← Back to sermon library

I got a question from somebody, 
and I think it's a legitimate question from somebody that people 
struggle with these kinds of questions, right? For years, 
for years. Is accepting salvation a choice? 
I know we can't merit salvation by works, and I know salvation 
is by grace, but is that offered to all of us, or can only the 
elected accept it? Okay, I would say that yes, it 
is a choice. Now I need to qualify that because 
sinners outside of faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says they're 
dead. They're not limping along, they're not a little crippled, 
but rather they are dead in their trespasses and sins. So what 
must happen is that they must be born again. The Holy Spirit 
must regenerate them. And when the Spirit does that, 
the Spirit grants the graces of faith and repentance. so that 
you and I choose for Jesus. But again, we need to qualify 
it. We choose because God opened our hearts. God gave us new hearts, 
to use the language of the prophet Ezekiel. He took out the old 
stony heart, put in a new fleshly heart, put a disposition in us 
such that now we see Jesus in all of His glory and offices, 
and we, by God's grace, believe on Him. So, strictly speaking 
or generally speaking, yeah, it's a choice. but it's a choice 
because God made us willing in the day of His power. The other 
question or part of the question has to do with what we call in 
theology the general or external call of the gospel and then the 
internal or effectual call of the gospel. So, Jesus is clear 
in Matthew 28 and in Mark chapter 16 that we are to preach the 
gospel to every creature. indiscriminately go preach the 
gospel to every creature under heaven. So, we call men, or we 
tell men the truth as it is in Jesus, life, death, resurrection, 
and then we call upon them to believe that gospel. So, everybody 
hears the word, or everybody should hear the word, That's 
one of the things the church is trying to do. We want Bible 
translators, we want missionaries, we want people to take the word 
out to the heathen and the bush so that everybody hears the gospel. But there is this effectual call, 
and that goes back to the first part of the question. Why do 
some choose? Well, they've been effectually 
called by God. So, that new birth or regeneration, 
the granting of the graces of faith and repentance has occurred, 
and it occurs to the elect. It occurs to those that Paul 
describes in Ephesians 1. He says, Blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every 
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And then he 
praises that one true and living God. Specifically, the three 
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the work of salvation. And he attributes sovereign election 
and predestination in Ephesians 1 to the Father. He chose us 
in Him before the foundation of the world. He says, in love, 
having predestined us unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. So, 
we choose because God chose us. So, general call, go out, preach 
the gospel to every creature under heaven. That's your duty. 
That's your responsibility. That's your great privilege. 
The internal or effectual call is the purpose of God to save 
through Christ those whom He has predestined. I think we can 
distinguish between the act of faith and the object of faith. 
I think the Bible is very clear that, as Pastor Butler said, 
it's a gift of God. Ephesians 2 does say that it's 
the gift of God, it is not of works. Yet nonetheless, as we 
read in the book of Acts, I mean, especially with the Philippian 
jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called to act. He's 
called to believe. He's called to look to the object 
of his faith, which is Christ Jesus. And so, but that has to, 
but the gift comes first. The regeneration precedes the 
gift of the believing, the act of believing. And one theologian 
said that regeneration is life implanted, and then faith is 
the life act. And that all happens, I believe, 
at once, that conversion, regeneration, faith, all happens at that one 
time. But it's important to see that 
we must be born again. It's a passive in John 3. make 
ourselves born again, and that precedes faith. We also have 
to understand that predestination, to use the language of man, precedes 
regeneration. I think the question seems to 
be, do we choose God or does God choose us? And in reality, 
they are, I guess, different categories and different times, 
again, speaking in the manner of men. Predestination happens 
in eternity, and God decrees whom he will save. And so, we 
see regeneration and faith happen in time and space. And so, as 
Pastor Butler said, we chose God because he first chose us 
before the foundation of the world. Yeah, I agree with that. I know 
kind of the background of where these questions come from. And I've heard that in sermons in 
the past, is that choosing, believing is a work and you're adding to 
your salvation. You can't ask to be 100% God. But faith is the, how do you 
say that again, the instrument that receives? That's right. 
It's the empty hand that receives the gift. You know, nothing in 
my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. You know, in Philippians 
chapter 2, the apostle says, work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling. You can only work out what God 
has placed there. He's not saying work for your 
own salvation. Then he says, for it is God who 
is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good 
pleasure. The idea of us willing necessarily involves choice. We choose to drink water, we 
choose to drink coffee, we choose to believe the gospel, but again, 
not in an unqualified Arminian free will sense, but because 
God foreordained or predestined from before the foundation of 
the world that we should. And then in time, through the 
preaching of the gospel, the means that he's ordained, he 
grants us those graces of faith and repentance so that yes, we 
do choose for Jesus but not in an unqualified sort of a way. 
