Then there are several reasons why some pastors, who privately say that they believe in sovereign grace, don’t want to teach it to their people. They don’t preach the doctrine topically, and they ignore large passages of the scriptures like the middle chapters of the Book of Romans. And the truth is: I am running into one of those arguments myself. Of course, some of those preachers say that they believe in grace, when they really don’t. I hope that you know that I am not one of those people. Others can’t grasp the foundational principles, and so they have no framework from which to preach it. That is a potential problem for all of us. It is without a doubt a difficult subject and not every question can ever be answered on this side of Glory. Many of those preachers feel that if they preach it they will loose members and drive away visitors. And they will loose many of their preacher friends. Here is the potential problem that I am facing. I hate to be accused of harping on the same subject over and over again. As poorly as I sing, I don’t want people to think that I’m some sort of “Johnny One Note.” I think that it is important to give you a variety of messages, so that no one is apt to loose interest. But here is a problem that we have, beginning with Romans 8:28 – The subject of sovereign election is Paul’s basic theme until we come to chapter 12. If he isn’t addressing predestination, foreknowledge or foreordination, then he just casually describes the believer as someone who is “God’s elect.” The Bible teacher who has purposed in his heart to preach the entire Book of Romans is going to have to repeat himself, because Paul either repeats himself or develops his subject very, very slowly.
The title of this morning’s message is: “The Unchargeable.” Who are those who cannot be charged? Paul calls them “God’s elect.” But again, I could be charged – with over-emphasizing this doctrine, because I am trying to be thorough. In this there is no way that I can win – I have no defense – and yet I must press on. Because it is a wonderful thing – not to be chargeable!
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” From what I have heard there is a group of people in this country who are not bound by our laws. Some of them come from Canada, but I am not one of them. They come from around the world, and they seem to congregated in New York and Washington D.C. I am thinking of certain kinds of government officials from other countries. From what I have read in novels and seen on television, they have something called “diplomatic immunity.” They can park their limousines in front of fire-hydrants, in handicapped zones and no parking zones, but they cannot be ticketed. If they are speeding with diplomatic licences on the car, they have diplomatic license to speed. If they litter, they cannot be fined. I don’t know how far this immunity extends, but it is far beyond you and me. If these people are caught with illegal drugs, can they be sent to jail? From what I have heard they cannot. If they are rapists or murderers can they be executed? Apparently not. I suppose that the United States government can deport anyone that they choose – even an ambassador. But they aren’t going to do that for minor infractions which would bring heavy fines upon American citizens. Someone might say, “That’s just not fair.” Maybe so. But you could say that those people cannot be held accountable for their crimes upon American soil. I suppose that they could be charged, but it would be pointless, because they will not be punished.
Paul paints a similar picture in the two verses of our scripture for this morning. God has His ambassadors in this world – which is now governed by “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Every child of God is suppose to be an active, serving representative of God. That isn’t to say that we are all that we should be, but we should be. II Corinthians 5:20 – “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
God’s children are diplomats for the Lord, and they, too, have a kind of immunity, but despite what some wicked men might think, Christians do not have license to sin. What are the general lessons of these two verses?
If Satan, or a disgruntled church member, a rival or an enemy wanted to charge me with things, he would have plenty of ammunition. Probably few people would think to do so, but I could be charged with the sins of Adam. I know that this particularly irritates most of the people of this world, but it is true. I am guilty under the sin of Adam. Think of it this way: let’s say that in 1918 your great-grandfather stole a masterpiece of European art. He gave it to your father, and your father eventually gave it to you. You have seen pictures of that masterpiece in art books. You know that it was stolen at about the time your grandfather lived in the city where it was displayed. You have no reasonable explanation as to how you came by such a perfect rendition of the original. In fact you have every reason to believe that you possess the original – that stolen piece of art. When someone eventually comes by your house and recognizes it, you could be charged with possession of stolen property. Adam stole the property of God and ate it; it then infected his blood stream, and you inherited it. Your day-to-day sin, your periodic sin, your moment-by-moment sin, proves that you posses that stolen fruit. There is not a person on earth who is not chargeable for Adam’s sin under the law of God. And the truth of the matter is – that is all that matters when it comes to the vast majority of people. This is the only charge that is necessary in their case. But WHO shall lay this charge upon God’s elect?
I could also be charged with a lack of innocence and righteousness – both of which are demanded by God. I could be charged with a lack of proper love to God and a woefully weak faith in Him. I could be accused of a multitude of sins which I committed before the night of my repentance. Some of those sins were more heinous than others, and there are thousands of other saints of God who are guilty of sins far greater than any of mine, and yet, none of those children of God will be charged with those transgressions. We could be accused, and we are certainly chargeable, but we SHALL not be charged. And then there are the thousands of sins which we have committed since the time of our salvation. Despite knowing the sinfulness of sin and what was necessary for our deliverance, I have continued to sin. I’m sure that I have committed many sins that I didn’t recognize, or care to recognize, at the time. And there have been sins which I knew after I committed them. But there have also been a few sins which I premeditated. Undoubtedly the same might be said of you.
