WEBVTT 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:21.440 Matthew 22, 14, just one verse this morning because last week we looked at the wedding invitation, uh, the parable, the wedding feast at the start of Matthew 22, and I received so many questions between services on verse 14. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.640 I thought we would look at this verse uh alone today. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:25.440 It is very short. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:30.719 For many are called, Jesus says, but few are chosen. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:35.679 This is one of those sentences that is simple until you think about it. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:53.439 It is uh classic Jesus, an economy of words, very brief and yet memorable, not only memorable, but powerfully descriptive, so much so that this expression, many are called and few are chosen, is become almost an idiom in English. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:54.960 It's an expression that people use. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:03.280 People who don't even know what the Gospel of Matthew is, people who couldn't find the Gospel of Matthew with a Google know this parable, know the conclusion. 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:07.120 Many are called, but few are chosen. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.719 It's powerfully simplistic and yet also profound. 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.239 It is the way Jesus concludes the parable of the wedding feast. 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:18.319 If you remember, we looked at that last week. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:23.200 It was a king who had set aside a day for the wedding of his son. 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:31.280 The invitation had gone out to all of the noblemen and the powerful and the influential people who were supposed to be at the wedding. 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:34.319 The day of the wedding arrived and nobody showed. 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:42.319 And so the king sends his slaves out to go find the people who are supposed to be at the wedding and figure out what exactly is going on here. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:51.359 The slaves go out, not only are they rejected by the wedding guests, the wedding guests say we're not coming, but many of the slaves are beaten up, attacked, abused. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:53.359 Some of them are even murdered. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:02:05.680 And so the king sets his remaining slaves aside and sends his army out and burns everyone's village down, and then sends his slaves out a second time, this time to the highways and the byways. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:20.719 The people are just going in and out of the village, the people who are going to the store, the people who are going shopping, the drunk people passed out in the bushes, the behind the hedges, everybody, every class of person, and the slaves are told, get them and compel them to come to the wedding feast. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.319 And then by the time the wedding starts, the place is packed. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:25.759 Everyone's there. 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:35.919 And if the parable ended there, it would be a wonderful, happy, warm, and fuzzy feeling about the gospel. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.520 And we're all invited to a wedding feast. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.639 And those of us with faith responded, and isn't it good to be at a wedding? 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:50.159 Yay! But it is not where the parable ends because in Jesus is telling you the parable, the king then starts walking around the wedding feast, going table to table. 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:55.520 And he encounters someone who is there who's not dressed appropriately. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:03.520 And we talked last week about how at some of the weddings in this part of the world you would show up at the wedding and be given the garments you were supposed to wear. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:04.879 Maybe that happened. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.400 Maybe the people who were invited on the spur of the moment went home and changed. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:13.039 But the fact remains, every other person who was there figured it out. 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.879 Every other person who was there knew what was appropriate to wear at a wedding. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:20.719 They were all dressed appropriately, except for this one clown. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.759 And so Jesus tells a story of the king asking him, What are you doing here? 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:27.599 And the guy has no excuse. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.479 He can't even say a word, Jesus says. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:35.759 And so the king binds him hand in foot and has him thrown into hell. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.319 And at that point, we're leaving the parable behind. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:49.280 When, you know, once the king of the parable throws someone into eternal judgment, into the fires of hell, you've left the wedding story and you're now into Jesus' theological conclusion. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:51.680 And so we looked at this last week very clearly. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:04:02.639 It's a parable about the invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb, that it won't, it goes to the world, those who were expected to come, namely the Jews, rejected the invitation, abused the prophets, killed them. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.759 And so the invitation is magnified to the whole world now. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:13.199 Gentiles, rich, poor, strong, weak, sinners, and so-called righteous people, all of them are invited. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:18.319 And it's amazing the church is filled with those who've responded to the summons. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:23.279 It is filled with those who've placed their faith in Christ and come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.000 It is filled with those who delight in Christ. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:34.480 And the church is a weekly celebration then of our fellowship with the king and the king's son and his bride, the church. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:45.519 Nevertheless, there are those in the church who are here without faith, who were maybe brought as children by their parents, and they were, in a real sense, compelled to come in. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:46.800 They were driven here. