‘ I cannot bear the mention of the word "contingency," when God is brought into account. “Happening" “chance" “contingency," are phrases which do very well for the vocabulary of Infidels, but they are not fit for Christians; for I know by my precious Book, that this glorious Being, concerning whom I am attempting to say a few words, "ordered all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:11) Do you wish to alter that counsel? Do you wish to set up your own will against His? "He ordereth all things after the counsel of His own will." Are you desirous to throw things into disorder, into utter confusion and ruin? If so, quarrel with God's sovereignty as fast as you can. But if you desire order to be maintained, and God is the God of order, then rejoice that He ordained all the events of time as an act of His sovereignty, and consequently that He rules them all; who shall be rich, and who shall be poor; who shall rule, and who shall be ruled; where and how a kingdom shall be set up; in what manner it shall reach the meridian of its splendour; how it shall decline, and when it shall be abolished. All are ordered and ordained by Himself. ‘
- Joseph Irons, excerpt from his sermon, “The Sovereignty of Jehovah”, link to sermon:
The Sovereignty of Jehovah
It was the sovereignty of God in his choice to provide salvation by his grace to Joseph Irons but it was not his choice that he be born. That was the result of a natural act (ordained of God) by his mother and father and if he came into the world in the confines of a marriage then God certainly approved of it. However, God did not provide salvation for Joseph Irons because he had been previously designated as "elect" but because he, like every man born of a woman, except one, Jesus Christ, was a sinner.
Paul, the great apostle, said his was a faithful saying and worthy of all accdeptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.........
He did not say he came to save the elect sinners but just plain sinners.
God the Father, the Judge of all the earth, had already sentenced all sinners to death when he said "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." He said, "the wages of sin is death."
He would say after this sentence, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
To teach that the elect are the only sinners is simply wrong. All men are sinners, therefore ungodly. That means Christ died for all sinners and back to what Paul said, all can and should be saved.
Jesus Christ said to some sinners he spoke to face to face these words;
John 5:40
And
ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Jesus Christ, the son of God thought they could willingly come to him and receive eternal life, but would not.
I have never seen a worse presentation of the person of God than you present here on a daily basis.
In the economy of the day, the elect of God are those whom Jesus Christ has saved by his blood and the Holy Spirit has indwelt and baptized into the body of Christ. These are elect because they are "in Christ," that is in his body, and Jesus Christ is elect before the foundation of the world. You see how the trinity is involved in our salvation? Those who are in Christ are elect in time.
