Redemption Plan

Good morning. It's great to worship with you this morning. For guests here, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors here. I have the privilege of bringing God's Word to our church on most weeks.

And we are starting a new series in the book of Ephesians, the epistle of Ephesians, chapter 1. So please turn with me there.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

I'm going to pray and we'll start.

Heavenly Father, we pray that as your scripture is read and preached, that by your Spirit you would work powerfully in our midst to bring these truths home to us.

So they don't just remain abstract ideas that we keep in our heads, but that they become life-transforming, affecting truths, Lord, realities that we live by.

Speak to us, Lord. We are listening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Ephesians 1, verses 1 to 14.

Ephesians 1:1–14

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.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he 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 him, things in heaven and things on earth.

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 gospel of his glory.

The gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

This is the word of the Lord.

We have all met a Christian like this, who profess to believe everything that Christianity teaches, everything that the Bible teaches, but whose belief is not borne out by their life.

She has no savor of the love of Christ, of the Father's love, of Christ's humility, of the Spirit's power in her life.

We've all also met a Christian like this, who knows all the theological terms, who knows all the Bible references, who seems to know everything there is to know about God, but he doesn't know God.

He has no personal relationship with him.

This person is like a tree, right?

It has a semblance of health and fruitfulness about it.

But when you get closer and you take a look at it, you see that the branches are withered and the fruit has no juice or pulp in them.

There's no spiritual life.

And sometimes we think of doing theology in the same way.

We think to ourselves of theology as something abstract and impractical.

But that's not what theology, the study of God, is meant to be.

R.C. Sproul writes in his book entitled, Everyone's a Theologian.

He writes this,

The purpose of theology is not to tickle our intellects, but to instruct us in the ways of God, so we can grow up into maturity and fullness of obedience to him.

That is why we engage in theology.

Now, we begin a new series in the Epistle of Ephesians this morning written by the Apostle Paul around the time 60 to 62 A.D.

He wrote this to a large network of local churches in Ephesus and the surrounding cities.

And then, this is considered by theologians and pastors across the generations, widely considered to be the best primer on Christian theology in the entire Bible.

Because of its remarkable clarity and simplicity in the way it's taught.

But Apostle Paul didn't intend to write this so that it can be used for training in seminaries.

He wrote it to local churches, fully expecting it to inform every single believer and to transform their daily lives.

That's the effect it's supposed to have on us.

And so, to that end, Paul writes in chapter 1, it's his exaltation in the spiritual blessings that we have as the church, the people of God.

He rejoices in the spiritual blessings that we have in chapter 1.

And in chapters 2 and 3, he gives us these specific applications of the spiritual blessings that we have as the church.

How the spiritual blessings of the triune God were applied to the church to reconcile Jews and Gentiles and then to bring them into unity in the church under Christ.

And then, in chapters 4 to 6, Paul gives us the specific implications of the spiritual blessings of the church.

How these spiritual blessings are supposed to shape our lives.

How we live, our relationships, and our jobs, our vocations.

So, that's the outline of the whole book.

And if you feel like, and if you've ever felt like that your spiritual life lacks vitality, lacks vigor,

my prayer for you this morning is that this sermon series would breathe new life into your soul.

That your life would be transformed by it.

That your relationship, that your Christianity, your faith would not just be a formality,

something that you just go through the emotion, but it would become a vital reality in your life.

That's my prayer for you.

And that's the hope for this sermon series.

And in this passage in particular, the first 14 verses, it teaches us that it is the very heartbeat of the Christian

to bless the triune God who has blessed us out of his grace and for his glory.

So, that's the main point.

It's the heartbeat of the Christian to bless the triune God who has graciously blessed us.

Now, Paul begins by introducing himself as the author in verse 1 and by establishing his authority.

He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

The word apostle means sent out.

And the apostle is a witness of the resurrected Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 9.1.

And this is a person that's directly commissioned by Christ, sent out by Christ to be his witness and a pioneering missionary.

So, that's what an apostle is.

And Ephesians 2.20 later speaks of how apostles are the foundation of the church.

And then in Revelation 21.14, it envisions the 12 apostles of the church being the foundations of the new kingdom of God.

In the same way, the 12 patriarchs were the foundations of the nation of Israel.

So, when he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, in a very simple way, Paul's establishing his authority.

I'm not writing as just another church leader.

I am the apostle of Christ Jesus.

And he's the apostle of Christ Jesus.

He's not an apostle of anyone else.

He doesn't belong to anyone else.

He's not like a politician, right, who is accountable to his constituency and whose job security depends on pleasing the electorate.

He's the apostle of Christ Jesus.

He's accountable to no one else.

He doesn't have to please anyone else.

He belongs to Christ Jesus.

And he does Christ Jesus bidding.

And so, he writes this with that authority.

And he's here and he's appointed as apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

It has a divine origin.

He wasn't appointed apostle by popular vote or appointed by some human governing authority, but by the will of God.

And having established himself as the author, he addresses the recipients of the letter, continuing in verse 1,

to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

This is a remarkable statement because there are both Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus, right,

and only Jews were historically referred to as saints, holy ones, those who were set apart for God.

