Thank you, Andrew, for your kind welcome.
I must add very quickly that when I
met Andrew in the pub in my stake,
I wasn't very much older than Andrew at
the time.
So you can guess our ages.
It's a privilege to be here this week.
Despite spending six years in hard academic study
in Aberystwyth, I still have happy memories of
this place.
It was here in Aberystwyth that I was
converted as a first-year student.
My wife, too, in her first year, though
I didn't know her at the time.
It was here in Aberystwyth that I met
my wife in the Christian Union.
Ideal places for meeting future wives and husbands.
It was here in Aberystwyth that I really
learned my theology in the Christian Union, in
the Theology Students' Fellowship.
Visiting speakers, but particularly IVF, UCCF staff.
Well taught in the word.
And they made sure that we, too, would
be well grounded.
And they provided us, or urged us, to
buy very good books.
It was here in Aberystwyth that I was
nurtured as a Christian by older Christians in
the Christian Union.
And also, I must add, by older Christians
in the town.
It was here in Aberystwyth that there used
to be a regular fellowship meeting, SEAT.
And there were some real characters amongst local
Christians.
The matron of my hall of residence was
an Ulster Christian.
A fantastic character.
Or there was the GP.
When you went to see him in the
surgery, feeling very ill, longing to get those
antibiotics and get to bed.
As soon as I'd walk into his surgery,
he'd get his Bible out, and we'd have
a Bible study.
Twenty, twenty-five minutes later, I'd tell the
doctor, Doctor, I really am feeling very ill.
And he'd say, I'm sorry, I forgot.
And quickly he'd give me a prescription.
And then as I was leaving, he'd say,
but look, look at this verse.
I couldn't get away very quickly from him.
So I thank God for the associations I
have with Aber, and for the way in
which God has blessed me here.
I was chairman of a conference back in
1984.
And very unexpectedly, but very powerfully, one morning,
very early in the morning, I received a
call to the work that I'm involved in.
And it may be that for pastors here
this week, you need to be saying, here
am I, send me.
I felt very miserable for the rest of
that conference, and for many weeks and months
afterwards.
But when God tells you to go, you
have to go, even if you feel like
a Jonah wanting to run away.
So I urge pastors particularly, to face up
to those words of Isaiah.
Here am I, send me.
It must be hundreds and hundreds of people
who have asked me over the months, what
am I going to speak on this week.
Some of you have been so restrained you've
only asked me once or twice.
Well, the overall theme I've chosen for the
conference addresses is the glory of God in
salvation.
And the four conference addresses will be anchored
in the letter of Paul to the Ephesians.
And I'll be majoring on a section from
verse 3 in chapter 1.
And I'm hoping by Friday lunchtime to reach
verse 10 in chapter 2.
It's a statement of intent, and I value
your prayers that I may reach that verse.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, through to verse
10 in chapter 2.
There are several reasons why I've chosen this
theme of the glory of God in salvation.
Two of the reasons I can share with
you fairly quickly.
One reason, I believe, is the urgent need
for Christians to focus properly on God, on
God's glory, God's grace, and God's power.
Now, I'm not a very good photographer, but
I'm better than some people I know.
They find it very difficult to get the
right focus when they're taking a photograph.
They press the button.
The film is eventually developed.
You find that your feet are in the
photograph.
Your middle part, perhaps part of the shoulder,
but there's no head there.
Or someone takes a photograph of some attractive,
colorful flowers in the garden.
Well worth a photograph.
When the photograph and the film is developed,
you look at that photograph, and all you
see is a miserable-looking concrete path running
alongside the flowers.
There's hardly a flower in the photograph.
They're out of focus, of course.
And so are many, many Christians.
They tend to focus largely on themselves, on
their needs, their circumstances.
Or they may major on personalities, Christian personalities,
of course, an organization, or new fashions in
theology or evangelism.
Or they may be taken up by new
styles in worship, instead of making their main
focus God himself.
Now, here in Ephesians, we can be helped
in obtaining what I believe to be a
proper focus on God himself.
The Apostle in verse 3 starts with God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostle continues with God.
He chose us, in verse 4, having predestinated
us, in verse 5.
In verse 9, having made known to us
the mystery of His will.
And the Apostle ends with God too.
In verse 6, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, verse 12.
To the praise of His glory, verse 14.
To the praise of His glory.
The same emphasis appears in other sections in
this letter to the Ephesians.
For example, in chapter 2, verses 4 to
10, if you just scan that section, after
describing the sinful condition of humanity outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ, in verses 1 to
3, in chapter 2.
The Apostle then focuses on God, who, in
His great love and mercy, an immense power
has saved us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's quickened us, He's regenerated us.
We are recreated in Christ Jesus and all
to the glory of God.
