Turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. The name of the message is predestinated unto adoption. Predestinated unto adoption. Now, the doctrine of predestination, a lot of people confuse it. A lot of people confuse it. They say things like God has predestinated this and that. And always, whenever someone comes to you with a word, whether it be predestination, whether it be election, the first thing you have to do is qualify them. Say, what do you believe that word means? Because 99% of the time, they've been taught wrong. They've been taught that they make a monster out of God instead of Him being a God of grace and mercy. You see, everyone deserves hell.

But God shows mercy on some. And He showed mercy on us. We're gonna see. Predestination has to do with the plan of God. Calling is what we experience. Election is God's plan put into action. We're going to see that today, Lord willing. It's a wonderful study. I had a wonderful time putting this message together.

So open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter one. Today we'll be in verse five, but we're gonna read the context of verse five. We'll read verses three to six of Ephesians chapter one, because they all tie together. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So Paul right away sets forth, this is a fact. Brother Charlie, we have all spiritual blessings in Christ, as born-again, blood-washed believers. This is set forth.

Okay, well, why? See, verse four now tells us why we have those, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Now, why is that so? Because God predestinated us. unto the adoption of sons.

He's actually going back. Isn't that amazing? Look at this. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Remember I said that the word elect has to do with God choosing us for himself? It's brought forth right there, isn't it? It's wonderful. According to, look at this. Here's every single believer through every age has said, why me, Lord? Why me? Why did you choose me? Look at this wonderful answer from the word of God, not from our opinion, right?

Look at this. According to the good pleasure of His will. There's our answer. There's our answer. And then look at this, to the praise, Paul breaks out in a doxology of praise, which we do too when we really get a hold of these truths, don't we? Even if we just get a hold of a little bit of it. Look at this, look at this. To the praise of the glory of his grace. Wherein he hath made us accepted. Look at that. Wherein he hath. It's already done.

Is it because of anything we've done? No, this passage is all about what Christ and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit's done, isn't it? It's not about us, we're just, did you notice we're just receivers of this wondrous grace? To the praise and the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us, it's already done, it's made, it's a fact, made us what? Accepted in the beloved, that means accepted in Christ. Sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ accepted Accepted by the Father in Christ Now how the only way we can be accepted as if we're holy and without blame right Because God can't have sin in his presence, right? So he makes us holy and without blame According to his predestinated plan and purpose We know there's vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, right? That's all according to God's will and purpose. The only reason we're saved is according to the good pleasure of God's will.

Now, no wonder Paul broke out in that wonderful doxology, because number one, we know, right, Karen, we know, sister, we'd never come to Christ. And we know, Sister Bart, we'd never seek Christ. And we know, Sister Linda, we have no righteousness on our own. We're accepted and abloved.

Praise His mighty name according to the good pleasure of His will. Now that's wonderful, isn't it, Brother Curtis? That's glorious. Based upon nothing in us at all. Matter of fact, God looking at us would be every reason for him to reject us, wouldn't it, brother Dan? But in his grace and his mercy, he saves us. Oh my. And we're just a bunch of sinners now saved by the grace of God, by the mercy of God. Leaves us in awe. Forgiven of our sins. It's wondrous. It's glorious. My.

Now last week's message centered on Ephesians 1-4, where we saw revealed that God's eternal purpose in choosing believers in Christ before the foundation of the world was that we would be holy and without blame before him in love. And that's only in Christ, right? That's only in Christ. Outside of Christ, no one can be holy before God. And no one can be blameless before God. See, what Paul's given us, the Holy Spirit's actually given us, he's giving us a glimpse, a glimpse of those divine will and purpose of God in eternity. And he's unpacking it before our eyes. And then he gives us an understanding, doesn't he?

I've learned more about these verses, and this is my favorite book of the Bible. I know Travis's too. I've learned more studying just these four verses. It's just unfolding like an onion, just like a flower, just blooming. Like an onion, when you peel an onion, there's more layers, isn't there? I only peeled a couple layers. There's so much here. That's why we're gonna just slow walk this study in Ephesians.