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:54.879 You have others who are invited by friends or neighbors, others who have just come because they've always come to church and they've never placed their faith in Christ. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.079 There's a hundred different ways those kind of people would come in. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.319 But the fact remains is the church also has scores of those people here. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:04.000 They've never trusted Christ. 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:05.759 Their sins have never been forgiven. 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:07.759 They've never been washed in the blood of the Lamb. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:12.560 They aren't wearing the white robes of righteousness that are given to you by Christ. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:15.439 They are pretenders in the feast of the Lamb. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.519 They're in the church, but they've never given their lives to Christ. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.759 And that story ends with the king seeing through them and casting them into hell. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:32.319 How come some respond in faith and others respond without faith? 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:39.839 How come not everybody at the wedding feast of the lamb is saved, is regenerate, has put their faith in Christ? 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.240 How come not everybody who's in a church? 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:43.600 I mean, there's so many other things to do. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.639 You can go walk around Green Springs or watch a baseball game or something. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:53.279 I don't know, but the people come here without faith and what happens to them eventually? 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:54.879 Well, the Lord sees through it. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:58.319 The Lord can tell the difference between the wheat and the weeds. 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:01.040 And he sees through it. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:06.399 But that almost dodges the question why is it that some respond in faith and others do not? 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.800 And that's what Jesus concludes the parable with. 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:11.519 Many are called, but few are chosen. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:18.000 This is one of those paradoxes that is throughout the scriptures. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:21.600 It is the balance of the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:23.839 That's how it's often described. 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:29.199 There is a genuine, real, true invitation that goes to the four corners of the world. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.800 Whoever wants to be saved can be saved. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:39.680 It is a sincere invitation for one and all, young and old, to come to faith in Jesus Christ. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:47.519 At the same time, only those who are chosen by God can actually do that. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.279 God is the one who is sovereign over salvation. 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:53.120 He determines who will be saved. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.759 And so God has determined and revealed two things. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.480 Both of them held in tension here in verse 14. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:03.519 First of all, God has determined that the invitation for salvation should go to the world. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:10.319 And secondly, God has determined that only those whom He has chosen before time can be saved. 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:14.480 This is a common paradox in Matthew's gospel. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:20.800 All the way back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that the road to destruction is wide, and many are on it. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:24.959 The road to salvation, the gate to salvation is narrow, and few who find it. 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:32.319 Notice again the tension, the joining, the linking of many few, wide, narrow. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:38.000 Many are called, but only few are chosen. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:44.560 That tension underscores the human nature of sin and the divine nature that initiates salvation. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:50.480 People are always inclined to resist God, and God is always inclined to invite them to salvation. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:51.920 Both are true. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:08:13.839 Now there are those that try to unwind this tension by having one cancel out the other, so to speak, or having one elevated above the other, I have heard people say, with in entirely straight faces, if God chooses whom to be saved, then why would he ever bother having people preach the gospel? 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.560 Maybe you've heard that kind of objection. 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:23.519 If God chooses whom he is going to save, why would anybody else bother preaching the gospel if God's going to choose anyway? 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:25.519 And yet here they are in tension. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:28.160 Many are called, few are chosen. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:36.000 The answer is God does choose whom is going to be saved, and the means by which he brings about their salvation is the preaching to the many. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:40.480 One is the means to the other. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:52.960 And I've heard other people say on the other side that if God chooses whom to be saved, I better lead a good life and be as virtuous and as strong and as tall as I can so that he'll choose me. 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:55.120 Also wrong. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:57.919 It's falling off the other side of the horse. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:05.039 Coaching soccer, sometimes during tryouts, I'll let the players choose their own teams and the captains will choose players. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.480 And it's always interesting to watch the freshmen stand on their tiptoes. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:09.679 Choose me. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:10.960 I don't want to be last. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:19.919 And some people bring that into their relationship with God and they stand on their moral tiptoes and think that if they try hard enough and do good enough, then maybe God will choose them. