to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. We've started a study here and
I'm so excited about it. I've told Melinda on the way
over here, I think I'm seeing things that I've never seen and
I think the Lord's given me some light on some things that are
just mysterious to me. They're just delightful to me.
And I can't wait to bring them to you. I just hope the Lord
will give me the ability to preach them. So, let's read here. We're just going to take two
verses and look here. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love." Our subject is
love of election, the love of election. Now, no one knows His
election until He's been called by the Holy Spirit, quickened,
made alive, given life, faith in Christ. But for those who
have, this doctrine, this truth of election is one of the most
precious, precious truths that there is. Very precious. And it's precious to us because
of the mystery that God reveals in this doctrine. Some who claim
to believe the gospel are very offended at this doctrine and
they hate this doctrine. They hate it, despise it. Most
think they're an authority on the word of God. But the sad
part is, is they think they are the authority and not God. They think they are the authority
and not God. Even those who claim to say that
the scriptures are our only rule of faith and practice, they'll
say that. But then when you preach this truth and they hear this
gospel preached and this doctrine declared, they'll say, well,
I don't believe that. This is what I think. This is
how I think God does it. And they'll bring forth all sorts
of reasons and all sorts of arguments that aren't the Word of God. And by that, what they're saying
is, they don't think the Word of God's the rule of faith and
practice. They think they are. And what
they think is the rule. And so I understand that. I understand
when somebody is offended, if they get offended at this doctrine,
because God's ways and God's thoughts contradict man's ways
and man's thoughts. And it will be that way until
God in grace comes and He reconciles our thoughts and our ways to
His thoughts and His ways. And so God says to us, He said,
let the wicked forsake his way. and the righteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord, and he'll have mercy on him.
And to our God, for he'll abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not
your thoughts." That's what he said. My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are my ways, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. And then usually the final argument
is, well, it's not God that I disagree with, it's the preacher. You
know, there was a whole congregation one time that used that argument
to say they weren't disagreeing with God, they were just disagreeing
with the preacher. The bad thing was is that preacher
was God. It was God the Son, the Son of
God, and the message he was preaching on one occasion when that happened,
the first message he was preaching was the doctrine of election.
It was this very doctrine right here. So I understand, I understand
whenever somebody gets offended, but if Christ sends one of his
witnesses to us, And we're preaching out of the Scripture, comparing
Scripture to Scripture. We do well to consider it might
just be God that's speaking to us. It might be God that's speaking
to us. You know, He does that in these
days through His messengers, just like God spoke through Him
when He walked this earth and preached the Gospel. All right,
so here's His Word. These words that I'm speaking,
they're not my words. They're not my thoughts. This
is God's Word. So here's His Word, verse 3.
He said, blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now here's the first thing we
see. Election originates with God the Father. God the Father,
verse 4, He says, according as He hath chosen us. Election means
a choice has been made. That's what it means, a choice
has been made. He hath chosen. God the Father
has elected whom He will. He has chosen whom He will, and
those He has chosen shall be saved. There's no maybes about
it. They shall be saved. Now there
are two primary reasons why God the Father chose a people in
Christ. Two primary reasons. The first
reason is, is that in all, Christ will have the preeminence. because
it pleased God that in Him should all fullness dwell. It pleased
God to set up the Son of His love and glorify the Son of His
love before all. And He's going to have that glory.