It's just amazing. The only way a sinner can be holy and blameless is in Christ. Again, as I said earlier. That's the only way. There's no other way. We can't make ourselves holy and blameless. We can't make ourselves blameless before God. But the Lord Jesus Christ can make us that way.

And he has. Look at this. This is a truth that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's amazing. This is a fact. This is a fact, beloved. It's glorious. We are washed from all our sins in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are clothed in his perfect righteousness.

Now believers, though aware of our sinfulness, are seen by God, as we saw last week in the Song of Solomon, as beautiful. They're black yet calmly. Remember we saw that? And the black is we're sinful, and the calmly is we're beautiful in the Hebrew. So we're sinner saints at the same time. We're sinners, and yet we're saints.

And God looks upon us and sees us in Christ, holy and blameless, before him in love. And that's forever how we're gonna be in his eyes. All because of the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All because of his blood and righteousness. That's the only reason. Because, well, it pleased Him to do so. It pleased Him to have it done that way, that Christ would be the perfect Redeemer. And think of this.

He's God. He can't sin. He's God. He can't become sin. He's God. He's perfect. How can the Holy One, the Word of God, become sin? And Scripture declares he became sin for us. I believe that our sins were imputed to him. He's still perfect and holy. He's God. Can God sin? No. Can God die? God himself die?

No. So he becomes a man. I love Scott and Henry, that dance when you listen to their messages. That fact, the God-man. Mystery of that, but it's so beautiful. God became a man to die for us and Think of this not just to save us from our sins Which is what he said he came here to do but to save us from the wrath his own wrath To save us from his own justice to save us from his own law And he did it because of his great love for us The eternal everlasting love of God now I I got a little glimpse of that, but to think that someone's loved me from eternity? And by faith, we believe that, don't we? That his love, despite all my sinfulness, despite all my wickedness, has never changed towards me?

That's remarkable, isn't it? That's amazing. It doesn't take us long to get mad at somebody. Just go out in the car, somebody cut you off, and boom, right? And then you're thinking about that the whole rest of the day and into part of the next day. Right?

But God doesn't remember our sin against us. Isn't that amazing? Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's amazing. But it's true. And we've been forgiven greatly, haven't we? Therefore, we're to forgive greatly. Right? My oh my.

It's amazing. God's grace is amazing. And this wonderful truth that we're holy and without blame before God and love, it's rooted in divine sovereignty of God, isn't it? It's rooted in his absolute sovereignty over all things. His divine grace. His divine mercy. And this election is not based on human merit. This choosing in Christ is not based upon any human merit. People say, well, God looked down through time and saw who would choose him. That makes man the sovereign. God's sovereign, period.

End of story. Whether people believe it or not. There was a time when I didn't believe it. Now I believe it wholeheartedly. What changed? He must be born again. My. And now I love him. And I love all those who love him. We might not agree on everything, but if they love the Lord and they love the gospel, I love them. Right? We talked about that yesterday. Yeah. God's people are people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, aren't they?

And my mission on this earth, I've been sent by God to preach the gospel. And I'll preach it to you here as God gives me grace and strength. But I'm a sinner just like you all. But isn't it wonderful we're saved? Amen, Brother Charlie. Oh, it's so wonderful! To the praise and the glory of His grace, wherein He is accepted in the Beloved, accepted in Christ. I know why Paul got excited. Isn't that wonderful? Glorious. Glorious. And let us remember that true holiness we see here is positional in Christ. It's not experimental.

We can't make ourselves more holy, although we desire to live a holy life, don't we? Never downplay that. We desire to live a holy life. But our holiness is positional. It's in Christ. Do we grow in grace? Absolutely. See, some people call it sanctification. I like to call it growing in grace. Because I'm already holy in Christ.

That's not going to change. But you and I, as we journey through this world, we're going to grow in grace, aren't we? We're going to grow in the truth. We're going to be strengthened by grace. And we don't desire sin like we did, even though we're still sinners. We're sinner saints. We're not the same people we are. We're new creatures in Christ now.

If a person says they're saved and they're living in the world and they're doing the things that they used to do, you know, you wonder. And we've all met people through the years who made professions, haven't we? And they've left the gospel. Well, that tells you a lot.

