The
electing and rejecting God is Supreme. Such is the plain teaching of Scripture.
To deny the sovereign character of elective grace is to deny that God is God.
It is to maintain that of the two, God and man, man is the stronger, and thus
the factor that shapes God’s choice. This is indeed the lie that constitutes
the premise, the supporting pillar, of the average sermon to which our
church-going public is made to listen. I realized that the phraseology of which
I avail myself in defining the lie with which the modern Evangelical discourse
is fraught, may be strange to you. The apostles of a dethroned God and an
enthroned sinner would perhaps recoil from declaring that man is able to defeat
the purposes of God. They rather speak of a God who loves and wills to save all
men (head for head), of a Christ who died for all, and of a (depraved) sinner
who can believe if he will. But know that, though God is supposed to will to
save all men, many perish, so that the eternal death of an unrepentant sinner
spells defeat for the Almighty. To say, therefore, that God indiscriminately
wills to save all, is to dethrone God. To maintain that the natural man,
destitute of regeneration (such is indeed the implication), can will to
believe, is to seat him on a throne, left vacant, as was said, by a dethroned
God.
Once
more, to deny the sovereign character of elective grace is to deny that God is
God. Yet many do deny it. The sad fact is that the doctrine of a sovereign
election and reprobation is to many a dreaded doctrine. The number of the
divines in the Christian Church who will consistently champion it, is
comparatively small. Many openly decry the conception of a God, who has mercy
upon whom He will have mercy and hardeneth whom He wills, as the product of a
diseased brain and, when pressed, begin to prate of an election reposing upon
foreseen faith. Others of a more Reformed persuasion prefer to keep silence
about the matter altogether, which they do, except on rare occasions when
custom compels them to bring it up. But even then this truth must be
neutralized by some such nefarious admixture as ‘a general well-meaning offer
of grace.’
Scripture
is most outspoken respecting the matter of election and reprobation. This no
one acquainted with the contents of Holy Writ will deny, ever has denied.
‘According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…’
(Eph. 1:4). ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…’ (1 Peter
1:2). Verily, the doctrine of election runs like a seam of gold through the entire
Word. It is the main pillar upon which the truth-structure, reared by the
prophets and the apostles, reposes. It is so interwoven with the texture of
every other truth of the Christian religion, that to preach any of these is to
preach election. There is nothing cold about this doctrine. Election spells
divine love, mercy, compassion, wisdom, power, justice, holiness. God in
infinite mercy, taking an ill-deserving sinner included in Christ Jesus, to His
bosom, to be to Him a close companion forever — this is election.
Whereas,
as far as I am aware, it is freely admitted that Scripture in unmistakable
speech teaches a divine election and reprobation, the issue is not: Does Holy
Writ teach election, but rather: What is the character of the selective process?
Is it supreme and sovereign, or bound and imprisoned by the will of man? We
affirm on the basis of Scripture that the divine choice must be as sovereign as
God Himself. And He is absolutely sovereign. High is He above all nations,
exalted far above all gods. What may be the secret of His supremacy? He is God,
infinite in might, the almighty Creator of the earth and the fullness thereof.
He appears in Scripture as the Creator of the saint and as the sole source of
his salvation. Also of sin, He is the supreme necessity. He forms the light,
and creates darkness; makes peace and creates evil (Is. 45:7). Verily, the
joint testimony of Scripture that God is supreme is overwhelming. The burden of
the joint message of all the prophets and the apostles is: God is supreme. He
is God. What then must be the truth about His choice, His elective grace? As
God, this choice is, must be, supreme. This is the proposition to the defense
of which we arise in this pamphlet.
Proven
From Scripture
What
we will now prove from Scripture is that God’s choice, selection, is sovereign,
that is, not bound, tied down and held in bondage by man. What may be meant by
a supreme, in distinction from bound choice? Let us illustrate. The matter is
simple enough. A merchant is in need of an able clerk. He advertises, and
shortly two men, ‘A’ and ‘B’ apply. The merchant fixes his gaze first upon the
one and then upon the other; and the thought rises in his soul, ‘A’ strongly
appeals to me. Him will I select, providing he possesses the necessary fitness.
