WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.400 We're going to read together now from the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 to 14 from the 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:15.120 New Testament and Lewis is going to come and read for us. Ephesians chapter 1 from verse 1, 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:22.000 Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the same servant Ephesus and our faithful 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.920 in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:34.160 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:40.240 spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:47.200 world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:53.359 sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:59.600 with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:05.760 the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:11.519 in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:17.359 which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:24.000 things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance having being 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.359 predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:35.519 will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:42.560 In him you also when you have heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:49.120 in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:56.960 acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. All right we're going to look together at 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:04.159 the passage Lewis-Red Forest Ephesians 1. We started a new series this morning on the letter 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:11.759 of Paul to the Ephesians and this is a letter that Paul wrote in sometime between the year 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:20.959 60 and 62 from a prison in the city of Rome and he writes it to Ephesus. This is a church he planted 00:02:20.959 --> 00:02:26.560 in the 50s. He was there for about three years with the Ephesian people. He really loved them. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:32.479 If you read Acts 18 and 19 you can read the story of Paul in Ephesus and the church plan and all that 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:38.799 and you get from Acts 18-19 that he had very deep love for the Ephesians and they for him. There were 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:46.160 a lot of tears when he left and he's writing to them now from prison and it's a circular, the scholars 00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:51.600 will say this is a circular letter which means it's a letter written to one church that was meant to 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:56.480 be copied. Lots of copies would have been made and then they would have sent it around to all the 00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:00.720 churches near them and they would have told them now you make copies send it around to all the 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:08.400 churches near you and so in some of the early manuscripts we have actually there is no word 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:14.080 Ephesus there and in verse one it says to the saints who are in and there's a blank there in some 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:19.840 of the manuscripts which means that you could fill in they would make a copy that would leave off 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:27.520 Ephesus and you could put the name of your church into the blank. So Paul says he's an apostle he's 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:33.840 got authority to speak from God and there's a blank there to us today where it says Ephesus. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:41.280 So by by God's power Paul is writing to us to it says it says to the church to the saints 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:49.599 who are in Edinburgh and it's all about the church it's to the church for the church about the church 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:55.439 that's really the central theme of the book of Ephesians and there's this implicit question in it 00:03:55.439 --> 00:04:01.680 that just ask who is the church what is the church what does the church do that's really the question 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:09.920 that unites the whole of the book and it's really important and in chapters one to three you get 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:15.200 basically the foundational truths about who the church is and then in chapters four to six it's 00:04:15.200 --> 00:04:21.439 all about what the church does relationships and how we live out into the world we'll get there 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:25.600 eventually chapters four to six but we'll start chapters one to three and think about who the 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:35.040 church is now we as modern people live in a society in a culture in a time where we think a lot about 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:42.080 constructing identity and the world around us is constantly teaching us implicitly explicitly 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:48.800 that our fundamental human identity is a product of the way we feel in the decisions we've made 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:55.840 so the way that your emotions are moving that's how you're being shaped who you are is how you 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:00.400 feel on the one hand on the other hand the decisions you've made both your achievements 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:06.400 and your failures is who you are and so we are all combinations the contemporary world says 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:13.759 of our feelings and our achievements or our failures and what Paul does in this letter and 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:20.719 in this first section we read is come and tell you that when you follow Jesus Christ you get an 00:05:20.719 --> 00:05:27.599 identity that comes from the outside not the inside that your identity is more objective than it is 00:05:27.599 --> 00:05:34.959 subjective and that that identity is cosmic in its scope that when you understand what Paul's 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:42.240 saying in this first sentence he writes you realize that who you are as part of such a big 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:50.240 vast grand narrative that it disrupts any sense of subjectivism that's at play in the modern world 00:05:50.240 --> 00:06:01.439 order and verses 3 to 14 that we read is probably Paul's most famous sentence and I say a sentence 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:08.560 because it is one sentence so in English you'll see that there are periods full stops all throughout 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:16.480 verses 3 to 14 but in Greek there isn't in Greek this is one long sentence that the scholars will 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:24.639 tell you is full of bad grammar so it's not in Greek the grammar is not correct and it's and 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:31.920 that's exactly the point it's not a mistake Paul it's as if Paul got so overwhelmed by saying 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:36.800 blessed be God the Father let me tell you about your cosmic identity in Jesus that he just his 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:43.199 pen just kept going and going and going and