Is Predestination Biblical? (Ephesians 1:4)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:07.080 Well, please turn in your bibles to Phesians chapter four or one one. 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:13.509 I'll be preaching on verse four. That's why that's looked out. Phesians one, 3 00:00:15.310 --> 00:00:19.350 as I mentioned to you a last time. This on passage of verses 4 00:00:19.429 --> 00:00:25.219 three through fourteen are broken up into nine what the Greeks called periods, and 5 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:32.020 I'm going to do my best in English to read breaking those periods up. 6 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.859 And one thing I want you to notice, which will be relevant for a 7 00:00:34.899 --> 00:00:39.609 later as we look at the text, is how each one ends with an 8 00:00:39.649 --> 00:00:45.929 emphasis on the work of God. Each period ends strongly in that way, 9 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:52.200 if I do a good job at reading it anyway, ends with an emphasis 10 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.960 on the initiative of God in our salvation. So let's give attention to God's 11 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:03.520 word. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, 12 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:07.670 who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 13 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:11.790 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that 14 00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:17.870 we should be holly and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us 15 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:22.420 for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of 16 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:26.140 his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed 17 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:29.980 us. In the below of it. In Him we have redemption through his 18 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:34.450 blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 19 00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:38.769 which he has lavished upon us, and all wisdom and insight, making known 20 00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:44.409 to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he 21 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:48.359 set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all 22 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:52.760 things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him, 23 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:57.239 we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him 24 00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:00.239 who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we 25 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:04.870 who were first born, or so that we, who were the first to 26 00:02:04.950 --> 00:02:08.469 hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. In Him, 27 00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:12.110 you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of 28 00:02:12.189 --> 00:02:15.620 your salvation and believed in him, we're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 29 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:21.699 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to 30 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:28.460 the praise of his glory. Amen, you may be seated. So our 31 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:31.810 focus this evening. Our focus this evening is on verse, for these words 32 00:02:32.289 --> 00:02:36.930 even as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, 33 00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:46.840 that we should be wholly and blameless before him. You'll notice that verse for 34 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:52.039 has these two words at the end of it, in love. Perhaps that 35 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.879 seems a little odd, the way that verse five begins after the sentence starts. 36 00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:04.270 So I want to deal with the text first and just think a little 37 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:07.710 bit about what it is we're exactly talking about. It reminds me a little 38 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:12.229 bit of a cooking class my my wife once took, and this she was 39 00:03:12.669 --> 00:03:16.740 told by this professional chef that before you cook, you should get all your 40 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:21.939 ingredients out on the counter right, everything's measured, everything's ready to go, 41 00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:23.860 and then the cooking is really fun because you just put it all together. 42 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:29.409 We're going to try to do that. We're going to get everything out out 43 00:03:29.449 --> 00:03:32.050 of the counter first so that we can then know what we're dealing with and 44 00:03:32.169 --> 00:03:36.009 how to deal with that. Or, to put it another way, these 45 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:38.610 questions that we've talked about over the last a year or so, how we 46 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:43.159 study the Bible. What does it say? What does it mean? How 47 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:46.680 it does it apply? We're going to deal with that first question first. 