From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the first chapter and the fourth verse, the fourth verse of the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.

According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Again, I would remind you of the connection, the obvious connection with the third verse.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

Now, we began the consideration of this great statement last Sunday morning. And there we indicated that obviously this is the beginning of an exposition and an elaboration of the statement which is made in that third verse, according as it begins. God blesses us who are Christians with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Well, the question is, how does he do so? What has he done? He has blessed us. Well, how has he blessed us? I put it like this, that the thing that we are anxious to know is how do these transcendent and glorious blessings, these spiritual blessings, these blessings in the spirit, in heavenly places, actually become ours?

Ours who, as the result of the fall and the end of sin, have become estranged from God. That's the great question. Well, now here the Apostle proceeds to tell us what God has done in order to bring to us these great blessings. And the first thing which we considered last Sunday morning was that he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

What leads to these blessings is not primarily anything that we do, but something that God has done and has done in his Son and had planned to do that in his Son, before the very foundation of the world. And not only that, he has chosen us. He did choose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be the inheritors of these great and wonderful blessings.

Now, I want to emphasize, before I pass on to the remainder of the verse this morning, the fact that again the Apostle is careful to tell us that it is in Christ that we are chosen. Not merely that we are chosen, but that we are chosen in Christ.

Now, that is, of course, the great theme of the New Testament. That God has separated us. This very word 'chosen' means chosen out of. We've been chosen out of the world of mankind to be the inheritors of these blessings. And it is all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the greatest exposition of this in the entire scripture is to be found in the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, where we have what is commonly described as our Lord's high priestly prayer. And there our Lord goes on repeating something like this. He says, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." That's the Son praying to the Father.

In other words, the teaching is that the Father has given these people to the Son. Take it again in the sixth verse of that 17th of John. "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they were, and thou gavest them me." Now, that's the teaching.

In other words, these people, which means Christian people, you and I, we were God's before we became the Son's. So, it is not anything that we do primarily, and as I said last Sunday, it is not even primarily an action of the Son. The primary action is the action of God the Father, who chose unto himself a people out of the world, before the foundation of the world, and then has presented, has given these people whom he has chosen to the Son, in order that the Son might redeem them and do everything that was necessary for their reconciliation with God the Father.

That is the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me." And he came into the world to do what he has done for these people who have been given to him of the Father. And so, he goes on to say, "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given me out of the world."

Very well, then, I say it is of vital importance that we should remember this 'in him'. You notice the Apostle goes on repeating it. There is nothing whatsoever for the Christian apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no relationship to God which is true and saving except that which is in and through the Son of God. That is the whole teaching of the Bible.

There is one God and one mediator only between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Without him, we have no true saving relationship to God. Very well, having established that then we go on to the remainder of this great statement.

According as he says, "As he has chosen him in us, has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

Now, here we go on to a further statement. And again, we see that every single phrase, almost every word in this mighty chapter is worthy of the most careful and serious consideration. Every statement is full of truth, vital truth, all-important truth. And therefore, to rush over these great and momentous statements is indeed the height of folly unless it is actually sinful.

Now then, what are we being told here? Well, we are being told here to what we have been chosen. Why has God chosen us? What's he chosen us for? To what end has he chosen us? And here is the answer: "That we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

Now, what does that mean? Well, here again the Apostle gives us one of those extraordinary summaries of the entire Gospel. What he really means is this, that it is the purpose of God in Christ for his people to undo, to remove, and to rectify completely the effects of sin and of the fall.

That is the object of God in salvation: to entirely undo what resulted from the fall of man when he fell into sin at the suggestion of the devil. And it is his purpose, I say, to undo it completely and to rectify completely all the results and the consequences of that terrible and most disastrous event in the entire story of the human race.

Now, you notice this marvelous correspondence of scripture with scripture. We read at the beginning that third chapter of the first Epistle of John, in order that we might there see how John says exactly the same thing. John puts it like this. He said, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."