A brief interview, however, convinces him that the fit man is not ‘A’ but ‘B.’
‘B’ therefore is taken and ‘A’ dismissed. A bound choice; bound because shaped
and influenced by a circumstance (the fitness of the applicants) which the
merchant did not create, but before which he is compelled to bow and take
cognizance of, a circumstance, therefore, that constitutes the factor that
determined the choice. On the other hand, if the merchant, capable of making of
a man what he wills, could choose without considering what the applicants
within themselves are, his choice, determined solely by factors within himself,
would be free and sovereign. From the very nature of things, however, man’s
choice is always bound. He cannot move mountains; hence he chooses the path
that leads him past them. He decides to cross the ocean in a ship because the
opposite shore can be reached in no other way. His choice to go his way alone
is shaped by the refusal of the friend to set out in company with him.
Forsooth, the field in which man’s will can operate is exceedingly small.
However,
as the choice, selection, of a God who made heaven and earth, moves mountains,
dries up seas, creates evil, turns men’s hearts, is the source of anything of
goodness in man — this choice, elective love, of God is supreme. Nowhere is
this more plainly taught than in the ninth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the
Romans. Attend to the argument of the verses ten to fourteen: ‘And not only
this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; for
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that
calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’ This passage asserts, mark you,
that God loved Jacob before he had done any good, so that the supreme cause of
the divine choice as it devolved upon the younger child was not the good works,
which he, as a historical phenomenon, performed; but the will, the good
pleasure, of the Almighty God. And this is the same as saying that He chose
Jacob with a view to creating in him life, goodness, and power. For, not of
works but of Him that calleth, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Forsooth, God’s choice is supreme. The sole factor that determines
it, is found within Him. He has mercy upon whom He will.
Deny
the sovereignty of the divine choice, say that a sinner of himself believes,
can believe if he but will, and cannot be made to believe, if he will not; and
you brush aside with one sweep the entire mass of testimony of Scripture that
God is God, and set man on a throne left vacant by a dethroned God. For if the
spiritual Israel, as to its hallowed energies and power (its faith, hope, love,
and good works) is not of God, is not the creation of His almighty will; He is
not Israel’s Maker, exalted and almighty Father, King and Savior. To say,
therefore, that there is something of goodness in man that is not of God, not
the creation of His will — some power, however infinitesimal, to appropriate
the Christ and the blessings of the kingdom, to take hold of the life-line
thrown out, some power to utter a single faint cry for mercy — is to strip Him
of His infinite might, yea of all His glories, and draw Him down to the level
of the creature to be trodden under foot of man. Consider that man is by nature
dead in trespasses and sin, and thus destitute of spiritual life and power.
How, then, can He believe, will to believe, of himself?
As
to Esau, God hated him before he had done any evil so that the supreme reason
of the divine rejection as it devolved upon the older child was not his
corruption, the evil works he as a historical phenomenon performed, but the
will, the good pleasure, of God. For reasons within Himself the Almighty
resolved to reject and to harden the historical Esau. ‘Therefore hath He mercy
on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will he hardeneth.’ (Rom. 9: 18).
Consider that if Esau’s total depravity was the supreme reason that compelled
God to reject him, the Almighty would have been forced to reject Jacob as well,
for he by nature was as depraved as his reprobated brother. This shows that the
supreme reason of Esau’s rejection was not his wickedness, but the sovereign
will of God.
Know
well that to rebel against the reasoning of the above-cited Scripture, is to be
compelled to embrace the sickening lie that the supreme reason of the divine
rejection of the sinner, is the latter’s wickedness — his persistent refusal to
give ear to the pleading of a God who would save but cannot and therefore
finally resolves, contrary to His inmost desire, to punish the incorrigible
culprit with eternal death. And this is equal to saying that the attempt of the
Almighty to save ends in dismal failure as often as a sinner perishes. But let
me ask: Is God’s will bound? Does the unwillingness of the sinner to be saved
spell defeat for the Almighty? Does the iron wall of man’s opposition stay the Lord?
