Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.
What are the riches of his glory in the saints, and what is the glory of his glory in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead,
and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Over eight weeks now we've been looking at the doctrines of grace, or that notion of how we experience God's absolute sovereignty in our salvation.
We've dug into that, we've looked at some questions this morning, our final question is, as Martin's already introduced, do they really matter in 2021?
It's a lot of fuss about nothing.
Historically, how we experience God's sovereignty in salvation has become a great theological divide.
On one side of the divide is the notion that God must, needs to save sinners.
He can't save themselves.
On the other side of the divide is those who believe that God helps sinners to save themselves.
That is, people have some ability at some point to move towards God, and then God helps them in that effort.
It's a big theological divide.
The debate, the divide was at the heart of the Reformation 500 years ago.
But it actually wasn't new then.
It raged 1,100 years before that, because all the way back to the 5th century, and earlier than that even.
And so in the Reformation, what we call the Doctrines of Grace was a formal statement representing the major Protestant reformers.
And they, as a unit, were convinced from the Bible that the nature and extent of sin renders a person unable and unwilling to move towards God or to save themselves.
So, quite naturally then, from there, they determined that every aspect of salvation from start to finish had to be God's initiative, had to be God's sovereign power intervening in a sinful life, a sinful person, and turning that life around.
It had to be through grace alone.
God doing for and in the sinner what they could never do for themselves.
And that was in sharp contrast to what many believed and taught.
And it goes something like this.
In sharp contrast to people who saw that, well, okay, yes, we agree that people generally are, or people universally, are severely affected by sin.
No question at all about that.
But we also believe that still within that person, they have a freedom to choose and the ability to choose to move towards God in the right circumstances.
And that indeed, God recognizes that and then helps them along the way, as it were.
So, it's a joint effort.
Partly my contribution and then partly God supplying what I can't do.
There's two powers at work in there.
God's sovereign power and some of my own remnant power, sovereign power.
But interestingly, the debate's not about God's sovereignty.
We'd be wrong if we thought it was about God's sovereignty because both sides of the divide actually concede the necessity for God's sovereignty,
for God's sovereign power to be at work in our salvation.
The issue is whether God's sovereign, powerful action is required at every point in salvation or not.
Or whether we maintain some sovereign power enabling us to contribute at whatever point to whatever degree.
Now, to me, it's a massive theological divide.
But I think the climate of Christians and evangelicals today is that so many Christians would just dismiss this issue as a historically and theologically redundant issue.
It's a waste of time, people would say.
What does it matter, they say?
Why do Christians just get so nitpicking about these detailed processes of something like salvation?
Let's focus on the majors we hear and not the minors.
And so people are actually relegating a discussion like this to the minors, something that's just sidetracking Christians.
And so we hear today, many people said, look, what's really important is that we just love and affirm one another.
And not fuss about this process of being saved.
So I say again to you, do they really matter in 2021?
Well, the first thing I want to say in terms of answering this is that no, the doctrines of grace do not matter, comma, in the sense that it's not necessary to believe them to be saved.
Now, I want to be really, really clear here.
It's possible for a person to be saved, genuinely saved, and not believe in election, predestination, particular atonement, God's effect of our irresistible calling, or the final perseverance of the saints.
It's possible to be a Christian and not believe any of that.
The Lord's not limited by our lack of understanding, or our sinful refusal to consider such important issues, or even to make them important, or even sinful pride in thinking that our faith is our contribution to salvation.
The Lord's not limited by any of those things in his purpose of salvation.
However, I would argue the experience of any believer over a period of time pushes us more and more towards the idea of God's absolute sovereignty and grace in our salvation.
And it works like this.
As I become more and more aware of my sinful failings, and just my abject step before God, and become aware of God's grace and mercy in moving towards me,
then what happens is that I become smaller.
And God's grace becomes bigger and bigger.
As I understand myself more, looking on the inside, I think, yeah, that would never have happened.
I would never have done that except of God's sovereign action in my life to turn me around, to turn my thinking around, turn my desires around.
