The Basis of God’s Choosing Whom to Save

Transcript

GR1921
06/14/2015
The Basis of God’s Choosing Whom to Save
I Peter 1:1-2
Gil Rugh

I invite you to turn to I Peter in your Bibles and we are right at the beginning, I Peter chapter 1. We’ve just begun looking into this letter by the apostle Peter and noted something of his prominence in the Scripture. He is mentioned many times more than any of the other disciples that were with Christ during His earthly ministry. Only Paul would have the prominence that is given to Peter and as we noted the first part of the book of Acts is focused on Peter. The last part of the book of Acts focuses primarily on the ministry of Paul but Peter is an outstanding servant of the Lord.

When he began the letter he identified himself and those that he is writing to and we just took a little bit of an overview and noted Peter is writing to encourage believers who are going through suffering and difficulty and trial and because of that I Peter is a book that often we go to as believers when we are going through difficulties and trials. It reminds us and encourages us of God’s grace which is emphasized throughout the book that provides the strength and the support and the protection that sees us through the most difficult times.

As you aware New Testament letters begin with the pertinent information at the beginning. Our letters have tended to be at the end. You identify the writer right at the beginning, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ and those he is writing to are those who reside as aliens scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia who are chosen. We noted those regions mentioned there and I said we might have a map for you but I don’t. It’s basically what is modern day Turkey and known as Asia Minor so that is where this region is. He is writing to and our English Bible, the New American Standard says, “those who reside as aliens scattered throughout these regions who are chosen.” Literally it says, “To the elect sojourners of the diaspora,” to the elect sojourners of the diaspora. Now those words are here they are just aliens scattered who are chosen; chosen being the word “elect.” In the flow of the text it’s to the elect sojourners, the aliens. Sojourner, one who was not a citizen, one who was outside his home country, scattered, that is the diaspora.

We spent some time looking at that word. Important to identify the readers that Peter is writing to. It will have great significance as we move into the letter. The diaspora is a technical term. It refers to the Jews scattered outside their homeland. That is why they are called “aliens” or “sojourners” here. Not talking about us as believers away from our heavenly homeland. That is true but that is not what Peter is saying when he writes here. He is writing to Jews scattered outside of their homeland. The region here would be in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. That term diaspora only used two other times in the New Testament, John 7:35 when Jesus told the Jews of His day, “You won’t be able to come where I am going.” And they were confused and said, “Well where will He go?” “Will he go to the diaspora among the Greeks and teach them?”

And then James writes in James 1:1 “To the twelve tribes of the diaspora,” again to the Jews. So I think we will need to keep in mind because there is confusion. Diaspora is a technical term. That is why it is used outside the Bible as well in the literature of the time to refer to the Jews scattered out of their land.
We are going to look at what Peter says. He’s writing to the elect sojourners of the diaspora and we are going to come to the subject of election. Peter just mentions it right up front and then he will elaborate on it. One of the greatest comforts we as believers have when we are going through trials is knowing that God is sovereign, that everything is under control. In my worst trials, in my most difficult afflictions, if God is not sovereign what comfort do I have even as a believer? But knowing that my God is sovereign, that He rules over all, that everything is under His control and for us as believers, Romans 8, “All things work together for good to those who have been called by God.” That is an encouragement. That doesn’t mean we always understand what God is doing or why He is doing what He does or the way He’s doing it but my confidence is in He is sovereign.

On other occasions, we are not going to take the time to go back and look at many of the Old Testament passages that emphasize God’s sovereignty and into the New Testament the same emphasis but we just studied the book of Daniel together and Daniel chapter 4 repeatedly said God is working so men will know that He rules in the realm of mankind. He appoints rulers. He removes rulers. He is sovereign and as believers we take comfort in that and encouragement.

When we come to the doctrine of the election he is writing to the elect sojourners of the diaspora. We get into a little more confusion. We move sometimes beyond our comfort zone. We remind ourselves we are just talking about the sovereignty of God. He is sovereign. The Jews understood this. Again, the Old Testament, God made clear He chose Israel and He takes all the credit for choosing them. It wasn’t that they sought Him out, He chose them to be a nation that would belong to Him and He was very selective. It would be Abraham’s physical descendants through Isaac, through Jacob. Abraham had other physical descendants. They are not part of the chosen nation. The nation Israel will be a specific group of people so that doctrine of election there in the choosing of the nation and then there was a selection, the choosing of the people within the nation. We will touch on some of this as we move along.

