CTK Raleigh Sermons

CTK Raleigh Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King at Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

We're going to be in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses six through 11 and also chapter nine verses four to six. You can find this in the Bible in your pew. We're using the RSV because that's what we have in the pew. It's also in your bulletin.

Our practice as a community is that we read God's word aloud together. So if you would join your voices with mine as we read God's word.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and requites to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will requite him to his face.

You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and statutes and the ordinances which I command you this day. Do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, "It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me to possess this land." Whereas it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of those nations the Lord your God is driving them out before you, that he may confirm the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.

— Deuteronomy 7:6-11; 9:4-6 (RSV)

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Which Is Better: To Choose or to Be Chosen?

Got a question for you this morning. Which is better, to choose or to be chosen?

Now it's no surprise that if you go to any grocery store, you'll see how much we love to choose. So let's just take peanut butter, for example. You got your Jif. You got your Peter Pan. You got your Skippy. You got your grocery store generic versions. You got the ones that are all natural that you have to stir up because they got the oil on top. And then you got the various levels of chunk. You've got creamy. You've got chunky. You've got extra chunky, and then super chunk. And then beyond that, you also have the peanut adjacent varieties. You have the sun butter, and you got your almond butter, your cashew butter. I'm sure there are other butters out there. But that's just peanut butter. I mean, don't get me started on breakfast cereal. That's just insane. Americans love to choose. We are a choosy people.

So what's fascinating is when you look at places where people are both choosing and being chosen. It's kind of shocking to me that the TV show The Bachelor has been on for twenty-nine seasons. I know nobody in this church would watch The Bachelor, but imagine that you did. Imagine someone had told you about this show. The show features some ridiculously attractive people in a ridiculous home. The plot isn't super complicated. One guy, a bunch of girls, and there are lots of choices being made in the show—choosing what they wear, choosing how they present themselves. But the big emphasis of The Bachelor is not the choices. It's who is chosen at the end. Who gets the rose? Who is chosen at the very end of the show? That's what the big drama is about.

Which is better, to choose or to be chosen?

One more. Maybe The Bachelor is not your speed. You've never seen this before. You've never heard of it. Maybe you're more familiar with the NFL draft—another version kind of like The Bachelor of featuring lots of people who have had lots of choices their entire lives. Uber talented athletes who throughout school—think of high school—they got to sit at whatever lunch table they wanted to. They got letters from colleges and coaches trying to recruit them. They got the choice of where they wanted to go to school.

And suddenly there's a group of men who are sitting around waiting and they are so anxious looking to find out who will pick me. Which is better, to choose or to be chosen? This is the question, really, I want us to think about this morning as we step into this passage.

And Deuteronomy has a very solid answer to this. That it is better to be chosen than to have endless options to choose. That it's better to be chosen and to be chosen by God. And that's what I want to lean into this morning.

Deuteronomy gives us multiple statements of God's people as his chosen possession. We've just read one here in chapter seven verse six.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the nations on the face of the earth. — Deuteronomy 7:6

This is why Israel, we call them God's chosen people. It's all over the Old Testament, and it's all over the New Testament. A couple of verses I just want to put up for you to help you understand. When we look at the New Testament, all believers, Jews and Gentiles, we read here, they're actually believers. This is the assertion of the New Testament because of God's choosing. God's calling them to himself.

So a couple of things. Book of Romans here. We'll put this up.

For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. — Romans 8:29

But it's not just a Paul thing. Jesus says this.

You didn't choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that would last. — John 15

Or John six, the next one.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day. — John 6

Now this is doctrine of election or predestination. And I know that even just mentioning those words makes some of you already like, "ugh. I didn't know—is it one of those churches? I didn't know that you guys are one of those kind of people." And it's an uncomfortable doctrine. It's an uncomfortable thing to talk about. It comes with a lot of questions. But this is the assertion of the Bible. This is the one I put before you this morning, particularly from Deuteronomy: it's better to be chosen than to choose.

God's Choosing

So four things about God's choosing. And I've listed them in your bulletin so you can follow along, take notes.

God's love means God's choice.

When humans love, I want you to think about this. When we humans love, we always say "I love," and we have an object to that sentence. Like this: "I love my new granddaughter." Right? I mean, was there ever a more beautiful baby? I don't think so. Her name is Collins, and you should love her too. We are absolutely smitten with her.

But think about when we say "I love"—no one doesn't finish that sentence. If you saw someone dancing around the park singing at the top of their lungs, "I love. I love. I love," you would be tempted to call somebody with white coats. Because no one loves love. We love people. We love individuals. We love peanut butter. Right? We fill that sentence in with someone. If you go through Spotify and you look for all the song titles "I love," there are always "I love you" or something like that. Someone. It's always specific.

