"Rejoicing in the Fullness of Our salvation" - Ephesians 1:1-6

Brian Begins Ephesians.

Part 1

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

To Ephesians chapter 1, and it should be on the screen behind me. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 through 6. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and 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 from every s with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that he would be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise and the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. We pray this in your name. Amen. Please be seated. This is the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

It does bring great joy. Thank you again for allowing me to be up here preaching, ministering the Word of God. What a gift. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for the immense privilege we have in knowing Christ Jesus. We would ask you, Father, that as we open up this book, that we would be eternally impacted, that those things that plague our minds right now, that cause us to think of other things, that they would be flushed out by the beauty and truth of your word, by the power of your spirit, and that we would marvel over Christ all together. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Again, it is an immense blessing that we have over the coming months to dive into the book of Ephesians. This book that is the very word of the Most High God, it describes for us some absolutely amazing things. We could call it the treasury of God's grace, the holy room of God's mercy. You could call it the abundant account of God's kindness to a wayward people, the ever-opened vault of the gold of God's love toward his people, the overwhelming storehouse of God's affections for a sinful people. I mean, on and on and on it all falls short of how wonderful it is. This little book is full of rich truth. So rich that the one who hears, does, and is defined by what it contains is more blessed than all the kings of the earth combined. And the golden vein woven throughout this spirit-inspired beauty will no doubt thrill the hearer as we go through it, no matter the quality of the preaching. And if in the end you are not affected by this book at all, if it does nothing for you, then I will say that you have not been affected by the gospel of Jesus Christ at all. This is God's word to us. It is truly a privilege to spend time with you in this book called Ephesians. Praise God for his mighty grace in giving us these words that are true and lasting and real even to us today. I want to give you a real, real quick, real quick framework for this little book. By and large, what we're gonna see is that the first three chapters provide for us what we call indicatives. Now, some of you English scholars are going, oh boy, that'll be exciting. But these indicatives are things that God has accomplished. For three chapters, we're gonna dive in and primarily see the character of God and what he has done for his people and for especially his own glory. And then in the fourth chapter, we're gonna start to see a transition into what are called imperatives, or the things that God has called us to do in light of what he has accomplished on our behalf. So that's kind of how you split up the book, if you will. A little bit of overlap, but primarily that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna see how great God is and what he's accomplished for three chapters, and then the final three years, okay, guys, here's what you do in light of it. So that's a backdrop. And it's a backdrop of most of Paul's writings. He kind of does it the same way. Romans, I think, is basically all the way through the first 11 chapters, what God has done, and then what we to do in light of it. And so what we see is that our Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and to f and to leap into what I would call faithful conformity. Today, as we do this, we're gonna look at five ways in which the Christian rejoices in these first six verses. That's what I want us to do. Is I want us to, we're gonna go over these verses that Brother Larry just read recently. And we're gonna go over them, we're just gonna rejoice together. Okay? We're gonna rejoice at the content of what we see. And so I've broken it up in five ways. You have that in your bulletin. Five ways as we launch into this book that we're gonna just be blessed because we get to rejoice in the beauty of who our God is and what he's accomplished. So let's look at the first one. The Christian finds himself rejoicing even in a salutation, even in Paul's salutation. We see Paul begins this letter like he does most of the other most of his other ones. So what he's doing is he he gives his authority to write such a word from the Lord by reminding his audience that he's one of the Lord's chosen apostles. Now that's an office, a position, that is no longer a possibility to fulfill. Okay? Apostles are no longer. All Christians are disciples of Christ. There are two offices listed out in the scriptures. We have elders, we have deacons, but the office of apostle has ceased to exist. And necessarily died with those who had seen the risen Lord with their own eyes after the resurrection, those who were specifically, pointedly, audibly called by the Lord himself, and they were men who saw, physically saw the Lord as he walked the earth. So, with those qualifications, obviously nobody can meet that today. And so Paul mentions this here not to brag, but to validate the authority in which he writes and speaks to this church in what is known as modern-day Turkey, if you will. And even lets us know how this apostleship