How Do I Know If I Am One of the “Elect”?

This new episode of CORE Christianity was prerecorded.

How do I know if I'm one of the elect? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Frank calling in from San Diego, California. Frank, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Thanks, Pastor Adriel, for taking my call and being so faithful to God's Word. My question for today is, well, first and foremost, with everything going on with COVID-19 and just, you know, so many people in the hospital lately and people passing away, you know, I'm really trying to be there for a lot of people right now. I'm praying with a lot of loved ones, and, you know, my father just recently is, you know, recovering from COVID pneumonia out of the ICU and making a recovery, but you know, I also know people who have passed, you know, their loved ones, and a lot of us are believers and I'm trying to navigate through the Scriptures and kind of communicate God's grace and also, you know, trying to...how do I approach people who may question things and like maybe feel like, hey, this person survived over here and this person did, yet we're both Christians, and I'm just trying to navigate through all that so I can continue to be empathetic towards people and comfort people and help people and pray with them, you know, because I know for me it's way down on my hearts with hearing the people passed and yet my father is recovering and, you know, I'm just feeling really bad at the situation of people who are passing away and I know this is part of life and everything, God is sovereign and all that, but if you can help me articulate or, you know, go through the Scriptures, I want to be empathetic and help comfort others during this whole process.

Thank you, I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm grateful to hear, Frank, that your father is better and thank you for giving us a call and this obviously is something that I think weighs heavily on a lot of people's hearts right now, especially as we think about death, life and death and God's providence and sovereignty, and I think that the first thing that I would want to say is God cares immensely for his creation and for people. Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 10 said in verse 29, are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. He's talking about God's providence in the midst of life and death, now one danger is, you know, that doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility, we're not fatalistic about this, you know, we're called to honor the Lord with our lives, to seek to live healthy lives, you know, lives that are honoring to God, where we're taking care of ourselves, but at the same time we have to realize that, you know, when it's an individual's time, if you will, that the Lord is in control. And another passage of Scripture that I think of is Psalm 139, a really, I think, comforting words from David. He said in verse 14, I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written every one of them, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. It really is wonderful to think about this, the fact that God knows each and every one of our days.

They've been numbered. He knows every single hair that is on our heads, and so I think when we're wrestling with this question, in particular in light of death, we cast ourselves upon the mercy of God and we say, Lord, you aren't caught by surprise by these circumstances. We believe that you're good, we believe that you care for your creation. We may not understand why one individual goes and another individual doesn't, but we know, Lord, that you hold all things in your hands, and so we trust in you and we look to you. And when God raises up a loved one or raises us up through sickness, we give thanks to the Lord, we praise him, we thank God for his mercy, and then we seek to help the people around us and to care for them. And it sounds like that's exactly what you're doing, Frank, in praying with others and for others and seeking to minister to them, and so may God continue to bless you as you do that. And maybe those are two passages of scripture that you can walk people through.

Psalm 139 and Matthew chapter 10. God bless. I appreciate Frank's heart so much. You know, the Bible talks about how we're to bear one another's burdens, and that's exactly what he's doing. And man, just a good man. And thank you, Frank, for being a regular listener to Core Christianity.

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Here's an email from Carolyn. She says, I learned about the doctrines of grace a couple of years ago, and I've been struggling with great fear about not being one of God's elect. It has really made me scared and question that maybe I can't approach Christ even though I know he's the only one who can save us. Can Jesus reject someone coming to him for mercy?

What should someone struggling with this do? Can Jesus reject someone coming to him for mercy, or better perhaps, would Jesus do that? If you come to Jesus looking for mercy, confessing your sins, does Jesus ever say to you, uh, yeah, not interested, or, uh, you've sinned too much, that that kind of a thing.

The first thing is no. When you come to Jesus confessing your sins, he receives you and forgives you. Jesus himself said, the one who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. This is John chapter 6. In other words, if you come to me, I'm not going to turn my back on you.

I'm not going to say, yeah, not interested, that kind of a thing. When we come in faith confessing our sins, he forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. That's a promise that you have in the word of God, Caroline. And so I think you have to cling to that promise.

And that's just the thing. When we're thinking about the doctrine of election, God's choice, contemplating that, I think it's really easy to mess this up. We're sort of speculating about, you know, well, did God in eternity pass, choose me, elect me, that kind of a thing.