Is His resolve to save a man shattered upon the rock of man’s stinking pride,
arrogance, and contempt? Don’t say that I speak too disparagingly of man. He is
a creature with a stiff neck, with a heart of stone, with a mouth full of
dreadful curses, with a tongue under which lurks the poison of asps, with a
throat that is an open sepulcher, with feet swift to shed blood, with a mind
imagining vain things. In a word, he is a creature incapable of saving good and
inclined to all evil. Dead is he in trespasses and sin. Does the stony heart of
this man constitute the rock that resists the hammer-blows of God’s grace, the
rock with which His will collides and is dashed to fragments? Nay, my friend,
there is no such rock. The stony heart of man defeat God — Him who measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended
the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the
hills in balance; Him before Whom the nations are nothing; Him, the incomparable
God, Who bringeth the princes to nothing and maketh the judges of the earth as
nothing? (Is. 40). This God overruled by the will of man, receding when man
advances, proceeding only when man deigns to let him pass? Nay, it cannot be.
How preposterous the very idea! No heart so hard that He cannot break. No will
so stubborn that He cannot bend. No sinner so dead that He cannot revive. No
sinner so proud that He cannot debase. No heart so filthy that He cannot
cleanse. No sinner so lost that He cannot save. No sinner sunken so low that He
could not raise up and set in heaven with Christ. However, He hath mercy upon
whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. The one believes,
repents, and cries for mercy, because God so wills. And another resists, hardens
his heart, says no to the Almighty, and perishes in his sins, because He so
wills. The electing and rejecting God is supreme. Will any true lover of God
care to maintain the contrary? Again I say that I cannot conceive of him doing
so.
The
First Objection Weighed
It
is said, that the doctrine that God, according to His own purpose and for a
reason in Himself, to wit, His own good pleasure, chooses one and rejects
another, is inconsistent with divine justice. The apostle dealt with this
objection. That he did so proves conclusively that the views we champion are
actually his. Otherwise it could never be explained why he should raise and
remove the aforesaid objection immediately upon having quoted from the
discourse of the prophet Malachi the words, ‘Jacob have I loved but Esau have I
hated.’ (Rom. 9:13). ‘What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God?’ (Rom. 9:14) is the question the apostle now puts forth. And his answer:
‘God forbid. For He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion . . . . For the
Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show My power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.’ Both passages are from the book of Exodus (9:16;
33:11). The purpose of the apostle is obvious. He sweeps away the objection by
showing that Scripture and thus God Himself unmistakably declares that He hath
mercy on whom He will have mercy and hardeneth whom he will unto His glory.
What God actually does — does unto His everlasting glory (such is the
implication) — is, must be, just. So, then, what the apostle would bind upon
our hearts is that, whereas God (according to His own purpose, for a reason in
Himself, and with a view to Himself) actually chooses one and rejects and
hardens another — this doing of His is, must be, just. Let this sink deep into
your heart, my reader. God’s works (including the rejection and hardening of
the sinner) are truth and verity; they being performed by Him for a reason in
Himself, according to His purpose, and with a view to Himself, to the
enhancement of His name, with an eye singled to His glory, with Himself before
His eye as the ultimate goal. Consider that He is the highest good, a Being
wise and just, the inclusion of all that is good and lovely. Hence, any work of
His that has not Himself as its supreme cause and goal falls short of Himself
and is vile. Because God ends in Himself, He is the just and the holy God. Such
is the reply of the apostle to the objection that sovereign rejection involves
God in an unfair treatment especially of those whom He wills to reject and
harden. The apostle’s reply does not satisfy you? So, then, it is not enough
for you, to know that — whereas it is actually the way of God to have mercy on
whom he will have mercy and to harden whom He will — Paul’s doctrine of a
sovereign election and rejection is, must be, consistent with divine justice?
Consider that what you set aside is God’s very own appraisal of His doings,
yea, of Himself. You dare say to God that His appraisal of Himself is wrong?
You, finite creature of the dust, dare to sit in judgment over God?