This is true of God's love. It's never just general. It's always specific. Now why does that matter? You may be like, "who cares?" Well, it matters. Think about the rationale that we choose. We say, "I like this," which means I like that outfit, which means I'd like that in my closet. I like that car, which means I'd like to drive it. I like that food, which means that's where we're going for dinner this weekend. That rationale of "I like x" is the rationale of choice. But what's interesting is it also works the opposite way. "I don't like this" is the rationale for rejection. And it can mean rejecting anything from vegetables, to marriage, to an outfit, to religion.

And if we can choose that fast and if the rationale of being tied to Christ is based on what I like or don't like, it doesn't mean that actually Jesus is the Lord of anybody. It means that he's being led by us. He's leading us as long as we continue to like him. But when we don't like him, we're done with him.

But look, God's relationship with us isn't based on our feelings about him. His kingdom is built on an entirely different foundation. He doesn't just like you, he loves you. And in this passage, this is a picture of God setting his love on people. Saying, "I choose you. I choose to love you. That's what I'm all about. And it doesn't really matter how you feel about it. I love you."

God's choosing. God's love means God's choice.

Second thing: God's electing love is Trinitarian.

That means all three persons of the Godhead. All father, son, and holy spirit.

Now, in this passage, when you're reading along in the Old Testament and suddenly you find the word "Lord" in all caps but a little bit shorter, that's a signal. The editors of your Bible are sending you a signal. The word there is not Elohim, which is the general term for God. They're writing out "Lord," which means Yahweh—God's revealed name, God's Trinitarian name. We believe God the Father is Yahweh, God the Son is Yahweh, God the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. Jesus came and preached all these sermons where he said, "I am," which was Yahweh. He's saying that over and over: "I am the bread of life. I'm the good shepherd." All these statements of himself being Yahweh.

And again, why does this matter? Why would it matter that our God's love is Trinitarian? Well, because there's a caricature of the Trinity going around that's really unfortunate, that a lot of Christians believe. It sort of goes like this: you've got a wrathful Father and a loving Jesus. And the only thing that lets the wrathful Father love us is because Jesus kinda softens him up for us. It's like God can't stand sin like you can't stand snakes or spiders. God just can't handle you. But nothing could be further from the truth. God—the entire Trinity—from all eternity, if he has set his love on you, if he loves you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no God the Father who kinda hates you and Jesus the Son who makes you kinda presentable and likes you. No. All the Godhead is like, we're all the way in. We love you. Do you hear that? The Lord Yahweh.

God's Electing Love is Unconditional

Third, God's electing love is unconditional. Now this is the punch of this passage. This is the sucker punch—the "oh, I didn't see that one coming" of the passage. Because this is what's being said here: the basis of God's choice of Israel has nothing to do with them. It's not because Israel is choice that he chose them. Do you get that point? It's not like these are better people. In fact, the opposite is true. Let's look at these passages.

It was not because you're more numerous than others that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. — Deuteronomy 7:7

Or:

Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this land to possess because of your righteousness, for you're a stubborn people. — Deuteronomy 9:6

That didn't feel good, right? You can imagine them going, "Ow. Really?" But making the point: no superiority in Israel. No merit. They're not a little better. They're not a little smarter. They're not a little more talented. God is saying, "I chose them because I chose them."

The word "chose" is at the root of a doctrine that we believe in our church called unconditional election. Now that's the U of TULIP. TULIP is a shorthand summary of the salvific work of God. So unconditional election means that God doesn't foresee beforehand anything in us that makes him go, "Oh, I want him or her on my team."

A lot of times people think this is how it must work: God sees down the corridor of history and he sees there's a guy named Peter, and he's really good—he's gonna be a guy who's gonna want to follow me. That's what election means. No. It doesn't mean that at all. It means there's nothing that God is responding to in us. He's not responding to anything in the people of Israel. He's not responding to anything in us. Now that's good news because it means that your basis of being in is not how well you do your quiet times or where your daddy was a pastor or your grandma went to Sunday school all the time or any of those things. It's just God.

This isn't some kind of theological fine print either. Let me make sure you understand this. I know this can sound so elitist. People can be like, "You guys think you're the chosen people? Y'all think you're better than everybody else." That's what people hear. How arrogant. But if you listen to this really closely, it cuts off at the knees any basis for spiritual pride. If you get it, it's the opposite of elitism. It's in spite of choosing, not because of choosing.

Look at what we read. I like the NIV translation of this so much:

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his treasured possession. — Deuteronomy 7:6

Note the order. It's not that he chose you because you're his treasured possession, to be his people.

