All right. We have began studying last week the book of Ephesians, and I mentioned that we're going to spend a long time in here. We'll be in here probably a year or so in this book. We're ordering a few more of those scripture journals if you want to grab one. I think there's like two left, but we're ordering some more so that you have them.
This morning, I mentioned to you last week that we'd be talking about verse 4, and that's all we're going to talk about this morning, is verse 4. And it deals with a doctrine that is a doctrine that. Everybody who studies theology comes up against at times in it sort of a bristling kind of a thing for people. It's the doctrine known as election. We're going to spend our time talking about it this morning.
And thinking through it, and my job is to be as faithful to the text of Scripture as I can be.
So that's what I'm going to attempt to do as we think about it. A lot of the reason we wrestle with it. There's a host of reasons, but one of them, surely, is that there are certain things that God is a little countercultural in regard to. And one of them, and one of the most significant, is some of our innate notions of our own self-autonomy. And so, we want to think about it and be sensitive to the baggage we bring to something in a discussion like this as well.
And so, we'll try to have this as thorough as we can, but I want you to know this is not a sermon that's a systematic theology of election by any means. It literally is an exposition of verse 4. And so, we'll talk about what that talks about and some of the extenuating themes. I will preface some things as we try to sort of land on this idea a little bit. But in a sense, here's the doctrine of election in just a couple of sentences.
It's the idea that God, out of his sovereign free choice, has chosen you for salvation. And that you genuinely and authentically do believe and trust in him of your own volition. But the reason you do that is because he loved you first and reached into your heart and moved you to that end. That's the idea.
So, when we read in the Bible, I love him because he first loved me, it is more than He came and sent Christ. and gave a demonstration of his love, and I see that. and therefore love him. It rather is that he did that. And he moved in my heart.
In his love, very intimately, very individually. Very effectively and opened me up.
So that I would authentically and genuinely believe him. Yeah.
So the idea that I authentically of my own will and choice believe, and that He moves in me to that end, are in the text of Scripture, not antithetical, but rather complementary. One is giving me the what, and the other is giving me the why.
Okay, so let me illustrate that. with a a s a graphic up here. And I've taught this in some various contexts, and I hope it's helpful to you. But I think one of the things that we come upon when you read the text of Scripture is that you see texts in the Bible. That tells you what you ought to do and tell me what I ought to do, right?
We see a lot of them, a lot of them. And those are texts we're to obey. And we are to obey them from our choice. and from our purposings. We hear it.
And we react and we respond to it.
So, one way of thinking about that, I call that theology down. That is that God is pressing down upon us and telling us: here is what you ought to do, so therefore do this. That's one large set of texts in the Bible, and you see them. They're given to Israel in the Old Testament, they're given to other nations in the Old Testament, they're given in the New Testament. Jesus gives them to his disciples, Paul gives them to the recipients of his letters through the inspiration of Scripture, as do those who wrote the general epistles and so on.
And then, by extension, right, those are given for us as well, and we're to act those out. But they're not the only texts that are in the Bible. You also see texts that I call theology up. You see texts that are what God's doing. What God's doing.
Like, here's a famous sort of illustration of this: it'd be Philippians 2:12 and 13. Where it tells us, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, verse 12. And then verse 13 says, For it is God who works in you. For his good pleasure. And so you get a theology down.
What are you supposed to do?
Well, you're supposed to act like a person that really believes. And How would you do that? You do that by the resources that God, who has working in your life and supplying those resources, provides. And verse 13 is providing those resources. That's in just two verses, but sometimes you'll come upon texts that are all about what God's doing, and sometimes you come all upon texts that tell you what you need to do.
So you have things like, you believe. Right? People. believe. We are to believe.
Uh repent. Uh we are To serve, we are to obey.
So believers. are ones who Are the people responsible? to be the ones who believe. We're the ones responsible for repent, serve, obey. These are things that we're to do.
And yet, we also have texts that teach us that God chooses, that God convicts, that God stirs, that God protects. And we can go on and on on both of those. There's lots more beyond the four on the bottom and the four on the top. The bottom is empirical. I can see.