Basically the doctrine of election as we are talking about it here in Peter and other places in the New Testament refers to God’s sovereign choice from among sinful human beings for some to come to be the recipients of His salvation. We are going to talk a little bit about this. We are not going to resolve all the questions we have about it. I will say right up front. I believe in the total sovereignty of God and I believe in the full responsibility of man and no I can’t perfectly resolve the questions that there may be in some of those areas. I don’t have to. I am not God. He has to handle His own problems if I can say that with respect. It’s not a problem for Him. It is a problem for me.

How can man be fully responsible and God totally sovereign? God is totally sovereign. Take it outside the realm of salvation in the rulers that rule. He appoints them and holds them accountable for the decisions they make although in His sovereignty He has planned the decisions they will make. Well, we have to be careful in this area because what we find is people decide I am going to come down on one side or the other so I am going to be one who holds to the full sovereignty of God. Then I minimize the full responsibility of man in his accountability for his decisions. We’ll go the other way. I’ll minimize God’s sovereignty and that goes on in a variety of ways. We think of Armenian theology which emphasizes the free will of man. There is what is called “Open Theism” today. That is where some theologians who claim to be evangelical, teach that God is sovereign, He knows everything that is knowable but the decisions you haven’t made aren’t knowable. So He doesn’t know those and He won’t know them until you make the decision which comes to try to come up with a plan which really limits God’s sovereignty. How He could plan everything in the future down to naming individuals like Cyrus 300 years before he was even born is just a good guess. I don’t think so.

So we want to be careful. I want you to understand up front that I believe in the full sovereignty of God. I believe in the full responsibility of man and no, I cannot explain every question that I might have, how they mesh together. I just believe both because the Scripture teaches both and I expect I won’t understand everything that there is to be understood about God. But let’s see what we do come to learn.

“To the elect.” Let’s pick up that word “election.” It means to choose. Election is just bringing into English the Greek word for election. The elect of God. They are His elect, His choosing. He has made a choice. We will get to the basis of that choice in a moment but let’s look at the fact that He has made a choice.

Let’s start in Romans 9, Romans chapter 9. We are not going to do an exhaustive study, obviously but at least some key verses. Romans chapter 9 and God talking about Israel here and we talk about down in verse 10: “Not only this, but there was Rebekah also.” We have come from Abraham and his wife Sarah and Isaac. You know you have to come through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the line. Now we are going to have two twins here. Verse 10: “Not only this, there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.” So remember it had to be Abraham would have a son through Sarah. The son he had through Hagar doesn’t count for the fulfillment of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. It had to be the son through Sarah and Isaac has a wife and he has two sons through Rebecca. One mother, one father, verse 10. “For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad…” This tells you something about God’s foreknowledge that we are going to come to in Peter in a moment. God’s decision was not based upon anything that had done or would do. If He was just looking into the future to see what they would do, He would be basing His decision on the good or the bad they would do. It said that didn’t come into the picture. It was so “that God’s purpose according to choice.” We have the word “His” there and I don’t have a problem with that but it just says, “choice.” “According to election would stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls.” That would rule out God making His decision on the basis of looking into the future and seeing what someone would do or not do and choosing them on that basis because this one verse, it’s “not because of works, it’s because of His purpose according to His choice,” to election. It’s all based on the one who calls.

“It was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated.” Malachi chapter 1. Whew. That doesn’t seem fair. Isn’t that interesting? Verse 14: “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!” Meganoito. We see that King James translated it “God forbid” to give you the force, how strong this is even though the word “God” does not appear here. Such a thought in inconceivable.

So our first reaction may be that this is not fair but we need to be careful. We are treading on holy ground so to speak. I may not understand fully the resolution of what God is doing here but I better not cross the line and challenge God on what He is doing. That is not fair. Whoa, God is not accountable to me. I am not God’s judge. He is my judge. That is the point. There is no justice with God is there? You don’t even take certain responses into consideration.

He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

Verse 18: “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” And you know this flows logically. What is the next thing you would say? Verse 19: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’” I mean I can’t be held accountable. I just did what God determined I would do and you say, “Well, let’s get this resolved right now and then I get to this: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” There are certain things God has chosen not to resolve for me. I just trust that He is God and what He does is right. It is fair. “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘why did you make me like this?’” Now this is important here. “Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?”