Verse 4 reminds us that His saved people,
or verse 7 rather, His saved people are
used by Him to exhibit, display the glories
of His grace and kindness to us in
the ages to come.
So the honor and the glory of God
is the ultimate reason why we have been
saved.
And the Apostle focuses here in Ephesians on
God.
This may help us to readjust our focus
on God this week.
But there's a second reason why I've chosen
this subject.
That is, I want to encourage those of
you who are already focused on the glory
of God.
And I want to encourage you to maintain
that focus.
And I want to encourage you to appreciate
what you see of the glory of God
revealed in His Word.
I like illustrations, so bear with me this
morning.
Some time ago I was with a colleague
when his friend presented him with a very
beautiful oil painting.
His friend was a professional painter of some
repute in his country.
The friend handed to my colleague this large
oil painting.
He unwrapped it.
We both looked at the oil painting and
I was in raptures over it.
My colleague had a blank expression.
No real response.
When we were on our own a few
minutes later he whispered to me, I don't
like it.
Well, we were together on our own later
that evening in the hotel.
So we got this oil painting out and
we studied it for quite some time.
It was a painting of a vase and
the vase was filled with unusual but attractive
flowers.
They were beautifully arranged.
The vase was placed on a small table
against the background of a wall and a
window.
I told my colleague, this really is a
fantastic painting.
I tried to coax him and persuade him.
Look at the contrasting colours.
Look at the mix of colour.
Look at the attention to detail.
Look at the excellent proportions.
No response.
Next day, however, we had another session on
that oil painting.
And slowly he began to infuse.
And by today it is one of his
treasured possessions.
Now it's possible for us to be focused
on God and the glory of God to
embrace the doctrines of grace to enjoy the
preaching of the word of God and not
to appreciate the glories of God.
Not to be affected by the glory of
God.
And our lives are unaffected by what we
are reading of God in the word, what
we are hearing of Him in the preaching.
We are the same afterwards as before.
Brothers and sisters, there must be something wrong
here.
What we see of God in the word
must grip us.
It must move our hearts.
Our lives have to be powerfully influenced by
the truth, by the Spirit.
And I want to encourage you to appreciate
what you are seeing of God's glory.
Now in the Greek text, verses 3-14
in Ephesians chapter 1 forms one long sentence.
I remember an English publisher whom I've never
used, and I must say that immediately, giving
me some advice and telling me that the
ideal length for a sentence is somewhere between
10 words and 25.
But you really should major on 10-15
words per sentence.
Now in this one long sentence in the
Greek, the Apostle Paul is using 202 words.
Non-stop.
And the reason is pretty obvious.
The Apostle Paul is taken up with God.
His heart is profoundly moved as he outlines
the remarkable dealings of God with the elect
in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul cannot contain himself.
Worship springs from his mind and his heart
in the sense of wonder and excitement.
Appreciation.
And what he does is to use the
form of an extended prayer of praise we
find in the Old Testament.
And he uses this form to express from
the depths of his heart worship and appreciation
to God.
It's a good reason for coming to Ephesians
chapter 1.
Now as I approach the text of Ephesians
1 and 2, I'm making three assumptions.
First of all, I assume that the Apostle
Paul wrote or dictated this letter.
I believe there's strong internal evidence to support
this assumption.
And I won't labour you with the arguments.
The second assumption I make is that the
letter was intended initially for the church in
Ephesus.
But it may have been intended as a
circular letter for a group of churches in
addition.
So a date for the letter would be
approximately 62-63 AD while Paul was a
prisoner in Rome.
And thirdly, I assume that verses 3-14
function like a key to the whole letter
of Paul to the Ephesians.
Now I know that there are good commentators
who believe that the section continues to verse
10 in chapter 2.
One commentator argues it goes right to the
end of chapter 3 and ends with a
doxology there.
But even good commentators aren't always right.
And I would argue that here in verses
3-14, Paul is introducing all the important
words, all the important themes which he elaborates
in the rest of the letter.
It's all packed tight into verses 3-14.
So God's choice, God's grace, God's power, God's
church, the cosmic dimension of God's purpose, God's
goal of holiness for the elect, the centrality
of Christ as the one in and by
whom God's purposes are accomplished.
These themes are all introduced.
They're underlined here.
And Paul goes on to describe them in
more detail in later sections.
So here then in verses 3-14, we
have the key for understanding the rest of
the letter.
And I want to encourage you to grapple
with verses 3-14 outside these conference times.
Now there are different ways in which one
can legitimately structure verses 3-14.
And preachers do it in various ways.
But I want to use a more Trinitarian
framework for the structure.
This morning we're going to be considering the
glory of God the Father in salvation.
In verses 3-6.
