I don't know how it became part of my family's history or part
of my family's tradition, but we've got a thing that goes
whenever we get really excited, somebody in the family goes,
throws their hand up in the air, the right hand up in the air
goes whoop, whoop. And I feel like doing that
whenever I hear us sing such songs such as that whoop.
And I hope that you feel that way after you hear the passage
of Scripture that the Lord has intended for us this morning.
Hear the word of the Lord. Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, 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 which He has
blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses
according to the riches of His grace which He has lavished upon
us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery
of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in
Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all
things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on earth in
Him. In Him we have obtained an
inheritance, having been predestined according to the
purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel
of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ,
might be to the praise of His glory in Him.
You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, believed in Him, and were sealed with a promised
Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we
acquire possession of it all to the praise of His glory.
And this is the word of the Lord.
What? Please be seated.
If you didn't feel like whooping after that, then I can't read it
any better than that. This is this is Paul just
following. OK.
What I want you to do is I want you to imagine that you're
working for a big company or a major company in this world.
Now I know some of you are working home with families, some
of you are working and you're self-employed, some of you are
students and stuff like that. But go ahead and jump to the
idea that we're all working. You're working for a company and
the company makes widgets. OK.
And in reality, you don't even know what a widget is.
You don't know what a widget does.
You don't know the purpose of a widget, but the company makes
widgets and you love the company because the company has such
great benefits. The company treats you really
well. You enjoy the people that you
work with. Frankly, it's a joy to go to
work during the day because even though you don't know the
purpose of the company, you don't know what it does, you
really enjoy everything else about it.
And I fear that that's describes a whole lot of people's
relationship with the church. We like certain things about it.
We like coming to the church, We like enjoying the fellowship of
the church. There's great benefits of being
part of this body and stuff like that.
But the actual purpose of the church kind of eludes us.
Now, as I say this, of course, most of you are scrambling in
your mind trying to think, well, what is the purpose of the
church or the purpose of the church is self-evident.
It's and then you start thinking, what is the purpose of
the church now in this company? The widgets.
You find out that a widget is the most crucial, life giving,
affirming, blessed, desirable thing in the entire world.
You've been working for this company for all this time and
you haven't realized what a wonderful product you've been
producing. It's a life changing event and
you're suddenly transformed in the way in which you go to work.
Everything changes. I can't imagine once you
realize, while important, how crucial this widget really is.
Over the past couple of months we've been looking at a
description of Hebron Church. We've kind of looked at it along
these lines. At Hebron Church is a biblically
based, Christ centered community of disciples, A Reformed
classically evangelical church in the Presbyterian tradition,
worshipping, growing and serving Christ in the eastern suburbs of
Pittsburgh. We've had that kind of
description and we've talked about who we are to be or who we
want to be, who we are growing to be, something along those
lines. We've also talked during this
sermon series about what we're supposed to do.
Last week we looked at what it means that we're missional.
Well, we've looked at a couple weeks before that about what it
means that we're part of the body of Christ.
And then we talked about worshipping, serving and growing
together. We've talked about who we are.
We talked about what we are, but we haven't necessarily touched
on why we are. Why has God called us as a
church? I think that this text that we
have before us does a fabulous job of outlining some of those
things for us. And I want to look at, and I
encourage you to grab your Bibles and turn to it for a
second. This is in Ephesians chapter 1
beginning in verse 3. And you begin by asking what
does, what does Paul here say that God has done?
What has God done? And you have this wonderful
description. Now many some of you might have
heard been studying this passage and you know that this is all
one sentence in the Greek. This is Paul with motor mouth.
You know, this is this is Paul at his absolute worst.
And if you've ever read Paul and you've thought man use a period
or a comma pal or something like that, this is really where it
comes to four in in the four and the English translators simply
can't do it. You can't have a 14 verse
sentence in English. And so in English, we've broken
it up here in the USB into five different sentences.
There are different versions that break it up into as many as
eight different sentences because there's just so much
here. Listen to this.
This is what God has done. This is what Paul is excited
about when he says this is what God has done.
He has blessed us with the spiritual blessings in the
heavenly places. He has chosen us before the
foundation of the world in love. He has predestined us.
Why? So that we could be holy and
blameless before Him. He has predestined us so that we
would be adopted as His children.