Now, the fall is the work of the devil. It is he who produced it. It is he who brought it about. So, you see once more how the entire Bible works together and hangs together. And that is where they are so utterly foolish apart from anything else, who think that you can pick and choose portions of the Bible and extract certain doctrines which you like and reject others. The Bible is a whole, it's an essential unity.

You simply cannot understand the New Testament Gospel unless you accept those first chapters of Genesis with the account of the fall of man and of sin. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." And here I say, in his own way, the Apostle Paul proceeds to show us how that work of the devil is being destroyed and undone, so that these people whom God the Father has given to the Son shall be entirely free from all effects and consequences of that most tragic and terrible action and event.

Well, now then let us see how the Apostle puts it. He says that the purpose of God in choosing, in election, is that we should be holy and without blame. You notice he says three things. We are to be holy and without blame. We are to be before God, and thirdly, in love.

Now, take this first statement: holy and without blame. Now, these terms, of course, are absolutely vital and essential. They are obviously counterparts to one another. The Apostle doesn't merely throw in words heedlessly and thoughtlessly. He deliberately uses the two.

They both, in a sense, describe the same thing, but they describe it from different aspects and from different standpoints. They are both terms to denote sanctification. There have been some who have thought that the Apostle here is referring to justification, but patently is not. These terms are always used with respect to our sanctification, not merely our standing before God, but our condition.

Our inward condition. Our sanctification. Well, then why does he use the two terms? Well, he's anxious to bring out the doctrine in all its fullness. What's the difference between holiness and without blame? And incidentally, a better translation there would be without blemish. Holy and without blemish.

What's the difference between the two? Well, you can look at it like this. Holiness denotes a state of inward or internal purity. Without blame, without blemish, means an outward or an external condition of purity. And that is why, undoubtedly, the Apostle uses the two terms.

Holiness, of course, is the bigger term and the stronger term, because it's concerned about the inward condition, but the outward condition is also important. It is important that we should be without blemish. The picture there is that of fruit, of an apple, or anything you like, which has got no specks or spots upon it, no, no little portions of beginning of degeneration, or of putrefaction.

You look at it and it's perfect and it's entire. The Apostle himself indeed expands it in the fifth chapter of this Epistle to the Ephesians when he says that it is ultimately Christ's purpose for the church that she should be not only holy, but without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. You look at the outward appearance, there isn't a spot, there isn't a wrinkle, there isn't the slightest defect in any respect whatsoever. It is without blemish as well as being pure.

It's perfect outside, it's perfect inside. Another way, if you like, you could point out the difference would be to put it like this, is to say that holiness is positive, whereas without blemish or without blame is negative. You are positively holy, yes, but you can also put it in a negative way. There is an absence of pollution.

And it's a very good thing to look at it in both ways. The first that comes to the mind is really the one that's put here second. You take an external view, a general examination first, and you say, well, there doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong. It is without blemish. Oh, yes, but the question is, though that apple may look perfectly all right outside, what's it like inside?

Sometimes an apple looks perfectly all right outside, but you cut through with a knife and you find at the center there is the beginning of this degeneration and putrefaction. So, it's negatively without, but positively. There is an actual and an active and a true holiness.

Well, now what does this mean? What does he mean then by the two terms taken together? Well, the terms mean, as you know, an essential purity, or if you prefer it, health, or if you prefer it again, wholeness. It means true and real life and being without anything at all detracting.

It means a perfect harmony with every part and portion outshining and subservient the function for which it was meant and for which it was designed. That is what holiness means. It means this state of perfection, this state of wholeness, of complete health, where there is nothing in any way detracting, there is this perfect harmony and everything works together.

It is a state, I say, of complete being without anything in any way detracting from it. Or if you like to look at it negatively, you can say that sin in all its effects and operations and aspects is entirely absent. Of course, ultimately the way of describing it is to say this, that holiness is ultimately the essential attribute of God.