But Paul addresses both Jews and Gentiles together as saints who are in Ephesus,

already hinting at the fact that in Christ, God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles

and expressed salvation to all the nations of the world.

And then he says that those who are faithful in Christ Jesus,

this doesn't mean that Paul is addressing just the faithful Christians as opposed to the non-faithful Christians

because there's no such distinction made throughout the book of Ephesians.

It's referring to those who have faith in Christ Jesus.

It's referring to believers in Christ Jesus.

So if you have faith in Jesus, then Paul is addressing you directly here,

and Paul is addressing all of the Ephesian Christians.

And that means if you are not a Christian, of course,

then if you do not yet believe in Jesus Christ for salvation,

then all the spiritual blessings that Paul will go on to describe, they do not belong to you.

And my plea with you is that you consider the offer that Christ is giving,

the promises that he is making,

and that you give yourself to him this morning if that is you.

Now after addressing his recipients, Paul greets them in verse 2,

grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The standard Greek greeting was, it's just greetings, right?

That's how they said hello or how are you.

It's greetings is what they used to say.

James 1.1 uses that greeting.

But Paul employs a clever wordplay here.

By switching out a consonant and adding a couple vowels,

he changes the Greek word that means greetings to grace.

So now that our life as Christians has been so transformed

that it's his grace that is fundamental to how we relate to each other as Christians.

And grace, as one Bible dictionary puts it,

it's the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God

to men in the bounty and benevolence of the giver.

It's unmerited favor, something we didn't earn.

It's out of his absolute freedom, out of his sheer abundance and bounty and generosity.

That's the grace we receive.

It's his loving kindness.

It's in the Old Testament concept.

His loving kindness, it's translated as grace in the New Testament.

He refers to his unchanging, ongoing affection set on us, love toward us.

That's grace.

He also greets them with peace.

The word peace doesn't refer to an absence of conflict merely,

but it refers to the Old Testament concept of shalom,

which is to say a wellness, a wholeness of being in right relationship with God

and with the rest of creation,

of being in harmony with God's design and desire for the world.

It's described by the statement,

all is well, physically and spiritually.

That's shalom.

That's peace, and he greets all the believers with this grace and peace from God our Father

and God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then that's how he specifies it, right?

He describes the source.

It's from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is also significant because if you're a faithful Jew,

everyone knows that, you know, God is our Father.

They refer to God as our Father.

And everyone knows that he is a source of blessing, grace, loving kindness, and peace.

But he says it's not just from God our Father,

but he says it's also from the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if you're just a faithful Jew at this time reading this,

this is a shocking statement that he's saying.

It's the blessing, grace, and peace.

It's not just from God our Father, but it's also from the Lord Jesus Christ.

This teaches us about the reality of the doctrine of the Trinity, right?

Our church is named after that.

There's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, right?

There's three persons in one God.

God is one essence, one nature, but there are three persons in God.

Now you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, that's, you see, Trinity, that's an abstract doctrine.

That doctrine can't translate to my life.

But Paul is about to shatter your expectations

and tell you exactly why this doctrine is so foundational to how we relate to God

in the rest of the verses that follow.

And this is a mystery, so I'm not going to try to explain it to you.

It's kind of like there's God in three and one.

So imagine a child, right, who just learned his additions.

He knows one plus one plus one is three.

But no matter how much you try to explain it to him,

he's not going to get multiplication.

One times one times one is one.

It's just not going to make sense to him.

In the same way a child, let's say he just learned geometry, two-dimensional geometry,

he knows how to calculate the surface area of a square.

But no matter how you try to explain it to him,

if you try to explain the volume and the cube in three-dimensional space,

that's not going to make any sense to him.

So in the same way for us as finite human beings,

as we try to make sense of the fact that God is three in one,

three in persons, but one in essence and nature,

it's going to go right over our heads.

We can't make quite sense of it because God's infinite.

He's eternal.

And rightly so.

I think if we can make sense of everything about God

and understand everything there is to know about him,

he's probably not infinite because we're not infinite.

And then in these following verses, verses 3 to 14,

this is perhaps the most beautiful demonstration of the triune love of God,

of the triune God working in concert to redeem humanity,

a people for himself in all of Scripture.

And they can't be separated.

Their works are indivisible, but yet they can be distinguished

by according to what each person of this Trinity does.

And to that end, the outline I'm going to follow as I preach the rest of this passage

is first from the Father.

Salvation is from the Father.

And then second, salvation is through the Son.

And then third, salvation is by the Spirit.

That's the outline I'm going to follow.

From the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit.

First, salvation is from the Father.

Paul begins in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be.

Right.

In the original Greek, this is the beginning of one long, beautiful, poetic,

impassioned sentence, praising the triune God for his saving work.

It's all one sentence, verse 3 to 14.

202 words, 32 prepositional phrases, 21 genitive expressions,

six relative clauses, five adverbial participle clauses.

You don't have to know all the grammar.

It's a crazy long sentence that has just, he's just going on and on.

God's amazing.

This is what he did for us.