Tomorrow morning, God willing, we'll consider the glory
of God the Son and the glory of
God the Holy Spirit in salvation.
From verses 7-14.
Let's turn then to verses 3-6 in
Ephesians chapter 1.
In verse 3, the Apostle begins to praise
God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed the God.
Blessed be the God.
The Apostle could have stopped at that point.
Worshipping the glorious being of God.
Adoring his perfections.
The one who is eternal, unchanging, independent, self
-sufficient, omniscient, omnipresent.
Present at every point of space with his
whole being.
Holy, righteous, just.
The sovereign ruler of the entire universe.
Blessed be the God.
The only God, the true, the living God.
Or the Apostle could have used some of
the rich titles ascribed to God in the
Old Testament.
Blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.
Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers.
Blessed be the Most High God.
Blessed be the Lord God of heaven.
But he uses a far more wonderful title.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The context explains why he is using this
title.
Now the Apostle refers to the Father, to
the Son, and to the Holy Spirit in
turn in verses 3 to 14.
Again in verse 17 and in other places
in this letter.
So he acknowledges that these three persons are
co-equal, co-eternal in the one Godhead.
But the context of verses 3 to 14
indicates that the Apostle is maging on the
plan and the accomplishment of salvation by God.
It's a plan which was agreed in the
eternal councils of the triune God in eternity.
And for our salvation, each divine person in
the Holy Trinity accepted different responsibilities.
The Father appointed his own eternal Son to
be the mediator.
He was foreordained before the foundation of the
world.
It wasn't an emergency.
It was planned in eternity by the Father
that the Son should be our mediator.
That he should care for the elect, that
he should die for the elect.
The Father appointed him as the head of
a new humanity.
And he would consummate, complete God's purpose.
God the Father chose the elect in Christ.
A covenant was made between the Father and
the Son and the elect.
And the elect were gifted to his Son.
And the Father gave to his own Son
work to do on behalf of the elect.
And work for the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus accomplishing our salvation.
God the Holy Spirit applying that salvation.
So the Apostle addresses God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and the Father.
The Father who has chosen us.
The Father who has put us in Christ.
The Father who has predestined us.
The Father who has adopted us as his
children.
The Father who has forgiven us.
The Father who has revealed his will to
us.
The Father who has sent his Son into
the world.
The Father who has spared not his Son
but smote him.
And laid on him the iniquity of us
all.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
But why does Paul praise God in this
way?
Well, simply in verse 3, because he has
blessed us.
Something which has happened in the past.
An aorist participle refers to a specific action
in the past.
And amazingly, says Paul, God, the eternal Holy
God, has not damned us.
He has blessed us.
And he has done this in three ways.
He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing,
first of all.
So the blessings which the Apostle has in
mind here are spiritual.
They are not physical.
They are not material in nature.
They are blessings which are spiritual in nature,
which are eternal.
They are not temporal.
They are blessings linked with the heavenly world.
Linked with God, rather than with this world.
And when people major on worldly prosperity as
a gospel message, they distort the gospel.
The blessings of grace are essentially spiritual.
From verses 4 to 14, the Apostle tells
us what some of these blessings are.
In verse 4, our election in Christ to
holiness.
An amazing blessing.
In verse 5, he has predestinated us to
adoption as children in his family.
In verse 6, he has shown favour and
grace towards us in the beloved.
In verse 7, there is redemption by the
blood of Christ and forgiveness of sins.
In verse 9, there is the knowledge of
his revealed will.
In verse 10, he tells about the cosmic
restoration of all things in heaven and on
earth in Christ.
In verse 13, the sealing of the Holy
Spirit.
There is emphasis on the word all or
every.
God has blessed his people with every kind
of spiritual blessing.
All that the believer will ever need in
this life and in the next.
God has blessed us in Christ.
And such blessings are priceless.
And they are only available in Christ and
as a gift in him.
But secondly, notice that these blessings are in
the heavenlies.
This important phrase occurs five times in the
letter to the Ephesians.
In verse 20 of chapter 1, we are
informed that the Lord Jesus raised from the
dead.
He then ascended into heaven.
And he was seated at the right hand
of God the Father in the heavenlies.
Our Lord Jesus in his meditatorial lordship is
in the highest place of authority which is
possible.
He has absolute power and authority over the
entire universe.
And over all the heavenly, the spiritual spheres.
Jesus is Lord.
He is King.
In chapter 2, verse 6, we are told
that because of our union with Christ, the
church too, believers, enjoy this high level of
fellowship with the ruling Christ.
And we share in his victory and we
are seated together with him in the heavenlies.
We are in vital contact with the exalted
Christ.
We can talk to him, we can fellowship,
we pray to him.
