I invite your attention to Ephesians
chapter 3, the epistle of Paul the Apostle to the church in
Ephesus, third chapter. My text will be found in verse
number 11, and my message is titled, God's Eternal Purpose
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let me begin reading from verse
number 1, Ephesians 3 verse 1. For this cause, and the cause
is indicated in chapter 2, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ
for you Gentiles, he is in a prison put there by men, but he says,
I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ. I'm here because of him and I
would not have it any other way. I am his prisoner for you Gentiles
if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you." God chose Paul to give this information
to us Gentiles. What information? Verse 3, have
it by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Now verse
5, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the Spirit. The apostles were the twelve,
and here including Paul. These prophets were men ordained
of God before the scriptures were written, who gave revelation
from God. Their ministry is over. We have
this record. We no longer need a prophet.
When people say, They want a prophet. What they're saying is God's
word is not enough. We need somebody to tell us something
more. Well, not us. The holy apostles
and their ministry is gone. And the holy prophets, their
ministry is gone. But God used them to disclose
and give to men this great mystery. What mystery? Verse 6, that the
Gentiles should be fellow heirs. and of the same body with the
Jews, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given. that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers and heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold
wisdom of God, and here's my text, according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him,
by the faith of Christ. Now that's my subject this morning
from verse number 11, God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Now, our King James Version speaks
of a purpose that was purposed. And the Greek text is a bit more
emphatic. It is a purpose that is done. Not merely purposed, but a purpose
that is done. Now, how is it done? Well, the
commentators are divided on this. in the two camps, some say that
this purpose was made in Christ Jesus our Lord before the foundation
of the world. Most of them say that it was
accomplished in Jesus Christ. So the commentator is saying,
you know, it's one of the two. It was either made in Christ
or it was accomplished in Christ. Well, this is one of those happy
instances in which I will say that I do not feel compelled
to take one and say no to the other. I'm going to take both.
They both suit me because God's eternal purpose was made in Christ
before the foundation of the world in God's eternal decree in old eternity, in God's eternal counsel. A purpose
was made, formulated, decreed, and it was done again 2,000 years
ago on Calvary when Jesus Christ, in the purpose of God, on Calvary's
tree shouted, it is finished! What's finished? The purpose.
God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord, made, decreed
before time began, was accomplished there on Calvary. Now, certain
aspects of this purpose have been applied to us 2,000 years
after Christ. For example, in God's eternal
purpose was our justification. Man, we were justified 2000 years
after Christ died, justified by faith. But we could not have
been justified by faith had we not been justified by His blood
on Calvary. And we could not have been justified
by His blood had we not been justified by God's grace given
to us in Christ Jesus before time began. God's eternal purpose. in Christ Jesus our Lord. Alright
folks, I am not going to finish this message today. I can assure
you that we're going to get two or three messages out of this
because, well for one thing, this purpose is greatly involved
and has many details and there is no way we can finish them
today and do justice to the subject. This purpose, it's glorious.
God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord. Consider that
this is God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now Paul emphatically states
it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He does not say merely in Jesus. He does not say in Christ. He
says no, no, no. It is God's eternal purpose in
Christ, Jesus our Lord. Jesus is His name given to Him
at His birth. You shall call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. The name Jesus
means Savior. This is God's eternal purpose
in our Savior. Christ is His title. It denotes
that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. Since He is the Son of God, He
is of the same nature with His Father. The Lord denotes again
His deity. When we speak of God's eternal
purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord, we're saying that God's eternal
purpose was accomplished in Jesus of Nazareth, born of a woman,
but God's Son whom we own as our Lord and our Savior. God's
eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let's consider God's eternal
purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord. What is God's purpose? It is
His fixed intention. It is the purpose of Him who
works all things according to the counsel of His will. Ephesians
1 verse 11. A fixed intention. Everything God does is on purpose
and for a purpose. On purpose and for a purpose. God never does anything because
somebody told Him to. It is God's purpose. He always gets it right. God never says, oops, did I do
that? Never does He say so. Everything
God does is for a purpose. He never does anything just casually.