Blessed be the Father.

That's what he does.

All throughout this, but he's blessing God.

It's not a dry, dispassionate theological writing.

It's pulsating with life, just overflowing with gratitude and joy for what God the Father has done.

And that's why I said earlier in the summary of this passage,

it's the heartbeat of the Christian to bless the triune God who has blessed us.

It's what we do as a Christian.

That's our very heartbeat.

It's not just a duty for us to bless God.

It's our very heartbeat.

That's what we love to do.

It's what gets us fired up.

Because as a Christian, above all things, we desire to bless him.

And if you don't feel that way this morning,

my prayer is that by the end of this passage,

you will feel that way after seeing all that God has done for us.

Why does the Christian feel this way?

Why does the Christian want to bless God?

Paul tells us in the rest of verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Why do we bless God?

Because God has first blessed us.

Strictly speaking, right, as Hebrews 7, 7 says,

the inferior is blessed by the superior, right?

So we can't, strictly speaking, bless God

because there's nothing we can give God that he doesn't have.

We can't give him a blessing that he doesn't already own,

that doesn't belong to him.

So we can't, in a strict sense, bless him.

But we could bless him in a sense that we speak well of him.

We praise him.

We recognize that he is the blessed one.

That's what we do when we bless him.

But then when God blesses us, he actually bestows on us blessings

because he's the source of all blessings.

He's the only one that can properly bless us.

So in verse 3, it says that God the Father has blessed us in Christ

with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And I hope you can see God's heart towards you in that sentence,

that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Every one.

Every single blessing.

Did you guys catch that?

It doesn't say, you know, God gave us a few spiritual blessings

or some of the spiritual blessings.

Every spiritual blessing God the Father bestowed on us.

So don't believe the devil's lie when he says to you,

as he said to Eve in the Garden of Eden,

did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

That's wicked slander because God didn't say you can't eat from any tree in the garden.

He said you may surely eat of every tree in the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,

for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.

God has always been bountiful and generous toward us.

But Satan impugns God's character to us,

lies to us, and whispers to us,

he's withholding something from you.

He didn't give that to you.

He forbade you from doing that.

If God really loved you, he would have given that to you.

If God really loved you, he wouldn't keep you from that.

Don't believe it for a moment.

God has blessed us in Christ Jesus

with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

You might be impoverished here on earth.

You might suffer here on earth.

But you know what?

If you belong to our God, the Father,

then you have spiritual riches

that all the Warren Buffett's in the world

can't even fathom or dream of.

Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ Jesus

because God the Father has given it to us.

And Paul continues to describe these spiritual blessings

more specifically in verse 4.

Even as he chose us in him

before the foundation of the world

that we should be holy and blameless before him.

God chose us.

The Father chose us

before the foundation of the world,

before we were born,

before the world began.

God chose us as his own

to save us.

The initiative of our salvation

does not lie with us,

but with God.

His choice precedes even our faith.

Lest we miss this truth,

he tells us even more abundantly clearly.

It's verses 5 to 6.

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.

If there was some standard

outside of God's sovereign will

that God used to decide

whom he will choose as people,

this would have been

the perfect place to say it, right?

He predestined us

for adoption as sons

through Jesus Christ

according to our pedigree.

He predestined us

for adoption as sons

through Jesus Christ

according to our virtue.

God predestined us

for adoption as sons

through Jesus Christ

according to our effort

or our level of faith.

He doesn't say any of that.

He says, no,

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.

God didn't choose us

because he knew beforehand

that we would have more faith

than people around us

or that we'd be more sincere

than the people around us

or that we'd be more righteous

than the people around us.

God chose us

according to the purpose

of his will.

The criterion

for our adoption

as sons to God

is not within ourselves

but it's within

the sovereign purposes

of God.

And you know what that means?

That means,

as Christians,

we can't gratify ourselves

with the thought that,

you know,

somehow we earned

our way to heaven.

We can't tell others

who are not believers

that, you know,

if you were as intelligent

as I am,

if you were,

you know,

only, you know,

as good as I am,

if you only had

as much faith as I did,

you know,

then you could be saved

but you can't be.

We can't say that to anyone

because we have nothing

to boast of.

It was according

to the purpose

of his will,

to the praise

of his glorious grace.

That's why it's

to the praise

of his glorious grace

because if God

saved us

according to our

deservingness,

then it would be

our merit

that gets the credit.

It would be our merit

that is praised.

But because God

didn't save us

according to our

deservingness,

but according to

the purpose

of his will,

that's why it's

to the praise

of his glorious grace.

It's his unmerited

favor toward us

that's highlighted,

not our merit,

not our deservingness.

I hope you're grateful

for this truth

as much as I am

because I ask

in wonder

and amazement

sometimes

as I look back

at my life,

as I look back

at my life

even just this week.

Why me, God?

Why would you

choose me?

Why would you

choose me

as your own God?

Because apart

from the work

of the Holy Spirit

in my life,

I'm a sinner

through and through.

I'm selfish.

I'm prideful.

I'm angry.

I'm judgmental.

Why should he

love someone like me?

