2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 “Why the Saved are Saved” Dennis Mock

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Life is full of mysteries. Some are more baffling than others. Salvation is one of those. If
it is all of God, what part can man play? What is the proper balance between divine
sovereignty and human decision?

I want to plant three pictures in your mind. They will be helpful as we process the text.
1) The conveyor belt - Ephesians 3:1-10
a. We are all conceived in sin and born with a sin nature and will end up in Hell
unless God intervenes.
b. How do we get off the conveyor belt? We talked about this a couple of weeks
ago.
2) A two sided gate through which you enter heaven –
a. On the outside: “Whoever believes in the name of the Lord will be saved”
b. On the inside: “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the earth”
3) Two parallel lines which trail off into eternity –
a. They will only converge in eternity and be fully understood there.
b. These represent truths that are seemingly contradictory in this life.
i. Acts 2:23 – This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose
and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to
death by nailing Him to the cross.
1. Jesus said, “I lay my own life down no one takes it from me”
ii.Genesis 45:5-8 – Joseph tells his brothers not to be angry with
themselves for selling him into slavery because God had intended it for
good!
1. It is true that they had done the deed yet God had purposed it
for His divine purposes.

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

– (v. 13-14) represent in capsule summary what we are talking about this morning.
○ From the beginning God chose you
○ v. 13 starts with “but” because v. 12 describes why the Lost stay lost.
○ Ephesians 1:4; Romans 10:13; John 6:44 – can all these be true at the same
time? Yes!
○ If you get these two verses and understand them you will begin to settle
down in your uneasiness about election and free will.
 Free will is really a misnomer anyway because we are free only in a
very limited sense.
 God also is not “free” to violate His own character.

Three Aspect to God’s Part:

1) God chooses those who are to be saved! – (v. 13)
a. This is called; election, selection, divine choice.
b. It is not based on anyone having done anything good or bad.
c. It happens before anyone has even been born. Romans 9?
d. We are not comfortable with this because we really believe in comparative
righteousness. We are like the Pharisee looking at the Publican saying, “I
sure am glad I am not like him!”
e. Because of this it destroys any claim that salvation is based on works,
heritage, etc.
 f. In mercy God chose to extend grace to some. It is miraculous that He
chooses anyone!
g. It is God’s prerogative alone.
h. Eph. 1:4 – We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
i. Rev. 20:15 – those who end up in the Lake of Fire are those whose names
are not written in the Lamb’s book of life.
i. God put those names there in eternity past.
j. Get over the fact that God does not save everyone because no one deserved
it in the first place.
k. Christians are a “selected minority”, selected by God.
l. WE will have to ask Him why he saved any of us since none of us deserved it.
m. God snatches some from the conveyor belt.
2) God calls those who are to be saved, through the Gospel – (v. 14)
a. God calls us through circumstances, our reading the Word, others sharing
the Gospel with us.
b. Some of us were raised in church but did not come to salvation and the
Gospel until a given point in time when we responded personally.
c. What do we need to understand to be saved?
i. Jesus is God.
ii.He died on the cross for our sins.
1. We are sinners in need of a savior.
iii.God bodily raised Jesus from the dead.
iv.When I place my trust in Him for forgiveness and salvation He will
save us.
d. If you are hung up on the fact that God has not chosen someone you love or
has chosen someone you would not have, get over it! None of us deserve it.
e. John 6:44 – No one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him.
i. Summon, invite, call in such a strong way that one will willingly
respond to it.
ii.The calling of God is always effectual.
3) God converts those He calls through the sanctifying work of the Holy
Spirit – (v. 13)
a. 1 Peter 1:2
b. A separation from sin occurs at the moment of salvation.
c. Also a separation to righteousness.
d. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imparted to us.
e. 1 Thess. 1:4 – We know He has chosen you because you received the
Gospel with conviction.
f. We call it redemption, justification, regeneration, etc. – it is the Holy Spirit
setting us apart from sin. This is God’s part which we call salvation.
g. It takes being chosen, called, and converted and if God does not do it we are
not saved.
4) God’s purpose is that we would ultimately be conformed to the image of
His Son (v. 14)
a. We are to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
b. (v. 16) – God gave us eternal encouragement and hope – salvation.
c. God chooses, calls, converts, and conforms.
d. God will also give us a resurrection body.
e. Charles Spurgeon, “If God had not called me I would not have called on Him”
f. God’s foreknowledge is not causative. He simply knows those whom He is
going to call.
Man’s Part:
1) We are saved through “belief in the truth” – v. 13
a. We believe that we are sinners in need of a savior and accept Jesus as that
savior.
b. Are we responsible if God causes it? I have never met a Christian who did not
enter into salvation willingly! This is John 1:23; 3:16-18
i. If we don’t believe we remain under the wrath of God.
c. Eph. 2:4-9 – tells us faith itself is a gift from God!
i. v. 1-10 of Ephesians 2 form the crux of what we are discussing this
morning.
d. Those who believe will do so because God chose them but also because they
chose to believe willingly.
e. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
f. The only thing we can do is receive by faith the free gift. We must hear
respond and say yes.
2) Those who are lost also refuse to believe of their own free will
a. There will be no one in Heaven who would ever choose to leave. There will
be no one in Hell who given the choice would ever choose to leave – C.S.
Lewis. This is not from scripture but gets at our responsibility for our won
choices.

I have not even answered all my own questions with this message but I want you to
know I am comfortable and settled with the truths presented in scripture.

I have reached some conclusions:

1) Only God can save.
a. There is nothing in us to commend ourselves to god.
b. We also cannot “unsave” ourselves. We are kept by the very power of God.
2) If God does not initiate the plan of salvation then everyone is lost.
3) Only God knows whom He has chosen.
a. John Calvin – “Election is God’s business and evangelism is mine”
b. Evangelism is necessary for belief to occur.
4) Salvation occurs without violating man’s choice or the consequences of those
choices.
a. God has revealed Himself in nature itself to such an extent that all are
without excuse – Romans 1?
b. Up until death we can repent and believe but we can’t count on the next
moment and should believe now!
5) Parallel truths like God’s sovereign, divine choosing and man’s responsibility to
choose to believe or reject will not be understood fully until eternity.
a. Our job is to accept the truths and rely on them by faith.
b. We cannot change them or come up with some incredibly clever way to
reconcile them.

The lost stay lost because they refused to believe. The Saved come off that conveyor
belt because God chose them in eternity past and because they chose to believe the
Gospel when it was presented to them.
When I walk away from a passage like this I do so with incredible gratitude for God’s
amazing grace in choosing me. I realize that I would indeed fall short in terms of
comparative righteousness.

We will close by looking at two passages:

– Romans 9:16 – It does not depend therefore on man’s desire but on God’s grace
– Romans 9: 22* What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power
known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-- prepared for
destruction? 23* What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the
objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--24* even us, whom
he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
– Romans 8: 28* And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29* For those God
foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30* And those he predestined, he
also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Questions to ask:
1) Are all men separated from God by their sin?
2) Is God obligated to save any?
3) Does God have the right to choose to save some?