Right? I am being obedient. You can see it. Right? You can know whether or not you're serving.
You can even see the fruits. of real repentance in that way, in the fruits of real belief. Um But The other is kind of non-empirical. I don't know, nor do I necessarily always, and I don't know why I ended up like that, but forgive me for that. Empiric All.
All right. You I don't know. All the time when God is stirring me. It's not that I feel a quaking and a shaking. It's not that when I believed, I said, ah.
Okay, I can do this now because I feel the stirring of the spirit. I can at times feel the conviction, I can feel that, but that's coming from someplace else. It's coming from someplace else. I don't always know the protection of the Lord. Can you imagine without the protecting hand of God how much sin you and I would fall into?
How much does he keep us from? How much harm does he keep us from?
So the up is non-empirical. The bottom is empirical. The down focuses on the what. This is what we're supposed to do, while the up focuses on the why, and sometimes even the how. It's God's side of the story.
If you will, in that way. It's a part, a hidden part of the script. It's the reason why Augustine would say, Oh God, give what you command. You tell me to do these things. I don't, by my own lights, can't, but I need you, so give me the resources to be able to do this.
Humans act out the story, and God secures the story. This is one of the reasons why, in the broader contours of our life, beyond any of this doctrine that we're going to talk about this morning, you and I don't have to sweat. Our spiritual lives. What I mean by that is not that we don't take them seriously, not that we don't work as Christians, not that we're not given to effort. As Dallas Willard said, grace is opposed to earning, grace is not opposed to effort.
It's not that. We're supposed to. And we will and we do. But that's not the only story. Part of the story is, we will and we do because God has secured something.
and hasn't left us on an island. To do it, we're not pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We don't come by grace, and then it's law from there on. But rather, God is at work. In us, to move into shape.
according to his good pleasure.
So. With that said, what I'd like to do is just read verse 4 with you. And as we do this, I'm going to walk through five different observations from this verse about the spiritual benefit of the doctrine of election. Look in verse 3 first: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places?
By reminder, last week, we talked about the fact that God, having blessed us with the word eulogia, to speak well over us, and in speaking well over us, he has granted us a set of spiritual benefits. that are not exhausted by verse 4 through 14. But A number of them are listed in verse 4 through 14, the first of which is what we're going to talk about this morning.
Next week we'll get in five and six to a second benefit, and we'll work our way down through these benefits in ensuing weeks. Every spiritual blessing or every spiritual benefit in the heavenly places is what?
Well, it's in a different dimension. It's in a place That we live and dwell, and yet we have this sort of Interesting relationship, too, in terms of our conscious awareness. Um that is to say that There's literally a realm right now. Of spiritual beings and spiritual activity that runs commensurate with our physical world. Kind of like the story of Elisha.
When he is with his servant and the army is pressing in against him and he tells, he prays and says, Lord, just open his eyes. And the servant looks up on the hills and all of a sudden he sees them surrounded by angelic hosts that are at the ready to give them assistance. It's as though the veil between this dimension and the next is removed in that way. And that's as real in Elisha's day as it is in our own day. And so there's another dimension that is happening that's buttressing and coming behind and interacting with and moving and shaping and shifting our own dimension of existence.
When you feel temptation that's coming from another dimension of existence and the devil is seeking to thwart your life. When you feel assistance that's coming from another dimension and the spirit is at work in you, moving then and then moving even through your life in a material way, but from an immaterial world. And so this heavenly realm is the locus. Of the spiritual benefits, the first of which is in verse 4, even as he chose us. in him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy. and blameless before him.
So, the even as is linking to the spiritual benefits. It's as though he's saying, you got spiritual benefits. Like this. And now he's going to give the first one.
So, the first observation we want to make is regarding the source. of election. The source is right there, even as he, who is the he. Yeah.
