Point 1. Introduction and Definition.
- Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God in eternity past before the universe existed and before mankind lived on planet earth.
- Election does not just refer to salvation alone but also to God willing His highest and best for every believer.
As we grow spiritually, we begin to experience a closeness with individuals that in most cases even go beyond our earthly family and ties.
In MAR 10:30, these relationships and blessings will also be accompanied with persecutions because of our unity or our union with TLJC.
MAR 10:30 but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; AND IN THE AGE TO COME, ETERNAL LIFE.
2PE 1:10 = Peter says to make sure, or certain or stabilized concerning your calling and election.
The inheritance of the believer, His invisible assets, and the believer’s election and predestination.
When God elected you before the foundation of the world, (EPH 1:3-4), He not only elected you to be saved but He also chose you or elected you to have the opportunity to have His highest and best with blessings tailored just for you.
PSA 37:4, Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
HEB 11:6, And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
For Heaven will reward soul winners, DAN 12:3.
Humble servants, MAT 10:42.
Faithful stewards, MAT 25:23.
Those who give, LUK 6:35.
Those who produce divine good, ROM 2:10.
Those who are persecuted, MAT 5:11-12.
Those who suffer un-deservingly, 2TI 2:12.
Those who master the O.S.N., 1CO 9:25.
Those who love His appearing, 2TI 4:8.
Those who endure temptations, JAM 1:12.
The faithful pastor teacher, 1PE 5:4.
1) The crown of righteousness.
2) The crown of life.
3) The incorruptible crown.
4) The crown of rejoicing.
5) The crown of glory.
Some will have the crown of righteousness for loving His appearing or being totally occupied with TLJC and producing divine good, 2TI 4:7-8.
Some believers have been elected to have the crown of life for enduring trials, heartaches, disasters and coming out glorifying the Lord, JAM 1:12, REV 2:10.
Some will have the incorruptible crown for mastering their O.S.N.
Some will have the crown of rejoicing for being soul winners, 1TH 2:19.
Some will have the crown of glory for being willing to feed the flock of God, 1PE 5:4.
There is the warning regarding crowns, REV 3:11, “Hang on to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown.”
2JO 1:8 Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
2PE 1:11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
- The crown of righteousness. 2TI 4:8, In the future there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness, which the lord, the righteous judge, will award me in that day, and not only to me, but to all [winners] who have loved His appearing.”
Accompanying the crown of righteousness is a tremendous amount of extra privileges, blessings, and opportunities in the eternal state.
- The crown of life. Aawarded to the Church-age believer who in spiritual maturity passes evidence testing.
REV 2:10, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Note that the devil is about to cast some of you in prison, that you may be tested and you will have special persecution ten times. Keep on being faithful even until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
JAM 1:12 “Happy is that person who perseveres under testing, for once he has passed the [evidence] test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.”
The crown of life is awarded to all members of the royal family of God who utilize the problem solving devices and advance to maturity and then use +h to pass evidence testing.
- The incorruptible crown = given to those who mastered the O.S.N. through dedication and devotion to the PPOG.
They realized the importance of HEB 10:25; Do forsake your own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.
They also realized the words of our Lord when He said in MAT 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.”
EPH 3:18, when he said that you may be able to comprehend IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL THE SAINTS what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
- The crown of rejoicing = being soul winners, 1TH 2:19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?
DAN 12:3 “And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
PRO 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls.
- There is also the crown of glory = awarded to pastors who faithfully study and teach Bible doctrine to their congregation, doctrine by which the pastor and positive members of the congregation will attain spiritual maturity.
This is why spiritual failure is brought in the scriptures such as in MAT 7:26-27; building upon the wrong foundation.
MAT 7:26-27, “And everyone who hears these words or doctrines of mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.”
Spiritual failure is brought in MAT 17:16 as not being able to perform the work that God has given the believer the opportunity to perform (equal privilege, equal opportunity).
EPH 2:10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
LUK 14:30, spiritual failure is revealed by starting but not being able to finish.
HEB 4:6, refusing to enter into God’s rest.
The main reason for spiritual loss is ignorance, 2PE 1:8.
Spiritual loss relate*
JER 5:25, “your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld good from you”
MAT 25:27, spiritual loss results from not using your spiritual gift or talent.
MAR 8:36 spiritual loss results from worldliness, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul”?
This is why some believers have the most fantastic blessings in time while other believers are discontent, filled with self-pity, filled with self-induced misery, and constantly off balanced from divine discipline.
2CO 8:9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
This is the reason why some believers enter the eternal state very rich at the Bema seat and others, at the bema seat, very poor.
Being poor in eternity means having a resurrected body in eternity, and that’s all.
The spiritually rich are those believers who receive the distribution of their fantastic inheritance for time and eternity.
The spiritually poor are those believers who, as losers in the “world system”, do not receive their blessings from their inheritance, why?
Whether negative through ignorance or negative through cognisance it all adds up to the same thing….a loser in time and a loser in eternity.
By teaching expository teaching, which is verse by verse teaching that causes you to suddenly discover that the apostle Paul, Peter, John, James, the human writers of the N.T., all under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit repeated doctrines.
Why? REV 4:11 “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory”
The teaching of Bible doctrine repetitiously brings glory to Christ not to the communicator.
“to stir you up” is the pres-act-inf of diegeiro which means to wake up, to arouse you, to stir up.
REV 3:2, ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
EPH 5:14, For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead ones, And Christ will shine on you.”
This is a progressive present tense which signifies action in a state of progress or persistence.
Everyone resents at some time hearing something that they’ve heard a hundred times before.
EPH 4:1-2, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,
The active voice of “stir you up”, Peter produces the action of the verb through repetition.
The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose, it is the purpose of the repetition of Bible doctrine to stir you up!
“en plus the instrumental singular noun,
hupomnesei which means by reminding or repeating.
Peter is about to die, and inasmuch as he is about to die, he will leave behind a legacy which is the greatest of all…the legacy of Bible doctrine.
This also dramatizes the fact that death cannot hinder or destroy the communication of Bible doctrine and the declaration of spiritual truth.
The fut-act-ind of spoudaso which means to be diligent, to make an effort, and to study, (2TI 2:15).
First Prin-Doctrine is always available in every generation.
Second prin-The only thing that keeps a believer from doctrine is his own negative volition and his “erroneous priorities.”
He is going to emphasize the fact that it is not the “man” but the “message”!
And, no one is indispensable in the plan of God but the members of the Godhead.
Third prin-Apostles, pastors, good Bible teachers die, but Bible doctrine is permanent.
MAT 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
1PE 1:25, But the word of the Lord abides forever. “And this is the word which was preached to you.
Prin-Every pastor who is faithful in teaching Bible doctrine will build something permanent.
The pastor’s memory is the doctrine resident in the soul of his own congregation.