48 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:50.199 What does it say? What are the actual words that we're dealing with and 49 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:54.080 thinking about. Well, tonight it's these words, even as he chose us 50 00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:58.789 in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and 51 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:04.030 blameless before him. But what about these two words in love? Well, 52 00:04:04.069 --> 00:04:09.629 we're going to, as the ESV translates it here, a deal with it 53 00:04:09.710 --> 00:04:13.539 in that way, and I think that's best. The words in love do 54 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:17.620 connect with the next sentence. In love, he predestined us for adoption. 55 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:23.180 Now it is possible to read this other ways, and perhaps in your Bible's 56 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:28.129 it's it's written another way. So one way this sometimes happened is that in 57 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:31.689 love those two words are attached to the end of verse, to the end 58 00:04:31.730 --> 00:04:35.769 of the sentence that you see in verse, for the idea being that he 59 00:04:36.569 --> 00:04:41.240 chose us in love, right, he, even as he chose us in 60 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:44.839 him before the foundation of the world, that we should be wholly and blameless 61 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:49.399 before him in love. The problem with that option, although there's nothing sort 62 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:55.029 of theologically wrong with it, is that those words in love are really, 63 00:04:55.069 --> 00:04:59.350 really far away from that main verb, and that usually doesn't happen. You 64 00:04:59.430 --> 00:05:00.790 even sinse that in the English, don't you? As I read it, 65 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:03.670 even as he chose us in him, but Dadadada DA, Dadada, DA, 66 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:08.379 Dadada, Da Dada in love. If they are really modifying that, 67 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:13.459 then it's pretty far it's pretty far away. It would be very unusual. 68 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:20.180 So second option is that in love doesn't refer or doesn't modify that choosing, 69 00:05:20.339 --> 00:05:26.089 but instead modifies us and our actions, so in other words, that we 70 00:05:26.129 --> 00:05:30.009 should be wholly and blameless before him. In love, in other words, 71 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:38.800 it's describing our actions or our loving rather than his. That would it works 72 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:44.959 grammatically and and not theologically wrong. The problem is is, as I mentioned 73 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:50.870 before, Paul has this very highly crafted section and perhaps up you see it's 74 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:55.069 somewhat in English. It's a specially true in Greek. Every single one of 75 00:05:55.110 --> 00:06:00.949 these periods ends in a very strong way about his glory, in Christ, 76 00:06:00.189 --> 00:06:03.899 in him, and this would be the if this, what if we read 77 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:08.339 it this way with this would be the one exception and it would be a 78 00:06:08.459 --> 00:06:13.579 focus on us. Again, not theologically wrong, but it would be odd. 79 00:06:13.699 --> 00:06:17.300 Given every other thing. That leads us with option three, which the 80 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:23.129 translators here of the ESV took, which I think is right. Instead of 81 00:06:23.250 --> 00:06:28.610 connecting in love with either of those two things, it ought to be connected 82 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:30.610 with the next sentence, and it's it's in other words, it's not the 83 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:34.040 end of verse four, it's the beginning of verse five, as you see 84 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:39.800 here. In love he predestined us, and here we get the best of 85 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:44.439 all possible worlds. It's grammatically close to the word. In fact, the 86 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:48.550 new placement of the way it is set here it's actually emphasizing love. It's 87 00:06:48.589 --> 00:06:54.350 sort of pushes it to the foreground by saying, instead of a as a 88 00:06:54.509 --> 00:07:00.310 final thought, it's a first thought, that predestination, his choosing, as 89 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:04.420 we consider in this verse, is not a kind of cold, artificial mechanical 90 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:09.779 thing that God is doing, but he is emphasizing that it is happening in 91 00:07:10.459 --> 00:07:16.129 love, and this also makes it maintains the parallelism that we see throughout. 92 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:21.170 So all three our possibilities sort of legitimate options to read it. You may 93 00:07:21.209 --> 00:07:25.610 see it in your bibles in different ways, but I do take it for 94 00:07:25.730 --> 00:07:30.959 these reasons to connect with verse five instead of verse four, as the SV 95 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.959 does here. So that's our those are our ingredients. In other words, 96 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:39.199 these are the things were working with tonight and and next time we will consider 97 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:46.790 the the loving way in particular in which God has predestined us for adoption. 