Well, in the most general scope, you'd say the He is God, but let's kind of zero in a little bit because the He chose us in Him, and so you have two personages here. The He is a specific reference, especially when you follow the text in these spiritual blessings and benefits down through, is a specific reference to God the Father. He chose us in him. And let me just make A couple of quick observations here as we think about this. The first is because God's character.
Is immutable, meaning it's the same yesterday, today, and forever, meaning he does not change, meaning that there's never a time where God was more or less God, he doesn't grow and learn new things, and now in learning new things, shape and shift in some way. There's not this sort of theology of transition and change in God. Because he always has been and always will be and is qualitatively the same, we can know that his choice is not arbitrary. We know that his choice is not willy-nilly if we were British. His choice.
Is born from the solidity of his character. That's the first thing. The second thing we know is that God is the only Ultimately, listen carefully. Ultimately, free being. that exists.
That is, he is the only one that is ultimately free because he's the only one that's ultimately pure. and ultimately unfettered in that way. And ultimately, always character logically and consistent in every way. shape And form.
So therefore, any choice he makes is non-compulsed. There's nothing in it that somehow an external circumstance. is moving Now that's important to note because what that means is that the choices of God are not predicated upon my decisions. As though God sort of se is surprised by the way I hit the ball over the net and goes, uh-oh, uh-oh, we gotta use a backhand here. And they kind of oh oh okay, forehand.
He doesn't make that kind of decision. Because God's decisions aren't contingent.
Now, he really is relating to me in real time. He really is engaging me in real time, but he's not relating to me and engaging with me the way that I engage with you, which is a relationship of contingency because I don't know what's happening. But rather, he engages with full knowledge, which actually allows him to be fully free in that way. Listen to. In this regard, listen to Romans 9:10 and 11.
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, they being specifically the two children. Right? Jacob and Esau were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad. They hadn't hit anything back over the net. In order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.
Let me let Augustine say this in a much more c in a more concise way than I will say it. He says the human will does not attain grace Through freedom but rather freedom Through grace. And you gotta think about that for a minute. What does he mean by saying that the human Will does not attain grace through freedom. But rather freedom through grace.
Grace is in the purview of God. Not me. God is the one who is the giver of gifts. Not me. God is the one who bestows favor upon me.
Not me to him. in that way. He doesn't need anything from me, and I need everything from him. I'm completely contingent. He's the only necessary being that exists and subsists within himself.
It's a doctrine that historically was called asayity. to exist upon himself or because of himself. That is, there is nothing prior to God, and there doesn't have to be anything other than God, and yet there is. There's you. There's animals.
There's the Syracuse University Orange. All the great things of life that I can think about. In one setting. And these exist in this world because God, in his grace, has permitted them.
So what that means is that I don't sit latently, unhinderedly free. And what Augustine's point is, is that real freedom comes to me by God's grace. That is that I, and we'll talk about this, but I have a particular constitution outside of God, and it is outside of God. It is away from God in that way. while being sustained by him, but it is away from him.
I am not from birth related to him. I need to be brought in right relation to him. And that means that by nature I'm actually restricted and not free in that sense. But God, in his grace, gives me the capacity to do things by the gift of his gospel that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I wouldn't be able to please him.
It would not be within the purview of the options that I possess. But God graciously Says, okay. I'll move in you. I'll give you something you can't have in and of yourself. And he grants that because his choice is free.
Third, his choice is. Personal and relational. How do you know that? I'll tell you how you know that. Look at your text.
And you see, it says he. Chose.
So in Greek You can have an active, a passive voice, right? You can act on something. You can have the object act on you. Bobby hits the ball, active. The ball hits Bobby, or Bobby is hit by the ball, passive.
Reflexive Or a middle voice is Bobby hits himself. Obviously, Bobby has psychological problems if he does that, but. He hits him. He acts. with regard to himself.
And there's even a specific kind of middle. This is called an indirect middle. That is what that word chose is. In Greek, it's an indirect middle. And what that means is that God chose with regard to whom?
Don't miss this. Don't miss this. He did not choose with regard to me. That is it is not that he looked and said Brian is all that in a bag of chips, and we really need him on our team. We don't know where the kingdom will be without him.