Now you have to note what is going on in the context here. It says in verse 15: God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” You can’t deserve mercy. Mercy by definition is something undeserved. So verse 18: “He has mercy on whom He desires.” The point is He is dealing with humanity, a lump of clay. One writer commenting on this says, “This is a terrible analogy by Paul because human beings aren’t lumps of clay. Well, it is drawn from the prophet Jeremiah so you know he’s got a problem with Scripture. The point is the lump of clay that God is working with is sinful humanity. The only hope for sinful humanity is mercy. We are not talking that God from among innocent human beings He’s choosing some for salvation and choosing others for reprobation. I don’t believe that is a Biblical teaching. What He is picking up here, we are dealing with sinful human beings. God is not obligated to show mercy. Otherwise it wouldn’t be mercy, it would be something deserved. Paul deals with this when he comes to talk about grace and he says, “You can’t talk about deserving grace.”

Let’s come over to chapter 11, verse 5: “There has come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice;” literally, election of grace, according to God’s election of grace. If it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace is no longer grace because grace by definition is something undeserved, unmerited.

So keep in mind we are dealing with sinful humanity when God is making a choice and keep in mind the angels. The angels sinned, one occasion there. They followed Satan in his rebellion. Did God ever provide salvation for fallen angels? No. Well He is not fair. Why? Well He has to provide salvation. No He doesn’t. He has to provide justice and so every fallen angel to the last one will spend eternity in hell and there is no option for them to choose otherwise because there is no Savior for them. That was Hebrews 2, remember? Jesus Christ did not take on Himself the nature of angels. He didn’t come to die for angels. There was never a Savior for angels. They are accountable and responsible but there is no mercy.

So he goes on to talk about God was, verse 22: “Willing to demonstrate wrath to make His power known.” He put up with the vessels that were going to go to destruction and He is going to show the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy. The basis of choice was within God Himself.

Come over to II Thessalonians chapter 2, II Thessalonians, chapter 2. This is a verse we will come back to later. I hope we are going to get to it. Verse 13: “We should always give to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation.” I thank God He chose you from the beginning. This happened before creation. By the time you get to Genesis 1:1, choices have been made.

Come over to just after Thessalonians, Timothy, II Timothy chapter 1. Now we referred to verse 8 in our study earlier today. “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord and me His prisoner. Join with me in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” And while you are in Timothy come over to chapter 2, verse 10: “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, (for the sake of the elect) so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”

One other passage before we come back to Peter. Come back to Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1, vs 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us.” There we are, subjects of His choice, His election. “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. He predestined us.” The end of verse 5: “According to the kind intention of His will,” which literally says, “According to His good pleasure.” For some reason the translators thought they ought to soften that. What is the basis of it? God decided to do this before the foundation of the world.

Now you don’t resolve the problem by saying, “Well the reason He chose before the foundation of the world He looked into the future with His foreknowledge.” That wouldn’t resolve anything because now living in time it is still determined. They do that as though we will determine something and the question always comes what if one of my children is chosen and the other is not? What if one of my parents is chosen and the other are not? That’s the answer I have. I guess I would say “God, you do all things right.” I do everything I can. He hasn’t told me to pick out the elect before they come to faith but it is like Paul. He’s going around what? Begging people to be reconciled to God knowing as we read in II Timothy 2:10, “I am enduring all things for the sake of the elect that they might come to the salvation which is in Christ.” He knows sinful man apart from sovereign intervention of God won’t come. They will not. It is in God’s hands. Does that mean I don’t pray for the salvation of the lost, of my family? I do but I am not earnestly seeking but you know ultimately I find comfort in knowing it is in God’s hands, not mine, not theirs and He will do what is right and consistent with His character.

Let’s come back to I Peter and get a little bit further information. I love the way someone like Peter just launches in. “I am writing to the elect sojourners of the diaspora.” And they are elect and we are going to have some more of those prepositional phrases here; “According to the foreknowledge of God. It’s going to be by the sanctifying work of the Spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.” That helps elaborate here what is going on.

Well we are elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” What is going to happen here is we are going to have all three members of the trinity brought into the work of our salvation. We have the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled by His blood, all three members of the trinity involved in our salvation.

