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Indeed eternal.
Counselor.
Ephesians one. Would you suggest verse 4?
Ephesians 14. 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 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, and whom we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
According to His good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, and whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his.
Own will that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom he also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
And whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession onto the praise of His glory.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us? Or who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand? And having it many places far above all principality and power might dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and have put all things under his feet.
And gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
No, we need to get on in the chapter, brethren, but I'd like to make a few comments on verse three that.
May have been made this morning, but I think it is so important to get ahold of him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who hath blessed us with all or every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ?
He is the God and Father. And you'll notice that the prayer in the first chapter of Ephesians is addressed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereas in the third chapter it's addressed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is both. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That relationship with his father was from all eternity.
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And that is amazingly wonderful to think about. That is the eternal Son who dwelt in the bosom of the Father. But it was when he became Incarnate that he enjoyed the relationship as well as God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says prophetically in Psalm 22, Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Before he became Incarnate, He was God. And so he did not say my God.
But when he became Incarnate, then he could say, my God, thou art my God from my mother's belly. At any rate, he is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful relationships. And so in the Lord Jesus's life in this world, he always addressed God you'll find as Father.
Only in one case, and we're aware of this. I believe that when he was on the cross in those awful hours of darkness.
He cried out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
It was that God was not His Father, but it was God as God in all the holiness of His character, who had to be satisfied as to the question of sin, so that there would be a basis for redemption and forgiveness of our sins.
Wonderful meditation on those two things, but I wanted to get to the last part too. He has blessed us.
Present tense. It's a fact. Right now, brethren, every spiritual blessing belongs to each one of God's people.
I remember older brethren and my youth saying it, and I think it is so vitally important to understand it. You will not be more blessed in heaven than you are right here and now. You may not understand it, but it is the truth. You have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. They're not material blessings. And you know we tend to measure what we have.
In connection with material.
Things here in this world, but this is not a matter of material. There are spiritual.
And I asked, Brother Michelle, do you have the forgiveness of your sins?
Of course, yes. Can you show me some kind of document please that shows me that you have a forgiveness of your sins?
Believe me. Don't you believe me?
Can you show me a dog?
You can't. How do you know you have them? I believe what God says. That's right. By faith, that's right. They're a spiritual blessing. There's nothing you can show to say that in a material way. And I think that's what it means when it says spiritual blessings. And all these blessings in the next verses are spiritual brethren.
It's in contrast with Israel, and Israel it was material blessing.
Big families, large crops and the animals reproducing.
Vast. And so they were all material things, but those material things could be lost, and they were lost.
But the blessings that we have in Christ are something that can never be lost.
You may lose the enjoyment of them, but you can never lose these blessings. They are.
Yours for all eternity. Wonderful realities to get into your soul. And I must say, brethren, again, being with poor people in Latin America, sometimes it's been a challenge to me because I see that they live in the reality of those spiritual blessings more than we do up here. We're so occupied with material things. I still remember in the city of Rio San Juan, the Dominican Republic, years ago.
Staying with a brother, he was single at the time and about 3:00 in the morning somebody came and pounded on his door and said.
Chagall, they just robbed your store.
And so he gets up out of his bed.
It was just one room house. So I saw him get up and he didn't rush out the door. He knelt down and prayed before he left for the store and went and about Daybreak when I was getting up he came back. I said wow, that's too bad brother, they robbed you. He says to me, because the night before we had enjoyed Ephesians one in the reading he says, brother, when I think of all those things we enjoyed last night.
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That's nothing. That's nothing. The enemy was frustrated.
In his purpose to rob him of the joy of those eternal spiritual blessings.
The Lord help us young people to realize this is what you will and never can lose. You may lose your material things. You can never lose this. Live in the enjoyment of it.
I think the Lord Jesus has done everything possible to bring us near to Him in the heavenlies and to bring us into relationship with the Father. And we mentioned all these spiritual blessings that some of them are listed here, but we have peace with God.
We have we have the earnest of the spirit we have, we have, we have where the bride of Christ, it talks about being the adoption of his children, his children and we have hope. We have redemption and I'm sure we can go on and on. There's so many things that we have now. We don't have to wait to heaven to get kind of life. We have it now. We can enjoy all the benefits of it. Yes, and it's in Christ, isn't it?
So he he brings this out at the end of the verse and I think we need to spend a little time talking about what it is to be in Christ.
I've just enjoyed a little illustration in this regard from the Old Testament. To be in Christ is really to be accepted before God in all the perfection of Christ. We've spoken of the Lord Jesus as the as the Son of the Son of the Father, and He will always retain that place as the only begotten of the Father. No other person will ever take that place, even for all eternity.
