Address—Tim Ruga
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Because we begin our meeting this afternoon with by singing him #141.
141 In deep eternal counsel, before the world was made, before its see foundations on nothingness were laid, God purposed us her blessing, and chose us and his Son to him to be conformed, when here our earth was run. 141.
Individual.
Nsnoise.
My desire this afternoon to speak on the first verse of that hymn. First, let's ask the Lord for his help. Our God and our Father, we come before Thee this afternoon. It's a company, as I known, thanking people I love and Thy mercy. And for this privilege that we have to be here together without fear, free before Thee to open Thy word. We pray that Thou would speak to us here this afternoon. We ask it for thy glory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:05
And so like I said, I want to speak about.
Something of the eternal counsel of God to choose us. In short, I want to speak about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man with respect to salvation. And when I say the sovereignty of God, I'm Speaking of the fact that God is above all things, and when he chooses to do something, there is nothing and there is no one who can resist as well. He will do it.
And so in order to look at that, let's just turn right to Ephesians chapter one and look at the first few verses there.
Ephesians One, verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without playing before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
And let's also.
Just skip down to verse 11, the middle of the verse, according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the Council of His own will. And so here we have laid out in very brief terms.
The sovereign choice of God, and that is that He chose believers before the foundation of the world. I'm speaking this afternoon to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and what I am saying is for you.
For those who do not, there will be a gospel meeting later on and the gospel will be preached at that time.
We know something different, those of us who know the Lord, and I'm speaking about that. And so here we have in verse four, we find that God, that's he. God has chosen us in him. That is Christ. That was God's choice.
That we would be His, and He chose us in Christ. And the time of that was before the foundation of the world. And it tells us something more in verse five. It says it was according to the good pleasure of His will. And then in verse 11 we register part of it according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of His own will.
Not according to the Council of our wills, but his.
And then the last verses that we read there up in, uh, at verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace. These things are to God's own glory and not the glory of man. And I hope that we'll be able to see that as we go through the subject a little bit this afternoon. Now, another, uh, verse that I want to read in connection with this is in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.
It says.
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation.
Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now we find some further terms to find that God chose for salvation from the beginning. We saw in Ephesians chapter one that that choosing was before the foundation of the world and the scripture speaks of various beginnings, but the only beginning.
That the Scripture speaks of that is before the foundation of the world is found in John chapter one and verse one, and the beginning was the word. And that clearly is speaking about eternity past. And so from this we learned that God has chosen you and he has chosen me as individuals before the foundation of the world, an eternity past for salvation and it was done.
Not by God looking down through.
And the avenues of time to see what you would do by the council of your will and making His decision based on that. But God made that choice according to the council of His own will, and He did it for His own glory. This subject involves the glory of God and the counsel of God's own will. That, in brief, is what I understand of this.
00:10:26
Umm, subject of God's sovereign choice, God's election of believers.
And the Scriptures also teach another truth that runs parallel to that and that is that man is responsible, all men are responsible. The Scriptures abundantly clear about this and the fact that it's presented that whosoever will, as we have in John chapter 3 verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever.
Should not perish, but have eternal life.
Romans 10 verse 13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That goes out freely. And the responsibility for accepting that message is also laid out in the plaintiff's terms in the Word of God, as we have even just a little bit later there in John chapter 3, the last verse. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God.
Abideth on him. And so we have these two things that are plainly laid out for us in Scripture, and yet they seem somehow to be difficult to fit together. But as believers, I've always enjoyed, umm, I'm sure many of us have that little illustration of how, you know, it came a time when perhaps you could think of it as walking along the road and you see this little, uh, stone gateway there. We've all heard this illustration, no doubt, and above it it says whosoever will may come.
Maybe not a verse, but found in Revelation 22 and.
So they say, Oh, whosoever that means me. And so I go in and I, I'm so glad that that meant me. And I get inside that door and I look up above on the other side and I see they're written, chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And so I have something new that I have to learn. And as we come to Christ, we turn around and we look and we see what we're taught in the scriptures and we learn something about what the word of God teaches. The fact that actually it wasn't me who chose now to go through that door and do that, but I was chosen by him.
Which is really what this whole subject comes down to did.
I choose God, or did he choose May?
So that leads us naturally to the first objection, and that is to say that how can you put those things together?
If God chooses those who will be saved, then how is it that man who can't come or be saved unless he's chosen is responsible?