He chose you to be his people because you're his treasured possession, not because of anything in you. Now D. Martin Lloyd Jones is a pastor—a long dead pastor in London for a long time. He makes this point better than I can. There's a lot of smarter people than me who've made these points, but he'll say things like this. People would come to him and say, "You know, I don't like this election stuff, and I'm really happier with being a freewill person. I don't think I'm a Christian because God works. I think I'm a Christian because I'm free. It depends on my choice and decision." And he says, "Well, okay. Let's run that down."

The doctrine of election says you're not a Christian because you're wiser or more able than other people. Your pedigree has nothing to do with it. It all depends on God. So they'll say, "Well, I feel really good about my decision. I'm not about this election bit." He said, "Well, let's test this out. Why are you a Christian and your roommate isn't? Or your uncle isn't?" And the person would say, "Well, I guess it's because I repented of my sins." Lloyd Jones says, "Why did you repent of your sins and your roommate didn't?" "Well, I guess it's because I saw the light." "Well, why did you see the light and your roommate didn't?" "Well, I guess it's because God's word came alive to me." "Well, why did God's word come alive to you and not to your roommate?" And he goes down the list. Do you see what he's doing? He's chasing this down saying, if you go to the logical conclusion of this, there's nothing in us. There's nothing. God loves you because he loves you because he loves you.

We have a specialist in our congregation in logic and thinking. He teaches theory of knowledge at a certain high school in the area. He's helped my sons understand how logic works and how argumentation works. If you follow this one though, this is circular reasoning. Why does God love you? Because he loves you. Because he loves you. Because he loves you. There's no bottom to it. The logic doesn't make sense. That's grace. That's what it means.

God's Choice Transforms

Now I know how this sounds to Americans. It sounds like you're saying I'm a robot? You're saying I don't have any free will? It's all fate. It's all predetermined. No. No. No. I'm not saying that. God's choice isn't anti-freedom. Rather, it's the only way we actually have any ability.

One writer puts it this way. It's like a bird. You're walking through the park this weekend and you see a little bird on the ground and you can tell it's hopping because it has a broken wing. You look at the bird and the bird is free. Nobody's got the bird in a cage. Nobody is holding the bird down to the ground. But the bird can't fly because it's unable to fly, not because it's not free.

In the same way, the natural person is unable to come to God. They're free to do so. No one is holding them and preventing them from doing so. But they're not able to come to God because they are unable.

Three ways that they're unable. And this is all straight out of Scripture. One, we have darkened minds. We have minds that would never look at Jesus and say, that makes sense.

The natural person does not accept the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned. — 1 Corinthians 2:14

If you take a friend out who's not a believer and you show them a sunset, they'll be like, "That's glorious." You take them to the ocean, they're like, "That's magnificent." You show them Jesus on the cross, and they're gonna be like, "I don't know. I don't get it."

The natural person in our natural state would not want Jesus. A color blind man can no more choose his favorite color green than the natural person can choose their favorite attribute of God. It just doesn't make sense. We have darkened minds.

Naturally, we also have hardened hearts. We can't desire God rightly. Now that doesn't mean we don't have desires or that they don't work. We have desires for all kinds of things, but I can demonstrate this very easily. This morning, churches across America are all a half to a third empty, maybe more. If we desired rightly, every church in the United States would have a line around the block starting on Saturday night for people dying to get in. Because they would be like, "Jesus, this is the best thing in the whole world. Why wouldn't I want to be here to worship Jesus?" But it doesn't work like that. The natural person doesn't even desire what is the most incredible thing in the whole world—Jesus.

Instead, it's like a person in the ocean floating about to drown, and you look at them. You're like, "Hey, I just threw this life raft—this inner tube ring—to you. Go grab it." And they're like, "No."

Our wills are broken. Paul puts it very succinctly: "I have desire to do what's right, but not the ability to carry it out."

Ephesians 2

God says in Ephesians 2, this is why we don't run toward Jesus naturally—because we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And there are two words that change this in the life of every person. Two words: but God. Those are the only reason that we're Christians. God chose us. He draws us. His spirit saves us. He applies redemption to us. He pours his spirit out on us. That's the only reason why I'm a Christian and you're a Christian.

What Does It Feel Like to Be Chosen?

Now this doctrine raises a really important question, and I'm betting it's the one many of you are asking this morning. What does it feel like to be chosen by God? Now ironically enough, this is what it feels like to be chosen by God: I think I want God. I think I want God in my life. This whole filling up my life with stuff—it's not very fulfilling. There's got to be something more to this. Seventy-five years is not enough. There's got to be some meaning in my life. That's what it feels like to be chosen by God. There's something in you that wants him.

