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So you think you are a Christian(a short sermon on the tenetsof the Christian faith)Those who are the Children of GodThe true children of God are chosen and have a union, a union with Christ, a union before thefoundation of the world (Eph.1.4) “According as he hath chosen us in him before thefoundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”“Chosen in him.” “One with Christ.” Some will have it that the union with Christ began at thetime of their conversion, when “we accepted Christ into our hearts”. Others, that Christ newwho was going to pick him and who would reject him. Pelagianism and Arminianism have no part in Revealed Religion. Pelagianism teaches that anyone can turn up, whenever they wishand take Christ as their saviour. Unlike the Pelagians we are taught that man is a TotallyDepraved being who desires not to know God, that man’s thoughts are totally selfish and hisaction's base. He will not choose God over himself. He deems himself more important as hestruts and strides his world. Every fibre of man is corrupt, as it is written “There is nonerighteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”(Rom.3.10,11) The best of men are but vanity, wind and confusion and altogether intolerablewhen left to themselves.Due to our sinful, fallen state God cannot look upon us as his own, cannot look upon us anydifferently than other sinners that inhabit the kingdom of darkness, who walk according to thecourse of this world and to the dictates of its prince and their ruler (Eph.2.2,3) “Wherein intime past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whomalso we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh and of the mind; andwere by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” It was because of our iniquity that weended up in this captivity and it was God that handed us into the hands of our enemies; heactively gave us up to be tormented and to abide in the kingdom of darkness. (Ezek.39.23)We may indeed go further and say that each and every day God’s righteous anger is againstall that do sin, all that remain in sin and perform iniquity (Ps.7.11), that in the heart there isno rest to the wicked, day or night (Rev.16.9) as God’s inflexible justice is never satisfied byanyone, though some may attempt to appease God by employing them in his work but thisonly incurs more wrath and displeasure, even from the Son of righteousness himself (Rev.6.16) whom many will avow loves the sinner and sits pleading with him to turn to himand be saved as his Father looks on shaking his head in disbelief that the sinner will not turnto embrace Christ and him crucified. Such talk is irreverent and atheistical.Because of this state of affairs our union had to be in Christ before the foundation of theworld, we had to be chosen in Christ in order that when God should look upon us, even in our sinful condition, he would see his son and so, not turn his face away from us in respect of our salvation. (Eph.1.4) “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
 
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” The elect are chosenand safe in Christ before the foundation of the world and shall be so throughout eternity. Butwhy did God perform such a union in the first place? Because he is who he is (Eph.1.5)“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, accordingto the good pleasure of his will.” His will be done, not ours. This is The UnconditionalElection that forms one body of believers, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, the headof the body, which is unwelcome to those who believe in the Rapture as they teach that theChurch, the body of all believers is torn apart and that those who are ready shall enter heavenand then miraculously the earthly Jews are saved on mass, forming another Church thatChrist shall take with him to heaven and so prove to be a bigamist, having two brides.Election, or supralapsarianism is a difficult thing to accept and yet we are to accept it becauseGod has spoken it, teaches it as part of his immutable council. It is hard because who madethe difference, for all are under sin? None deserve salvation.It is impossible for God to save and convert any soul that he has not chosen in Christ. Godhas bound himself in this matter and man cannot alter the mind of God. Those who do nothave this union cannot have the inheritance (Eph.1.11) “In whom also we have obtained aninheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his own will”. Our inheritance was laid up in Christ, the inheritance of salvation and all that we find within it, which is of great joy to our hearts. When Christ diedwe, in time, came into our inheritance. God will have all his children to inherit (Acts.2.47)“Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church dailysuch as should be saved.” Yes! Salvation is a sure and certain thing that cannot be either madeof none effect by the disbelief of man or taken away by the sin of man, that God does not sitas an impotent being who stands back and is unable to control man and events.There are some who teach and persist in teaching that God saw who would be saved, whowould commit their lives to Jesus Christ and so save them. These Pelagians who persist inthis school of thought do not fully appreciate man’s original condition, that man is a totallydepraved being, that man cannot and will not choose God. Unlike ignorant, wicked man,God does not look across time to see who would “put their hands up for Christ”, as time didnot exist until God created it and unfurled his plan. It may be unpalatable for the corruptcarnal mind to accept