PREDESTI NATION continued
When Carey stood up before a group of ministers in England and suggested that the church send someone out as a missionary to India, he spoke out of the burning love of his heart for the un counted millions who were dying in darkness in that land. One dear old brother stood up and said to him, "Young man, sit down. When God gets ready to do something about the lost in India, He will do it without your help and without mine.” Instead of paying attention to that mis guided brother, William Carey kept on and became the founder of the great modern mission ary movement that has sent hundreds of mis sionaries out into the far corners of the earth in response to the command of our Lord to go into, all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. What we forget is that God has not only determined that some should be saved but also that they should be saved by the means of preaching; the means is determined as well as the end! G o d just doesn’t look forward and determine what His ultimate purpose is but He determines each step along the way. And one of the means that He intends to use in reaching these who are not as yet saved but are elect, is preaching. You’ll find a perfect .instance of this in Acts 18. Paul had just come down from Athens where, in the center of their great culture, he preached to men who were so blinded by their own intelligence, so convinced of their superior mental wisdom that they would not listen to him. He went to Corinth and preached there for almost a year and a half but there seemed to be very little outward result. Corinth was one of the places where the apostle did not have the amazing success that he found in other places. He tells us in his letters to the Thessalonians that he became very discour aged. But the Lord appeared to him and spoke these words, "Paul, be of good cheer. I have yet many people in this city.” That was a word of encouragement to the apostle, but what did it mean? It meant that God had chosen out certain of these heathen to be His and that as Paul con tinued preaching in faithfulness they would come. But don’t confuse election with salvation. They are not quite the same thing. All the saved are elect, but not all the elect are, as yet, saved.
When President Eisenhower was elected to the presidency of this nation for the first time, he was called the President-elect. He was not yet the President but it was certain that he was going to be. It is in that same relationship that the unsaved elect now live. They are not saved yet, but in the mind and purpose of God it is certain that they will be. He has set them aside, chosen them before the foundation of the world and it is certain that they will hear, and when they hear they will believe and thus come to salvation. "W e ll then,” you might say, “why don’t you preach just to the elect. Why preach to the non elect?” W e would if the elect had some distin guishing mark so we could tell who they are. But they are not marked; we don’t know; no one knows but God who the elect are. W e do know that when a man receives God’s Word, he is an elect person but otherwise we have no means of knowing. That’s why Billy Graham is preach ing the gospel with all the fervency and power that he’s capable of and is extending to the millions an invitation that whosoever will may come. As the Spirit of God deals with the hearts of men and women they come and they are saved and believe the Word as it is preached to them. So you see, there’s nothing incongruous about preaching the gospel with a “ whosoever will” message to the world in general even though it is true that only some of them will believe and be saved. Y o u ask, "Isn ’t there some basis for election? What’s the principle upon which God selects one and doesn’t select another person? W hy did He choose me and not someone else? W hy am I elected and my next-door neighbor isn’t as far as I know?” I’ve heard many people comment on this and some ideas have been advanced that are very unscriptural. I heard a prominent radio minister say in a meeting once that God had seen what he was going to be, that He foresaw the capacities that he had that could be used for Christ, and because of what he could do for the Lord, He saved him. That was the basis for his election. Now that’s utterly wrong. Scripture makes it clear that God does not choose us because of what we can do for Him or what possibilities there
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