And it's a difficult question, isn't it? One that perhaps most of us as Christians have struggled with at one point or another in our lives. And so I want to try to, uh, explain a little bit here, not the answer to that question because I don't know that I can do it. I don't think I can, but what Scripture says about it.
Some have likened it, of course, to two rails on a railroad track being like these two truths that run side by side in the word of God, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And they just run. They never meet together. They run parallel to each other, but.
Off in the distance, as you look down this railroad track, it looks like it comes together somewhere on the horizon, and so these things come together.
Even though it doesn't look like it here, well, that's an illustration some use. I still struggle with that because in my mind those rails are parallel. They never come together.
But I think the point of those who use it is to say that they don't come together in our minds, but with God, who is not limited by the limitations of our minds. These things are not in conflict. And so we can take up this subject and see what God has to say about it.
And lay aside our human reasoning and simply accept what God says. And that indeed is what I believe is the answer. Isaiah chapter 45 verses 8 and nine say my thoughts are not your thoughts.
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Neither are your ways my way, saith the Lord. For it's the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And this is what we need to do when we come to many subjects of the Word of God. There's something in the mind of man that wants to take everything that we're confronted with and reason it out and subject it to our own ration and reason. And yet we can't do it. Think about the inscrutable mystery of the Son of God, that one who made heaven and earth and coming down, taking upon himself the fashion of a man. And then.
Going to the cross and letting the creature which he created due to him, what they did to him, think about all the things involved in that and how that Holy One could have sinned, put on him. These are mysteries we can't understand. We never will.
The Word of God teaches them, we read that we accept it by faith and we give glory to God and thank Him for the truth of it. I believe that's the answer when it comes to this subject as well. And so we don't try to reason these things out. Instead, we look to the Lord and we seek guidance from him as to what he says to us through them, what they mean to us as Christians and.
When the Lord Jesus came here on earth, he was the one man.
Who did understand perfectly what this all meant, and he did set out to explain it in a way for men to understand something of it. At least this we find in Luke chapter 14. Let's turn there for a moment.
Luke 14.
And we just go to verse 15.
Because it introduces what the Lord is answering it says.
When one of them has sat at me with him, heard these things he said unto him, Blessed to see that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.
He's talking about how happy it is that there would be someone who's going to be in that future day eating bread there in the Kingdom of God. How wonderful, how happy for someone to be blessed in glory.
And somehow the Lord Jesus answers. How is it that that's going to happen?
Verse 16 Then he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuses. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it, I pray thee.
Have me excused.
Another said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Now before we go on, I just want to say this one common thing. Of course, no doubt you noticed it with these three, and that is that they all with one consent began to make excuse. But their excuses vary the 1St to say.
Well, this is what I did. And so I'm not coming. I will not come.
The third one said this is what I did and I can't come. And so you have these two basic reasons. I won't come and I can't come. And the Lord Jesus addresses both of them and John, as we'll see in a moment.
He goes on here.
So verse 21 That servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, go out into the streets in the lanes of the city and bring in hit her the poor.
And the names, and the halls, and the blind.
And his servant said, Lord, it is done as I was commanded, and yet there is room. Now notice something. The servant goes out and he brings in those who weren't at first invited at all, and they weren't able to come. He brings them in.
They're there for one reason. That is, he brought them there.
Now there's still more room.
And so he says, verse 50. Verse 23 And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men was forbidden shall taste of my supper.
00:20:15
Very important passage. Some of put it this way.
That all may, and none will, and some shall. And that's what we see laid out here for us by the Lord Himself. There was an invitation that went out, and at least to those who were invited here, they all could. We'll find the others could as well. But the only ones who came in were the ones who were brought in or compelled to come in. They didn't want to come in.
And that's the truth of what we're talking about here when it comes to this subject.
Man does not choose to come. In fact, the case is even stronger than that. The Word of God teaches us absolutely that man cannot come. He tells us in Romans chapter 8 and verse eight. They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Certainly it would please God if he would say, look, I've done everything for your salvation. All you have to do now is reach out and take it.
That would please God.
Days that are in the flesh cannot please God. We're going to see how definitely Scripture puts this. In fact, the Lord speaks of it. We'll go to those verses now in John chapter 6.
Verse 44.
The Lord says, No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 65.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come to me, except that we're given unto him of my father.
It's not possible. We don't have the time, not gonna turn to it, but back in John chapter 5 verse 40, the Lord Jesus said you will not come to me, that you will, that you may have life. These two things cannot, will not the Lord address them both here.