God's house is going to be filled with children in the coming day. We're going to all be with and like the Lord Jesus. But the Lord Jesus is going to remain distinct in the center of that throng. As I say, the only begotten of the Father. But we are accepted in him. We have our blessings in Christ.
And in this epistle he uses the expression in Christ 10 times. And so it's a very important expression. And I've enjoyed just a little illustration that will perhaps give us some little idea of what is conveyed from the Old Testament. You remember when the Tabernacle was set up in the wilderness in the Old Testament, there were boards that were set up to comprise that build, compose that build, comprise that building.
And I believe that those billboards individually represent to us the standing of individual believers. Collectively, they made-up the habitation of God in the wilderness so God could dwell with his people in a way that he could in the Old Testament before Christianity and the work had been accomplished of eternal redemption. But individually, those boards I say bring before us are standing before God in Christ.
And there were two things that were characteristic of those boards. First of all, they stood in two sockets of silver. And silver invariably in Scripture is a picture to us of redemption. And Peter brings out that we're redeemed with, not with corruptible things as silver and gold with, but with the precious blood of Christ. In the seventh verse of our chapter here we have redemption through his blood and so on. But there was something else about those boards. They were covered completely with pure gold.
And gold sometimes speaks to us in Scripture of divine righteousness, and I believe it speaks to us of the fact that we stand before God not only as a redeemed people, not only as forgiven sinners, but we stand before God in all the righteousness of Christ. We've been made the righteousness of God in him. And I suggest that that's one reason why in the first verse of our chapter, he could refer to them as the faithful.
In Christ Jesus because that's how he sees us. You know the disciples when they were with the Lord Jesus, there had been a lot of failure in the in in their pathway. There was more to follow and yet he said ye are they which have continued with me in my temptation. How could he say that Well, he saw them not through the failure, but through what they what they were in himself and I realized it wasn't accomplished yet fully as to what we have our standing before God, but he could see them in a different light than perhaps we see one another.
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And so he could speak in that way. He calls us Saints and faithful white. Have we been faithful? We all have to hang our heads. And in some measure, Oh no, outwardly we haven't been. But he doesn't see us that way. God looks at us in all the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And brethren, I believe what will raise our standing, so to speak, is to be more, to raise our state, I should say.
Is to be more occupied with our standing. Sometimes we get so occupied with our state and our enjoyment of things and what we're enjoying or lack thereof. Why that can do one of two things, tough us up or discourage us.
We talked about our enjoyment this morning a lot, and that's good, but don't be so occupied with your enjoyment as you are with Christ. Just be occupied with Christ. See what you are in Christ and that will unconsciously raise your level of enjoyment and your stand your state before Him. Why is my state so low sometimes and my enjoyment of Christ so little? Because I'm trying to generate that enjoyment or that stand is that state.
It within myself and I'm more occupied with myself than I am with Christ and what he he has done, what God has done, how God sees me. Don't look at yourself the way you see you look at yourself through the eyes of God. And so he goes on to say he's chosen us.
In Christ, before the foundation of the world, you see, it's all in Christ. It's what we are before God as to the person of the Lord Jesus.
Two little pieces connected with those boards. They're called tenants. I'm sure you know about them. That word tenant is really hands and she had the two bases of silver and he had two hands to fit in there to kind of hold that that board straight in there. And I I thought of that in connection with the personal and work of the Lord Jesus. You know, a faith and hope, something that is not going to last forever. It's all going to be love forever as we're standing here in the wilderness, you might say.
We need our hands. They hold up the Lord Jesus in his finished work on the cross.
The glorious person and what's coming. So we have faith and hope. Faith in our Lord Jesus and hope in our Lord Jesus. Double redemption.
Silvers redemption, redemption of my soul. I have that redemption of my body. I am going to have that, that's absolutely sure. And my soul is resting on that. And what is my standing? My standing is on the double redemption that I have and I'm going to be exactly what he's going to make me when he comes. I'm going to be incorruptible immortal and I'm just going to be like him. And I believe in the measure that my hands lay hold of that. It says in first John chapter 3, anyone that has this hope in him.
Purified in Himself even as He is pure. So we have an effect in our life of laying hold of what's been done for us and with us and what's going to be done with us. When He comes and say, wow, that's what I'm going to be. I don't see those boards laying down on the grass or in the desert sand. I see them standing up and living up to the measure that's been given to them. 10 cubits high. None of us are 10 cubits high. That's 15 feet. That's the standing we have in Christ. So we're encouraged to lay hold of those things and join them and transfer them in practical way, manifest them in our lives.
We find, too, that in Christianity the Spirit of God is very careful.
To detach us from this world in every way except the fact that we're still here physically in this world. But we are not, as has been brought before us, connected with this world in connection with its programs, its system, its hopes, its aspirations, its goals. And that's why in the very next statement it says we've been chosen in Christ. And notice this before the foundation of the world. Now Bob alluded to this earlier, but I want to go back to Matthew's Gospel chapter 25.
