Glory in Ourselves

"I will not say, that every one that denies election is a bad man, yet I will say, it is a very bad sign. For if we deny election, we must, partly at least, glory in ourselves."

Entirely Free Purpose of Election

 “Your election, your predestination, your adoption, your inheritance, are owing entirely, freely, gloriously to God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s good pleasure, God’s counsel in eternity, and not to anything in you.” —John Piper

Not for our Faith, nor according to our Faith

We are not elected....for our faith nor according to our faith, but "to our faith", that is, elected (in order that) we might (would) believe.  

-- William Perkins. 

CORNER-STONE, STONE OF STUMBLING.

Grace is only given to the sheep; The death angel was a blessing to jews, to be the final basis for their release. The death angel was a curse for the Egyptians, to be the demise of their evil. The same event, two different effects. Grace to one, judgment to the other. I think one Puritan made the same observation about the Red Sea, a means of life for the Jews, a means of death for the Pharaoh....one miracle, a purpose of grace, a purpose of judgment, God glorified in both.

 Noah's boat saved his family, and condemned the World. (Hebrews 11);

Jesus is the corner-stone, and a stone of stumbling.

Jericho's wall fell, a miracle for the Jews, a curse for the residents. 

NO SENSE TO ELECT

Arminianism cannot make sense out of God's election. If God elects individuals based on His knowledge of those creatures choosing Him, there is no sense for God to elect anyone; since those creatures will choose Him anyway.

ELECTION IN THE COMMON LANGUAGES

“At the very announcement of the text some will be ready to say, “Why preach upon so profound a doctrine as election?” I answer, because it is in God’s word, and whatever is in the Word of God is to be preached. “But some truths ought to be kept back from the people,” you will say, “lest they should make an ill use thereof.” That is Popish doctrine, it was upon that very theory that the priests kept back the Bible from the people, they did not give it to them lest they should misuse it.

“But are not some doctrines dangerous?” Not if they are true and rightly handled. Truth is never dangerous, it is error and reticence that are fraught with peril. “But do not men abuse the doctrine of grace?” I grant you that they do; but if we destroyed everything that men misuse, we should have nothing left. Are there to be no ropes because some fools will hang themselves? And, must cutlery be discarded and denounced, because there are some who will use dangerous weapons for the destruction of their adversaries? Decidedly not.

Besides all this, remember that men do read the Scriptures and think about these doctrines, and therefore often make mistakes about them; who then shall set them right if we, who preach the Word, hold our tongues about the matter?”

– C. H. Spurgeon, from sermon entitled, Election: Its Defenses and Evidences

FIRST THINGS FIRST

 “It [Election] probably ought to be the first thing you teach a young believer. Now that you’ve come to Christ, this is what I want you to know, you were saved by the sovereign grace of God who stepped into your life in the midst of your death and blindness and gave you life and sight and picked you up and brought you into His Kingdom. Sheer grace has done this for you. That, I think, is the first thing you should say to a new convert. This is, if in fact, you are faithful to the confession you have made, if in fact your love for Christ and desire to honor, to worship and to obey Him continues to grow, this will be an ongoing evidence that God has wrought a miracle in your life. And because of that, you need to know, this is really important, that you should live a life of gratitude for a work has been done in you which you did not deserve and did not earn.”

-- John MacArthur, Answering the Key Questions About the Doctrine of Election (Interview):

(source: monergism.com)

NOBODY HAS A CHANCE

Often, when discussing the issue of election, the question is raised: "Doesn't everybody have a chance?".  The answer is NOBODY has a chance apart from divine election. 

-Greg Crouse

SPURGEON ON THE WORLD

The whole world is gone after him.' Did all the world go after Christ? 'Then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.' Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem baptized in Jordan? 'Ye are of God, little children', and 'the whole world lieth in the wicked one.' Does 'the whole world' there mean everybody? If so, how was it, then, that there were some who were 'of God?' The words 'world' and 'all' are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture; and it is very rarely that 'all' means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts—some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted his redemption to either Jew or Gentile." 
--(Charles H. Spurgeon, Particular Redemption, A Sermon, 28 Feb 1858).