Man is unable to come to the Lord, Unable because he simply can't do it. He won't do it. He's bond in ******* to sin.
A slave to sin.
Man can't do it because it's presented in the Word of God. He's actually dead. And let's see that in Ephesians chapter one.
Seasons 2. I'm sorry, verse one.
So is there a new Hath he quickened? Have you made a life who are dead in trespasses and sins? Verse 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened or made us alive together with Christ by grace. So you see.
Here are the cases presented. Man, naturally, each one of us, we're dead in trespasses and sins.
The contrast is given because you are dead now, you need to be made alive. You don't make something alive that isn't perfectly dead. That which is dead is dead, and before it's made alive, it doesn't have life. Word of God presents this and the strongest and most definite terms so that we'll understand. And because we are dead naturally in trespasses and sins, the only way that God can make us alive.
Is that he has to sovereignly come in according to the Council of his own will.
And implant life into that dead person.
Go back to John chapter one and see how this is presented there.
John, Chapter one.
Verse 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him to them gave he the power, the right, the authority.
To become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. We stop there. We say OK so far it looks like I've got that choice. If I receive him then I become the.
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Son of God.
But we have to keep going. How we get to receive him is explain. It goes on here. It says in verse 13 which were born.
How? Not of blood, Not because their parents were Christians, nor of the will of the flesh. That's the same thing we spoke about in Romans 8 and verse 8. These that are in the flesh cannot please God. Of course not. That will they can't please God has nothing to do with being born from God Himself. And it says nor of the will of man.
Somebody else can't choose this verse for us.
But he says of God, God himself sovereignly chooses that some who were dead should be made alive, and that they should be born into his own family.
Some have objected to using this analogy of life and death between physical life and physical death and spiritual life and spiritual death is strongly as I'm Speaking of it here this afternoon.
But I want you to see, because perhaps you've heard these arguments too, that the Lord Jesus himself speaks of them together. We just turn over a few chapters to John chapter 5.
John 5, verse 24.
We find the Lord Jesus is speaking about spiritual life and spiritual death. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but his past.
From or out of death into life.
Very clearly identifying the subject, he goes on at verse 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you.
The hour is coming, and now it is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live.
There came a day when this dead person, Tim Ruger, heard the voice of the Son of God, And when I heard that voice, I lift.
Oh, thank God for that day. It was his sovereign choice.
But this is the whole point, that these ones are dead, and they hear the voice of the Son of God. You may say, well yes, but still they heard. How does a dead person hear?
That person doesn't hear unless they're given life. It's not possible. Go on to John Chapter 11. You see there the story of Lazarus.
And Lazarus is there in the grave and he's dead. He can't hear anything. He's not lying there waiting for the Lord Jesus to speak. He was dead.
And then the Lord Jesus said, Lazarus come forth, and at that moment Lazarus had the hearing and the living, and he came up out of that grave. And so it is when God speaks to a dead Sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, that at that moment God gives that one.
The hearing and the believing. And so we have we go on here. The Lord brings in the whole other side of this, showing that he's thinking about these two things together. Verse 28 Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, and the witch, all that are in the graves, shall hear his voice, and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of them nation.
And so the Lord Jesus here is putting these two things together. The one is just as vivid as the other. One is just as real as the other one. And God's sovereign choice is such that he takes those who are absolutely dead in their trespasses and sins and gives them life. And that's where we are today. And so.
All of the other things that tie into Salvation UMM are involved in this same.
Idea you can't get around it one way or another. Romans 10 verse 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so that word of God the Lord Jesus said the hour is coming with those when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God that's hearing the word and with that comes the faith as it says in Ephesians 2 and verse 8. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself it the faith is the gift.
00:30:23
Of God. And so God gives everything that is needed, because if it were not so, then some part of that choice would be up to you or me. And it's not.
God chose you before the foundation of the world according to the council of his own will. Well, this leads us to another objection that often arises to say that if it's like that.
That God does that, and those who God doesn't do that to are just helpless and dead, lost in their sins in that way, then it isn't fair.
Maybe you've heard that. I sure have. It isn't fair.
And that's not the God I know.
Well, who are we to say what God is or isn't? Yes, it's true. God is light and God is love and He is perfect and those attributes, those divine attributes of his being.
But God is what God reveals in His Word, and we take that and we submit to it. This very question was answered in Romans Chapter 9, and let's go there and look at that answer.
Romans 9, verse 14.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth.
Nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in Thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore happy mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth, that will say then unto me, Why?