This verse isn’t saying that God’s elect shall not be charged before the Lord. The question is not whether we are chargeable, but who is going to do it –
Revelation 12 appears to describe a sweeping expanse of history. There are some references close to the time of the original creation. There are references to the time of the sacrifice and crucifixion of Christ. And then there references to the end of time as we know it, and to the spiritual struggles that we face. There is reference to a future battle in verses 9-10: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”
First there could be Satan. Revelation 12:10 is the only place where Satan is described as the accuser of the brethren, but that is not the only place were it is implied that he works to bring down the Lord by bringing down God’s people. Another obvious place is in the early chapters of the Book of Job. Satan certainly has access to all kinds of information about you and me. He has eyes and ears all around us, which are completely undetectable to modern technology or human eye-sight. And without a doubt he has amassed a hefty dossier on every child of God. It is a mystery to me how much access he has to God’s throne today – perhaps a little, perhaps none at all – now that the Saviour has died. But still that probably doesn’t stop him from texting the palace of God, with accusations against us.
And then there are ourselves. Have you ever been tempted to accuse your neighbor of sin? Ten thousand times. You think that his music is full of wickedness, and he charges you with sin because you own a television. You are more faithful to the house of God, but he believes that you eat too much and you pray too little. Because we are sinners we are prone to accuse others of sin, and particularly those who are more righteous than ourselves. It’s almost as if the beams in our eyes, force us to look for motes in our neighbor’s eyes. But these accusations which we are tempted to throw against our brothers are confined to earth and to today. There will not be one of us who will open our mouths at the Judgment Seat of Christ to accuse our brethren. The holiness and glory of God will preclude our accusations against anyone else.
But then again, on that great day we may be very apt to accuse ourselves. In the presence of the absolutely righteousness of God, our sinfulness will be intensely obvious. And under the weight of our own guilt and remorse, none of us will dare to point a finger at anyone other than ourselves. Do you remember when the Jews brought a woman to Christ Jesus, who had been taken in adultery? I believe that Brother Bill preached on this event when Judy and I were in Seattle last month. Jesus’ basic point was that only those who were without sin, were worthy to accuse her. There is only one Being in all the universe worthy to lay anything to the charge of God’s elect.
Of course, all sin is against God. As David prayed, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” But wait a minute David, you sexually assaulted a man’s wife and had her husband killed. While that is true – crimes were committed, by which after human law David should have been executed. In fact, the sin was committed only against God. Jehovah is the Lawgiver, by which all sin is Biblically defined – and sin is committed against Him. Furthermore, the Lord is the only righteous Being in existence – sin is the opposite of righteousness and therefore it is to be compared only to Him.
But, the righteous God is also the One who justifies. Any adequate dictionary – every good theology text – all good expositions of God’s word declare that the word “justify” means to “declare or render something or someone righteous.” God has sovereignly decided to take some of those unworthy children of Adam and declare them righteous. He has deliberately taken millions of people and washed the record of their sins – clean. They have been forgiven, given new hearts, regenerated spirits and adopted into the family of God.
When this verse says that God justifieth, it does not mean that He has merely taught us the way of justification. It’s not that he laid out the path and pointed man down that path with a guide to help him stay on the straight and narrow. This doesn’t mean that God has given us His Word as a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.” And He certainly isn’t in the business of accepting credits towards our deliverance and forgiveness. We are not imprisoned in some sort of dungeon, where if we are able to pay enough, do enough, repent enough, believe enough or love enough, we will earn enough tokens to buy our way out.
No sir, God justifies His elect. He simply does it, and it is done. He takes the sinner, the person worthy of eternity in the Lake of Fire, the spiritually dead soul…. God takes the sinner, and without the slightest outward reason to do so, declares that person righteous. To be more specific, he imputes to that sinner the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He can do that because Christ died for sin on Calvary and rose again from the grave – verse 34.
But there are some people who are not chargeable. Who are they? This verse describes them as “God’s elect.” The Greek word is translated in only two ways – “elect” and “chosen” – obviously meaning the same thing. Even though the Bible defines the word for us, a definition isn’t really necessary. “God’s elect” are a specific people whom He has chosen – in order to bestow His justification upon them. They weren’t chosen by God after they first chose Him. In the same order, people love God only because God first loved them – I John 4:19.
As I say the Bible does define for us what the word “elect” means. But I’m not going to work on that this morning, because it is the theme of the next chapter of Romans. I’m simply going to ask you to use your God-given mind to think of the usual meaning of the word. In a month’s time Americans are going to go to the polls basically to “elect” or “choose” a new president. And in a similar fashion God chose certain people to justify, rendering them immune to the charges which could and should be laid against them.
But how can we know that we are among those elect? It is easier than most people want to think. Look to see if the God-described evidence of election can be found in you. Do you have a hatred for sin, and have you come to agree with God about your sinfulness? Repent. Repentance is literally a change of mind – an agreement with God about your wicked nature. It is a recognition that you deserve to be charged, condemned and executed for sin. Are you a guilty sinner, willingly giving yourself up to God – His wrath, His righteousness or judgment? How you answer that question is a first step toward perceiving God’s election. Secondly, will you put your faith, your entire trust on Christ Jesus’ death burial and resurrection from death? In Jesus’ sacrifice the price was paid for sin. For your sin, if you will in loving trust, place yourself at His mercy. In repentance and faith sinner may prove to himself that he is one of these “elect.”
And “there is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”