Tells us we still need to pray for them. We still need to lift them up. And don't ever give up hope on your family members and your friends until they breathe their last breath. Don't ever. Just keep lifting them up to the Lord. And it may be after our deaths that the Lord might do something for them. Yeah. As they ponder back and go, man, Grandma was amazing. She loved the Lord. She was a sinner, but she really loved the Lord. She really loved him.

My, so we don't know what's going to happen, right? We have no idea. We have no idea. You know, believers, again, aware of our sinfulness, are seen by God as beautiful and spotless through the covering of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's both humbling and comforting, isn't it? Humbling for us. We're saved by grace alone. And then we rest in God's unchanging grace, don't we? The fact that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. See, we change with circumstances.

Like someone cutting us off. Charlie, I heard somebody honking at you coming into McDonald's. That guy was madder than a wet hornet. Why? Because you were pulling in? Well, he did something he didn't like. Well, I pray God will show him grace. But you know what that shows us? He's just a sinner like us. My oh my. How many times have we done that? Doesn't it feel good? And then you're like, why did I do that? Why did I get mad about that?

And like I said, we think about it for two, three days and mull it over, make it bigger than what it really is. And the Lord convicts us, we're like, oh man. And the Lord's amazing. Okay, let's go to verse 4. Let's go. It just shows us we're all a bunch of sinners. We're all a bunch of flesh. Look at this. Verse 4 again. Okay. We're going to read verses 4 to 6 again. What a beautiful verse. This whole section. And then here comes the doxology.

Realizing what he has in Christ. Realizing that Christ is all. You ever heard someone tell you this? I had someone tell me, and I hear this all the time, well, you bring Christ into everything. Chris, you hear that, right? You bring Christ into everything. I was thinking about that this morning. Somebody will say something wrong, anti-biblical, and I'll put a biblical, well, you always bring your scripture in. You always talk about God. Well, you know why?

Because Christ is my life. He's my life. I was thinking about that this morning. I thought, you're my life, Lord. For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. Isn't that neat how you'll be, all of a sudden, you'll be going through the day and something will just hit you like that? It hit me this morning.

Well, yeah, no wonder I, now, if you talked to me 20, 30 years ago, no way. But he's everything. Is he not everything to us? So think of that if somebody ever says, that's just a little side thing. Think about that if somebody, and look at what we're reading here. This is beautiful. No wonder Christ is all to us. Because He is. He's everything. In salvation and providence. He's everything for the believer.

My. having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise and the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted and beloved. So we see here, in these verses, Paul's ascribing to God the Father his personal acts of grace and love. Because this section is speaking of the Father. Later on, we'll see him speak of Jesus Christ. And in the last section, he'll be speaking of the Holy Spirit and what he's done, what Christ has done. And we're seeing right now what the Father's done. These are incredible blessings that we see unpacked in these verses. Look at this. Personal acts of God's grace and love set forth before us, right here. Personal acts of God the Father's love and grace.

First, choosing the church in Christ. Then, predestinating the persons of the church to the adoption of children by Christ. And then, accepting the church in Christ to the praise and the glory of his grace. So he sets before us three wonderful gems Actually, four, if you add, all spiritual blessings are in Christ, too. Five, if you add, holy and blameless before God in Christ. And we could just sit here, we could unpack these verses and just go, there's another one, there's another one, there's another one. It's glorious.

And all three of these glorious acts that set forth just there, choosing us in Christ, predestinating us to the adoption of children and accepting the church to the praise of the glory of his grace in Christ. All three of these glorious acts of God the Father are said to be the result of his own good will and pleasure.

You ever done something because you wanted to do it? Sometimes we do things because we feel obligated to do them. But have you ever done something you just wanted to do it? And you're not doing it for anyone to see. Sometimes people don't see it. Sometimes people see it. And then you gotta keep yourself from getting prideful for other people seeing it. Right? Right? See? We're all real here, aren't we? Yeah.

That's why the Lord says, don't let your right hand know what your left hand's doing. Oh, there's enough pride in me to burn this whole building down, man. Let me tell you. Oh my goodness. Oh my. But see this, this goes against our pride. And it's wonderful. Because it's beautiful. Listen, I pulled out Wieste's translation of verses four to six. Listen to this in a literal Greek translation. This is these three wonderful verses.