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.679 And the others, as I said, say, if God does choose, why even bother evangelizing? 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:28.559 And these say, if God does choose, I better raise my hand and wave really hard and stand really tall. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:39.120 Both undo the clear teaching of Scripture that God commands us to preach the gospel to the world, and yet He is also sovereign over salvation. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:46.159 You can say it this way: mankind is free and God is free, but God is more free than mankind is. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:46.960 Amen. 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:51.919 The gospel does go to the world, and God is sovereign over salvation. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:57.360 If there is one thing in the Bible that is true about God, it is this that God always wins. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:09:59.600 His will is never thwarted. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:01.360 His will is never thwarted. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:09.279 People resist him all the time, but notice even in their resisting of God, that ends up, the resisting ends up accomplishing his will. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:14.000 Of course, people resist God, and God uses the very act of their resistance. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:16.480 The classic example of this in the Bible is Saul. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:24.720 Saul tries to resist God by fighting Samuel, by opposing God tooth and nail, fighting his very prophet that he sends. 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:29.440 And yet, what happens because of Saul's recalcitrant heart and his resistance? 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:32.960 Well, the line of David comes into fruition, which leads to Christ. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:34.480 Judas is another example. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:40.720 Judas resists the will of God and fights God and tries to betray Christ to thwart his whole messianic mission. 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:47.039 And it's his very betrayal of Christ that brings Christ to the cross, which leads to the resurrection and the launching of the church. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:55.919 Time and time again, those that thwart God and oppose God end up ultimately defeated and only serving to advance his gospel. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:01.360 Another example, they think that they can silence Paul and end the church by arresting him and shipping to Rome. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.200 I mean, that's just like getting your short-term mission trip paid for, isn't it? 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:09.519 And that is the pattern in the scripture. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:12.799 God's call always wins. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:17.120 1 Corinthians 1 26 will be a verse that can bracket our thoughts this morning. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:19.600 Consider your calling, brothers. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.440 Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:27.279 Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:34.240 Here, Paul is hitting upon the truth that those who are called to salvation were not called based upon any standing in the world. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:39.200 You weren't chosen by God because you were taller, faster, more handsome than those around you. 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:42.879 Although those are all true for me, that's not why God chose me. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:57.360 Paul says, just look at yourself and marvel at the fact that though there are people that will be drugged out of the wedding feast and bound and cast into hell, God chose you. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.679 And it wasn't because of anything he saw in you at all. 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.679 The command Paul gives us here is to consider your calling. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.039 And so let's do that this morning under three headings. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:12.639 The calling begins with the call that reaches the many. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.360 That's where Jesus begins in Matthew 22, 14. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:16.399 Many are called. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.240 This is the call that reaches the many. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:21.360 The call that goes to the four corners of the world. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.399 This call begins with the call of nature. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:29.360 I'll describe this call in more detail. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:30.399 The call of nature. 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:39.120 Day after day pours forth speech. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:42.000 Night after night proclaims the knowledge of God. 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:52.080 There is no place in the world, Psalm 19 says, where the voice of God is not heard, where the eyes of God do not reach, where the beauty of God is not on display. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:13:00.879 The sun runs its course through the sky like a groom running with the bride to the bridal chamber with joy and urgency and energy. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:04.799 That is how the heavens declare the glory of God. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.480 There is no place hidden from its reach. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:18.639 The whole universe declares that God made the world, and the world is beautiful and lovely, and it testifies to the existence of God. 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:21.360 At the very least, you're standing on a planet. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:22.799 You know you're on a planet. 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.960 You know the planet didn't make itself, it has a creator. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:28.720 That's Psalm 19. 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:35.840 Not just any creator, but a creator that is wonderful and beautiful and who wants you to delight in him, who reveals himself. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:42.879 God created the world and reveals his power and his attributes through his creation. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:49.120 You know that God is powerful because he made the world nearby our houses, the old landmark mall. 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:51.360 They're building the hospital at it now. