The Selection of Election
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Introduction
Introduction
Welcome dear ones to the house of the Lord. Let us praise the Lord together in this time.
Those who trust in the Lord
Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
So the Lord surrounds His people
From this time forth and forever.
Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
Paul
Paul
Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened.
Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,
This passage is actually the first one I ever exegeted. One hopes I’ve learned something since 2009.
This passage, more than any other, helped drive me towards belief in Sovereign Election.
How many of you were bothered by the fact that Paul’s conversion simply doesn’t match what you’ve been told about conversion?
Where’s the Gospel message? Where’s the five spiritual laws? Where’s the altar call? Where’s the “Just As I Am” for fifteen minutes while everyone prays and everyone waits for somebody, anybody to raise their hand for conversion?
There is no “Jesus died for your sins” message. Not yet. Paul would become a major proponent of this message, dismissing all of his rabbinic credentials for the sake of knowing only “Christ and Him crucified.”
In the case of Paul, Election preceded conversion. Conversion precedes belief. Conversion produced immediate repentance.
This did not sound anything like what I heard in Messianic synagogues, in Baptist churches or in Independent Baptist churches.
Saul is persecuting the churches. He is the LAST candidate for conversion on the face of the earth.
Saul is struck down on the Damascus road, and hears, Σαοὺλ Σαούλ, τί με διώκεις;
If in Hebrew, as I suspect it was, then it was Shaul, Shaul Mah Radafti? רָדַף
There was nobody on the side of the road passing out tracts. There was no altar call, no presentation of the Bible.
I had to assume one of two things - the conversion of Paul was totally unlike that of any other person in the Bible...
…or what I’d been told was not Biblical.
So I looked at Peter, James, John.
Matthew 4:18-20 “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.”
Coincidence. Had to be a coincidence.
Matthew 4:21-22 “Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”
The closest I could find to anyone who was converted through typical Southern Baptist means was Cornelius, who gets halfway through a Gospel message and… starts speaking in tongues. Well, that’s not really accepted in most Southern Baptist churches, but things have been going south there for a while so… that might not be a problem any more.
In every case, Christ called the person first. Then they believed. And even in Cornelius’s case, when we examine that, he was believing already - just like the disciples of John, he needed to hear the way expounded.
This really bothered me all throughout Seminary, because it was mentioned, but ignored. It was pointed to in a later chapter and said, “well the Gospel message must have been preached then!”
I literally was taught that Acts 9 was not Paul’s conversion, that it happened in Acts 22:12-16
“A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very time I looked up at him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’
Yet in reality, what do we see here? not a Gospel message, but a call to be baptized. The text mentioned προχειρίζω - to choose for oneself. Christ has chosen you for Himself.
Divine election.
Just like all of the Elect.
Just like all of you.
If we had time tonight, we’d go into John 6 for a while and discuss the great truths there about election - that will have to wait for another time. Let’s quickly take a look at our next text. We’ll be going about ten minutes longer tonight than usual.
Psa 67 “For the choir director; with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.”
This is an interesting Psalm to look at. It’s Chiastic, referring to the Greek letter for X.
The Psalm - when you diagram it - ends up indenting in like half of an X, then back out again.
In section A we read the receiving form of the Aaronic Blessing. “God be gracious to us and bless us. Cause your face to shine upon us.
But wait, let’s look at the X structure. The first lines reflect on the last lines.
“God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Second line and the next to last lines
That Your way may be known upon the Earth, your salvation among all nations.
The Earth has yielded its produce
God our God blesses us.
Third and second to last...
Let the Peoples praise You o God, let all the peoples praise You.
and, “Let the peoples praise You O God, let all the peoples praise You. It’s an echo, as close as this gets to a Chorus.
Musicians take note!
Let the Nations be glad and sing for joy...
and guide the nations on the Earth. Selah...
The entire Psalm is written around this line:
For You will judge the people with Uprightness.
What’s this Psalm about?
It’s the middle line. You will judge the people with uprightness.
This is not just a song about the harvest. this is not an agrarian harvest song about an agrarian people. Certainly not an exclusive people who identified everyone around them as “goy”. In case you’re wondering, the word Nations in the Old Testament is the word goy. It technically does not always mean Gentile. However, once Israel is in the land, the nations around them are almost always Goyim or Goy. It’s not a putdown. It’s just the word nation, but in this context it does mean “non Jewish people”.
It’s a possible prophecy that Gentiles would someday know God’s salvation, and would be glad and sing for joy.
quickly, let’s look at Revelation.
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
This may be the only verse in the Bible where church elders are seen worshipping God… no, I’m kidding. The relationship between church elders and the pastor should never be adversarial. John MacArthur tells of how he experienced a rebellion by his elders, who sought to remove him from position. The odd thing is that years later, when John met one of the former elders later, the elder admitted they had no idea why that happened. They simply couldn’t account for why they rebelled against him.
I’ve wondered ever since I came to know the Lord… what will it be like to be in His presence?
The Angels sing.
The animals sing. Anyone who doesn’t believe animals are in heaven, read verse 13 again.
the people sing.
And the seraphim sing.
Praise the Lord.
Would we all cheer that we made it?
No. divine election always teaches humility. It’s not, “Yes! I’m so awesome, God had to choose me!”
No, it’s first thankfulness. “Lord, You chose me, the least of all your creatures.”
Then it’s humility, because once you think it through to it’s logical conclusion - you have to consider - what if God did not choose me?
you know the answer to that.
It’s too terrible to discuss.
God chose you. For the Glory of His Grace. Because of His kind intentions. That He might show mercy, and might save some.
God must judge all, that His righteousness be held up for all to see. God is a righteous judge. He judges uprightly.
In this He is glorified. That many, many, many who rebelled against Him may rightly suffer the just punishment for their sins.
But that He might show mercy and kindness to the glory of His grace - He saved some.
Would He have been right to have saved none?
Yes.
Would we have any excuse?
none.
Should He save all?
Then His righteous judgment would not be glorified.
Yet He saved some.
He chose You.
Let us pray.
Lord, we give You glory, for You alone are worthy. In humility, we acknowledge Your greatness and mercy. We humbly than You for the undeserving favor You have graciously shown us. Let us praise Your name from now and forevermore. Guide us in this coming week, and bring Your grace to our remembrance this week. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’