Today I want to look at a topic in the Bible that most of us are familiar with. All of us should be familiar with this. I would like to look in the Bible at the topic of election. I know that many of us have heard this many, many, many, many times in the past, but it is not going to hurt for us to look at this again.
We need to ask ourselves, “Do I believe in God’s election program?” God has written about this in the Bible. It is in the Bible and many, many, many people do not like it. Many people are offended when we start speaking about God’s election program.
I have heard many people say, “Throughout the history of this world, God has brought billions and billions of people into this world. There have been billions of people who have lived and died, and you mean to say that most of the people of the world today and who have ever lived are going to be destroyed?”
Many people take affront to this and say, “Oh, that is not fair. That is not right. How could God do this?” However, they fail to recognize that this is God’s salvation program. God is the One who has designed this. God is the One who has written the Bible. It is not man.
God tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust in JEHOVAH with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
He tells us not to trust what comes out of our own simple minds and thoughts. We ought to listen to the Bible, because we know that whatever God has done or is doing is absolutely perfect. God does nothing wrong.
But many, when they see this election program in the Bible, they are offended. They would rather believe in “free will,” but “free will” is not taught in the Bible. Nowhere is it taught that it is up to me to accept or reject Christ. The Bible does not teach this. This is a false gospel that caters to man’s simple heart, but many would like this. They would like it if at any time they could just flip a switch whenever they are ready to reach out to God and then God would save them.
No. First of all, for us to be saved we have to be elected by God from the foundation of the world, and we do not know who God’s elect are. You will not know if you are of the elect until God saves you. You do not know that. No one knows whether they are the elect of God or not until, if it is God’s will, He saves them.
God might save you. This is why we need to come before God like the Ninevites did. God has allowed us to make our case known to Him. We can beseech Him for His mercy. It might be that He might save me. It might be that He might save me as I am pleading to Him for mercy, yet even pleading to Him for mercy will not save me either. But God has allowed us to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” and cry for mercy.
When we read through the Bible, we can see that God is a merciful God. He came into the world “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” This qualifies me as a sinner to make my request known to God. My request ought to be, “O God, please have mercy on me.” My number one priority or request before God ought to be, “O God, could it be that You might give me a new heart, that You might work in me to will and to do of Thy good pleasure?”
Who is the One who is making us “to will and to do”? It is God. It is God who wills us to do things. It is not of our own will. If it were up to us, we would always want to go away from God. We would want nothing to do with Him, nothing. This is because we have to remember that we have a rebellious heart that wants nothing to do with God.
Yes, I can understand a lot about the Bible in my head, but God is the One who has to perform that mighty miracle in me and create within me a new heart. He has to do it. I cannot do it. So, you see, salvation is of the Lord and we have to go to Him and to look to Him for mercy.
Let us look at another familiar passage in the Bible. Let us go to 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We should all know this by heart, but let us read this from the Bible:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
We know that God is the One who has written the Bible. It was not man; “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The Bible is written by God. It did not come out of the mind of man. It is, therefore, for our reproof and for correction and for doctrine, and “doctrine” has to do with teaching.
Many people have been taught something that is incorrect about the Bible, and when they see election, they get very nervous. They get very, very, very nervous about election; and yet if God had not elected a people for Himself, none of us would become saved.
Now, whether God has decided to save two hundred million people, this is God’s business. This is God’s business. Many people might argue and say, “Why could He not save two billion or three billion?” But this is none of our business. It is God’s business how many people He has elected “before the foundation of the world.” It is not ours. It is not our business to figure this out. If the majority of the people of our day are going to be destroyed, it is God’s business.
My problem is that I have to look at me. Where do I stand before God? So I cry to Him for mercy. But first of all, I have to recognize that the Bible is the Word of God. I have to recognize that whatever God has written in the Bible, it is true. It is true whether I come across election or whether I come across the fact that many people are going to be destroyed.
In the day in which we live, we know that we are very near the end of time, the end of the world, and many people do not like this. They are offended at this and they are offended over God letting us know what He is about to do.
However, as you look through the Bible, you will see that in the past when He was about to bring judgment, He always let His people know what He was about to do. So are we any different? No.
For those who are arguing with us over this issue of the end of the world that we find in the Bible, you wonder if maybe they do not love this world too much. They need to honestly look at themselves, because maybe they love this world so much that they do not want it to come to an end. As we come before the Bible, we see these things.