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:59.600 And if you've driven by it, you've seen the first part of it was the cranes had to build themselves, those tall cranes, and there's two of them because one builds the other. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:01.120 They build themselves up bit by bit. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:04.559 Those cranes are so big, no crane can build itself. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.519 It requires one to build the other, and and so forth. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:11.440 If that's true with cranes, what do you do with a planet like Earth? 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:15.279 It didn't build itself, it doesn't come from nowhere. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:20.480 It took an action, it had to have a creator behind it. 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:22.879 The heavens declare the glory of God. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:33.679 Nature is beautiful and powerful and wonderful and reveals the magnitude of God's thoughtfulness and his beauty. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:37.120 Out my window this morning, I saw a couple deers. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:40.080 We've had a three-legged deer in our yard the past couple years. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:46.480 It's missing a front leg, and yet it still uh still lives somehow, and it has a fawn that belongs to it now. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:50.080 And the two of them were in our front yard right at sunrise this morning. 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:51.120 It's incredibly beautiful. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:54.320 And then I realized that they were eating my fig tree. 00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:58.799 Not beautiful. 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:06.639 And yet they had little joy skipping and kind of the others, it went away. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:11.519 And you think even in something like that, the heavens declare the glory of God. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:14.960 God made figs taste wonderful. 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:18.399 They didn't have to taste wonderful, but he made them taste wonderful. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:20.000 God is a creator. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:25.200 That is something that is evident to every human being in the world. 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:30.000 And that leads to the second form of the call, conscience. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:32.720 That your conscience then convicts you of sin. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:44.000 Romans 1 says that all people are without excuse because your conscience reveals to you not only that God exists, that's established from me standing on a planet, but that God is holy. 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:53.840 Your conscience tells you not to lie and not to steal and not to covet, and your conscience tells you not to lust and hate and murder, all those things your conscience activates in you. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:55.519 It doesn't mean you listen to your conscience. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:16:02.080 More often than not, you ignore your conscience or you fight your conscience, but your conscience convicts you of sin, nevertheless. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:18.399 And so, right away, the whole world, everybody who's who's sentient, everybody with a functioning brain and of an age that you can, you know, add four plus four, so to speak, everybody at that stage of life knows that there is a creator and knows that that creator is holy and knows that they're sinful. 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:21.840 Yes, there's a creator, yes, he's holy, and yes, I'm a sinner. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.679 I know God is powerful and his majesty is displayed through creation. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:29.360 I know he's holy and rejects sin, and I know that I sin all the time. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:33.519 God speaks to every human being that way. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:37.279 And there is no place hidden from that speech. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:47.120 Despite this, though, nature and conscience are not sufficient to bring you to salvation. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:55.360 Because what people do with these two things is they reject their conscience and then they start worshiping nature. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:56.320 That's what happens. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:09.359 If you reject the idea that a creator made the planet, and then you reject the idea that you're sinful, you embrace the idea that your existence involves sustaining the planet, and you end up worshiping the creation rather than the creator. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:17.279 You end up worshiping either the earth or idols that made her to look like animals or yourself, a mere creature. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:22.240 You excuse your own sin and you deify creation. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:26.480 And so this call that goes to the world can't save anyone. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:29.519 It just can't. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:34.880 For one basic reason, this call doesn't contain the gospel, does it? 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:41.599 The three-legged deer and her fawn this morning did not turn and look at me through the window and say, Isn't nature wonderful? 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:48.640 It reveals the triune God who sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross and rose from the grave on the third day. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:51.200 He suffered under Pontius Pilate, yet he still lives. 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.039 The deer didn't say that. 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:55.920 The heavens don't declare that. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:59.359 There has to be special revelation. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.160 There has to be, thirdly, the mouth of the preacher. 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:09.359 That's the seal of this mini-arcall, that somebody has to articulate the actual gospel message. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.599 And this is what Jesus says the church should do to the four corners of the world. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:17.039 Go into all the world proclaiming the gospel, Jesus says. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:27.839 To all the nations, that's the word ethnos, to every ethnic group in the world, the gospel should go and be preached without discrimination, without elevating one over the other. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.200 The gospel goes to the nations this way. 