God himself has said that, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." We can't conceive of that, but we are given this kind of definition: God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. That's it. You see, you can say positively that holiness is light, negatively, no darkness. Holy, without blame, without blemish.

And beyond that, we can't go. We just say that it means this essentially perfect being, absolute perfection. "The Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither a shadow of turning." Not the slightest suspicion of it. Absolute light and glory and perfection and wholeness, essential pure being without any suspicion of alloy or any admixture.

That is what is meant by holiness. And the astounding thing we are told here is this, that God has chosen us in Christ for that. That's the plan, that's the purpose, that's our destiny, to be like God. Holy and without blame.

But let me go on to the second term: holy and without blame before him. Now, here again is a phrase which we can easily, so easily slide over and regard it as meaning nothing, but it has tremendous meaning. Nothing more glorious than this. What does it mean?

Well, it means in his presence. It means that we are actually before him in the sense that we appear before him, enter into his presence. It's another way of saying that we enter into communion with him. That we enter into fellowship with him. Now again, let the Apostle John, if you like, expound the Apostle Paul.

Not that he puts it more clearly, but that he puts it in a different way. Listen to it. This is how John puts it. "This is his object," he says, "in writing to these people in the first Epistle, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." Why? "That ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."

And you notice how he goes on to say exactly the same, "These things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message that we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and that in him there is no darkness at all." There's the holy and without blame, yes, and the fellowship before him.

"And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." So, that what he means here by 'before him' is that the result and the purpose of our calling and election is that we may walk with God, that we may not only be introduced and enter into conscious fellowship with God, but that we may walk and abide in that fellowship, walking, as John puts it, in the light with God.

Now, I sometimes think that the best exposition of this, in a way, is to be found in the Old Testament, in a statement which is made about Abraham. We are told in the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis, and in the first verse, that when Abram was about 90 and eight years old, the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto him, "I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect."

What a tremendous statement. God calls out to Abram and says, "I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect." It's a great invitation to God, to Abram from God, if you like, to go for a walk with him. And that is life, that is salvation. That is really the end and the object of it all.

You see, man at the beginning had been created by God and had been put into the Garden, and he lived this life of perfect correspondence with God. He lived with God, he talked with God, he walked with God. It's the great Old Testament phrase: Enoch walked with God. And here God is inviting Abram, "Walk before me." And of course, to do that you must be perfect, because I am perfect.

"Can two walk together," says Amos, "unless they be agreed?" Obviously not. You can't mix light and darkness and so on. And here it is, we are chosen that we may be before him, no longer alienated, no longer shut out. No longer the flaming sword there outside the garden, preventing an entry and into the communion.

No, the way has been opened. We can enter in. We come before him. We make an appearance. We are given an audience. We walk into his presence. "Walk before me and be thou perfect." And again, you notice the juxtaposition of the two things. Quite inevitable, of course.

You can't walk before God without being perfect. Holy and without blame before him. What a marvelous word this is. How outstanding is the scripture. How packed with doctrine. If we but take the trouble to open it and to look at it, and to ask questions, and to consider what it says.

And then let us go on to the third expression, the third term: in love. "That we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Now, the commentators spend a great deal of time over this phrase, 'in love'. And what they, of course, are interested in is this, as to where this phrase belongs exactly.

You will find, for instance, that this American Revised Standard Version, which is being sold at the present time, puts this 'in love' with the next verse, "having predestinated us in love," it says. It says that that this 'in love' belongs to the next statement. That's one view.

Then others say that it really should be attached to the choosing: "according as he has chosen us in love, that we should be holy and without blame before." But here, you see, in the authorized version it is attached to holy and without blame before him in love.

Well, now how do we decide which of these three positions is correct? Well, this can be stated quite definitely that it cannot be decided on linguistic grounds. The three schools all admit that. It isn't a question of words, it isn't a question of the precise meaning of words. It can't be decided, I say, on linguistic grounds.