Now let us turn to Luke 10. In Luke 10:41-42, we read:
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Mary was seated at the feet of Christ listening to the Word of God in what Christ was saying. Martha was so concerned about what was going on around her that she was not listening to the most important thing, which was the Word of God.
Neither should we be so concerned about this world. We should not be coming to the Bible and trying to put God on trial. We are to be seated at the feet of Christ and listening to the Bible.
For example, on the subject of election, we are to listen to what God has to say about this and not our own ideas. We need to be careful about this and not interject our own opinions into the Bible. If the Bible teaches election, so be it. So be it. It is there. It is in the Bible. It is taught in the Bible, so we quickly change our own opinions. Our own opinions do not matter. They do not count. We are to only listen to God’s Word, the Bible, as we come humbly before Him.
Look at Psalm 119:18. As we come looking at any part of the Bible, whether pertaining to the end of the world or election, this ought to be our attitude:
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Do you see how we are to come before God? We are to come before Him with the desire that He might open our understanding. As we look at this very important doctrine of election today in the Bible, or when we look at any doctrine, may we spiritually see what God is speaking about.
Psalm 119:19 says:
I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
So we are asking God not to hide truth from us. Commandments, His Word, oracles, His judgments, are all synonyms. So this is how we come.
We do not hold fast to what we have been taught by somebody, because what if it has been incorrect? What if someone was leading us down a blind alley and we were not listening to God’s Word, the Bible?
So God teaches election throughout the whole Bible and this is what I want to look at today. We cannot look at all of the verses. But, you see, as we come and we humbly look at God’s Word, we are to quickly pray, “O Lord, You teach me Thy Word.” We put our own opinions aside, our own ideas aside, and we just listen to the Bible.
The Bible is the Word of God. So whenever we are reading the Bible, it is as if God is standing right in front of us. It is as if He is right there speaking to us. And how are we going to respond? The Bible is the voice of God speaking to each and every one of us. Whether we understand it or not, it is God who is speaking to us from the Bible. Therefore, we ought to listen, as we know, with a view to being obedient. Obedient. “Lord, You teach me and help me to be obedient to what You say.”
So we change our beliefs or we change whatever the circumstances might be. Maybe we had a favorite Bible teacher who taught us something that was incorrect from years ago. But God is opening up His Word to us today; so when we see that something is true, we quickly dismiss what we have been taught and we begin to listen to the Bible as God teaches us. And remember that the Bible was given for our correction. None of us have it all figured out. God’s Word corrects us, so we do not hold to our own opinions. We ought not to do this.
I would like to look at Mark 2. We will start reading at verse 1 to pick up the context. This is referring to Christ. Mark 2:1-6:
And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
Many people are like these people. They come to the Bible, they see election, and then they begin “reasoning in their hearts.” They start to reason these things within their own minds.
In Mark 2:5, Christ said:
…Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
In our mind’s eye, we can almost see them, “How can this be? How can this man tell this other man here, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee’?” You can just see their minds going and them starting to reason these things out within their own minds.
Then we read in verse 7, Mark 2:7:
Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
You see, they understood that the only way to have one’s sins forgiven was by God alone, but they failed to recognize the fact that Jesus Christ is God. They were spiritually blinded. They failed to recognize that the man, Christ, who was standing in front of them, was God in the flesh, yet they knew that only God could forgive sins.
Then verse 8 says, Mark 2:8:
And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
You see, only God can see the heart of an individual. So here God is making a judgment. None of us could look at somebody’s heart right now and say whether or not someone is saved, but God can do this. He knows what we are thinking. Christ knows all things, because Christ is God. Therefore, He could look at their hearts and know what they were thinking and ask them the question:
…Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
Because God knows all things. Then verse 9 says, Mark 2:9-12:
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
But my point here is that when we come before God’s Word, we should not be trying to reason things out in our own minds. When we start to do this, we are going to come to the wrong conclusion.
So we ought to only listen to the Bible and the Bible speaks about election. God goes into scripture after scripture after scripture about how He has “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,” and yet people try to reason these things out and ask, “How can these things be?” People have come to all kinds of weird teachings or conclusions from the Bible simply because they begin to reason these things out in their hearts, just like these people were doing.
So here we are now and we are at the end of the world. We know the very year and the very day of the end, yet there are those who are reasoning these things out in their hearts and asking, “How can these things be? It cannot be.”