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:36.240 This is the means by which the gospel goes to the world. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:39.359 Jesus died bearing the penalty for your sin. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:45.039 He rose from the grave because he is the author of life and couldn't be defeated by death. 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:50.640 He rose from the grave to demonstrate that if you put your faith in him, you too can live forever. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:58.720 You too, when you die your physical life, your soul will be with the Lord and your body will resurrect and be with him forever and ever and ever. 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:10.640 That is the proclamation of the gospel that Jesus is the Son of God, that he did lead a sinless life, he did die in your place, bearing God's penalty for your sin, and he did resurrect from the grave. 00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:12.400 And you can have your sins forgiven. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:22.000 The problems of the first two points, that God exists and that you're a sinner are solved by the third point, that Jesus died bearing the penalty for your sin. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:28.559 Your conscience can't get you there, creation can't get you there, but the word of God can get you there through the mouth of a preacher. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.759 And when I say preacher here, I mean me or I mean you. 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:42.720 When you open your Bible to your neighbor and you explain the gospel to your neighbor, or you share the gospel with parents on your kids' soccer team or with your coworkers, you become the preacher in that sense. 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:47.359 And there is no advancement of the gospel in the world without a preacher. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:52.400 Creation doesn't do it, nature doesn't do it, your conscience doesn't do it. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:59.599 It requires a human being to open his mouth and articulate what the gospel message is. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:17.759 Sometimes that's verbal, sometimes that's Gideon's putting Bibles in hotel rooms, sometimes it's written that people read the word of God, but you cannot come to faith in Christ unless you hear the good news of Jesus, and you cannot hear the good news of Jesus unless somebody explains it to you. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:20.640 That is how the gospel goes into the world. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:22.960 That is to the four corners of the world. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:29.680 That is Psalm 91 to 98, that the corners of the earth, the nations will declare the glory of God. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:32.480 This is Isaiah 45, verse 22. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:36.799 Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:39.119 For I am God and there is no other. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:41.519 That is Jesus, go into all the world. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:52.240 That is the angels in Acts chapter 1, and then into Acts chapter 2, go to all the nations, Jerusalem, Judea, to the uttermost parts of the earth. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:21:01.839 Time and time again, my favorite chapter, and this is Acts 11, when the church realizes, oh my goodness, Gentiles are being saved, we should reach them with the gospel. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:05.759 They immediately decide to send Paul, and Acts 11 lists all the people. 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:08.000 We want Phoenicians to be saved, Paul go there. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:12.720 We want Cretans to be saved, Paul go to Crete, to Cyprus, to Antioch, everywhere. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:20.559 They decide we are going to reach every ethnic group we know of by sending human beings to preach to them. 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:22.799 That's how this works. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:29.119 That is the overall thrust of God's desire for the nations to come to faith. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:30.559 It requires the preachers. 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:35.599 So imagine seeing that and saying, if God is sovereign, why bother preaching? 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:37.039 Are you kidding me? 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:42.720 Because it is the way God brings the gospel to the nations. 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.200 Yes, God could have chosen to use angels. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:46.559 Nobody's denying that. 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:53.119 The angels could sky write John 3:16 in the heavens, and then you would never need to open your mouth again. 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:55.519 The rocks would cry out. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:58.160 The rocks could go door to door and preach evangelism. 00:21:58.319 --> 00:21:59.200 Imagine that. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.240 The doorbell rings, there's a rock. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.640 I would imagine it could be more effective than some of us. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:09.200 But that is not what God chose to do. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:20.880 He chose to use failing, frail, fickle human beings so that his glory is seen in vessels of weakness in jars of clay. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:22.799 That's what he does. 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.720 The point is, the gospel goes to the nations. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:28.559 Nature proclaims that God exists. 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:30.640 The conscience proclaims that you're a sinner. 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:36.319 The preacher proclaims that those two problems can be solved by repenting from your sin and turning to faith in Christ. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:37.759 That's the external call of the gospel. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:41.599 And in the words of Matthew 22, 14, it goes to many. 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:43.599 To many people. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:46.799 The problem, though, is the second point. 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:49.200 The heart refuses the call. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:56.720 The external preaching of the gospel, the call to the many, is not effective at drawing them to salvation. 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.880 It is essential to draw them to salvation, but it's not sufficient, in other words. 