Election

Election is a tough subject to grasp and I wouldn't doubt that it is one of those topics that we either don't know enough about, or we would rather not make a decision as to what we believe because it's difficult and has the potential to cause disagreements among believers and who wants that?

For me, I have always believed in predestination, but I had kind of a different view of it, I've come to realize after studying Ephesians and other passages a little more. The common struggle is how does free will fit in with election, or predestination? Does God give us free will? If so, does that also mean the free will to accept/reject Him?

To start, I always knew that people were "predestined" to be saved, but I only considered that in the sense that God knew who would be saved. He knew which people would make up their minds to follow Him. I didn't really grasp the concept of election. The challenge for me and for anyone who believes that the Bible is the inerrant, clear Word of God, is to make a decision on whether or not we believe what Ephesians says about election. The reason why this is important is because if we can't decide if we believe one part of the Bible, then where do we start really believing it? Fair enough? Besides, this kind of struggle, study and realization is precisely what the Lord uses to make us more mature in Him and will actually help us in understanding the rest of Scripture, better.

Epesians 1:4-6, 11 says "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves...In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.."

Romans 8:29,30: "For those God forknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."

The best way to approach this, I think, is to start with what we know about man, namely his depravity. Left to himself, men (generally used, also referring to women) will not and cannot EVER have a desire to know the Lord.

Remember Romans 3:10,11 "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."

This is an inclusive statement that is referring to all mankind. Not one person can understand God; not one person seeks God on his own initiative; there is not one person who is considered righteous before God. This is solely because Adam, when he was in the Garden of Eden, ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that God told him not to. This original sin from the first man ever created has been passed on to every single person in history to where we are all born sinners. Man=Sinner. That's where we start. It may seem unfair, but we are born with an innate desire to do anything and everything contrary to what God may want from us.

Parents, of all people, should see this in action. From the get-go it doesn't take long to see that our cute little ones have a will. Granted, they are dependant on us and the only way of communicating to us is through crying. However, with no parental intervention, guidance and discipline, this child will continue to become more and more selfish, self-centered, greedy, and sinful, and will continue screaming. That's the way we are. We can't write off bad behavior to the notion that "kids will be kids". No... kids will be terrible, left to themselves to raise themselves. Adults are no different. The more time we practice our own selfishness, the better we become at it. We are born this way. No one ever grows up to be spiritually mature and morally acceptable before God, without God intervening in our life to change our very spirit and nature.

Granted, many people grow up better than others and turn out to be very good people because of their experiences in life, with or without parent's help. Although this may look and feel good on the outside and doesn't go unappreciated by the people they affect, it does not solve the internal sin problem that is separating them from God. That is the real issue at hand. That is always the real issue.

So, understanding that man is completely incapable of turning to God without His initiation, where does that leave us in light of the doctrine of election.

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world" to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adpoted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

Believing Christians were chosen before the creation of the world! God didn't just
know who was going to come around, he chose the people who would be saved. This has to happen if anything is going to happen.

Jesus said that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him".

And Genesis 6:5 "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the Earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil at the time".

How is it that someone could possibly want to decide to follow Jesus Christ when God had not moved in their heart first? It's impossible. Hence, the doctrine of election is very much based on his grace and mercy, that we should be called sons and daughters of God.

Here's the problem with not believing in election and God predetermining who is going to come to a saving faith in Him. If man could decide on his own free will to follow Jesus and turn from their sin, then that says that man has taken the first step in salvation and essentially worked for it. Man did something to get it. It can cause us to boast, even. God did not freely give it. You see, it eliminates God's purpose, God's sovreignty, and God's glory when it was not God who graciously brings people to salvation. Yes, it requires that someone respond to the Lord and repent of sins and confess Him as Lord, but only after God has moved that person to do so.

I've been reading a commentary written by James Montgomery Boice on Ephesians and he listed four blessings of election: election eliminates boasting; election gives assurance of salvation; election leads to holiness; election promotes evangelism.

We already looked at how election can eliminate boasting. When it is only merited by God's grace, there is nothing that you or I can say that we did to gain salvation.