And in prayer we can know authority.
In chapter 3, verse 10, the Lord intends
that his infinite wisdom which planned and achieved
salvation will be made known by the church
to rulers and powers in the heavenlies.
So that the angels will admire and they
will be astonished at what God has done
in Jesus Christ.
Remember in chapter 6, verse 12, the apostle
Paul warns us that there are powerful but
evil, wicked spirits and powers active in the
spiritual realm.
These wicked spirits oppose God's people, they resist
and hinder God's work.
They tempt his people.
But in the Lord's name, on the ground
of our saviour's sacrifice, and in the strength
and power which he gives to us, we
are able to resist, we are able to
fight and to overcome such evil spiritual powers
in the heavenlies.
So here in verse 3 of chapter 1,
we have been blessed in the heavenlies.
We are no longer just earthy.
Our horizon, our dimension is not just this
life and this world.
But we are alive in the spirit, we
have been born again.
We are in union with our Lord Jesus
Christ.
We know him.
We have the spirit of God living within
us.
We too share in the victory of Christ.
We have been blessed in the heavenlies in
Christ.
But thirdly, notice that God has blessed us
in Christ.
And I want to labour this just briefly
this morning.
The phrase, in Christ, or its equivalent, in
him, occurs 11 times, just in chapter 1.
And many other times in the rest of
this letter.
The words, in Christ, or in him, are
of crucial importance.
They express what really is a central, major
truth with regard to our salvation.
Namely, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And without our union with Christ, no spiritual
blessings would ever come to us.
Now, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the former Soviet
Union, surprised the world in 1986-87 by
calling an end to the Cold War which
existed between East and West.
He wanted to remove the danger of a
possible nuclear war.
Which he felt, perhaps rightly, would mean the
destruction of our planet.
Encouraging a genuine search for world peace, Gorbachev
pictured the whole of humanity standing on the
edge of a mountain precipice.
And all the people tied inseparably together by
a very strong rope.
Gorbachev insisted in his speech that if one
person falls over the precipice, then he would
pull and drag the rest of humanity over
the precipice into their ruin and destruction.
As far as I know, Gorbachev wasn't a
believer.
I don't think he was an expert in
Pauline theology, either.
But he was remarkably close to biblical truth.
The Bible teaches that Adam, our first parent,
was appointed by God as the head, the
representative of the entire human race.
All humanity is tied up in Adam.
Now, this was God's decision.
You may not like it, you may criticize
it, but we have no right to question
it.
Our creator, God, chose to deal with the
entire human race as one entity, represented by
Adam.
When Adam obeyed, we were all represented in
his obedience.
When Adam sinned, we were all regarded as
having sinned in Adam.
So with Adam, the whole of humanity fell
over that mountain precipice to our ruin and
spiritual death and separation from God.
This is what the Bible teaches in Romans
5, verse 12.
Sin entered the world by one man, and
death through sin.
And in this way, death came to all
men, because all sinned.
Now that's our natural plight.
That is our ruinous condition in Adam, as
humans.
In Adam, all die.
According to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 3, we
were by nature the children of wrath, just
as others.
The thrilling news is that God has blessed
us, says the Apostle Paul.
And he has chosen us in Christ.
Christ is now our federal head.
We are no longer in Adam, but we
are in Christ.
The history of Christ becomes our history.
Christ's obedience is our obedience.
His death is our death.
Our sins were reckoned to Him.
And His righteousness is imputed to us.
We were buried with Him.
We rose with Him.
We ascended with Him.
And experimentally, this union with Christ has been
made real to us by the Spirit of
God.
We are in Christ.
They're glorious words.
Only in Christ are we blessed.
Now, I must refer to one of our
great Welsh preachers from our past history in
Wales.
This morning I'll refer to Christmas Evans to
show I'm not prejudiced.
An early 19th century Welsh Baptist preacher.
He has a very powerful sermon on Luke
chapter 15, verse 4.
The parable of the man with a hundred
sheep, who searches for the one lost sheep
until he finds it.
With his vivid imagination, he pictures the Lord
Jesus and the great shepherd of the sheep
in heaven.
There were the Father.
And the Father presenting the elect, the sheep,
to His Son to be the shepherd of.
And the Father places the elect on the
shoulders of His own Son.
Then Evans describes the incarnation of the Lord
Jesus.
How God the Son has become the God
-Man.
And how He assumes our human nature.
And pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem
as a babe.
He asks the question, where are the sheep?
They're on His shoulders.
Then goes to the baptism of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Before He commences His ministry.
Walking into the water of the river.
And the Father speaking, this is My beloved
Son.
Evans asks the question, where are the sheep?
They're on His shoulders.
In the wilderness as He is tempted by
the devil.
