Ephesians 1:3-14 • Loved Through the Son
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Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Good morning. It's good to be with you again.
And as you are having this theology conference on the subject of predestination, you are brave people.
And I know of no better place to go than Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1, where the Apostle Paul is dealing with just this subject.
As you are turning there to the first chapter, I do want to thank you for inviting me, but also for your friendship through the years. You know, Harry has been a friend through the years, but Briarwood Church for many years a good friend of Covenant Seminary as well. When I come here, I always feel this great resonance of purpose. And I feel it so because of the old account that is given. When you're in the battle and it seems like it has gone late, what an encouragement it is to be able to look across the battlefield and see on a distant hill there's an ally fighting too.
And when we think of Briarwood and we think of your stand for the gospel and the way which you are so concerned that the world here of our Savior,
we are encouraged. There's someone else fighting for the Lord, making sure His word is known.
This is what His word says as we read in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14. Let me just say enough here so that you know where we are.
It's a number of sentences in English.
In Greek, believe it or not, verses 3 through 14 are all one sentence. There's not a comma, there's not a period. It is all one sentence in three sections, the first dealing with the Father, the second the Son, and you can guess the third, the Holy Spirit, but one theme,
the eternal love of God.
I'm going to focus in this morning hour on the love of the Son.
In the Sunday school hour, we'll be looking at the love of the Father, and in the evening, the love of the Spirit.
In total, the whole section reads this way, verse 3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves."
And now the section we will focus on this morning. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace, which He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment,
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
After that section on the Son, then this regarding the Spirit, in Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory.
And you also were included in Christ. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory."
Pray with me.
Father, our prayer would be that we would be to the praise of Your glory, that we would not seek it ourselves, that it would not be our claim of what we have done that would be any reason that we would stand before You one day and say, "Receive me."
But rather, Father, we would be saying, "Thank You for Your Son, for the redemption that is in His blood.
His righteousness alone I claim, the glory is all His."
May the words that we say be the lives that we live, for the sake of Your Son and the glory of His name we pray. Amen.
You're in.
You're out.
You're in.
You're out.
Some of you may have heard a radio interview on National Public Radio several weeks ago now in which an author was discussing an experience he had had recently on a New York subway platform.
A well-dressed but apparently disturbed man was going through the crowd, choosing, "You're in.
You're out. You're in. You're in. You're out."
No apparent rhyme or reason to the choices. It didn't matter your race or gender or class or position. Just some people were in and some people were out.
And as the man moved through the crowd, he began to approach the author who confessed as the choosing went along and the man came closer to him, he began to feel his heart
quicken.
And his breath moved a little faster. The man came closer, "You're in. You're in. You're out. You're in. You're in. You're in."
Finally he looked at the author and he pointed to him and he said, "You're in." And the author said he felt a sort of strange euphoria.
He was in.
I mean, there wasn't any benefit to being in. There wasn't any qualification for being in, but he was in.
And somehow that made him feel good, even proud.
It's silly, you know, that for simply being in, there would be any sense of pride in us
because we didn't qualify because there was nothing in us that was the basis of God's choosing. And yes, isn't it strange? Sometimes you get the sense you almost have to be mean to be Presbyterian because we're in.
And that means you're, it's at least the way we present it sometimes.
What are the real benefits? Why would we at all be concerned about what God is saying to his people, which is totally out of his heart and for his glory and none of our own?
The benefits that are to come from God's work in our behalf are explained in this section of Ephesians concentrating on the work of God's Son. And what is ours as a result? Why should we feel any euphoria at all? Because of a reclamation accomplished by Christ alone. Because of a revelation that he has provided for us and because of a rule that is coming for him that we will be a part of.
The reclamation is in these early words of verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. There is a message of redemption.
The terminology of the Apostle speaking of that which has been taken out of bondage, redeemed.
And we know not only taken out of bondage but through blood.
That God has done something that we could not do. Through the blood of his own son, he has made us his own, taking us out of a bondage that was ours by nature.
Because of the sin and the fall of our first parents, we were in bondage, not able to do that which pleased God but rather under the compulsions of this world. And the only way in which we could be rescued was by something more precious than we can imagine, the blood of the Son of God. We were redeemed not by perishable things such as silver and gold but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish or defect. That blood purchased us and we're to know that we're different because of his work, not our own, and that we are fundamentally in a world changed by the work of Jesus Christ.