I was in a bookstore the other day and found a book that played with the concepts of "religion". It jokingly lists on the back cover on how to learn the ways of each religion, learn the pros and cons before deciding which one you want to join. I couldn't help but look up Protestantism (Christianity was not listed). It said that you only had to do a couple sacraments which was easier than most other religions. It also had a star rating for the level of difficulty in converting to Protestantism. Out of five stars, it only filled in two. Wouldn't that be great! Being a Christian would be so easy. Say and do the right thing and you're in! No wonder God can be so unappreciated, even by some in the church. If you think that you made the choice to be a Christian and that God just took you because you wanted to, think again. Don't question your salvation, but question whether or not you believe that you were inspired to respond to his grace rather than decide on your own to join a club. There is a big difference and it will change your whole view of God and yourself. It's a right and appropriate view. It's not about measuring the pros and cons of different religions to make an educational decision to choose Christianity because it looks better.

So the million dollar question is: Does man then have free will?

The answer: Yes and No

Ephesians 4:18,19 says "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

Yes, God allows sinners to make their choices and keep on sinning. As we can see here, when men are left alone to themselves, they continue to lust for more sin. They choose to. The second part of the answer to the million dollar question is "no". Mainly, man does not have the ability to choose God and must be prompted by God to do so.

Free will is not a blanket answer to all of life and I think that's where we need to make the distinction. God still knows everything that is going to happen and he knows every sin that every single person will ever commit, but he has to initiate the desire to know Him, not us, because we can't.

I think it's fair to reconcile other verses like Romans 10:9,13: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved … for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved’".

How do you reconcile these verses with the doctrine of election? A little further in Romans, Chapter 9, it says that God told Moses "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy; I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". There is no mathematical rhyme or reason as to how God decides. Who are we to question him anyway? We need to accept the fact that we won't always understand the way God does things...and that's ok.

The Bible does not contradict itself so these verses are not saying two different things. If God has prompted someone to call on him, then whoever does call on His name, confesses Christ as Lord, and believe He was raised from the dead, then he will be saved.

Some of this takes faith to believe. Not every little thing about God is explainable and many things we won't understand until we are with Him, face to face in Heaven. We walk by faith and not by sight. Faith can be hard sometimes, but if it was easy and explainable, then it wouldn't be faith. We wouldn't be trusting God.

He has made clear His way to salvation and if you know that what you hear about Jesus is true and you feel the moving from God to pray to him for salvation by confessing your sins, believing Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead, then he will finish that work in you and seal you with his promised Holy Spirit guaranteeing your inheritance in God's glory, forever and ever.

Election is a gracious blessing. Without it, we would be utterly lost and hopeless forever. This isn't something that should scare us, but prompt us to praise Him! It should prompt us to evangelize even more! Election doesn't nullify evangelism, rather it makes it possible. We mature and draw closer to God when we evangelize anyway, so it's not only for the benefit of thr listeneres. If God didn't prompt people to believe in Him, THEN evangelism would be worthless, for as Boice put it, "if God cannot call effectively, it is certain that you and I cannot".

Beleving in election is something that we must do. It gives us the right understanding of God and his grace and mercy to save us. It gives us the appropriate view of ourselves and need for a savior, a redeemer. I hope this post helps a little in breaking that ice down. Look these passages up yourself and do some research on it as well. It will only benefit you and benefit those who learn from you. The Word is living and ready to make you grow.

Whew!

Truth and Love: How do you have both, effectively?

Okay, I know this is a low-key blog, but this topic has been challenging me for years now because it has been an issue with certain family members. I really want some feedback from people as to what they have seen in life or learned from the Bible as far as what it means to stand for the truth without compromise, but also to love your brother and sister in the Lord with compassion and great patience. We're supposed to do both.

I write this from sunny Orlando, FL with all the time in the world so it's nice to unwind a little and pour some thought into this without being limited by an hour lunch break.

Here's the struggle: We are supposed to stand for the truth of Scripture with nothing hindering us from compromising our faith. Well, how do you do that without becoming someone who is constantly looking or seeing the bad in other people?

I mean, there seems to be people who are willing to hurt others, offend others, or "expose" others for their sins for the sake of standing for the gospel. And this justifies then doing so... (the ends justifies the means).

The flipside, which is also all over the Bible and equally as important is the fact that we are to love others, graciously. We are all on a different learning curve when it comes to the gospel and how God is transforming us and teaching us different things at different times.