The sheep are on His shoulders.
As He does good, as He teaches, as
He performs miracles.
As He observes and honors the law of
God as our representative.
As He travels the countryside.
The sheep are on His shoulders.
He then pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in
Gethsemane.
Pictures a kind of river flowing deeply and
deeply.
Coming over the Lord Jesus Christ.
The heart of the Lord Jesus being filled
with sorrow.
Describes the Lord Jesus praying, not My will
but Thy will be done.
Evans says that the sheep, the elect, are
on His shoulders.
He then pictures the cross.
The tidal wave of God's wrath.
Overwhelming His Son.
The darkness.
The Father forsaking His own Son.
Smiting Him.
Punishing our sin in His own Son.
And the elect, the sheep, are on the
shoulders of the Lord Jesus.
We were buried with Him.
Now the Lord Jesus rose from the grave,
says Evans.
The sheep were on His shoulders.
And even when He ascended to heaven, as
recorded in Acts 1, says Evans.
He didn't leave His sheep behind, they were
on His shoulders.
He carries their responsibilities.
He cares, He loves.
In heaven He prays for His sheep.
He sends His Holy Spirit, He cares for
them.
He rules over them.
In other words, He's making the point that
Christ's history is our history.
And it is made real in our experience,
experimentally.
As we're born again of the Spirit and
called effectually to Christ.
And to enjoy mystic, spiritual union with Him.
Now can I try and help younger Christians
here, who may not be young in age.
You may have questions with this doctrine.
Who chooses the elect?
Well, from verse 3, it's quite clear that
it is God the Father who chooses those
who are to be saved and made holy.
He chose us in Him, that is in
Christ.
Other verses in the Bible emphasize the same
truth.
Example 2, Thessalonians 2, verse 13.
God has from the beginning chosen you for
salvation.
Many times in Ephesians 1, verses 4 to
11, God's sovereign choice and plan is emphasized.
He predestined us, verse 5.
How?
According to the good pleasure of His will.
It all depends on God.
It begins with God, the decision belongs to
God.
There's a concentration of related terms in verses
9 and 11.
His good pleasure, the beginning of verse 9.
He purposed in Himself, at the end of
verse 9, or in verse 11, being predestined
according to the purpose of Him who works
all things according to the counsel of His
will.
This purpose is God's plan.
It's the one, comprehensive, eternal plan of God
for all events, for the entire history of
the world and the destinies of humans and
angels.
And central to God's plan for all that
will happen in the universe is God's choice
of the elect.
God elects.
Is it fair?
It's the inevitable question for some.
There's an American evangelical who recently wrote a
statement to the effect that every person has
a right to be saved.
Nonsense.
No one has a right to be saved.
Our only right, our only deserve, is to
be punished.
We're sinners.
The wages of our sin is death.
The Bible describes God in Romans 9 as
the potter.
Paul describes Him as having the power and
the authority from the same lump of clay
of humanity to make one vessel for honour
and another for dishonour.
God has the absolute right.
He chooses according to His good pleasure, according
to the counsel of His will.
He has the right to show mercy on
whom He will have mercy.
It's God's prerogative.
Election is sovereign.
It's unconditional.
When I was about 14 years of age,
I was anxiously waiting at the end of,
I think, September that year for the headmaster
in my school to announce the school soccer
team for the coming year.
I was hoping that my name would be
included.
We'd had lots of games in our forms,
in our houses, trials, and we waited with
bated breath.
And slowly the headmaster read out the names
and my name was there.
I think I got there on merit.
But I can tell you this, that no
one is chosen by God on merit.
There's nothing in us at all which appeals
to God, which attracts His decision.
It's unconditional.
All of us have sinned, we're under His
wrath.
We're rebels and enemies.
But God, in His own good pleasure, decides
to love a people.
When did God choose the elect?
Well, says Paul here in verse 4, before
the foundation of the world.
It's an astonishing truth.
He chose you before you believed.
He chose you before you even heard the
gospel.
He chose you before Christians started praying for
you.
He chose you before you were even born.
He chose you before your parents were born.
Can I say He chose you before Calvin
was born too?
Luther?
Augustine?
Amazingly, He chose you before Jesus Christ died
on the cross.
You'd already been chosen.
He chose you before the days of Elijah
or Ezekiel.
David or Moses.
Abram or Noah or even Adam.
Or before creation of the world.
Paul is saying that God the Father chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the
world.
You think back into eternity.
The councils of the triune God.
Father, Son and Spirit.
God the Father choosing those to be saved
in Christ.
Gifting the elect to the mediator.
To care for and to die for.
The Saviour agrees.
He stands as our surety.
The Holy Spirit agrees to apply that salvation.
The plan.