It escapes our vision at times.
Where I live, there's a valley that we call the Chesterfield Flats.
And if you are driving along Highway 64 through the Chesterfield Flats in the springtime, you will see an amazing array of flowering plums. It is just this most amazing sight that goes down the highway. It is beautiful.
For those who know, recognize that the beauty hides chain link and razor wire.
Behind the blossoms there is a prison and the beauty is only hiding bondage.
It is the measure in which we are to understand our world outside of Christ and our own hearts prior to Christ.
That while there may be an appearance of beauty that we say to everyone around us, "Just fine. Everything's just fine."
That we who are believers are to recognize from our past and in the present of others they are in bondage.
They are seeking happiness in the ways of the world which are to them compulsions so often pursuing with tooth and claw and every energy in them what they believe will bring them happiness but it is only imprisonment to the things of this world.
And Christ has redeemed us from that.
And we're told even what the measure of that redemption is because of what we have been redeemed from.
The words were not only of redemption in verse 7 but of remission.
Remember we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, the NIV says. Those of you who were raised on the King James have actually the remission of our trespasses.
It's the notion even as a redemption purchase something, remission cancels something as the canceling of a debt.
And trespass is not mentioning merely our sin nature that came to us by our fallen heritage.
But my sin and your sin, our actual trespasses, our actions. From that God has redeemed us so that the debt is remitted, it is canceled.
Now you know that.
And what God is doing in this passage is so much reminding us of our heritage because we must recognize there is nothing in us that would have warranted His doing it.
In fact the way that He is saying it is reminding us so much of how great is His grace even in providing it. If you continued in verse 7 we'd learn not only that we have forgiveness of sin, it's in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
Wonderful words.
Not out of the riches of God's grace. As though God has this coin purse of riches.
He takes out of it a little coin for you and me to pay off our sin.
But it is in accordance with the riches of His grace. He that owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the stars and sun that shines.
He that possesses the whole universe out of the riches. No.
In accordance with the riches of His grace, wide, wide as the ocean, high as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior's love. I though so unworthy still am of childless care. Why? For His word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere. I am reached despite my trespasses, despite my bondage to sin in the past. He has done something for me out of the riches of His mercy.
It's being immersed, it's being poured upon, it's being lavished with the wonder of God's goodness. And to express that clearly He says to us and He made this known to us how? With all wisdom and understanding. Verse 8, "He lavished on us this mercy." With all wisdom and understanding. The commentators will struggle a little bit here. Is He lavishing wisdom and understanding on us? Or is He lavishing grace on us with all wisdom and understanding?
Well, it's His wisdom and understanding.
He knows you.
He knows me.
And still He's pouring out mercy.
My wife and I have friends who some time ago adopted a child that they knew was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
With that understanding, they still took that child into their home, embraced that child as their own, knowing the handicaps that would result, knowing the pain that was ahead, knowing the misery that they would have to give, the sacrifice that would be required. With all that would be required, they still said, "You're mine."
And here we are being told that God, knowing our nature and knowing our own actions, still lavished upon us His mercy, knowing that would require the sacrifice of His own Son. He did that knowingly, willingly.
He did it.
Oh, you know that abstractly.
When you bring it home, it makes the difference.
Some time ago in our church, there was a young man who got caught in a web of sexual addiction and deceit.
And as our church began to deal with Him and discipline Him, His reaction was great anger
and great resentment.
When we began to spell out some of the things that we began to expect of Him as part of His process of healing, He wanted nothing to do with us, nothing to do with anything that was being required for accountability that we were saying was necessary for His healing.
He came back some months later, wanting to know if we had changed our minds.
And we said no, we felt He would still be needing the help of others.
Again He left with great anger, great resentment.
And slowly, occasionally, began to work His way back into the life of the church and ultimately to come under the authority of a session and do as they required. All the time they're saying, "We want you to know the grace of God. We want you to know the forgiveness of God, but the path you had been on is so destructive to you. You need the accountability of others."
Just some weeks ago now, I received a call from that young man.
He said that his job was taking him to another part of the country.
