Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And
if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles for today's message,
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Ephesians. Paul's
letter to the church at Ephesus. Ephesians chapter one, and I'm
gonna go through this chapter verse by verse. Ephesians chapter
one, and obviously it'll probably take more than one message, But
the title of today's message is Chosen in Christ. Chosen in Christ. And that title
is taken from verse four, where it says that God chose his people
in Christ. And I'm gonna be dealing with
some difficult scriptural concepts as we go through this chapter,
Ephesians chapter one. And I'd like for you to study
the Bible. You know, anytime we come upon
the difficult concepts, the high truths of scripture that we find
we cannot wrap our minds around, How do we react to them? It's
important that we understand that it doesn't matter what I
think or what you think or what some so-called biblical scholar
or expert thinks. What matters is what do the scriptures
say. And obviously to say that there
are truths in the Bible, there are things revealed in the Bible
that are so high above our limited and even sinful minds. That's
an understatement. It's a statement of the obvious.
Of course there are. God is high above us. And we
often say God works in mysterious ways. Well, He does. And He has
condescended to reveal Himself in His Word, especially in salvation
and by His grace through Christ. And that's a mind-boggling concept
in and of itself. But God does reveal some of these
things for our understanding. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John
5 that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we might know these things. But even at that, there are still
things about God, His nature, His character, his actions, his
doings that just are just so high above us, we cannot really
understand the depths of them, but we know they're true. I heard
a man the other day on a message he was preaching, he was talking
about how biblical scholars have debated for centuries over the
truths of God's absolute sovereignty. That God is absolutely sovereign
and He is in control. The Bible says, we're going to
see in Ephesians 1 later on, He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. God is the ruler of this universe
and all things are in His hands. And so he said, scholars have
debated over the absolute sovereignty of God and the responsibility
of man. That God determines all things,
we talk about predestination, that word is going to come up
here in Ephesians 1. And I had a man who told me one
time, he said, he heard me use the term predestination in a
message and he called and he said, I don't believe in predestination.
And I asked him, I said, well, do you believe the Bible? And
he said, every word. And I said, well, the word predestination
is in the Bible. You don't believe that word.
I said, I didn't invent that. I didn't come up with that. It's
in the Bible. You say, well, what does the
Bible mean by that? Well, that's the key right there. But people
have a hard time reconciling what we call the paradox of the
absolute sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And it is a paradox. You know
what a paradox is? That's two things that are true,
but they seem to contradict each other. That's not the only paradox
we have to face in life. There are even paradoxes in science. I'm not going to go into all
that. But most people deal with it in one of two ways which are
both wrong. They'll either believe the sovereignty
of God to the exclusion of the responsibility of man, or they
will exalt the responsibility of man to the exclusion of the
sovereignty of God. But here's what we need to understand. If we're going to believe the
Bible, if we're going to submit to God's Word, both are true. Can I explain the workings of
both? No. I know that God has determined
all things. He's chosen a people, we're gonna
talk about that. And He's gonna save them. And
yet the Bible tells you and me and everyone who hears it, seek
the Lord. I depend highly upon a verse
in Deuteronomy, in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 29, 29, which says
the secret things belong to God. He's in His realm and I'm not
there. I'm human. He said, but the revealed
things belong to us. And so what God reveals is what
we're responsible for. We're not responsible for what
God doesn't tell us, but He is sovereign. But let's look at
Ephesians chapter one. It starts off, Paul, verse 1,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an apostle was one in the office
that was ordained for that time before the scriptures had come
together and been fully written and come together. And it was
one who had received a direct revelation of the gospel from
Christ. So Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God, now what you're going to see here
in these passages is that this is all about God. And he says
it's by the will of God. It wasn't by Paul's will. Even
his salvation was not by his own will. God changed his will.
Remember, he was on the Damascus Road. And he wasn't, as my old
pastor used to say, he wasn't on his way to a prayer meeting.
