Paul opens his epistle, his letter
to the church gathered at Ephesus in the following manner. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints
which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have 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, 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. These are wonderful words in
an epistle which is full of wonderful words. This is such a rich presentation
of the truth of the Gospel, particularly with regard to the Church, the
Bride of Christ and the Body of Christ. and how that church,
that people for whom Christ laid down his life, for whom he shed
his blood, whom he redeemed, were chosen in him before the
foundation of the world. how God set his love upon this
people. Before ever the world was created,
before ever they were brought forth from the womb, before ever
they went astray in the darkness and rebellion of their sin, and
before ever they were called to hear of the great salvation
which Christ their Saviour wrought for them. This is a book in which
when you begin to read you almost feel inclined to read to the
end I read there the first six verses but I could have carried
on going because every verse runs into the next verse and
each truth builds upon the truth presented in the previous verse
it's full of riches but it's a wonderful declaration of the
grace of God of the electing grace of God, of the sovereign
grace of God, of how God has chosen a people for whom he has
given his son as a saviour and a sacrifice for their sins. Many
contend against the gospel truth of electing grace, of election,
of the divine sovereignty of God in choosing whom he will
save. And this is a truth which is
disputed and attacked and contended against throughout the ages by
all men. The natural man rages against
it because the natural heart of man wants to be on the throne. Our hearts want to be in control. The very nature of the fall of
man in the beginning when Adam rebelled against God, when Eve
disobeyed the commandment of God, was that man wanted to control
his own destiny. Man wanted to choose. Man didn't
want to bow to the will and the choice and the sovereignty of
God. He wanted to sit upon God's throne. And in essence that is what you
and I are like. That is why you are full of sin. That is what your sin is. You
want to sit upon the throne as the king of your world. And by extension
the king of the whole world. That's what your sin is. you
rebel against the authority and the rule of a sovereign God,
you will not bow to Him. You will not bow to His rule,
you will not bow to His will. And therefore man, when confronted
with the truth that God has sent a Saviour, even Christ Jesus
our Lord, into this world to die for sinners, and that those
sinners for whom He died are his elect, chosen people, his
Israel, spiritually speaking, a people chosen amongst all others,
out of all others, a chosen generation. a peculiar people, a royal priesthood
when confronted with the fact that God has chosen a people
for whom Christ died and that Christ did not die for all and
that salvation is not in the hand of man to choose by his
own free will whether he be saved or not but it's in God's hands. and is determined by God's decree,
God's will, God's choice, God's good pleasure. When confronted
with that we rage against it because it cuts us down to nothing. It leaves us in the hand of God
at the mercy of God. And we hate it, don't you? You
hate it. You want to have the say. You
want to have the choice. And you feel if you haven't got
the choice that it's all hopeless. What if you're not chosen? What
if you're not gods? What's the point? What can you
do? Well, if you truly think that. you would bow down before God
knowing you're full of sin knowing that your life is in his hand
and suing for mercy crying out God be merciful to me a sinner
don't leave me to myself don't leave me to my own choice don't
leave me to the consequence of my choice but have mercy upon
me but your natural heart won't do that because your heart rebels
against that God and rebels against his will and says, if you won't
choose me, I won't choose you. and it reacts to the truth of
sovereign grace and condemns it and rejects it and goes his
own way and the natural heart and your heart brings about upon
it and upon you the condemnation of God for your rejection and
rebellion of him. You use the excuse of election
as a reason for your rebellion. When the reality is, is that
your rebellion is the reason that you're under condemnation.