Why should he

save me

when there's

millions of others?

I cannot give

an answer.

I cannot give

an answer.

That's what we say.

That's what

Charles Spurgeon,

the 19th century

British preacher,

said in his

typical,

you know,

witty way.

He said,

I believe

the doctrine

of election

because I'm

quite certain

that if God

had not chosen me,

I should never

have chosen him.

And I'm sure

he chose me

before I was born

or else he

never would have

chosen me afterwards.

And he must

have elected me

for reasons

unknown to me

for I never

could find in

myself why

he should have

looked upon me

with special

love.

So I'm

forced to

accept that

great

biblical

doctrine.

For this

reason,

all we can

say as

Christians

is blessed

be,

blessed

be the

God and

Father of

our Lord

Jesus Christ

who has

blessed us

in Christ

with every

spiritual

blessing

in the

heavenly

places.

Even as

he chose

us in

him from

before the

foundation

of the

world that

we should

be holy

and blameless

before him.

And then

it says,

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.

Now,

this doesn't

mean that we

don't have any

responsibility in

our salvation.

So please

don't hear me

saying that.

We have to

believe in

Jesus Christ

for our

salvation.

In a sense,

we do have

to choose

him.

Verse 13

teaches this

clearly.

The Bible

always holds

these two

truths in

tension.

Verse 13,

read it with

me.

In him

you also,

when you

heard the

word of

truth,

the gospel

of your

salvation,

and believed

in him,

were sealed

with the

promised

Holy Spirit.

In order

to be

saved,

we must

believe.

And in

order to

believe,

we need

to hear

the word

of truth,

the gospel

of our

salvation.

So faith

comes from

hearing and

hearing through

the word

of Christ.

Therefore,

Christians have

the responsibility

to preach

the gospel

so that

people would

hear.

And unbelievers

who hear have

the responsibility

to believe so that

they might be

saved.

Nowhere in

scripture does

scripture ever

abrogate our

responsibility.

But that doesn't

make verse 4

any less true.

God the Father

chose us in

him before the

foundation of the

world.

during community

group one

week,

actually Rosa

shared what

she heard this

radio preacher

say one time.

It's shockingly

simple,

but it's actually

helpful.

So I'm going

to share it

with you guys.

He says,

you take the

first step,

God takes the

second step,

and by the time

you take the

third step,

you realize that

God took the

first step.

Kind of how it

works, right?

Because election,

the doctrine of

election,

doctrine of

predestination,

really only makes

sense in

hindsight.

is when you have already put your faith in Jesus,

when you've already experienced that salvation,

that's when you realize, looking back,

oh, wait, God chose me before I chose him.

That's when you realize that.

So then if you're not a believer,

your responsibility is not to try to figure out

whether you're chosen or not.

No, your responsibility is to believe

because that's the only way you can find out.

Only those who choose Christ

discover that God has already chosen them.

And divine election isn't some arbitrary dispassionate act.

It's the word translated purpose here

is actually better rendered good pleasure.

That's what it literally means.

It was his good pleasure to choose us.

That's how the NIV translates it

if some of you guys have the NIV.

God chose his people according to his good pleasure.

Verse five further elaborates.

In love he predestined us

for adoption to himself as sons.

God chose us.

He predestined us in love.

The father's love.

The father's good pleasure.

That's the basis of his election.

God's choice was not some arbitrary fiat.

It wasn't just some dispassionate decision

or a cold calculation of what's going to happen in the future.

No, it was in love he chose us.

Out of his good pleasure,

he delighted to choose us.

Before we were born,

before we had done anything good or bad,

before we could even deserve his affection,

the father chose us and delighted over us.

It was his good purpose,

good will to save us.

Christians often think of God the father

as the strict and austere figure,

the severe in his judgments,

full of wrath and judgment towards sinners.

Sometimes we mistakenly think that,

you know,

the father only loves us

because Jesus died for us.

The father didn't love us.

That's why Jesus had to die for us.

Now that Jesus died for us,

the father loves us.

That cannot be further from the truth.

Think of all the passages

that talk about why Jesus came.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only son.

You know why Jesus came?

He didn't come to purchase

the father's affections for us.

He came because the father loved us.

He came because the father sent him.

He came because father,

in eternity past,

had his good pleasure on us.

His love set on us.

That's why he came.

1 John 4, 8-10

says this about God the father.

Anyone who does not love,

does not know God

because God is love.

In this,

the love of God

was made manifest among us

that God sent his only son

into the world

so that we might live through him.

In this is love.

Not that we have loved God,

but that he loved us

and sent his son

to be the propitiation

for our sins.

Our heavenly father loves us.

I think Christians,

this is just my speculation,

but that has,

I think Christians

have a particularly hard time

with understanding this truth

because many of us

didn't grow up with,

you know,

respectable,

loving father figures.

We have a lot of daddy issues.

And so we kind of transpose

what we believe

about our earthly fathers

to our heavenly father.

We think of him as angry,

unhappy,

distant,

or altogether absent,

maybe even abusive.

But we must not impute

such characteristics

to our heavenly father.

