In the sermon 'Who is Judas?' by Jason Dohm, the speaker explores the roles of Judas Iscariot and Peter, highlighting their contrasting sorrows: godly sorrow leading to repentance and life, as seen in Peter, and worldly sorrow leading to death, as seen in Judas. The sermon delves into Judas' role in redemptive history, preordained to betray Jesus, and discusses how a good and just God can use such a figure for His purposes. The speaker references passages from John 6, John 17, and Romans 9 to explore themes of belief, the Spirit’s role in giving life, and God's sovereign will. The sermon further examines the examples of Pharaoh, Jacob, and Esau to illustrate God's sovereignty in election, emphasizing that God's mercy and compassion are His to give, not based on human merit. The speaker stresses that while election is a divine mystery, it does not negate human responsibility or the importance of evangelism. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper understanding of God's nature and a recognition of the grace and mercy extended to believers.

Let's pray for our time. Lord, it is good to be before You at Your feet, considering Your Word. Lord God, we need Your Word to help us to think rightly about so many things in this life. I thank You that You've not left us without a testimony, but You have left us with a testimony, with a mighty deposit that's been handed down through your word. So now God we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to be our teacher and to help us to learn your truth but more than that to love the things that you love, to hate the things that you hate.

Give us the mind of Christ, conform our minds more and more to your own thoughts. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. The last two weeks, those texts that we've been considering last week and then the week before, painted this stark contrast between the sorrow of Peter and the sorrow of Judas. Two weeks ago we ended with Peter going out and weeping bitterly. Then last week we saw that Judas was filled with remorse.

He couldn't even keep the money in his pockets that he had earned from betraying Christ. And when the chief priests and the elders won't take it back, he chucks it into the temple. And he goes into despair. He takes his own life. And so we see these two kinds of sorrow.

The first is godly sorrow, which leads to repentance, which produces salvation. And so the end point of this godly sorrow is life and gain and benefit and it's a gift from God. God gives this kind of sorrow. So even though there's still pain in it, it's sorrow, the end of it is life. And Peter has this kind of sorrow.

Peter is given this kind of sorrow by God. And so the end of Peter isn't death, it's life and it's power in preaching and it's boldness in the Gospel and it's faithfulness to Jesus Christ, even through the martyrdom that he suffered at the hands of Nero. But Judas' sorrow isn't like that. He has a worldly sorrow that is focused inwardly on self. The glory of God is the last thing in Judas' mind even though he has remorse.

And it leads to death. And I'm taking all this from 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10 where Paul talks about godly sorrow and what it produces. It produces salvation. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, which produces salvation. Worldly sorrow leads to death.

And very literally, we see this fulfilled in Judas' life. He has a worldly sorrow. His mind is disquieted, but it goes no deeper than that. His heart isn't changed, and the glory of God is not the center of his remorse, and it leads to death. This week, we're taking a second week to talk about Judas.

And the title of the sermon is, Who is Judas? And there's a surface answer to that, which is obvious. He's one of the twelve disciples. He lived day in and day out with Jesus for three and a half years. And he betrayed the Lord.

He cut a deal. And for 30 pieces of silver, which was some money, but not a lot of money, he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not really the question. The sermon title is, Who is Judas? We're now looking for the surface answer here.

Judas is more than just one of the twelve. He's more than one person who lived with Jesus for three and a half years. He's even more than a person who betrayed Jesus. He was marked out to play a part in redemptive history. You get that?

Judas was marked out from before he was ever born, from before he ever drew his first breath of life, he was marked out to play this part in redemptive history. And just to say that or just to hear that you have to say, how can it be that a God who is good and who is just, and God is good and God is just, how can it be that this God can use such a wicked man and why would he do this? So to answer those questions, how can a good and a just God do this? How can he accomplish his purposes this way? We're going to look at Judas in the Gospel of John.

And we're going to look at what Paul says, the arguments that he makes in Romans 9. So we begin with Judas in the Gospel of John. Turn to John 6. And we're going to begin I think in verse 54. John 6 starts this way.

