The Doctrine of Election by Pastor James Wenger
My wife and I visited Grace Church of Laguna Niguel this morning. A few of the congregants informed my wife that the pastor was teaching from Romans 9 today. Both my wife and I looked forward to it. Right from the start, pastor James Wenger gave the main points of the sermon. The passage of Scripture was from Romans 9:14, “what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” Before he introduced the main points, he read from Jeremiah 18:1-11. It reads as follows:
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house , and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.”
Pastor James Wenger carefully approached the passage. He briefly summarized the previous week regarding Jacob and Esau, where Paul quotes from Malachi 1:2-3, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” He warned of two aspects of approaching the doctrine of election. He explained the importance of understanding that election is not an easy subject for some to grasp. Often times many run from the doctrine of election. Then he explained that others just hit people over the head with this doctrine.
“This is not theoretical doctrine,” explained Pastor James Wenger. When discussing or teaching this doctrine, “we are talking about the eternal destiny of God’s people.” This involves the eternal decrees of God which determine where humans will spend eternity. Here are the main points of the sermon:
1. Election flows out of God’s sovereign mercy.
2. Reprobation displays God’s sovereign Justice.
3. Election is based out of God’s sovereign purpose.
I have six pages of notes so I will post excerpts of them in the hope that the reader will be blessed. The pastor spoke with conviction as he said, “God is God! Whether He deals with us on the ground of mercy or justice, is His prerogative.” Verse 14 of Romans 9 reads, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” What God did with Jacob and Esau he did as verse 11 declares, “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad-in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of Him who calls-”
Paul writes the question, “Is there injustice on God’s part?” Many hear of the doctrine of election but avoid it or raise questions about God’s fairness. Paul quotes from Exodus 33:19 where he writes, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Humans do not understand God. Even believers don’t understand. Do we really want what is fair? This passage has absolutely nothing to do with fairness or about justice toward us who believe. It was to do with mercy. God being merciful to vile humans who are sinners. Pastor James goes on to quote from Romans 6:23a where it states that “the wages of sin is death.” If we want what is fair then we’ll have to face the reality of going to hell! Immediate destruction! This is what is fair because I sin daily. I fall short of God’s glory, as we all do! God however, decides to show sovereign mercy to an undeserving group; His chosen people.
Remember that it is not based on human will, but on God who shows mercy! Sovereign mercy. The great Triune God withholding His wrath from sinners based on the person and work of His glorious Son! Human will has nothing to do with this. It is not based on human effort or exertion! Surely it does not mean that God foresaw that individuals would first choose Him, as many would say in today’s church. If this was the answer to the question, “why does not Paul state this?” declared pastor James. He could have easily done this but, he did not. Are preachers today smarter than divine wisdom? If we agree with Paul, then we’ll agree that mercy is in view in this passage, nothing but sovereign mercy exercised by God alone! It is God who is active in election! Pastor James said, “lets keep theology intact, it is amazing what believers will abandon when it is not convenient.” Well did Jesus say in John 3 that “men love darkness.”
What man wants today, specially in modern mega churches is God with a small g, a god formed in their image. Jesus said it well, said pastor James, “No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (George Bryson will not be ok with this). Let us be reminded again that this has nothing to do with fairness! What is fair for humanity is what they already want, that which is according to their fallen nature; sin, rebellion, sensuality, etc.
In the plagues of God against Pharoah, God was working out His purposes! God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that he was raised up for the purpose that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the earth. We saw the great works of God and his faithfulness to His people. God does as He pleases! Has the potter no right? Verse 21 of Romans asks a rhetorical question and the answer is that God does whatever he wants!
In election, God acts, He does something! He appoints a people and acts on their behalf by sending His own Son! Pastor James gives an analogy of a judge in court who pardons one murderer. “Do the people see the judge as harsh, they do not.” So when the sovereign Judge of all creation pardons whom He wills, why do His very own people bring charges against Him of unfairness, even unrighteousness? He pardons perhaps millions upon billions of souls because of the person and work of His glorious Son! It should cause us to bow down in worship! Ponder for a moment the fact that you and I could have been reprobates! God the Father did not have to give us to His Son! In His sovereign mercy, he acted on our behalf! He rescued us from darkness! From the very cords of spiritual death, He made us alive!