98 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:53.670 An amazing thing. So, with that that on the counter, so to 99 00:07:53.709 --> 00:07:58.550 speak, let's do some cooking. So a verse for says, even as 100 00:07:58.579 --> 00:08:01.139 he chose us before the foundation of the world. That's part one, and 101 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:05.579 then part two, that we should be holly and blameless before him. I 102 00:08:05.699 --> 00:08:11.019 want to focus on the first part. First. What does this mean? 103 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:18.009 That he chose us before the foundation of the world. This is an amazing 104 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:26.569 thing. It means that before there were bees, before there were trees, 105 00:08:26.850 --> 00:08:31.799 before they were mountains, before there was light, before the world had been 106 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:41.509 made, there was God worthy to receive all glory and honor and powers. 107 00:08:41.629 --> 00:08:46.190 Revelation for eleven, says, the beginning, the end, the Alpha and 108 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:52.029 the Omega, a God Tryun God father, son and Holy Spirit. I 109 00:08:52.190 --> 00:09:00.580 am that, I am God, says to Moses. From everlasting to everlasting, 110 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:11.970 he is God and in himself, according to his will, he chose 111 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:16.889 us. That's difficult to talk about this in a way, because how do 112 00:09:16.929 --> 00:09:26.320 you talk about before before there is time, because that language of before is 113 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.879 a time word right. How can you say what's next or before there really 114 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:39.669 isn't a next to happen when God is simply existing for all eternity. I'm 115 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:43.710 all simply say with David and Psalm one hundred and thirty one the Lord. 116 00:09:43.830 --> 00:09:48.750 My heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high. 117 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:54.820 I do not occupy myself with things too great and marvelous for me. Mean, 118 00:09:54.899 --> 00:10:00.860 how do we talk about the eternality of God? How do we think 119 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:05.419 of before? Before you even have a category of before? You can't. 120 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:11.929 We are creatures that are bound by time, and there's nothing wrong with that. 121 00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:16.649 It's our creaturely nature. We exist this in time and in space. 122 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:22.799 So God speaks to us in a way that we can understand, but certainly 123 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:31.159 he is not the same as us. So perhaps one good way to express 124 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:35.549 this is to use the language of our shorter catechism. Question Twenty, that 125 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:43.710 God, having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity, elected some 126 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:50.779 to have everlasting life reminds me of what Paul says in Romans nine about Jacob 127 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:54.940 and Esaw. Before these brothers were born, before they had done anything good 128 00:10:54.980 --> 00:11:00.980 or evil, in order that the purpose of election might stand, God chose 129 00:11:01.179 --> 00:11:07.610 one and not the other. There's this sovereignty of God that's expressed there of 130 00:11:07.730 --> 00:11:13.210 this way in which he stands out far above us. If we forget God 131 00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:20.960 who he is as God, it's much easier for us to want to micro 132 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:26.799 manage his decisions, if we think of God as being like us, according 133 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:33.750 to our ways, according to our thoughts, according to our nature, especially 134 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:37.350 if we sort of filter that all through the Lens of sin, that it's 135 00:11:37.429 --> 00:11:41.789 very easy for us to impude all kinds of bad motives to God, utter 136 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:48.139 or evil things, to stand over him and say, well, why have 137 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:50.700 you done such and such a thing? But if we remember that God is 138 00:11:52.019 --> 00:11:56.259 so different from us, so high and so marvelous, so sovereign, so 139 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:05.009 God, then it, least for me, pushes me into a state of 140 00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:09.490 much more humility than I tend to have otherwise, and I think that's right, 141 00:12:11.289 --> 00:12:16.000 Paul says. And ask this question rhetorically. Who are you, Oh 142 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:20.840 man, to ask these kinds of things? Who is a potter or who 143 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:24.399 is the clay? To say to the Potter, why did you make me 144 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:31.629 such in such a way? These are the questions of impertinent people, which 145 00:12:31.750 --> 00:12:39.950 we are. But God speaks to us here not to chastise us, but 146 00:12:39.110 --> 00:12:45.100 to lift our hearts up in the praise of his name. Notice how it 147 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.820 starts in verse three. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus 148 00:12:48.899 --> 00:12:52.980 Christ. Why? Because he has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing 149 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:58.539 in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation 150 00:12:58.649 --> 00:13:03.370 of the world, that we should be wholly and blameless in him. These 151 00:13:03.409 --> 00:13:09.250 are the reasons that blessed be our God, these are the reasons that we 152 00:13:09.370 --> 00:13:13.399 lift up his name and praise, because he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing 153 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:18.960 in Christ, even having chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. 154 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:22.919 So, when God tells us of this great mystery, that we were 155 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:31.110 chosen by him even in love, as the next verse says, why would 156 00:13:31.190 --> 00:13:35.590 in the world would we bring before our minds and our hearts all these sad 157 00:13:35.870 --> 00:13:43.460 things that people do and treat this aspect of our salvation with hatred or disdain 158 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:50.659 or simply ignore it, when God has given this marvelous truth to us here 159 00:13:50.779 --> 00:13:58.250 that we might bless his name. Even before the foundation of the world, 160 00:13:58.610 --> 00:14:07.570 I chose you. This ought to be one of the many things that we 161 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:13.480 put up as placards in our mind among the many other amazing works of God. 162 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.240 When we think about his creation, in the ways that he is created, 163 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:26.029 the blue whale or the mighty mountains or sunsets or gravity or time or 164 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:31.269 any number of things. Here is an aspect of new creation as well, 165 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:39.299 plan from the very beginning to be holy and blameless. Before him, before 166 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:43.019 the foundation of the world, the new creation was already being put into place. 167 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:48.539 People chosen to be wholly and blameless, adopted into the great family of 168 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:54.330 God. And, like the old creation, God was purposing to bring something 169 00:14:54.529 --> 00:15:01.049 out of nothing, where there was no life, no godliness, no faith, 170 00:15:01.250 --> 00:15:05.769 nothing good, no righteousness. God would take this formless, emptied, 171 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:15.600 deathly void of our souls and bring forth something that could be called Holy, 172 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:26.269 pure, blameless or innocent, not guilty of anything. Now, for that 173 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:31.269 doctrine, we have to go to Ephesians chapter two, where we read that 174 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:37.340 you were dead and your trespasses and sins in which you once Walt An, 175 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:41.980 the wind in which you once walked, following the course of this world, 176 00:15:41.019 --> 00:15:45.740 following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now 177 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:50.529 at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived 178 00:15:50.649 --> 00:15:54.009 in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and 179 00:15:54.169 --> 00:15:58.409 the mind, and were by nature children of Wrath, like the rest of 180 00:15:58.529 --> 00:16:03.639 mankind, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with 181 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:08.000 which he loved us even before the foundation of the world, adding that from 182 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:15.399 verse four, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive 183 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:22.070 together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up 184 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:26.470 with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 185 00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:30.509 so that in the coming ages he might show to us the immeasurable riches 186 00:16:30.549 --> 00:16:36.740 of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you 187 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:40.179 have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It 188 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:44.220 is the gift of God, not a result of work. So that no 189 00:16:44.379 --> 00:16:48.450 one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for 190 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:56.809 good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So when 191 00:16:56.850 --> 00:17:00.519 we read a passage like this, we see how impossible it is to enter 192 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:08.519 into this state of election, this state of being chosen and loved, from 193 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:15.789 a state of sin and death. Impossible for US anyway. The consequence of 194 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:22.029 our being dead in our trespasses and sins is it is given to us in 195 00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:27.710 verse twelve. