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.