
in the clarity of God's Word and the truth of God's Word.
But there's to be a humble disposition that recognizes that unity. Now,
even as that is to be evident with our relationship with all
believers anywhere, let me also strongly amplify the reality
that it is to be a devotion that's to be distinct within any local
assembly of believers. and that it is God's will for
us to clearly and purposefully be identified with a local assembly
of believers. It doesn't mean that that's the
sole extent of our relationship with other believers, but it
does mean that that's a context which God has clearly ordained
as we see evidence over and over again throughout the New Testament
of local assemblies. with the recognition for the
leadership of those assemblies that God has raised up within
the boundaries of what He's revealed in His Word and a mutual commitment
to one another. And I would just ask you on this
point, are you a part of a local church? And what I mean by that
is not simply do you come to the worship service of a local
church at 10.30 on a Sunday morning. But in your heart before God,
in light of His electing saving purposes, have you in your heart
united with a local body of believers? In a purposeful way, and as Steve
mentioned at the beginning of our service, that's how we view
membership, is simply as a public affirmation of a mutual commitment
that is implicit to the very nature of what it means to be
a part of the body of Christ, lived out in a local assembly.
In our day and age, as I'm sure it has been in any day and age,
many, many, many believers are prone to sort of keep the church
at arm's length. We understand aspects of that.
Many of us have been burned. Many of us have experienced horrendous
things in the context of local churches and in the context,
in the name of Christ. and we've been hurt, but do you
think there's any coincidence to the reality that that can
happen in light of all of the exhortations of Scripture, even
as we saw in Colossians 3, that command us to bear with one another
and to forgive one another. And as Paul says in Ephesians
4, again, to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the
bond of peace, let me just ask you, In your heart, are you striving
after humble unity with brothers and sisters in Christ? That being
a disposition that is to be there with regard to the universal
church, but also with regard to a local assembly. Have you
made that commitment in your heart? To say, this is the family
of God. This is the local church that
I am identifying myself with. Whether it's this church or whether
it's any church that is seeking to magnify Christ and to be faithful
to His Word, the point is every believer is obligated before
God, if we're growing in the knowledge of His grace at all,
to be living that out in the context of the unity that He
calls us to. And the primary expression of
that, the starting point of that, is within a local assembly. How
is it with you in that? Now, of course, I would put a
strong argument for this local church, and we would love to
have you if you haven't already made that commitment. We live
in a day and age, again, it's probably not different than any
other day and age where it's so easy to be a church shopper
and a church hopper. and we like a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, and we jump around and bounce around.
And I would just say graciously, and hopefully humbly, and hopefully
you would know my heart in this, for many of you who have come
from other assemblies, even here in town, we rejoice that you're
here, and we certainly wanna be a part of what God would have
in your life. But I would encourage you, and
as we get to know different people, we learn and understand different
dynamics and circumstances in people's lives. But if you're
coming to this particular church, because of conflict or division
that you've had with other believers at another local assembly, I
would encourage you, don't seek to unite here until you've done
everything that you know God would have you to do to reconcile
with others elsewhere. We understand that, as Paul says
in Romans chapter 12, verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. You can only do so much
and we understand that and we recognize that. But all too often,
people hop around and drift around. Why? Because there's conflict
or because there's offense that has occurred. There are times
when it's appropriate to disengage and to step away from a church
that is compromising. There's a lot of issues there,
we understand that. But I would just encourage you, if there's
any unresolved issues with you and others at another church
that need to be resolved and you know you have responsibility
there, don't take that for granted and don't neglect that. There
needs to be humble unity, and this hits at the very core of
where we live for the glory of Christ, for the glory of Christ.
Well, very quickly, let me mention two more areas, two more areas
of significance, not only as it concerns our view of our relationship
with God, not only as it concerns our view of our relationship
with other believers, but a third area regarding this humility
concerns how we view ourself in relationship to the world.
how we view ourself in relationship to the world. And the operative
phrase that I would give you here is humble peculiarity. I have difficulty with that word.
Humble peculiarity. If we are growing In our knowledge
of God and His grace, in our knowledge of His electing, saving
purposes, knowing and growing in the fullness of all that God
has given and all that God has called us to in Christ, with
regard to our relationship to this world, we will be increasingly
peculiar. We'll be increasingly peculiar. Now, in John's gospel, even in
this upper room discourse, Jesus has already spoken about this
with his disciples. If you look back in John chapter
15, he makes it clear that there is a clear dichotomy, a clear
distinction between those who are children of God and those
who are yet of the world. And as I've offered you before,
those are really the two foundational categories of reality with regard
to every human being. Whatever other categories that
we have a tendency to distinguish or to use to distinguish people
from one another, the only ones that ultimately matter are these
categories. You are either of God or you
are of the world. Now, in John chapter 15, look
at how Jesus speaks of this. We'll just look at verses 18
and 19, part of a bigger section in which He's addressing this.