The
Second Objection Weighed
The
Objection
Another objection raised against sovereign
elective grace is that it is incompatible with human responsibility. This
grievance, too, was advanced by the enemy of the truth who rose before the eye
of the apostle. It again shows that the doctrine of the preceding verses is:
God chooses one and rejects another because He wills. The form in which the
apostle has the objector cast his complaint is: ‘Why doth He yet find fault?
For who hath resisted His will?’ (Rom. 9:19). The reasoning here is plain: If
it be true that the destiny of man is in the almighty hand of God; if it is not
of him who willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; if
one believes because God saves him; if another remains impenitent because God
hardens him, and is lost because God fits him for destruction; if man’s state
and destiny depend on God alone — how can He find fault, that is, how can He
blame man and hold him responsible? For who can resist His will? Observe that
the objection is precisely the one being urged against our doctrine of the
character of the elective grace of God. Let this set you to thinking. It shows
that we are in exceedingly good company, in the company of no one less than
Paul.
‘Who
hath resisted His will?’ The objector then has grasped the force and
implication of the apostle’s reasoning. The question is, however, whether the
doctrine of the preceding verses yields this conclusion. And the answer: In the
mouth of the objector, the complaint, ‘No one can resist His will’ is vile
slander. What the objector means to say is that the reprobated sinner is
hardened irrespective of what he can do about it, is hardened therefore against
his own good will and better self. If God would only withdraw and permit this
better self to assert itself, the hardened one would obey and not rebel. The
sinner, according to the reasoning of the objector, is being compelled to say
no to the Almighty, though he would say yes. Hence, God cannot find fault. What
has the apostle to say to this? Nothing directly. He could have replied: Thou,
O man, canst not resist God’s will in the sense that thou, being hardened by
God, canst will to do nothing else but harden thyself and say no to Him. Thy
will is only evil as thyself. With thy whole being, with all the power that is
thine, dost thou pitch thyself against God. He, therefore, finds fault with
thee, holds thee accountable. For thy rebellion is wanton, willful,
unrestrained, unfettered.
Verily,
though hardened, man is the subject of his rebellion, and behaves in agreement
with his nature. With such amazing freedom does he sin, so far is he from being
able to detect the power of the Almighty over and in him as something foreign
to himself, that he denies the existence of God. Ask a man who persists in his
unbelief why he continues to say no to the Lord, and his answer will not be:
God hardens me, but, I will not believe, I hate God and refuse to come to His
service.
That
the apostle knew how to meet the aforesaid objection is evident from the
following passage taken from the first section of his epistle: ‘Who knowing the
judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not
only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.’
(Rom. 1:32-2:1). So then, the express declaration of Scripture is that the
rejected sinner, though hardened and fitted for destruction by God, is
nevertheless inexcusable, and is thus being held accountable for his moral
state. Though hardened by God, man sins as a free moral agent. If you ask, How
can this be? I must reply that I know not. What Scripture here presents is no
contradiction but a mystery, which for this reason defies our powers of
penetration. Deny either that man is at fault, or that God hardens him, and the
mystery vanishes into thin air. The exponents of the theory of a well-meaning
offer of salvation to all men, of the theory that God wills to save all, that
Christ died for all, of the theory that a sinner of himself can believe — I
say, the exponents of these various theories have no mystery.
The
Reply
‘How
can He find fault. For who hath resisted His will?’ Let us now attend to the
apostle’s reply to this question. Consider, that the question is rhetorical and
may therefore be converted into a positive statement thus: God cannot find
fault, for no one can resist His will. The opponent feels certain that the
objection he now raises compels the apostle to concede that his doctrine is
inconsistent with human accountability and therefore shall have to be
relinquished. But the apostle is not to be silenced. In replying, however, he
purposely refrains from caviling with his opponent about the matter of human
responsibility, for the reason that all such complaints rise not from sincere
perplexity, not from an earnest desire to know the truth about the matter, but
from a stinking pride that dares to cavil with God and challenge His claim upon
His moral creatures. Grievances they are that spring from a sinful
unwillingness to believe that with God there can be no unrighteousness; from a
vile stubbornness, that against better knowledge, refuses to concede that,
whereas God is God and man His creature, a thing formed, God can do with man
according as He wills. The apostle, therefore, frames a retort designed to
rebuke the opponent’s stinking pride and to expose the blasphemous root-thought
from which the complaint springs (read Romans 9:20-23) — the root-thought,
namely, that God hath no right to do with His moral creatures as He pleases.
