Daily Devotional Readings
This fact is demonstrated in the Scriptures over and over again. Only those who are wilfully ignorant will miss it. God hides the gospel from some men and reveals it to others, according to his own good pleasure and his own sovereign will. God revealed the gospel to Abel, but Cain was blind to it. God told Noah and his family the message of his grace, but all the rest of the world was lost in ignorance. God spoke graciously and revealed himself to Abraham, but the gospel was hidden from all the other men of Ur. God revealed his grace to Lot and sent the messengers of mercy to Lot, but all the other families of Sodom perished in ignorance. God told Moses, Aaron and the children of Israel how to be saved on the night of destruction in Egypt, but he gave Pharaoh and the Egyptians no message of mercy.
How many there are today in the church of Christ who can attest to this fact from their own experience! God sends his servants to some cities and countries to establish it gospel witness; others he leaves without light. He calls one member of a family; the others he leaves in darkness. He called you and gave you life in Christ, but many of your friends and companions are yet in the bondage of death and sin. What made the difference? Surely it was not because you were better than they were. In all likelihood, you were the worst of the crowd. The difference is just this: 'He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy.' 'Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!' (Rom. 11:33.)
There is a people in this world who have been purchased and redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the time of his grace and, love, God the Holy Spirit will come to those very people, the elect of God, the redeemed ones of Christ, with irresistible power and he will reveal the gospel in their hearts causing them to believe on Christ. All others will be left to perish in their chosen ignorance.
God sovereignly ruled the whole affair of his Son's death upon the cross. The death of Christ did not take God by surprise. He planned it in eternity and he was in control of the whole affair. If men had done what they wanted to do, they would have stoned Christ to death on several occasions. But they were not allowed to exercise their will until the time appointed by the Father. If Satan could have had his way, he would have killed Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, but God's Son must die upon the cross of Calvary, according to God's unalterable purpose.
It is true, those wicked men - the Jews, the Gentiles, Pilate and the Roman soldiers - did exactly what their wicked hearts wanted to do. They stripped him because they wanted to strip him. They beat him because they wanted to beat him. They lied about him because they wanted to lie about him. They nailed him to a tree, hung him up and laughed as they watched him die, because that is what man's wicked free will wanted to do. They spat in his face and plucked out his beard because they hated the Son of God.
But God was in control all the while, secretly ruling the actions of those evil men, so that they did exactly what God from eternity ordained must be done. They did neither more nor less than what God had decreed. Peter told the Jews that Christ, 'being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain' (Acts 2:23). 'Though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre' (Acts 13:28-29). All that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered in his crucifixion and death, he suffered because 'it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief' (Isa. 53: 10). God sovereignly determined that Christ would die, for whom he would die, when he would die, where he would die and all that he would suffer in his death.
Salvation is not something that sinners do for God. Salvation is something that God does for sinners. Salvation is not a cooperative effort of God and man, in which God does his part and man does his part. 'Salvation is of the Lord!' It is entirely the work of God's free, sovereign, irresistible grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the thing we must come to understand is this: the God who saves is sovereign in the exercise of his serving power. No part of a sinner's salvation is to be ascribed to the works, the merit, or the will of the sinner. Front start to finish, from beginning to end, salvation is the work of God's free, sovereign, irresistible grace in Christ. Election is by grace. Redemption is by grace. Regeneration is by grace. justification is by grace. Preservation is by grace. Sanctification is by grace. Glorification is by grace. And in the whole work of salvation, God is sovereign in the exercise of his grace and his serving powew towards sinful men.
God sovereignty selects the people whom he will save. It is a self-evident fact that God does not save all men. Some people do perish. Some people do go to hell. That being true, it is also a self-evident fact that, it never was God's intention, purpose, or desire to save all men. The Word of God is very clear in this matter. From eternity of old, before the world began, God chose to save some of Adam's fallen race and determined to save them, passing by the rest, refusing to show them mercy, according to his own wise and holy will. He predestinated some to eternal life, but not all. Did he not say so? 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you' (John 15:16). 'Few are chosen' (Matt. 22:14). God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ 'according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world' (Eph. 1:4). In sovereign, eternal election God chose the people whom he would save.