And equally true, I think, therefore, also, individual Christians and church communities will not be as mature as they might be if they relegate this great divide or debate to something unimportant.
Why?
Because it will be a church of individuals with a very seriously diminished view of God.
A very diminished view of God's specific love, specific commitment to their salvation.
Perhaps even it will be a church where they claim for themselves that which is rightfully God's to claim and take glory for.
And so, again, you see, in churches where these things are relegated as unimportant, then I think God will be smaller in their thinking than he ought to be.
And conversely, individual Christians will be bigger in their thinking than they ought to be.
But here's the point, the main point I wanted to make in this section.
As those who do thoroughly believe in the doctrines of grace, and I include myself, as those who do thoroughly believe in the doctrines of grace, the golden chain of salvation,
we have no business suggesting that others who do not hold this position are not and cannot be genuine believers.
Now, sad to say, I make this point because that's exactly what some have done who hold the doctrines of grace over the generations.
And they do so without biblical warrant.
They've taken a superior position.
It's actually unbecoming of the very gospel they claim to be defending.
Second answer is this, that the doctrines of grace do really matter in 2021.
First sub-point then.
They are nothing else than the sum and substance of how and why God saves us.
They underpin and permeate the whole of scripture.
Now, why can I say that?
Because in the end, the doctrines of grace are just really about God's character.
You can look at them lots of different ways, but at the end of the day, the doctrines of grace are just a display of God's character.
And God's character is displayed right across the breadth of the Bible in two closely related words.
First one is the word grace that we're so familiar with here in this church, which means God's act of blessing or showing mercy.
Something that's entirely of his own choice.
And he does this to those who are totally undeserving of anything from him except condemnation.
And every page of the Bible, we see that's God's character.
To move towards people who cannot command anything from him.
The second word, very closely related, is steadfast love.
In the New Testament, it's more agape.
In the Old Testament, it's the Hebrew chesed.
God's unwavering loyalty to those he has committed himself to bless.
He sets himself to love.
And nothing that that person can do, good or bad, will cause him to waver in his commitment.
And that chesed, that steadfast love is expressed mostly in God's plan and purpose of salvation.
He determines he's going to save out of this sinful pool a great multitude of those who will show his glory and reflect his character.
And he does just that.
And in spite of sin wrecking everything good in God's creation, we're shown repeatedly that God's steadfast love is both powerful and unwavering.
And that his grace is unconditional and free to those who do not deserve it in any shape or form.
And we pick up here in Ephesians now.
Paul's language is repeatedly and overwhelmingly and just overflows from Paul all the time.
He speaks about the riches of God's grace and how God has lavished that upon us.
It's extravagant language.
Paul talks about being overwhelmed by the sheer generosity and beauty of God's actions towards sinful people.
And we pick it up in Ephesians chapter 1.
We've looked at this passage several times in this series.
But it's worth coming back to again.
Paul in verse 3 says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
It's extravagant language.
It's overflow language.
This is how we see God's character is Paul's point to these Christians in Ephesus.
And we just need to let that sit.
And we just need to sort of swim in that for a little bit.
Because Paul then goes on in verses 4 through to 14 to spell that out a little bit.
What does he mean when he talks about every spiritual blessing?
Well, verses 4 onwards is this golden chain of salvation again.
Where Paul just starts from eternity past.
God determining before the creation of the world to love the unlovely.
God's character to love the unlovely.
Promising to renew and restore relationship with them.
God's grace.
Restoring relationship when condemnation would be the right thing.
Rightful path ahead.
Actually saving them by securing forgiveness at great cost in the death of his son.
Somebody must pay the penalty for these sins.
There must be a death.
But I will cover the cost.
I'll absorb the cost myself.
Through the death of my son.
God's character on display.
Effectively moving people to respond.
When left to themselves, they would not have cared less about Jesus' death.
God making sure that each individual has the benefits of Christ's death applied to them.
When, as I say, left to themselves, they couldn't have cared less.
Leading them into full knowledge and enjoyment of himself.