So his place is in Christ, even as he has selected us out for himself in him before the foundation of the universe was laid. Now that changes things even more, doesn't it? Right? To be holy ones and without blemish before his searching, penetrating gaze. His searching pen, He's the one who sees everything, and yet He sees no sin in us. Oh, my.

Absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. In love, having previously marked us out to be placed as adult sons through the intermediate agency of Jesus Christ for Himself, according to that which seemed good in His heart's desire, Oh my, resulting in praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed upon us in the beloved. Now that's, that's amazing, isn't it?

Before there was ever a universe, before the universe was ever founded, he chose the people in Christ. This is truth set forth. It's not my opinion either. It's just what the word says, isn't it? Now, when I first heard this in religion, I recoiled, man. I recoiled so bad. And you know what my first thing was? What everybody says.

Do you mean God chose people to go to hell? No, the answer is God chose people he would save. We were already heading that way. And in His mercy and His grace, He chose to save some. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. That's wonderful. I ain't never gonna get over that. It's amazing. Wonder of wonders.

These sovereign acts of God the Father, which are set here, these three sovereign acts, they're compressed within these three verses. And what they bring forth is the sovereign immense design of God our Father in saving the people for himself. Because it pleased him to do so.

Let's read verses three to six again of Ephesians. Chapter one, or verses four, verses four to six. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, we know that's before the universe was founded or laid, to be. I ask you this, what Christian doesn't want to be this? Do we sin more than we want to?

Absolutely. I don't have to look at anyone else in this world, I just look inside here. And I don't have to look at anyone else to see a sinner. He's right here. I'm a safe sinner, but I'm still a sinner. But blessed be the name of God, He saved my soul. Oh my, that's amazing.

Having predestinated us to be holy and without blame before him in love. That's every believer's desire. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Now, during Roman times, adoption was a really big thing. We're gonna look at that next week. But to be adopted into a family was a huge thing in the Roman culture. You took on that person's name. It was a really, really big thing. And when they didn't have heirs, a lot of times they would adopt a boy, and they would become like a son to them. It was amazing. So we see here, look at this in verse five, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

We see here in Ephesians 1.5, we're introduced now to a new concept here, predestination. And people have, you ask 100 people, different professing Christians, and they'll give you 100 different answers to what predestination is. I was listening to Martin Lloyd-Jones on this, He gave, I think, one of the clearest examples of it. Of what predestination is. It really opened my eyes up. This concept of predestination is, and it's unto adoption, do you notice that? It's unto adoption. As sons of God. It refers to God's plan. Election is that plan in action. Predestination is God planning.

When we go somewhere, do we just go to the airport and buy a ticket randomly, or do we plan to go? We plan, right? And then you get to choose your seats, right? pay a little extra money, you get to choose some seats that you want. Okay. Choose your seats.

And then that pilot takes you on an already planned trip. When I go out to see Jake, that pilot takes Vicki and I from Detroit to Denver. He's not flying anywhere else until his next flight. which is already planned, right? No pilot just gets in the cockpit and goes, well, I think I'm gonna go to Toronto today. I'm gonna take this load of people, we're gonna cross the border and go into Toronto.

That just doesn't happen, does it? It's a plan, a planned route. Well, why can't God plan as a sovereign God Why can't he plan and purpose his will to be accomplished? Right? When we plan ourselves and our own lives. And you start to think about it. We even sit at home and go, let's go to the grocery store tomorrow, huh? Oh, OK. Yeah, let's do that. We're going to leave around. Let's try to leave around 3 o'clock. Oh, OK. And you usually plan where you're gonna go, too, right?

And then you go there, and you say, oh, I want a can of tomatoes. There's 50 cans of tomatoes there, right? Well, I pick one, don't I? I don't pick them all, unless I need 50 cans of tomatoes. But usually I need five or 10, so I pick those five or 10, and I leave all the other ones behind, don't I?