Well if we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, one very popular writer who has spoken here, he’s written a book and he’s big on foreknowledge and foreknowledge means foreknowledge. It means to know before. He doesn’t think we ought to go back to the Old Testament for a background in this but we have to. Peter is writing to Jews. That ought to help us, what is their background, the Old Testament. What is the background for the New Testament period? It is the Old Testament and part of what Paul was writing was to the Gentile churches. He assumes that they have developed some knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures and he will use them.

Come back to Genesis 18. You are familiar with the use of the word ‘knowledge’ in the Old Testament. It is not just simply having facts about something. We won’t go back earlier. Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived. That might be a euphemism for the sexual relationship but it carries that concept of intimacy, favor. I picked Genesis 18. God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 17: “The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation? In him all the nations of the earth will be blessed for I have chosen him.’” The translation, ‘chosen him,’ but you have that little number 1 in front of chosen and you look over in your margin at verse 19, literally ‘known;’ “For I have known him.” That’s doesn’t mean I know God knows everyone. The point is He has placed His favor on Abraham. He has chosen him. That is the point of verse 18, the Abrahamic Covenant. That is what is referred to here. The promises of the Abraham Covenant going back to Genesis 12 and repeated several times since then, “I have known him.”

Come over to Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5 and I have just picked three Old Testament passages, Jeremiah the prophet, Jeremiah chapter 1. Look at verse 5: “God said to Jeremiah, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.’” The Psalmist wrote that God formed his parts in the womb. “Before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” So you see when He says, “I knew you,” places favor on him, He chose him, consecrated him, appointed him. That was before he has born.

One more passage. Come over to Amos chapter 3. It is getting more difficult, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. You think I am saying that for your benefit. I am reminding myself how to get here. Amos chapter 3, verse 2 God is speaking to Israel of course. “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth,” and you note you have that marginal note again. Literally the word translated ‘chosen’ is the Hebrew word ‘known.’ “You only have I known among all the families of the earth.” Well God knows all the nations of the earth. I mean of course but only Israel has He known in this sense of choosing them, placing His favor and grace and love on them. That is the background and many other passages where this word ‘known’ coming out of the Old Testament.

We come into the New Testament. We have foreknowledge. Now when you talk about the foreknowledge of an individual, a human being obviously we are just about knowing something ahead of time. When we talk about it with God it is different. There are only five times that foreknow or foreknowledge are used of God in the New Testament.

Come to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, verse 23. Peter is preaching on the Day of Pentecost, talking about Christ and we will break into the sentence with verse 23: “This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross.” Here you see human responsibility and divine sovereignty. “It was the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” and predetermined plan and foreknowledge here are connected and basically are saying the same things, predetermined plan of God, His foreordination, foreknown. When He foreknew something He just didn’t know something ahead of time it is like in the Old Testament. It was something He determined ahead of time. Just like His predetermined plan, His foreknowledge, His favor. Was Christ just crucified and men made that decision? Well the Old Testament had prophesied that. That’s what we just talked about. Everything was anticipating that including the one who was a close associate, who would betray Him but that doesn’t relieve man of his responsibility for his decision. “You nailed Him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death but God raised Him from the dead.” So it was God’s predetermined plan and foreknowledge that caused it to happen and you did it and you are guilty. Wow, what do we do? We just carried out the plan of God. You can’t escape accountability. God didn’t make you sin. We have to be careful. God’s predetermination, God’s sovereignty, He never causes anyone to sin. He doesn’t tempt anyone to sin and He is not temped to sin. James makes that clear. Certain places we cannot go. We may wrestle with things theologically but certain things are off the table. God could not be the cause of sin but in His predetermined plan and foreknowledge He had foreordained that His Son would be crucified by the hands of godless men. The godless men did what they wanted to do and crucified Christ.

Come over to Romans chapter 8. We are just looking at the passages that use foreknowledge relating to God. Chapter 8, verse 28: “We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God; to those who are called according to His purpose.” That’s what we talked about when we started. You know this doctrine of God’s sovereignty is a comfort for us. I may not understand why God is doing what He is doing. Why do I have to go through this? Why would God bring this into my life if He loves me? Well, I know He is doing it for my good. I don’t see any good to come out of this. Well, I’m not God.