And you see this emphasis in Acts. So, in Acts 13, you have 
this statement in verse 48 that all those who were appointed 
to eternal life believed, okay? It wasn't that they believed 
and then were appointed to eternal life. They were appointed to 
eternal life and they believed. And then later in Acts, so that's 
Acts 13, then Acts 16, you've got Paul at the riverside in 
Philippi, and there the Lord opened Lydia's heart to receive 
the things that were spoken by the apostle Paul. but sort of 
smack dab right in the middle. You've got 13 there, appoint, 
believe, open heart, believe. In 14.1, the apostles so spoke 
that a great multitude believed. So, the scriptures don't have 
that sort of hyper-Calvinism or Arminianism about them, where 
they got to smooth off what they perceive to be rough edges. Well, 
you know, I don't know that we could say God so loves the world, 
that might seem to indicate universalism. The biblical authors don't do 
that, and the biblical authors treat the truth because it's 
truth. So, on the one hand, they're 
appointed and they believe. On the one hand, she opens, or 
God opens her heart so that she believes. But on the other hand, 
the apostles could preach. And because they could preach, 
a great multitude believed. That doesn't mitigate sovereignty. 
It simply underscores that the sovereign God ordains not only 
the ends, the salvation of sinners, but the means, good preaching, 
attending the Word of God, reading it for yourself, listening to 
your parents read it. All those things are calculated 
or means given by God to bring about His purposed end. It's a beautiful thing. It's 
a great thing. It's a wonderful thing. So, we 
shouldn't be rationalists in our attempt to explain away, 
you know, large swaths of the Scriptures. Yes. I think the 
other thing behind this question is there's a fear of being deceived 
that we've made that choice. We're following Jesus and we're 
doing all the good things. But to get to Judgment Day and 
be like, oh no, you weren't actually elect, so you lived the life 
of a Christian. You thought you were safe, but you weren't. Yeah. 
And that that runs deep, that one. Oh, for sure. It does. And I and I sympathize. I do. It's not it's not this 
isn't trite. It's not. Well, you know, buck 
up, suck it up, just to be a better you. No, no, I get that. You're 
conditioned. Basically, you're you're you're 
sort of indoctrinated that, you know, if you have a degree of 
joy or or comfort or assurance, the the warning and the wagging 
finger is always there. Make sure you're not deceived. 
And I do sympathize, and I think the way to deal with that ultimately 
is just to keep the objectivity of the cross in view. You know, 
our comfort, our assurance is ultimately not our feelings. It's not ultimately our good 
works or fruits or anything like that, but it's the objectivity 
of the cross. I love the other hymn that we 
sing. I think it's Edward Mote. He 
says, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. He says, I dare not trust the 
sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. You and I both 
know sweet frames come and sweet frames go. And our assurance 
will come and go with those frames. Now, you need to look to Christ. 
You need to look to the Christ of the gospel, the one who lived, 
the one who died, the one who was raised again. I think that's 
the first place we go for that assurance and for that, you know, 
confidence, if I can use that word, that we're not deceiving 
ourselves. I would suggest, secondly, you 
know, there's an old maxim, all that glitters is not gold, right? But gold does glitter. And so, 
you know, cross first, and then the reality, you know, there's 
consequences of us having, by God's grace, believed the gospel. 
And I think John treats those things in 1 John, you know, a 
pursuit of righteousness and Now, again, pagans do outwardly 
righteous things, so this isn't sure fire, this isn't sure shot 
because, again, pagans will do, you know, nice things. So, you 
can't necessarily argue yourself into the kingdom, but if all 
that glitters is not gold, you've got to realize gold does glitter 
and there will be fruits to a degree and consequences with reference 
to a justifying faith in Jesus. So, I would suggest, first, the 
objectivity of the cross, secondly, those fruits that are consistent 
with that, and then, you know, most importantly, the testimony 
of the Holy Spirit. He really is, you know, with 
us. And, I mean, And some good expectations 
or some biblical expectations, I've often tried to explain that, 
you know, when you become a believer in Jesus Christ, you're still 
you. I mean, you're a new creature. 