We really got to have Steve.
Well, this thing will fall apart if we don't have Steve. We've got to have Carol. If we don't have Carol, good night. What are we going to do? He does not choose.
based upon something intrinsically lovely in me.
Now that may decenter.
Some kind of say, well, Brian, that doesn't really map on well to my self-esteem. I know. Here's why he chooses. The indirect middle teaches us that he chooses. Because of himself.
He chooses because of himself. He chooses with an eye. to himself.
Now listen. carefully. that actually Means. that it's even more personal. and more relational.
Because Yeah. Whoever He could have chosen. For reasons that I'll never know and questions I'll never be able to answer. He moved in your life and brought you to himself. Because, for his own motives, he wanted you.
He wanted you. That is, that his love for you is not a kind of through street to something else. You're not a widget. to be utilized for something. He didn't see your utility as part of the team.
Instead, he brought you to himself to be related. to him For him. How beautiful is that? He chose because he longs for you in that way because of him. Self.
The ground of his choice is his will Not ours. Look at your text again. Number two. He chose Us Us.
Now for Paul. That means he's specifically speaking to probably three. Different constituents, in one sense, in a way. One is the Ephesians. Two are probably outside of Ephesus proper, people who would receive this, as I mentioned to you, it looks like it was planned to be a kind of circular letter.
So believers. in that particular area around Ephesus. in other smaller towns. And us implies who. himself.
Includes himself.
So, one of the great things we get from that is that this is clearly not talking about just one sector here. Or a sector here, but rather it's illustrative being Paul, the Ephesians, those who received circular letters of believers. Believers.
So that he chose us. in that way as subjects. of something. I want to think about us for a minute. And I want to get clear because I see two ditches people get in.
on this thing. On the one side, there's this ditch that We're all horrible and we're awful, and you gotta think about yourself as bad as you can possibly think about yourself, because that's holy to do somehow, to be utterly self-deprecating. All right. And sometimes it's done in a sort of theological piety. And I think that's really unhelpful.
On the other side is this idea that at bottom everybody is great, and if we could just get out of our own way, it'd all come up rainbows and unicorns and candy, and everybody would get along great. If it wasn't for, and then we list a bunch of things in our world that we don't like, if it wasn't for government, and if it wasn't for school systems, and if it wasn't for blah, blah, blah, and people who give parking tickets and whatever, like everything would be great. Right. Um let me share with you. It really wouldn't be great.
Because you're a wreck and so am I. Um and you're not as bad as you could be and neither am I.
So what we need is a good Biblical theology about identity a little bit.
So let's start off with this piece and just say: we are unworthy. And we are unable, and the text teaches us this, because of our sinful state. I don't come into the world neutral.
So, one of the things, if nothing else, even if you were to leave here, and I hope you don't leave angry over this teaching, but if you did, I would want you at the very least to intellectually recognize one significant piece, and that is. We are not people who come in neutral, and this doctrine of election that often gets treated like Jesus, like the Father rather, is picking up junior high kickball teams and saying, Okay, you're here in the middle, and Scooter, you get to go to heaven, and Sally, bad news for you, you get to go to hell, and Gina, you get to go to heaven, and Jimmy, you get to go to hell. And he sort of kicks us out from this neutral posture on these two teams for eternity. Not just simplistic, it's just downright wrong. to the core.
And the reason at bottom that it's flawed is You and I don't come into this world neutral. We don't. It's what G.K. Chesterton said is original sin, the only empirical doctrine provable to man. That is, think about your parents.
Did you have to teach your kids, you know, here's how you disrespect your mother. Um Here's how you act like a total nut job in Ribel. But you do have to teach them to obey. You do have to teach them to say yes. You do have to teach them.
Toward righteousness. Every parent knows intrinsically that their child is not neutral. Yes, the baby is cute. I know that. I know.
But they're just a boo-boo-si-bo-bo. I know, they're lovely, they're awesome, right? They're awesome. And yet the moment they begin to talk, it all goes to hell. Like like I mean we, you know.