How can I know for sure? And it's almost as if we want to climb up into heaven and sort of look into God's mind and see what he's thinking and what he's decreed. But the fact of the matter is we can't do that. But here's what we do have, and here's what you do have, is God's sure promise. And ultimately, that sure promise is in Jesus Christ. And so when we think about these doctrines, like the doctrine of election, the doctrine of salvation even, you need to go straight to the cross, straight to Jesus himself. And even the apostle Paul, when he talked about the doctrine of election or predestination in places like Ephesians chapter one, he rooted the entire thing in Jesus Christ so that we shouldn't even be thinking about these things apart from Jesus and his work. Ephesians chapter one, verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. There's that word, elected, chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. And so what you need to do, what you need to do, what we all need to do as we think about these doctrines, these weighty doctrines, the doctrine of election, is flee to the cross, flee to the gospel. It's there that you have the promise of God's sure love for sinners. And that's how we approach the Lord, in faith, recognizing that we're sinners, but clinging to his mercy in Jesus. And if you do that, if you believe in Jesus, then you can have great confidence, great confidence, sister, that you belong to him. And not just that you chose him, but that he chose you, as Paul says, even there from before the foundation of the world. And you know that because you cling to Jesus and look to him. And so continue to look to him and to rest in him. God bless. Some great words of assurance. Thank you so much for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go back to the phones. Jonathan's on the line from Nashville, Tennessee. Jonathan, what's your question for Adriel? Okay, hold on one second. I had a question about in the scriptures.

It said the first should be last, and the last should be first. If you could enlighten me on that a little bit. And my second question is, is I see a change going in a church, through the church. I'm an evangelist and preaching just about every denomination there is, Methodist, Nazarene, Pentecostal, charismatic. And I see it kind of a change happening in the church with money.

Money kind of seems to be the top topic. And a lot of these preachers are, they get 20, 30 million dollars from preaching. I just wonder, where do you draw the line? And that's kind of my question. I wanted to hear what your input was on that.

Yeah, okay, so a couple of things there. What does Jesus mean when he said, many who are first will be last and the last first? This is something that you see in the Gospels. That quotation came from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew chapter 19 verse 30. In the context of Jesus' discussion with the rich young ruler, you remember the rich young ruler came to him saying, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Then Jesus pointed him to the law. And the rich young ruler says, I've obeyed the law ever since I was a young man.

I was a kid, I've been obeying your word. But Jesus helps him to realize that he actually hasn't been obeying the law as well as he thought he had been. And he says, go sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, and then come follow me.

And the rich young ruler turned away, was devastated because he had a lot of possessions, money, getting to the second part of your question, if you will. And those possessions basically had a grip on his heart, a grip that kept him from wanting, at least in that moment, to follow Jesus. And so Jesus begins to speak to his disciples after that encounter. And he says, look, truly I say to you, this is Matthew 19, verse 23, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard this, they were astonished, greatly astonished, saying, well, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. And Peter responded and said, look, we've left everything and followed you, what will we have? And Jesus said, truly I say to you, in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.

But here's your verse, many who are first will be last and the last first. In other words, there's going to be some surprises there in the kingdom of God. Many who we thought were the first, maybe, you know, Jonathan, some of those preachers you were talking about, right, who have this big name for preaching and they're raking in, you said, 20-30 million dollars a year preaching the gospel. People are like, oh boy, that person is just so blessed. Seems like they must, you know, really have the telephone line to God. How could they be so blessed?

That kind of a thing. Well, Jesus says, look, on the day of judgment in the kingdom of God, there are going to be some surprises. I mean, Jesus said, you know, you're going to have people coming from north, south, east, and west sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, but the sons of the kingdom, the people that you expected to be there. And there he's, I think, referring to the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the people that, you know, men and women looked at and said, you know, they're going to be the first. And Jesus says they're going to be cast out because they rejected the gospel. All right, you think about Jesus's words in Matthew chapter 7, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many are going to say to me on that day, didn't we cast out demons in your name and do all these wonders in your name? And Jesus says, I'm going to say to them, depart from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. And so I think all of that is sort of getting at what Jesus is meaning here when he says, many who are first will be last and the last first. In just a couple of chapters there in the gospel of Matthew, in Matthew chapter 21, Jesus says, you know, this is actually a really interesting statement. In verse 31, he speaks, truly I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. Again, here Jesus is referring to the religious leaders. He's rebuking them and he's saying, look, the last, the people you never would have expected, the tax collectors and prostitutes, they're entering the kingdom of God before you.

Why? Because they realize their need for God's grace. And so again, there are going to be some surprises on the day of judgment. Now with regard to the second part of your question, I've gone on now, but with regard to the second part of your question, this change where you have pastors who are focusing on, you said money. I mean, it's one of the qualifications of an elder that they can't be greedy.