And overcoming all the obstacles to the fulfillment of this promise that arise at every stage and throughout life itself.
So that that saved person will make it home to heaven.
Eternity.
Future.
At every point.
We, what we call salvation is just the sum and substance of God's character.
Why he saves us.
How he saves us.
Both of those are explained by God's character.
His grace.
And his steadfast love.
So friends, the point I want you to grasp here is that the doctrines of grace are biblical truth.
But I don't want us just to think of them as a sort of bland biblical truth.
The doctrines of grace are a display of God's sovereign character and purpose in this world.
They're to be embraced, therefore.
What a great God.
He's come looking for me when I was hiding from him.
They're to be treasured.
God has actually done something for me that I could never have done for myself.
They're to be guarded for successive generations.
I want my children and grandchildren and everybody else in this country to know the same character of God that offers them the same option of salvation.
I don't want to let that go as an inconsequential thing.
I want it to be front and center.
I want it to be my legacy as I leave this church and go home to be in heaven with the Lord.
I want the next generation and the next generation of this church to be teaching the same stuff for the same reasons.
And the doctrines of grace cannot rightly be dismissed as a historical creed.
They have been, but they cannot rightly be dismissed as a historical creed that perhaps has some value in its day,
but no longer an issue for genuine believers who want to serve the Lord.
If we're going to serve the Lord, we must serve the Lord within response to his character.
Second point, it pushes to have proper supernaturalism with respect to our salvation.
The cry of all Bible writers and indeed the teaching of Jesus himself is that salvation is of the Lord.
But sadly, again, I suggest to you this morning, this concept has been severely diminished or even lost among some so-called evangelical Christians today.
I think it works like this.
No longer do we hear of the need for a person to be saved or to be converted.
Because both those statements emphasize God's action of rescuing a person from their hopeless plight and renewing them.
Now, the common statement we hear, so many evangelicals teach, is that people need to make a commitment.
They need to make a decision to follow Jesus.
Now, do you hear the difference in the verb there?
It suggests that it's something the person does primarily and substantially.
Now, I think this is more than just modernizing language.
I think it expresses a radical change in our theology of salvation.
Now, clearly, and I want you to hear me carefully here,
Scripture does call us to be committed to Christ at every point in life.
But that's always in response to being saved.
God's action in our life, to start with.
The one can't cancel out the other.
The one doesn't replace the other.
It appears that desperate issues of salvation, that is being dead, being under God's wrath, being made alive, that we see here in Ephesians 2,
it appears that those desperate issues of salvation have been lost or rejected or so toned down as to be unimportant.
And therefore, Jesus becomes more of a model of morality, a lifestyle to emulate or reproduce,
rather than a substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
And so, if we ask why professing Christians today argue that the doctrines of grace do not matter,
I think sometimes we find the answer in this change of theology.
The modern gospel, which is so common among evangelicals today,
plays down the holiness of God, especially in respect of his anger at sin and rebellion,
and plays up the basic goodness of a person or people individually.
Saying that, well, yeah, we've got some problems, but we're not all bad.
We've got some good things that we can rightly bring to the table when we approach God.
Even though they'll also say that, yes, when we do that, we still need God's help.
The modern gospel promotes, my friends, I'm going to, this is probably the most provocative thing I'll say this morning.
The modern gospel, I think, promotes shared sovereignty.
Now, they'll quickly add that our sovereignty is not equal to God's, so it's not an equal sovereignty,
but it's a shared sovereignty.
Something that is, something that's real, something that we have the right to bring with us
when we're approaching God.
Something that we can actually bring to the table as we say, well, okay, what's going to make me acceptable to you, Lord?
Well, I'll bring this.
I recognize that you need to provide that.
My friends, the doctrines of grace, I believe, put things back in the proper perspective.
As I've said already, it makes God big, demanding his supernatural activity at every step in our salvation.
And equally important, it makes us small, demanding our humble dependence and thankfulness for God's mercy and grace.
Third sub-point, then, is they get glory for God like nothing else.
The doctrines of grace get glory for God like nothing else.