We see it, right?
So let's just think about original sin, and I don't have time to build a doctrine of this other than just give you a verse. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man. Talking about Adam and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin.
Now, that chapter is going to go on and say this is really good news because life came through another man, the second Adam. Right. But it is making the point. That in Adam we sinned. And by the way, it's in, is the language, it's in Adam.
that we sinned. It came through him. In that sense, it's not merely that we just follow suit, it's true that we follow suit.
Okay, that's called practical sin. It's very true. In fact, just let your eyes go over to Ephesians 2. For a second. Spoiler alert.
Verse 1, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. What was your condition when you walked in sin, practically in sin? You're dead. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
So just listen carefully. It doesn't mean that before you were a believer, you walked around and you said, ha ha, Satan rules. I'm following the prince of the power of the air. Yeah, you're not like putty on Seinfeld here or something. You read that and you go, really?
That's what it was? For as a believer Let's follow the prince of the power of the air. Yes, because it's a hidden reality. It's a theology up. It's a negative theology up, but it's a theology up.
Stuff was happening. Spiritual warfare was happening even when you didn't know it was warfare. That's one of the great weapons that the devil has. You get real angry. And it's just.
Anger. And you're justified. in your flesh And you forget, maybe there's warfare. Not maybe. There is.
happening behind the scenes with it.
Okay. And that's true. of a host of things. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, you see it. Prince of the power of the air, the passions of our own flesh, they're converging, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were, look at verse 3.
By nature. By nature. By what you were. Children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, it's giving an organic state of nature of the creature. In that way, you were unworthy and you were unable, and then The two great verses that you'll, two great words, I'm sorry, you'll ever read in your Bible.
But God. Being rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead. in our trespasses. Made us, he made us alive together with Christ.
By grace, you've been saved. Really important. You see the movement? What was I? I was it by nature and I was it by will.
Both. But God. But God. That tells us that hey We got to stay out of this gutter over here. That You and I.
left to her own devices are not all that.
Okay. But that's not all that can be said. Because some people take that doctrine and then all of a sudden have this sense that everyone is as bad as they can possibly be. Is that the case? It is not the case.
You've heard the doctrine said total depravity. In some ways, that's an unfortunate language. The language, by the way, didn't come until the early 20th century.
So that's not the historic way it was talked about. What it means is holy. depraved. And what that means is that there's not a part of me That is not fallen. But there are parts of me that are not as fallen as they could be.
Okay. There are parts of me that are not as fallen as they could be, but not every part of me. But rather, every part of me is fallen.
Now that's the case because God has given grace. There's a common grace that he gives to us. That grace comes in a lot of different forms. It comes in the forms of blessing. that come to us.
It also comes in the form of how that blessing works itself out in human life as well.
So I've mentioned this before, I think a few weeks ago, a farmer. isn't a better farmer because he's a uh God-fearing Christian. We don't look at bad crops and go, well, that guy must be an atheist. Look at that yard. Are you kidding me?
No, not at all. I used to get, I had a neighbor years ago. Who had the best yard? Ever. And it would torture me.
Finally, after like Eight years of living there, he put a fence up so I didn't have to look at it all the time. I'd walk out, I'd look at my yard. And it looked like a piece of... Junk. It's horrible at it.
Sprinklers breaking down all the time. splotches of grass and weeds and I look over it. Doug's yard. He's out there happy as a clam. doing stuff I don't even know what it was supposed to do, but it did it.
Right. And the Lord blessed his yard. Better than mine. Better than mine. Listen, uh let me This is a quote from a theologian, historical theologian named Greg Allison.
Um He's talking about common grace and his common grace does not mean in the same measure for all. That's not what common grace means. It doesn't mean everybody's yard looks the same. It doesn't mean everybody's crops come up the same.
Okay. but universal. and extended to everyone. That is that it doesn't land uniquely on a special person because of something in their life. Um Neither does it mean mundane, though common grace is often taken for granted and detached from its source, who is God.
