Election
Colossians 3:1-14

This section is talking about the difference between obedient saved people and the children of disobedience.  The elect  are the obedient children of God and not all saved are obedient.  Therefore not all of the children of God are His elect.  In the Bible, election  is not a division between the saved and the lost but between the obedient and disobedient children of God.

Within the Bible we find that God makes a promise to a group of His people and then God says that only people within that group will receive the promise.  God then tells the members of that group that they have to do something to prove that they want the group promise to be applied to themselves personally.  The devil uses religious teachings to tell God's people that they can personally have the promise without obeying God.  The devil uses religious people to teach God's people that they can have the promise just by being a member of the group.  When God's people believe the doctrinal error that the devil started, they miss out on the promises of God even though they are saved.

In our lesson today we are going to look at where the Bible makes some promises to obedient children of God but where disobedient children of God do not receive the promises.  Erroneous religious doctrine tells the children of God that they have these promises simply because they are saved.  Disobedient children do not get the group promise applied to themselves personally because they do not obey.

A disobedient child is still your child but they do not get the rewards of obedience while they are acting rebellious.  In the Bible, God's elect  are the obedient children.  God's elect  does not include the disobedient children  and the things that are promised to God's elect  are not given to God's disobedient children  even though they are the children of God.

There are other phrases in the Bible that teach about conditional promises that God makes to people.  On all of these types of promises we find doctrinal error that was started by the devil so that God's people miss out on the promises and so that God appears to be a liar.  God's people need to know the truth about these doctrines so that they can get God's blessings and so that they can help other saved people get God's blessings.  I will lightly touch on one of these, which is related to our main subject, and then return to the doctrine of election  in detail.

The word predestination  is a combination of destination  and of pre.  A destination  is where a journey is supposed to end.  Pre  means before � Therefore, predestination  is the Biblical doctrine of God choosing where each of our lives are supposed to end and God doing this before we were born.  God predestined  all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth,  according to 1Timothy 2:3-4.  However, God also gave us a free will and allows us to choose to reject His predestination.  The devil teaches the lie that denies our free will and claims that God predestines  people to Hell.�God never does this and we can learn this truth by studying how the Bible actually uses the word of predestination.  However, that will have to be another time.  What is true for both of these doctrines is that we cannot blame God for our using our own free will to choose sin and then end up suffering the consequences of our choice.

Any time that a true Bible doctrine is misrepresented and taught as error, we need to study every place in the Bible that that doctrine is taught in order to find the Bible truth.  Therefore, we need to look at every place that the Bible teaches about the doctrine of election  in order to be sure that we have the Bible truth.  Thus, we will look at the 28 places where the Bible uses the word elect.  However, there are less points than 28 because some verses teach the same thing as another verse.