The decisions are made in eternity.
How did He choose us?
Well, Paul underlines the fact again.
He chose us in Him.
In Christ.
All that heaven has, in terms of blessings
and grace, is in the hands of God's
Son, our mediator.
Very often the government will tell agencies or
individuals that certain monies are available only through
selected funding councils or bodies.
You have to go to that particular body.
The gospel tells us that it is only
in Christ that the treasures of heaven are
mediated.
In Christ.
In Christ is united to Him.
The covenant of redemption.
We are elected to eternal salvation.
Apart from Christ, there is no election by
the Father in eternity.
But a final question.
Why has God elected us?
Notice the end of verse 4.
That we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love.
Now, this is a purpose clause.
We should notice it.
In order that.
Now, many of our contemporaries would say in
order that we should feel happy.
That's what God's love surely is about.
To make men and women, young and old,
feel happy.
To feel good.
God has done this to make us feel
fulfilled.
Or in order that we should be prosperous.
Or achieve inner healing.
But the answer here is that God has
done it in order that we should be
holy.
Separated from the world.
Separated from sin.
Set apart to God in obedience, in righteousness.
Consecrated to Him in with purity, zeal, serving
Him.
And without blame.
No outward inconsistency.
No one pointing a finger at us and
accusing us of being hypocrites.
God's purpose is that we should be holy
without blame before Him.
As in His presence all the time.
As in fellowship with Him.
And as we will stand one day before
this Holy God at the end of our
lives.
God's purpose is that we should be holy
and without blame before Him.
Notice, in love.
Our desire to be holy.
Our desire to be God.
Godly.
Christ-like.
Arises out of our love for Him.
I obey Him because I love Him.
I turn from sin because I love Him
and love His law.
Christians love God.
They love Him with all their heart and
mind and soul and strength.
Being a Christian is not just practicing a
cold kind of morality.
It's not a legalism.
We delight.
We delight in God's law.
We long to please Him.
We long to be in His presence, to
enjoy Him.
Some of you may be asking this morning,
am I one of the elect?
How can I know it?
Well, here is the major line of evidence.
That you love Him and you express that
love in wanting to keep His commandments.
And your life is holy.
It's the major evidence.
It's not just feelings.
It's not just a verbal profession of faith.
Being a Christian is not just going around
with a group of Christians.
The evidence is a holy, God-pleasing life.
Obeying God from the heart.
Being in love with Him.
Making this one's supreme desire to please Him.
That's God's aim in election.
I would exhort you to underline these words
in your Bible.
In order that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love.
Notice it's we.
The Apostle includes himself with the Ephesians.
Preachers here.
Elders.
Deacons.
Old Christians.
Young ones.
If we are elected in Christ, the purpose
is that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love.
I fear that we have double standards in
our lives and our churches.
We accept second best.
We're accustomed to it.
And the world, I believe, is waiting to
see holy men and women in our churches.
Write these words of your television set as
you choose programs to watch.
If you watch a program when there's unsavory
language or immorality portrayed, God's purpose is that
you should be holy and without blame before
Him.
Young people, when you choose a video to
watch, put these words alongside the video that
you should be holy and without blame before
Him.
Put these words over your computers.
All of you.
Put them in large, large print over your
computers.
As you surf the internet, I'm told that
50% of all UK internet users regularly
visit pornographic websites.
And I have evidence that amongst the 50
% of UK users are Christians.
They spend time in these pornographic websites.
They download material which is filthy.
They feed their minds on it.
And if you are doing it, you must
repent of it.
Early yesterday morning and this morning, I watched
very early in the morning the council lorries
coming and clearing the rubbish.
They're very busy around about 6, 7 in
the morning on the promenade.
But there's a lot of rubbish in our
lives to be cleared away.
You probably read the accounts of what has
been described as revival, I don't know whether
it was, in Wheaton College in 1995 and
some other colleges in the States.
Repentance was very dominant there.
One of the expressions of repentance was that
many of those students filled black bags with
all kinds of pornographic and filthy literature.
There they were piled up on the campus.
Christians, you need to clean out your life.
If you are elected, this is the evidence
that we should be holy, separated from the
world and from sin, set apart to God
in obedience and holiness, blameless before Him.
You should put these words prominently in your
home or your digs as you talk to
your relatives.
Respond to them in daily routine.
God's purpose is that you should speak with
grace, away with temper, impatience, ungodly behaviour, violence,
abuse.
Perhaps we should placard these words in our
churches that we should be holy.
Church members' meetings can be the most unholy
places sometimes.
Give expression to sin.
Where are the holy Christians?
Loving God, obeying Him, loving each other, social
activities, places you go to.
I must move on.
Notice in verse 5 there is another blessing
which is identified by the Apostle and that
is predestination.