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated 196 00:17:27.789 --> 00:17:33.220 from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no 197 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:38.700 hope and without God in the world. Our State of sin and misery are 198 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:44.930 a state of being dead in our trespasses and sins. Wasn't leading into a 199 00:17:45.450 --> 00:17:53.849 glorious state of God's Love and and in choosing us. People that think that 200 00:17:55.009 --> 00:18:00.119 we were somehow elected on something good in us or forgetting that we are dead 201 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:06.960 in our trespasses and sins. They're forgetting what Paul says here in Ephesians, 202 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:11.990 to that we were chosen because we are his workmanship. This is a gift, 203 00:18:12.150 --> 00:18:18.029 he says, that we are not earning when God chooses us in Christ, 204 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:22.589 but for the foundation of the world, he's choosing us who would fall 205 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:27.779 into sin, who would be dead in our trespasses, but who would be 206 00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:36.619 saved from it. You see how passage like this makes the idea that God 207 00:18:36.779 --> 00:18:42.089 shows us on the basis of something that we have done impossible, because we 208 00:18:42.170 --> 00:18:48.250 haven't done anything good or evil before we're born. And second, when he 209 00:18:48.410 --> 00:18:51.970 did give to us the gift of faith, he gave it to us not 210 00:18:52.130 --> 00:18:55.759 as a reward for our righteousness, not as a reward for our goodness, 211 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:00.759 but as a gift to people who are drowning in their own filth. When 212 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:03.519 God gives us the gift of faith and lifts US up in Christ, he's 213 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:10.470 giving it to people who are already dead, dead in their own unrighteousness. 214 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:15.349 And so the purpose of Ephesians three through fourteen is to lift our hearts up 215 00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:19.470 to the praise of his name, of the one who has saved us in 216 00:19:19.549 --> 00:19:29.460 this way, who chose US sinners even before the foundation of the world, 217 00:19:29.500 --> 00:19:36.500 even when he knew the things that we would do. Notice the emphasis all 218 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:41.529 throughout this section on the initiative of God in our salvation. It is in 219 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:47.170 verse five we read the good pleasure of his will, in verse seven, 220 00:19:47.210 --> 00:19:52.289 according to the riches of His grace, in verse nine, his Good Pleasure, 221 00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:56.640 in verses eleven and twelve, according to his plan, who brings all 222 00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:03.240 things into effect and accord with the counsel of his will? This is because 223 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:08.029 of God. Your Salvation is because of God, and so who ought we 224 00:20:08.269 --> 00:20:15.910 to praise for our salvation God. It's not for our own boasting. As 225 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:23.819 Christians, we don't walk around pridefully preening ourselves before other people, showing how 226 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:29.980 impressive we are. No, we are those who have been chosen by God's 227 00:20:30.140 --> 00:20:37.690 sovereign grace, not that we should boast, but that she should bless he 228 00:20:37.769 --> 00:20:44.089 his name. As Augustine says, God therefore chose believers, but in order 229 00:20:44.130 --> 00:20:51.359 that they might be believers, not because they already were. He chose us 230 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:59.279 in him that we would be holy and blameless before him. And one last 231 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:03.630 thing to note, borrowing from my friend and this New Testament professor I've mentioned, 232 00:21:03.670 --> 00:21:11.990 Dr Steve Baugh, he points out that God chooses not an a nameless 233 00:21:11.150 --> 00:21:21.779 collective, he says, this sort of mass of corporate people. When he 234 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:27.660 chooses US, as Christ says in John Ten three, he calls us by 235 00:21:27.779 --> 00:21:36.769 name. When God chooses us for our salvation, he chooses us as individuals. 236 00:21:37.250 --> 00:21:41.809 He knows your heart, your mind, every every inch of you, 237 00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:48.039 your body, your soul, your surroundings, your connections, your people, 238 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:55.079 everything, all your heart aches, all your troubles, your birthdate, your 239 00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:02.990 death date, all of it. God chooses you. He knows you by 240 00:22:03.069 --> 00:22:07.509 name and in such a way that when Jesus speaks to you for the preaching 241 00:22:07.589 --> 00:22:12.269 of his word, we read in Hebrews or Romans ten faith comes through hearing 242 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:18.740 that, when he preaches that word to you, and faith is born in 243 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:26.619 you. You hear the voice of Your Shepherd. He says, my sheep 244 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:32.930 will hear my voice. That's how it's going to be. Who could do 245 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:41.009 that? God can do that. And so when he calls us, he 246 00:22:41.089 --> 00:22:48.880 doesn't call this nameless collective, this mass of humanity, like