Does he yet find fault? For who hath resisted as well?
Nay, now mark these words carefully. Nay, but, oh man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus?
In our case, we're believers and we thank God our future is secure with him in eternity. But we can be just as tempted to turn around and say, God, why hast thou made them thus? Or if that's true, then you're saying God made them thus. There's variations of the same argument that apply to Christians. We do well to listen to what's being said here.
Verse 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel into honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Now I just want to stop here and say I'm not going to speak about this part of it.
Any more than in these next few words. Nowhere in Scripture does it ever speak of God fitting vessels to destruction or predestining men to be lost. Scripture does not speak that way. God does not do that. And if we ration that in our mind, the fault is with us, not with God.
Continuing on verse 23.
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.
Which he had a four prepared unto his glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. Now we find here two things that I want to emphasize, that God is talking about vessels of mercy. And that's what we were, that's what we are, we all.
00:35:16
Alike said no to God and he said well anyway, I'm going to make you.
A vessel of mercy, you are mine. And he made that sovereign choice. All glory to his name for that. And then it says as we had in Ephesians chapter one, which he had before, before when eternity passed before the foundation of the world, prepared unto his glory. This is for the glory of God. Well faced with these verses, it's easy to turn around and say, still it doesn't sound like it's fair.
I remember reading a book where the entire premise of that book, maybe some of you have seen it, what love is, this is the name of the book. And I'll tell you what love it is. I've known that love and I thank God for it. But the argument in that book was that this is not the God I know because if that was what God does and it's not fair, and every argument that I could find in that book seemed to be related back to this one issue, it's not fair.
And therefore it's not the truth of the word of God. And So what this?
Author did was in fact as far as I could see and reinterpreted every verse in the Word of God.
To meet his requirements based on that premise that it's not fair.
Now, in fact, so then we wouldn't have any examples in the Word of God where God ever did it. But as far as I can see from the Word of God, I know of at least four. Perhaps some here know of more. We will not go through them. I'll just refer to them. You can look them up later. But I know of Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul, all of whom are spoken of as having been set apart from before the time when they were born.
And so they didn't have a choice in the matter.
Their destiny was fixed.
And so is yours.
It says of the apostle Paul.
In Acts Chapter 9, he was yet breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the Lord's people, and he was going from Jerusalem up there to Damascus, and he had letters and he wanted to take the Christians that he found there and delivered them bound to the chief priests. That's what he wanted to do, He says later on, I excessively persecuted the Church of God. He was so set against Christ and as he walked down that road.
God did not look down the avenue of time and say, oh, this is one who's gonna believe in me? He said, look at this man. He refuses me no matter what. I keep giving him ****** of conscience and he keeps on kicking against those ******. And now the time is over. I'm gonna make this one a vessel of mercy. It's over. And the Lord speaks to Paul directly out of heaven. Paul has no say in the matter.
He just falls down. Who art thou, Lord?
He finds out. I'm sure he was very surprised and.
He he's told to go right away and he right away says what wilt thou have me to do? Our brother mentioned it earlier. You don't read about Paul's faith. There is believing his repentance. You don't read about any of it. All you see is the evidence of what God had done taking a dead.
Vessel of mercy and implanting into that life and faith, and immediately that faith is acted on because Paul goes in the obedience of faith and he says later on he says, wherefore I was obedient unto that heavenly vision because he was sent out to preach that same gospel. Think of it. There are examples where God has done this in the word of God and so we can't say it's not the truth of God.
Because God would never do that. He did do it, and that is the teaching of His word. Well, this leaves us naturally to another objection that's often raised to say, well, if it's like that, then why should we preach the gospel? After all, if those who are going to.
Get saved. They're gonna get saved anyway.
And those who are not, are not going to anyway. Then why should we ever go preach the gospel? That's a good question, isn't it? Why should we have a gospel here later on?
00:40:07
Well, the fact of the matter is, there are a number of reasons given in the Word of God as to why we should preach the gospel, not the least of which is that same obedience of faith in which the Apostle Paul went out and immediately started to preach preaching Christ.
That obedience of faith was exercised by the disciples after the Lord rose from the dead. He told them, He said, you go out into all the world and preach the gospel. Then it says shortly after and uh, Mark chapter UH-16, it says there that they went forth preaching the Word and the Lord working with them.
They obeyed, and so we can go out and preach the gospel having the same exact motivation because the Lord told us to. But there's more than that listed in the Word of God. And one of the beautiful things is that we preach the gospel to those who need it, and the Lord knows who they are.
