13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 (ESV)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, SEPTEMBER 2, 1855, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK.
Then, thirdly, this election is ETERNAL. “God has from the beginning chosen you unto eternal life.” Can any man tell me when the beginning was? Years ago we thought the beginning of this world was when Adam came upon it, but we have discovered that thousands of years before that, God was preparing chaotic matter to make it a fit abode for man, putting races of creatures upon it, who might die and leave behind the marks of His handiwork and marvelous skill, before He tried His hand on man.
But that was not the beginning, for revelation points us to a period long ere this world was fashioned, to the days when the morning stars were begotten when, like drops of dew from the fingers of the morning, stars and constellations fell trickling from the hand of God. When, by His own lips, He launched forth ponderous orbs. When with His own hand, He sent comets, like thunderbolts, wandering through the sky, to find one day their proper sphere.
We go back to years gone by, when worlds were made and systems fashioned, but we have not even approached the beginning yet. Until we go to the time when all the universe slept in the mind of God as yet unborn, until we enter the eternity where God the Creator lived alone, everything sleeping within Him, all creation resting in His mighty gigantic thought, we have not guessed the beginning.
We may go back, back, back, ages upon ages. We may go back, if we might use such strange words, whole eternities and yet never arrive at the beginning. Our wing might be tired, our imagination would die away. Could it outstrip the lightnings flashing in majesty, power, and rapidity, it would soon weary itself ere it could get to the beginning. But God from the beginning chose His people.
When the unnavigated ether was yet unfanned by the wing of a single angel. When space was shoreless or else unborn. When universal silence reigned and not a voice or whisper shocked the solemnity of silence. When there was no being and no motion, no time and nought but God Himself, alone in His eternity. When without the song of an angel, without the attendance of even the cherubim, long ere the living creatures were born, or the wheels of the chariot of JEHOVAH were fashioned, even then, “In the beginning was the word,” and in the beginning God’s people were one with the Word and “In the beginning he chose them unto eternal life.” Our election then is eternal. I will not stop to prove it. I only just run over these thoughts for the benefit of young beginners, that they may understand what we mean by eternal, absolute election.
And, next, the election is PERSONAL. Here again, our opponents have tried to overthrow election by telling us that it is an election of nations and not of people. But here the apostle says, “God has from the beginning chosen you.” It is the most miserable shift on earth to make out that God has not chosen persons, but nations, because the very same objection that lies against the choice of persons, lies against the choice of a nation. If it were not just to choose a person, it would be far more unjust to choose a nation, since nations are but the union of multitudes of persons.
And to choose a nation seems to be a more gigantic crime—if election be a crime—than to choose one person. Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned to be worse than choosing one—to distinguish a whole nation from the rest of mankind does seem to be a greater extravaganza in the acts of divine sovereignty than the election of one poor mortal and leaving out another. But what are nations, but men? What are whole peoples, but combinations of different units?
A nation is made up of that individual, and that, and that. And if you tell me that God chose the Jews, I say then, He chose that Jew, and that Jew, and that Jew. And if you say He chooses Britain, then I say He chooses that British person, and that British person, and that British person. So that it is the same thing after all. Election then is personal. It must be so. Everyone who reads this text and others like it, will see that Scripture continually speaks of God’s people one by one and speaks of them as having been the special subjects of election. “Sons we are through God’s election, Who in Jesus Christ believe; By eternal destination Sovereign grace we here receive.” We know it is personal election
More to come. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 