I have lots of Scripture I have to back up the importance of both, but the question is: When do you become contentious or divisive to where you are hurting the church when you are trying to stand for the truth? Or, when are you too wishy-washy and easy on people to where you are compromising the truth? There is a right balance and a way to go about dealing with sin and still allowing fellowship with people who have, or are, struggling in sin.

Give some feedback. This is really important to me. Thanks!

Excellence in Music Ministry, Life

I attended the Shepherd's Conference in March of this year at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA where John MacArthur preaches. It was a time of great encouragement and excellent Bible teaching from Godly men who have a deep understanding of God's Word. Some of my favorites would be John MacArthur, Al Mohler and Phil Johnson.

Since my function in our church at Sylvan Way Baptist is to lead people in worship, I figured that the appropriate workshops at the conference I should attend would be on music and worship.

I went to a couple and really enjoyed each one, but one thing in particular stuck out at me and that was to be excellent in what we do because God deserves nothing less. To work our hardest to achieve excellence in our music. This made sense and started me thinking on how we can do little things in a service that are less than our best.

As a musician, excellence would mean consistent and tight rhythm, on-key vocals, playing the right chords, not going too fast or too slow, being cohesive, etc.

It would be a crying shame if we were to do anything less than our best when performing our instruments and voices, not that we are performing for the church, rather, we are performing for the Lord.

This should also beg the question... If excellence in music ministry is important, how much more so in our life? After all, obedience is, in itself, worshiping God. We have to lay our pride and motives aside and allow Jesus to be Lord when we obey his Word. When we do that, we are, in effect, worshiping Him. It's awesome! We cannot live our life as we want and then come to church for an hour on Sunday and worship God. It does not work that way. We are deceived if we think it does. We worship God in music when we praise Him for His mercy, grace, compassion, love, healing, protection, etc. We worship Him when we sing of how great He is. We cannot, however, worship God this way if we do not have a relationship with Him. It comes from our outpouring of thankfulness, humbleness, sorrow, joy...from what He is doing or has done in our life.

It is so important for church leaders (even the worship leaders) to be excellent in what is good and innocent in evil (Romans 16:19). We must be examples as to what worship really is (hence the worship leader title).

I recently held a meeting for our worship team and we talked about the excellence factor in what we do as musicians. We have come a long way in how we play together and it's been a huge blessing to have talented people who also want excellent music.

Needless to say, we remember that God told us to make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the Earth. We also remember that worship is... not to us, not to us, oh Lord, but to Your name be the glory.

Even if our best isn't as good as someone else's best. The important thing is that we are trying our best and giving God back... the gifts he gave us in the first place.

With this in our team's minds, we are really fortunate to be able to attend a Christian Musicians Summit being held at Overlake Church in the Kirkland, WA area. We'll be led in worship by Lincoln Brewster, Paul Baloche, Laura Storey and a bunch more. The workshops will be right on target and super beneficial for any musician striving for excellence. Can't wait!

For any musician out there... keep practicing to become better! God deserves nothing less. And whether you play something or not, remember that obedience was always considered of more value to God than sacrifice was. Today, obedience is still crucial and we must still worship the Lord with it.

God bless!

Obedience and Sacrifice

Most of us are aware that there is a certain amount of obedience that is required of us no matter where we are in life. On the way to work we have to obey the law and stay at the speed limit. When we get to work we have to punch in on time. Throughout the day we are to follow policies and procedures. The list can go on if we really think about it.


One of the most fundamental truths for us as Christians is that obedience is something that glorifies God. We glorify God when we are obedient to Him.

Even in the Old Testament, God wanted to see His people obey Him. That was more important to Him than sacrificing, in and of itself.


Sometimes we think that as long as the Old Testament people burned the right animals in the right places at the right time, they were good to go. We tend to settle on the fact that they were allowed to live a legalistic spirituality and that's the way it was done back then. Nothing could be farther from the truth! We will see how this has never been the case, even since Creation.

I have two primary object lessons which will fall on Abraham, the father of many nations, and Saul, the first king of Israel.

1st lesson: A sacrifice is just that...a sacrifice. If there was no value in the object being sacrificed then it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice would it? When God oftentimes commanded a sacrifice it was one that had to be a pure animal, firstborn. The way of life back then was very much dependant on livestock and fields to grow things in. You were rich or poor depending on the amount of animals you had and how healthy they were. Sacrificing your best animal (be it a lamb, goat, calf, etc.) was something that kind of hurt. It was indeed a true sacrifice, hopefully given with gladness to the Lord. Needless to say, the sacrifice that God had commanded would not have been our first choice. Hence, the sacrifice aspect of it...