came to be. He says it is accomplished by his own effort, right? He just mustered it up inside of himself. Isn't that what he says? No, what does he say? He says, by the very will of God alone. Says, by the will of God. And if you know anything about Scripture, you know that the book of Acts details out this thing for us, where back in the book of Acts, Paul is just radically transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord reveals himself to him in this brilliant display of his glorious presence, and he just knocks Paul down. He knocks him down, and it is in that moment that Paul is changed forever. Praise be to God. And this all happened according to the perfect will of God, which was necessarily also to therefore include him being an apostle one day, doing a lot for God and his kingdom. So that's where he begins, and Paul having established this God-given authority, he begins to write them words of encouragement, words of challenge, words of application for their lives, as well as a reminder of God's magnificent grace. And day by day we need those things. Now we know also, I just want to just make clear that we know that this was written specifically for the church there in Ephesus, but what we also know about the word of the Lord is that it extends down to us here today, since his word and its power are eternal and therefore eternally relevant. And so please remember as we go through this book over the coming months, it was written for your edification, your rebuke, your encouragement, and your further what we call sanctification or progressive walk in holiness, that we're all commanded to walk if we're in Christ. Just like it was for the Ephesian church. As the rest of verse 1 shows us, this is written not just to the leadership of the church either. Notice that. Who does he say it was written to? To the saints. To the saints. All the members of the church there in Ephesus, and of course, as I said on down to us today, it is to be read aloud to the people, it is to be explained, preached to the people, it's to be applied by all the people. That's the point. It's to all the people. Notice also before we move to verse 2 that Paul intentionally describes the saints who are the recipients of this letter as those who are faithful in Jesus Christ. For the Christian. I think reading that, when it says, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, I think all of us should read that and just pause and reflect and ask ourselves, does that describe me? If Paul was writing me this letter personally, would he say, oh, you're faithful? Are you walking in faithfulness right now? Is that who I am before the Lord and his church and even the world? Is that you? Look at verse two. Paul goes on to say, Grace to you. Grace to you. He hasn't written all that much yet. Grace to you, he says. Does Paul get to extend grace? Wait, I thought that was God's. You see, what we're about to read in this letter, what we're about to study over the course of these months, since it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is in fact grace to those who hear and do it. It is a means of grace since it is God's word. It's also a provider and supplier of peace in the fact that it is God's word. And so Paul is going to describe for us in vivid detail in this letter the absolute beauty and magnificence of God's grace and path to peace with him. Just wait for Ephesians chapter 2. You want to see how to get saved? You want to see what it looks like to be called unto Christ? Whew. This book is awesome. So Paul says this letter is authoritative since it's God's word to you, and it will bring you, show you, and call you to relish in the grace and peace of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a cause for rejoicing for the man or woman who is in Christ today. Paul's opening words in verse 1 show us his rejoicing in the amazing work of God transforming his life, even unto one who was sent with this special office and task. And we here today rejoice in this beginning salutation because if you're in Christ, you're probably sitting on pins and needles, just can't wait to see what a wonderful grace and mercy we're going to find in these inspired words as we go through it together as a people. Even if we've read or studied it a thousand times, it doesn't matter. The word of the Lord is living and active. And so I pray that none of us come to a study of a book like this with an attitude of, eh. I know what it says. Let's move on. Let's go to Revelation. Or I can just cruise through this one for the next few months since I know it well. No big deal. Maybe you're saying Paul's salutation. Now let's get to the meeting. If that's you and you're dismissive of the word, again I repeat, I fear for your soul. Hear this as God's precious word to you. It's a cause for rejoicing to dive in together. Here in verse 1 also, Paul here calls the church in Ephesus saints. Are you a saint? It means set apart ones, holy ones, consecrated to the Lord. Is that you? These were former pagans. They lived in one of the epicenters of pagan worship of the day. In fact, right outside of town, they had this huge statue. In fact, it's one of the seven wonders of the world. And what is that statue? It's to the goddess Diana or Artemis. That's where they live. That's where they reside. Everybody worships at that statue. It is magnificent. And yet by God's grace. Paul says here, I'm writing to you saints who are faithful. Look at what God has done. What a magnificent compliment. What a glorious truth. What an amazing witness. Of course, not a compliment for themselves, may it never be, but what a glorious compliment of the Lord's sovereign provision of his amazing