And if you knew the condemnation, and knew the justice of God in
condemning you for your sin, then you would fall down before
Him and cry out for mercy. Yes, every man to the last one
by nature rejects God's sovereignty. And it's God's sovereignty which
lies behind the truth of election. This is why the truth of election
is rejected by so much of the false church that calls itself
Christendom. that preaches the free will and
the works of man for salvation and put salvation in the hands
of man. It hates election because it
hates a sovereign God and in essence it hates God. It can
name Him as Jesus, it can speak of Jesus, it can speak of salvation
but if it does not recognise that Christ is God and is sovereign
and God chooses for whom Christ died and God saves whom he will,
then they do not, it does not, that false church does not own
and recognise the true and the living God. It can speak of a
Jesus but it's another Jesus. It can speak of salvation but
it's another salvation. It can speak of being Christian
but it's anything but Christian. It's a deception, a lie, an imitation. Because God is God. In the beginning, God spake. God said, let there be light
and there was light. All things come from Him. He is the ultimate cause of all
things. And if you don't recognize that,
then you don't know God. If He's the ultimate cause then
He is the cause of your salvation if you are saved, not you. If
you're ever to be saved, if you are to be cleansed of your sin
and to enter heaven's glory, then it will be because He's
determined it. It cannot be anything but. And if your heart contends against
it and your intellect argues and disputes with it, Then Ephesians,
should you hear its message, should you hear the Spirit of
God speaking through this letter, should set you straight. Because
Ephesians makes it plain. that with regard to the people
of God, that people who are saved from their sins, that people
who are redeemed through the blood of the Lamb of God, that
people who are saved, with regard to that people, of every one
of them, it is said, He have chosen us. 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, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ 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. He have chosen us. Elsewhere Christ says to his
disciples, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Now the believer hears those
four words, he have chosen us, and sings with joy. O believer,
do you hear those words and rejoice? He have chosen us, he's chosen
me. Praise God he's chosen me. You will rejoice because you
know that you had chosen sin and death and rebellion. You had chosen to sit on the
throne yourself. You had chosen another way. You
had chosen everything but Him and but His salvation. You'd
chosen everything but serving the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
that your choice was another way. And except He chose you,
you'd have remained on that other way. That way that seemeth right
unto a man, but leadeth under destruction. For there is a way
which seemeth right unto men. but it leads to the destruction.
Which way are you on? Naturally you will always choose
that way that seemeth right unto man and you're heading for destruction. But praise God if you can say
or are brought to say or will be brought to say one day with
Paul, he have chosen us. He have chosen us. He have chosen
us before the foundation of the world. He didn't choose us when
we chose Him. He didn't choose me when I responded
to the gospel. He didn't choose to save me when
I turned up at a meeting to hear the gospel. There was no response
in His choice to anything I did. We have not been chosen because
we decided to go to hear the gospel preached. We've not been
chosen because we were born of these parents or those parents.
We've not been chosen because we live in a certain country
or a certain place. We've not been chosen because
we've refrained from this sin or that sin. We've not been chosen
because we've been devout in our attendance at church. We've
not been chosen because we sought to keep the law of God. We've
not been chosen because we're religious. We've not been chosen
for anything that we have done, fought or said. He have chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. You weren't even
born. And that choice was a choice
in Christ according to the good pleasure of His will. not according
to some sort of foresight where he chose to save a people and
looked down through history and saw which ones would by their
own efforts and deeds live and walk a certain way and said oh
that's a quite a good fellow I'll choose him. as though this
world is created and wound up like clockwork by God and then
left to run to its own devices and some walk right and some
don't walk right and the ones that walk right he looks down
through history and says well that one's come out okay I'll
choose to save him what utter nonsense and what utter blasphemy
to the sovereign power of God God orders all things, He knows
the end from the beginning, He knows which ones will be like
this and which will be like that. And their salvation was determined
by His sovereign decree before ever the world was founded, before
ever it was created, before ever they were born, before ever they
did good or evil and it was not according to what they did. It's
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Because in reality those whom
He has chosen are actually the worst of sinners. If we are to look at those who
comprise God's church, Look at all the members of God's church
throughout history. Look at the members of God's
church in the New Testament days. Look at Saul. Look at the disciples. Look at others who were saved.