Meditate on this. What is fair for humans in God’s divine justice? What is merciful? What is fair is judgment! By grace, as judgment falls upon us, may it only be with the shield of the blood of Christ covering us! Judgment in any other way deserves the fair penalty for sin; the very cup of the wine of the wrath of God!
In view of how we have acted toward God, would it be appropriate to be destroyed? To be cast into hell for our wicked deeds? We must answer by all means yes! However, we have One who suffered on our behalf! God chose us to be united with His precious Son! He is the only hope!
People will still ask the question, “why God still finds fault then?” The conclusion we must come to is that God is sovereign. It is His purposes that He will carry out and He will be glorified through the vessels of His mercy and the vessels of His wrath.
The message was an absolute blessing! The people were an absolute blessing as well!
Soli Deo Gloria!
14 Comments, Comment or Ping
Johnny B
That was a great sermon on election. I would of fit in to that group he was talking about. Until I realized that in fairness I deserved hell for my sin. I viewed love as be fair, my thought of fair was getting what I wanted all the time. I had formed a sixties flower child god when it came to love, you know the god loves everyone kind. Then I was reading Romans chapter 5 and this portion of Scripture crushed my love child god.
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
Feb 1st, 2010
Mario Herrera
Great scripture there Johnny in Romans chapter 4! When humanity understands what fairness is, the fact that we all deserve hell because of original sin, then perhaps by grace God would draw believers to embrace election rather than run from it.
Feb 2nd, 2010
Brad B
Hi Mario, ironic how it is, everyone who understands the Doctrines of Grace and predestination/election call it the most blessed of all doctrines and cling to it with all their might. The others characterize it as a horrendous doctrine. You’d think if it was so bad, the ones who embrace it would hate it.
Feb 2nd, 2010
Ruth Z.
Thank you, Mario, for sending this message, which is a good
reminder of many important truths. I was blessed.
Feb 2nd, 2010
Mario Herrera
I formerly avoided that doctrine, but by grace alone, the Lord opened the eyes of my understanding to embrace it Brad! So yes, how beautiful election is!
Ruth, glad you were blessed! If only non-believers and those believers who avoid or reject elections really understood what was fair. We must remember that God is actively saving and revealing Himself to those whom He wills. Let us keep praying for the lost and continue declaring the gospel of grace!
Feb 3rd, 2010
Mario Herrera
In John Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians, Calving writes “And now St. Paul brings to us the origin and source, or rather to the principal cause that moved God to take us into his favour. For it is not enough that God has revealed the treasures of his goodness and mercy to draw us to the hope of heavenly life by the gospel-and yet that is very much. For had not St. Paul that which we see now, it might have surmised that God’s grace is common to all men and that he offers it and presents it to all without exception, and consequently, that it is in every man’s power to receive it according to his own free will, by which means there would be some merit in us. For if there were not distinction between men except that some receive God’s grace and others refuse it, what could be said but that God has shown himself liberal to all mankind? But they that are partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ attain to it by faith. And so you see what might be judged of it. But St. Paul, to exclude all merit on man’s part and to show that all comes from God’s pure goodness and grace, says that he has blessed us according to his election of us beforehand. As if he should say that to exalt God’s grace as becomes us, we must look upon the diversity that is found among men. For the gospel is preached to some, and others do not know what it is but are utterly shut out from it, as if God should make it rain in one quarter and allow another quarter to remain very dry.
Now if it is demanded why God pities that one part and forsakes and leaves and abandons the other, there is no other answer but that it so pleases him. Upon the preaching of the gospel in a place, some will be affected with lively faith in their hearts and others will go away as they came without benefiting at all, or else they harden themselves against God and betray the stubbornness that was hidden in them before. What is the reason for this difference? Even this, that God directs the one sort by his Holy Spirit and leaves the other sort in their natural corruption.
You see then that the thing in which God’s goodness shines forth most to us, is that by the preaching of the gospel to us we have, as it were, a token that he has pitied us, loves us, calls us and allures us to him. But when the doctrine preached to us is received by us with heart and affection, that is yet a further and more special token by which we perceive that God intends to be our Father and has adopted us to be his children. Not without reason, then, St. Paul says in this passage that we are blessed by God even according to His election of us beforehand. For it is not that we have come to him; it is not that we have sought him. But the saying of the prophet Isaiah [65:1] must be fulfilled in every respect, namely, that God shows himself to such as did not seek him, and that such as were far off see him near at hand, and then he say to them, ‘Here I am, here I am. Although you have despised me, yet I vouchsafe to come to you because I have a care for your salvation.’ Thus we see what St. Paul was aiming at in this passage.”