To get a little contrast in connection with Israel.
So in Matthew's Gospel chapter 25, and this is Speaking of the Kingdom for Israel that will be established in a coming day. It says in verse 34, Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. And notice this Scriptures tremendously accurate from the foundation of the world. What's the difference? We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
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The blessing and the Kingdom for Israel is from the foundation. Why? Because their blessings are connected with this world and an earthly Kingdom. They were promised that in the Old Testament. And as Bob said, if a man was faithful, he was blessed with land and servants and and children and and flocks and cattle and so on. And Israel yet in the coming day will be established in this world, a world, an earthly Kingdom, where they'll be the shout of a king amongst them and so on.
And what a day that will be for that nation whose suffering so, so much today. But it was from the foundation of the world. But you see, brethren, how careful the Spirit of God is to detach our hopes from this world in every way. Our blessings are not temporal, as we've said, they're spiritual.
Hope is not in connection with an earthly Kingdom. Yes, we're going to reign with Christ over the earth. Again. You see how careful the Spirit of God is to detach us from this world. We're going to have a part in the Kingdom, but it's going to be from a heavenly perspective. So I just point that out, brethren, we so often.
I know we have Christian friends and Co workers and neighbors and their hopes and aspirations have become earth centered. They think we are a moral force to usher in the Kingdom. Must be a very discouraging doctrine if you really believe it and see the condition amongst the people of God. But this is being taught that we're getting ready to for the Lord to come back and we're going to be part of the Kingdom on earth and so and so on. We are going to be part of the Kingdom but not from an earthly perspective.
Brethren, we need to be careful then go back to the Scriptures and see that you and I now are a heavenly people attached now to our heavenly head. And we will come into the the good of all these blessings in a deeper and a fuller way as to understanding in a coming day. But they are not connected with this world in any sense. Jim, how do you.
What should we get from that verse?
Where it says they were blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth. The earth was had a foundation maybe millions and millions of years before they were man upon it. You have an answer for that. Give us a thought, Vernal. Go ahead. Go ahead. What was I'm asking a question.
Is it does it go back to to the time that man was on the earth?
Well, I just suggest that it has to do with those who will be blessed in an earthly way. And so it's connecting with what is created, it's connected with this earth. But again, as far as the purposes of God and the blessing of God for the church.
He takes us back to a past eternity in contrast just to, as I say, the Spirit of God so careful lest we think that we have any part with this world now, I say again, the only part we the only connection we have with planet Earth today is we're still here physically.
That is the only part we have but our blessings in the counsels of God. We're far, far back into a past eternity before the creation. But there is a blessing connected with the creation, and God is going to bring that about in a coming day, and He's going to bless an earthly people in that way.
In in Proverbs 8, I'm just asking this is a question if it might be the answer it says.
Proverbs 8, verse 22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before the works of old.
When there were no depths, when I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth? Does that, does that take it before the world was even created?
It doesn't.
His delights were then with the sons of men, it says, so God could look down time and through the work of the Son whose wisdom personified in Proverbs 8, God and the Lord could find delight with the sons of men. He could not find the lights in us outside of what the Lord Jesus done. I was thinking of verses in Job chapter 38. I'd just like to mention, and I mentioned this for others who might have a different perspective.
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On millions of years that are mentioned, I don't believe God needs millions of years. And so I would caution my brethren on insisting on a perspective that the earth has billions of years. I believe there are other believers who are in sincere who read the word of God who see things differently and I think we need to be cautious of that. So Jobs chapter 38, it's the Lord speaking to Job and he says.
Verse 3.
Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding, who had laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who had stretched the line upon it, whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened, or who laid the cornerstone thereof? So here's the Lord Himself Speaking of the cornerstone.
But here we are, 2017, and we know who the cornerstone is. It's the Lord Jesus Himself, from before the foundation of the world. God had a plan connected with His Son, and He was going to manifest it in this creation, and everything is based upon Him. No other foundation can any man lay save that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So as to the Kingdom of the earth, well, the kingdoms of the earth are going to be the Lord's and His Christ. He's going to reign on their certain sound of face that He alone deserves.
What about heaven? The same thing. He's going to reign in heaven and He's going to be with us in heaven, and He's the center of God's counsel in this creation and in eternity. And I just enjoyed this verse in Job 38. I wasn't there when He founded the world, but I believe what He tells me from His Word, how He founded the world. And I don't think we should take exception with ones who believe what the Word God says in their understanding. Some have other perspectives on that and they see other things. I respect that also.
But maybe all of God's counsels are centered in that one who is wisdom personified and who could find His delights with the sons of men, the sons of men on the earth and the sons of men in heaven has made sons of God now through faith in Him. And I think regardless of whether the earth is millions of years old or not, I think the point here is I like to look at this verse four. He had chosen us that we should be holy.