And the second reason is vitally connected with that reason. The
second reason is, it says that He, verse 9, it says that He
may make known unto us the mystery of His will. A mystery of his
gospel. Some places call it the mystery
of his glory. According to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. And that mystery is what I want
you to see today when we get to the end of the message. So
let's stay with me here. But notice here, God's choosing
his people is the first blessing. It's the chief blessing. through
which all the other blessings come. Look at verse 3. It says,
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. And then verse 4 says,
according as He has chosen us in Him. Do you see that? Now the chapter lists all these
spiritual blessings. It lists sanctification, adoption,
acceptance, redemption, forgiveness, regeneration, revelation, faith,
preservation, resurrection, and eternal inheritance. But God
the Father blessed us with all those spiritual blessings according
as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. This doctrine of election is
a glorious truth because therein is how God gave us all these
other spiritual blessings, is in this doctrine of election,
or in election. So first of all, God the Father
is the fountain of this grace. He did the electing. He hath
chosen. And then secondly, we see here
that God the Father chose us in Christ. Now first of all,
to say that God chose us in Christ, it means God first chose Christ. He first chose him. Christ Jesus
is the preeminent elect son of God. Isaiah 42.1 says, Behold
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighted. He upholds Him and He says, now
behold Him, this is mine elect. This is my chosen. I chose Him. This is the one in whom my soul
delighteth. That's what God says to His people. The Lord God chose Christ because
He is the Son of His love. He loves Him. And He chose him
because the whole purpose in salvation, in creating this world,
in creating a people in this world, and calling out His people
in this world, the whole purpose of it is to glorify His Son,
is to show forth His glory in His Son, in the person of His
Son. And God the Father revealed to His Son, when He chose Him,
He revealed to His Son the mystery of His will. He revealed it to
Him. He spoke to Him in this council
of peace, this everlasting covenant that He made. He spoke to His
Son and He revealed the purpose which God the Father had purposed
in Himself. And so Christ entered into this
covenant with Him, an everlasting covenant with Him. Having been
told all things that it pleased the Father to do, Christ entered
into the covenant with Him to do everything that it pleased
the Father to do for this chosen people that He gave to Him. He
would come forth and He would fill all things. This is what
God gave Him to do, to fill all in all. And so Christ would come
forth and the first thing He would do is He would fill a human
body that God had made for Him. And He would fill that human
body with the glory of all the divine perfections. If you want
to see the perfection of God, don't look to the law. We're
not told to do that. We're told to look to Christ.
He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's where we're going
to see the perfection of God. And so it was so that these children
that God chose to save could have a conception, could enter
into who the invisible God is in this one who in a body is
the express image of God. And so He filled that body with
the divine perfections of God. And then He fulfilled everything
that was written in the Scriptures. that the scripture said he would
do. In fact, he filled those scriptures. He made those scriptures. The scriptures, all the prophets
of old spoke as they were moved by the spirit of Christ. As he
told them what to write, he told them what to write, what he was
going to do, what he was going to fulfill. And then he came
forth and fulfilled everything that was written. And he fulfilled
the justice of the law. The righteousness of it by his
obedience throughout his life. He fulfilled that for his people. He said, I came to fulfill the
law. And he fulfilled the justice of it by his obedience unto death. He fulfilled the law. And then
God raised Him to His right hand and gave Him power over all things
to be the head over all things to His church, which is His body,
the fullness of Him, to fill all in all. And so He fills each
of His elect children individually, full of grace, through the Spirit,
through the Gospel. He fills them Himself. And in
doing so, He unites them into His body and He fills His body. And He's going to keep doing
this and keep doing this work until we all come, all the elect,
into the unity of the faith, to the fullness of the stature
of Christ. That doesn't mean until we grow
up and bust our britches because we're so good. It means until
He fully calls out all of His elect who are the fullness of
Him, the fullness of His body, and His body is complete. They've
all been called. He's filling all that. So when
God the Father chose Him and the Son of God agreed, right
then Christ became the mediator, of His people, the surety of
His people. He became the husband and head
of His people right then. God the Father chose His Son
and He looked at His Son and He said, it's not me that He
should be alone. And He gave Him a bride. He gave
Him a bride to be a helpmeet to Him. Through His grace, there'll
be a helpmeet to Him through whom He's going to birth these
children. And when he did that, the Lord
said, Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one and said, I have
laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. He said, I found David my servant. Here he is. He's the one of whom
earthly David was a picture and a type made after, after this
one. And I've anointed him with oil,
with holy oil, with whom my hand shall be established, he said,
and my arms shall also strengthen him. He said, Thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. All of this is happening in eternity,
every bit of this. And because God the Father chose
us in Him, chose His elect in Him, right then, right then,
Christ became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Right then. And because He chose His people
in Him, and Christ became our surety for this people that He
chose, right then, He, God the Father, saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Right there. Right there. All
through this choosing Him and choosing this people in Him.
