November 13, 2016
Coming off the heels of the presidential election in America, Pastor Eric Ludy examines the historic election—not of presidential
sermon notes
. . . that the purpose of God according to election might stand . . .
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Romans 9:11, 13
SOME AWKWARD WORDS TO PONDER
Election (God has chosen)
Predestination (God has pre-decided)
Does God Actually Elect? Does He Really Predestine?
Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
Romans 11:5-7
Capital E and small e
God has Elected (Pre-Chosen) the Second Man
Salvation is not IN the First Man (The Body of Death)
Salvation is only IN the Second Man (The Body of Christ)
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
I Amness
the same yesterday, today, and forever
Proorizō [Praw-ah-ritzo]
The pre-decision, The predetermination, The eternally established inner wiring of the will; that which is set and hardened long ago
The First Man is Condemned
The Second Man is Salvation
The First Man is Rejected
The Second Man is Elected
The First Man is Dirty, Soiled, and Sinful
The Second Man is Without Sin, Without Spot, and Perfectly Righteous
The First Man is Unlike God
The Second Man is the Son of God
The First Man is Eternally Cut off from the Sacred, Holy Presence
The Second Man is brought near unto the Throne of Grace
The First Man is Earthy, bearing the image of the Earthy
The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven, bearing the image of God
The First Man is the Fool
The Second Man is Wisdom
The First Man is under Wrath
The Second Man is Justified before the Law
The First Man is Self-Effort
The Second Man is God-Effort
The First Man is Ishmael
The Second Man is Isaac
The First Man is Esau
The Second Man is Jacob (Israel)
The First Man is King Saul
The Second Man is King David
The First Man is Under Law
The Second Man is Under Grace
The First Man is Adam
The Second Man is Jesus
The Proorizō
God has Pre-Chosen the Second Man
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 9:2, 6-8; 10:9-10
By God’s Proorizō
It is not in Adam
It is not in Ishmael
It is not in Esau
It is not in the Law
It is not in the Flesh
But by God’s Election, and God’s Decree
It is in the Last Adam – the Seed of Heaven
It is in Isaac – the child of Promise
It is in Jacob (Israel) – the one who believed
It is by Faith – that no man can boast
By God’s Election, God’s Decree . . . There is only ONE
And that one is not you or me. There is only One who can crush the Serpent’s head. There is only One who can shatter the bonds of our inescapable covenant with Death. There is only One Chosen Vessel of Salvation, One Elect Savior, and One deserving of Worship, Honor, and Praise. All others are vessels fit for destruction.
It is ALREADY Determined! Adam CANNOT Save
The flesh (the body), that which is derived, inherited from Adam, cannot do it. Keeping the Law and willing, working, and doing in this Flesh (in this Body of Death) cannot please God, cannot access His Presence, and cannot make us the One.
It is ALREADY Determined! Only the Last Adam, the 2nd Man, Saves
It is the willing of God, the working of God, the doing of Christ that is the only thing that can please God, and that can access the Throne Room. This working of God is called Grace. And it is by Grace through Faith that we are saved. There is One that is Promised – and this Promised One is the Only One who can and will DO IT!
Faith in THE ONE – The Key to Salvation
THE ONE AND ONLY
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see
John 3:36
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1 Timothy 2:5
INTRODUCING SEVEN KEY FACTS ABOUT OUR “I AM” GOD
1 – God longs for all to be saved
“I desire them all!”
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; … For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who desires all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
1 Timothy 2:1, 3-6
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 18:14
2 – God gives a season of repentance
God suffers long with us, granting us opportunity to repent
“I am not quick to anger, but will forebear and long-suffer, that you might repent and believe.”
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication
Revelation 2:21
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?
Romans 2:4
Jonah and Nineveh (The Principal of a Fair Trial)
The Father of the Prodigal
3 – God will not be mocked, but will turn all the enemy means for evil into good
“Whether they refuse Me or believe in Me,
I will demonstrate My power and My glory through them.
No matter what – I will get My due.”
Though our God longs for all to be saved, He doesn’t force all to be saved. But will endure with great patience and mercy those that continue in implacable belligerence toward Him and refuse His Great Salvation in the season He graciously supplies them. He will not be mocked, but will demonstrate His power in and through even their rebellion.
But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save
Genesis 50:20
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
4 – God has rejected the First as the means of rescue
“I have rejected Adam’s effort (in the Flesh),
I will only accept the effort of the Spirit.”
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. … For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
Romans 8:8, 13
5 – God has elected (pre-selected) the Second (Jesus), as His chosen means of rescue
“Adam cannot do it! The Second Man will be the One!”