You see, their own thinking is getting them into trouble. This is getting them into trouble. Instead of listening only to the Bible, they are reasoning things out in their own hearts and in their own minds. And when the Lord Jesus does come, these people are going to be shocked. They are going to be so surprised, because they are not listening to the Bible.
Let us look at Isaiah 1. When God has opened your eyes to this wonderful teaching in the Bible of election, you will begin to see the beauty of God’s election program. But if He does not open your eyes to this, you will not see it; you cannot see it. In Isaiah 1:9, God tells us:
Except JEHOVAH of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant…
And who is this that He is speaking about? He is speaking about the true believers, which are a very small remnant compared to the whole. So He says in Isaiah 1:9:
Except JEHOVAH of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
We know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. They were destroyed. And come May 21, 2011, all of us would be destroyed if God had not left “a very small remnant.”
Remember that God says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The “few” and the “very small remnant” are God’s elect, although this numbers into millions of people. Yet if God did not elect unto salvation, none of us would become saved. We would all be damned forever, every single one of us: lock, stock, and barrel.
So, you see, God, in His mercy, has chosen a people for Himself. If He had not done this, we would be hopeless, completely hopeless. We would just be praying amiss, if we would pray at all. Yet many people, when they see God’s election program in the Bible and say, “This cannot be so,” they are actually saying, “Not so, Lord.”
So when you see these people on TV and they have tens of thousands of people coming down the aisles, you wonder what kind of gospel they are bringing. There are so many people sometimes that it looks like they could fill two stadiums. But what kind of gospel are they bringing?
Christ was the perfect preacher; yet from the moment that He started speaking to the Pharisees of that day, they were offended. Many left, and so He turned to His disciples and asked, “Will ye also go away?”
If they are bringing a gospel based on man’s works and man’s efforts, then it is up to you to either accept or reject Christ. And they will tell you, “From this moment on, you are saved.” I was told this years ago. As I walked down the aisle, the pastor looked at me and said, “From this moment on, you are saved.” At that time, the thought went through my mind, “How can he know this?” There were a lot of people coming up and crying and there was a lot going on. He just looked at them and said, “From this moment on, you are saved.” This is what “free will” is. He did not know, and there are many people in this position who have participated in a do-it-yourself gospel.
This is sad; but if you want to get a big audience of people, just start teaching this. If we did, this place would fill to overflowing, because this caters to the flesh. If you look up all of the false religions all over the world, you will see that they all consist of a do-it-yourself religion. All that you will have to do is one certain thing, some ritual that is done. Maybe you will be taught to be nice to your neighbor or whatever; then you are saved. Just live a decent, moral life. Do not curse, do not commit fornication, do not murder, do not lie, and all will be well.
But the Bible does not teach this. And when you are coming with a true Gospel, a Gospel that is based on the Word of God, many will be offended. I was told by someone one day, “Oh, my Lord will not destroy people. He would not do that.” I said, “Really? What Bible are you reading?” I said, “God is a God of judgment. He will destroy you. Do you think that He will not? If you are not saved come May 21, 2011, He will destroy you.”
We know that God “is no respecter of persons.” He is not. He does not care where you were born, the family that you were born into, whether you are poor, whether you are rich, whether or not you live in a nice fancy home, whether you are college educated or whether you cannot read or write. It makes no difference. He is “no respecter of persons.” God clearly teaches, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but JEHOVAH looketh on the heart.” So we need to be careful of this.
Let us look at Romans 9 where God speaks a little more about His election program. In Romans 9:17-18, He tells us:
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
So we see that God does this. He has mercy on this one over here; yet on that one, He passes them over. This is God’s sovereign right to do so. He saves one in a family over here, two in a family over there, one in this or that country, etc. This is how He saves. Why He elects one and leaves the other behind, we do not know. This is God’s business and it is not for us to figure out. God is the One who made the choice to save whom He wanted to save.
Then Romans 9:19-20 goes on to say:
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?…
You know, there are those who will argue with God, “Lord, why did You do this or why did You do that?” They are replying against God and that is not right. We should never do this, but man in his rebellion will do this. Romans 9:20-21 goes on to say:
…Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay…
Christ is the Potter. Does He not have power over you? Of course He does. Romans 9:21:
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump…
We are all the same. We are all sinners, “He fashioneth their hearts alike.” God does not separate the human race, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” This refers to every single one of us.
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
You see, it is God’s business whom He saves. Romans 9:22-23:
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Those whom God had elected had afore been prepared for glory, way in the past before God created the world. Who they are, we do not know. What we do know is that it is “a very small remnant,” as the Bible says. It is “a few.” “Many are called, but few are chosen,” but they number into the tens of millions.