All spiritual blessings, brethren, are wrapped up. Every spiritual
blessing that's going to come to pass in time is all wrapped
up in God choosing His people in Christ Jesus. And as Christ
being our surety, right then, that's why it says God blessed
us with all spiritual blessings according as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. Because there was no possibility,
no remote possibility, that this faithful son of God's love would
not come forth and fulfill everything that He agreed to fulfill. God
rested from all His works entrusting all the works into the hands
of His Son right there, and the works were finished from the
foundation of the world. Ah, election's a blessing because
it's by that choosing of God the Father that we read, of God
are you in Christ. That's when it took place. And
because God's first elect shall not fail, it's certain, it's
certain He shall save His people from our sins. And because Christ
filleth all in all, because He does it, that means Christ is
all in all. He is. And all spiritual blessings
are wonderful. They're just wonderful. But this
one who's fulfilling all spiritual blessings, he's the blessing.
He's the blessing. He's given to us for a covenant
of the people. He's the covenant. I get so sick
of hearing men want to talk about the, oh, we're going to talk
about new covenant theology. And boy, they get to talking
and just slicing and dicing everything about new covenant theology.
And they never talk about Him who is the covenant. He is the
covenant. Christ is the covenant. He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him,
which is the head of all principality and power. The first thing he
did in obedience to the Father was he made everything. All principality
and power, everything. It was all made by him and for
him. Every bit of it. That was his
first work, fulfilling this work for the Father. His first work.
Alright, so that's it. Secondly, it was in Christ. Now
thirdly, all this was done, verse 4 says, before the foundation
of the world. All of it was done before the
foundation of the world. Time hadn't been made yet. So
that's great assurance to us. And here's why. Because God's
choice of His people was an eternal act of God. It was an eternal
act of the eternal God. before time ever existed. And
therefore nothing in time can ever change or alter what He
did in eternity. Nothing. It was the will of God. And God does not change. It was
the will of God. He has no new will. There's nothing
new that happens in time that wasn't His will from all eternity. His will doesn't change. Therefore
the choice God made of his people when he put them in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world remains unchanged forever."
Now that's great assurance. Great assurance. It's the purpose
which God purposed in himself. That's what Christ was given
to do. The purpose which God purposed
in himself before the foundation of the world. God's purpose is
as eternal and as immovable as himself. And because it was purposed
in himself, nothing outside of himself can change it. That means
the objects that he chose can't change it. Nothing we do can
change it. Sin entering in couldn't change
it. Our sin now can't change it. Turn over to Matthew 25. I want to show you something
here. It says there he did this before
the foundation of the world. And Hebrews 4 says, when God
trusted the work to His Son, the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. Now look at what our Lord told
us in this parable in Matthew 25, 34. Christ said, In the end,
the King shall say to those on His right hand, Come ye, blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. already done for the foundation
of the world. Now, have you trusted Christ
with all... First, trusted Him with you and
with all the work required to make you the righteousness of
God? That's what God the Father did with His elect. He trusted
them all to Christ and He trusted Christ to do all the work necessary
to make them the righteousness of God. And God calls His people
to do that. to trust us to Him and everything
that's required to make us the righteousness of God. Trust it
all to Him. Are you rested in Christ from all your works like
God did from His? That's what He did when He put
His people in Christ. Do you trust God that He wrote
your name in the Lamb's Book of Life right then from the foundation
of the world? Because Christ has blotted out
all the sins of His people so that not one name written in
that Lamb's Book of Life can ever be blotted out. I had a
dear sister ask me the other day, she said, can our names
be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life? And I thought,
where in the world did you get that? And she read a scripture
in the Old Testament and a preacher told her it could be. A preacher
told her if she didn't act right and do right, her name could
be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life. When have you ever
done right? When have we ever done right?