That's why this is so confusing, because on a very personal level, that's what it feels like. I wanted God. How can you say God chose me? I chose God. My story is one of waking up one day and realizing I was lost, and realizing that's what's missing in my life. Anybody have that as part of their story?

As C.S. Lewis says in the Chronicles of Narnia: "You wouldn't have been calling me if I hadn't been calling you." I love how Dallas Willard puts this. I was reading a book this summer called Life Without Lack on Psalm 23, and he explains it really well. He says salvation is like a door that says on the front, "All are welcome." You go through that door because you're like, "Yeah, salvation, Jesus—this makes sense to me." And you go through the door, and as you turn around and look back at the same door, on the backside it says, "Chosen and dearly loved by God."

There's this universal appeal, and yet what we realize is it's God—it's always been him calling us.

Addressing the Questions

Now I know that this raises all kinds of questions. Some of you are like, "Boy, I am ready for this guy with my questions." And there are all kinds of questions that you're going to ask me that I can't even answer.

For example: "What about people in Africa?" It's always people in Africa. I don't know why. That's always the example. Do you know that Africa is the most Christian continent? Anybody aware of this right now? So can we stop the "what about Africa" thing? Come up with somewhere else. What about New Jersey?

I was talking to James about this this week, and he said to me: "Wait. You know somebody who doesn't know about Jesus? What are you doing talking to me?" He's emphasizing human agency. Any of this with election doesn't negate human agency or human instrumentality. I came to faith because a girl came home from college and shared with me that I needed to become a Christian. I bet all of you have a person. It doesn't negate that.

Or what about this: "That's not fair." Well, fair had nothing to do with it. Fair is not even part of the gospel. Fair is for the fairgrounds. That's the only place we can use "fair" in our church. If God just was fair, all of us would be in hell. I can't satisfy all the logistical or illogical quandaries this puts you in. But I will point to this: this is a mystery, and I hate mysteries. I mean, I like to read them, but I want them to wrap up. I don't like living in a mystery. This is one of them.

Two Final Thoughts on Election

Now two things I want to say before I close about election. If you don't believe this, that's okay. You don't have to agree with everything in our church. In fact, I hope you look at your Bibles and cross-examine what I'm saying. But if you don't believe this, don't you wish you could? Don't you wish that you could? I mean, how secure and how at peace and how at rest is the person who feels like, "I got the love of the God of the universe. He loves me because he loves me because he loves me"?

And second: all Christians actually believe in some form of this. Now this is odd. A lot of times this is held out to people—there's the free will people and the predestination people. These are not polar opposites. You don't choose between one or the other. Everybody lives on a spectrum in between. The most ardent Arminian free will person still prays like God is in charge of all things.

And the most hardcore predestination person gets out of bed and decides what to eat for breakfast. Nobody lives at either end of those. Everybody ends somewhere on that spectrum. My request of you this morning is just to move toward what you read in scripture being what defines where you land on that.

A Story About Love

So this is from Ed Clowney. This is a little bit of marital advice from a former professor at Westminster Seminary. He used to say this: if your wife ever asks you, "Honey, do you love me?" and you say, "Of course, I love you," and she says, "Well, why do you love me?" And if you say to her, "Because you're prettier than other women, smarter than other women, more serviceable to me than other people"—she is gonna be upset, and rightly so.

Nobody wants that kind of love. That love that says "I love you because you are this and that, because you perform well"—that's conditional love. That's love loving what you're getting from another person instead of just who they are.

So here's the right answer: "I just love you. I just can't stop." That's what the Father says to us. That's what the Trinity says to us.

What should amaze me is not that God didn't choose everybody, but that God chose you, chose me. When we give in to election, we finally give up on ourselves in the matter of salvation. This doctrine takes grace to its logical conclusions. It says, "God doesn't love me because I repented better, or because I knew my Bible better, or because I'm good at making good choices, or because I'm moral." None of those things. God loves you because he loves you because he loves you.

This is the best sermon I can ever preach. This is the best I could do on this subject. But it's the best news, y'all.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer

Let's respond to God's word in music, but let me lead us in prayer. Father, this is high and lofty stuff, and our brains don't really work in this depth. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't answer all our questions. But we thank you that we can affirm the song that we sang just a few minutes ago: "Jesus loves us, this we know, for the Bible tells us so."

Father, we pray that you would help us to really sit in that, to really be transformed by that. We are an anxious, upset, worried, sad people. And Lord, knowing that you love us like this doesn't take away the pain of this world, but it raises our chins. Lord, help us to be such people who know this in the core of our bones. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Let's stand and sing.