It starts with Jesus taking just a very little bit of food and feeding 5, 000 men plus the women and children who were there. From essentially nothing, Jesus feeds however many more than 5, 000 people. The people are so ecstatic about Jesus' ability to make bread out of almost nothing that in John 6, they almost take Jesus by force to make him king. Jesus knows that this is about to happen. They are about to lay hands on him and say, because you can make bread, you are our king.

And so he sends his disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee and he goes away to secretly pray through the watches of the night. And in the watches of the night, his disciples are rowing against the wind, they're making no headway, and Jesus walks out to them on the sea of Galilee. And so they make it to the other side, and the People the next morning discover that Jesus has gone. He's not there anymore. And so they follow around to where He is.

And so Jesus is teaching these people again. And in verses 26 and 27, he starts to labor with the people about their fixation with worldly bread, with the kind of bread that you can bake in an oven. And he wants them to not value this worldly bread so highly. And so he starts to talk to them about real bread, about spiritual bread, about the bread of life. And in verse 35 he says, I am the bread of life.

If you eat of this bread you will not be hungry anymore, you will not thirst anymore. Look at what Jesus says beginning in verse 54. John 6 verse 54, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." So Jesus is actually setting the table for the Lord's Supper and him handing bread to his disciples and breaking it and saying, this is my body, taking the cup in hand and saying, this is my blood.

But when he says this to the multitudes, they are offended. This is a hard saying. And they don't want to hear this. They didn't come here for this. They came for the natural bread like the manna in the wilderness.

But Jesus says when you eat that bread, when you eat the manna from the wilderness, you'll die like they died. You need spiritual bread, and I'm the bread of life. But they're offended by what Jesus says. And almost everybody who's been following him stops following him in John 6. Because what he said was such a hard saying.

So Jesus looks at his disciples in the eye and says, Do you want to lead me to this hard saying? And this is where Peter says, where would we go? Where would we go, Jesus? You have the words of life. So I want to begin reading in verse 63 and read through verse 71 and then comment on this because this has a strong bearing on where Judas fits into the redemptive plan of God.

John 6 verse 63. Jesus says, It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray Him. And He said, Therefore I have said to you that No one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father." From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son, the living God. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you the twelve? And one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve." In verse 63, Jesus begins teaching his twelve disciples by saying, it is the Spirit who gives life.

In other words, if you're going to have life, it must be given to you by the Spirit. There's no other way to get life. It is the Spirit who gives life. So if you are to have life, it must be given to you by the Spirit. And this is so consistent with what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14.

Listen to Paul. 1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul takes up the topic of the natural man.

What are men born like? What are they in their natural state? If a person is just born and there's no intervention, what's going to happen to that person? And Paul says he'll never receive the things of God. He does not receive them because He cannot receive them.

Listen to Paul again. I'm going to read it again. He does not receive them because He cannot receive them. Paul says, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. He does not, ever.

Seven billion people on the earth, something like that? Of those seven billion people, there will not be an exception. The natural man does not because he cannot. And so no matter how many times you repeat the experiment, you get the same outcome. Not receiving the things of the Spirit of God because he cannot.

Because they are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually dead. Dead in sins and transgressions. Dead. Unable as a dead man to reach out and even grab a lifeline. Unable.

Dead. Dead means dead. That's what Paul teaches throughout his epistles. In verse 64, this truth that life has to come through the gift of the Spirit of God, which was 63, this is attached to belief. It's connected.

Jesus connects it to belief. So, these things aren't separate. Whether you have saving faith isn't separate from being given it. It's completely connected and it can never become disconnected. And one never happens without the other.

Ever, ever, ever, ever. When the Spirit brings life, you believe. And when you believe, it's because the Spirit has given life. They're never separate, ever. This is why our confession, in grappling with this, has this phrase, willing to believe.

When the Spirit gives life, He makes you willing to believe because the natural man never would have. The natural man never would have reached out for the lifeline because he's dead. He's a corpse. And a corpse never one time has reached out for a lifeline. And so when the Spirit gives life, He makes you willing to believe.

