Sermon
Series:
Five Words You Must Understand
1 Corinthians 14:19
Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with
my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Part Eighteen: John 15:16
“Ye
have not chosen me.”
Introduction:
On the old Daniels
and Webster program on ROCK107 we often heard from one Walter Nepasky. He would begin his commentary with either,
“I'm Walter Nepasky and today I wanna talk
about three things.”, or “Hi. My name is Walter Nepasky.
How you doin? Today I want to talk to you about
tree tings.”
What if we had a modern Christian radio station (“The
Rock of Ages 316”) with a program that began, “Hi, I’m Paul of Tarsus, and
today I want to talk about five words.”
1 Corinthians 14:19 - Yet in the church I had rather speak five
words with my understanding,
that by my voice I might teach others also,
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Here Paul follows up his extreme personal example with an
extreme preference framed as a mathematical proportion: 5 versus 10,000. This
is Paul’s “druthers”! This is when 5 is
better than 10,000!
If Paul were here, and you could pin him down to a
literal selection of five words, what do you think he would choose? “Gimme Five Paul!”
Would Paul have a list, and include in it these words:
“Ye have not chosen me”?
Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that
your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you.
Here are “Five Words” that
you need to understand! “Ye have not
chosen me”.
Outline:
I. The Interpretation of the Five Words -
The Negative Statement - The Repudiation of Man-Centered Soteriology
II. The Exposition of the Five Words - The
Positive Counterpart - The Assertion of Christ-Centered Election
III. The Application of the Five Words -
The Compound Benediction - The Implications of Christ-Centered Ordination
Transition: Here we are in the very midst of one of the
great Gospel discourses by our Lord commonly referred to as “The Upper Room
Discourse” which encompasses chapters 13-17 in the Gospel of John.
There are some propositions that can both be held as
true, and thus they fit the paradigm “both/and”. However, there are certain propositions
asserted in the Scriptures that necessarily negate others. Both are not and
cannot be true. When Christ uses the
negative we must not turn that into a positive no matter how it may offend our
pride or sensibilities. If we hear His
words, and have assumed otherwise we must bow before Him, and receive the
correction of His Words as truth. It
cannot be otherwise. We cannot have it
both ways. This is very much an “either/or” proposition that involves an
explicit assertion of who is sovereign in the salvation of members of the human
race.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have
chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
I. The
Interpretation of the Five Words - The Negative Statement - The Repudiation of
Man-Centered Soteriology
Ye have not chosen me
1. These five
words are commonly denied by those who should know better, and, indeed, the
opposite is explicitly affirmed in direct contradiction of Christ’s words here!
“15:16 You did not choose me does
not negate the disciples’ willing decision to follow Jesus when he called them.
Jesus is emphasizing that the ultimate factor in determining who would follow
him was Jesus’ own choice.”
Source: Andreas J. Kostenberger, ESV Study Bible
(Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), pg. 2056.
“Jesus does not mean that his disciples
exercised no will of their own; they did choose to follow Him. Rather, He is indicating that the first
initiative, the original and saving choice, was His. Had He not chosen them, they would not have
chosen Him. The immediate reference is to service as apostles, but the
principle applies to many other matters including election to salvation (Eph.
1:4, 11).”
Source: New Geneva Study Bible, eds. Luder
Whitlock, Jr., R. C. Sproul, Bruce Waltke, Moises Silva, James Boice, Edmund
Clowney, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, William B. Evans, John Mason (Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pg. 1694, s.v.
note, “15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Some would even go so
far as to limit the import of these words to merely the disciples then present
in the Upper Room to whom this discourse was spoken. I would be very, very careful about taking
such a route to evade the import of these words! If the words of “The Upper Room Discourse”
here only apply to the disciples, then what about the rest of chapters
13-17? Who would be willing to yield any
connection to chapters 14 or 16? Be very
careful in trying to escape the eternal consequences of these five words that
you do not back yourself into a hermeneutical corner that you cannot live with!
The cure for such “hyper-historicism” when handling Scripture passages
purported to be “merely historical” is and has always been the truth of 2
Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness”.
2. These five
words stand as an explicit denial of synergism.
3. These five
words must be understood as the consistent consequence of total depravity.
“’Tis not that I did choose Thee, For Lord,
that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
hadst Thou not chosen me”
Source: Josiah Conder (1836), Trinity
Hymnal (Philadelphia: Great Commission Publications, 1961), #96.
4. These five
words spell the end of human boasting and pride in the beginning and end of
man’s salvation!
II. The
Exposition of the Five Words - The Positive Counterpart - The Assertion of
Christ-Centered Election
but I have chosen you
1. This is the
declaration of monergism.
2. This is the
proclamation of absolute sovereignty. No
notion of a conditional election may be entertained in the face of the negative
repudiation coupled with the positive assertion found in Christ’s words
here. Any possibility of a conditional
basis for Christ’s election of His people is by these words dashed on the Rock
of our Salvation.
3. The consequence
of this assertion is that “free grace” is a redundant expression, as is “sovereign
grace”.
