Battle Ready: "Chosen for His Pleasure" Ephesians 1: 4-6 Pastor Daniel Reese

Last week we entered into our spiritual basic training as we began to dig into our training manual,

which is Paul's letter to the church in Ephesians.

In the first three verses of that letter we discovered that God has set His followers apart for salvation,

He set them apart for service, and He has set us apart for spiritual blessings.

Now as a church we're trying to memorize the book of Ephesians together.

I don't know how the first three verses went for you. I struggled with them.

I finally got them down. There's a lot of interchanging between Christ Jesus and Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus and Jesus Christ.

It was just kind of confusing to get all those in order, but we got it.

But my son, River, nailed it like day one, and he's just, he got it.

And so I've asked him to come on stage and recite Ephesians 1-1 through 3 for us.

Come on, River. Yeah, he needs the encouragement.

You got the song? Alright, River, it's all you.

Paul and the Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the thanksgiving,

Ephesus, and our faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven and in places.

Amen.

Amen. Thank you, River.

Y'all don't understand what a big deal that is. Number one, to have it memorized.

Number two, to get up in front of people and actually do it.

Alright, so you'll remember last week we said the verse 3 was the beginning of one long run on sentence that ends in verse 14.

In those 12 verses, Paul is going to describe for us many of the spiritual blessings that God has provided to us through his son Jesus.

This morning we're going to look at just three verses that describe those blessings.

And so if you have your Bibles, we'll start in verse 4 of Ephesians 1.

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. Amen.

Alright, so there's no way to deal with this particular text this morning without coming face to face with a topic

that has been the source of much debate between biblical scholars, pastors, Christians over the years.

The relationship between God's election and predestination and man's free will.

Or perhaps a more accurate description would be between the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.

Over the years there's been two basic camps formed over this issue.

On one side are the Calvinists, a group that is named after John Calvin,

an early 16th century theologian who was instrumental in the Protestant Reformation.

This set of beliefs is referred to as Reformed Theology.

Calvin's followers organized this set of beliefs into what are known as the five points of Calvinism.

Now, we don't have nearly enough time this morning to even begin to tackle such a theological system

that generally takes a semester or two in seminary.

Although it is great simplification for purposes of our time together this morning,

we can look at Calvinism as having an emphasis on the doctrines of election and predestination.

The emphasis is on the sovereignty of God in the process of salvation.

That's camp number one.

And the other camp are the Arminians who, as you might expect, get their name from their founder, Jacobus Arminius.

Arminius was a Dutch pastor and theologian in the late 16th and early 17th century

who disputed many of Calvin's beliefs.

His most well-known follower was a man by the name of John Wesley

who then became the leader of the Methodist movement.

Again, we can't even begin to discuss the beliefs and the details of this theological system this morning.

They still believe that salvation is by grace alone.

But their chief difference with the Calvinists is that they believe God's election and predestination

is conditional upon faith in Jesus.

We also focus on man's will in the process of salvation.

My purpose in bringing up these two camps this morning is not to promote one view over the other.

And it is certainly not to create any sort of division or conflict in our church.

I don't want us to become like the group of theologians who were discussing the tension

between predestination and free will and things became so heated,

things became so tense that the group broke into two opposing factors.

But one man not knowing which to join stood for a moment trying to decide.

At last he joined the predestination group.

Who sent you here?

They asked.

No one sent me.

He replied.

I came by my own free will.

Free will?

They explained.

You can't join us.

You belong to the other group.

So we followed their orders and went to the other clique.

There someone asked us, when did you decide to join us?

The young man replied, well, I didn't really decide.

I was sent here.

Sent here, they shouted.

You can't join us unless you've come on your own free will.

So what I want us to do this morning is just to look at the Scriptures themselves

and develop our theology from the Bible itself.

So let's continue our basic training this morning with a look at these three verses.

Now I've got to be real honest with you this morning.

I've really struggled with how to present this passage to you in a way that's both meaningful and useful.

But as I wrestled with the text this week, it became really clear that this passage is all about what God has done for us.

And in these three verses, there are three verbs that describe the actions that God has taken in the lives of His children

in order to pour out for us spiritual blessings into our lives.

So we use those three actions as an outline for our study of this passage this morning.