And without blame before him in love, the Lord wants us to be holy and without blame. Well, what is the Lord Jesus like? We read that he's holy and spotless and undefiled. He's holy and without blame and he wants us to be like him. And so how does he do that? If you look over in first John chapter 5.
In verse 20, verse 20 and 21.
First, John 5 verse 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and have given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true and we are in him that is true even in His Son, Jesus Christ, His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. The Lord Jesus himself is eternal life.
And He gives, what does He give to us? He gives us eternal life. It's something we have now. John 316, John 524 first, John 513 is something we have. We have that now. And we have all the blessings we've been Speaking of that go along with the eternal life. We have them now. We don't wait until we get to the end of our life to see if we get to heaven, to see if we get each of our life. No, we have it now. And so the Lord Jesus, he gives us that eternal life that is holy.
Blame and so we are able to be like Christ.
I would suggest that the answer to Vern's question is essentially found in verse 10.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, what He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. God's purpose was to do that, to exalt His beloved Son as man. And in that way I believe you alluded to it, Michelle. God is using this earth.
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Whatever age it might be as the theater in which to workout his purposes concerning his beloved son and so.
He picks up Israel. Why? Because he is eventually going to bring them into blessing in this same world. But in what way? Through Christmas?
It's only his finished work that will bring them into blessing. But they are going to reign in that sense over the millennial earth. They will be God's capital, God's center in the earth in a coming day. And so God has in his purposes to exalt his beloved Son as head over all things both in heaven and on earth. And So what happens before this present creation, if we could say it that way, And I use the word creation.
In the sense that Scripture uses it in Exodus 20 and other places.
What happened before that Scripture does not give us a lot of answers and we don't need to go into it, but what God is doing now in this world concerning man and concerning His Son as man is what I believe God has before him. I was thinking of that first in the 13th of Revelation, in the 8th, the eighth verse, it says, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.
Whose names are not written in the new translation says from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb. So it's it seems that it goes back to where man was created. Is that right? I thought that the point is in that verse Jim referred to and Matthew 25. It's really the king speaking to the Gentile nations when he says what he does because there's going to be in the coming Kingdom, not only Israel.
Whose blessings are earthly, but the Gentile nations who will come into blessing under the rain of Israel, under the reign of Christ really and Israel. But the point is that here in our chapter, the blessing of the church has no connection with this world. And so it was before there was any world in existence that God was thinking about us, that God chose us.
In Christ, and made us in his purposes.
We are to be made holy and without blame before Him in love. And when it speaks in this way, Speaking of our positioning, Christ, brethren, and it is perfect, There is no fallacy in it. Are we perfect yet? No. But as to our position, this is the position that we occupy, and I think if we enjoy that, brethren, it will have an effect on us.
Practically, and sometimes give the illustration of a girl that's going to get married and she puts on this beautiful white dress and then she goes out to get into the car where she's going to be taken to where she's going to get married. And along the street there's some dirty cars. Do you think she's going to be careful how she walks down that street? I think she's going to be mighty careful. Why is she so careful? Because of that beautiful white dress she has on. And brethren, when we realize.
That we are set in that position of complete, perfect holiness before Him in love. Why? It makes us careful how we walk down here, how important that is.
Another point I want to mention in connection with this being chosen in Him, this is election. In verse five we have predestination. There are two things that go together, but they are different and I think they're important to distinguish. But what we have in verse four is election chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Some people might say, how is that possible?
There is a word that is used in first Peter chapter one and it's also used in the Romans chapter 8 for knowledge. God knows everything before it ever happened because God inhabits eternity and for him millions of years is nothing more than thousands of years. It has no meaning.
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To him in his position in that eternal day. So he knows everything beforehand. Then according to that foreknowledge, He chose each one of us who now are believers in the Lord Jesus wonderful reality.
So election is a person's, isn't it? Whereas predestination and verse 5 is a place and that's important to understand. And so we have again, the emphasis of God and Father in verse four. It's God because it's the nature of the thing. We've often heard that a Sinner, a lost Sinner can't be in heaven. He would defile the place. And so we need a nature conform to that place in the first who is there?
And that's what we get in verse four. But predestination in Scripture is always to a particular place. It's different for us than it is for the Gentiles in the future day and for Israel in the past and future day. And so we have that. That's relationship. So first we have to have a nature that's suited to the place, verse four. Then God has put us in a special relationship, verse 5, having predestinated us.
Unto the adoption. I'm going to leave out the next two words because it's a little bit confusing. Adoption is always connected with sonship. Children is connected with nature. So you'll notice the new translation leaves out the words adoption of children. That's not the point. As adoption, we're adopted. We're adopted into the position of sonship before God by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. So people talk about predestination and there's a lot of confusion about it.