We have in verse 7, redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of our sins, the richness of His grace lavished
upon us, wisdom and insight, all according to the mystery of His
will. Later on we're going to see that
we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, that we have the inheritance
that is expected for us. You've you got all of this
descriptions, all this work about what God has done and when
you read this passage, it's easy to get over.
You should get overwhelmed. John Thomas Manton, a Puritan
back in the 1700s sixteen hundreds.
He wrote 26 two hour long sermons based how many did I say
he did 32 whatever he did, Thomas Mann did 32.
His Co worker upped him one a little bit, Thomas Goodwin and
he did 36 sermons on this. More recently, Martin Lord Jones
did 26 sermons upon this passage.
Now before you start to panic, we're not going to do a sermon
series on Ephesians one, but why not get it?
When you hear all of these things, you can see that it
really would be easy. Could we do a sermon on the
spiritual blessings that we have in Christ in the heavenly
places? Oh, you could do probably two or
three sermons and not get. Can we do a sermon series on the
fact that He chose us before the beginning of the world?
Could mercy? We could do lots of sermon
series on that. The fact that He in love, He
predestined us. What does that mean?
What does it mean that we have the inheritance in in Christ?
What does it mean that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit?
What does it mean that we are forgiven by our sins?
You can easily see how this could be.
This passage could be the basis easily of two hour long sermons
based on 30 some different passes 30 different times you
get together. You can see this about what God
has done here and the overwhelming nature of it and
the the blessed nature of it. The temptation of this.
My guess is that probably about half of you have been in a Bible
study and you've tackled tackled this passage in Ephesians that
sometime over your time of be going to church.
You've done a Bible study and you've looked at Ephesians.
If you haven't by the way, you should get in one and I'm sure
we can generate a Bible study here that would look at
Ephesians. It's a marvelous book, and you
would never leave that first chapter just exploring it
because it details for us what God has done.
But I don't want you to miss something, and this is a crucial
biblical reading skill that every Christian needs to
develop. Don't miss Paul's point in
telling us this. Why is Paul telling us all the
things that God has done here? OK, you get overwhelmed in 14
verses. You get overwhelmed with all
these things that God has done. But yeah, it's easy to lose
sight of the fact that Paul has a particular purpose in mind
when you have this Bible study in in Ephesians 1.
And immediately you want to start talking about what does it
mean that Christ in love predestined us before the
foundation of the world? And you want to spend all your
time exploring that and having all this discussion and the
Bible studies riled up about it because they want to understand
it and everybody's talking about it, etcetera.
Is it possible that you missed Paul's point?
What is Paul's point? Look in verse 3 for a second.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Other translations, Praise be to God and our Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why?
Because of all of these things, what does Paul want you to do?
Paul doesn't want you to have a philosophical discussion.
He doesn't want you to talk about the theological and
challenges of this passage. He doesn't want you to get over.
Now. Do we want do we want to
understand predestination? Of course we do.
Do we want to understand how it's possible that God in love
ordained us before the beginning of time?
Of course we do. Do we want to understand what it
means that by His blood we are forgiven of our sins and
trespasses? Of course, all of this is
provided for us so that we are encouraged to dig into this.
But if you're ever looking at this passage and you're not LED
overwhelmingly to say praise be to God, then you're missing the
whole point. The whole point of Paul here is
not to educate you on what predestination is, or on what
adoption is, or on what the Holy Spirit does or any of those kind
of things. All of that is intended by Paul.
Paul's expectation is if you understand it, if you don't
understand it, if you love it, if it frustrates you, if
whatever it does, Paul expects that long list all to bubble out
of you and to cause you to say praise be to Jesus.
What? Yeah.
Whoop. Somebody whooped.
I didn't see the arm go in the air, but that was close enough.
Yeah. Actually, I'm.
I'm. I'm excited.
I should. Whoop.
This is the the intent here is to draw us into praise of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the fact that we can read
this passage and I have been in so many contentious discussions
where at the base of this is this passage and our
understanding of this passage. And the two of us walk away and
neither one of us feel like going woop betrays not the
confusion of the gospel, not the frustration of our Lord's
Lord's, this revelation. It betrays my own brokenness and
my own sinfulness and my insistence that this is about
me, that this passage is about me, and therefore I need to
understand it. If I don't understand it, then I
can't say, praise be to God. Paul's like you're crazy.
Look at everything that Paul is God has done for us.
How can that motivating force, how can that drive in your life
not be to say what praise be to God because of all of this in
which he has done. When we're reading the
scripture, always ask yourself why is the author writing this
to us? Why does God provide this to us?