he forgot to put the punctuation in and so we've 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:49.280 got this one long sentence from 3 to 14 and it's all about who the church is and fundamentally what 00:06:49.280 --> 00:06:54.639 your identity is if you follow Jesus and so every single week in this series we're going to ask the 00:06:54.639 --> 00:07:00.080 question who is the church what is the church and every week you'll get an answer to that question 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:05.840 and this week we're just saying the church is blessed by God and so we need to think about 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:11.759 what it means to be blessed I went through and made a list of all the ways that Paul says we're 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:18.479 blessed in verses 3 to 14 and this is what he says he says we're chosen elected predestined 00:07:19.039 --> 00:07:27.120 loved redeemed forgiven adopted lavish by grace and sealed with the Holy Spirit so he says you've 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:35.039 got every spiritual blessing you've got everything you need so what are you worried about why are we 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:40.400 anxious we've got everything we need Paul says and so let's see that what does it mean to be 00:07:40.400 --> 00:07:45.680 blessed and then today we're just going to look at one of those blessings which is election or being 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:35.040 chosen predestination martin l 00:07:35.040 --> 00:08:03.520 moi 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.700 but remember Lloyd Johnston, 24. 00:08:07.700 --> 00:08:10.379 So we'll be, we'll, three weeks right here. 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:12.300 What does it mean to be blessed? 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:13.340 We are blessed. 00:08:13.340 --> 00:08:15.860 That's what Paul teaches us here first. 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:19.939 John Mackay, a Scotsman, he became president 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:21.780 of Princeton Theological Seminary 00:08:21.780 --> 00:08:24.620 in the early 20th century, about 1903. 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:28.820 And he came back to Edinburgh and gave lectures 00:08:28.820 --> 00:08:32.539 on Ephesians right across the street a very long time ago. 00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:34.460 And I just want to tell you what he said 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:35.300 about this letter. 00:08:35.300 --> 00:08:39.740 He says, to this letter I owe my life. 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:41.900 He said, when I first read it, 00:08:41.900 --> 00:08:45.940 I was just a little boy in the Scottish Highlands. 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:48.019 And he says, I experienced rapture 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:50.100 in the Highland Hills of Scotland. 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:51.940 He said that when he read this sentence, 00:08:51.940 --> 00:08:55.600 verses three to 14, I saw a new world. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.420 Jesus Christ became the center of everything. 00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:00.660 I became alive. 00:09:00.660 --> 00:09:03.639 Now, I think that John Mackay experienced 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:05.779 exactly what Paul is experiencing 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:07.100 when he writes this sentence. 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:10.299 This sentence, the commentators will say, 00:09:10.299 --> 00:09:14.299 is all about this enraptured worship experience 00:09:14.299 --> 00:09:15.460 that Paul's having. 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:18.819 So he says in verse three, blessed be God the Father. 00:09:18.819 --> 00:09:22.019 And then just rolls on with these sentences, 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:25.939 this one sentence of worship and almost rapture. 00:09:25.939 --> 00:09:27.939 And John Mackay talks about that. 00:09:27.939 --> 00:09:28.860 And you can see what he says. 00:09:28.860 --> 00:09:32.340 He says, blessed be God, the God and Father 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:33.460 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:34.940 So he's worshiping there. 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:39.820 And then he says, and blessed are we in Christ. 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:43.200 So he uses this word blessed over and over again. 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:47.340 And the Greek word blessed is the word eulogize. 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:49.139 So it's the word for eulogy. 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:52.540 So we talk about giving eulogies at funerals. 00:09:52.540 --> 00:09:55.980 But the funerals, not the only place for a eulogy. 00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:59.259 Paul says, I am eulogizing God 00:09:59.259 --> 00:10:00.980 because he has eulogized me. 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:02.820 That's literally what it says in Greek. 00:10:02.820 --> 00:10:07.820 And a eulogy is just when you offer praise and acclaim 00:10:09.140 --> 00:10:12.060 and publicly state that something's valuable. 00:10:12.060 --> 00:10:13.379 That's a eulogy. 00:10:13.379 --> 00:10:16.940 And when we use it for people, for humans, 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:19.940 we use it to mean a eulogy or blessing 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.300 is when you give somebody a gift 00:10:22.300 --> 00:10:25.140 or you give them words of praise and words of value, 00:10:25.140 --> 00:10:26.180 words of love, right? 00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:29.820 So Paul says here, it's a very simple idea. 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:34.420 He says, I want to eulogize God, bless him. 00:10:34.420 --> 00:10:35.900 Which you can't give God anything. 00:10:35.900 --> 00:10:38.379 He means I want to give words of praise to God 00:10:38.379 --> 00:10:42.060 because God eulogized me. 00:10:42.060 --> 00:10:44.740 And so he's saying, because I have been so lavished 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.900 by gifts from God, I want to turn around 00:10:47.900 --> 00:10:49.820 and give a eulogy to God. 00:10:49.820 --> 00:10:54.060 So he's worshiping here because he's been so blessed. 00:10:54.060 --> 00:10:55.620 And so what do you know what that means? 00:10:55.620 --> 00:11:00.419 That means that he's saying that his entire identity 00:11:01.419 --> 00:11:06.419 is basically summed up in the word, I am blessed, I'm blessed. 00:11:06.500 --> 00:11:09.460 He has a, Paul has a God-centered view, 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:12.580 a theocentric view of who he is. 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:15.019 And it drives him to worship. 00:11:16.060 --> 00:11:18.259 It drives him straight into singing. 00:11:18.259 --> 00:11:20.860 And so some people will say this may have very well been 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:23.779 a hymn that Paul's effectively, he's writing here, 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:26.100 a hymn of praise that he's giving to God. 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:28.179 And I just want to point out to you, 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:30.059 especially since this is week one of three weeks 00:11:30.059 --> 00:11:31.579 looking at this long sentence, 00:11:31.579 --> 00:11:34.019 the structure that he gives us, 00:11:34.019 --> 00:11:35.779 because it's very structured. 