He was on his way to arrest Christians. And God stopped him and changed
him. sovereignly, powerfully, and
made him a believer. So he says, by the will of God,
and this letter is written to the saints which are at Ephesus. Now a saint means one who is
sanctified and the word sanctified means to be set apart. Set apart. That's what it means. A saint is not some kind of super-Christian. A saint is not one who goes above
and beyond the call of duty and then gets, what do they call
it in Catholicism, how they get instituted or something into
the, into sainthood because they've investigated them and they lived
a moral life and a dedicated life and they gave up everything
and they performed so many, no. A saint, you know what a saint
is? A saint is a sinner saved by the grace of God, one who
has been chosen of God before the foundation of the world,
one who has been justified before God based upon the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, imputed, charged, accounted to
Him, one for whom Christ died on that cross, having the sins
of His people imputed to Him. and he's satisfied justice and
brought forth everlasting righteousness. It's one who's redeemed by the
blood, having been ruined by the fall, fallen in Adam into
sin and depravity, he's been redeemed by the blood of Christ,
and then one who's been regenerated by the Spirit and brought to
faith in Christ and true repentance of dead works and idolatry. That's
a saint. In other words, every true Christian
is a saint set apart by God's grace. And this is to the saints
which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now
these are one and the same. A saint is one who is faithful
in Christ Jesus because he's been made so by the power of
God. Faith is the gift of God. Faithfulness
is the gift of God. Or by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Verse two, he says, grace be
to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. So grace and peace, that's Paul's
common salutation in his epistles. Because we have to recognize
that the true church made up of sinners, saved by grace. The saints at Ephesus or wherever
they are, they're always upon the foundation and under the
umbrella of God's grace that reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. They stand on the rock,
Christ Jesus. They're in the cleft of the rock.
He's their hiding place. Christ is my surety. The assurance of my salvation
does not come from me or based upon anything in me. It comes
from Him. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that He is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day," Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1 and verse
12. So, it's all in Christ, you see. It's all based upon His shed
blood, His righteousness imputed. And that peace was established
by Christ for His people on the cross. You see, Sinners are at
peace with God when they are reconciled to God by believing
in Christ. And the issue there is not our
believing. We do believe, and that's the
gift of God, and that's how He is made known to us. But the
issue there is Christ on that cross making peace by the shedding
of His blood. You see, God must be just when
He saves. His love is based upon justice
satisfied. His mercy is based upon justice
satisfied by Christ. So the ground of peace is the
righteousness of God in Christ, imputed to His people. Now he
says in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. That's an amazing verse. Now
what you're going to see, you know, in the original manuscripts
of the New Testament there were no punctuation marks and they
were added by the translators of the King James Bible. Now
for the most part I believe the translators did a pretty good
job. Sometimes I feel like they let their prejudices you determine
where they would place a comma or a period or something like
that. But you know the Bible was not originally written in
verses and chapters. It was just one document as far
as the individual books. But this right here, what happens
here is I believe from verse 3 all the way down to verse 14
is like one long sentence that shows how the triune Godhead,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are all three involved in the
salvation of God's people. So he starts off with the work
of God the Father in the salvation of his people. And then he goes
to the work of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the salvation
of his people. and then the work of God the
Holy Spirit in the salvation of God's people. Now, I'm not
going to stop and give you a treatise on the Trinity. The Bible teaches
that God is one person, one God, or rather one God in three persons. Not three gods, not a three-headed
God, not one God in three forms or one God in any other way. There is not, let me tell you
something, there is no earthly illustration that could rightly
teach the Trinity. I know people come up with different
things. You know, they talk about, it's like water, like water can
come in the form of ice and steam and liquid. That's not, that
doesn't help. Now, this is one of those high,
mind-boggling truths that we can't wrap our minds around,
but it's true. And so, those who deny the Trinity
deny Christianity. There's a movement called the
Jesus-only movement, and they deny the Trinity. They deny Christ. Christ himself taught the Trinity,
the Father and the Spirit, and himself as the Son. Well, we
can't explain that. And Muslims will accuse Christians
of being polytheistic, many gods, because we believe Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. But no, it's one God, monotheistic, in three
persons. But all three are involved. God,
in the triunity of his persons, are all involved in the salvation
of sinners. Now it's all based upon the ground
of the work of the Son. We'll see that. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Because our connection to God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is through Christ, who is God
in human flesh, God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, and based
upon His finished work of righteousness on the cross, obedience unto
death. We cannot approach God except upon the ground of what
Christ has accomplished. That's why we're Christians.
We who believe the gospel, that is. True gospel. So he starts off with the work
of the Father in salvation. God the Father represents the
sovereignty, the authority of the Godhead. And God the Father
is recognized as the only source and originator of salvation. And it says here that verse 3,
it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Now, that refers to God's covenant
of grace, the covenant of grace made before the foundation of
the world, wherein God God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit operated in eternity. And you know, we have to use,
God never changes, but we have to use language of change because
that's all we know. We're limited that way, but God
is not. But before the foundation of
the world, God chose a people, and we're going to see that,
and He gave them to Christ. He put all of the responsibility
of their whole salvation upon God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ willingly agreed to
be the surety of His people. He agreed to do all that was
required to save them from their sins. And that's what a surety
does. This was even before the world
was created, it says. In heavenly places in Christ,
in fact, the Apostle Paul over in 2 Timothy, Chapter 1 speaks
of this in this way. He talks about the gospel according
to the power of God in verse 9 of 2 Timothy 1. He says, God
who hath saved us and called us within 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. Who is
the us there? It's the saints. It's people
who come to believe in Christ. So back in Ephesians 1 and verse
3, he's talking about God blessing us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. And then look at verse 4. It
says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy That means set apart,
it's the same word that we use, sanctify. And without blame,
that means justified, without blame. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's, before Him, before God, in love. That's God's love to His elect. And then verse five, he says,
having predestinated. There's that word. That means
he destined before. All right, I'll talk about that
in just a minute. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. This is the covenant of grace
made before the foundation of the world, before I was ever
created, before you were ever born. To the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, that's the adoption of grace, according
to the good pleasure of your will. No, didn't say that, does
it? according to the good pleasure
of His will." By the will of God. Now that's the sovereignty
of God in election. People say, well now I don't
like election. That doesn't sound fair to me.