You know one thing I learned in these times of pressure and difficulty is I can only trust Him. Like Job said, “Though He slay me yet I will trust Him.” I have to believe that God is doing what is best for me as His child. Verse 29: “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined” and on he goes. There you have the foreknowledge. It is talking about those who are called according to His purpose. They were those who He foreknew and predestined. In the context here it is not just knowing something about them ahead of time. This is in the context of God’s control of all things. Now we are going to elevate man to the one who made the decision and God reacting to man’s decision. No. He is determining.

Come to Romans chapter 11, verse 2. Verse 1 says, “I say then, God has not rejected His people has He?” Referring to Israel, the nation He has chosen. “May it never be.” Meganoito! Again such a thought is inconceivable and Paul is an example that God hasn’t rejected the Jews. He is a Jew. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.

You can see the point is on God’s sovereignty in that. He foreknew them. He chose them. He determined to put His favor on them and He will be true to His choice.

Come over now to I Peter. There were five uses. We have been through Acts, Romans and we have 2 in Peter. Verse 2 where we are and I Peter 1:20 talking about we were redeemed, “Not with perishable things but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ for He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but appeared in these last times.” Did God just look ahead in time and see that His Son would be crucified? You see what that does. Man is in charge of everything. God just has the advantage of looking ahead and can you believe there are men, theologians with advanced degrees who promote this doctrine, the open theism as it is called. God can only know what is knowable. The decisions of free men, of being with free will cannot be known until they make it. How does God do prophecy? Well God with His experience has a good idea just like you and I. We have certain experience with certain things. We have a good idea what they might do there and then God is constantly adjusting and then these men try to say that just shows how great God is because He is constantly having to adjust every decision that is made but He still keeps things on track. That is a perverted view of a God who is sovereign.

So in Peter here when he talked about “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” I take it, it’s according to God’s foreordination. He made the choice on the basis of He determined who He would put His favor on, who would be the objects of His affection. “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit.”

And I think we are going to stop there. So we will pick up the sanctifying work of the Spirit that brings us to obedience and sprinkling by the blood of Christ.

You know we don’t have to be afraid of what the Word teaches. I don’t have to let my mind wonder and oh now I have had people come to me and say, “You know, I don’t think I am one of God’s elect. I don’t think God would choose me. I don’t think He has chosen me.” Well, you know what? I guess you can put God to the test in this sense because God says “Whoever will call on me will be saved.” So I would say, “All you have to be concerned about is tell the Lord you know you are a sinner. You are unworthy to be chosen by Him but you want to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the One who loved you and died for you and you are trusting Him alone and that is your only hope for salvation and God I don’t deserve it but God do it.” If God didn’t choose you, now what is He going to do? God do it. Well what will that prove? That God in grace had chosen them, right?

So some of these things we come up with, will all my children or all my grandchildren – are they all chosen? You know I’d rather have it in the hands of a God who always does what is best and right and leave it there but I am praying for every one of them. I want to beg them and plead with them to trust Christ just like it all depended on me. Just like Paul. He knew. We learned from the doctrine of election from someone like Paul and yet what does he do? “We beg you, be reconciled to God. We are God’s mouthpiece to call you, to urge you to believe.” See there are somethings I don’t have to resolve. Certain things are in God’s hands. Certain things He has made known.

I want to go as far with the doctrine of election as I can as Scripture takes me but so far I want to be honest. In my 50 years of ministry I have not been able to perfectly resolve all the issues that are there. I believe God is totally sovereign. His will will be done down to the last detail and we are fully responsible and accountable for the decisions we make. If you are lost it’s because you choose to continue in your rebellion against God. His Son died for you. He said He died for all. That’s all you need to know. He tells you that He will save you if you believe in Him. Do it. Well, I don’t know. This doctrine of election bothers me. No it doesn’t bother you. You just want an excuse to continue in your rebellion. Why does that bother you? God says I will give you the free gift of life if you believe. It’s not because that bothers you. It’s because you don’t want to believe. You want to continue on your own stubborn way.

So we will pick up and bring the ministry of the Holy Spirit into this process into our next study. Let’s pray. Thank You Lord that You are sovereign. That is our security. That is our comfort in a world of turmoil and confusion. Everything is under Your control. In times of distress, heartache, heart break, suffering, times of grieving, times of pain, Lord sometimes we wonder where our comfort is. You are our heavenly Father. You are working all things together for our good because You love us. We don’t have to understand everything You do. We just have to know that You are the God who loves us, cares for us and does what He does for us. We give You praise in Christ’s name, amen.