each in every 247 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:53.279 star, that he knows their names, each and every single one of us. 248 00:22:53.640 --> 00:23:00.829 He knows if you have put your faith in Christ, if the Holy 249 00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:06.309 Spirit is working in your life, sanctifying you, blessing you, giving you 250 00:23:06.470 --> 00:23:12.579 the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, if God is brought you into 251 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:21.940 Covenant Communion with others believers, if he's teaching you the things of his word, 252 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:26.369 if he's growing you and promise to you these things things, then you 253 00:23:26.529 --> 00:23:34.410 belong to him. You have a been adopted as one of his children and, 254 00:23:34.529 --> 00:23:40.009 as it corresponds with our adoptions even here in the United States, we 255 00:23:40.130 --> 00:23:45.680 don't go and adopt a nameless collective of people or even a nameless person. 256 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:51.400 When we make an adoption and bring someone into our families, we do so 257 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.309 for that particular person, no more, no less. You don't adopt a 258 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:00.390 son or a daughter and then wake up the next day and find a whole 259 00:24:00.430 --> 00:24:07.349 bedroom full of kids or people missing. Know you. You choose a particular 260 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:14.099 one and you say this one will be mine. In love I choose. 261 00:24:15.259 --> 00:24:19.619 I'm going to make this my son, make this one my daughter, and 262 00:24:19.859 --> 00:24:30.569 you are this is what God has done for us. The reason, as 263 00:24:30.650 --> 00:24:37.089 we've said, as that would we would be holy and blameless before him. 264 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:42.960 The EPHESIANS knew something about holiness, even apart from Christ. The temple of 265 00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:48.200 Artemis, of great pride of the Effhesians, had various holiness rituals. As 266 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:56.869 you might expect of worship of even false gods, there's evidence that people would 267 00:24:56.470 --> 00:25:03.029 take office even as some sort of term of service and and carry out that 268 00:25:03.190 --> 00:25:07.099 term of service and and maintain a certain standards of purity during that time. 269 00:25:10.539 --> 00:25:15.180 Our purity is different than this. Our God is different than Artemis or any 270 00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:21.140 other. We are said to be chosen before the foundation of the world. 271 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:26.089 Artemis is said to have been born herself in time from Leedo and Zeus, 272 00:25:29.250 --> 00:25:33.089 God who is from everlasting to everlasting, whose worship is far above all gods, 273 00:25:34.289 --> 00:25:37.559 is truly great and greatly to be praised. His name is to be 274 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:44.599 blessed above all gods. And when you consider his worship, when you consider 275 00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:49.670 his temple and compare it to the pathetic ruins of Artemis that I believe are 276 00:25:49.710 --> 00:25:55.990 now in some kind of marsh or bog, our God has established a temple 277 00:25:56.230 --> 00:26:00.509 that is made of living stones, each and end, every single individual, 278 00:26:00.549 --> 00:26:07.619 unchosen by him, ordered in place by the Holy Spirit, built on the 279 00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:14.660 foundation of Christ and the apostles to be his dwelling place forever, the Kingdom, 280 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:19.569 he says, that cannot be shaken. This is your God, whose 281 00:26:19.849 --> 00:26:26.849 chosen you in Christ, before the foundation of the world, there's no there's 282 00:26:26.890 --> 00:26:30.450 no salvation, no blessing apart from this Christ. As we read in verse 283 00:26:30.569 --> 00:26:36.640 three, every spiritual blessing comes to us in this savior. So if you 284 00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:38.599 think that you can know this God, if you think you can have peace 285 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:44.079 with God, hope with God, hope in God, if you think you 286 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:48.509 can have this kind of eternal security apart from Christ, then you're simply not 287 00:26:48.789 --> 00:26:52.470 reading what he says, because over and over it says in Christ, in 288 00:26:52.549 --> 00:26:57.109 Christ, in Christ. There is only one way to know God in this 289 00:26:57.349 --> 00:27:02.900 way, there's only one way to have the salvation that he promises to us, 290 00:27:03.579 --> 00:27:07.259 and that is through the sun, whom he gives freely to us and 291 00:27:07.460 --> 00:27:12.660 offers to all who would put their faith in him. Go to the Lord 292 00:27:12.700 --> 00:27:18.849 Jesus. He is being offered to you and when you accept him and perceive 293 00:27:19.450 --> 00:27:25.369 and receive him and walk into that House of salvation through the door that is 294 00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:30.319 Christ, know that the foundation of that house is built on something eternal, 295 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:40.720 the very will of God in love for you. So I squeeze a little 296 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.309 bit of verse five and will come will consider it more next time. For 297 00:27:45.430 --> 00:27:47.910 now, let's pray give praise to God.