And He does it on purpose. God's eternal purpose. He makes
no mistake. I'm not much of a handyman if
the task requires more than duct tape or WD-40. Now if it can
be fixed with duct tape or WD-40, I'm okay. Now consider this WD-40
for a moment. The WD stands for water displacement. The 40 stands for The number
of times it took the inventor to get it right. 40 times! Can you imagine God
doing something and it took him 40 times to get it right? Okay
Adam, I'm going to put you to sleep and make a wife for you.
Okay? And the Lord put him to sleep
and it took him 40 times to get the woman right. Not so! God's purpose was done correctly. He did it on purpose. He did
it for a purpose. He never made a mistake. On the seventh day of the creation, God beheld everything He had
done for six days and He said, It's good. It's good. Our friend Marvin Stallnicker
is an artist, paints pictures. He's great at it. Someone asked him one time, how
do you know when a painting is done? And Marvin said, a painting
is never done. You can always find something
else to do to it. You just finally have to put
it in the frame so that you can't touch it. God never was that
way. God finished the creation. He
spoke, and the worlds came into existence. He spoke, and it was
done. And when it was all done, God
looked upon it and said, just the way I purposed it, it's perfect. It's perfect. Everything God
does is on purpose and for a purpose. This purpose of the creation
was for His own glory. And His eternal purpose in Jesus
Christ was for the glory of Jesus Christ. God's eternal purpose. His purpose is His fixed intention. God's eternal purpose is eternal
because it was made in eternity past, will endure throughout
eternity to come, and spans all the ages between them. God's
eternal purpose. If it was purposed in eternity,
made in eternity, therefore it had no beginning. If it endures
into eternity to come, it has no end. It has no end. It has no recess. It has no interruption. It is eternal. God's eternal
purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord. The fact that it is in Christ
Jesus our Lord is His decree from eternity for the salvation
of His people. We confess God saved us and called
us not according to our works but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time
began. the grace that saved us, given
to us before time began. Now, eternal. Did you ever notice
that the Scriptures use a number of different words to describe
what was done in eternity? It is from eternity, Acts 15,
18, before the foundation of the world in Ephesians 1, verse
4, before time began in 2 Timothy 1, 9, before the ages in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 7, beforehand in Romans 9.23, from the beginning 2 Thessalonians
2.13, which is from everlasting, from the beginning, before there
ever was an earth, Proverbs 8.23, from the foundation of the world,
Matthew 25, verse 34, which is the same as eternity. God's eternal
purpose, these are the words that are used to describe it.
Everything that you and I have ever done had a beginning. God's goes back. Everything He
has done is from eternity. God's eternal purpose concerns
persons who were by Him foreknown, Romans 8, 29. For ordained, 1
Peter 1, verse 20. predestined, Ephesians 1, verse
11. We will consider those later. There are 11 points in my message,
so we're not going to finish. I'm going to give you the brief
introduction to the points. God's eternal purpose, here they
are, and it is in the synopsis or the tract in front of you.
God foreknew his people. God eternally and savingly loved
His people. God predestined His people. God chose His people. God prepared
His people for glory. God ordained Christ to redeem
His people. God promised eternal life to
His people. God prepared the eternal kingdom
of His people. God foreordained to reveal to
His people the wisdom of His eternal purpose. God foreordained
the good works of his people, and number 11, God decreed that
all whom he purposed to save would believe the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Now folks, this is my kind of subject. God's eternal purpose in Christ
Jesus. We love the sovereignty of God,
the name of our church, Sovereign Grace Church. What is sovereign grace? It is
the grace of the sovereign, and there's only one, and the sovereign
is gracious. And here is a church that gathers
to worship Him who is sovereign in all things. Yeah. His eternal purpose should
be a glorious subject unto us. So let's look at the first point.