They were not good. There was nothing in them which
would appeal unto God for God to say I will choose this one
and not that one. He chose them before they did
good or evil according to the good pleasure of His will. In
Romans 9 of course we read of Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I
loved and Esau have I hated. One chosen, the other not, before
they were ever born whilst in their mother's womb, before they
were brought forth from the womb, before either had done good or
evil. And Jacob was a deceiver, a liar, a wretched man. Yet God chose him. Yet God chose
him. Not for anything in Jacob, but
because it seemed right unto God that he would save him. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. He hath chosen
us. He have chosen us. He. Who has? God has. A sovereign God. An almighty God. The creator
of the heavens and earth. The sustainer of the heavens
and earth. The all-powerful God before whom
all men, women and children must one day stand. The one in whom
your destiny stands. The one who will determine your
destiny. He has chosen us. This holy righteous God. who dwells in light inaccessible,
who is pure and perfect, unto whom sinful man by nature cannot
approach. There is a great gulf set between
us. That God, before whom you are
black and disgusting and vile, says of his people, I have chosen
them. He have chosen us. How can He,
so perfect, so pure, have chosen a people so full of sin? Because He chose them in Christ,
in His Son, who before the foundation of the world, covenanted with
His Father, and said I will lay down my life for that people
I will redeem that people I will set them free from their sin
I will wash them from their sin I will cleanse them and make
them to be righteous I will perfect and purify them I will take them
as my bride and make them make her to be without spot or blemish
as he goes on to speak in chapter 5. The church is subject unto
Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy. and without blemish. This is what he did for his bride. And this is why his father, so
perfect and so pure, was able to choose that people in him,
in Christ. Because Christ would make them
clean. Christ would make them to be
righteous and bring them to his father in him as perfect, as
holy as he is. He would make them acceptable
such that the father could accept them in Christ the beloved. to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. O that this God, this Creator,
this Almighty God, this Perfect, this Pure God, this Righteous
God, O that this God could look down upon men and women such
as you and I, upon wretched creatures brought out of the dust, who
as soon as we were brought forth from the womb went forth speaking
lies. Oh that He could look on us and
set His grace upon us. What a wonderful thing that God
could save sins. That He did not just destroy
this world when Adam rebelled. that he was not done with it,
that he did not just rub his hands together and cast us astray
and recreate, but that he looked upon his people and said, I will
cleanse them. So you see when Adam went astray,
when man fell, when sin entered this world, it was not some mistake. It was
not something which, as it were, went wrong. It was not some disaster
which God could not control. Though its effects were cataclysmic,
though it was in rebellion against God, though sin brought in its
wake tragedy and suffering, hatred, violence, sickness, depravity,
rebellion, wretchedness though the effects of sin are so dreadful
though it brought with it death ultimately God ordered it so
God said this will be so because it would bring glory to his grace
to take such a fallen people to take such sinners and give
his son as a sacrifice for that. He chose them before ever the
fall, before ever sin entered this world, before ever death
entered this world, before ever rebellion. before all these things
entered, before your heart cried out unto God in rebellion, before
you said of His Son, away with this man, I will not have this
man to reign over me, before ever your heart said of Christ,
crucify Him, crucify Him, before ever you with your own rebellion
and sin took the nails and drove them into His hands and His feet,
and pierced his sides and spat upon him and laughed as he died
in the sun. Before ever you put the Son of
God to death, before ever you did this, God chose a people in him. and said, I will set my love
upon thee. And it pleased him to do so.
It was according to his good pleasure, ultimately, that all
things should be such, that sin should enter, that death by sin
should enter, that that sin and that death should slay his own
son. Because that's the ultimate effect
of sin entering this world and death entering this world. that
Christ himself had to bear that sin in his own body on the tree,
that he bore our sins, that he was made to be sin, and that
he died. Yes, by man, sin entered the
world. Yes, by man, death entered this
world. But by the second Adam, by the
last man, by the man, Jesus Christ, sin and death were taken away.
They entered that he should die. They entered that he should show
forth his love for his own by laying down his life in their
place. That's why there is sin. That's
why there's suffering. That's why there's death in this
world. Because Christ would die for his people to show forth
his love for them. And that people who drain with
Him forevermore in eternity to come will forever praise Him
because they will see that this is not just a God who made them,
not just a God who created them, not just a God who sustains them,
but a God who's shown forth His love in such a magnificent manner. that His Son was willing to be
made sin in their stead and willing to lay down His life in their
stead. He have chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. He have. Oh what a God, what
a Savior, what a Sovereign God. He have chosen us. He have. He chose us in the past. It's
done. As I said, He doesn't choose
us in reaction to what we do. He doesn't choose in time. He
doesn't choose when you respond to the Gospel. He doesn't choose
when you fall on your feet and say, Lord have mercy upon me.
If He has mercy, if He hears your cry, if he speaks comfort
to your soul by the gospel it's because he already chose you
before the world was founded it was done. Romans 9 says for
the children being not yet born neither having done any good
or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand
not of works but of him that calleth it was done he chose
us. in Him before the foundation
of the world. Before the foundation of the
world. To deny election is to deny God. And to take this book of Ephesians
and rip it out of your Bible. He have chosen us in Him. He
have chosen. Chosen. Chosen. There is a people who are His. They are His choice. He's chosen
us. We've not chosen Him. This is
seen throughout the scriptures from the very beginning. From
the very beginning, throughout Genesis, right through to Revelation,
God has a people He's chosen. The whole history of the nation
of Israel is there to demonstrate that God chose a people, a nation
out of the nations of this world and said this is my people. These are the ones whom I will
bless and none other. And that picture of Israel was
a picture of a people spiritually chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. A people who are all brought
to faith. A people who physically may be
either Jews or Gentiles, but they are all pictured by that
nation of Israel. They're pictured by the Jews
as being a chosen nation. In Isaiah 44, 1 we read, Yet
now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Jacob have I loved. And he saw
how I hated. He chose Jacob. But in choosing
Jacob, that one man, he'd chosen Jacob, a people. All the descendants
physically of Jacob were the nation of Israel chosen, set
forth as a figure and a picture of that spiritual nation of Israel,
God's people, God's church, his bride, the bride of Christ. Isaiah 45, for Jacob my servant's
sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy
name. I have surnamed thee, though
thou hast not known me. Though thou hast not known me.
