[8:00 a.m.] The Blessing of Election

All right, please give your attention to the reading of

God's Word, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 through 6.

Ephesians 1:4–6

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

Deuteronomy 7:6–9

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.