But notice this distinction. He says in verse 18, if the world
hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own. But because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the
world hates you. And as Jesus speaks of the world
here, He's not so much talking about the physical creation of
the world, but all of the mindsets, all of the ideologies, all of
the philosophies that ultimately have together as their essence
a rebellion against God. That's the world. It's expressed
in myriads of ways. Sometimes in highly complex and
highly sophisticated religious systems. Sometimes in just the
full throttle expression of hedonism. But it has at its core, in whatever
myriads of ways it's expressed, a rebellion against the living
and true God. That's the world. Those ideologies,
those mindsets. And Jesus is saying, if you have
been born of God, if you belong to me, the world is going to
hate you because I've chosen you out of the world. And as
we grow in our knowledge of that choice that God in eternity past
has made to bring us to himself for his own glory, There should
be and there must be a growing detachment and a growing sense
of peculiarity with regard to the world. That the world and
all of its affections and all of its loves and all of its priorities
is going to become increasingly peculiar to us as we're growing
in our identification and knowledge of God. And conversely, we're
going to become increasingly peculiar to the world. They're
not going to understand. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 18, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who don't
believe. And we're going to be seen as
fools. And I want you to again just
see in chapter 17 of John's Gospel how Jesus alludes to this very
reality. In verse 6, as we've already
seen, Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you
gave me out of the world. To be born of God is to be taken
out of the world in the sense of spiritually being disconnected
with it and being reconciled to God. Again, down in verse
nine, he says, I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf
of the world, but of those whom you have given to me. Very clear
black and white dichotomy. Every single person in the world
is either born of God or they are of the world and under the
wrath of God. And then in verses 14 to 16 of
chapter 17, Jesus says, I have given them your word and the
world has hated them because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them
out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And this
is where Jesus is affirming the reality that those who have been
brought to faith in Him, those who are of the elect, those who
are representative of that group that the Father has given to
the Son, yet live in the world even while we're not of the world.
which is the strongest statement against asceticism that there
could ever be. God has not left us in this world
that we would live an ascetic lifestyle, but rather that we
would live in the world and yet not be of it with regard to the
disposition, affection, priorities, and love of our heart. And so
there must be this humble peculiarity. And it's something that's not
only a reality if we have been born of God, but as it is a reality,
we are to increasingly live in light of that. And be careful,
as John says in 1 John 2, verses 15 to 17, what? That we don't
love the world. How can we, who have been born
of God, who have been brought into this wonderful reality of
God's eternal saving purposes, and been given a hope that is
living and eternal with all of the fullness of blessings that
God has given to us, how is it that we can so easily want to
be friends with the world? And yet we are, aren't we? Because
of indwelling sin. And indeed, that's the very battle,
that's the very front line of our battle of sanctification.
But we need to see and understand that if we're growing in our
knowledge of what it means to be among the elect, what it means
to be among those whom God has chosen for His own saving purposes
and glory, that we're to be pursuing our embracing of the fullness
of all of that. and be increasingly detached
from the world. There's so many passages that
speak of this. Let me just mention a few. Romans
chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. In light of all of God's saving
grace and mercies that Paul has spoken of throughout Romans chapters
1 through 11, in verse 12, now shifting to points of significant
application, he says, Romans 12, 1 and 2, Therefore I urge
you, brethren, by the mercies of God, in view of the mercies
of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Don't be
conformed to this world. but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect." You see, the basis
of the exhortation to not be conformed to this world is in
light of the mercies of God that are grounded upon His saving,
electing purposes. And that's what motivates that
detachment. It's not a grit your teeth, fight
it through, legalistic attitude. It's an increasing apprehension
of the love of God in Christ and the fullness and the greatness
of the glory and the blessings of all that you and I have been
called to in Christ that we're called to pursue. And in the
pursuit of Christ and of those realities, we become increasingly
detached from the world. so that we strive to be conformed
to Him and to His glory and to His purposes, lest we be conformed
to the world. I already mentioned the passage
in 1 John 2 about not loving the world. If we love the world,
John says, the love of the Father is not in us. One other passage
I would draw to your attention is 1 Peter 2. Verses 9 through
12, Peter says this, For you once were not a people,
but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy. And then notice what he says,
verses 11 and 12. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to
abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent
among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander
you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe
them, glorify God in the day of visitation. We live in this
world. God has deposited us here. He's deployed us here. What?
To proclaim his excellencies. And that, of course, has an individual
implication as well as a corporate implication for the church. But
we're to live such a life in light of the greatness and the
glory and the goodness of God and His saving purposes that
we seem as aliens and strangers. We're peculiar to the world and
the world is peculiar to us. And if we've been born of God,
it must be an ever-increasing reality. Let me ask you this.