He sends us to go out and speak. Of course we give Him glory no matter where we preach that gospel, because we proclaim the truth in the world, whether the world wants to hear it or not. But there are those among those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, who are vessels of mercy. There's a beautiful example of this in Acts chapter 13.
Let's just go there and look at that for a moment. Acts 13. And here we have Paul.
Preaching in Antioch and very he had preached to the Jews and given such a wonderful message. We'll skip by all of that because we find that it was rejected by the mass of the Jews in that place. But if we go down to verse 28, it says when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and his many as we're a danger to eternal life believe.
Now many people will turn this first around and read it like this. As many as believe were ordained to eternal life.
That's the understanding that many have this first, but it doesn't say that.
Says there's many as we're ordained, chosen to eternal life, believed, and that's how it works.
These are the ones who God has chosen. He chose them before the foundation of the world, and He uses the Word of God. That's why we're told to preach the Word.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and the Spirit of God sovereignly takes that word of God.
And brings it home to a Sinner who's lost and dead in their trespasses and sins, and uses that same word to implant faith in that one and produces life there where there had only been death before.
It's that stark in the Word of God. And here are these ones who were dead. They heard and they were glad they had been chosen to eternal life. And so that word came in, and these ones believed.
This has a consequence for us too.
If that's true, then don't try to go out and convince people of the truth of the Bible or anything else like that mistake that many Christians make today. But instead it's a life giving power of the Spirit of God by the Word of God that produces that in anyone who will ever hear it and nothing else. It's not the wisdom of man.
Let's see that for a moment in First Corinthians chapter one.
First Corinthians, chapter one.
1St 21 For after that and the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
There's no point in trying to try the wisdom route God went that route. It was proven a complete failure by the time of the cross. The Lord Jesus could say now have they both seen and hated both me and my father with that test was over and so God said enough. Now I'm going to come by the foolishness of preaching and why go down to verse 29 that no flesh of glory in his presence when it comes to this subject of salvation all.
Glory belongs to God. There is no glory that comes to man on this subject, not of work, lest any man should boast, not even in the willing, not even in the reaching out and saying, Yes, I will no part whatever.
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Another thing we should know.
Those ones who are lost and dead and their trespasses and sins, they can't even begin to understand what you're saying.
Go over to 2nd Corinthians.
Her first, I'm sorry, First Corinthians chapter 2, next chapter sorry verse 14.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. He's saying it's not possible.
Don't even try it. You hear about these debates, Christians debating with unbelievers. What's the point of it?
I've often thought of it as a man who's got eyesight, arguing with a blind man about whether there's any such thing as eyesight.
And the blind man argues and says, no, there's no such thing as seeing, so I can't see. And the one who says I who can see, he says I see. And there is such thing. And they argue and argue, well, the one who sees can never convince the blind man, and the blind man can never know.
What's the point?
It's only God who sovereignly does that work. And so we need to leave that where God puts it. Well, in our last few minutes, why do we talk about a subject like this? What is the value to us as Christians to even consider this subject of God's sovereign choice of individuals for salvation? Well, certainly it's the truth of God and because God did that.
There ought to be value in it for us. We also seek to know the mind of God in anything that He reveals from His word. But one of the things that has come home forcibly to me is that God wants us as believers to be so confident in His rest and His love and in His decision of us that we can rest in that love. And I really considered that.
Often through the years in Romans chapter 8.
And the verses there that we know so well, verse 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose.
And then it says in verse 34, whom he did for now then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover, whom he, he did, uh, predestinate them He also called and he'll be called, and he also justified. And whom he justified them He also glorified. And you see there when you read those verses that God has put everything in the past tense.
And you and I are left quite out of it.
Only that were the recipients of this love from God. And so that it comes down to say further on in that chapter, who shall separate us from the love of God? And we see what God has done and sovereignly choosing us and placing us there to be the recipients of his love. Then we realize that we've got a simple occupation that we can just rest there and we can enjoy that love.
There's No Fear, fear of failure to fall out of his hands. There's No Fear that somehow we're going to be lost out of his family. No, that decision was made in his mind according to the council of his own will before the foundation of the world. And having made-up his mind as to that, he also made-up his mind as to all the other links in that chain. And so that it even says glorified past tense.
They feel like you're not glorified yet, and we're not. In that sense, God's mind you are. Rest in it, it's done, and we're to enjoy it.