Very simple point here.
The more hopeless the plight of the condemned person, the greater will be the love, adoration, and sense of indebtedness
of the one forgiven and rescued and freed into new life.
For Paul, when he talks about the gap between God and sinful people,
he's talking in terms of the gap between heaven and hell.
Between being saved by grace alone, chapter 2, and being without hope and without God in the world.
Massive gap.
And four times in this one chapter here, and I don't have time to go through them all,
but in verse 6 and 7 and verses 12 and 14,
four times Paul bounces from describing the spiritual blessings we have in Christ
as a result of God's salvation purpose to saying,
he just stops, and it's all too much for him,
and he just stops to the praise of his glory.
To the praise of his glory.
It's just so overwhelming that Paul just has to stop and breathe.
To the breathe.
I've done a day of thought again.
To the praise of his glory.
And Paul goes on from there in the following chapters in his letter to the church at Ephesus
to speak about the beautiful mystery of God's grace that is salvation in Jesus.
The unsearchable riches of God's grace in Christ.
Chapter 3.
These very things that create the church,
the community of resurrected people, of saved people,
through whom God's incredible wisdom and love, faithfulness and purpose is shown.
Again, God's character.
And from here in chapter 4, and from there in chapter 4,
he urges a whole of life response.
And here's Paul's point.
Since God is sovereign in salvation,
since salvation is really an experience we have,
a very personal experience of God's character,
of grace and steadfast love and mercy.
And because of that, we're new.
Join heirs with Jesus.
Then, says Paul, chapter 4,
we owe him everything.
We owe him everything.
Heirs with Jesus.
And that's why, my friends,
Christian songwriters,
modern and ancient,
write over and over and over again
about amazing grace.
I remember when I was a bit younger,
I used to think,
why do Christian songwriters have these cliches?
Because amazing grace is in so many songs.
And I've come to appreciate now
that it's not a cliche,
unless it's in my mind a cliche.
It's the essence,
the sum and total of God's character
that we experience every single day
as we experience at that single point
when we were saved and made alive.
To say that salvation is of the Lord
in conception,
in planning,
accomplishment,
application,
such that sinners like you and me
will be in heaven with the Father forever,
is simply to give God
the glory he deserves.
So the better we understand
the doctrines of grace,
the more we respond to God's grace
and mercy and love
by showing we owe him everything,
the more glory he gets from us.
It literally is to the praise of his glory.
Second point then,
and we're getting close to being done.
The doctrines of grace free us.
They free us and encourage us
to confident Christian living.
Two sides of this coin,
encouraging us to come to Christ
in all our sinfulness.
Now I suspect you're just like me.
If you're not,
then you just listen in for this moment.
But so often,
I fear I'm too sinful to be saved.
Perhaps we,
if you're like me,
perhaps it's some big sin in the past.
You think,
I can understand God being forgiving
and all this,
but this one,
no, that one's just too big.
No.
Too awful for God to forgive.
Or it can be more immediate.
So sometimes we can get worn down,
not just by that big sin from the past
that we cogitate on,
but sometimes it's our small,
daily,
repeated sins
that just rise up
to cause fear.
And it's when we go to pray,
because we're praying and confessing
the same sin today
as we confessed yesterday
and the day before
and the week before
and the month before.
And we think to ourselves,
really?
Is God going to listen to this again?
You see,
in Ephesians chapter 1,
Paul gives us
the tools of freedom.
By saying it is,
it's not about my failures,
it's about God's commitment to me.
It's about his golden chain of salvation
that he didn't leave anything to chance.
He didn't leave any part of my salvation
down to my own resources
because he knew jolly well
that I would stuff it up.
In Christ,
we have every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly realm.
There is nothing else, my friends,
nothing else that God could do for us
or give us
that would make us more secure,
that would make us more new.
So when our fears threaten to overwhelm us,
we need to drive them away
by praying as Paul prays
in verses 15 to 23.
I've even got it written down here wrong.
Thanks for embarrassing me, Liz.