God sovereignty seeks those whom he has chosen. The sinner is not seeking after God. 'There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God' (Rom. 3:11). God seeks the sinner whom he loved with an everlasting love and determined to save. In all the works of providence God is seeking his own. He so arranges things that the sinner whom he intends to save is brought to the place where God will be gracious to him. He sends a preacher to preach the gospel of his grace to that sinner. And he sends forth his Spirit in sovereign, irresistible power and grace to give that sinner life and faith in Christ and fetch his chosen ones to himself. The Lord God is not seeking to save all men. He seeks his own elect. The Good Shepherd seeks his own sheep. And he always finds them. What does the Scripture say? He seeks his sheep 'until he find it'. And when he finds his sheep, he always brings it home.
God sovereignty saves his own elect. Did you know that the Word of God never talks about God 'trying' to do anything? God does not try to rule the world; he rules the world. God does not try to redeem; he has redeemed. God does not try to put away sin; he has put away sin. God does not try to justify; he justifies. God does not try to save; God saves. Every person who was chosen of God in eternity, every person who was redeemed by Christ at Calvary, every person who is called by the effectual, irresistible grace of God the Holy Spirit will be saved, without exception. This is what God says: 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy' (Rom. 9:15-16). O Lord God, we rejoice to know and to declare that 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power' (Ps. 110:3).'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee' (Psa. 65:4). 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing' (John 6:63).
A god who has no power over men and Satan could never be trusted to fulfil any promises. If God has no power to accomplish his will, perform his designs and fulfil his purposes, regardless of wicked men and Satan, if God cannot rule the wills of men, the actions of men and the power of Satan, we can never trust him to fulfil any of the promises. Paul said, We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose.' But how do we know that? How can we possibly know that God will accomplish his purpose and make all things work together for the eternal good of God's elect, if he does not sovereignty rule all things, both bad and good? Surely Satan would not allow God to accomplish his purpose, if he had any power to resist it. Surely wicked men would never permit God to accomplish his will, if they had any power to prevent it. We can only trust a sovereign God to fulfil his promises. Only a sovereign God, who rules and governs all things with absolute control, could honestly promise those who trust him that everything, small and great, bad and good, will ultimately accomplish their eternal spiritual good and his own glory.
Now answer this question: is your God a trustworthy Sovereign in whom you safely trust, or is your god only a puny pigmy that has no power? I know this, the one true and living God, the God of the Bible, the God whom I trust with my immortal soul, the God to whom I look for the fulfilling of every promise he has made, is it God who is absolutely sovereign. He rules this universe with the ease of omnipotent power. All things, both great and small, breathe and move, live and die, according to his wise degree. All things are under his control. All things accomplish his will. If I did not believe such a God as this, I would be honest and confess myself an atheist. I prefer atheism, a complete denial of God's existence, to the alternative of making God helpless, and robbing him of his eternal glory as the sovereign God of heaven and earth.
The purpose of God demands the salvation of all his elect. God has purposed to save some men, those whom he has chosen. If one of them should perish, God's purpose would be defeated, his grace would be frustrated and he would cease to be God.
The purchase of Christ demands the salvation of every sinner for whom he died. The Lord Jesus Christ poured out his life's blood unto death upon the cross to purchase his sheep, to satisfy the claims of justice against his sheep. Now if so much as one of those sheep, whom Christ purchased with his blood, were to perish, then the blood of Christ would be shed in vain and the blood of the cross would be a useless thing.
The Promise of God the Father to his Son and of God the Son to his Father in the covenant of grace demands the eternal salvation of some men. God the Father promised his Son that, as the reward of his life of righteousness and substitutionary death of atonement in the place of his people, he would give him a seed and generation to serve him. God said to his Son, 'Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance' (Ps. 2:8). Therefore our Lord spoke with confidence and said, 'All that the Father giveth me shall come to me' (John 6:37). God has given him power over all flesh for this specific purpose, 'That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him' (John 17:2). And the Lord Jesus Christ promised God his Father that in the last day he would present all his chosen people before the presence of his glory, perfect, holy and without blemish, saying, 'Behold I and the children which God hath given me' (Heb. 2:13). You see then, there are some sinners in this world, the elect of God, who must be saved. If even one of them were to perish, the promise of God would fall to the ground, be broken and become a lie.
What about you? Do you hear his voice? Do you follow him in faith? If so, you must be with him in glory. You must never perish.