Number one, God chose us to be holy and blameless.

Verse four, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless be for Him.

The first way that God gave us spiritual blessing is that He chose us.

The verb chose is a reflexive verb.

It means that God picked us for His own purposes for Himself.

In other words, our salvation is totally and completely as a result of what God has already done for us.

This morning, if you had made Jesus your Savior, it is only because God chose you before the creation of the world.

That is what is known by theologians as the doctrine of election.

My first reaction to seeing what God has done for me is to think of it in terms that I can understand, that maybe you can understand.

It took me back to those days in school or in the neighborhood where we would pick teams in order to participate in any sort of sports competition.

I'm sure many of you remember those days.

For some of you, you don't remember those days very fondly, right?

But a couple of kids would be designated as the captains, they would be designated as first picker and second picker,

and they would proceed to pick the other kids that they wanted on their team.

And for some of the kids waiting to be picked, it was a miserable time as they prayed against all hope that they wouldn't be the last ones chosen.

Right?

But that's not how God, the way God chooses.

God doesn't look at us and pick and choose who's the brightest or the most athletic.

In fact, His choice is not based on any of the qualities in our lives.

They are very obvious from this verse.

The first thing we see is that we are chosen in Him.

The in Him is obviously a reference to Jesus Christ.

God chooses us not based on our own good works, but based on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

The other thing we see is that we were chosen before the creation of the world.

That means that God chose us before we ever had the opportunity to either do good or evil in our lives.

I'm convinced that a lot of us aren't really comfortable with the whole idea that God chooses whatever He wants.

In fact, I've read a whole lot of things this week from various people who would try to ignore or discount or disprove this truth.

But that's impossible to do because this principle is consistent throughout the Bible.

For instance, God chose Abraham.

Now, why did God choose Abraham and not someone else?

We don't know, but God chose.

God chose Israel among all the nations of the earth to be His people.

Why didn't He choose the Moabites?

Why didn't He choose the Malachites or any of the other aides that are in the Old Testament?

It certainly wasn't because Israel had earned the right.

God just chose them.

The same thing is true for us.

God didn't choose us because we deserved it.

He did it because He wanted to.

But you might say, I did do something.

I had to have faith in Jesus Christ.

I've even seen a tract called the tie-breaking vote, which essentially says this,

God has voted for you and Satan has voted against you and you decide the casting vote.

Now, first of all, I'm not sure how Satan got in vote that's equal to God's.

But even more importantly, Christianity is not a democracy.

It's more like a monarchy.

And God, the King, has absolute sovereignty over who gets into His kingdom.

The Bible is really clear that unless God chooses us,

we're not even capable of making the decision to place our faith in Jesus on our own.

Here's what Jesus has to say about that in John 6.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I will raise him up at that day.

He then goes on to say in verse 65,

this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.

Paul confirms this truth in another one of his letters in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

There is no one righteous, not even one.

There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

As we'll see later in chapter 2, even our faith is a gift from God.

Apart from God's choosing, there is not one person on the face of the earth

who has the ability on his or her own to seek after God.

He can only do that as God chooses, as God draws us to Himself.

Now I'm sure many of you, like me, this whole doctrine of election raises some questions.

Now obviously I can't answer all those questions this morning,

so let me just deal with a couple of those questions that people have.

The first question is, if God chooses some to be saved,

does that mean that He creates others for the purpose of being sent to hell?

That's what theologians call double predestination.

While we've seen that God is 100% responsible for electing and choosing those who become believers,

the Bible is equally clear that man is responsible for his own sin.

Here are a couple of verses that make that point.

The soul who sins is the one who will die, that's in Ezekiel 1820, Romans 6.23,

for the wages of sin is death.

The Bible also makes it clear that God is not the author or the source of sin,

and that therefore he does not actively take a role in the life of unbelievers

to cause them to sin and reject God.

So what that ultimately means is that the Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God

and the responsibility of man.

God elects those who are saved and those who perish do so without any help from God.

The problem is that our finite minds are just not able to understand,

have a problem reconciling those two principles.

To us, they seem contradictory, but in fact they are not.

There are some things that only God understands, that's what makes him God,

and that's okay with me.