4. The beginning
of grace is here traced to the will of God which is therefore to be viewed as the
fount from which all goodness flows!
“I know not why God’s wondrous
grace To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love Redeemed me for His own.”
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love Redeemed me for His own.”
“I know not how this saving faith To
me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His word Wrought peace within my heart.”
Nor how believing in His word Wrought peace within my heart.”
“I know not how the Spirit moves, Convincing
men of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating faith in Him.”
Source: Daniel W. Whittle, “I Know Whom I Have Believed” (1883), Living Hymns, ed. Alfred B. Smith (Montrose, PA: Encore Publications, Inc., 1972), #531.
Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating faith in Him.”
Source: Daniel W. Whittle, “I Know Whom I Have Believed” (1883), Living Hymns, ed. Alfred B. Smith (Montrose, PA: Encore Publications, Inc., 1972), #531.
“Hail, sovereign love, that first
began The scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal
grace, That gave my soul a hiding-place!
Against the God who rules the sky I
fought with hand uplifted high;
Despised the mention of his grace, Too
proud to seek a hiding-place.
But thus the eternal counsel ran: “Almighty
love, arrest that man!”
I felt the arrows of distress, And
found I had no hiding-place.”
Source: Jehoida Brewer, “Hail, sovereign love”, Gospel
Magazine (OCT 1776); A
Selection of Hymns for Public Worship, by William Gadsby (London: Gospel Standard Publications, 1987), pg.
113-114, hymn #134.
III. The
Application of the Five Words - The Compound Benediction - The Implications of
Christ-Centered Ordination
and ordained you, that ye should go and
bring forth fruit, and that
your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you.
Nor does He merely initiate our salvation and leave the
results up to us as in some deistic conception.
Indeed, He ensures the application and the final results in His
ordination of them which is inextricably coupled to His sovereign election of
His People.
This is the end of the grace of God which flows from the
fountain of His will unto eternity!
1. Ordained to go
2. Ordained to
bear fruit
3. Ordained to
bear lasting fruit
4. Ordained to
have all requests in Christ’s Name granted by the Father
What more could we ask?
“Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.”
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.”
Source: Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “I
am Debtor”, Scottish Christian Herald (20 MAY 1837), vs. 6; Hymns of Truth and Praise (Belle
Chasse, LA: Truth and Praise, Inc., 1971), #474, vs. 4; Hymns of
Worship and Remembrance (Belle Chasse, LA: Truth and Praise, Inc., 1950),
#223, vs. 4; and Choice Hymns of the Faith (Belle Chasse, LA: Truth
and Praise, Inc., n.d.), #429, vs. 4.
“Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that while we want our doctrine to
be biblical, doctrine isn’t what saves us from sin and misery. We don’t
have faith in our doctrine; the object of saving faith is Christ alone.
Unfortunately, even good doctrine can become an idol, as Lloyd-Jones notes
here:
“Let me put it plainly, I will not make my boast, I will not glory,
even in my orthodoxy, for even that can be a snare if I make a god of it.
I will glory only in that Blessed Person himself by whom this great thing has
been done, with whom I died, with whom I have been buried, with whom I am dead
to sin and alive unto God, with whom I have risen, with whom I am seated in the
heavenly places, by whom and by whom alone the world is crucified unto me and I
am crucified unto the world. Anything that wants to come into the center
instead of him, anything that wants to add itself on to him, I shall
reject. Knowing the apostolic message concerning Jesus Christ in all its
directness, its simplicity and its glory, God forbid that any one of us should
add anything to it. Let us rejoice in him in all his fullness, and in him
alone.”
Source: David
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual
Depression: Its Causes and Cure, pg. 189; cited by Shane Lems, “Not Boasting In My Orthodoxy” (2
MAY 2014), on The Reformed Reader at http://reformedreader.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/not-boasting-in-my-orthodoxy/ [accessed 2 MAY 2014].
Conclusion:
Here are “Five Words” that you need to understand! Ye
have not chosen me.
There are some propositions that can both be held as
true, and thus they fit the paradigm “both/and”. However, there are certain propositions
asserted in the Scriptures that necessarily negate others. Both are not and
cannot be true. When Christ uses the
negative we must not turn that into a positive no matter how it may offend our
pride or sensibilities. If we hear His
words, and have assumed otherwise we must bow before Him, and receive the
correction of His Words as truth. It
cannot be otherwise. We cannot have it
both ways. This is very much an “either/or” proposition that involves an
explicit assertion of who is sovereign in the salvation of members of the human
race.
“We’re your treasured people because you
chose to make us your treasure. We’re not a choice people; we’re a chosen
people. Apart from the gospel we’d still be rebelling against you and trying
our best to ignore you."
Source:
Scotty Smith, "A Prayer for Remembering Why God Loves Us" (28
APR 2014), on The Gospel
Coalition at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/2014/04/28/a-prayer-for-remembering-why-god-loves-us-2/ [accessed 28 APR 2014].
[Sermon preached 4
MAY 2014 by Pastor John T. “Jack” Jeffery at Wayside Gospel Chapel, Greentown,
PA.]