It is anything but dull and ordinary, as seen in bountiful fields, medical advancements, artistic genius, loving families, global initiatives against human trafficking, and much more. You do not go into surgery and pause and say, now, doctor, are you a committed Christian? 'Cause you're not gonna work on me if you're not. I hope you don't. I hope you don't want a committed Christian who went to slick to do your surgery.
And don't be offended if you went to Slick. But if that was the terminus of your degree, if that's all you did, Okay, and then you then you've got Johns Hopkins. You got Johns Hopkins are slick, you got a Christian slick, and you got a doctor from Johns Hopkins. Go with Hopkins. Just advise you, go with Hopkins.
Right? Now maybe he went to Slick to get to Hopkins. Great. Great, then he's smart because he didn't pay a lot for his education. That's a good thing to do.
But if the terminus, if you went to E. Cola Bible College where I teach, and you go, yep, I'm doing surgery now. Don't do it on me.
Okay. Because common grace says, wait a minute, there's more at play here in what makes something efficient and effective. Just a couple of texts. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all He's made. And very importantly, and ethically so.
Romans 2:14-15. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, They're a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Who here? Doesn't have it.
some really nice people that live around them. They'll help you out. And they're just good people in terms of their moral foundational. Compass. You look and you go, they're nice people.
Right, they are. I love what Tim Keller says in The Reason for God. He says, The doctrine of original sin makes me anticipate that believers will probably be unfortunately worse than I expect. And the doctrine of common grace teaches me that unbelievers will likely be better than I expect, so therefore, we have lots of room to work together in human life. Both are true.
Both are true. We are fallen. We are unable to glorify God consciously in a way that from our being sees Him as the object of our worth and the object of our worship by our own lights. But that doesn't mean we're as bad as we could possibly be.
So I want to leave you with two important points here. Number one, election is not from a neutral posture, but an act of gracious gift and an act of justice in leaving others to the path they have chosen. That language is really important. And I want to illustrate it this way. I've done this before here, but by way of reminder.
It's not. kicking uh not not picking junior high kickball teams. For an analogy, although it's no analogy is perfect, but an analogy is all of us. By nature, and by nurture both. Original sin and practical sin have been placed upon one of those spiritual moving walkways like are in the airport.
Right? And if you're going, oh, by the way, if you gotta walk to Terminal B these days, if you've been to the airport, my goodness, will they put more walkways down there? Good night. Anyway, you get on that thing and you gotta... In you go.
All of us have been placed on one that empties out, alienated from God. That's who we are. We are by nature, objects of wrath. That's what the text says. And God Graciously.
of a gift Take some. And says I'm pulling into myself. And the others are left to where they have chosen. People are not. Going away from God.
and somehow will one day say, I don't want to be away from you. As C.S. Lewis said, in that sense, hell is locked from the inside. People have chosen their self-autonomy.
So he leads them to the path that they've chosen. Uh Election, then, is God's gift. To us, intended to bring a real and deep sense of gratitude. It's intended for us. To say There was nothing in me at all.
And yet you moved in my heart and in my life. My kids have never yet Never once. received a Christmas gift from me. and then immediately opened it and said, you're pathetic. I mean What kind of a father are you who would buy this for me?
And yet This gift here You didn't buy for my cousin over here. I can't believe you. You call yourself an uncle? What in the world wrong with you? No, no, they just received the gift.
They celebrate the gift. Hi. I can't answer all the whys. What I can tell you is, I know a couple of them. And I know one thing is true.
If left to my own devices, I wouldn't choose them. I know that. But he hasn't left me to my own devices. And that's to His glory and to my good. Augustine.
A merciful God delivers so many to the praise of the glory of His grace from deserved perdition. If he should deliver no one therefrom, He would not be unrighteous. Let him who is delivered love his grace. Let him who is not delivered acknowledge his due. In remitting a debt, goodness I perceived.
