Many are called but few are chosen God gives you a test and the answer

Welcome to episode 250.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 250. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, have you been following this podcast for some time? You will know that I'm talking about many are called and few are chosen, and I'm going to continue down that path because I still have a few more verses to use, and I still have— believe it or not, I still have a little bit more to say about the topic. Well, I want to go to Mark 7, chapter 7, and this— the beginning of Mark 7 talks about the defilement. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were talking to Jesus, hey, your disciples are not washing their hands properly. And Jesus kind of gave them what for. He ended talking to them. I'm going to pick it up in Mark 7:9. And he said to them, all too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your traditions. And then we're going to go to 7:13, making the word of God of no effect through your traditions which you have handed down and many such things you do. And what I want you to do is I want you to base your life on the Word of God, not on the word of man. I do not want you to base one thing in your life based on what I tell you should, might, ought to do. That is just so random and so, I would say, non-essential. I have ideas on how you should live or how I should live, and I try to apply those to my life. But the best ideas come from the Word of God. And when you meditate on the Word of God and you start digging into the Word of God and see how God wants you to do things— and I know that's a novel idea, and I know people come against this word— when you start teaching a tradition of man and it goes against the Word of God, I think you've got trouble. So I think the best thing to do is find it in the Word, Meditate on it and then apply it to your life. How can I apply this truth to my life? And that's what I try to do every day. I don't do a great job at it, but I think as I do this more and more and more, I get better and better and better at it. And one of the teachings that I think is a tradition of man is the sovereignty of God. And I know I've talked about it multiple times on this podcast, but the sovereignty of God is a lazy doctrine of man that says that God controls everything. And again, I've got to go on record to say God can do whatever God wants to do, but what God has chosen to do is speak the Word of God, this Bible, and he is bound by the Word. He is bound by his Word. He's not gonna lie. He's not gonna change his mind. If he said it and if it's in this Bible, it's gonna come to pass. It's clear the Word is not gonna come back void and us by saying that God is sovereign and controls everything. And most people don't come out and just say that, but that would make us robots. That would make us not having decision-making process, not having free will. And I don't believe any of that's true. And with that in mind, I want to go to 2 Peter 3:9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. If you're looking for God's will— when people say, oh, I just, I pray for God's will— God's not willing. It says right here, not willing that any should perish. God's will is that none of us should perish, but all should come to repentance. Now, are all of us going to come to repentance? And remember, repentance is nothing more than a fancy-pants word. A Christian— and I'm putting up air quotes— it's a word you don't hear a lot in different circles other than Christianity. But repentance, this simple, easy definition of repentance, is changing your mind. It just means to change your mind. So to change your mind on how God really is, or change your mind on what the Bible really says. The way I look at repentance is if you've been following after something in a wrong direction or a wrong teaching, just change your mind on it. Just look at it again for the first time and come at this as a child would come, not pretending to know everything. And that's what I think these strongholds that we get in our mind— that somebody teaches a lesson like the sovereignty of God or, or the predestination— there's certain people that are predestined to accept Jesus. I know I'm probably splitting hairs on this, but this is important. When you start hearing words and you hear— start hearing people teach things that says that, you know, some people are just predestined to find God, and I don't disagree with that because it's in the word of God, but not everybody that gets saved has been predestined by God to be saved. I just don't believe that everyone— God's got them lit up. This is a good one, this is a bad one. I believe that he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you are prideful, if you are arrogant, if you are boastful in a proud manner, God's going to resist you. But he gives grace, he pours out his grace on the humble. The people that don't think they've got everything all figured out. And I want to go one book previous to 1 Peter, and I want to go to 2:9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You were called out of darkness. Many are called, but few are chosen. And he calls after those humble, and then you have got to accept the call. And I want to make sure that you're tracking with me when I say many are called and few are chosen. God doesn't want anyone to perish. It's not God's will that any should perish, but all come to repentance. God's will is that no one goes to hell. He wants all of his kids to go to heaven and be in heaven with him forever. He knows that's not going to be the case, and he understands because he sees the end from the beginning. Now, he does not make anybody harden their heart