And then he said this, "What do I need to tell others about what I have done where I am going so that I can be accountable to them? What else do you think I ought to do so that I can walk with the Savior as God wants me to?" It was just kind of shocking to me after all the resentment and anger that had happened before that he was now saying. And I just asked him straight out. I said, "What is so different with you now? That there was a time that you were so angry at the church of Jesus Christ and now you are saying, "What can you do to walk with the Lord? In fact, what more can come of you for God's sake?"
He said, "I have learned a great deal more about the mercy of God."
He said, "I've actually taken to heart a snatch from a hymn." He said, "It's not in the Trinity hymn though that the PCA uses."
But he said, "It's something that has become precious to my heart, this phrase, and this shall all my glory be that Jesus is not ashamed of me."
It is the wonder of God's grace that Jesus, having given his blood, has washed us, cleansed us according to the riches of the mercy of God so that because of nothing good in us, we are still perceived as the righteousness of God in him so that even Jesus who shed his blood for us to redeem us and cause remission of our sins says, "You're mine and he's not ashamed of us. I may be ashamed of me. He's not ashamed of me because of the wondrous work of God in my behalf." This is the glory that is mine that God has reclaimed me. It is the benefit that God promises to his people by his mercy alone and it's ours, it's yours.
How do you know it?
The apostles making it clear even that is God's gift too. Not just the reclamation but even the revelation of what God has done. Look how he says it in verse 9.
When he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ.
There's simply comment first upon the mystery of revelation. In the Bible, a mystery is not a mystery because of its complexity or its intrigue.
It's a mystery because it's something that was hidden in the past that is now apparent.
And we're being told that there is a mystery that God has made known to us. Notice who's making it known. It's not I figured it out. God made it known this mystery and the content as well as the fact of the mystery is being related. The end of that same verse, what is being revealed? That which God purposed in Christ. God in Christ purposed redemption and remission. And we'll see in just a moment ultimate rule, his sovereign rule over all creation. That is what God purposed in Christ and he has made this known to his people.
On what condition?
What's the condition of the revelation? It was right there in the middle of verse 9.
He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure.
It brought him pleasure to reveal it.
It brought him delight.
Do you remember how we are told in the Old Testament that God delights to show mercy?
We're being told that he wanted to reveal to his people his marvelous love simply because it brought him pleasure. It was something that was in him that was bringing pleasure to himself to take care of weak, sinful, deceitful, bound, treacherous people. It still brought him pleasure to reveal to them his grace.
Last spring I was taking a Sunday afternoon walk with my daughter and it was that time of year when in St. Louis anyway the tentworms are doing their destruction, forming those tents in the trees and destroying things. And as we were walking along the sidewalk coming back to my house, there was a little tentworm caterpillar kind of working its way across the sidewalk.
And my daughter picked it up, took it home with us, put it in a collection jar, put leaves and sticks in it to make it comfortable, and then cried when we wouldn't let her take it to church with us that night.
It's just a worm.
It doesn't have any good in it. In fact, it's destructive.
And yet it was precious to her, not because of the good that was in it, because of the good that was in her.
God has said to you and to me, it simply brought him pleasure to reveal to us his goodness to make us comfortable with his grace. Now, you may not like being compared to a worm, but if you don't like being compared to a worm, you can't sing the great hymns of the faith.
Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my sovereign die, would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Do you know the answer to the question? Yes. Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes, he would devote that sacred head for such a worm as I. Though I perceive my sin and my guilt so plainly when the Spirit works in my heart, I can see just as plainly the glorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ poured out for me upon the cross so that as bald and horrible is my sin in my eyes, I can say, "And yet for this my Savior bled so that such a worm as I could know the glories of the heaven of my Father." He has done this work.
I know my sin. I know my guilt. I do not have to hide it from him, for it brings him pleasure to forgive me. I go to him in repentance. I am willing to come back to the one who I know to be the ultimate judge of the universe, not expecting his judgment, but knowing that when I confess my sins he is faithful and just to forgive my sins to cleanse me from all unrighteousness, and it is his delight to do so.
Why do I go to God?
Because he loves to bless me. It is his delight to do so. It brings him pleasure even that I would know the message of his grace.
It ought to just ignite within us praise, but the second thing that it should do in us is humble us to recognize nothing in us, nothing in us is deserving of this mercy. It is just his marvelous grace. How strange of us as Presbyterians at times to be so proud of our knowledge of theology as though somehow we have the grace of God because we understand it better.