grace. Even in the epicenter of pagan idolatry, he writes to the saints who are faithful. Therefore, yes, brothers and sisters, we ought to rejoice in Paul's salutation. Rejoice in the great grace work that brings peace between you and God. It may seem like a mere introduction, but every word of the Lord is carefully and pointedly crafted for his glory and our good. Second, let's continue rejoicing. Let's rejoice in the fullness of the blessing of redemption. Look at verse 3. Let me start this point by simply saying this as we marvel at God's intense kindness to us in the fullness of his blessings. Let's remember this. I'm gonna say something I want you to think about it. God cannot, right there, that's strange, right? God cannot give to us something better than what he's already given to us. Set aside that what car you want and all that. Okay, we're not talking about that stuff. But you hear that. God cannot give to us more than what he's already given to us. You hear that and you think to yourself, hang on a second. Hang on. I've read the Bible a lot, I've heard some messages. God can't give something to me. Hmm, wait a minute. Hear me out. God cannot give us more than what is already freely ours. The Father has sent and therefore given what? His Son. This is why Paul can say here, God has literally given to us every, notice that word, every, every, every, every possible spiritual blessing that could ever be. Jesus Christ Himself constitutes the greatest and fullest spiritual blessing that mankind can ever know. There is nothing in your life greater than that, I don't care what it is. There's nothing in this world that could be given to you that would possibly even come close to superseding Christ. There is nothing that the universe has to. You could be in charge of the universe. And it's nothing. It doesn't even come close to the blessing of knowing and cherishing Jesus Christ. He didn't just give us barely enough. He didn't hold back the best gift for those certain saints. God did send Jesus, but man, do we have something better? I mean, we hear songs about it all the time, right? Boasting of what we're gonna get when we get to heaven. Golden streets, golden shores, crowns, jewels, friends, family, a house, mansion, a robe, a better body. You name it, we sing about it. And nothing's necessarily wrong with pondering those things, as long as they're seen for what they are. Tools for worship. You see, that which is spiritual doesn't ever change. What I mean is this if God has given to the Christian today everything that is possible to give because Jesus Christ has come and he's gained the victory in our stead, then that's still gonna be the greatest gift in heaven. Jesus Christ is the reason that Paul can confidently say here to the Christians in Ephesus, and on down to us today, we've been given every spiritual blessing that there is. The storehouse of God's blessing to his people is already overflowing. Do you know it? Do you live in that? And is therefore always filling up to overflowing that which is spiritual and good in the Christian? God gives us all that we need. No matter what's going on in your life right now. He promises to care for us since we're more valuable than the sparrows, right? Whom he cares for and feeds. This is speaking of that which is temporary and one day will be unnecessary. How much more does he make sure that we, you and I, as his image bearers, especially as his followers, have every spiritual need fulfilled? We're going to talk more about this as we move through the book, but since we are already seated in the heavenly realms, as, for example, chapter 2 and verse 6 speaks of, or verse 3 here speaks of, if that's us, what could possibly be lacking in our life with Him today? Do you feel like you're lacking something with Him? Since Christ has come, since He's paid the penalty, since He has paved the way to heaven by and with His very own blood, this means that there is not one thing you could possibly ask for from God that would be a greater gift or blessing than being given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, namely Christ Jesus. So when your life feels short, when you feel empty, when you feel like you don't have, you name it. Remember Christ. He's everything. And what this means as we dive into the meat of what Paul is reminding us of here in verses 3 to 6 and beyond is that this means that God is the very source of all that is good. And it is Jesus. And for the Christian especially, he is the source of the greatest good that can be known. And Paul blesses the name of God here because of this great mercy in giving us Christ. I mean, you hear all the time people speaking of God's great blessing to us in many ways on this earth, right? You've probably said these things. God is so good, He healed my family member. God is so good that home loan finally came through. God is so good, he sustained me through that financial trial. That health scare. And so on. It's okay. It's good. But I think sometimes what we fail to recognize is this that while God always perfectly cares for his people and his way on the earth, he by no means gives us all temporary things of the earth, does he? That wouldn't even actually be for our good. Does he give us all things we need here? Absolutely. The Bible teaches that, and you know that. Does he simply give us all things here, though? No. And praise God for that. Many of us, myself included, would fall into sin if I had all earthly things. Lord knows our hearts. But get this again, the Lord does give us all things, spiritually speaking. That's how good he is. He doesn't withhold one single spiritual blessing. From us. We need it all, and he gives it all. And