It's the opening of the eyes, it's the opening of the ears, it's the imparting of life. It is the gift of God. In verse 64, we see that Jesus knew two things from the beginning. From before any of the events ever transpired, Jesus knew one who did not believe. In other words, He's not surprised in John 6 when the crowds don't want to follow him anymore.

He knows exactly who does believe and who doesn't believe. Because it's the Spirit who gives life. Secondly, he knows who will betray him. Jesus isn't caught by surprise to find Judas a scoundrel. He knew from the beginning those two things.

In verse 65, Jesus drives home the point. No one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. No one. No one. No dead man.

No dead man. No corpse can ever come to me unless it's been granted to him by my Father. God Almighty, the Father, must grant to you to come to His Son, otherwise you'll just be a corpse unable to do it. In verse 70, Jesus talks about the twelve and he says one of you is a devil. In John 6, Jesus knows all about Judas, his heart, what he is and he singles them out.

In John 6 it's a low number, means it's early in Jesus' ministry. In the presence of them all, Jesus calls Judas a devil because he's the one who will betray him. Now listen to John 17-12. You can turn there if you like. It's our next spot in John.

It's only one verse so if you just want to listen that's fine. But in John 17-12, Jesus is praying, John 17, Jesus is praying the great high priestly prayer. He's praying for the blessing of His people. He's praying for the unity of His people. He's interceding before God the Father as God the Son, the one mediator between God and man.

Listen to part of this prayer, John 17 verse 12. Jesus says, while I was with them, these disciples, in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled." Judas in John 17 verse 12 is called the son of perdition. A son marked out for destruction. A son marked out for hell and everlasting torment.

Doesn't something an everlasting torment. Doesn't something seem off about that? Doesn't something seem off about that? I mean poor Judas. Before he ever committed the crime, Jesus is calling him the son marked out for this end.

Paul takes up this topic in Romans 9. So turn to Romans 9. Paul knows that the thought, poor Judas, pops into every human mind when we see the sequence of the Gospel and we see the Lord Jesus Christ saying of Judas before the crime was ever committed in time and space, this is a son of perdition. This was one who is marked out for the fires of hell before he ever took his first breath. And he knows that in the human mind, something is going to trip and say, something's off about that, something's not right about that, poor Judas.

In Romans 9, One of the things Paul talks about in this sequential argument is Pharaoh. Pharaoh is a counterpart of Judas because Pharaoh is a man that the scripture says was raised up to play a role in redemptive history. So in that sense, Pharaoh and Judas are just alike. God raised them up for a purpose, for His own purpose, to accomplish His own will. So Judas and Pharaoh have a lot in common.

In Romans 9, Paul starts by talking about his grief over Israel. He looks out over an overwhelmingly, but not comprehensively, unbelieving nation. There are believers, but they're so outnumbered. Even though they're called the people of God, those who are believing and have true saving faith are so outnumbered by the flood of unbelieving Israelites. And Paul looks out on his countrymen and he actually says, if my damnation would buy them their salvation, I would do it.

That's how Paul opens Romans 9. If by being accursed and eternally separated from Christ, it would mean that the rest of them could be saved. I would do it. In verse 6 though, he goes on to say, it isn't though the Word of God has failed. The fact that most of Israel is unbelieving does not mean that God's Word and God's promises to Israel have failed.

Paul says why that's true Not all of Israel is Israel. It's the children of promise, not the children of the flesh. It's not genealogical, physical, bloodline Israel that the promises are to. It's those who are granted repentance and faith and have the faith of Father Abraham. So it's not blood type.

It's faith. The true sons of Abraham has nothing to do with genealogy. It has everything to do with having the faith that God gave to Abraham. And Paul calls two witnesses. He calls Jacob and he calls Esau who, Paul says, were appointed to their futures from the womb before they had ever done one thing good or one thing evil.

And if that is true, if their futures were certain while Jacob was in the womb with his twin brother Esau, if both of their futures were certain in the womb before they had ever done one thing good or evil, then it cannot be works. And it cannot be the will of man that determines. You have to grant that argument that if that's true, if their futures were certain in the womb, it cannot be works. Say, I haven't done any works And it cannot be their wills because they haven't yet exerted their wills. And Paul gives the punchline in verse 11.