Never. Never. Christ has done right. And that's why our name's not
written out of the Lamb's Book of Life. As sure as God's choice
of Christ is from everlasting to everlasting, as sure as God's
choice of Christ is from everlasting to everlasting, so His choice
of those He chose in Christ is from everlasting to everlasting.
for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
Alright, that's the third thing. This saying is eternal, eternal. Alright, here's the fourth thing.
This is another reason that the doctrine of election is such
a comfort to His people. Verse 4, God hath chosen us in
Christ that we should be holy and without blame before Him.
Now some corrupt the doctrine of election by saying that God
chose a people because God foresaw that in time they would believe
on Him. That's not true. That is not
true. That would make election, God's
election of grace to be based on works, on our merit rather
than on the free and sovereign grace of God. God chose, look
at 2 Thessalonians 2.13. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. God chose His people in Christ. That was the first blessing.
That was a blessing of grace. And then all spiritual blessings
became ours because He chose us in Christ. They all followed
from that blessing of grace. So then 2 Thessalonians 2.13
says, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you. Because
He did it by grace. Brethren, you're beloved of the
Lord. Beloved, loved before of the
Lord. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you. And then look what followed.
He chose you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.
That followed on the heels of election. That was one of that
first spiritual grace He gave us, that we'd be holy through
sanctification of the Spirit and faith. Faith's a gift of
this blessing. Belief of the truth, whereunto
He called you. Regeneration, revelation, that's
a gift of this that follows through this blessing of election. And
he did it by our gospel. He sent the gospel to his people
in truth, not in a lie, so that we obtain the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Because God chose us, all these
blessings followed, and they're all by grace. They're all by
grace. So our holiness is the effect
of God's election, not the cause of it. Our faith is the effect
of God's election of grace, not the cause of it. And it's all
of grace. You notice eternal glorification? That's going to be an effect
of this electing grace too. How absurd would it be for God
to say God looked down through time and saw that we would eternally
glorify ourselves and therefore He chose us. It'd be just as
absurd to say He looked down through time and saw we'd believe.
The whole reason He did this, brethren, was to save us by grace,
by grace, by grace. Scripture says, who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling not according to our
works. Not according to our works. not according, but according
to His own purpose, and He purposed in Himself in His own grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
and is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ. By Him appearing in this earth,
by Him appearing in this gospel that goes forth that He sends,
and by His appearing in our heart, brethren, when He is formed in
us, He abolishes death and He brings life and immortality to
light through the gospel. That's what He does. The election
of grace is what it's called. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But here's even more assurance. Even more assurance on this point
right here. Because the Lord God chose us
in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
even when we fell in Adam, Even when we died and came forth in
trespasses and sins, God the Father has always seen us in
Christ, holy and without blame before Him. If that was not the
case, brethren, He'd have destroyed this world the moment Adam sinned
in the garden. That's right. Here's the fifth
thing. All of these blessings, now this
is what I want you to see, this is what is just, this is wonderful. All of these blessings given
to us in God's electing grace, verse 4 says, the very last two
words, is in love. It's in love. This is the mystery
of God's will right here. The Father loved Christ. He loved Him. And therefore,
He chose Christ from the foundation of the world and He gave Christ
His glory. That is, He revealed to Christ
the purpose which He purposed in Himself. He revealed it to
Christ. And so Christ came forth and
He redeemed His people by His blood and by laying down His
life for us. And then Christ was raised up. and given all this power so that
He could send the Gospel to us. Look down at verse 8. Verse 8. Wherein He hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He
purposed in Himself. Now here's what it is. This is
what it is. This is the mystery right here.