all is found in the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ. Praise God. Everything for life and godliness. And so Paul is reminding us in that what we are given on the earth, what we're given at salvation in Christ, what we're given day by day as we live for Christ here, it is all given as a tool in preparation for worship. You see, this verse, verse 3, is one reason why the Christian loves to worship. It's one big reason why the Christian needs to and is compelled to sing of the gospel of Christ. I would in fact say that the first part of verse 3 is kind of a song for the Christian. Look at what it says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our satisfaction with an adoration of the blessing of Christ must turn into praise. I mean, sing it. Oh, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to actually sing it because you don't want to hear that. But just look at what He's done. I mean, that's a song to sing, isn't it? God's people need to be singing about this. He's given us every spiritual blessing. He's given us his Son. He bore the wrath for us. Jesus is the greatest gift that man could know. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He even, listen, He even chose us in Him. This leads us to some more rejoicing, doesn't it? Third point. Rejoicing in the sovereign election and redemption. Look at the first part of verse 4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Now, before you start to think about, if this is you, if you've got your camp and your category, before you start to think about what's been called Calvinism or Arminianism, some of you may be tracking with what I'm talking about. Before you wonder where I'm going with this section that has been often heated in its debate in regards to sovereign election, free will. Did God choose me or did I choose God? That kind of thing, before you go in your mind right there. Okay? Before you go with what you've heard, please remember one thing and then do another. Okay? Remember one thing, do another. Here we go. Please remember that this is the word of the Lord. Okay? That's where it starts. And then do look at the text. Forget the arguing that can come if you know what I'm talking about. And just let's just marvel over what God is telling us here. Remember, all of what we're seeing here today is for our rejoicing. Set aside what you may have previously argued for, set aside what you know about those two men that I mentioned historically and their followers. Set aside your potential disdain for one or the other. Let's just look at the Bible. What does it say? It says, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Let us not look first at the beauty, therefore, of what we receive, and let us look first at the glory of what God has chosen to do. Man was created in the garden. You know this, right? He was created to have regular communion, wonderful communion with his creator, God of the universe. Man, what did he do? How did that go? He sinned by eating of the one tree, and thereby broke God's command, necessarily incurring death, ushering in both immediate spiritual death and then eventual physical death. Remember what we spoke of in the last point? We've been given every spiritual blessing. At the moment of man's rebellion, man was then separated from God on his way to a life of continual separation and torment for that rebellion. And it had to be this way because God is good. He's a good judge, he's holy, and his laws and standards have to therefore be holy. So spiritual death occurs for all mankind from that day, from Adam on down to yes us. But of course, since our God is omniscient, meaning he's all knowing, that didn't come as a surprise to him, did it? He had a plan. Now get this, get hear this. Paul says that before he even laid one stone of the foundation of creation, proverbially speaking, before he laid one stone, before God decided to create physical matter, before he fashioned and formed the earth, before the stars were put in their selected places, before the moon was hung, before the earth is put on its perfect axis, before light outside of God's glory came into being. Before time itself was created. Try to fathom that. Before it all, okay? Before all of that, everything we know, physically. Before that, the ever-living and ever-loving God decided to save a people for his own possession. He determined to do this. Before time, the wonderful creator named the apostle Paul and said, He's mine. He knew that he was going to set aside Jamie for his kingdom. He determined that Larry was going to be his. He willed that Matt was going to be chosen unto eternal life and not death. He even chose to save a complete wreck and wretch of a man named Brian. That's not me extrapolating from the text. I'm not taking it out of context. I'm not trying to push a historic guy's doctrinal position on you. I'm just repeating what it says in verse 4. Be amazed. How he did this exactly to the T, I have no idea. We're not told. Why he did it, ultimately, for his own glory. Therefore, for our good. And that's a call to rejoice. Paul says in Romans 3, there are none who seek after God, no, not one. So if you've ever heard of the seeker-sensitive moment, yeah, it doesn't work. There are none who seek after God. Humans cannot seek after him on their own volition since the fall of man in the garden. Why? Well, Jeremiah 17 tells us, doesn't it? Hearts are deceitfully wicked. And can you and I change our hearts? No. But before we're led into despair mode over that, we come to verse 4 of Ephesians 1 and we come rejoicing, because if you're in Christ, if you love Jesus today, if you live for him with everything you are, if you know him to be