Election:T/M

The teaching today was from the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John. The emphasis was on the idea of election. The seventeenth chapter describes the massive wall that divides God’s elect from the people of the earth whom God intends to bring over to His new world of righteousness.

(5/4/2008) If there is a more neglected concept in Christian thinking than that which describes the difference between the world and the Church, I don’t know what it is.

The term “Church” means called out. Being a verb and a preposition, the word properly cannot refer to a building.

The Church consists of God’s “elect,” God’s family, the royal priesthood.

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was the Church, the elect. The Israelites were chosen by the Lord. They were different from all other peoples in that God dealt with them in a very special, remarkable way. No other race of people was given the Ten Commandments on tables of granite, nor a Tabernacle with its furnishings, nor a priesthood. No other nation was called out from another nation and led by a cloud and a pillar of fire as were the Israelites. No other nation was fed manna, the grain of Heaven, for forty years.

It is true that other nations created priesthoods and altars, but these religious devices were developed by human beings. They were not given supernaturally, as was true of the elements God gave to the Jews.

Now, on what basis were the Jews chosen? Because they were better than other people? Not at all! The Jews were chosen according to the sovereign, inscrutable purposes of the Lord God of Heaven. There is no accounting for God actions in the matter of selecting the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. It was not fair to the other people on the earth.

We who have been heavily influenced by the philosophies of Humanism and Democracy have a difficult time accepting an action of God that does not take into consideration the worth of people. There must be a reason why God will choose one person and not another, saying He loves one and hates the other before they are born.

If we are going to understand the Bible we will have to get used to the fact that God is not fair in the sense of giving everyone an equal chance and selecting people on the basis of the worth of their character or actions.

This same “arbitrary” approach to selecting the members of God’s Church is as true of the Christians of today as it was of the Israelites. God chooses whom He will and brings them to Christ.

It is true that the alms of Cornelius were accepted by the Lord, and the result was Peter was guided to the house of Cornelius that Cornelius and his friends might hear the Gospel.

Yet, when I think about myself, and it probably is true of numerous Christians, there was no behavior on my part that would cause God to open my eyes to the blood atonement. There were many Marines in the same company as I who never were given an understanding of the atonement. But I think many of them were more noble, more worthy, than I.

And then God called me to preach the Gospel. On what basis? I don’t know, but He did, and in a supernatural manner at that.

This is what the Lord Jesus is saying in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John. He is saying that some people belonged to God, and God gave them to Jesus that Jesus might give them eternal life. Jesus did not pray for the world, but for those God gave Him.

We may accept this at face value, or try to make some humanistic sense out of it. For myself, I believe there are things God does we just have to accept without understanding why He does them. How do you feel about that?

So here we have the Church, the elect. God brings each one to Christ. They no longer are of the world. There is the Church, and then there is the world.

What is the destiny of the world? If I am not mistaken, the common teaching is that every member of the world that does not “accept Christ,” whether he or she has or has not heard of Christ, automatically goes into the fire when the individual dies. You may not believe it, but this travesty actually is taught. in Christian circles.

So if we accept the several passages in the Old and New Testaments that teach about God’s calling people out of the world to be a holy nation, we are forced to the conclusion that God calls out some people to serve Him as priests and all the others go to Hell because God did not bring them to Jesus.

Does this make sense to you? Not to me either.

The truth is, God does choose people from among the ranks of mankind. But it is not to go to Heaven while the majority of mankind is thrown into Hell, but it is to be conformed to the image of Christ that they might be brothers of Christ; members of the Wife of the Lamb; living stones in the eternal Temple of God. The Scripture is clear enough on this point.

Now the question is, what about the great majority of mankind, those who are not chosen out of the world to be the brothers of Christ, living stones in the eternal temple of God? Is their destiny eternal residence in the fire. Of course not! What an affront to God’s righteous character such a teaching is!

Here is the truth. Are you ready for this?

God’s purpose is calling out from mankind a Church is that the members of the Church might reveal God to the remainder of mankind—today, as God leads, and for eternity on the new earth.

If you understand the sentence above, you understand the Kingdom of God. If you do not understand the above sentence you will not understand why God brought you to Christ, supposing that you will do nothing for eternity except walk on a golden street wearing your golden slippers, doing nothing of significance.

There is the world. Can a person of the world who is not one of God’s priests be saved to the new world of righteousness? Of course. If not, whom would the royal priesthood serve as priests? Several times in the Book of Isaiah the priesthood is mentioned as serving the people of the world; and they certainly are not serving people who are lost!

The inheritance of Christ is people. We are co-heirs with Christ. Therefore our inheritance is people, not people who are members of the Church, nor lost people, but just plain people living on the present earth and then on the new earth.

Today God is calling out the members of His Church, and each of us is required to present his body a living sacrifice that he might prove the will of God for his life.

If you will read the 60th chapter of the Book of Isaiah you will find that multitudes of people in the last days are going to come to the Light of God on the Church. They are going to come from every nation. These are not members of the Church. Rather they are coming to the Light on the Church.

Now, on what basis are these people saved to life in the Kingdom of God? On the basis of accepting the rulership of Jesus Christ over their lives. I don’t think they will see and obey Christ directly, but through the members of the priesthood.

You know, it appears that most Christian people do not accept the rule of Christ over their lives. They accept the forgiveness of the blood atonement, but then they proceed to live their life as it pleases them. They do not look to Jesus for every decision they make. Do you find this to be true. They cling to their idols.

The most important rule of the Kingdom of God is not that people receive forgiveness, it is that they obey Christ implicitly and in every aspect of their life. If we expect to be resurrected when Christ comes, and then ascend with Him, we are going to have to be obeying Him today. If we are not obedient ourselves, how can we work with Christ in installing the Kingdom of God on the earth? The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will.

The salvation that has been preached for two thousand years has been largely that of forgiveness. Now God is emphasizing obedience—stern obedience to the Father in every detail of life. This is the essential aspect of the Kingdom of God.

Two current doctrines that work against obedience are as follows: first, that we are saved by faith alone, meaning we can have fellowship with God apart from obeying God; second, that once we make a profession of belief in Jesus Christ we can never be lost. These two doctrines are terribly destructive.

The first tells us that Christ will save us even if we do not obey Him. Our common sense tells us better than this, but religion has never been comfortable with common sense.

The second teaches us that once we perform a particular religious rite, God is forced to accept us into the new world of righteousness even though our subsequent behavior is demonic. Again, our common sense ought to tell us better than this.

In the beginning Satan said to the effect: “You will not surely die if you disobey God.”

You can hear the same lie repeated every Sunday in the churches of America.