A great illustration of obedience and sacrifice brought into one story is that of Abraham and Isaac. The story is found in Genesis 22.

God commanded him to go and sacrifice his son (his only son, flesh and bones). Yes, to kill him on an altar like you normally would an animal. To understand the depth of this command and the heart struggle that Abraham undoubtedly would have felt we need to understand the story behind the story.

Abraham and Sarah were saddened that Sarah was barren. She couldn't have any kids. When it got to the point that they were getting as old as the turn of the century, they were pretty much done hoping. After all, they were past their prime.

God promised Abraham and Sarah one day that she would bear children and Sarah laughed! Her faith was not as strong as Abraham's. Needless to say, she got pregnant and along came Isaac. God always follows through with His word. This was a miracle to them that God had accomplished and they were ecstatic to be parents.

Now...fast forward a couple decades, maybe, and God tells Abraham that he wants him to sacrifice his one and only son on an altar. Can you imagine the confusion and dread that hit him at that moment? How could he be asked to do that?

I think that Abraham was so convinced that God was sovereign, holy, and perfect that he had no doubt that God would, again, do something that Abraham could not fathom. In fact, in this passage, once Abraham was told to do this it does not show him arguing with God, rather the next verse says that he got up early the next morning with Isaac and started travelling to the mountain that he was supposed to go to. He just did what he was told. He was obedient without a second thought. That's the obedience that God desires from us still today!

When they finally arrived, Abraham bound Isaac on the wood on the altar and raised his hand to slay Isaac. Can you believe he actually made it this far? This is the moment of truth. Apparently he was going to follow through because an angel of the LORD yelled out and stopped him, "Abraham! Abraham!"

Abraham had passed the test. What test...? He was obedient to the Lord with absolutely no reservation. He withheld nothing. Not even his son.

The angel of the LORD said in verse 12, "Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Utimately, he is commended and blessed by the most holy Jehovah (seriously...imagine that!) when he is told by God in verse 18: "...All nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

That was the point. That is the lesson. That is what we should desire to become like. Obedience without reservation. Faith.

He was also promised amazing blessings back in verse 17 and 18: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

In the New Testament, Paul had referred to Abraham many times when he was trying to convince his readers of the importance of the status of our heart. Paul new that following the right rules was not necessarily an indicator of our obedience to the Lord or how spiritual we are.

Romans 4 quotes Genesis 15:6: "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteouseness."

In Romans 4:13, Paul goes on to explain that "it was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith."

I don't want to confuse anyone into thinking that we're talking about the importance of faith or obedience as two separate issues because they do, in fact, go hand in hand. If someone articulates their faith in God, that's great! It really means something, though, when it is expressed through their life of obedience to Christ. The same concept applies to our worship of God. We can sing songs that are "worshipful" on Sunday morning, but if we're not living a life of obedience to Christ, then we are not really worshiping Him. In fact, I would say that we would be in danger of glorifying Satan rather than God if we're living a double life, because we are showing others that a "Christian" just has to go through the motions. That's a dangerous life to live if we are misrepresenting Christ.

Let's look at object lesson number 2: King Saul. He was the first king of the Israelites. God had always been their leader and it was supposed to stay that way, but the people being afraid of the surrounding nations and their kings, pleaded with God to give them a king of their own. Can you imagine what that must have been like for God to hear his people ask him for a leader to protect them from their enemies?! Interestingly enough, God had spoken to Abraham when he was still alive and told him that his descendants would do exactly that. God knew it would happen but the fact remains that the Israelites displayed a lack of faith and fear in God. God even warned them that the person that was chosen would be someone that the Israelites would later regret. Enter King Saul.

Saul did a lot of things in his tenure as king that grieved the Lord and caused dissension among some of his people. He is a picture of an angry, power hungry man, but also one who did want to do the right thing...sometimes with his own method.

There was a point in time when God spoke through the prophet Samuel and told Saul that he was going to be used to destroy the Amalekites. This is found in 1 Samuel 15:

"I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

Pretty clear instructions: Nothing lives; everything dies.