John Owen

is one of my favorite theologians.

He's a 17th century

Oxford theologian.

He writes about this

in his book,

Communion with God,

that I'm reading

with some of the members

of our church together.

He writes that

nothing grieves God,

the father,

more than our hard thoughts

about him.

And by hard thoughts,

he means thoughts

that doubt his love for us,

his compassion toward us,

hard thoughts,

thinking of God

as this austere,

strict,

severe figure.

He writes that

nothing grieves God

more than these hard thoughts

because God knows,

quote,

how it leads us

to avoid walking with him,

how unwilling is a child

to come into the presence

of an angry father.

And then Owen exhorts us,

quote,

we must remember

his kind thoughts

towards us

which have been

from eternity.

Let us remember

how eager and willing

he is to accept us.

If we did this,

then we would not be able

to bear one hour's absence

from him.

Instead,

we find it difficult

to spend even one hour

with him.

Let then this

be the first thought

that we have

of the father,

that he is full

of eternal love

to us.

Is that your first thought

about God the father?

That he loves you?

He loved you in eternity?

In love,

he predestined us

for adoption

to himself

as son.

And the metaphor

of adoption

also beautifully

conveys this truth,

doesn't it?

God's not selecting

or hiring

his employees here.

he's choosing

his family.

People to adopt

to himself

as his own.

Now,

some of you

might have wondered

to yourself

why Paul had to be

so gender insensitive.

Why doesn't he say,

in love,

he predestined us

for adoption

as sons and daughters?

I mean,

that's really simple to say.

Why didn't he just say

sons and daughters?

Does he only want

to adopt men?

But this question

is actually missing

an important point

that the verse is making.

And Tim Keller,

who was a pastor

of a church in New York,

shared one time

about a woman

in his church

who helped him

to understand this concept.

This woman came

from a non-Western,

very traditional background.

And she had one brother.

So there was one son

in the family.

And as she was growing up,

she always knew

that her brother

would get the lion's share

of the wealth

and the honor

of the family.

And basically,

what the family told her

was,

he's the son,

you're just the girl.

And she was reading

Paul's,

Apostle Paul's description

of our adoption

to God as sons.

She realized

the subversive power

and the magnitude

of the promise

that God is making

because God's not saying

you will be treated

as second-class citizens.

He's not saying

you're going to be adopted

into my family

and relegated

to this less important role.

He's saying that

every single one of us,

sons and daughters,

you'll be adopted

to them as sons

with the full rights

and privileges

of sonship.

in love,

he predestined us

for adoption

to himself

as sons

through Jesus Christ

according to the purpose

of his will,

the praise

of his glorious grace

with which he has blessed us

in the beloved.

Isn't that,

I love that.

God the Father

refers to his son,

Jesus Christ,

as the beloved.

And that status

of beloved son

is imputed to us

through Jesus,

through those

who are in him.

He does not,

God the Father

doesn't look at us

and he's just like

wagging his finger

at us like

in disgust

and disappointment.

That's not what he's doing.

The God the Father

doesn't look at us

and shakes his head

in disappointment.

God the Father

looks on us

and says,

Beloved,

my special possession,

my sons.

When you really realize

this truth,

what God the Father

has done for us,

you can't help

but say,

Blessed be,

the God and Father

of our Lord.

That's what Paul says.

That's the first point.

The salvation

is from the Father.

And if salvation

is from the Father,

it is through the Son.

Verse 7 tells us,

In him,

we have redemption

through his blood,

the forgiveness

of our trespasses.

Now,

up to this point,

the verbs

were all in the past tense

to describe God's

choosing,

God's election

from eternity past.

But abruptly now,

the verbs switch

to the present tense

to signal that these

are the blessings

we currently enjoy.

It's ours.

It's ours now.

We get to enjoy it now.

And he says,

We have redemption

through his blood.

And the word redemption,

of course,

recurs,

probably the greatest picture

of redemption

in the Old Testament

was at the Exodus.

Right?

When God,

in redeeming his people,

in basically

trying to rescue his people

from slavery to Egypt,

he judged,

is judged Egypt,

and he killed

all the firstborn sons

of the Egyptians.

But he spared

the Israelite

firstborn sons

because they had

a substitute.

They had killed

a lamb in its place

and daubed its blood

on the door.

So that was how

they redeemed

their firstborns.

They were redeemed

by a substitute,

by a lamb.

And then Jesus

was the ransom price

paid for our redemption.

We were enslaved

to sin and death.

And our slave master

was no interest,

not interested at all

in letting us go,

abusing us

and using us

for his purposes.

And God the Father

sends his son

as the most costly

ransom price

he could pay

so that we can be

redeemed,

freed from our bondage

to slavery and sin.

That's what Christ did.

So we have redemption

through his blood.

And it's because

of his redemption

we now have the forgiveness

of our trespasses.

Jesus Christ alone

could have accomplished this.

He could uniquely

accomplish this

because he was

the son of God

and at the same time

the son of man.

God the Father

is the only one

that can forgive.

God the Father

can't come along

and say,

oh no,

you're forgiven,

don't worry about it

because you're the one

that was offended.