Feb 3rd, 2010
Mario Herrera
The sermon continues:
“In short, we have to note here that we shall never know where our salvation comes from till we have lifted up our minds to God’s eternal counsel by which he has chosen whom he pleased and left the remainder in their confusion and ruin. Now then it is no marvel that some men think this doctrine to be strange and hard, for it does not fit in at all with man’s natural understanding. If a man asks of the philosophers, they will always tell him that God loves such as are worthy of it, and that, since virtue pleases him, he also marks out such as are given that way to claim them for his people. You see then that, after our own imagination, we shall judge that God puts no other difference between men, in loving some and in hating others, than each man’s own worthiness and deserving. But, at the same time, let us also remember that in our own understanding there is nothing but vanity and that we must not measure God by our own yardstick, and that it is too excessive a presumption to impose law upon God so that it would not be lawful for him to do anything but that which we could conceive and which might seem just in our eyes.”
“You see then that the reason why some men find this doctrine hard and irksome is because they are too much wedded to their own opinion and cannot submit themselves to God’s wisdom, to receive his sayings soberly and modestly. And truly we ought to take warning from what St. Paul says, namely, that the natural man does not understand God’s secrets but regards them as stark foolishness [1 Cor. 2:14] And why? Because we are not his counsellors but must have things revealed to us by his Holy Spirit, or else we shall never know them, and we must have them in such a measure as he gives them to us.”
Feb 3rd, 2010
Johnny B
Mario do you remember who I am? I was one that came on here with a defense as to why God did exactly chose but He did choose us but not the way Calvinist say. That’s the thing with those of us that don’t fully understand God sovereignty. We use the “but” word a lot. Once my eyes were opened, this is the “BUT” that is the I attribute to God.
Ephesians 2:1-10 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
That BUT saved me a sinner. One other problem I had was I didn’t understand the depth of me sin. Once my eyes were opened to that fact I realized that only by God’s grace could this sinful man be save, not by what I would do because all I could do was sin with very breath I was breathing or should I say that God let me take.
.
Feb 6th, 2010
Mario Herrera
Amen brother Johnny! I also attended CC for approx. 6 years. It definitely is a work of God in us to understand the doctrines of grace. To understand the breadth and depth of what God has done for us is wonderful! All we can do is bow to His majesty in thanksgiving, worship, and praise!
Johnny B, were are you located? We should meet up sometime by grace!
Feb 6th, 2010
Glen
A prayer request for everyone.
My wife and I have two of our boys in the hospital right now. One was amitted on Sunday and the other yesterday. We still have two at home. If some of you remember a little over a year ago Daniel, one of our boys, had a trach put in. He is one of those in the hospital now with RSV. The doctors are concerned that this might be a set back for him getting off his dependency on the ventilator.
Request:
- That God would give my wife and I the strength to endure this trial with His grace.
- That we would be given opportunities to share the Gospel with those we contact in the hospital.
- That God would give our other boys strength and understanding as we are apart from the them quite a bit right now.
- That I would be a Godly example to them as a father and train them to be mighty MEN of God.
- That God would heal them both quickly and bring them home.
Feb 19th, 2010
Stephen Macasil
Dear Glen,
Let your wife know that we have received your requests and are praying for you and your family. Please keep us updated with developments and praise reports.
Feb 19th, 2010
Glen
Well, Caleb came home today and Daniel is to follow tomorrow. Praise God! Thank you all for your prayers.
BTW… Anytime you all head up to Alaska, drop in and say hi.
Feb 22nd, 2010
Mario Herrera
Glen,
How are things? May the Lord continue to strengthen you and your family. Lifted you and your family up in prayer this morning.
Mar 8th, 2010
Glen
Things are going much better. Both boys are home from the hospital. Caleb is still on O2 for the time being and we are trying to ween him off. Daniel is back to normal and we are still bringing down the ventilator settings so that is a hugh blessing since he also had RSV.
Thanks to everyone for the prayers. God is so good, way beyond what we deserve.
Mar 8th, 2010
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