But if we understand that election is always a person's predestination, is always a place, it helps.
I just have a question or suggestion and my understanding of election that we have gouged councils in a collective way. He's going to have a people.
And so he has chosen to have a people through Christ in heaven and he has had chosen to have a people on the earth in Israel. He's elected that it's he's sovereign in that. But we know that not all those that were of Israel are going to participate in the blessing. There was a moral response to their relationship with Israel with the Lord to participate in the blessing. And I wondered that that would election. God has a purpose in bringing many sons to glory and he has purpose that in his heart.
And he's carried it out through his sons who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. But if we're going to be part of it, we will find as we get down the chapter that they heard the gospel of their salvation and they believed and they were sealed. And from that moment, they were participants of what had been determined by God ahead of time. Now he knows ahead of time who's going to be one who believes and doesn't believe. So just suggesting that that he's been a help to me to distinguish between the individual calling.
And the collective plan of God in election, the apostle Paul was a chosen vessel. He was specifically chosen as a person. And we understand from Scripture that he had quite a mission from the Lord to bring before us. Those things are brought to us in the New Testament. And so I just wondered that if that was a valid understanding of seeing there's a collective aspect to God's election in Christ and the personal participation in it when we do hear the gospel and the Spirit of God challenges us to believe.
John 3 The Lord said, If I have told you of earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
We don't want to mix and match what's earthly with heavenly, do we that prophecy is an earthly thing. God has a purpose for this earth and prophecy lays that out for us. But in our chapters. The purpose of God. It has to do with this eternal purpose, not just this scene. I realize in verse 10 that looks on to the coming millennial day, but to to recognize that God has a sphere and a purpose for an earthly people that Israel blessed with the Gentiles, but our purpose is eternal and I and to say this as well that.
God's purpose for Israel as a nation, of course, has to do with prophecy, but what we have here in primarily these blessings we have in Ephesians chapter one or individual, the end of chapter 2 are brought into the one body 1 Newman and so on. There's further development there. Don't rule out the collective site here, but specifically it's more of the individual side of things and it's connected with the purpose of God is connected with eternity, where prophecy has to do consistently and always with this earth.
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So I've used a little illustration sometimes in connection with the election and predestination. And of course with predestination you shorten it to destination, as Brother Eric has said. But I've thought of it in connection, we'll say, because we're in the United States with the election of the president of the United States. That's the person. The election has to do with the person and his brother Bill said it's individual. And so the President of the United States is elected as an individual.
And what he's predestined to live in the White House, that is the and to and to rule the country for the next four years. That is the purpose for which he is elected. So he's chosen by election. And then there's a purpose, there's a there's something that's predestined.
He moves into the White House, he takes over the government of the of the country and so on. So perhaps that helps us to understand a little bit the difference. So we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, as was said, that's individual. We've been chosen as individuals. Yes, we're brought into the body of Christ.
The Church of God, the bride, whatever aspect, as many aspects that are taken up, but where he left as individuals, just as the president United States or the Prime Minister of Canada is elect as an individual and then we're predestined for glory. We're going to spend it with Christ. And you know it says wherever with the Lord, when he's in heaven, we're with him. When he comes back to reign over the earth, we're with him. We're going to be ever with the Lord. That's our destiny.
Can I understand that the Lord voted for me or that he voted for Christ? I understand that he voted for Christ and I was included in that election of God and his Son and all his purposes that He was going to carry out in time and to which I participate now because I heard the gospel and I believe.
But he chose us and him was not true. So it's it's beautiful to realize that it was us he chose. I think that's wonderful. It has to be individual I believe because if it were just that God had a purpose to have a church collectively to.
Be those through whom this fullness we read about at the end of the chapter would be displayed through eternal ages, and through whom he would be admired, because the woman is the glory of the man.
How would you and I ever be part of that? Because if it were there theoretically, just collectively, you and I are left out. Because John's Gospel teaches us very clearly the flesh profits nothing, that aside from the sovereign work of God and my individual soul, I cannot see the Kingdom of God. I cannot enter into it. I don't even want to go into it. And so the Lord Jesus teaches us in John's gospel individually.
For example, in verse 44 of John six, no man can come to me individual except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. And there are other such like passages, which show that it is essential that God do the action on me as an individual, to bring me who is dead in trespasses and sins, to give me life, and to give me equipment with the faith to lay hold.
Of the precious Gospel, of the grace of God the old.
Tim's grandfather used to teach us back east.
In a well known saying, and I think it's just certainly captures these scriptural truths that all may and the gospel goes out in accordance with the with the glory of God's love to whomsoever God so loved the world and on that basis any stranger we see.