your Lord and Savior over your very soul, then it is because he chose you, it says, from before the foundations were set in place. That's how much he loves you. Don't see this as confusing or even a debated section of scripture. Just look at it and see the love of God just exploding off of the pages of the Bible. It's amazing. From before he created anything, before he even began to create anything, he said, I'm gonna love these people. And of course, God would have to do this. Which one of you created yourself? There's only one answer to that. Sorry, there this is not multiple choice. We cannot create ourselves, and especially we cannot create ourselves anew. How do we be born again? God would have to do this. He would have to choose us for salvation. Praise God. Otherwise, there's no hope. It's a call for rejoicing. When we read something like that, we need to break out the songs. Break out the finest wine or grape juice, if that's your prerogative. Break out the choicest foods. Break out the choice linens, whatever it is, it's a call to rejoice. People will be saved. It's amazing. And it has always been God's plan. Hallelujah, what a savior. God chose us. Now, does this mean that we are therefore absolved of all responsibility? Of course not. What does the Bible tell us? We are commanded to repent and believe. Turn from sin and turn to Christ. And so from the moment the Lord opens our eyes to this gospel, we are called to repent and confess Christ as Lord and Savior. But again, we cannot do that without his drawing of us near. The Bible says. The Holy Spirit goes where he wishes. Now, how do these two truths work out perfectly? Our responsibility to respond in God's sovereign election. Fully? I don't know. The Bible says it's the Lord alone that saves, it's the Lord alone that draws and draws his people and causes us to respond. That's what the Bible says. Rejoice in it. But what I can say is this. As I've heard it said before, salvation, every part of it, is under the full and beautiful sovereign plan of God. Again, from before the foundations of the world. And yet it's man's ability to respond, and so they are two roses from the same garden. Point is that God, in his kind and gracious, foreknowing determination, decided to save a people from their destruction. Verse 3 again, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ indeed. What's the result of this? What does this accomplish for us? Again, the greatest blessing that could ever be ours. It says, it goes on to say in verse 4 that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Think about your last week. Are you blameless in accordance with the Word of God? Think about, let's say you're 50 years old. Are you blameless in those 50 years? Are you blameless this morning? We would be holy and blameless before Him. Please note this says before Him. That in and of itself should be a cause for rejoicing. No human should ever be able to confidently say they can stand before God. No human can stand before holy God. In our sin, we would be crushed under the weight of our rebellion as we come before the presence of perfect holiness. But this says we can and will stand before him, not be crushed, not melt away, not run from, but stand before him. Why? Because we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We are now able to stand before him in this way. Not because we attained or we achieved this, no one can claim that. But because we've been justified in him. It's a declaration, a crediting to our account. And because of this spiritual blessing, we will now stand before him if we're in Christ. We will stand before him with awestruck wonder and confident praise every day. Not because we earned it, but because he gave it and proclaimed it. Because anything you can do is always stained with something outside of Christ, isn't it? That's worth rejoicing over. I mean, we know ourselves, if we're honest with ourselves, we're rebellious in so many ways. We cannot earn our way to God with our own holy effort. That just can't happen. But praise be to God. Backing up, he chose us from before the world was formed to be saved unto holiness and blamelessness. Yeah. Wrapping your mind around that, you will still be wrapping your mind around that in eternity in heaven. And we will marvel over him for it. Fourth, continuing with this theme of the Lord's generous grace, rejoicing in our standing that comes through repentance. We see that in the second part of verse 4 and into verse 5. But I want us to notice here first how verse 4 ends. After the period, the ending of the sentence in verse 4, what does it say? It says, in love. Remember what we're to be doing in this text today? Rejoicing. These two words, of course, apply to all we've what all of what we've studied so far, but I think they're meant by Paul to be specifically spoken of in what we see in verse 5. Well, we must come to realize when thinking about the sovereignty of God is this. God's sovereign choice to save man is not just some robotic dartboard selection of random chance like pagan evolutionary processes. Okay, not that. No, it says here it was in love. It was in love. God is love, yes. But he also determines to set love on specific people, doesn't he? He determined to do this. And you hear it all the time, God is love. That's biblical, yes and amen. And I would say, according to the word of God, according to this passage, that statement that God is love finds its greatest blessing and most obvious outworking in one word. One word. And that word is predestined. Predestined. God predestined us. Again, if you're familiar with the debate, don't get caught up in the historic fight over these things in Christendom and