Predestined in Love for Adoption

Good morning, welcome, thank you all for being here. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 1.

How do we treat troublesome texts?

Last week, chosen before the foundation of the world. This week, predestination.

2 Timothy 3:16-17- All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Troublesome texts are from God.

All Scripture is breathed out by God.

Our difficult-to-comprehend passages are intentionally given by God, and they are intentionally given with purpose.

Troublesome texts are meant to shape us.

Profitable.

Not meant to be thrown away- we cannot bury our heads in the sand.

We are to be shaped and formed by all of what we find in Scripture.

We ought not to think that all Scripture will line up with our natural senses of things.

Correction- taking what was and forming into something that will be.

Troublesome texts bring to completion the men and women of God.

Training.

God uses what is quite difficult in Scripture to bring into fullness what we are meant to become.

My philosophy- preach the text as it stands. Do the necessary work, but don’t insert too much Ernie.

Preach the text in it’s historical and literary context, and seek out the most evident and reliable understanding.

Don’t want you to leave here having thought that you’ve heard the opinions of Ernie made clear, but instead that the Word of God has been preached.

Then you can disagree and we can absolutely discuss. But let’s begin with God’s Word rather than our own presuppositions.

Read Ephesians 1:3-6- 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.

Pray.

Last week- Chosen before the foundation of the world.

This text shows the sovereignty of God, both in His wisdom of choice, but also in His power and faithfulness.

Chosen to be holy and blameless in His presence. He accomplishes, through the work of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit, this making one holy and blameless.

Now we turn our attention to the purpose of God’s choosing- why did God choose? What was God accomplishing with His choice?

Explaining the text.

God has predestined.

proorizō- To predetermine, decide, or foreordain something.

Pre-determine- trying new experiences.

Most basic understanding- God, in choosing those in Christ prior to the foundation of the world, has determined their destiny.

Last week- choosing from eternity past. This week, look in the other direction- predestined for your eternity future.

God has predestined for adoption.

The outcome of God’s determining is that He would create for Himself a family.

Adoption in Roman society.

Allegiance has changed. Nothing is owed to the old family or father.

God has predestined for adoption according to His will and purposes.

What has been taught all along- God has taken what was normal and has made it holy.

In making one holy, God brings them into His family.

No longer of the likeness of their former father.

This was the free choice of God. Not acted upon from the outside.

If it is by the will of God, then it is to the delight of God.

NASB- Instead of purpose of His will, the good pleasure of His will.

God has predestined for adoption according to His will and purposes for His praise.

Everything God does is meant to bring forth praise.

Difficult texts that tell us how we ought to live if we are to reflect the nature and character and sinlessness of Jesus.

Husbands and wives, serving the least of these, growing in humility rather than pride, put to death sin, divorce, remarriage, who you can marry, etc.

How can such Scriptures create praise within us?

It’s when we recognize that God never had to reveal anything of Himself to us. Never had to reveal how life was meant to be lived.

But He did, and that ought to create praise within us.

What is our text doing? Showing the work of God, from eternity past to eternity future.

Blessed be the Father for blessing us with many blessings. What are these blessings?

What does God accomplish in such a difficult text? How does God shape us?

We know ourselves as infinitely loved.

Azariah asking if I wish we had another son instead.

Ephesians 3:17-19- so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We find a new aim and motivation for our lives.

Have you ever considered the OT priesthood?

A set of people who were created for a purpose outside of themselves.

Protect God’s people, mediate on behalf of God’s people, offer sacrifices on behalf of God’s people.

Deuteronomy 33:10- They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

What a boring life.

Looking at a caregiver with pity- their life has been robbed of them.

Have we ever considered that this is the purpose for which they were created? To be completely and utterly selfless, to care for someone else other than self?

The concept of predestination gives new aim and motivation for our lives.

You are best known by how you stand in relation to God.

Read what we have read in v. 3-6- it’s all God. He is at the center of everything. When explaining who we are, Paul thrusts God right in the center.

Royal priesthood, holy nation.

We live for the purpose of serving God and serving others. So backwards from what we naturally feel.

“Make me a servant humble and meek, Lord let me lift up those who are weak, and may the prayer of my heart always be: Make me a servant, Make me a servant, Make me a servant today.”

We praise God with the entirety of who we are.

Psalm 103:1- Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

All that is within me.

My hope is that there is no part of you that is unwilling to give God praise for who He is and what He has done.

That you leave here willing and able to give thanks to God, with all that is within you.