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:09.680 It's required for the gospel to advance in the world, but that alone will not get the gospel to advance in the world because people's hearts resist the truth. 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:19.039 The proclamations of nature and conscience and of preacher are of no good because of the willful, sinful heart of man. 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:26.559 And so when the gospel goes to people and they don't respond, it is not the fault of the gospel, it is the fault of the respondent. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:31.680 It is not that the gospel is weak, it's that the respondent's heart is hard. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:37.039 The gospel in that sense is the sun and it hardens the clay of the sinner's heart. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:41.599 The problem is not a weakness of the message, but the hardness of the receiver. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:44.640 Paul addresses this in Romans 9. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:46.640 Why didn't people respond? 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:49.759 Why didn't the Jews respond when they got the wedding invite? 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:54.720 They had the patriarchs, they had the covenants, they had the promises, they had the scriptures. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:58.240 It is not as though the word of God failed, Paul said. 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:00.640 The word of God did not fail. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:04.720 Their hearts are just hard. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.079 All who respond to the truth, though, listen, this is the key point. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:13.519 All who respond to the truth will be saved. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:21.279 The fact that people don't respond to the truth doesn't nullify or negate the genuineness of that invitation. 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.839 All who respond to the truth will be saved. 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:31.200 The problem is nobody will respond to the truth. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:33.920 Because of the sinfulness of sin. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.920 Our hearts are wicked, deceitfully wicked above all else. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:41.039 Our hearts are leprous, our hearts are treasonous. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:48.559 When the Bible describes people as following their heart, it is not like a Brian Adams or Rod Stewart song or whatever. 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:50.960 In the Bible, when people follow the heart, it's very bad. 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:53.039 You know, Hallmark cards say, I love you with all my heart. 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:56.240 In the Bible, if someone says I love you with all my heart, it means they're probably gonna kill you. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.039 The heart is wicked. 00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:02.319 In the days of the judges, people did whatever they was right in their own eyes. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:03.759 They lived according to their heart. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:05.440 That's not a good thing. 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:08.480 The heart is so messed up. 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:12.559 It leads us into sin all the time. 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:16.880 But that doesn't mean the invitation is not sincere. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:22.480 Listen, any elephants that fly and have clearance to land are allowed to land at Reagan Airport. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:23.920 Any of them that want to. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:29.039 The problem is elephants don't fly and they don't have clearance to land at Reagan if they did. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:36.160 So when somebody says, you know, if the doctrine of election would mean that whoever wants to be saved can't be saved. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:37.599 No, that's not true. 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:42.880 Anyone who wants to be saved can be saved if they turn to Christ and put their faith in him. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:45.039 That is a sincere invitation. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:46.799 Many are called. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:26:02.799 The difficulty is that their hearts are hardened, and God would be entirely within his rights to call the world to the external call of the gospel, to plead with them to come to faith, and to watch them all refuse him and to have nobody saved. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:04.880 God would be in his rights for that to happen. 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:08.960 But he is not content to let that happen. 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:14.559 Instead, he goes further and he chooses some to save. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:17.359 This is the choice that rescues the few. 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:21.440 You saw the call that reaches the many, the heart that resists the call. 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:26.079 Now the choice that receives that rescues the few. 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:29.440 God is not content to let everybody be lost to their sin. 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:34.400 His will is not easily thwarted, and he always accomplishes his purpose. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:37.759 And his purpose begins before time with election. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.119 His internal call, this is what people often refer to as the internal call. 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:42.720 It begins with election. 00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:45.759 You can turn to Ephesians 1 if you want, or I can just read it for you. 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:47.279 It's just over a few pages. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:59.119 Such a well-known passage of scripture, but it's critical when you talk about the doctrine of election to understand Ephesians 1 that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ blessed us in Christ. 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:05.119 This is verse 4, because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:11.920 God chose us to save us before the foundation of the world, before time. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:15.039 And even saying the phrase before time sounds weird, doesn't it? 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:17.680 Before, the word before is a temporal phrase. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:20.079 So how can something be before time? 