You think of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1. So where do we draw the line? Well, we draw the line certainly at greed. That's a disqualification for anyone who's in ministry. And you see some of these prosperity preachers, these televangelists, and it's very clear that actually they're not helping lead people to Jesus. They're bringing reproach upon the church and shame upon the church through these scandals, through greed. It was one of the characteristics of the false teachers that they would be characterized by greed, Peter tells us in 2 Peter chapter 2. And so someone who is a preacher, a minister of the gospel, they can't be captive to money, if you will. That can't rule them, control them.

If it does, they're disqualified. And so that's where we draw the line. Thanks, Jonathan, for your questions. Some tough words, but so true right out of God's holy word. So thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We do receive emails here. Our email address is questions at corechristianity.com. If you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, here's one from Matt, Adriel. He says, I'm having a hard time understanding the idea of regeneration before faith, combined with Jesus' call for us to believe written throughout the Bible. Could you please help me understand those concepts a little better?

Yeah. Yeah, well, there's an argument, right, or a debate that people have, a theological debate that people have, sort of what came first, the chicken or the egg kind of debate. What comes first, faith or regeneration? Regeneration is this idea of being made alive, you know, born again. And so do we believe, and then as a result of our believing, we're regenerated, or is faith born out of our regeneration, if you will? And my position is that, that regeneration comes before, prior to faith, and flows from it, if you will.

Think about what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

That's regeneration right there. God made us, we who were dead in sin, alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, Paul says, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. Now how does this relate to, and it sounds like this is this is also you know a part of your question, how does this relate to the preaching of the word of God? If Jesus calls all people everywhere to repent, to believe, but regeneration comes before faith, well how does this work?

Well here's how it works. God uses his word by the power of the Holy Spirit to create life in our hearts. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Paul says in Romans chapter 10, you think about that prophecy in the book of Ezekiel, the prophecy of the dry bones. God's saying to the prophet Ezekiel, can these bones live? This just sort of barren wasteland of bones, and as God begins to speak on this valley of dry bones, as the prophet begins to prophesy, they become animated, and they come to life. It's the word of God. God uses his word to create life in our dead hearts. It's through the word that regeneration comes, and faith is then created, and so that's how we understand it. God calls all people everywhere to repent, and he uses his word, the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit as the means, the mechanism, if you will, to bring us to new life, and so the wonderful thing about this is it should give us a great confidence in the word of God, right? I mean this is just something that you see throughout the scriptures, in James's writings, in Peter's writings, and you've been born again not of a seed that is perishable, but imperishable through the living and abiding word of God, born again, regenerated, through what? Through the word, so it's absolutely clear in scripture that this is how it works, and this should cause us to praise the Lord, to worship him, and to humble ourselves, recognizing, God, I couldn't save myself. I was dead in trespasses and sins.

I couldn't pull myself up by the bootstraps. It was you. It was your grace. It was your word. It was your spirit giving me new life. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our listeners.

This one is from Annie. Hi. I want to know, we have so many denominations, and I was just wondering, we have one Holy Spirit, you know, the Lord, Jesus, and Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

How come we don't agree on all the how come we don't agree on all the teachings in the scriptures? I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, you know, Annie, I've asked myself this same question. It really is sad, right? You think about the divisions in the church, the schisms, even heresy that's gone out of the, I mean, people who've gone so far, you know, out of bounds, that we wouldn't even consider them Christians anymore.

It's just, it's sad. I mean, we've seen this since the very beginning, too. This isn't just something that's new that happened in the last 100 years or even 500 years. There were divisions in the churches of the apostles. You think about the letter to the Corinthians. I mean, Paul says, you know, some people are saying, I am of Paul. Some people are saying, I am of Apollos. Other people are saying, you know, I'm just of Christ, that kind of thing.

There were divisions even there in the churches that the apostles planted. And so this is a reality. And the reason it's a reality today, this is my answer, is because of sin. God's Word is clear.

We say it has perspicuity. That's one of the attributes of scripture that is clarity, especially when it comes to the gospel. But even though God's Word is clear, our minds and our hearts are clouded by sin. That's why we need the help of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the Holy Spirit, humility to humble ourselves as we search the scriptures, as we study them, to be led by the Lord deeper and deeper into the truth. And the fact of the matter is, is people are oftentimes rebelling against that. You know, they're not understanding the Bible according to its context. They're not being led by the Spirit, by their own desires, by their own passions, twisting the scriptures. Peter said, you know, that's what people were doing with Paul's writings, even in his day.

And so that's why we continue to have divisions today. Sadly, the good news is, through Christ, all those who believe in Jesus by faith, who have received him, really there's only one church, one true church. And it consists of all those who believe in Jesus and call upon his name. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.