In this world, on the authority of God's word, we can say, my friend, God loves you, we can say Christ died for you. But only a person who puts their trust in him can we say of that person, he bore your sins in his own body on the tree. So all may come, none would, as brother Adrian used to say, some shout. And so as a young fresh convert of a few days, I really thought.
At all I had this choice to make and I trembled and I and I did it and I accepted Christ as my Savior and within a few weeks at a brothers kitchen table, I learned that he had on his eye on me long before and as as a brother in in Maine put it to me, I am found of them that sought me not. Yes, we can say we found the Lord in a matter of speaking, but really he found us and laid his heart upon us. So I think it's important and consistent with all the other truths of scripture.
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To see and to understand that the blessing that we receive as individuals starts in the very heart of, of our, of our God and Father and has been wrought effectually for us through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit doing a work in us to lay hold of that. So I think we need to, to, to, to, to maintain that. I think that's the truth of Scripture.
It's interesting that you have the church, the body later on in the chapter. And so that goes into that, doesn't it then? But it's important that we be settled in these truths in an individual way. I, I enjoy the, the adoption and like it's been said, it's not of children and the new translation is just the adoption or it's been brought into sonship. And when it uses that word sonship, it has the thought of.
Brought into the enjoyment of God's purpose.
Thoughts like the prodigal son, when he came home from the far country, he said to the father, make me as one of thy hired servants.
God was not interested in having more hired servants. What He wanted was sons that could sit down at His table with him to enjoy his thoughts. That's God's purpose and that's the thought of of adoption, isn't it? Being brought into the full enjoyment of the Father's thoughts. What a place is ours, brethren, in this world. We think of adoption as somebody who was an orphan.
And he brought into a family, well, he's raised from one place to another. That's adoption. But in the sense in which using and here is the believer is already a child, but he's raised to a higher level as a son.
So he you never see a van going down the road. Smith and children.
No, it's it's Smith and sons because they're at a level where they can enter in to how that business is run. And so that's the position. It's not just being born again, but it's being raised to that position where we're sons and we're brought into all the mind of God.
And so you see that again with the prodigal son, and I know the story falls a little short, but he did have the very nature of the father. But when he came back in repentance, he was brought into a position with the father that the older brother never did enjoy and never had enjoyed. He said you never killed a kid for me. You never sat down in fellowship with me in that way. And so he was brought into a position of, of dignity with the father and relationship that he had never enjoyed enjoyed before. But I would just like to say this too, in connection with the individual side of things.
And that is, I believe that we must hold on to that, what Bruce has said, the truth of what Bruce has brought out, because for all eternity we're going to enjoy two different positions. On the one hand, we're going to be the bride of Christ, the Church of God, that's collectively. But I believe we're going to enjoy an individual position and relationship with the Lord Jesus in the Father's house. We were called, chosen and called as individuals.
We're blessed as individuals and that is what we are going to enjoy for all eternity in an individual way. We spoke of it this morning. Those blessings that we have now are blessings that we are going to enjoy without hindrance in the coming day because they're spiritual.
But we have a spiritual is for eternity. And so when I get to heaven, I'm just not I'm not going to melt into just part of the crowd or just part of the Church of God. Yes, I am going to be part of the Church of God. Yes, I am going to be part of the bride of Christ. I'm going to be the lamb part of the lambs wife. But I believe I am going to enjoy and you are going to enjoy and retain your individuality before the Father and the Lord Jesus for all eternity. So I just say that because it takes us not just to what?
The past eternity, what we have now, but into a future eternity, that individuality is going to be known and appreciated and enjoyed. We took up the subject of sonship one time in Richmond and there were seven things that were characteristic of a son. One was dignity. There's a certain dignity that he carries of that family. And so they gave an illustration of each one of these things and the ship.
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In England, I think the.
Heir to the throne has to go into this service. And they were down by the equator and it was hot. And so there wasn't anybody within perhaps 3000 miles of where they were. So they all just went skinny dipping that well. When he got back to England, he would the the Prince was brought in before him. And he says it's all right for them to do it, but you're going to be the future king of England. It's not right for you to do it. There was a certain dignity about his position.
Then there was intelligence, and we've been when one has brought into this place of sonship and a Israeli family, he's raised the place now where his father treats him as an adult. So there's certain intelligence in the things concerning that family and then there's liberty. And the illustration was that in the foyer of White House, there were dignitaries that set but.
If they were trying to go in to the president's office, that would cost them their life. But here the doors fly open and here goes. This person dives under this they desk and he sits right on the president's lap. Who was it? It was his son. He had liberty that nobody else had. And then there was a, there was certain privileges, you know, you can sign, he can just go into his father's house. But the that the neighbor kid can't. He's certain privilege as he has of being a son. And then of course, there was inheritance.