Or it makes God unjust. Well, the answer that I would
give you for your accusation there, if that's the how you
feel, is to read Romans chapter nine, beginning there around
verse 10 and 11. And you get your answer. And
the answer is basically is God is not unrighteous. He's not
unfair. He does what he will, when he
will, to whom he will. And he's always right. Now that's
what the Bible says. You say, well, I don't like that.
Well, I know you don't. By nature, we don't like anything
about God's word except what we can twist around to ourselves. Some people say, well, now that
chosen election, that's for the Jews. Well, now the apostle Paul
here is writing by inspiration to the Holy Spirit, Christians,
both Jew and Gentile, who are the elect of God. Do you know
that God commands his people to give diligence, to make their
calling and their election sure? There it is. That's in 2 Peter. Or 1 Peter, I can't remember.
But here's the thing. If God had not chosen us in Christ,
chosen His people in Christ before the foundation of the world,
nobody would choose God. Somebody said, well, don't we
have a free will? You have a will that is free
to choose whatever you desire. Now you may not have the ability
to get or to do whatever you desire, but you have the will
to choose whatever you desire. But here's what the Bible says
about man by nature. Man by nature does not desire
the things that glorify and honor God. Case in point is electing
grace. God chose the people. Now do
you desire to believe that? To submit to that? You see, let
me tell you something your will is not free from. Your will is
not free from yourself. My will is not free from myself. And the Bible says that by nature
we will not choose Christ. That's what the Bible says. We
don't have that kind, we're fallen, we're ruined by the fall. that
means we're born dead spiritually and will not choose God. The
things of God. Oh we can be religious but even
our religion is self-righteous. Here we learn that all spiritual
blessings are given by God to his people in Christ. You know
what that means? That means salvation and all
of its blessings and all of its benefits before the foundation
of the world was conditioned on Christ, not on you, not on
me. But you see, we don't like that
by nature. We want salvation conditioned
on us so that we can say that we rose above the majority and
made the right decisions or did the right things and that's why
we're saved. Well, that's self-righteousness.
You see, my salvation My justification, my redemption, my regeneration
did not come by anything I did or anything I decided. It was
all of Christ conditioned on Him. Christ fulfilled all the
conditions. What was the condition of salvation?
Perfect righteousness. Where's that to be found? Only
in Christ. Well, somebody asked me one time,
I said, well, didn't you choose God? I did, when God changed
my will, he gave me a new heart, a new will. That's what he does. And it says here in Ephesians
1, 4, according as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Holy means separated. God separated
out his people before the foundation of the world And He justified
them without blame before Him in love. His love provided for
His people what His justice demanded. Well, what does God's justice
demand? God's justice demands death.
That was eternal death. That was established back in
the Garden of Eden when God set Adam in the garden and He told
Adam, He says, you can eat of any tree of the garden except
this one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And in the
day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Well, you know
something? That hasn't changed. Sin demands
death. The wages of sin is death. And
if there's salvation, it's the gift of God through Jesus Christ. So the requirement is death. And either you must die eternally
or somebody who is appointed by God, somebody who is willing
to do the work, and somebody who is able to do the work must
take your place. Well, there's only one person
appointed by God. to do this great work. And that's
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Him. Chosen in Him. Holy and without
blame before Him in love. And Christ is the love of God. There's no love of God outside
of Christ. So Christ is the only one that God appointed. Secondly,
Christ is the only one who's willing to do what it takes. And that is to become incarnate,
take into union with His deity, a perfect sinless humanity, human
nature, God-man, walk this earth and suffer unto death as the
surety and substitute of His people. And then thirdly, we
need somebody who's not only appointed by God and willing
to do it, but who's able to do it. Is Christ able to do it?
Yes. The sins of God's people were
imputed, charged to him, and he went under the wrath of God,
suffering the just for the unjust, to die and conquer sin and conquer
death. And how do we know he did it?
He arose from the dead because he justified his people. I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.