Does he want to spark our interest and and and engage our
curiosity so that we dig deeper into the word and understand him
more? Of course he does.
But the point of this passage is
to have you leaving this room, Whoop, just so excited.
Praise God for what he has done and for what he's doing.
Now, if that's Paul's reason for writing this for us, what's
God's purpose in doing all of these things?
What is God's purpose in providing us with spiritual
blessings in Christ? What's God's purpose in love
predestining us before the creation of the world?
What's God's purpose in lavishing the mystery of His
will upon us? What?
What is God's intent here? Now, we could hypothesize, we
could kick around different ideas, and we will in a few
seconds. But doesn't it make more sense
to look right here in the Scriptures?
Look in verse 6 for a second, verse 6, Paul's talking about
how in love we're predestined to be adopted in his sons.
You know what adoption means. Can you imagine what that means?
To be adopted as his Son in Christ Jesus according to the
purpose of his will. Again, you get overwhelmed with
all of that was just possible and then you come into a purpose
statement. Here's the reason why he's doing
this to the praise of his glorious grace to the praise of
his glorious grace. You know, why is God doing all
this? OK, let's check.
Look in verse 12. So we have this wonderful
inheritance that we are intending for the his purpose is
to grant us with this wonderful inheritance.
So what look at verse 12. So that we who are the first to
hope in Christ, so that we Christians who hope in Christ,
so that we might be to the praise of His glory, so that we
might be to the praise of His glory.
Why does God do all these things?
Why does He have an inheritance for us?
Why is He blessed us with all this?
Why is Christ gone to the cross of Jesus Christ?
So that we might be to the praise of His.
Let's check to make sure. Look at verse 14, the wrapping
up of this passage, the wrapping up of his sentence, actually
this long sentence where He overflows with all the things
that God has done on our behalf. How does He end it?
Why? So that we might be to the
praise of His glorious grace. Sorry, I've smeared everything
together there to the praise of His glory at the end of verse
14. Why is God working?
Why does God do all these things?
Why is God blessing us so much? Why does He have all of this
intent to the praise of His glory?
Now all too often we use that kind of as a nickname or as a
moniker or as a throwaway line to the praise of His glory.
I don't think you can possibly do this.
In this one single sentence of Paul where he outlines all the
wonderful things that God has done for us, He says 3 different
times, this is for my glory, this is for my glory, this is
for my glory. Now, what's the alternative?
The alternative, of course, is that God's doing all those
things for my glory. Let's face it, God loves me so
much, and we know that he does. Here in this very passage, we're
told how very much from the beginning of the world, God
loved me so much that he sent his own Son to die on my behalf.
Because He loved me so much, God's got to do it for me.
And it takes a second again to reread those words.
That he's doing it for the praise of His glory, for His
glory. Now all the spiritual blessings
that he pours out upon me, it's easy to get distracted and to
think, oh, these blessings are all for me.
These blessings are given so that I can be happy.
Why does God exist, after all, if not to make Henry Knapp
happy? That should be funny because you
know that's ridiculous. But my guess is that some of you
didn't laugh and giggle because you know that down deep, that's
what you think too. That God exists so that we can
be happy, that God exists for our glory.
That God exists to make my life easy.
God exists to serve me because I have so many needs and he's got
so much power. But this text forces us to look
at everything the other way around.
It's to the praise of His glory. Now, there's spots when we think
like this where you're tempted to form a dichotomy that the
Scripture doesn't have in mind. A dichotomy 2 opposites.
God does all these things for my good or God does all these
things for His glory, and the Scripture consistently binds
them together, holds them together, and says, no.
God pursuing His own glory is exactly what makes it for my
good. Look back again at the text in
verse 12. Why has God done all these
things? So that we who are the first to
hope in Christ, so that we who believe in Jesus Christ might be
to the praise of His glory. He has created us.
What is best for me? What is best for me is when my
Lord pursues not what I think is good, not what I want, not
what's going to make me happy, but what is going to bring Him
glory. What brings Him glory is what I
need to be pursuing because ultimately that's what's good
for me. It's not an either or.
It's not that God's either after my good or He's after His glory.
God is after His glory and that is my good and that is your good
over and over again, temptation of our hearts, temptation of
sin. The temptation of of every
thought that you have is to drive the world Dr. Everything
in the world towards yourself to realize that because of the
sinfulness, and this is if you're no matter what your
struggle is in life, no matter what your temptation is in life.