All things have passed and, you know, all things are new in terms 
of redemption, in terms of category, in terms of covenant, in terms 
of all that. But I'm still 5'9". I'm not 6'2". I'm still scrambled 
up in the way that I was. So, these expectations of what 
does new life in Jesus Christ look like, it's not going to 
add inches to your height. It's not going to add digits 
to your bank account. It's not going to add, you know, 
a brand new perspective on everything. I don't want to say lower your 
expectations, but have a healthy understanding that you're still 
going to have struggles. There's still going to be depressing 
days. There's still going to be challenges 
in the Christian life. And don't immediately conclude, 
well, I must not be a believer then. I think at times, and I 
don't mean to be callous or, you know, unkind to the questioner, 
at times that can be a weaselly sort of way out. You know, it's 
easier to, you know, I can't believe I did such and such today. 
I must be deceiving myself. No. You're a believer in Christ 
that needs to own the fact that you've sinned and go to the blessed 
advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. Fetch 
out fresh forgiveness, go on, and don't continue in that pattern 
anymore. You know, if every time a believer 
sins, the reflex response is, well, I must not be a believer. 
I'm not reading that Bible. You know, the good that I wish 
to do, I don't do, Paul says in Romans 7. The evil I don't 
want to do, I find myself doing. What's he saying in Galatians 
5? For the flesh lusts against the spirit, spirit against the 
flesh. These two are contrary to one 
another so that you don't do the things that you want. There 
is this remaining corruption in the heart of God's people, 
and I'm not justifying that. I agonize over that. I don't 
appreciate that. But I'm suggesting that your 
behavior or your performance or your thought of where you're 
at relative to Jesus, thankfully, isn't what brings you to heaven. 
It's the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is his life, his death, 
and his resurrection. So, I would say the more you 
understand the glories of the cross, the more the pathway to 
assurance is accessible. And if I could add to that, you 
mentioned 1 John twice. I call it the book of assurance. 
I'm sure somebody else in the past has called it that as well. 
But John does write to believers and says, I write that you might 
know that you have eternal life, those who believe in his name. 
And Pastor Butler mentioned, you know, 1 John 2. But the verse 
that precedes that, John says, little children do not sin. And 
then he says, if you do. And so the implication seems 
to be that we are going to sin. And the context of 1 John are 
those who thought they didn't have sin, those who thought that 
they were fine and everything was great. And not only do we 
measure our performance against Christ, I think, unfortunately, 
we measure our performance against other people as well. And that 
doesn't do anything for us. And so I just like the way John 
words that, little children do not sin, but if you do, We have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. So, 
Christ still, as our High Priest, He still pleads for us, and it's 
based upon His finished work. And John goes on to say that 
when he says, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the propitiation 
for His people, He turns out the sacrifice for His people. 
not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. 
And I do think that is referring to not just the elite, not just 
the apostles, not just those with PhDs in theology, but even 
for those that do not, that there is an advocate and Christ's work 
is sufficient. So, John is a great book for 
those struggling with assurance, 1 John. I would just like to 
sort of piggyback off that and say there's a great responsibility 
in terms of preaching. If a preacher holds up a particular 
man in history and parades him as sort of the man to aspire 
after, to follow, to be like, you know, this man He agonized 
over his sin for 15 years. This man, you know, finally got 
relief in Jesus, but from then on, all he ever did was struggle. 
The preacher's job is to hold up one man, and that's the God-man, 
the Word who became flesh. who dwelt among us, we beheld 
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." When we parade, now again, as a father, 
I might say to my child, you know, you ought to be more like 
your older brother. I shouldn't do that a lot, but 
you know, there's a place perhaps for that. But preaching that 
celebrates the accomplishment of Christian men beyond saying, 
you know, this brother, you know, Spurgeon, useful man, wonderful 
brother, John Owen, you know, the guys on the shelf there, 
Turretin, Van Maastricht, we love to read those men. But that's 
a far cry different than you need in terms of your coming 
to Jesus. It needs to model or be parallel 
or look a lot like this. The Bible doesn't do that. The 
Bible doesn't give us sort of a paradigm for every single converted 
person. And perhaps that kind of preaching 
is calculated or, you know, probably unwittingly to produce this idea 
of deception, to produce this idea of a lack of assurance. 
In other words, if I'm aspiring to be like some hero in the faith, 
and I'm not looking to the objectivity of the cross, I'm going to be 
in dire straits. Well, you know, my life doesn't 
look like this one's life. Nowhere in the Bible does it 
say your life has to look like this one's. So, some preaching 
may be, you know, in a way promoting, producing, resulting in that 
sort of a thing. So, examples in the Christian 
life, good. Biography, good. Autobiography, 
good. All that's great. But don't make 
that the paradigm for everybody else, and if everybody else doesn't 
sort of measure up to that, then they mustn't be saved. Because 
the Bible doesn't do that.