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:47
Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Isaiah 42:1
And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two
Genesis 25:23
6 – God resists the proud (a.k.a. – those that reject the Second)
. . . he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.
John 3:36
If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.
Isaiah 7:9
God resists the proud . . .
James 4:6
7 – God gives grace to the humble (a.k.a. – those that repent and believe in the Second)
He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life . . .
John 3:36
. . . whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:15
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:24
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life
1 John 5:11-12
God . . . gives grace unto the humble.
James 4:6
. . . he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:12
TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF ROMANS 9
The
It is all about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified (a.k.a. – Capital E Election) – Jesus (the I AM) is the Interpretive Device
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity (singularity of focus) that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:2-3
THE ARGUMENT OF PAUL IN ROMANS
Romans 3, 4, and 5
The Case unfolds to the Jews. All have sinned. In Adam all have Died. All are under the Law of Sin and Death. The Law is not God’s chosen vehicle of salvation – It is not by works or the efforts of this Body of Death. It is only by faith in THE ONE that salvation is found.
Romans 6
By Faith IN Christ, there is access into His Work on the Cross. His Death becomes our Death. His Burial our burial. His Resurrection Life our Life. We have triumph IN Christ.
Romans 7
By Faith IN Christ, His Bodily Death is our Bodily Death, severing the covenant that we have with Sin and Death, thus enabling the Believing man to enter into covenant with THE ONE. Then Paul enunciates, in detail, the Life IN Adam (the Body of Death) and then proclaims, “Who can save me from this Body of Death?” And then with finality, he declares, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 8
This chapter enunciates the power, the position, the confidence, and the love that belongs to the believer that is IN Christ (walking after the Spirit and not In Adam). There is no fear of wrath (for there is therefore now no condemnation). There is no fear of separation in Death (for IN Christ nothing can separate us from His Love).
Romans 9
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
The Pre-Decision: It is the child of promise that is the seed of Abraham – Those who Believe the Promise
Galatians 3:29 says, “if ye be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of Him that wills, nor of Him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my Name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens.
The Pre-Decision: He has mercy on the humble and those who repent and believe, and He hardens those who are proud and do not believe in Him as the ONE means of Salvation.
The Pre-Decision: He will get glory out of him that is proud AND he that is humble. For those that boast in their own strength, He will still demonstrate His own power as greater – and if they refuse to repent and believe, then the wages of such is hardening. If one responds with contrition, there is always mercy.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why does He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
NOTE: Can’t God decide what must be done with the clay? He knows best. If this clay is hard and unbending – can’t He decide to dispose of it? If this clay is malleable and responsive, can’t He decide to make use of it?
What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
NOTE: What if we understood that God will not be mocked and will make His power known no matter if one repents or proves belligerent? God is willing to show His wrath upon the unrepentant, but He is also slow to anger and willing to offer a season for repentance. Either way a man’s soul turns, God will demonstrate His power and glory (See Pharaoh).
And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
NOTE: God is not intimidated by the rebellion of men. In fact, He will leverage man’s rebellion and their hostilities even to a greater glory made manifest through His saints, those vessels of mercy who have believed in Him. Long and short, He will show His glory and power both through the unrepentant and through the soft-hearted, humble, believing.
As He saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
NOTE: God’s long-suffering also shows glory in that, in this season of patience, “hardened” Gentiles (fitted for destruction) have repented and become children of the Living God and objects of mercy. Those outside the commonwealth of mercy were invited into the mercy.
Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
NOTE: God’s long-suffering also proved that, Israel – the one that appeared throughout history to be the object of mercy, was in actuality not what it appeared. For much of Israel proved to be of the First Man instead of the Second. They proved to put their confidence and faith in their own works and righteousness instead of in the work and righteousness of the Second Man.
And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
NOTE: We all would have been vessels fit for destruction, even the people of the lineage of Abraham, had God not given us Jesus, the Second Man.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that
Romans 9:1-33
NOTE: Long and short, the long-suffering of God proves the nature of the soul. God is willing to show His wrath, but He is also desirous to show His mercies. But He is after His remnant, those who will believe.
Who Can Open the Book?
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to
Revelation 5:1-4
The One and Only
There is only One that is Capital P – Perfect, Capital R – Righteous, Capital H – Holy, Capital E – Elect, Capital C – Called, Capital J – Just, Capital P – Pleasing, Capital W – Worthy, Capital E – Exalted, Capital G Glorified, Capital S – A Son, and Capital A Able to open and read the Book, break its seals, and unlock its mysteries.
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to
Revelation 5:1-5