Essentially this complaint is like unto the one first raised: ‘Is there
unrighteousness with God?’ Attend now to the apostle’s reply: ‘Nay, but, O man,
who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?’ (Rom. 9:20). It is to be noticed that
the apostle here judges the opponent out of his own mouth. The opponent had
thought to overturn the apostle’s doctrine by the complaint, ‘Who can resist
His will?’ Just so, such is the force of the apostle’s reply, in the right
sense (not in the sense in which the opponent meant it), no one can resist His
will. When He hardens, the sinner can will to do nothing else but harden
himself. Hence, thou, O man, art but clay in the hands of God. Being clay, it
behooves thee to hold thy peace.
‘Who
art thou that repliest against God…’ Let every opponent of Paul’s doctrine
seriously ask himself this question. Let him ask, who am I that dare to set my
mouth against Heaven and say, There is unrighteousness with God? Who am I that
dare to challenge God’s claim upon His moral creatures? Who am I that have the
vile courage to call God to account? Indeed, who art thou, O man? Consider for
a moment who thou art: a vile lump of clay by thyself, impotent, lifeless,
without power to make anything of thyself at all, either a vessel unto honor,
or a vessel unto dishonor. Consider, that thou canst not as much as harden
thyself except the Almighty hardens thee. In God thou dost live, move, and have
thy being (Acts 17:28). Thou art creature, the issue of His will. Even as a
vile sinner thou dost come forth out of the womb of divine providence. In a
word, by thyself, thou art clay. Thy caviling with God, how utterly
preposterous! It behooves thee to hold thy peace and to extol the adorable
sovereignty of thy Maker. For thou art clay. Yet thou openest thy mouth, thou a
vile lump of clay, to criticize God, to accuse Him of unrighteousness, to
challenge His claim upon thee, to say to Him, Why hast thou made me thus?
Unbelievable! O man, thou art clay. Tell me, asks the apostle, hath not the
potter power, that is, right over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor, and another unto dishonor? O man, have you ever heard of anyone
challenging the right of the potter over the clay? Would it not, among men, be
considered the height of the absurd for anyone to deny that the potter has this
right? And would it not be considered the height of folly and arrogance for the
dishonorable vessel, a mere lump of clay, to say to the potter, ‘Why hast thou
made me thus?’ And yet, O man, thou repliest against God, sayest to him, ‘Why
hast thou made me thus?’
What,
then, is God’s very own answer to him who challenges His right over His moral
creatures and insists that with Him there is unrighteousness because He
exercises His divine prerogatives over man as his sovereign Maker? It is this:
Consider, O man, that with me there can be no unrighteousness as I am holy God.
Consider, further, that I am thy sovereign Creator and therefore have a right
to do with thee according to My will. Therefore, be still and bow before the
sovereignty of thy Maker. Humble thyself under My mighty hand. Extol My
sovereignty, My glories, as thou beholdest them in the face of My Son, Christ
Jesus. Doing so, thou hast within thyself the evidence that thou art a vessel
of mercy prepared unto glory.
O
man, will you continue to denounce the adorable God because you cannot
reconcile His perfect doings with your corrupt conceptions of what is right and
proper for Him to do? Not satisfied with God as He is, you try to improve upon
Him. Improve upon God and you get a monstrosity.
So
then, He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.