God foreknew his people, Romans 8, 29. They are all whom he foreknew. Now, they are all whom he foreknew. You ask some people, what does that word foreknow
mean? And they'll say, well it means that God had prior knowledge
of people in advance. What does that mean? Well, it
means that in eternity God looked down through time and He saw
this person responding to the invitation, this person raising
his hand, asking for salvation. And God says, okay, he's walking
the aisle, he's getting baptized. I'm going to save that person.
I foresee that person. I have foreseen that person.
Trust Him in me. I'm going to choose him to salvation.
And that is not at all the way it happened. That is completely
what they're talking about is what we call prescience, and
it is spelled pre-science. Pre-science. The word science
means knowledge. The prefix pre- means previous
or prior. God did not merely have prior
knowledge of things. He did not merely have prior
knowledge of His people, He foreknew them. Foreknew them. And it is an entirely different
thing. Much more involved. For example, God knows all things. He knows all people. And yet
He's going to say to some at the final judgment, I never knew
you. Depart from me, you who work
lawlessness and iniquity. I never knew you. Lord, do you
not know all things? Yeah. In his omniscience, God
knows all things. But God looks upon unrepentant
people and says, I never knew them. I never knew them. But there are some whom I foreknew. Now, what does it mean to foreknow?
Who are these who are foreknown? This is a great word, foreknew. Now look at that word knew. There is in understanding and
interpreting scriptures a rule that is called the law of first
occurrence. If you want to know what a word
means, in the New Testament, quite often you go to the first
time that word is used in the New Testament and you'll know
what it means. Alright, what does the word know
mean? First time it's used is in Matthew
chapter 1 verse 25. Mary has conceived and is bearing a child in her
womb. And her husband, to whom she
is married, though not consummated, but to whom they are legally
married, he's concerned. I thought she was a virgin. And
an angel comes down and says, be not concerned. That which
is in her womb is there through the conception of the Holy Spirit.
She's a virgin. Mary, when she was told of this,
said, how can I be pregnant? I have never known a man. Well,
she knew lots of men, but she had never known one. The scripture
then reads in Matthew chapter 1 that Joseph did not know Mary
his wife until after the child was born. Joseph, who's your wife? Mary,
right there. Oh, you know her? Yeah, I know
her, but I have never known her. It may sound confusing, but we sometimes
speak of the word know as in He knew her in the biblical sense
of the word. It denotes a relationship that
is intimate and personal and experiential. To know someone
in this sense of the word means, in the sight of God, that one
is mine. This one is mine and the object
of my love and devotion. And this one has been known from
me from eternity and therefore whom he foreknew. There are some people who are
never known by God and there are some who were foreknown before
the foundation of the world. God's foreknowledge of his people
has at least a two-fold purpose. First, their election is of God's
foreknowledge. They are elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. God foreknew them intimately, experientially, personally,
and then said, I'm choosing them to salvation. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. Furthermore, God's foreknowledge
has to do with everything that works for our good. And we know
that all things work together for good for them who love God
to those who are called according to His purpose. There's the word. called according
to his purpose, for whom he foreknew before the foundation of the
world, saying, this one is mine personally, intimately, experientially. This one is mine, whom he foreknew,
he also predestined. Predestined to what? to be conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Okay, so whom he foreknew, he
also predestined. Yes. But there's more. There's more. Whom he predestined,
he also called. Oh, okay. So if a man has been
called to Christ, he was predestined. Yep. And if he was predestined,
he was foreknown. Yes. Oh, but there's more. And whom he called, he justified,
declared to be righteous. And whom he justified, he also
glorified. Now watch carefully. Now watch
carefully. All of these things were according
to God's purpose. called according to his purpose,
whom he foreknew." When did he foreknow then? Before the foundation of the
world. And if he foreknew then, they
were predestined. When? Before the foundation of
the world. And whom he predestined, he also
justified. When? Before the foundation of
the world. because they were put in Christ
before the foundation of the world and there never was sin
in Him. In God's decree, even our calling
and our justification and our glorification were in God's decree
before the foundation of the world. It must take place, it
must be done because God purposed it before the foundation of the
world. Therefore, no one whom God foreknew
and chose to salvation shall fail to be called, justified,
and glorified. Everyone glorified in heaven's
glory will be there because God foreknew that one before time
began, before the foundation of the world. Let's consider something else. Second point, God eternally and savingly loved
his people, Jeremiah 31 verse 3. God loved his people from
eternity. I remember the day I met Sandra
Marvin. Now, we were being matched, she
and I. a friend who thought we would
be good for each other, you know, went to work to see that our
paths crossed. And, you know, the first time
we met, hello, we shook hands. It was
not much more than that. I don't think she was overly
impressed with me, and I was not looking for a wife. And I
was 26, 27 years old, but I was not looking for a wife. But,
you know, hey, she was an attractive woman. I'll, you know, we'll
correspond. And then one day, I was smitten. The love hit. And I fell in love
with that woman, head over heels. God never did that. God never looked down upon anybody
walking on this earth and said, I just fell in love with that
person. I'm going to save that person. No, no, no. Did not happen
that way. God's purpose is from eternity
and so is his love. Jesus says to his disciples, For he prayed to his father,
you have loved them as you have loved me. That is an astounding thought.
