All right, please give your attention to the reading of
God's Word, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 through 6.
Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in
love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons
through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will to
the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in
the beloved. This is the word of the Lord.
All right, and you may take your seat.
So I'm going to quickly pray our gracious Heavenly Father, as we
come for some to what could be a difficult text.
I just pray that you would just open our eyes, give
understanding and clarity to our minds, and then would your
spirit make it real to our hearts.
And we pray that you would do this because we need you to do
this because these doctrines that we're about to look at are
meant for those who struggle believing that you love them.
And so I pray that you would convince us this morning of the
eternal, unchanging, never ending love that you have for
your children. And we ask of this in Jesus
name, Amen. All right, I'm just going to say
it upfront. The impact that fathers have on
their children, good or bad, cannot be denied.
Everyone in this room has been impacted positively or
negatively by their father. Who you are today in some way
has been molded and shaped by the presence or the absence of
your father. So to speak about fathers and
fatherhood like this can elicit a strong emotional response from
people. And I'm going to be honest, the
goal of my sermon this morning is to elicit a strong emotional
response from you. This is one of those giant texts
that I cannot do justice to. I feel like we're standing on
holy ground because the weight of these words and the meaning
of its content is giving us the eternal heart of God and His
eternal purpose for our lives. Our text is loaded with meaning
and it's also loaded with controversy both inside and
outside of the church. Paul deals with two words that
for some today are swear words in Christianity.
So I want to stayed upfront. We can either get caught up in
the controversy of election and predestination, or we can find
our greatest comfort in these doctrines.
See, Paul does not view these words as controversial.
In fact, he tells us that these are reasons for why God is to be
praised. To Paul, the meaning of these
words do not separate and divide people.
They are meant to unite, to assure, and to comfort people.
What was it like to know that your dad was displeased with
you, either by something you did or by something you didn't do?
How did your father react? Did he blow up in anger?
Did he walk away in disgust? Or did he just give you that
look of disappointment on his face that caused you to die 1000
deaths? How did it make you feel to know
that your dad was displeased with you?
And what were you most afraid of when he was displeased with you?
All of us have experienced the displeasure of our earthly
fathers, and whether we're willing to admit it or not, it
has had a profound effect on the way that we view God as our
Heavenly Father. Why do we at times think that
God will withhold blessing? Why do we fear that God will
love us less? Why do we think God will
abandoned and leave us? Aren't these fears rooted in the
fact that we think God's giving or withholding blessing?
It's based on what we do or don't do.
We think God's love for us is based on our love for Him.
We think that if we do what is right, we earn God's blessing,
but if we do what is wrong, we earn His punishment.
What is the proper context to understand the doctrines of
election and predestination? Answer.
It's when people think God withholds blessing from them.
It's when people are insecure of their standing before God
because they fall into sin, leaving them fearful that God's
love for them is going to change.
It's when people question their status as God's children,
thinking that they can't be a son or a daughter because the
life resemblance isn't that good.
It's when people fear that God will punish them, thinking that
God will kick them out of the house, saying, and don't you
ever come back. We all know what it is like to
experience the displeasure of a Father.
Our text is written so that we would know and always experience
God's favor. The doctrines of election and
predestination are meant to convince us that God's love for
His children. It's an eternal, it is an
unchanging, and it is a never ending love.
But before we move into the heart of our passage, I want to
just quickly address two things that are so easily forgotten,
predestination and election. They're not New Testament terms
that Paul invented. In the Old Testament, God chose
Israel. God predestined Israel to be his
children. And Deuteronomy 7 verses 6
through 9, it says, For you are a people holy to the Lord your
God. The Lord God has chosen you to
be a people for His treasured possession out of all the
peoples who are on the face of the earth.
It was not because you were more in number than any other people
that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were
the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves
you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your Father's, that
the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed
you from the House of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh the
king. Know, therefore, that the Lord
your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and
steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His
commandments to 1000 generations.