Did you know that God calls some sinners to life and faith in Christ, and does not call others? Most people think that God calls all men, that God seeks all men and that God is trying to save all men. But nothing of the kind is taught in the Word of God. God calls some and passes by others. He gives light to some and leaves others in darkness. 'He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy.' When God intends to save a sinners he calls that sinner with a personal, particular and distinguishing call. This is clearly the teaching of Holy Scripture.
You have read what the Scripture says about the Good Shepherd: 'He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out' (John 10:3). He does not call everyone. 'He calleth his own sheep.' They are his own sheep because God the Father gave them to him, entrusting them to his care, in the covenant of grace, in eternal election, before the world began. They are his own sheep because he died for them. 'The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep' (John 10: 11). The Lord Jesus Christ did not die for all men. He died for his sheep. He purchased them with his own precious blood. Justice held us in bondage, condemned, but Christ paid the price that justice demanded, suffering our condemnation and brought us. We are his property.
'He calleth his own sheep by name.' That is to say, 'He does not call all men in a general way, leaving it to man to decide who will and who will not come. Rather, he calls those sheep who were given to him and purchased by him. He calls them personally, one by one.'
And this divine call distinguishes the sheep of Christ from all other men, because, when he calls his sheep, 'He leadeth them out and they follow him'. This is how we know who God's elect are. The Shepherd calls them, they hear his voice and they follow him. Those who are not called by him, those who do not hear his voice, those who do not follow him are not among the number of his chosen, elect sheep. But those who are 'the called' are saved. God's call is always effectual. It always results in salvation.
There are many examples of this divine call in the Word of God. You who are saved will bear me witness that it was a personal call which brought you to Christ. It was some sermon, anointed of God, which led you to feel that you were, without question, the person for whom the sermon was intended. Perhaps the text was 'Thou, God, seest me.' And the preacher laid such particular stress on the word 'me', that you thought God's eye was fixed particularly on you. Before the sermon was finished, you could almost see God opening the books to condemn you. Your heart whispered, 'Can any hide himself in the secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.' You may have been seated in a packed auditorium, but you had a solemn conviction that God spoke directly to you by the voice of his servant.
God does not call his people in masses, but one by one. God does not call his people in general, but in particular. God's call is personal, particular and distinguishing. You know that this is the doctrine of the Bible. There were many crowding the Jericho road, but our Lord came to a certain place and said to a certain man, 'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down.' 'Jesus saith unto her, Mary; and she turned unto him and said unto him, Master.' Jesus saw Peter and John fishing by the lake, and he said unto them, 'Follow me." And they followed him. He saw Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom and he said unto him, 'Arise, and follow me.' And Matthew arose and followed him.
When the Holy Spirit comes home to a man, God's arrows do more than merely graze his helmet, or make some little scratch upon his armour' they penetrate between the joints and harness, entering the marrow of his soul and the deep recesses of his heart. Have you received this personal, particular, distinguishing call of divine grace? Arise, then and come to Christ, saying,
Our Lord said to Zacchaeus, 'Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house' (Luke 19:5). Every word is important; but I call your attention particularly to these two words of that text: 'haste' and 'today'. God's call is urgent. It demands an immediate response. Sinners sit under the ministry of the Word year after year, hearing God's servant faithfully and earnestly preach the gospel, urging them to repent and believe on Christ, but they reply, 'Tomorrow, perhaps. Tears may run down their cheeks, but they are wiped away. Some good feelings and good desires appear, but like the morning dew they quickly disappear before the still of temptation. The sinner may say, 'I solemnly vow from this day forth to become a reformed man. After I have once more indulged in my darling site, I will renounce my lust, and decide for God.' You see, he has only heard the preacher's voice. The preacher's voice can never reach your heart and that is where the problem lies. The sign-post on the road to hell reads', 'Tomorrow'.
But God's call is not for tomorrow. It is written, 'Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, when your fathers tempted me.' God's grace always comes with urgent dispatch. If God draws you, you will run after him. If God calls you, you will come, immediately, without delay. Tomorrow is not written in the almanac of time. Tomorrow is in Satan's calendar, but nowhere else. Tomorrow isa rock upon which many a man has wrecked his soul. Tomorrow is the fool's cup which none has which he thinks is at the end of the rainbow, but it is a cup which none have ever found. Tomorrow is a dream. Tomorrow is a delusion. Tomorrow you will lift up your eyes in hell, being tormented in its flame. The ticking of the clock says, 'Today'. The pulse of your body whispers, 'Today'. I hear my heart speaks as it beats within me and it says, "today'. Everything cries, 'Today'. And the Holy Spirit, in union with these things, says, 'Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.'