God the father loves his people just like he loves Christ. No, it's more than that. God
loved them like he loved Christ. And it is a love without beginning,
without end, without change. It is eternal and immutable.
Jesus says, you have loved them as you have loved me. And you
loved me before the foundation of the world. Do you realize
that God the Father loved His people? He never fell in love
with them. He was always in love with them.
from old eternity. We have ever been the objects
of His love. It never had a beginning, and
it will never end, and it'll never change. God never says to His people,
I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.
Never does. His love is eternal. It is immutable. Now, because God loves His people,
loved His people, He saved them, and this was purpose before time
began. Now you must remember that love
saves. In your bulletin last Lord's
Day, there was an article when my granddaughter, Kate, was one
and a half years old. And we were at a family outing,
and there was a swimming pool. It was summertime, and baby Kate,
as we called her, decided to go jump into the water. She's
one and a half years old, wearing no life preserver. You know,
she sees everybody enjoying the water. She's going to jump in.
So she starts toddling off. toward the water and we're watching. Her parents have seen her. And so what do you suppose they'll
do? There goes their darling little daughter waddling off
toward the water. And if she falls in, she's going
to drown. Do you suppose her parents said,
now Kate, Kate, Kate, we love you. And we don't want you to
drown. But we're not going to violate
your free will and make you come back. The choice is yours. Well, if you choose to just fall
into the pond or the pool and die, that's your fault. But we really would like you
to come back to us. Do you suppose they did that?
No! Why? Because they loved her. Love saves. I'm gonna tell you that when Kate's mother and father
saw her walking off toward that pool, they both were up and just
went and grabbed her and pulled her back. Why? Love saves. And here is God who sees His
children chosen from eternity. And here they are walking toward
the lake of fire. And what does God say? Now, child of mine, I love you. I love you. I've always loved
you. And I don't want you to fall into that lake of fire.
But I'm not going to violate your free will and come and get
you. No, no, no. But I'm begging you,
please come back. Come back to me. Don't don't
fall into the lake of fire. Now, if you fall into the lake
of fire, so be it. That's your decision. But I really
don't want you to do it. Does God do that? No. Why? Love saves, especially when it
is God's love. What does God do? He says to
his people, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting eternal
love. God's love is everlasting all
the way into the past and all the way into the future. I have
loved you. He does not say I love you. I
have loved you. And it still continues with an
eternal love. Therefore, With loving kindness,
I have drawn you. With loving kindness, I have
drawn you. My family stopped up in a place
just north of Choteau. I believe it is pronounced Dupuyet.