From 15 to 23,
we need to drive away those fears
by praying as Paul prays.
And again,
I don't have time to go through this prayer in detail,
but I'd encourage you,
urge you to go through it in detail
in your own time.
Freedom from fear
is knowing the doctrines of grace,
to use the terminology,
but move away from the terminology.
Freedom from fear
is knowing God's power
and God's grace
and God's commitment
and God's purpose
in salvation.
Not just to make salvation
available
and hope to goodness
that somebody might be interested in it,
but to actually save those
he set his love on
and bring them home to heaven.
So they'll be part of this
vast multitude
that no man can number
who will just be singing
the praises of God's glory.
And this in turn,
you see,
frees us to confident Christian living.
It frees us
from the performance treadmill
of always trying
to earn favour with God
by getting things right.
And friends,
this also includes freedom
to fail again and again
as we do.
Then to seek God's forgiveness.
Once more determined
to live and act
and think in a way
that shows a proper response
of gratitude
and worship
for his mercies to us.
I'm still confident
even in our failures
that God is working
with us and in us
to make us more like Christ
little by little.
Jude chapter 24
says this.
I'm going to read this one too.
I'm going to find it.
I should have a look at it.
Okay.
It's commonly used
as a doxology.
Now to him
who is able
to keep you
from stumbling
and to present you
blameless
before the presence
of his glory
with great joy
to the only God
our Saviour
through Jesus Christ
our Lord
be glory,
majesty,
dominion
and authority
before all time
now and forever.
God's character
our freedom
and security
God's glory.
The second
the other side
of this coin
is they encourage us
to encourage others
to come to Christ.
Now friends
there's no question
about it
at least in my experience
that evangelism
is hard work.
Which of us
can change
a single attitude
or desire
in another person?
Which of us
can cut through
that deep
instinct of hostility
that people have
towards God
or that deep
inclination
to hide from God?
The answer is
thankfully
we don't have to.
As we saw
two weeks ago
our job
is to simply
preach God's word
get on with our stuff
and let God
do his stuff.
That's a beautiful
freedom.
We just need to
speak when we
have opportunity.
Tell our friends
tell our families
tell our neighbours
tell our workmates.
It's God's work
then to create
new life
and repentance
and faith
in the person.
I just find
that such a
relaxing partnership.
The doctrines
of grace
are the platform
for confident
evangelism
and cross
cultural
mission
work.
As I said
two weeks ago
not only
has God
determined
that
a great multitude
would be saved
he's determined
how
and when
through the
preaching
of the gospel.
God's work
God's stuff
our stuff
wonderful freedom
in that.
God's work
I just want
to conclude
the series
then by
reading to you
from Acts
chapter 18
verse 10
Paul knew
the travail
of being a witness
for Christ
and speaking
the gospel
to people
who were lost
in their sin
and unwilling
even to hear it
and he says
this
or rather
the Lord
says this
to Paul
the Lord
said to Paul
one night
in a vision
do not be
afraid
but go
on speaking
and do not
be silent
here it comes
for I am
with you
and no one
will attack
you to harm
you for I
have many
in this city
who are my
people
where was
he working
Corinth
that den
of iniquity
bit like
our country
isn't it
I have
many
in this city
who are my
people
go on
speaking
do not
be silent
our stuff
God's stuff
Paul's
confidence
in a very
hostile city
with a
strong
worldview
that was
openly
opposed
to God
was
God's
sovereignty
in salvation
God has
his elect
people in
Corinth
and nothing
would stop
those appointed
for salvation
from being
saved
Paul could
roll out of bed
in the morning
sometimes even
nursing his
bruises
and get on
the job
of speaking
with Jesus
let me pray
Lord we
are just
literally
overwhelmed
by your
character
that you
pursue us
in love
and mercy
you call
us back
to yourself
in grace
and you
love us
with a
steadfast
love
help us
never
Lord to
even think
about diminishing
that at our
front and
center piece
help us to
make you
big
and ourselves
small
in Jesus
name I
pray
Amen
thank you
very much
for listening