Before ever we were born, if we are Christ's, he knew us. He'd named us, he'd chosen us
in Christ. even though we knew him not.
We may be born, we may live, we may never hear the gospel
for many years. We may grow up into manhood or
womanhood full of rebellion, serving these things and those
things and never heard the truth of God and not know him. But if he's determined to save
us, then there will come a time when the gospel will come our
way. And it will come our way because He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And He's named us, but
we have not known Him. Now this term elect, the elect,
is used in different ways in the scriptures. In some places,
the elect has a specific reference to Christ Himself. as God's chosen,
His anointed, the Saviour that God chose, the King. As David was anointed, as David
was chosen of God to be the King of His people, His choice, His
anointed, His elect. In various places we read of
His elect as in reference to the person, the individual. But
in other places, We read of his elect with reference to that
people who are wed to the Saviour. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles, Isaiah writes. With reference to Christ, the
elect God's servant, But his people, that people chosen
in him, are also elect. And some will try to wriggle
out of the truth of election with regard to God's people by
pointing to these references to Christ as the elect. and saying
that well he's the elect, he's the chosen, when God elected
he chose Christ and then everyone who believes on him, everyone
who makes a decision to follow him, everyone who hears the gospel
and turns unto God is by extension elect because they are then followers
of Christ. But the scriptures speak of a
people chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Our receiving his gospel, our following him, our being united
to the elect Christ is a consequence of God having chosen us. According
as he have chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
It does not say according as he have chosen him and us by
extension but as he have chosen us in him. He chose who are in
Christ before ever they were born. There are many places where
God speaks of the elect as his people, in the plural. In Isaiah
65, 22 he writes, They shall not build and another inhabit.
They shall not plant and another eat. for as the days of a tree
are the days of my people and mine elect shall long enjoy the
work of their hands mine elect shall long enjoy the work of
their hands a people In Matthew 24 we read, For there shall arise
false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and
wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive
the very elect. Not Christ, but his people chosen
in him. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. And as Romans 8 tells us, who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Scripture
repeatedly speaks of the elect with reference to Christ and
also with reference to His people chosen in Him, because they are
one. God chose His Son, a Saviour,
and a sacrifice for sin. and he chose in his son a people
a bride for whom Christ would die and he named them before
they knew him he named them he have chosen us he's chosen us
oh but you say but I chose to follow him when I heard the gospel
I've chosen you've chosen? Only because he chose you. If
you truly followed him, it's because he chose you. There was
a day when you would never have chosen. Your heart would never
choose. Never. Paul makes this plain
in Romans. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. None. You never chose God whilst in
your sin. Your heart would never make a
decision for Christ. no one who has sought him who
has chosen him who no one ye have not chosen me i have chosen
you oh when you hear the gospel when you're brought to your knees
as a sinner, when you confess before God that you're but sin
through and through, when you cry out for mercy and He presents
a crucified Saviour to your gaze and He causes you to be born
again and puts faith in your heart and you look and behold
the Lamb of God. and you see and you believe then
you follow then you choose then you say yes I will follow Christ
but that's because you've been born again and you've been born
again because He have chosen you in Him before the foundation
of the world He have chosen He have chosen us He have chosen
us. Who's the us? Not all men. It's not all women. It's not
all children. Patently evident throughout the
scriptures there are many wicked who went down into perdition.
The son of perdition rebelled against the Saviour. Judas turned
away from Christ. were a few pieces of silver. And when he realized what he'd
done, he hung himself. Oh, there are many who enter
hell full of wickedness in their hearts. Did Christ shed his blood
for those? Or a blasphemous idea? that Christ
should have laid down his life and borne the sins of those and
shed his own blood and never saved them in the end. Oh no,
all for whom he died he saves. He have chosen us, his people,
his elect, the sheep, not the goats, according to the good
pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of
his grace. Not all. Romans 11 tells us,
even so then at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. Which is why His choosing of
us before the foundation of the world is to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Because there is an election
of grace. He's chosen a people by grace
and said I will save them. I will redeem them through the
blood of my Son. I will set my love upon them.
