Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What do you do whenever things get hard?

Each one of us have faced a difficult situation in the past, or possibly we are facing one right now.

Whenever you find yourself in such a situation, what is your tendency?

Some of us are naturally wired to run away from the opposition.

When things get hard, we run to something else that makes us comfortable or secure.

For others whenever things get hard they try to run through the hard thing as fast as possible so that they can move on with things and get to whatever comes next.

For others they slow down and think the situation through and proceed only after making a plan that they feel confident about.

In a world where things are confusing and opposition seems to be all around us, we desperately need to be reminded of God’s amazing grace.

I’ve hard it said that grace stands for this:

God’s

Rewards

At

Christ’s

Expense

Ultimately grace - specifically the grace that God gives to us is something that we could never deserve.

We could never do enough good things to warrant His grace or enter the kingdom on our own righteousness as we talked about this morning from Matthew 5:17-20.

So if we can’t earn it on our own, why is it so hard to accept God’s grace?

Because deep down, we always think that there’s more to the story.

There’s no way that God could give me grace when I don’t do anything to get it.

There’s got to be a string attached - I have to earn it somehow.

We make things harder than they should be - and as a result, the topic of God’s grace has turned into a controversial cancer in the church.

The doctrine that should be celebrated instead is often condemned.

Article 5 of the BFM has stopped more churches from studying this document than any other article.

Why is this the case?

Because of negative opinions, definitions, and ideas that people have in their head concerning God’s grace.

What we have to keep in mind as Christians is this: Labels are divisive.

Words have definitions and instead of thinking that we’ve got it all figured out and mastered - we desperately need to have Gospel unity and individual humility as we simply examine what the Bible says.

Tonight we’re going to look at a neglected doctrine that should encourage us as we remember that we have access to God’s throne and the ability to persevere through hard times because we are adopted as God’s children.

May we never take this for granted!

First in article 5 comes election:

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.

It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end.

It is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable.

It excludes boasting and promotes humility.”

Wherever you fall on the election spectrum, the BFM statement is something that you can affirm because it rightly emphasizes God’s sovereignty in Salvation and man’s responsibility.

Further, any Christian can affirm this statement because it’s taken from Scripture - look at some of the references below the statement:

We read in the Bible some truths that are hard for us to fully understand at times.

We read that God created the world and everything that there is in 6 days - some cannot grasp that truth.

We read that the Son of God came to the earth, died on the cross, and rose on the 3rd day - some cannot grasp that truth.

We read that Jesus is coming back and that we will live for eternity in glory with Him - some cannot grasp that truth.

Tonight we read about a doctrine that reminds us that God saves us by His grace - not by our works or goodness.

Some cannot grasp this truth.

So what do we need to know more than anything?

Simply what Scripture teaches - we need the facts.

Election

To start with there are some things in Scripture that we’ll never truly understand from top to bottom.

We’ll never understand every aspect of Creation, we’ll never understand everything regarding the Trinity, and we’ll never understand fully how God knows and is completely in control and we as humans are all individually responsible to respond to the Gospel with repentance and faith.

This doesn’t square up in our brains naturally, at least for most.

There’s tension here because these things appear to contradict one another… Yet, these are the twin tracks that appear in Scripture.

God reigns and we are responsible to repent.

Wherever you fall on the doctrine of election, and contrary to what you might be thinking there are more than 2 options, here are some truths that we can all agree on:

Every human being must repent and have faith in Jesus

There are no robots

Missions are commanded

Evangelism and Discipleship are Requirements for all Christians

No misconceptions - every Christian agrees about these truths found clearly in Scripture.

Some people get uncomfortable whenever the doctrine of election comes up because they associate something negative with is: Election is only what this group of Christians believe and I don’t like that group of Christians.

Or, election makes God a monster and the author of sin and evil and wickedness.

God is a jerk if election is true.

Every single time the word election appears in the Bible, it’s a positive thing - not negative.

Maybe you’re wondering how this doctrine can be positive: If our works could save us, our works could also un-save us.

You don’t get once saved always saved - which virtually every Southern Baptist believes - if you believe that you save yourself by your works or actions.

If you could do something on your own power to save you then you could similarly do something of your own power to un-save yourself.

Yet we read a promise concerning our standing in Ephesians 1:13

God seals us with His Spirit and He doesn’t remove His seal just because you or I mess up and do something silly.

Aren’t you thankful for that truth?

In the Old Testament if you disobeyed God’s law, you were cursed.

Today whenever you mess up, you aren’t kicked out of God’s Kingdom because He holds on to you.

This is a wonderful truth that should lead us to rejoice!

Yet, the objection to the truth remains… Some say this: If God elects people for heaven/hell then He isn’t loving because what if there was a person who really really wanted to be a Christian who was left out and not elected by God?

That doesn’t match with the Bible at all - we read in Scripture something entirely different

Paul shares that to those who are called, Scripture isn’t a stumbling block - it’s the power of God.

Meaning this, if someone reads Scripture and longs to know Christ as Lord and be a follower of Jesus Christ, that’s not a natural human thing for humans.

God doesn’t deny them because He looks at His list and says, “Oops I made a mistake with this one.”

God doesn’t make mistakes.

If you’re being convicted then repent and realize that’s not your power - it’s His!

As one scholar put it, “Whoever wants to be saved is saved.”

Another objection some have to this doctrine is this: If God randomly elects people then there’s no free will and there’s no reason to evangelize because we’re robots!

Look at the BFM article: “Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.

It is consistent with the free agency of man.”

This objection is what’s called a straw-man.

Election isn’t random and it doesn’t negate our choices.

We see in the Garden that Adam and Eve freely choose to sin.

We know that we make decisions that we are free to make… What’s the problem, then?

We read in Ephesians 2 the problem

Paul shares that before Christ we walked in darkness.

The choices that we made were fleshly and sinful.

We have freedom - we just use it in the wrong way.

So how can this be a good thing?

It’s good because of the truth in places like Romans 10:13

You and I can go to any person and we can tell them that God loves them and that God’s family extends to every nation, tribe, and tongue.

That we are responsible to repent and place our faith in Christ as Lord.

Maybe this doesn’t square up in our timeline and in our human brains… How can God be in control and elect and we do this?

Here’s what we know: If I have repented of my sins and placed my faith in Christ as Lord, I’m saved not because I’m so good or special, it’s because of God’s grace.

We read that election excludes boasting and promotes humility and I believe that this is where some of the problems lie.

The truth of election cannot lead us to boast - it leads us to our knees as we glorify our Father and share His Gospel with others in hopes that they too will respond.

This truth helped Paul in times of persecution

Paul believed that by sharing the Gospel, people would be saved.

Isn’t this was we find later in Romans 10?