In requiting it, Justice. Unrighteousness is never found in God. Again, Augustine, by giving to some what they do not deserve, he has willed that his grace should be gratuitous. and thus genuine grace. By not giving to all, he's shown what all deserve.
The means of election. He chose us. The verse says in him. In him. That is the the locusts.
In the center is the work of Christ, the instrumentation. The avenue, the connection point. In the work of Jesus Christ, in who He is and what He has afforded. for us as his church At large, and as individuals making up his church, because you can't speak about his church in one sense without thinking about the people who are in the church. 2 Timothy 1.9.
Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace.
So it's not because of me, but because of what his purpose and grace is, which he gave us in Christ Jesus. Before the ages. began. Um Just think about how the mechanics of this might work out according to Scripture. The Father is the one who draws us.
And again, it's not that I feel it. It's not that I, as an almost 13-year-old in giving my life to Christ, that I went, oh, I. It's unassailable. I can't I can't help that. I have to.
There was a poll. There was a movement in my life. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Right? And I will raise him up on the last day.
Later on, he'll say, I will lose none of all that the Father has given me.
So what does that tell you? It tells you that the Father is in the business of moving in the lives of people. who really listen, listen, who really do believe. It's just a story of why you believe. How do I know that?
Acts 13. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. Look at the language, pay close attention. And as many as were appointed to eternal life. Did what?
Believed. Why did they believe? Because they were appointed to eternal life. Like There's another text in Acts. I think it's Acts 18:10, I think it is.
Where Paul will uh where Paul is told By the Lord, I have many people. I need you to go preach the gospel in this place because I have many people in that city. It's as though he's saying there's a bunch of people that have to come to faith, and so you have to go preach to them.
So this should tell us a couple of things. One thing immediately we should get is that I really am exercising my own Will to believe. It's a command given to me at times to believe. God isn't believing in that way for me. I am believing.
Why am I doing it and with what resource am I doing it? That's God's. That's his theology up in his story here in the language of appointment. Secondly, I should learn from this. That when you say, and I've heard people say this repeatedly, and the moment I hear somebody say it, I thought, oh, they've been taught horrible Calvinism.
And by the way, I've heard lots of people taught horrible. It deals on the sovereignty of God. They say something like this: So you're saying. Right? So you're saying That it doesn't matter whether or not I would share the gospel with person X, they'll come to faith or they won't, and it's just God's choice.
Listen carefully. That is not what I'm saying. Here is what I'm saying. It is God's choice, and guess what? The only reason I will share the gospel with person X.
is because God moves in my life to share the gospel with Person X. That is, that the means by which God brings about the ends both fall under the rubric of his sovereignty in his grace and his gift. I'm not holy enough by my own lights to move to share the gospel with somebody, but God will move me. God will stir you. And so the answer is no.
They will come to faith, and they'll come because God will move in you to pray. To share. By the way, This is why you pray for people to come to faith. If it's literally only on them, it doesn't make a lick of sense for me to pray. Because literally, I'm saying God can't ultimately move in their life.
He only will bow to their freedom in every way.
So, therefore, I don't know why I would pray. The reason I pray is because he actually can bring them to Christ. He actually can. And the fact that he's stirring me to pray is a good indication that we might be on to something here. And we ought to follow it down.
And I ought to pray with vigor, with them. I ought to get after it. I ought to be consistent. I ought to be persistent because I ought to say, Oh, God, you're moving in my life to pray. How much more should I lean in?
How much more should I try to share? How much more should I pray? be impassioned for them because I'm not left as a salesman. I'm a servant. Of his.
Cajoling. Witnessing. to what God has done. in my life. Look at your text.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. The timing. of election. before the foundation of The world. The word is katabole, and it comes from two Greek words brought together.
Bole. Uh to throw Kata is down, to throw down. It's a picture. It's like a word picture is where the word comes from. This word picture of God like throwing down the foundation stones of the earth.
Is kind of the picture.
So before God said, okay, we're going to lay this thing down, saying, He had a gracious plan from his immutable. nature. Second Thessalonians 2.13. And I'm going to give you a little bit of a correction from the English here. But we ought always This is the ESV to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits.