That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, that God's purposes might be established. Might be established. Now, let's read Romans 9 beginning in 14 and reading through 24. Romans 9 verse 14. What shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God? If God has determined the future of these twins in the womb, does that make God unrighteous? That is the question on the table. And that is the question you have to ask when Judas is called a devil in John 6 and the son of perdition in John 17 before the crime was ever committed, is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will. But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

And that He might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Paul recognizes that human brains are going to ask this. Is there unrighteousness with God? When they hear that the futures of Jacob and Esau are determined in the womb before they've ever done good or evil. They're going to say what? Poor Esau.

Just like in John, the temptation is to say, poor Judas. He hasn't even committed the crime yet. And he's called the devil in John 6. He's called the son of perdition in John 17. Just like that in Romans 9, you think of these two twins in the womb.

They've never want that no crimes been committed and Their futures are certain in the plan of God and you say poor Esau In verses 15 and 16 Paul starts his argumentation. And he begins with this. He argues that God has a free will, that God has a free will, that He's not bound to have mercy or compassion on anyone. Here's where Paul starts his argument. God Almighty is not bound to have compassion or mercy on anyone.

In other words, the God who called the worlds into existence by words, called you into existence, gave you your life, is under no moral obligation to give you what you don't deserve. Or to withhold from you what you do deserve. Are you following me so far? God as creator has rights And one of his rights is that he doesn't have to give you what you don't deserve. So this is so logical.

This is irrefutable at this point. God Almighty doesn't have to give His creatures what they don't deserve. Any argument there? And God Almighty doesn't have to withhold from His creatures what they do deserve. So he's not under obligation to have mercy on you or to show compassion to you.

And in verses 17 and 18 he gives us a case study. And Pharaoh is his case study. If you go back and you read the Pharaoh chapters in Exodus 5-14, you're going to see hardening nine times. Hardened heart, hardened heart, hardened heart, hardened heart, hardened heart, hardened heart. It starts in chapter 8, if you want to go back and read it later.

The hardened heart of Pharaoh starts in Exodus chapter 8 and it just continues. Moses keeps writing about it all the way through chapter 14. Now three of those nine times it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. And six of those nine times it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. So there's your ratio.

A third of the time, Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart. And two thirds of the time, it's said that God has hardened Pharaoh's heart. Both are true and they aren't in conflict. Right? Both are true.

They're not in conflict. Because what the Bible says about the human heart is true of Pharaoh's heart. The Bible says certain things about the human heart And all of those things, because Pharaoh is a human, all of those things are true of Pharaoh's heart. In Genesis 821, this is after the flood, God says the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. That's true of the human heart.

The imagination of the human heart is evil from its youth, from its very earliest days. The imaginations of the human's heart is evil and so the imaginations of Pharaoh's heart from his very earliest days have been evil. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17, verse 9, Deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. True of the human heart and since Pharaoh is a human, true of Pharaoh's heart.

So the root of our problem with Judas and with Esau, poor Judas, poor Esau, the root of our problem is thinking about the human heart wrongly. And boy does that transfer to thinking about our own hearts. Because The real issue is me, isn't it? In our objections to God's treatment of Judas and God's treatment of Esau, the real objection is, if God can do that to them, then God can do it to me. But the truth is that Every human heart is evil from its youth, that it's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Pharaoh's heart, Judas' heart, my heart, your heart. That's the state of the race. One race on planet earth, there are not multiple races, one race, all descended from Adam, who plunged the whole race into sin and rebellion. And this is the state of our race. So God does not have to force unregenerate men to act against their will to harden them.

Do you understand that? Because all men have a wicked heart bent towards evil, God does not have to force unregenerate men against their will to harden their hearts. He does not. And so they harden their hearts and He hardens their hearts and it's the same thing. Now, Romans 9 verse 29 is the interpretive key.