1. Isaiah 42:1 is the start of prophecy about�Christ.  He is God's�elect�and our example of how God's elect  will act.  We must follow theexample of Christ  if we want to also be God's�elect.  Isaiah 45:4 is a message to King Cyrus warning him to be careful what he does to Israel because the nation of Israel is God's�elect.  This warning was not necessarily applied to each individual member of the nation.
2. Isaiah 65:9�is another verse that tells us that Christ  is God's�elect.
3. Isaiah 65:22�is part of a prophecy about end times and tells us that God's people (Israel as a nation) are His�elect.
4. Matthew 24:22,��31;�Mark 13:20,�Mark 13:22,�Mark 13:27;�and�Luke 18:19�are part of a prophecy about end times and tells us that God's people are His�elect.
5. Romans 8:33-39 is well loved and well quoted but most people don't think about 8:36 which says As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  God's obedient elect  accept this requirement while the children of disobedience  refuse it but expect to have all of the promises in this section that God only gives to His elect.
6. Romans 9:11 tells us that Jacob was God's�elect and he was chosen over the first-born Esau whom God hated (Romans 9:13).  God called  and Jacob responded to God's call  while Esau profaned  himself by selling His birthright (Hebrews 12:16-17).  God knew how each would live and chose the obedient son over the disobedient son.  God prophesied the end result before either had acted but that result came from the way that they chose to live and not because of any personal attribute.
7. Romans 11:3: This verse is a quote of�1Kings 19:10�and it uses Lord  to reference God the Father.  Paul uses this quote as part of his introduction to the subject of�election� (9:11;�11:5,�7,�28).  In this chapter, Paul explains that what God's people have 'positionally' is due to�election.  However, the Jews made the mistake of believing that because of election  they had a guarantee on all of the blessings from God, even those which were conditional, and they turned to sin.  Since they had assured themselves that they could not loose God's God's blessing no matter how much sin they did, they ignored the true teachings of the Bible.  The truth is that God�elects� a way for people to have a relationship with Him.  Those who come His way receive the relationship and those who try to come another way don't receive the relationship.  However, election  only opens the door to the relationship.  It is not the whole relationship.  It's like taking a trip on an airplane.  Some people never go to the airport but never get a ticket or go to the gate.  Some go to the airport, get their ticket, go up to the gate and through the ramp to the door of the airplane but never get on.  Their ticket is still good but until they get onto the airplane, it doesn't really do them any good.  There are people who go to the airport (Bible), get their ticket (get saved), and go up to the edge of an ongoing personal relationship, but never get on.  Their life is as useless as the person living in the airport with a valid airplane ticket.
8. Romans 11:5�and�Romans 11:7�are part of a doctrinal explanation that�not all of God's people are also God's�elect.  This is explained in the note for�11:3.
9. Romans 11:28 explains the special position that the Jews in general (not specific individuals) have because of God's�election.
10. Colossians 3:12 is part of the verses which we first read.  It tells us what God expects His elect  to do and if we keep refusing to obey this command then the Bible says that we are not the elect  even though we are saved.  We still go to Heaven but lose the things that are promised to God's elect.
11. 1Thessalonians 1:4: tells us that our election  should cause us to have without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Once more we see that God expects obedience from His elect.
12. 1Timothy 5:21: tells us that angels are�elect.  The disobedient angels are called devils and were kicked out of Heaven.  Disobedience causes beings to lose the blessings of being God's elect.
13. 2Timothy 2:10: explains how Paul, as our example,�endured all things for the elect's sakes.  Here we see that God has other people do whatever is necessary to to help us if we are God's elect.  This promise of God's provision is one of the blessings of being God's elect.
14. Titus 1:1: again tells us that God's elect  are some, but not all, of God's people.
15. 1Peter 1:1 tells us that Peter was�elect.��1Peter 2:6�tells us that Christ is�elect.�1Peter 5:13�tells us that the church is�elect.  There are many notes for the word elect  within the�Book Study for 1Peter�and other Studies on my web site.  For example, there are also notes on�election�in the�Word study on Spirit which explains how God's Holy Spirit gives special blessings to God's elect.  We will not go into those notes for time sake but the notes are there for people who want to find more details.
16. 2Peter 1:10 tells us to give diligence to make your calling and election sure.  This tells us that our election is not guaranteed and that we can lose it if we continue to be disobedient.
17. 2John 1:1�and�2John 1:13�tell us that people in the Church who are serving God are elect.

As�the elect of God�we are going to Heaven and going to receive great rewards when we get there but, as all of these other notes point out, not all saved are God's�elect.  In our initial Bible reference we are told that we must be holy and beloved  in order�to be God's�elect.  Unfortunately, many of God's people are not�holy.  Many of God's children do not obey the commands of this chapter and yet expect God to give them the rewards of being God's elect.

Isaiah lived in a time that most of the Jews were religious but not righteous (much like the church is today) and Isaiah got so tired of their attacking him that he called for God to judge the Jews as a way of seeking self-preservation.  In the answer from God which is quoted in Romans 11:4, God says�I have have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.  Even today we find people coming out of the most liberal sinful 'Christian churches'.�God's elect  are not just those religious people who can claim to be the children of God, but who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

Let me give another illustration.  If someone gave you a two-story house with lots of things in it, everything would belong to you.  However, if you never went upstairs and got the million pesos that were up there then, even though that million pesos belong to you, they are not really yours because you refuse to take them and use them.  Our obedience to God is like climbing the stairs and picking up the million pesos and using them.  People who do that illustrate what the Bible calls the elect.  People who who refuse to use the million pesos but starve in poverty are like the disobedient children  of God.  Yes, they are saved but no they are not elect  because they refuse to follow God's way of election.

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