Well, how is it decided then? Well, it must be decided then on theological or doctrinal grounds. And it is for that reason and in that way that I have no hesitation in asserting that what we have here in the authorized version is correct. And that it belongs precisely to this definition of holiness.

Even as being before God is a definition of holiness. The three things work together and they are saying the same thing from different standpoints. Let me show you what I mean. What is the essence of holiness? Well, there's no question that the essence of holiness is love. Listen to Paul putting that to the Romans in the 13th chapter and the 10th verse.

He says this, "Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." Ultimately, that is the essence of of law and of holiness, love. And we really are not conceiving truly of holiness unless we do conceive of it in terms of love.

Now, let's work it out like this. Love is the opposite, is it not, of enmity? It's the opposite of hatred, it's the opposite of bitterness, it's the opposite of opposition. So, you see what the Apostle is saying here is this, that as the result of this choice and the work of Christ through the Spirit in us, these are the things that happen.

Sin is removed. The barrier between us and God is removed so that we appear before him. Yes, but still more important, appearing in the presence of God now, we appear before him in a spirit of love. Merely to appear before a person doesn't of necessity mean that it's love.

The prisoner appears before the judge at the bar. The slave appears before the master. He's in his presence. Yes, but he hates him. The great thing, says Paul, that has been done for us in our salvation is this, that we appear before God now in love. And there, you see, how the effects of the fall are being undone.

What is man's condition by nature? Well, the Bible is full of the answer to that question. The natural mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither can be. What is the condition of man as the result of the fall? Well, says the Apostle in this very Epistle later on, "We are enemies and alienated in our minds through wicked works."

That's man by nature. Man by nature is a hater of God. Oh, but you say, that's not true. I know many people who are not Christian this morning, but I wouldn't like to say they hate God. My dear friend, if you take the trouble to analyze their belief, you'll find that they do hate God.

Oh, but they say, but I believe in God. I say my prayers. I'm not a Christian like you are, but I believe in God, and I worship God, and I pray to God. But you take the trouble to find out the kind of God they're worshipping. Is he the God of the scriptures? You will find that he is not. He's a God either of the philosophers, or a God they've conjured up in their own minds.

They've taken out of God everything that they don't like, and they still think that he's God. They don't believe in his wrath, they don't believe in judgment, they don't believe in righteousness. They say there's no need for this shedding of blood, and of the death of the cross, before God can they don't believe, they reject all that. They reject the bulk of the biblical revelation, and still say they believe in God.

And you see, by doing that, they're proving that they're haters of God. There are so many people who think they believe in God, but when you reveal the God of the scriptures to them, they hate him. They say, "That's your God." And there comes out the hatred.

"The natural mind is at enmity against God. Enemies and alienated in your minds through wicked works." When man fell, he began to hate God. And he wished there wasn't a God, and he's ever ready to believe the statements of those who think and claim that they can prove that there isn't a God. The whole of man, as a result of fall, is opposed to God, and at enmity against God.

But as the result of salvation, he appears before God in love. And what a terrible thing it is, therefore, to attach these words to the next verse, or to attach them to the choosing, as if they're merely descriptive of God and something God does. My friends, they're descriptive of us. If we are Christians, we are lovers of God. We delight in him.

Oh, let me put it like this to you. The holiness of the man who is in Christ, the holiness of the Christian, is not a mere mechanical conformity to the law, neither is it a mere morality. You see there are men who are moral. Yes, but they don't love holiness. It's a negative attitude. They're just not committing sin, they're avoiding sin. They say that's bad, I mustn't do it. That isn't holiness, that's morality.

The distinguishing feature about morality is that it's positive, about holiness is that it's positive. That it is, as I say, essentially love. Love, says Paul, is the fulfilling of the law. Because what the law really calls us to is love.

Well, now then, the Christian is a man who loves holiness. He appears before God because he's holy in love. He's a man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. He's a man who really delights in the law of God. He doesn't merely do it as a task. He says with John in the first Epistle, "His commandments are not grievous."