When you understand this, you understand the whole chapter. If you don't understand verse 29, you don't understand anything about the chapter. So let's look at verse 29. Paul quotes Isaiah. Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

In other words, unless the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Armies, had decided to have mercy and compassion on whoever he wanted to have mercy and compassion on unless he had decided to show compassion. The outcome is Sodom and Gomorrah which is total annihilation of rebels. So that's your other choice. With a race that's in rebellion against its maker. Your other choice is total annihilation.

Or that God would show mercy on whomever it seems good to him to have mercy and compassion towards. Now, let's take this back to Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau, They're in the womb. They've never done anything good or evil. But everything that they do as soon as they get out of the womb is going to be evil.

Because They're not a blank slate. They're sons of Adam who has plunged the whole race into rebellion against God. And they're just going to continue what every human did what was before them, which is to raise his or her fist against God and say, I'm God. I'm God. I will not be ruled by you.

I will do whatever I want to do. I will do it whenever I want to do it. Now they'll grow up to be more polite than that, but they'll rage against God in their hearts. Do you understand that? It'll be sophisticated in some of them.

It'll be so polite and well mannered in some of them, But in their hearts they will insist upon being God. And so you have these two twins in the womb, never having done anything, But that's what they're going to do in this life unless a God of mercy has compassion. He doesn't owe them to give them anything that they don't deserve or to withhold anything that they do deserve. Is without obligation as the Maker. But if he is a God of mercy, he can have mercy on one of these rebels and say, I'm going to pardon you.

Now it's not poor Esau, it's God why would you have mercy on either of these two that will spend their whole lives raging against you. Now think about these 12 disciples. Now it's 12 disciples called to live with him and observe his life and hear his sermons and see blind people receive their sight and see dead people raised up. Now all of them with hearts that had evil imaginations from their youth, that were deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, true of every one of the 12. Now, he says, I'm going to have mercy on 11 of you rebels.

I'm going to pardon 11 out of the 12. But the human heart wants to say, poor Judas. You have a God of mercy who's taking 11 out of 12 of these rebels, these men who are desperately wicked and saying, I'm pardoning you. In verses 19 through 21, Paul continues the argumentation. And he lifts us out of our man-centered universe.

By the way, that's not the real universe. That's just the universe in our brains. It's not the universe we really live in at all. And so Paul is working with us to lift us out of this man-centered universe, this universe that rotates around a man where he'd say, God owes me something. And he puts us by the potter's wheel.

And a potter's working with his clay. And Paul just says what we all know. Potter can make anything he wants to out of that clay. And he forces us to consider the absurdity of clay that talks back. Why have you made me this way?

The clay on the wheel of voices heard don't make me like that. I don't want to be that. The clay is making claims upon the potter. And so now it's in humans terms that we can say, that's crazy. That doesn't make any sense at all.

Consider God. Go walk out tonight and look at the sky and consider the worlds and galaxies and universes that are out there beyond even what we can see. And now ask yourself, which gap is bigger? The gap between hypothetical potter and hypothetical clay in Romans 9 or the gap between the God who called all these galaxies and universes into existence and you on one little planet here. Will you say, God, why have you made me this way?

You have no rights over me. God has the rights. Good. We should be glad that God has the rights. Because God is good and God is wise and we're not either good or wise.

And there's hope with God having the rights and there's no hope with us asserting our rights, none. Because if God just left us to ourselves it would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. It would be 100% annihilation of rebels. In verses 22 through 24, we see the purpose of God enduring these vessels of wrath. So God endures them patiently.

Why does he do that? That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy. That's why God does it. That he might make known his glory. That he might put his glory on display for those on whom he has mercy and on whom he has compassion.

He had no obligation to have mercy on those or compassion on those. Nothing but his own mind and nature could compel him to have mercy on them. But he decided to have mercy on them and then he wants to show himself glorious to them. That's why. So in our confession, when it's wrestling to articulate this, it says that all men will give glory to God.

Some will live their lives and be to the praise of his glorious grace. In other words, they will have been desperately wicked, but they'll be pardoned. And their pardon will be to the praise of his glorious grace. And others will be desperately wicked. And God will not have mercy on them.