00:11:35.779 --> 00:11:38.179 So if you look at verse three, you can see he says, 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:41.620 bless it be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:41.620 --> 00:11:44.779 And then he lists the blessings that come from God the father. 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:47.620 And then if you jump down to verse seven, 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:52.620 he says, in him, Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:55.460 And then jump all the way down to verse 13, 00:11:55.460 --> 00:11:57.980 we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:01.100 So the commentators will say that what he's doing is saying, 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:02.820 praise be to God the father, 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:05.179 and here's the blessings God the father's given us. 00:12:05.179 --> 00:12:08.100 Praise be to God the son, and here's the blessings 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:09.899 the son gave us specifically. 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:11.179 And then praise to the Holy Spirit. 00:12:11.179 --> 00:12:14.340 Here's the blessings the Holy Spirit gives us specifically. 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:17.460 But he also does another layer on top of that, 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:21.659 which is God the father has blessed us from eternity past. 00:12:21.659 --> 00:12:24.819 God the son blessed us in the middle of history, 00:12:24.819 --> 00:12:27.659 and the Holy Spirit is blessing us right now. 00:12:27.659 --> 00:12:30.219 So it's got a Trinitarian structure 00:12:30.219 --> 00:12:34.019 and a Eternity, History, Present Day structure, 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:35.779 a Time structure as well. 00:12:35.779 --> 00:12:39.579 So it's a hymn with three verses, three stanzas, 00:12:39.579 --> 00:12:41.459 but they're all one sentence. 00:12:41.459 --> 00:12:43.139 And it says, Father, Son, Spirit, 00:12:43.139 --> 00:12:46.059 Eternity, History, and Today. 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:48.179 That's how he structured it for us. 00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:49.899 And what do we learn? 00:12:49.899 --> 00:12:50.659 Here's what we learn. 00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:51.819 Very simple. 00:12:51.819 --> 00:12:55.419 When you read this hymn of praise, this Trinitarian hymn, 00:12:55.419 --> 00:12:57.459 and it says, Blessed be God the father, 00:12:57.459 --> 00:13:00.779 because from eternity he has blessed me. 00:13:00.779 --> 00:13:05.100 You learn that everything we have, 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:07.620 and especially salvation, our salvation, 00:13:07.620 --> 00:13:08.980 comes from God alone. 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:13.100 It's the simple idea, if you've been here before, 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:15.220 if you've been here awhile, you know this, 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:16.980 but it's worth saying, because this is what Paul says, 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:21.620 he says, God does everything when it comes to our salvation. 00:13:21.620 --> 00:13:25.659 The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God does it all. 00:13:26.460 --> 00:13:28.220 And at the very beginning of the passage, 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:30.899 he said, Grace to you and peace to you, 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:33.060 Saints and Ephesians, Grace to you and peace to you, 00:13:33.060 --> 00:13:36.300 Saints, you Christians in Edinburgh. 00:13:36.300 --> 00:13:39.379 And what he's saying there is, what is a Christian? 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:43.539 A Christian is nothing but a person 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:48.099 who is able today to say, God has given me something 00:13:48.099 --> 00:13:50.819 I don't deserve and I realize that. 00:13:50.819 --> 00:13:51.939 That's all a Christian is. 00:13:51.939 --> 00:13:54.939 It's just to say, I'm a person who knows 00:13:54.939 --> 00:13:58.980 that what I have from God is not what I deserve. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:00.179 That's Grace to me. 00:14:01.219 --> 00:14:04.259 And what I have by Grace, what he's lavished on me, 00:14:04.259 --> 00:14:07.740 is peace, peace with him, and I don't deserve it. 00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:08.659 That's all a Christian is. 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:10.179 And so he says, and because of that, 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:13.019 Blessed be God the father, blessed be God the Son, 00:14:13.019 --> 00:14:14.980 blessed be the Holy Spirit. 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:16.299 How do we feel about it? 00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:18.740 That's what we're talking about. 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:21.059 How do you feel about that today? 00:14:21.059 --> 00:14:24.460 And Paul says, if you are a Christian, 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:27.340 if you become a Christian, if you realize 00:14:27.340 --> 00:14:30.340 that all you have from God you do not deserve, 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.379 the way you should feel is that it should drive you 00:14:32.379 --> 00:14:34.539 to worship, that you should then return and say, 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:39.539 I just need to say, I need to eulogize God today. 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:40.659 I need to say it. 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:41.620 I've got to worship. 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:43.100 I've got to say it out loud. 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:44.379 I got to sing about it. 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:46.539 And that's exactly what Paul is doing here. 00:14:46.539 --> 00:14:48.539 He's saying that when you realize it, 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:50.899 when you realize that you don't have to have 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:53.659 a subjectivist view of your identity, 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.539 an identity that depends entirely on your performance 00:14:57.539 --> 00:15:00.659 and your feelings, but you can have a theocentric view 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:02.659 that participates in all that God's doing 00:15:02.659 --> 00:15:04.899 from eternity to everlasting life. 00:15:04.899 --> 00:15:06.700 You say, I've got to sing about that. 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:08.419 I've got to eulogize God. 00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:10.180 It drives me toward it. 00:15:10.179 --> 00:15:11.899 Let me say it one final way, 00:15:11.899 --> 00:15:13.939 and then we'll get to the specific blessing. 00:15:15.739 --> 00:15:16.979 In other words, what Paul's doing here 00:15:16.979 --> 00:15:19.979 is he's saying that when you see that you can have 00:15:19.979 --> 00:15:22.139 a cosmic view of your identity, 00:15:23.379 --> 00:15:25.579 not a mere subjectivist view, 00:15:25.579 --> 00:15:28.539 it drives you into the arms of the Lord. 00:15:28.539 --> 00:15:30.219 It drives you straight to worship. 00:15:30.219 --> 00:15:32.379 And he does that with two little phrases, 00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:34.259 and these are so important. 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:36.939 We're gonna see him throughout the entirety of the letter. 