And this is a very good test as to whether we are Christians or not. Is our Christianity a task which we feel has been imposed upon us? Do we have to force ourselves to it? Is it against the grain? Do we rather wish at times we'd never heard of it and that we could go on sinning happily? Do you enjoy your Christianity? Do you enjoy your Christian living? Do you wish you were still more Christian and more holy?

That's the love that the Apostle is speaking of. It's in love. Because, you see, the law really simply calls us to love. Take our Lord's own exposition of it. They came to him one day and they tried to trap him by putting one of their questions, and they said, "Which is the first and the greatest commandment of the law?"

They were always arguing about these things. And this was his reply: "This is the first," he says. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength." That is the first and the greatest commandment. "And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

It doesn't just mean that you don't do him any harm. It doesn't just mean that you give him a helping hand in order that you keep up to your little moral standard occasionally. You love him as you love yourself. So, that the whole of the law is really love. The first five, the second five, your relationship to God, your relationship to your fellow men. It's all a matter of love.

So, we are holy and without blame before him in love. Loving God, loving your fellow men, loving the law of God, delighting in it, not merely mechanically conforming to a moral pattern. Well, now then the statement is that the ultimate end and object of our choice, of our election is that we should become like that.

Of course, we don't attain to that in perfection in this life and in this world. That is the ultimate goal. The will of God for us is absolute perfection. And we who are Christians shall stand before him ultimately faultless and blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, without anybody being able to make any charge against us, perfect and entire, holy even as he is holy. We shall be like him.

But let us not forget this, that though we only attain unto it in perfection in the next world, it has started in this one. The principle is in us here and now. The seed has been implanted. You notice how John put it in the third chapter of the first Epistle.

It's here in embryo, it's here in its essence. It has begun. Already, I say, we are holy in a sense. Now, this is the extraordinary statement. You remember how the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts this. In the third chapter and the first verse, he opens out like this, "Wherefore," he says, "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." That's a Christian. A Christian is a holy brother, a partaker of the heavenly calling. Indeed, Paul has already told us that we are saints, which means that we are holy.

So, that even here and now this principle of holiness is in us. We are already partakers of the divine nature, and the divine nature is holy. So, there is within us this essential perfect holiness. And it will grow and develop until finally we shall be absolutely perfect in the presence of God.

That is what the Apostle tells us is the ultimate object of our being chosen. I want to ask a question at this point. Are we surprised that this is the first thing he tells us? Does it astonish us that this is the first thing that he states? I wonder whether we would have expected something else. I wonder whether we wouldn't have said that God has chosen us in order that we might be forgiven.

That isn't what Paul puts first. The thing he puts first and foremost is holy and without blame before him in love. And in doing this again, the Apostle is being consistent with the entire biblical teaching. Why should this be put first? I wonder, I say, whether we would have put it first. If we had asked the question, "To what end does God chosen us? What's his object in choosing us?"

Would we have put holy and without blame? Why must this come first? Well, for these reasons. It is God's plan and God's purpose, and therefore it can be nothing else. It is the will of God, even your sanctification. God's desire for us is that we be holy, long before he thinks of happiness or anything else, holiness.

And because God is holy, this must always be first. The second reason is this: we are in Christ. The thing that makes us Christians is that we are in Christ. Again, I say, not forgiveness and so on, which is essential, but in Christ. And if we are in Christ, we must be holy, because he was holy and undefiled and without sin.

Very well, then, in the light of this, there are certain essential deductions which seem to me to be of the most supreme importance. They are inevitable. What are they? Well, let me just note them. There are certain things which we are taught here and which we forget only at our gravest peril.

Salvation means primarily and essentially being in the right relationship with God. Nothing less than that. Salvation must not be thought of primarily in terms of happiness. It must not be thought of primarily in terms of loss of worry. It must not be thought of in terms of forgiveness only, primarily. It must not be thought of in terms of morality.