He will not pardon them. And they will have lived to the praise of his glorious justice. And in both he will show himself to be highly exalted. This is where Judas fits in. This is who Judas is.

In some ways, he's no different than any other unregenerate man. He was made by God. He lived a life in rebellion. And his life is to the praise and glory of God that God might be highly exalted. Again, this blows up the man-centered universe.

Amen. May it be blown up forever. Unfortunately, it keeps reconstituting itself and we have to keep blowing it up again and again. But at least for the morning, Let the universe where man is something and God is small be swept away so that God can be large and can be lifted up as glorious and man can be what he is. Like the psalmist says, what is man, you are mindful of him.

But the truth is, God is mindful of man. And that is what's surprising. Not that God judges rebels. That's not surprising. There's no surprise in that.

But that God pardons rebels. Now there's something that's surprising. That God would even think of us. There's something that is surprising. Now I want to make five important comments about this doctrine.

Five important comments about this doctrine. Number one, this is the God of the Bible. Until you know this God, you do not know the God of the Bible. Which means that many churches today are filled with people who know nothing of the God of the Bible. This is God.

You deal with God on His terms and not your terms, and this is who he reveals himself to be. The God to be worshiped is this God. That you bow before him and acknowledge that all things were made by him and through him and for him. And it's right that all things be to the glory of God, even the lives of unregenerate men. Number two, this is God's turf.

Election, the doctor of election, that's what we're talking about. This is God's turf. This is not your turf. You're to understand it, you're to believe it. But you're not to be obsessed with the implications of it.

You got that? Because this is God's turf. And an obsession with is Eddie elect or not elect or am I elect or not elect or is Michelle elect or not elect, this is not our turf. Listen to Deuteronomy 29 verse 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God.

But those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So the doctrine of election is a revealed thing. It's a heritage to us and to our children forever that we might obey God. And there stands the line. Not to be crossed to know whether I'm elect or you're elect or my children are elect or my spouse is elect.

We're left with the revealed things to help us to know how to walk. So this great doctrine, this doctrine that actually tells us who God really is and who man really is, you should visit but you can't live there. It's a great place to visit, but you can't live there. In a sense, you can live there. We need to have this doctrine in our minds every day, but not to go past the line and have an obsession for the things that God has kept for His own counsel.

He knows. Number three. This is vital. Number three is vital. This can be misunderstood as fatalism.

That it does not matter what I do. Because somehow in the end it's all God's will anyway, so it doesn't matter. The Bible, while it teaches this doctrine as clearly and unapologetically as you'll ever see anything, does not alleviate one ounce of man's responsibility. Not one ounce. If that makes your brain hurt, I'm sorry.

A thousand Sundays of solid Bible teaching are not going to eliminate the mystery from this. It's just not. It's a mind bender and I freely acknowledge that. But man is still responsible. Listen to Paul in Romans 3 19.

Romans 3 19, Paul writes, now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God in other words In the arguments leading up to this verse in Romans 3 Paul has condemned Jew and Gentile Those who have the revealed law the Old Testament and those who have the law that is written on the heart. So even if you didn't have the revealed law, even if you were in one of those Gentile nations that were displaced by Israel, you still had a law on your heart. You still had a conscience that would scream at you about the things that you were doing that were wrong. You had enough to condemn you. You had enough to make you responsible because you knew.

And so election is not fatalism. It does matter. Number four. This is a strong support for evangelism, not a deterrent. A strong support for evangelism.

Our job, if you've been brought into this kingdom, transferred out of a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light, then your job is to offer, is the free offer of pardon for sins through Jesus Christ. The free universal offer of pardon through Jesus Christ. In Mark 1.15, Mark chapter 1 verse 15, the very first words of Jesus' preaching ministry were, Repent and believe the gospel. And the gospel is that simple. And Jesus preached it to those who were elect and to those who weren't.

It was a Free and universal offer of pardon. And then it's, so that's your job. And then it's God's job to have mercy on whomever he will have mercy and have compassion. On whomever he will have compassion. Salvation isn't pixie dust falling from the sky.