00:15:36.939 --> 00:15:39.099 And there in verse three, he said, 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:42.100 he worships and says, bless it be God the Father, 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:45.659 who has blessed us, and here it is, in Christ. 00:15:45.659 --> 00:15:46.940 And the second phrase is, 00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:51.440 with every spiritual blessing from heaven, or in heaven. 00:15:52.580 --> 00:15:56.060 So he says, here's your cosmic identity. 00:15:56.060 --> 00:16:01.060 You are right now in Christ, if you're a follower of Jesus, 00:16:01.180 --> 00:16:03.620 in the heavenly places with every possible blessing 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:05.180 you could ever want. 00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:10.179 Meaning that God has so associated you, 00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:14.819 God has so associated this Christian family 00:16:14.819 --> 00:16:19.179 with Jesus in heaven right now, 00:16:19.179 --> 00:16:22.099 that every single thing that is true of Jesus Christ, 00:16:22.099 --> 00:16:26.299 God says is also true of us at this very moment. 00:16:26.299 --> 00:16:28.259 So he said, we are, we right now, 00:16:28.259 --> 00:16:31.299 the church is so united to Jesus 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:33.779 that whatever you can say about him, 00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:35.179 you can say about yourself. 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:40.059 So that when he died, carrying sin, you died, 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:44.019 your sin died, when he came to life and defeated sin, 00:16:44.019 --> 00:16:46.819 and lives forever, you now have defeated sin 00:16:46.819 --> 00:16:48.179 and live forever. 00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:50.819 Every single blessing that Jesus right now has 00:16:50.819 --> 00:16:53.059 in the heavenly realm is true of you. 00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:57.100 He says that is your cosmic identity, 00:16:57.100 --> 00:16:59.500 an identity that stretches far beyond the moment, 00:16:59.500 --> 00:17:02.439 an identity that stretches far beyond the subjectivism 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.019 of the way you feel, the subjectivism of the way 00:17:06.019 --> 00:17:09.180 you've made good decisions and bad decisions this week 00:17:09.180 --> 00:17:10.580 that gives you something so much more 00:17:10.580 --> 00:17:12.900 than your performance to stand on. 00:17:12.900 --> 00:17:14.460 So he says, why are you worried? 00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:15.779 Why are we anxious? 00:17:16.779 --> 00:17:19.019 You've got a cosmic identity where you've been given 00:17:19.019 --> 00:17:21.720 every single blessing in the heavenly domain. 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.299 You see, your identity of being blessed stretches, 00:17:25.299 --> 00:17:28.960 it's transdimensional, it stretches into the visible realm 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:31.380 but also into the invisible realm. 00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:33.380 It stretches from eternity all the way 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:35.300 into everlasting life. 00:17:35.300 --> 00:17:37.460 And so Paul's saying, do you see your identity? 00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:39.260 Does it drive you to worship? 00:17:39.260 --> 00:17:41.860 He just says, we're blessed. 00:17:41.860 --> 00:17:44.340 You're blessed if you're a follower of Jesus today. 00:17:44.340 --> 00:17:47.900 Now let's think together for the next couple weeks 00:17:47.900 --> 00:17:50.300 beyond this about these blessings. 00:17:50.300 --> 00:17:51.940 And I just wanna, for the rest of our time, 00:17:51.940 --> 00:17:55.100 just look at one, the first one, 00:17:55.100 --> 00:17:57.580 and that's that we're chosen. 00:17:58.580 --> 00:18:00.380 He says, blessed be God the Father, 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:02.780 our Lord Jesus Christ who's blessed us 00:18:02.780 --> 00:18:06.380 because he chose us before the foundation of the world. 00:18:06.380 --> 00:18:09.820 He predestined us to be adopted as sons and daughters. 00:18:11.580 --> 00:18:15.700 Now, John Stott says, when you realize 00:18:16.580 --> 00:18:21.580 the greatness and the majesty of what Paul is saying here, 00:18:22.700 --> 00:18:27.380 he says, this sentence is a violent collision 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:29.080 with all self-centeredness. 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:33.500 Falling human beings, we are imprisoned, he writes, 00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:36.699 in our own little ego, and we have an almost boundless 00:18:36.699 --> 00:18:39.259 confidence in the power of our own will. 00:18:39.259 --> 00:18:41.379 We have an almost insatiable appetite 00:18:41.379 --> 00:18:43.939 for the praise of our own glory. 00:18:43.939 --> 00:18:47.299 But the people of God have begun, 00:18:47.299 --> 00:18:48.500 when they read a sentence like this, 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:50.299 to be turned inside out. 00:18:51.179 --> 00:18:53.859 They've begun to realize we are a people 00:18:53.859 --> 00:18:56.699 in God's own possession who live by God's will 00:18:56.700 --> 00:19:00.299 under God's authority according to God's decisions. 00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:04.220 So it's a big view, and it's exactly what predestination, 00:19:04.220 --> 00:19:07.420 what we call election, or being chosen, 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:09.620 as Paul says here, drives us to. 00:19:09.620 --> 00:19:11.819 All right, so this is what it means. 00:19:11.819 --> 00:19:14.100 Paul says today, if you're a follower of Jesus, 00:19:14.100 --> 00:19:17.299 you're blessed, and you've also been chosen by God 00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:21.140 from a time before the foundation of the world, 00:19:21.140 --> 00:19:26.140 from eternity past, which is actually no time at all. 00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:28.300 He says, you were chosen from a time 00:19:28.300 --> 00:19:29.820 before time ever existed. 00:19:31.100 --> 00:19:34.500 You were loved by God from before the world 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:36.140 was ever created, that's what he says. 00:19:36.140 --> 00:19:41.140 You were named, and therefore you have been predestined. 00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:44.220 In other words, all your life has been directed by God, 00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:47.060 ultimately to your faith in Jesus Christ. 00:19:47.060 --> 00:19:52.060 Now, this is here to say we're blessed. 00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:55.820 This is a blessing. 00:19:55.819 --> 00:19:58.220 It's a blessing to be able to say this out loud. 00:19:59.419 --> 00:20:01.059 Paul is saying this, and he's not giving you 00:20:01.059 --> 00:20:03.740 any philosophical explanation. 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.220 He's not giving you any model for how you can work this out 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:08.700 with your views of human freedom. 00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:11.299 He's just saying, praise be to God, 00:20:11.299 --> 00:20:15.099 that God is so powerful that he would choose us 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:17.299 from before the foundation of the world. 