the ways of the Lord, but this should not give way to lies and falsedoctrine. The Creator of all things has an eternal plan and in the beginning of the world he began to unfold that plan, to execute it. God does not plan in time, only in eternity, and weshould give to him the adulation he deserves (Rev.4.11) “Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receiveglory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are andwere created”. We should also remind ourselves (Deut.29.29) “The secret things belong untothe LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our childrenfor ever, that we may do all the words of the law.” That which the Lord reveals he reveals,though listening to some, God has revealed all things to them, and that they are the greatones, far above the rest of the crowd. Proud, haughty and ignorant they are that shall find outthat their brashness and arrogance comes with a price, and that their reward is laid up for them in that world to come.Our Creator and our God is answerable to no one but himself. If he had dained not to have planned and created all things, nothing would have been brought into being, none of our liveswould have happened, the world would never have existed, we would not have been here toknow anything about a Creator or his eternal plan. If God has decided to make a difference between human kind he has every right to do so, after all we are his creation and he can do
 
with us as he pleases, as he sees fit. If God were to throw down every edifice of man’smaking or rid the world of him, he could do so and is only answerable to himself. We shouldnot display the spirit of the world, a world that hates its Creator. We should not fall out andside with the wicked and dissemble with God (Rom.9.20) “Nay but, O man, who art thouthat repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thoumade me thus?” And again, (Rom.9.21) “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the samelump to make one vessel unto honour, and another to dishonour?” It is a hard truth butnevertheless truth, strong meat. It is a fearful thing to consider that we could have been thevessels of dishonour, vessels fit for destruction. Who made the difference between us and thechildren of the devil? What could we have said to God if he had made us to be children andoff-spring of Satan? Nothing! Our finite, meagre minds do not fully comprehend all this andmore that the Lord has determined, but we do know that we shall be satisfied with theoutcome, when in our spirits we become aware just how marvellous are his works. We rest inthe knowledge that the God of the whole earth will do right and we see but little andunderstand even less (1 Col.13.12) “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face toface: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”Our union with Christ is realised in time, at the point of our conversion. The union is likenedto that of a vine (Jhn.15.1-15) the vine is representative of Christ and the true branches that of  believers that bear much fruit according to their union with the vine itself. There are false believers mentioned here and depicted as dead wood, as there will always be false professorsof revealed religion seen alongside believers and so convincing they are in their formalreligion that their walk comes close to passing off as the real thing, hence the closenesswithin scripture. There is a day coming in which this shall not be the case. The ungodly Jewand the ungodly Gentile shall be separated from the children of God. (Matt.25.33) All true believers abide in Christ and in the fulness of time come to realise this. Now, once madealive unto God the believer begins to draw from the Head to which he is indissolubly united,and the they begin to draw all that is necessary for their continuance as living branches proceeding forth from a living vine. One of the fruits of union is that of faith which is givento us and made to feel ours when it comes for us to be called to repentance. Faith proceeds as part and parcel of our covenant relationship and union with Christ and is not a seed that isnaturally to be found in any man without God first planting it there. It is because the electhave such a covenant relationship that God looks upon them in Christ, (Eph.1.4) no longer does God look away from them (Ezek.39.29) and therefore he can stir up his spirit to quickenthem to see their sinful nature and bring them to repentance, having previously hidden hisface (v.24).The relationship between Christ and believers is a very intimate one that finds its expressionat Calvary. On Calvary Christ bore the inflexible justice and vindicative wrath of his Father for sin, for the broken law, that culminated in his death and consequent resurrection as he andhe alone laid down his life on behalf of his people and because he had to power to lay it downhe was able to take it again. Christ took all the punishment on behalf of his and his fatherschildren, that he did this for a select few (Mrk.14.24) whose names he took to Calvary’smount and bore them there that he might know each and everyone he was sacrificing himself for (Rev.17.8) and so personal was this work that it can justifiably be asserted that whenChrist was condemned he was condemned for the sins of every believer, and again, whenChrist was judged, he was judged for every believer, and again, when Christ was crucified for sin he was crucified for every believer, when Christ suffered hell he did so for every believer,and that when Christ rose every believer rose with him. (Col.3.1; Rom.8.30) In an objective
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