This is not a New Testament invention.
It's ancient. It's old and then second, the
one writing this letter was chosen and was predestined.
And verse one Paul says an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God. Paul did not seek to be an
apostle. It was not Paul's will to be an
apostle. God chose him and set him apart
for this task. So right away, Paul, at the
beginning of this letter is identifying himself as an elect
person, someone whose destiny has been determined by the will
of God, not by his will. And this is what struck me is
that Paul is rejoicing in this fact, despite the circumstances
that he's faced with while writing this letter.
Paul busts out and prays to God while he is in prison because of
God. So here's the question, Why is
Paul not questioning God's good intentions towards him while
he's suffering in prison? Why is Paul not bitter at all
that God has put him through? Why is he not complaining,
wishing he had a different or a better life?
Why is he not doubting God's love for him?
Why is he not wondering whether God has abandoned him because
he's left him alone in prison? Answer Because Paul knows that
God's love for him is an eternal, unchanging, never
ending love. And this knowledge, it impacts
Paul's life no matter what his circumstances are.
Despite being in prison, Paul can praise God as his Father
because he knows that as his Father he loves to bless his
children. Because these blessings have
nothing to do with what we do or don't do.
They have everything to do with what Jesus did.
See. Why do you doubt God's love to
be gracious to you? Why do you think God withholds
blessing? Yes, the fact that our earthly
fathers can affect our view of our Heavenly Father, but there's
more to it than that. We struggle to believe what Paul
says in verse 3 because we know we don't deserve His blessings.
Paul says that as our Father, God has already blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
The verb tense tells us that this is an already accomplished
fact. Those who are in Christ, he
says, have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing,
which means there's nothing that God withholds, there's nothing
that we're missing, there's nothing that we lack, there's
nothing else that we need to seek to get from God that we
don't already have in Christ. If we have already been blessed
with every spiritual blessing, then why do we think we can lose
God's blessing? Why do we think He withholds
blessing? Well, maybe it's because we
still think His blessing depends on us.
Now we need to remember verses 3 through 14.
It's one long sentence, the longest sentence in the Bible,
and the key phrase in these verses is in Christ.
Paul says we should praise God because as our Father, he
blesses us. Don't miss this with Christ's
blessing 12 times. In verses 3 through 14, Paul
refers in various ways to a believer spiritual union with
Christ. All that we have been given is
what has already been given to Jesus.
Therefore, all of the spiritual blessings that God gives are not
given because of what we do, but because of what Christ did.
These blessings, in other words, it's like peeling and onions.
There's just layer upon layer upon layer upon layer.
That's why it's one long sentence, because once Paul
starts, he can't stop. He just goes.
And for the remainder of our time, we're only going to look
at the two that are mentioned in verses 4 through 6.
But before we look at these blessings, I do want to briefly
address what it means to be united to Christ.
To be in union with Jesus means that everything that is true of
Jesus is true of everyone who is united to Jesus.
What does that mean? That means his identity is our
identity. That means what is declared of
Him is declared of those who are united to Him.
Everything He did is applied to us.
How God views him is how God views all of those united to Him
as our Father. God is to be praised because He
blesses us with Christ's status. And this includes 2 things.
It includes Christ's sanctity and Christ's sonship.
Look at verse 4. Paul says God chose us in Him
before the creation of the world, before He even laid the
foundations of the world, before anything existed.
He chose us in Him. Why?
To be holy and blameless in His sight.
God's purpose in electing people is so that they would be holy
and blameless in His sight. He did not choose people because
they were holy. He chose people in order to make
them holy. To be blessed with Christ's
sanctity. This means God removed something
from us, and then God supplies something to us because
believers are united to Christ. Here's what Paul is saying.
We have our blame removed. Everything that causes us to
experience guilt and shame is removed.
Everything that justly condemns us is no longer held against us.
All of our blemishes are removed in God's sight.
All of our sin is removed in God's sight.
We are without blame. But there's more.