It's a ghost town. But there is evidently a famous
restaurant. We stopped there. And there was
a memorial to a cowboy who was raised in that place. And some
of his gear was there, including his rope that he used to lasso
stray cattle. And it looked like it could do the
job, It was sturdy, it was a strong piece of rope. It looked like
it might shake the skin a bit. But you can imagine, though,
this cowboy used to go riding around in a stray cap and lasso,
put the lasso around the head of the cap and start pulling
it in. Well, that is somewhat like what God
does. I have loved you with an eternal
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I have drawn you. God has a lasso. His lasso is
love. It is gentle. It is sweet. It is kind. And when God puts
his lasso upon an erring sinner, the sinner looks back and sees
the love of God that has drawn him, and we come running. We say, draw me, I will run after
you, as the bride of Christ says in the song of Solomon. But this
love was from eternity, and from eternity God purposed to love
and to save his people. We'll look at one more. Number
three, God predestined his people, Romans 8, 29. For whom he foreknew,
he also predestined. Whom he foreknew, he also predestined. The word predestined means determined
beforehand. Before the foundation of the
world, God predestined his people in a threefold manner. God predestined
his people to be like Christ. Whom he foreknew, he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Notice, conformed unto the image
of his Son. Eventually, we're all going to
be looking just like Jesus Christ. As you can see, God is not yet
done with me, nor with you, nor with you. What God does is somewhat
like what a sculptor does. A sculptor gets a big block of
marble. He looks at that marble, that
big piece of marble, and he sees something that the rest of us
do not see. He's going to paint a statue,
pardon me, sculpt a statue, and he can see it. in that block
of marble. I don't see it, but he does.
And what does he do? He takes his chisel and his hammer
and bit by bit, he starts chiseling away at that block of marble. And then all of a sudden, as
you watch him over the next few weeks, you say, whoa, I did not
know that statue was in that piece of marble, but the sculptor
did. and he just keeps on going and
he gets it roughly done and well the face you know has to be he's
got to do some special work on the face to make it smooth and
that sculpture was in that piece of marble the whole time the
sculptor saw it when nobody else did that's what God does with
his people takes a building stone and says
it's going to look like Christ and God can see in that stone
what nobody else can see and bit by bit he starts sculpting
it out. That's what he's doing with us
right now. Our trials, our tribulations, all these things are making us
more and more like Christ. God's not done with us yet, but
when we have finally reached heaven's glory, Everybody in
heaven is going to look just like Jesus Christ. Conform to
the image of His Son. You may die when you're 90 years
old, unable to walk, but in heaven's glory, you're going to be just
like Jesus Christ. It may be that one of God's children
dies in infancy, unable to walk, There'll be no infants in heaven,
folks. None. They're all going to be just
like Christ. Predestined to be conformed to the image of His
Son. Second, predestined to be as
adopted children by Christ. Having predestined us to adoption
as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure
of His will. What has God done? God has only one begotten Son. Only one! begotten from eternity
by an eternal generation. And again, God says, I want a whole family of sons
just like this one. So what does he do? He goes to
the orphanage that this world is and he starts choosing out
whom he will. From eternity he did so. predestined
this people to be as adopted children. God says, I think so
highly of my only begotten son, I'm going to have a few million
just like him. Just like him, and he predestined
us. And then third, God predestined
this people to be the recipients of an eternal inheritance in
Christ, Ephesians 111. In him also we have obtained
an inheritance. being predestined according to
the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel
of his will. Now watch carefully. In him we
have obtained, past tense, obtained an inheritance. Preacher and inheritance is something
you're supposed to get in the future. Yeah, that's true. But
you said you've already obtained it. Yeah. No, no, that's what
the Scripture says. In Christ we have obtained an
inheritance. Are you in that inheritance already?
No. But I have obtained it. How can you not have your hands
on the inheritance if you have already obtained it? Because it was predestined. And
if it was predestined in God's sight, it's done. It's done! Before the foundation of the
world, God prepared an inheritance, and He says, it's done. My people
are glorified in my decree. The inheritance has already been
received. God predestined this people to
be the recipients of an eternal inheritance in Christ. Now, do
you see what we're talking about with this eternal purpose? Eternal. No beginning, no end. Never changes. God never changes course, never
changes horses in midstream. It was made in old eternity, accomplished on Christ, in Christ,
on Calvary, and applied to us in our personal experience. God's
eternal purpose. Everything he does is for a purpose
and on purpose.