We mustn't think of it in terms of the help that Christ is going to give us as a friend or a guide or anything else. First and foremost, salvation means relationship to God. Now that must be so. What was sin? What was the fall? Well, I've already reminded you, the essence of sin is separation from God.

Of course, that leads to misery, that leads to unhappiness, that leads to becoming slaves of the devil. But the primary thing is the loss of the relationship to God. Therefore, this must ever be the first thing in salvation. And if we have ever thought of our salvation in any terms, save our reconciliation to God and our being right with God, we have misinterpreted the biblical teaching about salvation.

Let me go on and put that in a second way. Because salvation means essentially our relationship to God, that must of necessity, salvation must always from beginning to end be thought of in terms of holiness. Everything in salvation is designed to bring us to this end of holiness. That's why the Apostle puts it first.

Everything is designed to that end and everything leads to that end. From which I deduce this, that there is nothing which is so wrong and such a complete misinterpretation of scripture as to separate justification and sanctification. You notice the argument, primarily salvation is to be rightly related to God. Because of that, I say, salvation must always be thought of from beginning to end in terms of holiness.

From beginning to end. So, that there is no such thing as a man saying, "Oh, yes, I've got my justification, but I haven't yet gone in for my sanctification," that you can be justified and decide later to become sanctified, or to go in for sanctification. That is of necessity wrong. Indeed, I know nothing which is so dangerous and so unscriptural as that utterly impossible division or separation of these two things.

Holiness is the beginning and the end of salvation. And the whole of salvation is designed to bring us to that end. Therefore, I say, we must always start with holiness as the scripture does. And therefore, I say, that the preaching of holiness is an essential part of evangelism.

Now, there are ideas about evangelism which don't say that. They rather say the exact opposite. They say, "Of course, this is an evangelistic meeting, you don't talk about holiness here. The one thing is to get people saved now, and later on you can lead them on to holiness." But what is to be saved?

To be saved, I say, is to be rightly related to God, and that's holiness. And the business of the preaching of evangelism, the whole purpose of evangelism is primarily to tell men what sin is, to show them where they are and why they're there, and that essentially it means separation from God. And that what they need above everything else is not a nice feeling, not to be made to feel happy or anything else, but to be brought back into the right relationship with God.

And God is light and in him is no darkness at all, but that's preaching holiness. My dear friends, evangelism is the preaching of holiness. And to separate these two things, it seems to me is to deny the essential biblical teaching. You start with holiness, you don't go on to it. It is the end for which we are chosen, and we must never leave it as something that one may go in for, or may not go in for.

If you're not holy, you're not a Christian. These things belong together. Christ has been made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. You can't take parts out of Christ. You can't take bits out of Christ. You're in Christ the whole Christ or you're not. And if you're in him, you are holy.

Well, then, let me go on and put it in another way. Because we have been chosen to holiness, those who are chosen, who have been chosen, must and will become holy. That's a tremendous statement, but it's of necessity true in the light of this statement of the Apostles.

We are not chosen, says Paul, to the possibility of holiness, but to the realization of holiness. God has not chosen us before the foundation of the world in order to present us with a possibility of holiness. He has chosen us to holiness. It's his purpose for us, not the possibility, but the realization.

And therefore, I make this solemn statement. Those who do not appreciate that and realize that, those who do not show some signs of holiness in their lives are not chosen. They're not Christians. This choosing and holiness are inseparable. They always go together.

And I care not how much doctrine a man may know. I care not whether a man believes in this doctrine of election and choosing. If there is no holiness in him, he is not chosen. You can be intellectually orthodox and not be a Christian. The man who is chosen is chosen unto holiness. And if there is no evidence of holiness in his life, I say, it is proof positive that he's never been chosen.