Not only does God remove all blame from us, but He also
supplies us with Christ's righteousness.
See, the holiness that Jesus achieved by living a perfect,
sinless life is now declared to be ours.
Like this robe that covers me, Jesus's righteousness covers
those who are united to him. Because Jesus is holy, God views
and treats His children as if they are holy.
God sees us as holy. God removes our debt.
He credits us with Christ's righteousness.
This is why Christians get it so wrong.
We only believe 1/3 of the gospel.
We believe Jesus died for us to pay for sins penalty.
But we don't know. He lived for us, He accomplished
righteousness for us, and He graciously gifts us with His
righteousness, which means it's unlimited righteousness.
So do you see what this means? God is not angry with you.
This means God will not blow up in anger at his children because
they still sin. It means God will not walk away
from you in disgust. It means God will not look upon
you with disappointment. It means there's no more reason
to fear that God will love you less.
No more reason to fear that God love will change, No more reason
to fear that God will punish you.
No more reason to fear that God will somehow withhold blessing
from you or take some privilege away from you.
It means no more experiencing the Father's displeasure.
We are holy and blameless before the Father because of Christ.
But God's blessing doesn't end there.
God is to be praised not only because He blesses us with
Christ's sanctity, but also with His sonship.
Look at verse 5 In love. What drove this love?
In love? He predestined us for adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and
His will. God takes pleasure in adopting
people who aren't naturally His into His family.
God has will to adopt children through the work of Christ.
As adopted children, believers have all the rights, They have
all the privileges and all the affection that God has for His
own Son. The love that God has for His
Son is the love that He has for all those who are united to His
Son. Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
By right we become eternal sons and daughters.
By adoption, the status that Jesus has before His Father is
given. To those who are united to
Jesus, God is to be praised because He blesses us with the
blessing bestowed upon Jesus. So how do we get these
blessings? How does God give us his Son's
status? How does Jesus's sanctity and
his sonship become ours? Or, according to verses 5
through 6, all of God's blessings come from God alone.
According to these verses, they come to us because of God alone,
to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has freely
given us and the One He loves, which means none of these
blessings are caused by us. None of these blessings are
because of us. These blessings are freely given
to us because of the work of Christ alone, which means
salvation is not about our earning and it's not about our
deserving. It's all about God's grace.
Now we're ready to understand the significance of election and
predestination because it's meant for people who struggle to
believe that God loves them. The doctrines of election and
predestination are meant to do 2 things. 1st it's meant to drive
you completely away from trusting in yourself so that you
would trust more in Jesus. And 2nd, it is meant to convince
you that only in Christ can you know the eternal, unchanging,
never ending love of God as your Father.
For Paul, election and predestination.
They're not meant for unbelievers.
And believe it or not, John Calvin even said that it's meant
for those who believe but struggle with what they believe.
So I have two applications for two different types of people.
First, for those who do not know Christ, for those who do not
trust in Christ for their salvation, wouldn't you like to
know what it is like to not live under God's displeasure?
Wouldn't you like to know what it is like to live with no
blame? Wouldn't you like to know what
it is like to not live in fear of being punished?
Then flee to Jesus. Trust in Jesus's righteousness,
not your own. Flee to Jesus to see that He
received all of the punishment for all of your sin so that God
could adopt you into his family. And then for those who do trust
Christ, but they struggle to believe that God loves them,
what is God saying to you in our text?
I loved you before the world began, so don't doubt me now.
My love precedes your accomplishments and outlasts
your failures because my love for you is an eternal love.
It is an unchanging love. It is a love with no end and no
limits. Let me pray, our gracious
Heavenly Father man, for those of us who are married chose who
we wanted to spend the rest of our life with.
And this text tells us that before we were even created, you
set your affection and love upon us.
Not because of anything in us, all because of what Your Son has
done for us. So now convince us of it,
comfort us with it, and then change us because of it.
And we ask her this in Jesus's name, Amen.