You're the only one

that can forgive.

Father was the one

that was offended.

He's the offended party

in every sin.

Only God can forgive.

God the Father

at the same time

if you,

let's say,

steal someone's car,

you can't then return a bike.

doesn't make sense,

right?

It has to fit.

The restitution

has to fit the crime.

And it is because

humanity sinned,

because humanity

sinned against God,

only a human

can rightly represent

humanity

and bear the punishment

that they deserve.

So God

is simultaneously

the adequate

redemption price,

the ransom,

because he is

the son of man.

And at the same time,

he's able to secure

the forgiveness

of our trespasses

because he is

the son of God.

He can forgive us

and extend forgiveness.

That's why

throughout the Gospels

when he says

your sins are forgiven,

all the Pharisees

go berserk.

What do you mean

you forgive his sins?

His sins are forgiven.

You can't say that.

Only God can say that.

He could say that

because he is God.

He is God.

He's the son of God.

Jesus

is the one

that accomplished

this for us.

It's 1 Timothy 2, 5,

says for there is one God

and there is one mediator

between God and man,

the man Christ Jesus.

And a Christian,

by definition,

is someone

who participates

in the life

and death

and resurrection

of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means

to be a Christian.

That's why Christian,

the entry sacrament

is the sacrament

of baptism.

You're buried

and you die

to your sin

and then you are

brought back up

in new life

in Christ.

That's what

baptism signifies.

So Christian

is by definition

someone who participates

in the life,

death,

and resurrection

of Christ.

And that's why

in the span

of these 14 verses

of Ephesians,

some combination

of the phrase

in Christ

or in him,

in the beloved,

occurs 12 times.

It's almost,

it almost gets

obnoxious at times

if you're trying to,

you know,

read this over

and over again

and it's almost like,

it's like a crescendo

and every instance

of it

is like an exclamation point

in this whole doxology

of praise

and blessing of God

in Christ.

Blessed us in Christ

with every spiritual blessing

in heavenly places.

He chose us in him

before the foundation

of the world.

He adopted us

as sons

through Jesus Christ.

Now these,

all these expressions

teach us two things.

First,

God the Father

does nothing apart

from his son.

He does everything

he does

in concert

with his son.

Second,

every spiritual blessing

we receive

from the Father

is through Christ.

As Jesus says,

right,

I am the way,

the truth,

and the life.

No one comes to the Father

except through me.

That means every blessing

that we have ever enjoyed,

every spiritual blessing

that we've ever enjoyed,

it comes through Christ.

God the Father

pours out his blessings

on us

but not a drop of it

reaches us

except through Christ.

He is our mediator.

He is the conveyor.

He is our intercessor.

Father.

We just concluded

a sermon series

in the book of Genesis

and we know from there

that how important it is

for God's people

to be in the promised land,

to be in Canaan,

right?

That's,

to be in Canaan

is to be in God's presence

and to enjoy his blessings.

To be exiled from Canaan,

to be outside of Canaan

is to be cut off

from God's presence

and to not enjoy his blessings.

The New Testament equivalent

of being in Canaan

is being in Christ.

That's not a phrase

that we just append

to the end of our emails.

It's a precious phrase

that we are in Christ

because everything

that is good,

all that we know about God,

all the ways

in which we can relate to him,

it comes to us

through Christ.

And God's ultimate goal

in his redemption plan

is not just to unite us

to him,

but as it says

in verses 8 to 10,

he says,

in all wisdom and insight,

the Father made 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 him,

things in heaven

and things on earth,

right?

And the word unite

translated as unite here,

actually more literally translated

to brought under the objection of,

to brought under the headship of,

actually,

the word head is used.

And that's what God intends to do,

to bring all things,

things in heaven and on earth

under the headship of Christ

and that's God,

that is God's ultimate redemption plan.

And that's why the word head

occurs several times

in the book of Ephesians.

Verse 22 later,

he says,

he put all things under Christ's feet

and gave him as head

over all things to the church.

That's God's ultimate plan,

to bring all things

under Christ's headship.

And this mystery

was revealed to us

through Christ.

This mystery

doesn't refer in the New Testament

to something that remains hidden,

but something that was hidden,

but that God has revealed now

in Christ Jesus.

Now, if that's the case,

then we might ask,

then why then

are there still people

who don't believe in Jesus?

Why are there

angelic beings,

demons,

people who still

rebel against God

if God has brought all things

under the headship of Jesus?

And this reality

is frequently illustrated

by comparison

to World War II analogy.

You guys may have heard this,

the comparison between

the D-Day and V-Day, right?

So they were having,

it was a hard-fought battle

on the front lines

in the World War II,

and the Allied forces

invaded Normandy,

and there they established

a beachhead,

basically,

from which point

they could advance their war.

And the D-Day,

which was when they began

that excursion

to take Normandy,

was so significant,

it was such a strategic point

for the battle,

when the D-Day was,

when D-Day happened,

basically,

the V-Day,

the Victory Day,

was unavoidable.

It was as if

that victory was completed

when the D-Day happened.