what it means. And I just want to let the text drive our worship today. Think about it. If God's choosing can be seen as grace-filled and a beautiful calling of his people, then his predetermining is the utmost manifestation of his love toward his people. That's loving. What's more loving? That God chose from before the foundations of the world to set his love on rebellious sinners? Or, yeah, okay, they're gonna follow me, I guess I'll love them. Which one's more loving? Predestination is an amazing doctrine that shows God's loving kindness. Let's look at what it accomplishes for us. It says here, believe it or not, God's word says that if you're in Christ, if you've been saved by his grace, if you've been chosen by the very God of the universe, then you are now an adopted child of God, Paul goes on to say. Did you hear that? I mean, did you really hear that and take it into your heart? To the depths of your soul, because this truth is a soul-changing event. God did not just free us from our bondage and slavery to sin since the human race has fallen through Adam and we all rebel. He didn't just choose us and then, okay, alright, I'll save you, but figure it out. He didn't do that. As if that's not amazing, grace. He goes so much further. You could say he even signs our adoption papers after covering the immense cost, and he does it with a signature of blood. He doesn't just easily write on an adoption paper with an ink pen and hand over to the devil a large sum of money. It doesn't work that way. No, it costs him far more than that. Only the blood of Christ, the Messiah, would be sufficient payment for my and for your treachery. And that payment is not made to the devil, it's made to the Father. To appease his wrath, his righteous, good, just, holy wrath. And so what that means is we're forever sealed as his, is his children. I mean, what's adoption in the earthly sense of things? Many of you know this. It is the beauty of mankind giving the status of kin to someone who is not naturally born into it. It's the parents calling the not naturally born children their heirs, their very own. This is one of those beautiful pictures of love that the earth can show forth. Now, think of that in the terms of the God of the universe. Think of that in the eternal. Think of that in the terms of the sacrificial way we become sons and daughters of the God of the universe. I mean, if a son or daughter of an adopted family here on the earth receives an inheritance that it speaks of, what does that mean for the children of God who have been adopted by their heavenly Father? Through the Son? I mean, I've mentioned this before. I love what 1 Peter chapter 1 does as he sheds light on this. Peter says our inheritance is imperishable. It's undefiled, it's unfading, it's reserved for us in heaven. And so our inheritance as children of God, again, chosen from before the foundation of the world, in love, our inheritance is perpetual, eternal, always new, always pure, and it is reserved and cannot be removed. And Paul, that's Peter. Paul sheds light on it here in this passage with the incomparably rich nature of this adoption. Peter tells us it's always going to be wonderful, but Paul tells us I would say something that's eternally startling. He says, we're adopted into the family of God, and he says this is done through Jesus Christ, and amazingly to Jesus Christ. Again, what did you do to get saved? Responded. We are infinitely and eternally brought to the King as his adopted heirs. And this is all because of the great love with which he loves us. And so again, I just say this: rejoice, brothers and sisters. Rejoice in the Most High God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have received the privilege of calling upon him as Father. That's what adoption provides. Even if your father on earth wasn't great, maybe he's horrible. Maybe he was good. You have a heavenly father who has chosen to adopt you into his fold by a sovereign act and a grace gift through his son's hard-fought victory. And again, from before the foundations of the world. Look at the end of verse 5 with me. He has done this according to the kind intention of his will. Isn't that so much better than what you hear in science class? Random chance, random selection, those kind of things. Just, eh, it just happened. This is all according to God's will, and that's truth. You want to know the will of God, by the way? How many times have you thought that or heard that from people? What's the will of God? The will of God is to save our sorry, sinful souls. The word in the NES here for intention, by the way, can be translated as pleasure. Remember how much God loves you. It pleased God in the eternal council before the creation of time and space. It pleased God to save and adopt you. If you're his. And he calls you a treasured possession. The triune God counseled together to redeem a people for his own glory. It was found to be well pleasing to him, and therefore it became the very will of God to do this amazing work of grace. What kindness indeed. What a gracious blessing of divine mercy. What a glorious, predetermined work. Again, if you're in Christ, if you're a follower of Christ, a Christian, then before the world was formed, he determined in love, by his grace, to predestine you. To save you eternally from your sin. He elected, the Bible says. Romans 8. Chose, foreknew, predetermined. Don't just think of that in the group right now. I want you to zero in on yourself if you're in Christ. Elected, chose, for knew, predetermined, one day glorified, you. I want you to let the weight of that huge statement cause you to realize the enormity of his love to you. Before you were ever