One Group

A covenant promise, a Deliverer of the enslaved, a Deliverance of the enslaved, a passover Lamb, a High Priest, a tabernacle for God to dwell among them, a Land to possess....all given to one set of infants, those of Abraham's seed; which was not given or "offered" to any other people. Are you of Abraham's seed: Christ, the true Isaac, born of God by the Holy Spirit and His Word endowed with living faith which too is a gift of God, and that not of yourself?  (thus evidence of election and limited atonement).

WHO IS ARBITRARY NOW

Is Almighty God bound to the arbitrary human standard of fairness or does God have the right to issue Mercy as He deems appropriate?--B. Bradley

REAL DAMAGE

What type of ruckus would be raised if you politely asked a local congregation to explain their stance on Conditional Election or Non-applied Atonement?  How can such serious topics be brushed aside as harmful discussions, when in fact their use as assumed doctrine is the real damage being inflicted each week.

FEWER PEOPLE

‎"If the gospel were more faithfully preached, there would be fewer people professing to believe it."
-- A.W. Pink

WHY PRESENT

Are we saying that God did not show the resurrected body of Jesus to all sinners (beyond doubting Thomas) because God knew that evidence would not convince them; If God knows this presentation will not convince the unbeliever, then why give any other presentations at all, which God likewise knows will never convince them?

ALL HIS OFFSPRING

Romans 4:13-16 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be *guaranteed to all his offspring*--not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all...

Does this not smack of particularity? I mean, the promise resting on grace as a GUARANTEE to ALL of Abraham's offspring? Hmmm :) Well, the particularity being seen more in that the promise is guaranteed to all his "offspring."

-- good point by good FB friend, Andrew Johnson

YOUR CHILDREN

Matthew 23:37
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered YOUR CHILDREN together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

>>Arminians reword "your Children" to "you".

‎"God is not obligated to save anybody, to make any special act of grace, to draw anyone to Himself. He could leave the whole world to perish, and such would be a righteous world to perish, and such would be a righteous judgment"

~ R.C Sproul

ENEMIES OF

So these truths are published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled and brought down to nothing, and so saved. The rest of men resist this humiliation; indeed, they condemn the teaching of self-despair; they want a little something left that they can do for themselves … and therefore enemies of the grace of God.

– Martin Luther

FINGERS CROSSED

"I don't think we want to believe in a God who is a spectator in the
drama of redemption. Who sends a Christ to die on a cross and stands
there crossing his fingers hoping that someone will take advantage of it."~RC Sproul

JOHN 6

from www.reformationtheology.com or www.monergism.com

John 6:66, “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked with Him no more”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preaching on this passage (on 2/5/1882) said:

"The defection in this case was on account of doctrine... The truth was too hard for them, it was not to be borne with. “It is a hard saying. Who can hear it?” A true disciple sits at the feet of his Master, and believes what he is told even when he cannot quite comprehend the meaning, or see the reasons for what his Master utters; but these men had not the essential spirit of a disciple, and consequently when their Instructor began to unfold the innermost parts of the roll of truth, they would not listen to His reading of it. They would believe as far as they could understand, but when they could not comprehend they turned on their heel and left the school of the Great Teacher.

Besides, the Lord Jesus Christ had taught the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and of the need of the Spirit of God, that men should be led to Him, “for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” Here our Lord uttered a bit of old-fashioned free-grace doctrine, such as people nowadays do not like.

They call it “Calvinism”, and put it aside among the old exploded tenets which this enlightened age knows nothing of. What right they have to ascribe to the Genevan reformer a doctrine as old as the hills I do not know. But our Lord Jesus never hesitated to fling that truth into the face of His enemies. He told them, “Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” Here he tells them plainly that they could not come unto Him unless the Father gave them the grace to come. This humbling doctrine they could not receive, and so they went aside." (Sermons, 28, 111-2)