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His word.
It's a big word.
When I first heard it here in Aberystwyth
as a student, I almost collapsed.
What on earth did it mean?
And the old preacher whom I heard mention
it for the first time had such a
gracious disposition.
He loved the word and he explained why
he did love it.
It gave me an appetite to understand it
more and more.
But he urged us not to be frightened
by it.
It expresses a glorious truth.
So these two words chosen, verse 4 and
now verse 5, predestined, draw attention to different
facets of God's one and glorious purpose in
saving His people.
Predestinate means to decide, determine beforehand.
So the word clearly refers to God's plan.
To use it in a wider sense again
in verse 11, just as we decide beforehand
what our holiday arrangement should be.
In a far more wonderful way, God determines
that some people in Adam, though guilty, though
on the sentence of death, should become His
children.
That's God's plan in redemption.
To carry out this plan, God chooses certain
individuals to share in that plan, but to
be God's children, they need to be holy.
God predestines us to adoption.
In the Korean War, 1950-53, a godly
Presbyterian minister in the north had two of
his teenage sons killed by a young communist
official.
The story has been well documented.
But the minister and his wife were given
a great deal of grace to accept the
death of their two teenagers.
After a few weeks, they decided to seek
out the murderer and to pray for him,
to pray for his conversion.
They wanted to express forgiveness to him.
They were eventually informed by the authorities, the
allied forces, that this young man had been
captured, had been tried, had been sentenced to
death, because he'd killed other young people.
And the minister began to appeal to the
allied leaders for permission to take this young
communist official home and to be responsible for
him.
After a great deal of negotiating and persuasion,
the authorities agreed.
The young man was released.
On condition he stayed with this minister and
his wife.
And what this couple did was to treat
him as one of their own children.
They forgave him.
They accepted him.
They loved him.
And after a year or so, they actually
adopted him formally as their son.
The young man was overwhelmed by the love
of this man and woman.
And he was converted.
He became a very useful Presbyterian minister in
the south of Korea.
It's just a feeble picture of God's dealings
with us.
God loves and forgives sinners.
He accepts enemies.
By Jesus Christ, says Paul in Ephesians 1
verse 5.
By Jesus, by his glorious sacrifice for us.
And when God justifies sinners, when they believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, he also adopts
them through Jesus Christ to or for himself.
He adopts them.
He receives them as his children.
He gives to us in the words of
our 1823 Confession of Faith, the liberty and
the privileges of children.
He begins to call us by name.
He sends the spirit of adoption into our
hearts.
He gives us liberty and authority to come
boldly to the throne of grace.
To ask what we will in his name.
He gives us grace and strength to cry,
Abba, Father.
And as our Father, he pities us.
He cares for us.
He provides for us in all kinds of
situations.
He teaches us.
He protects us all the time from dangers
seen and unseen.
On occasions, it's necessary for him to chastise
us as his children.
But he will never cast us away.
And we're sealed to the day of redemption.
We're his children.
We have an inheritance.
Now one contemporary preacher whom I won't name,
he's not present here, has adapted what really
is a well-worn illustration over the centuries
and used by preachers.
But he's adapted it helpfully, I think.
He pictures a criminal in court being found
guilty of many offences.
And suddenly a man stands up in his
place and takes the punishment himself instead of
the criminal.
That's a picture of Calvary.
That's what happens in justification.
Christ has taken our place.
And as we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, his righteousness is reckoned to my account.
I'm pronounced righteous, not guilty.
I'm now free.
So the preacher pictures this man walking out
of the courtroom, amazed.
But he feels that he's abandoned.
He's got nowhere to go.
And he thinks in the countryside that there
is a small, old, dirty hut he used
to play in.
I'll go and stay there.
Maybe I won't have a job, but I
may get enough food.
So he begins to walk.
And as he does so, the officials of
the great king run up to him and
tell him, Look, there are some rooms waiting
for you at the palace.
And the king declares that you're to live
there as one of his family.
And the pardoned criminal asks, Well, how is
this possible?
And the official shows him some papers.
Oh, your Heavenly Father knows all that you've
been up to.
He's got a detailed record of your past.
And the criminal looks at it and he's
amazed.
It's so precise and so accurate.
It was all there.
And yet, says the official to this criminal,
the king has planned in his love to
give you not just acquittal, but to give
you family rights.
And also an inheritance.
So this criminal is taken into the palace,
his rags taken off, new expensive clothes.
And he lives like the son of a
king in the palace.
That's adoption.
Enemies, rebels, sinners.
And we're saved in Christ.
And we're adopted through Jesus Christ into his
family.
Adoption is the ultimate experience because it's the
ultimate of God's purpose purchased by Jesus Christ.
