He Will Lose None

HE WILL LOSE NONE

Many years ago, I heard an old preacher ask a question that I'll never forget. He said he knew a preacher that had left the ministry and then asked the congregation, "I wonder how many people will go to hell because he's no longer going to preach the gospel to them?"

My immediate thought then was, and still is, not a single, solitary soul. This is the glaringly obvious, scriptural answer concerning the election of an Almighty Sovereign God, but that is simply not the god of most pulpits, or most parishioners who "let" their god do what they will "allow" him to do and nothing else.

Isaiah 46:9-11 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Romans 9:6-26 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
( For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; )
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

It is the epitome of self important arrogance to think that we control, or even affect the eternal destiny of those whom God has chosen and loved eternally in Christ. He indeed uses means, such as the foolishness of preaching, (1 Corinthians 1:21) but our failure to preach doesn't thwart God's eternal election in any way.

The grace to preach the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as God's satisfaction to his own law and justice is a gracious gift to God's servants to declare this glorious message and not their gift to God. God's eternal counsel will stand and he will do all his pleasure, calling each and every soul chosen in Christ from eternity past, in time, by his appointed means, for his glory alone.

If he were to lose even one, that would be a condemnation of the finished work of Christ, saying his death is not sufficient and more is required. The child of God will have none of that for they rest not in their own works and "righteousness", but ever and always in the Lord Our Righteousness.

John 10:4-5 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

- written by Kenny Dyess, via his Facebook page