Didn't Know You Were Running, But Sure Enough, You're in an Election

Titus 1:1 . . . according to the faith of God's elect

The elect of God is a term that has come under some considerable misconception. There is a doctrine that floats around theological circles that is misleading, and extremely dangerous to our spiritual health. I will spend the rest of our time together here tonight with a doctrine commonly known as predestination, a thought that says that you are preordained, or that your salvation was determined prior to your birth by God, and nothing you do can change the will of God. It is a way of saying that you have little, if any thing, to do with your spiritual destiny. While I rarely, if ever, refer to doctrine that is not apostolic in nature, there is a compulsion to address this in the context of this study.

We need to examine the issues of election before we go any further here in this study. Scripture is very clear that we are all called of God(reference Acts 2:39), and where Paul stood on Mar’s Hill in Athens, and said
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Every man is then called to repentance, which is the entry way into the Elect. For obvious reasons, you must first believe before there is any need to repent. So, then we must consider the words of Paul with understanding that God has called all men. It would be difficult for God to say He was calling all men, then only to openly reject some as a matter of course if they weren’t elect.

If He called all men to repentance, and they did so, and were not included in the “elect” than God would have a supreme problem of fairness. But scripture has a bit more in the view of clarity in this matter.

Peter would be compelled to address this in the short book he penned. The rough fisherman would chose his few words carefully.
II Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

So what becomes evident in the writings of this simple fisherman from Galilee is that he believes that we must make our election sure, that is to ensure that we remain in the elect. The only way to make our election sure is for there to be a chance of it NOT being sure. This also puts to rest the doctrine of eternal security, although I don’t have time to fully examine this in the context of this lesson.

It would seem fairly important to “make my election and calling secure,” especially if I want to make heaven my eternal home. How do we make our calling and election sure? How do we apply this idea presented by Peter? It is through a process that I like to call sanctification. We must grow in truth. It is a scriptural principle that, although speaking in tongues is the INITIAL evidence of the infilling of the Holy Ghost, there is much more to the life of a Christian than that.

In fact, scripture reveals that the proof of the Spirit in our lives is not the ability to break forth into tongues, to speak in tongues, and neither is the ability to see signs and miracles, it is in something entirely different.

Paul would introduce this idea in Galatians. He would report that the fruit, that is the evidence of the growing influence of the Spirit would not be speaking in tongues, but it would be in the FRUIT that we produce. Fruit is a very evident part of any fruit bearing tree or bush. It is the reason for that tree to exist.
So then, the tree, that one that we have been grafted into, is there to produce fruit in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

It is interesting to me that NONE of these happen in a vacuum. There is an outside expression of these things to others. I can’t have love, joy, peace in the truest sense alone. They require me to be involved in the world and exposed to those things that are around me that aren’t Christlike or Christ acting. There is no way to lead a monastic life and have the fruit of the Spirit.

It takes someone getting on your last nerve before you can be longsuffering, or to demonstrate gentleness, you have to be exposed to someone that needs gentleness. In fact, all of these must have exposure to others in order for them to have a way to bloom. So when you feel it would be better to be in bed the whole day, remember that your fruit can only be demonstrated in the world around you.

The way in which we make this calling and election sure is to commit ourselves to prayer, to fasting, to the study of His word. We must immerse ourselves deeper and deeper, as the prophet of the Old Testament described when he first went in ankle deep, then knee deep, and was encouraged on by God to go out chest deep into the waters. Ezekiel would tell of the waters becoming so deep one could only swim in them. That is the place that we should reach for in our lives, where we are so immersed in the spirit that our reliance is on Him and not ourselves.

The Elect’s Mention in Scripture

Scripture has much to say regarding the “elect.”
Matthew 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Luke 18:7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

As you can see there are multiple mentions of the “elect.” Mentioned some seventeen times in the Bible, it is a description that applies to a group of men and women who are part of the Bride. Seventeen times the word “elect” is used in scripture, and I want to be part of the Elect. I must make my calling and election sure.