I'm fine with just accepting both these principles and allowing God to figure out how they fit together.

I really like John MacArthur's comments on this subject.

He says, quote, now let me tell you something.

One of the greatest marks of the inspiration of the Scripture is the fact that I have those incomprehensible paradoxes,

because if a man or a man had written that book, they never would have, number one, conceived them,

number two, they never would have left them there.

They would have resolved them.

The fact that they are there and they stand all over the place in the Bible

is one of the truest proofs that God of an infinite mind far beyond our own wrote those things.

And the very fact that there are those, I can't read, I can't read this word.

A parent paradox is, in Scripture, speaks of divine authorship.

God understands how they harmonize.

We don't.

And that means God has a greater mind than we do.

Aren't you glad about that?

End quote.

The fact that God chooses some, the second question,

the fact that God chooses some and not others just seems unfair, right?

What would be fair would be for God to condemn everyone to hell.

That's what we all deserve.

But out of his mercy, God has chosen some to be saved from the fate they deserved.

Paul tells us in Romans 9, for he says to Moses,

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

It therefore does not depend on man's desire or effort,

but it depends on God's mercy.

Because he is God, God gets to choose who he will have mercy on and who he will not.

And that decision is completely, independently of anything that we can do.

It's simply a function of God's sovereignty.

Again, Paul confirms this truth in a second letter to Timothy.

He says, God who has saved us and called us to a holy life,

not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace.

This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

So God has chosen us for himself.

That's quite clear from the scripture.

But the second part of this verse tells us what he has chosen us for.

In Jesus, we have been chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Although there is an aspect of that choosing which calls for us to live lives that are holy and pleasing to God,

you'll notice here that the main point is that our holiness and our blamelessness is in him.

It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be holy and blameless before God and fulfill God's election.

So before we leave this first blessing, let me just give you one more illustration.

Let me ask you a question.

Who lives out your Christian life?

The Arminians out there would answer, I do.

And the Calvinists out there would answer, God does.

But the correct answer is that both are true.

Let's look at one passage that confirms that.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 says, dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you.

Philippians 2:12

And now that I'm away, you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives.

Obeying God with deep reverence and fear, for God is working in you,

giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.

Paul commands his readers, he commands us to put into action.

God's saving work in your lives.

That's my human responsibility.

That's your human responsibility.

But in the very next verse, he says that it's God working in you that gives you the desire and it gives you the ability to do that.

That's God's sovereignty.

So which is true?

God's election or his sovereignty or man's will or responsibility.

Yes.

Let's go to number two.

God predestined us to be part of his family because it gives him pleasure.

In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will.

So in verse four, we look to the fact that of God's election.

Here in verse five, we discover that the destiny that comes from that election.

When God elects us, he predestines us.

That word just means he determines.

He determines in advance what our destiny will be.

And the destiny of every person that is chosen is that they will become a member of his family.

Later on in Ephesians, Paul is going to write about how all of us are initially born into this world separated from God.

Okay?

So all of us are naturally born into his family.

Therefore, the only way we can enter into God's family is to be born again spiritually, as Jesus describes in John chapter three.

On another picture that both Paul and John used to describe this process is that we have been adopted by God to be a part of his family.

John describes our need for this adoption in his gospel.

In John chapter one, it says,

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God.

So since we are not naturally born into God's family, the only way that we can become part of God's family is through adoption.

And everyone that God chooses, he adopts into his family.

And one of the things that happens when we become a part of God's family is that as our Father, he works to make us more like his son, right?

Like Father, like Son.

In Romans 8.29, it says, For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So we've all heard the phrase, right, like Father, like Son, and that certainly applies to our destiny as a member of God's family.

We've been predestined to be part of God's family, and predestined to be more and more like Jesus Christ, as we participate in that family.

The fact that our destiny is to be part of God's family is exciting enough, that we are chosen, right?

But look at the last part of this verse, we've been adopted into God's family in accordance with his pleasure and will.

Do you understand what God is saying in this text?

He has adopted us into his family because it gives him pleasure.

I mean, can you believe that?

It gives him pleasure.

God chooses me apart from anything I can do on my own.

Apart from anything you can do on your own.