Is your life and testimony strange enough in the eyes of unbelievers
that it arouses their curiosity? It doesn't mean that you're unnecessarily
weird, you know, like you're walking around with placards
on your front and back that say, the end is near. I mean, if you're
inclined to that, if you know, as the Lord wills, but it doesn't
mean that you're just inherently weird, but it means that you
are so gripped by the reality of God and His grace and His
glory and His love and what it means to know Him, what it means
to taste and see His goodness and His excellencies and living
in the fullness of that, that there's nothing in the world
that holds any grip on you. That's strange to the world.
Why? Because the world is in that
very grip. And that's why Peter says a little
bit later in chapter 3 that we're to sanctify Christ as Lord in
our hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone
who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,
yet with gentleness and reverence. Is your life strange enough because
of the work of God in your soul that it arouses the curiosity
of unbelievers? That really leads to the fourth
area, the fourth significant area, and that has to do with
our view of our relationship with the lost. This humility
in response to God's electing grace is to have, will have,
should have an increasing impact upon our view of our relationship
to God, our view of our relationship to other believers, our view
of our relationship to the world, and finally our view of relationship,
our relationship to the lost, to unbelievers. And this certainly
flows out of the previous point. The operative phrase that I would
give you here is humble intensity. Humble intensity. With regard
to our relationship with God, there should be humble security.
With regard to our relationship with other believers, there should
be humble loyalty or humble unity. With regard to our relationship
to the world, there should be an ever-increasing humble peculiarity. And with regard to our relationship
to unbelievers, to the lost, there should be an ever-increasing
humble intensity. And the basis of this is understanding
that God has chosen those whom he is going to save for his own
glory and for his own purposes. And God has made that choice
in eternity past. Now, you might say, well, at
this point, that would seem to kill and to kind of pour water
on any sense of evangelistic zeal and any evangelistic intensity. I mean, if God has got these
people that He's saved and He's going to save them, then why
do I need to be involved in that at all? And the answer to that
question, dear brother and sister, is that God has ordained for
us to share in that as He has entrusted to us the Gospel. And
He has entrusted to us that commission to be about the work of proclaiming
the Gospel, living it out in our lives, that the power of
the Gospel may be seen, preaching it, proclaiming it to those that
God brings into our lives, that the power of the Gospel may be
heard. understanding that God is sovereignly, eternally at
work to save those who are His own. And the means by which God
calls forth His elect is through the proclamation of the gospel.
And so He has entrusted to us, in the power of His Spirit, that
very proclaiming work. And that should intensify our
zeal because, again, it all comes back to God and His purposes
and God and His glory. And so what ultimately should
motivate us to desire the salvation of the lost and to work for the
salvation of the lost and to pray for the salvation of the
lost is not primarily a concern for the lost, but primarily a
concern for God's glory with respect to the lost. Do you see
that? If we're driven and motivated
simply by a concern for the lost, I will tell you eventually that's
going to fizzle out. Because as it is difficult for
us to love other believers, apart from the Spirit of God, so it
is difficult, I dare say impossible, to love the lost apart from the
power of God at work in our lives. And we must see them in light
of God and His glory and His eternal purposes. Now God alone
is the one who knows who His elect are. People don't walk
around with a big E on their forehead, you know, and, oh,
they're that one, I'm going after that one. No, God knows who His
elect are. Our job is to be faithful to
Him and to pray for their salvation and to be bold by the power of
His Spirit in proclaiming the truth to them, trusting that
God is going to save whom He is going to save and that He
is the one doing the work. He has called us simply to be
faithful and profoundly to be faithful. Now, I want you to
see just very graphically how this matter of understanding,
embracing, and rejoicing in the greatness of God's electing grace
is not at odds with, but rather fuels the zeal and the passion
that should be there increasingly in our heart for those who don't
know the Lord. Turn to Romans chapter 9, and
we'll kind of wind things down with this this morning. Romans
chapter 9, because There's no New Testament
writer that more fully in the providence and in the inspiration
of God reveals the truths of God's electing grace. There's
no New Testament writer that does that more than the Apostle
Paul. These matters are front and center within the book of
Romans. They're front and center within the book of Ephesians
and many other places as well. And yet I don't know if there's
ever been a believer since Christ himself who perhaps was more
passionately burdened for the souls of people for the glory
of God than Paul was. That could be arguable, but certainly
we see that in such a pronounced way throughout the book of Acts
as it recounts God's ministry through Paul, and we certainly
see it reflected in so many of his letters. Look at how he begins
this section. And Romans chapters 9 through
11 is a section in which he deals with these very matters of God's
electing grace head on. But look at how he begins, Romans
9 verses 1 to 5. He says, I am telling the truth
in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience
testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow
and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself
were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh." That is a powerful statement.