towards himself. He allows you to have free will. And if you stay prideful and if you start saying, well, that's just a bunch of garbage, or that's just a bunch of crap, I ain't believing any of that, well, God's going to allow you to have that thought, and God's going to allow you to own that. And when it comes down to the end of times in the judgment, you are going to stand before God in judgment, and you are going to have to defend your position in life. I talked about in a previous episode that you are going to stand in a courtroom with Father God as the righteous judge, and you are going to have to defend your own actions. The way I've got it pictured, when I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I don't have to defend my actions anymore. I have a mediator. I have a different person that's going to stand before Father God and defend me. And if you can kind of picture that in your mind, when you accept Jesus, he becomes your defender and he becomes your mediator, your go-between between Father God and you. When God looks at you, he sees his son because Jesus is standing there defending you and you have become his and we become one with him. I do not believe that God is picking and choosing who is gonna come to heaven. I believe God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And I think we go to John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me," me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. And I just want you to think about— this is Jesus talking to his disciples, or his— to the people that were listening to it, to you and I really. And he's saying, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I think that's a key sentence or a key verse in drawing. Many are called, few are chosen. God is going to draw those to himself, I believe. And I don't know how all this works, and I'm not trying to play God, but I try to look at God from a loving standpoint. He knows how bad hell is, and he knows how wonderful heaven is. And so he wants all of his kids, and he made every one of us. He made you and I and you are his favorite. You are special to God. He loves you and he wants you with him forever in heaven. But if you're prideful, if you're arrogant, if you are proud, God is going to resist you, and he will resist you all the way to hell. I said this multiple times and I'm going to say it again: God is not going to send anyone to hell. I believe you or I will choose whether we're going to go to heaven or we're going to go to hell. And God is famous for giving us the answer to the tests. And I'm going to read real quick in Deuteronomy 30:15. I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. And then go down to 19. Here's where the test comes in. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Well, there you have it. God sets before us the question: Are you going to choose death or life? Blessings or cursings? And then he gives you the answer: Hey, choose life. And how loving is that? How kind is that? That God gives us the test and then gives us the answer. But it is our choice. He's saying, "You have to choose." Many are called, few are chosen. You have to do the choosing. I think that is obvious in everything that God does. He gives us free will and he requires us to choose which way we're going to go. Are we going to go the wide route? Are we going to take the narrow road? Are we going to take life or are we going to choose death? I think it's as simple as that. And he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And by humbling yourself, it's simple as, I don't think I understand all of this, or God, I'm not sure I've got the full picture of what's going on here. So I'm gonna need a little help. I mean, just humbling it and just saying, hey, I might have been wrong. I might not understand this completely. And ask the Holy Spirit to clear it up for you. It's that simple. And then get into his word. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. That's his job. And it is gonna be wonderful if you will humble yourself, if you'll just change your mind, on a way you've been thinking. And I'm not telling you to think like I think. I'm asking you just to be open to the fact that maybe what you've got as a stronghold, what you're defending as a right doctrine, make sure it's a doctrine of God and not a doctrine of men. And that's what— and I'm gonna go back to what Jesus had said back in Mark 7:9. He said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition, and making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down, and many such things you do. I think that's it in a nutshell. You have got to make sure that this is a commandment of God and not a tradition of man. And I think it is obvious when God asks the question Is it life or death? Is it blessing or cursing? And then he says, choose life. And I think another way of saying the same thing is found in Matthew 22:36. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. And I think you have right there in your Bible in 5 verses, verses 22, 36 through 40, the Old Testament Law and Prophets summed up. These two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Love God and love people. If you do those two things, you're not going to be too far off the kingdom of God. And I just looked up at the clock and I saw I'm dragging this thing on again, and I apologize. Let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you for this listener, and I pray in Jesus' name that you would bring your word to them clearly. Holy Spirit, help them understand what it is I'm trying to communicate to them. Lord, if I've confused them in any way, I pray that you would help clear it up. Lord, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.