So for us,

in the Christian perspective,

the D-Day is when

Christ came the first time.

He died for our sins

and rose again.

He decisively defeated sin

and death

and the spiritual forces of evil.

And then the V-Day comes

when He returns

for a second time,

when that victory,

that kingdom of God

is consummated,

brought in its fullness.

It's already here,

but it's not yet consummated.

That's the reality

that we live in.

That's why that's the case.

So, and then,

verses 11-2,

He reminds us again

that about God's redemption

through Christ

was according to

the Father's sovereign plan.

This is very,

it's parallels,

verses 4-6,

is very similar.

And it reminds us,

once again,

that God's not just reacting,

you know,

to human history,

but He had planned this

all along,

His sovereign plan

to save us through Christ.

So Christ is the conduit

of every spiritual blessing

that we receive

from the Father.

And when we recognize

that truth in earnest,

then we can't help

but bless the triune God

who has graciously blessed us.

We come to love Jesus

because He's the source.

He's the one

through whom we receive

all the blessings of God.

So salvation is from the Father,

and it is through the Son.

And now,

at the end of verse 12,

Paul specifically addresses

the Jews.

He says,

those who are the first

to hope in Christ,

but then immediately,

he addresses

the rest of the Gentiles

in verse 13

by saying,

in Him,

you also,

when you heard

the word of truth,

the gospel of salvation,

and believed in Him,

were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit.

So he's saying

that the Jews

were the first to believe

and to experience

these blessings,

but the Gentiles

are also now incorporated

into this ultimate plan.

And this leads us

to our final point,

which is salvation

is by the Spirit.

In order to highlight

this reality,

Paul begins and ends

his blessing of God

in verses 3 to 14

with the mention

of the Holy Spirit.

Recall what I said

in verse 3.

You can turn back there

with me in verse 3.

Blessed be the God

and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us

in Christ

with every spiritual blessing

in the heavenly places.

All the blessings

we enjoy are spiritual,

meaning that it's connected

to the new covenant blessings

of the Holy Spirit,

which was prophesied

of in Ezekiel 36.

Our blessing is

of the Spirit of God.

And that's why Jesus says,

this is a really intriguing parallel

in Matthew 7, 11,

where Jesus says,

If you then,

though you are evil,

know how to give good gifts

to your children,

how much more

will your Father

who is in heaven

give good gifts

to those who ask Him?

And now compare that

to the parallel

in Luke 11, 13,

where Jesus says,

If you then,

who are evil,

know how to give good gifts

to your children,

how much more

will the heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask Him?

He substitutes the Holy Spirit

to good things,

to good gifts,

because the Holy Spirit

is the substance

and sum of every spiritual gift

we enjoy.

Every good spiritual gift

we enjoy

is of the Holy Spirit.

It's the experience

of the Holy Spirit.

It's a communion

in the Holy Spirit.

It's the fellowship

with the Holy Spirit.

And then,

near the end,

he says again,

When you heard

and believed

the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation,

we were sealed

with the promised Holy Spirit.

It's a very cool image.

The word seal

can refer to

a couple different things

in Greek

as well as in English, right?

One sense,

it could mean to,

you know,

clinch something,

to secure something,

to protect it

and to preserve it

so that it's there,

basically,

you know,

impermeable to corruption.

And then,

now,

the second way

is that it could be

a seal in the sense

of an emblem of ownership.

It's like a signature.

It's like a sign, right?

People back in the day,

in these times

when Paul's writing,

had often like

precious jewels

or a heart stone

that had an engraved image on it

and they used it

to mark things

that were precious to them,

precious possession,

to stamp it

and say,

this is mine.

This is,

I put my seal on it.

And that's what God does.

The King of Glory

has put a seal on us.

He's protecting us,

preserving us.

I think both of those senses

are here.

And that's why,

it's confirmed

by the following statement.

Paul continues,

the Spirit is the guarantee

of our inheritance.

It's because we have the Spirit,

we can be assured

of our future inheritance

in God.

He's the deposit.

Another translation says

he's the down payment.

Because we have the Spirit,

we can know for sure

that we will have the full,

the fullness

of the spiritual blessings,

the consummation of it

to enjoy in the future,

in eternity.

And then it also refers to it

as the seal

of God's possession of us.

So the ESV that we read from

translates it as

until we acquire possession of it.

But it's probably

better rendered,

translated as NIV does it,

as the until

the redemption

of God's possession.

That's what that means.

The possession

throughout this passage

that Paul's referring to

is the inheritance.

It's not that,

he's referring not primarily

to our inheritance

in God,

what we receive,

but he's referring to the fact

that we as the church

is God's inheritance.

You know,

clearly in verse 18.

And that's what

Paul's referring to.

So he's saying,

in essence,

this,

that we are his special

prized possession.

We are his treasured possession.

He's put his seal on us.

This reminded me of

a scene from

Toy Story 3,

I think it was.

I don't know if you guys

have seen it.

The 17-year-old Andy

finally goes off to college,

right,

and he sets aside his toys

and he puts them in a bag.