formed. Before you could do one good or bad thing. The question is, why? Ultimately, why? Why all this? We know it was done in love. We know he's amazing. Why? Fifth and final thing to rejoice in today. The glory of God. Verse 6. Many times we all as humans fall into a trap. Like a lion in a pit. Maybe a wolf and a clamp. Does that help in this area? Maybe a bird in a snare. We humans, we Christians, many times fall into the trap of placing our humanistic value above where God and Scripture places it. Here's where I'm going. So far we have been blessed to see the kind intention of the will of God. We've seen his absolute love and grace vividly on display in this passage in redemption. But what we cannot neglect to rejoice over today is the ultimate reason for all of this wonderful work to come about. The reason that God created all things, the reason that God created the sun, the moon, the stars, the reason he created the animals, the trees, the sea, the reason he created the pinnacle of his creation in mankind was for his own glory. We can never forget this. So many times we get caught up in what I would call reductionism in the gospel. We reduce the gospel and the work and the incarnation of God down, maybe his sovereign grace, we reduce it down, and sadly we make it all about me. We make it about us. We take that which is eternal and grand and divine. And we just force ourselves into the hub of it all. We take the focus off of the ever-shining and dazzlingly brilliant, the radiant one. His glory, and we say, no, it's really about me. We may not say that with our mouths, but that's kind of how we live. But in reality, this all took place, this all happened. Paul is recounting all this about salvation. He's calling us all to rejoice and celebrate in the gospel work of the Savior to remind us of the purpose of it all. And that is to point our affections, to point our worship to the praise of his glorious grace. That's going to be a constant theme in Ephesians. This is something that he freely bestowed on us, as it says here, in the beloved, in Christ, the beloved, the church. But it really and truly is all about his glory. Remember what Jesus said in John 17? I came to glorify the Father. That's why He came. Our salvation, our existence, our life, our heavenly calling, our being chosen, our being predestined, our being adopted. It's all to the praise of His glorious grace. The reformers and the Puritans had a phrase for this. Maybe you know it. It's in Latin. It says Solido Gloria. What does that mean? To the glory of God alone. That's it. Just think of the beauty of what we find in verses 4 and 5, the choosing and predetermined will of God. It brings him more glory than saying that you and I could do anything, right? And if it brings him glory, you can bet you're on the right track. So this should be the theme of our prayer life, shouldn't it? This should be the theme of our singing. Our singing isn't about us, it's about him and what he's done. Sure, sometimes about what we receive. It should be the theme of our preaching here. God forbid the preacher be boastful of the work that God has called him to do. The honor and glory of his name based on who he is and what he has done needs to be the theme of the entirety of the church. If you're in Christ, you were chosen before the universe was started. If you're here today and you're not in Christ, then the call remains, no matter the timing of salvation, the call is to repent and believe. You have heard the gospel's call, the gospel's command, actually, to repent, which means to turn from sin. And so the time is now. It's not about you, it's about God's glory. We talked about it on Sunday school this morning. It doesn't matter if we recognize it or not, God is king. You want to know him. Today is the day. Not tomorrow, not next week, not after you get married and have fun with the world. The time to become an adopted son or daughter of God is right now. Because guess what you get? One of the things you get in that is you get to be freed from the tyranny of self-focus. And you get to look to God and his glory instead. The phrase glorious grace here in verse 6 denotes something that cannot be attained by human merit or effort. And as we've already seen today from verse 3, this means that the grace is complete, it is full, it's without anything lacking. Every single shred of the grace of God has been bestowed on you through Christ. That's why we sing a song here at this church that says, All glory be to Christ. Jesus paid it all, we sing. You've done nothing. And it's okay. Because you can't do anything. I can't do anything to get myself saved from sin. It doesn't happen like that. And so as we read this passage, we ought to just sit back, set the Bible in our laps, marvel with hands open, maybe hands up, and to say, what a fountain of grace and treasure of mercy we've been given, my friends. Paul says it best in Philippians chapter 4. Say it with me if you know where I'm going. Rejoice. And again I say, rejoice. Look at who he is. Look at what he's done. Father, we thank you for your word to us. We thank you that you would be so kind as to save a people for your own possession. We thank you that we get to be called saints, unworthy in our own right, of course, but worthy in Christ. That we actually get to be able to speak with our mouths, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That shouldn't be our gift, but it is through you, through your Son. And so truly we say today, we resound today, oh, to the praise of the glory of your grace, which you have freely bestowed on us in Christ. We thank you so much, Father, for this gift. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.