00:20:17.299 --> 00:20:19.019 And the first order of business is actually 00:20:19.019 --> 00:20:23.819 just to let this truth be that, to let it be good. 00:20:23.819 --> 00:20:25.939 Paul doesn't give it and say, do you think this? 00:20:25.939 --> 00:20:27.659 Do you think there's an option before you? 00:20:27.659 --> 00:20:29.819 No, he just says, this is the truth, 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:31.259 and praise be to God for it. 00:20:31.259 --> 00:20:34.379 And yet, we have a really tough time with it. 00:20:34.379 --> 00:20:38.939 So we as modern people, more so than ever before in history, 00:20:38.939 --> 00:20:41.700 have a really difficult time with reading a verse like this. 00:20:41.700 --> 00:20:44.939 And so here's three objections 00:20:44.939 --> 00:20:47.379 that might come up in your mind. 00:20:47.379 --> 00:20:49.059 And let me say, in every single one of these, 00:20:49.059 --> 00:20:52.899 the objection leads to a reason why we should 00:20:52.900 --> 00:20:54.740 and want to believe this all the more. 00:20:54.740 --> 00:20:55.580 And here they are. 00:20:55.580 --> 00:20:57.540 You come to this and say something like, 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:01.100 you know, I feel that I'm a Christian, 00:21:01.100 --> 00:21:04.300 not because God made me become one or something like that, 00:21:04.300 --> 00:21:06.820 but because I chose to be. 00:21:06.820 --> 00:21:08.900 You say, you know, where's my freedom? 00:21:08.900 --> 00:21:10.980 Where is my choice in this idea 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:13.340 that God has determined the church 00:21:13.340 --> 00:21:15.300 from before the foundation of the world? 00:21:15.300 --> 00:21:18.540 And I think that what Paul's doing is anticipating 00:21:18.540 --> 00:21:20.500 our potential objections and addressing them. 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:25.339 So in verse four, he says, he chose us in Christ Jesus 00:21:25.339 --> 00:21:27.460 before the foundation of the world. 00:21:27.460 --> 00:21:29.660 He's emphasizing it, he's pushing it. 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:33.140 He's saying, before time ever began, he chose us. 00:21:33.140 --> 00:21:34.980 And he said, and I know, 00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:38.299 I know you're gonna come around Ephesians and Edinburgh folk, 00:21:38.299 --> 00:21:41.220 you're gonna come and say, well, what about my freedom? 00:21:41.220 --> 00:21:43.380 Isn't it the case that if I want to follow Jesus, 00:21:43.380 --> 00:21:45.500 because I chose to follow Jesus? 00:21:45.500 --> 00:21:48.299 And Paul's trying to get us to see that, 00:21:48.299 --> 00:21:50.779 yes, if you're a follower of Jesus today, 00:21:50.779 --> 00:21:53.779 you did choose to follow Jesus, and you must. 00:21:53.779 --> 00:21:56.779 You must, you must trust, you must take a step of faith, 00:21:56.779 --> 00:22:00.440 and your decision is not absolute and ultimate. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:05.019 So your decision to follow Jesus is penultimate, 00:22:05.019 --> 00:22:07.419 it's secondary, and you decided, 00:22:07.419 --> 00:22:10.220 because his decision was absolute and his ultimate. 00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:13.740 And here's one way to think about that. 00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:16.859 If you ask, you know, if I was to sit down, 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:19.219 if we were all to sit down together and say, 00:22:19.219 --> 00:22:20.639 why are you a Christian? 00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:24.059 You might say something like, 00:22:24.059 --> 00:22:26.619 it's because I realized my deep need. 00:22:26.619 --> 00:22:28.459 You know, I'm a sinner and I realized 00:22:28.459 --> 00:22:31.599 I'm in need of grace, I'm in need of salvation. 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:34.659 And I said, great, and why is it, 00:22:34.659 --> 00:22:36.059 why is it that the person next to you, 00:22:36.059 --> 00:22:38.099 the person in your family, the person that you've prayed for 00:22:38.099 --> 00:22:39.579 for so long, whoever it may be, 00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:42.379 heard the very same gospel you did, 00:22:42.379 --> 00:22:45.799 but is not yet a Christian, does not believe. 00:22:45.799 --> 00:22:48.399 And look, if you can't say today, 00:22:48.399 --> 00:22:50.119 if you're not willing to say today, 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:52.279 it is because of God first. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:54.200 Then what you're left to say is, 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:56.039 well, the reason I'm a Christian 00:22:56.039 --> 00:22:57.759 and my friend is not a Christian, 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:01.720 is because, you know, I've got better insight than them. 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:06.680 I was able to say, you know, I can really see the truth 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:10.359 that I really am a sinner and they don't yet see that. 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:13.119 You know, I've got the humility in my heart 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:15.839 that they have yet to achieve. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.479 I've got the intelligence to see the truth about creation 00:23:19.479 --> 00:23:21.519 that they have yet to see. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.079 You know, there's something about me that is truly great 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.559 and therefore I'm so humble that I'm able to come 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:28.679 and have faith in Jesus. 00:23:28.679 --> 00:23:33.359 And you see, if you can't say, if you won't say, 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.039 I am a Christian because God determined that I would be, 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.759 because God chose me, because God entered my life, 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:42.079 because God did it all from top to bottom. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:45.240 Then what you're left with is just an argument that says, 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:47.599 I'm a Christian because I'm truly great. 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:49.759 I did it all, you know. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:51.799 I was humble enough to see my sinfulness. 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:55.159 And you know, you've put it all, 00:23:55.159 --> 00:23:57.279 you're back to subjectivism. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:00.159 You're back to an identity that begins with your feelings, 00:24:00.159 --> 00:24:02.079 that begins with your achievements, 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:05.000 not with a truly objective identity. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:07.240 Think about the apostle Paul for a second 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:10.679 and I have to hurry, but what happened to the apostle Paul? 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:15.680 He was on the road to Damascus to murder Christians. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:18.320 Now, and Paul wrote maybe one of the greatest sentences 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:20.120 that's ever been written in human history. 00:24:20.120 --> 00:24:21.720 How did he get there? 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:23.759 How did he get the authority? 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.600 It's not because he became humble. 00:24:26.600 --> 00:24:29.160 Paul was on the road to Damascus to murder Christians 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:30.720 and he got kicked off his horse. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:32.960 He got knocked off his horse by Jesus. 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:34.840 You know, Jesus did every bit of it. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:38.240 He, Paul was a murderer of Christians 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.279 and then God said, I'm gonna interrupt that. 00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:41.319 I'm gonna get into your life. 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:42.160 I'm gonna do it all. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:45.720 And it's because God had determined that to be the case 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.759 from before the foundation of the world. 00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:51.319 Now, here's the second objection that might come up. 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:55.839 Isn't Paul just coming and saying something like, 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:01.440 God, what God did in eternity was he looked into the future 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.279 and saw that I would choose to follow him one day. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.839 And so his election, his predestination of me 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:11.559 is because he saw that that would be my choice. 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:15.759 And so he elected me in the sense that he allowed me to choose 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:17.959 but because he can see all time at once, 00:25:17.959 --> 00:25:21.159 he foreknew me and thus elected me. 00:25:21.159 --> 00:25:25.079 But it ultimately was about my freedom and my choice. 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:27.159 And let me just say the consequence 00:25:27.159 --> 00:25:30.119 for saying something like that is huge. 00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:31.599 Because if we say something like that, 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:34.959 we're saying that I am so big, I am so important, 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.840 that my choice becomes the foundation 00:25:37.840 --> 00:25:40.440 of God's determination of all of history. 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.079 In other words, we've taken a human being 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:46.440 that's so contingent, that's so relative, 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:49.519 that need not exist and we need not exist. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:51.559 And we've made ourselves into the absolute. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:55.920 If we say, God looked into the future and he let me choose 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.759 and then he based all of history around my choices, 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:00.920 then we've become absolute, we've become God. 00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:03.160 We've flipped creator and creature, 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:05.120 we've turned the whole world upside down. 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:06.360 It can't be that either. 00:26:06.360 --> 00:26:10.040 And then the third and final thing to say is this, 00:26:10.040 --> 00:26:13.040 do we then say that that's unfair? 00:26:13.040 --> 00:26:14.960 It's unfair that God would make decisions. 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:18.440 It's unfair that God would choose his church 00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:20.240 from before the foundation of the world. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:22.240 And Paul goes out of his way, I think, to address this. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:26.400 In verse six, he says, all of this idea of election, 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:28.960 predestination, choice, God's choice, 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.759 is to the praise of his glorious grace. 00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:36.920 Meaning, he wants to say, do you see that everything 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:38.920 that you've received, including your salvation, 00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:41.720 if you follow Jesus, is grace from bottom to top? 00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:44.279 And grace is just another word for gift. 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:46.160 And do you see what he's saying? 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:48.680 He's saying, is it unfair? 00:26:48.680 --> 00:26:50.920 It is unfair because we do not get, 00:26:50.920 --> 00:26:52.359 as Christians, what we deserve. 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:55.480 What are our rights before the Lord? 00:26:55.480 --> 00:26:58.319 Our rights before the Lord are to be judged. 00:26:58.319 --> 00:26:59.920 Our rights before the Lord are to receive 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:01.640 the justice of our sin. 00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:04.720 And yet, we've been lavish with grace. 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:07.960 And so, what Paul's saying is the only way this is unfair 00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:10.880 is to say, it's unfair that I've been given a gift 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:14.080 I don't deserve, that Jesus Christ was condemned 00:27:14.080 --> 00:27:15.720 so that I might live. 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:19.560 That's what's unfair, that's what's unjust. 00:27:19.560 --> 00:27:22.360 I don't get the justice I deserve, I just get grace. 00:27:22.360 --> 00:27:24.360 I just get lavish with a gift. 00:27:24.360 --> 00:27:26.720 And that gift is that God has chosen me 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:29.080 from before the foundation of the world. 00:27:29.079 --> 00:27:31.960 If you're a follower of Jesus today, if you trust in Jesus 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:35.159 today, look, I mentioned this last Sunday night. 00:27:35.159 --> 00:27:37.480 But it could be the case that, and we'll move on 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:41.079 to the close, it could be the case that you've been 00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:44.359 in the church a long time, perhaps, and you came 00:27:44.359 --> 00:27:48.000 to church Sunday after Sunday, and you heard the teaching, 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.079 you heard the preaching, you were bored, you didn't care, 00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:55.079 it never really struck you in any way, shape, or form. 00:27:55.079 --> 00:28:00.079 And then all of a sudden, one day, one day, 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:03.079 you could say what John Mackay said, 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:07.079 that there was one sentence, one verse, one lyric 00:28:07.079 --> 00:28:11.079 from one hymn, and all of a sudden you said, I'm alive. 00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:14.079 I didn't care about this yesterday, and today I feel 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:17.079 like I could say, I've been enraptured, I'm alive. 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:19.079 What's happened? 