And he meant to put the toys,

store them in the attic,

but because he stored them

in a garbage bag,

his mom accidentally

throws them out

into the street

and waiting for it

to be picked up

by the garbage can.

I know, right,

it's,

I can't believe it,

the mom's cleaning their houses.

And now,

so because of that,

the toys are,

toys are just distraught,

right,

they think that they

have been abandoned

by their owner.

But Woody,

right,

arguably,

Andy's favorite toy,

right,

he knows that

that's not what

really happened.

He knows that they,

he meant,

the owner meant to store

them in the attic,

not to throw them away.

And so he goes,

he follows the other toys

and he tries to convince them,

but the other toys

are just despondent.

They're like,

no,

what if he doesn't

want us anymore?

And then,

what he does

is so cool.

He points to his foot,

his boot,

which has the name

Andy written on it.

But look at this.

He marked us

as his own.

We belong to him.

That's what God

does with us.

Seal of the Holy Spirit.

Mine,

mine,

mine,

not belonging

to anyone else,

mine,

my precious seal

on us.

That's the Holy Spirit.

How precious

is the Holy Spirit

to us?

The Holy Spirit

was so central

to the Christian experience

that in Acts,

when,

in Acts 19,

when Apostle Paul

encounters a set

of believers

who are discipled

by Apollos,

he asks just one

simple question.

Did you receive

the Holy Spirit

when you believed?

Because the Holy Spirit

is so central

to the Christian life

and experience.

If,

then,

if you as a believer,

if we as a believer

live as if the Holy Spirit

doesn't exist,

if you believe

in the Holy Spirit

theoretically,

but have no experience,

no relationship

with the Holy Spirit,

that's a very troubling sign.

The Holy Spirit

is the one

that assures us

when we are plagued

by guilt,

doubt,

and fear.

It's the Holy Spirit

that comes to us

and assures us,

you are God's

prized possession.

You have been adopted

as sons.

That's what the Spirit does.

When we gather together

to worship,

that He is the one

that enlivens our hearts,

fills us with joy

and gratitude.

When we pray to Him,

His Holy Spirit

is the one

that's alongside us,

groaning with words

that we can't even utter,

interceding for us.

That's the Holy Spirit.

He's the comforter.

He's our advocate.

He's the manifestation

of the presence of God.

He is the bond

of our union with Christ.

He's the means

by which we have

fellowship with God.

And when we rightly

perceive of that

and understand that

and believe that,

then we can't help

but to bless

the glorious,

gracious,

triune God

who has blessed us.

To summarize

this redemptive activity

of the triune God,

I know some of it

was a little bit heady,

but I hope you see

the practical applications

of it.

This is such an important

vital truth

for us to understand.

We could use

an imperfect analogy

to describe this.

Maybe think of it

as the gift

and the deliverer

and the gift.

I mean,

giver and deliverer

and the gift.

Imagine that your dad

sends you a gift.

So he's this precious gift.

He wraps it up nicely

and he goes to

the United States Postal Service

and he ships it to you.

And then he gets to you

and then you open it

and you get to receive it

and enjoy the gift

that he sent.

God the father

is like the dad

who sends.

God the son

is like the deliverer,

the USPS Postal Service.

They deliver it to you.

And the spirit

is the gift himself.

You receive him.

You enjoy him.

The presence of God

that he represents.

That's what it does.

And you delight

in every phase of it.

Right?

It's like I

I didn't intend

to share this

but I remember

like a long time ago

I haven't seen this

in forever

but watching like a TV show

where like they announced

that you were like winner

of this great prize

or something

and then the person

who just won that right prize

just like starts embracing

the person

that just announced it to them

even though that person

had I mean

nothing to do with it really.

Right?

Just because he delivered

such amazing news.

Right?

But then for us

Christ is so much more than that

because he's not just

a dispassionate

detached deliverer.

He embodies the message.

He's the one

that makes the gift possible.

Right?

So we delight

in the father

who sends his gifts

and we delight

in the son

who brings us

the precious gifts

and we delight

in the spirit

who applies

those precious gifts

to us.

That's the relationship

that God desires for us.

And because

and what that means

is this

in the end

from the beginning

to the end

the salvation

belongs to the Lord

it's all of him.

And that's why

three times

throughout this

this passage

Apostle Paul says

to the praise

of his glory

to the praise

of his glorious grace

in verse 6

to the praise

of his glory

in verse 12

in verse 14

the only proper way

in which we could respond

as recipients

of such amazing grace

indeed the only natural way

we can respond

as recipients

of such amazing grace

is to bless

the triune God

who has graciously

blessed us

to glorify him

and

and

and there's

one more reason

we chose this passage

particularly at this time

of our church's life

and

and that's that

we get to celebrate

the 500th year anniversary

of the Protestant Reformation

in the coming month

next month

and

and this book

is probably as good

as any other

for celebrating that truth

and the Protestant Reformation

proclaimed

five

essential truths

they're called

they call them

the five solas

sola is the Latin word

for alone

right

he said that

that the scripture alone

is the final authority

in Christian belief

in life

he declared that salvation