Predestined according to the good pleasure of his
will.
And notice in verse 6, I draw to
a conclusion.
The ultimate aim of God's redemptive purpose is
underlined in verse 6.
To the praise of the glory of his
grace.
There are similar statements in verse 12 and
verse 14.
But here in verse 6, there's emphasis on
his grace as well as on his glory.
The ultimate end of God's electing, predestinating love
is his glory.
God wants his name to be honored and
glorified.
And he also wants his grace to be
outshining, to be exhibited in his people, in
the church.
So that honor and glory is brought back
to God through his people.
In your little church or large church, God
wants his grace in your life to be
so exhibited as to fill people in your
community with a sense of awe and wonder.
Look what God has done to these people.
And this is highlighted then in the rest
of verse 6.
By which he made us accepted in the
Beloved.
So as the apostle speaks of the glory
of God's grace, he adds that it is
this grace with which he has made us
accepted in the Beloved.
Literally, with which he has highly favored us.
All bestowed grace or favor upon us.
You'll know the same word as used earlier
in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 28 in
relation to Mary the Virgin.
Thou art highly favored.
She is chosen among all women to bear
the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has chosen us as sinners in Christ
to be highly favored, to be blessed, to
be redeemed, to be adopted, to be indwelt
by the Holy Spirit.
How?
Again, says the apostle, it's in the Beloved.
It's a new title here for our Lord
Jesus Christ.
It's all achieved and made possible in the
Beloved One.
Remember the words of the Father again in
the baptism of our Lord Jesus, this is
my Beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased.
In his transfiguration, the same words.
The one who is in the bosom of
the Father from eternity.
The Father has sent him.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life.
He spared not his own Son but freely
delivered him up for us all.
Grace.
Look at the cross, we'll be looking at
it again this week.
But there you see the glory of God
outshining.
You see God's grace.
The people for whom Christ is dying have
done nothing to deserve it.
It's the most stupendous, incredible event of history.
God's Son and his human nature should bear
our sin.
The punishment of our sin.
We see there his righteousness.
This holy God hates sin.
He punishes sin.
He has no compromise with it.
He can't close his eyes to it.
He maintains his own righteous standards.
He remains just and yet the justifier of
him which believes in Jesus.
Now you see his love shining.
The Father is there with the Son.
He has sent his Son.
He smites his Son.
He lays on his Son our sins.
He spares him not.
He pours out his eternal wrath upon him,
the wrath which is due to us because
of our sin.
He hides his face from his own Son,
from the dearly beloved one.
Hear his love, says John.
Not that we loved God but that he
loved us.
And sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us.
The heart of the Apostle is moved.
He cannot express himself adequately.
A few years ago I was in the
home of a godly pastor in North Wales.
And in his lounge I'd noticed before but
I drew attention this time to an enlarged
photograph he had on the wall.
It is the photograph of a 1950 LMS
steam engine.
It may mean nothing to most of you
so don't worry.
But it meant a lot to me.
My father used to work on the LMS.
I sometimes had the privilege of riding in
the engine.
And I was fascinated by this engine.
The photograph was of this long, sleek, dark
green steam engine standing at the platform in
Llandudno Junction.
It was the Hollyhead London train.
It was ready to leave.
And the driver was looking out of his
cabin in a state of readiness.
You felt it in the photograph.
And the driver was looking down onto the
platform.
There was a boy about 9 or 10
years old looking up, watching.
I said to this pastor, I like the
photograph.
I wasn't giving a hint but I really
did like it.
I liked steam engines, I told him.
But he wasn't impressed.
He said, I bought this photograph in a
second-hand shop in Bethesda Coit.
For one reason, I don't like trains, he
said.
But it had a lesson.
What is the lesson?
Well, I gave him some answers but he
didn't accept them.
Being ready, prepared, watchful.
He was disgusted with my answers.
He said, get close to that photograph.
Look at the boy's face.
That's where the secret is.
There's a sense of wonder on that boy's
face.
Probably hasn't seen an engine like this before.
He's just overwhelmed by the size and the
majesty of this engine.
He's captivated by it.
Then he turned to me and grabbed my
arm and said, that is worship.
Worship isn't noise, he said.
Worship isn't physical movement.
Worship isn't music.
Worship is a sense of wonder, a sense
of amazement, a sense of appreciation.
You're taken up with the object, God.
And unfortunately we're captivated by secondary issues.
Worship is being aware of him and adoring
him.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we do ask that by
the Holy Spirit we may be given understanding
of this part of Scripture, that we should
be privileged to see in a new way
the glory of our Triune God.
From our hearts grant that there may be
deep and sincere worship and appreciation.
We ask it in our Saviour's name.
Amen.