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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Sovereignty of God in the Plan of Salvation, #7
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)
We know that the Church of Christ is destined to be without spot, wrinkle, or blemish of any sort. It shall be the perfect, radiantly lovely Bride of the Lamb.
In the last days the Lord Jesus will remove from His Church those who are among us now but who are "spots and wrinkles."
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; (Jude 1:12)
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; (Matthew 13:41)
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:47)
"The Lord added . . . such as should be saved."
For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. (Acts 18:10)
The above verse parallels, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world." Perhaps the unscriptural emphasis on "going forth to save people from Hell" has obscured the fact that the purpose of the present age is to seek out those people who belong to God and to add them to the Church.
What about the rest of the people in Corinth? Were they the "tares"? Were they the "wicked" spoken of so frequently in the Book of Psalms?
God "owned" the elect of Corinth referred to here, and now He was giving them to the Lord Jesus by the hand of Paul.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)
We know—especially from the ninth chapter of Romans—that Paul was convinced of the sovereignty of God in the building of the Church. What about Peter and John? Did they also perceive that the calling of God plays the principal role in the redemption of men?
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; (II Peter 2:12)
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (I John 2:19)
Both of the above passages refer to people who meet with Christians in the assemblings.
Today we have people who profess to be Christians. They attend the church services. They "worship" with us. But they are not striving after righteousness in the Lord. Therefore, they are children of the devil (at this time) though they profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
To be continued.