This is the purpose He purposed in Himself from the beginning.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ. The praise of God's glory. God's
glory. He did all of this now to... Turn over to John 17. John 17. He did all of this to gather
us together in Christ. This was His glory. This was
His purpose. This was the mystery of His will hidden in... that
He purposed in Himself from before the world began. Now look. Look
now, in John 17, verse 22, Christ prayed to the Father, and He
spoke concerning those to whom Christ had revealed this mystery.
This had given them the gospel. He had given them the glory God
gave to Him. That is, the gospel, the Word
that God gave to Him. And look, He says this, and watch
what He said. Verse 22, The glory which thou
gavest Me, I have given them. The word glory there is referring
to this revelation, this word, the mystery, the gospel. He gave
it to them. That's that glory which God the
Father gave to Him. Alright, now look, and He adds
something. He tells us, now this is the mystery, just what we
just read in Ephesians, but He adds something to it. He says,
I've given it to them. Now here it is. This is what
the mystery is. That they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. This was God's purpose, what
he purposed in himself before the world began. That the world
may know that thou hast sent me. Now here's what he adds to
Ephesians. That they may know that thou
hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now this is the mystery. This is the love of election
right here. Now get there. Let me try to
put all this together. From the foundation of the world, God
loved His Son so much that He purposed in Himself that He would
give His Son all preeminence, make all fullness to dwell in
His Son, give Him the full inheritance of everything that is God's.
And God loved His elect as He loves Christ. With the same love
that He loves His son. With that love. That fervent,
that love. And so He gave them to Christ. This was the purpose He purposed
in Himself. He gave them to Christ to come forth and do God's will. and to give us an inheritance
and to give us all fullness with Christ. That's what God purposed
in Himself. And so when He made this purpose
known to Christ from the foundation of the world, Christ said, I'll
do it. He said, I'll do it. His purpose
was that He would do both. He would exalt His Son and glorify
His Son and give His Son all preeminence and give Him the
inheritance by sending his son forth for them and having his
son to do all this work for them. so that He put away all their
sins and glorified all the perfections of God so that when God raised
Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, He raised
them and set them at His own right hand. When He gave His
Son the inheritance, He gave them the inheritance. And He
gave His Son the glory now to go forth and reveal this mystery
to them through the gospel and divide that inheritance with
them. And so, Christ sends this Gospel as our head and He reveals
this mystery of the Father to us through His Gospel. This exceeding
great love that the Father has toward us. which unites us together,
through the Spirit, with Him, through faith, to where we see
His over-abounding love toward us, and that love constrains
us to be united to Him. And so we see now, because God
loved Christ, and everything Christ received from the Father,
Christ has given it to us, and we're joint heirs with Him of
everything He has. And for right now, we have the
earnest of the Spirit of promise, And the Spirit is our earnestness. He's coming back for this purchased
possession. He's coming back to get us. And so with that,
brethren, through this gospel then, He camps us, plants us
right in His house. And we start hearing Him declare
this over and over and over to us. And this is how He strengthens
us, and this is how He makes His bride useful to spread forth
this Word, so that while we're waiting for Him to return, We're
helping Him to spread the Word so that He's calling out the
others to unite and fill up His body. It's just, I can't put
it into words, but it's beautiful. The purpose of God to save His
people through the Gospel is to unite His people. And He does
it by revealing this great love toward us in what He's done.
And at the same time gives Christ all this glory And He keeps telling
us, all of this has happened because the Father loves you
as He loves me. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. This is the love of election.
You see how much people betray of their own heart when they
say, I hate the doctrine of election. the love for which God the Father
elected Christ and elected us in Him. It's the love for which
Christ loved the Father and loved us and laid down His life for
the Father and for us. And it's the love by which we
declare this glorious doctrine and aren't ashamed of it to anybody
because we're constrained by His love. It's the love of election
because we behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Is it any wonder men don't like
us? Any wonder men hate what we preach? Any wonder men? It
says, therefore the world knows us not because the world didn't
know him. Didn't know him. Do you see the
love of election? I know I'm stumbling around on
it, but I, man, I just go back and listen again. If you have
to read the notes or something, it is so glorious. It's so wonderful. Amen.