We must never forget that this is all God’s business. It is God’s business whom He has elected unto salvation. Our business is to cry to God for mercy, because we know that whatever God is doing or has done is absolutely perfect and right.
I am sure that you have shared the Gospel with your loved ones or friends. They see it and yet they have nothing to do with it, nothing, nothing whatsoever. They even feel sorry for you! They think that you are wasting your life because you cannot do this or you cannot do that, because all you can do is this.
Even so, what are you missing? What is in this world? Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, especially in our world today. Everywhere you look, it is sin and sin is destroying us. Sin is the thing that got us into trouble with God in the first place. And in our day, sin is multiplying and multiplying to no end. But we know that even as sinful as this world has become and could get, God is in control of it.
Let us look at Psalm 18:30. We know that whatever God does, it is absolutely perfect. We read in Psalm 18:30:
As for God, his way is perfect…
It is perfect. Whatever He does, His way is perfect.
…the word of JEHOVAH is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
The way of God is perfect. Whatever He does, it is absolutely perfect, just, right, and good. So when He lays out the Scriptures about election in the Bible, it is so. The Bible came out of the infinite mind of God. He is the designer of it and He is the writer of it. Yet as I said before, when many read about election, they do not like it. They begin to put God on trial. They question God, “How can this be fair? What about all of these billions of people?” They turn their finger on Him and begin to blame God, and we should never, never, never, never do this. We are to come humbly before the Word of God, “So be it.”
Let us look at Israel for a minute. Look at Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 7, God is clueing us in about Israel. Israel is a picture of the believers. We know that as a whole nation, they were not saved; but they are a picture of the true believers. In Deuteronomy 7:6-10, God is going to tell us about Israel. Keep in mind that Israel was a type or picture of the body of believers, although we know that they were not saved because the Bible tells us that most of them perished in the wilderness “because of unbelief.” Deuteronomy 7:6 says:
For thou art an holy people unto JEHOVAH thy God: JEHOVAH thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people…
This was quoted in 1 Peter 2, where God referred to the true believers as “a peculiar people.”
…a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Who is this referring to? It is referring to the true believers, God’s elect. It continues in Deuteronomy 7:7:
JEHOVAH did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
Remember, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” God did not choose this person or that person because they were better than another person. No, He did not do that, and here He is giving us a perfect example of His election program. It continues in Deuteronomy 7:8:
But because JEHOVAH loved you…
You see, God loves His people, yet they were no different than anyone else.
…and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath JEHOVAH brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen…
And where were we before we were saved? Spiritually, we were in Egypt, just like the children of Israel were. But God redeemed us. He paid for our sins and brought us out of the kingdom of Satan. This is where we all were. We were all being held captive by Satan, but God is the One “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”
You see, this is all God’s doing. What did the children of Israel do to get out of Egypt? Nothing. God raised up Moses, who was a type of Christ, and led them out. They did not do a thing. They were under bondage, just like we were in bondage to our sin until God loosed us from it and took us out of the kingdom of Satan.
Deuteronomy 7:8 goes on to say:
…redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Pharaoh here is a picture of Satan himself who is ruling over us before we are saved.
Now verse 9 says, Deuteronomy 7:9-10:
Know therefore that JEHOVAH thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; And repayeth them that hate him to their face…
Those who are not saved are going to be destroyed on the last day. Let us read verse 10 again, Deuteronomy 7:10:
And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
In one sense, we see here that for God’s people, He redeemed them. They were few in number, but they were God’s elect; yet the unsaved are going to be destroyed on the last day.
We know that this time is quickly coming upon us. It is almost here. If ever there was a time when we ought to be really, really beseeching God and really listening to the Bible and begging Him for mercy, it is today.
I have spoken to many people about May 21, 2011. One man whom I spoke with told me that he listens to Family Radio. He is a Family Radio listener, so he has heard about May 21. Yet he said to me, “Robert, I will just wait and see.” I said, “What are you saying that you are going to wait and see? Come May 21st, it will all be over. The possibility of salvation will then be over. The door will be shut, so what are you saying? You are going to wait and see?”
Many are like this man. Many people are hoping and wishing that this information is wrong. They are hoping and wishing like crazy that this is not so, so that they can say, “Aha! I told you!” They never stop to think about what if this is correct? What if this is correct? You know, they are playing a game. But what if this is correct? Come May 21st when all of this chaos is happening, then what will they do? There will be nothing that they can do. Their fate will be sealed. So we should never think this and stand on the sidelines saying, “Let us wait and see.”