What then Paul asks, Israel have not obtained that which he seeketh
for but the election have obtained it and the rest were blinded. The natural nation of Israel,
that chosen nation set forth as a figure of the spiritual
Israel. When Christ came, the majority rejected. The majority
of the Jews received him not. They'd become apostate, they'd
become blind to the truth. But there was a remnant amongst
them who knew, a remnant who looked for the coming of the
Saviour, a remnant who longed for salvation, a remnant whose
hearts were changed by God, a remnant who had been chosen, a remnant
of grace. And there were those that are
Gentiles who had never known Him, who had been in darkness,
blindness astray far off from God who when the gospel came
when the disciples were sent forth when the apostles went
forth with this gospel they heard and they heard because he had
chosen them before the foundation of the world chosen the election
obtain it and the rest are blinded Have you been chosen? Have you
obtained? Or are you blind? Have you been
blinded? Has your hard heart been hardened? Your hard heart like Pharaoh's
heart. Your hard heart like Pharaoh's
heart. Have you hardened your heart
and has God hardened it further? Have you heard the gospel and
said another day I'll think of these things another day and
you harden your heart and you fight against the truth and you
resist against the sovereignty of God and his salvation. You
harden your heart because you don't want to give up the pleasures
of your own will. The pleasures of your own decisions.
You want to go your way. You want to have your way. You
want to have your riches. You want to go to your places.
You want to live in your house. You want to have your friends.
You want to do these things. You want to do those things.
And you won't serve God. And you harden your heart to
it even though you know it's true. Well if you harden your
heart, beware that he might harden yours. Your heart might get harder
and harder and you may never hear the gospel again and the
door may never be open again. Don't play about with a sovereign
God. The election have obtained it
and the rest were blinded. Saul, later Paul, had a heart
that was hardened. He was amongst those Jews to
whom Christ came who received Him not. He was amongst those
Jews who applied His will and said, not this man. He was amongst
those Jews who knew the Scriptures inside out, who knew Messiah
was coming and said, this is not He. He was amongst those
Jews who applauded his crucifixion, who in his heart drove nails
through his hands and feet. He was amongst those Jews who
persecuted the church and put the followers of Christ to death.
Oh, his heart was hard, like your hard heart. like your hard
religion where you stuffed your head full of knowledge and you
don't know Christ. He had hardened his heart and
God was hardening it until that day came when God said, nevertheless
Paul, nevertheless Saul, I've chosen you. And though you've
rejected me, though you've chosen another path, another God, another
Saviour, another way, another truth, another life, though you've
rejected me, though you've rejected my Son, nevertheless Saul, I
chose you. You are mine and I will save
you. Jesus said unto him, Saul, Saul,
Why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus. He laid down his
life for Saul. He loved him to the end. And
he turned him. And he caused Saul later, as
Paul. to know the wonder of His redemption,
the wonder of His grace, the wonder of His salvation, the
wonder of His election, such that Saul could write to his
Brethren at Ephesus, He have chosen us, even me. Has He chosen you? Us. vile men like that vile religious
mansour, vile men like vile Jacob of old. Jacob have I loved, that
vile lying deceiver who betrayed his brother. Oh God loves Jacobs. How many deceivers and liars
there are in religion. especially when it comes to obtaining
the father's blessing and a birthright and a way into salvation. Oh how many in religion try to
gain it by deception, how Jacob did. He deceived his father,
he deceived his brother in order to get his father's blessing.
Like many in religion deceived, they try to get salvation by
another way, to steal a birthright that belongs to another. And
yet God loved him and saved him, despite it all. Oh, despite your
foolishness in religion, despite your blindness and folly, has
God chosen you? Will he change you? Will He take
your blind eyes and make them to see? Will the Saviour come
your way and touch your eyes? And will you open them and see
a Saviour? With two wounds in His hands
and two wounds in His feet and a wound in His side from whence
blood and water came forth. by which He redeemed you through
His blood by which you know the forgiveness of your sins according
to the richness of His grace has He abounded toward you in
all wisdom and prudence has He made known unto you the mystery
of His will according to the good pleasure of His grace which
He purposed in Himself Has he chosen you? He have chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love 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. Amen.