As a pastor, I have been called by God to preach and teach the "full counsel of God's Word" (Acts 20:27). "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ" (Romans 1:16), nor the doctrines which accompanies it. Therefore, I want to be faithful to teach God's people His Word and to expose them to the doctrine of Scriptures. I am not naïve enough to think everyone will agree with me in every facet of the gospel or to believe as I do on elements such as, "election," "limited atonement" or the "teaching of the last things."
However, as I said last night, we must agree on the fundamentals of the faith when it comes to Christian orthodoxy, such as the virgin birth, deity of Christ, substitutionary atonement, the physical death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. By God's grace, I try to make the gospel of Jesus Christ the centrality of all my teaching and preaching at PHBC. For without the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, no one can or will experience the forgiveness of and the removal of the bondage of sins and come into a personal relationship with God.
Likewise, my interpretation of the doctrine of election does several things;
First, it allows God to be God. He is sovereign! He has the right to do whatever He chooses (Psalm 115:3 & Romans 9: 14-18), and I believe He will do the right thing. By the way, He is God.
Secondly, it causes me to worship Him. When I think about what He has done in choosing me before foundation of the world (Eph.1:4 & Jer.1:5), and then seeking me out with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Luke 19:10), convicting me of my sins (John 16:8), granting me a desire for forgiveness of my sins against Him (John 3:8), and saving me-- it causes me to love and worship Him.
Thirdly, the doctrine of election brings about humility (4:6). As the Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8-9, "By grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." I have no room whatsoever to boast about the salvation with which God has graced me.
Fourthly, the doctrine of election gives me assurance that I am eternally secured in Christ (Eph.1:13). If God eternally choose me before the foundation of the world in Christ (Eph.1:4; Rev.13:7;17:7), then after being graced with salvation, I cannot lose that salvation because He is the One who brought it about. Therefore the doctrine of eternal election secures my eternal security.
Fifthly, the doctrine of election motivates me to burn passionately for the souls of lost men, women, boys, and girls. Because I know that God has His elect who will believe, although I do not know who they are, and it gives me confidence that when I share the gospel with others, there will be those who will repent and believe upon Christ.
I will close with a quote, from arguably the greatest of Baptist preachers known as the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, to his pastors on preaching/teaching the doctrine of election:
"Some of you have never preached on election since you were ordained. “These things,” you say, “are offensive.” And so you would rather offend God than offend man. But you reply, “These things will not be practical.” I do think that the climax of all man’s blasphemy is centered in that utterance. Tell me that God put a thing in the Bible that I am not to preach! You are finding fault with my God. But you say, “It will be dangerous.” What! God’s truth dangerous? I should not like to stand in your shoes when you have to face your Maker on the day of judgment after such an utterance as that."
Here is a link to an excellent message on the doctrine of election which helped me immensely on this glorious doctrine:
No comments:
Post a Comment