These are solemn thoughts, my friends, and yet they're inevitably in the light of these statements of scripture. God has chosen us to the realization of it. It's going to happen. It must happen. All that has taken place in Christ is for this end, and it cannot be avoided. It will happen.

Well, very well, then, let me go on to my final statement which I put in this form. The doctrine of God's choosing his own people in Christ, far from leading to what is called antinomianism, far from leading to a slackness and a looseness in life and living, is the greatest incentive of all to holiness.

You see what people say is this, "You know, that doctrine of choosing and election, it's so dangerous. A man will say, 'Of course, if I'm chosen, it's all right. It doesn't matter what I do.'" My dear friend, it never works like that. It's the exact opposite of that, for these reasons.

Because this is God's purpose for his people, it will be carried out. By which I mean this, that if God has chosen you to salvation, God will make you holy. And if you will not be content to be led by God and to be drawn by his love, because he has chosen you, he's got another way of making you holy.

And if you want to know what it is, you read the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." And the man who's not being chastened, what is he? He's a bastard, says that man. He's not a child at all. What a tremendous thing is this. Listen to it. God has chosen you, you are a Christian, to holiness.

And I say it in the solemn name of God. He'll make you holy. And if the preaching of the Gospel doesn't do it, God has other methods. He'll strike you down perhaps with an illness. He'll rob you of your wife or your husband, or your children. He'll smash your business. God will make you holy. He's chosen you unto holiness.

"Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." There's no antinomianism about this. If you are chosen of God and to holiness, and without blemish, he'll groom you there. And if you defy him, well then, I say, terrible things may happen to you. Paul expounds it, you remember in that first Epistle to the Corinthians, in the 11th chapter, in describing the communion service.

He says it's because men don't examine themselves that many are weak and sickly among you, and some even sleep, they're dead. Because they wouldn't judge themselves, God has corrected them, God has chastised them. This is a tremendous thing this. We are in the hands of God and we are called to holiness, and he will have us as holy men. He will make us holy.

But it doesn't only work like that, it works like this. If you believe this truth, and if you realize its meaning and its import, your own mind will be working with all its might in the direction of holiness. If I know that I'm called of God and that I'm called unto holiness, why, I say to myself, "I've no time to lose."

John, you remember, put it like this, "Every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself even as he is pure, even as he is holy." If you knew you were going to have an audience with the Queen in Buckingham Palace, you'd be preparing for it. Of course. The realization of the privilege makes you do so.

And therefore, the more you realize this truth, and believe it, and understand it, the more you will give yourself and strive after holiness. You'll pursue it, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it again. "Pursue, seek holiness," he says, "peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."

Oh, I think it works like this, if I may end with a homely illustration. It's the appeal of love, isn't it? You see, we've been brought to love God in Christ. And we believe, as we are told here, that we are going to see him and stand in his presence, and enjoy him to all eternity. We love him, and we long to know him more and more, and to be with him.

Well, very well, doesn't it follow that this is the logic of all that? The one thing I don't want to happen when I stand before him, and when he looks into my eyes, the one thing I don't want to happen is this: that there should be the slightest suspicion of disappointment in his look, because as his child, I failed him, because as his child, I've been unworthy of him.

"Every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself, even as he is pure." My dear friends, there is nothing that so promotes holiness as this great doctrine, this precious truth, which tells us that because we are chosen of God, we are going to him and we're going to be like him. And it's all pure and holy.

God is light and in him is no darkness at all. There is no time to be lost. We must be up and doing. I can't rest on my oars. I can't say, "I'm chosen, I can do as I like. I can sin as much as I like. I shall be forgiven." It's the exact opposite.

The sense of honor is involved, the love is involved, the desire to please is involved. The whole argument is unto holiness. So, I say again, that whatever we may have expected, this is the thing that comes first. "According as he has chosen us in him, that we might be holy and without blemish before him in love."

Are you like that, my friend? Do you know that you're living in the presence of God and walking with him in the light? You love him. Do you know you're going to be with him? "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Amen.