God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  2Thess 2:13-14

According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Eph 1:4-5

All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48

…God our Savior, …desires all men to be saved and to come to 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 Tim 2:4-6

As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways; for why will you die… Ezek 33:11

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, … how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you would not!  Luke 13:34

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.  Rev 22:17

The absolute sovereignty of God and His electing grace are to me some of the sweetest flowers in His holy garden. They bid me ever deeper into His eternal love, and whelm me in the unsearchable riches of His glorious Being.  They assure me of an appointed harvest for my labors. They wrap me in the certainty of His eternal purpose in the midst of the raging storm. But I must always be diligent to bar the steps of human intelligence at the gate of the eternal and infinite. To force the Transcendent  into the finite bounds of human understanding is to trifle with the holy, and to rob the LORD of His glory. His thoughts and ways are infinitely higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).  As I grow in truth I must not allow my quest to understand to destroy my child-like wonder.  I sing with the apostle, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out (Rom 11:33)!

And so, we must not attempt to bring the majesty of God's sovereign grace down to a level where we can fully bind its wonders within the vulgarity of human expression.  His ways are unsearchable. The things revealed belong to us for our comfort and hope. But the hidden things belong to God unto the praise of His glory. (Deut 29:9; Rom 15:4).  There are things revealed to us about God's sovereignty that can never be (and must not be) reconciled fully in our own understanding. Yet, for the child of God, there is a palpable spiritual understanding that lies just beyond the grasp of mortal expression. It is fully embraced by faith and redounds to the glory of God.

Therefore we must bow reverently before the clearly expressed truth of our God's absolute sovereignty in all things. The child of God must come to rejoice in the truth that he was loved before time, not for any worth of his own, but according to the good pleasure of God's own will (Eph 1:4-5). He must come to know that he was dead in sin, and that the dead can never resurrect themselves. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved) (Eph 2:4-5). He finds comfort in knowing that every aspect of his life is a tapestry of love woven together according to the sovereign purpose of his Father. As he witnesses for Christ he remembers Jesus' words: All that the Father has given me will come to me (John 6:37).  Christ's Bride was ordained before time, and He came to win her, to infallibly secure her redemption.

And yet, Jesus cries over Jerusalem, "How often would I have…  but you would not." He certainly speaks here as the sovereign Lord who was in existence prior to His earthly life.  Notice, He genuinely and passionately proclaims His desire that they would have come to Him but they would not!  He says through the prophet Ezekiel, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn…" (Ezek 11:33).  Paul reminds Timothy that God desires all men to be saved and come to the truth (1Tim 2:4-6).   

The Lord has committed to us the Gospel call and we are commanded to extend it to all the world, to every creature (Mrk 16:15).  In this God genuinely sends the impassioned overtures of grace (cit. John Murray) out to all men. He does not feign His offer. His plea comes with pathos, and what He offers He is fully prepared to give.  Here is the failure and limitation of our human understanding. God at once is unfurling the sovereign absolutes of His eternal decree, and yet He also bears in His holy bosom an unfeigned pathos for all of the lost. His wrath abides over the sinner, yet His mercy yearns for him to repent and be saved.  O my brothers and sisters, let us be careful lest we tread upon the holy. Let us not chafe at the unsearchable, but fall in adoration and praise.  Let us not waste our time trying to reconcile friends (cit. Spurgeon), or trying "tone down" the magnitude of God's genuine desire and offer of salvation to all men. Neither His absolute sovereignty nor His genuine offer of grace to all needs to be defended.  Like God Himself, His truth must not be debated, it must be proclaimed (cit. VanTil)!  We do not need to do all sorts of gymnastics with grammar, theology and logic to 'prove' in regards to the gospel that all never means all; that world never means world; that whosoever never mean whosoever. Such is true in places, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Christian friend, the passionate proclamation of Christ to all, the tearful pleading in prayer for souls; living and speaking for Christ where we are; the sending and supporting of others to go with the gospel; all of these are indispensible means by which God is unfurling His sovereign will in the salvation of the elect.  Paul said, I suffer all things for the sake of the elect that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (2Tim 2:9-10).

To the skeptic and the unbeliever I plead. All sinners who are or ever will be in hell are there not because God "would not", but because the sinner "would not."  All who perish have trampled under foot every road block the Lord has placed before them all of their lives. They have ignored His voice crying from every element of creation.  Their blindness does not excuse their ignorance of the light.  It only proves that they are sinners, shrouded in their own depravity and worthy of eternal judgment.  Why will you perish? Turn ye! Turn ye and live!

That glorious truth of love eternal,
Brought to man by Sovereign Choice,
Never once hath barred a sinner
From the Savior's pleading voice.
There's no requirement to man given
But this one: to look and live.
Tis man, not God, who needs forgiven,
Turn he from the Savior's bid.
It's only God's electing love
That gives awakened sinners hope.
For their concern doth only prove
That He doth draw them by loves rope.

Blessed Savior of Sinners,
Grant us your passion to see your glory manifested in the lives of redeemed sinners; for of you, and through you, and unto you are all things, to whom be glory forever! (Rom 11:36)
Amen.

Tuesday's Touch  #52
I would. You Would Not
  ...from Pastor Ed  ...January 19, 2010

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