Reader, are you inclined now, by the grace and power of God, to seek Christ? Is there a prayer arising in your heart now? Are you saying, 'Now, or never! I must be saved now'? If you are, I hope it is the effectual call of our Lord, for if he calls, You will make haste and come to him. May God give you grace to come to Christ without delay.
Come to Christ just as you are. In all your sin and degradation, in all your filth and corruption, come to Christ. Do not try to clean up your life and then come. Come to Christ and he will clean up your life. Do not try to repent and then come. Come to Christ and he will give you repentance. Do not try to overcome your sinful heart arid then come. Come to Christ and he will conquer your sin.
Come to Christ, bowing to him as your rightful sovereign Lord. That leper had the right spirit and attitude. He fell down before the Lord in reverent submission, saying, 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole.' You do the same. Confess your sin. Confess that you rightly deserve to die for ever in hell. And say, 'But, Lord, if you will, you can save me through the blood and righteousness of your dear Son.'
Come to Christ in simple faith. Trust his righteousness for all your righteousness before God. Trust his blood for all your cleansing. Just fall flat down on the merits of Christ, trusting him alone for your eternal salvation. God give you grace to come to Christ this very day.
Anyone who experiences the grace of God in salvation will be brought down in the dust of humiliation before the throne of his sovereign mercy. Before God exalts a man, he abases him. Before God clothes any sinner with the garments of Christ's righteousness, he strips the sinner of the filthy rags of his own righteousness. Take the case of Zacchaeus again. 'When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for today I must abide at thy house' (Luke 19:5). When God calls the sinner to Christ. he always says, 'Come down'. The way of salvation is a downward path. You must come down.
God's call is it humbling call. Many a time the preacher calls men to Christ with a call which makes them proud, exalts them in their own esteem and leads them to think, 'I can come to God when I like. I do not need the influence of God the Holy Spirit. It is not God's call that is the thing that determines whether or not I shall be saved, but my own free will.' Today sinners are being called to go up and not to come down. But God always humbles the sinner. One of the first steps you must take is to go down from your own good works. That is a gigantic step down, far too humbling for most, but it must be taken.
Some stand upon their own self-sufficiency. But Christ says, 'Come down. You must come down from your own good works and come down from your own self-sufficiency.' That is another great step downward, but it must be taken. Down, my friend, you must come down. Come down from all your hope in yourself and in what you do. Come down until you see that you are utterly without strength, until you are utterly lost, until you see that you are nothing and can do nothing. Come down until the waters of God's wrath swell around you and you are made to see that you justly deserve to die. Come down until you are made to see your utter wickedness, vileness, corruption and filthiness. You must come down, down to the feet of Christ. The place of mercy is in the dust. Come down!
It was not 'Zacchaeus, come down, because I hope you will let me abide at your house.' It was not 'Zacchaeus, come down, because God loves you and has it wonderful for your life, if you will only give me permission to abide at your house.' No. Our Saviour said, 'Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.' He knew the strong, irresistible necessity of God's purpose of grace. He said, 'must', because Zacchaeus must be saved. Just as much as man must die, just as much is the sun must give light, just so must every blood-bought sinner be saved. 'Today I must abide at thy house.' When the Lord comes to a sinner with this 'must' of mercy, what a time it is for the sinner then! At other times, we resist his grace, and say, 'Shall I let him in?' But this time, he says, 'I must come in,' and there is no resistance at all. There was no knocking at the door. Grace knocked the door of our hearts open and broke it down bolt and bar and mercy entered in. Christ said, 'I must save, I shall come in, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.'
My friend, if the Lord Jesus Christ ever comes to you in the power of his spirit and says, 'I must abide at thy house,' there will be no resistance in you. You will gladly receive him. If God says, 'must', the sinner cannot and will not say, 'no'. God's will must prevail. Man's will must bow. Let God say, 'must', and it must be done.