00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:22.079 You see, it's exactly playing out, it's nothing you did. 00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:25.079 It happened to you, it's something you received from top 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:29.079 to bottom, from inside out, and it's because God loved you 00:28:29.079 --> 00:28:32.079 from before the foundation of the world, and then he called 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:35.079 you in this specific moment in history. 00:28:35.079 --> 00:28:37.079 That's how it happened, that's how it works. 00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:40.079 Now, let me give you a couple takeaways, and we'll be 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:43.079 finished, four takeaways, and we'll be finished. 00:28:43.079 --> 00:28:48.079 First, we have to, we have this morning to let the fact 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:52.079 that it says God has chosen us before the foundation of the 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.079 world to be good news for us, to be something that we can 00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:00.079 say, bless it be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:02.079 because he's done this. 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:05.079 And one of the ways that you can maybe get there this 00:29:05.079 --> 00:29:11.079 morning, if you're not there yet, is to say, Paul is giving 00:29:11.079 --> 00:29:14.079 us here God's point of view. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:18.079 He's giving us here a God's eye view of all of human history, 00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:22.079 and he's essentially saying to us, if you had the mind of 00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:26.079 God, you would understand how all this works. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:29.079 He said, well, what about my freedoms, what about my choices? 00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:32.079 The Bible never says that we don't have freedom, the Bible 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:35.079 never says we don't have choice, it's not a zero sum game. 00:29:35.079 --> 00:29:38.079 Instead, what he's saying is, if you had the mind of God, if 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:41.079 you were absolute like God is absolute, you would understand 00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:44.079 how it works, but you don't. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:45.079 We don't. 00:29:45.079 --> 00:29:48.079 And so all we can do is come and say, bless it be God the father 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:51.079 who is so big and so absolute that, of course, I don't 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:53.079 understand. 00:29:53.079 --> 00:29:56.079 If you have trouble with thinking God has chosen his church 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:58.079 from before the foundation of the world, how does that play 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:02.079 out in my freedom, my choice, then you should say, of course 00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.079 I have trouble. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:07.079 I shouldn't be able to understand it because I'm contingent 00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:09.079 and I'm not a believer in God. 00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:12.079 I shouldn't be able to understand it because I'm contingent 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:15.079 and the God of all creation is absolute. 00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:19.079 And so Paul, I think, is inviting us to let God be God, 00:30:19.079 --> 00:30:25.079 to let God be big and to remain little, to remain small. 00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:27.079 That's the first thing I think he's drawing us to. 00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:33.079 John Calvin in 1558, he preached, he preached 48 sermons 00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:36.079 on Ephesians in 1558 and 1559. 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:40.079 This is what he says, although we cannot conceive by argument 00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:44.079 or by reason how God has elected us before the foundation 00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:49.079 of all the world, we know it because he declared it to us. 00:30:49.079 --> 00:30:54.079 And the experience itself in reading it vouches for us 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:57.079 sufficiently that we have been enlightened in the faith 00:30:57.079 --> 00:30:59.079 sufficiently. 00:30:59.079 --> 00:31:03.079 He's saying, John, in eloquent words, is just saying, I don't 00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.079 know what it means, I don't know how it works, 00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:08.079 but I'll read it on the page. 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:10.079 And I'm going to let God be God. 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:13.079 I'm going to believe it because this is what he says. 00:31:13.079 --> 00:31:17.079 All right, the second thing to take away this morning is this. 00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:23.079 God, if God has done this and he has, it means that you now 00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:26.079 have an identity as a Christian that can never be taken away 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:29.079 from you. 00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:30.079 What is that identity? 00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:34.079 That identity is to be blessed and you have been blessed, 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:40.079 Paul says, from before the world was ever created. 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:44.079 You have been blessed by God and loved by God from before 00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:47.079 there was a sun in the sky. 00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:53.079 God's love for you is older than the sun and SUN. 00:31:53.079 --> 00:31:56.079 And that means you can say today that I have an identity 00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:59.079 that will never go away, that it can never be taken away. 00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:03.079 Your identity now cannot be taken away by your circumstances. 00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:07.079 So if the world gives way beneath your feet this week, 00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:10.079 if the world gives way, is giving way beneath your feet right 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:14.079 now in your life, you have an identity blessed, 00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:17.079 loved, that will never leave you. 00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:20.079 No matter how you feel, no matter what your feelings are 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:22.079 telling you right now, you have an identity that will 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:24.079 never go away. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:28.079 The word of God says that from eternity he has loved the 00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:29.079 world. 00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:32.079 And so thirdly, you can say today I am from before the 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:35.079 foundation of the world the beloved of God. 00:32:35.079 --> 00:32:38.079 I'm loved by God. 00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:41.079 Tolkien, I love Tolkien's line, he says the praise of the 00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:44.079 praiseworthy is above all reward. 00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:46.079 Every single one of us wants to be praised. 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:51.079 We want to be loved by someone that is praiseworthy, 00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:54.079 by someone we respect, by someone that is worthy of love. 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:59.079 And when you are willing to say I have been loved from 00:32:59.079 --> 00:33:02.079 before the foundation of the world by the absolute God who 00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:05.079 made everything, you can say I have the praise of the 00:33:05.079 --> 00:33:07.079 most praiseworthy. 00:33:07.079 --> 00:33:12.079 I have the eulogy from the one who deserves all eulogy. 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:15.079 I've got God's love. 00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:17.079 I am beloved of the Father. 00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:21.079 I think a way to think about this is, you know, 00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:25.079 if you're a parent today or if you have nieces and 00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:28.079 nephews, if you're a covenant parent of children in this 00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:34.079 church, can your children do anything, do anything to 00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:39.079 remove, to rip away your love from them? 00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:42.079 You know, even in the worst circumstances. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:45.079 And we come as parents and we say no matter what, 00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:49.079 if I saw my child on the horizon, the prodigal son and 00:33:49.079 --> 00:33:54.079 daughter coming home, I would do what the master in 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:57.079 Luke 15 does, I would roll up my robe and run straight out 00:33:57.079 --> 00:34:00.079 and say come back to my table. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:04.079 What can your children do to lose your love? 00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:12.079 But look, our parental love is small compared to the love 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:15.079 of God, the absolute Father, for his children from before 00:34:15.079 --> 00:34:17.079 the foundation of the world. 00:34:17.079 --> 00:34:19.079 It's that big. 00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:22.079 Now lastly, that means finally that we have an object of 00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:26.079 worship that will actually satisfy your need to 00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:27.079 worship. 00:34:27.079 --> 00:34:30.079 So Paul begins and ends this hymn of praise, the 00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:34.079 sentence with just saying, blessed be God. 00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:37.079 What else can you do if you realize this and you believe 00:34:37.079 --> 00:34:40.079 this, but to just cry out and worship to the Lord and 00:34:40.079 --> 00:34:42.079 say that you truly are great and you have done great 00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:48.079 things, Taylor Swift cannot sustain worship. 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:52.079 We pour our worship, our fandom, into all sorts of 00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:56.079 objects in this life and praise, praise, praise stuff. 00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:59.079 But these things are far too small to carry the heaviness 00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:02.079 of the weight of true worship. 00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:04.079 Every single human being needs to worship, we long 00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.079 to worship, we have to worship and we need an object of 00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:10.079 our worship that can hold it, that can carry it, that's 00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:13.079 big enough to sustain it. 00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:15.079 What about a God who is absolute? 00:35:15.079 --> 00:35:18.079 What about a God who can determine all things from 00:35:18.079 --> 00:35:21.079 before any time ever begins? 00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:26.079 There's only one being that can hold, carry, bear the 00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:29.079 burden and weight of your worship and that's this 00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:32.079 God, the God of predestinating love, the God of 00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.079 election. 00:35:34.079 --> 00:35:37.079 And that means that when you see this, when you 00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:40.079 awake to this, if you will awake to this morning and 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:45.079 trust this God in Jesus Christ, it will, it can drive 00:35:45.079 --> 00:35:48.079 you to be so satisfied with him that you will 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:50.079 worship. 00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:55.079 The God who would send his only son, Jesus Christ, to 00:35:55.079 --> 00:35:59.079 die for the beloved of the Lord whom he knew before 00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:02.079 the foundation of all the world. 00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:06.079 That is a narrative big enough. 00:36:06.079 --> 00:36:08.079 That is a God big enough, a narrative big enough 00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:12.079 that's really worth living into. 00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:14.079 An identity that is big enough and grand enough that 00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:20.079 makes, that makes your life so valuable. 00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:22.079 Let us pray together. 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:26.079 Father, we ask that you would give us a big, grand, 00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:31.079 cosmic vision for who we are as the church. 00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:34.079 Loved by you from before the foundation of the 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:38.079 world, wow, it's something we can't imagine. 00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:41.079 It's something we can't sustain in our thought life. 00:36:41.079 --> 00:36:44.079 We can't produce philosophical models to make 00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:46.079 sense of it. 00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:49.079 And so we come today asking for the trust we need to 00:36:49.079 --> 00:36:52.079 just believe what your word says. 00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:55.079 And we ask that we would be moved by it. 00:36:55.079 --> 00:36:59.079 So Lord, would you, would you break the crust and the 00:36:59.079 --> 00:37:04.079 hardness of our hearts now and drive us into a place 00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:07.079 where we can say, blessed are you, O Lord. 00:37:07.079 --> 00:37:12.079 We eulogize you as we come to sing our final hymn. 00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:14.079 And so we do that now, Lord, as we lift up our hearts 00:37:14.079 --> 00:37:17.079 before you and we pray this in Christ's name. 00:37:17.079 --> 00:37:29.079 Amen.