Then I go get me a loaf of bread or some groceries and whatever. I choose all the groceries I want. That's election. And then I take all those groceries to the counter. And there's a checkout person there. I'm amazed, all they are super fast. Those folks, I don't know what they do. And then I redeem that stuff. I pay for it. Right? And then what do I do? What do I do, Chris? I take it home, don't I?

Well, God the Father planned and purposed that He'd save a people. He chose them out of all of humanity. We don't know who they are, so I preach the gospel to everyone. Right? Christ redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit regenerates them, and then He takes us home to be with Him forever. You see, even in a trip to the grocery store, the gospel is set before us in picture. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

So we're introduced in verse 5 to this new concept of predestination, unto adoption. And this refers again to God's plan while choosing, refers to how God accomplished that plan. And there's a clear distinction between these things. Predestination. To predestinate means to determine beforehand. That's in the Greek. To determine beforehand.

Just like we plan and purpose where we're going to go and what we're going to do. God does it on a much broader scale, doesn't he? To declare, to determine beforehand. And this is what the Apostle Paul tells us here, is that this was God's ultimate plan. Because predestination refers to the plan itself of salvation. And then it's put into action by God.

Right? You guys are planning to go down to Kentucky, or down to West Virginia for the conference. In a couple weeks, Brother Travis, you guys will put that into action. You probably already got a place to stay. You got it all lined up, planned out, and then that plan's gonna be put into action, isn't it? And you're gonna hear some fine gospel preaching. Oh my, it's just, it's all around us again.

Chasing us in Christ emphasizes the way or the means or the method or the mode by which the plan has been put into operation. So God planned this salvation for people, and then he put it into action by choosing them in Christ before the universe was founded, right? And then that which he planned and purposed in eternity had to take place in time and space, right? Had to take place in time and space.

So the word of God becomes a man, sent by the Father, to save his people from their sins, the scripture says, and we know to save us from the wrath and justice of God as well, and the law of God. Right? So, when was our salvation accomplished? At the cross, brother Charlie, amen. 2,000 years ago. I preach an accomplished salvation. It's not based upon us. It's already done. It's already done.

And then in time and space, because we're sons, remember we looked at that in Galatians chapter four? Because we're sons, God sends the spirit of his son into our hearts, whereby we now cry, Abba, Father. And we saw in Song of Solomon chapter one, the bride says, draw me and I'll run to you. We're born again, and you know what happens?

We're given faith to believe and we run to Christ, don't we? And a team of wild horses couldn't stop us, because the Holy Spirit's bringing us to Christ. And God gets all the glory. Honey, it's wonderful. All because of the fact that God the Father predestined us to the adoption of sons, to be his children. So who gets the glory? God gets it all. And this is the message I preach to all. Come to Christ. He'll never cast you away. He'll never cast anyone away who comes to him.

But let us know we're coming to him because he already has a plan that he's now put into action. And then, see, the Father planned our salvation. The Son accomplished our salvation, and the Holy Spirit applied our salvation. I'll tell you why. So how do we sum that up? Salvation's of the Lord. And for me to live is Christ. Hey, Brother Chris, now we got an answer. To me, to live is Christ. That's why I talk about him all the time. That's why I brag I am. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Isn't that beautiful? So we see here, God has planned from before the universe was even laid, that he'd have a people. People say, well, I don't like that. Well, God chose Israel, right? And left all the other nations behind, didn't he? No one has a problem with that. God chose two-thirds of the angels. They're called the elect angels. No one has a problem with that.

God chose to save Noah and his family and everyone else perished. Oh yeah, people say, yeah, I believe that. I do, I believe that. And then when we tell folks that God chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world, they say, oh, I don't believe that. Well, that's what God's Word says. You know, and I was there. I was there. I was one of those guys that said, I don't believe that. And before I was religious, I didn't have a care in the world. I didn't even care about God. I didn't want nothing to do with God. And praise God, in my 30s, He intervened in my life. Because I would never, ever have come to Him. But because we're sons. Oh, isn't it wonderful, Sister Barb? Because we're sons, Brother Jim. God sends the spirit of his Son into our hearts, whereby we now cry, Abba, Father. Amen and amen. Brother Travis, will you close us in prayer?