It's the word preached by his people. God sends his ambassadors to the four corners of the world to freely and universally offer pardon to rebels. And he sent his spirit in advance to awaken some souls to the preached word. So there are means that God has established to accomplish his ends. And we have our part to play, but God's part is definitive.

So when you think about great evangelists, great missionaries, you have to think about not only Paul who's taught this doctrine, but also John Calvin. No church in the modern day is thrusting out missionaries like the Church of John Calvin in Geneva. Men like Charles Spurgeon, who embraced this, and he was the prince of preachers. Men like George Whitfield, who God used in such a mighty way in our own country's history as an evangelist. Men like William Carey, the father of modern missions.

All completely embraced this doctrine. And so far from keeping them from proclaiming the gospel, it thrust them out in the world. Because they were men who saw the sovereignty of God, who saw a sovereign God who could reach in and to their own desperately wicked hearts and take that death and resurrect it to life and make them ambassadors and send them to places so these men everywhere that they went, they thought that a sovereign God had sent them there to offer pardon to rebels. And because they were there, and that spot, in that time, wherever they were, whatever spot, whatever time, to them, they thought it was an appointment made by a sovereign God. And it gave them hope that the elect were there and that they had been sent to preach.

And the reason they were there was because the Holy Spirit was going to give life. And that's why the Holy Spirit had brought them there. You see how this works for evangelism, that we've been made ambassadors, that God is now sending us to offer pardon freely, universally to rebels? And when God has us preaching in front of the abortion clinic, or the nursing home, or in Griffin's parking lot, or talking in the driveway to our neighbors, or having coffee with a co-worker, That we have so much reason to hope that God has just brought us to that place at that time to bring life. Number five.

This is a great source of comfort and joy. Once you get past the shock that the universe is not rotating around you, and you come to grips with the God of the Bible, and you admit to yourself what you must admit to yourself, that you're nothing, that God is everything. This doctrine is a great source of comfort and joy. You didn't save yourself. In fact, you never would have.

If God had left you to yourself, you'd run headlong into destruction. Not walk, but run headlong into destruction. That's the teaching of the Bible. And you won't preserve or sustain yourself. It goes to John 10.

No one can snatch them out of his hands. You didn't save yourself. You can't preserve yourself. Salvation wasn't your idea. Your salvation wasn't your idea.

And you have no ability to carry yourself to the finish line. None. But this God who has decided to have mercy on some, have compassion on some, even though he's under no obligation to, wants to display his glory to them. And part of His glory is just to show you, even though your heart has wandered away a hundred times, that He's able to bring you to the finish line. Do you see the glory in that?

You have to see the glory in that. That even though you find your heart so prone to wander, that God will display his glory by bringing you to the finish line when you know if it was you, you'd never make it to the finish line. If he has put his hand upon you, you are loved. There's no rational reason why God should ever have one thought about you or me. But he wants to have mercy on some and to show compassion to some.

He loves you tenderly. Let this doctrine be firmly established in your heart, in your mind by all means, but in your heart so that you know the debt of gratitude you owe to God. This is where this is headed. If this is true, brothers and sisters, what debt of gratitude do we owe? How should we live to his glory?

We were desperately wicked. He was under no compulsion to do anything to take us out of that state. He could be good and just and let us run headlong. But he has mercy. He's a God of mercy and a God of compassion.

Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. Thank you for bringing us back to this time after time. Nothing new, not a new word said today. But oh God, how often we need to be reminded that salvation is by grace through faith.

That not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. I thank you that this completely eliminates boasting. Oh, we know our heart's God. If we could boast, we would boast. But now all the praise and the glory is reserved for you.

And this is good, and this is as it ought to be. Oh receive the praise and the glory that you are due, oh God. You've made the worlds from nothing. All things were created by you and through you and for you and now receive oh God the honor that is due to your name cause us to be a people who would live to your glory who would love your glory who would your when you are seen as a grade our hearts would thrill Because you have loved us first and given birth to a love for you in our hearts. Oh God, fan that flame we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.