If I understand anything according to Scripture, it's because he just let me, not because of anything in me. I even struggle in the church at times, and we kind of have the struggles and the push and the pull that we have to think that I'm better because I know the gospel better than you do. What credit is that of mine?
If I know anything, it's because he revealed it to me. If I am anything, it's because he made me that way. It is his glory, his wonder, his grace in absolute humility. I go before him and say, "Thank you, Lord, for no good in me. You have made me your own and revealed to me the wonders of your grace and more, even given me the privilege of participating in telling the world about it." Because the benefits are not just our reclamation nor even the revelation that God provides, but even his rule that we are being told about. What did he purpose in Christ, verse 9? Verse 10 tells us, "That to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ."
He is going to unite all things and to submit all things. Now I want you to think of the wonder of what's just been said. In Christ, God will unite all things where?
In heaven and on earth.
The culmination of the ages, you and I will be together with the angels, with beings whose glory is so fantastic that if one were to appear before you now, you would be tempted to fall down and worship that one.
And yet that one will be with you in the kingdom to come. And not just that one, but departed loved ones.
They will be one with us. Heaven and earth will be one.
We will be a part of the glory of God that will be sung by all nations and all races and all peoples. Regardless of race or gender or class, there will be a oneness, a unity in the purpose of God, and all the world and all heaven will come together to be under one head, submitting its praise to God.
I think what has been said in these verses that since the beginning of time, God has purposed that at the end of time, all of creation would come together to worship Him. But He has revealed both the end and the beginning to us as though we are kind of the center of this hourglass of time.
Because we're part of the plan.
You're part of the plan. You have a wondrous record as a church, as I think of your seminary that does so much to work with urban pastors, as I think of your desire in campus ministries to spread the gospel across young people's hearts in universities and colleges across the country. As you work internationally in mission, as you prepare another generation, you are seeking to unite all things under the ministry of Jesus Christ. It's institutionally wonderful.
But what you stand for institutionally is to be lived personally as well.
What's the implication of you knowing that you are made to understand?
God's purpose is to unite all things under Christ.
What I have to hear and you must hear too is that there are relational differences among us.
Sometimes people in the church, sometimes people of other races, sometimes people at work who have made us angry, sometimes marriages that have gone awry.
And to actually believe that God's purpose is to use you and me to unite all things so that the glory of Christ would be present in this world and at the culmination of the ages, all would bow before Him and Him alone. I will tell you it sounds wondrous, but it may require everything in us to live in accord with this purpose of God.
This summer I went and ministered among pastors in Hungary, ones who had ministered during the communist regime that dominated their country for two generations.
I worked with a missionary whose father, a church leader, tried to be put down by the government authorities and ultimately the collusion of other church authorities. They would arrest him and torture him.
Then they would put him in a cell next to the torture chamber so that he could listen to it hour upon hour upon hour. Then they would release him and let him think he was free and they would bring him back again and beat him again and let him listen to the torture day upon day thinking it would be his next any moment.
Ultimately the wall fell, communism destroyed and the people of the town rose up in anger against the authorities that had so abused them and they went after the mayor of the town to kill him as a lynch mob the whole town. And do you know who stood up to defend him?
This pastor, this pastor, so abused, so tortured to say, "It is my job in this world to see that the enmities between men are put aside and that barriers, even the personal barriers, even the awful barriers between us are for the name and the sake of Jesus Christ overcome."
What do we begin to recognize when we see that God has made us a part of his kingdom by no goodness in ourselves? We begin to say it is for purpose and the purpose is that all the world be together and all the world in submission to the name of Jesus Christ. What does God call you to as his people? Yes, to know of his grand redemption and his wondrous remission and the revelation he has given you but ultimately the coming rule of Christ for which he is using you as his people to bring the kingdom present now.
And it may require everything in you to recognize that because of his great grace you have a grand mission as a church and as a person that Jesus Christ who was crucified would
be magnified and heaven and earth be one because the rule of Christ will have begun
in your heart, in your heart because his grace has been so great toward you.
Pray with me.
Father, what mercy you have lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God.
Now you give us great responsibility in this mercy you have given us. Grant us the joy that is our strength for the purpose that is divine even that all the world should know that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And the message begins in us.
Unite us in your purposes and have us bow before your glory we pray.
In Jesus name, Amen.