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:23.039 The word before implies time, but that's you're just stuck. 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:25.519 You're dealing with God in eternity outside of creation. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.519 You're stuck without the right vocab. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:31.039 It's a hazard of the theologian's trade, I guess. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:39.599 Before time, before God created time or created the universe, he chose us to be saved. 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:44.000 Verse 5 says he predestined us for adoption. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:45.519 So this is not generic. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.559 This is not, I'm going to adopt everybody that I want to. 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.000 I'm going to adopt everybody who on their own turns of faith in Christ. 00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:52.960 This is personal. 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:54.400 Adoption is personal. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:56.799 You adopt people one at a time. 00:27:57.039 --> 00:27:59.759 By name, you bring them into your family. 00:28:00.799 --> 00:28:04.480 God does this according to his own purpose of his will. 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:09.039 He chooses whom he's going to save, and he does so before time. 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:13.279 I've heard people say, well, no, this is how it works. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:24.160 God's going to look down the tunnel of time or look down the corridor of time and see what you would do on your own and then go back and choose you to do what he saw you doing. 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:27.359 I mean, that doesn't make any sense, really. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:36.240 First of all, when you do something good, it's because God empowered you to do it. 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:40.319 You don't have an island of goodness independent of God that you can act from. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:44.559 Any good thing you do is because God gave you the energy and the grace to do it. 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:47.359 And so, of course, he knows you're going to do good things. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:53.920 He knows your whole life before you're born, but he chose you for this life, not because of anything in you. 00:28:54.079 --> 00:28:57.519 The best example of this is Romans 9 talks about Jacob and Esau. 00:28:57.599 --> 00:28:59.279 So two twins born in the Old Testament. 00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:02.640 And you remember their birth, they come out of the womb wrestling each other. 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:07.599 One is out first and that one gets the band on him, and then the heel gets grabbed, and they start, you know, fighting. 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:08.880 My goodness. 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:11.839 And they kept up to fight their whole life, by the way. 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:17.759 Romans 9 says that God chose Jacob, not Esau. 00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:21.279 He chose the older to serve the younger. 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:29.440 And then Romans 9, verse 11 says, God did this before either twin had done anything good or bad. 00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:32.400 And you think, oh, that's cute. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:35.519 Who cares about two twins thousands of years ago? 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:38.559 The rest of the verse tells you why you should care. 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:45.279 So that God's purpose in calling and election would stand. 00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:54.960 Not by works or by human will or by effort, but by the choice or the election of God. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:57.440 That's why the twins matter. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:01.279 It becomes a picture of how God elects people for salvation. 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:04.079 He does so before they do anything good or bad. 00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:06.160 He doesn't know where they're going to do good or bad. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:10.400 He chooses them before anything happens in their life. 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.839 So that it does, salvation does not depend on man who wills or man who runs, but on God who chooses. 00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:16.880 That's election. 00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:18.079 And it happens before time. 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:21.359 A classic verse in this other than Romans 9 is 2 Timothy 1.9. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:36.240 God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:41.279 When people argue with the phrase before eternity, well, and this is what this is what I got. 00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:42.799 That's what Paul says. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.880 Before the ages began, that's when God chose us. 00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:49.359 Notice the use of the word calling. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:58.480 He called us to a holy calling, which he gave us before time began. 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:01.920 But that calling enters time through regeneration. 00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:06.160 God chooses him to save before time, but then he actually saves them in time. 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:09.839 Regeneration is the word, it's a fancy word for being born again. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:12.720 That God causes your heart to go from death to life. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:22.480 He causes your spiritual eyes to go from blindness to sight, your spiritual ears to go from deaf to hearing, your spiritual soul to go from dead to awake to alive. 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:24.079 It's quickened. 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:26.880 That's what happens with regeneration. 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:29.039 That God saves people. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:32.480 In John 3, the Holy Spirit goes where he wants to go. 00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:34.400 And no one can summon him. 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:36.480 He saves whom he wants to save. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:37.519 He is sovereign. 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:40.799 The Spirit is sovereign and saves whomever he wills. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:43.680