We struggle with the self centeredness that is at the core
of sin, at the center of sin and that drives us away from the
glory and praise of our God and Father, Lord Jesus Christ, even
though everything about him is the pursuit of his own glory.
It's a pursuit of his praise, his joy, his blessings.
So why does heaven church exist? Do we exist for your good?
Do we exist for your happiness? Is it just a cute Christian
thing to say? We exist for the glory of God,
not if we're going to be serious, not if we're going to
be everything that we say that we are biblically centered
Christ, but biblically based Christ centered reformed,
classically evangelical Presbyterian.
Our thoughts process. If we are following through with
those things. We have what one goal in life
and that is to be for the praise of his glory.
Now that's again just sounds like a throwaway line until we
think about it. To the praise of His glory.
What is glory? Glory is God's magnificence, His
splendor, his character, His. It is shorthand for his very
essence. When Moses says God, show me
your glory, He's not saying show me a characteristic, show me a
trait of you. Show me a side of your life.
He's saying, Lord, I want to see you as you really and truly are.
What we need to be is about the praise of his glory, the focus,
the attention, the the heart breath of the pumping of every
worship service, of every program, of every discipleship
idea of every pastoral moment, every time I'm getting together
with you. What is supposed to be the
driving force that's behind it? His glory, but not just His
glory. It's to the praise of His glory,
to the praise of His glory, to the outward manifestation and
elevation and magnification of His glory.
That's what we're supposed to be about so that it's not just a
toss away line. It's just not a cute thing that
Christians say. It's not just something in the
background. It is something that is
essential to what we are doing to the praise.
I did something I shouldn't do I to the praise of his glory.
That's what we are about everything in which we are
functioning on. And this is something now that
you need to hold me accountable to, and you need to hold the
elders accountable to, and I need to hold you accountable to.
When you're frustrated with God, which you read the Psalms and
you know the frustration with God is something that the
psalmist himself experienced over and over again, there's
nothing wrong with that. But if you're frustrated with
God because He's not meeting your needs, you've missed the
idea of why God has called you into existence.
He has called you into existence.
He has loved you before the creation of the world.
He has redeemed you by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
He has sealed you with His Holy Spirit so that you might have
this wonderful inheritance for the praise of His glory.
You can't praise overstatement, Hank.
You shouldn't praise with your mouth shut.
You praise the Lord by magnifying Him.
How is it that we're going to be this missional community that is
going to touch the people around us?
How is it that we are going to be an example of the of the love
that God has poured out into our own hearts so that others might
see it is so that we let them see us praise His glory?
How is it that we're going to raise our children so that when
they go off to college, they don't wander away from the
faith, They don't pursue things that they shouldn't?
How is it that the teachings that we give here are going to
anchor themselves in their heart and their soul?
It's not simply that we teach them the right theology or that
we make sure that they come to church or that we, of course we
got to do all those things, but they have to see us praise His
glory. And parents, friends, everyone
of you, I know how hard that is because it sounds like you're
being hyper religious, you know, Hey, good job today on that to
the praise of his glory. You know, I how, how annoying
would that person be after about 3 minutes?
OK, but we've got to be those people.
That's if we're going to do what God is doing.
Can you is anybody surprised that God is up in heaven saying
to my glory, to my glory, to my glory.
He's doing that. We need to do that.
We of course, we've got to find ways to do it that are not
annoying perhaps, but we've got to be about the praise of His
glorious grace. Thanks be to the Lord and our
God in heaven, who has loved us as He has, who has ordained us,
that He has ordained us so that we might be the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquire possession of it in heaven, All
to the praise of His glorious grace.
Whoop. Lord Jesus, thank you again for
gracing us with your presence here in this place, for
overwhelming us with all that you have done for us.
The spiritual blessings that you have poured out upon us that are
listed here in this text and that go so much deeper than this
text, and all for the way in which you have sacrificed
yourself, given of Your love and care, directed things, all for
our good, and yet Lord, all to the praise of your glory.
Lord, we want to be men and women that do exactly what you
have done here, that we would be shaped, that we would be molded
all to the praise of your glory. Lord, make heaven church, be
known that way. Make us as individuals be known
that way. Make my own heart reflect that.
Lord, we pray all to the praise of your glory.
We ask. Amen.