It means that the relation He sustains to sin is causal. He hardens first, and
as a result the sinner hardens himself. The exponents of the theory of the free
will of man reverse this. Man first hardens himself and as a result God hardens
him. The very fact, however, that the apostle insists that God may do with His
moral creatures as He pleases proves that His hardening the sinner is the cause
of the sinner hardening himself. The heart of the entire argument of the
apostle is that the relation God sustains to sin is causal, active,
progressive, and not, as is commonly held, passive, permissive, receding. What
is meant is not an abandonment of man to a reprobate mind, a withdrawing of the
restraining influences of His Holy Spirit, a giving up to the uncounteracted
operations of surrounding hardening or perverting influences, but a positive
giving up of the sinner to sin through the wickedness of his own heart. Deny
this and you overturn the entire argument of the apostle that He will have
mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth
Conclusion
Having
brought to the fore and removed the chief objections raised against the God of
sovereign mercy and of sovereign wrath, let us now face the question: What may
be the real reason for the rejection of this God? And the answer: the very fact
that He is supreme, selects one and rejects another because He wills, for
reasons in Himself, according to His purpose and unto His supreme and
everlasting glory. A God so absolutely sovereign, the vile sinner cannot
tolerate. So he fabricates himself a God. But what is this God other than an
idol that can be taken up, stationed in a corner and stay put; a figurehead, if
you will, trained to take orders; an ornament; a deified extension of man
himself; a God who will talk along with man and say that He selects one and
rejects another for reasons in the creature (man’s virtue, faith, or unbelief
that defies even the power of God). Such a God man makes for himself, a God who
selects or rejects according as man wills and unto man’s supreme glory. The
apostles of a dethroned God have no objection to God casting a man into hell,
if only it be conceded that the supreme reason for Him doing so, is the sinner,
his stubborn will. Even in hell the lost one can then glory in himself, shake
his fist in the face of God and with the proud Stoic of old say, My will even
thou canst not overpower. It is noteworthy that the modern revivalist preaches
hell and damnation with a strange ferocity. They preach a Christ, too, a
Christ, however, who completes the task of housecleaning begun by man.
Pelagianism
represents an attempt to improve upon the ‘hard’ God of Scripture. Improve upon
this God and you get a monstrosity. The men of whom Paul in his epistle to the
Romans wrote tried it. But their improvement turned out to be a corruptible
man, a bird, a four-footed beast, a creeping thing. Let us quote the passage:
‘And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.’
(Rom. 1:23). Does any one suppose that the race of today could do any better
than those heathen? Not at all. The made-over God of the Pelagian, that God who
wills to save all men head for head but cannot, is a monstrosity. This is plain
enough. Consider that according to the apostles of a dethroned God, the supreme
reason for a sinner believing is the sinner himself, his supreme will. It means
that God cannot save unto His supreme glory. His redemptive labors, therefore,
being works that fall short of Himself, must be denominated sin. And a God
whose works are sin, is darkness. Further, the God of the apostles of a free
will must destroy the wicked because of an inherent impotence to bring them to
repentance, so that the perishing of the wicked spells his defeat. In a word,
to deny that the electing and rejecting God is supreme is to change the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible, vile, and
impotent man. Improve upon the God of Scripture and you get a monstrosity.
Finally, if the electing and rejecting God is
not supreme, a man’s salvation depends upon his own capricious will. Though
believing today, the assurance is lacking to him that he will still be cleaving
unto Christ on the morrow. Even with the gates of heaven within sight, he may
still plunge back into hell. The theory we expose, it is plain, renders
everything uncertain. It is a theory that genders not peace but anxiety, not
joy but grief, not hope but despair, not humbleness but stinking pride. How
different the disposition of a man who firmly believes that the electing and
rejecting God is supreme, the creative cause of his salvation, his Almighty
Redeemer, Who loves him because He wills, for a reason in Himself. This man has
rest for he rests in God.
Man
by himself is nothing. God is all. He is supreme. His power is infinite. He
saves to the uttermost a vile sinner, by himself hopelessly lost, whose only
hope therefore is God. Knowing himself as claimed by a God of sovereign mercy,
the redeemed one has peace and joy unspeakable, and he glories in the cross and
will glory in God forever more.
Because
He is supreme God, John the apostle hears every creature which is in heaven and
in the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them saying, ‘Blessing
and honor and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb forever and ever.’ (Rev. 5:13).
Preach
sovereign election and rejection in and out of season, and the flock you pastor
will soon be crying out the praises of God. Keep silence about this truth, and
the praises of God will soon die on your own lips and on the lips of the sheep
over which you have been set.
