The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

There are a lot of pretenders and imitators and people playing in church. What is the difference between a chosen person and a called person?  The passage says, “Many are called but few are chosen.”

John MacArthur's Answer

Let’s assume first of all that there’s a lot of people in the church that aren't saved because there are a lot of tares sown among the wheat, Matthew 13. There’s a lot of people on the broad road instead of the narrow way. People always say, "I don’t want to join the church because there are too many hypocrites there." And my answer to that is, "Well it’s OK, we’ve got room for more, you’re welcome." Because that’s a hypocritical response, you see.

But basically, I think when you get to the first of "many are called but few are chosen," it simply means that the gospel is preached to many, but few respond and manifest having been chosen by God. In other words, God has extended the gospel call to many, but there are only a few who respond. And if you look at it from God’s sovereignty, He calls many but only a few are chosen. Now I don’t think that that means that the Lord is calling all these people into the church! I think the Lord is calling the true people into the church and the false ones infiltrate it. And they may not realize they are Satan's ambassadors but that’s what it turns out to be. It's like one pastor said to me one time, "I think I figured out our problem, half our board is saved and half of them aren't." Well that would be a problem, a real problem.

I will put it another way, I hope that people who are unsaved get miserable when they come here. Do you know what I am saying? I mean if I was unsaved, I won’t come to this church. Why would I sit here and here all this stuff? I don’t want to be upset all the time, I’d go somewhere else. I'd go down and hear "hearts and flowers" or something. Either you are going to believe this or you are going to leave. You are not just going to hang around and be uncomfortable, although it is amazing that some people do. But I think that God has extended the gospel call to the whole wide world in a sense and only a few believe.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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