The sinner runs away from Christ, but Christ pursues him and overcomes him. If our hearts be shut hard against him, he puts his hand in at the door. If we refuse to arise and open to him, he opens the door and says, 'I must come in.' In his own well-determined hour of mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ enters into the hearts of those whom he has chosen and redeemed and dwells there for ever. He says, 'Today I must abide at thy house,' and so it must be!
That call of God the Holy Spirit by which sinners are irresistibly drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ is always effectual. Preachers preach and plead and urge sinners to come to Christ and trust him, with no effect. Be they ever so learned, eloquent and clever, preachers can never change the hearts of men. But when God the Holy Spirit calls sinners to Christ by the gospel, he effectually changes their hearts by the sovereign power of his grace. One clear example of this effectual call is that wretched publican to whom our Lord was so gracious, Zacchaeus.
As soon as our Lord said to him, 'Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house,' Zacchaeus 'made haste and came down' (Luke 19:5-6). The call of grace changed Zacchaeus for ever. His heart became generous. His home was opened. His table was spread. His conscience was purged. His soul was filled with the joy of grace. The Lord Jesus became Zacchaeus' Master and Zacchaeus willingly surrendered himself and all that possessed to the claims of Christ. He said, 'Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.' Though grace had infinitely enriched Zacchaeus' heart and soul, it greatly reduced his bank account. It may do the same to you. Though Zacchaeus could never have done any good works which God would accept for his salvation, once he was saved by the grace of God, grace brought forth good works from him.
This is one means by which God's elect are known. If any man is truly saved, if he is called of God with the call of effectual grace, that call produces good works.
What are those good works which grace always produces?
Zacchaeus believed Christ. He believed Christ's claims as Lord and received him as such. The first result of the Holy Spirit's call is faith in Christ. Faith is not produced by the preacher. Faith is not produced by the sinner. Faith in Christ is a supernatural work, produced in the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit in effectual calling. It is the gift of God. It is the operation of God in a man's heart that causes him to believe. We believe by the working of his mighty power. The saving, effectual call of the Spirit always produces faith in Christ.
Zacchaeus surrendered himself to Christ as Lord. The effectual call of the Holy Spirit causes proud sinners to bow in humiliation before Christ as Lord and King. Where there is no knowledge of Christ's lordship, there is no knowledge of his saviourhood. Where there is no surrender to Christ the Lord, there is no faith in the Saviour. Where there is no submission to Christ, there is no salvation by Christ.
Zacchaeus became a gracious man. Before he was a selfish, self-centered, self-seeking publican. He robbed widows and orphans to increase his riches. He walked over the poor to make gain for himself. But no more! Grace entered his heart and make him gracious. As it was with Zacchaeus, so it is with all who are born again by the Spirit of God. Grace makes men gracious Grace produces love, love brings forth generosity and generosity shows itself by acts of benevolence, hospitality and kindness.
Has the gracious call of God had such an effect upon you? If so, then it may be said of you as it was of Zacchaeus: 'This day is salvation come to this house forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham [one of the chosen seed]. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:9-10).
God of heaven, send forth your Spirit with mighty, sovereign, irresistible, effectual power this day, to call dead sinners to life and faith in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are some people among whom I am glad to be numbered, though they may be a despised few, who believe the Bible doctrine of particular, effectual redemption. We believe that the blood of Christ is of infinite value, but that the intention of Christ in his death never was the salvation of all men. Without question, if Christ had intended to save all men by his death, if that had been the object and purpose of his atonement, all men would be saved; but that never was his purpose. We believe, according to the Scriptures, that the intention of Christ's atonement and the effects of his atonement are the same. It was our Lord's intention to redeem his own elect by the shedding of his blood all of God's elect have been redeemed. This is clearly the doctrine of the bible. The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily laid down his life for the redemption of a particular people and by his death at Calvary the Son of God effectually accomplished the redemption of those people. All that our Lord Jesus Christ intended to do he has done!
1. Christ has redeemed all of God's elect from the curse of the law: 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree' (Gal. 3:13).
2. Christ has put away the sins of his people: 'Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself' (Heb. 9:26).
3. Christ has purchased for himself a people: 'Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world' (I Peter 1:18-19).
4. Our Lord Jesus Christ has perfected for ever those who are sanctified, or set apart in eternal election as the special, chosen objects of God's love and grace: 'For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified' (Heb. 10: 14).
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