And I don't think it's hyperbole on the part of Paul. He's not
just saying that in a kind of a presumed humble kind of way.
He's saying it is deep within his soul and his conscience before
God that he could wish that he himself was accursed, if it would
mean the salvation of his kinsmen. He goes on to say in verse 4,
"...who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons,
and the glory of the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the temple service, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from
whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all.
God blessed forever. Amen." As he jumps out of the
gate in his discussion and in his revelation of these matters
concerning God's electing grace, and he's going to say much about
that in chapters 9, 10, and 11, he's affirming the reality and
the purity of his conscience before God that he is broken
and grieved and sorrowful over the lostness of his kinsmen,
the Israelites. And ultimately, where he finds
himself with regard to all of this is resting, resting in the
utter sovereignty of God. knowing that God will fulfill
his sovereign purposes. And that's why he concludes this
entire section with these profound words of doxology at the end
of chapter 11, because he's confident in God's saving purposes. And
even while his heart breaks, and even while he longs for the
salvation of these people, he's content and he's secure and he's
humble before the absolute sovereignty of God. And so look at what he
says, chapter 11, verses 33 through 36. O the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
His judgments, and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the
mind of the Lord? Or who became His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to
Him again? For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and
ever. Paul rested in that. And because he was so confident
of God's sovereignty and so confident of God's electing purposes, The
practical implication of that, the practical application of
that is that he never bended or compromised the message in
order to try to get people saved. Because he understood that salvation
was a sovereign work of God in the heart of an individual. And
you see, if you don't believe that God is sovereign in salvation,
if you don't believe that God has his elect whom he's chosen
before the foundation of the world, you know what you're gonna
inevitably not only be tempted to do, but you are going to do
in your desires to try to get people saved, in your desires
to try to get them to sign the dotted line. Inevitably, you're
gonna compromise the message because you're gonna wanna do
whatever is necessary to try to get them to see it. But if
you embrace the reality that God is sovereign, you're gonna
strive to be faithful to God. And rather than trying to be
tricky and creative and twisting, you know, trying to be clever
and relevant, you're gonna strive to be clear and faithful with
regard to praying for the lost, knowing that God alone has to
open a person's heart, he has to bring them to salvation. You're
gonna strive to be clear in presenting the gospel and faithful in living
it out. That's why there must be humble
intensity, trusting that God is in control. I would commend
to you a very helpful book, foundational book in these matters, written
by J.I. Packer many, many years ago, but it's an excellent study
in these matters of how does God's sovereignty connect with
evangelism. The title of the book is simply
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. It does an excellent
job revealing the fullness of these matters and how that pertains.
But do you see the significance of that? If I rest in the truth
that God is sovereign, he knows those who are his, mine is to
be faithful, mine is to be willing to suffer, to be willing to proclaim
the gospel, knowing that God will save those whom he will
save, then I'm resting in the fact that he's the author of
salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
And so I can live my life as Paul did his with that doxology,
praising God for the depth of the riches of both his wisdom
and his knowledge. And I think that's a good place
for us to end today. Let's pray together. Oh, great and mighty God, indeed,
as always, such a sense of only scratching the surface of these
things. And Lord, You know us, You created
us, and You know that these truths are so infinitely great that
they're hard for us to comprehend, let alone understand. And yet,
Father, as Your Word declares these matters, I pray that through
Your Spirit and through Your Word, You would just bring a
greater connecting of the dots, as it were, in our minds. And
Lord, that while there is so much that is mysterious to us,
and as we acknowledge that the secret things belong to You,
Lord, help us not fall short of what You've revealed in Your
Word, and help us not go beyond what You've revealed in Your
Word, but rather to humbly embrace it, and to live out the greatness
and the fullness of the humble security that You have given
us before You, to exhibit that humble loyalty and unity toward
one another as all of those who are joint heirs with Christ,
as we have all been chosen by you, to have that increasing
sense of just peculiarity with regard to the world, and that
you would deliver us from the temptation and the tendencies
that we have to want to be affectionate toward the world and want to
try to fit in. Lord, help us to be more concerned
about being fit for heaven and growing in that reality. And
Lord, to rightly think toward your saving purposes, knowing
that you are sovereign in salvation, that you've given us the privilege,
the blessing, and the responsibility of living the gospel, of proclaiming
the gospel, trusting that you are the one who will save those
whom you purpose to save, that we might simply be faithful,
not thinking that we could ever bring about eternal life in anyone,
but that is a sovereign work of your grace. Lord, may you
work these things out in our lives, individually and as a
church, so that you'd be glorified and magnified. We love you and
thank you. In Jesus' great name, amen. Amen.
The Reality of Election, Part 3
Series John
| Sermon ID | 99124201749221 |
| Duration | 1:12:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 17:6-10 |
| Language | English |
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