I have a lot of verses to look at here. We know that the word “election” means “chosen.” If you look up the word “election” in the Concordance, you will see that this word means “chosen.” “God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself.” He chose Israel, but not because they were mighty in number. They were few in number, yet God chose to set His love upon them, which we know, spiritually, is pointing to the true believers. But the word “election” means chosen.
So let us look at Matthew 20:16. It says:
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
This is the word for “elect.” The “few” here is referring to God’s elect. We are few, “for many be called, but few chosen.” So this word “chosen” is the same word as “elect.”
Let us look at another place where this word is used. There is a familiar passage for all of us in Ephesians 1. This is a beautiful passage in which God spells this out. Ephesians 1:4-5:
According as he…
This is referring to God.
…hath chosen us…
He has chosen a people for Himself.
…he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…
This is when He made the decision of whom His elect would be. This was way before He created earth or this world. Way back in the councils of eternity, all the true believers were in the infinite mind of God. We were there. But what did we have to do with this? Nothing. Nothing.
…that we should be holy and without blame…
We know that when we become a child of God, we become blameless. Our sins are not held against us anymore. We are blameless.
…before him in love: Having predestinated us…
And “pre” means “before.” So He predestinated us:
…unto the adoption…
And we know that we were adopted into the Kingdom of God. He adopts us.
…unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
It is God’s “good pleasure” to save a people for Himself. It continues in verse 6, Ephesians 1:6:
To the praise of the glory of his grace…
This is why He saves His people. It is “to the praise of His glory.” That is it. We were no better than anyone else. We were all in a cesspool of sin; yet God, from the councils of eternity, decided to save a people for Himself. And He says here in Ephesians 1:6-7 that we are saved for a purpose:
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
That is it. That says it all right there. He elected a people for Himself, so this is not our decision to make, as many people believe. Many people believe, “This is my decision for when I am ready.” No. No. No. The Bible does not teach this at all in scripture after scripture after scripture.
Now let us look at John 15:16-19. Here God says this ever so clearly. We have to wonder if He could get any clearer than this. He says:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…
This says it right here. Where is my “free will” coming into play? It is not here. He says here:
Ye have not chosen me…
If you are truly a child of God, you did not make the choice to follow Christ. It had nothing to do with “the hour of decision.” No. He says:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
God chooses His people. He chose a people to become saved. It was not our choice. You see, it was not our choice at all. God is the One who saves. If we go through Isaiah, God tells us that He is the Saviour. We ought to look to Him for salvation. No man can save you, no one but God. He is the Redeemer, He is the Saviour, and He is the One whom we are in trouble with.
Do you remember blind Bartimaeus? We need to get God’s attention like he did. I spoke of this several weeks ago. This is something that is true of us before we are saved. Bartimaeus had probably heard something about Christ before, that Christ opened the eyes of the blind and did many miracles. He was physically blind and he heard that Christ was coming by, did he not? He heard this. He could not see Him. And, spiritually, before we are saved, we cannot see Christ. Blind Bartimaeus could not see Him. Christ says, “Faith cometh by hearing.” He heard that Christ was coming by, so what did he start to do? He started crying out to God, to Christ. He just kept on begging. He did not see Him. He was trying to get His attention and to have Him come towards him. Did he not?
So we need to get the attention of Christ. When we are praying, “O God!” and we are beseeching Him for mercy, we are trying to get His attention. We are trying to have Him look on us with grace. Blind Bartimaeus was crying out to Christ, even though he could not see Him, and he got His attention. Christ stopped what He was doing and walked over to him.
People tell us to stop begging God for mercy. Here we are praying day in and day out, because we do not know if God is going to save us or not or if we are one of God’s elect. Mercifully, God gives us this example of blind Bartimaeus getting the attention of Christ. Christ walked directly over to him and gave him His attention and said, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Bartimaeus said, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” “Immediately,” the Bible tells us, “he received his sight.”
This is the same thing that God is saying to us. As we are begging God for mercy, it might be that we might get His attention and that He might give us spiritual eyes to see. He just might give us a new heart.
But, you see, God’s election program is all throughout the Bible. I have a lot more verses that I did not get to, but you can read this in the Bible. It is written in the Bible that God has chosen a people for Himself from the foundation of the world, and so be it. So be it!