Where heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that's what we have a son. So those are different aspects that the Old Testament Saints never had because they didn't know him as father and young son. So they sought to have a practical effect on our lives. Now the realization of this, and I've sometimes told the story about the Crown Prince of France years ago when there was a French royal family in power and the story goes that the Crown Prince.
Was had an English tutor and he went every day to his class and he was a very unruly young man and this tutor couldn't discipline him in the same way he could discipline other students because of his position. But the tutor one day came up with a very novel plan. And so when the Crown Prince, the young Prince arrived for his class, the the tutor had a purple rose to pin on his lapel.
Purple was the official color of the French royal family. And as he leaked, as this young Prince entered the door of the classroom, he leaned over and he pinned this purple Rosetta on the Princess lapel. And he said to him, he said, when you misbehave in class, I cannot discipline because you because of who you are. But when you act up, I am going to point to that purple rose on your lapel. And that is to remind you.
Of the dignity of the position you you have because you are heir to the French royal throne. And they say the effect was amazing. Now, brethren, if we can just remember the truth of the position we've been brought into, because this is our position. And let's keep that in view as we go through these verses.
This is our position, this is what we are. We're holy without blame before Him. In love, we have been brought into a position of sonship, and we're predestined for glory and so on. But the realization of this, the enjoyment of it in our souls, the remembrance of it is going to give us the proper character so that we walk through this world as those who are the sons and heirs of God.
And it's not by being occupied with how much I'm enjoying these things. It will only produce two things in it. It'll either discourage you or it'll make you self-righteous. It's being occupied with Christ and the Spirit of God will make the effect.
I wonder why it says here I believe the good pleasure of his will.
That really takes it all in, doesn't it? There may be some here, and I'm one of them that sometimes finds all of this. We can read it in the Word of God, we can enjoy the blessings. But wrapping our minds around it sometimes is a bit difficult, isn't it? Just to think that God chose you and me before the foundation of the world? I can't. I can't get my mind around that.
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To think that He chose me in Christ.
In Christ, in his beloved Son, to be a so associated with him that I am before God and all the perfection of Christ himself. I can't get that clear. Or I can get it clear, but I can't wrap my mind around it, to use a common term. Bill, would you say that if we really believe this, we'd be careful about how we treated the Saints of God? They have an end with God.
You better be careful how you treat them. Well, that's right. And we need to be careful how we act. We need to be careful how we treat others. Absolutely. But if for some, and perhaps all of us, we find it hard to wrap our minds around these things, I simply can fall back on the fact that this is God's plan. It is a plan worthy of God. They are purposes worthy of God.
We sometimes sing a hymn. What raised the wondrous thought, or who did it suggest? And so on. And the author says, Oh God, the thought was thine, thine only it could be. And so it is. And so if in going through all this we find that it is utterly beyond us, it's meant to be, it is beyond us, but God wants you and me to live in the enjoyment of it. But then that takes me, as it were, right out of myself, so that I can't.
If I really see it that way, have any degree of pride, any degree of self satisfaction, yes, I've got there, I'm enjoying this. We can be thankful to be enjoying it, but ultimately it's far beyond anything that we can get our minds around. And in all eternity, we'll spend an eternity enjoying all this and never come to the end of it.
And that brings us to verse 6, doesn't it? Again, in these verses 3 through 14, we have the Godhead at work purposing. And the the first, of course, is God the Father from verses 3 through 6. And again, Scripture is often much more structured than we allow unless we study it carefully. And so we have the three persons of the Godhead at work in these verses 3 through 14. And as we mentioned this morning.
The three persons are identified individually and at the end then it's praise. That's the proper response, isn't it? Verse six, to the praise of the glory of His grace, that's the Father, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. And then in verse seven it now it's taking up the work of the Son in redemption, verses 7 through 12, where it ends in praise as well.
Expound a little bit, Eric, on why it's to the praise of the glory of His grace with the Father, and simply to the praise of His glory with the Son. What's the thought there? I'd like to hear your thought on it.
Well, only I guess, and this is perhaps quite simple, but when it came to the grace.
If we could say it, the purposes always originate with the Father, don't they, in Scripture? And so it was the grace of God that set the Son. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, not that the whole Godhead, if we could say it this way, wasn't involved in it. But the Father's grace sends his beloved Son, and ultimately you and I are, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Although we wouldn't in any way of course restrict grace to the Father, but then when it comes to the Son and everything worked after the council of the will of God.
What is that to the praise of His glory, God is going to glorify His beloved Son in a way that He has never been glorified before. Had God not allowed and He could have prevented it. Had God not allowed sin to enter this world, you and I would enjoy today the Garden of Eden. But when God and we don't want it, we want to be very reverent when we say this.
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When God did allow sin to enter this world.
