Sermon for Sunday, November 30th, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[Isaiah 55:1-3 ESV] 1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
New Testament Reading:
[1 Corinthians 1:18-29 ESV] 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
Gospel Reading:
[Luke 10:21-24 ESV] 21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Sermon Text:
[Matthew 11:25-30 ESV] 25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Introduction
There is a lot going on in this passage today.
What I’ll focus on in this sermon is two ideas in particular — election and call. We’ll look at them individually, to understand the Biblical doctrine, and then look at them TOGETHER, trying to answer that question of how it is that God sovereignly choses His people for salvation all the while calling people to come to him. These do indeed work together, to the praise and Glory of God.
However, since this subject got so large, I decided to do something I’ve never done before, and make this a Part I and Part II sermon. So this week we’ll do part one looking at election, and next week, we’ll look at calling, part II.
I suspect many would preach this passage with a focus on verse 28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And indeed that is a great verse, especially for those (perhaps everyone) who is struggling with so much in life, and is so relieved to be able to “leave it at the feet of Jesus.”
And I do want to speak considerably also about that verse, and the idea of rest in Jesus.
But ultimately, I want to try to answer a very difficult, even perplexing question. That is, how can there be “ELECTION” and also a CALL to come to Jesus? If it is all of God’s doing, then what is our doing? Of if we “do” something, does that detract from God’s grace and plan?
This is a central question that has challenged theologians for centuries. And many various approaches have been tried. I cannot possible detail all of those approaches in this sermon. So we’ll have to jump right in to the issues, and to an answer. And I intend of course, that my answer is the Presbyterian answer, and that it is the Biblical answer, and that it is the RIGHT answer!
So we have the following outline:
I. Election
II. Call
III. Election and Call Together
PART I. Election
Fist, we look at Election.
We ought to like all truth including the doctrine of election. And that can be a hard task, as many are naturally opposed to this idea that GOD(!) chooses people for salvation, rather than people choosing themselves for salvation.
a. Election is a Biblical doctrine.
But election (or predestination) IS a BIBLICAL doctrine. It was not created as a philosophical addition to the Scriptures, nor is it from the doctrines of man. Election is Biblical.
First we must recognize that the term “election” IS a Biblical term. (Rom 9:11, Rom 11:28, 2 Pet 1:10)
AND the term “predestination” IS a Biblical term. (Rom 8:29-30, Eph 1:5, Eph 1:11)
So ALL Christians – or all Christian theologians anyways – believe in election. The debate through the centuries is not IF there is Election, but WHAT ELECTION MEANS. That is to say, there are differ views of Election. (Augustine, St. Thomas, Calvin, Armininus, and others each had some view of election)
The view that I hold to, and that our confession teaches is the view that God chooses his people from all eternity.
The Westminster Confession explains this doctrine in saying, “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.”
Perhaps most important in that statement is that predestination (or election) is A DECREE OF GOD. No one else. It is His sovereign choice.
God is not merely FORESEEING whom will come to saving faith, but He who knows all things and is Sovereign over all things decrees who will believe, as it is said in Ephesians 1:4
“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
b. Election is a truth that Jesus thanks God for. (v. 25)
Then, we ought to like the doctrine of election, not only because it is a Biblical doctrine, but because Jesus likes this doctrine. It is a truth that Jesus thanks God for.
Look at what is going on as our passage begins.
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I THANK YOU, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children
Jesus thanks God for God’s work in granting and revealing salvation to some and not to others.
Pink: The connection between this and the preceding verses is most instructive. There the Lord Jesus intimates that the majority of His mighty works had produced no good effect upon those who saw them, that their beholders remained impenitent. So little influence had His gracious presence exerted upon Capernaum, where He spent much of His time, that its fate would be worse than Sodom’s. Christ looks away from earth to heaven, and finds consolation in the sovereignty of God and the absolute security of His covenant.
Matthew says “At that time” because we just came from the previous passage where Jesus was saying “Woe” unto the cities of Galilee – Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum — because THEY WOULD NOT BELIEVE. But now, “at that time” Jesus doesn’t respond with a depression over the fact that those people would not believe, but rather Jesus is THANKFUL. Thank you GOD “that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.”
“These things” are … “the great things of the gospel” (as Matthew Henry notes). Great things, as we will see, that lead to peace and rest.
Though Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum will not come to faith, Jesus is thankful to God, praising God for the salvation of others; the salvation of “little children” (the humble faithful, whether actual children or aged adults who trust in the Lord). Jesus is thankful, glad, for the WILL OF GOD to be done.
And it is natural for us to thank God for the salvation of SOME.
But did you notice that included in Jesus’s “thanks” is not only that God has revealed the truths of the Gospel to “little children” but also that “HE HAS HIDDEN THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND UNDERSTANDING.”
This is part of, or the outworking of, the doctrine of reprobation.
And if there is a doctrine people don’t like, it is this one. Or, this might not be a word you are not familiar with. Reprobation – the act of God’s choosing against a person. Or “the reprobate;” those whom God has chosen not for salvation but for condemnation.
We don’t know why, but for the glory of God. It is, even as a professor of the truth of this doctrine, a concerning, troubling thing. But it is a thing we must trust is in God’s plan. That is what Jesus is doing with Chorazin, Beethsaida, and Capernaum. Even thanking God for keeping his saving grace from them.
