"I don't understand Election" Paul Washer answers

Is man radically deprave?

Because if he is,if he is truly dead in his sin, if he truly hates God, if all man are equally evil, and they are.
Then the question is, how are you standing here right now believing God while some of your friends who are more moral than you still hate Him.

What happened?

If you say you opened up your ,heart. I'll say "No you didn't." because the bible said God opened up Lydia's heart.

Acts 16:14
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
First Convert in Europe
14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of (A)Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, (B)a worshiper of God, was listening; [a]and the Lord (C)opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

If you say, well, I repented." well,repentance is an evengelical grace in all the confessions that means it comes from God as a gift.

If you say,"Well, I believe."

Ephesians 2:8 New Living Translation (NLT) "8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God."

It also is a gift."

"See, first of all, your problem is this: let's say there's no election.Let's say that men are radically depraved and no man can come to God unless God draws him.

So God coems down to every man and says, "Anyone who will bow their knee to Me, anyone who will accept my Son as trheir Savior, will be saved." Since evey man is radically depraved, they all hate God.
They all blaspheme Him, turn around, walk away and go to hell. The whole world goes to Hell. Is that Gods fault?

Alright, let's say that really is the reality, let's say that the Bible is true and that men hate God that much. So who going to get saved? Absolutely no one.

And if God saved no one because every one is evil (Matthew 7:11) and rejects Him, is God wrong in doing that? No. So, that is what you've got the whole world hating God and going to Hell. That it.

The other option is, among these evil men,for His own glory and to demonstrate His own kindness before the foundation of the world. He chooses a group of men out of there to demonstrate His glory in them.
Is that wrong? Did he rip the other man off? What did he do? You've got two choices: God saves a group of people by His own sovereignty or everybody goes to Hell.Every body... because men are that evil.
See, your problem... see, what you need to realise is this,if God, right now,were to throw open the door of Hell and say, "Everyone who wants out of Hell, the only thing you have to do is bow your knee to me and recognise my Lordship".

they'll slam the door and stay in Hell. See, what you don't realise because of the humanistic Christianity in America. You don't realise that men are really evil.

They really are evil.I'll give an example. Have any of you seen the Lord of the ring? Saruman makes these orcs, they come out of the ground evil.Alright, Aragon, all the heros in the movie slaughter them like they were insects.And every time an orc gets killed, what do you do...yah-a-hay! Why?

Because those orcs really are evil.There's your problem - you don't think men are. Men really are evil. Men really deserve Hell. So, it says.. you know, we talk about the doctrine of inability. That men cannot come to God.Jesus said that in John 6:63-65 If you say, if men can't come to God then how can God judge them?
It's like judging a blind man because he can't read. If men can't come to God then... man's not a culprit,he's a victim. But here's what you have to understand, men cannot come to God. Because they will not come to God.And they will not come to God because they hate Him. And therefore they are responsible.Men are evil.

God is good. So... man hate God.they hat His LAw,they hate every thing about Him.it says of Joseph's brothers:they could not speak to him peaceably. Now they spoke Aramaic, why couldn't they speak to him? They could not speak peaceably to Him because they hated him.That is whay no man will ever come to God. If God comes down and says, "Alright, everybody make their choice." No one's coming to God. Why? They hate Him.

And that is why they are judged for their moral inability. Because their inability is moral. They really hate God. So you've got a whole human race,every one of them is fallen, every one of them hates God. God comes down and says, "Who wants to be saved?" Everybody blasphemes the name of God, walks into Hell and slams the door.

That's what you've got. Because men really are evil. And if out of that Good says,For my own glory I am going to redeem a people and give them to my Son by my own choice,by my own sovereign election. He' done wrong to no one. Now, how does He save them? Here's a question: Are you spiritually dead prior to conversion?

"Well then,how do you come to Christ? If you are spiritually blind, how do you see Him? If some of it has to do with you, you're a dead man.If God calls your name, you hate Him. You're not going to come,you're going to run further away from Him.That is why in all... now, listen very carefully... in all the Christian confessions - the old Christian confessions. in the reformation early Baptist confession. You have been raised on this: "If you beileve in Jesus you can be born again."

All the early Baptist confessions say you must be born again in order to believe in Jesus. That's the different. Because if I tell a dead man: "Look" "You're dead but there's a hospital over here,put some electrodes on you so get up and follow me over to the hospital." It's non-sensical. He's dead. If he can get up he doesn't need to go to hospital.

So, when Jesus looked at Lazarus and said, "Lazarus, come forth. there's a problem - Lazarus is dead. How does he hear the command? The command was not only to be given. The moment the command is given,Lazarus must be resurrected to be able to even hear the command and respond.

That's why you probably heard the Gospel for many, many years and you're sitting there and you didn't care, it's no big deal, maybe you made a profession of faith... nothing. And then one day the Gospel is preached and whoosh! the blinders are taken off and not only that but you want Him.

Because some people say, well, what God does is He draws us to a certain point and then gives us a choice' there's a problem. If God only illuminates the mind of the sinner,then the more the sinner sees God,the more he's going to hate Him.So He not only illumates the mind,He changes the heart.With a new heart, for the first time you want Jesus and you say," I Love Him and I am irresistably drawn to Him. I want Him more than anything". That's what it is."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRGMp0md5CE&feature=related