Well, there's another one.
That comes to mind.
Who is a Great American who made a great speech one time? And he said.
Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. And he was talking about the struggles of these people, which struggles are still in to this very day.
But here today we're talking about another ******* another struggle, another freedom, which is infinitely higher than that man was speaking about.
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And we are the recipients of that freedom. We are the ones, brothers and sisters, who are free at last, you and I, because of God's sovereign choice.
Romans, chapter 6.
We had no choice. Once we were slaves to sin, we couldn't choose to come.
We not only would not, we could not.
But there came a time when that all changed.
Romans 6.
And verse 22 Says, But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. We're the ones who've been set free. We're no longer in ******* to sin. We now are free to serve the Lord.
We have the choice to please him.
Whereas before, when we were in the flesh we couldn't please God, now we've got that divine life from God himself and we are free to please the Lord. We are the ones who are free. Men talk about men being a free agent and man having free will and all of these things. The word of God says no, there is no freedom there. But when the sun shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.
The Lord said, and brothers and sisters, we have been set free, and what have we been set free to do?
Is it set free then to go and live our own lives, our own way? No, the verse is very plain here. It says that we have become servants to God and we have our fruit unto holiness. Now we are set free to do the will of God, to serve Him, to give him glory and honor in our lives. These are not cold, hard, heartless truths. These are truths that should cause us to turn around and turn to God and say, I don't know why you chose me. It isn't the thought of why.
If this is true, doesn't he choose others?
My first thought in faith ought to be, Oh Lord, why did you choose me?
I expect that I will search for the answer to that question through all eternity.
But I have no doubt of this, that he chose me. And because he chose me, I owe everything to him.
There's nothing cold and heartless about a truth like that. We owe him everything.
This is emphasizer, brother. Read it last night.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5. We'll just finish with this first.
Verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all, that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them.
And rose again, this is talking about the same truth and saying that if he had to die for all, then all were dead. That means that we were dead trespasses and sins. It's not talking about the fact that the fact that we have died and arisen with Christ is another blessed truth here. It means that we were dead and we were helpless. There was nothing we could do, and because of it, he had to die. And because he died, now God is able to go and sovereignly implant that life. And because God has done that, now he says the love of Christ constrains us.
Because we just because we.
Umm thus judge this matter.
And So what should we do?
And that he died for all the day which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him.
Which died for them and rose again.
Oh, He has provided everything. He took care of us before He ever set out to even make this world. And when there came that time when we were born into this world, incidentally, we had no choice in that breath either.
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God knew all about what we would do. He knew we would refuse him.
And there came a time when God said, now I'm going to call this one, and he called.
And then He brought us into that knowledge of His love, and He showed us all these things by His grace. And now He gave us to know this so that there could be a response of our hearts that we could turn around and out of love and gratitude to Him, give our lives back to Him and to serve Him. That is Our Calling.
In our life to do.
That is how I understand this truth and I hope.
That you too will understand something of what God has done for you. Incidentally, I hope you also understand that when it comes to the gospel, we should never stop.
The heart of God never pulled back from the gospel, and I'm glad that it will be preached here tonight. I am glad.
That God's glory will be proclaimed in this room tonight. I'm glad that the love of the Savior will be proclaimed.
Here in this room tonight, that story once and still captivated and captivates my heart and I will be glad to hear it again and I will be glad if there is someone or someone that God chose before the foundation of the world that will hear that message tonight and believe all glory to his name. I pray that it will happen, someone said.
Go ahead.
And preach as if man has that ability to hear and believe. God knows who does, and so we ought to do it. In the meantime, for ourselves, let's go forth and serve Him out of a heart of love and gratitude to him for all that He has done for us. Let's close in prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee so much for all Thy love. That love which would even think about us in eternity past, and that love which.
Having known all the desperate wickedness of our hearts would say, I love that one anyway.
And we choose.
Ones like us.
Once whom the Lord Jesus said with a halt, the lame, the blind.
We own, I think, knowledge before they that there is no glory whatsoever that we can claim.
But that all glory belongs to thee, and we just thank thee for that I love.
That would choose us back in eternity past and bring us into such favor right now, today in the sun.
And that love and that grace that it will take all eternity for us to even begin to explore our God and our Father. We thank Thee so much for these things and for that blessed One who came and completed that work here on the cross of Calvary, so that Thy will and Thy love could be accomplished. We thank Thee and praise Thee. And his most precious and worthy name he meant.