To be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. In the introduction to scripture class that I'm teaching, we will get into in a few weeks the issues and ideas of what's called textual criticism. how we know what the original documents said. If you were to open what is the Greek, well you have the 27th, 26th, or now the 28th Nestle Aland Greek text, you would see that what is the preferred reading in this verse is not the word first fruits, but the preferred reading is a word aparchane. which means from the beginning.
So, how we should read this should be something like this: But we ought also to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved. through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Yeah.
That's the best reading that seems to be what the original Greek text was pointing. Toward it maps on with something like this, 2 Timothy 1:9. We already saw the verse, but we have to pay attention to the last part. Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus. Before.
Before. The ages. began the timing of election before the foundation of the world. that we should be Holy and blameless before him. And we conclude here with the goal.
of election. to be holy than to be blameless before him.
Now, you notice that the words in love are included in verse 4. And there's a lot of question with scholars, and you can read one commentary, you can read another, whether in love is connecting to verse 4 or whether it's, in a sense, the beginning of the clause that follows. Because of the way it's used, Um in other contexts. I've chosen to go, and we'll talk about it next week. That I think it's probably better.
Read with the seceding phrase. And I think it's modifying those.
So I think we need to stop for this verse with holy. And blameless. In a way, two ways of saying something similar. He called them earlier, remember? What were they?
What were we? A church and a place. And what's a church in a place? Our core identity is a saint, set apart, holy to the Lord. Right.
Holy for him. in that way. Now, there's a sense in which you receive that in terms of a position right now. There's another sense biblically you'll see the terms used of sanctification where God is at work and is sanctifying us and is drawing us to himself and we're obeying him, theology up, theology down in concert, working out your salvation with fear and trembling for it's God who works in you for his good pleasure. And you see this thing kind of happening as you grow more and more.
It doesn't mean it's always like this, but fits and starts, fits and starts, but you are becoming more shaped into his character, the Bible says, renewed in his image in that way, Colossians says. And then ultimately one day, You will. be one who is morally perfected. And you will stand before him. That's what the text says, right?
that we should be holy and blameless before him. And you'll ultimately Stand there. Harold Hohner. Says God did not choose anyone because they were holy. But he chose them in order.
That they might be holy. He chose them in order that they might. Be holy. Final verse and a final quote. Romans 8, 28 through 30 gives us an indication that God begins something and completes something, and that it's all Him all the way down, so that it's all grace.
So that really... When we speak gospel, That means that all we have Is Right? Gospel, which is, as Honer, I mentioned to you last week, said, that's the word grace. In a word, in one word, the gospel is. Grace.
from him to us despite us. Romans 8. And we know That for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Doesn't mean everything is good. It means that God is working something good.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that is, that it's bigger than salvation. It's ultimate salvation. It's transformation. In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.
And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Who's the one doing it? He. She, he, he, she. I'll leave you with a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
I believe the doctrine of election. because I am quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him. And I am sure he chose me before I was born. or else he never would have chosen me afterwards. And he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me.
for I never could find any reason in myself. why he should have looked upon me with special love.
So I'm forced to accept that doctrine. Spurgeon's quote in a nutshell, I think, summarizes well.
Okay. Listen, friends. There wouldn't be more people in heaven. if it was only left up to our choice. There wouldn't be more.
Okay. because left to her own devices. We would always kick against the goats. we would always war against him. We might do it with good moral fervor at times.
Because of a common grace, but we surely would not have the humility to seek his face. That alone is a gift from God. Father, I pray that you would bless us. That you would help us to be a people who receive. Your word.
And you receive in that way. The utter Blessedness. Of your movement and your initiative in our lives as a gracious gift. There is great dist there was great distance between me and you. between my brothers and my sisters here in you, Lord.
But you having loved. But God, you who is rich in mercy. have lavished upon us such goodness. and for that we have nothing but unremitting praise.
So may we rejoice. in being yours in Jesus' name. Amen.