We fast forward through the fight and see that Saul overtook the Amalekites afterall. Did he finish them off as he was told? Verses 8 and 9 says:

"He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed."

We see a deliberate disobedience to the Word of the Lord. Remember how I mentioned earlier how important animals and staple products were to making a decent living? They represented wealth. This was a great temptation that Saul gave into.

Imagine if you were asked to be responsible for shredding all the old money in the Federal Reserve. They shred close to $1 million per day, at any one location! Cash, as we all know, is what we usually think we need more of. There would be a great temptation to pocket a little (or a lot) of that cash that is still spendable. Why shred it when it's still good? This is what Saul thought and decided against his better judgement and kept the good animals to himself and his men.

God tells Samuel that he is grieved that Saul turned away from him and did not carry out his instructions. Think about that... if we are not being obedient to God then we are, essentially, turning away from God. That is devastating!

Samuel ends up confronting a defensive Saul who argues that he was obedient to the fullest. When Samuel questions the sound of bleeting sheep in the background, Saul quickly tries to cover himself by (blaming the men in his army) and then saying...

"The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."

Doesn't that sound like anything we would have done to desperately dig out of the hole that we know we made for ourselves? Saul knew full well that he was in trouble for his disobedience and he was trying everything. He was even desperate enough to tell Samuel that he really kept the animals to sacrifice to God (again...not much of a sacrifice since they weren't his to begin with). Besides that... Samuel is a prophet and he already talked to God about Saul so they knew that Saul was lying before he even finished his sentence. Samuel was frustrated enough to yell at Saul, "Stop!"

Samuel told Saul, after another round of the blame game, something that should have sunk deep to Saul who was very familiar with the sacrifical atonement system of the Old Testament.

"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

God will lay out some guidelines for us and give us direction in our lives that may not make sense all the time, but they are always for our benefit and His glory. As long as we are obedient to Him and what He has commanded us, we will be living a life that glorifies Him and worships Him.

This should be our desires as Christians, for what would be the point to professing faith in Christ if we do not live in a way that confirms it? After all... even demons believe in God..and they shudder about it.

Let us seek His face and pray that we may glorify God in spirit and in truth through our obedience to His word.

What is the Biblical explanation of worldliness?

Many times we think that doing anything the world does is "worldly", however why would anything like working on cars and enjoying fine food be considered worldly, in and of itself? It's impossible for us to not be somewhat engaged in what others do, who are not Christian, because we all have to do many of the same things. We also experience many of the same things, Christians and non-Christians alike... The rain falls on the righteous and the wicked.

According to C. J. Mahaney, he describes the world we're not supposed to love as the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God.

If you remember back to the Old Testament days of the Israelites and the surrounding countries that they lived by, they also had to reject those God-hating and God-rejecting people. Back then, the Israelites were the only ones who followed the true God. All of the other countries were pagans, idolaters, and living in enmity with God. They hated the Israelites for the very reason of their God and their faithfulness to him (although the Israelite history is somewhat checkered).

When we consider the prospect of being worldly we need to know what it is that the Bible warns us about. God created the world and said it was very good. That's one of the first things we read about in Genesis. He gave it to us to enjoy and to cultivate and labor on, so that we can live in it. (the laboring being the consequence of Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden).

We are not, however, supposed to turn around and love the creation instead of the Creator. This is sin. Romans 1:25 says that "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen."

Notice that phrase "exchanged the truth of God for a lie". We are deceived if we think that worshiping and glorifying anything or anyone else, but God, is acceptable.

Here is where we see the world, being the fallen world, manifesting itself in us... John 2:16:

"For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world."

Worldliness is not a battle of specific do's and don't's in the external world. It is a battle of flesh and spirit in our hearts. When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well he told her that the true worshipers would not be confined to worshiping on this mountain or Jerusalem, rather they would worship in spirit and in truth.

Worshiping in spirit is refering to worshiping with the right heart, which fits right into worshiping in truth. We cannot truly worship God if we do not believe and love the truth that he has shown us. Worshiping God is not a matter of location, but a matter of your heart, that only God really knows.

We will break down the three parts to John 2:16 in the next couple posts, talking about what the cravings of sinful man look like; what the lust of his eyes means; and what boasting of what he has and does is implying.

These will give us a very important understanding of ourselves and our ability to become worldly because we can become worldly if we're not on our guard.

As always, let's get some discussion going!