His beloved Son is far more glorified, and we are far more blessed than if it had never happened. Yes, it doesn't excuse the sin of man. It doesn't excuse Satan introducing it or being the instrument that persuaded man to introduce it. But God is far more glorified in His beloved Son, and you and I are far more blessed than if sin had never entered this world.
And so for all eternity it will be to the praise of His glory.
That commend itself.
With the angels, God displayed himself in creation, didn't He? And the creation of the world, I might just mention in passing, when we have creation in Scripture, it's done instantly. When it's forming or made, as in Exodus 20, it's done sequentially. It's important to keep that in mind. But nonetheless, what we have here then is redemption in the sun in verse seven, don't we? In whom we have redemption, So in the angels.
God displayed His glory and creation in the race of mankind. He displays His glory and redemption.
That's good.
The heart of God will never really be satisfied until His Son has his full exaltation.
Not just in heaven, and not just in the midst of a heavenly company, but here on earth, as we alluded to earlier. And I think it's helpful when we go through these verses and we speak of what we have in Christ and our blessings and so on, to realize that God has a purpose that's far greater than even the blessing of man, whether it's the blessing of man in heaven or the blessing of man on earth in a future day. And that is first and foremost before God.
It's the glory and the full exaltation of His Son. And you know, it's interesting even with the Lord Jesus, who seated at the right hand of God this afternoon. You know, Hebrews 10 tells us what he's thinking as he's sitting at the right hand of God. We're not told much about what the Lord is actually thinking at the right hand of God. We're told about what He's doing, interceding for us, and so on. But what is he thinking? He's sitting there henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Looking forward to that day when God is going to give him his full and rightful place, not just in heaven, but he's going to give it to him on this planet that's fit in his face, that cast him out, that said away with him, crucify him, took him outside the walls of Jerusalem and had him nailed to a Roman cross.
I say God will never be satisfied till his Son has his full exultation and brother. And I believe that's good for us to keep that in view too. It's hard for us to get beyond what things mean to ourselves and what the future day is going to mean to us. And.
I'm not belittling that. It's wonderful. It's, it's part of it, yes. I hope it means everything to us. I hope we are enjoying the blessings. I hope we are enjoying the fact that we're going to reign with Christ and all things are going to be centered in Him in the coming day. But let's remember, in the councils and purposes of God, it is foremost for the full glory and exultation of His beloved Son in every sphere.
Many years ago, my wife and I were in the living room of our brother and sister Ramon and Viviana. Viviana Alarcon and brother Ramon asked me. He said why did Abraham make a feast when Isaac was weaned?
Well, I didn't have any thought on it, he said. Because now he had a son.
Now believe that's the thought here in predestination and verse five is according to the good pleasure of his will.
Not according to the measure of our need.
God has other elect creatures.
Our elect angels that don't have the Son's place. So one might be chosen, one might be destined to eternal glory, but the sonship is connected to the good pleasure of His will. Because far beyond my need, our need. We could have been saved and taken to heaven without occupying the sons place. But that's the grace of God is blessing according to His nature, His character and his heart. It goes far beyond the measure of our need. And so on. Now with Abraham throwing a feast if you will.
It was the joy of his heart to have a son.
In the end of verse 6 before we close says he has made us accepted in the beloved. There is taken us into favor in the beloved. I think this is something to enjoy in our souls brethren. We occupy a place of unchanging favor before God in Christ.
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That's our place and I find so often young people don't feel accepted and sometimes they just kind of hang out on the edge of a crowd by themselves.
Young person, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you are accepted on the highest level possible in His beloved Son, and it's a wonderful thing to realize.
It's not a question of who you are, it's a question of who He is. And so even if we don't enjoy it, it is still the truth. But God wants you to enjoy it. So think about it and let it sink down into your heart.
We are accepted in the beloved, that's why it's difficult when you bring in.
Responsibility. I think what God is saying now relax you. Listen to what I've done for you.
It will it will require responsibility later, but he's he's trying to get us to realize what he's done for us clear to, I think the 10th verse of the second chapter. And so if we bring responsibility into it, it kind of dims it, you know, with Rahab and she became one of the kings.
Bride well, think of her sitting at the table and always thinking, you know, well, I have all these I have all this opulence now, but oh, I'm such a I'm such a worst a bad person, you know, she just.
She just make the heart of the king sad. He's trying to show her what he's done for her. And so I think that's the way we should look at these things. This is what he's done for us, no matter what. Sovereign Grace.
It should have a response. That's right, that's true. And it will properly and it will.
#2.
Could we also sing the last two verses of #330?
330 verses 5:00 and 6:00.
O God, with great delight thy wondrous thought we see.
On his throne in glory bright the bride of Christ shall be.
330 verses 5:00 and 6:00.
Oh God, with great delight.
I.
Always see you.
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Christ.