Reprobation is often thought of as a doctrine not taught in Scripture, but only implied as the other half of election. True it is logically the other side of election. If God chooses some, then he does not chose others. Or to say it positively, if God choose some for salvation, he chooses others for damnation. But the doctrine of reprobation is not merely a logical conclusion of other teachings. It is, itself taught in the Scriptures.
Here it says that God — God himself — “has hidden these things from the wise and understanding.” And Jesus is thankful for that fact!
Who are the “wise and understanding?” These are those who reject Christ, those who are “always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.” The “wise and understanding” are those who think they don’t need God, and can go it alone, choosing their own direction. This, of course, is what happened back in the Garden of Eden as man sought to have his own way, eating the fruit from the true of the knowledge of Good and Evil; thinking that man could decide truth apart from God.
The “wise and understanding” are who Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians:
[1 Corinthians 1:20-25 ESV] 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
So the “wise and understanding” are truly not wise at all, and have no understanding.
WHY? Because, as the text says, God has hidden these truths from them.
We have to be clear here, that it is their sin that condemns them.
It is their unbelief that condemns them.
It is their “wisdom and understanding”; living apart from God that condemns them.
BUT, God is not entirely passive in reprobation.
Even Calvinists will argue against a teaching called “Equal Ultimacy.”
And there is a good point their argument:
For the Salvation of God’s people, God not only elected and predestinated them, but sent Jesus Christ to die for their sins. And the Holy Spirit works in God’s people to bring faith, the knowledge of salvation, and sanctification.
Then, as is often said, God “passed over” the rest, the reprobate whom he did not chose. God didn’t have to do anything to condemn them; they were condemned in their own sins.
c. God is active, not passive in election.
But this doesn’t mean that God is entirely passive in reprobation.
He is active. The verb in verse 25 is Active.
God HID “these things” (the Gospel) from “the wise and understanding.”
God is sovereign in all things, ordaining all things, even the condemnation and damnation of the reprobate.
Paul speaks of this also in Romans 11:8-10
[Romans 11:8-10 ESV] 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
So it is that God works out his plan, hiding truth from some and even giving them “a spirit of stupor.”
But for His people God has REVEALED truth. It is not something that is known by our own effort, but something God has GIVEN; knowledge He has revealed.
[2 Timothy 1:9 ESV] 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
God is active:
[Romans 9:18 ESV] 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
And all of this is according to God’s will.
d. Election is according to God’s will. (v. 26)
That’s what we find next in verse 26:
26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
This revealing truth to some and hidden from others is part of God’s will which Jesus is thankful for.
It is even God’s “gracious will.” How is reprobation part of his gracious will?, when grace is that which comes upon the saved and elect, not the unsaved and unelect.
KJV doesn’t say “gracious.”
“Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”
NASB doesn’t say “gracious” either.
“Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight.”
And the Greek is “eudokia” meaning “good pleasure” or “good will.”
So I don’t like the ESV translation.
It is better to say that “such” or “these things” (referring to God’s plan of hiding truth from some and revealing it to others), it is better to say that this is all part of God’s will or plan; and that his plan is good. God is definitely not give grace to the reprobate, but gives condemnation.
Election is according to God’s will; it is pleasing in his sight.
e. Election is by God’s choice. (v. 27)
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son CHOOSES to reveal him.
In this section on election, we actually find something instructive about the nature of God. We see that God the Father and God the Son are on the same page, united in will. “All things” from the Father have been handed over the Son.
And while Election is of God in all eternity, salvation is actuated in real time; the Son REVEALS God to those whom he chooses.
And that is our main focus here; the decree of election. It is the choice of God. The text is clear. As are other texts:
[John 15:16 ESV] 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
[John 1:11-13 ESV] 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And much like our passage from Matthew, we find John saying:
[John 17:25-26 ESV] 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
So it is that election unto salvation is purely of God, his will, and his choice.
And others are not chosen:
[Matthew 13:11 ESV] 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Perhaps the most powerful Biblical idea to support the doctrine of election, is the idea that “you must be born again.” Jesus says, “You must be born again.” And how are you born? Not of your own action, but of God’s. That’s the whole idea of birth – it is not your choice. Your physical birth was not your choice, and your spiritual birth (your election unto salvation) is not your choice, but Gods. You must be born again, and we are born again when the Holy Spirit raised us to new life.
If we had to gain our own salvation, we would never gain it.
And if we could lose our salvation, we would.
None seek after him, no not one.
But God seeks us, those whom he has chosen unto salvation.
[Luke 19:10 ESV] 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Conclusion:
[Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV] 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Application: Election is God’s business.
We often think of the distinction between the visible church and in the invisible church. The visible is those who are outwardly professing Christians, but the invisible is those who actually are believers. And these believers are mostly in the visible church, though in certain times and places they are not members of a church. There is a visible and invisible church.
There is perhaps a parallel with election. It is God’s business. It is hidden to us. But yet we learn about election in the Scriptures because we want to know about God. It is something He does.
And this leads to another application:
Application: Humility in Election.
Especially considering this “invisible” nature of election, we ought to have great humility. We ought to have humility because God chose us not for anything great in us, but solely for His own good purpose. We are not better than anyone else; and yet God chose us. Israel was not better than the other nations; in fact it was smaller, weaker. And yet God called them his chosen people. (Deuteronomy 14:2)