He knows that God has chosen some people to be saved, and he sees this as an encouragement to preach the gospel, even if it means enduring great suffering. Election is Paul’s guarantee that there will be some success for his evangelism, for he knows that some of the people he speaks to will be the elect, and they will believe the gospel and be saved. It is as if someone invited us to come fishing and said, “I guarantee that you will catch some fish—they are hungry and waiting.”

Some fear that belief in the sovereign grace of God leads to the conclusion that evangelism is pointless, since God will save his elect anyway, whether they hear the gospel or not. This, as we have seen, is a false conclusion based on a false assumption. But now we must go further, and point out that the truth is just the opposite. So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility—indeed, the certainty—that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it, there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel.

I do not think that the Lord’s cause was ever meant to be consecutively triumphant, without intervals of defeat. The sea advances to the flood tide wave by wave; first one wave advances, and then it recedes; then another comes up and recedes again, and sometimes when the tide is coming to the very highest, there will be one of those waves that seems to go back and leave a wider space bare of sea-water than before.

And so it is with the cause of Christianity. A great wave rolled up at Pentecost, but it seemed to pause a while under Herod’s persecution. Then came other waves, until the world beheld in some degree the light of Christ in all its corners. But again there was a pausing for a while in those ages that we call the Dark Ages. Then came a mighty wave again, which we couple with the name of Luther and of Calvin. Again there seemed to be a drawback, and then again in the days of Whitefield, and Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards, and others, there was another revival. And so it will be, I suppose, right on to the end of the chapter—progress, and then a staying of the work; great success, then temporary defeat.

We make our prayers to you, O Lord God, most merciful Father, for all people in general, that you will be known to be the Savior of all the world by the redemption purchased by your only Son Jesus Christ; even so that such as have been until now held captive in darkness and ignorance for lack of the knowledge of the gospel may, through the preaching thereof, and the clear light of your Holy Spirit, be brought into the right way of salvation, which is to know that you are only very God, and that he, whom you have sent, is Jesus Christ. Likewise, we pray that they whom you have already endued with your grace, and illuminated their hearts with the knowledge of your Word, may continually increase in godliness, and be plenteously enriched with spiritual benefits; so that we may altogether worship you, both with heart and mouth, and render due honor and service unto Christ our Master, King, and Lawmaker.