He gives me a destiny that includes me being a part of a family, and that gives him pleasure.

I mean, I understand how that gives me pleasure.

It saves me from the pits of hell, but I'm totally blown away by the fact that it gives God pleasure.

Now that's a spiritual blessing.

Let's go to number three.

God graced us so that he can receive glory.

He graced us so that he can receive glory.

To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us and the one he loves.

So we've seen that God has chosen us, and that he's predestined us to be part of his family.

Verse six tells us how God does that.

He does it through his grace.

Again, we'll be examining this concept of grace in much more detail in weeks to come.

But for right now, let's just look at two of the aspects of God's grace that Paul writes about in this verse.

The means of God's grace is Jesus.

We've now been through six verses together in chapter one.

In just the first five verses, Paul has already used the phrase, in Christ, Jesus, in Christ, in him, through Jesus Christ.

And here in verse six, Paul now uses the phrase, in the one he loves.

Obviously, another reference to Jesus Christ.

By now, it ought to be pretty obvious that the means of God's grace is his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his death and resurrection.

That's how we get it.

Once God decided before the creation of the world to choose us, he could have picked any means that he wanted.

He could have done it any way he wanted to.

He could have said, I'll choose everyone that has hair.

In which case, I'd be in trouble.

He could have said, I'll choose the most talented.

I'll choose the most gifted.

I'll choose the most righteous.

But he didn't do that.

He decided to choose those who would place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

That's the only means by which God makes his grace available to you and to me.

The measure of God's grace.

When Paul wrote that God has freely given us his grace, he actually used a verb form of the word that has translated grace throughout the New Testament.

Now, I like the translation.

I think it's the NIV where it says, poured out.

It gives us a sense that God didn't hold anything back when he gave us his grace.

He poured it out on us.

It's kind of like at the end of the Super Bowl.

For you Bears fans, that's the championship game.

After the Super Bowl, the winning team, and they take that Gatorade bucket and they pour it out all over their coach.

They don't hold anything back.

That's the picture here of how God pours out his grace.

And why does he pour out his grace on us?

So that he can get the glory.

So that he can get the glory.

That is really the essence of every spiritual blessing that we have in Jesus in the heavenly places.

Yet, we get a blessing and a benefit out of all of them.

But their ultimate purpose is to bring glory back to the giver of those blessings.

That's because every one of those blessings is totally and completely dependent on God, not on our own efforts.

We certainly don't earn them.

We certainly don't deserve them.

So when we get them, the only thing we can do is to give glory to God for them.

In a sense, this message this morning is primarily for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.

And we understand just how blessed we are to have been chosen by God to be holy and blameless through Jesus Christ.

When we realize that our destiny is to be part of God's family and that God takes pleasure in that.

When we comprehend all that God has poured out on us.

When we comprehend that all the grace that has been poured out all over into our lives.

How can we help but humble ourselves before Him and give Him praise and glory?

When was the last time you did that?

When you understand that you were chosen.

When was the last time you just humbled yourself and gave Him praise and glory?

But maybe potentially you're sitting here this morning and you've never made that decision.

Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're asking the question, am I one of God's chosen?

Am I a part of the family?

I believe that the very fact that you're asking that question is evidence that God has drawn you to Himself.

That He's working something in your life.

That's the case, please don't leave here today without talking to one of our pastors.

Too many people wait until they're good enough.

Until they get their life together.

Listen to me.

You will never be good enough.

You can never earn it.

There's nothing in you that feels that you are missing out on something.

That something's missing.

Put your trust in Jesus.

Take that step.

Let's pray.

Father God, I pray.

I pray God that as we respond and as we sing.

Your sovereign presence will be in our midst.

I'm asking you God to dwell with us.

I'm asking you to speak to us.

Salvation comes from you.

So God, I'm asking you to save.

God, I pray that you will tune our hearts, tune our ears to hear your voice in this next few minutes.

The fact that you chose me with all of my baggage, with all of my screw ups and all of my mess ups, God should blow my mind.

And when I really think about it, it does.

So God, I thank you for Jesus. I thank you that because of him, you see me as righteous.

Because of him, my penalty has been paid.

And so we praise you for that.

So God, I pray you pray. I pray you speak. And I pray you move.

We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen.