Chosen & Beloved Of God Series

1. God has built into human beings a desire to belong… to know that we know that we know there is a reason for our lives.

AND THE TRUTH is there is a reason for your life.

• You’re not here by accident. It wasn’t just the whim of some uncaring, unloving, uninterested God that you’re here.

• You’re here by the will of our DIVINE CREATOR!

• Let’s look at Jeremiah 29:10ff…

• Israel has been taken into bondage by Babylon.

• Their sins had utterly destroyed them… but even in the depth and darkness of their own mistakes… God encourages!

WELL today Paul encourages us with 2 wonderful & powerful truths:

• They’re just so encouraging: God’s choice… and God’s love 4 U!

• I pray both will be anchors in our hearts & minds

• Let’s look back at 1:5-7

It’s through Him we received grace…

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

I. (1:6) CHOSEN SAINTS

1. The audience Paul writes to are called saints!

• A believer is a saint, called of Jesus to be a saint!

• This is the wonderful truth of election!

• God choosing us to be His children. That’s encouraging!

NOTE: this reminds us that NONE of us found God. He found us!

• A person can seek and search and look for God their entire lives and never find Him. BUT GOD CAN FIND YOU!

• The Lord found me in 1991!

Galatians 4.9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

• Oh HOW happy I am that God opened my eyes to His truth!

NOW There are 2 great errors made on this road to election…

• One is EXTREME ARMINIANISM. This is the doctrine that says I’m saved & lost, saved & lost, saved & lost! It’s all up to me!

• They teach that our salvation is dependent upon us holding on to the Lord and if we let go then we’re lost again!

• No… NO… guys we’re saved & safe & secure in Jesus because He’s holding on to us! AMEN?

John 10.27-28 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

THE OTHER ERROR is EXTREME CALVINISM…

• This is the doctrine that says God has saved only a certain amount of people.

• Some are born to die, predestined to NEVER believe.

• But the Bible screams out to a lost world…

John 3.16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 4.14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 11.26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

REMEMBER back in 1 Peter? God elects how? Let’s look…

1 Peter 1.2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

It’s just wonderful to think of the CHOICE of God. I’m chosen!

• Well what if I’m not chosen, some might think?

• That’s a good, no a great question!

• Here’s the answer… Jesus is the CHOSEN One… if you’re IN Jesus, living by faith in his life, death & resurrection then…

• That makes you the elect of God too! You’re elect in Jesus!

NOTE: He chose you, not based on something in you, but by His own sovereign will. He chose you and me.

• The election of God is a glorious mystery!

• And yet we can take comfort that God does choose!

It’s been said very wisely, “Try to explain election and you may lose your mind. But try to explain it away, and you may lose your soul”

• I don’t understand it totally.

• The Bible says God elected me from before the foundation of the world apart from anything I did or didn’t do.

John 15.16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.